How to mute Mr. and Mrs. Tweet-too-Much

TwitterBottles

Your best friends have taken their first vacation in years and from the moment they left for the airport, they’ve been tweeting a mile-a-minute. You really don’t want to block or unfollow either of them, but with the flood of tweets, you are so tempted, you really are. The good news: Twitter has found a cure for that.

Twitter is just rolling out a new mute feature for its users. Muting doesn’t deep six them or sic the Tweet Police on them, it basically keeps their tweets from showing up on your timeline. It also stops you from getting SMS or push notifications from them.

Your friends are not alerted so no feelings will be hurt. In fact they won’t even know that you’ve muted, or for lack of a better term, silenced them. Also good to avoid embarrassment!

Read more… At Canoe Tech Blog

Netflix subscriptions jump by $1

HouseOfCardsBut still a very good deal.…

EDMONTON, AB, May 12, 2014/ Troy Media/ – If you’ve been putting off subscribing to Netflix and watching the scheming Kevin Spacey in Emmy-award winning House of Cards until now, it’s going to cost you just a little bit more to subscribe.

Netflix says the $1 price increase (from $7.99 to $8.99) is necessary if it was to continue to add more movies and TV shows to its roster and continue to provide original and exclusive (and expensive) content. House of Cards just released Season 2 in February and Orange is the New Black will debut Season 2 on June 6th.

Netflix recently sent out an e-mail to current members advising them of the change and how it would affect them now and in the long term.

“As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee your plan and price (excluding tax) will not change for two years.”

The company added that they would guarantee the current price members pay as long as they maintained current membership.

READ FULL ARTICLE at TROY MEDIA

CanoeTech: Gadgets Mom would love

INstax Mini 8 Pink

As Mother’s Day is just around the corner, have you found the perfect gift just for mom? