Instead of cutting back NAMM is promising the show in Anaheim for 2011 to be the beat ever. We have the exclusive video of the new LED guitar in hand, and we’ll let you know how it goes.

Scott

This year’s giftgiving is probably taking on a new meaning for your family as it is for most families across the country. Instead of gadget gizmo he things that really don’t serve any purpose, people are looking for things that are slightly more practical. I can’t say for sure if any of these things are more practical but they are things we use everyday.

Gifts For the Video Call People:

1. The Blue Snowball microphone or the Blue Yeti microphone.
   These Blue USB microphones offer some of the best sound quality you can buy at any price.
2. The new Microsoft Life Cam Cinema HD – USB video camera 720p and 16:9
   just when you think Microsoft can’t get anything right, they have a camera that performs. The new Microsoft life cam Cinema HD has picture quality that is absolutely unbelievable. It also has an excellent automatic light adjustment and contrast adjustment making you look good all the time. We’ve used a lot of desk top WebCams here at kuhltoys and this one is by far our favorite.

Gifts For The Messy Desk People:

1. The Neat Desk 698 document scanner
   The Neat desk scanners have been a lifesaver in our office. We don’t save any paper anymore everything is scanned shredded. It is so nice to be able to find things on our server quickly and easily.

Gifts For the Writer:

1. Dragon Naturally Speaking Pro 11
   Dragon NaturallySpeaking has come along way since the initial products. If you write letters e-mails or just don’t like typing on the keyboard, Dragon is the only way to go. This blog has been written I speaking to a computer using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Pro 10 since the day the blog started. Now that we have upgraded to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Pro version 11, I can’t believe we waited.  Skip the home version, get the pro, you’ll be glad you did.

Gifts For the Music Lover:

1. The Shure SE 110 – these are excellent on airplanes, trains or the slopes.
2. The Etymotic ER6i Sound IsolatorsBoth of these earphones are top-notch. We have both of these in the versions with the in-line microphones. We use in skiing flying or just about anywhere else where we want to get out of the noise. These in ear style isolator headphones have an amazing sound quality that cannot be matched by any wraparound style headphones. Shure and  Etymotic are the brands the pros use when they record their music, why not listen to it the same way?

Gifts for Everyone:

This year, we are also breaking are strictly business rule. Everybody needs a break and you can go skiing every day. Sometimes there is just too much snow to shovel out of the driveway. So the toy that we have all fallen in love with your cool toys is our Wii. I know you don’t expect the Wii to be the kuhl toy of the year, but we think it is. We added a whole section so you can pick any of the three colors of the Wii and get this year’s hot game,  Epic. We have been having so much fun with Wii bowling, Wii golf, and we carding that we just couldn’t resist putting it on the site for this holiday season.

The Wii should be included with any decent home system.  Netflix on demand is now available on the Wii, why go to the DVD store, when you can download and watch a DVD instantly on your Wii using Netflix for Wii.  Even when you are super focused, you need to take a break and have a little fun every once in a while. The Wii fit the bill.

This year is not about the great leap, but the little steps to keep us moving forward. All of these items are available at Kuhltoys.com. We hope you enjoy your holiday season

When the iPhone first came out, Steve Jobs told us that it changed everything.  I didn’t believe him and stuck with my BlackBerry.  At First it turned out to be the right decision. The first iPhones were very limited in what they could do. Now that I have an iPhone 4G, it changed a few things, but not quite everything. The high resolution retina display quite amazing. The camera isn’t quite a replacement for my pocket digital, but is pretty good. The thing I like best, I didn’t discover until I had the phone over a month. Voice control. That did change every thing I did with the phone.  The voice that talks back sounds just like the BlackBerry Voice only she is a much better listener and can do more than just “call home”.

The voice control functionality on the iPhone is significantly more robust than the voice Control on my BlackBerry. I can’t speak for the Torch because I got the iPhone 4G first. Admittedly there were some growing pains with the iPhone 4G.  Still my biggest complaint is the lack of ability to invite people to meeting.  It just blows my mind this simple feature is still missing. Who in the world can have a business meeting with only themselves. What I do is email a second account on my laptop, and then create the appointment on my laptop.  Hey I guess Mr. Jobs was right there too, it did change how I make appointments.  He didn’t say “it made everything better”, he just said “it changes everything.”  The other function I missed from the BlackBerry was the “to do list” that synced with MS Outlook or Google. Everything I want to do goes on to the to do list.  Each night I sort out my list deciding what really is going to be done and what was just a fun idea at the time. There is a company called Appigo that makes a pretty decent to do list that will sync with Microsoft Outlook. It isn’t quite as clean as the BlackBerry sync but good enough.

The iPad on the other hand really does change everything. I have to admit I’m still an observer though.  My current HP Touch Smart laptop hasn’t quite finished its useful life. I do plan to get an iPad in January along with a hot rod Mac.  The Fan on My HP quad is starting to act up.  I can see it’s time is coming.  For me, three years is a good run for a computer.  If you are a windows fan, the HP’s are pretty good.

Just watching how other people use their iPad is truly amazing. The only thing it’s missing is a keyboard. I have seen people using the on screen keyboard using the Columbus typing method, you know, “find a key and land on it”.  I don’t have the patience to do that and keep my train of thought on track.  Since I am planning to buy an iPad, I have decided to begin training myself to do less writing in public and more reading. I used to work on blogs like this while sitting in airports and other public places. Now I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking and do it from home or the privacy of a hotel room. I’m not sure if the iPad will have the horsepower needed to run a dictation program, that remains to be seen.  Dragon has a version for the iPhone I will buy today and let you know.  If it does work, I hope we don’t become a world of people standing around talking to our iPads.

