More Dots! More Echo Dots!

So, I now have two more Echo Dots to add to my collection. This means I have an Echo in all the major rooms, which is pretty awesome. Those rascals are great for weather, setting timers, bits of trivia and of course the ever decisive coin toss. I like the little Dots, they are very handy. And to be honest, $50 for all that technology is a damn good deal. I know Apple has Siri in their Apple TV, but it really seems like they should have been first to market with a standalone Siri box. But oh well, Alexa won this round. I will say, having an Echo Dot in the kitchen is extremely handy. Not only is it good for music, but you can always double check on something without having to stop and wash your hands.

Super Slim USB 3.0 hub by HooToo

As I was reconfiguring my Mac, I realized I would be well to do with a small USB hub. Nothing fancy, I just need to open up a few ports. I struck gold with a super cool hub by HooToo. It’s incredibly thin and offers 4 USB 3.0 ports. Funny thing is, when I bought it, I didn’t even pay attention to that part and thought they were the standard USB 2.0 hubs. Imagine my surprise. On the surface, there is nothing truly amazing about this hub. However, it’s small, light, has 4 ports, is USB 3, and costs less than $10. That is a heck of a deal. So much so, I bought a second one. It’s a spare for now, but you never know when it will be pressed into service. This rascal is great and doesn’t need a power supply. I think that’s what threw me off about it being USB 3. But if you need a […]

RedFox is back, but …

So, we all know Slysoft, the company behind AnyDVD ultimately had to abandon the project and it was resurrected as RedFox. Now the question becomes, do you throw your support behind RedFox or seek shelter in the arms of another? For me, the answer was to move on. I had the lifetime license to all the Elaborate Bytes and Slysoft products – from CloneCD to AnyDVD HD and even GameJackal, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to jump on board and buy the products all over again. I completely understand the company needed to make money and they offered a discount for returning customers, but I was hesitant to put my eggs in that basket again. Instead, I changed tacts and companies and went with DVDFab Passkey, which offered a massive discount for previous AnyDVD users. I took them up on the offer with the mind that AnyDVD will still work for all the DVDs and Blurays I […]

Ember – Some final thoughts

I have now completed Ember and figured I would share a few thoughts about the experience. To put it simply, Ember is a tremendous amount of fun and is probably the best game I’ve played this year. I found it to have a deep and interesting story that unfolds not just through the events of the game, but through the dozens of books you find along the way. Plus there is a lot to learn through side conversations and tavern interactions. The more citizens you speak with and the more books you stop to read, the more you learn about Domus, the events that brought about the Lightbringer and the tension between different races. And even if the books don’t give enlightenment about the lore of the world, such as the famed tome, The Domus Pub Crawl, they are still amusing and add to the fabric of the game. Additionally, Ember has great momentum, always moving you forward to the […]

Audials One 2017 for $19

Audials has released the latest version of Audials One and it can be had for a 50% discount with a price of $19. Audials One is the combination app that lets you capture music, video and your screen. In addition, it features the ability to listen to Internet Radio from all over the world. Also, there is a converter tool that works with both video and audio files. And finally, it features a music search and music wishlist function. Put in the name of an artist or album, and Audials will go searching for it. All in all, it’s quite impressive. The 2017 edition will be my fourth upgrade. I use Audials One to record streaming music, to extract the audio from video files and have recorded a few shows with the streaming capture feature. It’s music and video management is quite good, comparable to MediaMonkey, although it’s not as adept at generating thumbnails for video files. If you listen […]