Greetings and welcome to the Tuesday Tech Talk blog. Every Tuesday morning, I publish my thoughts on the technology news over the past week. If it’s small mobile phones or big hunkin’ new HDTV’s, you can bet it will be covered here in this space. Feel free to browse the content, there is a ton of it here!
Hello everybody and welcome to what I hope is the re-launch of Tuesday Tech Talk. Going forward it will be more of a review of a certain hardware or software app as opposed to a rundown of general tech news. So with that in mind I want to talk about a new app I am using on both my MacBook and my iPhone and iPad, it is called Day One and it basically allows you to jot down thoughts, updates, links and even YouTube videos as you go along through the day. They make a version for the desktop which runs $9.99 and for the iOS at $1.99 and the best part is it has iCloud built in as well as Dropbox support so whatever you record on one device will appear on the other.
I had seen it promoted on both the Mac App Store and the iTunes App Store but then my good friend Scott mentioned it to me as a way to keep up with my blogging, so I checked out their website and sure enough it is the missing link I have been looking for. You can star certain posts that you view as more important, in my case these are things I want to record into my daily blog I have started as a result of using it which you can see here. What I really like about it is how it handles HTML. For instance copying YouTube embed code will actually display the video within Day One on the desktop (I have not tried it on the iOS side yet). At the end of the day I simply copy and paste my entries into MarsEdit on the MacBook or the WordPress app if I am blogging from the iOS. One feature I hope they add is the ability to export your daily entry right into a blog app like ME or WP.
Overall I have to say I love using it and I highly recommend it to anyone if they are looking to blog daily or simply to maintain a journal and yes it does offer a passcode/password entry on both versions for privacy concerns. Best $12 I have spent! 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
I know it has been a while since I last wrote. Just a lot going on to sit down and write a good blog post. I have been keeping up with tech news and the stuff I find interesting, I am posting it to both my Facebook,Twitter, and Google+ profiles. I am also launching a Google+ Page for the blog side of things. Mostly as a way to keep the tech news on one side and everything else in my life on the profile side. Once everything is setup there the way I like it, I will post the official link.
I have started to read “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson and I am 2 chapters in. I have so many ebooks to keep track of it is not even funny. Recently I got an Eye-Fi card for my digital camera but it has been giving me headaches in terms of uploading to the computer consistently. A new software update came out for Eye-Fi yesterday so hopefully that will help. We are taking the digital to a cabin in Dismals Canyon this weekend so I hope to have some great pictures. They say the place has limited to no cell phone range and the cabin has no WiFi. Real addicts call this withdrawal what I am about to go through with no internet access for 2 days. That will be a blog post in itself on how everything goes. I will be taking the Kindle with me though so I hope to knock out some reading at night. The cabin has a TV with satellite but I am going to try and avoid TV while there.
Other stuff going on, my mom had hip replacement surgery and she is doing great, she is already walking around better than before and she says she can’t wait to keep up with Savannah when she starts to walk. Mom has not taken up my offer to walk a 5K yet next year but who knows, maybe she will surprise us all and do one. Speaking of which, I need to work on getting back into shape. Ever since we had Savannah my workout routine got put on hold but that is mostly bad scheduling on my part than anything.
Well, I guess that is about it. I hope to get back into the habit of blogging on a routine basis again. See ya’!
Howdy folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Today we got our regular news round-up and after I have a product review on the new Roku 2. Let’s get right into things.
No Link between Cell phones and Brain Cancer according to study
Allow me for a second to relive my childhood and one of the most painful memories as a boy…seeing Han put into Carbon Freeze in Empire Strikes Back…damn you Lando! Ok so Billy Dee Williams was at ComicCon this year and explains just why Lando did what he did. Enjoy!
Roku 2 Review
My wife and I have enjoyed our AppleTV on our main HDTV in the living room for quite some time now. One of the issues though has been how do we get Netflix on our second TV in the bedroom that is still a tube 4:3 standard-definition (SD) television. I have followed Roku for some time now and my friend Jeremy has one at his house to watch Netflix on. Recently, Roku launched a second generation of their media box devices and they have a much more AppleTV look to them and even a bit smaller and lighter on top of that.
So this past weekend after having lunch with my wife and daughter, we went to Best Buy where I went in and got one.
Let me just say it is even better than I thought it would be. I can’t get over all the channels it offers, much more than the AppleTV offers actually. Course it doesn’t have AirPlay so I can’t stream content from my Mac and iOS devices to it like I can the AppleTV, but it has Hulu Plus, Pandora, Amazon Instant Video, in addition to Netflix, also there is a free movie service called Crackle that it offers which is like Hulu in that it has free content with short 30 second commercials throughout the movie.
For hooking up to a SD television it comes with all that you need, RCA cables and it even comes with batteries for the remote.
You can also hook it up via an HDMI connection but you will have to buy an HDMI cable seperatley which is routine for most HDMI devices (AppeTV, Blu-ray players, etc.). It also has a Micro SD card slot for additional storage. As far as I can tell the Roku 2 is a cloud device much like the AppleTV 2.
After about 30 minutes of configuring Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB At Bat, and Pandora, we were off and running with all it can offer.
It is an outstanding device and I can tell you without reservations if you are deciding between a Roku and an AppleTV and don’t care about AirPlay and iTunes movies and TV shows, get the Roku! Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video go a long way as replacements for iTunes Store although you won’t be able to get NCIS on the Roku I should point out.
