Archive for May, 2012
Summer time is nearly upon us, the hot sun & blue skies bringing thoughts of road adventures. When such urges beckoned in the past, our forefathers would hitch a team of oxen to their covered Conestoga wagon, make sure they had plenty of spare axles, and hit the trail. Of course, such journeys took months, with the only excitement being river crossings, dealing with bandits or other attacks, and occasional bison stampedes.
These days we’re a little better prepared to deal with long hours in a moving vehicle. Hazards on the modern highway are easily dealt with, it is difficult to get lost, food is delivered to us in disposable cardboard boxes, and the long miles of our journey can be eased with a variety of modern entertainments.
Even with the entire country mapped out for us, it can be easy to get lost. Fortunately, technology can help get us back on track. Many of today’s smartphones have GPS functionality, alerting one to such important destinations as gas stations, rest stops, and dining areas. Even if one doesn’t have a smartphone, a car can easily be fitted in-dash with any of a number of GPS devices by our expert Autotech Agents!
Let’s face it – the worst road trip we’ve ever had probably didn’t involve dysentery. (And if it did, we’re guessing you have bigger problems on your hands.) But hours spent suffering in a stuffy vehicle with screaming children and bored adults can be its own special form of hardship. Ease your burdens by making your vehicle into a modern home away from home – with all the comforts of a fast and reliable internet connection. Mobile hotspots let you carry the internet with you (no cords, no problem). Your passengers will be able to play online games, watch YouTube videos, check their email and stay up-to-date with their Facebook friends with minimal interruptions.
In the past, all we had were pencils and paints to capture the kitchy-ness of a roadside attraction, or the majesty of an untamed vista. Today, the sky is the limit. Let your passengers direct the story of your journey by equipping them with an arsenal of digital media equipment. A “shoot and share” camcorder like the Kodak Playsport ZX5 is a durable movie-making companion, while allowing you to download (and edit) the videos on any laptop, and the Samsung WB150 Smart Camera with built in Wifi (or even any digital camera with an Eye-Fi card loaded) lets you upload pictures of your journey to the web as fast as you can take them.
Last on this list, but first in our hearts — please remember that safety is paramount when embarking upon your epic journey. Stop frequently, hydrate, and always let your copilot take responsibility for cell phones, logistics, navigation, and other two-handed activities. Eyes on the road, traveler, and bring a driving buddy if you want a turn playing Oregon Trail on your smartphone.
Safety is also important for your technology! Dust, heat, exposure, and accidents can all contribute to a broken device, a ruined day, and (potentially) a ruined vacation. Don’t get lost, mad, or upset. Geek Squad Black Tie Protection on newly purchased technology can help ensure broken or damaged tech can get back up and running again.
May your journeys this summer (short or long!) have all the comforts of modern technology, and none of the headaches. And as always, Geek Squad Agents are just around the corner at your local Best Buy to offer additional advice, or help bring your American Road Trip experience out of the covered wagon and into the modern age. Buckle up!
May 25th has several holidays that Geek Squad Agents enjoy — including Geek Pride Day, Towel Day (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), the Glorious 25th of May (Discworld) and the anniversary of Star Wars’ release.
Agents have often been asked if we mind being called geeks. In fact, we do – because geek is a generic term. We are Agents. But Geek is a part of the name “Geek Squad”, and is part of our heritage.
In our Agent dictionary, a geek is someone who has curiosity and passion around a topic. You can be a book geek, a movie geek, a band geek, even a beer geek. For Agents, that passion is around how technology can help everyone make the most of their lives, and how we can help make that happen. Any day set aside to celebrate that, is a day Geek Squad Agents will appreciate.
That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate the other holidays that share this day. “Towel Day” allows fans of the late author Douglas Adams to celebrate his life and work by carrying a towel (the singular most important item to be found in any self-respecting traveler’s satchel in Adams’ book series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).
For fans of fantasy books, the Glorious 25th of May is based off a fictional revolution in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. Fans wear a lilac in memory of characters in the books, but also to honor Pratchett’s struggle with (and work supporting research around) Alzheimer’s.
Science fiction movie fans also acknowledge the day as the anniversary of the theatrical release of Star Wars in 1977. Replica lightsabers and Jedi robes are not required, but it’s always a welcome day to watch the movie that started it all with a few friends.
Whatever the reason you’ll be celebrating May 25th for, no doubt you’ll have a number of our 20,000 Geek Squad Agents worldwide to celebrate it with. Enjoy the day (and don’t forget to bring your towel)!
It’s Mother’s day again, and our thoughts turn toward all they have done for us – and what they deserve in return.
This is the time of year where boxed chocolates reign supreme, and gift certificates are sold in droves — and chances are that some of you waited until the very last moment. Now, you find yourself frantically running around trying to find a gift for dear old mom, and finding there’s nary a bouquet of roses to be found throughout the land.
Stop panicking! Mom doesn’t want all the things listed above! After all, aren’t they all rather stereotypical? Doesn’t mom deserve something uniquely special from you?
How about applying some tech-savvy to your Mother’s Day gift-giving this year by taking her to a private screening of a movie — all about her?
