Frequent Business Traveler » iPod

GlobeRunner: Dick Kreidel, Entrepreneur, Pilot, and Manufacturing Executive

Eva Leonard — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:01:59 +0000

It isn’t every frequent flyer who can say that he built his own plane. But Dick Kreidel can.

“In 1983 I built a LongEZ experimental aircraft that I keep in Southern California, and that I continue to fly,” says Kreidel, adding, “I also own an Aviat A1-C Husky that remains at my home in Montana for flying into remote backcountry areas in Montana and Idaho.”

It’s not surprising then, that Kreidel’s career reflects his talent for making things and putting them together.

In 2006, Kreidel sold his door-hardware business to the world’s largest door and door-hardware company, the Swedish manufacturer, Assa Abloy. He now works for Assa Abloy in industry and government affairs and also helps integrate new acquisitions into the company.

“I’m a manufacturing guy. I’ve worked in, run, and owned manufacturing companies, including starting a joint venture in Shenzhen, China in 1993,” says Kreidel. “I’m making it my mission to help small domestic manufacturing companies re-capture work that has gone offshore.”

In the process of doing so, he finds himself flying to both Europe (London and Munich), and to Asia (Taipei and Hong Kong) five times a year, as well as making numerous domestic business trips. He also travels between his home on a lake in Northwest Montana, where he lives in the spring and summer, and Southern California, which he calls home in the fall and winter.

All that travel has made Kreidel Premier 1K (the airline’s top level) on United Airlines and given him three-million lifetime miles as an AAdvantage Gold member with American Airlines. Or as he describes it, “United Airlines two million-miler butt-in-seat, but in the new 2012 United/Continental program it will be over three million miles.” His favorite airline: Cathay Pacific.

Internationally, the cities he most enjoys visiting are Shanghai, China and Kinsale, Ireland, and domestically, he favors Chicago. Although his favorite airport is the sizable Hong Kong International, Kreidel is very fond of Kalispell, Montana’s small airport, also known as Glacier Park International (FCA).

MOST MEMORABLE TRIP

Kreidel describes “a week spent on a very small boat on the Li River, near Guilin, China” as his most memorable travel experience so far.

“I was traveling with Taiwanese business colleagues, and it was their suggestion that we spend time on the Li River to relax and formulate strategies for advancing our joint venture.

We slowly traveled the river, stopping in small villages to eat dinner and occasionally sleep, although most meals were prepared on the boat, and we spent several nights onboard. The boat’s bunks were primitive and not designed for 6’2” Americans!

Fishing was interesting, as we carried several cormorants that were tethered to the boat and had ropes around their necks to keep them from swallowing the fish. Every fifth fish was given to the ‘fisherbird,’ and the other four were ours.”

Click here to continue to Page 2 – Improving Air Travel

2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon Review and Test Drive

Paul Riegler — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:01:48 +0000

I first saw the new 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon, built on the same platform as Acura’s TSX sedan, at the 2010 New York Auto Show. In introducing the car, John Mendel, Acura’s executive vice president of sales, pointedly said that the TSX Sport Wagon was for drivers “seeking a vehicle with utility.”

It’s unfortunate, of course, that you don’t see that many station wagons out on the road these days. This is in no small extent due to the somewhat irrational (in my opinion) love of SUVs despite their poor fuel economy and truck-like handling. Acura, of course, hopes to change this, but America’s love affair with SUVs (which followed America’s love affair with the minivan) is hard to break.

I might see how the Sport Wagon, when viewed from the side, is vaguely “European-inspired,” as Acura is wont to say, but the front, with its ever-present Transformers-like grill, won’t fool anyone.

INSIDE THE ACURA TSX SPORT WAGON

The first thing you notice about the Sport Wagon is how roomy it is. It seats five comfortably and has ample room for whatever the five people might wish to take with them, including a removable side panel that allows golf clubs to fit and under-floor bins for additional storage. The result is up to 60.5 sq. feet of useable cargo space.

Acura does a very good job with electronics, and navigation, phone, and stereo are easy to use. However, there are still too many switches and buttons (I didn’t count, unlike my colleague Jonathan Spira, who has counted over 50 in some Acuras).

Acura still (inexplicably) keeps the cockpit controller on the center stack, even when other Japanese automakers (i.e. Lexus) have copied the Germans and moved it to the center console.

The navigation system now stores map data on a hard disk, which speeds things up, and the system responded quickly to a missed turn by recalculating almost immediately. The maps display at a higher resolution but they are still 2-D and no perspective view is available. Traffic information worked reasonably well and Acura integrates Zagat restaurant ratings and a list of scenic drives into the system as well.

The car had no problem downloading my mobile’s contact list and I was able to speak the name of a contact without having to train the system. Song By Voice allows you to do the same thing with an iPod.

