Phones with folding displays from Samsung, Google, and several Chinese phone manufacturers have received a lot of interest, and there are even rumors that Apple is developing one. Many of the gadget blogs and review sites claim these are the future of phones. The concept seems like a great idea: a single device that’s both […]

It’s that time of the year when the phone companies want us to dig deep into our pockets to buy their latest phones. Apple is about to announce their new iPhone 16 phones, and Samsung and Google have just announced their new models with many of them costing $1000 to almost $2000. But there’s an […]

I’ve always ben a sucker for clever and useful products, especially those that make traveling easier. A few decades ago, I was enamored by some products from an entrepreneur, Scott Jordan. He created a line of vests that contained an assortment of pockets of varying sizes to carry the myriad of stuff we take with […]

Rarely does Apple give anything away. We pay for extra storage, we pay for their news and music, and we pay for AppleCare, but Apple’s annual free software upgrade for iPhones are always something I look forward to because they add new features to a product we already own. I’ve been trying out the new […]

Many of you read this column as subscribers to JoeSentMe, one of the great newsletters for frequent travelers. This week another contributor to the site, Will Allen, writes about the success he had in canceling a long planned trip to Europe due to an unexpected health issue. He canceled over a half-dozen hotels, an Airbnb, […]

I recently purchased a new car after doing tons of research. But after buying it, I realized that what I found I enjoyed most about the car had little to do with all that research. Instead, it was an assortment of technology features that add convenience, improve safety, and just make things more pleasurable, things […]

We all want our information systems to be interconnected. We expect to withdraw money from an ATM in Paris, use our charge card to pay for a dinner in Tokyo, and get our boarding pass on our phone in Singapore. It’s all enabled by a technology and network infrastructure that connects computers worldwide. The convenience […]

When I travel out of the country, one of the first things I think of is how to use my phone without it costing a small fortune. It’s hard to forget those surprise bills of hundreds of dollars when traveling internationally in the early days of cellphones. One of the best options has been to […]

When Apple introduced MagSafe, their version of wireless charging using a magnetic ring to position the phone, they also brought out a clever folding charger for a iPhone and an Apple watch. Called the Apple Duo Charger, it sold for about $129. As shown below, it folds in half to provide charging surfaces for the […]

For the past 10 days I’ve been using an Apple Vision Pro (AVP) headset. Thanks to a loan from a friend, I was able to put it through its paces and try pretty much everything that’s available for it. The product is very well designed, from its aesthetics to its functionality. It’s solid, beautifully finished, […]

I just thumbed through this fifty-page presentation from Elliot Investment Management that calls for a makeover of Southwest Airlines. Elliott recently took a $1.9 billion stake in the airline, and is looking to use that investment as leverage to replace the current CEO and board of directors. Essentially, they want to remake Southwest into a […]

Want to improve your image – literally – on your Zoom calls? This may just be the perfect solution. Most of us are resigned to using our computer’s built-in camera for video calls. It’s simple, automatic and requires no effort. But I’ve noticed the mediocre image quality on my 2-year old Macbook Pro, much like […]

If you live in California, Arizona, or Michigan, you may have spotted some cars with black and white license plates. They’re no ordinary plates; they’re digital, consisting of a monochrome display, a battery and a cellular radio. Pioneered by the California company Reviver, they’re promoted as the modern successor to the metal plates that have […]

Why is it more difficult to buy a refrigerator than a computer? A computer has become a pretty simple purchase. You choose a Windows or Mac operating system, compare the specs of the various models and brands, read the reviews and make your selection. Most of the reviews tend to agree with one another, the […]

When a new product is released, it’s usually tested to insure it works before it comes to market, but that convention is not followed when it comes to the AI software from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and others. Instead these companies that should know better are trying to one-up each other by introducing and overly hyping […]

Have you noticed wherever you go on the web, you encounter articles that recommend products and offer product reviews with titles such as “The best deals on Amazon” or “The 75 best gifts for men that we know he’ll love”? Today I opened up the Wall Street Journal and came across this feature article, “Your […]

This week Apple introduced a line of new iPads. I found the offering to be somewhat odd and puzzling. For a product category that’s been around so long, we should be seeing new models that do more and cost less. Instead we’re seeing iPads that cost more with few improvements to their functionality. The new […]

There’s good news for travelers when it comes to keeping their phone and other devices charged while on the road. On my recent trip to Argentina, I carried just three products, totaling just over $100, that kept my devices charged all the time: A UGREEN Power Bank, an Anker wall charger, and a portable battery […]

When I went online to track a UPS package, a virtual assistant popped up with this message, “Hello, I’m the UPS Virtual Assistant. I see you tracked a package. Let me know how I can help. By chatting, you consent to the chats being recorded, used, and shared by us and our service providers according […]

As one who’s traveled internationally for business over many decades, I’ve always taken control of my trips and managed the details. But recently when planning a vacation trip to Argentina, I tried an entirely different approach – I used a local Argentinian travel company, MacDermott’s Argentina, to do most everything. I took that approach for […]