Be sure to "middle click" on the post links to open them in a new tab. Kids get your mom or dad to approve all the news feeds, some may be PG-13 or higher.
This is a video showing BlueMaemo, an application that allows you to control your PS3 with a Nokia N900. Well, it will allow you to control any number of devices, it’s just that there’s a video of it interacting with a PS3. All hail mighty Bluetooth, king of the wireless protocols.
The video is in Italian, but it should be easy enough to follow. It’s not like too much is going on or anything.
The application is totally free, and was developed by Valério Domingos Valério, a Benfica fan. Incidentally, that makes he and I mortal enemies, being a former Sporting season ticket holder. (And how good is Jorge Jesus? Oh, wait, nobody knows what I’m talking about! Woo~!)
Fennec, Mozilla's mobile version of Firefox, is "days away" from release. It will initially be available for the Nokia N900; don't expect an iPhone version anytime soon.
Maine could well become the first state in the Union to require cellphone manufacturers to add a cigarette-like warning to cellphone packaging. The idea is to remind people that cellphones may be dangerous, and that you would do well to limit your exposure to them.
Despite the fact that you'd have to be a stupid idiot to still text and drive, plenty of teens in the U.S. still text and drive. “By the time [the police] pull you over, the chances are you are going to be done with your text anyway so they can't exactly prove that you were texting.” Good thinking there, sport.
Well here's ones way to get your “brand” out there. Samsung will install its mobile chargers (you might have seen them at airports here and there) at 15 colleges around the U.S. That's just step one. Step two is installing said chargers at more than 50 colleges around the country.
You knew this was coming. Someone's driving a car. They're talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That “someone” just so happens to be the wireless provider and the manufacturer of the phone.
Nokia has recalled several mobile phone chargers, manufactured by third-parties for the company, because of the chance of electrical shock. There's been no reports of any injuries, so consider this a precaution.
A new law in Ontario, Canada has banned the use of handheld devices while driving. This includes cellphones, GPS devices, MP3 players, etc. Slight problem: the law is broad enough that you can construe it to include doing things like changing the radio station or reaching for a cup of coffee.
Someone caught breaking the law faces up to a C$500 fine. And this isn’t 15 years ago: C$500 is about $460 right now. Pretty serious money to lose because you need to text your friend WTF.
As for that cup of coffee gimmick that Slashdot originally brought up, I sincerely doubt a police officer is going to waste his time and pull you over for sipping a cup of coffee at the traffic light. Unless, of course, Canadian cops are like their American counterparts and have unofficial quotas to meet at the end of the month.
That’s it, really. Don’t text and drive, friends. It’s not safe, no sir.
Real, and available to pre-order. I refer to that BlackBerry wristwatch that was rumored for so, so long till it was “made official” several days ago. Created by Allerta (and not RIM), the watch, officially named the inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry, will set you back $150 when it's released in February, 2010.
Every few months we get a press release about some great device from a no-name manufacturer who promises to change the world. One example was the TXTR reader from Germany last January. Another is zzzPhone, a company selling dual-SIM Android powered smartphones from China. Neither company produced much of anything.
Era of the Silicon Valley success story – two guys making something cool in a garage and selling it – is over, at least in hardware. The costs of making consumer electronics, including cellphones and computers, on a small scale have risen so much as to be prohibitive and then the marketing costs of that same hardware is even more prohibitive. Whereas, once, two nerds in a basement could build a computer company I worry that it takes more resources than any one man or woman can muster these days to even approach something like success.
DOA
The first sad truth is that most consumer electronics cannot be made in “expensive” countries like the US or the Euro zone. During a visit to the Suunto watch factory in Finland, for example, I learned that while many of the watches are made near Helsinki a large percentage of them are made overseas and drop shipped from Asia. The company just couldn’t make anything in bulk without resorting to off-shoring. This means you either invest in an expensive small run of hardware overseas, something the Asian manufacturers do not do particularly well, or invest in a massive run of inexpensive hardware in Asia that you risk having to recycle if your company goes belly-up.
