Category Archives: Uncategorized

As popular as the iPhone 6 is, it has one huge weakness, one of the shortest battery lives of any  smart phone. That’s because Apple has prioritized thinness over run time. As an iPhone 6 user, it’s hard to get through the day without needing to charge my phone. Often the battery is dead by 2 […]

The end of Thanksgiving signals the onslaught of email requests from PR firms for meetings with companies exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January. From these emails I’ve received just over the past two days, it looks like there will be some highly unusual products. I thought it […]

I reviewed Ring, a combination doorbell, camera and intercom, a few weeks ago, and ran into problems with the installation. After discussions with the customer support people, the unit was replaced, and now is working properly. The previous unit caused the doorbell to ring or buzz on its own. The cause is uncertain, but might have been […]

I read with a combination of interest, sympathy and a little bit of “not surprised” when it was reported that Coolest, the company that had the second most successful Kickstarter campaign ever, was struggling to meet its promises. In spite of raising over $13 million for its all-in-one picnic cooler, it failed to meet its […]

This review is not a cruel joke, appearing at Thanksgiving time. It’s about a subject that many of us struggle with, particularly frequent travelers that eat out and are away from home so often. I’m constantly battling weight gain, and like to say I’ve lost over 100 pounds through the years, the same 10 or […]

I’ve been closely involved with the design and development of the Pono hi-resolution music player over the past four years. It’s been a labor of love that began with a noble goal from rockstar legend Neil Young: Bring the same high quality music to music lovers that artists hear in the studio.  The goal has […]

By Larry Reich Will this be a digital XMAS for Santa and the children of the world? According to Walmart, don’t expect much. They claim there are no hot digital products this Christmas, and predicting lower to flat sales this quarter (as it was the last quarter for digital products at Walmart). But yes, Virginia, there […]

In my search for a leather wallet case for my iPhone 6 Plus I found this one to be one of the best available. It’s made of leather, unlike many others that are “leather-like”, and has worked very well over the few weeks of use. The phone snaps into a plastic shell and the pockets […]

Ken Rockwell, a photographer that has a hugely popular photo blog, compares the camera on an Apple iPhone 6s Plus to four high quality cameras, the Canon 5DS, a Sony A7R II, the Canon EOS M3, and a Fujifilm X100T. His results are very surprising, and his article is well worth the read. Check it out […]

Can we possibly have too many gadgets? Over the past dozen years, as a product reviewer, I’ve seen so many new products that offer the promise of helping us to be safer, healthier, and richer. Yet frequently they required a lot more work than was expected to set up, maintain and deal with unexpected issues. […]

In conjunction with researching Uber for a story several weeks ago, I went through the sign up process as a driver, but never completed the process when it came to providing personal information for a background check. As a result, Uber has been me emailing several times a week since early September requesting that I […]

With more complaints about Uber drivers, one victim called this to my attention, Uber’s waiver of responsibility: “You understand, therefore, that by using the application and the service, you may be exposed to transportation that is potentially dangerous, offensive, harmful to minors, unsafe or otherwise objectionable, and that you use the application and the service […]

Re/Code posts column on Why Can’t the U.S. Build Consumer Electronic Products here  

Why can’t the US build consumer electronic products? THE DAILY TECHPINION PHIL BAKER / October 2nd, 2015 I recently returned from a short trip to Shenzhen, the large Chinese city less than an hour’s drive north of Hong Kong. When anyone wonders why we don’t build consumer electronic products in the United States, the one word […]

The Pono Player continues to be one of the most exciting products I’ve been involved with. When I began working for Neil Young more than 3 years ago, the player had been a dream of Neil’s for more than a decade. Thanks to the small design team we put together and our manufacturer PCH, the […]

Ditto is hot! This tiny little device alerts you to incoming calls, texts and messages, and it’s selling like hotcakes according to several insiders. It clips to your shirt or underwear and emits a discreet vibration. It connects to your phone by Bluetooth and relies on a free app (iOS and Android) to set it up. You […]