Microsoft Outlook for iPad

Here's another option for accessing your email accounts from your iPad.  In addition to Microsoft's email systems, you can also define Apple iCloud, Google Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts.  While I personally like the Divide app to separate work and play, the Outlook app has a nice look and feel, better swipe gestures and a cool feature that allows you to easily send times you're calendar is open, so finding meetings times becomes less a chore.

There's an Android version available for preview, but it appears a bit buggy at this time.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id951937596

2015 Sci-Fi Movies

While I do take in the occasional non-science-fiction movie (American Sniper was brilliant), I prefer super-powers, lightsabers, people that fly and crazy technology.  2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year with a reboot of the Fantastic Four, the continuation of the Star Wars franchise, the introduction to the world of Ant-Man and my personal I-can't-wait-for movie, the second Avengers.

May 1
Avengers: Age of Ultron

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/

July 17

Ant-Man

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/

August 7

Fantastic Four

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1502712/

December 18

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/

The Fiber Four

Google has just announced the next four cities, and some of their surrounding areas, to get their one-gigabit (i.e. really super-fast) Internet service, all clustered in the southeast U.S. as shown below in purple. Also shown, in gray, are five more cities that might also be so blessed in the near future.

Why the need for speed?  Well, 20 megabits is needed for a single Ultra HD Netflix video stream (think House of Cards), which exceeds my current has-always-been-fast-enough 15-megabit service from Time Warner.  And while I can upgrade to 50 megabits, it will cost about the same as Google Fiber, but still 20 times slower.

Google, can you hear me?  O-H!

http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-fiber-is-coming-to-atlanta.html

TEDxDayton 2014

All the presentations from the 2014 TEDxDayton conference are now available on YouTube.  My favorite was "An Alien Experience", followed closely by "Seeing Our Next Reality" and "Creating Something Timeless".  This link will take you to a playlist with all the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsRNoUx8w3rNc2H7KSmhgNQy9q5UGGvhO

NFL Channel on YouTube

The NFL and Google have reached an agreement that brings NFL highlights and previews to YouTube.  Subscribe to the NFL's YouTube channel and cozy up with your favorite streaming device (e.g. Roku, Chromecast, AppleTV) and big-screen TV.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVYQ4Zhbm3S2dlz7P1GBDg

Amazon Echo

I pre-ordered the Amazon Echo at half price ($99) with my Amazon Prime membership.  The Echo, which responds to its name "Alexa", is a voice recognition device that plays music, is an alarm clock and can answer questions.  It's nine inches tall, must be plugged into an electrical outlet and have a good wireless Internet connection to work.  Wish I didn't have to wait until April.

http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ref_=ods_dp_ae

Opus Single Serve Brewer

I've been a huge fan of my Keurig coffee machine.  Not the cheapest cup of Joe, but for a quick shot of great tasting wake-up in the morning, it couldn't be beat.  But their K-Cup patent expired a couple years ago and they responded to the injection of competition by releasing Keurig 2.0 which only works with their new K-Cups containing their proprietary microchip technology.

In other words, you're screwed if you buy a new Keurig machine.

But there are alternatives, like this iCoffee Opus machine.  It's available at Bed, Bath and Beyond, which also happens to have a large collection of K-Cups at the best price I've found.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/icoffee-opus-single-serve-brewer/1043571864

Viper 4105V

The latest edition to my (sometimes) overwhelming collection of technology toys serves the noble purpose of eliminating the manual chore of scraping ice off my Jeep's windows on frosty winter mornings. Thanks to my wife for this wonderful Christmas present!

http://car-audio-dayton.oh-biz.com/

Iron Horse Bikeway - Stroop and Wilmington to Delco Park

Assuming this project moves forward in 2015, we'll have another piece of the Iron Horse Trail completed.  From the map below, between the red lines, you can see the lines of trees where to old short track railroad used to run.  Houses were built on both sides of the track, forming the outline.  

If you look closely you can see another line of trees a few block west of the intersection of Wilmington Pike and Stroop Road, heading northwest.  That's the southern, undeveloped portion of the bikeway that begins at Wiltshire Blvd, between Acorn Drive and Candlewood Drive, crosses Shroyer Road, goes underneath Patterson Road and finally crossing Irving Avenue to end at the southern edge of the University of Dayton.

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MOT-Iron Horse Bikeway. PID 90822 – The City of Kettering proposes to extend the Iron Horse Trail from its existing terminus at Stroop and Wilmington to Delco Park off Dorothy Lane.  The majority of the trail will extend along the former railroad.  

10-in-1 Universal USB Combo Charger Cable

Did it ever drive you crazy that you had every cable imaginable except the one you needed?

For $8.50 this bad boy might just be your answer.  Ten of the most popular connectors in one octopus-looking cable.  Sweet!

http://www.amazon.com/Xcessor-Universal-Charger-BlackBerry-Ericsson/dp/B006L9XHHW