Now, FOUR Years in China

My Chinese SUV has been mechanically sound under the hood but not always great in other parts like the door locks and other secondary amenities. And except for the fact that the car isn’t very comfortable or quiet inside, it’s actually a pretty decent vehicle. It’s definitely more “utility” than “sport”.

Last week, I noticed a small pool of water under my car as I left work. Uncertain whether it was mine or not and the fact that my home is only 5 miles from work, I decided to risk it by driving home. It turned out that the water was indeed, from my car and that automobile engines really DO require some sort of coolant. Two thirds of the way home, the temperature gauge was pegged in the red and there was noticeable change in power. Instead of heading to my house, I took it to my auto club’s shop and shut it down. Steaming smoke was seeping out of a few seals and I was certain that this was going to be a very expensive repair.

The next morning (Sunday morning…yes…you heard me) the shop called me and let me know that my engine wasn’t ruined but it was in need of new hoses, gaskets, fluids along with other maintenance items. Below is my invoice.

I’m not sure what this repair would cost in the US. I recently replaced my front bumper, had it painted and installed for about $90 including parts, labor, paint…everything. In this case, I probably got screwed in some areas but in all, I think this is probably much better than U.S. prices for car repairs.

I had the good fortune to receive a loaner AppleTV last week. Lacking motivation and enthusiasm, it sat in my living room unopened until tonight. Despite seeing the keynote and marketing around it, I still had some pre-concieved ideas about it being a simple relay from my computer to the TV. It turned out to be way more than that…read on.

I quickly wired it up and using the simple, 6-button remote, selected the default language. I was then treated to it’s boot sequence and was treated to a delicious video sequence. This is something that Apple does better than anyone…from the minute you start to use an Apple product, the device itself endlessly re-affirms that you bought something special. Even as a veteran of the company, I still get goofy when I start to unwrap a new product.

I uploaded a few playlists, some videos, my photo album from my cambodian holiday and some podcasts from Chinesepod.com. And then it really hit me how freaking great this is. It’s not just an interface to your computer….it’s got a hard-drive and can play all your media without your computer. So does a Tivo but this is very different. While a Tivo contains movies and TV shows, this is much more an embodiment of your soul. It’s your photos, your music, your playlists, your movies, your podcasts, and so on. It’s one thing to view a personal 15″ screen on your lap but quite different the minute you transfer everything to the focal-point of a shared living space. Then, brandishing the tiny remote (reminds me of Will Smith’s little gun in Men In Black), you fire up a huge picture and sound effectively liberating the media trapped in your laptop. It’s quite a powerful shift and I wasn’t expecting to have this type of reaction to what I assumed was a meaningless TV accessory.

From briefly using it, I realized how frequently I put my laptop in front of someone to show video clips, slideshows of holidays etc. Now, showing photos from Cambodia to anyone who walks in is a piece of cake…and who doesn’t love a spontaneous slideshow of someone’s holiday? I can do a couple 5 minute ChinesePod sessions in the morning as I’m packing my laptop away for work. Lisa can watch the latest episode of desperate housewives. Madeline can take the Karaoke videos that I ripped and do Karaoke with her friends. During parties, I can put a video playlist together and in combination with the tasteful screen-saver, have a cool ambiance. In the evenings, I can listen to NPR episodes and listen to an audio book.

This has the potential to change the living room culture from mindless TV watching to more engaging activities such as learning languages or getting diverse news insights in a digested format. Most importantly, it seems to reverse a trend we’ve been seeing with technology over the past few year where devices disconnect us from humanity. For example, I’ve spent evenings on the sofa with my laptop, reading my news aggregator while my wife is on her laptop searching for home to buy when we move back to the US and my daughter is listening to her iPod. We DO occasionally have some family time when we watch a TV show together but it’s sort of a brain-dead activity with little commentary or thought. Most of our rich knowledge these days is coming from online sources yet none of us are really sharing these digital experiences.

With AppleTV (especially the podcasting features), we can participate in each other’s interests on one shared screen and have deeper discussions than we can upon viewing the latest episode of Mythbusters.