Retrak iPod earbuds in package

It’s always nice when something exceeds your expectations. The box arrived from GadgetSister.com within a week and I opened to see an even more attractive looking product and package than the catalogue photo from the site. I had a pretty good idea what the real product would be like because I had already admired one from a fellow Gadget Sister (see post on the Gadget Sisterhood) and coveted it so much that I added it to the store and made it the first test product. The ReTrak by Emerge Technologies did not disappoint.

After extracting it from its package, it was a delight to discover that the ReTrak comes with 3 sets of squishy soft rubber ear buds in different sizes. We are not all pressed from the same mold, and those of us with little tiny ear canals suffer greatly with the standard (hard!) earphones that come with most iPods and MP3 players. Within thirty minutes the ears have become sore and uncomfortable and music, video, or whatever is now a painful chore. Not so here. I selected the tiniest set. Put them easily onto the ends of the earphones, and was ready to go.

ReTrak iPod earbuds in "recoiled" position

The allure of this product is its clever ability to retract (hence the name ReTrak) much like those key leashes you’d see the school custodian sporting in elementary school. With the ReTrak earphones, you just gently pull on each end and the cord extends out in each direction.(Maximum 3.6  feet fully expanded.) The benefit of this is the cord stays neat and untangled in your purse or backpack and doesn’t become a big nest of knots for you to wrestle with every time you want to catch some tunes. Just “zoop, zoop” and there you go. Plug it into the player and listen.

ReTrak iPod earbuds extended

For comfort, I give them high marks. The different size buds make it easy to tailor the fit. For audio quality, I would say they are not “audiophile enthusiast” grade but most certainly as good or better than whatever came with your player. (For those who really get into these things, the stats are 115 dB sensitivity, 0-20 kHz frequency range.) From a value standpoint, I would give it a high overall value rating. The ReTrak sells for $12.96 plus shipping , tax, etc. at GadgetSister.com. So, for less than $20 you’ve got a very practical and decent quality set that spares you the frustration and time of spaghetti knitting on a daily basis. I have spent $50 to $60 for buds at the Apple store that were no better in quality and don’t retract.

These make great gifts. So, I recommend you buy more than one. Once people see you using one, they always want one too. I had my second one spoken for before the shipment arrived, and now I wish I had 10 sitting around.

The ReTrak Noise Reduction Earbuds have the GadgetSister seal of approval and have been field tested for quality and satisfaction. Cool. But check them out for yourself!

I figure if I have that kind of response, maybe my fellow Gadget Sisters will have a similar response. Now granted, not all Gadget Sisters are into the same things. Some like electronic gadgets, some kitchen gadgets, some silly toys like the bug swatter, and some are taking a page from Sarah Connor and preparing for the worst case scenario.

My personal favorites are the technology ones. If it needs to be recharged, I will probably be interested. This is a curse in today’s world because everything from my iPhone, to my blue tooth headset (curse you California CHP), to my laptop is constantly sucking battery life. Having a car charger isn’t enough, either. What happens when you go camping and want to relax to some iTunes and your iPod or iPhone is dead? (The flavor of the Kool-Aid I drank? Apple.) What if you’re in the airport, or Starbucks, and all the flippin’ plugs are taken or just can’t be found? What if your video recorder runs out of juice as you reach the bottom of The Grand Canyon? What if you’re designing a logo on your laptop on the top of a Mayan pyramid in Honduras and you need 3 hours of battery life and only have 1 hour’s worth? (Yes, I have actually done this!)

Then you need… are you ready? Can you believe this? A solar charger! That’s right. A SOLAR CHARGER! Is that just the coolest thing ever? I must have one. I must.

Solio solar gadget charger in pink

Check this baby out. It folds up into a pocket size unit. The company site says our new president, the Gadget-Man in Chief has one for his Blackberry. (Probably not the pink one, I’m guessing…) It is made by Solio.

Here’s what the company says about it, “Award-winning, compact and versatile – Solio stores power from the sun or socket; freeing you to recharge your mobile phone, iPod and other handheld devices anywhere, anytime. A fully charged Solio will recharge your average phone at least once if not twice, or your phone and top off your iPod. Solio’s intelligent internal circuitry and Interchangeable Tip System lets you charge devices at about the same rate as their dedicated wall chargers.”

