Being an entrepreneur is challenging in many regards and one of challenges is managing the ups and downs that come from starting and running a business. While the media loves to focus the successes of startups – winning rounds of funding, acquiring smaller startups and achieving unicorn status, the less glorious tales of entrepreneurs’ struggles to overcome challenges, the pain and scars of failure, rejection and loss of confidence tend to be glossed over or completely ignored. Great character is forged in the fire of adversity and many entrepreneurs and startups have risen to meet these challenges and achieve success. This panel of entrepreneurs will share some of the challenges and market flounders they faced as startups and how handled them.
Longmont Startup Week
“LSW17 will bring together entrepreneurs, wanna-preneurs, intrapreneurs, creatives, techies, inventors, business owners, and investors of all ages to connect and inspire. Over the course of five days, multiple networking events, panels, fireside chats, and guest speakers will be hosted at unique venues throughout Longmont, showcasing Longmont’s entrepreneurs in advanced technology, I.T., bioscience, creative arts, culinary, and more.”
Moderator
Jeffrey Donenfeld
Investment Manager, Boomtown Accelerator
Jeffrey Donenfeld is a business innovation and relationship manager, technology strategist, and media consultant. | | He’s also worked globally as a photojournalist, public speaker, and blogger, and Antarctic expedition technician.
Speakers
Sergio R. Angeles
Co-Founder & President, Longmont Observer
Sergio is currently a co-founder and the president of Longmont Observer, a local non-profit news and media entity in Longmont, CO. Prior to working on startups, Sergio was a IT Consultant working for Fortune 500 companies such as Bank of America and Marriott. He left the east coa… Read More ?
A book nerd and coffee lover, Kate’s background is in literature and product creation. She loves the startup world and designing beautiful experiences.
Chris Drayer is CoFounder of Revaluate, the data company that leverages predictive analytics to determine who’s most likely to move. Revaluate has been recognized by Stephan Swanepoel as a 2017 Top 20 Trendsetter and is a 2017 Inman Innovator award finalist. Previously, Chris launched RealSatisfied in the US and helped grow… Read More ?
Terry Olkin
Co-Founder & CEO, Left Hand Robotics
An MIT graduate in Computer Science and Engineering, Terry has worked at both large Fortune 100 technology companies and small startups, including three he co-founded. He has over 25 years of experience that spans software engineering, conceiving new products, building business p… Read More ?
Recurring revenue isn’t just for software. Every retailer can benefit from predictable monthly sales. And Michael believes that when you find a coffee roaster you love, you should be able to buy a subscription box from them.
Investment Manager Jeffrey Donenfeld moderates the startup panel at Longmont Startup Week 2017
My Talk Notes
Chris Drayer, Co- Founder, Reevaluate
Rate and rank real estate – but couldn’t monetize
What do you do after raising money on one product – how do you pivot?
Now ranking potential buyers already in contacts database
Do you think people will think that data is too creepy?
How did you decide to pivot?
How do you decide whether to pivot or shut down and restart?
How do people use the term pivot? Is the meaning changing?
Key Takeaway: Don’t shut yourself out to what could be in front of you. Talk to customers. Have feedback look always open – continue to advance.
Can you physically fail?
Michael Wray & Kate Cygan, Cofounders, Read Dog Books
Pivoting to work with brick and mortar to enhance customer experience
How did you see the need to pivot? Did you wait until the last second?
“Always feel like we were running out of money”
At some point acquisition = churn – that’s bad
talked to boulder bookstore out of general industry research
Key Takeaway – Focus on what you’re good at, not on what you’re failing at. Ask people around you what you’re good at too. Also, go out and talk to people.
Key Takeaway – It doesn’t get easier! Be mindful, don’t equate yourself with your company.
Terry Olkin, Co-Founder & CEO, Left Hand Robotics
Snow Clearing robots
Wrote book about lessons learned from failed startups
Since you wrote your book, have type and style of failures changed?Are failures more tolerated nowadays?
first startup – building software tech – 2 years in the tech stack went out of vogue – DCE/CORBA – decided to pivot when they got to 50 people. – bad idea to pivot with so many people. Would have been better to shut down and then restart with pivot idea.
2nd company – network security
Takeaways – need to know your market, keep evaluating and doing market research.
How can you be honest with risk factors? What are the things that could tank the company? Product liability insurance.
Key Takeaway – Make sure you’re solving a real problem. Understand the pain, and be passionate about it.
Sergio R. Angeles, CoFounder & President of the Longmont Observer
Nonprofit news entity that focuses on longmont news – started in march.
Wanted to help solve dying local news problem we have now – did non profit
Started by aggregating RSS feeds. May 1st started writing own content.
NPR Model
Biggest threat to local news?Larger for profit company buying? What happened with Twin Peaks daily?
Could net neutrality kill you guys?
Key Learning – Entrepreneurial Depression.
Key Learning – Get out away from computer and talk to real people.
Innovation to Impact is a one-day roundtable event that was hosted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEA) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), on May 19, 2017. The event in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia on the campus of KAUST, brought together academic institutions and private industry thought leaders from the United States and Saudi Arabia to discuss innovative academic and strategic commercial opportunities for both countries, in addition to new methods of collaboration and a deepened commitment to partnership.
Landing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The city is chaotic, but divided by major avenues.Religious pilgrims arriving in Jeddah, on their way to MeccaA billboard in downtown Jeddah announcing the meeting of King Salman and President Trump.KAUST is a beautiful and architectually striking campus.KAUST is a beautiful and architectually striking campus.KAUST is a beautiful and architectually striking campus.The Beacon at KAUSTInside the beacon at KAUST.People from all over the globe arriving at King Abdullaziz University of Science and Technology.Discussing innovation, entrepreneurship, funding, and mentorship between US and Saudi startups at Innovation to Impact at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. I spoke to the group about the importance of building community, engaging with involved mentors, and “big idea” thinking.Extravagant food was the norm at the conference.The floating mosque in Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaDates while exploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaExploring the Old City of Jedda, Saudi ArabiaA textile vendor in the old city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Today I was honored to work with a great group of industry experts in moderating the Boulder Startup Week 2017 “Future Tech Photography 2.0” Panel at Riverside in Boulder, Colorado. We discussed a number of topics related to future media and photography. Thanks to photo experts Marc Morris, Ian Glass, Matt Treece and Kevin Owocki for being fun, articulate, expert, and brilliantly creative panelists.
Photo – Kevin Owocki
Photo – Kevin Owocki
Photo – Kevin Owocki
Photo – Kevin Owocki
Photo – Kevin Owocki
Photo – Kevin Owocki
The first few minutes of our chat:
A few of our talking points:
Marc Morris – Tamron
Optics are the dark magic – Discussing Glass Tech
How to create quality mid-range glass?
Bridging gap from 360 and vr as novelty into true art?
Rectilinear is where its at still with photographic
Photography enhanced by extra sensors?
Lenses are the weak link in digital imaging
Matt Treece
Long exposure light photography
UC for college – academic photography experience
Digital painting with 3D rendering on top of photography
Use of samsung galaxy camera – use google cardboard 360
Ian Glass
Just got back from expedition in Antarctica
Getting to remote location and taking advantage of what’s there
The importance of packing
Can’t carry everything
Explore all the anglesAge of social media
Representation of reality, or representation of vision
Presenting what’s real in a beautiful way – VR
Empathy in film making brought by VR. Really puts you there
I’m proud to share the news that Boomtown, where I work as Dealflow and Investment Manager, has partnered with Comcast NBCUniversal to launch The Farm Startup Accelerator in Atlanta, the latest initiative as part of LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs.
Our official press release:
COMCAST NBCUNIVERSAL ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF STARTUP ACCELERATOR “THE FARM”
Located in The Battery adjacent to SunTrust Park, The Farm will deliver support programs for entrepreneurs built around a tech startup accelerator managed by Boomtown
ATLANTA — March 23, 2017 — Comcast NBCUniversal announced The Farm Startup Accelerator today, the latest initiative as part of LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs, a multi-city entrepreneurial support program announced earlier this month. Based in Atlanta, The Farm will offer a variety of programs to support and nurture select startups, including a 12-week accelerator directed by Boulder, Colo.,-based Boomtown.
The Farm Startup Accelerator will open applications for its first class later this summer, and the inaugural program will launch in early 2018. The Farm will focus on mobility, connectivity and communications companies while also actively considering other businesses that can benefit from the Comcast NBCUniversal/Boomtown partnership. More information and applications can be found at www.TheFarmATL.com.
Comcast NBCUniversal tapped Boomtown to develop and manage The Farm because of the accelerator’s unique structure and approach. Boomtown constantly evolves its curriculum based on feedback from participating founders and mentors, and provides a complete business and management curriculum. Boomtown’s goal is not simply to provide the shortest distance between an idea and funding, but to support entrepreneurs in building great companies.
“We are excited to launch a program that will add to Atlanta’s and Georgia’s reputation for attracting and supporting tech innovation and creating a world-class startup environment,” said Bill Connors, president of Comcast’s Central Division. “In the spirit of Ralph Roberts, an entrepreneur who founded Comcast as a small startup and shaped it into a global media and technology leader, The Farm will focus on the health and long-term success of the companies and the entrepreneurs who participate in the program.”
The Farm will be located inside the new Comcast Central Division headquarters building that is under construction at The Battery Atlanta, a 60-acre development that will include SunTrust Park, the new home for the Atlanta Braves, as well as retail shops, restaurants, an office tower, hotel, entertainment venue, and residential units. Comcast is providing video, data, Wi-Fi and voice technology throughout the entire community, powered by the highest capacity network ever built for such a complex.
“We could not ask for a better partner than Comcast NBCUniversal, and we could not have found a better home than metro Atlanta,” said Boomtown Executive Director Toby Krout. “This entire region has amazing entrepreneurs, a supportive and visionary community and government infrastructure, and a number of great support programs already in place. It is our goal to augment and complement this rich and diverse technology and startup community.”
This will be Boomtown’s first accelerator outside of Boulder. The Farm will welcome qualified startups from around the globe to participate in its programs, and will emphasize diversity among company founders. Since 2014, Boomtown has invested in more than 70 companies,
72 percent of which are now generating revenue. Many of these companies benefited from Boomtown’s first collaboration with Comcast — Comcast Labs sponsored the Connectivity Lab in Boomtown’s Boulder location, one of the world’s first Internet of Things (IoT) labs focused on developing, integrating and deploying products that change how people are entertained and informed.
The Farm is part of Comcast NBCUniversal’s LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs program, which stands for “Leveraging Innovation For Tomorrow,” and builds on the spirit of entrepreneurship created by Comcast’s founder, Ralph Roberts. The flagship location, announced earlier this month, will be called LIFT Labs PHL and will be located in the new Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia when it opens in early 2018.
Teams interested in joining The Farm’s first cohort can begin the application process later this year at www.TheFarmATL.com. For more information on LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs and Comcast NBCUniversal’s entrepreneurial programs, visit www.ComcastNBCULIFT.com.
About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high- speed internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.
About Boomtown Based in Boulder, Colo., Boomtown aims to discover and support promising Healthtech, Internet, mobile, software and Internet of Things (IoT) startups. Boomtown’s goal is not simply to provide the shortest distance between an idea and funding, but instead to support entrepreneurs in building great companies. Currently in its eighth tech and third Healthtech classes, Boomtown has invested in more than 70 companies since its founding in 2014. Of those, 83 percent are in operation and 72 percent are generating revenue. For more information, visit http://www.boomtownaccelerator.com.
Most of my data nowadays resides in “The Cloud”.. a nebulous term for the remote server I use to store data, which then goes and syncs on all my devices. I personally use a combination of Google Drive and iCloud – although there are lots of others out there. I pay Google and Apple a bit of cash every month, and they manage the server infrastructure and services needed to make my data available to me. However, if I didn’t want to entrust my data to a 3rd party, but still wanted to convenience of cloud access, I’d go for a “Personal Cloud” product – like the Lima Ultra.
What It Is
The Lima Ultra is a Personal Cloud device – plug a hard drive into it, put it on your home network, and voila, you have access to whatever files are on that hard drive both locally and remotely – no paying Google or Apple a monthly fee, no more not knowing where you data is physically located.
