In this episode we explore 7 apps for your phone or tablet which can make your DIY projects more successful and maybe even a little bit easier.

Evernote

Google Images

Home Improvement Store Apps: Home Depot  and   Lowes

Reminders: Location Based

Magic Plan

Stanley Level

YouTube Android   iOS

Every year Apple hosts a sell out crowd of over 5000 software developers at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco. They also do a large keynote presentation where they launch their vision for the new year. Whether or not you are an Apple user, their announcement sets the tone for the entire tech industry. In this episode I explore some of the announcements that stood out this year and discuss how they might affect Apple and non Apple users beginning this fall.

The Complete Apple Keynote from WWDC 2015

WWDC 2015 Keynote in under 3 minutes from Cult of Mac

Link to Apple's WWDC 2015 Website

We spend a good portion of our lives in front of our computers. How much time do we spend considering the best input device to use to give us the most comfortable and efficient experience? In this episode I explain the 4 most popular input devices and which one might be the best for you.

B&H Photo Deal Zone

Previous Episode: The Ergonomics of Tech st1314

Even a computer engineer is not immune from stupid.  This episode is a reminder about how nothing on line is private and how what you say today can come back and bite you sometime in the future.

Photo courtesy of Pond 5

Jon Acuff's article on CNBC online: Doh! How to lose a job offer on the Internet

Quora Original Post: What is the best way to start my career: Uber or Zenefits?

Full news article on the post

Quora.com

Jon Acuff's Newest Book

There are many areas in a water crisis. How would you like a way to painlessly cut your water usage by up to 30 percent? The smart water controller Blossom claims this is possible with their device. On this episode we install a unit and do an over overview. All of this control is from your smart phone or tablet.

They have great instructions on replacing your existing water controller, easy to set up app and a high quality build.  Blossom can use weather data online to custom create a watering schedule for you.  Listen today and see if this product is right for you.  Save the Planet!!!!!

Apple Watch, people either love it or hate it.  So I went to try one on for myself and in this episode I share my first impressions of the watch and hopefully give you an idea of whether this new technology is for you.

Make sure to share your thoughts on the watch in the comments below or on our Facebook page.  Also, would you take a moment and rate us on iTunes?  It really helps us extend our reach!

Meerkat is the newest social media phenomenon sweeping the internet.  It allows you to connect a live, high quality video feed to your twitter account and broadcast to your followers an immediate live event on the fly.  Great for live events and sharing special moments with your family.  Best of all it is free.  Find out about what Meerkat can do for you in this episode.

Find out more from the Meerkat website

Read the Rules of Meerkat

Follow us on Twitter and let us know when you broadcast a Meerkat!

In today's episode of SmartTech I get to play.  I love playing with new tech toys.  The latest from Amazon is the Amazon Echo, a black cylindrical bluetooth speaker which also has a Siri-like voice activated interface that actually works very well.

You connect the Echo to a a wifi network and using a key word, they preprogram "her" with the name "Alexa," you can ask her all types of questions as well as play music from your Amazon music library with just a voice command.  You also unlock a lot of possibility if you are an Amazon Prime member in that you can stream what seems to be an almost limitless amount of songs from the Prime Music Service.  They seem to be using some Bose like technology in the cylinder to achieve decent bass response as well as crisp highs.

The price seems a bit high to me, $200, but you do get a very good bluetooth speaker for that price at minimum.  Right now, Amazon is offering $100 off for Prime members.  At a $99 price point this becomes much more attractive to me.  Is if for you?  Take a listen and then leave me your thoughts in the comment section.

You can get on the waiting list for one using this link: Amazon Echo

The recent passing of Leonard Nimoy got me thinking of how much that series and his character in particular added to the advancement of science since it's debut.  In fact, science fiction itself has spurred new generations to make what was fantasy in their childhood, reality.  In this episode we look at 10 technologies that when they were described on Star Trek seemed impossible, and now are realities.

Tim Minear and Jonathan Lawrence as Kirk and Spock late 1970's

 

If you've never been to a Star Trek Convention like the two above,

this will give you an idea of what it was like!

Many of us would like the convenience of a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Docs but we don't want to put our sensitive documents on someone else's server.  Dropbox and Google seem secure, but are they really?  Google makes no secret about mining data on their servers.  To deal with this dilemma, in this episode and the next I explain how to set up your own personal cloud storage system.

The Transporter Sync allows you to easily setup your own personal cloud storage solution using your home internet connection and a hard drive of your choosing.  It also allows you to use multiple Transporters in multiple locations to keep automatic backups of your cloud.  In this episode I show you how to actually hook up the hardware and format the drive.  In the next episode I will go through the software configuration.

If you would like more of an overview, the pro's and con's of the Transporter system, listen to the past episode Create Your own Cloud.

As of the publishing of this episode, our offer for 20gb of free cloud storage though Copy is still available. Why not sign up?

Click HERE to sign up for Copy and get an additional 5 gb or free storage for a total of 20gb FREE!

Don't forget to install the app on one of your devices after sign up and activate the app to get your extra storage space.

Watch the episode on our YouTube Channel

For more info on Transporter, watch their short information video:

Click here to get more information on all the Transporter models

Or click below to buy one right now!

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