This doesn’t mean you can’t make it big anymore. Take TiVo, for example. It sprung out of obscurity a decade ago and filled a niche in the living room that has yet to be challenged by any manufacturer. Unfortunately, when someone – probably Samsung, LG, or Apple – figures out how to take over the DVR market, TiVo is toast. The same is true of Palm who, to all intents and purposes, is now a small company. The big guys are eating their lunch thanks to Android and it will take some fancy footwork to survive. The small guys are, sadly, always at the precipice of failure.
Other companies like Neuros and Slingbox simply sell a wrapper for their software. Sometimes this works but sadly it also leads to retrenchment when companies like Slacker pull out of the hardware business due to lack of interest and cost. Then there are success stories like like FyreTV [NSFW] which will do well because they focus on porn. Not everyone can focus on porn.
When in doubt, do this.
The second problem facing small CE companies is marketing. Micro-companies like Zeo and FitBit get a huge initial boost thanks to online media but then disappear once the news cycle has moved on, leaving the companies with amazing technology in the dark. This is an era of constant marketing, a situation that forces companies like Apple and Sony to put their message in front of consomers almost constantly in multiple media.
Anecdotally, I’ve seen companies receiving 8,000-10,000 pageviews with one good launch, more if its an interesting product. That initial boost translates into a percentage of good sales – those are good eyeballs, not just random traffic – but it rarely turns into repeat or continuing business.
That said, here are some of the best practices I’ve seen from small to medium CE companies who know how to do it right. This may not apply to you and yours, but it’s something to think about when you get excited about a product (Gizmondo anyone?) only to find it has crashed and burned.
1. Tell multiple stories. When you start out you have one story: Why your product is good. Prepare multiple stories for the next few years including ideas tagged to pressing issues of the month or year. Do you have a fitness gadget? Work on a story about post-holiday stress and weight gain. Have a DVR? Put yourself in the Super Bowl frenzy with blogger outreach and giveaways. That first boost is nice but if you’re a small company it’s the next four boosts that will push you through the rest of the year.
2. Price yourself competitively if not suicidally. Even if it’s suicidal, price yourself at just above the average price in your market. Aiming at rich, cosseted professionals is nice but the sharper Image model of doing business is over. Consumers want more for their money (even if they often get considerably less) so while $999 might seem like a nice number for a NAS or a piece of audio gear the consumer is more accustomed to $499.
3. Be quiet. Hide your light under a bushel. Patent your idea and don’t launch until the product is completely ready. I’ve seen too many companies splattered with the vaporware monicker because they failed to deliver on time or at all. Once you’re done, support your product forcefully and quietly. If someone has a problem, address it quickly. Send out new hardware before putting someone through tech support hell.
4. Change your trade dress regularly. This fickle market thinks anything that looks the same as it did last year is old. Why do iPods change every few months? People want to think they’re buying the new hotness, not the old and busted. If you can’t change your trade dress, change your website.
5. Slow and steady wins the race. None of the greats made it overnight and it’s harder than ever to truly make it. If you’re a small CE manufacturer, Godspeed. It’s a tough race so don’t sprint it.
Viral videos are, well, everywhere these days. You hire a media company, they come up with a clever idea, upload it, and hope that it gets tagged on YouTube. Which is exactly what Vodaphone NZ did.
Of course, Vodaphone isn’t here in the US, but internet video in universal, and this is pretty damn cool. So sit back, turn up the speakers, click play, and see what happens when some very clever people get 1000 cellphones together in one place and decide to make a viral video.
Here’s the making of video too, it’s definitely worth a viewing:
Let's be honest for a second here: unless we're talking about the Motorola Droid, which should be on Verizon Wireless within a few weeks, we might as well not be talking about Motorola. It'd be like talking about Real Madrid and only mentioning Granero or Drenthe and not Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaká. (Good, making references that all of 11 people will understand.) But we're going to that such a thing right now in talking about the Motorola Aura Diamond Edition. It's £3,500, which converts to, roughly, $5,700. Yeah…
The Barnes & Noble Nook reader is here and boy is it hot. Just like yesterday’s WSJ report stated, it will be available for $259 and sport dual touchscreens along with wireless courtesy of WiFi and AT&T 3G wireless. Battery life isn’t too shabby either with a reported 10 day life off of an 3.5 hour charge. Yeah, you want this.