“Lima is a smart device that stays in your home and sends you securely your files where and when you need them. It’s like the Cloud, except your files are stored at your place.”
The Lima Ultra seems aimed at tech-focused consumers who are looking for an easy way to store lots of data at home, and make that data available online anytime. It’s not for the complete luddite, and it’s not for the business/enterprise user. It’s also not for the DIY user who wants lots of self-configuration options, open software, or truly solid data security.
Testing Method
I tested Lima Ultra at home over the course of three weeks, running on my home network connected to a 2nd Generation Apple Airport Express, Comcast 25/5 cable internet, and both USB Flash and USB hard disk drives. I installed the app on my 2011 13″ Macbook Air running MacOS Sierra, as well as on my iPhone 7.
First Impressions
Packaging is solid and smooth – the box is the perfect size for the gear, and it’s all securely packed in there. The box comes with the Lima Ultra, power adapter, and ethernet cable.
Getting setup the first time was easy – connect lima to my network with the ethernet cable, plug in the usb hard drive, connect to power, and then load up the Mac app’s configuration utility. It was fairly straightforward to setup my initial Lima account, and get my drive formatted and recognized on the cloud.
The device is small, and mostly unobtrusive in my electronics cabinet. It gets warm, but not hot. Additionally, the AC Adapter is smartly designed with a number of international plugs, and only takes up one spot on my power strip.
Like
The ease of first use is really great- it took just a few minutes to get all of the hardware plugged in, and it was quick to download and setup the software. The only small snag was that the Lima Ultra needed a firmware update the first time I turned it on – but that was smoothly handled by the app.
Instantly having files I added to it available on my phone was a great convenience. The app is smart with data management, and if, for example, Im watching a movie on my phone, it will download the entire file while I watch the file.
On my Mac, Lima Ultra shows up in the system as another hard disk connected locally – so to add files to my Lima cloud, I just have to drag it into my Lima hard disk like a normal local disk. Synchronization with the cloud disk and the rest of my devices happens in the background.
The app supports Google Cast and Airplay – so movies I load on Lima can be easily streamed back around to my Chromecast – for me, that’s an essential feature – since it lets the Lima act sort of like a very stripped down media server. Don’t get me wrong – it still has a ways to go before it’s a truly useful home media server. It has the potential, but Lima hasn’t added any really great media server features yet.
Don’t Like
Once the first account setup has been completed, it was very very difficult to make big changes. At one point, I wanted to use a different hard drive with my Lima Ultra. Instead of simply plugging in the new hard drive and setting up Lima again, I had to go through a long and convoluted discussion with support in order to get them to reset my account on their end, and then I could go in and set it up again on my end. So to change hard drives, Lima support holds the keys. They stay it’s a security measure, which is fine – but certainly there must be a better way to do it
Lima Ultra uses their own encryption on the disk – which means that if you plug in the hard drive you used with your lima directly into your computer, you just see an encrypted disk image. So there’s no easy to directly load content onto the Lima drive locally, and then use that same drive and content with Lima.
The software, while it works, is sparse on features. Media streaming, downloading, and other management tasks aren’t there, and there’s no way to connect with other services, or to easily load your own management software.
While the Lima Ultra is a fairly powerful piece of hardware that could potentially do much more than Lima lets it, there’s no way to extend it. I’d love to add a USB hub to Lima Ultra and then connect a bunch of hard drives, in addition to networking a printer, and driving a USB DAC for Airplay and Google Cast Audio. Those are just a few of the possibilities that could be enabled with better software. There’s also automated downloads, remote management, network management and monitoring, etc etc.
The Lima Ultra uses a USB-A connector for the usb connection, and a tip-ring connector for power. I understand USB-A is still the most popular, and the tip-ring connector is needed for the higher power necessary to power both the Lima Ultra and USB hard drive connected. However, if Lima had a bit more foresight and used USB-C for both the hard drive and power connections, they could make a much more robust, extensible, and future-proof device. USB-C could handle the higher power, could handle higher speed data transfer, as well as could support thunderbolt hard drives, ethernet, and even graphics.
Should you buy it?
It you’re looking for a simple way to have your own basic personal cloud – either for everyday document access or backup, and you’re not going to need any advanced features, aren’t going to be tinkering with the setup, and don’t need more than one hard drive’s worth of storage, then Lima is great. If you’re looking to push it any further – for a media server, for syncing with other cloud services, for flexible administration and management, multiple drives, usb hubs, automated file downloads, or anything like that, keep searching.
Final thoughts
Lima Ultra is a fine product that competently delivers its core functionality. However, a lack of open software, reliance on back and forth with support to make account changes and disk drive changes, and very limited expandability and connectability to other platforms leaves me very wanting.
Nowadays most cars are smart enough to offer GPS navigation, emergency assistance, and a wide range of other “connected drive” features. They’re even able to offer 3rd party tracking via app integrations available on Apple Carplay and other in-car computer systems. However, if your car doesn’t offer built in tracking apps, or you need to more discreetly track its location, the CarLock could be a great option.
What It Is
Carlock is an electronic device that connects to your cars OBD2 diagnostic port. It monitors your cars speed, location, power levels, and other control positions, which it then sends back to the CarLock Cloud, allowing you to monitor car positon and driving conditions from afar.
It’s a real-time tracking system that monitors your vehicle and alerts you of suspicious activity even if you are half way around the world! This is all managed through an app on your Android or iOS device.
Who It’s For
Carlock is advertised for a wide range of motorists – for people who want to track if the car is stolen, track their kids driving, monitor the engine, and a bunch of others.
However, based on my testing and assessment of features, I really think it’s best for parents who need to track the driving locations and habits of their teens. The features of the device, and style of the app seem perfectly setup to allow this kind of tracking.
Testing Method
I tested carlock over two weeks of driving in a 2006 BMW 325i, with the carlock plugged into the OBD2 port, and running the Carlock app on my Apple iPhone 7, on AT&T. I drove all around down, did a few commutes, one longer car trip, and a bunch of trips up into the mountain. Additionally, I had a friend drive the car while I monitored via the app from afar.
First Impressions
The packaging Carlock comes in is solid – a small cardboard box, with good packing and protection. Getting started with installing carlock is super easy – once I located the OBD2 port on my car, I simply plugged in carlock, and that was it. Conneting carlock to the app was easy as well. Since carlock uses the cellular network to communicate (not a bluetooth or wifi connection), there’s not manual pairing or anything. Simply give the app the code number for the carlock device, and I was up and running. Once installed, the carlock device is forgotten about quickly – it’s out of the way, unobtrusive, and doesn’t really need to be handed or dealt with again – everything else happens on the app.
The app was easy to use and get started with. My only main issue was that there wasn’t as much info about the carlock cellular connection. Additionally, although it’s advertised as monitoring your engine, really the only car info you get is the battery charge level – good to know, but barely all of the information available from OBD2.
Like
Setting up Carlock is really easy – the OBD2 port on most cars is easy to locate, and all that’s needed is to plug it in.
The app pairs up easily and is easy to navigate.
Despite being located down low in my car, the Carlock still was able to acquire satellite tracking reliably – a feat I didn’t think it would be able to accomplish. Additionally, the cellular connection appeared strong. Tracking was lost when I was deep in the mountains, but all of the data synced as soon as my car was back in the city.
The piece of mind in knowing I’d get an alert if my car was moved was great. I also like being alerted when I’m driving a bit aggressively.
The Carlock cloud service makes getting up and running really easy. No manual syncing or managing data – just connect the app and everything is up and running.
Overall, the system works as described.
Don’t Like
Although the carlock can monitor car battery voltage, I think it would be great to monitor all other engine metrics as well – even though using a cellular connection is not “realtime” for speed monitoring, at least let it send engine data back to the app. (in addition to throttle and brake positions it already does)
Although it makes things easy, the Carlock cloud shouldn’t be the only syncing option. It would be great if Carlock could be programmed to use a custom server, or write its location to a Google Sheets file, or something similar.
What else can I do with my data? What about allowing me to connect my carlock account to IFTTT to link with other internet services?
And of course, there’s no local bluetooth or wifi connection. Since carlock takes up the single OBD2 port in my car, if I’m using it, I can’t have another bluetooth OBD2 dongle plugged in for realtime engine monitoring. If carlock used both cellular for theft prevention and remote tracking, and bluetooth for realtime monitoring, that would be the ideal solution.
Should you buy it?
If you have driving teens and want to track their location and driving habits, then yes, I believe carlock is a really great tool. It’s compact, simple, effective, and gives all the features necessary. However, if you’re looking for full engine monitoring, true antitheft, or to add your car to the “internet of things”, then I’d say keep looking – Carlock has nice features, but not the right combination to make it truly brilliant.
Final thoughts
Carlock is a solid performer for its core remote location tracking and driving habits features. If its essential feature is the only thing you’re after, get it.
Slides from an analysis of the human capital management plan for Vail Resorts, done during my MBA Human Capital Management class as a group project and presentation.
This evening I had the opportunity to moderate a discussion panel on emerging technologies in eCommerce, as part of the Longmont, Colorado NewTech group, in collaboration with the Longmont Economic Development Partnership. We had a great crowd of about 50 people at the Longmont Museum, and covered a wide range of topics.
Previous: CTO at ClickBank – $425MM marketplace for digital goods focused on eCommerce.
Current – CTO of Door to Door Organics – a nationwide healthy food delivery business with 20,000 weekly customers.
What are main technological challenges for scaling from 20k to 50/100k customers?
How do you balance computer automation and service with real customer service to keep customers happy, but also run an efficient business?
Geographies – already in a couple of markets – what considerations do you make when evaluating new markets?
What kind of consumer data do you use to inform moves? Would Socal commerce data help? Are your customers more social because they’re online buying groceries, or less social because they don’t want to go out to the real world store to buy them?
What’s the crazy new tech that will push you forward? Drones? Predictive ordering? Partnerships?
Mobile app development – efficient to develop for android/ios in one stroke, or must treat each on its own and develop in tandem? Is mobile essential for grocery ordering, or for only some kinds of ecommerce? (React Native)
NEWTECHLONGMONT will receive $10 off 1st order colorado.doortodoororganics.com
How does Etsy operate with any efficiency given the extreme diversification of its merchant base?
How to create normalized, high quality metadata from non-pro merchants?
How does engineering work on a platform that’s constantly moving?
Slack – As far as engineering and scaling the product, how do you balance technical engineering challenges with less-predictable cultural and societal shifts?
Wires are out, and wireless is in when you’re on the go – both sound and power and now going truly wireless. The Jabra Elite Sport Headphones are truly wireless headphones that make a great companion for workouts, commutes, and chats.
What It Is
The Jabra Elite Sport headphones are sport headphones with no wires.Each bud fits inside your ear, and they’re linked to each other wirelessly. One of them is linked to your phone via bluetooth. The headphones have an integrated heartrate monitor, include stereo noise cancelling microphones, playback and call controls, and play for about three hours per charge. They come with a nifty case that doubles as a charger and spare battery pack – giving 2 full charges before needing to be recharged itself via Micro USB. The only part of the system that needs a wire is charging the case via USB.
“Catch every call while you’re exercising with these waterproof Jabra Elite Sport earbuds. These wireless earpieces have three hours of battery time and an additional six hours when topped up with the included charging case. These Jabra Elite Sport earbuds have an in-ear heart rate monitor and an integrated app for fitness analysis and coaching.
”
They’re great if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to do short daily workouts with, where a cord gets in the way. They’re best if you primarily listen to podcasts/audiobooks, occasionally music, and occasionally take phone calls. They’re good if you always carry a gym bag and can tote around the storage case/charger.
Testing Method
I tested these over about 3 weeks of almost daily use – going to the gym, running outdoors, and traveling with them. I’ve also talked a few hours with them, and have gone through a firmware upgrade process. I use Strava on my iPhone 7 for fitness tracking, which I used with these. I listen to music with Spotify, and podcasts with the native iOS podcasts app. I also tried the Jabra Fitness Life app. I recharged the headphones case with their included microUSB cable, both connected to my Macbook Air’s USB port, as well as my iPad’s charging brick.
