Category: Articles

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Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

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Today this little gadget came in, so let me introduce you to the RAVPower Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger.  The RAVPower weighs in at a mere 3oz so it is very light in your pockets or messenger bag.  It even comes with a clip, a very shiny chrome clip so you can put it in your shirt pocket on pants pocket. These little yet very functional gadget measures 4.6 X 0.9 X 0.9 so you can pretty much say it is very compact.  The RAVPower Lipstick Charger comes in a few choices of color such as black, pink, silver and a champagne color.

This is what comes in the box:

  • 1 – RAVPower  Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger
  • 1 – USB to Micro USB cable
  • 1 – User Manual

The RAVPower is going to be one of your best friends when you are out and about and don’t have access to your wall charger. One of the very useful features of this lipstick charger is that it doubles as a flashlight and lights up with an intense 8 lumens! Drop your keys in the dark car? Grab your RAVPower lipstick charger and let the light shine to find your keys amongst those butterfinger wrappers under your seat!  When you use the flashlight, the RAVPower has 3 modes: high, low and strobe. This would come in handy if you are a bicyclist and your headlight happens to go out, you could easily use this as a backup light so you will not get a ticket from the local Police. Continue reading “Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight”

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Los Angeles: Holiday Pet Portraits for Charity – The Tailwaggers Foundation & Project Angel Food

Santa PawsTech blog though this may be, I have a soft spot for our furry family members.

The Tailwaggers Foundation provides funds to 501 C non-profit organizations who provide treatment to sick and injured animals. They’ll be holding two charity events in LA. The first in West Hollywood December 7 and 8, and the second in Hollywood December 14 and 15. Bring your pet to get his or her picture taken with Santa Paws and Mrs. Claws! Photos are $20, and all proceeds from these two events will go towards helping sick and injured animals around the country and helping supply Project Angel Food, which helps feed people suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life threatening illnesses.

For more info please check out http://thetailwaggersfoundation.org/ and http://www.angelfood.org/

Full press release with all the details after the jump, and for no good reason, here’s a pic of my pup.

biggelow bear the shar pei sleeping under his blanket

Continue reading “Los Angeles: Holiday Pet Portraits for Charity – The Tailwaggers Foundation & Project Angel Food”

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New Chrome Extension adds voice search, just say “Ok Google”

google voice search chrome extensionUnifying controls is the name of the game!

Now across all of Google’s products you can initiate a voice search with the phrase “OK Google”. Installing a Chrome plugin will enable this new feature.

Take heart you security conscious folks, the feature is held primarily to whenever a Google search tab is open, but even on a Google search tab, it’ll stop listening after five minutes. I personally think persistent observation is creepy, so I’m happy to see there are user activated controls to keep it in check.

google voice search listening chrome extension

Download the extension for your Chrome browser, and maybe it’ll come in handy while your hands are messy this Thanksgiving! I always seem to need to search for something when my hands are covered in gunk…

Google Voice Seach Hotword BETA

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Acer refreshes $299 C720p Chromebook, adds Touchscreen, doesn’t raise price!

Acer C720P_touch_handThe mobile computing landscape is getting ridiculously competitive. Chromebooks, Netbooks, Tablets, proper latptops, and hybrids. The bang for buck ratio is disrupting-ly low. An incredible number of options for a variety of usage scenarios.

Acer is sweetening their Chromebook offering. The c720p is a refresh of their C720. The hardware is almost exactly the same, even down to the somewhat mediocre TFT LCD panel used on the screen. What’s nice however is they’re adding a touch panel to that screen. What’s even nicer is that touch panel isn’t going to increase the price. The C720p will retail for the same $299 that the original did.

Not too shabby.

ChromeOS doesn’t particularly need touch, but playing with it on my Windows 8 laptop, I think we’re just entering an era where adding touchscreens will be the norm. We’re all sort of learning to just interact directly with things on our screen. When I’m really tired, I have to remember that my desktop does not have a touchscreen… You’ll still see finger prints on my monitors though…

Sporting an 11.6″ screen, an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of flash storage it looks like it could be a decent seller this holiday season. Expect to see lappys shipping mid December.

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Winamp users post petition on Change.org asking AOL to open source the media player

RIP WinampWinamp will cease to be on Dec. 20th.

Many are sad about this. Some refuse to go quietly into the night.

If you’re lit up about AOL pulling the plug, there’s a Change.org petition you can add your name to. They’re demanding AOL continue offering Winamp or allowing the Winamp code to slide into the world of open source software. It’s an honorable way to preserve some sense of internet history. 15 years and millions of users is quite a legacy to just quit on.

At the time of this writing, they’re about 8000 names short of their goal, so go get signing!

AOL: Keep Winamp alive or let it go open source

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Waze introduces Kevin Hart as new sassy voice to download for turn-by-turn navigation

waze windows phone app review somegadgetguy (2)Rewind several years (I honestly can’t remember how far back), and you be talking to a younger GadgetGuy who was probably flipping out about how cool it was that he could download a John Cleese voice pack for his Tom Tom GPS. It was awesome, and funny, and fresh. One of the first true celebrity partnerships for geeky tech gear, and it was much preferable to the disembodied soulless voices we were normally (and kinda still are) treated to.

Return to the present, and all that’s old is new again. Waze has announced a partnership with comedian Kevin Hart, and he’ll be adding some snark to your daily commute! It’s cute how they shoot this as if he has no idea what he’s doing…

It’s rolling out to Waze users, so not everyone will have it yet, but check in by going to your Waze settings, go to Sound, then select English – Ride Along. Enjoy!

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PSA: Moto G available in the USA ahead of schedule for $179 unlocked!

moto g purchase siteWelcome to the party Moto G! You’re early and I like that!

We honestly weren’t expecting Moto’s entry level handset here in the states until next year. It was clear they had designs of offering up a world phone to raise the game for consumers in developing areas.

The specs for the price are kind of ridiculous. For $179 you’ll get a Qualcomm 400 quad-core, a 4.5″ 720p screen, and 8GB of storage. Market-busting specs, and it’s clear Moto is trying to shake up the low end.

There are two versions available from the site one optimized for the USA and one for “World” networks. Here in the states that means you’ll be able to jump on either AT&T or T-Mobile HSPA+, as the G doesn’t include LTE.

If you’ve been shopping a low-cost Android smartphone option, this would be at the top of my list. Phones should be shipping out early next month.

Moto G Product Page

 

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SomeGadgetGuy’s 2013 Smartphone Awards! The Best of the Best!

SGG Smartphone awards 2013 smallIt’s that time!

Wrapping up the year, we’re going to take a look back at the year in smartphones. Unlike our Tablet Buying Guide, there are many aspects to shopping a phone. Instead of declaring a one-size-fits-all winner, we’re going to run down a list of individual features. We’ll hand out awards to the best of the best in categories like Camera, Speakers, and Battery Life.

If you’re shopping a phone this Holiday Season, we hope this will help you make a buying decision on those features which are most important to you!

Let’s get to it!

Continue reading “SomeGadgetGuy’s 2013 Smartphone Awards! The Best of the Best!”

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