End of Garmin Forerunner 305

Today, I got all my gear ready to go for a run and found that my trusted Garmin Forerunner 305 failed to turn on. I put it back in the charger and it went from Charging in Progress to Charging Completed. The device turned on when connected to the charger, but when I removed it, it died. So, the battery on it is toast.

My options are:

1. Get a replacement battery by sending to to Garmin. Cost unknown.
2. Get a new Forerunner 305
   . About $150 from Amazon.
3. Get a Forerunner 405
   . About $350 from Amazon (-$50 rebate).
4. Don't use anything.

My Forerunner 305 lasted almost 4 years, so I'm pretty pleased with how long the battery lasted. While a replacement battery would probably be the cheapest option, I've been having problems with the speaker on it, so I have no idea when that will go out. A replacement is the second, least attractive option. As I've been wanting to get the 405 for a number of reasions, I'm using this as an excuse to upgrade (like I need an excuse)!

Once I get the device and start using it, I'll write a review. I'm sure the review won't be as popular as my Forerunner 305 review that still gets comments almost 4 years later, but I'll write something.

Hey Garmin, if you want to send me something to review, I won't send it back!

Useless Time Capsule Feature

I finally got around to backing up my Time Capsule last weekend as I needed an offsite backup for it. While I have an offsite backup for my MacBook Pro, I didn't have an offsite backup for my Time Capsule which has my wife's backup on it as well as my own Time Machine backup. The AirPort utility has an option to archive the Time Capsule to a USB hard drive. There are 2 problems with this option; 1) it is all or nothing with no incremental option and 2) using it takes the Time Capsule off the network for the entire backup. When I did the backup (before I discovered #2), it took about 6 hours to backup.

So, using this option is obviously not geared towards people like me that want to do an offsite backup every week. I realize that I'm not the average user, but how hard would it have been to put an rsync-like feature so that incremental backups can be performed. So now I mount a backup drive on my media center machine and mount the Time Capsule volume; then I do an rsync and can do an incremental backup. Time Capsule stores backups as sparse disc images with bands that are about 8 MB, so the entire disc image "file" doesn't have to get backed up.

This is not as easy as it could be, but now I'll be able to store a backup offsite on a weekly basis.

The iPad: What has Apple done?

When I read the live blogs of Apple's announcement last week, I kind of thought that the device has pretty uninteresting to me as an individual. I did, however, think that it had great potential for vertical markets. Medical records and pre-hospital emergency care come to mind immediately. There are, of course, lots of other potential vertical markets for it. At $500, the device is quite cheap for a vertical market.

A day after the announcement, I went to Apple's Web site and after watching Apple's video, my view on the device for a consumer, has changed dramatically. The device looks very cool and I could definitely see myself using one for surfing the web on the couch or reading books (I sometimes use my ancient Sony eBook reader).

As pointed out on the MacBreak Weekly podcast, Apple has basically created a device that people didn't think they needed into a device that lots of people will believe they need. Only time will tell if this is true, but I would not be surprised if it was.

As someone who has written iPhone applications and has been a long time Cocoa/Objective-C developer, I'm excited to start developing applications, even if they are not my own ideas. I love writing code and a "new" platform will make things very interesting.

Now I just have to figure out how to justify purchasing one or find someone to buy me one!

Alarmist News Reporting

While it shouldn't surprise me to have news programs try to increase ratings by alarming the public, I was quite disappointed by NBC's Nightly News on Saturday. Here's my letter to them:

On Saturday's Nightly News, you had a story about the Toyota Recall. In the story, you highlight a retired orthopedic surgeon who had an issue with his 2005 Toyota Highlander hybrid. This model vehicle is NOT part of the current recall and either you know something that Toyota doesn't or your story is trying to alarm the public. The recall only covers certain new model Highlanders; as an owner of a 2003 Highlander, I didn't pay much attention to it. Your story didn't make it clear that this story had nothing to do with the current recall. While the doctor highlighted may have had issues with his vehicle, I think it is quite irresponsible for you to do a story on an issue that has nothing to back it up; one person had an issue with an older car.

I would appreciate seeing a clarification to this story.

We'll see if NBC does anything. Toyota does have a huge problem, but this story could likely make it even worse.