Will 2012 Be the Year of Subscription-based Services?
Are you terrified of commitment? I’m not talking about the kind of commitment that requires a diamond ring, or even a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. These days, it seems more people are afraid of committing to long-term contracts or even purchasing valuable items — especially those that they may not always want to keep forever, let [...]
Why You Should Be Glad You’re Not Attending CES 2012
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the largest technology trade shows in the world. Close to 129,000 people attended the event in 2011, though the question this year, as Microsoft makes its final appearance, is whether or not CES has lost its relevancy in the world of tech. Most of the content unveiled [...]
How To Update To DirecTV’s New HD Guide Right Now
Last week, DirecTV subscribers (including me) received an email letting them know that a new guide interface would be rolling out in the future, but the email did not say when users should expect it. It was a tease, showing awesome new features and a slick new interface for your HD TV, but with no [...]
Get Rid of the Clutter in Your Home and Go Wireless
Today’s consumer has two options when defining their home network needs. These options include the traditional wired option, which normally requires the use of ethernet cabling (there are some exceptions), or wireless, which depends on radio waves — better known as Wi-Fi. In days gone by, a wired system may have been preferable because it [...]
How to Use Your iPhone as a Camera
Ever wonder how so many of your friends take amazing pictures of casual moments or objects without even having a camera in their hand? The truth is, if you have an iPhone, you already have one of the most powerful photography platforms of all time. New models of the iPhone, all the way through the [...]
Hybrid Cars: Are They as Good as Some Claim?
Last Wednesday night, NBC evening news featured one segment wherein some consumers voiced their opinions that the manufacturers of hybrid cars were fudging the statistics relative to their mileage claims. One such claim was documented by a clip of a consumer who is taking Honda to court over an alleged promise, by the sales representative, [...]
How Robots Are Slowly Taking over the Job Market
It could be said that some innovations are a double-edged sword. Smartphones, for example, are extremely handy except for the fact that we’ve seen an increase in traffic fatalities as more and more people become distracted by whatever it is being displayed on the tiny screen. But what about robotics? Robots of all shapes and [...]
Can You Lecture a Senior?
The task I have set for myself, helping promote computer literacy in seniors, is probably a short-term goal in the sense that tomorrow’s seniors will already be computer literate, or at least oriented toward learning the skills they need to deal with whatever computers will evolve into. (You do not think QWERTY will last forever, [...]
11/22/63: The Stephen King Novel for Science Fiction Fans
At the risk of coming off like some kind of snob, I never thought I’d go out of my way to read a Stephen King novel. But these things happen. I’ve been plodding along with James Joyce’s Ulysses for a few months now (talk about baby steps; I may be done by Bloomsday [June 16] [...]
Five Interesting Alternatives to Traditional Bank Accounts
It seems that every day we hear about one bank or another being either at the brink of failure or otherwise riddled with controversy. For years now, the ongoing topic of debate over the American economy has centered around the role of a few central banks with corporate management in the crosshairs of conspiracy theorists [...]
Five Signs You Might Be a Tech Addict
Many tech enthusiasts have a habit of buying every new gadget or app on the market — even if they can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it. Many of these purchases tend to be impulsive and based on marketing hype, a sales pitch, or a well-designed advertisement. While average consumers scoff at [...]
Five Changes That Would Make Windows Better
Windows Vista changed the way many users thought of Windows. For better or for worse, Microsoft spent several years doing damage control over an overwhelming amount of pushback from the users prompted extended support for Windows XP. A lot of users made the leap from Windows to OS X, including LockerGnome’s own Chris Pirillo. This [...]
Enhance Any Video Project with Adorage Effects Package 13
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of proDAD. All opinions are 100% mine. At LockerGnome we take a fairly punk rock approach to videos. We largely avoid title effects in video. We rarely use effects and transitions; if you’re lucky we might perform some jump-cut edits. That doesn’t mean we don’t [...]
Get Paid to Exercise with Gym-Pact
It’s the first week of 2012, and if you’re like millions of other Americans who made a fitness-related resolution for the new year, you likely also just signed up for a new gym membership. You may have good intentions and may also be highly motivated at this moment (especially after consuming high quantities of food [...]
Free Resources and Tools to Improve Your Blog
Creating and maintaining a professional blog can be a lot of work. Often, bloggers are faced with having to do everything themselves from research, content creation, image gathering, and even editing. Maintaining a professional blog means having to keep in mind all the legal details surrounding any commercial site while building a rapport and reputation [...]
Why It’s Important That Han Shot First
Did Han Solo shoot first? This question has plagued Star Wars fans for decades — more so after the original series was reworked in 1997, which included some dramatic (and subtle) changes that have Star Wars fans scratching their heads. Further tweaks and adjustments were made for the 2004, 2006, and most recent 2011 Blu-ray [...]
Beyond Paperless: The Paperless Bathroom
One of my resolutions for 2012 is to not only be more minimalist, like my colleague Matt Ryan, but also to try to save the Earth by going a little more green. I started refusing shopping bags at grocery stores (or bringing my own instead), as well as consolidating shopping trips into one massive shopping [...]
Why Support Call Centers Should Return to the US
As many of us already know, most of the major companies based here in the US have outsourced their call centers to foreign countries. The two most popular countries for support call centers are India (with an estimated 350,000 agents) and the Philippines (with an estimated 400,000 Filipinos manning the call center phones). Armed with [...]
Can Facebook Hurt Your Credit Score?
You may already know that your credit score is a very important component of your financial health. Banks and other financial institutions use your credit score to determine whether you qualify for credit, such as a student loan, car loan, credit card, or even a mortgage to buy a house. Your credit report, which contains [...]
Mistaking the Solution for the Problem
How do you solve a problem? How do you decide what to do? What new computer should you buy? What new smartphone? Should you buy anything? Is it better to simply do something — anything — rather than dither about? In reviewing my decision theory posts for 2011 that could address some of those questions, [...]