You can’t go to a wedding reception these days without seeing a personalized picture montage of the happy couple (usually set to Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”), tricked out with cool effects and great transitions. But did you know you can do the same thing yourself, online? On the cheap?
Sites like Animoto (www.animoto.com) and Flixtime (www.flixtime.com) make it simple. Upload a few pictures or videos to the site, choose from their music (or upload your own), click the button and presto! A customized video to your mom. Add text where it fits, tweak how long the photos/video appear, and it makes it all look (and sound) professional.
Both sites give you the chance to do shorter videos for free to test it out, and the cost of outputting something longer is fairly reasonable. Post the result to YouTube, or download the file to your desktop, and surprise your mom this Mother’s Day.
Yes, Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate our mothers, and all that they have sacrificed to give us the lives we know and love. While chocolates are nice (serotonin buzz alert) and flowers smell lovely, they are here and gone within a few days. Giving the gift of memories, lovingly created by you via the sites listed above, will give her a gift she can treasure forever.
‘Tis the season to give the gift of portable concert halls.
Now that you or the person you are giving gifts to will be running, or enjoying time on the beach, it would be wise to make the trip more enjoyable with music. MP3 players have become as common to carry as your wallet — which means if you don’t own an MP3 player, you need one. Which one should you get though?
When it comes to thinking of MP3 players, one player comes to mind. (You know, the one by a company that rhymes with “Dapple”). This player has become so popular that the term “MP3 player” has taken a back seat to the aforementioned product. This company has created a device far ahead of its time; it has a capacity of up to 160GB, comes with amazingly easy-to-use software, and now comes in a touchscreen version, which is completely intuitive to use. Combine this with an application store where you can download thousands of free-to-fee applications (music, gaming, GPS, etc), and you’ll quickly realize this is not your mom’s media player anymore. (Well, at least until she gets her hands on yours, in which case, it very well might be.)
New to the market, Android (Google’s version of software for mobile devices) is slowly working its way to standalone media players. Samsung is one of the first to take the horns, with the introduction of their Galaxy Player. The device works similarly to any phone running Android, with the difference being that it doesn’t make calls. However, any Android-capable phone will of course have the ability to do the same as any other media player (Galaxy and iTouch alike).
The difference is that with both types, you will experience a different experience across both platforms. This includes UI tweaks, different interactions with the software, and diverging availability of Apps in their respective application stores.
Spring is the season of giving, just like any other season. People have birthdays, and scholars graduate. We all have a chance to start fresh, and the ability to give the ones we love and care about inspiration and health. Music is the food of love, and fitness is the love of eating healthy food. Combining the two makes for a great combination, and with some of the suggestions we’ve made in the past three blog postings, you and your loved ones can live a beautiful and happy life.
Agent Salvatore A.
Deputy of Counter-Intelligence, Precinct 1129 (Maryland)
Deputy Salvatore has been fixing computers for 12 years, and policing technology at Geek Squad since 2009. He is “Chuck”: one minute he is working in the black and whites, and the next minute, he dons a tuxedo and heads to a concert (14 years on the violin, with a Master’s degree in Music) to play for Ambassadors and Dignitaries. Finally, he returns to his computer, and gives wisdom to the world through the Counter Intelligence Blog.
Getting in shape with the aid of technology!
Ah, Spring is here (and Summer is close behind). Who doesn’t love the sound of surf crashing on shore, the warm sun and a light breeze? With your new camera (discussed in our previous post), you can capture every moment! But what if winter has ravaged your physique, and you find yourself dodging the camera’s lens?
Personal trainers can be expensive. Fortunately, personal trainers have recently gotten an upgrade. Meet, Personal Trainers v2.0:
Fitbit is a radical new device that syncs to your smartphone or computer to deliver real-time data on your daily workouts! Using the app developed by the makers of the device, it will monitor your exercise intensity level, calories burned, steps taken, and even your sleep quality when you’re done for the day! All of this data will then be uploaded to your personal Fitbit website so you can track your progress, and reach the goals you’ve set for yourself.
If you are an avid runner, you know that it is sometimes hard to keep track of where you have been and how far you have gone. Personally, I have found myself lost in the middle of the woods after a run, armed only with my smartphone, and not knowing how I got there or where I was. Using Nike+ and its maps application got me home safe.
Nike+ is a dongle, smaller than a 9-volt battery. To use the device, place it in your shoe, and connect it to the app (limited to iOS devices). It will track your steps (acting as a pedometer), and sync to your device’s GPS to create a map of where you have been. It’s like being thrown into a real-life video game.
The Nike+ Watch is an upgrade to the still-powerful Nike+ dongle. The watch has a built-in GPS by TomTom and can track your time, distance, pace, heart rate and the number of calories you’ve burned. Couple it with the dongle and an iOS device for even more powerful tracking.
This blog is now going to inspire you by getting on its virtual soapbox… ready?
