Welcome to my technology blog!
I would say that probably 99% of the smartphone users I know have their devices in a case. Usually your case choice (or lack there of) says a lot about you. You’ll see cases that are thick and protective, decorative and pretty and very thin offering basic scratch protection.
Continue reading “My New PITAKA Minimalist iPhone 7 Plus Case Excites me and Scares me”
I’ve been buying wifi and ethernet enabled home security cams for years. The first ones I got were made by Panasonic and while the resolution was crappy compared to today’s solutions, they had some nice features such as pan/tilt and even a weatherproof version. I bought the Dropcam when it first hit the scene and it not only worked in 720p HD, but it offered a cloud DVR service. This meant that even if the camera was stolen, the captured video wouldn’t be lost because it was tucked away neatly online for access after the fact. Dropcam was bought out by Google and rebranded Nest Cam. The current indoor Nest Cam has a better camera at 1080p. Checking in your home while you’re away is great. However, these cameras were all designed to work inside, not outside. In most cases people simply place them up against a window to capture what’s going on outside. That works but has its challenges (usually the reflection from the glass can be a pain). Google solved this problem by shipping the Nest Cam Outdoor
Last year I got an incredible opportunity to spend part of my sabbatical in Iceland. See the story here. Of course when I got back many of my friends, fans and family asked “Why didn’t you take me with you?” “Next time, take me with you.” “Do you need an assistant?” Well here’s your chance to go with me this year. The good folks over at focusonnature.is are dedicating one of their amazing tours to me and a small group of photographers that want to tag along. It’s rare that I travel to the same place on vacation two years in a row, but in this case I’m willing to take one for the team 🙂 You can get the details here.
Last year I standardized on Anker for all my mobile device charging needs. Their products are top notch and so far their Lightning cables have outlasted all other brands I’ve tried. I’ve used several of their backup batteries, but this new one is a great idea! Normally you’d carry a phone charger when you travel so that you could charge your phone at night or when you’re going to be in one spot for a while. You’d probably carry a backup battery too. This way you could charge your smartphone ore tablet on the go when you’re not near a plug. Now imagine if you could have one portable charger that served both purposes.
Continue reading “A Wall Charger and Backup Battery in One – Anker PowerCore Fusion 5000 Review”
Live streaming has become a big part of my life. So much so that it’s actually a major part of my day job. I stream live Adobe tutorials regularly to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter/Periscope. I spent most of 2016 streaming to Twitch.tv. Since this is what I do for a living I wanted to have high production values.
Therefore I setup a dedicated live streaming studio in my home. Being a photographer I’ve setup a few photography studios and no matter how you equip your studio you can always find more gear that you want and ways to improve it. I’ve been building out this live streaming studio since May 2016. I have everything I “need” to do my streams, but I’m always looking out for ways to improve upon what I have.
Continue reading “How to Live Stream from your Desktop – My Live Streaming Studio Setup”
When it comes to home security cameras I have pretty much standardized on Google’s Nest Cams. However, the one thing that is not likely to appear in any Nest products is HomeKit support. HomeKit is the standard that Apple created for home automation and is supported in iOS, Siri, Apple TV, and the Home App that’s now built-in to iOS 10. So that means that you either buy accessories that work with HomeKit or competing platforms. Since until now there were no shipping HomeKit enabled security cameras, it really didn’t matter which platform you went with. However, that has just changed now that D-Link has shipped the Omna 180 Cam.
Continue reading “The 1st HomeKit Enabled Security Camera has Shipped! D-Link Omna 180 Review”
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the Netherlands walking to the convention center to do my presentations and a new app called Periscope had just launched the day before (March 26, 2015). Little did I know at the time that it would be life changing. I remember when podcasting and blogging opened the doors to the masses to allow ordinary people to do internet audio/video broadcasts and create their own posts/news stories. Periscope (owned by Twitter) did it again by allowing regular people to live stream from their iPhones from anywhere in the world that they had a data/wifi connection.
Usually I write reviews after only a few hours/days of using a new product. I can usually tell by then if I’ll love or hate a product. However, I waited to write this one because I wanted some more real-world time with them. I also wanted to travel with them and use them on a plane. I’ve had and used my AirPods everyday since I received them on January 4th. In a nutshell I can’t imagine life without them. Are they perfect?
The other day I was looking through the Apple.com accessories section for a keyboard and I ran across a few items that I was kinda shocked that Apple still sells. In most cases these items have probably been forgotten about and just never removed from the site, but nonetheless it’s interesting to still see them listed. Especially when Apple is quick to tell us that it was because of “courage” they removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. Or how it was bold to stop putting floppy drives in Macs back in the day. In no particular order:
I’ve been using a wireless Magic Mouse and now Magic Mouse 2 for years. I was shocked to see that not only does Apple still sell the wired Apple Mouse, but it’s still $49. By the way, I absolutely hated this particular mouse back in the day. The scroll nub would always stop working! Wired mice are still useful, just not this one. It’s here.
Continue reading “5 Things I Can’t Believe that Apple Still Sells”
I’m a fan of just about all things smarthome and my digital assistant of choice is Amazon Echo. However, I do like Google products too and decided to give the new Google Home a try. I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison in the areas that matter most to me and the people I talk to. To give you a better idea of how these products work, I recorded this video so you can judge for yourself:
Continue reading “Google Home vs. Amazon Echo – THE ULTIMATE SMACKDOWN”