Author Archives: Phil Baker

Printer companies, particularly HP and Epson. have long taken advantage of us with their outrageous costs of ink cartridges. We’re told it allows them to sell us a printer at a lower cost and make it up with the cost of replacement ink cartridges, much like the razor and blade model. But, in fact, it’s […]

Apple has just introduced the latest version of their Apple watch. Called Series 6, it’s the continuing evolution of the original design that looks and works much the same. Yet over the years the watch has transitioned from a “what do I do with it?” to “it’s hard to get along without it.” The company […]

On September 11, the US Customs and Border Protection seized 2,000 Earbuds shipped from Hong Kong to Nevada. The earbuds are made by a well known Chinese company called OnePlus. The agency claimed they were actually counterfeit Apple AirPods. But they were in packaging identified as being a OnePlus product and they were of a […]

5G is the new cellular standard being rolled out by the carriers and showing up on the newest models of phones. It uses a variety of new technologies to provide data transmission speeds up to 40 times faster than the current 4G technology, at least in theory. When Apple announces their new iPhone 12 series […]

Beginning next month when Apple rolls out its new iOS 14 for the iPhone and iPad, users will have a chance to opt out of being tracked. This is a major benefit that few companies have dared to offer. The question you’ll be ask will be something like:  “Do you want this app to follow […]

I’ve been using Superhuman email for almost two months now and it’s a refreshing new take on managing email, especially if you spend an hour or more each day with it.  When I first wrote about Superhuman here, I found it intriguing, but needed more time to flesh it out. I’ve now gone through a number […]

While I love covering travel technology, few of us are traveling these days and there’s little interest in new luggage from Tumi or Away. It’s much more likely we’ll be touring our home than touring another city. So rather than writing about travel tech, I thought I’d focus on some great gadgets for the home […]

According to the Digital Quality of Life Index 2020, the U.S. ranks 22nd in the world. The DQL research conducted by Surfshark, a VPN provider, examined a total population of more than 6.3 billion people in terms of 12 indicators that are interrelated and work together to provide a measure of the overall digital quality of […]

Here are several technology products suited for these unusual times while isolating at home, spending more time with our devices, and looking for new things to do. Phone, iPad and Notebook Stands With all of the zoom and FaceTime calls, perhaps you want to look your best and position the camera on your device so […]

Background Superhuman email software is creating quite a buzz in the tech community. The company of the same name describes the product as “not another email client,” but a product “rebuilt from the ground up” that will make you “feel like you have superpowers.” Many of its users are equally effusive about how it’s revolutionized […]

YouTube TV emulates the cable companies Moving from cable to streaming for TV watching just became more expensive. In earlier columns, I analyzed the benefits and cost savings of making the move. While there was a small cost advantage, the main benefits were convenience, simplicity, and access to a wider variety of content that you […]

Later this month the four leaders of the world’s most powerful technology companies will testify before Congress as part of the government’s multiple anti-trust investigations. David Cicilline, a Democratic congressman from Rhode Island, will lead the questioning of Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple. Hopefully, […]

Apple held its annual developers conference this week where they made a score of new announcements, mostly software related and not about specific new products. Like other Apple events, it was carefully choreographed and filled with presenters that exuded excitement and enthusiasm about what they each presented. It reminded me of an adult version of […]

Email has been something we’ve used for years, but works essentially the same way since its invention. Essentially it’s a collection of folders that groups a collection of incoming and outgoing emails. Improvements have included adding folders, including spam and less-important email, and a variety of other incremental features around the edges. But while email […]

App-based products and services that one seemed silly are now becoming important in this age of Covid-19. As a tech reviewer and technology prognosticator, I had been dismissive of several of them until I began isolating at home. I once dismissed the value of grocery-shopping services for the masses. Sure, they were helpful for those confined […]

Neil Young just posted this message on his website regarding Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. It speaks for itself.   Just providing sympathy for the killing of George Floyd and the past murders is not enough. I believe everyone must take a stand in some way to change the climate of racism in America. I urge […]

In previous columns, I compared cable and streaming TV for everyday viewing of network television and concluded that streaming offered some advantages, but significantly cutting the cost of your cable bill might not one of them. For decades cable has been the industry standard for delivering live TV broadcasts to our homes. But as high-speed internet […]

It’s interesting how this pandemic is bringing out out the best and the worst of people and corporations. The pandemic is also revealing these behaviors more clearly than most things, because it’s a matter of life and death. Some of the cellular provides deserve praise for providing more data at no charge. One of the […]