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.
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!
This week ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’ was released, with over 1.5 million pre-orders! I pre-ordered mine through a favorite site – GreenManGaming. The main reason I love GreenManGaming? They offer a better pre-order discount than GoG.com, Steam, and other sources. There was an issue getting keys on time, but how GreenManGaming handled it made me even more loyal!
“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.
Friday I received notification that Android 5.02 was available for my Nexus 9. I accepted the update and left it on the charger in my office before leaving for the weekend. Upon my return Monday morning, I found that update 5.02 has apparently bricked my Nexus 9, leaving it in perpetual reboot sequence, and it doesn’t look like I’m alone.
I had my first Uber experience last weekend, and I have to say it was remarkably pleasant. It doesn’t change the fact that I think Uber as a company is a bit shady, and the fact that their response to Kansas requiring background checks and insurance was to take their service and leave the state doesn’t make them less shady.
I mostly love my HTC One M8. It’s a year old, but still has the latest software, and nothing on the market is compelling enough to get my to trade in my trusty One. Except one thing: the One has been exceedingly buggy on and off lately, and I can’t decide if there’s a better solution than a hard reset.
In January I reviewed Avernum 2, noting the iPad version Avernum 2 HD was set to release on April 15th. April 15th arrived, the game made it through Apple’s release process, but unfortunately iOS 8.3 arrived and broke the game. Rather than fix the game, Spiderweb Software has pulled the release, refunded money and cancelled all future iOS development.
My coworker is in the process of planning her wedding. Recently she went to message someone on Facebook about it, and she thought it would be cute to include a Facebook sticker/emoji for weddings. To her surprise, Facebook Messenger had removed the boy/girl pairing, and instead added some very odd same-sex and inter-animal choices instead.
Let me preface this by saying this. I want the Apple Watch. It’s not a need, strictly a want. I love having something nobody else can have. So naturally last month, I wanted one. Bad. But then came the waiting process, and I had time to think, and now just like people who weren’t up until 3am pre-ordering one, I’ll just be waiting.
Sometimes April Fool’s jokes can be a good thing, and Google is serving up a special treat by allowing us all to play popular arcade game PacMan on Google Maps. Back in 2010, Google did something a little bit similar by creating a Pac-man Doodle, but this year’s opening to the month of April is just pure awesome.
Have you been in an Apple Retail Store recently? I was just in one yesterday, and the experience made me seriously question whether adding “fashion advice” to the list of specialties Apple Stores offer is a good idea. It also made me wonder if Apple’s customer service advantage is starting to fade, as it was a less than great experience.
Miss the glory days of YouTube? I sympathize with you. One thing that I hate about YouTube is Ads. But not more than I hate ads. If you’ve used the web version or even on a mobile application, you’ve endured both. YouTube announced today they will be getting rid of both, somewhat.
I posted recently about my quest for a new fitness tracker, and I found one that (so far) I love. It’s only been 24 hours but it seems to check off all my boxes…and it wasn’t any of the ones on my initial list! It isn’t even that new, but my new Pebble is exactly what I was looking for!
Late last year, Apple gave Fitbit the boot from Apple retail stores. There was a lot of speculation as to why Fitbit was kicked out, but most people assumed it was due to Fitbit pulling out of Apple’s Healthkit initiative. Competitors (and Healthkit partners) like Jawbone, Mio and Nike remained in the stores. Until this week, when everyone was booted!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Greg’s take on Why I’m Considering Getting an Apple Watch, more than I enjoyed yet another over-long, under-delivering Apple ‘event’. Part I can understand, as I was listening to the audio stream through my car for a half-hour, but I found this the biggest Apple snoozer I can recall. Let me give you 10 reasons why!
Ever since Apple’s big announcements, people have been asking me “Greg, are you going to buy the Apple Watch?” My wallet, and my conscious have two completely different answers. I have an issue, which I consider “Apple-itis”. Whenever Apple sells me on a new product, they sell me … until I realize I haven’t exactly hit the powerball yet.
I tested the fitness tracker waters with the Pivotal Living 1 and stuck with it despite the bugs. Unfortunately, I forgot it wasn’t waterproof, and a dip in the pool brought on the death of the PL1. It’s time to replace it, and I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Fitbit Charge HR, Withings Activité Pop, or Garmin Vivosmart.
When I moved into my new place there were only a few things I wanted other than my clothes and my tech. At the top of that list? My Keurig machine. I mean, what good is having a new apartment if you can’t have a great cup of coffee ready and waiting in seconds. Thankfully, as member of the Starbucks Blogger Program I was send a terrific variety of coffees. YUM!!