Adam Weiss

Digital Media Strategist | Podcaster | Science Communicator

Founder/CEO of AppDemoVideos.com

Digital Media Strategist
Podcaster
Science Communicator

LaCie iamaKey Review

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iamaKeyFlash drives are supposed to be really convenient, but when you actually go to use them, they can really be a pain. They’re small enough to easily misplace, but just big enough make carrying one everywhere inconvenient.

If you try to attach one to your keyring with the little loop they always have on them, you’ll either have an awkward chunk of plastic sticking off of your keys at a funny angle, or you’ll break the flash drive off at the connection point and lose it. Or both.

LaCie’s iamaKey flash drive aims to solve those problems. It’s a super-thin metal drive that’s the shape and size of a key, and therefore not only easily fits on your keychain, but it fits in on your keychain. Unless you only have one or two keys, you won’t even notice you have it with you — and that’s the point.

The iamaKey is more expensive than other drives (currently $24 for 4GB or $33 for 8GB), but — at least in my opinion — it is totally worth it. From the looks of it (and from the other reviews I’ve read online), it is very durable. Not only is it completely encased in metal, but it has scratch- and wear- resistant electronic contacts, so it should stand up to the abuse a ring of keys regularly endures.

I bought the 8GB model, and within days of adding it to my keyring, I’d already been in a couple of situations where it came in handy because it was with me when other flash drives would have been left at home. I’m now able to carry higher-quality samples of some of my work than my iPhone screen can display, and I was also able to easily get more than 5GB of video files from a friend just hours after receiving the drive in the mail.

If you think of flash drives as a convenience and wish it was easier to always have one with you, LaCie’s iamaKey is a product you should check out.

Google Voice and Gizmo5 Combine to Provide Free Home Phone Service

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I’ve been using Google Voice (and GrandCentral before it) for years, and have always thought that it is an amazing service. It’s been my “work number” for my consulting business and has actually gotten me business in a number of ways (including the attention I got for my demo of the GV Mobile iPhone app). It was a great tool from the beginning, and Google has improved it quite a bit. However, the biggest upgrade to the service since it was released was just rolled out, and it doesn’t come from Google at all. It comes from a third-party unofficial partner: Gizmo5.

This weekend, Gizmo5 added the ability to make outgoing calls from their SIP service using Google Voice as your connection to the regular telephone network. You have been able to use Gizmo5’s computer-based “soft phone” (or a landline phone with the right adapter hardware) as one of your phone numbers in Google Voice for a long time, but — until now — that only worked for incoming calls. You couldn’t make a call without paying Gizmo5 a per-minute fee.

Adding this feature makes it possible to set up a VOIP-based home phone line that works exactly like the service we’ve been charged a lot of money for by the telephone companies for more than a century, but with absolutely no fees for inbound or outbound calls within the continental United States.

This will take about 10 minutes if you have everything you need. The total cost (including the ATA device you’ll need to hook up a regular phone to Google Voice and a cheap phone if you don’t already have one) should be less than $60.

Here’s how to set it up:

  1. Get a Google Voice number if you don’t already have one. They are being much freer with invitations lately, and existing members should be able to invite you soon.
  2. Verify at least one “real” number (cell phone, work phone, or home phone) to activate your Google Voice account. This must be a US number.
  3. Sign up for a free Gizmo5 account and write down the “phone number” they assign you. (That’s in quotes because nobody can actually call it unless they are also using a SIP phone too.)
  4. In your Google Voice “settings” area, add your new Gizmo5 number as one of your forwarding phones. Be sure to choose “Gizmo” as the Phone Type in this step.gizmogv
  5. Buy an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) to hook up your regular corded or cordless phone to the internet (I use a Grandstream HandyTone 486). You will plug this into your router or modem and configure it with Gizmo5’s SIP settings:sipsettings
  6. Log in to your Gizmo5 account’s admin page and find the new “Google Voice” section. Enter your Google Voice account’s login info (probably your regular Google Account’s login, unless you set up a separate account for Google Voice), and choose either “Use for U.S. calls only” or “Use for all calls.” Click Save.gizmo5gv
  7. Wait a few minutes for the changes to take effect (I was getting busy signals on all calls for about 5 minutes when I first tried it this afternoon), then pick up your phone and dial a number. Gizmo should access Google Voice and connect your call. On the other end, your Google Voice number will show up as the Caller ID.

That’s it! When someone calls your Google Voice number, the phone connected the ATA will ring along with the other numbers you’ve forwarded your calls to. Making a call on that phone is as simple as picking up the receiver and dialing (don’t forget the area code), just like any other phone. Unlike those other phones, though, calls to and from your new internet-connected phone won’t use any cell phone minutes or cost you any pennies.

