On today’s show we talk about the brand spankin’ new iTunes 11 from Apple with Alex Layne, Stacey Higginbotham explains why the “Internet of Things” is both cool and creepy, and Kevin Tofel talks about using his excess electricity to fuel his new Chevy Volt.

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iTunes

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SHOW NOTES:
Today’s episode of the Commutist is brought to you by TriNet – the cloud-based HR partner helping startups and small businesses manage payroll, benefits, and employer related risks.”

Hosted by: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00 – The new iTunes!

10:44 – The Internet of Things

22:47 – Kevin enter the Volt-age

31:34 – Parting gifts:

Kevin recommends the book Make: LEGO and Arduino Projects: Projects for extending MINDSTORMS NXT with open-source electronics

Erica Ogg loves tracking her sleep with the Sleep Cycle app

And after reading this piece on Slate, Chris seeks ideas for “wrapping” digital presents

PREVIOUS EPISODES:
What Aspiring New Media Stars Should Know About Agents and Managers

Holiday Gadget Gift Guide

War Tweets, Google TV and Nexus 4

Director Jay Duplass on low-fi movies through high-tech

Election Dissection, Ditching DSL and Dumping the iPad

Sandy’s Social, Infrastructure Impact and Forstall

Windows 8 Surfaces, and disruption eruption

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room

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iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:
Today’s episode of the Commutist is brought to you by TriNet – the cloud-based HR partner helping startups and small businesses manage payroll, benefits, and employer related risks.

Products discussed in this episode:

Plantronics Headphones
Samsung Chromebook
iPad mini
Nexus 4
Kindle Paperwhite
Olloclip
Mophie
Gogo 3-Pack

PREVIOUS EPISODES:
War Tweets, Google TV and Nexus 4

Director Jay Duplass on low-fi movies through high-tech

Election Dissection, Ditching DSL and Dumping the iPad

Sandy’s Social, Infrastructure Impact and Forstall

Windows 8 Surfaces, and disruption eruption

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The state of cross-platform media measurement
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room

(NOTE: We are aware of the audio scratching noise you can sometimes here. We isolated it part-way through the show and it disappears halfway through the first segment. Thank you for your patience!)

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iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:
Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00 – Israel’s social media offensive

11:37 – Google TV 3.0

26:10 – The Nexus 4 and Chromebooks

34:45 – Parting gifts:

Kevin teaches you how to take a screenshot with a Kindle Paperwhite

Erica likes the Food with Friends app from Foodily in advance of Thanksgiving

Chris wants you know if you were bugged by Skyfall’s hacking scene as much as he was. (email him at podcast at gigaom dot com)

PREVIOUS EPISODES:
Director Jay Duplass on low-fi movies through high-tech

Election Dissection, Ditching DSL and Dumping the iPad

Sandy’s Social, Infrastructure Impact and Forstall

Windows 8 Surfaces, and disruption eruption

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• How consumer media will change in 2013

(Download)

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iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:
Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00 – 18:04 – The New York Times lagged behind the networks in calling a winner and other media reflections from election night

18:05 – 26:42 – AT&T gives copper the kiss off

26:43 – 41:05 – Is the Mini the better iPad?

41:06 – 44:18 – Parting gifts:

Kevin kinda wishes he had the Fenix ReadySet backup power supply during Sandy

Erica recommends an Atlantic article on the psychology of post-election melodrama

And Chris says you should check out the on-demand video from our recent GigaOM RoadMap conference on design in a continuously connected world

PREVIOUS EPISODES:
Sandy’s Social, Infrastructure Impact and Forstall

Windows 8 Surfaces, and disruption eruption

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• 10 ways big data changes everything
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis

download

RSS Feed

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:

Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Erica Ogg

0:00:00 – 0:10:10 – Kevin Tofel talks Windows 8 launch and Surface RT tablet

0:10:10 – 0:11:34 – This episode is brought to you by GigaOM RoadMap conference

0:11:35 – 0:25:59 – Mathew Ingram brings the disruption eruption

0:26:00 – 0:38:41 – Earnings! Apple and Amazon

0:38:42 – 0:41:05 – Parting gifts

Tom recommends Yahoo Finance

Erica says the new MacBook Pro Retina 13″ is more diminutive than you’d think

And Chris is off to hear Studio 360′s podcast episode on The Wizard of Oz

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

iPad Mini, iMac gets skinny

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• The new IT manager, part 1
• Tablet market to hit over 377 million units by 2016

download

RSS Feed

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Boxee Cloud DVR, Apple Rumors and Chromebook

Commutist interview: Joy of X author Steven Strogatz

Commutist podcast: Patent trolls, Costco ban and Passbook’s home run

Commutist, meet Nerdist, and interview with Chris Hardwick

T-Metro, Broadband Caps, Remembering Steve Jobs

Apple’s iO-Mess, Dirty Data Centers and Tesla

News from the Mobilize Conference

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

The iPhone 5 Event

Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• What to watch in mobile in 2013
• Analyzing the wearable computing market

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RSS

iTunes

SHOW NOTES:
Host: Chris Albrecht

0:00:50 – 0:02:45 – A quick look back at different predictions and topics covered at previous Mobilize conferences.

0:02:45 – 0:04:39 – Size matters (with screens)

0:04:40 – 0:06:09 – Mobile-first world?

0:06:10 – 0:10:22 – Spectrum crisis! Fewer app requests! Sony games on mobile! The hazards of apps in cars!

0:10:23 – 0:12:46 – Mobile first vs. data first and interoperability.

0:12:47 – 0:14:58 – Apple’s influence.

0:14:59 – 0:16:12 – The Mobile 15.

0:16:13 – 0:18:20 – The role of the carriers.

0:18:21 – 0:21:29 – Voice: the invisible interface.

0:21:30 – 0:25:30 – Calling phone numbers vs. calling people: when talking sucks.

0:25:31 – 0:29:00 Mobile stuff you should know: mobile IVF, do not disturb across devices, MVNO.

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

Episode 2: The iPhone 5 Event

Episode 1: Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile 2012 and beyond
• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter

I use these new devices to learn about them, to compare them with some of the other devices that crowd my workspace and to form an educated opinion about them especially when writing about respective companies or platforms strategies. I will dispense with the requisite review stuff — packaging, features and details — and leave better experts to extol those virtues (or lack thereof.) Instead, here are some of my early impressions after using the seven-inch Kindle Fire HD for about three days.

First, what’s good about the Kindle Fire HD:

• The new 7-inch Kindle Fire is simple, sleek and easy to hold, though it is a little bigger than Google’s 7-inch Nexus tablet made by Asus. They weigh almost the same and both of them are easy to hold and use. Kindle Fire feels more solid in my hands as well and, as Amazon promised, it boasts amazing WiFi connectivity — perhaps the best so far in any device I have either owned or tried.
• How does it stack up against the first generation Kindle Fire? Think of the transformation of an ugly duckling with a limp to an elegant swan.
• The most impressive thing about Kindle Fire is something I liked in its first iteration, too: It is not an iPad clone. Amazon has developed a good user interface and deserves credit for it.
• When it comes to the screen, Kindle Fire feels a little less sharp than Google’s Nexus — but to be honest, I find both of them lacking. I am used to the Retina display on my iPad 3 and as a result expect a certain crispness from the screen that is just not there on Android-based tablets.
• If this is Android, then you can’t really tell. It is buried under Amazon’s UI that is optimized almost entirely to showcase Amazon’s digital offerings — books, movies and music. Sure you can buy other things from Amazon too, but this device is made for “digital content.”
• The iTunes Coverflow style navigation through latest pieces of content has become smoother and more fluid. It very quickly becomes a default behavior on the tablet.
• Buying books is so simple. The one-click purchase meant that I have blown through about $30 on various Kindle Singles. To be honest, the book buying and reading experience is so seamless that it makes the shortcomings of the Kindle app on iPad quite glaring.
• Being an Amazon Prime member means I get access to a lot of video content for free. It is easy to stream movies and television shows, but I found the quality of video not quite up to the mark. I have the Amazon Prime app on my iPad and when compared to Kindle Fire, it just is better. This is an area where Amazon can and should improve.
• These days I don’t really buy music — I use Spotify for all my listening, so from that perspective I am not sure I would use Amazon’s music service. However, I have a Amazon Cloud Player account and accessed my older music on the Kindle Fire. It was a flawless experience, and thanks to a very robust home network, I enjoyed listening to music via my Bowers & Wilkins headphones without a problem. The experience, like the book store, is pretty seamless.
• Frankly, I saw no problems with ads on the device. They are very tastefully done and the offers are actually useful and interesting. In a post-Groupon world, they feel a lot less commercial.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said he wanted people to use his devices and that he wanted people to buy stuff on their devices. From that standpoint, Kindle Fire does deliver — especially when it comes to digital content. However, it is not all peaches and champagne. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD edition has some key shortcomings in my opinion.

