Michael M's X10 Blog

You spoke and we listened! In a recent survey, 90% of webcam owners polled have stressed the importance of a web camera that can zoom, pan, tilt, handle low light, and produces a great optical video quality. When asked about what was missing from their current webcam, the majority mentioned that the things that they were seeking as listed above were the things that were lacking and most important to them!

Unlike traditional webcams, which are about to become a thing of the past, the new X10 Video Calling System allows for better interaction between you and loved ones who may be on the other side of the world. With the ability to allow you to control the webcam on either side of the conversation, you'll have the capability to zoom up to 44 times through the camera's 22x optical and 22x digital zoom. In addition, you can control the range of motion with an up to 180 degree full sweep from left to right and 70 degree tilt option from top to bottom.

With its design to handle low light situations, you can easily adjust the optics of the camera to either lighten or darken your images no matter the current lighting of the room, meaning you have the ability to see anytime and anywhere.

Have the freedom to allow your camera to follow you with the included remote control. There's no need to be stationary as you have the mobility to move freely throughout your room and control your camera to show off wherever you are or whatever you like!

Using your favorite Instant Messenging program (Skype, AOL AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM), you'll discover that the X10 Video Calling System will change the way you converse online! We're so sure that you?ll love your new X10 Video Calling system, that if for any reason you decide you don't want it, simply return it within 30-days along with your purchase receipt for a no-questions-asked refund!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The focus this week has been on trying to provide more notice and exposure to our beloved Community Organizers (CO’s). These are the guys who help us operate our forum. None of the CO’s are employed by X10, but love X10 products enough to make a hobby out of our stuff. Many of them have so many years of experience with our products that they know them better than most of the X10 team.

I was interested in a recent poll posted by one of our CO’s regarding the reasons that most people come to the community site. The leading reason so far: to learn. If this is the case, then many of you have come to the right place. I am in the process of finding ways to utilize their skills and find ways to allow them to share more of their knowledge.

I love reading stories about how they are able to hook up their gear and make it function for weird purposes. Everything from Christmas light timers to pet monitoring. Not only do we get to read some great stories, we get to read about creativity and innovation!

I hope you enjoy the work that the CO’s are doing! They spend many hard working hours volunteering their time to make your X10 world a better place!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Behind the scenes at X10 headquarters, the Marketing, Development, and Design team has been busy scurrying around the past few weeks. This concluding week has been a busy one to say the least, as we’ve all been running amuck. The great thing though, through all of our many hours of hard work and focus, we now can provide you with two great new products!

The first being the X10 Fantasy Sports Tracker, an awesome gadget for the fantasy sports geek in your life. (I use fantasy sports geek loosely, as I am a self-proclaimed fantasy sports geek myself – I also know fantasy sports geeks are aplenty in the female population, so are not strictly labeled to the guys!). This device has the ability to allow a sports nut on game day to monitor live scores online without ever having to leave the couch! How it works is by using a video sender, a receiver, and a special remote control. The sender is hooked up to your PC (which is hooked up to your Internet), the receiver is hooked up to your television, then using the remote control in-between game-time timeouts, gives you the ability to stay on the couch and flip the channel to see your computer broadcasted onto your television. Then you simply flip back on the remote to the game. The only time you’ll ever have to get up is to use the restroom, or grab a snack. When I was first told of this project, you can bet I was excited. So excited, I ended getting one of these guys for myself! If you want to learn more about the X10 Fantasy Sports Tracker, click here!

The second product, was the launch of the website promoting X10’s new Video Calling System. In fact, the design team has been working profusely to get this website up. A lot of time and research has been done in order to prepare for the launch of this new product. This includes online surveys, bringing people in for product panels, and nationwide interviews to gather many people’s opinions. Our head Web designer Marko, has done a wonderful job leading his team, to provide you a beautiful new web site! If you are interested in learning more about this video calling system, the camera has an amazing 44 times zoom! Meaning you can see over a half mile away! In my previous blog, I posted how I had the chance to try the camera, and needless to say, I’ve owned several webcams in the past, and this system blows them out of the water!