The Tech package’s ELS sound system, 360 watts and eight speakers, produced rich and clear sound and made everything from jazz to classical to pop sound good.

Click here to continue to Page 2 – Driving the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon

TuneIn Radio Review

Jonathan Spira — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:48:52 +0000

One of my favorite apps for listening to music is Tune-In Radio. While the company’s apps for smartphones and home entertainment devices such as GoogleTV are pretty cool, it’s the iPad app that really caught my attention.

TuneIn Radio turns your device into a portable radio capable of picking any one of the tens of thousands of Internet radio stations out there, from Radio Swiss Classic LINK to Gong 96 to NPR to the BBC.

With the iPad app, the world is your oyster. Simply click on a city on the map, be it Maastricht or Munich, and you’ll see a list of local stations you can listen to. You can use multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom in and out on the map and drag the map from left to right to view different parts of the world.

TuneIn Radio allows you to record any station for subsequent playback and includes an alarm function and sleep timer.   In addition to using the map to find local station, you can search by genre, keyword, or location, as well as search for individual shows by title. Once you find the station you want to listen to, the app allows you to pause live streams for up to 30 minutes. You can also bookmark your favorite stations or shows.

If your favorite radio station isn’t listed, as unlikely as that may be, you can enter that station’s URL directly.

TuneIn Radio works over Wi-Fi and 3G connections and is available from the Apple App Store.

$1.99 www.tunein.com

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

High-Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Paul Riegler — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:09:24 +0000

Shopping for the holiday season is now in full swing and business travelers across the globe are contemplating the purchase of high-tech gifts both for themselves as well as for others.

What do you buy the business traveler who has everything? The Executive Road Warrior editorial staff tested dozens of interesting potential gifts in varying price ranges in order to bring you our top picks.

Here are eight items that the road warriors in your life will both enjoy receiving and using.

The selections range from an inexpensive way to clean up messy cables to a powerful new high-tech vacuum to a compact camera that takes DSLR-quality photos to tiny loudspeakers that fill a room. We also look at headphones, iPad cases, leather cases for your tablet computer, and Apple’s latest and tiniest iPod Nano.

Without further ado, here are our suggestions for gifts that we’re sure you’ll and your friends and colleagues will enjoy using – both at home or on a trip.

AiAiAi TMA-1 Headphones

Apple iPod Nano

Bluelounge CableBox

Dyson D23 Turbinehead Canister Vacuum

Orb Audio Classic Two Stereo Speaker System

Sena Folio iPad Case

Olympus Pen E-PL1

Tumi Alpha Flap Zip Leather Crossbody bag

–Paul Riegler is Technology Editor of Executive Road Warrior.

Apple iPod Nano Review

Paul Riegler — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:04:13 +0000

How small can a touchscreen MP3 player get? True to its name, the latest Apple iPod Nano is also Apple’s smallest to date, measuring a mere 1.5” square and 0.35” thick. Available in seven colors (blue, gray, green, orange, pink, red, and silver), it comes with a clip (similar to the iPod Shuffle) and is available in 8 GB and 16 GB versions.

Apple should be applauded for designing such an easy-to-use interface on such a small device as well as for the excellent battery life (24 hours!).   Simply tap or swipe the 1.54” multi-touch display (with 240×240 resolution) and you are up and running.

The new Nano is almost half the size and weight (only 21 g) of the previous-generation device, but it’s lost a bit of functionality while on that diet. With a primary focus on music, the video camera is gone as are video playback and rental capabilities. Click-wheel games are gone, as is the click-wheel interface. There are just three buttons, namely volume up, volume down, and power/sleep.

Notable features include Genius Mixes, the ability to create and edit playlists, a built-in FM tuner with live pause, and Shake to Shuffle, which allows users to shake the device resulting in the playback of a different song in the music library.

For the business traveler who wants his music on the go, the tiny iPod Nano may be the perfect gift.

$149 (8 GB)/$179 (16 GB) at www.apple.com

-Paul Riegler is Technology Editor at Executive Road Warrior.

Click here to return to page one of the High-Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Holiday Gift Guide

The Editors — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:02:11 +0000

What do you buy the business traveler who has everything? It’s not too late to start your high-tech shopping now.   The Executive Road Warrior editorial staff tested dozens of potential gifts in varying price ranges and whittled the list down to eight items that the road warriors in your life will love.

Here are our suggestions for gifts that people will both enjoy receiving and enjoy using plus a few stocking stuffers that should come in handy.

Flip minoHD Video Camera

The newest Flip minoHD is both pocket-friendly and easy-to-use. Weighing in at under 4 ounces, you might even forget you have it with you. The large two-inch display makes it easy to capture (and later review) special events, meetings, and various random moments that you wish to preserve.

