Once I saw what the Arrived app did I was very interested but not really for the reasons they made the app. Arrived is a location based app that texts or e-mails friends when you have arrived at a certain place. What makes this different is that you have to set up the place in the app and then who you want to know you are there. Once you set it up (until you change it) it will text or e-mail these friends every time you go to this place. The idea is to invite friends to hang out without having to think about sending them a message. This however is not why I got excited about it.

The idea of Arrived is interesting but what I wanted to use it for is to let me wife know when I went to certain stores. This is happened more than once in my house where I go to Wal-Mart or some store during the day only to get home and have my wife tell me she wished she’d known I was going there. To solve this problem I thought I would use this app to alert my wife when I go to certain stores. The one downside to this is the text isn’t sent right away. I’m sure this app checks every 15 minutes or so to see if you are at one of the locations and then sends an alert. The problem is by the time my wife gets it and text me back I’ve been gone for awhile. This isn’t necessary a faulty app problem but more likely the way it was setup. If it constantly checked where you were it would drain your battery.

This app does have some issues that are the app’s problem. The interface is clunky. It took me awhile to figure out how to delete someone from a location or how to delete a location. If you want to add someone to a location and you already have it setup for other people, then you have to add everyone again. However I think one of the biggest problems is there is no way to setup how to notify the person you are there. Take my wife for example, I have three numbers and two emails for her. With this app I have no way of saying to text her to this number or don’t text her but e-mail her. I contacted the Arrived people about this issue and they said it was something that they would look into.

I think this is a great idea and could become a great app but it needs some work before it’s ready for primetime. It is free though and worth checking out and watching for updates. If they could get the bugs worked out and get a better response time from when you arrived to when the text goes out I think this could be a must have app.

Arrived’s Website

iTunes Store

While talking about the coaching search Mr. Khan made a comment about interviewing a big name coach that wanted the Jaguars to enter a “derby” for his services. Mr. Khan never came out and said who that coach was but it’s pretty clear the guy he was talking about was Jeff Fischer.

Khan laid out what the Jaguars wanted in a head coach, two of those things included being able to work with Gene Smith and not having a big ego. It appears that Jeff Fischer met none of those requirements. Fischer played the Rams vs the Dolphins to see how much control he could get. The Rams who didn’t have a GM in place ultimately won out. Mr Khan said the Jaguars were not willing to join that “derby”. Even at the press conference to announce Mike Malarkey as the head coach Mr. Khan made a comment about the coaching search not having any drama.

Like other fans I like the idea that Jeff Fischer may come to coach in Jacksonville. However after seeing everything play out I don’t blame the Jaguars for staying out of this one, plus while I think Fischer is a good coach his numbers aren’t that great. In 17 years as head coach of the Titans they made the playoffs just six times. I think in this case the Jaguars were right to look to someone else to be their man.

When I first heard that the Jaguars hired Mike Mularkey I was disappointed to say the least. I felt like the OC of the Jets and Mularkey both would be bad picks as a head coach. This is of course not knowing anything about him except for what I had read. Like many fans I wanted to at least know that the Jaguars were interviewing some bigger name coaches than what had been released. If those were the choices I felt that Mel Tucker should be the next Jaguars head coach. While I still think Tucker should of been the man, Mike Mularkey has grown on me.

Mularkey has grown on me partly after hearing his press conference and mostly after hearing that Mel Tucker would stay as defensive coordinator. I think it puts Mularkey in a potential weird spot having Tucker, who was the interim head coach, still on the staff and what about Mel Tucker who was passed over for Mularkey. Now not only did he not get the job but he has to step down and go back to his old position as defensive coordinator. I say all of this to say hats off to those two guys for putting what could be uncomfortable situation aside and doing what’s best for the team.

Time will tell if this was the right move by the Jaguars. One thing is sure, Mr. Khan has the future of Blaine Gabbert, Mike Mularkey, and Gene Smith all tied up together. Mularkey’s contract expires the same time as Gene Smith’s. If Gabbert does well both of those guys will probably be around, however if he continues to struggle then in three years it could be time to clean house again.

First of all congrats to Maurice Jones Drew for not only winning the NFL rushing title but also setting a Jaguars single season record. This year us Jaguars fans haven’t had much to cheer for but MJD has been solid all year long. In this podcast I talk mainly about the head coaching search. I also take at look at other coaching opening around the NFL and the firing of Paul Vance.

