Switchmate – Make your lights smart

November 3, 2014 by Adam
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A new and upcoming addition to “The Internet of Things” and Home Automation, this neat little gadget looks quite promising.  Although the Switchmate has not yet been released, it appears to have simple installation with powerful results of being able to manually or automatically control your lights (or anything else switched) in your home from your smart-phone via bluetooth or any internet enabled device with the addition of an optional hub. This product is one I cannot wait to get my hands on.

iPad + Velcro = Genius

July 10, 2014 by Adam
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I cannot believe this video is 4 years old now and I have never seen it before. Some very simple yet creative ideas for teaming up your iPad (or any other tablet) with some velcro and some strategic placement in your home, office, vehicle, etc. iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Are you protected?

May 27, 2014 by Adam
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Do you have all your digital data backed up at home? Think of all your digital pictures that you never get around to printing. What would you do if they were all lost? I always stress backup to all of my clients. One of whom just learned the cost to recover photos and other personal data from a failed hard drive. Don’t let it happen to you, the decision to lose years of photos or shell out a couple thousand dollars isn’t an easy one Continue reading →

Heartbleed Vulnerability

April 11, 2014 by Adam
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Earlier this week, the Heartbleed vulnerability was announced causing major online sites to scramble and apply patches to their Open SSL authentication systems.  Open SSL is one method of verifying your username and password for a website and it happens to be one of the most popular, used by as much as 60% of the web.  Due to the fact that Open SSL is so widely used and the vulnerability can allow for an attacker to compromise data without leaving any trace, this “bug” is Continue reading →

Microsoft Office Mobile for iOS and Android

March 31, 2014 by Adam
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Last week Microsoft announced the release of Microsoft office for iPad, iPhone and Android and has made it free for home use.  Microsoft is probably making this leap since Quick Office is a great alternative that is installed on Android’s KitKat and Apple provides iWork for free on all of it’s new devices.  iPad users however will be considered “premium” users and will have to pay for edit capabilities.  This seems like a step in the right direction for Microsoft but is it enough and Continue reading →

The Next Generation Smoke/CO Alarm

March 26, 2014 by Adam
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The Nest Protect is a new device put out by Nest that sounds like it should be in every home.  Many people know of Nest because of their Learning Thermostat with automatic programming capabilities, or have heard of Google’s acquisition of Nest for $3 billion, but not everyone knows of Nest Protect which looks to be a promising device to protect your home and your family. Nest Protect is simply a “smart” network connected smoke alarm and CO detector which eliminates some of the common Continue reading →

Enterprise Class WiFi With Clean Design

March 12, 2014 by Adam
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When most people decide they want or need wireless in their home, they will run out to Best Buy or some other big box store and buy a cheap consumer grade wireless router made by Cisco, D-Link, or Netgear and plug it in at home only to find lack of coverage in the home and need to replace the unit in a year or two.  Wireless has become a core function in homes today and more and more home devices require a WiFi connection every Continue reading →

OwnCloud – Your data, your way. No Limits.

October 31, 2013 by Adam
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File syncing applications like Dropbox, Box and SkyDrive provide invaluable file syncing across all your devices free but with limits.  If you are anything like me, you have data spread across all these services withing their “Free” boundaries which gets to be cumbersome with organizing data across so many services due to the size limitations.    Now you can host your own service and break through those limits and at a relatively low cost. OwnCloud is a free application with the same functionality of other major Continue reading →