RichC | March 26, 2023
After a quick charge of the battery, the 1982 Mercedes Benz 300d Turbodiesel woke from its winter slumber and headed to the grocery store. I had forgotten how much different the old headlight are in comparison to modern lights … or perhaps it is just my aging night vision? Anyway, the driveway Wyze cams caught […]
RichC | February 16, 2023
Nothing like a big game, a bag of frozen Costco chicken wings and a desire to make them crispier than in a normal oven to talk us into a splurge buy! At home in Cincinnati, we enjoy our Breville convection toaster oven at home so much that really wanted one down at the Delray Beach […]
RichC | January 28, 2023
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RichC | January 6, 2023
It is hard to resist loving gadget gifts and this past year for Christmas I was excited to receive a Wyze Doorbell from Drew (and Katelyn – Thx!) Although the previous year in 2021, I will admit that I was intimidated … and still am … by the fancy double temperature Bluetooth and WiFi Weber […]
RichC | December 16, 2022
What “should” a person do when an older piece of tech stops working? Give up? Buy new? Well we have an older first generation Amazon Echo Dot continued to be unreliable in maintaining a WiFi connection to our mesh home network. After several restarts over the last couple of months, full reboots and re-setups, I’ve […]
RichC | November 25, 2022
Part of what was in my long awaited Magfast order arrived earlier this month and after charging the MAGFAST battery packs, I started to test the output plugs. The USB-C worked just fine on my Kindle reader. The Lightning plug worked to charge my iPhone 7 and iPad. The Micro-USB worked (I think) and the […]
RichC | November 18, 2022
My older Canary Cams are still working but will eventually be retired as lower priced and higher quality Wyze Cams and Wyze Cam3s have become the “go to” products to fill my gadget addiction. On Wednesday a male cardinal trigger one of my cams and it reminded me to check on my subscription, re-read the […]
RichC | November 6, 2022
Although I have yet to open the individual components … the L-O-N-G awaited MagFast “premium charging” kit has finally arrived. The new magnetically connected kit is not yet fully complete as there are still a couple components that will be shipped later. This will probably be the last pre-purchased product I purchase after losing my […]
RichC | October 15, 2022
Disposing of household batteries could use some clarity since not everyone knows which ones can be tossed with everyday trash and which ones should be recycled or taken to a collection site. Do you dispose of them correctly? Batteries are broken down into two broad categories: Single-use and rechargeable. How you dispose of them is […]
RichC | September 23, 2022
It has taken me a while, but after updating my Fitbit Versa smartwatch a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t be happier with the “at the time” difficult decision. Once before, my original was replaced under warranty (free) but with the same Versa (1) smartwatch which really did serve me well. Lesson: Watches and gadgets do not […]
RichC | August 16, 2022
Since I wear a Fitbit and monitor a few things like heartrate, exercise and daily step count, I was concerned when my resting heartrate (graph left) seemed to be rising? After talking with my daughter about it, she mentioned that it sure seemed to correspond to my COVID diagnosis. Hm??? Hopefully it will return to […]
RichC | June 24, 2022
After a week of working with the new “trade-up” from an older Echo (triggered by a $30 trade-in offer) to the 4th generation Amazon Echo “with premium sound, smart home hub (Zigbee) and Alexa” … the results have been mixed. My advice, don’t rush. First, I was looking forward to the idea to not need […]
RichC | June 17, 2022
When it comes to a headset/headphones, I wear them all the time and am pretty much an Aftershokz guy. I find that I rarely take them off during the day, ever since getting my first “bone conduction” Bluetooth headset. I love nearly everything about the current Aeropex model even as the company updates with newer […]
RichC | June 10, 2022
Taylor last weekend at the Cincinnati Zoo with Megan While typing the subject line of this post, I wondered at what “age” is respectful to NOT mention a number when sharing a Happy Birthday greeting? Hopefully not at 33 yet, since from memory those were the years I pretty much felt my best (pre Menieres!) […]
RichC | May 18, 2022
