AllThingsD » Greg Harper

Viral Video: Rat Fingers, TouchFire and Sphero Demos

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:09:27 +0000

Here’s a ZDNet video of the gadgets I selected for the Churchill Club event that Walt Mossberg and I do annually.

This year’s celebrity geek guests were a pair of well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and VCs, Reid Hoffman and John Lilly; along with our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper.

Here’s the video of my stuff, with an assist from my No. 1 son, Louie:

They Made What? Gadget Guy Greg Harper Visits Dive Into Mobile (Video)

Peter Kafka — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 05:56:25 +0000

Gadget freak Greg Harper (official title: President of Harpervision and co-founder of Gadgetoff) dropped by D: Dive Into Mobile to show off…gadgets, of course.

Not the stuff you’re used to seeing from the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft, but the kind of odd products you have to look awfully hard to find. And the kind of stuff you might think very hard about before using. Or not!

This is definitely one that’s better to show, not tell, so take a look at the assorted what-the-heck-is-that stuff that Harper brings to the stage. And check out the All Things D archives for a trip down gadget memory lane.

[ See post to watch video ]

And in case you wanted to garner a few extra geek points, here is Harper’s list of gadgets, starting with the historical time line and ending up with his mobile gadgets of the moment.

1985: Motorola Dyna Tac “Gordon Gekko Phone”

1992: HP 95/LXZ Viking Express
1993: Bell South/IBM Simon ($900)

1995: Motorola Marco Radiomail ($1400)
1996: Motorola Page Writer/Star Tac ($3000)/Nokia 9000
1997: Original Blackberry
1998: Iridium Satellite Phone
1999: Nokia 7110 (Matrix Phone)/Mobile Web
2000: Samsung Uproar/Handspring Visor/Data
2001: Palm-Kyocera smart phone/ Erricson Bluetooth headset
2002: Camera phone/Tmobile sidekick/Microsoft Windows 3 Smartphone
2003: Treo 600
2004: Razr

2006: EVDO USB 720
2007: iPhone

2009: Android

Current Gadgets:

iPhone ibottleopener case

Square credit card reader

Parrot AR drone

PLX car interface

Zeal GPS heads up goggles

Zephry HxM bluetooth heart rate monitor

Verizon LTE 4G modem PanTech UML290

OverBoard Waterproof iPhone case with Waterbuoy miniature flotation device

Cellphone flask

Walt and Kara's Cavalcade of Gadgets on ZDNet

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:06:30 +0000

Last week, Walt Mossberg and I hosted the seventh annual gadgetfest, called “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology,” at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

Every year, we show off a range of innovative new tech toys to the crowd, helped by our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper, and by guest “tech geek” celebs.

This year, they were Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Mike Schroepfer, the social networking site’s VP of Engineering.

Before the show, Walt and I displayed our wares for ZDNet, which posted videos, below

Here are the videos:

Walt

Kara

Weekend Update 12.05.09–'Tis Better to Give Edition

Drake Martinet — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:48:01 +0000

As AllThingsD.com gets its holiday hat on, the reporting team brought a little news cheer our way this week in the form of some acquisitions, freaky gadgets and reassurances that Google was not born with a heart two sizes too small.

Boom Town went Bing early in the week at the Microsoft (MSFT) event that showcased a rollout of features. New tools included an update to its mapping interface and some third-party “mash-ins.” Kara did ringside commentary for the title bout between Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt and all the so-called whiny news folk. Her translations paint a slightly less cuddly picture of the search boss’s undertones, but we’ll let you decide for yourself. Just when things were getting a little dicey, Kara lightened the mood with a post about her appearance with Walt Mossberg at GadgetFest. Kara finally got a little “me” time, getting her face exfoliated by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg live on stage. Gadget freak Greg Harper was there to showcase some of his picks, and Kara rounded it all out by getting up-close and personal with the most adorably frightening bear-toy-bot ever.