First Impressions
The packaging is great, and they came in a giant foam padded box. I’m not really one for unboxing, but my general impression was that this was a lot of packaging for a small product – but they certainly were well protected!
In addition to the headphones headphones, the package comes with the charging/storage case, and a bunch of different eartips and fit guides, allowing you to pick and choose to get a customized fit in your ears. After playing around with a bunch of different size combinations, I finally found one that works well for me. I must say, it’s really really important to find a good fit – the headphones will sound terrible if you don’t. But as soon as you get the right fit, they sound great, and stay in well.
Like
Obviously, the key feature of these is that they’re totally wireless. And I love that. Lifting at the gym, running, and doing lots of other sports are all easy with these. No wire around the back of my neck means they’re snag-free, and I have total movement when working out. Also, since they are bluetooth to my phone, I can easily set up my phone to watch Netflix on the rowing machine, while getting full wireless audio.
They stay in my ears very well. Not once have I had them fall out while working out, and they always feel secure and lightweight.
Love the microphone pass-through feature. I end up walking around with these in my ears all the time not listening to anything, but able to hear my surroundings.
The charging case is really convenient for keeping them charged.. and I know that they’ll always be ready to go when i get them out of my bag.
They turn on when the case is opened, and connect quickly and reliably to my iPhone 7. Also, the stereo sound seems to stay in perfect sync.
Don’t Like
Although they fit very well and stay in place, the sound on them isn’t the best. Maybe I’m not getting a perfect fit, but they seem to be perfectly adaquate for podcasts etc. But for music, the quality is just not up to the quality I’d expect. I do think it’s a fit issue, as well as a wireless bandwidth and power issue – but that’s my main complaint.
The bluetooth audio link has a significant lag on it – so much so that it’s hard to watch tv and movies on my iPhone because the audio is so out of sync. I’ve tried resetting, upgrading, etc – still audio lag.
The battery life is only three hours – so for a quick daily workout these are great. But for a long race or all day hike, not so much.
Should you buy it?
Super active sports, listening to mostly podcasts, doing a short daily workout and carrying a gym bag, these are perfect! If you need all day battery life without recharging, perfect audio sync, booming quality for music, or perfect calls, maybe not so much. But overall, this is a very solid product.
Final thoughts
Overall a solid project with a lot of engineering know-how in it. I love using these during daily workouts, and can see the future of wireless audio coming full force.
Noyce Labs sent me their 4 Meter (13 ft) long USB>Lightning cable for testing. It’s the longest spec-compliant cable out there, and works great. The cable seems well constructed and durable, the connection is solid, and it comes with a nice leather wrap to keep the cable tied up when not in use. I currently use it next to my bed, and it’s been just fine. If you’re looking for the longest iPhone cable possible, this one will work just fine. The only complaint I have is that Noyce isn’t making a long USB-C cable yet. Looking forward to that in the future, as USB-C takes over…
For the past week, I’ve been hitting it hard in Telluride, Colorado and Crested Butte, Colorado – riding huge power days, enduring freezing blizzards, and relaxing at the mid-mountain ranch while wearing the new Orsden Men’s Slope Jacket. Here’s a few thoughts on this new company, and new piece of snow gear.
What It Is
The Orsden Slope Jacket is a good-looking, minimalist, functional ski jacket from ski gear company Orsden. It’s made to be supremely functional on the mountain, and also look good off the mountain. The jacket is waterproof, breathable, insulated, and has a trim and modern cut that makes it look just as good when you throw it on to go out for dinner.
Orsden is a new company, created by Sara Segall and her husband, and the slope jacket is their first product. They sent me a jacket to try out during my recent snowboarding trip to Telluride and Crested Butte, Colorado.
The Slope Jacket has 4-way stretch construction, allowing for freedom of movement. Micro twill shell with 20k/20k laminate and DWR finish keeps out the elements. Luxurious internal lining and dynamic insulation are engineered to work in harmony with the shell, balancing temperature.
The Slope Jacket is also equipped with 5 pockets, internal stretch cuffs with thumbholes, zippered underarm vents, and a helmet-compatible hood, so you’re always prepared regardless of the conditions.
The slope jacket is for skiers and snowboarders who put performance first, and style a close second. It’s for athletes skiing all day, and then immediately showing up for apres ski drinks. It’s for season-pass holders who need a do-everything jacket to take with them every trip to the mountains.
First Impressions
When first trying it on, I was immediately struck by the light insulation, and the apparent stretchiness of the fabric. The jacket is cut trim, but because it’s stretch, you can move freely. I also noticed that there are nice fleece cuffs with thumb openings. I’m somewhat tall and skinny, so the sleeves were a bit short for me when using the thumb holes – but the rest of the jacket fit well. I immediately appreciated the sculpted and textured zipper pull, which is moulded into the zipper, so it doesn’t flap around in the wind. And finally, I noticed that although the jacket is insulated, the arms have a lighter insulation, and preserve freedom of movement.
On The Slope
I spent a solid week snowboarding in the jacket every day, on warm days, cold days, in blizzards, in rain, and in 16 inches of fresh powder at Crested Butte. The jacket certainly performs well as a ski jacket – it kept me completely dry, stretched to let me move an twist, and wasn’t super bulky.
During the ski day, I stored some granola bars in one of the hand warmer pockets, my phone in the other, my chap stick and the included lens cloth in the outer chest pocket, and my wallet in the inner pocket. The pockets worked well, I liked that the hand warmer pockets are fleece lined. However, they weren’t perfect. The hand warmer pockets are build so that the pocket rests outside of the jacket’s insulation, just underneath the waterproof shell. This means that on cold days, the pockets offer bare hands almost no insulation. If the pockets had been designed to rest under the insulation, the’d keep your hands warm when walking around. Additionally, one of the inner cords that keeps the pockets from turning inside-out seems to have broken, so now every time I take my hand out of the right pocket, it turns inside out – hardly cool!
The tethered lens cloth is a great touch, and it’s perfectly situated in the chest pocket. However, the cloth is permanently sewn into the jacket, so if it needs to be washed or replaced, there’s no way to separate it from the jacket – a simple clip would fix this.
The high and thick collar of the jacket was great for keeping wind out on lift rides and runs, and I appreciated the attention to detail with the zipper pull, and overall construction of the collar.
Finally, I found that even in super wet snow or light rain, the jacket’s fabric stayed waterproof, and water beaded up and rolled right off.
Around Town
Wearing the slope jacket around town is just as nice as wearing it on the slopes. The waterproof zippers and trim cut make it look sleek and minimalist. Over a button down, I had no worries walking into various bars and restaurants around Telluride. However, I’m not sure I’d take this jacket to a proper city or wear over a suit. Kicking around ski towns in it is perfect though. The detachable hood is extremely convenient, as is the detachable powder skirt.
Like
Minimalist design and paired down features make is classy and functional on and off the slope.
Stretchy fabric is great for intense activity and overall comfort – the fabric is soft and not “crinkly” like some other tech shell fabrics.
The logo and lettering are made of a thin plastic and glued onto the face of the fabric, giving a cool relief to the logo – certainly feels and looks like a premium product.
Well thought out pockets and small details like the hood zipper garage and detatchable powder skirt.
Just the right amount of insulation – warm enough for spring days, and layerable for colder days.
Don’t Like
For me, the sleeves were a bit too short.
The hand warmer pockets sit above the insulation, making them not very good at keeping hands warm when walking aroudn town.
Lens cloth is permanently tethered to jacket, making washing a pain.
I never really figured out what to put in the arm pocket.
For $330, I’d expect a bit more precision in the stitching and overall finish. There were a few seams that were double stitched, and the right hand warmer pocket broke free from the inside and kept turning inside out.
Summary
The Orsden Slope Jacket is a great first product from a new company, and does a lot of thing really well. It’s slick, hip, and functional. However, small design details like the lens cloth, pockets, and seams leave a small amount of room for improvement.
Should You Buy It?
If you’re looking for a minimalist and good looking ski jacket and are into supporting a small company working hard on their products, go for it. This jacket will likely last a few seasons while making you look good on and off the slope. However, it’s not the jacket for you if you want big-dog design and engineering, technical mountaineering features (for which this jacket was not designed), or upper-market style details.
Final thoughts
Snowboarding with the Slope Jacket from Orsden has been a great experience, and I’ll likely keep using it as my go-to jacket for the rest of the winter here in Colorado, without hesitation. It replaces my Arc’Teryx BetaLT+down jacket as my outer layer and main insulation layer. Looking forward to more solid runs with Orsden.
This is the summer of drones. DJI has its Phantom Series, Yuneec has Typhoon, and today GoPro released Karma. Earlier this summer I flew and reviewed the Yuneec Q500 Phantom drone – with mixed reactions. Over the past month, I’ve had the pleasure of flying the DJI Phantom 4 quadcopter drone – which is an absolute dream.
What It Is
The DJI Phantom 4 Drone is DJI’s flagship drone. It sits at the intersection between hardcore professional filming drones and more accessible consumer level drones, offering easy flying, lots of advanced features, and great image quality. The packaging, handling, and utility is made to be easily accessible to first time flyers, and continuously useful to experienced pilots.
The Phantom 4 is aimed at semi-pro flyers who want to focus on getting the shot, every time. The drone comes almost completely assembled, and is a breeze to get all setup and into the air. Without reading any instructions, I got the drone setup in under 10 minutes, and was ready to fly in 20 for the first flight. The camera, with its fixed lens, is well suited for semi-pro photographers who want easily spectactular shots, but who don’t necessarily need to customize their choice of lens focal lengths. Finally, the Phantom4 is for enthusiast pilots who just want a drone that’s a kickass fun time to fly – high, fast, close quarters, etc – it’s just plain fun and easy to use.
First Impressions
Out of all of the consumer electronics I’ve reviewed lately, the packaging of the Phantom 4 is by far the most slick – it comes in a great foam box which doubles as a storage and transport case. There’s not too much extraneous accessories or packaging. The extra propellers come in a nice microfiber bag. The entire drone and controller are packaged nicely, and make an immediate impression.
The Phantom 4 certainly feels like a premium item. The white plastic is tough and solid, as are the rest of the accessories. Fit and finish of the entire package has been carefully considered, and it really comes together as a unified system. No piecemeal attachments here.
First flight was scary, but easy. Using the DJI GO app on my iPhone connected to the controller, I was able to get the Phantom 4 airborne with a quick swipe. On first flight, the software puts the pilot in “Beginner Mode”, restricting flight options until gaining more experience. Great idea! I flew my first flight for 20 minutes on a tour of the neighborhood, and used to “return to home” feature to make a smooth landing right in front of me.
The first round of footage looked great – I shot in 1080P, and it was certainly spectacular to look at. Smooth, stable, and with great exposure. The only issue I had with my first couple of shots is that the controls are so responsive, it’s easy to make jerky flight movements, which result in jerks in the footage. This is all tunable in the software – but it does take a bit of fiddling around.
Recharging the battery was easy, as was the controller. The only question I had about the controller was, why can’t we charge it with Micro USB? I know it charges slower, but it would be a nice fallback option for charging on the go.
Flight Platform
The Phantom 4 is a rockstar in flight. It’s solid as a rock, super agile, and flies reliably in very sketchy conditions. The one time I ran it into a building, it actually bounced off the roof, and recovered to normal flight in seconds – amazing!
Like
Easy to get started flying. The automatic modes are robust and easy to use, as well as give good expandability as your skills get better. I love that there are programmed flight modes, allowing you to setup a shot and then have the drone reproduce it for multiple takes.
Status lights on the craft are bright and easy to see, especially at dusk.
After flying at 12000+ feet, I’m confident that this thing has the power and stability to fly in almost any situation. It takes off easily, and holds its position in the sky without any difficulty. Take your hands off the controller, and the P4 just hovers perfectly still.
Range is great, and the video transmission quality is dynamically scaled back as the drone gets farther away.
Return to home works great. Upon pressing the button, or loss of signal, the drone flies reliably back home. There were many many many instances where I was flying the drone well out of visual range, and pushed it as far as it would go. After it got so far away that the connection was completely lost (a few miles in rugged mountain terrain at 10000ft), the thing just made its own way back to takeoff point and landed smoothly. With battery to spare. Amazing!
