Welcome to my technology blog!
It’s that time of year! It’s time for my Top 23 Gadgets of 2023. In no particular order, I’ve listed the best gadgets I’ve gotten in 2023. Each product is linked below.
Here’s the video:
Check out Unifi Products here.
Check out Unifi Products here.
See my Unifi Protect blog post here.
For years, I’ve enjoyed various Bose sound systems. I’ve used Bose for my home theater as well as my whole house music system. When I moved to my new home in 2016, I built a whole house music system based on the now-discontinued Bose SoundTouch system. I had the Bose Soundtouch 300 soundbar with the small cube rear speakers and Bose subwoofer. I also had various SoundTouch 10 and 20 Series II WiFi speakers around the house.
Besides the sound, what I loved about the SoundTouch system was that I could use their mobile App to control the system. They had integrated with popular music services such as Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. I could choose any speakers and play playlists or music stations to them and then put my phone away. Since the music was being played directly from the speaker’s WiFi connection, it didn’t matter if my phone stayed on or in the app.
For years, this worked quite well, and then Apple introduced AirPlay 2. Although it’s great that the speakers could play the music directly from the various music services, it was an isolated system. If you want to stream music from your Apple computer, iPhone, or iPad device, you would want to use AirPlay 2. This would also allow you to stream to your other speakers at the same time. For a couple of years, Bose promised to deliver a software update that would enable AirPlay 2, and in 2020, they finally kept their promise. This made me even happier with my system. However, they managed to implement AirPlay 2 in a half-baked way. If you put two speakers in a stereo pair, then you lost the ability to use AirPlay 2 on those speakers. You had to choose between AirPlay 2 or having stereo. The handwriting was on the wall as Bose had discontinued the SoundTouch system and started selling a new system called “Bose Home Speakers.”
If you say, “All water tastes the same.” You can stop reading this and go on about your day. There’s nothing I can do or say to help you. All jokes aside, I’m pretty picky regarding the taste of water. I’m originally from Detroit, and I believe Detroit has some of the best-tasting tap water in the country. When I moved to Atlanta, I could definitely tell the difference. Atlanta’s water is OK, but nowhere near as good as Detroit’s water.
All tap water has stuff in it that should be filtered out. Depending on the location, the pipes and plumbing have manganese, copper, and lead, which can corrode over time and leach different metals into your drinking water. Acidic water (i.e., water with a pH below 7) causes pipes to corrode quickly, giving the water a sour, tangy, or metallic taste.
I had become more reliant on bottled water; even different bottled water brands have different tastes. I’m about to list some brands; some of you will agree, while others will disagree, and that’s fine. It just proves my point that water definitely has a taste, and because of these different tastes, different brands will appeal to some while completely turning others off. It’s usually the purity and mineral count that affect the taste:
My favorite brands of water:
Continue reading “From Tap to Pure Delight: The Device That Makes Water Crystal Clear and Delicious”
Are Your Internet Speeds Trapped In Your Router?
When you sign up for an internet plan with your ISP (Internet Service Provider), you typically sign up for the speeds you need to work and/or cover your entertainment streaming/gaming. However, if you run a speed test right now, chances are the results will be lower than what you signed up for.
This means that my internet speeds can be as high as 1200 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up (geez, this upload speed really needs to be improved). However, up until recently, I never saw that download speed. Like never!
There can be many factors affecting your internet speed. I’m going to cover the top three reasons:
I’m a fan of having security cameras around my property that allow me to look at my surroundings at any time, day or night, and best of all, when I’m traveling. I’ve used various cameras/brands over the years, and at one point, I had cameras from Ring, Google, Logitech, and Eufy simultaneously. While I had each camera for a different reason and feature set, it was really a mess. Of course, each camera had its own app, and the only thing that made this setup bearable was that I could bring them all into Apple Home to see them all simultaneously.
The first cameras to get booted were the Logitech Circle View cameras. While these cameras tend to work well most of the time, they were the flakiest when it came to staying connected to WiFi. They required regular reboots because of regular WiFi disconnects. The second problem is that while they worked natively with Apple’s Home and HomeKit Secure Video, this means that they only recorded if they thought an event was taking place. This sounds reasonable. If something triggers the motion sensor, it should start recording. The problem with “event-based cameras” is that sometimes they miss events. In other words, when you go back to look at the footage at a time when you know something happened, the clip is nowhere to be found because it didn’t record.