The Flip gets its name from the retractable USB arm that pops out on demand (no need to have the proper USB cable with you – ever). Three hours of charge time should give up to four hours of camera use (the minoHD sports 8 GB of built-in memory, enough for two hours of actual high-definition recording time). An HDMI output allows you to view your videos on your high-definition television. Image quality good and the Flip comes with software for viewing and editing.

$229 at amazon.com

BlueLounge – The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary holds and charges multiple mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, MP3 player, portable GPS devices, and more. It is a simple but brilliant solution to a problem faced by the majority of business travelers.

There’s also plenty of room for your wallet and keys alongside your gear, making it a productivity enhancer (no more looking for misplaced keys or phone) as well.

$119.99 at amazon.com

Apple iPod Touch

The iPod touch is a mobile Web browser, a game console, and perhaps the perfect MP3 player. The newest version is faster, has more memory, and has more functionality. ´ It has a glass-covered, 3.5” display with 480×320 resolution. Features include the Safari Web browser, a photo viewer, support for e-mail (compatible with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, among others), an integrated iTunes store where you can purchase and download music and videos, and numerous useful utilities (weather, calendar, maps, just to name a few). The iTunes App Store has thousands of applications, ranging from games, entertainment, finance, fitness, business, social networking, and travel.

Voice Control, a new feature, allows the user to control playback using voice commands via the microphone built into the earbuds that come with the unit. Simply say the name of a song, artist, playlist, or album and the iPod will follow the request. It also understands play, pause, skip, and shuffle. If you use the Genius playlist function, you can also say “play more songs like this.”

$269 (32 GB) at amazon.com

Apple iPod Nano

The Apple iPod Nano includes a video camera, FM radio, voice recording, a built-in speaker, and a pedometer. Other useful features for the business traveler include alarms, a clock, a stopwatch, games, notes, and calendar.

The larger screen is more than sufficient for the occasional music video or video podcast. The video camera is handy. VoiceOver uses text-to-speech technology to announce information about each song.

$129 (8 GB) at amazon.com

$165.99 (16 GB) at amazon.com

Apple iPod Shuffle

The world’s smallest MP3 player, the latest iPod shuffle comes with 2 or 4 GB of storage and more color options. It is understandable if one were to confuse the Shuffle with a small piece of jewelry – it’s wearable (just about the size of a large paperclip) and comes with a clip.

The Shuffle has no buttons; its operation is controlled from the remote built into the cable to the earbuds.   Functionality is limited to playing audio files; the Shuffle also uses VoiceOver technology, a synthesized voice to announce artist and song title information.

$55 (2 GB) at amazon.com

$79 (4 GB) at amazon.com

Eviant T7 TV

The T7, which comes with a built-in Lithium-ion battery (which lasts about two hours per charge) and a carrying pouch, is the twenty-first century edition of the Tummy TV (a 5” black-and-white TV Sony offered in the 1960s). The size of a digital picture frame or good-sized paperback, it is able to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts in 16:9 widescreen format. You can also connect an external player to the T7. Although I was a bit skeptical at first, I found the image and sound quality to be very good and it’s perfect for use just about everywhere.

$100 at amazon.com

Plantronics Voyager Pro

The Voyager Pro might just be the best Bluetooth headset I’ve ever tested. Thanks to Plantronics’ AudioIQ technology, which uses a 20-band equalizer that constantly adjusts sound levels for optimum volume, quality is simply unbeatable on both sides of the conversation and it’s surprisingly comfortable to wear, despite its heft. To combat wind noise, it has two noise-cancelling microphones on a boom that has three layers of what Plantronics refers to as WindSmart proprietary wind noise technology (the layers are stainless steel, acoustic fabric, and an electronic filter.

The Voyager Pro is rated at six hours of talk time and five days of standby, more than enough for the typical business traveler.

$109.99 at amazon.com

Sennheiser PXC 250

The Sennheiser PXC 250’s audio quality is impressive as is the comfort level. Even after hours of wearing the PXC 250, I experienced very little discomfort. Despite the small size, the wearer gets good separation and an impressive soundstage. Treble notes are vibrant and clear and the mid-range is lush and detailed. The bass could use a bit more punch but it is more than enough for most types of music.

The PXC 250 headphones don’t seal around the ears, which may add to their comfort and make them less likely to overheat one’s ears. They are also less effective at noise isolation than full-sized or in-ear models but they are far more compact than the full-sized ones and easier to travel with.

Most importantly, when folded, the Sennheiser PXC 250 headphones take up minimal space in my bag, something that cannot be said for the noise-cancelling headphones I used to carry on trips.

$59.95 at amazon.com

Stocking Stuffers

The Mophie Juice Pack Air is both a case and a charger. The Achilles heel of the iPhone is the lack of a removable battery and frequent travelers know that it isn’t always possible to stop for a recharge en route. The hard plastic case affords protection while it almost doubles the battery life of the iPhone.