While Walt did make time to venture west to share his gadget gravitas, he was hard at work this week with the expected combo of tasty tech tips. Walt took a trip to the cloud to see if ZumoDrive could really make it rain. The smallish cloud storage company aims to solve the problem of sharing data across multiple devices by allowing you to keep a “drive” in the cloud that can be virtually mounted on any capable device. He was complimentary about the execution of the storage and was able to access his files across a broad array of devices. The caveat, for now, seems to be the price and a little glitchiness when handling certain kinds of files. Over at Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt addressed some queries about getting rid of that pesky spam that even shows up on the iPhone. He also provided some sage advice for a laptop seeker with $500 to spend, and helped guide a fan through the super-smartphone jungle to a GPS-enabled device. Katie’s gadget of the week over at The Mossberg Solution was the FlipShare TV, a set-top box from the makers of the popular ultraportable camera line. The video-wrangling box taps into a “channel” of your own videos you create using the bundled FlipShare software. Once your videos are up on your personal channel, the set-top box can tap into and play them right on your TV by grabbing them wirelessly from your computer. The gadget got an A for effort in getting computer content to the living room, but didn’t do as well in the intuitiveness and ease-of-use departments.

Over at Digital Daily, John brought news of what may come to be known at the “great perv purge of aught nine.” Some 4,500 registered sex offenders in the state of New York had their social networking privileges revoked. Weekend Update supposes the law is in place to keep the popular and harmless “Facebook stalking” pastime of perusing your friends’ photos from turning into the less desirable “actual stalking.” Next up, we had to shout egad, gadzooks and holy-48 cores, Batman! John covered the unveiling of a next-generation superchip that boasts 10 to 20 times the computing power of Intel’s current Core CPUs. Finally, John always does a great job of sniffing out a story before it gets huge, and Motorola’s investment into a high-tech multitouch platform may trigger the next big smartphone battle. The haptic touch technology, which enables virtually any material to become touch sensitive, may pave the way for a new generation of devices.

Down the hall at MediaMemo, Peter reported on what might be the shiniest news of the week. Time Inc. (TWX) released a concept video of Sports Illustrated as it may appear on a large multitouch device. The result is a mag-as-multimedia showcase that might exist as soon as a suitable device is released to the public. In an effort to reduce some of the cash that has been weighing down its bank accounts, Google picked up AppJet, the makers of Web-based collaboration software EtherPad. Peter rounded out the week with a purchase of Apple’s (AAPL) very own: The iTunes maker purchased online music service Lala, reportedly at a steep discount.

With the holidays looming and lots of frenetic travel ahead, you can always rely on this site for a little direction in any particular (technological) storm. We cant help it, we’re just givers.

Freaky Geek Bear, Nooks, 3-D Cameras, Head Massages and a Facial for BoomTown: The Churchill Club GadgetFest Video!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:05:10 +0000

Last night, Walt Mossberg and I hosted our seventh annual “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” program for the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

Every year, we show off a range of new tech toys to the crowd, helped by our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper, and by guest “tech geek” celebs.

This year, they were Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Mike Schroepfer, the social networking site’s VP of Engineering.

They brought a range of old and new favorite and innovative gadgets, including a Squeezebox Wi-Fi music player, a bizarre plush bear with GPS and other such tech features, and a facial brush that Sandberg tested on BoomTown’s flawless skin.

Also on the bill: A tie that takes pictures, a camera that stalks smiley people, a 3-D camera and digital photo frame, an Android netbook, a Nook e-reader, a bizarre head massager and a “Harry Potter”-like remote-control wand.

Here’s a video I did at the event, including interviews with Sandberg, Schroepfer, Mossberg, Harper, the bear and my son, Louie, who manned the digital hand vacuum from Dyson:

[ See post to watch video ]

Don't Miss the Annual GadgetFest at Churchill Club Thursday, Featuring Facebook Celeb Geeks

Kara Swisher — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:32:16 +0000

This Thursday, my All Things Digital partner, Walt Mossberg, and I are hosting–for the seventh year running–the annual “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” program for the Churchill Club.