When the weather finally warmed up and I was motivated to head outside to work in the yard and start cleaning things up around the house, it was good for my activity level. Let’s see if this will correspond with losing a few pounds and getting a little healthier – it certainly can’t hurt (a […]
RichC | April 27, 2022
Earlier this year after an HOA meeting, I added myself to the waitlist for a new Wyze Cam product called the Wyze Cam Floodlight. The neighborhood has been looking for a better way to monitor the pool without the high cost of a commercial security camera. I mentioned this economical motion floodlight with cam and […]
RichC | March 25, 2022
Those who know me likely have noticed that I’m often wearing an Aftershokz headset. I’ve worn them for the last several years and since my hearing has been impacted by Ménière’s disease way back in the late 1990s (long story) … in dealing with Menieres related hearing loss, I have found a bone conduction headset […]
RichC | March 22, 2022
“A place for everything and everything in its place,” is probably not the most fitting idiom for my cluttered workshop, since the debatable originate has to do with “neatness” according to an Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio) article by Charles A. Goodrich in 1827. Although with a little sleuthing, it has also been credited to Benjamin […]
RichC | March 11, 2022
Here are a couple of technology highlights to mention on a Tech Friday from earlier this week. First, the new driveway Wyze Cam3 set-up (moved it) picked up an evening fox whizzing by and the second, an event on Tuesday from Apple announcing new products. Personally, I’m not sure what kind of surprise was expected […]
RichC | February 22, 2022
For years now we have been satisfied with the bulky (and older) Canary Cams for added security at home. The first Canary continues to work flawlessly “inside” our house and thankfully just perches quietly in our great room and is suppose to trigger when motion is detected “when we are not home.” The plan was […]
RichC | February 8, 2022
Trusting the weather on my Fitbit Versa watch isn’t much better than referring to the Farmer’s Almanac for daily weather forecasts. I’m starting to wonder who is feeding the information for our area. All I can see is sun … where’s the RAIN? Yes .. I really do know that it’s probably an iPhone to […]
RichC | February 4, 2022
Let me start off with the positives. I really like my original Fitbit Versa watch. I wear it everyday and it offers me nearly everything I want in a fitness tracking smart watch. That said, I have always been hard on watches … to the point I stopped wearing watches for years – for decades […]
RichC | January 14, 2022
This past Christmas, my daughter Katelyn gave Drew a new Wyze Watch and, as always with all Wyze products, I was impressed with their reasonably low price for excellent products (although I’m still super happy with my Fitbit Versa – thank you K and D). The Wyze gift reminder had me revisit one of their […]
RichC | January 7, 2022
Here’s a look back to a Mansfield News Journal article and something a little different for a New Year’s Nostradamus-y Tech Friday post … also in using the word “keen” it reflects the Christmas present/hiking shoes I bought (well Katelyn actually ordered) for Brenda … along with a bed-desk for her “preferred” office. 😉
RichC | November 26, 2021
Trying to keep a mish-mash of smart devices running in our home is proving to be challenging. Not only do some devices deplete batteries at inconvenient times, but other fail due to technical glitches that I can only assume are due to software or server failures or updates gone wrong? Thankfully only a few smart […]
RichC | November 14, 2021
Prior to 2017, I backed a ThingCharger Kickstarter project that was an excellent product. It was overpriced for what it did, but I ended up buying a couple extras for gifts (Brenda’s phone charging in photo at Katelyn and Drew’s house). In 2017, after the business failure, founder Seymour Segnit started a new company telling […]
RichC | November 13, 2021
For Christmas in 1999, Katelyn and Drew gave me the MyQ hardware to “smarten up” one of the garage doors … well at least the opener. It permits a smartphone to control, adding authorize users and ability monitor garage door access. A couple of weeks I received a warning that the battery was “low” and […]
RichC | October 31, 2021
A new upgraded motor is now offered by Sailrite for their line of portable sewing machines (called the WorkerB Power Pack). The lack of slow speed control has been one of the only issues that we have had sewing with the LSZ1. A few years ago I upgraded the Balance Wheel when working on the […]
RichC | October 13, 2021
