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As I’ve upgraded various systems over the years, I have a collection of old hard drives.
USB 3.x drive enclosures are a hand tool to have around.
Here are two I like, one 2.5″ and a 3.5″ model.
Handy for backups, file transfer, and the like.
Filed under: Gadget | Tagged: hard drive, tool | Leave a comment »
I broke down a bought an Apple Watch several months ago. I went for the Sport model with the basic Sport band. That kept the cost down to $400. The “Watch” model was another $200 with no change in functionality. The only difference would be in the materials. A steel case and a sapphire crystal.
This was not my first wearable. I had a Fitbit Force, which was recalled. I was happy with the fitness functionality & the iPhone software package. My opinions on the band are well documented.
So far, I’m more pleased with the Apple Watch. It is much more versatile, and has comparable fitness tracking functions.
As a watch, the Apple Watch is actually usable. The software does a good job of displaying when I raise my arm and rotate the watch upward. This is a vast improvement over the Fitbit, where I had to press a button (flashback to the early digital watches). My one nit is that the Apple Watch software is calibrate for wearing it on the outside of the wrist. I wore my watch on the inside of my wrist for decades, and the Apple Watch wasn’t happy with this. This limitation has me back to wearing my watch on the outside of my wrist.
There are ten watch faces loaded, each configurable. I’ve been switching around on an irregular basis. My preference is for traditional analog watch faces. This includes the Mickey Mouse option. The watch faces are configurable for color and options like day, date, timer, stop watch, fitness rings, and battery life.
In all, I’m happy with it. The fitness function is what I use the most (outside of actually using the watch to tell time). I really like the message and phone preview functions. Being able to review/preview messages and calls and deal with most of them quickly is more of a feature that I thought it would be.
Watch OS 2 is due out next week. I’ll post my impressions after I play around with it a bit.
Filed under: Apple, Gadget | Tagged: Apple, wearable | Leave a comment »
As I have said before, the single USB C port is the weak point of the new Macbook. I’m not overly impressed with the $80 dongle solution from Apple either.
The nice folks at Nonda have slicker solution, at the same price, but only for about another 24 hours. After the Kickstarter campaign is over, it’s going to run about double the price and still, IMHO, worth it. The Apple dongle gives you a USB C port for power only, a USB 3.0 port, and an HDMI port. The Hub+ gives you the following:
Display Port keeps the price down (HDMI needs licensing) and mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables are easy to get. If you sprung for a new MacBook, grab one of these as well.
Filed under: Apple, Gadget | Tagged: Apple, Gadget | Leave a comment »
It’s spring and the mind of the geek turns to new hardware releases.
Filed under: Android, Apple, Etext Reader, Gadget, Google, iPhone, Smart Phone, tech rumors | Tagged: Amazon, Apple, Gadget, Google, iOS, Kindle, rumor, tech rumor | Leave a comment »
Today’s gadget is brought to you by the phrase, “Simple is Good.”
The modern geek has lots of gear, and there are still plenty of wires and cables.
Power cables, data cables, audio cables, and the list just goes on.
Wire Ties are great for organizing, but not optimized for things like keeping your ear buds cables from forming the bundle of knots it wants to form. OK, they do a good job, but it is a pain to clip them loose every time you want to use them.
So every modern geek needs a roll of Velcro wire ties.
You can get a hundred of these ties for under $8 on Amazon. Free two day shipping if you are a Prime Member.
For smaller bits of cable, like ear buds, Micro USB, or Lighting cables, I cut the ties in half. I find them easier to put on and off at that length.
So go forth and tame the snake pits of cables that exist in your home theater setup, your monitors, and that pocket in your gear bag where you keep the umptyfratz cables you carry around because they could be useful.
Filed under: Gadget | Tagged: Gadget, Velcro | Leave a comment »
I broke down and entered the wearable market. Specifically, I replace my analog watch with a Fitbit Force.