Sport mode is FAST! So much fun to fly like this.
Battery life – 20 minutes or so, is pretty good! Of course I want to fly this thing for hours, but the 20 or so minutes you get per charge is perfectly acceptable. Be sure to pick up extra batteries.
Don’t Like
Turning the unit on and off is weird – it requires a “dot-dash” button press to turn it on and off – not super intuitive.
A few times while auto landing, it got into a major vertical oscillation, forcing me to take over manual flight to get it to land without crashing.
While it is fairly small, given how much fun it is to fly, I wanted to take it lots of places with me. I know there’s a backpack for it, but it’s still a bulky system. Would be cool if the legs folded and camera detached, to make the whole thing fit in a more flat profile (hint hint).
I know you can get prop guards as an accessory, but I really think they should come standard. People fly these things around other people. Prop guards.
Camera System
The 4K camera of the Phantom 4 is gorgeous. It’s a fixed focal length, gimballed and stabalized camera, with a rotating filter mount on the front. The camera takes up to 4k/24 video and raw quality photos, and offers a great versatile field of view.
Like
It’s certainly stable. Video footage looks smooth and nice, with good image quality, and good auto exposure.
Photos are great too, and I love that it can capture in raw.
Notably, the app also can record the lower quality video it receives over the air. So even in the case of a flight system loss, you’ll still have a little footage on the app. Great idea.
The SD card for the camera is held on the side of the flight platform – meaning it’s fairly well protected against impact, and is also easy to take out. If it were mounted in the camera, it would be a pain in the ass dealing with a swiveling camera mount every time.
Don’t Like
The Phantom 4 is nimble. Super nimble. And with the stock control configuration, it’s easy to make quick, jerky flight moves. This translates into jerks on the camera too, which although stabilized and relatively vibration-free, still looks weird when the gimbal suddenly moves quickly. There are controls to add speed buffering to the controls to make each move slower or faster – but I was a bit confused by how to set that up.
Only up to 4k/24? I’d love a slightly higher framerate, at least 4k/30.
I know this is the way it is, but I’d love an interchangeable lens on the camera. Maybe not even the whole Micro 4/3 mount of the Inspire1, but perhaps some interchangeable lens kits – Wide, normal, tele?
As far as flying while shooting.. What are those four “nav”cameras (two forward, two down) seeing when you’re flying? I know they’re looking for obstacles.. but why can’t I see what they’re seeing on my screen, as a bit of a nav/engineering cam view? This could help me keep situation awareness during the flight, while the main camera captures pretty footage.
Controller
The DJI controler is a tight package. It includes a white controller with rechargable battery, antenas, and a holder for your iOS or Android device.
Like
Pairing the controller with your iOS or Android device is a BRILLIANT move for DJI. This allows them to distribute the primary flight software as an easily updatable smartphone/tablet app, and lets you use your own device – where a tiny iPhone up to a huge iPad Pro.
They have an SDK! This is an incredible feature which allows 3rd party developers to create their own flight control apps, opening up the doors for all sorts of creative use cases. This is a whole article in itself.
The controller uses a wired connection to your smartphone or tablet – meaning the connection is solid and sure.
If for some reason your app crashes, the drone is flyable only with the controller – no app required. This is great for emergencies.
Don’t Like
For some reason, the controller doesn’t charge your smartphone while connected. I know this has to do with battery life issues – but still, it would be a nice little feature.
The antennas are not replaceable – so short of modding the whole thing, there’s no way to swap out more powerful antennas.
Should You Buy It?
If you want a super easy flying drone, with great image quality, and an almost infinite universe of features to explore, yes, go buy this thing immediately. It’s so so so much fun to fly. If you’re looking to shoot a big studio movie, then move on up to the Inspire 1 or Matrix. If you just want a toy to fly in your living room or backyard, then go to the toystore.
Final thoughts
Flying the DJI Phantom 4 is a revolutionary experience. The company has absolutely nailed the fit and finish of the product, made a solidly performing piece of hardware, and has build a memorable experience. I’m certainly sad to be returning the Phantom 4 to DJI after this review.
University of Denver Daniels College of Business Executive MBA Cohort 67
Issue Identification
The three key decisions Netflix is faced with coming to terms with at this point in their history are:
Licensing its proprietary movie and media recommendation engine to 3rd party providers, while maintaining its existing DVD rental service as one of many service offerings featuring the Netflix recommendation engine. (Shih, Kaufman, & Spinola, 2007)
Launch its own VOD service, and integrate streaming media capabilities in with the existing Netflix DVD rental service. This would let consumers use either service somewhat interchangeably, and require customer to pay for both, despite their own usage.(Shih, Kaufman, & Spinola, 2007)
Build a VOD service as a completely separate product. This would allow consumers to choose which service they use and only pay for that service, but would create a significant division within the company, and a dilution of their resources. (Shih, Kaufman, & Spinola, 2007)
Foundation for Recommendations
Core recommendations for Netflix in this case is primarily:
Stay the course of building out VOD product, and enhance future offerings with HD content, enhanced metadata, more sophisticated planning and research tools, and access on mobile, embedded, and other third part devices.
Integrate VOD offerings in with existing DVD offerings to preserve existing customer base. This is based on analysis of the six paths, with a particular emphasis on the product scope, as well as emotional connection.
Slowly transition to separated service offerings for VOD and DVD, but both under the same “Netflix” branding.
Keep recommendation engine integrated into all Netflix products, focus resources on developing more advanced recommendations. Don’t license out recommendation engine to third parties.
Maintain “Blue Ocean”(Mauborgne & Kim, 2005) of separation by continuing to innovate in media delivery pipeline, deep learning to enhance recommendation engine, as well as slowly enter into studio industry. This recommendation stems from analysis of escalating product delivery costs, which will continue to balloon with the existing, “old school” DVD delivery product.
Closing
It’s clear that Netflix has been, and will continue to be an innovator in the movie and TV delivery industry, and is a quick-emerging leader in the recommendation, customer segmentation, and content delivery industries as well. In this critical point in the pathway of Netflix, they have the opportunity to continue innovating in the areas where they’re already strong – DVD delivery, building VOD, and recommendation engines. However, they also have a ripe opportunity for enhancing their vertical integration, and stepping into new industries – namely studio development, media delivery, deep learning, and psychographic segmentation and optimization.
Their current moat is fairly wide, however they face an impending competition from Blockbuster, and other potential VOD networks. Additionally, they face regulatory and network capacity hurdles to overcome before their VOD network can truly flourish unfettered.
Works Cited
Jenkins, H. W. (2016, April 1). Netflix’s Lesson in Net Neutrality Karma. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from The Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-lesson-in-net-neutrality-karma-1459550381
Mauborgne, R., & Kim, C. (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business Review.
Porter, M. (2010). Porter’s Five Forces. (The Internet Center For Management and Business Administration, Inc. ) Retrieved 07 20, 2016, from Quick MA: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml
Shih, W., Kaufman, S., & Spinola, D. (2007). Netflix. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Appendix
Appendix – Porter’s Five Forces Analysis (Porter, 2010)
Bargaining power of suppliers
In this case, suppliers represent a diverse set of technology and media companies.
First, media companies who own the rights to movies and tv content must license the content to Netflix. Since content licensing rules are vastly different between DVD/physical media and online streaming or downloading, a significant amount of variability could exist as Netflix aims to efficiently license the content it provides to consumers. Additionally, Netflix faces a significant amount of uncertainty – the market for online media licensing is just emerging, and it’s likely that many rules may change quickly.
Additionally, suppliers include technology companies – in the case of Netflix, this is mainly ISPs, which deliver Netflix VOD Content to consumers. If Netflix is to be successful, it needs to ensure that its content can be reliably and quickly delivered over a pipeline that 3rd parties control. Securing this transport will involve both technology innovations for Netflix, as well as service level targets and general support from ISPs. Already today, we’re seeing major issues with ISP’s restricting their pipelines, and the ever-growing “net neutrality” debate.(Jenkins, 2016)
Threat of substitute products or services
Since Netflix is entering into a “virtual” business with its VOD product, it exposes itself to an almost-nonexistent physical barrier to competitors. In this respect, it would seem that they’re repositioning themselves squarely into a quick to emerge “Red Ocean” of competitive products. (Mauborgne & Kim, 2005)
However, by integrating their robust recommendation engine, securing top notch and exclusive licensing deals with studios, and being first-to-market with a continuously innovative and compelling product, there is indeed a chance for Netflix to maintain their Blue Ocean, and genuinely carve out a niche for themselves in our rapidly changing media and technology environment.
Buyers bargaining power of channels and end users
During the period when Netflix was in a DVD rental business, the primary competitor was Blockbuster – a video rental chain which required customers to travel to a physical store. While this model is easy to use, convenient, and compelling for last minute shoppers, it failed to address surge and inventory constraints, didn’t serve all markets, and was slow to respond to changing sociological nuances.
The Netflix model struck down many of these barriers. However, in its innovation, it also created many more potential pitfalls, including opening itself up to competitors, easier to replicate technology developments, and more vendors and suppliers in the game, who could exert an increasing bargaining power.
Barriers to entry
Barrier to entry are significant for Netflix to break into both the industry of providing their recommendation engine to 3rd parties, as well as to create a separate or integrated VOD market.
Barriers include content licensing, bandwidth allocation, provider partnerships, studio partnerships, IP protection, product maintenance, and achieving a critical mass of consumers.
Rivalry among existing competitors
At this time, the main rivalry comes from competitor Blockbuster. However, with a mature strategy focused on the technological and marketing superiorities of Netflix’s VOD solution, immediate rivalry can be minimized.
Appendix – Paths to Growth
Current Customers, Current Products
In order for Netflix to maintain a consistent growth with its current customers and current products, it’s going to have to massively expand the number and quality of warehouses for stocking DVD’s, as well as will have to find a way to edge out competitors. The way I see it, the only way this could work would be a massive increase in quality of its recommendation engine. However, even if that takes places, I can see their “Blue Ocean” creeping out from under them.
Current Customers, New Products
Their current customers are poised to become their new customers, with a massive rollout of new products aimed at the next generation of media consumption – online, on demand, all the time. The most logical course of action for Netflix in this case may be to continue innovating in new products, continue offer its original products, and gradually turn its existing customers into new-product customers, while simultaneously generating products for an entirely new breed of tech-savvy customers.
New Customers, Current Products
New customers simply won’t flock to Netflix’s existing line of products in the numbers that they would need to maintain a viable business. Netflix must innovate to stay on top.
New Customers, New Products
Clearly, this is the way to go for Netflix – bring both their recommendation engine as well as VOD services to the forefront of their product offering, attract the new generation of customers, and continue to innovate.
Appendix – Four Actions Framework (Mauborgne & Kim, 2005)
The Four Actions Framework helps evaluate key factors used in defining a company’s optimize value curve, ultimately focusing on a goal of a newly defined and efficiently focused curve.
Raise
Netflix must raise their VOD delivery technology and recommendation engine intelligence significantly above the industry average. This means allowing customers to start watching content faster, in better quality, and at the most appropriate time.
Reduce
Reduction of focus on the DVD delivery business may allow competitors to close in, however this industry will be in decline anyway, and it’s not strictly necessary to continue to sink money and focus into bolstering this fading industry.
Create
Netflix should create a more robust content delivery network, and more engaging viewing experience that’s head and shoulders above what anybody else in the industry is offering. Factors that could contribute to a truly groundbreaking viewing experience include enhanced metadata, viewing recommendations, collaborative viewing, and mobile device viewing.
Eliminate
Eventually, Netflix should eliminate their DVD rental business, and get rid of physical media entirely. Maintaining warehouse, sorting, and delivery systems is costly and inefficient, and will not be the way to move into the future.
