Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 […]

With all the devices we use, keeping them charged can be a challenge, and in fact, has spawned a huge accessory market that includes battery packs, battery cases, multi-port chargers, and desktop charging stations. Keeping your devices topped off has become even more important with many of us spending more time on our devices. For […]

Apple has finally completed the purging of their defective butterfly keyboards from all models of MacBooks. With the introduction this week of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, their three lines of notebooks now have their “Magic” keyboard, based on the desktop Keyboard with the same name. The new models are the 2020 versions of the MacBook […]

While we’re isolating ourselves to avoid exposure to the coronavirus, there are several inexpensive gadgets that can help us identify early symptoms of the disease. One involves recent findings about a drop in oxygen levels before more noticeable symptoms develop, and the other relates to elevated temperatures as an early indicator. Oxygen Levels A New […]

Tech Failures This week in tech has been a mixed bag. I’m enjoying doing virtual reviews, essentially reading about some interesting new products while dealing with some unexpected tech problems at home. Being isolated, we’ve become more dependent on our TV than ever. But wouldn’t you know that our prime HDTV died.  While not unexpected […]

Sometimes it seems that possessing basic intelligence and clear and logical thinking is a handicap during these times. It certainly creates a lot more stress. Why? Because it leads to an avalanche of frustration watching our Federal government react so poorly to this pandemic. Simple logic and common sense that we’ve learned over the years […]

It’s time for an Apple TV. Not just streaming in a box, but a full blown, full-featured HDTV.  Whatever the reasons in the past that dissuaded Apple from getting into this business, they’re now gone. Perhaps it was that TVs were too expensive and wouldn’t meet their high margin needs, or the cable companies would […]

While confined to home, we can’t complain. While our grandparents were asked to go to war, we’re being asked to stay indoors and wait.  The best thing we all can do now is to remain isolated until the crunch on the medical system passes. With streaming music, video, You Tube, TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and […]

I’ve been hunkered down at home with my wife this week and expect what she jokingly calls “house arrest” to last indefinitely based on listening to our governor, Gavin Newsom. Along side me are my phone, a notebook computer, and  an iPad loaded with eBooks I’ve bought over the years, but have yet to read. […]

These are the times when we need facts and scientific information to make good decisions. Yet in this political climate there’s so much obfuscation and bad information, it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. It’s clear we can’t depend on our president and many of these around him for accurate information. Today much […]

As part of my evaluation of streaming to replace cable (see my previous three posts), I purchased a Roku stick and remote kit ($40) and signed up for a month of YouTube TV for $50. The Roku was easy to set up – I just plugged it into a vacant HDMI port on the back […]

After trying out Hulu last week, I was less inclined to move from cable to streaming. The biggest reason was that, contrary to my expectations, the cost savings for me was not significant, perhaps about 15%. The second reason was that the service I tried, Hulu, was uninviting and cumbersome to use. But this week […]

  Comparing alternatives to cable for accessing live TV should be simple. But I’m finding it to be not as easy as I expected due to the varying fees and confusing websites. I began this search with the expectation of reducing my monthly cable bill, but was surprised by what I found. In looking at […]

Cable TV companies have been joked about, ridiculed, and tolerated for years, but have remained a necessity that we’ve been forced to endure. They’ve been a necessary evil, yet required to receive TV programs and a get a speedy Internet connection. Their indifference and mediocre customer support are a result of cities and towns granting […]