The K Unit

I’m really excited about the Microsoft Courier. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, I have reluctantly gone back to using my Asus R1F tablet and have indirectly given up on my Macbook Pro. Don’t get me wrong – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Macbook Pro or OSX. It’s still my desktop OS of choice. Everything just seems to work on the Mac.

Given then I’m no longer a developer, a lot of my work life is involved in meetings with the business team or the dev team to discuss new ideas, work out issues or discuss design. In meetings, I often find it a lot easier to use a notepad instead of typing on a computer to communicate or describe ideas. The tablet is both the happy medium and extension of these two solutions. It has the flexibility of a notepad and the ability to store and distribute digitally. The downside of my current tablet is that it is extremely heavy weighing at almost 7 lbs. The weight isn’t bad if all I’m doing is lugging it from home and to work. It’s a bit weighty to be lugging it around the office and sometimes across the street. The weight is not bad if you consider what it does but today, it is more powerful than what I need it to be today.

Here’s where I think Microsoft Courier comes in. From the demos on Gizmodo, the product looks more like a paper notebook or portfolio which I take to my meetings right now. It has two “pages” and the way it is designed to work is that one page is used for searching and research while the other is used to work on. The form factor is ideal and I love the idea of having both stylus and finger touch. The really interesting thing about the product is that most of the function that is being displayed here already exists within the Microsoft realm of products. The note writing, embedding of images, handwriting recognition, OCR and concept of pages is embeded in a combination of OneNote and Windows 7. If you’ve never tried, the tablet function in Windows 7 is phenomenal. The gesture support is already used in the Microsoft Surface products.

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

As there are still a number of things that are unknown about the product, there are also a number of things that I’d love to see incorporated into the device. Synchronization to a central service is key. Notebooks are really good to start ideas however at some point, most ideas need to be finished on a computer. Also for me I tend to work on multiple computers and other peripherals so inter-device accessibility is key. I’m not sure I would install a lot of different applications on the device but the additional applications that I would use on this device are instant messaging, email and multimedia player. Bluetooth integration would be a nice touch to connect to a wireless headset. While having the ability to do both multi-touch and stylus is really nice, I hope that the hardware is able to differentiate the two as when writing, my hand tends to touch the paper and could cause the device to go awry. The biggest unknown about the product is hardware. For me to be able to use it, it would need to weigh at 2 lbs or less. It also can’t be too big or too thin as this would be a device to supplement my MacBook, not replace it. Given that I’m usually moving around for meetings, it will need to last at least 4 hours and have the ability to change batteries.

While I’ve had a Zoompass account for a few months now, I haven’t really had a chance to use it. I like the idea of it and just as importantly, it is a Canadian venture that as far as I can tell is based out of Toronto. This blog fits more under the ‘perfectissimo’ category rather than a review since I am writing based on how I think I will use it rather than the experience of using it.

First off, a little bit about me to understand why I am excited about it. In general, I don’t like dealing with cash but even less with debit cards. Too often have my friends been victims of debit card fraud. At the same time, the issue with using credit cards is that unless I’m checking constantly, it can sometimes be a surprise at the end of the month how much I have spent on miscelaneous expenses. Not sure about other countries, but there are quite a few services that offer “no fee” banking but one of the issues with that is the one I use in particular does not offer the ability email money transfer.

Looking at the services offered, I think that Zoompass offers a service that bridges the gaps in the financial services provided to me by the providers of my choosing. Here are some of the reasons why I am attracted to Zoompass

Transfer money to another person at a reasonable cost

Zoompass offers the everyday person the ability to securely transfer money from one person to another via money in their Zoompass account or a credit card attached to their Zoompass account. Zoompass to Zoompass transfers cost very little money. We have Email Money Transfer in Canada but for those of us who aren’t banking with the big 5 banks, the cost per transaction is quite high and quite inconvenient. Zoompass assists with this.

Act as a cash account that is integrated with PayPass and Mastercard

One of the things that I thought was very useful was the ability to use my “octopus” card (equivalent of TTC Metropass) in HK to pay for transit fares and other miscellaenous purchases. PayPass brings the same concept to Canada. It is also integrated with a Mastercard giving me maximum flexibility of payment. What I like best about this concept though is that it is truely a cash card. I like the fact that I can limit how much money is on the card. If the card is ever stolen, there’s a bit of a cap on how much money there is on the card. Also, it’s a good way to manage my incidental expenses. My issue with using cash is there its not tackable and the issue with using a credit card is that I don’t check for how much I spend until the end of the month.

A couple of things that I would like to see is the ability to transfer money to and from my credit card to Zoompass. I know that the reason why they don’t do it is for fraud prevention but it would be a nice feature nonetheless. In general, I’m paranoid attaching my personal bank account to any thing on the web and it is one of the reasons preventing me from using this more. Another thing that would be interesting and perhaps it’s just a matter of time is to use a service like Zoompass to facilitate micro financial transactions. I personally think there is a huge market opportunity there. Right now the only way you can transfer money via your mobile device is via an installed app or via the mobile app. SMS money transfer would also be an awesome service although I would be quite curious to see how they would deal with stolen phones or wrongful access of your phone.

I love the potential of Zoompass and definitely hope that it lives up to its promise.

I currently use the Lowepro Slingshot 100 as my day-to-day camera bag.
There are many things I like about it. It's small, easy to access as I
can swing the bag quickly to the front and has some really useful
features like a waterproof cover so that I can cover the bag in case it
rains. But there are a couple of downsides. For one, the bag is
extremely uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. It would also
be nice to be able to carry a tri-pod as well. My Gitzo doesn't come
with a sling.

So, the perfect camera bag for day-to-day use would have the following features:
* interchangeable slings between my right and left shoulder so I could distribute the weight
* means to carry my tripod
* ability to carry a water bottle
* space to carry miscellaneous stuff like manuals and sunglasses
* comfortable to wear for at least 5 or 6 hours a da

I love trying new products; I think for the most part, we all do. For
me, it's always about trying to do things in a more functional or
natural fashion. Sometimes it's to make life easier for me or to
enhance my enjoyment of my many hobbies. So I decided to create a new
category called "Perfect-isimo." It's for the times when I'm using a
particular product and I'm thinking about "if only it had… then it
would be just perfect." I figured that if I had a particular need, I'm
sure other people are looking for the same thing too and it could be a
good way to note down the product discoveries together.