• Unlike Kevin Tofel, I am having a tough time getting used to browsing on the 7-inch screen.
• The Silk browser might have added a few hundred horsepower since its birth, but it still doesn’t feel fluid enough to me.
• The pesky Retina display has raised my expectations when it comes to web-surfing and I found the web browsing experience a let down.
• The OS that powered the first version of Kindle Fire was as smooth as the skin on the feet of a long distance runner. The new Kindle Fire is a remarkable improvement, but I found it was a shade less fluid than the Google’s Nexus. I do think iOS powered iPad is the gold standard. A few more iterations and Amazon is going to get there.
• While reading apps like Twitter and ESPN Center apps are good enough to use on this tablet, I wasn’t blown away by apps-on-Fire. Sure you can play games, but even in three days, I felt that there was something missing. You can feel, for the lack of a better word, “that five percent.”
• Amazon made a big song-and-dance about its mail app – and let’s just say, it didn’t meet expectations. (Not that Apple’s email app is anything to write home about, either.)
• The keyboard keys are not as sharp as one would expect and I had a tough time typing long email replies.
• Amazon could spend some time making searching through its store for non-digital content easier — visual perhaps — and smoother.

So what is the bottom line?

Admittedly, I am biased towards iPad, having used it from the time it went on sale. I am used to its gestures. I know how to get the most out of it. It is perhaps one of the biggest challenges I have when using non-iPad devices. However, my three-day hands-on experience is enough to say that despite the shortcomings, Amazon has become an option.

If you are tied to the Amazon ecosystem — you know you buy books, movies and music from them — then this is a device that should find an easy room in your bag, especially if your other option was buying a standalone Kindle. And if you are one of those who has never owned a tablet and are on a tight budget, then Kindle Fire is worth a consideration — well, unless Apple announces a similar 7-inch device. I know what I would buy.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage

As we consume more content on-the-go, we figured it was high time to get into the podcast game. So here we are, introducing The Commutist, our weekly round up of important tech news and analysis that is meant to make you that much smarter on your way into work.

Normally, the show will have three segments covering a broad array of topics. But given Amazon’s big event Thursday, this episode is a Kindle-tacular extravaganza. GigaOM staffers Kevin Tofel and Laura Hazard Owen join Commutist co-host Erica Ogg and myself to break down what you need to know about the Paperwhite and the Fires.

So take a listen, and let us know how we can make the show better.

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Show notes:

0:00:00 – 0:00:50 – Intro

0:00:50 – 0:11:42 Laura Hazard Owen talks about the event, runs down the news and talks about digital publishing

0:12:05 – 0:24:17 Kevin Tofel joins us for a in-depth tech discussion going over the specs of the new Kindles and how they stack up against other tablets out there.

0:24:17 – 0:27:15 – Parting gifts:

Kevin recommends a cool LEGO robot/Segway video

Erica likes the Routehappy travel app

And Chris recommends the Canon T4i camera.

The Commutist theme song is composed and performed by Phil Reno

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How consumer media will change in 2013
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• Monetizing music in the post-scarcity age

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• A look back at mobile in Q1
• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter
• How scribbling on an iPad makes your work life easier