Finally, finally, finally. Amazon has decided to give the Kindle Paperwhite one hell of an update. Amazon announced a new Paperwhite with three features that were a long time coming: bigger screen, adjustable color temperature, and USB-C. The new model, however, looks to improve on virtually every aspect of the e-reader. The battery has been boosted from six weeks to approximately 10 weeks from a single charge. Charging itself is faster: thanks to USB-C, the device can fully charge in about two and a half hours. And the color-temperature changing tech that Amazon debuted on the 2019 Kindle Oasis has made its…
Video games should always be fun (it’s my only rule when playing) but oh man, old NES games could be brutal. Weird ways to make them more difficult or lack of a good instruction manual always took a game from ‘fun’ to ‘frustrating’ quite fast. Streamer camillestreamss posted this video to Reddit last week wherein a ‘door’ is not what it seems to be. It’s a fun, short clip and one where we can all chuckle about the outcome. Camille laughs about it as well and let’s face it: we all did something like this when we played video games…
Each year, hidden in the deluge of new iOS features, is one that becomes the breakout star. Last year was the ability to customize your home screen with widgets. Along for that ride was an app called Widgetsmith that rocketed to “Instagram Must-Have” status due to how well it let people customize their iPhones. iOS 15 was released yesterday for everyone. This year, I believe the breakout feature for iOS 15 is Live Text. The idea is simple. You point your camera at something with text in it and an icon appears. When you tap it a temporary photo is…
Lots has been written about Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments. Price made headlines six years ago by setting the company’s minimum pay to $70,000 per year. Part of this was accomplished by Price lowering his own salary to that same mark. CBS News ran an update about him to see how things are going. “Our turnover rate was cut in half, so when you have employees staying twice as long, their knowledge of how to help our customers skyrocketed over time and that’s really what paid for the raise more so than my pay cut,” said Price. Dan…
You log on and check your inbox. A new message has been sitting for a few hours and you anxiously click on it. It begins: Due to a fire at our Anim-X studios, we at Electronic Arts are forced to suspend the online game MAJESTIC until further notice. The message goes on to say they’re working to get power back quick. At the end is a link to the Portland Chronicle where you can watch a news report about this disaster. But there is no disaster. There is no Anim-X nor is there a Portland Chronicle. A moment later your…
Nintendo does some great things. Hell, they relaunched the video game industry here in the US all on their own. They’ve also done some head-scratching things. The Switch falls into the Great Things category, but Nintendo mixes in annoyances too. LABO is one product that I’ll never understand. One big bone-headed Switch omission has been the lack of bluetooth / wireless audio on a device that has bluetooth hardware built-in. It is literally how the Joy-Con controllers communicate with the console. Finally, four years later, that has changed. With a software update, Nintendo has unlocked this feature that we could’ve…
Another September is upon us and that means another Apple event where they inevitably say “This is the best iPhone yet” and “Today we’re making the iPhone even better.” Today Apple announced: iPhone 13 (Mini, normal, Pro, and Pro Max), iPad normal and Mini, then Watch Series 7. Ryan Jones, the developer of the awesome Flighty app, put it succinctly. Normal person summary of iPhone 13 Pro:1.5-2.5 hours more battery lifesuper fluid animationslight bluemacro photosPortrait Mode for videosmaller notchbetter cameras https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/1437846287743848462 I know we’ve reached the point where iPhone updates are incremental. There is really not a tectonic shift year-over-year…
Leave it to Netflix to get in on the action with a plethora of new DeLorean movies / documentaries recently coming out. There were no less than three DeLorean Movies out from 2018 until last year. Each one focused on John DeLorean himself. I don’t know how this was not on my radar. There may be demerits applied to my Nerd Card for this infraction. I learned only this past weekend that Netflix has released a new series titled Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean. This three episode series covers the rise and fall of John DeLorean. You may know him…
It’s 2021 and one thing I’ve found to be really fun is seeing a movie in my car. Talk about an unforeseen plot twist! Due to all the lockdowns last year, I find myself with the desire to do something I’d never done before: see a movie at a Drive-In. I got that chance over the summer and loved it. This year I did it again and it was great! It also feels great to support these small businesses that were struggling pre-pandemic. The pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of how we spend our free time. Seeing a movie…
This week the National Video Game Museum (NVM) has opened an exciting virtual exhibit showcasing Animal Crossing: New Horizons islands. Many of us took refuge on a deserted island in 2020 ran by a tycoon raccoon. The NVM saw an opportunity late last year. NVM put out a call for submissions from Animal Crossing: New Horizons players in order to preserve this unique moment in history. Players sent in memories, photos, adventures, and videos reflecting how this monstrously-successful game helped through a tough year. Now, their virtual exhibit is live. While the world was on pause, the island paradises of…
