Reviews

I love John Scalzi’s books, he’s one of my favorite authors in my favorite genre. But what’s also great about John is he’s a nerd at heart, and his recent blog post about his experiences of using an iPad Pro on the road (in place of a Pixelbook, no less!) is a joy to read.

John, do get the matte screen protector — not only will it make writing with the Pencil easier and reduce glare, it helps a ton with the finger grease problem.

As a virtual assistant, Alexa is quite good: it responds quickly, often knows what it is you want, and is capable of doing many things.

As something I want to actually use, it’s terrible, all thanks to Amazon’s relentless upsells after Alexa responds. That’s my takeaway from Jen Tuohy’s review of the new Echo Pop, where it attempted to get her to pay for a louder alarm after she asked it to set an alarm. What a nightmare.

My recent live/work experiment in the all-electric VW ID Buzz wouldn’t have been possible without BioLite’s first portable battery and solar panel. It was needed to provide continuous power to my Starlink internet, laptops, phones, and more because the Microbus can’t when parked. The BaseCharge 1500 has some minor quirks, but if it’s specced and priced right for your needs then it’s worth considering.

I just got review units of Amazon’s latest Alexa-powered smart speaker and will be putting them through their paces this weekend. Throw any questions you have about the newest (and cheapest) Echo at me in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to answer them in the review.