First CES Video: All-New BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform

First CES Video

All-New BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform

South Park Skin For BulletTrain eXpress BulletTrain Develops Strategic Partnership with MusicSkins.com

South Park Skin For BulletTrain eXpress

BulletTrain Develops Strategic Partnership with MusicSkins.com

Hi everybody!!! I am happy to announce that BulletTrain just announced at CES that we have put together a strategic partnership with MusicSkins.com which will be providing Music and Pop Culture skins for the BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform.

Here is a sample of a South Park skin which gives you an idea of what to expect. Over the next few months, we will be building out the BulletTrain Custom Shop which is pretty mind-blowing. And yes, the trackpad still works perfectly when it has a skin over it...

BulletTrain Launches All-New, Stylish, Innovative eXpress Keyboard Platform In 10 Fun Colors!

Next Generation eXpress Debut @ CES

BulletTrain Launches All-New, Stylish, Innovative eXpress Keyboard Platform In 10 Fun Colors!

CES: Las Vegas, NV —January 2012—BulletTrain launches their all-new, more affordable BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform.

As with BulletTrain’s widely acclaimed aluminum model, the all-new eXpress combines the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic TrackPad into an ergonomic and truly portable laptop style configuration for your desk, lap or Media Center. That is where the similarities end and the fun begins.

“Since day one, we’ve never stopped improving the eXpress” said Jake Ehrlich-CEO & Designer at BulletTrain. “We created the all-new eXpress with our customers in mind. We’ve worked hard to perfect everything, the shape, the method of attachment, the angle, the materials, the price–everything!!!”

The all-new eXpress is constructed of high-quality, high-strength, glass-reinforced polycarbonate which provides a much lighter product, while offering the durability and style BulletTrain customers have come to expect.

Subtle changes to the shape of the new eXpress improve usability while increasing performance and tactile feedback. The Magic TrackPad sits lower in the platform and is no longer flush with the platform, reducing erroneous taps and clicks while providing a non-visual way to find the TrackPad.

A flat bottom with super low-profile feet makes the new eXpress even more lap friendly. The new flat bottom, coupled with a new wall-hanging design significantly improve wall-hanging ability by allowing the eXpress to hang on shorter fat or flat-head screws or nails.

The new eXpress features an innovative method of attaching the keyboard and TrackPad into place by gripping their battery compartments. BulletTrain designed a clip-in, “C-channel“ system which holds snug, yet allows the Apple Magic TrackPad and Keyboard to be easily removed for changing batteries. This new system completely eliminates the need to attach anything to your devices.

In response to customer feedback, the power buttons of both the TrackPad and Keyboard have been made easily accessible without having to remove them from the eXpress.

Jake Ehrlich speaks of designing BulletTrain’s new creation with an almost intoxicating passion:

“All the changes and improvements we made on the all-new eXpress exemplify our absolute commitment to excellence as well as clearly showcasing our desire to completely reinvent the keyboard for the 21st Century.

We’ve taken the all-new BulletTrain eXpress to a new level, while significantly lowering the price to make it way more affordable than our previuos generation Aluminum eXpress. I wanted to take my time to make certain we left no stone unturned. Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know many of our customers on a personal level. I listened very carefully to what features they enjoyed, and more importantly to what they wanted.”

As a result, BulletTrain is launching the new eXpress in 10 fashion colors, one of which is a metallic silver that closely matches the aluminum finish BulletTrain customers are used to. All of the colors offered come in an ultra-durable three-stage-process designed to mimic the metallic sheen and texture of anodized aluminum.

The 10 gorgeous colors offered and are as follows:

• Piano Black

• Arctic White

• Ruby Red

• Caribbean Blue

• Passion Pink

• Rainforest Green

• Royal Purple

• BulletTrain Blue

• Sunset Orange

• Silver

These colors will allow customers to truly eXpress themselves making their desktop space more personal, fashionable and fun.

If customers wish to customize their all-new eXpress even further, BulletTrain has developed partnerships to bring you the BuletTrain Custom Shop which offers an enormous selection of skins for the eXpress and Magic TrackPad. From The Beatles to Sponge Bob there’s sure to be something for everyone. With 10 colors and a huge selection of custom skins, BulletTrain has given “Freedom of eXpression” a whole new meaning.

