[Backchannel #002] All this happened, more or less.

Greetings from my shed.

This newsletter has been graded with a Narcissistic Content Rating of level 4 (NCR4).  Expect to see mild self-aggrandisement and two partial selfies.

There was a flurry of new subscribers after the launch of #001.  To those fresh in…  Welcome.  Feels good.  Like there’s a club.  A gang.  Almost enough people to cause some trouble.

I was wondering if a newsletter was more narcissistic than a blog.  It's hard to gauge. I did do a test though. A very non-scientific thing. I’ll link at the bottom.  I scored 17.

Things I saw:

Wales.  Spent the weekend there.  Love it.  Just wish I was closer.  My dream is to have a cabin in the woods.  Anywhere. Or maybe just my own wood.  While there's still trees. LINK

Things I read:

Was pleased to see Phil Sands’s work listed by Syria ‘expert’ Aron Lund. 
I worked with Phil in Iraq (2005), Jordan (2008), Syria (2013) and Lebanon (2014).  I don’t know a more thorough Journalist.  If you want to get genned up on the current situation in Syria click read these articles.  LINK

Things I drank:

With two IWSC awards in under it’s belt Eagle Rare 10 Year Old  Kentucky Straight Bourbon shoots straight and hits the mark.  Worth every penny of the £36 asking price.  This was a birthday gift but we’ve met before.  I recently discovered a bottle on a late night in Gothenburg.  Don’t remember where.

Tasting Notes:  If in a bar tell the barman to “leave the bottle”.  You need to do that once in your life.  Do it with a fixed gaze.  Even if drinking on your own.  Even as he’s wondering if you can’t afford it.  If you have one to hand, place a nugget of gold on the table to ease his suspicion.

The slender bottle is best opened with teeth.  Twist, yank and spit the cork across the room.  Make the point that now it’s open it’s staying that way.  You're not on a horse, so use a glass.  If you're near a fridge an ice cube might be nice.  A handful if you’re thirsty.  It’s also good sipping whiskey.  That’s how I drink it if i’m trapped in the shed.  Not tried it in a hip flask.  Or from the bottle around a stranger’s camp fire.

The first gulp refreshes more than anaesthetises.  Full bodied leather riding chaps.  Smoke from the charred butt of a rifle too close to the fire.  Metal from a bloodied lip.  Suck your lip and it may taste like someone else’s.  Caramel and vanilla.  Then to end.  A reminder, a warning to sip again.  If only to cut short a long finish of cheap coffin pine.

Things I wrote:

This.

Things I heard:

In Backchannel #001 I linked to an ident Miki Strange created. Hosted with Copy it’s not there now (for reasons explained below.) It's now hosted here. LINK

You can find out how the clip was constructed on Miki Strange's blog. LINK

Things I bought:

The Dash from Bragi.  Beautifully designed wireless ‘smart’ earbuds. I bought them through Kickstarter Feb 2014.  Yes, two years ago.  They cost $237 (£143.80).  They arrived this week.  The excitement had somewhat worn off as back then they were verging on Sci-Fi.  Now there are a few companies making bluetooth earbuds.  Not as highly spec’d as these, but maybe it was the spec that got the better of Bragi.

You may have read some of the posts born out of the excitement after the 2 year wait was over.  I’m pretty sure these are from people who had a shiny box land free of charge on their desk.  Or worse, they copped a 5 minute feel at CES.  Statements like ‘The smartest earbuds on the planet’ and ‘Bragi managed to deliver exactly what it had promised’.  I’m wondering if we looked at the same units.

The out of the box experience had me going. “Ooo shiny!”  And then I waited.  The firmware update took three hours to trickle transfer from one earbud to the other.  It uses near field magnetic induction (NFMI). Sounds futuristic but needs old fashioned patience.  The new firmware filled me with hope.

It is an impressive offering.  A water resistant fitness tracker, heart rate monitor and 4gb media player the size of two large wireless earbuds. Or so I've heard.  After the 3 hour update the buds still had issues speaking to the phone.  They connected on day one for a little while.  But only if my phone was less than 12 inches away.  They've never managed to talk to the app.  So all I managed was to have them play music from the inbuilt 4gb storage.  Which was also flaky.  While out running over two days they lasted 10 mins the first day, 15 the next.  The fully charged earbuds just failed to respond halfway through a light jog.  The only thing I could do to revive them was to reset them with a pin.

So…

Pros: Easy to use.  Sci-Fi cool.  Decent fit.  Great build quality.  Sturdy charging case.  Helpful audio assistant.  Decent sound quality.
Cons: They don’t work.  Yet.

I am hoping that the buggy software, weak bluetooth to the phone and sporadic connectivity between earpieces will be sorted.  I probably should have left them in the box till the next firmware update arrives.  I'm glad Bragi have aimed as high as they did and feel anyone thinking about buying their tech should wait and see.  They are clearly very passionate about what they are doing.  The issues they have overcome have seen them create an amazing new class of product.  A ‘hearable’ that consolidates the functions of many other devices.  A platform. Two tiny sensor rich computers you stick in your ears.