I am not 19 anymore, but OMG! (Oh My Gadget!) That just totally captures my imagination. And as if that wasn’t enough, the fine folks at Solio made not only a standard grey one, but also a HOT PINK solar charger. It’s like it was made just for the GadgetSisterhood.

If you find this as awe-inspiring as I do, please pop in to the store at GadgetSister.com and check it out. Think of the adventures you could have. The freedom. The never-ending supply of power! (I will refrain from a maniacal laugh here.) Power to the people! Let freedom reign!

I still remember the original Terminator movies when they came out. Arnold had begun his pattern of trying to save people from impossible odds — whether it be menacing cyborgs from the future (I know, that was second one) or a hopelessly messed up California budget.

Linda Hamilton from the original Terminator series

The real heroine of the Terminator movies (in my opinion) was Sarah Connor. She had to put a lot of crazy pieces together on the fly, learn how to run, how to hide, how to survive. She had to smarten up fast, and use her intuition to know who to trust. What I have always been curious about is the time frame between when she knows everything is going to go the dogs in a maelstrom of mechanized mayhem and when it actually does. There is a period of time where she apparently moves out to the desert, shores up her reserves, and prepares for the worst.

How did that go? Did she max out her VISA card at REI and  Willie’s Outdoor Sporting Emporium and squirrel it all away at UStoreIt? Did she hit the garage sales looking for just the right assortment of doomsday distressed and sexy black navy seal tank tops? Get on eBay for overstock government firearms? How do you shop for the end of the world?

While I do not envy the script writers in trying to explain all that (which is why they generally don’t explain it and cut right to the action), I must say I admire people who are prepared for an emergency or the unexpected. I have some friends, for example, who have two survival backpacks tucked away in their SUV ready for a quick escape if the next Katrina hits. Shoot, I’m impressed when a mom can pull a band-aid or wet wipe out of her purse when her kid biffs at the park.

So, how much is common sense preparedness and being a good scout and how much is just plain fear mongering and crazy? For me, the question turns inward. I have to ask myself what my motivation is for making the preparation, how likely is the possible disaster, who am I trying to save or help, and whether or not certain things are really practical in an emergency. Having a good tire changing kit, jumper cables, flares, and a first aid kit (maybe even a fire extinguisher) is smart, practical and motivated towards helping others as well as self. Having an underground bunker stocked with enough rations to survive WWIII… well, you get the idea. (But hey, if a cyborg showed up and convinced me to get a bunker, I’d be right on it.)

It will probably not be a surprise that the store at GadgetSister.com has a section called “Survivor” with a few useful items for the disaster minded. Those handy backpacks are there, water purifiers, stuff like that. Check it out and let me know if there’s something you’ve always wanted in case of emergency that I missed. Emergencies exemplify the gadget sister mantra, “The right gadget, at the right time, in the right hands can save the day.” Cyborgs not included.

Last night I met with a CEO from Wisconsin at a big conference where she was a keynote speaker. She had a 6:00 AM flight the next morning and was dressed for comfort as we sat down to drinks at 8:00 PM. Over her shoulder as she walked up to me in the lounge was a most excellent travel bag.

“Oh, my gosh.” says I, “That is such an awesome travel bag!”

Her eyes lit up as she recognized that we shared a common appreciation for the truly awesome things in life. She then filled me in on all its amazing features: the secret pockets for passports and extra cash, the no-cut cable through the shoulder strap, the little perfectly sized pocket for her iPhone. It was light, easy to clean, easy to stick through airport security, had major ergonomic and safety features, and even pretty good looking as travel bags go. I had to get the name and manufacturer, then told her about the immanent launch of GadgetSister.com.

She showed me some other cool gadgets like her earphones that retract into a little white plastic sphere so they don’t get tangled, and the travel pillow that makes a road warrior’s life bearable. We compared iPhone Apps for a few minutes. (I believe you can learn a lot about a person by their iPhone Apps.)

It’s like when the shoe women recognize each other’s Manilos or whatever they’re into. There is mutual respect, admiration, and a giddy joy that you have found another member of the long lost tribe. You feel understood, connected to something a little bigger, and it’s just plain fun.

