Tech Services

It looks like the Amazon Alexa has some company, with the Google Home Hub arriving on the scene to muscle up to the Echo Show. This is Google’s version of a touchscreen smart display device announced at their new products shindig on October 9, 2018, in the Big Apple, or New York for some of us. It’ll sport a seven-inch screen and Google Assistant for voice commands. Google Home Hub loaded with features Among the other features are access to your Google calendar, reminders, shopping list and more. For smart-home fans, it’ll also tap into your Nest security cameras, Nest Hello video doorbell, lights and even the television. The display will dim at night and brighten up while the coffee is brewing in the morning. For inquiring minds, you can ask questions and get visual answers on weather, recipes of course, and videos from YouTube. And what’s a fancy smart device without music from your favorite songs, artists and streaming services, such as Pandora and Spotify. Google is saying all of...

It was a typical day, with what I thought was a typical inbox of emails to filter through, until I spotted an email from "Glass Support." The subject line simply said "Earnest, so you want Google Glass?" The day was no longer typical. I was surprised, thrilled, and honored, along with several other emotions as I contemplated what all this meant. In a nutshell, I had been selected to purchase an early version of Google's hi-tech eye wear that is fitted with a high resolution display that has the possibility of changing our lives and how the world uses information technology. I remember signing up to be considered for a pair of Google's latest technological wonder awhile ago, but never thought I would actually get an invitation. The concept for Google Glass was being kicked around in 2012 and even grabbed the "best invention of 2012" by TIME magazine. It gained traction in 2013 with the Explorer Program, where a few lucky developers also received inv...

When the Ellipsis 7 tablet from Verizon Wireless arrived in my hands, I had a feeling that it could be a keeper. This is Verizon’s home-bred, in-house, call-it-their-own device and I could hardly wait to take it for a spin. The first thing I did was to see if it would fit the inside pocket of my business jacket. Bingo, it did. So finally I had found a tablet that I could carry around without having to hold it my hands or place in a brief case. Just tuck it in my inside coat pocket and go. The Ellipsis 7 is a 4G Android device running the 4.2.2 operating system, also known as Jelly Bean. It has a seven-inch display and front-facing speakers along the bottom that sound really good. Along the top of the device you'll find the headset port, which is where I think all headset ports should be located – hint, hint to the iPhone 5 designers. Along the bottom is the USB mini port for charging, while the right side holds a MicroSD card slot, microphone, power and volume keys, along with the...

While the new iPhones frenzy was going on over the past few weeks, they were not the only games in town. At least three of my pockets had one of the Motorola Droids trio that certainly deserve some attention. Verizon Wireless sent a box full of Droids just as the the iPhone mania was heating up and I have been exploring and enjoying these Google and Motorola-branded devices so much that I haven't had a hankering for the new iPhone 5S. My FedEx box contained the Motorola Droid Maxx, Droid Ultra and Droid Mini. Let's just say I was surrounded by droids, which represent the newest creation from Google and Motorola since they agreed to join forces in August 2011 after Google put $12.5 million on the table. I think we all knew that something big would come out of this partnership, with Google's Android empire and Motorola's reputation for quality hardware. The Droid Maxx is certainly the flagship out of this trio and it has the features to prove it. Right off the ...

As some of us contemplate whether to unfold our arms and embrace Google Glass , Google engineers and developers are once again at the annual developers' conference in San Francisco. The Moscone West Convention Center will be abuzz with more than 6,000 developers to I/O 2013 that starts today. Google is touting that anyone looking for inspiration and more insight about future products can tune into live-streamed keynote speeches, announcements, along with recorded technology sessions. Anyone can follow along at the Google I/O homepage. The Google product teams will be hard at work and I wouldn't at all surprised if hints of the "next big thing" are heard around the water coolers. Visit us on Facebook | Follow on Twitter

The Google Glass technology appears to be truly amazing. We have been hearing bits and pieces about this hi-tech device that you wear like glasses, but more information is starting to filter out about the capabilities and how this technology might fit into our daily routines. This is what happens when a bunch of engineers and software developers get together to design something that we don't know we need. But as we learn more about the Google Glass device, I'm sure you'll want one. I know I do. A room full of these guys gathered in Austin recently to listen to a Google guru explain the Google Glass concept and how to approach writing applications for the upcoming technological wonder. If the final product actually works like the demonstration, it'll be revolutionary and Google will be an innovation leader in the mobile display of information. I hope they will be affordable, because I imagine they won't be cheap. But I like what I see coming down the pike. ...