The Nook’s tech specs are impressive – 2GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, MP3 player, micro USB plug, 3.5MM jack and of course, those dual screens with an Vizplex e-ink display up top and a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen on the bottom – but it’s the software that’s killer. The device will allow users to share books for 14 days at a time and it’s not just limited to other Nooks. The books can be read on cellphones and computers too. Then there is the standard e-book features like bookmarking, notes, and highlighting. We’ll be on hand later at the official event to see what’s up with the dual screens.
No doubt the Nook takes the ebook reader up to a whole new level of cool, but it’s just too bad that the Barnes & Noble ebook store so far doesn’t live up to Amazon’s selection. There just doesn’t seem to be nearly as many obscure titles available. So if you’re thinking of investing $259 of your money into this new device, why not spend sometime in the B&N store to ensure it has the selection you need. Don’t worry, you have time. The Nook isn’t expected to ship until the end of November.
A group of researchers in France just recommended that we all limit our exposure to wireless devices, including mobile phones, Wi-Fi, and microwaves, because we really don't understand how prolonged exposure to them can affect us. That's particularly true with mobile phones, since they've really only been around for, what, 10 years? (Obviously there were available for longer than that, but Joe Public didn't buy his first phone till a little bit later.) You can't categorically say, based on 10 years of sometimes spotty data, that “phones are bad!” or “phones are good!” We simply don't know.
So CTIA does this little survey twice a year just to measure how well (or poor) the wireless industry is doing. The result of its latest survey just hit the wires, and what immediately jumped out at me was this stat: around 4.1 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) text messages per day (!) were sent in the first half of 2009. I wonder how many of those are the always useful “k” message.
Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.
Looks like the Obama Administration, which really ought to be focused on getting Americans like me affordable health care (unless doctors now accept World of Warcraft Gold as payment, lol!), has set its sights on eliminating the scourge of distracted driving once and for all. Case in point: Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood is holding a summit this week that has the ultimate goal of “finding ways to eliminate texting while driving.”
And here I thought the megapixel race was over! Guess not, what with Samsung showing off, for the very first time, the SCH-W880, the world's first cellphone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because how many times have you said to yourself, “Man, I want to take a photo of this unusual drink, but only have the iPhone's rubbish camera”?
Approximately 37 years ago, John, Peter—PLEASE COME BACK, PETER!—, and I attended a Garmin press conference where it announced some sort of touchscreen phone. There was genuine interest—I’m hesitant to call it “excitement”—for a few days, but just as time heals all wounds, time also makes you forget; we’ve since forgotten all about said Garmin phone. Until now! Yes, Garmin just announced that the phone, officially the nuvifone G60, will be available on AT&T beginning on October 4. It’ll set you back $299 with a two-year contract and a $100 rebate. Nuviphone Premium costs $5.99 a month. You do see what the Palm Pre is going for these days, right? Just sayin’.
A well-meaning law, yes, but one that just misses the mark. I refer to, of course (as if you have any idea what I'm talking about), the Road User Amendment Rule 2009 in New Zealand. It would make it illegal to use a cellphone as a navigation device while inside a car.
Some pretty big iPhone news to share with y'all this morning: the iPhone will no longer be exclusive to O2 over in the UK, becoming available on Orange “later this year.” So for all of you in the U.S. who one day hope to see the iPhone on a different wireless provider (like, say, Verizon Wireless, differences between CDMA and GSM notwithstanding), well, you now have a precedent.
You get the feeling that Palm had something to hide today. On the surface that makes no sense, considering it officially announced the Pixi, the company’s second webOS-based phone, this morning. (The company’s first webOS phone, the Pre, launched to much fanfare last June, owing to an almost Bill Goldberg winning streak-like level of hype.) But as you’re already aware, Apple had an announcement or two of its own today, including the inclusion of a digital camera on the iPod nano. It’s unfortunate, but Apple events are really the black holes of this industry: on Apple event days, no other tech news can escape out into the wild. That is to say, unless your company name is Apple, Inc., you’d be better served laying low for the day, and make any announcements later in the week.
