Brad Moon

There’s a huge mass of Star Wars geeks out there (myself included) watching every move Disney and J.J Abrams make as a new crop of Star Wars releases draws ever closer. If there’s one thing guaranteed to get the attention of these Star Wars fans, it’s a peek at what Abrams is working on. And if there’s one thing guaranteed to get pop culture geeks in general in a froth, it’s a mash-up between franchises. J.J. Abrams just managed both in one shot with his HUNKA JUNK YouTube clip of the new Millennium Falcon from his forthcoming Star Wars film—with a very unexpected Easter egg.  

Motorola kept everyone guessing about exactly when they were going to do their official product announcements at IFA 2014, but it finally happened on Friday. That’s okay, we pretty much knew what was coming. The Moto 360 —the round-faced Android Wear smartwatch that everyone’s been talking about for the past six months— is finally official and coming to Canadian launch partner Best Buy this fall. Also announced were the next generation Motorola smartphones, the Moto X and Moto G and the tiny Moto Hint earpiece.

IFA 2014 was the location for yet more high tech announcements as Sony got in the game. Among the new products from Sony are the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (billed as the world’s slimmest and lightest compact tablet), new smartphones led by the new Xperia Z3 flagship, a new Android Wear-powered Smartwatch 3 and the SmartBand Talk fitness tracker.

If a growing horde of smartphones, tablets, game consoles, laptops, smart appliances, connected cameras and video streamers is congesting your Wi-Fi network, Netgear has a solution. The Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band Wi-Fi router offers a total of 3.2Gbps over three Wi-Fi bands to maximize the wireless performance of each of those devices. I plugged one in to my home network and here’s how the stealthy looking, six-antenna router performed.

If there’s one thing better than sitting on the beach, it’s sitting on the beach with a good book. An e-book, preferably. Unfortunately water, sand and e-readers don’t mix and protective cases can be a pain. Kobo has fixed that problem once and for all with the all new Kobo Aura H2O, a waterproof, sandproof and dustproof e-reader.

Technology is a big part of student life and a computer has become integral to the educational experience. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 is a powerful device that can physically transform into a laptop form factor, becoming a true ultra-mobile alternative to a laptop or desktop PC —while offering all the advantages of a tablet.

One of the rituals of going back to school these days is choosing a new smartphone. I’m going through it myself as my daughter starts high school. Which smartphone is the best for students? The answer depends on many factors, and ultimately everyone is going to come up with a different pick depending on how much importance they put on things like price or app selection. In this post I’ll walk you through factors you should consider and offer a few contenders as the best smartphone for students.

Apple recently updated the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, moving to faster processors, doubling the RAM in base-model configurations and dropping the price of the top-of-the-line 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Sounds good, but what does it all mean? How much faster are the new models? What’s the difference between a MacBook Pro, a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and a MacBook Air? Which one should I choose? How do Retina displays compare to the labels I see on Windows laptops, like HD and FHD? I’ll answer all of these questions and more as we explore Apple’s MacBook line of OSX laptops.  

When your Wi-Fi network is set up properly and everything’s humming, life is good. But what happens when it’s time for a new router, or when you move out of your parents’ house to go to college or university and need to start from scratch with your own Wi-Fi network? Building a new wireless network —complete with printer access and storage— used to be a challenge, but these days you don’t need to be a systems administrator to do it. In fact, most router companies offer plug and play options that make setup and configuration a matter of minutes.