In my personal opinion, one ad celebrates and captures life, while the other attempts to become your life (all you talk about and do). Well I think I’ll just leave it at that. I won’t even say which is which.

This reminds me of politics. Except that usually both politics choose to belittle their competition. Thank you Apple, for believing in humanity enough to advertise like you do.

Sincerely,

Garrett

- White Murdered Out Screen (image above)

I’ve always gone white on all of my iOS products. I like the bright cleanliness. However, everytime I see a black iPhone 5 with the screen turned off, I’m very jealous of the smooth murdered out look. Each time, I’ll look down at my white iPhone 5, blink off the screen and be saddened by the large black space that remains visible.

Last year while traveling in Japan, I saw these video monitors that were part of a white glossy surface. The video content was perfectly bright and clear, and then when turned off, they disappeared completely, leaving a perfectly white glossy surface with no sign that a video monitor was ever there. I want this for my white iOS devices! Murdered out? Give me Angeled out!

- Brightness Toggle

I’ve voiced this before but still, this simple wish remains un-granted. Simply put, I want a quicker easier way to adjust the brightness of my screen.

- Width of the iPhone 5/Height of the iPhone 4 (image above)

It only took 1 day with my new iPhone 5 before holding any iPhone 4 felt like a total heavy thick brick. I’ve really loved how thin and light the iPhone 5 is. However, I’ve never really been too excited over the added screen size. If anything, I often find it a little more difficult to use and reach.

I would love to see the best of both worlds. As shown in the image above, I’d love the width of the iPhone 5 while keeping the height of the iPhone 4. The result, an even lighter device that is quite close to the size and dimensions of a credit card.

 ps. Would be exciting sweetness if the camera was also an enabled QR READER :)

Sincerely,

Garrett

Once a Hater, Now a Lover

As a college dropout, many people think I hate the education system. But the truth is, I respect the education system for the beast that it is. Actually, I’ll go ahead and just say it. I love the education system.

I used to talk poorly of the education system for its many flaws, especially for the way it tries to standardize the path to success and then plug unique individuals into that same generic recipe. But, as I have been further exposed to the post-schooling world, my opinion has been totally flipped. The education system is perfect. Perfectly flawed. By that I mean to say that the flaws that exist in the education system perfectly mirror flaws in the real world. Similar to the education system, the corporate world also tries to plug you into their machine, decide your life’s path of progression, and promise you success as the result of a generic recipe.

My Dear Friend, a Product of the Education System

This is all currently ruling my every thought as I see my dear friends and classmates that I started out with as Freshman years ago, now finishing up finals and graduating. Crazy to think that if I had stayed to that path and not dropped out, that I would be in a completely different situation than I am now. Allow me a very brief story:

A few weeks before graduation, one of those classmates from Freshman year asked if I’d join him over dinner. He really needed someone to listen. He told me how since our Freshman year he had followed the rules, worked incredibly hard, and performed well according to his grades. Unfortunately, all that resulted in graduation being just weeks away and still no job, not even a solid interview, but “worst of all, no real marketable skills.”

It absolutely broke my heart to hear this. In my eyes, this friend is more talented than me, has more potential than me, and is really just a genuinely better person than me. Really. But the education system took this incredibly unique individual, plugged him into a generic recipe, and then spit him out. So, has the education system prepared my dear friend for the real world? I argue YES.

Follow Your Heart Down Your Unique Path

It is up to you, the individual, to follow your heart and create your own path. Don’t let a generic recipe define you. So it is with the Education System and so it is in the corporate world thereafter. I hope my friend learns from his education experience and doesn’t fall into the same trap moving forward. I pray that he can see the brilliant potential in himself that I can so clearly see.

I’m very grateful for my schooling experience. I’m grateful for how clearly it showed me the dangers of generic rules and systems.

Here are 3 videos I have long admired that speak to this truth very well. Enjoi :

“Whatever you paid to see Michael Jordan it wasn’t enough. You knew that every night out there you were gonna get the greatest concert of your life.”

“When Jordan would go out for the spotlight introduction he would look up into the stands and he would realize that there was at least someone up there that night who had never seen him before who would never see him again and this would be the one Michael Jordan moment they ever had and would say he was playing for those people there.”

“And then there was the supporting cast which Michael would challenge relentlessly knowing they too had to be ready when their moment came.”

“The weakest part of Michael’s game on the offensive end was his shooting. So he obviously mastered something that everybody said he couln’t when he came out of college. and he did it by shooting shooting shooting shooting consistently  The other thing that people told him that he wasn’t really great defensive player but the best defensive player in the NBA. This guy said those are my weaknesses I’m gonna figure out how to make those my strengths. And he did it.”