So what is the Palm Pixi? It’s a phone, yes, and one that will be available on Sprint, and only Sprint, before the Holidays. (Whether or not Pixi eventually makes its way to other carriers in unknown right now. Palm’s keeping mum on that type of talk.) Like the Pre (and iPhone), it uses a multi-touch touchscreen interface. Also like the Pre (and also unlike the iPhone), it has a physical QWERTY keyboard. What you prefer is just that, a preference, but let the record show that I do, indeed, fancy a physical keyboard over a virtual one. There’s nothing wrong with buttons, no matter what Steve Jobs would have you believe. The Pixi also supports EVDO Rev. A, so it should be plenty fast for you guys. (Unless, of course, you live in a modern country, with an equally modern infrastructure, and laugh at us poor Americans who have to put up with 3G/EVDO!) It also runs webOS, the same not-too-shabby-at-all operating system found on the Pre. So it’s safe to say, in my brief time with the phone this morning, that if you like webOS and/or the Pre, you’ll probably like the Pixi.
That’s where the similarities between the Pre and Pixi end. And to be fair, those are huge similarities: both use the same operating system (which is a nothing it not functional) and similar touchscreen wizardry, the two most noticeable character traits of a phone, aside from carrier and coverage, something which Palm has little control over. (It can’t help it if Sprint stinks in your area, just like how RIM can’t help that T-Mobile stinks in mine.) The most immediate difference, obviously, is the overall shape of the device. The keyboard doesn’t slide out this time around, but rather is ever present. It definitely feels less, I don’t know, “fancy” to have an always exposed keyboard. It’s sort of like those crazy sports cars that have front lights that recess into the body, versus a standard family sedan.
The Pixi is longer than a folded-up Pre, but not as wide. It’s also lighter by a few grams. So, yes, smaller.
Where did it loose all that girth, if you can even call it that? Well, the screen is smaller than the Pre’s by 80 pixels. In practice, this means that, for example, fewer names can be displayed on a contact list, which translates into one or two more finger swipers per round trip, if you know what I mean. Some aspects of the UI have also been tweaked to accommodate the smaller screen. It’s not something that the average person is going to notice and freak out over, but I’m sure it’ll make a bullet point on some silly cellphone message board argument.
That’s who this phone is targeted at, by the way, more everyman than tech addict. The reason why there’s no fold-out keyboard is to give people immediate access to text messages, Twitter updates, Facebook silliness, etc. (That was one of the complaints I saw during the first round of Pre reviews, that since the keyboard was always recessed, the phone didn’t feel as “immediate” as people would have wanted. The things people complain about, I tell ya.) In a sense, it’s a very capable first smartphone that you might give someone, or recommend they buy. What kills me, though, is that there’s no Wi-Fi.
I repeat: there’s no Wi-Fi. That’s right, a would-be smartphone in 2009 (nearly 2010!) doesn’t have a feature that’s become so commonplace that now even Verizon Wireless phones support it. (Oh, burn!) Does the lack of Wi-Fi kill the experience? No, of course not, but using the debate skills I learned on The Simpsons: Come on. Come on! You cannot market a whiz-bang, golly gee phone today and expect to get away with not including Wi-Fi. At least not from the likes of us. That said, I doubt too many of the everymen who this is targeted at will give a damn, to be honest.
So why did I open this with an ominous phrase? Two reasons. One, there’s nothing really new here, per se; it’s the Pre, just parred down. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but we’re all so damn conditioned to appreciate only the shiniest and newest that maybe Palm wasn’t so smitten this time around. Two, as all the Apple haters know, today is unequivocally Apple Day. If Palm was so confident in the Pixi’s ability to “wow” you all, then why would it wait to this week to make any sort of announcement? Push the announcement back a week, and you have the whole tech press devouring every morsel of Pixi news.
As it stands, we’re currently working on post 9 billion on What the iPod Means in 2009, so to say that the Pixi may initially get lost in the shuffle is a bit of an understatement.
