Sabrina Calhoun

Holiday Gadget Review by Some Gadget Gurus We Know

No better way to know what’s super-cool, gadgetry-wise, than to check in with the people who make it a point to know and live such things. Which is what we did. With no further ado, here’s what cable’s top gadget junkies either crave, or love.

Starting with flying things and personal drones. For Mike Hayashi, EVP of Architecture, Development and Engineering for Time Warner Cable, and Comcast CTO Tony Werner, it’s a ($1,100) flying camera — the DJI Phantom 2 Vision. “Watch out for my drone,” Werner cautioned. (He was kidding. Pretty sure.)

With the camera-copter, you too can be a drone — long before Amazon lifts off: http://bit.ly/19jlSsg

“It is going to change the world,” Hayashi added of the gizmo. And we believed him, after viewing the clip he sent: http://bit.ly/1dpLhDi

Hayashi, an audio engineer at his core, also admires the Klipsch La Scala II Three-Way Horn-Loaded Loudspeaker (http://amzn.to/18UOCYl) with 15-inch woofer and 2-inch composite cone. (Of course he does. )

Super hot in 2013-14 gadgetry: Action-cams that clip onto a helmet, surfboard, dog, you name it. GoPro (www.gopro.com) owns the category. (Werner’s list includes the “mutt mount,” for a dog’s eye view.)

Fancy watches are back. Sherita Caesar, VP/National Engineering and Tech Ops for Comcast, likes the Samsung S9100 phone watch (http://bit.ly/JHa6BG). “It’s big and has lots of flashing lights,” she laughed.

Also big: Bicycle accouterment. Jay Rolls, CTO of Charter, is eyeing a road bike with electronic shifting (http://bit.ly/1fIoQf1) — “it’s finally gone mainstream — but commands a $1,000 premium,” he sighed, which makes us think he’ll be shifting gears the old-fashioned way, for now.

For Jud Cary, VP and Deputy General Counsel at CableLabs, it’s a string of LED lights made specifically to spruce up a bicycle’s spokes: http://bit.ly/18BbGk0

And, of course, there’s television sets. Craig Cuttner, SVP/Advanced Technology for HBO, and someone who closely monitors developments on the 4K / UltraHD scene, finally upgraded his “1980s HDTV” with a Samsung F8500 series plasma. “I love the look of the dark blacks of plasma — and, take that, 4K, it’s 1080P. As the future will foretell, it’s all about brightness!”

Likewise for Sabrina Calhoun, VP/Engineering for Brighthouse, who braved a big-box store last week to fall in love with Samsung’s curved OLED. “WOW! It looks like a work of art,” she noted. Price tag: $9,000. (She’ll stick with her non-organic TV for now.)

Lifelong gadget guru Bill Sheppard, with Nuance Communications, recommends the Aviator Laptop Stand, for chronic air travelers. (http://keynamics.com/laptop-stand.html)“It’s a cheap but really useful way to keep a laptop usable even when the jerk in front of you fully reclines.” (I’m in for that one.)

And as a guy on a mission to empower his two daughters to be excited by technology and programming, Sheppard also likes the Lego Mindstorms EV3 (Lego Mindstorms EV3), which he described as “a third generation robotics program with an amazing array of programmability, sensors, I/O, integration, etc. — the ultimate geek toy and educational to boot!”

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what’s on the mind of our own Jeff Baumgartner — The Bauminator. As the guy who first described to me how he was flipping his family out by changing channels on the home TV, while he was on the road, he’s now ready for an upgrade to his Slingbox scene. “I’m looking at the Slingbox 500, to complement the Slingbox Pro-HD that I installed at my parent’s house — so I can watch the Broncos games that aren’t covered in Philly.” I’m no football expert, but it would appear this is a good year to do that.

That’s the roundup for this year. From all of us to you — may all of your 2014 gadgets be friendly and bright! Merry merry.

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.

 

How the Wish Lists of Tech People Can Inform Your Holiday Shopping

With one shopping week until Christmas, in a year festooned with “connected devices”, what better way to score gift ideas than to browse the wish lists of the industry’s tech aficionados?

For Sabrina Calhoun, VP of Engineering for Bright House Networks, this year’s must-have is the Firefly Landscape Laser lights (http://bit.ly/12naB8m), “which project thousands of little pinpoints of light on the house, trees and landscape, using laser and holographic technology – it looks like I spent hours stringing lights, when all I did was push the stake in the ground, aim it at the house and plug it in. Too cool!”

Mike Hayashi, EVP of Time Warner Cable’s Advanced Technology Group, likes the NEST thermostat (www.nest.com), a gorgeous little gadget that learns how you like your in-home temps. “All my other geek friends have it,” Hayashi said, which was confirmed by Tony Werner, CTO of Comcast: “Really cool and elegant.”

Werner, Hayashi, and Advance-Newhouse President Nomi Bergman (and yours truly) are all into the pedometer accouterment made by Fitbit (www.fitbit.com), and especially the companion Blu-tooth connected “Aria” scale. (Except maybe the body fat part…)

(Aside: If you too are addicted to 10,000 steps/day, or want to be, try the Nike Fuelband (http://bit.ly/Z0fVAA) — 2x the price of Fitbit, but two things make it better: 1) It’s a bracelet, so it doesn’t fall off. 2, its iPhone app syncs flawlessly.)

Also on Werner’s list: Audible.com’s “Whispersync” (http://bit.ly/TcGBYC ), a Kindle app that lets you switch between reading and listening to a book, while preserving state. “You can be reading a book on the treadmill, stop halfway through chapter 9, then resume with the audible version on the train – and both notes and resume points are shared. Really simple, but cool,” Werner said.

Sree Kotay, SVP and Chief Software Architect, for Comcast, is eyeing Lenovo’s X1 (yes, really, X1) Touch Carbon laptop (http://lnv.gy/UbSc9F .) “It’s a business-class ultra-book with a touch screen – super cool,” Kotay said.

Yvette Kanouff, CTO of Cablevision, is still in thrall with that Corning “Day Made of Glasss” video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38)  – “I think that’s the whole house I want! But for now I’d settle for a transparent TV … baby steps.”

Steve Reynolds, household gourmand and SVP/CPE for Comcast, who once quipped that “all vegetables should taste like meat,” hopes to find a KitchenAid sausage grinder (http://bit.ly/UmYNxh) under the tree.

For Howard Pfeffer, SVP/Broadband Engineering for Time Warner Cable, it’s a 3D printed guitar like any of these: http://bit.ly/TSwmMv. “One day,” he said.

Geek out, friends. Merry everything to you!

This column originally appeared in the Platforms section of Multichannel News.