This year, our guest “tech geek” celebs–drawn from the gadget-mad players of Silicon Valley–are Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Mike Schroepfer, the social networking site’s VP of Engineering (pictured here).

In fact, Sandberg was scheduled to be our guest last year but had a last-minute snafu, so Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams filled in for her.

Among others, past geek celebs have included Google (GOOG) co-founder Larry Page, Yahoo (YHOO) co-founder Jerry Yang and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.

Also along for the ride is our regular gadget freak, Greg Harper, president of HarperVision Associates and co-founder of Gadgetoff, who brings new meaning to the term. (He also packs so much hardware and software that he is on the TSA’s list.)

The evening starts at 6 pm with a buffet dinner at the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Hotel in Palo Alto, Calif. That’s followed by the program, in which each of us shows off some of our favorite innovative or just plain weird gadgets, while the others opine on the selections.

You can sign up early online or get a pricier ticket at the door.

Here’s a rather longish video from last year, which is well worth watching for the animatronic Elvis alone:

[ See post to watch video ]

Crazy Gadget Guy Greg Harper: The Full D7 Demo

Adam Tow — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:55:50 +0000

Greg Harper, president of Harpervision and co-founder of Gadgetoff, is–let’s be honest–a gadget freak of the freakiest level.

Check out this demo at the seventh D: All Things Digital, where Harper pulls out one odd but innovative product after another from his cornucopia of gadgetry.

They include a bad-breath checker, a knockoff Chinese version of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, a tricked-out diving mask, a water-purifying straw and much, much more.

Here is the video of the full D7 demo:

[ See post to watch video ]

Crazy Gadget Guy Greg Harper: The Full D7 Demo

Kara Swisher — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:48:47 +0000

Greg Harper, president of Harpervision and co-founder of Gadgetoff, is–let’s be honest–a gadget freak of the freakiest level.

Check out this demo at the seventh D: All Things Digital, where Harper pulls out one odd but innovative product after another from his cornucopia of gadgetry.

They include a bad-breath checker, a knockoff Chinese version of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, a tricked-out diving mask, a water-purifying straw and much, much more.

Here is the video of the full D7 demo:

[ See post to watch video ]

D7 Video: Greg Harper of Gadgetoff

Beth Callaghan — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:00:33 +0000

Greg Harper is the very definition of a technophile, and in this D7 session he proves it. Armed with a bag stuffed chock full of obscure and never-before-seen gadgets that he managed to sneak past airport security on the way to San Diego, Harper proceeds with a rapid-fire demo of the unique functionality of each one.

[ See post to watch video ]

D7 Tech Demo: What's in Greg Harper's Bag?

Oliver J. Chiang — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:45:45 +0000

In this session of D7, Greg Harper, president of Harpervision and co-founder of Gadgetoff, always sure to bring the novel and the wacky, will present a plethora of gadgets the technophile has collected. Harper says that in total, he brought “$20,000 [worth] of portable tech gadgets.” (Note to the Four Seasons Aviara: Increase security.) He’s known for doing these demos, at which he pulls out one interesting product after another from his cornucopia of gadgetry–to the astonishment of the crowd! Papa Harper’s got a brand new bag, and we’re about to find out what’s inside….

Session Highlights

[ See post to watch video ]