So, again, if you like webOS, there’s no real reason why you wouldn’t like the Pixi. And if you don’t like the lack of Wi-Fi or always visible keyboard, that’s why there’s the Pre, which is now $149. Pricing for the Pixi will be revealed as we approach the actual release date, which is currently penciled in for the Holidays.
T-Mobile, Sprint, and now Verizon Wireless. Yup, the HTC Touch Pro 2 should be ready and waiting for you at your local VZW store on September 11. In what may be the first example of VZW customers getting a deal (compared to the other carriers), the phone is only $199 after $100 rebate and two-year contract.
We've already noted the dangers of driving while texting, but today there's evidence that suggests many other people recognize the problem. A recent survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance says that some 80 percent of Americans support some sort of legislation “to restrict cell phone use while driving.” How you define “cell phone use” then becomes an issue.
Apparently it's not a matter of “if” Microsoft will bring the Xbox, in some capacity, to the wonderful world of mobile entertainment, but “when.” So says< Corporate Vice-President Shane Kim, at least; if you can't trust Mr. Kim, then who can you trust?
Good news for German football fans who use T-Mobile. The company's Bundesliga Total service is coming to cellphones. That means you'll be able to watch every single game played in the first and second division from the comfort of your iPhone, G1 and G2. This is all live, by the way, not cheap-o highlights sent to your phone hours after the game has ended.
Wow, you can totally tell when Drudge links to a news story. Take this one, which details a Colorado plan to give free cellphones to low income people. Similar programs, using landline telephones, have existed for some time, paid for by a federal tax on telephones. So it's not like this is new money we're talking about, you know, being used to help people. But check out these comments, alluding to the destruction of the American way of life, whatever that is—crippling credit card debt? ashelymadison.com?
About a month ago you couldn't go to Huffington Post without thinking that Iran was going to protest its way into the year 2009. That didn't exactly happen, despite people thinking that they could tweet a government into collapse, all from the comfort of their armchair in Columbus, Ohio. (There's actually a term for that: slacktivism.) That being said, it now looks like some of the more rambunctious elements of that whole dust-up have now set their sights on Nokia, a company they view as being too close to the current political regime.
Oh this is just stupid. A Strategy Analytics study has found that some Palm Pre users are complaining about the lack of an on-screen keyboard. Unbelievable.
Here's more evidence that texting and driving is terribly dangerous. Car and Driver magazine tested to see how long it takes to hit the brake when completely unimpaired, legally drunk, reading e-mail, and sending a text message. It turns out that sending a text message adds 70 feet to your drive before you hit the break, the most out of all four scenarios.
Maine could well become the first state in the Union to require cellphone manufacturers to add a cigarette-like warning to cellphone packaging. The idea is to remind people that cellphones may be dangerous, and that you would do well to limit your exposure to them.
Despite the fact that you'd have to be a stupid idiot to still text and drive, plenty of teens in the U.S. still text and drive. “By the time [the police] pull you over, the chances are you are going to be done with your text anyway so they can't exactly prove that you were texting.” Good thinking there, sport.
Well here's ones way to get your “brand” out there. Samsung will install its mobile chargers (you might have seen them at airports here and there) at 15 colleges around the U.S. That's just step one. Step two is installing said chargers at more than 50 colleges around the country.
You knew this was coming. Someone's driving a car. They're talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That “someone” just so happens to be the wireless provider and the manufacturer of the phone.
Nokia has recalled several mobile phone chargers, manufactured by third-parties for the company, because of the chance of electrical shock. There's been no reports of any injuries, so consider this a precaution.
Real, and available to pre-order. I refer to 
Let's be honest for a second here: unless we're talking about the 
A group of researchers in France just recommended that we all limit our exposure to wireless devices, including mobile phones, Wi-Fi, and microwaves, because we really don't understand how prolonged exposure to them can affect us. That's particularly true with mobile phones, since they've really only been around for, what, 10 years? (Obviously there were available for longer than that, but Joe Public didn't buy his first phone till a little bit later.) You can't categorically say, based on 10 years of sometimes spotty data, that “phones are bad!” or “phones are good!” We simply don't know.
