Category: Digitoy

  • Amazon: say what you think about Echo, as long as you like it

    Those of you who know me know that I abhor what I call “marketing in-authenticity”. You know what that is: the uncomfortable feeling you have when you suspect there’s daylight between some marketing claim and the reality of a product. Or the cheesy feeling — the inkling you are being manipulated — when people (today,…

  • How to cut the cord, kiss FiOS goodbye and get pristine HDTV for free

    A long time ago, cable TV started as a way to improve reception in hard-to-serve areas. Then, it blossomed into one of the most consumer unfriendly, blood thirsty for cash businesses on the planet. My two year contract with Verizon ends at the end of the month and I’m (gleefully) cutting the cord. VZ wanted more…

  • Southborough Access Media appoints an Executive Director

    As a kid, I was heavily influenced by Michael Shamberg’s Guerrilla television ideas. Those early influences convinced me that a free state can only exist with a citizen-enabled media. Most of what Shamberg wanted has happened, thanks to the Internet and mobile devices.  Yet, “TV” (as in the relatively high production value television we all continue to consume)…

  • How to get the agenda back view on iOS 7

    In the early days of iOS, Apple made a brilliant strategic move: it embedded Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology into the OS. The result has been that for many releases — I think as far back as iPhone 3 — fans of Microsoft messaging technology could get perfect — and I mean perfect — synchronization of not just messages,…

  • Can Haswell-based MacBook Airs last all day?

    Dear Walt Mossberg, Like you, I just love my MacBook Air. (I know, I know…officially you don’t have a bias towards Apple products. The fact that you’ve never seen an Apple product you didn’t give a glowing review to doesn’t change this “fact.” But, all is redeemed by your life-long commitment to Red Sox Nation.)…

  • Saved by a digital washing machine

    Want to know one of the pitfalls of a car with “keyless drive” — the amazingly cool technology that lets you simply walk up to the car, open it, climb in, start it and drive away? You are certain to completely forget about the remote, leaving it in the clothes you last wore or in…

  • Robots, Clonezilla and upgrading to Windows 8 (strike that, it’s now Windows 10)

    Once, many years ago, I gave a marketing manager who worked for me in Taipei grief for packaging the localized version of Lotus Notes in a box with a “friendly robot” theme and name. Apparently, Transformer-like images go over well with Taiwanese buyers. I was wrong; he was right and I learned an important lesson…

  • BMW M5 car porn

    Apologies in advance. But I want to share with you my lastest fantasy: a lovely blue BMW M5. I had about 30 minutes of seat time in the previous generation M5 (the engine was a V10!) and ever since, to steal a phrase from Jimmy Carter, I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times with…

  • The Beatles made me do it

    Way back in my youth, I succumbed to Beatlemania. That included spinning vinyl Beatles LPs backwards to hear the hidden messages they supposedly contained. So, when it came time to pick an Internet brand for myself, I spelled “toy boy” backwards. Ergo, “yobyot”. It’s short, it was available and it expresses my love of all electronic toys.…

  • Lenovo does the right thing, but gracelessly

    I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to see how my attempts to get Lenovo to honor an extended warranty are going. Well, the story is over. And I remain oddly unfulfilled. Here’s what happened. The Monday after my post blasting Lenovo for a) refusing to fix a defect under warranty and b)…

  • What does Apple have against the English language? (or how to restore a minimized window in Mac OS X with the keyboard)

    Recently, hell froze over and I bought a MacBook Air. As you might expect, between then and now, I’ve spent a lot of time learning about Mac OS X (not hard) and retraining my finger-muscle-memory for Mac keyboard shortcuts (very hard). Who decided that Ctrl-F3 is the keystroke to get to the Dock? Or, who decided…

  • Hell freezes over: Windows fanboy buys his first Mac

    Remember when Apple first shipped a iPod that ran with Windows? Their website read “Hell Freezes Over,” their way of alluding to the fact that they had until then largely ignored the Windows world. I did the same thing to Apple Mac computers for decades, considering them mostly overpriced, consumer AOL-grade toys with no substance,…