Although disappointed with my initial experience of the hardware, I’m hopeful.  Hearables are going to be a huge part of the future.  Fewer screen glances, fewer distractions.  A future where the ambient awareness of contextually relevant data augments our realities.

This isn’t science fiction any more.

And if you're into augmenting what you hear check out HerePlus. LINK
 

Things I got for nothing:

The Olloclip Studio landed on my mat this week.  A photo/video rig for your iPhone that ships mid Feb.  Cur video.. LINK  

If you need a photo/video rig for your iPhone then you could shop around on ebay.  It’s a faff but you could probably assemble something half decent for about £35.  I’ve done this.  Tested what feels like half a million possible combinations.  Stuck them in my bag.  Then left them there.  Another option is to stump up $89 for Olloclip’s case and attachments.  The attachments slide onto the Olloclip lens friendly case.  Then you can attach a flash/mic shoe, a tripod mount (horizontal or vertical), a grip, and a ‘kickstand’.

While lightweight, robust and easy to use I can’t help but think £60 is a lot to ask of the casual vlogger.  Many get on fine with just the phone.  It’s effectively a sturdy case and some plastic clips.  That said, for the pro, it’s enabling them to hang stuff off two sides of your phone with a compact footprint.  There’s a chance you will already have the £50 clip on mic.  Or the £10 tripod to complete this set up.  Maybe even a £12 video light and the £65 Olloclip Lenses.  But if not, all-in you're looking at close to £200 for a photo/video set up. 

Still, I think journalists/reporters on a budget will go for this.  It could well be the all-in-one solution they’ve been waiting for.  There are some expensive heavy duty set-ups out there.  Gear that's often disposed of when a new phone update comes along.  The Olloclip could be a cheaper alternative to the heavy duty set-ups.  The sturdy plastic is light.  If you imagine a newsroom investing in a couple of multimedia grab bags, the cost seems negligible in comparison.

We will see if it’s taken seriously.  The little kickstand doesn’t help.  It looks like a last minute addition to bulk up the kit.  With a small redesign (or a heat gun) I think the finger grip could be modified to also be a stand. I’m already a fan of the slimline Olloclip case and lenses.  It’s lovely to hold.  But the rubber on the new thicker case seems less grippy. I’m hoping it will soften up over time.  Another thing to note is that I could not get the Rode Video Micro alongside an LED light on the 6s.  The Rycote suspension on the mic got in the way. It may be fine on the 6sPlus.  I tend to use the Video MicMe though.  That fits well on the Olloclip case and frees up the top of the phone. I rarely ever use a light.  I put it on just to show what it looked like.

To summarise; If you are a pro blogger, reporter or journalist I’d recommend taking a look at the Olloclip before investing in any of the heavier kit out there.  You may need to consider your mic and light options.  I’ve already swapped out my usual set up for this one.  But I won’t be packing the vertical clip, the kick stand or the finger grip.  That makes for a very light & compact video rig indeed.

Would I have paid for the kit if one wasn’t sent for review?  Yes.  I’m a sucker for anything that means I’m carrying less day-to-day.  I would have haggled though.

Things I learned:

Audacity is more amazing than I thought. I do all my audio editing in Garageband but this week I had a play with Audacity. I've only ever trimmed audio in Audacity and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do more complicated editing. There’s a heap of videos out there should you need a decent free cross-platform audio editing option. LINK

Things I’m doing:

Wednesday 10th sees me delivering a podcasting workshop for Academics in Milton Keynes.
Saturday 13th I'm delivering a talk to Journalists with the N.U.J in London.  It’s sold out but get on the list and they'll be sure to put more events on. LINK

Other Things:

If you need to focus try this. LINK
Let me know how it goes.  I keep meaning to try it but procrastination has become a part of my workflow.  That might be a good thing. LINK

I was interviewed this week by a St Neots creative group called the Neotists. The first photo I ever sold (mentioned in the interview) is embedded below. LINK

The cloud storage solution Copy is dying. I wrote about Copy when it first popped up and accrued over 750GB of free storage. I hope I’m not the one who brought them down. LINK

Massive Attack did their first interview for 8 years. LINK

And here’s that Narcissism quiz.. LINK Tell me what you get.

End Bit

Speaking of Narcissism.

Thanks for reading. I tried to keep it short and failed.  There will be times I can’t be bothered.  Or don’t make time.  This week I’ve been working from home and a newsletter makes for perfect procrastination.

“The work you do while procrastinating is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” ~ @jessicahische

If you got something out of this please tell someone else. SHARE

There’s a short link http://j.mp/bakchan and a long one http://Documentally.com/backchannel 
And of course you can email.

See you out there.
Over and out.

If you do happen to share a link to this newsletter and use the #Backchannel tag on twitter I’ll put your names into a hat. Then one lucky person will be posted a random selection of stuff found on my desk. LINK

Clicking the image below will take you too my workshops.

If you've been forwarded this newsletter from a thoughtful friend please don't click the unsubscribe link as it will unsubscribe your friend.