Apple iPhone 6 Plus

I’m not what you’d call an Apple fanboy, but for some reason I felt compelled to wake up at 3am on September 12 to place my 64gb iPhone 6 Plus pre-order with AT&T. I was disappointed to learn (later that day after finally receiving my order confirmation e-mail) that my new phone wouldn’t even ship until between …

Continue reading ‘Apple iPhone 6 Plus’ »

Dell XPS 18

Our family laptop (an hp Envy 14 Beats Edition) has taken a beating (no pun intended!) over the past few years and recently (thanks to be carried around by the screen by my daughter) the LCD has gone wonky, requiring a bunch of futzing to get the display to work properly. The recent tax-free weekend here …

Continue reading ‘Dell XPS 18’ »

Dropcam Pro

More cameras as my replacement project continues! I’ve been using the TRENDnet TV-IP422W cameras inside for the past few years but really hadn’t been using their pan-tilt-zoom features. Rather than replace them with fixed, high-resolution PoE cameras like the TV-IP572PI and continue to possibly overload my ZoneMinder installation, I decided to give the Dropcam Pro a try.

TRENDnet TV-IP311PI outdoor camera and TPE-TG44g PoE switch

Now that the wireless network re-design was done, I wanted to replace my aging Foscam outdoor cameras with newer, HD models. Installing the Ubiquiti UniFi AP was my first introduction to power-over-ethernet and I decided to move to PoE (instead of wireless) cameras. I already had TRENDnet cameras in my current setup, along with TRENDnet switches, …

Continue reading ‘TRENDnet TV-IP311PI outdoor camera and TPE-TG44g PoE switch’ »

Ubiquiti UniFi AP

My current home wireless setup had been in-place and stable for about two years. And while everything was working fine, my incessant need to tinker was overpowering so I decided to do a little re-design and simplification. The real reason for the re-org was because I wanted to try out the Ubiquiti UniFi AP, an 802.11n …

Continue reading ‘Ubiquiti UniFi AP’ »

Synology DiskStation DS214

Let’s try this again … I was having way too many problems with my new Buffalo Linkstation LS420 so I sent it back and decided to give a different brand a try. It was slightly more expensive, but I selected the Synology DiskStation DS214 2-bay NAS, populated with two 3TB Western Digital Red NAS hard drives …

Continue reading ‘Synology DiskStation DS214’ »

Buffalo LinkStation LS420

Back in 2006 I purchased my first NAS, the 250gb Buffalo LinkStation. Three years later I quadrupled my NAS space by replacing the LinkStation with the 1TB Buffalo LinkStation Live. It’s now been five years since my last NAS upgrade and this time I decided to finally go with RAID. Sticking with Buffalo (I have …

Continue reading ‘Buffalo LinkStation LS420’ »

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition

A few weeks ago I got a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition (whew, what a mouthful!) at work to replace my aging (stuck on iOS 5.1.1) first generation iPad. We’re considering switching from iPads and Windows laptops to Android tablets for our mobile users and so those of us in IT are getting a first …

Continue reading ‘Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition’ »

Epson Expression Home XP-410 and Canon imageCLASS MF4890dw printers

Although there was nothing technically wrong with my trusty workhorse Epson AcuLaser CX11NF color laser printer/scanner/fax machine, it was over 7 years old and I was starting to be disappointed with its color quality, speed, and general noise. Rather than replace it with another color laser printer, I decided to go with dual printers: a …

Continue reading ‘Epson Expression Home XP-410 and Canon imageCLASS MF4890dw printers’ »