First up is the Kingston Wi-Drive, a portable wireless hard drive for iOS devices.

Leading Off

I’ve been using Kingston’s Wi-Drive for the last month. It’s a small, lightweight wireless hard drive for use with iOS devices. The model I’ve been using is 16GB. To connect, you use the Wi-Drive app (free in the App Store). Estimated battery life is 4 hours, which I found to be accurate. It comes nicely packaged, with a nod to Cupertino.

Three Up

1. Everything about it is fast. Using the app, setting up the connection, and accessing content on the Wi-Drive is fast. After about five minutes to set up the app and connect to the drive, I was streaming Batman Begins. Once I selected the movie in the app, it was playing in less than three seconds. And scrubbing forward and back in the movie was instant. Zero delays. Very fast. It also remembered where I left off in the movie I was watching.
2. It’s light and small. It’s slightly thinner than an iPhone 4s and can easily fit in any pocket, purse or backpack for easy portability (thought I don’t recommend it for reasons outlined below).
3. You can share the connection. Up to three users can connect simultaneously, allowing up to three people to access the media on the drive wirelessly. I experienced no issues accessing the same content on multiple devices at the same time.

Three Down

1. You can only connect via WiFi. This is limiting, because you have to disconnect from your regular WiFi network to use the device. You can use the app’s wireless network function to connect the Wi-Drive to a wireless network, but it’s not perfect. For instance, I couldn’t type in a network that wasn’t broadcasting its SSID. Also, if you leave the car or hotel room, your device may not reconnect to the Wi-Drive automatically. Having to connect to its WiFi network, then open the app, then find your media every time can become rather annoying. I’d rather just have the media on my device. Finally, you can’t use iPhone tethering while you’re using the Wi-Drive.
2. It’s expensive. When I received the drive, it was priced at $129 and $179 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. Currently prices have dropped to $69 and $99 on Amazon, which is much better.
3. It gets hot when it’s being used. Really hot. Scorching hot. Not good. While it’s built for portability, you can’t keep this in a pocket, a laptop bag or even resting near a piece of paper, for fear it might catch on fire or burn up the drive.

The Final Score

I can see this device being useful for someone with an 8GB iOS device, families on a road trip or a long plane ride, or possibly small teams during a business meeting. Outside of those scenarios, it’s doubtful that you’ll get much use out of a Wi-Drive, and the heat is a major concern. For the money, you’d be better off upgrading to a larger capacity device or upgrading your Dropbox account.

Nest does use Time to Temperature – which is based on your home’s thermal profile — to approximate how long it’ll take to warm or cool your home. So, yes, if Nest knows, for example, that you want it to be 72 at 6PM and that it’ll take 40 minutes to get to that temperature, it’ll start heating up the house earlier.

I’m in for two sometime in 2012.

This is always a great conference. The Guild does a great job getting excellent keynotes in. I also get to attend Kevin Thorn’s precon session today, How to Put the Story in Storyboarding for eLearning. I’m really looking forward to learning from him.

Between Kevin (@learnnuggets) and Aaron Silvers (@aaronesilvers), I should drastically improve my ability to communicate visually by the end of the week. This is most excellent.

Things I’m looking forward to:

• Learning from brilliant people
• Presenting my session (Remember The User) and helping push up the industry
• Ignite
• DemoFest is always a great time. We’ll be doing onsite #lrnchat, too!

I brought my iPad, iPhone, and a Snowflake microphone for recording snippets, and, maybe, a full show with Judy. Judy and I plan to interview vendors and some other learning celebrities for our elearning podcast, The ToolBar. If you have a request for questions we should ask vendors, let us know.

This is my fourth or fifth DevLearn. I always learn something new and grow my personal learning network (PLN). If you’re going to be here, look me up! Ping me via the conference app, Twitter or my contact form. I look forward to meeting more folks I’ve only interacted with online.

I’ll be posting a lot of photos and session reviews. I also recommend the following resources whether you’re attending or not.

• Official Backchannel (curated by David Kelly)
• Judy Unrein
• Cammy Bean
• Tracy Parish
• Conference Hashcast

…we are a community. Let’s continue to fight for each other, encourage each other, and work together to make amazing things.

We are the 3rd-party family of Apple nerds. Let’s make a dent.

- Shawn Blanc: “3rd-Party Family”

So, it must be because they didn’t update the form factor to a really crappy teardrop concept that would be a pain in the ass to game on. Or, maybe it’s because they didn’t call it an iPhone 5? What a crime! It’s horrendous! Except it’s RIGHT IN LINE with what they’ve done for years. iPhone 3G → iPhone 3GS → iPhone 4 → iPhone 4S.

So, I ask, how can you be disappointed?