“He’s the type of man that could get you to jump off a bridge or at least think about it for a few seconds. He has such a will to accomplish a mission that everyone follows.”

So I currently have two different portable speakers. The first one I got was the JAMBOX by Jawbone (in Scan red of course ;). The second one I got was by BRAVEN. I was happy with the sound quality of my JAMBOX but when compared, my BRAVEN puts out sound at both a higher volume and a higher clarity.

The first time I saw BRAVEN I was excited to get a speaker that perfectly matched my Apple Power Mac but I still thought the overall product and brand was too similar to Jawbone and the many others out there. I’ve been happy too see as BRAVEN’s product line has grown that their products are definitely becoming more unique and niche.

These speakers also work as a speaker phone and portable charger. All in all, they have proven the perfect way to add music to workouts, sports, parties, BBQs, the office, and my favorite, “Saturday Cleaning”.. :)

I love me some good quality crafted product.

Thank you for reading. You are good people,

Garrett

Are You Building a Product or a Use Case?

One of my favorite product stories was listening to Steve Jobs talk about the iPad 1 year after it was released. Since the launch, they had been amazed by the endless number of creative ways customers and businesses were using the iPad. Although each of these unique cases were a surprise in themselves, from the beginning Apple’s iPad had been made in a way that would encourage such endless out-of-the-box creativity.

What Scan Is. What Scan Will Be.

The Scan team is very focused on our mission of bringing together our real world and digital lives. We ourselves use and enjoy digital services like Facebook, Pinterest, online shopping, and many others. With so many of these digital services comes the risk of spending too much time locked in behind our computer or mobile screens. We don’t believe the solution is to avoid using these digital services, but rather, to enable them in the real world.

We are building Scan into a tool that enables digital actions in the real world, through your mobile device. Examples would be scanning a code on a menu to instantly follow your favorite restaurant on Twitter or scanning a code from a poster to instantly make a donation at a charity event. With so many potential use cases, we understand the importance of keeping things simple and focused. Hopefully, as we stay focused, we’ll be able to continuously deliver our customers with a product that inspires their creativity.

Great Ideas From Great Customer

Recently we had some of our customers tweet us about a cool new way they had been using Scan. They had created a Personal Scan Page and then added their custom made code to their iPhone’s lock screen. Instead of always needing to have business cards on hand, they have all their personal information readily available for sharing directly from their lock screen.

Brilliance! Although, this use case isn’t within out current development focus, we did love it enough to implement it within our own team. Major props and thank you to Bryce Morgan and Kent Gigger for their creative minds.

Create Your Own Lock Screen Business Card

If you’d like to create your own :

• Generate your custom QR code on Scan.

• Use this Illustrator and Photoshop Template (iPhone 5) : Download Template

Would love to see what you come up with. Be sure and share!

Here is mine :

Have a good day,

Garrett

When I was in middle school my old step mom who worked as a beautician cut my hair. Well, one evening I ticked her off in a most horrible of ways and she vowed to never cut my hair again. That night, I retreated to the home of my best friend, Morgan Lyman.

In a way that only best friends know how, Morgan took me in, cooked up some healthy foods, turned on some Wyclef, and cut my hair. Later that night, I returned home with my first mohawk, the best hair cut I ever received. Throughout high school Morgan continued to cut my hair whenever needed. Sometimes it was needed because my hair was outta control.. And sometimes it was needed because I just needed to escape some trouble back home.. Either way, Morgan was always there for me.

Ten years later, Morgan is still my barber of choice. Most people figure it’s because of his finely developed skills,  careful attention to detail, and the atmosphere he likes to set with food on the grill, fresh smoothies, and the best music playing. But to say that’s all would be an ungrateful understatement on my part. In a very real way, these haircuts have saved my life.

These days, a haircut from Morgan often means hopping on a quick flight. A small price to pay for the world’s best haircut. In a perfect world, everyone would have a Morgan for all those times when life gets a little too hairy.

Here is some of Morgan’s work from 2012. Thank you dear friend..

PS. To Morgan’s sweet parents : Thank you for always letting us use your clippers, your grill, your blender, your fruit, your porch, your stereo, and your home.

Every once in a while a brand will get it perfectly right. The right textures,  the right features, the right performance and the right feel. Converse did it with their Chuck Taylor All Stars, Gap with the 1969 Jeans, JanSport with their Right Pack, MINI with their Countryman, and now.. Nike with the GS2s.

