As Lexus owner who has agreed to participate in occasional surveys, I received one this week about a possible new automobile feature they are considering. The questionnaire began by asking me how often I park my car on the street, in my driveway, and in… Read More »Car theft and privacy
Combining your phone with your wallet is an idea that’s sparked thousands of products and hundreds of variations. The concept makes sense if you want to minimize what you carry each day. In fact, with the ability to add cards and a license to your… Read More »Phone Wallet Cases that Replace Your Wallet
Over the years, my wife and I accumulated a decent wine collection—nearly filling a 300-bottle capacity wine cabinet. What started as a modest hobby evolved into something more substantial. But with growth came chaos. Our first tracking system was very low tech: wine racks with… Read More »InVintory – a clever app for managing your wine
As I was walking through the San Diego Airport, returning from a short trip, my Briggs & RIley rolling cabin bag became wobbly. When I got home I found that one of the wheel’s rubber treads was starting to peel off. I later learned that… Read More »The Best Service in Travel Comes from your Luggage
I’m in the middle of moving my family plan from Verizon to T-Mobile, and Verizon has not made it easy. I hesitated for years. We have seven phones and two watches spread across two cities five hundred miles apart — exactly the kind of account… Read More »Switching Carriers Shouldn’t Be This Hard
The companies that once sold themselves as engines of freedom—open information, empowered individuals, helping the world—are quietly becoming something else entirely. I understand only too well; I moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 to join the many that wanted to make the world better by… Read More »Silicon Valley Has Chosen the Dark Side
Sony’s decision to place its iconic Bravia television business under majority control of China’s TCL is not just a corporate reshuffling. It is a clear signal of how far the global balance of industrial power has shifted — and how badly the United States misread… Read More »So many thought China was just for manufacturing
As covered in my previous column, online reviews have become one of the most powerful tools we’ve ever had to make informed purchases of merchandise and services. From choosing a tradesman, contractor, or restaurant to buying appliances and electronics, user-generated reviews give us visibility into… Read More »Online Reviews: What you need to know
One of the Internet’s greatest gifts isn’t streaming video, social media, or even instant information. It’s something far more practical and revolutionary: online reviews. For the first time in history, ordinary people can share their real experiences with products, tradespeople, restaurants, doctors, contractors, hotels, airlines and… Read More »Online Reviews are one of the Internet’s Greatest Gifts
Apple has finally done what once seemed unthinkable: it has cut a deal with Google to use Gemini as the AI engine behind a revamped Siri. For a company that built its legend on owning its products end-to-end — hardware, software, and services — this is more than… Read More »Apple’s Gemini Deal Is an Admission of Failure — and a Warning Sign for Apple