While revisions to the shape, materials, and attachment method as well as the addition of exclusive skins and an exciting color palette might have been enough, BulletTrain didn’t stop there.

Without question, the most exciting feature of this new eXpress is the price. BulletTrain is offering the all-new eXpress for only $79!

When BulletTrain first launched the eXpress, they set out to reinvent the desktop keyboard and create an everything-top keyboard, giving you the most comfortable, friction free experience with your computer, Mac Media Center, or HTPC. It has now been refined even further to deliver you that same experience in a lighter, sleeker, more stylish, and more affordable package.

Pricing and Availability

The BulletTrain eXpress will be available in March at the BulletTrain website (www.bullettrain.com) from $79. (US)

Tesla S. Prototype with Iron Man

What Are You Looking At!?!

Tesla S. Prototype with Iron Man

2012 Is Going To Be Amazing at BulletTrain

The San Francisco Bay Area is renowned for technological innovation, but the real question is what is this BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform prototype doing in a prototype Tesla S, and why does it have Iron Man on it? I know Elon Musk, the innovative founder of Tesla is regarded as being the model for the movie version of Iron Man's Tony Stark.

Notice the in-dash web browser in the Tesla S. Prototype is on the BulletBlog which you are looking at right now! Want to find out more? Visit BulletTrain at CES at booth 6621 and learn more about how exiting 2012 will be at BulletTrain.

BulletTrain eXpress in the Rice Fields of Bali...

BulletTrain eXpress in the Rice Fields of Bali

Matthew Taylor purchased his BulletTrain eXpress Keyboard Platform back in June of 2011 and took it with him to Bali. With the BulletTrain eXpress we typically refer to it as the Ultimate Desktop, Laptop and Home Theater Keyboard and in this instance you see a real customer using it as the Ultimate Laptop keyboard, since he has elevated his laptop up to his eye height, and he just sent in this photo with the following email:

Hey Jake-

Thanks for designing a truly magnificent travel companion, the BulletTrain Express. Though it added a little heft to my backpack, it was well worth it to bring this invaluable ergonomic helper with me to Bali where I wrote the concluding chapter for my forthcoming book.

As you can see from the photos, I set it up so that the Express would be at an appropriate wrist/arm length, and I elevated my MacBook Pro on a box so that it would be at eye level. The view is from my balcony -- I lived in an amazing two-story villa near Ubud just across from the botanic gardens, overlooking rice paddies.

BTW, I learned about Steve's passing while in Bali, and it was a simultaneously sad and inspirational moment. Say what you want about his many personality flaws, the man truly changed the world and died complete having given his gifts. Watching the Think Different video and his Stanford commencement speech, I realize that he entered the pantheon of the Crazy Ones.

Yours,

Matthew Taylor
Wordsmith. Mediator.

Jonathan Ive On Apple Design...

Jonathan Ive On Apple Design

Jonathan Ive is the lead designer at Apple and as a fellow designer, I have always been fascinating with listening to him talk about design. In this video segment from the movie, Objectified Jonathan Ive talks about making the unibody structure for the MacBooks.

Four Keys To Apple's Success from the Wall Street Journal

Four Keys To Apple's Success

from the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal published a story today about Creg Joswiak, who is part of the Apple product marketing team and has been with Apple for 20 years. Greg Joswiak is pictured below, and he is the Vice President of iPod, iPhone and iOS Product Marketing.

In a recent speech Creg Joswiak told the audience at the Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge what he thought the top four secrets were behind Apple's amazing success:

Focus: It means saying no, not saying yes. We do very few things at Apple. We do $100 Billion in revenue per year with very few products. There are only so many grade A players. If you spread yourself out over too many things, none of them will be great.

Simplicity: Make complex things simple. A lot of people think it means take something simple and leave it at its core essence. But it isn’t that. When you start to build something, it quickly becomes really complex. But that is when a lot of people stop. If you really know your product and the problems, then you can take something that is complex and then make it simple.

Courage: Courage drives a lot of decisions in business. Don’t hang on to ideas from the past even if they have been successful for you. You don’t build a product just because everyone else has one.

