This week a client asked me to share some of my favorite technology. Here are my top 5 pieces of technology that I use nearly everyday that make my life easier or more enjoyable:
My office is my car and this little device allows me to charge my laptop, cell phone and iPad at the same time by plugging into my cars cigarette lighter socket. On those days when I have forgotten to charge my laptop at home, it gives me peace of mind to know that I can charge my laptop as I drive to a client's location. I was able to purchase this on amazon for $23.
I installed one of the Q-See systems in my house after a rash of break-ins in my neighborhood. My system came with 8 cameras and a DVR to record activity. The system can be set up so it will notify me via email when activity is recorded. Also, I can watch a live video stream from the security cameras from my iPad or Computer via an internet connection. Not only does this give me a little peace of mind, but it allowed my home insurance rates to be lowered. The Q-See system starts $300 and can go as high as $2000 depending the number and type of cameras your purchase.
Years ago, I started converting all my DVDs to a digital format and storing them on Network Accessible Storage devices in order to stream them to my TVs and computers. At the time, I was using the original AppleTV to stream to my television. The problem with the original and new AppleTVs was their inability accept video formats other than .m4v or .mov video files. The conversion time for certain DVDs to these formats could take up to 12 hours depending on the processor my computer had.
After becoming tired of the encoding processes, I found the Western Digital TV. This device would play almost any video format, including VOB files. I am now able to simply rip a DVD or BluRay and store it for playback without having to encode it into another format. This save me time without losing any video quality that comes along with the encoding process. The Western Digital TV Hub allows me to stream my content to other Western Digital TV devices, so now I can really store all my movies in one location and access them from any TV in my house. Also, the devices will connect to services such as Netflix or Hulu. The WDTV Live Hub costs around $200.
The airport express is a nifty little device. It can function in one of three roles: network print server, wifi extender or wireless audio. I use my airport express devices to stream audio throughout my house. I can plug speakers into the airport express and then using an iPod, iPad or computer I can control the streaming of music from iTunes or other Apps such as Pandora or iHeartRadio that is configured to use the AirPlay technology from Apple. This makes Saturday morning house cleaning much more enjoyable as my music easily follows me from room to room. The Airport Express costs about $99.
It is embarrassing how often my wife and I would lock ourselves out of our house. It happened so often that I eventually broke down and spent the money on the iTouchless biometric door lock. It was kind of pricey at $300, but it has more than paid for itself over the years. The iTouchless was not necessarily easy to install, but it was worth the effort I had to put into the installation process. It is powered by four double a batteries and I found that those batteries would power this device for nearly two years. The storing of fingerprints into the iTouchless is quite easy and I find the biometric reader does a fine job scanning my fingerprints. It also has a keypad that I can use to program a numeric code that will allow access. This is by far my favorite piece of technology because I never have to worry about taking my house key with me. My key is always with me now.
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