Hardware

Laptop or desktop computers and any components within.

The Giz Wiz and the Luma Charge

Dick

Episode 1640

The Lumicharge Smart LED desk lamp 2.0 is loaded with useful features. First, it's a convenient place to charge your phone and other small electronic devices. The new 2.0 version adds a universal charging dock with a10W wireless charger for phones designed for charged wirelessly. The LED has three lighting modes: bright white, soft white and soft yellow. Within those modes, you have 10 degrees of brightness adjusted via up/down arrows. A built-in motion sensor turns a built-in night light ON when you enter a dark room and that feature has it's own on/off switch.

How Can I Print From a USB Thumb Drive?

Epson Expression 640

Episode 1640

Tim from Riverside, CA

Tim is interested in the Epson Ecotank Printer. but they don't seem to have a place to plug in a flash drive to print from them. Rich says that Epson may have dropped that feature because so many are printing wirelessly from their phones. He can, however, plug in an SD card and print that way. He may need to get a previous model that supports it on eBay. Another option is to look at Epson's business line. They may still support it. The Epson Expression 640 supports it. 

Google Buys FitBit for $2.1 Billion

FitBit

Episode 1640

With everyone pretty much owning a smartphone now, Rich says the next great mobile frontier is accessories for mobile devices. Google knows this and they have bought fitness tracker FitBit for $2.1 Billion. More than they paid for YouTube. Rich also says that Google needs this because its Google WearOS Devices haven't really taken off as they should. And while Google says that they will never share your personal health data, he believes that Google will erode that promise over time. Information is what Google is into.

 

How can I get my second monitor to match the resolution of my 5K iMac?

SwitchResX

Episode 1639

Chuck from Thousand Oaks, California

Chuck has a 5K iMac and a second LG 5K monitor. But he can't get the resolution to match. The window ends up 50% smaller. Leo says Apple has taken a lot of control away from users. He suggests trying an app called SwitchResX. It'll let you choose any resolution and frame rate your monitor will support.

How can I find out what's taking up space on my hard drive?

Solid State Drive

Episode 1639

George from Fontana, California

George went to back up his iPhone and he got a message that he's run out of room on his laptop. What can he do? Leo recommends installing WinDerStat. It's color-coded and can show you at a glance what is taking up all that room on your laptop. Then move stuff off of it into an external hard drive. Leo also recommends buying extra space on iCloud. For $2.99 a month you can backup 50GB of space. Great deal. Backing up to it is also the easiest thing to do.

Sam Abuelsamid and the Backseat Byton

Sam Abuelsamid

Episode 1639

Sam joins Leo from the back seat of a new electric vehicle called the Byton, founded by former executives from BMW and Nissan. Sam says it's a decent design with a nice interior. But the key design is a massive 48" display that spans the entire dashboard. The screen, which isn't a touchscreen, is too far away to touch it, so you use a touch interface to manipulate it.  Because it's so far away, it's closer to your line of sight, making it easier to keep it in focus and prevents you from looking away from the road. Leo says it's pretty weird.

The Giz Wiz and the Smart Selfie

Dick

Episode 1638

Pictar has devised a totally different kind of Selfie Stick. Recently the CEO of Miggo / Pictar, Rafy David, came by the Gizneyland studio to give us a look at how it works. The company says that the Pictar Smart Stick is the world's most advanced selfie stick with a 6-button control panel built into the handle. You'll be able to perform a variety of useful functions even when the stick is fully extended.