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Mike Predicts top 2014 Tech Trend: Wearables
At a New Year begins, I do a lot of radio and TV interviews with journalists asking me what I think are the top tech trends for the next year. Two years ago, I said Android would be the top mobile OS. Last year, I said it would be the tablet war. I was right on both counts. For 2014, I’m predicting it will be wearable technology. This trend has been gathering momentum ever since the amazingly versatile little GoPro cameras entered the scene a few years back. Thanks to a bunch of ingenious mounts, the GoPro can be attached to bike helmets, worn on the body, suction cupped to…
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My own personal drone
I’ve messed around with some low end flying helicopters before and found them to be lots of fun. But I’ve just added a big ticket item to my photographic and video arsenal of tools: A Phantom 2 drone. I’ll be using it for AVC, or aerial video cinematography. It’s really a flying machine, a quadricopter, with four opposing blades sending it up and our as far as a kilometer (3,240 feet) from where I’m standing with the controller. The unit I bought carries with it a GoPro Hero 3 camera to record high definition video and stills. It transmits those images back to a monitor attached to the controller on…
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Understanding Data Usage and the Mi-Fi Card
Staying in touch while RVing is a challenge we all face. And a key tool many of us end up acquiring is a data card that lets us set up our own Wi-Fi networks to connect our various tablets and computers to the Internet. True, many of today’s tablets and smartphones have a feature that will let you do that without the need for special card. But a special data card adds, in my view, more convenience. It can be plugged in and kept somewhere in the RV and be always charged, always ready and not pull down the battery on the other devices. All of the various wireless providers…
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Cool Gadget: The new GoPro Black Edition
The new GoPro Hero Black Edition is the top of the line GoPro camera, with higher resolution and all sorts of great new options. It comes with built in WiFi. With the app for the iPhone or Android, you can control the camera and review the images you are capturing right on your smartphone. Brilliant. I also picked up a $79 option, a video viewfinder that snaps on the back of the camera. What makes the GoPro Hero 3 so fun are the many different mounts and cases available. I have a helmet mount for my bicycle. I also have a suction cup mount that I attach to my RV to…
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How GPS came to change the way we drive
How we take GPS for granted. Besides mobile phones, It’s hard to think of a recent piece f technology that has been so thoroughly embraced by the pubic. But the way it came about and was handed down to pubic use pretty interesting. The glow of a GPS screen can be seen on just about every dashboard you ass on the road these days. Not that long ago, GPS was the exclusive domain of top secret government and military operatives. They have now become so commonplace that they are changing the way America drives. They also now have given us a new high-tech acronym to learn: PND, or personal navigation…