Appendix – Six Path Framework (Mauborgne & Kim, 2005)
Netflix clearly has a number of opportunities to transcend a number of categories of the six paths framework to plant them squarely in a number of Blue Oceans:
Industry
Clearly, Netflix is going after industries that don’t yet fully exist with both their recommendation engine as well as their VOD service. On the surface, both of these areas seemingly present as somewhat vast “Blue Oceans”. However, upon further inspection, it’s obvious that both are easily replicated on a basic technological level. In order to continue to keep its ocean blue, and preserve its “economic moat”, Netflix must continue innovating in the intelligence of its recommendation engine, and ease of delivery of its VOD product, as well as continuously expanding its media offering. Another eminently valuable step for Netflix will be to put its media delivery might into building its own production studio, thereby sidestepping media licensing issues, controlling its own content, and distributing as it sees fit.
Netflix does have rivals, but by continuing to focus on innovating in new directions, rather than on beating competition, the blue ocean will remain wide and clear.
Strategic Group
I believe that Netflix’s role within its strategic group is somewhat complicated. This is certainly an area which commands an enhanced level of communication, collaboration, deal making, and strategy in order for Netflix to remain on top. Strategic partners for Netflix will overwhelmingly be internet service providers, networks, and media studios. In the initial phase of Netflix’s drive towards a successful VOD product, they must strike deals with all of these partners. However, as their business matures, they’ll be able to look across that pool as they begin to create their own media studios and protected delivery pipelines.
In support of building its recommendation engine, Netflix can immediately partner with deep learning and neural network vendors such as AWS and IBM Watson, until it’s at a level where it can move artificial intelligence and deep computing in-house for a holistic, value adding technology buildout.
Buyer Group
In this case, I think the prudent thing for Netflix to do would be to slowly shift its existing buyer group from its existing service offering to its new service offering of VOD. There will certainly be a large decrease in “traditional” subscribers. However, a successful transition will also result in opening up Netflix to an increasingly large and relevant new buyer group. It’s this new group which will grow to many times the size of the “traditional” buyer group, and allow Netflix to remain profitable far into the future. Additionally, Netflix can help bridge the gap by improving its recommendation engine.
Scope of product offering
This is an area which Netflix should stay focused in, and not disrupt their current blue ocean by trying to change scopes. In this case, I feel like there’s enough of a blue ocean already in place that Netflix can continue to refine and solidify its existing product offering, without necessarily differentiating into additional product scopes.
Functional-emotional orientation
Media consumption brings people together, and sets people apart. It’s this emotionally-driven consumer behavior that Netflix will certainly benefit from innovating with. In this case, their recommendation engine seems like it would be an excellent candidate for additional emotional and social applications, such as allowing collaborative selections, demographic and situation-specific recommendations, and peer to peer recommendations.
Time
Sure, at the present moment, Netflix is highly dependent on the timing of the film and television industry, as well as on the delivery efficiencies of ISP’s and other providers. However, in order to maintain its blue ocean of time value, a future strategy of controlling its own media properties will be key. By producing the media as well as distributing it, Netflix can get close to complete vertical integration of its service offerings, and thereby be able to more completely control the timing of delivery of its content.
Appendix – Netflix Financial Statements
Based on a brief analysis, it’s apparent that Netflix fulfillment cost is ballooning out of control. Since DVD rentals require the use of warehouses, human labor, shipping fees, and material fees, the more subscribers Netflix acquires, the more expensive it will be to continue to send DVDs. Although content delivery via the internet (VOD model) certainly has delivery fees associated with each subscriber, those costs are kept in check to a much greater degree. The enhanced efficiency of digital delivery means that only server farms are needed, instead of massive DVD warehouses. Since digital infrastructure is easily outsourced, it’s not even strictly necessary for Netflix to build or maintain their own server farms – allowing Netflix’s business to shift into existing solely in the virtual realm.
It’s ultimately recommended that Netfix continue the march towards VOD delivery of its content, which will be instrumental in keeping fulfillment costs in check, maximizing profits.
**Update 2017-04-07**After less than a year of usage on daily light runs and workouts, the Jabra Sport Pulse headphones have failed, once again, after a previous warranty replacement. The headphones red charging light lights up when plugged into power or my computer, but when unplugged, the headphones fail to turn on. I’ve tried updating the firmware, charging overnight, using multiple USB cables, etc – nothing works, the headphones are dead. Physically they’re in great condition, haven’t been abused at all, and simply died. Although Jabra does have a support department, it’s certainly disappointing that multiple sets of these Sport Pulse headphones have died on me. Because I’ve had multiple units fail, I can no longer recommend this product. :(**With the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 7 without a headphone jack, water resistance, and focus on sports apps, wireless workout headphones are more relevant than ever. The Jabra Sport Pulse Special Edition headphone fit the bill nicely – they’re made by headset and electronics leader Jabra, are aimed at sports and active use, and use the latest version of bluetooth for both audio and heartrate monitoring. Oh, did I mention they’re a heartrate monitor? That too. Here’s the rundown on these multifunctionally convenient headphones.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGjdYLtr7Og
What It Is
The Jabra Sport Pulse Special Edition Headphones are wireless bluetooth headphones with a built in heartrate monitor, inline remote control, and microphone for calls. They connect to your phone and/or computer with Bluetooth 4, are water resistant, rugged, and fit securely for active use. Thre’s a microphone on the remote for taking calls, and they recharge with micro usb. Additionally, they feature a built in heartrate monitor, which is integrated into one of the earbuds, and gets HR data from a sensor pressed against your ear while in use. It’s also worth noting that these headphones are wirelessly connected to the audio source, but wired together. Additionally, they use micro-usb for charging and updating.
“Your all-in-one training solution with a built-in heart rate monitor. Made towards US Military standards, it’s sure to withstand even the hardest workout. Get immersive sound and real-time voice coaching that helps you reach your goals. Cut the wires and enjoy true freedom of movement.”
The headphones are for mobile, active athletes who love using apps to track their workouts and metrics, drive towards a goal with their workouts, and listen to both music and podcasts, and occasionally deal with taking a call while working out. They’re great for gym-goers, or fitness-minded runners who favor convenience and features over battery life. They’re also a capable pair of office headphones with the ability to pair to your computer for wireless music listening, as well as for taking calls.
Testing Method
I tested these over about 3 weeks of almost daily use – going to the gym, running outdoors, and traveling with them. I’ve also talked a few hours with them, and have gone through a firmware upgrade process. I use Strava on my iPhone 6S for fitness tracking, which I used with these. I listen to music with Spotify, and podcasts with the native iOS podcasts app. I also tried the Jabra Fitness Life app. I recharged the headphone with their included microUSB cable, both connected to my Macbook Air’s USB port, as well as my iPad’s charging brick.
First Impressions
The packaging on these headphones is slick – a nice box with a magnetic latch, and nice presentation of the headphones with the different eartips.
In addition to the sport pulse headphones, the package comes with a bunch of different eartips and fit guides, allowing you to pick and choose to get a customized fit in your ears. After playing around with a bunch of different size combinations, I finally found one that works well for me. I must say, it’s really really important to find a good fit – the headphones will sound terrible if you don’t. But as soon as you get the right fit, they sound great, and stay in well.
There’s also a nice USB cable included, as well as a so-so black storage bag. The storage bag get the job done, but I think it’s a bit stiff and cheap feeling, considering the price. In this case, I’d prefer a small “microfiber” bag, like what comes with sunglasses.
Like
After playing around with the different eartip and earwing sizes, I finally got a good fit to these – and it’s great. The headphone stay in well, even during intense workouts. They’re also relatively unobtrusive, except for the cable. (covered below)
Given the design and use case, the sound from them is pretty good – certainly good enough to enjoy listening to streaming music both while working out as well as at the office. They may not sound as good as a pair of studio headphones – but for mobile headphones, they’re great. They also provide a good amount of passive noise isolation, making them ok for commuting and transit, and blocking the rest of the world out.
Voice quality is solid as well – listening to podcasts, voices are super clear and find. On calls, the sound quality is as good as the call quality, even with VoLTE and VOIP calls. The bottleneck is the call quality – not the headphones.
I love that there’s an inline microphone. Certainly not required for these, but it’s a nice feature. I hate talking on the phone while at the gym, but for the few times i take a call while working out, these work fine – callers can hear me fine.
The inline remote works as it should and surprisingly it doesn’t bounce too much.
One small addition, which is critical for real world use, is the little cable-keeper clips. They’re used to bunch up the cable connecting the headphones – which is a bit long, but with these clips, it can be adjusted. I have mine so thay lay on the bottom of my neck – not too tight, but not flopping around either.
There’s not a lot to say about the heartrate monitor other than – it works reliably and accurately. It connects quickly and easily to Strava, and keeps reporting HR reliably when working out. Its functionality is seamless and invisible – nothing to set up, no problems at all.
Finally, on the left ear there’s a “sports button”. This button is used to start workouts with the Jabra Sport Life app. A cool feature – but I don’t use the Jabra app – i use Strava. I was initially a little disappointed that an entire hardware button is usable only with one app. However, I spoke to Jabra a bit, and they let me know that the sports button can actually be used by any app, if the developers update their app to work with it. Currently the Endomondo app works with it too. Hopefully others will follow.
Don’t Like
The cable connecting the headphones is one of the biggest issues. As much as it seems like a bit of an afterthought, I think the design and build of the connecting cable is hugely important. When in use, the cable connecting the two headphones rests on the back of my neck – which is fine when I’m not moving or sweating. However, then I’m working out, I get a bit sweaty on my neck. The cable has a nice-looking matte rubber coating – which, when a little damp, gets super sticky and tacky. This causes the cable to kinda stick to my neck when turning my head, which causes constant little snags. I know it’s a small issue, and one that will probably resolve itself with a bit of adjustment and use. However, it’s bothering me a bit for now. As a solution, I’d love to see these headphones come with a more slick-surfaced plastic coated cable, rather than soft and tacky rubber. That way, the more plasticy cable coating might slide when it gets sweaty, rather than stick. OR, you could just eliminate the cable all together…
Batterylife is perfectly adaquate for daily workout routines. However, the 4.5 hours of battery seems short for longer workouts or races, or for using at the office AND at the gym. It’s also a little short for cross-country travel, but is perfectly fine for commuting. So, if you’re up for using them for your morning commute, charging them at your office, and then using them at the gym after work, they’ll be perfect. If you’re planning on sitting at your desk all day listening to them, maybe try something else.
The storage bag, while a small items, could be improved – switch it to a microfiber lens-cloth-type baggy.
While I appreciate the sports button’s functionality, I wish they had either gotten more 3rd party partners to integrate its functionality into their app, or focused on other features. I don’t really think I need a dedicated button to start and stop my workouts and get voice feedback. How about making the sports button a bit more versatile? Like allowing it to be reassigned to be a PTT button, or interact with the IFTTT app?
The eargels are great, and once they fit, they’re in. However, I noticed that the small metal mesh that covers the sound holes into the actual earphones isn’t removable or replaceable. So after a bit of working out, I’ve found that earwax and gunk has started to collect on this mesh. How do I clean it?
Bluetooth range – not as great as it could be. When connected to my iPhone 6s, if I put the iphone under my armpit, I can block the bluetooth enough to stop the music. With my Plantronics Explorer 500 headset (which is more of a business call headset), the music keeps going in the same circumstance.
Should you buy it?
If you’re looking for a rugged set of wireless headphones for daily gym use, and love tracking your heartrate and using sports apps, then yeah, these are really great. They work well for their purpose, look good, and seem to be durably built. It’s obvious Jabra put a lot of thought into these, and these are certainly contenders in the premium wireless sports headphones domain. The addition of a heart rate monitor make these a compelling buy.
However, if you’re looking for perfect audio quality or all-day battery life, keep looking. Also, while you could only wear one of these at a time to take a one-eared phone call, the other headphone is dangling by the cord. If you’re looking for a headset you can wear one at a time for calls (Like Apple’s forthcoming Airpods, keep looking.
Final thoughts
This is a great product from Jabra, and as the wireless headphone competition heats up in the wake of iPhone 7, I’m expecting to see even more compelling options. These headphones are solid, and will likely stay relevant and useful for their expected lifespan.
Here’s a quick video I helped make with friend JJ Yosh for Tastemade… tasty and fun! Had a great time flying the Yuneec Q500 Drone for aerial footage, and cooking tasty fried chicken.
