The new iPad (iPad 3) tracking info

Yes, I pre-ordered "The new iPad" (i.e. iPad 3) with the face melting retina display. Some sources says it is delayed but mine appears to be on schedule. I never really ordered anything Apple via pre-order mainly out of fear they did not work out all the kinks in manufacturing yet. This time, I just couldn't wait and pre-ordered without much hesitation.

Check out the estimated delivery after the jump.

Dyson Air Multiplier Fans

I purchased a couple Dyson 10 Inch "Air Multiplier" White Fans from Amazon a while back. Yes I bought a couple (2) of them since I liked it so much and they were on sale. But since it was still winter at the time, I never got the chance to open it.

Now that it has warmed up a bit, I can finally *think* about opening the box without feeling cold. When I did get to open it, there was thick shrink wrap around it. When I opened it, I discovered that the black tape with the 'dyson' logo on it was actually cut open. The unit inside looks mint condition so I'll grudgingly let it pass.

Here is what it looks like on the back:

Gadget Stackup

Here is my current gadget stack-up.

Top to bottom:

iPod touch 2G
Samsung Galaxy S2 White Unlocked
Amazon Kindle 3G with special offers
iPad 2 White
Macbook Air 2nd Gen

The kindle, I have found, to not use very often after the initial novelty phase. Yes, having an ebook is great and all but I find myself buying real books because they are actually cheaper than the electronic versions. Why must I pay MORE for a book made with zero mass compared to a REAL book that has infinite resolution? Who is pocketing the money they saved? Shouldn't the consumer bear the savings?

Even if the book is equal in cost, I would still prefer to get the real book simply because I only read one or two books at a time and do not mind bringing it around. As a consumer of eBooks and real books, they have got to wake up and give the consumer the savings in going digital.

It turns out the pricing of eBooks vs real books is a bit funky on Amazon. A quick browse on the Amazon new releases shows 2 out of 20 real books just a hair cheaper than the eBook while most eBooks are actually cheaper than the real books by a few dollars. 3 out of 20 of the new releases are not offered on eBooks at the time of this writing.

Nest Usage 4 days later

You can only get so far reading the specs or reviews of a product in trying to figure out how it will work for you. After using the nest for a few days, I am starting to have a 'feel' for what it is doing.

In my situation, I live in a 2 story house with the thermostat on the first floor. The heater blows from vents on the ceiling. The system often causes the 2nd floor to be noticeably hotter than the 1st floor by somewhere between 4 to 6 degrees.

As it turns out, setting it to 72 is the same thing as telling the thermostat to turn on the heat at all times. It appears the heat loss through the windows and walls is enough to keep the downstairs temperature below 72F no matter how long the heater runs and no matter how HOT upstairs got. The first day of usage was a pretty hot day. LOL This also says something about my very inefficient single pane windows.

So with that, I it appears I cannot set it to anything higher than 72 to obtain room temp upstairs as a sort of limitation of my heating situation.

The high contrast OLED glow. No other thermostat is as over engineered as this one. But I am a huge fan of over-engineered goods.

Nest Unboxing

The nest is a $249 self learning thermostat. Apparently, it promises to look very cool on your wall while saving you money in energy costs. It has some unspecified learning algorithms that will adapt to your lifestyle by changing the programming based on past usage. Actually, all that is great and all but I was sold just with the circular OLED display.

Next thing you know my Nest Self Learning Thermostat finally came and I proceeded to rip it open and take pics of the unboxing: