Author Archives: Phil Baker

With Apple’s announcements this past week, it’s been fascinating to read analysts’ and reporters’ comments about whether Apple is still an innovator. Critics cite the modest improvements made in the recent revisions of the iPhone line as demonstrating Apple’s failure to innovate. When I did a search for “Apple innovation”, up came dozens of headlines like this from the past […]

Last week I wrote about saving money on your cellphone plan. This week I look at saving money when buying a phone. The cellphone market is dominated by the iPhone and Android phones, primarily Samsung models. They range in price from $650 to $850, a huge amount of money. For the same amount you can […]

by Dom Fried-Booth Dom works at Plan, a product strategy consultancy in London. He’s gone from research in rural Pakistan to running PM teams in California, and a lot in-between. Apple’s most significant launch in years, and it’s nothing to do with the price Here’s a puzzler: what sort of company is Apple? Is it a […]

If your cellphone bill hasn’t gone down over the past few years, it’s time to reassess your plan and carrier. The plans have changed, carriers are willing to deal, and you might just save lots of money. When I changed plans on Verizon last year, my bill for a family plan with five phones dropped […]

One of the hottest areas in technology is the use of apps for accessing and sharing resources.  There’s Airbnb for booking rooms and Uber for booking rides. And now there’s a service for booking rides for your kids. My first reaction after learning about this was, “What parent would put their child in a car […]

Like many others in the tech community, I applaud Apple’s efforts to encrypt the iPhone to protect our privacy. But there’s been noticeably little attention given to the impact of apps on that same privacy. I’ve always been surprised at how many permissions some apps requests before they can be installed. They typically request access […]

  For those of us that use Macs, it sometimes feels like Apple is abandoning us. iPhones and iPads are a much more lucrative business for them than their notebooks and desktops computers. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook even touted the iPad Pro as a notebook replacement. And it shows in other ways: some of the […]

With all of the technology advances taking place, just how good are today’s radar detectors? The devices that attach to our car’s windshield were once were commonly used to detect police hiding along the side of the road trying to catch us speeding by. It became a back and forth game with police adding more […]

I’ve always had a moderate weight problem, being 20 to 30 pounds overweight, and have tried a myriad of diets over the years. There was the protein diet, Dr. Atkins, Weight Watchers, and many fad diets.  Over the past three months I’ve been trying something new that has worked better than anything else, using technology […]

Briggs & Riley makes some of the best luggage available. I’ve used many of their products over the years traveling all over the world, and they provide some of the best designed, highest quality products in the business.  (I also love Tumi, but comparable models are often as much as twice the cost of Briggs & […]

If you are discerning about the coffee you drink and grind your own beans, you may want to consider roasting your own coffee beans at home.  When a friend first suggested it to me, I dismissed it, since I can buy freshly roasted beans from a number of local coffee shops.  But I took the […]

Two weeks ago I reviewed security cameras and the Ring video doorbell, all products in the category called Internet of Things (IoT) that connect to the cloud through your WiFi network. While they provide useful benefits, they can also bring some risks. That became evident for many of those using a Nest connected thermostat, one of […]

Leica Camera has unveiled its first camera designed specifically for outdoor and underwater photography – the Leica X-U (Typ 113). Incorporating a fixed focal length Leica Summilux 23mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens (equivalent to 35mm) with underwater protection filter, and a large APS-C CMOS sensor, this fully waterproofed member of the Leica X family delivers images […]