The Nike GS2 – My Perfect Boot

Long I’ve waited for a brand to step forward and make my perfect cleat. With the brand new GS2, Nike got it suspiciously spot on. I should probably double check the back page of my sketch pad and make sure they didn’t straight tear it out ;) Here are a few of my favorite things about this boot :

• The heel : The heel is short and thin. Non obtrusive. The vapors had it right for a while but have had more and more padding added over time.

• The overall shape : The overall shape is a light and speedy combination of a ballet slipper, a sock, and some sexy sports car. Not built so much for protection or comfort, but rather for pure speed. Luckily I have my priorities straight.

• The fine details : It was only after unboxing these boots that I was able to admire and appreciate the fine craft that was put into every little detail. The materials and textures bleed quality.

Ready to treat your feet to the Nike GS2? You can get them over at soccer.com!

Garrett

ps. Nike, you can go ahead and let me know right now if you plan on making this cleat timeless or if I should stock up now like I wish I would have with your Nike Mercurial Vapor’s in kangaroo leather.

Les Miserables – In Theaters Now

It’s Christmas night and I just returned with my family from seeing Les Miserables. When I was 11, my mother had taken me to see the play live in London. Once again, but this time as a movie, Les Miserables was seriously life changing.

After I write this quick post I’m going to dive deeper in research and seek out those responsible for the brilliance behind the story, the brilliance behind the music, and now the brilliance behind the movie.

I have a list of movies I keep in my journal called “My Religion”. These are movies that I feel exemplify my personal beliefs in life. Some of these movies include Seven Pounds, John Q, We Bought a Zoo, and now, Les Miserables.

The Les Miserables Scholarship Fund

Those who know me know how much I value my education. They also know how difficult it is for me to sincerely accredit any education I have obtained thus far to my formal schooling.

Well, just as scholarships have been made available to send eager minds to formal schools where they can hopefully gain an education of life, I am going to create a scholarship of my own. It isn’t quite as financially hearty as most scholarships, but it does provide its recipients just as brilliant an opportunity for education and inspiration if their minds, hearts, and spirits are ready.

The Les Miserables Scholarship Fund is a full-ride scholarship to any viewing of Les Miserables while in theater. I understand that “full-ride” usually means dining so I’m willing to fund your trip to the concession stand as well if so desired (although I always recommend keeping our nutrient-deprived bodies far away from all contents of most concessions).

How to Apply

I’m serious about this. Like all great movies, Les Miserable inspired me to not only be a better person but to taken action. I’m sure that day to day there will be better ways for me to spend my efforts and do greater good, but for now I’ll start here.

To apply, just send me a message (my email, contact page of my website, my Facebook, my Twitter, or anyway) letting me know why you are deserving of the scholarship (movie tickets). It doesn’t need to be anything extensive or fancy, just something sincere. I’ll start off by funding 10 scholarships. I wish I could afford to fund more but for now I better set my limit at 10. I’m sure people are as eager as I was to see this film so I’ll be picking the first 10 very quickly so don’t wait long!

How Can You Help?

I would love for as many to have this opportunity as possible so please feel free to share this post on Facebook or Retweet this out on Twitter!

Thank you so much. Hopefully some good may come of this. At the very least, take this as my way of saying thank you to the individuals behind the making of Les Miserables.

Sincerely,

Garrett

*Fine Print : The Les Miserables Scholarship Fund is legit and official in that I will truly pay for the movie tickets out of my own pocket. Meanwhile, The Les Miserables Scholarship Fund is as non-legit and unofficial as needs be to keep me clear and clean from any hideous and ugly legal trouble that trolls or goons may try and send my way through this attempted righteous deed.

I was so happy with the way the first batch of app cookies turned out that I immediately contacted Megan of Well Mixed Sweet Treats about baking up a second batch to be part of the Scan Family Christmas Dinner.

Once again, I was completely amazed at the detail and quality. Check them out. I’ve included links to most the apps for download in case you haven’t tried any of them yet!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Scan

Pinterest

Instagram

Kelvin Weather

Gospel Libraries

Movies by Flixster

Rhyme Time

Pocket

Google+

EyeDrop.me

Home (coming January 2013)

Scan Plus (coming February 2012)

Well thanks for visiting my blog today. This cookie story ends with them being packaged up and included in our gift packages for the Scan Family Christmas Dinner.. and then taken home and devoured by friends and family : )

Merry Christmas to you!

Sincerely,

Garrett