As we close in on the end of Blaine Gabbert’s rookie season many fans think they have seen enough. The fact that if you put on tape from his first start and then watch his last game and you don’t see much difference has fans worried. Also the fact that he is starting to get a rep for not wanting to be hit and worrying more about the pressure than looking down the field. Some of this could be changed but fans are getting impatient and understandably so.

Not that this is fair to Blaine but look at the Jaguars past. In the Jack Del Rio era this team has been average. Also in that time we have had two quarterbacks both who were average. Not since Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith has this team had a legit quarterback and wide receiver. Because of this fans aren’t willing to give a new QB the benefit of the doubt and I’m not sure Gabbert would deserve it either.

This season our passing game is worst in the NFL and looks terrible. Supporters of Gabbert will point to the lack of receivers or the fact that Blaine didn’t have an offseason. However these are the same receivers we had last year with Garrard and they played much better. As far as the no offseason goes people treat it like Gabbert is the only person that missed the offseason, when the truth is everyone did. Cam Newton, Andy Daulton, Christian Ponder all missed the offseason and all have shown more that Gabbert.

While I may not be willing to label Gabbert a bust like some, I do think this team needs some insurance. The bottom line is the Jaguars will end up with a top five pick with some really good quarterbacks coming out. I believe the Jaguars should draft one with the idea if Gabbert doesn’t pan out in year two you have someone else. However if he does work then trade the other guy. If the Jaguars don’t and Gabbert has another year like this one we could loss three years and that could be devastating to a team trying to gain support in Jacksonville.

For what it’s worth I like Gabbert and hope he works out but I’m not willing to go down the Byron Leftwich road again. If you feel this isn’t the guy then it’s time to move on no matter if he’s a top 10 pick or not. How the Jaguars draft this year will show a lot about how they feel about Blaine Gabbert and the future of Gene Smith.

If you like the Charlie Brown Christmas special then this app is a must have. The app is a book of the story we know and love, Charlie Brown finding the true meaning of Christmas. The app is very well done and includes the voices for the original cartoon. Also it is narrated by Peter Robbins who is the original voice of Charlie Brown. To go along with the story you can play Schroeder’s piano and finger paint with the gang and more. I bought this app when it was $5.99 and thought it was worth it but now it’s only $.99. For that price it’s a must have for everyone that loves Christmas or Peanuts.

Magic Santa has one purpose and that is to make a special video message from Santa. The app will ask you several questions like the persons name, age, is they are a boy or girl, if they have been naughty or nice and a few others. It will also ask for a picture of that person and a picture of a special person in their life. The ones I’ve made have been for our kids and one of the things it says is that they were asked to listen to the parents. It then shows a picture of us during that time. One thing on the name is they try to say the name during the video and have several canned names for you to pick from. I’m not sure what it does if the person you are making the card for name is not on the list. The app is free and so are the videos. This close to Christmas this is a fun app to play around with and give someone a special message from Santa.

iTunes Store

I meant to review these next several apps last week but let’s get to them now. The first one is an iPhone app the Portable North Pole. The app has several sections likes Santa’s Videos, where Santa answers some popular questions like how reindeer can fly, Santa’s Radar so you can track Santa, Countdown shows you how many days are left until Christmas and has special message from Santa and Wishlist. In the wishlist section you can make serval wishlist for different people. This section can come in real handy for keeping up with what kids want for Christmas. Not only can you type in what they want but you can record audio and take a picture. The audio and picture are a nice touch to make sure you get the exact right thing.

Then there is the parent section, in the section you create a special message from Santa. You will need a picture and some information like child’s age and what they want for Christmas. You can also choose to have them on the naughty list or the nice list. After the video is made you can download it to your phone or e-mail a link to someone to watch on the internet. My 4 year old loves watching the video and has watched it everyday for the past week.

