I’d seen a bunch of stuff published about the Eye-Fi SD Card. Basically, it’s an SD memory card for your digital camera that also connects wirelessly to the internet, uploading your pics automatically to your favorite picture sharing website, and also to your computer. Say “so long” to the days of having pictures languishing in your camera for months on end. At $99 it’s pricey for a 2 gig SD card, but when you add the wireless features, it seems pretty darn reasonable. So I purchased one from Buy.com and waited eagerly for its arrival.

When I got it, I was initially confused, but then impressed by the creative packaging. It’s pretty low-impact since it has no nasty hard plastic covering to cut away, and when you pull the tab on the right, the package opens to reveal the card and reader on the left, and the quick start guide on the right. Nifty, I thought.

So I figured I would try the installation, since it seemed so easy. Not so fast there, though, things are never quite what they seem. When I plugged the card and reader into my USB port, I initially got the device to appear as a mounted drive on my iMac. So far, so good. So I clicked through to the “START HERE” folder, and ran the installation program. That went okay, too. But, on running the program, I got a message that said the card could not be initialized, so hey, WTF on that? Not only that, it brought up the web-based Eye-Fi manager, asking for my user name and password. Since I didn’t yet have the opportunity to sign up on Eye-Fi, I had no user name or password, and there was no option to sign up for one. Very frustrating.

So I looked around on the internet, and found an article somewhere that said that user ran into the same kind of thing, but when he plugged the reader into another port, it worked. So I tried that. No joy. Then, being a dyed-in-the-wool Windows survivor, I decided to try rebooting my Mac. After that, the reader would not even show up as a mounted drive. So I began to think about the arduous process of having to return the darn thing to Buy.com.

However, deciding not to be hasty, I though of putting the card itself into my trusty multi-card reader. I first deleted all the Eye-Fi program from the computer. Then I put the card in the multi-card reader, re-installed the manager program, and even got prompted to update the software. Good sign. After updating, I ran the manager program, and viola! The card was recognized, initialized, and I got directed to the sign-up portion of the web manager. From there on, smooth sailing.

I was then able to go through the setup, to point the card to my account on Flickr, and to direct it to send the photos to iPhoto on my Mac. I did the required test photo, and it uploaded perfectly. At this point, it’s all set up for my upcoming vacation, and I couldn’t be happier. Nifty product, buggy reader, but solid otherwise. My advice: if you have a card reader on your computer already, bag the Eye-Fi card reader and just use that. Bottom line: totally worthwhile product.

Well, I didn’t see much usefulness of Jott when I first heard about it. But, after several people started Jotting in their Twitters, I decided yesterday to check it out.

Jott is basically a service that translates your voice to text. So you can call in on its toll-free number, speak for thirty seconds, and Jott will then email you the text, or email it to your friends, or send it to any number of applications, including Twitter. I can see that it would be a great way to record a “note to self” when you’re on the go, and don’t have something with you to write a thought down (who writes things down these days anyway?). And if you have hands-free mobile set up in your car as I do, you can easily even send yourself, a friend or coworker an important message while you’re traveling.

So it seemed like Jott would be quite useful after all. However, when I tried several times to import my Mac address book via vCard export and then importing the list through Jott’s import wizard, all it imported were the names, not phone numbers or email, which is necessary in order to make it at all useful. Since I’m on Plaxo, I tried that, but it only imported 15 out of my nearly 200 contacts. So that functionality has a long way to go before it can ever be, well, functional.

I did to a couple of test Jotts, two to myself, and one to Twitter. They all behaved really well. There was just one wrong word in my Twitter, but I don’t think I was speaking very clearly, which the application reminds you over and over should be done. I’d have to say the speech to text functionality seems pretty good at first glance.

Overall, I think it has real promise as an application. I do think people need a good way to take a quick note or tell a bunch of people something on the go. But there still needs to be some work on the import interface because who wants to enter their address book all over again?

Well, as steadfastly as I may have resisted the iWhatever revolution, I gave in this Christmas time. And I really did like my Sansa mp3 Player (with the exception of the fact that its Wi-Fi capability was limited to Yahoo Instant Messenger, and Yahoo’s [expensive] music store).

I have to say, I was itching for an iPhone, but the fact that it only worked on AT&T’s cellular network (can you say monopoly?) kept me from getting in line for one. Then I saw the iPod Touch. It had real Wi-Fi capabilities, including the Safari web browser, and held much more music than my Sansa. So I made the leap. It worked right out of the box, and did all the things I thought it should. I’ve also been finding so many web apps, like PocketTweets, weather.com, and Google Mail mobile, that it is pretty much indispensable. It even connected to the free Wi-Fi at the hospital today while I was waiting for Mom to have her minor surgery. I love it and wouldn’t be able to do without it!

Then it was time to look for a new computer. I couldn’t stand the thought of getting saddled with Vista, and I know it will be only a matter of time before Microsoft discontinues support for XP, so I decided to make the leap to the Mac world. And now I know why so many are just attached to it. I got an iMac, which declutters my desktop, connects wirelessly to my home network, has wireless keyboard and mouse (which is awesome), and even a remote control for iTunes. I got an Airport Express module that connects my stereo to the network wirelessly and plays iTunes from my computer. I guess I’m living in an iWorld right now!

I have to admit, after having resisted all this for so long, that it’s nice to be using stuff that just works. It took a bit to transfer my files from the laptop, but I finally figured that out. I also have had some issues with the iMac losing the keyboard (I screwed something up) and documentation has been spotty. But still in all, things are working well, and I’m enjoying learning a new operating system and a new way of doing stuff.

I have had my SanDisk Sansa Connect mp3 Player for a month or so now. Overall, it’s great, and exactly what I wanted in a music player. It stores about 4 Gb of music on its own, and you can easily add a MicroSD card to increase the memory 1-4 extra Gb.

I have really enjoyed listening to the music I put on it, plus I am able to connect to wireless networks and listen to internet radio. I had hoped that meant any internet radio station out there, but it actually just means Yahoo! internet radio, which is a bit limited, but still okay. In addition to connecting to Yahoo!’s radio stations, you can purchase music online through Yahoo! Unlimited, which for me is too expensive. You also can connect to your Flickr photos, which is cool, and to allow people on your Yahoo! Instant Messenger buddy list to see what songs you are listening to and to give and receive recommendations to and from them.

What I don’t like is that as bundled it appeared you had to use Yahoo!’s Jukebox music software, which didn’t work that great for me and I intensely disliked. I did, however, find that it works just as well, better actually, with Microsoft Media Player, which I like a lot.

Overall, the Sansa is my favorite new toy, and gives me the ability to enjoy my music wherever I am, as well as to connect to the internet when desired.