Amazon sells four (five if you count the new “Look”) versions of the Amazon Echo
Awesome NEW Backlit Keyboard for Lightroom Users
I finally got a chance to put my new Lightroom USB Backlit Keyboard to use. Editors Keys has been making dedicated application keyboards and keyboard covers for years. I typically go for the keyboard covers for my MacBook Pro, but when I’m at my desk I had been using a full size Apple USB keyboard. The Apple keyboard is not backlit. I use Lightroom everyday. So if there was a application keyboard to choose for me it would be Lightroom (or Photoshop).
You have to see the Lightroom keyboard in action!
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The Best Lightning Cables for the Money – Anker Powerline II Dura Review
If you use an iPhone, iPad or iPod then chances are you’ve worn out the supplied Apple Lightning cable. They usually wear out around the connectors, exposing wires or simply failing to work anymore. I stopped buying Apple branded cables for this reason. I tried other brands, but they all seem to fail at one point or another. Some wouldn’t even give error messages indicating that the cables weren’t completely compatible. Sigh.
Anker makes the BEST Lightning cables for the money! Continue reading “The Best Lightning Cables for the Money – Anker Powerline II Dura Review”
My New PITAKA Minimalist iPhone 7 Plus Case Excites me and Scares me
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.
What’s the point of having a super thin phone if you’re going to put it a thick heavy case?
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A Wall Charger and Backup Battery in One – Anker PowerCore Fusion 5000 Review
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.
The NEW Anker PowerCore Fusion 5000 replaces two things in my backpack
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How to Live Stream from your Desktop – My Live Streaming Studio Setup
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.
Like a photography studio, your streaming setup can be very basic or very elaborate
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If You Have an iPhone 7 You Need This Adapter
Although I don’t generally miss the headphone jack on my iPhone 7 Plus, there is one scenario that I do miss it. With only having the Lightning port this means that you have to decide to either charge or use a wired headset. Like I said, this generally isn’t a problem because I’m either using a wireless headset or I’m sitting at my desk and my iPhone 7 Plus is sitting in a iPhone dock which also has a wired headset attached to it. However, for those times when I want to plug in a headset and charge at the same time I’ve found the Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge Rockstar adapter
It works great as long as you know the limitations…
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I’m Always Low on Hard Drive Space – JetDrive to the Rescue
The one thing I never hear anyone complain about is having too much available storage space. No matter how big your hard drive is, you’ll likely fill it up at some point. My everyday work computer is a MacBook Pro 15″ Retina Display with a 1TB SSD and I’m always having to manage the space on it. If I had a 2TB drive at some point I’d need to manage the space on it. This usually means moving older projects, photo shoots, demo files, etc. off of it onto my network file server or trashing stuff I just don’t need anymore. Then I can usually breathe for a while before having to repeat the process. Sure I have a few external USB 3 and Thunderbolt drives I can plug in in a pinch, but there are times where that’s not feasible due to the ports being used for other devices or being in a mobile situation where having a hard drive dangling (not really dangling) off the side doesn’t work either. Apple builds the drives into the logic boards of MacBooks these days. Therefore replacing the internal drive with a larger capacity is not possible.
The Transcend JetDrive is what I wanted
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My New Car Charger Because 2 Ports Weren’t Enough
I had been using a standard 2 Port USB Charger in my car so that I could keep my iPhone charged and the have a cable there for use by the passenger in the front seat. That worked great until this past weekend…
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5 Things I Learned at CES 2016
I’ve been into gadgets and technology since I was a kid. Yet believe it or not CES 2016 was my 1st CES (Consumer Electronics Show). It was always something that I said, “I’m going to the next one!” and then it would always sneak up on me and be too late to plan a trip. Well this time I made plans early and took off work to go. I expected a gigantic tradeshow with lots of cool gear to look at, but what I actually got was a little different…