Articles by Phil Nickinson

Nest didn’t reinvent the doorbell — that was done already. But it’s made the best one you can buy.

This review was written on March 27, 2018, and reflects the reviewer’s thoughts at that time.

In retrospect, I should have seen this coming long ago. The idea of a video doorbell isn’t all that novel. It’s just a basic button, camera, speaker, and mic, with some flashing lights tossed in. That’s not all that technologically advanced, right?

Nor does such a thing need to do all that much. It needs to show you who’s at the door. It needs to allow you to talk to that person, and you talk to them. And it needs to record all this somewhere accessible, should something untoward happen.

No. Video doorbells, at their core, really are relatively simple products. So what could Nest Doorbell (wired) — the video doorbell entry from the Google-owned company known for its gorgeous thermostats, cameras, security system (and not-inexpensive prices) possibly do that the other best video doorbel…

Get out and put your feet to the pavement

For many of us, running is hard work. Maybe it’s a motivation thing, or perhaps it’s a physical thing. Whatever the reason, the simple fact is that running is exercise, and exercise can be a real pain.

We’re taking a look at some of the best running apps for Android, and we’ve got a few different kinds of apps here. Some are more of the hard-core variety, for folks used to exercise who may be looking to increase and improve the way they do things. The best part about most of these apps is that they can integrate with the best fitness trackers, so you can have all of your workout information in one place. Others are more simple — only tracking steps or basic movement. There’s a place for all of these, and some of them work rather nicely with the best fitness apps.

The top 3 apps

1. Strava
2. Runkeeper
3. Nike Run Club

More options

Zombies, Run!
Run with Map My Run
Fitbit
Adidas Running App by Runtastic
Endomondo – Running & Wa…

Best answer: If your house is already equipped with low-voltage doorbell wiring, the Doorbell Pro is the best consumer-grade video doorbell in Ring’s lineup. Otherwise, the Video Doorbell 3 can run off of a rechargeable battery and offers most of the same features.

Your wired future: Ring Video Doorbell Pro ($190 at Amazon)
A battery marvel: Ring Video Doorbell 3 ($150 at Amazon)
Pre-Roll: Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus ($180 at Amazon)
The most premium: Ring Video Doorbell Elite ($350 at Amazon)
Peekaboo: Ring Peephole Cam ($80 at Amazon)

What is a Ring Doorbell?

Ring’s line of Wi-Fi-connected video doorbells is a great way to secure your home and give yourself some peace of mind when you’re waiting on a package or going away on vacation. They detect motion before anyone gets near your door, alert your smartphone, and start recording video.

That footage gets stored in the cloud (with a subscription fee, of course), so you don’t have to be watching live to catch a would-be burglar….

Closed captions are great for those who need them to enjoy what’s on the television. Captions you can adjust to meet your needs are even better.

It’s easy to talk about accessibility. Actually following through is where it counts. And to that end, there’s a surprising feature tucked inside the HBO Max app on Android TV.

Head on to the top and enter into your profile section, and you’ll see a section called “Closed Captioning.” Scroll on over to it and you’re greeted with a bunch of options for changing how captions look. And we’re not just talking about size here. We’re talking fonts. We’re talking colors. We’re talking backgrounds and opacity. We’re talking about style. So if you want drop shadows on your captions, you can have them. If you want full opacity, it’s yours. If you want the window to be green and the text red, have at it. If you want to read things in a script font instead of something more socially acceptable, the world’s your oyster.

And you’ll get an example of …

Watch and pay for HBO Max, all from your YouTube TV account.

Google’s YouTube TV has quickly become one of the top sources for live television. It’s most definitely in the Top 3, right alongside Hulu With Live TV (which has been the official No. 1), and Sling TV. In addition to a rather solid stable of channels available for $49.99 a month, there also are a number of premium add-ons available.

And for the first time, those add-ons now include HBO and HBO Max, as well as Cinemax. The former has been available on other streaming services, like AT&T TV (AT&T is the parent company of WarnerMedia, which owns HBO and HBO Max) and Hulu. And while YouTube TV has offered monthly subscriptions to the likes of Showtime, HBO had eluded customers, leaving them to subscribe elsewhere.

Today, that’s changed, meaning you can now watch HBO and Cinemax directly from within your YouTube TV account, as well as pay for it via your YouTube TV bill and your Google account. (This actually was one…

But can it compete with similar products from Amazon and Roku?

TiVo — which once upon a time ruled the digital recording market — has finally made available the TiVo Stream 4K. It’s a $49 streaming dongle that it says is “the market’s first unifying streamer.” The gist, it continues, is that it’s “the ultimate streaming device that brings together shows and movies from your favorite platforms, like or streaming, on one screen.”

If that sounds a good bit like every other piece of streaming hardware, from Android TV to Apple TV to Roku and Amazon Fire TV, well, that’s because at the end of the day it does the same thing as all fo them. But TiVo is banking on its user interface and a direct integration with Sling TV to make a difference with customers.

“At a time when viewers are streaming more than ever across a sea of platforms, TiVo Stream 4K integrates that content with recommendation and search features to make it easier to find, watch and enjoy the best news, entertainme…

And rebates are being offered.

Automatic — which uses a cellular-connected device plugged into your car’s OBD-II port to provide diagnostic, tracking and analytics data — is shutting down. The company sent out an email to users today noting that the COVID-19 pandemic is the cause, and that means the end of “the Automatic connected car product, service, and platform.”

The service will shut down at midnight Pacific time on May 28.

Automatic was purchased by SiriusXM in April 2017 and featured a couple flavors of connected car devices. Automatic Pro housed its own 3G radio and could upload information at its leisure, which also allowed for real-time tracking of a vehicle. Automatic Lite relied on a Bluetooth connection with your phone to upload the data.

Automatic worked with pretty much any car out there, and with both Android and iOS devices. You’d buy it once and have a “lifetime” of use. It’d track each drive, showing how much (and where) you traveled, estimating the cost …