He was born on Friday, August 6th at 11:59pm. He was a healthy 9 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long (or is it tall) at birth.

He was born at Fairview General – the same hospital that I was born at, 3 of 4 of my siblings were born at, and my Mom was born at. Everyone there was absolutely wonderful to us and Grayson. The nurses were sad to see us go. We are off to a great start because of them. I couldn’t have imagined Chris or Grayson receiving any better care.

We are now on day 7 of life and everyone is recovering as expected and Grayson is nearly back to his birth weight.

While on the post-partum floor, I overheard another father on the phone talking to his employer, thanking him for allowing a few extra days off while he was caring for his wife and child. I was reminded of how thankful I am to have such a wonderful staff at Acroment who have taken care of things while I was away.

Thank you Tom, Erik, Ian, Tony, Tim and Elizabeth for taking such good care of things so that I could spend that time with my new family!!

HD 101: 3D FAQ — Engadget

I have never owned a iPod touch or an iPhone… So someof my impressions are influenced by several technologies which other people are already familiar with.

In brief, the application of a cell phone (based) operating system into this form factor is the true revolution here. Having the power of small laptop, with better than basic features, in this package is a leap in the right direction. This delivers a computing experience closer to what a netbook should deliver without the bulk or the lure of trying to do too much with so little (speaking about people who try to use a netbook as a laptop replacement).

The iPad is clearly not a replacement computer. For starters, you cannot use it without first plugging it into a computer. Secondly, it’s size and shape doesn’t confuse users about the intent of the device – to supplement your most common everyday computing needs.

This device isn’t for everyone. If you already have an iPod touch or iPhone, I can’t see spending the extra money to simply have a larger screen unless you absolutely have to have it.

My hope is that the iPad encourages other companies to produce similar devices… Ones that are lighter and faster or more customizable for business use. If a competing Android (Google) and/or Microsoft Windows Series 7 (mobile OS) device isn’t released in the next year, it would be a real shame for those companies (having not yet seen Windows S7, I am hoping for a solid google offering)

This is so promising, that I think slate computers will become must have devices for knowledge workers in the next 7 years. But this generation iPad is not mature enough to last.

Ok – I haven’t yet mastered the keyboard to make edits to already typed text, so I am finishing this post on my PC. Steve Jobs was right – the keyboard is a pleasure to type on – even at fast speeds (I can type about 90wpm on a keyboard, I’d guess about 50wpm on the iPad).

What would I change about the iPad? For starters – go on a diet. The device feels heavy (perhaps because I used a Kindle for several months). Second, provide some kind of multi-way switch for finer cursor navigation (a common gripe I have about touch-only interfaces). Finally, make it faster – my Android phone switched windows and accepted input much much faster than this. I’m not sure if that is a hardware or software issue.

If you have or are considering the purchase of a Solid State Hard drive (SSD) – you may want to read it over.

TweakTown’s Solid State Drive Optimization Guide Introduction :: TweakTown

Based on the press coverage I think Apple fans have a lot to be disappointed about with this device. I also think that besides the new form factor – Apple is really playing it safe and hasn’t done much to truly inspire people with something new and exciting (yet).

Here is a compilation of stories and information which I have reviewed and based my opinions on:

• The operating system isn’t the same as the iPhone -but it isn’t OS.x either
• 10″ Multi-Touch screen
• Pricing will be $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32BG, and $699 for 64GB includes WiFi (similar to the iPod Touch)
• Optional 3G Cellular wireless is $130 extra and will give you access to AT&T Cellular for $29.99/month for unlimited data access
• Users can download any existing iPhone applications. Applications can run in a iPhone size window or can utilize the whole screen
• A special iPad Software Development Kit (SDK) will be available for developers to write new apps just for the iPad
• The WiFi only model will be available in March, the 3g version will be available in April
• The iPad will sync with your computer via iTunes in the same way your iPhone or iPod does
• http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-first-hands-on/
• http://www.apple.com/ipad/

I would not go so far as to call this device a failure, but I think this has fallen very short of revolutionary. Here’s why:

1. Let me remind you that the iPod and iPhone STILL do not have a user replaceable battery – neither does the iPad
2. It took the iPhone 3 years to get even the simplest of features like copy/paste and MMS. The iPad doesn’t run multiple applications at once (no multi-tasking).
3. No camera on the device. No video conferencing for you. No cool camera/scanner/face recognition option like the Dell Latitude Z
4. With everything that this device does -WHY NOT have Cell Phone capabilities? You could take the Sim card out of your iPhone, plop it into the iPad and use a bluetooth headset.
5. I think they could have made the bezel (the black area around the screen) smaller. It would be 10x cooler if the screen went closer to the edge of the device.
6. Cellular Data service is only available through AT&T… and we all know how big their network isn’t.
7. Did I mention no multi-tasking?

