Even though I rarely need them, I’m a sucker for a good pocketknife. I have a small one I keep on my keychain, and I have a cool fish-shaped one I keep on my fishing rod bag. So of course I said yes when offered the chance to check out the Urbanoider, a compact EDC knife.
Indigo is a huge Canadian bookstore chain, and they’ve opened their first United States location in Short Hills, NJ. It happens to be right by where I work, so I swung by on my way home today to check it out…and, well, Indigo is best described as an experience, not a store.
I reviewed Neuro Gum last spring, and at the time noted it was tasty, offered a nice caffeine kick, and had eased a headache or two for me. They have a new flavor out, CinnaMental, and they gave me the chance to revisit the gum and try the new flavor!
Desktop towers went from being a fixture in every home to a rarity, but the ones that are still made fit niches that go above and beyond the sea of boring laptops. Dell is trying to make you excited for a desktop again by adding Intel K-Series processors into new XPS and Alienware desktops! Alienware Aurora is designed to give you the ultimate edge in all things gaming. It features a special “thermally advantaged” chassis, updated graphics cards, a liquid cooling solution, and of course, a 9th Generation 8-Core Series processor. The Aurora will also come with Alienware Command Center,…
I recently gave my Grandma an amazing gift for her 90th birthday; I took photos from throughout her life and using a combination of Google PhotoScan, PicStitch, iMovie, and iTunes, I made a slideshow featuring friends and family. It only cost me some time, but the look on my grandma’s face when we showed it to her was priceless.
Every time it seems like smartphones have become homogeneous and boring, you can count on LG to make it interesting again. They’ve tried modular phones and phones with secondary screens, but their newest idea is their best by far: the LG V40 ThinQ is a FIVE-CAMERA smartphone. And US Cellular is making it an even sweeter deal for their customers!
I haven’t watched American Horror Story: Apocalypse, but I’m assuming it’s relatively unrealistic. If they wanted to make it more realistic, the only thing left standing would clearly be Casio G-Shock watches. And probably Starbucks. But definitely G-Shocks. Casio has updated the already indestructible G-Shock line with the new GBA-800, which adds fitness tracking to general badassery.
Let’s face it, as paperless as we’re going, you still need a printer regularly. School forms, medical forms, random reports, all kinds of things still sometimes need to be printed physically. So you need a printer, and you might as well have one that’s compact and can handle everything from basic printing to photos. Enter the Epson XP-6000.
Everything in your house is getting smarter, and your locks are no exception. Aside from maybe worrying you didn’t unplug the hairdryer or turn off the oven, fretting over whether you locked your door after leaving is probably everyone’s biggest worry. August Home is teaming up with sibling brand Yale Locks to help alleviate that worry with new smart locks!
Learning the basics of coding is becoming as important as reading and math skills for young children. There are a number of ways for kids to learn, but the best is sneaking learning exercises into doing fun stuff, and speaking as the parent of a 5-year-old, it’s nearly universal that trucks and building things will attract children. Enter UBTech’s BuilderBots.
The folks at Rocketbook make an awesome product. Jot down your thoughts, snap a photo with the app, and upload it to the cloud service or email of your choice. Wipe your notebook clean, and do it all over again. They’ve teamed up with the folks at Think Board to combine Rocketbook’s magic with Think Board’s peel and stick whiteboards to create the Think Board X, so even your murderboard can be properly immortalized in the cloud.
The faster technology improves, the better the features are that trickle down to mid-tier devices. Samsung is definitely proving this to be true with their newest smartphones, the Galaxy A6, J3, and J7, and their new tablet, the Galaxy Tab A 10.5″.
For a market that’s supposedly dying, tablets are getting an awful lot of attention again. There’s still demand for a screen that’s bigger than a phone, smaller than a computer, and able to entertain you or be productive. Alcatel’s new 3T 8 isn’t flashy, but on paper it’s a solid workhorse tablet for a very good price.
Smart speakers are only increasing in popularity and number, and one of the benefits of this explosion is that companies are adding more features and better sound quality to what was once a novelty item. Huawei is aiming to add all sorts of value with their new Huawei AI Cube powered by Alexa.
I stopped visiting Facebook about 2 weeks ago. It wasn’t a conscious declaration, it was just that I felt like Facebook was becoming a crutch to distract me, and it wasn’t something I enjoyed. I probably would have drifted back sooner, but Facebook has been inundating me with emails like a needy ex, and it’s starting to creep me out enough to not want to return.
Robot vacuums are one of the greatest inventions ever. It’s like having Rosie from the Jetsons, but without the dusting or conversational skills. In fact, I have one at home and my son seems to be under the impression it is some kind of robot pet. Neato has some new vacuums at IFA that take cleaning to a new level!
Lenovo knows that deep down, we all want to be Jedis. Who doesn’t look good with a laser sword and a bathrobe? They’ve already tapped into that primal desire with their Star Wars Jedi Challenges Augmented Reality game, and now they’re adding more features, plus a chance to play as everyone’s favorite moody emo darkside guy, Kylo Ren.
If you’re in the market for a laptop this fall, you’ll want to pay close attention to what’s coming out of IFA, especially from Lenovo! They’ve got Yoga, Thinkpad, and Chromebook updates, meaning something is likely to fit your needs and your budget.
We have more and more ways to enjoy cinematic experiences right at home. Streaming services are offering better and better content, soundbars and other speaker system enhancements bring the audio to life, and televisions just keep improving. Samsung is intent on taking this to the next level with their new Q900FN TV with an absolutely futuristic 8K resolution.
There are a lot of fitness trackers/smartwatches out there that claim to fit any scenario, but if there’s any niche that needs special attention, it’s the outdoors. You need to be conscious of battery life, feature availability without internet, and of course, ruggedness. Casio has been nailing it with their Pro-Trek WSD line, and the newest WSD-F30 looks eye-poppingly good.
Dell has been busy pumping out gaming computers lately, they haven’t forgotten those of us who think Super Mario 2 was the height of gaming technology. They’re at IFA this week, and they have a full suite of Inspiron, XPS, and other software and hardware improvements to make it faster and easier to get things done!