While this app is nice it comes up short in many ways. Most videos you can turn your phone into landscape mode and watch them however the video you make from Santa you can not. Also the app is $2.99 and with that they allow you to download three videos but after that you have to pay. This is pretty lame. I could understand if the app was free but for $3 you should be able to make as many videos as you like. There are other apps that allow you to do this including one I will review shortly, Magic Santa. For $3 I would probably find another app but if you do download this one, your kids would enjoy watching the videos.

iTunes Store

As a fan you love to see your team on National TV unless you get smoked like the Jaguars did Thursday night. It was so painful that I’m not even going to talk about it but instead I’m going to talk about some comments Joe Thiesmann said about Blaine Gabbert. I also part of an interview I did for a Titans podcast, The Two Tone Crew. Enjoy the Christmas Eve game this week and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

I first heard about the Up by Jawbone several weeks ago on a podcast. When I heard about it I was very interested. The Up is a bracelet that tracks how many steps you take in a day, how much you sleep and how much of that sleep is a deep sleep or a shallow sleep. Now how it does all of this I’m not sure. The Up also can be used as an alarm but in a different way. You set what time you want to wake up and the Up will vibrate to wake you around that time. Now it doesn’t vibrate exactly at that time because it tries to wake you up when you are in a shallow sleep.

You might be wondering by now what this has to do with Apple or an iPhone. The Up plugs into the headphone jack of an iPod or iPhone and syncs with an app. This app then shows how all of your stats. The Up runs off a rechargeable battery which they say can last up to 10 days. The best part about the Up is if you can find one you can get it for free. The Up cost $99.99 but Jawbone has had problems with it and to show how much they want to stand behind their products they are offering a “no questions asked refund”. You get the refund and get to keep the Up, how cool is that? The problem is finding them. Amazon no longer sell them (expect for reseller who have marked them up), Best Buy has pulled them from the selves, leaving Target as the only place I could find them. Which isn’t going to change because Jawbone has stopped shipping them. They will be coming back out but I’m sure it will be after the new year.

I have three Targets near me and I went to all three and found several smalls, one medium and no larges. The large is what I need but I did go ahead and buy the medium because I was it looked like it might fit. After trying it on it does fit but is a little tighter than I would like. Here’s a picture from Jawbone’s website telling you how to measure to see the size you would need.

If you decide to try and get one good luck finding them. Below I’m including the letter from Jawbone’s CEO Hosain Rahman, a link to get a refund, and a link to the Up website.

To the UP community:

Earlier this year, we unveiled Jawbone’s vision to help people live a healthier life with UP. We’ve been thrilled by the passionate response to this product. We heard from tens of thousands of you through emails, tweets, blog posts and on our forums about how you’re changing your lifestyle and becoming consumers of your own health. In just four weeks, UP users have collectively taken over three billion steps, gotten more than 300 years of sleep and captured hundreds of thousands of meals.

While many of you continue to enjoy the UP experience, we know that some of you have experienced issues with your UP band. Given our commitment to delivering the highest quality products, this is unacceptable and you have our deepest apologies. We’ve been working around the clock to identify the root causes and we’d like to thank everyone who has provided us with information and returned their bands to us for troubleshooting. With your help, we’ve found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We’re also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware. Typically, these issues surface within the first seven to ten days of use. The glitches are purely performance related and do not pose any safety risk.

We’ve also received helpful feedback on the application experience, including bug reports, ways to make signup and finding friends easier, user interface suggestions and new feature requests. Your comments are invaluable as we continue to improve, so please keep them coming and check back frequently for updates to ensure you’re always enjoying the latest features and enhancements.

We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone’s expectations – including our own – so we’re taking action:

The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee

This means that for whatever reason, or no reason at all, you can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band. We are so committed to this product that we’re offering you the option of using it for free.

The program starts December 9th and full details can be found at http://jawbone.com/uprefund.

For most of you, this program is simply meant to offer peace of mind. Please continue to enjoy your UP band and keep sharing your experience with us. If you encounter any problems with your UP band, contact Jawbone directly for your choice of a replacement and/or refund under this program. It’s that simple.

Jawbone remains deeply committed to addressing all issues with UP, investing in the category and giving our customers the tools to live a healthier life. We’ve temporarily paused production of UP bands and will begin taking new orders once these issues have been sorted out. In the meantime, we’ll continue to release app updates for existing users.

We regret any disappointment we’ve created for our community of users and appreciate the trust you’ve put in us. The fact that you’ve taken the time to talk with us and help us make a better product is simply phenomenal. Our customers have always been part of our team and we’re incredibly grateful for that.

Please know that we’re doing – and will continue to do – everything we can to make things right. This is just the beginning for UP and we are excited to keep improving until we realize the powerful vision of what this category can be.

If there is absolutely anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Hosain Rahman
CEO
Jawbone

Up Website

Refund