Motorola has been having a busy morning. They’re updating their flagship Moto X with not one but two new devices, plus their budget Moto G is getting a boost as well! All three phones are going to be available via Moto Maker, so your phone will be uniquely yours. The question is, which one to buy?
Who doesn’t love The Muppets? There’s something timeless and endearing about the whole gang, from Kermit and Miss Piggy to Gonzo and Fozzie Bear. ABC is launching an adult-aimed sitcom starring The Muppets this fall; it looks like a send-up of “The Office”, with maybe a shade of 30 Rock for good measure, and it looks AMAZING.
Jet.com wants very badly to beat Amazon. That’s been the bulk of their marketing push heading up to today’s launch, and when you shop around on the site, they consistently try to show you Amazon’s price versus theirs. After cross-shopping for a few minutes though, I was deeply unimpressed — both on price and ease of use.
I can’t say I love cleaning, but I do love the end result. It’s nice to have a space that doesn’t feel gross and dirty. We recently had the chance to review the “Grout Gator”, a tool designed to get tiled surfaces clean while being more efficient than traditional methods. But does it work, and is it worth the cost?
Polar is well-known for being the gold standard in athletic heart rate monitors, and in the last few years they’ve expanded into activity trackers as well. Their first pure activity tracker, the Polar Loop, was well received, and now they’re building on that with the Polar Loop 2, adding new colors and smart notifications to the mix.
Misfit is an interesting tracker company. They started as an IndieGoGo project with the Misfit Shine, then they rolled out a cheaper version, the Misfit Flash, along with a smart home bulb called The Bolt. Now they’re bringing more smart home and automation features to their lineup, with new tricks for the Flash and a cheaper sibling, Flash Link!
I tell every athlete I know to buy a RoadID. It’s a cheap, durable tag that could save your life. EMTs are trained NOT to go through your pockets and personal effects, but they are trained to look for jewelry with medical information. RoadID lets you wear your important details easily, and now you can piggyback it on your Fitbit!
Around here, we love books. And we love discussing books. So we thought it would be fun to set up a virtual book club! If you’re interested, read on for more details, and don’t worry-we’re thinking this is a once a month or so deal, so you’ll have plenty of time to read the book before the discussion starts.
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.
Great news for fans of the Pebble smartwatch who are Android users-Misfit, one of the big fitness tracking apps available for the Pebble, now syncs with their companion app! This means you can easily export and sync your data to MyFitnessPal, and enjoy all the social features of sharing your activity with other Misfit users.
Google tracks everything we do. It’s common knowledge that they use web search, emails, and general use patterns to tailor advertising to their users. But Google is always looking for ways to gather even more data, and if you’re an Android user one of those tools is Google Opinion Rewards, an app that pays you to take Google Surveys.
Brooks Running has a very specific message: Run Happy! They want you to feel good running, and feeling good means wearing quality shoes that look great. Taste is subjective, but if you’re a fan of bright running shoes that make a statement, be sure to peruse Brook’s new “Aurora” line. They’ve released their best shoes in bright, beautiful new colors!
If you live outside the United States, and you have NOOK books, now would be an excellent time to download them safely to a hard drive and find out how to strip the DRM. Apparently Barnes and Noble‘s expansion into international markets was driven by Microsoft, and since the two companies have disentangled they are pulling the plug.
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!
I have never been terribly interested in heart-rate based training. Chest straps and I just don’t get along well. I know there’s a lot of benefit to heart rate training, so I was very curious to check out the LifeBEAM Smart hat as a way to make it easier to track my heart rate while I’m active!
Dan and I were chatting last night about the gorgeous Maxwell Scott briefcase he reviewed, and he was surprised to hear I don’t carry a work briefcase. My office is business formal, so it would fit, but I was given rock solid professional advice once on why a briefcase isn’t the best choice for business meetings!
Amazon really wants to capture the family media market. They’ve already pushed the Kindle Fire as a great kid-friendly tablet, and now they’re selling a similar bundle using the entry-level Kindle. When you look at the whole package though, it’s great for more than just kids-anyone interested in a Kindle should look at the Kindle for Kids bundle!
This weekend I used some Google Play credits to grab a quick game for my phone. Immediately, I had an email from Google letting me know a game was purchased in my account with my credits. It’s not that weird, except that I had made some purchases in iTunes recently, and it took TWO DAYS to get a confirmation email!
“Do you have to get back to the office?” I’ve never been more mortified by nine words in my life. My Pebble is great, but when I went to check it for a legitimate text related to lunch, it looked as though I was trying to escape. It worked out, but it did reflect that smartwatches are changing social cues.
Today I rode to work behind a fascinating looking vehicle. At first glance, I was worried I had accidentally taken Percoset from my recent surgery, and thought I was hallucinating. But no, the new 2015 Nissan Murano was real, and I found myself wondering how it was that Nissan designed such a…unique vehicle.
I love backpacks. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find a backpack you want to use for everyday items. Either it looks like you’re on your way to your first day of pre-K, or you look like you might summit Everest on the way to the office. Case Logic’s Griffith Park Ion backpack aims to sit between those extremes.