Mobile

Amazfit Bip Review

Amazfit Bip Review (used in real life) Earlier this year I purchased a Xiaomi MiBand 2 for myself and my wife. I had been looking for a fitnesss watch and someone at work showed me their miBand. If you have never heard of this device you are not alone. Xiaomi is great smart phone maker out of China. They have also …

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Bolt CMS – Great Simple CMS engine – Review

Bolt CMS Discovery I recently had a need to setup a site with a content management system. In the past I would just use WordPress. However, recently it seems that WordPress has become more overhead than needed. Don’t get me wrong I love WordPress, and all the features it provides like woocommerce, SEO, and every other plugin. In this particular case …

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Secure Home Network for Kids – Safe Browsing

Secure Your Network for Kids I have 4 children and often have family over to our home.  At any given time there are around 30 plus devices on our network.  My wife and I have talked to our children about safe usage of the web but I am just as concerned of malicious websites and adware as I am of my …

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Wifi in Car – No More DVD’s – Spring Break Tech

I love technology and I love my family. However these two have collided and we have had some challenges. One of those challenges relates to cords; yes I mean power cords.   Some years ago I purchased a few portable DVD players.  These great little items allowed my children to watch movies while we traveled. My parents and family live more than …

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Install phonegap 3 on Windows 8

PhoneGap 3 I recently wanted to test an idea on an android device.  To quickly write up a proof of concept I decided to use PhoneGap.  I have used PhoneGap in the past but the current Version 3.1 (at the time of writing) is more mature than when I previously developed with it. I was prepared to walk through a few …

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Mobile Screenshots for presentations

I often have to do presentations or showcase a site or an application.   I find taking pictures or showcasing the application can help many people get a sense of what I am talking about.  I recently discovered a great tool to take a screenshot of your app or website using multiple devices.    http://placeit.breezi.com/ has Mobile devices, tablets, pc’s and  other great …

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Tech Travel

I recently went on a trip to San Francisco for the Microsoft Build Conference. First and foremost the conference was excellent. You can say what you want about Microsoft, but they are making both hardware and great software. Packing for a trip like Build, where everyone got a Surface Pro and another tablet, I had to make sure to be ready …

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iPad VPN – OpenVPN – PFsense

I have been waiting for a while for a good openvpn client to be available for the iPad or iPhone with out JailBreaking. A few months back openvpn released an app for the iPad and iPhone. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/openvpn-connect/id590379981 Head on over and download if you are a pfsense user. I recommend anyone who is using public / unsecured wifi to use VPN. …

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Mobile Detect Script

Mobile Detection

In the past year I have developed a few mobile websites. These normally consist of a specific mobile view (jquerymobile) or a responsive design. In the case of a specific mobile view, you need some type of mechanism to detect the type of browser that is viewing the site. Because of the ever increasing mobile browsers and devices this is a …

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Nest

I don’t often go out for Black Friday. I like the idea of deals, but do not like dealing with people. So this year my wife asked to get the nest (nest.com) – The learning thermostat. Lowe’s had the system on sale. So instead of heading to their store with thousands of other people. I got up in the morning and …

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Windows Store App – Send Email

I have just submitted my first app to the Windows app store. I will send the link out once it gets approved. During the development process I had experimented with a lot of options for my applications. I finally decided to use an html / javascript app type. The choices in for the Windows Store Apps are C#/VB, C++, or HTML/Javascript. …

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Windows 8 or Windows Store App Icons

If you are developing a windows store app (an app for windows 8) you may be in need of some icons. A great way to get some icons that are already available is to use the built-in Segoe UI Symbol font. This is what is referenced when you see the MSDN samples regarding the app bar. I did not have a …

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RSS in Safari iOS 6

Apple released the new iOS6 in September. The new OS has some great features and new enhancements. The one item I am baffled about and have not read much about is the removal of native RSS viewing from Safari. This may not sound like much but prior to iOS6 on an iPad or iPhone you could go directly to an RSS …

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Mobile Web Testing

I have been doing more mobile web sites recently. My preference has been to use responsive design that allows for any display size. The display size can range from Desktop, TV, tablet or phone. However, I have found it is important to know your target audience and also do testing. Not all browsers are understanding of the @media and HTML5 components. …

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Mobile First – Responsive Design

I’ve got a lot of email lately and also people asking about responsive design. They are interested in what it is and why anyone would do it. The typical conversation revolves around the definition that response design allows you to target any type of display size (mobile, tablet, desktop ,etc). Once people hear that, they instantly go to one of two …

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