Product Reviews Posts

Despite the amount of cool technology I own (iPads, iPhones, etc.), I actually don’t really spend much money on anything else in my life, other than plane tickets when I travel. While I appreciate new clothes, my brain rarely comes up with the idea that I actually go buy some new ones. The one exception to that is socks – whenever I see a nice pair I generally always buy them. Which is why I probably own about 100 pairs (and even then it’s hard to find a matching pair from time to time). That said, one personal item I have been shopping for recently is a new wallet. I can’t say that I’ve ever owned anything special in that department; usually I just head down to the mall and buy whatever I can find, often some faux-leather item for about $20. But recently an Australian company called Bellroy has […]

I used to wear a watch all the time, probably since I was around 18 years old. My first watch was some tacky gold-plate Seiko that I took a fancy too around that age, but over the years I slowly upgraded to more stylish options. That changed around the time I purchased my first iPhone though, when I suddenly stopped wearing one. I guess at the time I figured wearing a watch was a bit redundant since my phone could show the time with just a single click of a button. But last year I started noticing other guys wearing watches again, and I thought it looked sort of cool. I looked around my apartment for the last watch I had, thinking I would wear it again, but it turned out I managed to misplace it somehow during my travels. But since it was a Citizen Eco-Drive titanium watch, I […]

I’m currently in Europe travelling around with my girlfriend, and our plan is to be here until December. Since she was adamant that she didn’t want to bring a full computer with her on this trip, we decided we could make due by sharing my Macbook Air for various tasks. That meant that whoever wasn’t on the Macbook Air would have to make due with one of our two iPad Minis. I don’t mind using my iPad Mini at all, but typing on it gets a bit tiring, especially when you’re trying to work on a document (such as an eBook), or put together a presentation. I thought in this case that it might be a good idea to grab at least one bluetooth keyboard to bring along on our trip, that way whoever was stuck using an iPad would at least be able to easily type on it. I […]

I first heard about the Drobo Storage Array from my friend Tony a few years ago. A Drobo Data Array is basically a self-contained RAID-5 data storage array in a box. For anyone that doesn’t know what that means, it’s basically a fault-tolerant form of storage where you can lose any one drive completely and still recover all of your data. Unlike most RAID-5 software or hardware systems though, the Drobo unit is intelligent in that it will work with different sized drives, and expand accordingly in the future if you pop a new drive in. My business partner picked up a Drobo about six months ago, and he’s been really happy with it. So a few months ago I went to NCIX here in Langley and decided to grab one. The unit I purchased is a 4-bay unit that supports Firewire 800, but you can get units now that […]

I recently returned from Brazil, and decided to stock up on some new electronics. While down at the Apple store I managed to grab a new bluetooth keyboard for my iPad Mini, as well as a few other gadgets. That’s when my eye caught some of the Fitbit devices on display in the Apple store, and I decided to get one. What Is The FitBit Zip? The Fitbit Zip is basically a pedometer, a device that measures and records each step you take. If you wear it around during the day you can log how many steps you take, and in term how many calories you burned during the process. The advertised features of the Fitbit Zip are: Tracks steps, distance and calories burned Syncs automatically to your computer or select Bluetooth 4.0/Bluetooth Smart Ready devices (iPhone 4S or later, and the iPad (3rd generation) Set goals, view progress, and […]

Last year I sold my Nikon DSLR and replaced it with an Olympus OM-D M5 micro four-thirds camera. While I’ve had a few of the micro four-thirds cameras, the Olympus OM-D camera was the first one where the image quality seemed on par with my DSLR, not just for outdoor photos with tons of light, but also for low-light photography as well. As a former wedding and concert photographer, it was a bit challenging to go from my Nikon and Canon gear (where most of my lenses were f/2.8 or faster) to my micro four-thirds lenses, where most zooms are f/3.5 or slower. The lack of a built-in flash on the OM-D complicates this further, since the camera doesn’t have the ability to increase the ambient light without purchasing a flash unit. For the most part I had been using my Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens on all my micro […]

After traveling the world for almost 2.5 years, I’ve become pretty knowledgable, mostly through trial and error, about which technology is useful to bring along during a trip and which should simply stay at home. It’s not always obvious, as evidenced by about 2 pounds worth of technology currently in my suitcase which I haven’t made use of in a long time. But one item that I’ve found practically indispensable is a portable external hard drive, especially since many of the new laptops (such as my Macbook Air) have a limited amount of built-in SSD storage. The best external hard drive for travel or whenever you are on the go, in my opinion, is the WD My Passport series of drives, as they are dependable and affordable compared to other drives with a similar capacity. I also find that they are quite light, which is really nice when you find […]

Anyone who uses an iPhone knows that under normal usage the battery rarely lasts a full day. When I’m at home relaxing, the battery life issue is not really that big a deal since I can simply plug my phone into the USB charger half-way through the day and top the battery up to full, usually in an hour or so. But unfortunately when I’m traveling (which is quite often as most people know), plugging my phone into an outlet isn’t always an option . Sometimes when I’m working from coffee shops it simply isn’t possible to find a plug. Occasionally an airplane will have a USB port in the chair ahead and one in a while an actual plug, but mostly it’s not really possible to charge items on airplanes on trains. Years ago I went looking for an external battery pack for my iPhone and ended up purchasing […]

So last month when I was in eastern Europe I saw that Square released their Square credit card reader that plugs into the headphone jack on iOS devices and can be used in Canada. Apple has always had a mobile credit card system at their Apple stores, but it’s something that’s been harder to obtain for the rest of us. I look at this type of device as a potential game-changer, since it essentially puts commerce into all of our pockets. I have quite a few friends that have written books – now they can sell them at events and take credit cards there. Other friends of mine are in bands – they can sell merch themselves at events now. Have a restaurant or a pub – you can now impress customers by letting them pay using an iPod or an iPad. Today was the day I got to take […]

In August I decided to finally upgrade my Olympus E-PL2 micro four thirds camera (henceforth referred to as u4/3). While that camera had served me well for a few years, there was still something that really bothered me about its performance, and that was how it handled low light. If you have no idea what a u4/3 camera is, then read on. Basically a few years ago some of the major camera manufacturers decided to come together and agree on a specification for a camera system that would have interchangeable lenses. Why this is important is that with the u4/3 system you can buy the camera body from one company and make use of a lens from another company. For anyone locked into a Nikon or a Canon system, this type of freedom will likely be a breath of fresh air. Another major benefit is that u4/3 cameras employ sensors […]