Author Archives: Phil Baker

As seen at Techpinions. I’m often asked why consumer tech products can’t be made in this country. In fact, with Trump’s tariff wars, more and more companies are being pressured to look for local manufacturing. I’ve always been skeptical, having worked on more than a hundred consumer tech products over my career, mostly manufactured in Asia, […]

One of the trends of high-tech startups is to build a product around two things: an app and independent workers. These new business models are all the rage in Silicon Valley and eminently fundable because they open up new business models that do old things in new, more efficient ways.  That was the basis behind […]

In my efforts to simplify things, I recently canceled a bunch of credit cards that I’ve accumulated over the years.  Multiple credit cards adds a lot of complexity that we just don’t need: which card to use for which purchase, checking each for accurate monthly charges, and paying each on time to avoid interest charges. […]

One of the most frightening developments in the world of tech is how personal data mining is being used to undermine democracies around the world. The tools Facebook has developed to target individuals with personal ads – the dream of advertisers for decades – is being used to target individuals with specific psychologic messaging, much […]

ANC stands for active noise reduction, a technology that Bose has dominated for a decade. Their popular QC35 headphones incorporated this technology to reduce the background noise, particularly the repetitive droning hum that you experience on airplanes. While there were a number of low cost Chinese copies, Bose’s technology led the field. But two years […]

If Apple is looking for an area to replace the slowing sales of the iPhone, I suggest they need to develop a real Apple TV with its own operating system and a top quality display, This could be a huge success and provide a solution to a confusing problem most of us face today. If […]

If businesses wonder how they lose customers, this story might serve as an example. It’s not always through clear logic, but often based on emotion and a minor incident that triggers a reaction. One of the benefits of an American Express Platinum account is that airline fees of up to $200 each year are covered. […]

Apple just announced that Jony Ive, the company’s illustrious industrial designer is leaving the company. Ive and Steve Jobs have been given credit for turning a nearly dying Apple around into one the world’s most valuable companies. But in recent years, after Jobs’ death, Apple has had a scarcity of significant new products and has […]

First published on Tech.pinions From the June 22 Wall Street Journal: In the first 24 hours of the launch of an electric-scooter pilot program in the city of Hoboken, N.J., the local police department received more than 1,500 complaints and comments about the scooters, its police chief said. Since the May 20 launch, a steady […]

A few years ago there were plenty of new travel gadgets to cover, but those times are past. No new GPS devices and few luggage trackers that work. Still, there are some well-designed products for travel that are useful and worth considering, even if they are just improvements from earlier designs.   Backup Batteries for […]

Barnes & Noble has come to an end as we know it. The superstore concept, created by Leonard Riggio, became one of the world’s largest book chains located in malls and city centers across the country. The company is now being sold to an investment company for less than $700 million. It’s unclear what they […]

You would think major corporations would have had enough time to make their sites easy to use and navigable by now. United Airlines has gone through several do-overs since their merger with Continental and now has a very well-designed, comprehensive, and easy to use site. Southwest has had a decent site for years. But American […]

After decades of work as a design engineer I find it intriguing to analyze new products and imagine the thinking that went into creating them. What was the goal? Was it durability, appearance or something else? Having been through the development process hundreds of time, that experience often provides some useful insight. Sometimes a product […]

In 2011 GM introduced the Chevy Volt. Since then it has sold more than 150,000 units, not matching its potential, but still impressive.  The Volt’s benefits were never well-explained by the company, but it was a significant step towards the future of electric cars. Hybrids, cars that use both battery and gas, have been synonymous […]

Uber went public last week at the low end of its predicted range, and saw the stock quickly tank. It was one of the poorest IPOs ever in terms of the first day loss in company value. And more than 3/4 of those that invested over the past few years hare also underwater.  It’s an […]

FlightAware App One of my favorite apps for air travel is Flightradar24, While not the best app for checking flight schedules and gates – for that I like FlightAware – its greatest attribute is showing the status of all planes flying in real time on a map. It lets you view all of the planes in […]

It’s not often that United beats one of the other major International airlines, but during a recent trip, my experiences on United bettered Qantas on many of the touch points. Of course, this is sample of one and not necessarily representative of anything other than one isolated trip. I traveled between LAX to Melbourne on […]

Renting cars has always been a hit or miss situation. As a 30-year Avis member I was loyal to the company, renting their cars for hundreds of business trips over this time period. But that loyalty all ended when on a trip to Kauai, they sent me a $350 cleaning bill for returning a minivan […]

Are we being attacked by blue light? It seems to be the case with phones, computer and tablet makers now offering screen modes to reduce the amount of blue in the backlight we stare at for hours at a time. They explain that blue light can keep us awake and overstimulate us. But many of […]