When it comes to tools in the workshop, there are a few of them that I keep at arm’s length or in a small toolbox. The same goes for kitchen utensils and products. One of my favorites, if not thee favorite, is GLAD Press’n Seal® wrap (mentioned year’s ago when I still had a Keurig). […]
RichC | September 15, 2021
As our current Apple iPhone smartphones age (currently Brenda and I have iPhone7 and 7 plus), there is an interest in upgrading to the 5G capable Apple A15 chipped iPhone13 or 13Pro. The Apple Event on Tuesday afternoon highlighted the new smartphones and focused on their photo and video capability. As a photographer and Apple […]
RichC | September 8, 2021
Since I have a couple items to pack up to take to a recycling and solid waste facility and was searching for options in our area (replaced an old AC compressor with refrigerant), it occurred to me that one way to reduce the items we generate is to not buy environmentally hazardous products in the […]
RichC | August 11, 2021
Generally we (really just me) eat up the bananas before they go too soft or brown, but when they do, I make banana bread. Slowly but surely I’ve been tweaking my recipe (below) … usually adjusting the amount of bananas (and how soft) and the 1/2 – 3/4 cup of sugar part. This past week, […]
RichC | July 16, 2021
My Amazon Kindle Voyage is not used much for reading anymore as I have gravitated to using my iPad, but every time I’ve picked it up lately the battery has been dead. So after ordering an inexpensive replacement lithium battery – it is surprisingly small – I popped the back off with the help of […]
RichC | July 13, 2021
The downside of having self-monitored smarthome security cams, sound sensors, door triggers and motion detection at the Florida condo in Delray Beach is that one never knows what will set it off. Usually it has been a flash of light or in a couple cases a slightly weakened battery on a sensor. Yesterday though, even […]
RichC | May 7, 2021
If you keep your eyes open, there are plenty of interesting Android and iPhone concept videos floating around. As a Palm Pre slider user, I’ve always thought there might be another slider (or foldable) pocket friendly phone in my future. Here’s an iPhone slider demo that has promise … although personally I think we’ll see […]
RichC | April 9, 2021
Sometimes when my mind wanders, I shift from pie-in-the-sky dreaming (flying cars, mind control devices, AI/robotics (mp4), time machines (mp4), “beam me up” transporters, etc) to something that’s a bit more realistic to the world of everyday technology. Let’s get the above “pie-in-the-sky” idiom out of the way first. “Pie In The Sky” Origin This […]
RichC | April 1, 2021
While cleaning up one of my old Flickr accounts where my Palm Treo 700p photos were backed up, I stumbled across one of the first photos with it I took and posted to this blog – June 2006. Even though the camera was lacking by today’s cellphone standards, I still think the Palm PDA turned […]
RichC | March 26, 2021
The current opinion by many who review technology (and Consumer Reports) is that the best smartphone for 2021 is the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max … although might be a bit larger than many are comfortable putting in their pockets. Personally I’ve shifted from wanting something small, like my old Samsung SPH-i500 aluminum bodied flipphone […]
RichC | March 19, 2021
Although I’m not in the market for a new iPad just yet, I am (or was) a multiple hours a day user back when traveling a bit more and interested in what a Thunderbolt and M1 chipped iPad Pro might offer. At least that’s the rumor for the April 2021 launch … but who knows […]
RichC | March 13, 2021
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RichC | March 12, 2021
Back in January I switched my “off contract” iPhone7 Plus over to Mint Mobile and a month later switched over Brenda’s iPhone7. The transition was smooth and pretty much glitchless. Service from our previous Virgin Mobile then Boost Mobile plan is basically the same, although initially restricted me to 3GB of data per month (now […]
RichC | February 19, 2021
Well it is official, we are both with Mint Mobile. I’ve been using them for a month now and haven’t had any issues with their service (backboned on T-Mobile I believe) … and since saving money for the same service is a no-brainer, I’ve switched Brenda’s iPhone over this month as well … and added […]
RichC | February 5, 2021