The Force is a wrist mounted wearable that tracks the following:
Steps taken
distance walked/ran
calories burned
Flights of Stairs climbed
Active minutes
Sleep time/activity
It actually does that reasonably well. The Force can display most of that data using a OLED display, unlike the older Fitbit Flex wrist based wearable monitor. I like the immediate feedback right on the device. It reminds me when I’m sitting down too much. Getting up and walking around on a frequent/irregular basis actually helps me with my focus. The Force measures all of this using accelerometers and an air pressure monitor.
The Force will also display the time, but that is one of the two major downsides to the design. To find out the time, Fitbit has recreated that genuine early 1980s experience oh having to press a button on your digital watch in order to find out what time it is.
I’ll get to the other major design flaw later. First I want to cover more of the good points.
The Force syncs with my iPhone over Bluetooth. The Fitbit app then allows me to review the data collected in more detail and over periods of time (day, week, month). I can also log other items, including hydration input.
I can also sync my Force with my Windows 7 desktop, but I have to use the Fitbit custom Bluetooth USB dongle to do so. If I wanted to sync to my Macbook, I have to use the Fitbit custom Bluetooth USB dongle, despite the MacBook having Bluetooth 4.0 built in. Thus sayith Fitbit support, which is a PITA.
On the plus side, the desktop view is a web based app, which gives you everything the mobile app does, but bigger, which is good.
The second major design flaw is the crappy wrist band. I have fairly large wrists, so I’m wearing the Large version of the Force. I’ve found that the “latch” on the wrist band will pop loose when I put on or take off a jacket or long sleeved pullover shirt. The bloody thing will also pop loose if I flex my wrist the wrong way. There are very long threads on the Fitbit forums about this problem. People have lost multiple Force devices (many of which Fitbit has replaced, at $130 retail each), and Fitbits response so far has been to post a video on how to properly insert the slots into the tabs, which is the poor design of the wristband latch. User feedback has been better, including the suggestion of adding an O-Ring over the latch.
Overall I’m happy with the device. The geek portion functions well and gives me data to crunch, which makes me happy. The whole crappy wristband thing is a disappointment, but one you can work around as long as you are aware of it.
Serious though. Wristband design is a pretty mature technology. Somebody at Fitbit who valued form way over function green lighted this Charlie Fox of a design. A decision that has cost them a lot of customer good will. The question is what will Fitbit due in order to get that customer good will back?
Update: Fitbit has stopped selling the Force and issued a recall. The reason given was the skin rash some users were getting from it. The crappy wristband design probably didn’t help. Since Fitbit has dropped this product and will not longer provide firmare updates or other support, I put it to return mine for the full retail value. Fitbit claims to be working on new tracker. I posted the following to the Fitbit user forums:
With all the complaints about the Force wristband, there was an underlying theme of the issue being so frustrating because the Force was the best fitness tracker on the market. The users loved it, except for the bloody thing wanting to jump off the user’s wrist every time they took a jacket off.
I’m sure the Force replacement will be an even better fitness tracker, and have the ability to show messages and phone notification from your phone that the Force will now never have.
However, if it uses the same consumer hostile wristband, I certainly won’t be buying one. That move would certainly alienate the Force customers who love their Force but hate with deep passion the low quality wristband that is integral to the device.
Filed under: Gadget, Medical Tech | Tagged: Gadget, wearable | 6 Comments »
Well, the Apple WWDC came and went with no mention of the much rumored iWatch.
Oh well. I have several friends who have Kickstarter Pebble watches and they are quite happy with them.
My guess is that Apple has several prototypes in the works and just doesn’t see the market demand to push one out yet.
Filed under: Apple, Gadget, tech rumors | Tagged: Apple, Gadget, rumor, Smart Watch | Leave a comment »
Last time I went on about 3D Printers was back in October 2008. Time for an update.
There are more options out there than the RepRap. Engadet has a “consumers guide” to 3D printers.
What I found interesting is that there are some sub $1,000 models. Granted, most of those are Kickstarter projects, but it shows that these things are getting some traction in the geek hobby market.
