For the past five years I’ve been using Etymotic ER6i Isolator earphones. I’ve used them with my original 2nd gen iPod, my iPod nano, and now my iPhone 3G. Unlike the standard Apple earbuds, the Etys are in-ear earphones, which means that they also act as earplugs, isolating outside noise (like terrible coffee shop music). In fact, the tighter the outside noise isolation, the better the fidelity and bass response of the Etys. I love these things.
Etymotic has a long history of making high-end earphones as well as superior hearing protection. I bring a pair of Etymotic ER-20 earplugs with me to every concert, and I end up using them about half the time. They do an outstanding job of lowering volumes by about 15db without any of the muffling effect you get from regular foam earplugs. Wearing them is a great way to enjoy a concert and avoid damaging your hearing or aggravating evil tinnitus.
Both the earplugs and ER6i earphones use a triple flanged eartip to isolate noise. However, ear canal shapes vary widely among people, so Etymotic offers several eartip options. In my case, I found that the beige foam eartips did the best job of isolating sound by expanding to the shape of my ear canal. Compared to the flange eartip, I hear much deeper bass with the foam eartips installed.
I hope my Etys last another five years. And if they don’t, I’ll buy another set in an instant.
I’ve always wanted to get a proper SteadyCam or a Manfrotto Fig Rig to help stabilize non-tripod shots with my video camera, but both options can be a bit expensive. While a SteadyCam tries to isolate vibrations from the cameraman through gimbals and counterweights, the Fig Rig uses two-handed leverage to dampen them. It’s simple, effective, and easy to emulate, so I decided to build my own “DIY Camera Stabilizer”.
Before I started, I found a great post on dvxuser.com from someone who made their own stabilizer. His design was so elegant that I decided to try it. He simply used a piece of L-shaped aluminum for a crossbar, and in a brilliant example of genius, used garden hose nozzles for the grips. The genius of the garden hose nozzle is that it includes a rubber grip wrapped around a brass pipe with a threaded end point. There’s no need to fabricate a custom hand grip!
I have a benchtop drill press which made construction simple. I bought two hose nozzles and a length of 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch x 1/8 inch thick L-shaped aluminum bracket at the hardware store. Using a hacksaw, I cut the bracket to 22 inches long, and drilled a hole in the center for a standard 1/4 20 camera mounting bolt. The threaded end on the hose nozzle was a bit more than 5/8 inches wide, so I bought a fat 5/8 inch drill bit, drilled holes 1 inch in from each side for each nozzle, then filed the hole a tad wider until the holder would set in place. I gave it a quick polish and cleaning, and that was that.
The finished product is amazingly effective. Videos are very smooth and steady. You can fake some nice crane shots, and by doing the “groucho walk,” you can get nice dolly-like SteadyCam flying. I’ll post some videos after I practice a little more.
I’m pretty sure I paid less than $15 for all of the parts, not including the fat drill bit (which was also around $15.)
There are a lot of solutions for using an iPod or iPhone in a car, but if you want the ideal combination of safety, good sound quality, and in-car charging, the options narrow quickly. The options narrow even more if you want the final results to look clean and neat.
For my iPhone 3G, I ended up using a mount from ProClip, and an adapter from Kensington.
I initially purchased the Kensington Car Charger Deluxe ![[B0011ULQ1K]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
, as it looked like a Griffin TuneFlex designed for the iPhone, but discovered that it a) didn’t fit properly in the lighter socket in the Audi, and b) did not support line-out audio. I returned it and purchased another Kensington adapter called the LiquidAUX . The LiquidAUX supports proper line-out audio and doesn’t include the balky mounting bracket. It also includes a totally useless wireless remote control, which I left in the box.
I purchased a dashboard mount from ProClip. The ProClip mounts are actually made in Sweden by a company called Brodit. They’re purchased in two parts. The first is a generic device mount that is specific to a car model. It uses a tool-less installation process that snaps in between the stereo and the dashboard console. The second is a device-specific mount that is screwed directly into the generic mount. The combination is a bit expensive, as I paid $35 for each of the two parts. However, it’s a sturdy, classy combination for a specific device and car model, which in my case is a mount for an iPhone 3G in a 2001 Audi A4.
The combination of the ProClip mount with the Kensington adapter gave me exactly what I wanted: a clean and neat in-car iPhone 3G solution with safe placement, good sound quality, and in-car charging.
One device to rule them all…
The timeline reads from left to right (obviously), and spans about 10-12 years. I couldn’t find my original Palm Pilot Personal. It would have sat to the left of the Visor. I also don’t show any of my original Windows CE devices, like the Philips Velo. And I suppose I should note that I actually have two of several of these gadgets.
I’ve always been interested in connectivity for PDAs. I had the snap-on modem for the Palm Pilot and the OmniSky wireless modem for the Visor. I paired my Zodiac with the Sony phone via Bluetooth and was surfing the net pretty reliably, though slowly, with that setup. I had a WiFi SD card that worked with the Zodiac, and even set up a Bluetooth Access Point in my house.
It’s interesting to see the incremental evolutionary steps between all of these devices. But it’s amazing to comprehend the generation leap the iPhone makes over everything before it.
Now that I have this photo, it’s off to the recycler for most of these things.
I posted an update to the (amazing!) Suck-O-Meter [suckometer, suckometeriphone] app for the iPhone. Just head to http://www.suckometer.com using Safari, or visit Apple’s Web Apps site. It will auto-detect your iPhone or iPod Touch, and you’ll soon have a greater awareness of the number of sucky things around you.
The Suck-O-Meter can now run as a stand-alone app if your iPhone is running OS version 2.1 or later. Just click the “+” button and choose “Add to Home Screen”. This lets the app load a lot faster, and you won’t see any of the usual browser stuff.
I also removed the Amazon.com ad, and replaced it with an ad banner from AdMob. Previously, there was a 1-in-5 chance you would see the Amazon ad after each “Does it SUCK?” test. After six months and tens of thousands of page views, I’ve made a whopping $1.43 in ad revenue. I’m not really trying to make money from this thing, but I do want to know what kind of conversion rates exist for various iPhone ad models. The AdMob banner appears on the bottom of the screen all the time, and at the moment, seems to think that Suck-O-Meter users are highly interested in a vacation. Makes sense to me!
Finally, I moved the hot-spot for the about box from the previously dedicated “About…” link on the bottom. Now you can just click the “Suck-O-Meter” title to see the about box and contact support. You know… if you need support.
