The year is 2021. We don’t have flying cars. We barely have cars that drive themselves. No hoverboards either. And one thing we definitely don’t have are printers that don’t suck. It is beyond absurd how much of a racket printer companies are these days. It’s so bad that Joanna Stern’s review of printers is more of the best of the worst. Because all printers are the worst. Now we get even more news of the absurdity of printers, courtesy of BleepingComputer.com: While using his Pixma MG6320 printer from Canon, the plaintiff was surprised to discover that the “all-in-one” machine…
Tag: tech
If there was a perfect example of news that hit the TimeMachiner trifecta (Tech, Culture, and Nostalgia) it’s this. Last week Nokia announced they’re bringing back one of their most iconic cell phones: the 6310. This candy bar style phone was one you saw everywhere in the early aughts. It was durable as hell, had great battery life, polyphonic ringtones!!, and was a great size to fit in a pocket. More from the DailyMail: There will be ‘subtle changes’ to mark the passing of 20 years of technological evolution, including bigger buttons and a zoomed in menu for ease of…
After September’s annual Apple event for the iPhone and iPad, the focus turned to October and what usually is a Mac update event. Apple was true to form with the announcement for their “Unleashed” event. The rumors up to this point were bumped up a MacBook Pro that would finally see the 16″ model get its M1 conversion. Sure enough, Apple delivered some massive updates to their hardware lineup. Apple unveiled the M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs. With this update Apple has taken one of the best reviewed chips and kicked it up a hundred notches. We knew a…
It’s the top of the 5th inning and the NY Mets have a runner on first. I’m sitting with three of my closest friends at Yankee Stadium, enjoying a crisp summer evening when suddenly it hits me: I didn’t check the price of a single stock I owned. Did it close higher today? Did it sink a few points and I should consider buying more? There’s only one thing to do. I pull out my Nokia 3310 and dial the number for TellMe. A computerized system picks up, I ask for the stock quote and get the answer seconds later.…
Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, has worked wonders with resurrecting the browser out of obscurity. They left it to whither on the vine for years while Chrome took over the space. They got their act together in 2016 with Firefox Quantum, making it a kickass browser and once again a viable alternative to Chrome. Mozilla has always been a non-profit. They make money by taking cash from Google by making Google the default search. Apple does the same thing with Safari. This isn’t a big deal. However, reporting from HowtoGeek shows Mozilla has now gone a step further by placing…
I don’t even know where to start. First I was skeptical. Then I was hopeful. I was warned. I let my MacBook Pro update anyway. And now I have to live with it: Safari 15. For those unaware, Apple unveiled an entire overhaul to Safari back in June during their developers conference. I talked about how drastic this was on the iPhone because with each beta update, Apple seemed to walk back the changes. When iOS 15 launched a few weeks ago, the only real changes to Safari were these three: the address bar was at the bottom, you could…
Amazon dropped a deluge of new tech and among them is the cool-looking Echo Show 15. It’s a framed display that mounts to the wall and shows you information you may find relevant. You can see to-do lists, a calendar, or even smart home controls. It’ll also recognize people via its camera and play music with its Alexa integration. But, you can’t fully customize it. Because Amazon loves selling you crap. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to utilize the whole display with your own preferred items if you wanted to create a smart home dashboard, for example. Half the screen…
Rolled into all of Monday’s iOS updates was this unannounced Apple Card security feature: rolling CVN (3-digit) codes for Apple Card. When enabled, Advanced Fraud Protection will cause the three digit security code used for making purchases online to change every so often, which protects you if your card details are compromised by an online merchant. Apple says that the feature will not impact recurring purchases and subscriptions. MacRumors CVN codes are those 3-digit numbers on the back of your card. It’s a fraud-deterrent in place to avoid charges without access to the physical card. That has not stopped fraudulent…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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:…
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.…
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…
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…
Stumbled upon a video from Greg over at AppleExplained with this good explainer about why it’s unnecessary to kill iPhone apps from within the App Switcher. It’s quick, concise, and Greg gets right to the point. The video itself is well done. Not killing apps has a bunch of benefits: Easy way to bring up a recently-used app App resumes right where you left off The app does not need to reload everything over again because it was left in a frozen state. iOS manages all the power and memory without the need for a person to intervene While I…
Events happen during our lives shaping how we live from that moment on. Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007 changed everything we do. The Nintendo Entertainment System hitting the US in 1985 revived a dying industry and set off a video game revolution. On April 11, 2012 an unknown group of five people would cause a seismic shift in a category without a name (now called ‘wearables’). While they’re gone now, it is fun to look back at what was an ambitious product that predated the proliferation of Apple Watch being a normal device. This is a look back…
More information is coming to light over on The Verge about Wear OS 3 and what this means going forward with both the software and hardware. This quote strikes at the heart of the matter: It’s not just about improving on the low bar of either Wear OS or Tizen. There are low bars everywhere for Android users. As Wear OS stagnated, OnePlus, RealMe, Oppo, Fitbit, and others have turned to proprietary, simplified platforms that lack the features you’d expect in a smartwatch today. The fact that Wear OS had an entry as the first wearable OS to market and no less…