What I think makes the iPad cool:

1. From the Apple marketing video, the interface does look very cool for performing every day computing tasks (email, calendar etc).
2. The form factor is cool. Thin=Win
3. In my opinion, is a more friendly option than a Netbook for a secondary computer system
4. The Hi-Res screen does look really awesome
5. 10 hour battery life (they note that this is while using WiFi, expect less with 3G Cellular enabled.). Also – it will be interesting to see what the capacity is after 1 year

 

In conclusion:

I think that all of the hype this device has stirred up, and the lack of some really cool features will open the door for other companies to enter this market (quickly). At CES this year, there were a lot of new devices which had a tablet look and feel. I would not be surprised if other Mobile Operating Systems show up on similar devices (Android, WebOS, and Windows Mobile 7), lets hope they are already working on this stuff. Do I want an iPad?Yes – but I think that is just the nerd in me. Will I spend MY money on one – NO. I will wait to see what other venders release and what other enhancements Apple has in store for iPad 2.0

I’ll update this post with real-world hands on video when I find one.

This should be interesting… I will report back my thoughts and impressions.

Can you stump Microsoft’s Windows experts?

Hopefully you saw the recent Inside Business Magazine with the Power 100 listings.

I want to narrow that down to Tech and write about the Top Tech people in Cleveland.

Can you shoot over a few (or a bunch of) names that you think are the top tech people in town?  Feel free to elucidate.  Would love to see some more obscure names as well as the shoe-ins.
Some thoughts to consider:

• Whose calls/e-mails do you always return right away?
• Who do you follow on blogs, Twitter or other SM because they are saying important things?
• Who will you try and go see speak when they present?
• When you brag to out-of-towners about the Cleveland tech scene, who are your examples.
• When you need a tech answer or connection, who do you contact?

I know that many of you who read my postings would like to nominate me – so I thought I would pass Dan’s request along. Please email Dan at dan@magnuminc.com and tell him about me. Thanks for the love!

First, I can’t stop saying DROID in a machine voice. The operating system is very fast on this phone. coming from my 4 year old TREO, the DROID is snappy and responds very well to key and touch screen input with little or no lag time. It responds predictably to my commands, doesn’t lock up, or freeze which is a HUGE delight.

I was quickly able to familiarize myself with the device and thought it was fairly intuitive – but I could see some places where a non-techie would become confused at what to do next.

My first frustration with the device is the keyboard. I just don’t understand why Smartphone designers insist on making keyboards that only and infant could love. There is little to no tactile difference between keys and you could just as easily be pressing 2,3 or even 4 keys at the same time (if you are holding it in a landscape view and operating it with your thumbs). I am just as slow typing on the physical keyboard as I am on the screen keyboard. I suspect that Motorola made the keyboard the way they did to keep the device thickness down.

Secondly, I found the “silent” operation to be just that, absolutely silent. When in silent mode, it doesn’t even vibrate. I had to ask for assistance from a Verizon rep to tell me that you have to download an application for that – what? The Verizon rep noted that it is a feature of the OS to be open for users to create applications to have the phone do things which it doesn’t already do. I suppose that is true for even the most basic of “features”.

Third, the “Back, Menu, Home, and Search” keys along the bottom of the device are just way to sensitive. Many times, while using the device, if I have my palm or part of a finger near those keys, it will activate those functions. I wish it was a little less sensitive.

Lastly, the built in accelerometer is quite sensitive and the only real hang up I have is when I am using the phone, as a phone the screen is quick to dim itself and turn off if it suspects you have the phone upright (and presumably to your face). This makes selecting other functions while on a call, a bit of a challenge.

One thing that I really love about the software on the phone is that it just loves working with my Microsoft Exchange (work) and Gmail (personal) accounts. they were both very easy to setup (along with my Facebook) and the software merges all of your contacts into a single contact list. So if you have a phone number for someone on your Facebook list, but not on your email account – it will still display that merged information when you lookup their one contact record. the only problem it had was distinguishing between my bother (Carl) and my Nephew (Carl Jr.). I suppose that if you have contacts with similar names, you may have this problem as well.

Also, I really like the Google Maps navigation. It is even better that it is free. The navigation is not as nice as our Garmin – but it does a great job directing me to where I need to go.

The application library had everything I could have needed. NBA scores, Weatherbug, LinkedIn and a few games… they are easy to pick from and more are being added every day as Google extends the number of handsets which are running the Android operating system.

The Built in 5MP camera took nice pictures and made it easy to share them instantly on Facebook.

I love the Car “dock” but didn’t care for the default “voice search” application assigned to the Car homepage. It will only search for contacts and dial the numbers of contacts which you have in your Google account. to solve this, you guessed it, I had to install another application.

Don’t waste your money on the multimedia dock. I was hoping that it was an induction charging system it isn’t. Like the Car home page, the multimedia dock displays a clock and some basic information (I suppose so that you can use your phone as your alarm clock). There are other ways to do this without spending the extra money.

In summary, i really like this phone, but I am 99% sure that I will be trading it in when the Palm Pre is released in a few weeks. I like the keyboard and form factor of the Pre – better. But if you are married to Google – I certainly think you can’t go wrong with the DROID. Several people whom I shared this phone with also commented on its rather hefty weight. For those who want something a bit more compact, and can do without a keyboard, get the Eris. It runs the same software, but has a bit more iPhone like form factor.