This means that you no longer have to pay for any calls, but you get to use a regular corded or cordless phone to make your calls, saving your cell phone battery and — if cell phones do have negative health effects — your brain cells. This is a huge improvement over using software on your computer or initiating every call through the Google Voice website, and lets you just hand the phone to a guest or technophobic family member without explaining why you need to dial the number in the other room and they should answer the phone when the connecting call comes in.

Gizmo5 and Google/GrandCentral have had a special relationship for a long time (you can’t use any other SIP provider with Google Voice), but this step takes their cooperation to a new level. Google is giving Gizmo the keys to Google Voice, and we get to benefit by taking this new feature for a spin.

Goodbye, Chase Freedom Card

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I’ve had a Chase Freedom Visa card for a couple of years now, and it had been my go-to card for pretty much every purchase I made.

This was because it offered great rewards on a good chunk of my regular purchases through a mildly-confusing rewards program: It gave me 3% cash back on many of the things I spent the most on, and 1% back on everything else. On top of that, if I waited until you’d accumulated $200 in rewards, I could redeem that for a $250 check — giving me a 25% bonus reward on the spot.

Over the last couple of years, I’d been averaging more than 2% cash back per month with this card after the bonuses, which made it a really great deal.

Apparently, this was too good a deal for Chase to continue giving us customers, as it’s all about to change.

The company just sent out a mailing detailing the following changes (among others) to the Freedom Card rewards program:

  • No more 3% cash back at your most-visited stores.
  • No more $50 bonus if you wait to redeem your rewards.
  • Rewards are now just a flat 1%, with periodic bonuses through special offers.

In other words, the Chase Freedom just became almost every other basic rewards card out there. Therefore, I’ll treat it just like I treat all of the other basic rewards cards out there: I’ll ignore it.

At least this will make my life easier: I’d just been rethinking my credit card usage, and had planned on switching most of my spending to a new Charles Schwab Invest First card that gives a flat 2% cash back on everything — automatically, and on a monthly basis — and has the great bonus of not charging any fees when used overseas.

The plan was to keep buying my groceries on my Freedom Card, along with using it to pay the few bills which would earn me 3% back. I’d be using the 2% card for everything except the purchases I knew I’d get 3% for from Chase. Potentially a bit confusing, I know, but I’d be saving a bit of extra money.

Now I don’t need to do that. Chase has done me a favor: by removing all incentive to use their card, they’ve made my decision to totally switch to one of their competitors a very straightforward one.

Thank you, Chase, for chasing me away.

Review: JustOneClubCard.com

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just-one-club-card-combine-all-of-your-club-cardsI came across JustOneClubCard.com about a year ago, and now I get asked about it almost every time I use a “loyalty card” at the store.

Why? Because all of my loyalty cards on on one laminated card in my wallet.

JustOneClubCard.com is a free service that generates a printable image of all of your shopping cards. All you do is print out the page, cut on the dotted lines, and laminate the folded paper (and I use “laminate” loosely — I did mine with packing tape).

The resulting card was a bit smaller than a standard US business card (the short side is about the same, and the long side is significantly shorter), but I think that depends as much upon your printer as the site. I had to print a couple of them before I got one I liked, but that was entirely due to me being picky about the placement — and bad at packing-tape-lamination.

After a year, I still love the concept. There are only a few annoying things about it:

  • You can only place eight cards on each printout, so if you have a lot of cards you’ll have to make more than one. It is free, so this isn’t really a problem.
  • Some cashiers have a bit of trouble comprehending what you are giving them. I’ve never had it rejected, but I have gotten some confused looks and requests for directions.
  • The biggest problem I’ve had is with people that don’t realize that you have to cover up the barcodes you don’t want to scan if you are using one of the built-into-the-table laser scanners. Handheld scanners are more precise (though I usually hold it up with my hands covering the other codes rather than hand it over, even in that case). Sometimes that has resulted in confused checkout machines, but not very often.

If you are like me and don’t like a bunch of stuff on your keyring or in your wallet, I highly recommend this site — but only if you don’t mind conversations in the checkout line.

Trying My Hand at Reviews

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A while ago, a friend of mine said to me “From now on, I’m just going to buy everything you buy.” He was referring to the fact that the last four or five things I’d shown him had soon ended up in his house as well, and that he’d been happy with every purchase.

He’s not the only one to tell me things like this, so I started to kick around the idea of using this languishing blog as a place to write reviews of products and services. I didn’t like the idea at first, as I felt like I’d just end up advertising for a bunch of things I liked, and I certainly didn’t want to give the impression that I was being influenced by any company. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t only have to write reviews of products, but also free services, customer service experiences, and even a book review every once in a while.

I’m not sure I’ll end up doing all of these things, but I’d like to at least get my feet wet. So, I’ll be writing some reviews if things I have or use. Please give me feedback on the idea (and the reviews) — maybe together we can make something useful.