Share Your USB Port for Everyone

The Anker 40W 5-port Family Sized USB Charger is by far the best charging station to carry with you on layovers, or have available at home when entertaining guests. More often than not, I've been finding myself in either the crew lounge, a hotel room bunking it up (read: saving money) or even around the airport scrambling to find a wall socket. Everyone needs to plug in usually via USB and charge their device so why not share a port? It's also the best way to become the most popular guy sitting at that lonely corner charging up your phone and / or tablet.

• Smart ports, powered by PowerIQ™ technology, intelligently identify each connected device and speak its language - guaranteeing the fastest charge time for EVERY device (up to 8 Amps among 5 ports).
• The size of a deck of playing cards (3.6 x 2.3 x 1.0in) and unibody design for added portability.
• Industrial-grade plastic construction and premium circuitry ensure lifetime reliability.
• AC 100-240V input voltage ideal for international travel.
• Package contents: Anker® 40W 5-Port Wall Charger, 5ft / 150cm detachable power cord, user manual.

At the same time, why not grab a 3-foot USB Lightning Cable that's Apple Certified for only $14.99 so you don't find yourself standing too close to everyone! I grabbed two back in December and it's saved us that claustrophobic feeling. The only issue that I've had is that sometimes the Lightning Connector portion is too thick to bypass some cases but it's awesome nonetheless.

Wanna Save Your iPhone Battery?

This is not one of those "Turn off every useful feature of iOS" posts that grinds my gears. My goal is to deliver practical steps to truly solve your iOS battery woes.

One quick thing before we start — 99.9% of the time it is not actually iOS that is causing your battery to drain quickly. I guarantee you that if you erased your phone and there were no apps or email on it, it would last for ages. But, no one uses their device like that, nor should they. Hopefully with these steps you will be living in iOS battery bliss while still using all the apps and features you love.

I will be reformatting my iPhone 5 again and start fresh with iOS 7.1. A few weeks ago, I installed iOS 7 which did posses amazing battery life, but after I started installing a few of the hundreds of apps that I use, my battery would eventually only last half a day! I'm going to have to start deducing what's really going on.

via OverThought by Scotty Loveless

If You're a Dropbox User, Opt-Out NOW!

You have 30-days from February 24th to opt out of Dropbox's new Legal terms which will benefit you in the long run. Trust me, do it now!

If you’re like me, you probably glossed over this update because gah, legalese.

Allow me to summarize what it means when a company wants to handle all disputes in arbitration:

No matter what they do (delete your data, privacy breach, overcharging, whatever), you don’t get to sue. Instead, THEY get to choose the arbitrator according to whatever criteria they want, and thus any dispute is decided by someone they’re paying.

via Quibbling.net

If you want to read in full the new terms of service that take Ito effect on March 24, click here.

T-Mobile Unleashed Is NOT So Cheap

At this time, my Early Termination Fees (ETFs) with AT&T are $155 for a line thats due in September of this year. Thats a prorated amount down from $350 in case you're wondering. Let me back up. If you've been following me on twitter, I've been fed up with AT&T's false advertising that sold me a few years ago for a service that CLEARLY said "Unlimited Data" for $30. I use FaceTime quite a bit,¹ stream my baby monitor from hundreds of miles away, and sometimes just soak up youtube so yea, I'll easily go over 5GBs a month and trust me, hotel WiFi is horrific! I hate that they expect me to use it in place of a service that I pay for! So back to the story.

If I sell my Apple iPhone 5 64GB White to T-Mobile for $300 and they pay my ETF at $155, that's "$455" in my pocket. The only way they will "Unleash" you is if you trade in your phone, no exceptions. Then I have to buy a FULL priced mobile phone, desirably an iPhone 5s 64GB, for $799. That means, I still have to shell out $344 so that's not that bad of a deal right? That's actually incorrect. Let me explain. I'd be shelling out $499 for my new phone after the trade-in credit followed by a Mastercard Gift Card in the credit amount of $155 in approximately 8 weeks. So I'm out half a grand to "unleash."

