It’s hard out there for a fitness tracking company. Apple Watch dominates the conversation, and anyone looking for a fitness-first solution seems to gravitate towards Fitbit. I realized tonight the secret to their success: ubiquity.
Back in 2007, Livescribe introduced a product that bridged the analog and digital worlds-you use a physical pen and real paper, but everything you do is digitized and stored to be searchable and categorized. It was awesome, and just got better-in 2014 Dan reviewed the Livescribe 3, which I continue to love.
Yesterday Verizon and Motorola announced two new Droid smartphones; the Droid Turbo 2 with an “indestructible” screen, and the Droid Maxx 2. On paper, the Turbo 2 is the real story; the screen, 48 hours of battery life, and tons of customizations. The Maxx 2 has a lot of that, minus the indestructible screen. Oh, and it costs only $384.
Doesn’t it feel like I was just writing about the Garmin Forerunner 225 announcement? While it has actually been 5 months since the FR 225 reveal, since then they also added the FR 25 entry level GPS watch and each slowly trickled into availability. This year has been all about big new launches and slow product roll-outs that have left me scratching my head wondering what is happening with Garmin. Today Garmin announced three new watches that should have me excited, but instead resulted in a cynical eye-roll and vague interest in when they might hit stores – but why…
I’ve been an Android user ever since I received a G1 as a gift. I’ve only ever had Android phones and tablets, so I haven’t had a lot of exposure to iOS. When my workplace offered us a phone for work use, I had a choice between a Galaxy Note 4, a Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6.
I used Google Wallet for one reason: it held my loyalty cards. Unfortunately, with the new Android Pay I can’t access my loyalty cards unless I have a compatible bank card added! Wallet functioned fine without a card added, and even if I add a bank card, if it’s not a supported card I can’t access anything in Android Pay.
You would think that with Apple being one of the bigger names out there in the market, when they announced that the iPad Pro, which had much speculation months prior was finally coming out, there wouldn’t be so much indecision regarding actually purchasing the gargantuan sized tablet. So what’s actually drawing you to it? What’s holding you back?
Phones come and go every year, and nobody notices very much. Generally they are superseded by a new model, the Galaxy S6 replacing the S5 or the iPhone 6S replacing the 6…but sometimes they just disappear. Such is the case of the critically slammed and commercially failing Amazon Fire Phone, permanently killed off after less than a year.
One of my favorite exchanges in “The Simpsons” comes from “Treehouse of Horror III”, where Homer goes to buy a doll for Bart and has an exchange about the tradeoffs (doll is good, but cursed, but comes with a free frogurt, also cursed). It seems like the same good/bad tradeoffs exist in smartphones these days as well!
Back in April I reviewed the Garmin VivoActive GPS Smartwatch, listing five reasons I loved it and three concerns. After a couple of months I started drafting a follow-up about how I STILL loved the VivoActive – but stopped when an update caused issues. The next update resolved the issues, but by early July I was done. Why? Read on!
Have you heard of the Stonewall Riots? Here’s a quick refresher: on June 28th, 1969, the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The patrons fought back, and this sparked the modern gay rights movement. Now there’s a movie coming, but along with the trailer came a well-justified backlash from within the LGBT community.
One thing kept me up until the early hours of the morning: attempting to figure out exactly what was the issue is between my Apple Watch and my iPhone’s Activity app. I didn’t get answers, and Apple needs to give one.
I’ve been trying for the better part of two weeks to login to my T-Mobile account online. No matter which way I try to login I’m met with a request that ultimately stops me in my tracks – either a request to verify a phone number or submit a password for another T-Mobile account they say I have.
This isn’t your typical Gear Diary post, but more so a personal vent of mine. As a huge fan, and recent user of Reddit, the recent turn of events in the past few days have actually surprised me so much that I’ve gone ahead and deleted my daily reddit driver completely from all of my devices.
Did you order an Apple Watch? Or did you decide that it was all-hype and probably an unnecessary accessory to your iPhone? Greg, Wayne, Perry, and I all bought Apple Watches; these are our thoughts on the latest Apple device.
Heroes was a really good show, at first. It followed pretty familiar comic/sci-fi territory of people developing superhuman abilities, and the various conspiracies designed to stop and control them. Plus bad guys, pretty people, and of course, some mind-bending twists. We won’t discuss how quickly later seasons managed to squander the goodwill of that first magical season.
I was relaxing after going to the store today, when I came across this video via Mashable that was produced by Nature Valley. Yes the Granola Bar people. It explores the differences between generations with what they do/did when they were kids, and paints a dreadful picture of our kids who never go outside; thing is, it’s NOT the truth. My son, Luke, who is 16 has an iPhone. He LOVES his iPhone and uses it all the time. However, it’s just one of many things that he does. In fact, there’s one singular thing that over rules anything else…
If you apply for Project Fi as I did (back in April) you can check the status of your invitation on their site here. Unfortunately in my case, it looks as if I won’t be receiving an invitation any time soon as my status shows “Expect your invite in 12 or more weeks”.
About a month ago, we decided to tighten up our budget, and one of the obvious places was cable. A quick once-over of our viewing habits showed our TV spent more time tuned to our Roku box than the cable box anyway, so I cut our plan back to just internet, and we really don’t miss cable at all!
WARNING: The products discussed may contain or use nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical; in many cities and a few states, you must be 21 to purchase vaping products and/or products containing nicotine. Please familiarize yourself with and obey the law in your location. What is Vaping? What are E-Cigarettes? By definition, ‘vaping’ is the act of inhaling water vapor through a personal vaporizer or electronic cigarette. Vaping eliminates 4000 chemicals and carcinogenic compounds that come from real cigarettes, without compromising the act of ‘smoking’ itself. Vaping can also contain nicotine as an option for maximized effect of cigarette smoking.
WARNING: The products discussed may contain or use nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical; in many cities and a few states, you must be 21 to purchase vaping products and/or products containing nicotine. Please familiarize yourself with and obey the law in your location. Hello, esteemed Gear Diary readers. My name is Chris Leckness, and I am a 43-year-old certified geek. I will not bore you with the long story of geekdom that I have lived out, but I will share a little about my online life as a geek.