I think we can all agree that excitement is dead for the smartphone market. Except, of course, for the occasional exploding Galaxy Note 7 joke. From personal experience, iPhone users tend to upgrade every other year. For Android users it seems to be even less frequent, except for users like me who buy a new phone…
I am a big fan of podcasts and a longtime user. I, like many, started with iTunes in my podcast listening, but quickly grew tired of how it handled feeds that I didn’t listen to in a while. For many years as an Android user, I used BeyondPod for listening to podcasts and in general,…
I recently got a Microsoft Surfacebook at work. I have been busy installing all the programs that I use for data collection and analysis as well as development and content creation. I am very happy overall and this machine is set to replace my not-so-old MacBook Pro because Apple seems to be unable to provide…
Passwords suck. When was the last time you said: “Yeah! Another password!”? Yet, what else can we use? At the moment, there are many viable approaches to eliminating passwords from single sign-on solutions, biometrics, mobile device-based alternatives to more out-of-the-box style approaches (see SQRL for an interesting idea). While these are interesting and a few…
So — AT&T pushed a new update to me today on my Samsung Galaxy s6 Edge device. Recently, Google and Samsung (and AT&T) came to an agreement that monthly security updates would be sent to Samsung phones. This, in theory, is a good thing and I assumed that is exactly what this update was, but…
If there’s one thing that frustrates me about owning an Apple Watch, it’s the lack of freedom to create and use truly custom watch faces. Apple has built one of the most advanced smartwatches in the world, but at the same time, it has locked down one of the most personal aspects of the device:…
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations is being talked up to allow individuals like myself to use high end hardware for workstation type tasks. I have been waiting for this for years now and in the interim have become quite versed in Linux and Windows Server due to my requirement to use 4 sockets on the…
For years, Apple Wallet has been an incredible convenience. I can pay with a credit card, board a flight, and now even carry my driver’s license in some states (not Connecticut). But here’s a question I keep asking: why can’t I tap once at a point-of-sale terminal and have multiple items authenticated? Think about the…
If you run a personal Minecraft server for your family the way I do, you may have seen the recent headlines: during a hearing on California’s Protect Our Games Act, a lobbyist for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) told lawmakers that private Minecraft servers are “illegal,” “not in any way affiliated with Microsoft,” and effectively…
The big Nor’easter hit Connecticut the other day and we lost our power for a few hours. We also lost out cable too: phone, internet and TV. This was and is annoying, but I can understand how much work is involved to fix these things. One new think I learned is that you lose your…