That expanding base also means a greater number of programmed designs as people share their experiments.
One that is sure to cause a stir is Defense Distributed’s plan to design a 3D printable firearm. They have designed, and printed an AR-15 lower. They have put over 600 rounds though a firearm using that printed lower in a single day. They claim that it should be able to handle a 1,000 rounds.
The AR-15 was a good choice. It is one of the most popular civilian firearms in the US, and as Gun Geeks will tell you, it’s the general purpose PC of firearms. It is very modular, with the ability to change stocks and uppers easily. It also has a large market of add on accessories, including pink plastic parts for the female (or male who just likes pink) shooters.
The inter-changeable upper (which includes the barrel) is key. You can convert your .223 AR-15 to 5.55mm NATO, .308 Winchester, .22 LR or even .50 Beowulf. All the same firearm by current US regulations.
On the lower end of the 3D printing scale, is the EDoodler. A hand held devices that extrudes a steam of heated material that you can create whole pieces or parts of a larger object. This is another Kickstarter project which blew past its original goal of $30,000 pretty fast. They have pledges of over $2 million and still have three weeks to go for fundraising.
Going even lower end, you have InstaMorph. I know people who swear by this stuff for really Q&D projects. You heat the stuff up and then are able to mold it. When it cools, it hardens. Kinda like a gateway drug for 3D printing.
Filed under: 3D Printing, Gadget | Tagged: 3D Printer, Gadget | 1 Comment »
$250 is a very good price point for a light laptop for basic email/web surfing/document editing. It’s not a full feature laptop with a full OS, that is one reason the price point is the same as a 7″ Android tablet. It’s fairly full featured hardware wise. Web cam, USB ports, card reader and a 16GB Flash drive for storage. This $250 laptop is a good second system. I have a big desktop with a Drobo for storage, picture editing and other higher end functions. For the cost of the Nexus 7, you can get a real keyboard and better monitor. I’ve been using tablets, both iOS and Android for years, but I keep coming back to a device with a real keyboard for content creation.
For another $80, you can get a 3G version of this Chromebook, which is important if you are going to be using this device on the road. It really does require Internet access to be entirely useful.
Filed under: Gadget, Google, Internet, netbook, tablet | Tagged: computer, Gadget, Google | 8 Comments »
One of the major changes in the new iPhone 5 is the new 8 pin “Lighting” cable instead of the 30 pin cable used in all iPhone and iPad devices previously.
Now the general purpose computer that you can make phone calls on (i.e. the iPhone 5) comes with a Lighting cable, but odds are you are going to need at least one spare. No problem if you don’t mind paying Apple $19 for a spare cable. If that is a bit pricy for you, you may have to wait.
According to one cable manufacture that has done a tear down of a Lighting cable, Apple has put an authentication chip in the cable (which is doing D2A conversion as well). So beware of any third party “Lighting compatible” cables for a while. I’m betting this can be cracked, but it may be a few months before its done and third party cables start hitting the market.
If you are laying out the cash for the Darth Vader phone, part with another $19 and get a spare cable. You’ll need it. I’ve been considering a dual 1.0/2.1 amp car charger anyway, so can I could charge both my Nexus 7 and an iPhone at the same time. I could charge my iPhone straight from the car’s USB port, but the Sync system treats its as an MP3 player and tries to index it, which screws with the Bluetooth streaming (are you paying attention Ford?), so it’s easier to use a car charger plugged into a power point (the former cigarette lighter socket). The care would probably do the same thing to the Nexus 7, but I don’t keep much music on that (lots of music on the iPhone anyway).
Ok, back to the cable, you can get a 30 pin to Lighting adapter. Apple sells one for $29. Again, off the bat, I’m not sure I would trust any third party adapter for a while. Not until some early adopters spring for them and start sharing their success/failure rate.
Filed under: Apple, cell phone tech, Gadget, iPhone | Tagged: Apple, cable, cell phone, Gadget, iPhone, Smart Phone | 6 Comments »
Urbin Technology 