Author Archives: Phil Baker

Walt Mossberg, the renowned and highly respected technology columnist for the Wall St. Journal and The Verge, briefly came out of retirement to write an insightful analysis of the past decade of Apple with Tim Cook at the helm. It was a fascinating take – well balanced, knowledgeable, and perceptive, especially considering how supportive his […]

Beware of those insurance policies promoted when you buy an airline ticket. That’s advice I’ve always given others, but I fell for it and learned a lesson. I booked a business trip on Alaska Airlines, my new favorite airline, and as I checked out, Alaska promoted a number of add-ons, including a $22 trip cancellation […]

Boeing’s announcement this week that they’re suspending production of their 737 MAX Jetliner is to a large degree the unintended consequence of the company’s successful efforts to shortcut the approval process for new aircraft. That new process masked some of the questionable design decisions before the plane was approved, leading to two fatal crashes. It’s […]

Away Luggage has been a phenomenon that’s hard to explain. The company, with huge VC financing valuing it more than Tumi, took a simple commodity product, a hard sided wheeled carry-on luggage, added a battery pack, a few clever features, and marketed the hell out of it as a life-style brand.  They found a good […]

The recent excitement that Apple finally fixed their keyboards in a newly released MacBook 16-inch model offered new hope that I could replace my two old MacBooks, a 2013 MacBook Pro and a 2015 MacBook 12 inch. I had been holding off all this time because of the problems I experienced with my “newest” MacBook, […]

As a frequent traveler and technology writer I’m always looking for ways to keep organized on the road. Here are a number of things I’ve been used over the past year that have helped. Things is a spectacularly well-designed software product for Apple users that keeps track of all ToDos, notes, reminders and other bits […]

With the many inadequacies in our medical care system, there are some encouraging signs that technology may offer the hope of improving our care. It’s an area ripe for disruption where there is now so much secrecy and confusion, and where insurance companies routinely come between our doctors and our well-being. There’s a real need […]

One of the most interesting and useful functions on a watch are sunrise and sunset information. It requires complex algorithms to determine the various times, because the times vary throughout the year and are a function of your location.   That hasn’t stopped inventors from coming with ingenious ways to display this information. YES is […]

Patent Press. has created a series of paper greeting cards that feature illustrations from real patent applications, especially those interesting patent drawings.  The holiday cards include the patent drawing of a variety of seasonal inventions, such as a light-up menorah, an Etch-a-Sketch, and the famous “leg lamp” from a Christmas Story.  They’re clever, but definitely requires […]

The headline today on most of the tech sites is Apple’s introduction of their new 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s been long anticipated, not because of a faster processor, not because of a 16-inch display, and not because of better speakers. It’s because it’s the first notebook computer from Apple in five years with a keyboard […]

As a frequent purchaser of electronic accessories and hardware devices from Amazon, I’ve experienced more disappointment with my purchases over the past year. Many of these products are sold by Chinese manufacturers that have found Amazon to be a great way to bypass the retailers and offer their products at a lower cost. With all […]

According to recent research gathered by Active Inc., Facebook has been losing usage at a rapid rate. Users spent approximately 14 hours a month in 2017, but this year that number has dropped to 9 hours per month. The loss is particularly high among those between the ages of 12-34, but has effected every group. This […]

Having just returned from a vacation trip to Portugal, I had a chance to try out some travel-related tech products. Portugal has become a favorite destination for vacationers in recent years and for good reason. It’s a beautiful country, the people are warm and friendly, and it’s more affordable than many destinations in Western Europe. […]

With the deterioration of customer service, it was a welcome experience to visit my local Apple Store in Carlsbad, CA last week to replace the battery on my two year old iPhone X. (You can easily tell an iPhone battery’s health condition by going to Battery Health to see the percentage of capacity remaining compared […]

I’ve had an iPad with Verizon cellular connectivity that costs $10 per month. I rarely use the cellular connection and decided to remove the iPad from my account. I’ve had it for more than 4 years and have paid them about $500, equal to the price of the iPad itself. I assumed it would be […]

Amazon’s new high resolution music service was announced this week and it’s a significant milestone for streaming music. As my friend and co-author, Neil Young described it, “Earth will be changed forever when Amazon introduces high quality streaming to the masses,” he said in Amazon’s press release. “This will be the biggest thing to happen in […]

Uber is facing a number of threats that  jeopardize its ability to survive. The CA legislature has passed a law that requires the company (as well as many other businesses) to reclassify their contractors as employees and provide them with benefits they offer other employees. While this law may be misguided, it shows how vulnerable […]

“To Feel the Music” is on sale this week, and I wanted to provide a little background on the book. When Neil and I decided to write the book, To Feel the Music, there were several objectives we each had. For Neil it was to save music, and the book provided a chance to explain […]