If I can wait, and probably will, for just six more months, I can unlock my iPhone 5, sell it on the market for maybe $400 or more, then buy a full priced iPhone 6. So yes, I'm still out $399 but, here's where I could save. I could then bring it along with me to T-Mobile, and pay nothing leaving me with just the $70 Unlimited 4G Everything Plan plus a $10 SIM kit. When it comes down to it, I'll be out money obviously later in the year with me upgrading my phone but ideally, I'd rather T-Mobile just pay my ETF now and I bring my current iPhone 5 with me. That's what the deal should have been in the first place.

disclaimer: I signed a 2 year contract with AT&T for a subsidized iPhone 5 so ultimately, with the "Unleash" deal, you still end up paying full price for the device. I could save a bunch of money and purchase Google's Nexus 5 for $349 unlocked online instead but that's a whole other story of iOS vs. Android, etc. I'm not going to go there just yet.

And yes, it's pretty awesome that with the unlimited 4G Data you get an additional 2.5GB of tethering capability.

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1. I use FaceTime about 1-5 minutes almost every couple of hours for a total of 30-60 minutes a day. Sometimes, I'm on for 20 minutes in a row. ↩

Tesla Reveals Gigafactory Plans

The Tesla Gigafactory announcement is here! I can't wait till the economies of this scale trickle down to everyone. One of the bigger questions is whether this awesome factory will be built in either Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona or Texas. I'm thinking that maybe Texas or Arizona might win this contract especially with how nice both states have been playing with other Silicon Valley companies. This about it. This Gigafactory will actually manufacture more batteries than the entire world does today!

As we at Tesla reach for our goal of producing a mass market electric car in approximately three years, we have an opportunity to leverage our projected demand for lithium ion batteries to reduce their cost faster than previously thought possible. In cooperation with strategic battery manufacturing partners, we’re planning to build a large scale factory that will allow us to achieve economies of scale and minimize costs through innovative manufacturing, reduction of logistics waste, optimization of co-located processes and reduced overhead.

The Gigafactory is designed to reduce cell costs much faster than the status quo and, by 2020, produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. By the end of the first year of volume production of our mass market vehicle, we expect the Gigafactory will have driven down the per kWh cost of our battery pack by more than 30 percent. Here are some details about what the Gigafactory will look like.

via Tesla

Xbox One Already Lowering Price

"We're doing this because it will generate sales, absolutely," Eagle told GameSpot. "I think it's a great deal for people in the UK to get a next-gen machine for £399 including Kinect, including Titanfall, in the box. Yeah, it's a great deal and hopefully lots of people will take up the offer."

So they're not having trouble outpacing Sony's still hard to find PS4? I'm thinking that although this deal is for the U.K. only, we'll see it soon here in the U.S. closer to Titanfall's release. Hell, I'm honestly contemplating it too but after seeing my 360 collect dust, I'm not holding my breath.

update: looks like its official that Microsoft is releasing a digital download version Titanfall bundle for $499.99 ultimately saving $59.99 for the game.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Obviously Includes Fingerprint Reader

The Galaxy S5’s design is a minor evolution of the Galaxy S4 — in fact, the two are almost indistinguishable from the front. The S5’s display is ever so slightly larger at 5.1 inches, but it’s still a 1080p, Super AMOLED panel that doesn’t look very different from the S4’s screen. Below the display is a new home key with integrated fingerprint scanner and capacitive keys for multitasking and Android’s back button.

If they really just wanted to copy Apple again, I guess they could have just added a fingerprint scanner and updated health programs. Oh wait...

via The Verge

Do You Take #selfies?

Selfiecity analyzes Instagram data for visual cues like head position, emotional expression, gender and age, in order to get a clearer picture of how (and how often) people actually take selfies in different cultures. “The idea was to confront the generalizations about selfies, which are not based on data, with actual data,” says Manovich. “We wanted to look at what the actual patterns are.”