When I pulled out my Lumix GX8 DSLR camera over Christmas, I noticed that the “cheap” batteries that I had purchased as backups to the primary Panasonic branded 1200mAh battery were no longer holding charges. They were still chargeable, but their life was short. So I added a new spare battery to my shopping list […]
RichC | January 31, 2021
This past Christmas, Megan ordered a fancier turntable for Taylor, which arrived this past week. He was excited set up his gift and shared the photos. It looks nice. It is hard to believe millennials have gravitated to vinyl record albums and turntables in this century, but like my friend Mark, my son Taylor enjoys […]
RichC | January 29, 2021
Now that the wiring in the basement is no longer laying on the floor in order to feed the kitchen television cable extender and ceiling repairs are finished up, I’ve been cleaning up and moving things back into the home theater and game room areas. With some fresh paint everything looks pretty good, so I […]
RichC | January 22, 2021
It was back in November when everyone was Black Friday shopping for gifts or ording Cyber Monday items … that is when the inexpensive security camera company Wyze, sent me an email about their new camera and motion detection subscription. At the time I was struggling with way too many notifications after the company lost […]
RichC | January 21, 2021
Both Brenda and I enjoy the hundreds (if not thousands?) of photos from our albums and digital archives that I’ve uploaded to the the photo section of the Amazon Prime storage cloud. We likely enjoy it more since it sits on our kitchen countertop (great for Alexa Echo messages to Annalyn and Ellerie too). So […]
RichC | January 16, 2021
My wife is great … and her decorating and building taste as to what “looks” nice grows on a person after nearly 40 years of marriage … but I still grumble about some of the decision she makes. One of them was wanting a drywall ceiling rather than something removable when we finished the basement. […]
RichC | January 2, 2021
Adam Savage, from Mythbusters claim-to-fame, has been regularly posting a few of his shop ideas online. A few months ago he triggered me into improving my portable Sailrite Sewing machine set-up (well my wife’s sewing machine that I use .. cough, cough). Anyway, a few weeks after he built his table for his impressive Sailrite […]
RichC | December 4, 2020
Although I only have one address accessible IP at the house, I can split it up via “Port Forwarding” on the cheap Cincinnati Bell router, rather than the home “mesh” network. After a little tweaking (ok, A LOT), I do have a work-around solution using a variety of ports to access different devices. For the […]
RichC | November 29, 2020
Don’t tell anyone, but while shopping for “my” Christmas gift from Brenda (below … and yes, she sent me out to get it). So … I added a Ridgid 18V USB charging attachment for my inconvenience. Ha! After returning home, I tried it out, but for the record, I didn’t open my actual gift. So […]
RichC | September 3, 2020
I shared a question to a few of my automotive friends on a Twitter a few weeks ago … prior to my WordPress post disappeared due to a mysql crash (grrr!) … A question for #Millennials: What is this automotive “thing” and how does it work? So much of what we remember from our youth […]
RichC | August 23, 2020
Even though we have a few of those ultrasonic devices plugged into the walls, mice seem to find their way into the detached and attached garage then figure out how to squeeze there way into the house. I’d like to think I’m able to trap them before they find the kitchen, but who knows … […]
RichC | July 29, 2020
I can’t say that I’m surprised, but after my Fitbit Versa failed after 11 months (and was replaced under warranty “without” a new watchband), now after 13 months, the original watchband faiedl. Admittedly I’m not Mr. Gentle when wearing watches, but considering the Fitbit is designed as an athletic watch, I expected more. Besides the […]
RichC | July 24, 2020
As a start up, doing business with big company in order to boost sales and visibility can be a great way to grow a business. Unfortunately it can also be cut-throat and the smaller companies can and are taken advantage of. It is not new, but but in the fast-paced and highly competitive technology world, […]
RichC | July 14, 2020
After my much enjoyed Fitbit Versa smartwatch died in less than a year (it was replaced under warranty – thank you), I have been a bit more careful when wearing the new one. I no longer wear it in the pool or even shower and find myself forgetting to put it back on as often. […]
RichC | May 18, 2020
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RichC | May 3, 2020
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