So, as you can see, we’re working hard at X10 to bring you great quality products that we know you’ll love! If you’re interested in learning more, shoot me a message and let me know!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The local media is reporting today about the deafening crowd noise at Qwest Field. It seems that rumors are going around that stadium officials are pumping in artificial crowd noise over the intercom to heighten the crowd volumes.

Last season I had the opportunity to watch a couple of games at Qwest Field, especially the game that clinched the NFC playoffs for the Hawks. As I stared around in amazement at over 60,000 fans going wild and crazy, I couldn’t believe how deafening the environment was. People excitedly shouted and waved towels creating a place that was totally abuzz!

I remember even shouting and yelling myself, and thinking that I couldn’t even hear my own voice amongst these crazy fans and supporters. I had never heard anything so deafening and loud! It was absolutely incredible. You couldn’t even hear what the person next to you was saying if they had yelled directly into your ear. This Sunday, although I won’t be in the stadium to witness it for myself, I know how loud and crazy the fans are going to be. The NFL and people everywhere are going to be in for the shock of their lives when they watch the bricks fall off the buildings as a result of the vocal vibrations from the deafening crowd. Any reason to get these fans going gives them enough motivation to become louder and more brash than ever... If anything, i predict it's going to be a rough 4 quarters for the Giants offense.

This weekend, I’ll be loud and brash with family and friends as I watch my Seahawks beat the Giants at home on the bigscreen television. I’ll also be talking plenty of smack to this week’s opponent in my Fantasy Football League -- i'm a competitive guy, what can I say?. With my Fantasy Sports Tracker ready to go, and my fellow Seahawks fans ready to lead the charge, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Posted by Michael Mallari at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past weekend saw me kicking back watching my beloved Seattle Seahawks beating up on the helpless Arizona Cardinals. With a cold drink in my hand and my feet propped up on the ottoman, nothing was going to get me off of that couch….except, the occasional check on the computer of my Fantasy Football score…

"Wow, if only there was a way to make laziness easier," I thought…. Well now there is! X10 is getting set to unveil the lazy man’s fantasy! Soon, in the power of your hands each “lazy man” will have the capability to monitor their fantasy football score without having to get up from the confines of that nice indent they built into the couch! What can be better than that?

Are you curious as to how this is going to be possible? Well check back soon to find out! Trust me, every "lazy man" is going to want one of these!

Editor's Note: Here's the link as to what Mike was talking about! http://x10community.com/article_fantasy_football_09192006.html

Posted by Michael Mallari at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This past week has been a busy one for the Marketing and Development teams at X10.com. As you may know, we are currently engaged in the launch of a new product, and we’ve been kind of low key about things… shh! But now the new toy is about to be removed from it’s box. I’m sure you’ve most likely figured out by now that X10 Staffers are prepping for the release of what we call “The World’s Best Webcam…”

The reality of it, it’s not just a web cam… It’s a whole video calling system! I had the chance recently to engage in a little bit of video calling this past week with one of my parents. During this video conversation, my mother was totally blown away and surprised at how she was able to interact with me over the network.

This new video calling system we are unveiling comes with a camera with a 44x zoom (22x optical and 22x digital), and the clarity is amazing! In addition to the powerful zoom, the camera has the ability to pan 180 degrees around the room and tilt an amazing 70 degrees up and down! This means that you have the ability to 1) zoom into an object over half a mile away; 2) see a room from one side to the other, and view a room from top to bottom! What kind of a webcam does that? Not very many!

We are getting set to launch the new website, where you can personally take a look at the full features of this awesome new product! www.theworldsbestwebcam.com

I’m so blown away by the capabilities of this system, along with my mother that it looks like many of my family members may be getting an awesome Christmas present this upcoming holiday season!

If you are looking for that ultimate device to bring your loved ones closer together, I would recommend looking into the X10 World’s Best Webcam!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As pretty much everyone knows, today is the 5th year Anniversary of the World Trade Center Disaster. Where were you when this event unfolded?

As for myself, I receive a phone call around 6:20am PST from a good friend to turn the television on. You could imagine the horrors going through my mind as the media continually broadcasted the horrific scenes of the jets smashing through the twin towers and bursting into flames. To make things worse, were the thoughts of the people who were either in the buildings at the time or helpless in the aircraft as they went through this horrific tragedy.

At the time, I worked for the Airlines as an Instructor. I flew to work everyday from where I lived to my office in the Seattle area nearly 100 miles away, and would hop onboard the plane for it to take me home. I thought about my own regular passengers, praying for their safety and hoping none were onboard any of those planes. All I could do was stay glued to the television and pray. This was horrific, saddening and very tragic.

Five years later, these events still fall through my mind. Although not a positive thing, it’s a good thing – for it will never let me forget this tragic day. It’s a day that reminds you to keep your vigilance, and a day to remind you to keep in touch with those you love. Most importantly, it’s a day that re-united a country. To those who perished on this day, and to those who lost loved ones from this event, my heart goes out to each of you. May we as a country heal, but may we never forget.

Posted by Michael Mallari at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s been a busy week here at X10.com Headquarters! Hence, the lack of blog postings on my end. My directives this week were “Marketing, marketing, marketing…” This basically left no time for blog posting….

With my course set, and a vision of the goal, I am getting very excited about our upcoming project! It’s been a lot of hours in the making, and many many many meetings in order to get this far! If you are curious about what is happening, stay tuned!

To my many friends on the forums, I apologize for my lack of visibility on the boards! I can assure you once we get this project completed, I will be able to catch up with many of your postings….

Have a good weekend!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today on the Blog portion of the Community Site, we added three new X10 Bloggers from our marketing Department! Now, you’ll have more opportunities to get greater in-depth knowledge into the X10 world by reading what Scott, Carrie, and Ben have to say!

Scott is the NEW Director of Marketing at X10.com, coming to us after previously working for the Marketing Department at Microsoft.

Carrie is one of our newer web designers. With 11 years of design experience, Carrie has been instrumental in producing creative pieces for many of our websites.

Last but not least, is Ben Brockhaus. Ben’s writing ability bring him here to X10 as a copy writer. Ben has worked on many projects, including some in the past for X10 Community.

With these new blog additions, we hope you’ll enjoy learning more about the marketing and design aspects at x10.com …

Posted by Michael Mallari at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Wow, can you believe it’s already September? In four more months we’ll be starting off another year. If you think about it, the Winter Holidays are almost upon us and now is actually the time to start creating that Christmas list for gifts that you want to give. If you procrastinate too long, you’ll be stuck with the typical Department Store leftovers and the usual “cheery” responses of “Gee, thanks for thinking so much of me!” or “Wow, you really shouldn’t have!”

My list will be mostly made of X10 products, as I have had the chance to play around with so many of our “toys,” and I just absolutely love them! I’ve never been so crazy over gadgets as I am now, and in fact, my craziness is spilling over to my friends and family, who in turn are spilling it over to their friends or family!

I love speaking to many of our X10 pro’s on the forums at x10community.com who have been using X10 for years and just listening to how creative they are with what they are able to do. I mean these are things that I would have never thought of, and it’s amazing to see what they are able to do! In fact, they are so advanced that I couldn’t even hold a stick to what they know about our products, so I can’t even pretend to do so as I would just end up looking foolish! If you are looking for creative ways to blow your friends or loved ones minds away for the holidays, I would suggest you jump on the forums and see what they have to say! You’ll be very surprised, to say the least!

This week, we’re starting up a new marketing Campaign for “The World’s Best Webcam” (WBW). From what we are learning, this is going to be an awesome things and I’m excited to get it off the ground! We’re working on new commercial spots as we speak, and working late to get a lot done. In fact, we are giving people the opportunity to help us develop the WBW, so if you are interested visit the following link: http://x10community.com/promo_worlds_best_webcam_08312006.html... This is going to be a limited deal, so if you are serious about wanting to be a part of the development, sign up right away!

People were asking about the Community Blogs, those are coming! We’ve had to put it on the side a bit, but I can assure you that we’ll have those up and running soon!

I hope you all have a good weekend and a nice Holiday! Enjoy the 3-day break and check back soon!

Posted by Michael Mallari at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)