Ahead of Tuesday’s “California Streaming” event from Apple, comes news that certain watch bands for Apple Watch are no longer available. This isn’t surprising, since Apple refreshes their watch bands quite often. Usually it happens without any fanfare. In this instance it’s more proof that a Series 7 Watch will get stage time next week. There have been conflicting reports as to whether or not bands will fit the new watches. Apple kept compatibility with 38mm and 42mm bands on the 40mm and 44mm models. The flat-edged design calls into question whether or not they will actually fit and, if they do,…
In a year (and a half) of politics, pandemics, climate-change-induced weather, and other depressing crap, we get something fantastic I’d completely forgotten about. A teaser dropped for the 4th installment in the Matrix now-a series from the Wachowski Sisters. There’s some fun trickery you get to experience by watching the trailer via the official Matrix website and choosing your preferred pill. I won’t spoil it, but definitely watch the trailer there instead of on YouTube. It’s been 18 years since our last adventure with Neo and Agent Smith and I was quite happy to let it be. As amazing as…
Amazon loves to say they’re “customer obsessed” in everything they do. Turns out it’s a great smokescreen to toss up when they want to ignore the reality of their business. This thread on Twitter is indicative of every customer service interaction I’ve ever had with Amazon. Even when there’s obvious fraud, Amazon DGAF. The CSR also told me that there are now FIVE Amazon accounts associated with my (now canceled) debit card number. They also maintain that there’s no way this security breach happened on Amazon. It is possibly the worst “customer service” I’ve ever experienced (except maybe Comcast). https://twitter.com/davastewart/status/1435287777722109954?s=20…
Smart home or “home automation” has pushed to become mainstream, yet constantly falters at the same spot: it’s frigging complicated. Normal people are not going to spend hours inside an app writing rules for every scenario to turn a light on. There are too many competing platforms and standards for home automation to even list. But that hasn’t stopped Home Depot from entering the fray. Called Hubspace, the free app is available in Android and iOS app stores, and “enables light bulbs, smart plugs and ceiling fans to be controlled from anywhere,” according to a press release from Home Depot.…
Wirecutter is one of the top sites I use when trying to figure out what product I want to buy. They do crazy in-depth analysis. It’s how I landed on an air purifier last year when I knew nothing of the space (and learned the Molekule is basically snake oil). NYT announced Wirecutter is become part of NY Times’ All Access program. This means if you use the site a lot, you’ll hit a paywall. Here’s their breakdown of what’s in store: …Wirecutter, its product recommendation service, will institute a metered paywall, asking its frequent users to subscribe for unlimited…
During the past few years it has been possible to get over the air (OTA) local TV stations via streaming. Locast brought local channels to any device you owned without the need for an antenna. If this sounds familiar, another company Aereo tried this back in 2012. Every major broadcaster sued Aereo into oblivion. That company lasted two years. Locast has now met a similar fate. Yesterday Locast abruptly suspended operations and cut off all transmission in the middle of the day. On Wednesday the courts ruled in broadcasters’ favor. They argued because $5 monthly donations exceeded “the actual and…
Forget about COVID. This is the real reason I never go to the movies It’s the summer of 2008. I’m sitting in a packed theater waiting for The Dark Knight to begin. Knowing how awesome Batman Begins told the Batman origin story, I was elated to see the next installment from Christopher Nolan. 152-minutes later I walked into the parking lot deflated. Not at the movie (although it suffers from the notorious “unnecessary extra 20-minutes” at the end) but at the people watching the movie with me. Various people talked throughout the showing. More people than I could count were…
As a word nerd, I was super excited when Apple announced a TV series based on Hilde Lysiak who runs the Orange Street News. Hilde has been a force in the journalism space for years as a real reporter starting at the age of 7. Home Before Dark is loosely based on her story where a kid news reporter relocates to a small town and begins asking questions nobody wants to answer. I was enthralled all through the first season and binged it in two days. For Apple TV+, it was a hit for me (this is before Ted Lasso)…
Spotify once again makes me wish Apple would get more into the core features of what makes listening to music so great: shared experiences. Today they announced Spotify Blend, a “blended playlist” feature where two people can combine their tastes into one auto-generated playlist. This is very cool stuff. Apple Music does nothing like this. You can’t share a playlist others can contribute to, let alone combine two people’s music preferences into a singular list. Apple can’t even be bothered to compete with Spotify Wrapped. This feature that makes me jealous every December. Here’s what the Blend feature will do:…
Disney is dipping into their bag of IP again with this fantastic news on a sequel: Disney is reviving a cult classic favorite, The Rocketeer, with a new Disney+ movie titled The Return of the Rocketeer. [In the original film] a young pilot stumbles onto a prototype jetpack that allows him to become a high-flying masked hero. The Return of the Rocketeer will have an all-new creative directive, with [Ed] Ricourt’s story focusing on a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the Rocketeer mantle. Deadline.com I really loved The Rocketeer when it came out in ’91 and was surprised it was…
