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Looking at Griffin Technology’s Cove

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If you have too many personal electronic devices with chargers and cables strewn about your household then you too should look at Cove, an elegant home recharging center. Long time accessory builder, Griffin Technology, is expanding their lineup with Cove and is using Indiegogo to crowdfund this project. The Cove can charge up to five personal electronic devices at one time and not just iDevices. Any of your gear that charges with an USB cable is Cove compatible.

Learn about Cove…

Right now, there’s an early adopter special of $150 for a Cove for the next 48 hours. I admit that I’m intrigued by Cove, but I have two concerns. I don’t know where I would place a Cove in my household that’s close to an electrical outlet and second, I’m afraid I’ll forget devices in the Cove when the door is closed. But I do have this phone and that phone and that other phone, a GoPro, an external battery pack, a tablet, a mini tablet to charge…

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Lodging at the Kilauea Military Camp

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If given the opportunity, staying at the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) while on the Big Island is sure to be a memorable experience. However, you need to be affiliated with the Department of Defense in order to book KMC cottages. I’ll be honest here. Don’t expect luxury at KMC. It’s clean, it’s functional, all the amenities are there, and it’s inexpensive. The cottages have been remodeled over the years, but if you’ve been to the cabins at Bellows then you’ve experienced a typical KMC cottage. Again, nothing wrong, just keep things in perspective.

There are a variety of cottage configurations, generally offered in 1 to 3 bedroom setups. However, the kinds of bed in each cottage could vary. A one bedroom cottage could have one bed in the single bedroom along with a sofa bed in the living room, or there could be two beds and a sofa bed. It all depends. When calling to make a reservation, just explain your desired arrangement and the workers will try their best to accommodate.

Each cottage is equipped with heaters in each room (including the bathroom), and there’s a fireplace in the living area (you do have to pay/buy the Duraflame logs). And there’s good reason for this heat. Located 4000 feet up in a rainforest, the weather is much different than downtown Hilo. You can expect 20-degree temperature swings from 80 degrees in Hilo then 60 degrees (and colder) on Kilauea.

On location, there’s a general store that covers all your basic needs, laundry facilities, an bowling alley, and an arcade. Although we didn’t eat at KMC, there are dining facilities and a bar. I didn’t check out the Fitness Center, but I made good use of the free Wifi in our cottage. Parking is typically available right outside.

KMC is actually located inside of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, making it super easy to experience the national park’s attractions. You do need to pay a park entry fee, but it’s good for a week. Being inside the park has great advantages of fully exploring all the attractions and getting an early head start before all the visitors arrive. More about park’s attractions in my next post.

There are some things to consider before reserving your stay at KMC. Your plans and itinerary while on the Big Island matter. KMC is somewhat remotely located, about a 45-minute drive from Hilo. Most likely, you won’t be commuting between KMC and Hilo in a single day. Once you head out for the day, you’ll probably stay out. When you come back at night, drive carefully. As you drive further up the volcano, there are less and less street lights. Somewhat windy roads, single lanes, and poor lighting are challenges. Then there’s the rain. Yes, Kilauea is a rainforest. Clear skies could change to downpours very quickly. So add the factor of rain and slick roads to the other conditions, and you’ll be faced with this.

Overall, lodging at KMC is well worth it. There are activities around the area that can last a day or two, and really, it’s just amazing to see how different the climate of Kilauea is.

A few more pictures of the Kilauea Military Camp.

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Fifteen Minutes with the Apple Watch Is Not Enough

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No, I didn’t pre-order an Apple Watch, wanting to see it in person first. So I scheduled a fifteen minute appointment to try on Apple’s newest wearable at the Ala Moana Apple Store, but those fifteen minutes are woefully short. Other than making an appointment, there’s no way of actually putting an Apple Watch on your wrist. The demo units are either behind a case or mounted in a display.

Burt Lum checks out the Apple Watches

The appointment runs through an educational demo of the Apple Watch. It’s kinda cool, but kinda lame since you’re standing there bed to your Apple concierge essentially watching a tutorial about the Apple Watch. The fun begins when you try on the different sizes and bands.