Charging cables are a part of my every day life, and it seems like I’m constantly destroying them – over bending, snagging, melting, and generally wearing out. So when FuseChicken contacted me about testing out their metal-armoured Titan Charge Cable for my iPhone, I was more than happy to give it a try. Any cable thats advertised as “virtually indestructible” sounds good to me.
What It Is
The Fuse Chicken Titan Cable is a USB-A>Lightning cable, meant for charging and syncing an iPhone or iPad. The cable is ruggedized with a full length metal jacketing, which protects the cable from over-bending, wear and tear, and general abuse. The metal jacket feels very similar to the metal jacketed cables that connect handsets on old-school pay phones – except this cable is much more stiff.
“We’ve all seen it – the frayed cables, cords tied in knots, and the happy puppy chewing on our charger. TITAN solves all of that and more with its industrial-grade cable that is wrapped in not one, but two layers of flexible, high-strength steel. The Lightning and USB connectors on TITAN are permanently sealed with a one-piece housing fused directly over the electronics and metal cabling. Meet the last charge cable you will ever need.“
Who It’s For
The cable is for the commuter who is thrashing their cables around, busy families dragging cables through the house, and people who use their devices in harsh conditions – like talking on them when plugged in, using them for live performances, etc. It’s also for propping up your phone – like in the cup holder of a car.
Testing Method
I tested out the Titan cable both at home and in my car, as well as while on the go. At home, I had it plugged into the charger in the middle of my kitchen bar. This is the charging area that typically sees the most use, both static charging, as well as actively using my phone while it charges. It’s front and center in my house, and frequently gets splashes from the sink, hot pots near it, and pushed around by papers and stuff. In my car, the cable was used with my 12v charger, and used to charge my phone as I drove. On the go, I coiled it up and stuffed it in my bag a bunch.
First Impressions
The cable is THICK, STIFF, and HEAVY. It certainly has a solid feel to it, and feels like it will last a lifetime. Because of the coiled metal outer jacket of the cable, it’s only possible to bend the cable so much – after too much of a bend, the coils of the jacket stop more bending – thus protecting the inner cable which carries power and data. Additionally, I appreciated that the USB and Lightning connectors seemed solid and well made – one piece moulded plastic. However, I did immediately notice that the Lightning connector was too big for the cutout in my Lifeproof iPhone case.
Like
The cable is certainly tough. After using it daily for a few months, it barely looks used – the silver color is still bright and sparkly, there are no kinks, dents, or scratches, and it continues to work reliably.
Its lightening connector, and USB connector seem to be well made – they’re not showing any signs of corrosion or wear – even after being forcefully plugged and unplugged a bunch of times.
I actually really like the combo of the chrome-silver cable and white connectors – looks classy, and I’m always proud to have the cable lying on my desk. It certainly doesn’t feel like just any old cable lying around.
The cable is magnetic due to its metal jacketing. This is actually a really great little nuance of it, that’s not really mentioned anywhere. Since its magnetic, I can stick it to a magnet that’s also stuck to a bolt on the side of my car console, thus propping up the cable a bit, I can also stick it with a strong magnet to the corner of my wall in the kitchen, where a thin corner strip of steel hides underneath a layer of spackle and paint, to reinforce the corner of two pieces of drywall. If I used this cable at my desk more, I could fully see a system using a magnet to keep this, and potentially other cables in check.
Don’t Like
Overwhelmingly, the one thing that I don’t love about this cable, using it as I’ve described above, is that it’s really stiff. Sure it looks like a metal payphone cable, but this thing is much stiffer than that. So stiff that it’s sometimes challenging to plug it in if you’re not paying a lot of attention, and so stiff that it’s kind of a pain in the ass to talk on the phone while the cable is plugged in. I can see how this stiffness would be nice for a product like FuseChicken’s “Bobine” products, which combine a self-standing dock with a cable. But for a simple cable that’s meant to be flexible, this thing just isn’t. I think this is the one killing issue for this cable. If I could weigh in with any advice, I’d say keep the “Bobine” line sold as flexible docks and use a stiff cable like this, and then keep the Armour line as the flexible tough cable, and get rid of the titan line. However, I’m yet to try an Armour cable yet…
It’s USB-A, and not USB-C. Of course, this is the spec of the cable, so of course it would be USB-A. However, I’d love to see FuseChicken start to roll their designs into the new futurespec of USB-C. I’m sure they have this on the radar, and I can’t wait to see an “indestructible” cable that works with a new spec bound to be in use for many years.
Should you buy it?
If you’re looking for a really burly cable to use where the cable is subjected to harsh wear, are going to be using the cable to power iOS devices in live performance settings with lots of setup/teardown, are going to be tacking this onto a wall for permanent installation, or other rough uses, go for it. However, if you need a rugged cable for every day use, including occasionally using the phone with the cable plugged in, than no, don’t get this cable – it’s overkill, and way to stiff for practical everyday use. There are lots of other rugged cables out there, and FuseChicken’s Armour line even fits this bill.
Final thoughts
Interesting to see different ways to imagine the simple charging cable. I’ve gone through my fair share of cables, and understand the frustration of a cable failing. The FuseChicken Titan Cable is extremely rugged and burly, and should last a long time. However, it’s stiffness prevents it from being truly easy to use, and makes it hard to plug/unplug, and hard to handle your phone with the cable plugged in.
Building your career after college is one of the hardest things you’ll do. Tonight I had the honor of speaking on a panel at the University of Colorado Young Alumni career night, to discuss ups and downs, dos and don’ts of my career, and what recent grads should consider when building theirs. It was a pleasure trading ideas and wisdom with the audience as well as my three other awesome panelists, Amelia Rose Earhart, Chris Anthony, and Greg Stroh. Event Details (FB)
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Join CUYA at our next Buffs in the Biz professional development event! This is a great opportunity to connect with other CU Alumni and other young professionals in the Denver area while hearing from a guest panel of exceptional CU alumni.
What: CU networking featuring a panel of distinguished CU alumni
When:June 9, 2016. 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: Blake Street Tavern Tailgate Room
Who:
Jeffrey Donenfeld (Psych ’04): Founder and Managing Director of Four North. Served as a field expedition manager in Antarctica before moving back to Boulder to become the entrepreneur in residence at Boomtown accelerators.
Amelia Rose Earhart (Eng. Lit ’05): Apart from her time as 9News Denver’s morning traffic anchor, Amelia recreated the flight around the world that her namesake had attempted in 1937. Her successful completion places her in an elite group of aviators worldwide.
Chris Anthony (Kines ’90): Skier and member of the Warren Miller Film team. He has traveled the world skiing and filming while also running his 501c foundation, Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Project.
Greg Stroh (Comm ’90): Co-Founder and CEO of Healthy Skoop, a plant-based nutrition company in Boulder. Additionally, he founded Izze Beverage Co. and mix1-All Natural Protein Shakes
Everyone wants a quadcopter drone. Over the past year or two, these small, multi-rotor radio controlled aircraft have hit the mainstream. There are tiny palm sized ones, giant professional camera ones, and then the middle of the road – the backpack-sized, easily flyable, fun-sized ones. The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K fits right in there – it’s relatively compact, easy to fly, takes great video footage and stills with its CGO3 4K stabilized camera, and is high enough performance to really be fun to fly. Over the past couple months, I’ve put the Q500 to the test – flying it for many hours in a variety of weather, terrain, light, and flight conditions. I’ve crashed it at least ten times, broken a few propellers, and gotten actually pretty good at flying. Here’s my review of the good – and bad- of the Q500.
What It Is
The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K is a quadcopter camera drone from Yuneec. It retails for about $800, and is intended for taking stabilized video and photos from aloft. The package includes the flight platform, CGO3 camera, ST10+ radio controller and video monitor, handheld battery grip for using the camera handheld, and a variety of accessories including charger, two batteries, hard case, programming cables, extra parts, etc. It competes with the likes of the DJI Phantom 3 drone, as well as a few others.
Capture every moment with highest quality on the market. Not only does the Typhoon 4K shoot impressive 4K video, it also captures 1080p/120fps slow motion video with the option of manual camera settings. Handheld SteadyGrip™ is included.
The Q500 is aimed at the mid-market enthusiast flyer who wants a platform that requires minimal setup and maintenance, is easy and reliable to fly, and takes good quality, immediately impressive video footage. The aircraft packages goes a bit further in offering compelling features to more serious photographers, including the ability to shoot RAW photos, white balance control, follow flight modes, and of course a handheld camera grip for shooting with the CGO3 camera on the ground. The drone IS dangerous with its spinning propellers, requires a good bit of space to fly, is not suitable for flying indoors, and requires a bit of knowhow and practice to fly – and land- well. It’s not for absolute beginners or kids looking for a toy to play with and forget – it’s a bit too expensive and complicated for that. It’s also not for the pro photographer who needs custom lenses or cameras while flying, needs the flight redundancy of more than 4 props, long flight times, or extended range.
First Impressions
My very first impression on receiving the box was that it’s a huge package. The hard-sided case is huge, and filled with squeaky molded styrofoam for protecting the aircraft. It does protect well, but seems a bit overbuilt and huge for the purpose. I certainly would have preferred a backpack, or more compact package.
The whole kit is well-organized, and I was able to put the drone together myself without any instructions – camera snaps on, propellers twist on, battery slides in, and then you’re ready. The controller requires a bit of battery charging, and then comes on and connects easily.
On the first flight – I crashed hard, and broke two propellers. So there’s certainly a knack for understanding the flight controls and figuring out how to get it to take off and hover reliably. But once in the air, the Q500 does a great job of maintaining its position, and providing stable flight. Even in heavy winds, the aircraft fights hard to keep its location, and the stabilized CGO3 camera does a good job of smoothing out shocks and sudden movements.
Regarding flying the thing – it’s worth noting that there’s a layer of automation between the controller and the aircraft – which is great! The aircraft takes care of flying itself level and stable, and moving where you tell it to on the controller – but the pilot doesn’t have to actually “fly” it in that the computer is taking care of keeping it aloft. If you take your hands off the controller, the Q500 just hovers where you left it – you don’t have to keep hands on the controllers giving it micro inputs to account for wind etc. This is great
There are two flight modes – the smart and angle. Smart will follow you around, but also allows you to fly visually. If the Q500 is in front of you, facing any way, push the stick away from you, and it flies away from you. Push left, it goes left. It’s easy to look at it in the air, and control it. The angle mode gives you more traditional control, which keeps the inputs uniform to the actual aircraft. So if it’s facing you, push left, it goes right. But if it’s facing away from you, push left, it goes left. This is great for flying while looking at the screen, for a more “first person” view. I took the time to reassign the yaw and forward controls to the same stick, so i can steer forward while looking in the monitor much like flying an airplane – the yaw controls the turns, with the altitude and side to side on the other stick. Great for tracking somebody moving down a road, following geographic features, etc.
Landing is automatic, although it can be done manually – and I prefer to land manually anyway. If the battery is too low, or the signal is lost, or the pilot just gets lazy, you just flip the home switch, and the Q500 comes right back to you and lands automatically. Notably, while landing, you can still give it direction input to control exactly where it lands.
Q500
The Q500 is a solid flying platform. After many crashes, and lots of flying, it’s held up well. Aside from a few cracked (and replaced for about $5/each) propellers, it’s survived really well – no cracks or breaks. It flys well.
Like
It’s easy enough to fly where you want it to go – automatic modes are useful, and the angle mode is nice for tracking while filming.
The lights on the bottom are good for assessing the state of the drone, and if its batteries are low. Also when flying at night, they’re bright enough to keep track of it easily.
After a bunch of crashes, I can confirm that this thing is well-built and strong – no cracks, besides the propellers.
Although the propellers are brittle and crack in crashes, they’re easily replaceable – just screw on a new one and tighten.
The battery is easy to replace in the field, and I love that it comes with two batteries.
While flying in bad weather or winds, this thing fights to stay flying! I’ve seen it way way way up there almost sideways as it fights to stay aloft – and it usually does pretty well. There have been few cases where it lots a lot of altitude very quickly, but it stayed flight, and went right back to where it was before it dropped.
In steady weather and on a flat surface, the automatic return to home and landing works well – it lands reliably, and shuts off.
