Playing Offense and Defense

Farhad Manjoo on the iPad mini.

Launching the iPad mini may be purely a reactive, defensive move for Apple. But when you’re as big as Apple is now, you can play offense and defense at the same time.

I whole heartedly believed that the 7" market was going to fail but with the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire's selling at $199, those devices captured an audience. Heck, I even bought the Nexus 7 but I'll admit, it'll be up for sale when my iPad mini comes in. Is the $129 premium worth the ecosystem of apps to you?

A Kindle I want to Touch

On the heels of Nokia & Microsoft's event, not the mention the Motorola event that followed the same afternoon, Jeff Bezos and his team unveiled an onslaught of brand new Kindle devices.  Ranging from the updated $69 K5 to the high-end LTE 4G 8.9" Kindle FIre HD, Amazon has spread their net wide across the already Kindle dominated ecosystem. I have been an avid fan of the Kindle ecosystem starting with the 3G Kindle Keyboard then purchasing a $79 K4 for myself.  Great devices all around with one thing lacking; a light.  The $99 Kindle Touch was initially on my wish list but due to poor reviews which mention a raised border and a slow response, I found that the twenty dollars wasn't worth it. Since then, I've enjoyed the Kindle 4 since its introduction and have bought it for some friends!

With the introduction of four new Kindle platforms and two sub offerings, I am confident that the Paperwhite WiFi with ads will be the clear winner priced at an amazing $119.  I'll have a review once it comes in as well as an unboxing.

For now, the Paperwhite is touting a higher resolution and contrast, an 8 week battery life and finally, a built-in patented backlight. I can't wait! Also, if you click on the image or my link for the Kindle Paperwhite, it will help support my site. Thanks!

Remember to pre-order one now before September 15 if you live in California because that's when the tax-free ride disappears!

The only tablet is the iPad

One of the biggest insights into today's tablet market can be read in this fine article by Slate's Farhad Manjoo.

It’s been two years since Apple’s tablet went on sale. Rivals have released dozens of alternatives, but the iPad still represents more than 60 percent of market share. Worse, the rest of the market is dominated by two devices that are being sold at a loss—Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Simply put, if you think about what people use as their MP3 players today and the last ten years combined, does anyone think of anything else besides an iPod?

Read it in entirety here: The iPad Is Unbeatable

Hilton Motivation

The first day of my trip consisted of three legs starting at 9am ending at 4pm in Oklahoma City where I ended up "napping" till 12 midnight.  Call it the case of the Mondays where I have commute to work and am just all funked up for a little while.  Napping doesn't help either but it feels so good!  The gym at the Wyndham Garden isn't that great and I just choose to fill up on water instead of eating dinner.  I know it's bad but I ran a 5k the day before, hardly got some sleep and need to catch up on it.  I paid for it dearly when trying to go back to bed for the early 4am wake up call. The next morning consisted of only two flights (OKC-DTW-YYZ) and when I got to the Downtown Toronto Hilton, I found the energy in me and hit up the gym on Day 2 of the 3 day trip.  The session was set for a brick and I successfully completed an "easy" 1.5 hours!  Admittedly, the Downtown Toronto Hilton houses the best fitness center in our hotel system and this makes working out that much easier and more enjoyable.  The swimming pool was closed for renovations, but the gym was clean and ready to be used!  Hopping up on the bicycling machine for an hour, I ended up next to a woman who was running on the neighboring treadmill at a 10:00 min/mile pace.  She was 2/3s into her hour of running when I started beside her.  At the end of her hour, she took a break and surprisingly jumped back ont the treadmill for another hour!!!  I think she was gunning for a half marathon distance but that was just awesome.  That gave me motivation to up my effort level a notch.  I found myself yawning here and there as I was still a little exhausted from the lack of sleep but I had the Patriots at Bills game to keep my attention.

I struggled a bit in the beginning but as I pedaled along and found my groove.  I even hammered away hitting and sustaining 24mph for 1 minute intervals every 10 minutes.  My calves are still sore and now quads and hamstrings are too.  At about the 30 minute mark, I accidentally hit the reset button so I just guessed and added another 35 minutes for what I would know would be more than an hour.  The entire time I was sustaining a 75-80 rpm cadence as well an average speed of 15.0 mph.  All in all, it was a good ride.

By the end of that hour, I was soaked and dripping.  I got off the bike, cleaned and anti-bacteria-sprayed it down, drank a cup of water then immediately hopped on the treadmill.  I was thinking that I I could go for an hour but my calves weren't going to let me.  I could feel a light cramp creeping in my right calf so I just eased on at 6.0 and then back down at 4.5 when I would feel it coming right back.  I was able to finish 3.31 miles at 35:00 minutes with some light intervals. The last quarter mile I ran at 8.0 and got my HR to 174 bpm. Good stuff all around.

The crew met up for dinner and I enjoyed a good Salmon + Jasmine Rice Dinner paired with a side Caesar at Jack Astor's. Instead of alcohol, I found myself ordering water.  I was thinking of grabbing a Canadian beer and catch the rest of the Chiefs at Chargers game but I just wanted to feel good about my workout.

Of course, today's already been filled with long flights; YYZ-DTW-MTY-ATL where the last two legs blocked in at over 6 hours!  Now heading back home to San Diego on another 4.5 hr flight where right before boarding, I was running from E35, through customs, through security and all the way to gate B36!  Gotta love the commute!  Swimming tomorrow and apparently some hot yoga at Core Power?!  I still have to find a Master's class or a group of sorts to help me out with my swim techniques.  Any ideas?  My schedule sucks so I can't dedicate myself to any set class schedule so unfortunately that's out of the options. I'll have more this week!

Amazon's Kindle Fire Android Tablet Unveiling is this Wednesday!

Here's a picture of my "Atlanta Airport" Mile.  I didn't run from E - B but the total .50 miles of running was at almost max speed while pulling my rollerboard, flight kit and laptop bag!  I was perspiring like crazy when I got a seat in the back of the flight and as I finish this post, I'm just not feeling cooler.