$76.94 at amazon.com

The Clickfree Traveler is a credit card-sized 64 GB (16 and 32 GB also available) backup device that connects to your computer via a hidden USB connector. There’s no setup or software to install – Clickfree starts automatically and backs up every document and file it can find (including Web site favorites). The backup can be secured via a password to ensure full protection and it supports incremental backups.

$99.99 (32 GB) at amazon.com

Powergenix NiZn Quick Charger will charge up to 4 AA rechargeable batteries, making it unnecessary for the business traveler to carry extra batteries that take up valuable space. The charger comes with four Nickel-Zinc batteries (It takes about 1.5 hours to charge two) and is compatible with any voltage from 100-240 VAC.

$25.22 at amazon.com

Sena Premium Stand

Jonathan Spira — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:38:57 +0000

Most iPhone and iPod users find themselves in search of the perfect case at one point or another. Given the huge selection of cases available for these devices, it’s clear that there are many ways to define “perfect .”

If your iPod touch at all resembles mine in terms of content, you have a bunch of movies and vodcasts on it that you can watch on a trip (in addition to gigabytes of music and podcasts). The problem on a plane, however, is how to position the device so you can watch the movie from a comfortable distance.

In my search for a perfect case for the iPod touch, I came across a solution: the Sena Premium Stand. All I have to do is open the cover by about 270°, snap it in the open position (think tent here), and the case becomes a very elegant stand for the iPod touch or iPhone. Simply plug in headphones and you are all set. I tested the Premium Stand on aircraft and found that it positions the device at the perfect angle for viewing. It works equally well for viewing at a café or even in bed.

The reasonably-priced case is hand-crafted and made from soft calfskin Napa leather and is padded to protect the device within.

The Sena Premium Stand is $39 at amazon.com.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

Ford Sync Powered by Microsoft

Jonathan Spira — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:50:39 +0000

Sync, available in Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury cars, is without question the most advanced in-car infotainment technology I’ve ever used. Developed by Microsoft, Sync provides hands-free voice-activated control over phone (via Bluetooth) and music (via Bluetooth or a USB cable).

Sync is Microsoft’s second major automotive product: the first, Blue&Me, is similar to Sync and is offered in Fiat and Alfa vehicles.

Vehicle owners can download updates and new features via the Web and transfer these to the car via a USB drive.

When you press the voice command button, Sync presents a menu of top level commands on the display screen including navigation, phone, and various entertainment functions, as well as climate control.

Sync uses text-to-speech technology to allow the driver to speak the name of a music track or artist; this works remarkably well. I tested it with German and Italian titles as well as English and it got everything right.

My biggest complaint about Sync was its lack of proper support for podcasts; unlike other top-level categories in an iPod (Artist, Genre, etc.), there is no entry for podcasts on the Sync menu, so finding them was and will be a challenge. A lesser issue is that the repeat function stays on even after you turn the car off and back.

A new 911 Assist feature will call 911 automatically in the event of an air bag-deploying accident and play a pre-recorded message. The system uses the driver’s mobile phone so there is no monthly fee; on the flip side, this means that, if the phone is off or forgotten, unlike with systems from BMW, GM, and Mercedes, an emergency call will not go through. Because Sync is software-based, the 911 Assist feature can be added to older cars with Sync.

Ford is also introducing a Vehicle Health Report that drivers can request using voice commands. The Sync system conducts a check of over two dozen systems including major vehicle control modules and the results are available to the driver via the syncmyride.com Web site. The Sync system will also remind owners about necessary maintenance.

The new features should be available before the end of the year.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

iPod Classic

Jonathan Spira — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:20:52 +0000

The Apple iPod is unquestionably the most popular MP3 player to hit the market, with 71% of market share, according to the NPD Group.

So what could Apple do to improve the world’s favorite music player as it continues to define the portable music player? Quite a bit, it turns out.

For starters, the 80 Gbyte iPod Classic ($249) is thinner than its 60 Gbyte predecessor. The 160 Gbyte ($349), only slightly thicker than the previous generation 60 Gbyte model, can hold up to 40,000 songs or 200 hours of video.

The elegant faceplate is made of anodized aluminum instead of glossy plastic (sadly, the display is still scratch-prone plastic, unlike the optical glass used on the iPhone and iPod Touch).

Once turned on, a new, better looking, and easier-to-use menu system is presented. The split-screen menu displays selections on the right and an image related to the selection on the left. It also features new timers and alarms and a far more detailed breakdown of how storage space is being utilized.

Coverflow, which allows you to use the Click Wheel to scroll through your music, has been added to the iPod; while it’s a bit of a gimmick and slower if you have a large collection, it does add visual relief.

Otherwise, features are largely unchanged from the previous generation. Getting it set up was simple: all I had to do was plug it into my computer and iTunes handled the rest, transferring all of my music onto the device and making it ready for my next trip. Visit www.apple.com.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.