Don’t Like
Yes, while it’s easy to fly, there’s a LOT to be desired for flight modes and flexibility. It’s certainly not able to fly as fast as some of its other competitors, and sometimes has a hard time keeping a steady position for filming. I’ve seen it drift a pretty significant amount when hovering, even with no winds at all. So while it’s fun for basic filming and flying, its position-keeping doesn’t seem as fine tuned as it could be.
There’s no way to pre-program or record a flight. So while it’s fun to manually steer around to capture footage, if I wanted to rehearse a scene, and then go film it, I would have to manually fly the same course every time. For real filming, there absolutely needs to be a route programming/recording feature. Additionally, while the “follow me” mode is great, certainly there must be a bit more location-based modes, etc.
I usually fly this in open spaces, but during the times I’ve been flying it around buildings, or trying to get tighter shots, I’ve found that holding position using only the built in GPS isn’t as accurate as it could be. Ideally the drone would be able to use a combo of GPS, optical tracking, proximity tracking, and the IMU.
Although the hard case that it comes with is very protective, it’s huge and heavy too. For a drone that’s supposed to be used for filming cool locations, this one sure is hard to get to any location. I know there’s an add-on backpack for this, but even if you could strap it to the outside of a backpack, its rotor arms are still pretty big – ideally the “Q500 V2” could be downsized a bit, or made collapsible. After playing with a competing drone, the Q500 does indeed seem a little bigger than it needs to be for the features it offers. That being said, it is stable in flight – so maybe the larger size is good for that. But could stability be created from better flight software instead?
Four props in a square configuration are about the minimum for stable flight. And luckily, none of them have failed yet. But I’m waiting for the day when a prop hiccups in flight, and the whole thing comes out of the air. I’d love to see a 3-prop flight contingency mode, if that’s possible. Or perhaps add another one and rearrange everything for redundancy. But that seems like a step into a higher end product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS5pgC-i2yA
CGO3 Camera
The CGO3 camera comes with the Q500, and is the main and only camera of the drone. What’s unique here is that the camera can not only fit onto the drone, but also on its own handheld grip. This makes it a lot more useful for getting shots both in the air and on the ground, using the same gyro stabilized gimbal.
The CGO3 camera has its own wifi signal, which connects independently of the drone’s control signal. This means that in addition to downlinking live video to the controller, it’s also possible to connect to the camera with an iOS app. In fact, it’s even possible to view live video on both the iOS app and the controller simultaneously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBLOX3jIqy4
Like
The stabilization works well. Even when the drone is being shaken by violent winds, being flown fast by me, or being jostled on the hand grip, the picture stays steady. It even gracefully deals with smoothing out motion when it gets to the limits of its range of motion.
I really love the flexibility of the camera. It’s small ball-like shape fits neatly under the drone, but it also slides off and connects just as easily to the hand grip. There are three metal contacts in the slide on connector, which provides power while in flight, and minimal control of its tilt. There’s actually an auxiliary control cable that seems to connect between the camera and the drone body, but I’m still not sure what this is for.
The video footage it takes looks great. While flying and looking in the monitor, it’s hard to really appreciate how spectacular the footage is. But once I get it downloaded from the card and on my big screen tv, it really is stunning. Super smooth, good color in the default gorgeous mode, and a wide field of view.
It’s great being able to angle the camera down to the ground, or anywhere in between – the movement is slow and smooth, and combined with a bit of forward movement, really makes shots look amazing.
In addition to connecting to the controller, the camera can also connect to an iPhone or iPad running the iOS app – great for checking shots, sharing the live feed, and shooting with the handheld grip.
Don’t Like
While the camera does work in a basic sense under most conditions, it’s far from an optimized experience. I really think there could be a good amount of polish on this product to make it really great, rather than adequate.
The wifi connection is solid when it’s connected – but when connecting to my iPhone 6s, the wifi connection takes a solid minute to connect. No idea why it takes so long, but that’s certainly not normal.
USB Port on camera doesn’t appear to do anything – camera doesn’t show up at mass storage or anything. What’s it for? I have no idea.. but there’s no documentation of it either.
Rubber shock mount seems to bounce around a lot when camera is connected to SteadyGrip – This rubber shock mounting doesn’t seem optimal for handheld/walking footage. Although I love using the camera on the grip, it seems like there could be some more stiff rubber isolators that could be used when handheld – would prevent a lot of bouncing.
The camera has its own fan to keep it cool, but it’s loud. When using the hand grip and capturing video with sound, the fan noise definitely makes in it. Not a huge problem, but worth noting.
Shoots MP4 Files that Apple iMovie won’t natively import. The huge range of shooting resolutions is great, but I’ve consistently found that the files the camera produces are not the most compatible files. Maybe it’s because of the high quality codec, or other reasons – but these video files aren’t the easiest to work with. In fact, really the only way I’m able to watch my footage is to upload the files to YouTube, let YouTube process them, and then watch them online.
The gyro gimbal does work great – however lately I’ve been getting a weird drift out of the level calibration. Today while flying, the camera took off level to the horizon, but when it came back, it was consistently tilted about 30 degrees to the side. Weird.
The iOS app that works with the camera is fairly minimal – not a ton of options, basic user interface, and works just fine. But it’s not great. There’s certainly a ton of room for polish and shine on the app, including nicer menus, more diagnostic info about the camera, etc. Of note, there’s a “home” button in the app which simply crashes the app, returning you to the iPhone home screen – is that really necessary? This kind of weird nonsensical button really makes me feel like the app was developed as an afterthought, and not rethought at all.
What’s the connector cable for? I don’t know. The camera comes with a small connector cable that can be run from the camera gimbal mount to a port on the bottom of the drone. However, it seems like the camera works just fine without this cable, using the connection contacts inside the slide on mount. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of this in the manual, either. Another piece that makes it feel like they released a just “good enough” product, without the polish you’d hope for.
Stability in iOS App – if there’s no camera connected, the app crashes and exits to home screen, with no troubleshooting screens or anything.
CGO Steadygrip for Typhoon
The CGO Steadygrip allows shots with the CGO3 camera from handheld. The grip provides power from a bunch of AA batteries, and allows both horizon level and tilt shooting. On the top it has a spring loaded plastic clip for propping up your smartphone, and relies on wirelessly connecting to the app for control and viewfinder.
Like
It’s simple and works. Load it up with batteries, slide the camera into the mount, turn it on, connect the wifi, and you get the great stabilization of the active gimble in you hand. Running around outside shooting such smooth footage is kind of an amazing feeling.
I appreciate the tilt wheel. This is a great way to be able to shoot stabilized footage looking down, or at other angles.
Using an iPhone as a viewfinder works well – the lag isn’t too noticeable, and the screen on my iPhone 6s makes the preview footage look great. I actually really wish that all of the drone control screens could be displayed on an iPhone – or larger and nicer iPad display. Too bad you have to squint at the crappy, mis-oriented android screen on the controller while flying.
Battery life is great! Using Eneloop batteries, Im able to get a few hours of use. Additionally, housing the batteries in the bottom of the grip increases the stability lots.
Providing a solid camera like the CGO3 with only an aereal platform would suck – so it’s a great idea that Yuneec packages the handgrip in with it – way way more options for filming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52OmDQ1VR_Y
Don’t Like
Would be cool if there was a usb port for keeping smartphone charged from batteries in grip. There are a ton of batteries, and filming with my iPhone connected and screen on full brightness kills the battery – how about a connector there so i can keep my phone charged?
No battery level display, except when it’s almost out, and is the same flashing light as the mode change indicator.
I think it might be easier for filming and for keeping the camera inherently more stable if the whole grip was reconfigured to hang the camera below everything, much like other small camera stabilizers. The “pistol” grip here is ok, but kinda weird sometimes. A small issue though, and there might be the same issue either way.
Controller 10+
The ST10+ Controller is both the flight control and live video monitoring platform for the Q500. It uses two radio links to connect to the drone – one for video, and one for flight controls. The controller includes all flight controls, video/photo controls as well as a good sized android-powered touchscreen interface for getting to all of the settings, viewing flight status, and live video. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery, and can use micro-usb for recharging. It also includes a micro-sd card slot under the battery, for saving flight data.
Like
The controller starts quick, and connects to the drone fairly quickly. I’m never really left waiting around for the drone to connect, and the interface loads nice and quick.
The controller comes with a nifty collapsible plastic sun shade that suction cups onto the screen – given the super shiny plastic covering of the screen, this shade is essential in bright sunlight.
The controls are laid out well, and the control sticks have a good grip to them, and good response. The drone response to control inputs, and I’ve never had the controller crash or have any glitches.
I appreciate that the start/stop button is red and protected – makes it a deliberate act to start and stop the drone.
I love the micro-usb recharging, and long battery life of the controller. No need to carry around an extra proprietary charger – just used your existing car charger or whatever. Easy!
Love that (when working) the controller saves flight logs and low-res received video to a micro sd card. Although the card that came with it failed, its nice to have this option.
Since it runs android, it’s easily software upgradable. Yuneec hasn’t really added any new features or polish to the controller interface via software update, but the option is there. The few updates that have been provide are merely bug fixes.
Don’t Like
The first controller I was shipped was a complete lemon – the touchscreen didn’t work, and it had many many glitches and errors. Luckily, the Yuneec customer support team was a pleasure to deal with, and quickly shipped me a new working controller.
As I’ve been using the controller, the rubber grip pads on the back have been slowly loosening and falling off – the double-stick tape that keeps them on is losing it stick, and the grips are getting slidy and gummy. In terms of overall build quality, the controller, including the grips, seem plasticy and cheap. It works, but it’s not the nicest to hold.
The android screen is TERRIBLE. First of all, the screen is oriented for you to look at it horizontally. However, the pixel alignment and polarizer are optimized for vertical viewing of the screen (like it was meant for a phone). So when you look at the screen horizontally, the brightness and colors seem a little off, and changes depending on which eye you’re looking at it with. It’s a small nuanced detail, but to me, it really matters in overall enjoyment of the screen. Seems like this screen is basically adaquate to get the job done – but not anything more. Just ok.
The screen has a crappy plastic covering over it which is EXTREMELY reflective. It’s just the plastic covering of the rest of the base of the controller – so every glint of sunlight reflects off of it, and its easy to scratch. For a screen acting as the primary flight display, I’d say this definitely needs an antiglare coating on it, if not even a matte coating. Seeing this screen is so important, it definitely needs way more attention.
The range of the video link kinds sucks. Sure, it works for basic flight around the parking lot, but for any real shooting at a distance, I’ve found that both the video and control links drop out way to easily. The video drops first, and not too long after it the control link drops. Luckily the drone will stay safe and return to home if the control link drops, so it’s not a critical flight risk – but given the flight performance of the Q500, i really think the range needs to be better. Additionally, there are no external antenna ports on the controller, so without hacking and modding the controller, there’s no better option than the somewhat basic built in antennas.
Given that this is a camera drone, there absolutely needs to be ability to have a separate pilot and photographer screen/controls – be it an included hdmi or usb link, or another controller that can be daisy chained – but this needs to happen for a drone like this to really be used for compelling footage short of demo stuff.
Should You Buy It?
If you’re looking for a good performance, easy to fly drone that takes really great demo footage, give a bunch of room for more advanced flight, and is sure to impress and delight friends, and you have around $800 to spare, then yeah, get it! It’s a good product, and does what it says well. It’s easy to get the knack for flying it, has enough automation and safeties to make it not too stressful to fly, and makes good quality footage. However, if you’re looking to get specific shots for a photo project, need to do live aerial surveillance over a large stretch of land, need repeatable footage results, need to fly in tight spaces where accurate positioning is key, or need to work with a larger crew (and need video outputs etc), then there may be other options from competitors our there that have more features in a tighter package.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cazjUQUgQrs
Final thoughts
Flying the Yuneec Q5004K Quadcopter Drone is a ton of fun. It’s easy to setup and fly, has solid and stable flight performance. takes great stabilized footage, and includes everything you need to fly and maintain it in the package, plus a very nifty handheld grip for the camera. It really does to everything it’s supposed to, and it does it well. However, there’s a distinct lack of inspired polish and integration that prevents it from being a really truly great product – certain design, interface, and feature implementations basic, rushed, or not fully considered, and the lack of expandability is disappointing. But in general, it’s great to fly, and footage fantastic to watch. Go grab one and take off!
