Holiday Buying Guide

The last Tech Class at work was a Holiday buying guide. I covered tablets, mp3 players, TV Streaming devices and gaming consoles. In this post I'm going to leave out the gaming consoles because they have been covered elsewhere far better than I am going to spend the time doing here.

I want to put up the charts and let them speak for themselves. The TV streaming devices are pretty cool and I recommend anyone who is tired of paying a $100 dollars a month for satellite service give a long look at these devices.

TV Streaming devices

TV Streamers

They range in prices from $35 dollars to $100 dollars. Given this is a one time purchase cost and not a monthly fee, that makes it all the better. There are more devices on the market, but these are just some of the ones I reviewed for the holiday buying guide. I hear great things about the Roku from everyone who owns one.

Also, if you have seen advertisements for the 'rabbit' on TV, stay away. Don't take my word for it, just read the reviews.

Mp3 players are not the hot devices they once were. Phones now do most of the things that the old mp3 players would. Given that, there is still a market for mp3 players and I put today a chart of the most popular sellers according to Amazon.

mp3 players

Apple still dominates this market but there are also some choices from Sandisk, Samsung, and even Sony. Remember the Sony Walkman? Yeah, it has evolved and still exists.

The prices range from $50 dollars to $250 dollars. I don't think there is a need to spend that much, but some of these devices have the ability to work with nike+ as well as play videos. They are lightweight and have solid state drives or flash memory so you don't have to worry about the drives taking damage like the older drives.

Large Tablets

Amazon has the new Kindle Fire HDX and Apple has the iPad Air. These are great devices and no one should be disappointed in them. Not to be outdone, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 has all the bells and whistles too, like the iPad Air, it is expensive. The Kindle Fire HDX is a bargain compared to the other two, but has a smaller screen.

I like the Apple products for their ease of use and 'it' factor, but I can't help but think they are expensive and you can have just as much if not more for less money.

Smaller Tablets

The Mini Tablets

If you want to save some money, or just don't want to lug around a large device, then you can always go with one of the smaller tablets. For the most part, they do everything the larger tablets do, but with a smaller screen size and lighter weight. Usually they come with less memory and storage, but they are usually larger than the latest phones. 

You should be able to find whatever you need between the two catagories.

This just might help you find what you're looking for this Christmas.

Internet Tracking and Privacy

It has been my intention to create a Tech Tuesday's class about Internet Privacy ever since I read the article in Popular Mechanics about it and posted on it earlier in the past year. That will probably be my next class after the Holiday buyers guide.

Until then, there is a new product/addon from Mozilla call lightbeam that will actually track all the sites that are tracking you when you browse the Internet if you use Firefox. You can see what it looks like in the picture below.

I installed the add-on and was amazed at the number of ad tracking sites some of my favorite news sites had attached to them. Check it out for yourself; if it doesn't want you to start private browsing or at least turn off cookies while browsing, nothing will.

lightbeam from Mozilla

Holiday Buying Guide 2013

The Holidays will soon be here!

I will be posting a holiday buyers guide for 2013 for some interesting tech products. Information about tablets both small and large, MP3 players, TV streaming devices and console gaming systems. I will list current prices and tech specs to help you decide what you might want to get that special loved one for Christmas.

If there are any things you would like me to cover or review, please let me know!

Who's Spying on You? Book

Popular Mechanics magazine had an article based on a the book of the same name. I have not read the book yet but I have read the article. Something that I like to stress on this site is that doing technical things with a computer or with the software on it is not hard. Once you see how it is done, it really isn't that complicated.

I know with hackers, viruses, malicious web content and the like, keeping your computer and your identity secure can seem daunting; but it isn't.

Like most things in life, you do have some control over yourself and your possessions. It turns out, that after all the scary things people can do with your data, the person what gives out the most of your private information is you. In the article they stated that the business you interact with everyday use the information you freely give them and sell that information.

Online companies, FaceBook and many other entities use the information you post online and sell it. Other times they refine the information to better market things to you.

There are some solutions.
1. Be careful what personal information you share even with legitimate companies.
2. You can use anti-tracking software like Do not track me!

Remember the old adage, that once it is on the Internet, it isn't ever coming back.