You should probably go for a walk. (Heck, we all could use it – especially those of us in the tech industry.) You look great and everything, but running clears your head, and releases endorphins, which gives you a very natural high feeling (minus all the drawbacks of an artificial one). All of this technology is great, but you need to put the work in if you want results. There is nothing that can replace good old-fashioned work. You can burn calories doing anything, like:
In the future, when robots become conscious and start to do everything for us, just think back to this article. As a human, technology can only help us so much. The robots will not be able to run for us. They cannot lift the weights for us. At the end of the day, we rule over technology (hopefully, and if not, we salute our future robot overlords), and harness it to make our own lives better.
Tune in May 6 for the final posting in our tech gifts segment, when we tackle ultrabooks and portable audio!
Agent Salvatore A.
Deputy of Counter-Intelligence, Precinct 1129 (Maryland)
Deputy Salvatore has been fixing computers for 12 years, and policing technology at Geek Squad since 2009. He is “Chuck”: one minute he is working in the black and whites, and the next minute, he dons a tuxedo and heads to a concert (14 years on the violin, with a Master’s degree in Music) to play for Ambassadors and Dignitaries. Finally, he returns to his computer, and gives wisdom to the world through the Counter Intelligence Blog.
As flowers emerge from a long winter’s nap, the promise of new, useful technology is already in full bloom. Spring is the time that many of us shake off our seasonal affective disorder to embrace the sunshine, all while capitalizing on the opportunity to add to your personal arsenal of gadgets in your quest for technological dominance.
Not sure you have the chops to step into this gladiatorial arena? Our 4-part series this week will give you what you need to know to help friends and family win that fight. First off – Cameras.
With forests regenerating, cherry blossoms coming into their glory and young adults graduating (finally!), there is no better time to upgrade your camera. Whether you are a crafty veteran looking for a DSLR, or an up-and-coming photographer looking to just point-and-shoot, the world of digital photography has radically changed how we take and share pictures. Most cameras currently on the market make taking consistently good snapshots very easy. So how do you know what you need? Here’s the breakdown.
Traditionally, single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras have always had the connotation of “only-to-be-used-by-professional-photographers-with-art-degrees”. With the growth of digital photography, the SLR has become much easier to use.
Film-based SLR cameras of yore (Nikons, Canons, Pentax, etc) were complicated to use mainly because the film that captured the picture was sensitive to light and temperature. Good photography required a darkroom, special equipment (chemicals, space, more chemicals), knowledge of how to mix developer and fixer, , skill in “dodging and burning” in the darkroom – in short, time, skill and patience.
Digital photography has made it much more simple. Gone are the vats of chemicals and expensive equipment, replaced by computer programs like Photoshop and GIMP. Cameras have gotten much smarter, with some of the photo processing effects that used to be achieved in the darkroom now living on-board the cameras themselves. These techniques include aperture and exposure adjustments, white balance, and even special effects like gray-scale, sepia tone, point-of-focus effects, and cropping.
Because DSLR cameras use an actual mirror mechanism and a dedicated sensor to capture the image, pictures processed on-board will be of a superior quality to a point-and-shoot. This comes in handy when watching your child (or grandchild, niece or nephew) walk across the stage to collect their diploma, as you now have the ability to capture the moment almost exactly how it looks to your eye.
But what about all those settings? Don’t I need to know how to set it up to get it to work right?
One of the best things about new DSLR cameras is most of them have an Auto setting! With all those advanced settings on the camera, someone who knows how to use them can create some unique effects on their photos – but for the complete beginner, Auto can handle those decisions for you, enabling you to take a beautiful picture with just the click of the shutter button.
Point-and-shoot. Taking a photo can be that simple. With the right camera and accessories, your biggest photographic challenge could be figuring out how to get your pictures uploaded to your favorite social network.
Point-and-shoot cameras are designed to produce top-quality photos with absolutely no effort. Using the technology developed for their DSLR cameras, Nikon, Canon and other camera makers have simplified the process of picture taking. Using on-board sensors and data capture techniques, these cameras are built to make all the decisions for you. (Best of all, the camera is smaller, and you don’t even have to set it on “Auto.”)
Modern digital cameras have made taking good photographs easier than ever. The main difference between DSLR and ‘point and shoot’ cameras is the ability of the photographer to adjust image-capture setting on the device. Though they don’t require it, DSLR cameras allow users to adjust exposure and other factors to give photos special effects. But if you don’t see yourself playing with those kinds of setting, a point-and-shoot camera is likely your best choice.
We hope this helped you understand the differences between DSLRs and Point-and-Shoot cameras, and how both can help meet your needs at any upcoming family reunion, vacation, graduation, or other special event. Check out the DIY section on geeksquad.com for tech tips and videos on how to get your photos off of your camera and make basic edits, and tune in tomorrow (May 5) for the next post in this series: fitness tech!
Agent Salvatore A.
Deputy of Counter-Intelligence, Precinct 1129 (Maryland)
Deputy Salvatore has been fixing computers for 12 years, and policing technology at Geek Squad since 2009. He is “Chuck”: one minute he is working in the black and whites, and the next minute, he dons a tuxedo and heads to a concert (14 years on the violin, with a Master’s degree in Music) to play for Ambassadors and Dignitaries. Finally, he returns to his computer, and gives wisdom to the world through the Counter Intelligence Blog.
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