Consumer Electronics

Post image for If Your Laptop is Jealous of your Ultrabook, Give it a Hybrid SSD from Seagate – the Momentus XT

I have an Ultrabook and a MacBook Air and my non-SSD traditional laptop is getting jealous. It told me that it wants to be more like them, faster booting up and able to launch applications more quickly. “Why can’t I be like those super slim laptops you are always using?” it always asks me. Obviously there is no way for it to compete from a weight or thin-ness perspective, and since there was already a 500 GB hard driving powering it, I could replace that drive with an expensive SSD (Solid State Drive). A 500 GB SSD would  cost upwards of $500, which would be more than 1/2 the cost of the laptop. If I went with a smaller drive, I would have to ditch some of my data or applications on the drive – that doesn’t sound that much of an upgrade to me.

That is where the new Seagate Momentus XT SSHD comes into play. If you were reading carefully, you saw that this is NOT an SSD drive, there is an added “H” in there which stands for Hybrid. In my mind, hybrid means the best of both worlds. In the case of the Seagate drive, you get near-SSD performance, but with the capacity and price of a traditional hard drive. That is a hard bargain to beat.

Seagate kindly gave me a 750 GB Momentus XT SSHD to replace the stock 500GB Western Digital drive in my Acer Aspire Timeline X. A side note here, the Acer Timeline is a stellar laptop with an incredible battery life, so I was hoping that after this upgrade, it would be even more useful!

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But I’m always a skeptic when it comes to a “flashy” name like hybrid SSD (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one). The advantages of SSD is that they are flash-based/solid state drives that don’t have any moving parts, unlike traditional hard drives. You can get traditional hard drives that spin at 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM and that have larger cache sizes (16 MB or 32 MB). The larger the cache, the better as the drive will store blocks of data into the cache and be able to send that data to the computer – the more data it can send, the faster is can move the data.

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Post image for iOS 5 Tip: Using Siri As A Spell Checker and Spelling Assistant – Spelling Test Results!

For a few months now, I have been using the iPhone 4S and enjoying the wonders of Siri. There have been literally thousands of posts on tips and tricks that you can do with Siri (and I’m sure the one that I’m about to mention has been covered in some form or another). For those of you hiding under an anti-technology rock, Siri is a voice activated assistant that can help you find all sorts of information as well as act on a variety of voice commands.

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So, I have been scratching my head on trying to find something “different” to use Siri for and I believe that I came up with something interesting and helpful – a spelling assistant.

I’m an absolute horrible speeler – sorry speller (groan). I am so lucky that spell check is built into just about every device around (computers & smart phones specifically). I’m more about simply getting the words down digitally and then fixing the errors after the content has flowed from my brain and to my fingers. Heck, I even type much faster than I can write (I hate hand-writing anything!). So, while it is nice that most words will be caught using a spell checker, sometimes you ARE actually hand writing something, or you know how a word sounds but for the life of you, can’t remember how it is spelled.

One time, after living a few months in Spain and speaking/thinking in Spanish, I actually forgot how to spell “of”. I had hand written “uv”. Wow! More recently, when I was typing out an article, I couldn’t remember how to spell “manure”. Whatever I typed, simply didn’t look right and when I tried to look it up in a Dictionary app, since I was so far off (e.g., “maneuare”) the Dictionary didn’t provide me any help.

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Post image for A Solid, Tech-Filled, All-Around Performer – 2011 Ford Explorer Test Drive

A few months ago, Sony and Ford Motors invited the Cast of Dads out to the East Coast to participate in a variety of events, one of them was driving a 2011 Ford Explorer (note, link is for the 2012 model) from Boston to NYC. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event, and boy was I jealous. Part of my envy came from the fact that I couldn’t drive the Ford Explorer (you can read more about the excursion over at the Cast of Dads). Luckily, over the 2011 holidays, I did have the pleasure of getting behind the wheel of the 2011 Ford Explorer for a road trip to and from Los Angeles from the San Francisco Bay Area.

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I’m pretty familiar with Ford and their push to enable technology behind the wheel. I have test driven the Ford Flex and the Lincoln MKX (which is essentially quite similar to the Ford Edge). But being able to experience the Explorer first hand was pretty important to me since it has been a long running model for Ford since 1990.

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Image source: Wikipedia.com

Well, we are already in 2012 now, so how does the 2011 Ford Explorer stack up? Pretty darn well. It has plenty of technology to make a gadget-drooling dad happy as I barreled down the super boring stretch of the I-5. (If you haven’t driving the I-5 ever, you definitely aren’t in for any type of treat. It’s really boring and at times your auto is filled with the lovely stench of cow manure as you pass the cattle farms – you can also almost take a nap without turning the wheel as the I-5 seems to stretch on indefinitely.)

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Post image for Video: How To Wrap a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro MagSafe Power Adapter the NEW Way

I have been in search of a really good way to wrap up my MagSafe power adapter for both my MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The reason being, if you simply wrap them up the “conventional” way, you run the risk of fraying the connections which increases the risks of electrical shocks or shorting out your power adapters. And to replace the power supplies, be prepared to pay around $80 (and I do recommend getting authentic Apple products if you DO have to replace them).

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I watched a few videos of people working with the “shortened” version of the power supply, where you utilize the flip out prongs that are built into the brick. Personally, I found these to just be an “OK” solution but not really good for those people, like me, who use the full cord that includes the 3-pronged plug and the heavy cable.

So, I came up with an extremely inexpensive solution and process that allows you to have some pretty good cord management while also preventing those dangerous fraying of your power cords. Before I dive into my solution, below is a picture of my old, Band-Aid solution, which in the end, actually didn’t work because my power supply shorted out and wouldn’t work any more.

HTD-cordwrap-44 HTD-cordwrap-43

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I’m an Ultrabook Fan – the Speed, Weight, Performance & Design Convinced Me (An #UltrabookDads Video Production)

January 9, 2012
Thumbnail image for I’m an Ultrabook Fan – the Speed, Weight, Performance & Design Convinced Me (An #UltrabookDads Video Production)

Remember when netbooks were the “next big thing”? A few years ago, everyone wanted one of these small, compact and seemingly essential computers. But after a few years, the fog lifted from people’s eyes as they realized that the small form factor wasn’t the only thing that people needed. They wanted the best of all [...]

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Custom Cases for Gadgets like Kindle Touch or Macbook Air, Hand-Crafted by Rickshaw Bagworks

January 5, 2012
Thumbnail image for Custom Cases for Gadgets like Kindle Touch or Macbook Air, Hand-Crafted by Rickshaw Bagworks

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting a local San Francisco business to see their craft in action. The company is Rickshaw Bagworks and they built, based on my choice of color and material, one of the best blogger backpacks that I have owned. My full review from back in 2009 goes [...]

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Ultra Giveaway! Win an Ultrabook from Some #UltrabookDads!

December 20, 2011
Thumbnail image for Ultra Giveaway! Win an Ultrabook from Some #UltrabookDads!

I’m going to keep this short and sweet since I have already written a bit about Ultrabooks and I’m going to be talking about them more in the coming weeks. So let’s cut to the chase…Jeff Sass (who is a partner in crime on the Cast of Dads podcast as well as a fellow Intel Advisor) [...]

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I’ve Become an Ultrabook Dad!

December 20, 2011
Thumbnail image for I’ve Become an Ultrabook Dad!

I’m a dad who loves gadgets. That’s part of the reason why I have this site is so that I can share this love and hopefully provide insights and understanding into the complex world of consumer electronics. While I normally go by the nom de plume of “HighTechDad”, I have a new name that I’m [...]

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