The Outsidr

Sorry to all for the looooooong hiatus but things have just been too busy for me lately to focus on getting good content up on TO. Hopefully that will change soon and in the meantime, I’ve tried to get some interesting reading through to all of my RSS subscribers via Ma.gnolia.com.

As I have a few minutes of downtime right now, I wanted to put a little post together inspired by Papa Arrington. It’s actually a very cool idea – put together a list of products you “can’t live without” at the start of each year and see how that list changes 365 days later. Note that I put can’t live without in quotes because obviously I would be perfectly able to go on without any of the items listed below, but materialism and object-dependency are topics for an entirely different post…

So without further ado, I give you my short list of tech-focused products that I use and enjoy on a regular basis:

Apple MacBook: I currently use the MacBook as my main computer and since my livelihood depends on it for the time being, I had to put it at the top of the list. I have the latest aluminum iteration; the base 13-inch model. I thought briefly about the next model up or even a MacBook Pro but for my usage, this model suits me just fine. It has plenty of kick, it’s light and portable and OS X is simply a joy to use.

MacBook Accessories: I decided to lump these three items into one entry because they combine to perform one basic function. 95% or more of my MacBook usage is at my desk and as such, a 13-inch screen and laptop keyboard are less than desirable. To remedy this, I basically use the MacBook as a desktop accompanied by three main accessories: an LG Flatron W2252TQ LCD display, a Logitech diNovo Edge (Mac edition) Bluetooth keyboard and a Logitch MX Revolution wireless mouse.

Dell Dimension E520: Thankfully, I’m using my PC less and less these days but there are still some functions that just can’t be done without Windows. As such, I have a second display/keyboard/mouse off to the side on my desk connected to my trusty old Dell PC. Sure it’s getting a bit gray up top but a 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium something-or-other and 2GB of DDR2 RAM are more than enough juice to handle the few remaining tasks I rely on my PC to perform.

Music: As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I was (am?) a musician and I’m not sure I could get through a day quite as happily without listening to music one way or another. I keep a relatively small personal library of MP3s that occasionally see the light of day via iTunes, but most of my daily listening happens one of three ways: The Last.fm desktop client, Pandora via a fantastic little Adobe AIR-based app called Dorame and Sirius Satellite Radio via StarLightXM. In terms of how I use these services, Last.fm is great for tracking listening habits and getting recommendation based upon them, as well as creating custom genre-based stations for hours of uninterrupted music. Pandora is phenomenal in terms of song-based recommendations and Sirius is perfect for when I want human-programmed variety without commercial interruption. I am a paying subscriber of each of these three services and nothing I’ve seen from any freebies will be changing that any time soon. Away from my desk I use a Cowon S9 or an Apple iPhone to listen to locally-stored tunes, or the Pandora and Last.fm apps on the iPhone / Mobbler on a Nokia N95 8GB to stream while on the go.

BlackBerry Bold: I’ve been using a BlackBerry Bold smartphone since July or August and at this point I simply can’t be without it. It really is the perfect mix between business and pleasure – BES can’t be topped as far as email and PIM are concerned, the QWERTY keypad is fantastic and the display is beautiful and crisp; perfect for streaming from my Slingbox. The UI is attractive and responsive, 3G reception is the best I’ve experienced and the battery lasts forever. I’ve used it as my daily carrier since the day I got it and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Email: As much as Web-tech bloggers have tried to hype alternatives, email isn’t going anywhere. Simply put, email is still the best way to communicate in writing on the internet. It’s fast, generally reliable and everyone uses it. As much as some people seem to want to live in a world where 140-character snippets lacking any substance can get the job done, it’s not going to happen. Services like Twitter are great for wasting time, engaging in idle banter and trying to get your brand out there but it will never replace email. Ever. As far as specific products I use: Exchange/BES for work and PIM, Gmail for personal email and hosted Exchange for everything in between.

Tech News: My main job at this point in time requires that I know pretty much everything going on in the world of tech / gadgets and as such, I need reliable tools that deliver information quickly and efficiently. My main resource is Google Reader, a Web-based RSS reader, and beyond that I rely mostly on Techmeme (again, now that it has improved a bit) and Hacker News to provide me with consistently good content from sites I don’t monitor via RSS. I’ve tried a few other services such as Regator and TechFuga but I always end up coming back to where I started.

eBay: As much as people seem to enjoy bashing eBay lately, I still use and love the service. Have I been burned? Yes. Will I be burned again in the future? Maybe. eBay is still the best and most organized way to sell used items as an individual, and there are still plenty of businesses making a killing as well. I buy from eBay as well from time to time, and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences by sticking to my policy of purchasing from sellers with a feedback rating of at least 95% (with a minimum of 100 feedback entries).

Flip MinoHD: The MinoHD is new to me – in fact I just received it as a Christmukkah gift from my fiancee. I was never big on video recording as I don’t enjoy being recorded myself, but this thing is just too cool for words. It’s compact size and surprisingly good quality make it the perfect gadget for casual video recording. I have planned for quite some time to make an effort to capture memories more often and the MinoHD is just the incentive I needed to make it happen.

Dropbox: I’ve discovered countless new SaaS solutions over the past year that I use regularly and it would take entirely too long to list them all here. A few highlights never hurt however, and the first is an awesome remote storage solution from Y Combinator-backed Dropbox. Built on top of Amazon’s S3 storage service, Dropbox provides a GUI-free solution for remote storage and file sharing. The service essentially allows users to save files in a directory and have them mirrored locally and on the network (S3 in this case). It’s seemless, it’s fast, it’s easy and it works – what more could you ask for? There are a few added bonuses of course, such as the ability to instantly restore historical file versions and two-step directory sharing. I’ve turned tons of people on to the service and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do so. Use the free version to start out, which affords 2 GB of remote storage, and then upgrade to the 50GB subscription when you realize how great the service is.

Adobe Buzzword: Part of the Acrobat online suite, Buzzword is far and away the best Web-based word processor I’ve used. In fact, it is currently the only word processor I will use at all. The UI is amazing, the speed and usability are top notch and collaboration is literally a breeze. So long, Word.

Basecamp: Beyond my work at BGR, I also do some freelance copywriting, marcom consulting and a bit of other contract work and these projects require constant organized communication. While I do use a variety of tools to accomplish this, I always use Basecamp by 37signals as my core project management solution. Odds are good that if you require such a service you already know about Basecamp, so I won’t get into the specifics. Suffice it to say, it’s one of the best out there.

DVD Player: That’s right folks, the last item on my list is a good old fashioned DVD player. Not a Blu-ray player, not a set top box but a standard old school $50 DVD player. Covering tech, I’m well aware of the various home entertainment options out there and eventually I’ll update my set up but for the time being I simply don’t feel that there’s anything out there worth my time and money. Blu-ray looks great but I honestly couldn’t care less about seeing each blade of grass on a lawn as I watch a movie. Set top boxes are great but there’s yet to be a proven model with longevity, a subscription price plan and the features I’m looking for. The Netflix-ready Roku box is nice, but when I watch movies I’m looking for new releases and the Netflix streaming service simply doesn’t deliver in that department. Vudu has what is by far the best UI and viewing experience I’ve seen among boxes, but the lack of a subscription option and the financial uncertainty within the company take it off the table. At some point, there will be a viable option for me but I highly doubt it will come any time soon. In the meantime, Blockbuster Total Access and my trusty old DVD player suit me just fine.