Initial Impressions of Wakemate (sleep gadget)

Today I will deviate a bit from the anime/games theme and touch on another realm of nerdery: gadgets. We love gadgets. We use gadgets all day long. And now even when we sleep.

The WakeMate doesn't come in doll sizes

WakeMate (official website) is a Bluetooth wristband that tracks how you sleep (using actigraphy) and wakes you up at a optimal time within a 20 minute window so you feel better overall. It works with iOS, Blackberry and Android (Windows Phone 7 possibly soon). The product has been in startup hell for a couple years but units started shipping this winter. Since my not-so-trusty iHome is out of commission I thought I'd give it a try. I'd looked at sleep trackers before but they usually cost 100-400$, WakeMate is a bit more affordable at 60$.

Hardware - The physical half of WakeMate is a wristband that connects to your smartphone. The band fits me snugly and has adjusting elastic. I can (barely) fit both hands in it so it should "fit" all but may be tight on some. The WakeMate itself is removable from the fleece band so you can wash it. The visible section is simply a mini USB-B port, a LED indicator, and a plastic switch; everything else is wrapped in plastic. and then inside the wristband.

The actual unit

I was worried about battery life after reading Engadget's review (lots of great pictures) but I got three nights out of it before it warned me I needed to charge it. Considering each night is about 7 hrs (and many people sleep shorter nights) I don't find this unreasonable. If the device does run out of power while you are asleep the fail-safe alarm will sound at the end of the waking window. The unit charges over USB and normally would come with a AC adapter. However they are having problems with the AC adapter overheating the battery and lighting the wristband on fire (seriously) so mine only came with a cable. Supposedly I will be sent an adapter at a later date.

iPhone Software - I use a iPhone 3GS, the same app is also iPod/Pad compatible. Different apps exist for other platforms and they may have different interfaces/features.

The app is clean and easy to use, the WakeMate must be paired once via Bluetooth settings and after that it can be connected to from the app. If the band isn't connected correctly and you try to go to sleep the phone will make a fuss until you fix it.

You must log-in to the free Wakelytics site before you can use the app. The alarm is set to a 20 minute window and that window is calculated and displayed prominently. The software chooses the best time to wake you up before the window is over (see the Experience section). You can set the alarm to one of the supplied tones, iPod music (my choice), phone vibration (the band does not vibrate), or no alarm. The app encourages you to tag nights, it comes with many example tags but you can make your own as well (I made a "roommate" tag for example).

Status	Alarm Screen	Tag Screen	Data Screen

When you wake up the app greets you by name, asks how you feel, and automatically syncs data to the website. Data is not viewable in the app (a shortcut to the website is included). As the system is multi-platorm a unified website is probably easier to maintain but it would be nice to have in-app view as well.

Website (Wakelytics) - Wakelytics is the name of WakeMate's analytics platform. It assumes you don't know anything about sleep cycles (probably true) so everything is explained in fairly simple terms. This is nice for most things but I can't help but wish for an advanced view or even just an encyclopedia page explaining the scientific equivalent of the sleep categories the site uses. Tags can be compared but I don't have enough data to do anything useful with that yet. Oddly you can't compare tags simply to nights without that tag (example, caffeine-tagged nights vs non-caffeine nights), this seems rather basic so its odd its not included. The product is young though so and the WakeMate team has expressed intent to add more to the tagging system.

Wakemate doesn't supply a ton of screen shots (and they seem slightly different than the actual site). Here are a few with my (real) data, click to view (quite large):



Experience - In terms of data, the device seems to be pretty accurate though the number/times of awakenings is the only statistic I can verify with any true confidence. I had been getting similar scores for most of this week but this last night I felt a lot less rested and my score reflected that. I must stress here that I am not a doctor, I don't have any solid knowledge of how this works.

The wake-up feature works as expected. The device will sense when you are in a sleep-stage close to awake and wake you up. In contrast a traditional alarm is completely time based so the sleeper may be in a deep stage when it goes off, causing them feel terrible upon awakening (sleep inertia). I felt pretty groggy this morning when I work up but I also remember slightly before the alarm went off so WakeMate did not call me out of deep sleep (like a traditional alarm could do). One other time it went off at the end of the window and I felt pretty wake but I may have just ran out of time and triggered the fail-safe alarm.

