Category: Gadgets
Meeting Mode: How I Solved My “Zoom Lighting” Friction with Alexa Routines
If you work from home, you know the “pre-flight” ritual: checking your camera, fixing your hair, and—most importantly—adjusting your lights. In my home office, I…
The Energy Detective: How I Monitor My Home Power for $30
Have you ever looked at your monthly utility bill and wondered exactly which appliance was the culprit behind that price spike? Was it the extra…
The Future Arrived Faster Than I Thought: From 2008 Dreams to my 2026 Tesla
Back in 2008, when I first started blogging here at The Technic Alley, I spent a lot of time “daydreaming” in print. I was fascinated…
The $1,500 Reset: How a 2-Minute Fix Resurrected My 2016 MacBook Pro
We’ve all been there. You have a piece of hardware that has served you faithfully for years, but suddenly, it starts acting like it’s ready…
From Gift to Gadget: My Journey with the Meta Wayfarer (and the $500 Lens Dilemma)
I recently received a pair of Meta Wayfarer smart glasses (Gen 2) as a gift. To be honest, I hadn’t looked into them much before…
Never Swap Cables Again: A 5-Month Review of the NeoCharge Smart Splitter
If you’ve recently added a second electric vehicle to your garage, you’ve likely faced the “Charger Dilemma.” Do you pay an electrician thousands to upgrade…
Review: Vornado Flippi V6 Personal Air Circulator Fan
Working from home for almost 3 months now due to COVID-19-induced work-from-home policy in my company, I have been sitting at my desk in a…
Review: Plantronics Voyager 5200 Bluetooth Headset
Trying to find a good noise cancelation solution for my home audio conferencing setup while working from home, I first tried the BlueParrott B550-XT (my…
Review: BlueParrott B550-XT Voice-Controlled Bluetooth Headset
After spending a fair bit of time researching for headsets that offered high-quality active noise canceling (ANC) features to improve my home office audio setup,…
Wireless security cameras for your home: Convenience with some challenges
I have been experimenting with various options for home security cameras for a while. After I got some good results with the Ring Stick-up Camera in…
Smart Lighting – Initial Thoughts on Philips Hue Light Starter Kit
The recent Amazon Prime Day had some interesting geeky offerings. One of them was the Philips Hue Light Starter Kit that comes with a Hue…
Review: Ring Stick-up Cam with Solar Panel
I have been looking for ways to mount security cameras around my house to get good coverage of all doors and windows. If the cameras…
Review: Black and Decker – Electromate® 400 AC/DC Portable Power Station/Jump-Starter/Compressor
Electromate-400 is a power-pack, jump-starter and air compressor, all rolled into one – a very handy device to carry in your car on road trips.
Review: Jabra BT 8010 – Mono for Phone and Stereo for Music
Do you play a lot of MP3 or other music on your cell phone? If so, a typical Bluetooth phone headset does not really give…
MemoPad: Your Handy-Dandy Electronic Notepad
If you have used a PDA or a smartphone, you are most likely familiar with an application called MemoPad (on Palm devices) and something similar….
How Smartly Do You Use Your Smartphone?
Do you own a smartphone or do plan to get one? What do you plan to do with it? Why did you consider getting one?…
Palm Centro: Now Available Unlocked
Palm is now offering its new Centro as an unlocked smartphone. This is surely a move to keep its Treo users from moving to iPhone…
Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo NAS – Web Access
I have been using my Buffalo NAS Box mainly as a network fileserver and a repository for backups so far. I tried the Web Access…
Review: Canon EOS 40D DSLR Camera
This was my father’s day gift this year from my wife and kids. I have been using it for only the last day or so,…
Article: Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo NAS – Administration
In this article, we look at some of the administration and configuration features of the Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo NAS. Logging in In your web-browser,…