You can order from Roku directly or buy them at Best Buy and Radio Shack. They have 3 different models, a $59, $79, and $99 model. The difference between those is this, the $59 model supports up to 720p, the $79 model supports 1080p, and the $99 model comes with the enhanced game play remote and Angry Birds as well as an Ethernet option if you lack WiFi. Of course you will need a high-speed internet connection to take advantage of the services it offers and hopefully your ISP is less crappy than mine is. I should also note that Best Buy and Radio Shack do not sell the $59 model.
It’s a great gift if you have a son or daughter going off to college as well.
Well, that is going to do it for this week’s Tuesday Tech Talk. See you all next week for more tech news and come back later in the week for Apple and Google news. Bye!
Hello everyone and welcome to the 100th edition of Tuesday Tech Talk! When I started writing this blog back in May of 2009, I had no idea that 2 years later I would be up to 100 editions! I love to write about technology and I want to thank you all for your continued readership. Now I know it is not Tuesday but with parenthood, my schedule is not what it used to be on the blogging front. So let’s see what is going on this week in tech.
Amazon Tablet to Support only 2 Fingers?
Interesting article here about Amazon’s much rumored tablet device and the possibility it will only support 2 finger gesturing. The iPad for example supports 10. I just can’t believe Amazon would produce a tablet that only supports 2 fingers but who knows.
Fox to Limit Next Day Episodes on Hulu to Paying TV Customers
Fox is now limiting next day airing of its shows on Hulu to customers who pay for their TV services. Currently they only have a deal in place for Dish Network customers only. This is cable and satellite companies last ditch effort to keep customers from canceling their services. In the long run though, the evolution of technology will win out, after all, when was the last time you bought a CD or went to Blockbuster to rent a movie?
Finally today SceeneShoes has designed uh, an Angry Birds bra. Yes, you heard me right, if your a woman and love to play Angry Birds you can now get a matching bra and if you are a man, well I really don’t want to know so keep it to yourself.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. See you next week for more news about technology!
Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. We are one shy of the big 100! Can you believe it? Well let’s see what is going on this week in tech news of the non-Apple and Google world.
Netflix Jacks Prices on DVD’s, Universe Explodes
Netflix has come under massive fire for going to a streaming pricing + DVD pricing plan starting 9/1. Under the old plan the streaming service was included in your DVD plan but that will no longer be the case come the first of September. Coincedently, I had just finished up the last of The Mentalist in my DVD queue which were the last discs in that queue. I have been using the steaming service so much more anyway that I decided to just cut out our disc plan and just have a streaming only plan so for me my bill will be cheaper. But I understand how others will be quite upset with the new pricing structure.
Amazon Kindle 3G gets Ad Supported Model
Like its WiFi only sibling, the Amazon Kindle 3G now has an ad supported model at a reduced price of $139, this is the same price as the WiFi only non-ad supported model. As someone that has the WiFi only ad supported model, I can say the ads are not a big deal and never appear when your reading content, it is just on the home screen at the very bottom and on screen savers.
Pandora ditches Adobe Flash
Yet another company ditching old technology for HTML5. Pandora the popular music streaming service is dropping Flash support in its web-based player in favor of HTML5. I have said for a while how I think Flash is an old technology and that HTML5 is really where the migration needs to move to. It is why I laugh at these so-called “iPad killer tablets” can support Flash, notice they don’t mention battery life in association with using Flash which can be very processor taxing. Good job Pandora and just in time to take on Spotify too!
Spotify Arrives in America
So since we last gathered in this space, Spotify the European based music streaming service has finally arrived in the USA! I have used it since day one choosing to go ahead and pay for a subscription plan rather than wait for an invite to the free service. It is just what I had expected and much more! Unlike Pandora where you can put in an artist or a song and you get a similar artist or song to it, Spotify will play the actual song if it is part of their library and for the most part, they do have those songs in their service. Do a search for Johnny Cash or Frank Sinatra and you will know what I mean. There are some artists of course who are not part of it as they are other services like Garth Brooks and Bob Seger for example and you won’t find The Beatles there since they have an exclusvity with iTunes right now. The biggest advantage of Spotify is it allows you to listen to full songs you wouldn’t buy on iTunes like you know, playing Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice…not saying I have done that…but I’m not saying I didn’t either. They have downloadable clients for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Here is a look at their paid plans, I recommend the $9.99 plan though.
Facebook Video Chat Review
In the last edition of Tuesday Tech Talk I talked briefly on how Facebook and Skype got together to create 1-on-1 video chatting. I finally got to use the service with my wife with her in the iMac and me on my MacBook as we sat 10 feet apart from each other. It is a nice service and there is a brief one time download of a file that each computer must do to get it to work but once installed it works pretty well. My only criticism of the service is it is only 1-on-1 where Hangout in Google+ allows up to 10 users to chat for free. Skype offers group video chat but charges for it.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. I will see you later in the week for AppleTalk Thursday where we will be discussing the latest Apple news and my first impressions of OS X Lion. Then Friday we will have Googling Friday where I will have an extensive review of the new Google+ social network service. See you then!
Howdy everyone and welcome to a long overdue Tuesday Tech Talk. If you follow my blog on a regular basis you would know that my wife and I have a new edition to the family and our little baby girl is doing great! Now let’s get caught up on some tech stuff! DirecTV Heads to [...]
Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Let’s see what is happening this week. BlackBerry’s Bad Week Last week was not a good week for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, disappointing sales and lowering its outlook for the year, the company will also layoff an unannounced number of employees as well, [...]
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Hello everyone and welcome to the late edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. I have been sidelined with the flu but started feeling better this evening. Let”s see what is going on this week in tech. Kindle Rolls out Special Offers Edition of 3G Kindle Like its WiFi only counterpart, the 3G+WiFi now has a discounted [...]
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