Overall- I was a bit hesitant to order the WakeMate because of numerous production problems and negative initial reviews but I chanced it on the 30-day return window. The device has worked as well as I hoped these first few days and I don't see my self returning it in the future. If you have trouble getting up without 2 or 3 alarms (my old system) WakeMate is definitely worth a try.

iCame, iSaw, iPad

Ok you can go read about the iPad on Apple.com/iPad if you have been in a cave and don't know what it is. Millons of bloggers has described what it does and I'm not going to repeat them (except worse) here.

Here's what I want to know before March:

• Textbooks! Steve said "We are very excited about textbooks as well" This is the primary appeal the iPad has to me. How can I get my hundreds of dollars and tens of pounds of textbooks on this little device. If not from Apple, CourseSmart has promised tablet textbook support and even made a mock up. Textbooks are the main reason I would want a iPad.
  
• Tethering: I pay AT&T 30$ a month for 3G on my iPhone. Let me tether a iPad to it if your not willing to allow full computers. Preferably tethering over Wi-Fi or bluetooth so I don't need to blow an extra 130$ on a 3G chip. Hell I'll plug the iPad into the phone if that's what it takes.
  
• iTunes Extras/LPs: Just make 'em work on the iPad. There is no excuse.
• Student Discount?????????? Pretty Pwease??
  
  

To be honest multitasking isn't a huge dealbreaker for me because I would buy the iPad for educational use. Its probably good the device doesn't let me have 50 windows/programs open when I'm trying to study.

Some features I think would be cool to have in the iPad (but don't count on it):

• Plug your iPhone into the iPad and play media off the phone. Why should I carry two portable devices with my full library on them? this would be great to play someone else's iPod on the iPads larger screen easily.
  
• Flash? Please?
• Function as a secondary monitor to one's mac when docked. Its a big beautiful screen and this would sell tons of docks.
• LogMeIn for iPad. Like LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone but on a useable screen size.
• It should make toast. Apple devices do get very hot so this is not as far-fetched as you might hope.
• hulu. Seriously, make an app hulu, just make a frigging app. I am the point where I will PAY for it.
• The rumored apple tv show subscription would be nice too.

ATTENTION! MS finally made a decent ad!

Its true, Microsoft has actually made a advertisement that is enjoyable for the RIGHT reasons. Witness this miracle above.

Here be Happy Words

Microsoft's latest ad is an awkward blend of cute little girls, unicorns, marshmallows, hard rock, and a little dash of Windows.

Aired during last night's football game. This ad does not seem to appeal to the sports crowd but hey what do I know. I didn't spend big bucks on this. Actually, it freaks me out.

Region 2 Drive GET!

My apple default drive is in perfect condition for warranty sake and I now have a spiffy Lite-On eSAU208-11 DVD burner for 65$ + tax. Its an expensive rape fee to pay just to watch legally acquired discs but having two drives for disc copying is nice. Reads fine off 1 USB port and even has a data pass through connector.

Oh and it does LightScribe which I love but I probably have to go Windows for that. (Maybe not) Came with some Windows software too (I'll never use it but)

This was a gamble as the box said Windows Windows Windows but it was a Lite-On and not badly priced so I took the risk (and kept the receipt!).

Now to rewatch all my R2 anime that I had to acquire crappy fansubs for.

iPod Touch: proof that God (or atleast Apple) loves humanity.

I got a iPod touch. I love it. Its wonderful. I love love LOVE my iPod mini (surrendered to my mom ATM, she lost hers) BUT the touch is the first worthy replacement for that blue wonder. Nano, photo, video, nothing was worth getting a new iPod untill the touch came out. I talked a 10$ discount out of the Apple Store so I could get 3.0 for free but then went and spent more money on apps. The app store is capitalism at its finest. And I still haven't bought a case ><

I actually have had my Mini full for a while so its nice being able to fit all my music on my iPod. Podcasts and videos are a great too.

Let me just say it here. I shouldn't have to buy a iPod touch to play Myst on modern technology. Myst needs quicktime 6 and DirectX7 to run on Windows XP so forget about it coexisting with any other media. It won't run on Leopard at all (no classic mode) and I hear the DS port is hideous.
Luckily the touch app seems nice so far. It clocks in at 727 MB (much bigger than the DS version and comparable in size to the original) and is the largest iPod app I know of. According to sources its 1.5GB when installed (glad I got a 32 GB!). Last time I played Myst I was a wee little thing and thought it was a pretty thing to click around in (and MS Bob was a dollhouse). Now I hope I can actually understand it better cause there are some pretty things I haven't clicked in a while that I miss.