Live Blog

Kara apologizes for starting up again late: “Carol Bartz just trashed my hotel room.”
Walt and Kara: Greg is sure to be funny and fun. This gadget maniac travels the world collecting the coolest.
Harper comes out to the accompaniment of the theme from “Inspector Gadget.” Apropos.
Harper: Talking really fast–Sony (SNE) camera (HDR TG5V) with GPS built-in.
Walt: Where’s my Red Sox video?
Harper: A complete media server (an MVIX, I think). Kara: It looks like a bomb. Harper: Hook it up to any device! It has many gigs! Etc.! Walt: Why don’t you just use your iPod? Harper: Says something about some headphones being custom-made for his ears…and other stuff.
His Digital SLR is the Canon (CAJ) 5D Mark 2: He likes. Also, here’s a new camera from Panasonic (PC). It goes underwater and shoots in HD. Now, this! A Casio, Exilim FC100, which shoots up to 1000 FPS–watch water drop, one drop at a time.
Now: A GPS system that automatically transmits to satellite. OK, now a water-purifying straw! Its an “Istraw” that freaking purifies your water all on its own. Amazing.
If that’s not enough for you, says Harper (insert an editorial “Uh…”), it’s a flashlight/alarm/smoke detector, from Flare Safe. Even more amazing!
“Astro” Dog Collar: It has GPS so you can keep track of your dog. That’s pretty handy. From Garmin (GRMN).
Portable radio: AM/FM/HD. Walt: I think radio sucks in general.
Harper: Now this doohickey you wear maybe/probably around your neck at the beach registers how much UV you are exposed to. Walt: If you wear this, you won’t get laid. Harper: Maybe you!
Breathalyzer/Bad Breath Monitor: Also a music/video player. It detects bad breath if you blow on it. Listen, I prefer the old fashioned method: someone awkwardly handing me a breath mint. That’s the natural way.
New Mifi!–It’s portable WiFi, from Novotel. Now back to GPS–hidden in my bag is a… drum roll… tracker! No one better steal my bag! Kara: Who? Like terrorists?
Oops, missed something. He’s the Micromachine man. Speaking of whom, he’s now showing a microcomputer of some sort.
Blu-Ray player: It grabs YouTube, Picasa directly, and plays DVD and SD cards. Walt: WiFi? Harper: No. You can take it on the road. Walt snarks about the lousy Panasonic UI. Nice one.
Sony OLED music player: Has noise cancellation–built in; it’s digital noise cancellation. Also has Slacker, which is “Tivo for music.” Walt: Slacker’s on BlackBerry too. And, do you think this will take over the market iPod dominates? Harper: Heh heh, it’s an interesting product. (Translation: No.)
A pocket-projector, the PK 101 from Optoma: Very cute. You can use it when you’re sitting on the plane on the back of the seat of the person in front of you.
And now: A Chinese knock-off of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone. Typical Chinese. But instead, it says “Welcome” upon loading. Imagine that! Look, the UI is so terribly different! It has mode-switching, which means it too has a built-in video projector. Did the Chinese steal the blueprints for the next-gen iPhone somehow?
Some funky looking mask: For diving, it’s good to up to 100-plus feet. There’s a built-in camera with HD video. Walt: And how scared were the TSA guys? Audience laughter.
Whoa! Harper has some super-spy illegal device that can automatically shut off everyone else’s cellphones. It’s like something out of “Men In Black,” but for cellphones instead of depressed housewives.
Another media server. Is he starting to repeat himself. Kara: one more crazy thing, OK?
Glasses with built-in Blutooth headset.
Kara: Thank you so much. Every year, Greg brings weirder and weirder stuff
And the “Inspector Gadget” theme plays him out. Excellent! On the nose, but just so.

In the Year 2025–Who Knows What Tomorrow Brings in Tech?

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:43:29 +0000

When attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, BoomTown moderated what turned out to be a fascinating panel discourse of what was to come in the tech sector.

No, it was not a gathering of Trekkies.

The CES SuperSession panel, titled “What Will They Think of Next? Consumer Technology in 2025,” was less Jules Verne than a logical analysis of where gadgetry is headed by looking at both the past and the present.

Overall consensus: Touch screens everywhere, 3-D imaging in wide use, no device wires, ubiquitous high-speed wireless networks and more.

Of course, there were some edgier ideas, like being able to tell exactly when it is going to rain to the minute, via massive computing of weather patterns.

