TechFan #195 – Placement

Extra-long show this week with Tim, David, and Owen discussing the shut down of TUAW and Joystiq by AOL, paid product placement, SEGA pulling out of PC gaming, Dave and Busters, AlienWare Alpha, Comcast, the FCC, Amazon, and more on Carbon Copy Cloner. Plus feedback from Donny, Tom, Erick, and Peter!

Read More

What comes first? The chicken or the egg?

Don’t you just LOVE nonsensical phrases? Especially when it comes to tech. I mean, what could eggs and chicken and the order in which they appeared in nature have to do with technology outside of a certain Colonel’s automated deep fryer? Well my little chickadees, I’m here to tell you and it won’t be pretty.

Read More

SmartScore NoteReader – Review

Optical Character Reading (OCR) software is tricky. Although its come a long way from the unreliable and inaccurate offerings of the 1980s (when it first became available for personal computers) if it doesn’t present you with a usable digital representation of your (scanned) hard copy which is also 99% accurate, it really has little more than curiosity value.

Read More

MyMac Podcast 541: Private Matters

Gaz and Guy are in rare form this time around or maybe not, who can tell? They go into some of the buzz surrounding various governments talking about safe keys to private messaging because we all know that there’s no way if they could do it that no one else could right? Right?

Read More

The LEGO Movie Video Game – Review

It was hard to ignore The LEGO Movie in 2014. The film, as of this writing, has grossed over $257 million dollars in the U.S., and over $211 million dollars in foreign markets. The song Everything Is Awesome almost became the theme song for 2014, much like the music from Frozen was the year before. And as soon as the first trailers for the movie were released, I knew it was only a matter of time before there would be a video game based on the movie.

Read More

Best 2015 New Audio Gear – RIVA Turbo X Speaker and thinksound rain2 In-Ear Headphones

RIVA Turbo X Premium Portable Bluetooth Speaker is the size of a small loaf of bread, but weighs a lot more and sounds great. Its rectangular edges are rounded and contoured, with magnificent attention to detail in the physical product. Design is stellar, and functionality is effortless. The unit is available in either all black or all white.

Read More

Seagate 1TB Wireless Plus – Review

People love their iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and will most likely love whatever new iThings Apple comes out with in the future. They’re fast, efficient, portable, capable of nearly anything you might want a desktop or laptop computer for, but there’s a basic need in which they are sorely lacking. No, it isn’t multiple user support, or better multi-tasking, or its lack of a usable file system (though it sure would be nice if they included some of those). Its storage. Seagate has something that will give you that storage and a lot of it!

Read More

Alpha Glass Privacy Screen Protector – Review

Apple’s iPhone 6 is a beautiful engineered and designed communication and entertainment device. Users want to protect it so they take the time to purchase cases to protect their investment. The one thing that worries a lot of iPhone users is the durability of the iPhone’s screen. How strong is it and how resistant to everyday wear and tear?

Read More

Survival Straps – Energizer or Expose?

Having trouble sleeping? Feeling stiff from too many hours sitting in front of a computer? How’s your energy level these days? What if I told you everything will be better if you tie a piece of parachute cord around your wrist and wear it as a bracelet for a few days?

Read More

Fire HD 7 Tablet – Review

When the first Fire Tablet came out, I was an early adopter. I purchased the initial one within weeks of its release, hoping that it was the new competitor that would give Apple a run for their money in the tablet space. And for the first couple days, I really though the original Fire was it. It wasn’t.

Read More

TechFan #194 – The Case

The Case Show! Well, kinda. In answer to Neils question last week, FaceBook and Twitter weigh in on the case question for smart-phones. Also, is Apple’s software getting worse? Apple also stopped the Single of the Week promotion, and Tim, David, and Owen discuss this and many other topics.

Read More

ThinkTank Airport International LE Classic Pro Roller – Review

When shopping for a camera bag, it’s important to give some thought to how you’ll use it. Just as you don’t need a $5,000 Nikon DSLR to take good pictures of your nephew’s birthday party, neither do you need a $400 rolling camera suitcase if you’re just traveling short distances and not carrying a pile of gear.

Read More

OWC Express 2.5″ Portable USB 3.0 – Review

With USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports available on recent computers, using an external storage device is becoming a very attractive option for a bootable drive. In this review we explore the OWC Express 2.5″ Portable USB 3.0 external enclosure as an option to install a bootable SSD to a 2012 Mac mini.

Read More

Brother HL-3170CDW Color LED Printer – Review

This innovative printer employes Light Emitting Diodes in place of a laser in the Xerographic process. Although Brother makes no such claims or promises, this new technology should lead to lower power consumption over a longer useful in-service lifespan. The 23ppm print speed and a print resolution of up to 600 x 2400 dpi give very credible results on inexpensive copy paper. This is not to say that the print quality rivals that of a good ink jet printer using photo quality media. But for business reports, casual brochures and other communication with a limited life span this may be the perfect choice.

Read More

Shirt Pocket SuperDuper! – Review

Super Duper! is the highly acclaimed program that allows you to easily create bootable backups. The straight forward user interface makes it easy for novice to professional to automatically create a cloned backup of your computer.

Read More

8-Bit Toast Wood Case for iPhone 6 Plus – Review

At a recent tech industry trade show, I came across the company Toast, and Matias Brecher. I vaguely remembered a Kickstarter campaign from 2012 with the project being a slim wooden case for smartphones. That was Matias Brechers, and the Kickstarter funding was a success. With the amount of tech news I take in on a daily basis, I forgot about Toast. So when I finally saw the wooden case in person at the trade show, the fit and finish, I knew I had to try one.

Read More