I named this 'pod Rin so here is the current wallpaper:

Ghost face is from using the iPhoto retouch tool as a censor.
Where the ghost face is now is actually just white with my personal contact info (Full name/cell/email) in case it's lost/disputed/whatever but I don't need that all of the interwebs. :) Minutes are money.

Names of my electronics so far (some are long gone) and inspiration source:

• Ye ol' Win98 box : Joshua (Wargames)
• Crappy Compaq Presario : Itsuki (Doll)
  
• MacBook Pro : Raki (Piece of Wonder)
• Windows partition : Alecto (Piece of Wonder)
• iPod Mini : Chise (Saikano)
• iPod Touch : Rin (Little Busters!)
• Purple Cellphone thats a cheap RAZR with a different name: Haruka (Little Busters!)

Anyone else out there name their electronics? I find "Front Room PC" and "Jane Doe's iPod" to be so dreary.

Sorry this post is so disconnected. I'm 24+ hours in to ownership and still am overexcited about my Touch.

Title joke besides, I'm not religious XP

A MacBook Air SuperDrive is in my future?

MacBook Air SuperDrive for all � tnkgrl Mobile

Looks like Apple's super slim and sexy USB DVD-RW drive for MacBook Air can be made to play nice with other computers for minimal upgrade costs. Considering one can eBay one of these drives for 65$ and the extra board costs under 20$.

The author there used a very cheap 9$ board but I am lazy and not terribly good at soldering so I am eyeing the 14$ Slim Optical Drive IDE to USB card that doesn't require me to remove and re-solder the crystal.(Found on this thread).

I've been wanting an external DVD drive for a while to set to Region 2 so I can watch anime on my MBP with it's damned matsushita drive. The external power supply and dearth of known support turned me off to the one's I've seen and I dismissed the superdrive as being Air only.

Yay for hacks :)

LED Cinema Display がほしい。。。

Apple - LED Cinema Display

Its called a display but really is a docking station. Screen (Duh!) + USB hub + MagSafe charger (these are expensive!) + 2.1speakers + camera + microphone.

I'm really tempted to buy one of these. 15 inches is nice but 24 is nicer. Of course I'd want a bluetooth keyboard so thats even more monies even with a education discount.

I'm moving to Oregon for studies this fall (land of no sales tax) so maybe I will get it if I save up enough.

Anime is better on a big screen and games are too. I'll have a (female) roommate though so all the ero still has to be confined to my laptop screen XP

For the record, the iSight is 640x480. Took the Apple lady a while to find this for me. I bit disappointing but not too much of an issue. Hell, just having another MagSafe makes up for that.

Microsoft Ads still suck

Meet Lauren. Shes a PC. And wow! She got a 17" laptop for 700$ dollars! Apple 17" start at 2700 so gosh what a deal! I should defenestrate my MacBook right now!

Oh wait...look at just some of the specs:

Lauren's new Laptop | Apple's basic 17"

RAM : 4GB DDR2 (speed unknown) vs. 4GB DD3 @ 1066Mhz

CPU: 2.1 AMD Turion™ X2 (dual core) vs. 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (dual core)

Display: "WXGA+ high-definition widescreen with BrightView technology" (1440 x 900) vs. 1920x1200 pixel LED-backlit display

Network: b/g wireless; 100mbs ethernet vs. b/g/n wireless gigabit ethernet and bluetooth

Case: shiny "Bronze Chrome" plastic vs. brushed unibody aluminum

Graphics: ATI RADEON HD 3200 graphics RS780M with up to 1918MB shared memory vs. an integrated Nvidia 9400M and a discrete 9600MGT with 512MB of dedicated memory

Portability: 7.9 lbs 1.9" thick vs. 6.6 lbs. and .98" thick

BATTERY: 2.5 hours vs. 8 hours guaranteed through 1000 charge cycles



You get what you pay for and leading PC sites agree.

Brass Restoration works on Wine

Brass Restoration

No excuses now, I need to hurry up and play and review this game:

Installer is a breeze.


Everything works perfectly fine. Music, SFX, visual effects... its is just like Windows.

This is a practically out of the box Darwine install. I did add DirectX 9 a while back through Trix but thats just a routine installer from Microsoft. Runs without a hitch and minimal lag.

