ARTICLE – I feel like I’m Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. Every time I want to upgrade to a new phone, I get all those exciting newphonia feelings until I actually get the phone in my hand and something spoils it for me. That’s what’s happened with the Samsung Galaxy S10+ when I […]
Julie’s gadget diary – The Samsung Galaxy S10+ let me down and I’m sad Read More
ARTICLE – My track record for upgrading phones has been bad the past year and half but that’s finally going to change. Really, I promise this time guys! First some background… I bought the Pixel 2 XL back in the fall of 2017 which feels like forever ago, but I’ve been using that phone since
Julie’s gadget diary – I’m finally upgrading to a new phone Read More
ARTICLE – After Google’s Pixel 3 XL unveiling a couple of weeks ago, I immediately ordered one because I’m a sucker for newphoneia, that feeling you get when you order a new phone and the anticipation that it will make your life easier, better, and more fun. At least I think that was what was
Julie’s gadget diary – The Pixel 3 XL is nice phone, but I sent it back Read More
ARTICLE – Like many of you, I watched yesterday’s live stream of Apple’s Gather Round event and I really have to hand it to Apple. They are masters at reeling me in with their dirty nerd talk of bionic processors, neural engines, advanced algorithms, and sensors. Those terms give me goosebumps. Or maybe Apple is
Julie’s gadget diary – Yes, I’m going to order the new iPhone Xs MAX Read More
ARTICLE – Three days ago Samsung officially rolled out their newest device, the Galaxy Note9 at their Unpacked event in New York City. The Note line of devices has always been the most powerful, feature-rich smartphones of Samsung’s mobile line up and this year’s new Note does not deviate from that tradition. The Note9 boasts
Julie’s gadget diary – The Samsung Note9 is one step closer to my dream device Read More
ARTICLE – I have been using iMacs and MacBooks to do my Gadgeteer work for the past 13 years. I love the simplicity of macOS and although I use a Windows 10 laptop all day long at my day job, I’m always happy to go home and use my 12-inch MacBook. However, a few weeks
Julie’s gadget diary – The Huawei MateBook X Pro could actually replace my MacBook Read More
Last week I told you that my 12-inch MacBook had to be admitted into the hospital to get its keyboard fixed. It’s been at the MacExperience store in Bloomington, IN since Saturday. They told me that the turn around time would be 3-5 business days. With the July 4th holiday yesterday, I’ve been a little
Julie’s gadget diary – I’m still MacBook-less Read More
ARTICLE – Sadly, my 12-inch MacBook is sick and needs surgery. It’s suffering from a debilitating SKD (Stuck Key Disease). Yes, it’s one of the 1000’s, maybe millions of Apple MacBooks with the newer generation keyboards that are obviously flawed due to their thinner mechanisms that are susceptible to breakage. I’ve been dealing with a
Julie’s gadget diary – My MacBook has to go to the hospital Read More
I recently returned from an epic vacation to California where Jeanne and I explored 3 different locations over the course of 7 days. As with most trips, I always struggle with the gear that I want to take with me. I am a minimalist at heart, so I like to pack the least amount
Julie’s gadget diary – 5 lessons I learned from my last vacation Read More
I’ve been seeing a lot of headlines this afternoon about Google updating the web-based Gmail interface for the first time in years. I can’t remember any changes to Gmail since I switched to it as my only email client back in 2009. Software updates are usually something that I enjoy and look forward to, but
Julie’s gadget diary – Gmail will be updated soon and I’m worried Read More
Verizon Wireless was kind enough to send me a shiny new Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone to test for a few days and it’s an all around awesome phone. From the look of the hardware to what’s under the hood, this is a phone that many Android fans would love to own, but for some reason, I
Julie’s gadget diary – The Samsung Galaxy S9 is a great phone, so why don’t I love it? Read More
In my last gadget diary post from over a week ago, I announced that I was going to give up my paper notebooks in favor of a digital To-Do system to help me manage my tasks. After I published that post, quite a few of you gave me ideas for different apps to try (thanks!).
Julie’s gadget diary – Update on my plan to ditch my notebooks Read More
I have been using a very simple Bullet Journal style of task management for the last 4 years. It has worked out well for me because I can keep a notebook open next to me all day so I am able to see a daily list of what I need to do and I get
Julie’s gadget diary – I’m ditching paper and going back to a digital To-Do system Read More
I have been happily using a Pixel 2 XL smartphone that I bought back in October. At least I’ve been happy with it until recently when I started having issues with Bluetooth connectivity. At first, I thought the issue was with the gadgets that I was reviewing and not the phone itself. But when the
Julie’s gadget diary – I just ordered an Essential Phone Read More
I switched from an iPhone 7 Plus to the Pixel 2 XL back in October, so I’ve been using it for almost 3 months now and feel like I have a really good handle on how it works and performs. When people were complaining about the phone’s display issues, I shrugged my shoulders because the
Julie’s gadget diary – One reason why I love the Pixel 2 XL that you’ll never guess Read More
I receive a LOT of emails every day that are usually from PR agencies pitching products that they want us to write about or review, people with new crowdfunding campaigns that they want us to write about, people asking for tech support for products that we’ve reviewed, people asking how to buy products that we’ve
Julie’s gadget diary – I received the nicest email this morning Read More
Today’s the day Apple fan boys and fan girls have been waiting for. It’s the day ordinary people can get their hands on the iPhone X. And when I say “ordinary”, I really mean you because I didn’t order one like I had originally planned after watching the Apple iPhone X unveiling event back in
Julie’s gadget diary – It’s iPhone X day and I’m not feeling left out (really, I mean it) Read More
We just returned home last night from a week on Sanibel Island, Florida where we vacation almost every year. This year I packed pretty light tech-wise. I only took 3 smartphones and a Windows 10 2-in-1 laptop. The phones were my new Pixel 2 XL, the LG V30 which I’m reviewing and a tiny Android
If you’ve been following along at home, you know that I recently had a 3-month fling with an iPhone 7 Plus but just switched back to Android a few days ago. I’m currently using an original Pixel XL but ordered the new Pixel 2 XL last week after it was announced by Google. And now
When I was watching Google’s live event yesterday and heard that the new Pixel 2’s would be going on sale that day, I immediately opened a new tab on my browser and went to check the Google Play store. Sure enough, they were available to order, so I did just that.
Julie’s gadget diary – It’s official, I’m switching back to Android Read More