So CTIA does this little survey twice a year just to measure how well (or poor) the wireless industry is doing. The result of its latest survey just hit the wires, and what immediately jumped out at me was this stat: around 4.1 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) text messages per day (!) were sent in the first half of 2009. I wonder how many of those are the always useful “k” message.
Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.
Looks like the Obama Administration, which really ought to be focused on getting Americans like me affordable health care (unless doctors now accept 
And here I thought the megapixel race was over! Guess not, what with Samsung showing off, for the very first time, the SCH-W880, the world's first cellphone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because how many times have you said to yourself, “Man, I want to take a photo of this unusual drink, but only have the iPhone's rubbish camera”?
Approximately 37 years ago, John, Peter—PLEASE COME BACK, PETER!—, and I attended a Garmin press conference where it announced some sort of touchscreen phone. There was genuine interest—I’m hesitant to call it “excitement”—for a few days, but just as time heals all wounds, time also makes you forget; we’ve since forgotten all about said Garmin phone. Until now! Yes, Garmin just announced that the phone, officially the nuvifone G60, will be available on AT&T beginning on October 4. It’ll set you back $299 with a two-year contract and a $100 rebate. Nuviphone Premium costs $5.99 a month. You do see what the Palm Pre is going for these days, right? Just sayin’.
A well-meaning law, yes, but one that just misses the mark. I refer to, of course (as if you have any idea what I'm talking about), the Road User Amendment Rule 2009 in New Zealand. It would make it illegal to use a cellphone as a navigation device while inside a car.
Some pretty big iPhone news to share with y'all this morning: the iPhone will no longer be exclusive to O2 over in the UK, becoming available on Orange “later this year.” So for all of you in the U.S. who one day hope to see the iPhone on a different wireless provider (like, say, Verizon Wireless, differences between CDMA and GSM notwithstanding), well, you now have a precedent.
T-Mobile, Sprint, and now Verizon Wireless. Yup, the HTC Touch Pro 2 should be ready and waiting for you at your local VZW store on September 11. In what may be the first example of VZW customers getting a deal (compared to the other carriers), the phone is only $199 after $100 rebate and two-year contract.
We've already noted the dangers of driving while texting, but today there's evidence that suggests many other people recognize the problem. A recent survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance says that some 80 percent of Americans support some sort of legislation “to restrict cell phone use while driving.” How you define “cell phone use” then becomes an issue.
Apparently it's not a matter of “if” Microsoft will bring the Xbox, in some capacity, to the wonderful world of mobile entertainment, but “when.” So says< Corporate Vice-President Shane Kim, at least; if you can't trust Mr. Kim, then who can you trust?
Good news for German football fans who use T-Mobile. The company's Bundesliga Total service is coming to cellphones. That means you'll be able to watch every single game played in the first and second division from the comfort of your iPhone, G1 and G2. This is all live, by the way, not cheap-o highlights sent to your phone hours after the game has ended.
Wow, you can totally tell when Drudge links to a news story. Take this one, which details a Colorado plan to give free cellphones to low income people. Similar programs, using landline telephones, have existed for some time, paid for by a federal tax on telephones. So it's not like this is new money we're talking about, you know, being used to help people. But check out these comments, alluding to the destruction of the American way of life, whatever that is—crippling credit card debt? ashelymadison.com?
About a month ago you couldn't go to Huffington Post without thinking that Iran was going to protest its way into the year 2009. That didn't exactly happen, despite people thinking that they could tweet a government into collapse, all from the comfort of their armchair in Columbus, Ohio. (There's actually a term for that: slacktivism.) That being said, it now looks like some of the more rambunctious elements of that whole dust-up have now set their sights on Nokia, a company they view as being too close to the current political regime.
Oh this is just stupid. A Strategy Analytics study has found that some Palm Pre users are complaining about the lack of an on-screen keyboard. Unbelievable.
Here's more evidence that texting and driving is terribly dangerous. Car and Driver magazine tested to see how long it takes to hit the brake when completely unimpaired, legally drunk, reading e-mail, and sending a text message. It turns out that sending a text message adds 70 feet to your drive before you hit the break, the most out of all four scenarios.