If you're like me, you dig in your pocket for your smartphone numerous times each day to check your text messages. Or maybe it's on your desk while you're working on the PC and you reach for it each time your hear a beep. This little routine is getting easier with Verizon Wireless's new messaging service announced on Thursday that'll allow messages to appear simultaneously on your Android smartphone, an Android or iOS tablet and the PC. The messages on mobile devices will use an app available in the Google Play and Apple App Store, while the messages routed to the PC can be accessed through the Web browser after logging into a "My Verizon" account. Verizon will use their cloud storage to keep messages for 90 days. A video explains how the whole humdinger of technology works. Our digital lives just got simpler and more efficient. Visit us on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Send an email

Now that the iPad Mini has finally been unveiled, the real question is how it will fare among all the other small tablets on the market. Apple has given us a mini version of previous iPads, with an A5 dual-core chip, a 7.9-inch display, and a starting price of $329 for the 16 GB version. For the 32 GB and 64 GB models, you’ll need $429 and $529 for the latter. It also has a 10-hour battery life, LTE network capability, updated Wi-Fi performance, and as expected, the new Lightning connector that made a debut on the iPhone 5 and the new iPods announced on Sept. 12. It’s also around 24 percent less in depth than the most recent iPad. All of these features will certainly attract some attention, especially Apple fans, but the mini Apple wonder does have a few shortcomings. The resolution, which is 1024 x 768, doesn’t stack up with competing tablets and the A5 dual-core processor is from older hardware, being last used in the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S Another area of concern is as...

Facebook's announcement of reaching one billion users each month was the biggest "like" of their existence. This was big enough for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to sign his name at the top of the news release. He wanted to give a big "thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you." I say "well done" to Zuckerberg for having the vision and innovation to make Facebook what it is today. But the toughest part is probably still yet to come, as Facebook is now a public company and expectations are even higher when you're dealing with financial performance. This kind of growth is not bad for a company that has only been around since 2004. One of their competitors, Linkedin, officially launched a year earlier in May 2003 and they've only managed to attract around 175 million users. Another competitor in the social media space, MySpace, also launched in 2003 and I hear they're trying to make a comeback after being acquired by Spec...

I predict that very soon, we'll all be using our smartphones to pay for merchandise at various retailers. It'll become as common pulling out cash or a credit card. The folks behind Google Wallet have been steadily marching toward this goal and recently released a "cloud-based version of the Google Wallet app" that'll have more support for credit and debit cards. The card vendors include MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express. According to Google, this new version also includes includes a feature to remotely disable your mobile wallet app. This should help to ease some of the security concerns in the first version of Google Wallet. To further address security concerns and streamline how banks implement the technology, Google has revamped how account data for credit cards is stored in the Google Wallet app. Instead of the storing the data on your phone, Google now uses their secure servers, which also allows banks to add their cards in a few weeks. Goo...

The Google tablet is no longer a rumor. Now we'll have the Google Nexus 7 by mid-July, or you can pre-order right now on Google's website for $199. According to Google, pre-ordered tablets will ship in two-three weeks and for a limited time, you'll get $25 to spend in Google's Play store on apps, games, books and movies. Google is also throwing in a free copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Nexus 7 will have a 7-inch display and weigh about 0.75 pounds, which is right in line with other tablets of this size. It'll use Android's latest operating system, which is Jelly Bean, or Android 4.1, if you keep track of the version numbers. Google on their website has the battery rated for 10 hours of web browsing or 10 hours of e-reading, as well as over 8 hours of HD video playback. The Nexus 7 was built to work with Google Play, or Google's app store, where they're pitching over 600,000 apps and games and over four million books. Online storage a...

If the announcement that the Samsung Galaxy S III is coming to five U.S. carriers this month is any indication of the future demand, maybe we all should check out cell phone contracts on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular. An upgrade might be in order if Samsung's latest mobile phone meets the anticipation of savvy consumers. Samsung has been known for hitting home runs in the mobile market and carries the title of the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S and worldwide, according to Strategy Analytics. The new Galaxy S III has been kicking around in Europe after making its debut in London on May 3. According to one of Samsung's head honchos, this device will be "the next big thing" for U.S. customers on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The Galaxy S III, which is optimized for 4G and AT&T's HSPA+ networks, is running Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. It also sports a 8-megapixel rear camera, along with a 1.9 mega...

After using the new Yahoo! Axis search tool and browser for a while, I think it's worth exploring. But I'm not sure if it'll be a game changer for Internet searching and browsing. I installed the desktop version for the iMac and immediately noticed the search box in the lower left corner of my Safari browser window, along with icons for favorites and a home button. What's important here is that the search box is always there and waiting. You can say Google has the upper right corner of your browser window for searching and Yahoo! has the lower left corner for their search box. When you start a search, the difference between - let's say Google or Bing - and Yahoo! is that Axis give you miniature Web pages of your search results instead of links. A nice horizontal-scrolling pane of results appear across the bottom portion of your browser window. The Axis approach to search results is much more visually appealing than the other search-engine guys. You can als...