42mm or 38mm?

Guys definitely need the 42mm model. The 38mm looks too small and the band itself will barely fit. I could not slip my wrist through the 38mm Milanese Loop band.

A quick physical comparison to my Kickstarted Pebble watch, the 42mm Apple Watch is actually smaller. However, the craftsmanship and feel cannot be compared with the Apple Watch.

About the Sport Band

I’m not totally digging the Sport’s fluoroelastomer band. Yeah, it feels good, but I had a hard time putting it on single-handedly. It doesn’t align easily since you have to insert the pin first then tuck the excess band on the inside of the band. When taking off the Sport band, it comes off too readily, making for accidental drops.

The watch bands are easy to interchange, but personally, I don’t think all the bands match with the aluminum finish of the Sport model in case you’re thinking of “upgrading” your Apple Watch.

A Tiny Screen

The display of the Apple Watch is clear and crisp if not tiny. Looking at watch faces and well-designed activity monitors is fine. But trying to use Maps is too difficult for aged eyes. I guess the point is to use audio or haptic feedback to guide your directions.

Which Watch?

The general consensus is to buy the most inexpensive Apple Watch Sport model to minimize your investment in a first generation device. That’s very sound advice. Heed that advice and don’t try on the stainless steel Apple Watch. Otherwise, you very well may disregard that logical advice. I’m not sure what it was, but when I tried on the steel Apple Watch, it simply resonated with me. It felt heavier, making me more conscious about wearing it, but it wasn’t a burden. The leather strap definitely projected sophistication, and the magnetic closures felt more sure than the pin-and-tuck Sport band. Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought the steel itself felt cooler. Touching the sapphire crystal face, it felt smoother than the Ion-X glass of the Sport. And the stainless steel finish simply has an elegance missing from the anodized aluminum Sport. Trying on the Apple steel will only make your buying decision harder.

Initially, I was leaning to the Sport model in silver with a white band. But space gray with the black band is now my preferred Sport model. Seeing the gray/black combo stands out next to its colorful family members. But yes, the steel outshines all the Sports.

And there went my allotted 15 minutes. In fact, my appointment went overtime, nearly at 25 minutes, and it still wasn’t enough to adequately comprehend and assess the Apple Watch. I still haven’t figured out which watch to get.

Bonus Content

While at the Apple Store at Ala Moana, I ran across Ryan Ozawa and Burt Lum there for their try-on appointments. Here is Ryan’s Apple Watch post, and watch Burt’s video entering the store.

Through the Apple gauntlet for the #applewatch

A video posted by @bytemarks on

Yes, Simply Yes, CleanMyMac 3

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Digital hoarders, help is here. Yes, I too have been living with daily messages that my startup disk is almost full. I love my MacBook Air with its speedy solid state drive, but at a mere 256 gigabytes, there’s only so much I can store.

Yes, I’ve gotten rid of music files, transitioning to the cloud via iTunes Music Match. I’ve pruned through my Downloads folder. Every quarter I offload my photo library to an external drive and start anew. But still available drive space got smaller and smaller. Even with 5 gigs of space at the start of a day, I would inevitably get a low space warning by the end of the day. What and why I’m not sure, but there has to be a better way.

Replacing my stock SSD with a bigger one is one option, but hardware surgery on an Air is not something I want to attempt. Instead, check out CleanMyMac 3. This Mac OS X app does exactly that – it cleans your Mac painlessly and thoughtfully. Start with the default Smart Cleanup and let the app scan your drive. The first run may take awhile, but trust me, you’ll be pleasantly pleased with the findings.

CleanMyMac categorizes its cleanup into six sections:

  1. System Junk
  2. iPhoto Junk
  3. Mail Attachments
  4. iTunes Junk
  5. Trash Bins
  6. Large & Old Files

After the scan is complete, you can simply click on the Clean button to recover much needed space. Or you can investigate the individual sections to get more comfortable with what’s getting cleaned.