A prime example of this was when a very large package arrived at my house by mistake, and it was for a neighbor. I informed my neighbor that their package was next to my garage and that they could pick it up anytime. While my neighborhood is relatively safe, I still wanted confirmation that the right person took the package. When I went to review the footage from the Ring cam, the package was there one second, and the next, it was gone. There was no recording of the package actually being taken. This package was so big that it would have taken two people to carry it. So it’s not like it didn’t record the event because it was grabbed quickly. This is when I realized just how much event-based recording sucks! They are hit-and-miss.
With the introduction of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro phones, I’m connecting more peripherals to my iPhone 15 Pro than ever. For the first time, I can connect to gigabit ethernet, which is GREAT for those times when I need to sync a ton of raw photos and 4K videos to the cloud.
When I first blogged about this, I recommended a great 9-in-1 USB-C hub, Hyperdrive. However, it was expensive (about $99). I discovered a 7-in-1 USB-C Hub with the same connectivity minus one USB port and one audio port. If you can live without these two additional ports, then you can save money by getting the Plugable 7-in-1 USB-C hub (about $40) instead.
Hey everyone, I wanted to share some news many of you have been anticipating and waiting for. Today, Tuesday, October 10, at Adobe MAX in LA, Adobe has released new versions of Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom on Mobile, and Lightroom on Web.
Here are the highlights and main new features:
Local Storage in Lightroom
Available on Lightroom only
This is a major change for Lightroom that many users have asked for. With Local Storage, you now have the choice to store and work on your images and videos in Lightroom’s cloud, OR now you can choose to work locally. Working locally means clicking on the Local tab and immediately accessing your local drives and network storage. You can click on any folder to see its images and videos. You can click on any locally stored photo or video and immediately start editing it without first adding it to Lightroom or syncing it to the cloud. The Local tab is essentially a file browser. If at any time you decide to sync your photo/video to the cloud to back it up and have it available on all your devices, you can click the Copy to Cloud button. The photos/videos will still be stored locally in your folders, but a copy with the edits will be synced to the Cloud. You’ll have the option to continue working locally and sync any future edits that you make.
HDR Optimization
Continue reading “New Lightroom and Lightroom Classic Features Released at Adobe MAX 2023”
I’m just returning from Detroit (my first home), where I delivered my first TEDx talk for TEDx Detroit — “AI is Here.” It was an honor! I’ll have more photos to share when the official ones are released, but here’s the REPLAY of my talk for those who couldn’t attend. Watch it here:
If you want to see the full day, here’s:
Continue reading “I just delivered my 1st TEDx Talk”
One of my favorite features in iOS 17 is the new StandBy feature. This feature lets you display beautiful widgets while your iPhone is wireless charging in landscape mode on a MagSafe charging stand.
You can add the widgets you want to easily control apps while in StandBy. Above, I added an Apple Home widget for smart home control of scenes and accessories.
My favorite 3-in-1 Charger is the Belkin BoostCharge Pro. It’s the one on my nightstand.
If you buy a name-brand MagSafe charging stand, you could easily spend $90-$150 for it. In all fairness, those stands can usually charge 2 or 3 devices, such as your iPhone, AirPods case, and Apple Watch. However, if you’re looking to charge your iPhone on your desk or nightstand and take advantage of StandBy in iOS 17, I have a great solution for you that costs less.
My favorite 3-in-1 Travel Charger is the Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe. It stays in my suitcase for travel—a very clever design for traveling as it folds down to just a cube.
I remember my disappointment last year when the iPhone 14 Pro came out and didn’t have USB-C. I wrote this post, “Why Apple Needs to Dump the Lightning Port on the Next iPhone Pro.” I knew it would eventually happen, and it took another year. Apple makes a lot of money licensing Lightning and certifying 3rd party cables/accessories. Although they had switched to USB-C on all their other pro products and even some of their lower-end products, they held off going to USB-C as long as possible. I get it.