More on this from smarter people than me:

If you judge Apple’s products by the reaction of analysts and the press, you’re an idiot. Pure and simple. Apple doesn’t make products for analysts and the press. They make products for everyone.

- MG Siegler: “Apple’s ‘Fall From Grace’”

(via Judy)

That’s what people want to see when they go to Apple events: Steve Jobs holding up a rainbow-hued unicorn that you can purchase for your very own…

… this interconnected web of products is the thing that makes the continued development of the new and magical products possible.

- Kottke: “Unicorns and wheels: Apple’s two types of products”

Would as many people be disappointed if Apple had released the same device but called it the iPhone 5?

- Marco: “By any other name”

(via DF)

Top 10 Misused English Words – Please stop using these the wrong way. (via Judy)

Your idea sucks, now go and do it anyway (via MBN)

Unitasking — absolutely gorgeous site, as well

Glider Pro coming to iOS – SWEET! (and, yes, I’ve spent too much time playing the original this week)

Instagram 2.0 – Massive update. Instant filters. Instant tilt-shift. High-res photos.

iTunes Skip Feature – Exactly the solution I was looking for. I’m creating a smart list for these so I can remove them from my library entirely. (via DF)

“While some people might find it distasteful to pay taxes. I don’t. I find it Patriotic.”

The Yoda Pie Chart – There is no try.

Hip-Checked — “For the past year HP has looked like a dog being tempted on opposite sides of the room by two treats. Constantly rushing back and forth so as to not lose either of the treats, but never actually getting either of the treats.”

Welcome to Macintosh

Charge money for your work. Don’t be a jerk to people. Repeat. (via Ben Brooks)

It’s going well, and we’re having a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

My weekend plans are to add a beer list, a beer recommendation form and a show topic request form to the Emergent Radio site. (And, yes, in that order.)

So. Go forth and be enlightened by Episode #6.

Memorable Speakers Blend Stories, A Connection to the Audience, and Takeaways

The Dude – I love Devour

Thanks for Teaching Us – So cool (via Michelle)

Driskill WordPress Child Theme – Beautiful and Responsive

The 10-Minute Instructional Design Degree

“Also – instructional design and visual design are different things. Visual design is just as important (and it isn’t about making things “pretty”), and it needs to be done before the development phase begins.” – Jane Bozarth

Overcoming Objections to eLearning

“Adopting eLearning is a cultural change as well as a technological one, and all of the changes required to make it accepted and expected can take time.” – Judy Unrein

When I Think of the Future of Online Learning – great insight from Ellen Wagner

Project Tin Can Moving Right Along – great news

30 Places to Find Creative Commons Content – goes well with this video on Copyright

eLearning Storyboards – some wonderful resources

I’m not going to be coy about it. Steve Jobs has made things that have been part of my life since I was six years-old. The man, through his craft, influenced the man I’m still becoming.

- Aaron Silvers: “Influence“

A brilliant man has exited 1 Infinite Loop. But his influence will be felt for years to come. Just watch this.

Bluelounge Mini Dock adapter – clever. (via Minimal Mac)

The Birdy – great way to track spending. Simply respond to one email each day. I use Evernote to do the same thing – but I do it live – as soon as I spend it, I email my Evernote account like this: 2011 Taxes – Expense – Software – App Store – $9.99 – but that doesn’t give me pretty charts.

The Birdy would go great with SassyCents, a new “how to be smart with your money” blog from Tammy Thorn.

Viva La Vida, Lego Edition

1.8 Zettabytes – wow.

Meetings are death, death to meetings – YES!

Good marketing may get people in the door the first time, but good product design gets them in the door the second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) time.

- Shawn Blanc

Apple isn’t dominating because of clever marketing. They’re dominating because they make awesome products that people can’t wait to use. And when they roll out a new version, existing customers will wait in long lines again to upgrade, without thinking about it, because they know it will be great. They can buy sight-unseen because they trust Apple to deliver what only Apple can deliver, the perfect harmony between hardware and software.

And they know they’ll be able to simply turn it on and start using it.

Creating Losing Designs – great ideas on using low stakes losing to motivate learners.

“The Smart Worker Needs Job Aids Rather than Courses” – this is a great series. Read ‘em all.

Learning is Social. Training is Irrelevent? – Yes.

The Death of the Traditional Enterprise

Review: DesignJot – the first iPad app for learning development? Great review.

Spanning Sync’s 1 Year Anniversary – congratulations, guys! Great product.

Book Review: ‘Game Frame’ by Aaron Dignan

In episode three, we discuss elearning development on a Mac, ZebraZapps and Articulate Storyline.

Until you eliminate those phrases, until you eliminate the confusion, you don’t have a system built for real people. Lion is a step in the right direction towards removing this confusion.

- Ben Brooks

Great review.