I started with cleaning the System Junk that includes caches, log files, language files, and other miscellaneous app data. Then I cleaned out iTunes Junk that included things I didn’t realize. A partial iTunes movie download was taking up 2 GB of space and those old iPhone and iPad backups, wow. I had several of these that were over a year old – 8 GB right there! Poking through the Large & Old Files, I discovered I had an old Mac OS X update installer sitting on my drive taking up 1.2 GB.

While I haven’t cleaned through everything yet, I’ve already recovered 20 GB of space, and I’m simply amazed. And even better, while the app is not free, it’s currently 50% off at $19.97 for use on a single machine. Definitely well worth it, and CleanMyMac 3 also includes additional utilities like an uninstaller and routines to run through maintenance, privacy, and extensions. Yes, there are other apps that do similar tasks, but by far, CleanMyMac 3 is the most comprehensive and the most elegant.

You’re still not convinced? Download the free trial version and decide for yourself. The trial version allows full scanning of your Mac but will only delete 500 MB of cruft. If you want to be free of the gigs of junk, you’ll need the full version. Just say yes, simply yes to CleanMyMac 3.

Hilo Sight Seeing Recommendations from @hawaii

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When the family was going to be in Hilo for a few days, I knew I had to contact @hawaii aka Ryan Ozawa about his personal recommendations since he’s been talking about Hilo for years. This simple inquiry led to a flood of advice for a short, three-day visit.

Because his advice was so good, I had to republish it here for others to benefit from. Here’s a slightly shortened version of what Ryan had to say (links are mine):

Between the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center (my favorite official ‘attraction’) and the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, that’s easily a full day already. Apart from that, there’s fun little things. Lyman is interesting to us but maybe not as much for kids. There is (was?) also a NOAA visitors’ center in downtown Hilo a while back that had kid-friendly exhibits all about the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. You can check out Rainbow Falls right above downtown, too. Big Island Candies is basically a big store but a visitor attraction in its own way (often they let you watch them make cookies/chocolates).

If you’re able to venture further, you can drive north a little bit out of Hilo for Onomea Bay Drive (4 mile scenic drive and short hike down if you want), further still for Kolekole Beach Park (under a striking bridge) or further to Akaka Falls (which is now much easier to get to than it used to be!). Hell you could get as far as Honokaa and Waipio Valley look out (kind of the Big Island’s Pali lookout). But that’s a few more hours of exploring and a lot of driving.

Thinking south of Hilo (between Hilo and the volcano park), you could always visit old Pahoa Town (kind of like a little Haleiwa), though there’s not much actual lava to see. There’s the Lava Tree park, which is neat…

Oh, and food? It’s cliche, but I love love love Ken’s House of Pancakes. Open 24 hours, breakfast available 24 hours, kind of reminds me of the old King’s Bakery. Other frequent stops are K’s Drive In, Blane’s Drive In, Leung’s for Chinese, Suisan for poke bowls (a classic!), Cafe Pesto for fancier sit-down dining. We just went to Hawaiian Style Cafe for the first time (near Big Island Candies), and it was pretty good but busy. Next door is Miyo’s, Japanese, which is where we usually go in that shopping complex…

A weird one: Kozmic Cones (317 Waianuenue Ave), just above downtown. Simple ice milk cones (like old school McDonald’s kine), dipped in nuts. So messy. But an easy treat. And there’s a drive through, so it’s often our last rush stop before the airport. 🙂 Oh, and you have to see if you can get into (and get your hands on) Two Ladies’ Kitchen for mochi.

Our trip is now done, and although we didn’t get the opportunity to visit every one of Ryan’s recommendations, we surprisingly hit a lot of them. Stay tuned for more posts…

Kicks Analysis 2015 #8: The Champ

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Notch another one for Team Swoosh. With Duke’s 68 to 63 victory over Wisconsin, a team wearing Nike shoes has now won 14 of the last 17 NCAA men’s basketball tournaments. That’s an impressive 82% winning percentage dating back to 1999.