It's not surprising that people from São Paulo are the happiest.

Celebrating 30 Years Mac via iPhone by Apple

Apple at its best and smartest saving their ad money for a Super Bowl + 1 day commercial. Shot entirely with iPhones all over the world, check out their later commercial. Brilliant. http://youtu.be/zJahlKPCL9g

You can also read more and see the behind the scenes on Apples website. Just follow this link!

On January 24, 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh. And with it a promise that the power of technology, put in the hands of everyone, could change the world. On January 24, 2014, we sent 15 camera crews all over the world to show how that promise has become a reality.

100 iPhones providing 70+ hours of footage and add the son of iconic Hollywood Director Ridley Scott… awesome commercial!

Make Sure You Read AT&T's Fine Print

Announcing a new family plan on the Saturday before the Superbowl, AT&T is trying to lure new and old customers to their service by offering $130 for two smartphones, unlimited talk and text + 10GB shared data. Don't fall for it and make sure to read the fine print. They are still forcing you to pay a lot more money and if you haven't been following, I've been throttled on my unlimited data plan for almost two weeks at speeds at or below .50Mbps.

But then there’s the fine print with the new family plan. Customers who are brand-new to AT&T either have to sign up for AT&T’s Next program, which allows the customer to spread payments of the device over up to 26 months; bring their own device; or pay for the full price of the phone. For example, for the cheapest iPhone 5S, a customer can pay the full $650 for the phone, or pay $25 a month for 26 months on top of the cost of the new family plan, or bring his or her own iPhone 5S (assuming it is compatible with AT&T’s network).

Disruption by Laughter

I'd love to be a venture capitalist. Too bad it takes millions these days. Anyone have an idea that I can laugh at for $10,000?

The problem is, this sort of ignorance and misunderstanding is often how we get true disruption - people are so ignorant that they don't know something can't be done and won't work, so they go and do it, and it works. Dropbox and Paypal are particularly good examples of this, while Bessemer's 'anti-portfolio' is a fun look at the sensible reasons why some amazing companies would never work. The challenge of venture investing is that the model depends on investing in things that are laughable, because those are the only things that can make billions of dollars from zero in a few years. So you kind of want people to laugh at you and think you don’t understand the sector. You just have to be sure that you understand why they’re laughing.

via Ben-Evans.com

Verizon Edge: Still Scamming You Twice

Seriously, if you really want or need that new phone, just buy it; don't subsidize it. Or if you really must, use your credit card but don't think Verizon's newer Edge plan is better. It's still awful.

As noticed by CNET and confirmed on Verizon's site, the carrier has made a tweak to Edge that does let customers using it upgrade even more frequently if they're so inclined — now, instead of waiting for six months to trade your phone in and get a new one, you can do so after just 30 days. Of course, you're still responsible for paying off half the retail cost on the phone, which means you won't save much money with this new plan. The earlier you upgrade, the less time you're paying Verizon two phone subsidies (the monthly Edge payment as well as the phone payment already built in to your contract) — but it's still not a good deal, just a less bad one.

However, Verizon subscribers who wants to upgrade their phones whenever they want are probably better off just buying phones at their full retail cost — you control exactly when you buy a new phone, and you get to keep or sell them afterwards rather than give them back in to Verizon.

Sitting Idle Costs Money or in this Case Drivers Too!

It makes sense. If you sit parked with the engine running, you burn gas. If you drive around aimlessly content, you burn gas. In this case, the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association was caught with their tanks on empty. Some people call this disruption but I call it laziness, content, sitting fat, dumb and happy or reactive and definitely not proactive.

The San Francisco Cab Drivers Association (SFCDA), an association for registered taxi drivers that promotes fair working conditions and business practice, reports that one-third of the 8,500 or so taxi drivers in San Francisco – over 2,800 – have ditched driving a registered cab in the last 12 months to drive for a private transportation startup like Uber, Lyft or Sidecar instead.