Lenovo Helix

Lenovo has announced the release of the Helix a new approach towards a hybrid Ultrabook.  Will it work?  Learn more after the jump...

Android Screenshots

Have you ever wondered how bloggers post these crystal clear screen shots?  I did, so I looked into it and I'm going to share my results.

It appears there are a couple of ways to do this.  One is to load the Android Emulator on your computer and load the app who's screen you'd like to capture.  The emulator provides the ability to capture the screen and save it.

There is, however, a much easier way.  On more modern devices you can press the power and volume-down buttons at the same time.  This will capture the screen and store the image in a folder called "Screenshots".  You can get to it through the gallery app.

From there you can tap the image and share it where ever you'd like.

Easy enough.  Give it a try.

Native American 10 Commandments

I've see this image in several different location, also some variations of it.  I like it and thought I should share it again.

Enjoy.

WIMM may be reincarnated

I've been following WIMM and their WIMM One smart watch since they first got going two years ago.  In the Summer of this year they got very quiet.

I came across something that reminded me of them so I went to check it out.  It looks like my favorite smart watch will not become available under the WIMM name.  Over the Summer they entered an agreement with another company and had to cease selling product and new SDKs.

Will something new be announced at CES?  Perhaps this new arrangement will become the new MotoACTV.  Motorola has deeply discounted the MotoACTV and most of the accessories are no longer available, does this mean they are exiting this market?  Or, does it mean they acquired something and are preparing to switch over?

I'm hoping this platform will show up under the Nexus brand, Motorola wouldn't be bad either.
I'll be at CES this year.  I'll let you know what I found out.

Have you heard anything?  Let me know in the comments.

Lenovo Yoga 13 - You've been a long time coming

Windows 8 is out.  A bunch of new Ultrabooks are now showing up.  Most of them I'm not very interested in.  My major complaint...the keyboard.  I don't need a fancy keyboard, but I do need one that feels good and has the keys I need.


Lenovo announced several new Ultrabooks including two convertible styles.  The one that interests me is the Yoga, specifically the Yoga 13.  They have two models, an 11" running RT and a 13" that will run both 8 and 8 Pro.  The both have touch screens as well as track pads.

Yoga is a design that's been around for a while, I actually wrote about back in 2006 when it one a Red Dot design award, six years later it's a product.

I like to write, not so much about big ideas as writing code.  Having good navigation keys is important.  For me, that means good arrow keys and having the arrow keys separated from Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown.  Most Ultrabooks combine these keys and diminish their size.  The Yoga 13, however, keeps them separate and keeps them full size.  In the image below you can see that Lenovo didn't mess with the keyboard layout, everything is right where you expect it to be.

The design of the Yoga is unique...I like that.  It opens like a traditional laptop, but the display will flip all the way around to the back of the computer.  In effect, turning it into a tablet.  When the display passes 180° the keyboard is disabled so you don't accidentally press any keys.  The hinge appears to have some friction to it, this allows you to setup the device like a tent for easy viewing of a slide show or movie.

My intended use for a computer like this is for web browsing, photography and light-weight programming.  I think it will be an easy companion at 3.4 pounds and 0.67" thick.  It sure beats my current 16" behemoth that is 1.5" (2.2" where the extended battery is) thick and weighs in at 7 pounds.

The Yoga 13 is even available in a very sexy clementine orange brushed aluminum case.  What are your thoughts about Ultrabooks?  Share in the comments.

WIMM Has Stopped Talking

The folks at WIMM Labs, Inc. came up with a great idea.  They made a small Android device that could be attached to a wristband, belt clip, lanyard, or any number of other mounting systems.

The device itself, the WIMM One, has a screen that's about one inch square that operates in both passive and active modes.  In passive, there is no back light and the display renders in grey scale.  In active mode it works like a regular LCD display.  It's very cool.

I've been following since about CES 2011.  At CES 2012 they released a developer version of their product to build a library of apps and to get more developers interested in the platform.  It was working really well.  There was lots of activity in the forums, there were some useful apps in their app store.  I was really looking forward to a consumer version of this device.

In about July of 2012 they stopped responding to forum posts.  Since then, their Twitter and Facebook accounts have been closed.  There's no official statement about the lack of activity, but I can read between the lines.  So sad.

If you know something about the company and their plans, let me know in the comments.

Evernote on Android

For those of you that know me, you know that I've been a long-time Evernote fan. I was really happy when they first launched their Android version. When it started, it was best for accessing notes on the go. But it also allowed me to take pictures and send them to Evernote with a description. This was giant for me.

The Android version has grown over time into a nice product. Sure, the rich text editing is a little quirky, but it's still a nice product. It does much more than the original. I can create voice notes, text notes, images, etc. Evernote makes good use of the Android's sharing functionality. Evernote shows up on the share list as a destination making it easy to put almost anything into a note. It also allows you to share notes with any other share target, this makes it really easy to send a note by email. And the new Skitch integration is fun.

Today, I'm leaving for San Francisco to attend a photography workshop lead by Eric Kim. I created my itinerary using Evernote and was preparing to print it for the trip. I like to have a printed copy because I can make notes if there are changes, stuff I forgot to bring, etc. So, I thought to myself...I could just access it on my phone and not have to print anything. Then I thought about navigating to the note I want and it started sounding like a lot of work.

Well, that changed when I discovered that I can create a note shortcut for a specific note. Now, with one tap on the home screen, I can access and edit my itinerary as I go. This is very cool. I will make used of this in my photography as well. Most of my event photography has a schedule, things happen at a specific time. I can keep the schedule on a desktop shortcut and have ready access to it at all times.

To create the shortcut, long press on your home screen, select "Shortcuts", then scroll down to "Note Shortcut". When you select "Note Shortcut" you will be launched into Evernote to select a note. Perty dang easy.

Thanks again, Evernote.