This year as part of Boulder Startup Week, I spoke on Technology Driving Digital Photography at the “Future of Tech: The World in 2026“. The packed session was hosted at startup co-working space Galvanize, and it was a fun opportunity to connect with an engaged audience on future technologies in an environment fostering the creation of new tech.
What will the world look like in 2026? How will cryptocurrencies disrupt finance? How is photographic technology changing the way in which the world processes information? How will machine learning and data science revolutionize the way in which trends are discovered and analyzed?
Join our speakers to hear about the trends that are bleeding edge today, but have the potential to turn entire industries upside down by 2026.
* Piper Merriam (Engineer, QuickLeft): The Blockchain Revolution
* Jeffrey Donenfeld (EIR, Boomtown) : Sensors and Photons: The Technologies That Enable Your Creative Vision
* Dean Wyatte (Sr Data Scientist, LogRhythm): using Machine Learning to identify network behavior and detect suspicious activity
* Zooko Wilcox (Founder, ZCash): Bitcoin is HTTP for money. Zcash is HTTPS
The future of cable-connectivity for our technologies is almost definitely USB-C. It’s a new standard that combines an incredible variety of technologies into one unified, reversible, flexible, and expandable cable and connectivity standard. It’s combination of physical size, ease of use, and technology integrations make it seem like an obvious candidate to replace most of the cables we’re using today. With its available features, USB-C can certainly replace your monitor cable, USB cables connecting your external hard drive, dock connector cable, phone charging cable, laptop charging cable, tv display cable, and even your headphone cable.
Although USB-C does theoretically support all of these operations and then some, not all physical cables are created equal. Within the USB-C standard exists a bit of flexibility as to which features manufacturers build their cables to support. For example, the USB-C cable that comes as the charging cable for the new-ish USB-C Apple Macbook supports charging plus only USB-2 data transfer speed.
Since USB-C can be used for so many things, I think the best way to buy new gear is to go with a cable that supports as many USB-C features as possible. Sure I may only need to charge my phone with my new full featured USB-C cable now, but down the road, with a good quality long lasting cable, I’ll be able to use it not only for my phone, but also as a high speed transfer cable, monitor cable, etc – without needing to buy new cables, and without needing to hunt around for just the right cable. I want all of my USB-C cables to be able to be picked up and used for whatever USB-C connectivity application I want.
Cable and accessory manufacturer Accell recently sent me their brand new, full-featured USB-C>USB-C cable to test out. After a bit of usage, here are my thoughts. In summary – the cable is well build physically, and supports the highest USB-C/3.1 standards, and is a solid, future-proof performer.
What It Is
The USB-C to C USB 3.1 Cable is a fully featured USB-C cable. It has the same reversible connector at each end, and is really the “ideal” USB-C cable variety. This is the direction all cables and connectivity schemes will be heading in. The cable I tested is 1m long.
The Accell USB-C to C USB 3.1 Cable allows easy connection between your USB-C (also known as Type-C) host computer to a USB-C device. With reversible USB-C connectors the cable connection works in either direction. Able to charge, transfer data to and power a connected device, this USB-C to C cable with ultra-compact connectors is incredibly powerful.
Find official specs here: http://www.accellcables.com/collections/cables/products/usb-c-to-c-usb-3-1-cable
Who It’s For
Courtesy of Accell
As I noted above, this full-featured USB-C cable is good for almost ALL users of USB-C. Since it supports virtually all technologies using USB-C, it will work with basically any application. The only group it might not work great for is the hyper-minimalist traveler looking for an ultimately compact cable for only charging and low-speed syncing. The cable is built thick and strong, so it’s not the most compact. Whereas my 1 meter long USB>Lightning cable for my iPhone will coil up and fit in the 5th pocket of my jeans, this cable will not.
After checking out cables for years, and going through my fair share of broken cables and crappy ones, this one feels pretty solid. Its jacketed in a soft black rubber, with molded connectors. The rubber jacketing is not as sticky as some other cables – but it’s also not slick. A definite matte appearance. The connectors at the end are moulded rubber – and while they’re beefy and strong, they’re not exactly the most compact. Contrast this with the lightening connector on my OEM Apple cable, and the Accell moldings are proportionally much more bulky than the svelte Apple lightning cable moldings. If I had an android phone with a form-fitting case, I’m not sure if this cable would be able to fit in the typically small cutouts of some cases. (but I guess that’s why they include a lower-rated charge-only cable with phones – less complexity to support lower standards lets them build a sleeker cable)
Like
Full featured cable. I love using this cable with a Macbook for charging, and knowing that if I need to plug in a high speed SSD into my macbook, I can use the same cable as I’m using to charge, and get the full 10Gbps speed of the standard/max speed of my ssd.
The cable seems beefy and solid. I surely haven’t thrashed it around for months yet but so far, it’s holding up just fine.
The USB-C connectors are one-piece metal – not the lesser folded metal I’ve seen in other cables. Win one for durability here.
Well, it works just fine. I was able to get rated speeds from the cable, as well as fast charge times – the cable is certainly able to deliver on it’s stated specs.
Accell states a “Lifetime Replacement” on the cable. I certainly haven’t tested this policy myself, but for a cable that’s on the leading edge of a new standard poised to be in place for a bunch of years, I think it’s worth investing in a cable that has this kind of policy. It’s certainly up to you to keep records of your purchase, and up to Accell to uphold their end of the deal, but if all goes well, this could be a cable you can use every day until it wears out, and then just get replaced with a new one. But again, I haven’t tried it.
Don’t Like
The connector moldings are kinda bulky – not an issue if it’s permanently installed as a monitor cable – but for using as a mobile charge/sync cable, or using with a form fitting case, this might be an issue.
After a bit of merciless twisting, the cable coating has developed some wrinkles and stretch marks. It hasn’t torn or failed in any way, but there’s definitely some wrinkles in it from extreme bends.
It’s somewhat stiff. I know it supports a bunch of tech and has lots of quality wire strands in it – but for a 1 meter cable, this one is on the thick side. A worthy compromise for multi-role flexibility.
Should you buy it?
If you’re looking for a “one cable to rule them all” kinda purchase, that will be able to be used for lots of roles well into the future, and are willing to spend good cash for it, sure, go for it. However, if you’re looking for simple charge cable, or can wait another few months until full featured cables have a bit more competition and the prices come down, then you could probably either go with a lesser cable, or wait a bit and pick one up on Monoprice.
It’s cool to be using a new standard of cables, and I’m very much hoping that USB-C does become the new ubiquitous connector standard of the future. Let’s just go with USB-C for wired connectivity, and make all of our lives more simple.
Being an entrepreneur is challenging in many regards and one of challenges is managing the ups and downs that come from starting and running a business. While the media loves to focus the successes of startups – winning rounds of funding, acquiring smaller startups and achieving unicorn status, the less glorious tales of entrepreneurs’ struggles to overcome challenges, the pain and scars of failure, rejection and loss of confidence tend to be glossed over or completely ignored. Great character is forged in the fire of adversity and many entrepreneurs and startups have risen to meet these challenges and achieve success. This panel of entrepreneurs will share some of the challenges and market flounders they faced as startups and how handled them.
Terry Olkin
Founder, Read Dog Books
Today I was honored to work with a great group of industry experts in moderating the Boulder Startup Week 2017 “
The Lima Ultra seems aimed at tech-focused consumers who are looking for an easy way to store lots of data at home, and make that data available online anytime. It’s not for the complete luddite, and it’s not for the business/enterprise user. It’s also not for the DIY user who wants lots of self-configuration options, open software, or truly solid data security.
Packaging is solid and smooth – the box is the perfect size for the gear, and it’s all securely packed in there. The box comes with the Lima Ultra, power adapter, and ethernet cable.
It you’re looking for a simple way to have your own basic personal cloud – either for everyday document access or backup, and you’re not going to need any advanced features, aren’t going to be tinkering with the setup, and don’t need more than one hard drive’s worth of storage, then Lima is great. If you’re looking to push it any further – for a media server, for syncing with other cloud services, for flexible administration and management, multiple drives, usb hubs, automated file downloads, or anything like that, keep searching.
Nowadays most cars are smart enough to offer GPS navigation, emergency assistance, and a wide range of other “connected drive” features. They’re even able to offer 3rd party tracking via app integrations available on Apple Carplay and other in-car computer systems. However, if your car doesn’t offer built in tracking apps, or you need to more discreetly track its location, the CarLock could be a great option. 
The packaging Carlock comes in is solid – a small cardboard box, with good packing and protection. Getting started with installing carlock is super easy – once I located the OBD2 port on my car, I simply plugged in carlock, and that was it. Conneting carlock to the app was easy as well. Since carlock uses the cellular network to communicate (not a bluetooth or wifi connection), there’s not manual pairing or anything. Simply give the app the code number for the carlock device, and I was up and running. Once installed, the carlock device is forgotten about quickly – it’s out of the way, unobtrusive, and doesn’t really need to be handed or dealt with again – everything else happens on the app.
This evening I had the opportunity to moderate a discussion panel on emerging technologies in eCommerce, as part of the Longmont, Colorado NewTech group, in collaboration with the Longmont Economic Development Partnership. We had a great crowd of about 50 people at the Longmont Museum, and covered a wide range of topics.
Moderator – 
Obviously, the key feature of these is that they’re totally wireless. And I love that. Lifting at the gym, running, and doing lots of other sports are all easy with these. No wire around the back of my neck means they’re snag-free, and I have total movement when working out. Also, since they are bluetooth to my phone, I can easily set up my phone to watch Netflix on the rowing machine, while getting full wireless audio.
Super active sports, listening to mostly podcasts, doing a short daily workout and carrying a gym bag, these are perfect! If you need all day battery life without recharging, perfect audio sync, booming quality for music, or perfect calls, maybe not so much. But overall, this is a very solid product.
Noyce Labs
The DJI Phantom 4 Drone is DJI’s flagship drone. It sits at the intersection between hardcore professional filming drones and more accessible consumer level drones, offering easy flying, lots of advanced features, and great image quality. The packaging, handling, and utility is made to be easily accessible to first time flyers, and continuously useful to experienced pilots.
The Phantom 4 is aimed at semi-pro flyers who want to focus on getting the shot, every time. The drone comes almost completely assembled, and is a breeze to get all setup and into the air. Without reading any instructions, I got the drone setup in under 10 minutes, and was ready to fly in 20 for the first flight. The camera, with its fixed lens, is well suited for semi-pro photographers who want easily spectactular shots, but who don’t necessarily need to customize their choice of lens focal lengths. Finally, the Phantom4 is for enthusiast pilots who just want a drone that’s a kickass fun time to fly – high, fast, close quarters, etc – it’s just plain fun and easy to use.
Out of all of the consumer electronics I’ve reviewed lately, the packaging of the Phantom 4 is by far the most slick – it comes in a great foam box which doubles as a storage and transport case. There’s not too much extraneous accessories or packaging. The extra propellers come in a nice microfiber bag. The entire drone and controller are packaged nicely, and make an immediate impression.
Everyone wants a quadcopter drone. Over the past year or two, these small, multi-rotor radio controlled aircraft have hit the mainstream. There are tiny palm sized ones, giant professional camera ones, and then the middle of the road – the backpack-sized, easily flyable, fun-sized ones. The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K fits right in there – it’s relatively compact, easy to fly, takes great video footage and stills with its CGO3 4K stabilized camera, and is high enough performance to really be fun to fly. Over the past couple months, I’ve put the Q500 to the test – flying it for many hours in a variety of weather, terrain, light, and flight conditions. I’ve crashed it at least ten times, broken a few propellers, and gotten actually pretty good at flying. Here’s my review of the good – and bad- of the Q500.
The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K is a quadcopter camera drone from Yuneec. It retails for about $800, and is intended for taking stabilized video and photos from aloft. The package includes the flight platform, CGO3 camera, ST10+ radio controller and video monitor, handheld battery grip for using the camera handheld, and a variety of accessories including charger, two batteries, hard case, programming cables, extra parts, etc. It competes with the likes of the DJI Phantom 3 drone, as well as a few others.
