This past weekend, I finally decided to spring for a Chromebook. I’ve been thinking more and more about a Windows replacement machine, at least for basic tasks. I also wanted an inexpensive solution that would extend the life of my current laptop. I often don’t need the full machine out on the road and the smaller profile of the Chromebook makes an attractive alternative.
Setting up the Echo Dot at my remote office and hoping Alexa will absorb some more technical knowledge.
I’ve been playing around the Amazon’s Echo Dot for just under a week now and was curious about its portability. Obviously, the hardware just needs a place to plug in and a Wi-Fi network to access but I was really wondering if I could run its data through my phone’s 4G hotspot. Public networks are fine and I don’t do any secure transactions through the Dot but I just had to know!
I have one of the Samsung Galaxy Prime phones which has served me pretty well for the past year. I don’t use the hotspot much but it comes in pretty handy when I want to login to a private site from a local restaurant and the MetroPCS 4G signal is really good in the area.
I couldn’t resist any longer and decided to welcome Amazon’s Alexa into my home. I was a little hesitant at first about letting Amazon put a microphone in my house but my curiosity won out. I live alone anyway and the device can always be unplugged if necessary. At worst, it might get me to stop talking to myself so much.
I wasn’t sure how useful the service would ultimately be but at $49.99, I decided the Echo Dot was affordable enough to take a chance on. Miniaturizing the Echo and setting the price low was a smart move on Amazon’s part. In addition to decreasing the cost of purchase, it also turns it into a potential repeat purchase as customers decide they want access to Alexa throughout their homes. Amazon is even offering the Dot in discounted 6- and 12-packs.
Personal data storage has come a long way …
When I started using computers about 30 years ago, the floppy disk was the standard of personal data storage. I actually started out using the 5.25″ disk so the 3.5″ disk with it’s hard case and a little bit more space was a welcome improvement at the time.
We’ve come a long way in the last three decades and now we have flash drives that can store tens of thousands of times as much data as the old 1.44 MB disk. Although smaller sizes are still available, the smallest flash drive you’re likely to see now can carry 8 GB of data which would have been enough to backup my first hard drive a few hundred times over.
While file sizes have gotten much bigger, that’s still a lot of data to carry around, especially if some of it is of a personal nature. That has its own risks as I found out first hand a couple weeks ago.
The Kindle Fire goes on sale for $49.99 on Sept. 30, 2015.
If you’ve been thinking about getting a tablet, I would definitely recommend the Kindle Fire. With webmail and all the free apps available through Amazon’s store, I can do most everyday tasks on my Kindle Fire. The voice recognition is also excellent so it’s easy to dictate e-mails and updates.
At $49.99, the Kindle Fire is something you definitely have to consider when buying a new tablet.
(In the interest of full-disclosure, the links in this post are affiliate links.)
In our new world of rechargeable devices and constant connection, more battery power is never a bad thing. Seeing a battery indicator at 5% and a device begging to be recharged sends many people into a scramble looking for the nearest convenient charging solution. When there’s no outlet available or when you don’t want to leave your device tethered to a wall for the next hour, miniature USB chargers can be a lifesaver whether you’re on the road trying to summon assistance on your phone or just trying to buy some more time on your tablet at a crowded conference.
After you’ve bought your new laptop computer, taken it out of the box and set it up, your next thought might naturally be “What am I going to carry this in?”. That laptop you just spent hundreds of dollars for is sitting there on your desk and looks naked and unprotected without one of those fancy laptop bags that will protect your new computer when you take it on trips or to the coffee shop. They’re also great for carrying cords and extra gear as well as a few papers now and then.
Earlier this year, I upgraded to an Alcatel OneTouch Fierce smartphone from the $20 cheapo phone I was using and was pretty happy to be back in the Android camp with all the available apps and the usable ‘Net and mail features I’d been doing without, not to mention the 4G service that Sprint had never delivered in this area but charged me for anyway. About a month ago, I noticed the hotspot feature on the Alcatel and, for $5 / month, figured it was a great deal. Now, I could share my 4G signal with my laptop, log in more securely in public and even have a backup broadband service for my PC when my ISP’s service occasionally flakes out.
All was going good for about a month until this weekend when the hotspot suddenly stopped working. My PC and laptop would still show a good connection to the hotspot but I couldn’t load any pages in the browser. Chrome would spend about 15 seconds trying to establish a connection and then report that the page took too long to load. Firefox was the same. I tried with three different machines and three different operating systems (Windows XP / 7 and 8) and all did the same.
The only drawback for me was the AMR format that is standard with Android sound recording apps. If I’m going to be recording, I want to use the standard MP3 format that can be played on pretty much whatever device or software I’m using and can be recorded in various bit rates to balance the need for quality against the length of the recording and the space available. After comparing a few apps, I settled on the Hi-Q MP3 Recorder from Yuku.