So, there you have it. Gadget Sister is much more than a blog. Much more than a store. Gadget Sister is a movement, a way of life, a meme whose time has come. Join the movement. Stand up and be counted. Share your Apps.

Within 48 hours I had blazed through what takes many business people weeks or months. I reserved the domain name, fleshed out the concept, set up the DBA, the bank account, the merchant service credit card service, obtained a supplier, and engaged a company that builds online stores that are totally compatible with my supplier. I got the logo designed and did the front page graphics myself. Sometimes it pays to be a Renaissance Woman as well as Gadget Sister.

And then I felt a familiar bite on the butt cheek.

The e-mail declared that my “site had been loaded”—and it was! To the wrong domain name, with the wrong graphics, without my logo, and it didn’t like my user name and password with the supplier.

Poo. Talk about a buzz kill.

Now, I know from experience that this will all sort itself out with a couple of phone calls to some very reasonable and talented people who just didn’t get the memo. I know that I will be over this little obstacle in less than a week. (And now I am grateful when stuff like this happens because it gives me great material for something to write about in a blog. )

The whole episode did bring up for me a great philosophical debate, however. (Almost anything can inspire a philosophical debate with Gadget Sister because she is by definition a very philosophical Renaissance woman who likes to think deep thoughts.)

“Why do I celebrate and adore technology and gadgets so much when they are just as often a source of pain, confusion and frustration as they are efficiency, simplicity, and fun?”

Well, that’s really just life in a nutshell, isn’t it? Everything in life has its good and bad, it’s light and dark, it’s sweet and sour and we just have to take one with the other. It’s “the whole catasrophe” as Zorba the Greek pointed out. The question is, where am I going to focus and what am I going to learn?

My Focus. Am I going to let this little glitch shut down a business before it starts or am I going to figure it out and keep moving forward? The reality is that even with this small set-back I have shaved months off bringing this concept to market because of the amazing technology that has been put in place that I didn’t have to spend a dime to develop. Talk about leverage! There are many thousands of people hours and huge development costs at my disposal that I get for about $25 a month! So, I am choosing to focus on the greater benefit of the technology rather than its inevitable frustrations.

My Lesson. I now have a huge pile of valuable knowledge to share with my design and web clients to help them market their own businesses better. I can add a new service and create more value for others. I tested the boundaries of my new arena, and emerged with very useful information. I suspect that I will have a more interesting store as a result.

So here’s the bottom line. While it can be frustrating at times, I remain strong in my conviction that “the right tool at the right time in the right hands can often save the day.”

And if it doesn’t? Sometimes the most useful “gadgets” are experience and wisdom.

There’s a T-Shirt out there that says, “More People Have Read this T-Shirt than Read Your Blog!” And so it is with a certain amount of humility (cynicism?) I post my very first blog entry.

Girls Got Gadget is a forum for me to preach to the choir about one of my favorite fetishes — gadgets. Maybe it was too many James Bond movies with all of Q’s ingenious inventions, or Mission Impossible, or McGyver… But the hook for me has always been the fantasy of having just the right gadget at just the right moment and saving the day!

No, not preventing a nuclear war at the hands of a super-villain in a subterranean lair, but being able to produce a headlamp out of a backpack when you need to change a tire in the dark, or a first aid kit when your kid biffs on the bike trail, or you just happen to have the video excerpt of “Midnight Train to Georgia” from American Idol on your iPhone when everyone was talking about it at lunch and get to pull it out of your purse with a wry smile and try to look oh-so-casual, “Oh, I’ve got that one…”

It’s not just the Eagle Scout preparedness factor, though, that makes me and others seek out the gadgets of life. It’s the appreciation for the design, the usefulness, the anticipated need, the whole “better mousetrap” mythology. In purchasing and using my cool new gadget I am paying homage to a creative genius (or least brilliant marketer) that deserves a gold star and a little coin for making a unique contribution to the planet. As a graphic designer for the last 20 years, many of my clients have been inventors. It has been both inspiring and frustrating to watch them take their “children” to market — some with greater success than others.

To that end, I am currently developing an online store that will feature products that I think are amazing, awesome, noteworthy, and just plain cool. Keep an eye out for it in about a week. I really want feedback about the gadgets YOU think are all that, so I can make some wonderful new discoveries and share them with others.