One of the most amazing things that I have seen the iPad do, is replace a pilot kitbag. Most pilots carry around a bag of paperwork describing the airplane and all of the airports that could possibly go to. My bag weighs almost 60 pounds. Everything in that kitbag can be put onto the iPad. 60 pounds reduced to 3 pounds( the FAA requires you to carry a second battery). This is a game changer for all pilots. Just imagine what it could do for lawyers, doctors and other professionals.

I’m going to give Steve Jobs this one, the iPad is truly a game changer.  It is too bad we can’t sell them on our KuhlToys website, you’re going to have to go to the Apple Store to get your own. Maybe I’ll see you there.

I have two large screens with what I call the supercomputer (An HP Quadcore with 8GB Ram), Blue Snowball and Logitech THX speakers. I’ve had it for so long I don’t think anything of it. With this setup does it let me get all the information I need to make a better decision in front of me at the same time. I realized some time ago a lot of business owners can use this. By having enough screen space in front of me I can have a Skype file open with a video conference to a customer, a log me in remote session and the customer’s accounting all on the screen at the same time.

I’ve tried several different setups, and this one just works. What allows me to do is to step into my zone and finish most of my work in a couple of hours. I could work longer hours and that would be counterproductive. If you think about most office workers and how their day plays out, this should start to make sense to you. Most people walk into an office and are immediately sidetracked from their day. I having set up like this in my office and using a couple of simple techniques, I get in, get done and get out quickly.

I treat work just like Pilots treat a checklist for flying. I start the night before writing a list of five or six goals for the next morning. Having those goals the night before allows my subconscious mind to do a little sorting for me before I show up to the office. When I get to my office in the morning there are no distractions, just my checklist to get done.

My office is a separate room and everybody knows when I sit down in there to work, the room is off limits.  Even my cat is at the door sleeping, waiting for me to finish.  During this time, I rarely answer calls, usually I answer only scheduled and anticipated calls.  This work window isn’t the right time and I’m not in the zone to do the best that I can for whoever is calling if I am not expecting the call. If they leave a message, as soon as I’m finished with my morning tasks or goals I can then get the information they need and call them back ready to help them rather than just answer the phone and waste both of our time.

If you run a business that needs to answer calls all of the time, then hire someone to answer them and just take care of as much as they can.  The rest of the calls can be put on the calendar to attend to quickly and effectively in the future.

Just think about a time when you’re in the zone, cruising along and work was flying by and the phone rang. When you enter it what happens you get sidetracked and leave the zone. Every time you leave the zone, your productivity and quality of work declines. It is much better to wait and say you have the time to get into the right tone for the customer and give them your very best. Once they know you will call them back ready to help them, they’re more than happy to leave a message and wait a little while. It uses less of their time and less of your time letting both of you get more done.

It is a an odd paradox at doing it now doesn’t always lead to doing it best or doing it faster. It takes some practice and some attention before you will notice how much more work you can get done in much less time by staying in the zone. Getting in the zone means you have to have the right tools and be ready to work. Have you ever watched the plumber that goes back and forth to his car six times because he didn’t bring all the right tools the first time.

From here on out this blog will be about making sure you have the right toolbox when you enter your zone. The related cool toys website will have the tools that I keep in my toolbox ready to work. As I change tools I’ll use the blog to keep you up to date and I will change them online on cool toys.com. For instance this blog was written using Dragon naturally speaking in order to save time and keep my thoughts on track. I speak and think faster than I can write. When I type I am more likely to get sidetracked and lose focus. This is one tool that keeps me in the zone.

Let’s start building your toolbox and protecting your zone today.

Judge Green is the man who single handedly broke up the largest telephone company in the world, AT&T. In doing so, Judge Green created several Regional Bell Operating Companies or RBOC’s (pronounced reboks). The professor claimed this was then end of the dream for AT&T and IBM. He also said the consumer was going to lose out.

The presentation he gave had pictures with rooms of IBM Servers connected to peoples homes over the AT&T telephone lines. These big computers were going to provide any TV show or movie, any time they wanted it. He said without the capital available to AT&T and IBM together no one would be able to build such a system ever.

In order to fast forward to today you would have to pass several key technologies the professor clearly didn’t predict. BitTorrent for one, and IP to the home for another. As it turns out Judge Green didn’t end the dream, he just unknowingly changed what it looked like and who the players are.

Today you can order thousands of movies online from Netflix and be watching in hours. The new version of AT&T offers u-Verse with movies on demand and unintentionally access to services like Hulu and TV.com.

The three pieces in the original vision from AT&T and IBM still exist, they just look different. Newer computers allowed that room of IBM computers to be reduced to a small server center. Clustered PC technology reduced the footprint even further. Most importantly, BitTorrent allowed the TV shows and movies, now called content, to be broken up into millions of tiny bits and stored all over the world.

The picture quality isn’t HD yet, but it is getting there. Old black and white movies on Netflix have the same quality of their DVD counterparts. Years ago I was selling everyone on movie servers and premium cable or satellite packages to get premium home entertainment. From the consumers perspective, we are almost living the dream that AT&T and IBM put together in the 70′s and 80′s. The difference is we are now all participating as hosts for those little bits of data that make up the movies and TV shows we watch.

It has been three months since I signed up for Netflix and got a server that plays Hulu TV shows in my media room. I haven’t missed or even used my DVD movie server even once. More importantly, I don’t miss my premium movie channels on the satellite or the bill that came with them. Whenever there is a great idea and a frustrated consumer, something better will come along. What is next I wonder?