At work we’ve been using Microsoft’s Surface Pro since its original release and it has been our standard issue laptop since last year, starting with the Surface Pro 3. Moving forward, we’ve starting deploying the latest Surface Pro 4 with Windows 10. I’ve been using the SP4 for the past week as my primary machine in the office and other than some obvious hardware enhancements and some cool new features, it’s pretty much the same as the SP3 (and in fact, this post will pretty much be the same as the one I wrote back then).
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Disney Very MerryTime cruise
Three years ago we went on our first cruise (on the Disney Dream) right before Thanksgiving. This year for Christmas, we decided to go on an eastern Caribbean Very MerryTime holiday cruise. After months of planning and preparations, we just got back from a week of relaxation and recreation on the Disney Fantasy, and we had an incredible time.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3
We’ve decided to give the Microsoft Surface another shot as our next “standard issue laptop” at work so I now have a Surface Pro 3 tablet. The SP3 is replacing my Samsung Ativ Book9 ultrabook, which I got in April 2014, in turn replacing my original Surface Pro. I’ve been using it now for two weeks as my main machine at work, so how does it stack up against the ultrabook and the original Surface? Some things change, some things stay the same …
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 October 2 and October 11!
Launch day, September 19, came and went, but the Plus was hard to find so I didn’t feel too bad about not having it right away. In fact, I felt a little foolish for getting up early and drinking the Apple kool-aid. Oh well, whatever.
Surprise! Early Wednesday morning, September 24, I got a shipment notice from AT&T, and it was already out for delivery! After all of that, I ended up getting my new big (and yeah, it’s big!) phone just 5 days after launch.
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 in Florida (for back-to-school) was different than in years’ past in that the first $750 of a computer purchase would be tax free. This seemed like a good time to get a new family PC before the new school year started so I did some quick research and ended up with the Dell XPS 18.
Back in “jail” (upgraded to iOS 7.1)
I ran into a problem last night where the Reminders app on my iPhone 4S stopped updating with the Reminders in iCloud. Figuring it was just a typical sync issue I turned off the Reminders syncing, planning on just turning it on again to fix the problem. When I turned them off, I let iOS delete the local reminders on my phone (since they were still up in iCloud).
But after turning the sync back on, my Reminders app was completely broken: the default list was missing and I couldn’t add one because the plus (+) button was grayed out! The “Default List” under the Reminders settings was also missing, and Siri couldn’t add new reminders either.
Perusing Google and the Apple support forums, it appeared that of course, a complete reset of the phone might fix the problem. I didn’t want to do that, though, because I would lose my iOS 7.0.6 jailbreak when the phone would update itself to iOS 7.1.
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 crack at evaluating these new devices.
This isn’t my first isn’t my first experience with Android (we evaluated a Toshiba Thrive 10 a few years ago and also support a few Galaxy Note phones in the office), but coming from a long history of iOS usage, my initial out-of-the-box experience with the Galaxy Note 10.1 has been frustrating. I’m hoping it will grow on me as I continue to use it as my iPad replacement …
Jailbreaking iOS7
In a surprise pre-Christmas present to the anxious jailbreak community, the Evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 7.0.4 was released two weeks ago. I almost jumped on it immediately (I’ve been stuck on iOS 6.1.2 since my last jailbreak) but since I was heading out of town for Christmas and there was some controversy around the initial release I decided to wait it out. After I got back from our holiday travel, though, I had some free time before New Years’ and decided to go for it.
TiVo Roamio Pro and Mini
When I got my first TiVo back in 2003 it seemed like I was adding new TiVos to my “collection” almost every year and had four of them by 2007. With the recent release of the TiVo Roamio line I decided to do a little consolidation and upgrade my setup with the latest hardware.
My existing TiVo setup consisted of the Premiere (2 tuners), the OLED S3 (2 tuners), and the THD (2 tuners). I still have my original Series2 (single tuner, non-HD) box but it’s been sitting in a closet, unused, for some time (kept only for sentimental reasons).
I ended up selling the THD on eBay but kept the OLED S3 and Premiere for now since they both have lifetime service (although they are now in the closet with the S2). I replaced the lot with a new 6-tuner, 3TB Roamio Pro.
Automatic Link
For a while I’ve been wanting to get some sort of OBD-II adapter and software (like Carbonga) so I could troubleshoot the occasional check-engine light on my ’03 Toyota Highlander. After reading about the Automatic Link back in March, the allure of a shiny new gadget for $70 (with no additional service fees) was too strong to resist so I pre-ordered it.
Four months later in early July, Automatic started shipping the Link as part of a limited private beta and I was lucky enough to be a part of the testing effort. Earlier this week, the final 1.0 release of the app and device started shipping, available to everyone.