Category Archives: lifestyle

MY FAVOURITE TEN GIFT GUIDE IN WiFiHiFi DEC/JAN MAGAZINE

Steve Makris’ Top 10 Tech Gift Picks (re-printed from WiFiHiFi Magazine)

Sing it with me: “These are a few of my favourite things.” After checking out plenty of cool tech gear this year, I’ve founded that these 10 items, noted in no particular order, are best-in-class, well-designed, and functional.

AncestryDNA

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CONVERT YOUR CASH TO DIGITAL AMAZON CASH

Amazon Cash is here in Canada. The new service lets customers add cash (instead from their debit or credit cards) to their Amazon Balance at more than 6,000 physical Canada Post locations around the country, with more partners being added regularly.

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COMPARING THE $1,350 iPHONE X AND $1,300 SAMSUNG NOTE 8

iPhone X landed on eager Canadian hands on Friday in Canada. The $600 down (64 GB option) on a monthly $95 for two years ( TELUS Alberta) plan begs the question: How does it compare with the 64 GB Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the second most expensive phone costing $550 down on a monthly $95 per month?

Aaaahhh…the beauty of OLED phone screens. They look good from any angle on the Note 8 left, and the iPhone X.

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LG V30 ARRIVES IN CANADA OCT 20 2017

I had a chance for a sneak hands-on with the new LG V30 at #LDTECH in Whistler last week. First impression? This phone has a lot going for it for enthusiast mobile media producers and more.  Here is the news release from this morning.
LG V30 SMARTPHONE ARRIVES IN CANADA OCTOBER 20
  
 

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EPSON LAUNCHES 2ND GEN RE-DESIGNED SUPERTANK eco tank PRINTERS

 

Epson America, Inc., better known for affordable printers for the masses and leading edge colour printers for professionals announced second generation Supertank line of cartridge-free EcoTank® printers.

Available at London Drugs, Staples, Best Buy and the online Epson stoe, they include three new Expression EcoTank home models, two new WorkForce EcoTank printers for the small medium business market and new to the line, two new Expression Premium printers.

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IFA ATTRACTS TECHNOLOGY FROM EVERY GLOBAL CORNER

IFA 2017 attracted more than 253,000 visitors to Berlin, a global trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances. With more than half of all trade visitors coming from abroad, IFA Berlin provided a huge boost for both manufacturers and retailers in the crucial run-up to the holiday period, which runs from Thanksgiving in the United States all the way to Christmas and the New Year. Once again, IFA was operating at full capacity, with 1,805 exhibitors showing their latest products and services on 159,000 square meters of fully booked show floor at Messe Berlin. The mood among exhibitors was highly optimistic, not least given the expected order volume of 4.7 billion euro achieved during the six days of the event. 

The Annual 2017 IFA tradeshow in Berlin ends today with a slew of smart and sometimes crazy technology.                                                                                 Much was about the newest wearables, laptops, phones or speakers which are basically incrementally better than older models. But exciting technology is about how to do or experience things, in a new way.

Here are some of my favourites.

BIG AND SMALL HOME APPLIANCES                      The Smart Home appliance category ruled. German high end Miele’s Dialog oven uses a combination of electromagnetic waves (like microwaves) a convection fan and traditional radiant heating elements to cook food, precisely.

Miele: three heat sources and smart sensors…

 

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WILL SAMSUNG AND APPLE BEAT UPCOMING LG’S V30 CUTTING EDGE FEATURES?

The rumour mill has been at high pitch over the past few weeks on what smart phones electronic giants will soon be launching. It’s still anyone’s guess what the new phones will be like from Apple and main competitor Samsung, whose new Note 8 launches August 23, but LG has taken a different approach, bi-passing the Fake News tech world.

LG Electronics has been pealing payers of new features on its upcoming LG V30 phone will have, expected to launch at IFA Berlin 2017 in a few weeks. Here are some that currently put it in the lead of current phones in the market:

  • An F1.6 aperture camera and glass lens in the dual camera delivering 25 percent more light to the sensor compared to an F1.8 lens. Glass Crystal Clear Lens also delivers greater light-collecting ability than a plastic lens as well as better colour reproduction. The camera in the V30 cuts edge distortion by a third and still be a lower profile, but 30 percent smaller in size compared to its previous model. It will feature UX featuring laser detection AF, optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization.
The LG V30 glass lens closely matches camera enthusiasts’ picture quality

Continue reading WILL SAMSUNG AND APPLE BEAT UPCOMING LG’S V30 CUTTING EDGE FEATURES?

WILL SAMSUNG AND APPLE BEAT UPCOMING LG’s V30 CUTTING EDGE FEATURES?

The rumour mill has been at high pitch over the past few weeks on what smart phones electronic giants will soon be launching. It’s still anyone’s guess what the new phones will be like from Apple and main competitor Samsung, whose new Note 8 launches August 23, but LG has taken a different approach, bi-passing the Fake News world.

LG Electronics has been pealing payers of new features on its upcoming LG V30 phone will have, expected to launch at IFA Berlin 2017 in a few weeks. Here are some that currently put it in the lead of current phones in the market:

  • An F1.6 aperture camera and glass lens in the dual camera delivering 25 percent more light to the sensor compared to an F1.8 lens. Glass Crystal Clear Lens also delivers greater light-collecting ability than a plastic lens as well as better colour reproduction. The camera in the V30 cuts edge distortion by a third and still be a lower profile, but 30 percent smaller in size compared to its previous model. It will feature UX featuring laser detection AF, optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization.
The LG V30 glass lens matches camera enthusiasts’ photos

Continue reading WILL SAMSUNG AND APPLE BEAT UPCOMING LG’s V30 CUTTING EDGE FEATURES?

BLACKBERRY LOSING TO SAMSUNG IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

Samsung Canada recently announced its Galaxy S7 KNOX-enabled security smartphone is being added to the Canadian Federal Government approved list of devices for its employees. BlackBerry’s decision to abandon it own phones to less secure third-party Android phones created a short supply of Government-approved BlackBerry phones, now out of production.

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WIKIMANIA ARRIVES IN MONTREAL AUGUST 9-13

Note to readers: The deadline for online participant registration for Wikimania 2017 in Montreal is Monday July 31st. Participants can still attend after this date on site, but availability may be limited.

Wikimania is coming to Montreal August 9-13. The annual global conference celebrates the popular Wikipedia knowledge resource and its sister knowledge products. The advancement of free knowledge, privacy and digital rights and the role of technology to further those objectives are at the core of the keynote and community submitted talks at Wikimania. If all you experienced is getting the occasional online information on the free www.wikipedia.org you are missing out on what made the grassroots Wiki concept a success – the fifth largest visited site on the web.

Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wells, lower left, never dissapoints in his keynotes at the annual worldwide Wikimania events

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