So no excuses! Any one who can read this blog can run this game.

Klear Screen aka iKlear

Klear Screen - LCD & Plasma Screen Cleaner

I absolutely love this stuff. The polish is great on the screen and the body of my precious MacBook Pro and the cloths are large and lush. The Micro-fiber (terry) is the best cloth for glossy screens I've ever used and the Micro Chamois (MC) polishes aluminum and cleans keyboards like nothing seen before. Both kits come with some step 1 wet wipes (to be then dried with your cloths), step 2 "drying cloths" are not in the newer packages since real cloth is superior.

Keyboard Cover
I bought the old blue version at Fry's with a trackpad cover; for iBooks (that old!) Made of optical grade MC; really nice to keep the screen clean and free of key-dents!

Cleaning Kit
Fry's electronics is awesome and had this is stock. This is a wonderful kit of with 1 large MC, 1 travel MC, 1 travel terry, 2 oz. of apple polish and 1 anti-bacterial cloth I haven't tried yet. The large cloth is really large, twice the size of my keyboard! The aluminum unibody looks brand new once I wipe down with this kit.

For you PCs out there you can buy unbranded or DELL labeled versions of Klear Screen if you don't want to buy something with macs on it. Obviously, I bought the iKlear kits but the product is the same I believe. Its worth every cent to have a beautiful screen!

Make 'em Walk the Plank

Prosecutor, Hollywood Demand Prison for Pirate Bay Crew | Threat Level from Wired.com


These thieves are getting off easy but the site is DOWN!


Respect Artists. Don't Steal.

More on WINE, CrossOver and how to stay the hell away from Microsoft

My last two posts have been on two solutions on running Windows software without Windows. Both technologies described use the WINE project as their base. WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is a very old (but active) open-source interpreter to let Windows stuff run on other systems. More on that at WineHQ

Darwine : Free (libre) Mac binaries (application) to implement WINE. No interface, you simply run set WineHelper to handle the files and run them. Everything is ran through XQuartz. Uses one big hidden "virtual C drive" in your user folder, so be prepared to enable hidden files in finder alot. Not as bad as it sounds : when it works it works and when it doesn't WineHelper makes nice long log files to stare at confused :)

CrossOver: Proprietary WINE interface with lots of help files and GUI goodness. Easy menus to choose the version of Windows you need and supports many different bottles (virtual C drives) kept in the library. Uses XQuartz but doesn't make it obvious (no dock icon/menu bar etc messiness).

Obviously, Darwine is free and that's a good thing. If you've read my posts this is the WINE solution I am experimenting with, I do not plan to buy CrossOver. It is easier for me to just muck around with free software I can download and install infinitely on any computer at any time. I like to break things and just reinstall them over and over, its like a puzzle and I learn from each step.

Since the core technology is shared, anything Darwine can do CrossOver can do. Conversly, anything CrossOver can do Darwine can do. I would never recommend Darwine to a non-power user: its just not practical. I would direct them to CrossOver. Likewise I would not tll a power user to use CrossOver I would point them to Darwine. This are different solutions.

I love the open-source ideal and the community but I also understand the incentives of proprietary works. Apple is practically the polar opposite of open-source after all, with their very closed OS and hardware, but I love Leopard and iWork and use them over Linux and OpenOffice.org .

Lastly, as most people here know, I have a dual boot Windows/Mac system in place. I do not run a single critical program exclusively on WINE. I can break things and it doesn't matter the slightest cause the same program is on a perfectly good Windows install. Most importantly, I am familar with Windows, how things are stored and called and why things would and wouldn't work. I grew up on Windows and use it almost daily (sadly). A lot of mac users aren't. Obviously the transparency of Darwine is useless to someone who does not understand Windows.

So I just want to clarify my position on these two technologies. I am not doing this to promote CrossOver. I actually just wanted to write a feedback letter for the trial (a request of thiers of every person who tries the software; quite fair) and felt it would be easiest to post my thoughts here as well.

So my conclusion is:

CrossOver for the average Joe
Darwine for the power user who's Windows-literate.

Also, CodeWeavers has fantastic customer support (I emailed them about feedback and they even posted here) and a remarkable "Truth in Advertising Approach".

