When my daughter fractured her leg earlier this year and was put in a large cast, both my wife and I thought we’d have 6-8 weeks of us carrying her around, plunking her down someplace, and her staying there wanting to be entertained. She wasn’t yet two years old (so not old enough for daily screen time) but we decided to make an exception on a short-term basis and buy her a Fire HD 7, complete with a purple giraffe skin case. Here are my thoughts on this device after having it in our family for a few months. Continue reading Amazon Fire HD 7: Great for Content, But Keep Your Expectations in Check
Category: Internet & Technology
USB Wall Charger Roundup Review: All Ports Are Not Created Equal
Like most average geeks, I assume that when I connect my phone or tablet to a USB power source, it’s going to deliver the level of power it says it will. I don’t know nearly as much about electrical system as some do, so when I saw a crowdfunded gadget called the Legion USB Power Meter, I thought it would be a great tool to help me understand power flow and collect real-world data. So, I dusted off my old tech reviewer’s hat, grabbed a bunch of different USB power sources, and got to work. The goal? To understand if the USB chargers I was using were delivering maximum efficiency and letting me charge my devices as fast as possible. Continue reading USB Wall Charger Roundup Review: All Ports Are Not Created Equal
The Harsh Reality of Crowdfunding Time to Market
The first time I backed a Crowdfunded project was in 2011. It was a documentary about MMA legend Jens Pulver and from that moment on I was hooked. It always bothered me that the only technology I could buy was whatever large companies decided was what would sell; dumbing down to sell to the general market doesn’t always generate the best products. It’s similar when it comes to movies and creative endeavours, though those artists have had a someone easier path of direct support since the dawn of the Internet age and electronic payments.
Since that first project, I’ve backed 20 more products on Kickstarter, and another 27 on Indiegogo; 48 total campaigns, mostly in the technology or entertainment realm. While only one has truly flamed out into oblivion – a D&D documentary project that got sued by, I think, another D&D documentary project – many are in the vague “we’re building it” phase. Continue reading The Harsh Reality of Crowdfunding Time to Market
Farewell Old Blog Template…I Knew Ye Well
November 4th, 2006, I started this blog. And right from day one, I had a gorgeous theme for it, designed by my friend Darius Wey. Darius is one of those guys who won the talent pool lottery: he can code, design, write, photograph, and generally create something out of nothing at a level that surpasses most mere mortals (myself included). It’s not a surprise that he went on to big things in the Australian healthcare technology industry.
Back to the template…all my Thoughts Media blog templates were designed for maximum readability, and embedding of white-background graphics (since that’s what PR companies product shots 99% of the time). For my personal blog, I wanted something…different. I wanted it to reflect a completely different sense of style, something deeper to my core aesthetic, and Darius created this beautiful design that has been with me for almost a decade, aptly named Bushido. I wanted to immortalize it in a blog post so I’d never forget how gorgeous it was…
This being 2015, I needed a template that was mobile-friendly from the ground up, and something that, yes, maximized readability (because this is my only public place to publish long-form content now). I’m slowly trying to work some of the graphical elements from the previous template into my current one…
Farewell blog template of 2006!
Outlook 2013: Changing Search Default From Current Mailbox to Current Folder
One of the most powerful functions in Outlook is search, and in Outlook 2013 Microsoft made a change for the worse. From my perspective, if I’m searching for an email in my inbox, or my sent items folder, I want to see results only from that folder. Showing me results from across my entire inbox makes for a muddled mess, and having to change the drop-down from “Entire Mailbox” to “Current folder” every single time was a pain. I’ve been running Outlook 2013 since it first came out on my personal email, but not until this month was I offered Outlook 2013 for work. At work, Outlook is the other half of my brain, so searching through emails quickly and easily is critical.
Thankfully, there’s an an easy fix:
Select File > Options > Search > Include results only from Current Folder, then click OK.
Chromecast Randomly Rebooting? Check Your USB Power Source
When Google’s Chromecast first came out, like many a geek, I ordered one right away because it was ridiculously cheap, and seemed like the long overdue bridge we were waiting for to connect our Android phones and tablets to our TVs. With all due respect to HTC, the MediaLink HD just wasn’t a solid product and never got the development work and improvements it needed.
Continue reading Chromecast Randomly Rebooting? Check Your USB Power Source
Asus UX305 Noisy Clicking Trackpad Problem
One of the issues I noted in my first day with the Asus UX305 was the weird trackpad that had a clunk/click sound when tapped on. I couldn’t understand if it was normal or not; I assumed it was just a poor design decision on Asus’ part. When I posted my first impression review on the Amazon product page, one of the commenters shared that he too had the clicking trackpad issue. When he contacted Asus tech support they told him it wasn’t normal and that he should return the product.
Curious about this, and having the personality type that doesn’t keep a product if I think it’s defective and would need to be returned anyway, I ordered a Microsoft Signature Edition (the UX305FA-USM1). I’d gotten into a somewhat heated discussion over in the Amazon product review comments with someone who insisted that the Signature Edition was a superior product due to the software build Microsoft put on it (bloatware-free). Oh, also some guy who was mocking me for not lying and using the student discount like he did.
Figuring I now had the opportunity to see for myself, I ordered the Microsoft Store version. And, somewhat to my surprise, there was a big difference in the trackpad. Watch the video to see why.
Shortly after doing this video, I returned the Amazon version.
Mylio: A Cool, But Costly, Photo Organizing Solution
I stumbled across a cool photo organizing/sharing solution called Mylio today. I wanted to check it out because it’s quite clear Google has abandoned Picasa (it’s been at version 3.x for years now) and I’ve been hunting for a more modern solution for photo syncing and sharing. Here’s the rundown of Mylio.
Continue reading Mylio: A Cool, But Costly, Photo Organizing Solution
Facebook: Finally Doing Privacy Right
Facebook is often slammed for their poor handling of privacy, and most of the time they deserve it. They’ve historically played fast and loose with the privacy of user’s data, not unlike most other young silicon valley start-ups. It’s not surprising when you think about it – if you grew up in a computing era where both privacy and intellectual property are largely irrelevant (sometimes called “The Napster Generation”), when those same people form companies they’ll take those assumptions with them into defining how their products work.
The Best Value in Ultrabooks Ever: The Asus UX305F
After I returned the Dell XPS 13, I expected to wait until the Windows 10 time frame to try and find another product. I’m also keeping my eye on what Apple does with the MacBook Air, just in case I feel desperate enough to make THAT giant leap (can you tell I’m reluctant?). I’m hideously uncomfortable and slow using OS X because I’ve never done more than dabble on my Mac Mini – the OS makes little sense to me, I know virtually no shortcuts, and I find it utterly non-intuitive. But enough about that, back to the world of Windows laptops…
I was reading a very detailed review of the Dell XPS 13 – I’m always curious to read what reviewers say about hardware that I own(ed) – and I saw a review of the Asus UX305F. I frankly hadn’t paid much attention to Asus laptops since I bought their first Zenbook back in 2011 and the key travel was so short it missed 50% of what I typed. And their model naming scheme is so confusing (UX301LA, T1000TA, etc.) it’s hard to know what’s what. Seeing the specs on the UX305F, and the price, my jaw dropped.
Continue reading The Best Value in Ultrabooks Ever: The Asus UX305F