Review: Casio Edifice EQWT720DC-1A

Pros: Unique combination of solar power, atomic time calibration, and automatic adjustment of hand home positions.

Cons: No detailed readout of solar charge level. Stopwatch function lacks real-world usability. Complex functionality not easily accessible without user’s manual.

MSRP: $580.00

Casio is probably not the first brand that comes to mind when you think "high-end analog watch," but the Edifice Black Label EQWT720DC-1A stands a good chance of changing that perception. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only analog watch on the market that combines solar power, atomic time calibration via radio signal, and auto-adjustment of hand home positions.

By combining those three key features, Casio has created a watch that could in theory run without any intervention for the next 87 years (until the year 2099, which is the end date for the pre-programmed calendar). It's a good thing that the manual is well-written, because you'll need it to configure the watch correctly upon first use -- and you'll want to refer to it daily for some of its more esoteric functions. This is a very complex watch.

There are three secondary dials on the watch: One for the day of the week, one for 24-hour military time, and one for a secondary time zone (which can be set to any one of 29 global city codes). The primary and secondary time zones can be quickly swapped -- a boon for jet-setters and bi-coastal folks. The watch also includes a stopwatch and alarm functions, and features a "tough" movement that is sufficiently robust for activities such as chainsaw operation. It is also waterproof to 10 atmospheres. Although the stopwatch function is accurate to 1/100th of a second, the implementation is quirky and not very readable.

The face of the watch is covered by solar cells, which charge an internal battery. The system works well, but there's a minor caveat: The user has no accurate way to determine whether the watch is fully or just partially charged. The power state of the watch can only be determined by observing the motion of the second hand: If it is moving smoothly at one-second intervals, then the watch is "sufficiently charged." If the second hand is stopped or moving at two-second intervals, that's a sign the watch has entered power-saving mode due to a low charge.

According to Casio, the watch requires 8 minutes of outdoor sunlight, 30 minutes of window sunlight, or 8 hours of indoor fluorescent lighting to maintain its charge on a daily basis. The face of the watch can easily become covered up by a shirtsleeve or jacket -- and given that the watch provides such ambiguous feedback about its power state, you might find yourself rolling up your sleeves just as a preventative measure. On the other hand, the watch is rated to operate 5 months on a full charge with no exposure to light, so there's typically little need to panic.

The atomic clock sync works well, calibrating the watch to the correct time every night based on radio transmissions from the U.S. government's atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado. (If you're traveling abroad, the watch also receives signals from transmitters in England, Germany, China, and Japan.) Of course, successful reception of the radio signals will depend on your location.

The "auto hand home position correction" feature is perhaps the most unique feature of the EQWT720DC-1A. If you're a fan of analog watches, you've probably experienced a watch whose hands don't line up exactly right. This is often caused by mechanical shock, and requires a trip to a repair shop to fix. The EQWT720DC-1A is able to automatically detect and correct this error condition, using LED sensors that measure hand positions every hour and provide accurate feedback to the watch movement to re-align the hands if necessary. Quite impressive.

All in all, the Casio EQWT720DC-1A is a very handsome watch with some highly unique technology. If you're the kind of person who geeks out over watch technology, then be sure to check this one out. Although the $580 MSRP is fairly steep, discounted prices are available from online retailers if you look around.

How To Turn Off Automatic Installation of Windows 7 Updates

It's Patch Tuesday again, and you know what that means: Windows users across the globe will soon be rebooting. Don't get me wrong, I love Windows Update. Without a systematic way for Microsoft to push out security patches to 1 Billion+ PCs around the world, the Internet would be a very dangerous place. Keeping one's Windows PC patched and up-to-date became a civic duty around the turn of the millennium, and it still is.

But there's something very aggravating about the default way that Windows 7 is configured to handle Windows Update. Back in the Windows XP days, users would be gently reminded to install an update -- giving them a chance to finish what they were doing, close any open documents, and set aside 15 minutes for the installation to run its course. In contrast, Windows 7 blithely downloads and installs the updates in the middle of the night, without bothering to ask permission beforehand.

So let's say you're halfway done with that important presentation when you call it quits at 2 am. You have multiple windows and documents open, arranged just so, and you leave everything as is with the intention of picking right back up the next morning where you left off. Except when you return to your PC, Windows 7 is grinning back at you with a blank desktop, proudly announcing that "updates were installed and your computer has been restarted." Nice.

Happily, there's a quick and easy fix for this problem: Simply launch Windows Update, click "Change settings", and change the drop-down selection to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them":

Of course, the wording of the drop-down selection is misleading and misses the point. The issue home users have to deal with isn't whether to install updates, it's when. (In the enterprise, it's both.)

Happy updating!

Extend Wireless Range with Powerline Networking

Here's a neat trick to maximize wireless network coverage in your home: Use inexpensive powerline networking adapters to gain more flexibility in the placement of your wireless router.

Because home broadband connections typically originate from a cable box or a DSL modem, wireless routers tend to be placed near the flatscreen TV or telephone jack simply as a matter of practicality. Sure, most people know that wireless routers benefit from being placed as high as possible, in a central location in the house, and away from other equipment and reflective surfaces. But who wants to run an unsightly 30-foot Ethernet cord from the cable box in the living room to the second-floor bedroom, just because that's the location that happens to be the best placement for the wireless router?

This is where the SlingLink TURBO W1 Ethernet over Power Adapter comes in handy. This handy gadget (which retails for $30 but can be found for close to half that amount online) uses Ethernet-over-powerline technology to piggyback your Internet connection on top of the electrical wiring in your house. These devices require zero configuration and are truly plug and play: Simply plug them in and connect. Now you can place your wireless router in the most optimal location without running long Ethernet cables all over your house. All you need is a nearby power socket.

- Lars Kongshem

How to Create an RSS Feed from Your Twitter Posts

Bummed that Twitter has removed the RSS feed link from profile pages? Turns out you can still access an RSS feed of your tweets through the Twitter API.

The URL format is as follows:

https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=xyz

(where "xyz" is your Twitter account name)

(More info here. Hat tip to @daveisanidiot.)

30 Second Review: Bose QuietComfort 15 noise cancelling headphones

Pros: Spacious, detailed, and effortless sound. Excellent noise cancellation for listening in noisy environments.
Cons: Expensive ($299). Slightly boomy mid-bass. Won't operate without a AAA battery. No way to disable the noise cancellation system.
Verdict: Great sound and effective noise cancellation let you create an instant sphere of tranquility around your head. But don't forget to stock up on batteries.

Quote of the Week

"There are some cases where a group of people can do a better job of solving certain kinds of problems than individuals. One example is setting a price in a marketplace. Another example is an election process to choose a politician. All such examples involve what can be called optimization, where the concerns of many individuals are reconciled. There are other cases that involve creativity and imagination. A crowd process generally fails in these cases. The phrase 'Design by Committee' is treated as derogatory for good reason. That is why a collective of programmers can copy UNIX but cannot invent the iPhone."

- Jaron Lanier

The final resting place of cement ?

It's rare to find typographical errors executed in wrought iron. Human nature being what it is, craftsmen tend to take extra special care when working in a medium that is costly to correct and has a great deal of permanence. So this 19th-century spelling mishap at a historic cemetery in Tubac, Arizona sure is a bit of a head-scratcher -- that is, until one realizes that the Spanish word for cemetery is "cementerio."

Image shot and processed with a Motorola Droid.