Shawn Blanc has a good one, too.

Here is my short review having never laid eyes on this thing… It’s great. How do I know? Apple doesn’t do less than great. If you have a Mac that can run it, get it.

- Minimal Mac

Exactly.

Get it.

$29? Ridiculous value!

One of the coolest experiences I had at mLearnCon last week was playing A Game of Phones, a wonderful creation from Kris Rockwell (@hybridkris) and Alicia Sanchez (@gamesczar). Every attendee received a deck of cards when he or she registered, and a brief tutorial of how to play.

The basic premise is training and performance challenges presented to two or more players, who can then play technology, hardware and expert cards to offer up a potential solution. Both players state their case, and then they can either debate or they can have a third party judge their proposals.

At the end of the day on Wednesday, they held a tournament, judged by none other than The Beard and Jason Haag. Surprisingly, there were only eight of us who entered, but the ideas generated in this tournament were simply amazing. The energy level was high and the debates and follow-up discussions with the judges and participants were enlightening. Aaron or Kris should be posting some video and pictures of the event soon.

The three top scorers were myself, Stephanie Daul and Aisha Taylor. The final battle was between Stephanie and myself, and I ended up winning. It was so much fun, and such a useful game. I can’t wait to take it back to some folks I work with to generate some ideas for solving our mobile learning problems, or just to start talking about mobile solutions.

You can order the game as is, or you can request some tweaks to make it more specific to your organization. I highly recommend at least grabbing a deck or two and playing a few games with your team and then sharing some of the best solutions with management, and then playing the game with them! It’s a great way to show the benefits of a game in a real world environment that produces innovative, but practical solutions.

Most importantly, it was a lot of fun to play!

Additional Information:

• The Making of A Game of Phones
• Brent Schlenker’s Preview

*Update 07-08-2011*
The website for this game is agameofphones.com.

Off-Site Backups

Over the holiday weekend I plan to start the series of backup profiles. Most of you will fall under the first — the family geek. I’ve got a great way for you to secure your own data, as well as your family members, wherever they may live.

If you are nodding your head and thinking, “Of course I do, who doesn’t?”, then you have my respect. I still think you might find this series of posts beneficial as I’ll be introducing some new services and ideas, so stick around.

The rest of you, the ones who think hard drives aren’t made of tiny moving parts just waiting for something to go wrong, you need to wake up. You have data that you will lose.

Hard drives fail. Frequently. Period.

If you’ve never suffered from data loss, it’s a matter of when, not if.

Notice that I have yet to mention user error, viruses, cat incidents, spills or other destructive methods of data loss. Pick your poison.

Now that I have your attention, relax. I have your antidote. But you need to act swiftly, because you don’t want to be the one who waited a day too long and lost little Sally’s Kindergarten graduation pictures forever.

In the olden days (read: just a few years ago), backing up was a pain in the ass. External hard drives were expensive, massive and loud; and automated backup tools were mediocre unless you knew how to work the command line. This is no longer the case. We have amazing tools at our disposal now that make backing up simple and inexpensive.

Because I understand that everyone is not like me, I will be offering up several recommended backup plans in the coming days. Pick one that fits your needs, or head over to this wonderful form right now and I’ll build you a custom plan.

If you’re in a hurry, here are some online services you can use immediately:

• Backblaze: super simple online backup
• CrashPlan: more options, more features, more expensive
• Dropbox: all your files, on any device. Free service is great. Extra storage is a little pricey.

I plan to post a profile each day, at a minimum, for the next few days, so check back (or use the form to get your custom profile).

This release features a brand-new option to switch post editor documents into “Full-Screen” mode for more focused writing. In full-screen mode, the window is expanded to take up the entire space of the screen, and the menu bar is hidden from view.

- Red Sweater Blog

Excellent! This is a great new feature. I’ve been using WriteRoom for years to start my writings. Then I move them into MarsEdit for formatting and adding media, categories and tags before publishing to the blog. Full screen mode might just push WriteRoom out of my workflow entirely.

If you’re on a Mac, and not using MarsEdit for your blog, you should check it out.

I like it. It’s small. It’s fast. I’m learning. I’m out there, you know, in the world now, more so than I was before. It’s a good tool, but as I said I don’t know…from what I hear from other people, they prefer the computer to this. I can’t compare. But, you know, I do like it.

- Technologizer

The comment, “I’m out there, you know, in the world now…” is extremely powerful. These devices are empowering all kinds of people.

So, is there anywhere you’ve been in the last year that you don’t want anyone to know about?
- Ars

Yeah, this is a little freaky.

“Sometimes you can get so enamored with having The New Version that you forget that the whole point of this expensive exercise is to solve problems.”

- Andy Ihnatko at Macworld

Indeed. Another great example of enough.