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced and (rightfully) ridiculed founder of Theranos, is finally getting a day in court for defrauding a ton of people with the company’s snake oil machine: The Edison. Here’s some fun stats about Theranos courtesy of CNBC: Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, is facing 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy. She pleaded not guilty. Theranos was once valued at $9 billion. Investors dumped more than $700 million in the now defunct start-up. Holmes and her ex-partner (the bat-shit crazy) “Sunny” Balwani are being teed-up for the nonsense they engaged in.…
Well that was quick. After completely botching the search for a new Jeopardy host by naming Executive Producer Mike Richards as the host nobody asked for, he’s stepped down nine days later due to not-so-nice stuff he’s said in the past. What boggles my mind has been how bad Jeopardy botched this entire search for a new host. All season we’ve mourned and respected Alex Trebek’s legacy and each guest host has said kind words about Alex in hopes of doing him proud. Some were better than others and we all know LeVar Burton has been vocal about wanting the…
In where I call bullshit on this NBC News report that boils down to “if you don’t come back to the office, we’re going to make you.” I wasn’t even going to write about remote work any time soon. But the amount of short-sightedness of company executives, HR “professionals”, and others is more than I can stand. This gem of a quote takes the cake: “I’m working with a client who does much of their work on-site. Their CEO really wants people in the office and has really pushed that since the spring. He wants to be able to see…
New, original movies are always tough to come by in this age of reboots and endless sequels. But mix together a story about an author, the immense talents of Michael Caine & Aubrey Plaza, with a dash of an uplifting plot and you’ll get the movie Best Sellers. It’s out on September 17th and you’d think it would be a good flick based on the synopsis: “A cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher.” Then you watch the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGOhGgmHRI) to find out all you needed was two and a half…
Time to dust off the old “X company had a data breach. Here’s free credit monitoring as an apology” routine. T-Mobile US Inc. said an investigation confirmed about 7.8 million current users had information stolen along with more than 40 million records from past or prospective customers who’d applied for credit in a cyberattack. The stolen information included customers’ full names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and IDs such as drivers licenses, the Bellevue, Washington-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. The hack doesn’t appear to have included credit card details or other financial information, it said. Bloomberg Remember…
Lots of noise is made about “vaccine passports”, but one convenient thing about it is the ease and speed of proving one’s vaccination status when required to enter a building. In NY the Excelsior Pass has been around quite quickly after the vaccines were made available. Acquiring a pass requires verifying some information, then getting a QR code the state issues. The pass also has your name on it. Pair the scanned code with photo ID and you have a verifiable way for a bar or stadium to know if someone is vaccinated. Even if the QR code was a…
Can’t say I’m surprised at this one. The NHL at least had a legit case last season to allow advertising on helmets across the league and even sell the naming rights to the divisions. That’s right, last season was: the Scotia NHL North Division, Honda NHL West Division, Discover NHL Central Division and the MassMutual NHL East Division. Insert facepalm emoji here, right? But with a COVID-ravaged season with zero ticket sales, I could understand a season where more “creative” money had to come in. I hoped it would be a one and done kind of a thing. Now, we…
Six beta versions into iOS 15 and it’s obvious Apple has no idea what they’re going to do with Safari. Back in June at WWDC Apple unveiled a complete overhaul to Safari on all platforms. On the iPhone the address bar is now on the bottom, all controls are basically hidden in the Share menu, and the address bar basically “floats” over content. I kinda liked it, but had my small gripes. It was a big change and people have been vocal (as beta testers can be) about this. Now it seems Apple is making concessions. In Beta 5, Apple…
Over on Twitter, Kosta Eleftheriou announced the discontinuation of FlickType for iPhone. This is a keyboard app specifically for visually-impaired users. The twitter thread goes into some detail about Eleftheriou’s issues with dealing with Apple’s App Review and the insane hoops developers have to jump through. I can’t say I blame him for tossing up his hands on this app and calling it quits. I am disappointed at Apple, especially when they are generally all for accessibility within their products. FlickType for iPhone is an asset to the platform. Thankfully the Apple Watch version of FlickType isn’t going anywhere because…
Talk about taking the wind out of my sails. I’d been hoping to one day book a “cabin” at this fully-immersive Star Wars themed hotel. SFGate (and so many others) confirming Disney spares no expense (and charges accordingly) for the House of Mouse. The idea is that you’re staying on a luxury space cruise, so immersive that the hotel’s windows look out into “space” and you never leave the property unless it’s to “board a transport” to Batuu, the land where Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge takes place. Admission to Hollywood Studios is included in the price, as is all of…