In addition, one of the panelists, Greg Harper, brought back what was popular in 1994, the same number of years back that 2025 is forward. Yep, he dragged out for display the Apple (AAPL) Newton and brick-sized cellphones.

The panelists were: Stephen DiFranco, VP and GM, Americas Consumer Group, Lenovo; Gregory Harper, co-founder, Gadgetoff and president, Cerberus; Len J. Lauer, EVP and COO, Qualcomm (QCOM); Sean Maloney, EVP and GM, Sales and Marketing, Intel (INTC); and Phil McKinney, VP and CTO, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packward (HPQ).

Here’s the video with interviews about 2025 with all of them–and don’t miss the very funny poster at the end from Microsoft (MSFT) about its vision of the future:

[ See post to watch video ]

A Video Smorgasbord From the Churchill Club's "Sixth Annual What's Hot and What's Not in Personal Technology"

Kara Swisher — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:15:26 +0000

Last night, Walt Mossberg and I hosted yet another annual “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” event for the Churchill Club.

A brief rundown of the Palo Alto gadgetfest show-and-tell: An animatronic singing Elvis freaked out my No. 1 son, Louie, who played an excellent Luke Skywalker/gadget boy for my presentation; our guest gadget geek was Twitter Co-Founder and CEO Evan Williams, who was a delight with a mini-helicopter, a flat-screen reader and a wry wit; Walt showed off the new Blackberry Storm from RIM (RIMM), the alleged Apple (AAPL) iPhone killer (maybe not so much), as well as a fuel cell and more; and our crazy gadget maven, Greg Harper, co-founder of Gadgetoff, went perfectly insane with everything from tiny projectors to a creepy probe to minicellphone towers to USB ties and eyepads.

It was a lot of fun with a packed crowd, even in this econalypse-impacting Silicon Valley.

Here is a rather longish video, which is well worth watching. Yes, BoomTown is–along with Louie and Elvis–wearing a Yahoo (YHOO) hat.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Photo courtesy of Dan Farber of CNET.]

Festival of Gadgets at the Churchill Club With Guest Geek: Google's Marissa Mayer

Kara Swisher — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:02:20 +0000

Last night, Walt Mossberg and I co-hosted our annual holiday gadget fest for the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley.

Now in its fifth year, it was called “Making a List: The Fifth Annual What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” and took place in Palo Alto, Calif. Our guest were Marissa Mayer of Google and tech consultant Greg Harper.

Walt and I typically show off several devices we think are interesting and try to identify some important trends.

Here’s a video of Walt, Greg and Marissa at the event:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

For example, Walt showed the new Amazon Kindle electronic book reader (which he did not actually like so much in his review of the device this week), as well as the new version of Sony’s e-book offering. He also showed some new cellphones that are trying to mimic the Apple iPhone. His take: Great software in consumer electronics is key this year.

I showed new robotic devices from iRobot–the new version of its popular Roomba vacuum and its new wireless gutter cleaner called the Looj. We had an actual gutter on stage, full of leaves I made my much-abused assistant Ed Daly collect from a gardener’s truck we found on a suburban street.

And every year, we’ve brought in uber-gadget geek and tech consultant Harper, who always brings in a truckload of cutting edge and sometimes freaky stuff. That included an egg-shaped speaker that dances from, of course, Japan, as well as a solar battery charger, a $400 laptop and a vanity mirror that is a Webcam in disguise. Harper posited that all devices would have to be always connected going forward.

And, also annually, we invite a celebrity geek from well-known tech companies. In the past, we’ve had Google’s Larry Page, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser and Chad Hurley of YouTube–geeky guys all. But Mayer, one of Google’s top execs, proved the nerdiest with a wide range of cool stuff.

She showed off a keyboard whose keys had embedded LCD screens, a wireless rabbit, an alarm clock that can jump off your nightstand and a T-shirt with a wireless signal locator in it. She also did a demo of exactly what the new Google Android operating system for cellphones looks like. Take careful notes: It looks an awful lot like the iPhone.