Read on:
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/truth_in_advertising/

Found! Working Darwine builds for OS X

Darwine builds for OS X
It works..... I have tried Darwine many times before to no success. After my failure with CrossOver I consulted WINEHQ again. This time I found a build that works. Definitely try this before CrossOver.
The chat windows jumps down half an inch every time you click it. Minor annoyance. Did not happen in CrossOver which uses WINE and X11/Quartz as well.
Same output as CrossOver, I'm thinking the sound issues might be part of the audio files. Obviously, fonts work now.

CrossOver Mac : Promising but One Fatal Flaw [updated]

Note: Some kind folk who sleep the proper number of hours per night pointed out you can launch programs from Finder (Open With) to run non-installer programs from CrossOver. I'm still sticking with Darwine but this is an important feature I missed. Bold text is new.

CrossOver is a commercial Wine implementation. Its designed to make installing and running Windows programs easy.

Installing Windows programs. NOT running them, installing them so crossover can run them. This is CrossOver's biggest issue..... it needs an installer. So all those fun doujin games: no installer no luck. That cool app from the internet? No installer no luck. Or so I thought until others told me you can use the Finder Open-With -> Choose (However, CO did not appear in the normal open-with menu for me). A menu item for this IN CrossOver would do wonders since that's where I looked first.

For installers, InstallShield seems to work great with it. Font support is practically non existent however. I have no idea how to add fonts. I could only get one application to install... a LabQuest emulator I had for science class. It would not run because it couldn't preform hardware check. I had issues with the InstallShield installer for ONE however, it might same issue that occurs when attempting to install on EN Windows or it might not; I localize my Windows for games.

Now its a slick program, supported apps like Steam, Office, Quicken... they probably work great. But its so limited by its pre-set boundries making Japanese programs or hobby programs run is flat out impossible. Window management is handled by X11/Quartz it seems and no complains there.

I was able to make Casual Romance Club run by telling CO it was an installer. Not an ideal setup and sorely in need of fonts. According to Libido, CRC doesn't need Japanese fonts unless translation is turned on. Even so, the english should display without issues but...

English text in loading screen: Squares. I quit it at this point.

Restarted: It remembered the name I gave it seems. Still no text.
Music was fine. Images were fine. No lag.

Attack of the squares. The soundtrack squeaked when I advanced the text quickly. This game only has key lines voiced. Notice, its running as in installer in CrossOver. Not ideal.

Everything works perfectly except text.

Voices are fine. If it would just let me run the program as a program (and I then I would tweak the fonts) I imagine the game would run perfectly. (see note)

Don't even look for the Japanese version of CrossOver... its 11550 yen if you can find it. Thats almost twice as much as the English version!

Obviously WINE has great potential, the CrossOver interface to it just doesn't work for these sorts of games at this point.

FailShare

Please tell me WHY THIS EXISTS!!!!



YES THOSE ARE WINDOWS INSTALLERS BURIED INSIDE MY MAC APP. To make it worse.....Mac installers are in there as well....

Join me in telling Flip Video to stop coding while drunk....


Flip Video

Seashore - MSPaint on Mac without the suck

Seashore - About

Note: Windows people go check out paint.net

I love GIMP. Its great. But do I NEED to run X11 just to scribble on an image? Where is my image editor, Apple?

Now I have SeaShore. Even better, it uses GIMP's file format!

Easy, quick program that is built in Cocoa (mac native) and it runs like a dream. My new best friend XD Oh and its small! 12 MB after I installed the SVG converter (which is a large chunk of that size)!

I will still keep GIMP for the serious work but SeaShore is great for everything else.

My Desktop as of right now

Posting such things seems popular to do and most importantly personally enjoyable. Link to yours in the comments, I would love to see what everyone chooses :)

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

Pearson Foundation: Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

I auditioned for this video and made the cut :) I am the girl talking about MS Bob. This interview was fun because I had just gotten my MBP and all the videographers wanted to check it out (the unibody was just released).

Sorry, I posted this to another blog first... gotta check my quick post settings before clicking OK!

MacHeist : Free Software for doing puzzles

MacHeist

Amazingly fun alternate reality game on its third big run. Solve puzzles and find clues of a conspiracy to earn shareware for free. The community takes the ARG seriously but is laidback and welcome to newcomers.

Please note MacHeist has required editing and running Macintosh applications and could end up being impossible to complete from Windows without assistance. Moreover the prizes are for mac as well.

BLUE TEAM WILL WIN!