Okay I know what you’re thinking — why is some genetics testing service being reviewed on Stammy’s tech blog? Well for one, because 23andMe is at the forefront of technology that is slowly but surely enabling the general public to get access to their genome data that would have cost thousands of dollars just a few years ago. I heard about 23andMe in 2008, when they were charging $1,000 for a DNA test and access to the results. Now the price is somewhat more reasonable, but still expensive at $399 for access to ancestry information, $429 for health or $499 for both. Each of those prices is just for one person. 23andMe operates in the personal genomics space and they have a few competitors like Family Tree DNA and Navigenics among others.
23andMe Genetic DNA testing – Ancestry Edition Box (but this review is for the Complete Edition, see disclosure notice) [click to continue…]
People: Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, Sergey Brin
Tagged as:
23andMe,
bioinformatics,
DNA,
DNA testing,
family tree,
genetic research,
genetic testing,
Genome,
genotyping,
Google,
Health,
navigenics,
personal genomics,
Reviews,
SNP,
Technology
Startup Riot, the biggest and most interesting tech event (in my mind) hits Atlanta for its third year. You might remember the first two Startup Riots which I blogged about: I presented at the Startup Riot 2008 and covered Startup Riot 2009. I’ll backtrack a bit first. Startup Riot 2010 is a startup pitch event and this year 50 startups in Atlanta, GA will take the stage for 3 minutes or less and talk about their startup company with just 4 slides. It’s an all day event and by far a pillar event for the growing Atlanta tech community. That being said, Robert Scoble came into town this week to attend Startup Riot. He works for RackSpace Building43 and RackSpace bought local startup Jungle Disk last year, so they decided to fly out from California to meet with the Jungle Disk team and network with local startups. Skribit Co-founder Calvin Yu and I went to the Jungle Disk offices yesterday for a video interview with Scoble that I’ll post up soon.
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People: Sanjay Parekh
Tagged as:
Atlanta,
dot-com,
entrepreneurship,
finance,
Fox Theater,
Georgia Tech,
News,
private equity,
Startups,
Technology,
venture capital,
Wi-Fi
There are two things I do not usually talk about on this blog — cars (okay maybe there are one, two, three, four, five or more exceptions) and iPhone applications. The former because I am not quite sure everyone here would be interested in reading about anything except the technology behind the car and the latter because most iPhone apps do not have enough substance and utility to create a compelling review. Well I am breaking both of those rules today and for good reason. A few months ago I discovered a $40 iPhone app by DevToaster called Rev.
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Tagged as:
Apple,
Cars,
Hardware,
iPhone,
OBDII,
PLX,
Reviews,
Technology,
Wifi
In late 2008 I wrote about my experience using the first generation 80GB Intel X25-M SSD — my first SSD. I had to pay the early adopter tax for that SSD, so it cost me around $700. The speed boost alone justified the price to me. Fast-forward about a year and that SSD stopped working. I’m not quite sure what died — the controller or something else — but I RMA’d it with Intel and they sent me a new, second generation X25-M that week. The second generation (G2) X25-M is based on 34nm fabrication compared to the 50nm first generation. The G2 is also substantially cheaper at roughly $299 and noticeably faster due to a new controller and firmware. Intel still claims the same “up to 250MB/s” sequential read speed and “up to 70MB/s” sequential write speed but the G2 brings improved (2x for 80GB, 2.5x for 160GB version) random 4KB writes. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Apple,
Guides,
How To's,
Intel,
Laptop,
MacBookPro,
RAID,
SSD,
X25-M
Knowing how to keep your web traffic data safe while browsing the web on unknown networks is a vital skill that not enough savvy Internet surfers take part in. I have previously discussed a few ways of solving this issue through the use of SSH tunnels (manually-created and application managed). I have also discussed things like “anonymous” web browsing through the Janus Privacy Adapter as well as with public Tor nodes. (Side note: Anonymous in quotes because truly anon browsing requires encrypted, signed traffic over private Tor networks — not public, published ones everyone knows about — but I digress). While VPN is nothing new and has been used by businesses and their employees for over a decade, it has not generally been something aimed at the typical Internet user. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Encryption,
Giganews,
Guides,
How To's,
Internet,
Reviews,
Security,
VPN,
VyprVPN
Blippy is my pick for startup to watch this year (with Square being close by). Blippy enables people to automatically share their purchases done through a variety of services, such as Amazon, iTunes, Netflix and better yet their credit/debit cards, with their followers. At first glance many will be shocked and wonder why they would ever want to use such a service but that only brings up memories of people saying the same thing about Twitter just a few years ago. The concept behind Blippy is crazy enough that I believe it will take off rather quickly. In fact, they recently announced they are already tracking over $1M in transactions.
My Blippy Profile – Some aesthetic elements of Blippy are noticeably inspired from Facebook and Twitter, but that’s because they work well. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Blippy,
Editorials,
Internet,
News,
Reviews
I was recently in the market for an affordable, HD-capable pocket video camera. I knew Pure Digital’s Flip line of pocket camcorders like the Mino HD and Ultra HD were very popular in this space and as such I was just about ready to buy one. However, I decided to look around first and that’s when I discovered the $180 Kodak Zi8 HD pocket video camera. After having the Zi8 on hand for a few weeks, I believe it to be the best high-definition pocket video camera near the ~$200 price point on the market now. I’ll attempt to explain why in this review but if you’re looking for a quick answer, it’s because the Zi8 has an external microphone input, SDHC support and some interesting things I’ll get into soon.
Photo taken with D90 and my favorite lens: 50mm f/1.8 [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Camera,
Flip,
Hardware,
HD,
Kodak,
Kodak Zi8,
MinoHD,
Reviews,
Video,
YouTube,
Zi8
I always found it a bit ironic that I had less time to blog here as I started working full-time on a blogging startup. Well, my time spent on Skribit is starting to pay off. Today, Skribit finally goes out of what we’ve internally been considering our public beta — so it’s our official launch day. We have been laying low on the marketing and press front, except for my ramblings here, and now we are ready to tell more people about it. That being said, TechCrunch just wrote about Skribit (thanks Daniel!). This is the first step on our so-called “Customer Acquisition Plan”, as MBA as that sounds.
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Tagged as:
Internet,
News,
Skribit,
Software,
Startup,
Startup Weekend
November 9, 2009
The third year of Atlanta Startup Weekend is less than a week away and begins Friday November 13th and goes through Sunday night. I am definitely biased as I have attended the last two Startup Weekends, but I strongly suggest attending if you are within the Atlanta area. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Startup [...]
Tagged as:
Internet,
News,
Skribit,
Startup,
Startup Weekend,
Twitpay
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November 4, 2009
The saga continues as I go to all lengths to find 5 bars of cell phone reception at home. It first started when I moved into my new apartment. I didn’t think to check my cell reception when first touring the property so I was in shock after I moved in and noticed I had [...]
Tagged as:
3G,
AT&T,
Cellular,
GPS,
Hardware,
Internet,
iPhone,
MicroCell,
Mobile,
Reviews,
Technology
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