Best: If you can’t enter the market and try and be the best in it, don’t enter it. You need that differentiation. At Apple if we can’t be the best then we are not interested in it.

2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 in Matte Black

2012 Lamborghini Aventador

LP700-4 in Matte Black

My pal Kaveh is pictured below in the all-new Matte Black Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, which looks like the next Batmobile. The Lamborghini Aventador is the successor to the Lamborghini Murcielago, and the Aventador has a 6.5 Liter V-12 that cranks out 700 Horsepower and 509 pound-feet of torque. The magnificent monster accelerates from 0-62 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds, so it is like a rocket-ship.

iClip Clipboard Manager for Mac

iClip

Clipboard Manager for Mac

I am so excited to share this great news with you. iClip was an amazing clipboard manager that was very successful for years, then the developer unfortunately abandoned it. This frustrated many users.

The great news, is that my pal Steve, who owns and runs Irradiated Software, purchased the code, and completely rebuilt the code and optimized it for Lion. Irradiated Software re-introduced iClip earlier this week. I have had a chance to evaluate it, and I am happy to report it is amazing!!!

Steve managed to keep all the original features and in the screenshot below, we see how it works. Essentially anything you copy to your clipboard, with a keyboard shortcut or from a drop down menu, will be recorded and save into iClip. This includes all images, text, URL's, etc. You notice in the photo below that there are multiple copied content modules on the right side of the screen. As you copy items and content to your clipboard, iClip places the latest at the top. and keeps them in reverse chronological order.

The end-user can go back in time and paste any content into the active application, which is amazingly useful. Also, if you have content you regularly like to paste, you can create a special clipboards that will paste them. For instance, if you have travel instructions for how to get to your home or office, you can add them to iClip, and past them whenever you want.

You can learn much more by visiting www.IrradiatedSoftware.com.

Why You Need Clipboard Management

Do you copy & paste much?

Have you often copied something but when you tried to paste it you realized that you copied over it?

Do you ever want to copy multiple items before pasting them somewhere?

If you’re like most Mac users then the answer to these questions is a loud “yes!”

What you need is a supercharged clipboard that enables you to copy several times before you ever have to paste anything and that’s where iClip comes in.

Where the built-in Mac clipboard can only copy one thing at a time, iClip automatically stores a history of up to 99 things you’ve copied.

You can copy…copy…copy then paste…paste…paste at your convenience. Can you see how useful iClip will be in your workflow?

If you value your time, you owe it to yourself to be the next Mac user to start saving time and become more productive with iClip.

Lexus Dealership Using iPad's In Service Department...

Lexus Dealership

Using iPad's In Service Department

I was recently at a Lexus Dealership, in the service department, and I noticed the service advisors are all now using iPad in special cases.

Basically this Lexus dealership switched over from paper forms to iPad for all the Lexus service advisors in the service department. So when a Lexus owner arrives and they are greeted by the Lexus service advisor who inputs the license plate number and all the info on the car populates on the iPad screen. The service advisor then inputs all the information for what needs to be done.

The most interesting thing is how the Lexus service advisors hold the iPad. The iPads are in special neoprene cases that not only protect the iPad, but also allow the iPad case to fit on the users hand like a glove. Basically, the end user sticks their hand in the square hold as seen below. I asked a Lexus service advisor what he thought about the system and he said he loved it. He said it makes things work so much better.

iPads abound in the Lexus service center. I just happened to notice that even customers who were waiting in the customer lounge had iPads at the Lexus dealership. This really goes to show how popular the iPad has become.

Rare Photos of Steve Jobs with Bill Gates

Rare Photos of Steve Jobs with Bill Gates

This first photo of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as taken more than a quarter-centery ago in 1985, which was only one year after the original Apple Mac was released for sale.

In 1995 Steve Jobs was interview by Robert Cringely, and Steve Jobs famously said "The problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third rate products."

In Walter Isaacson's book which was published recently Steve Jobs said "Bill Gates is basically unimaginative." Steve Jobs reportedly said "Bill Gates never invented anything. He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."

Steve Jobs: One Last Thing PBS Documentary

Steve Jobs PBS Documentary

One Last Thing