Bump That Birthday Beat
Kids love music, and two of my nieces’ birthdays are coming up in October. I have just the thing from Solid Signal’s vast inventory of consumer electronics products. Many of the birthdays in my wife’s…
Read MoreAugust 2016
Stranger Things, Season Two Confirmed!
Netflix’s Stranger Things just got the green light for a second season! News this big just couldn’t wait for my regular Streaming Saturday post. Before I say another thing about Stranger Things, you have to watch the trailer for…
OPINION: When favorite shows “jump the shark”
Jump the Shark. It’s a term that’s been around 20 years or so and it generally means, “that moment when a TV show stops being worth watching.” The idea is that there’s some fundamental change in…
Forget Alexa, Siri, and Cortana – DIRECTV’s Voice Control beats them all!
All of a sudden talking is big. We’ve reached this critical mass with Alexa, Google, Siri, Cortana, and all those other voice-command bots that it seems like talking to your mobile device has become the norm….
Keep Your Kids Safe on the Road
Do you have kids of driving age? Help them arrive safely at their destinations with a GPS navigation system. We have several fall birthdays in my wife’s family. Our son, Hunter, turns 19 this October. Our…
Fall TV Preview: A New Hope
Yesterday, Stuart Sweet told us that the fall TV schedule will be filled with the same old, same old. I think Stuart is a bitter old man who can’t see that the new TV season will be…
NICE AND EASY: What is “DIRECTV Showroom?”
It’s… well, it’s nothing really. Actually that’s kind of mean. If you go into the DIRECTV Menu, you find a menu called “Extras” which is mostly a graveyard of previously interesting stuff. You can get to…
Fall TV Preview: Revenge of the Dreck
I was trying to make a Star Wars reference but this is a family-friendly site and so I couldn’t exactly call it Revenge of the … (another word that has the same letters as “Sith.”) It’s time for that…
DIRECTV will offer HBO on its streaming platform (and why is that news?)
DIRECTV seems on track to launch its streaming services, and as we said back in March, there will be three of them. At least one will be free, and the top tier, known as “DIRECTV Now,” will…
Do those cell booster stickers work?
No. Rather than save the suspense for later in the article, let’s get this one out there right now. Those little gold stickers don’t do anything. In fact, it’s a real problem for the cell…
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: We’ve left the future behind
Not that long ago, I had the pleasure of getting my hands on one of these: You’d be forgiven if you thought this was a publicity still from 50 years ago. (You would not be forgiven if you…
NICE AND EASY: 4K Genie Mini Client with an HDTV?
Futureproof is good, but it’s not always the way to go. You may be tempted to use DIRECTV’s C61K 4K Genie Mini Client with a non-4K TV so that you won’t need to replace it. I’ll…
STREAMING SATURDAY: Amazon Video Update: Jack Ryan and More
Are you a streamer who’s also a fan of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character? If so, then there’s one place you want to be, and that’s Amazon Video. Even casual moviegoers are familiar with Clancy’s Jack…
Cord-Cutting 101: 4K With Today’s TV Antennas?
Can you get 4K reception with today’s TV antennas? As with most things in life, the answer is yes and no. As a cord-cutter, you’ve probably already heard about 4K or Ultra HD programming. Someone told…
FUN FRIDAY: World’s smallest cartoon
If you didn’t catch this a while back when it made the rounds of the tech blogs, check it out because it’s still pretty amazing. It may be low on plot, but this cartoon, simply produced,…