1999 Connecticut (Nike)
2000 Michigan State (Reebok Answers)
2001 Duke (Nike)
2002 Maryland (Nike Shox Stunners)
2003 Syracuse (Nike Shox)
2004 Connecticut (Nike Lebron Zoom Generation and Air Force Operates)
2005 North Carolina (Nike Retro Jordan X)
2006 Florida (Nike)
2007 Florida (Nike)
2008 Kansas (Adidas)
2009 North Carolina (Nike)
2010 Duke (Nike)
2011 Connecticut (Nike)
2012 Kentucky (Nike)
2013 Louisville (Adidas)
2014 Connecticut (Nike Kobe 8 or Venomenon)
2015 Duke (Nike)

The Blue Devils wore all kinds of Nikes on the night of the Finals. I spy the 2015 Hyperrev, a Kyrie 1, and most impressively, a custom “universe” Lebron 10 on the feet of guard Quinn Cook. So much for my sentiment about not seeing LeBrons in the tournament.

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Congratulations to Duke for yet another championship, capping off One Shining Moment.

Kicks Analysis 2015 #7: The Finals

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Why do I bother with this Kicks Analysis? Throw out the numbers and just play the game and keep playing even if the shot clock expires! That’s why Adidas is even with Nike going into the 2015 NCAA Tournament Finals where Duke plays Wisconsin. Nike versus Adidas. Fifty fifty chance.

Adidas’ representation went like this:

  • Round of 64: 17%
  • Round of 32: 19%
  • Sweet 16: 25%
  • Elite 8: 25%
  • Final Four: 25%
  • Finals: 50%

While I’m still not a fan of the Adidas styling, if I had to jump on the three-stripped bandwagon, I would wear the new-ish D Lillard 1.

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Kicks Analysis 2015 #6: The Final Four

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Seeding has stabilized with the Final Four of Duke, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Michigan St. The Blue Devils, the Badgers, and the Wildcats are all top seeds while the seventh-seeded Spartans kept on marching. This marks the end of Under Armour’s excellent run with the downfall of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. That’s three Nike teams, Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan St. and one Adidas-wearing Wisconsin team left.

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Kicks Analysis 2015 #5: Elite 8

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From 64 teams down to the Elite 8, and all three shoe brands are still in the game. Nike has five of the eight (62.5%), Adidas has two teams (25%), and Under Armour sole representation (12.5%) is thanks to the strong play of Notre Dame.

Seed, Team, Shoe
1, Kentucky, Nike
3, Notre Dame, Under Armour
1, Wisconsin, Adidas
2, Arizona, Nike
1, Duke, Nike
2, Gonzaga, Nike
4, Louisville, Adidas
7, Michigan St., Nike

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Kicks Analysis 2015 #4: Shoes of Champions

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I already commented on the dearth of team shoes this year. Rather, players are wearing shoes matching their playing style and fashion sense. Although the one truism is that Air Jordan kicks are still marquee. You’ll see some Kobes, KDs, and surprisingly even fewer LeBrons. The closest team shoe I’ve noticed is the Nike Zoom Hyperrev 2015.

Arizona Wildcats Kobe X player exclusives

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Texas Hyperrevs

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Surrounded by Air Jordans

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Harvard Hyperrevs

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Nike Kyrie 1 behind UAB’s mismatched kicks

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Mismatched Nike Zoom Run the One and LeBron Soldiers

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Cheery swooshes

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Air Jordan 11 Legend Blue

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Retrain Your Brain at Starbucks Kailua

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Not too long ago, the Starbucks location in the heart of Kailua town closed for renovation. That was then, this is now.

Regular patrons, what do you notice right away? Yes, you have to retrain your brain and walk to the far end to place your order. It’s no longer the drink pickup area that’s now near the entrance.

You now go counterclockwise and pass by the counter of goodies.

Not sure what’s so special about this special edition Starbucks card. The “renovation complete” commemorative edition?

The small interior tables have been replaced with a higher seating capacity counter.

And look at the newest edition, the first Clover brew in Kailua!

I like the main lighting in the store…

Along with the accent lights over the Clover.

The reclaimed wood look prevalent in other Starbucks is here.

 But something else is different. What is it?

Oh yeah, I know… There’s no longer a second doorway! The street facing entrance is now a picture window framing the condiment bar.

So go ahead and retrain your brain on your next visit.

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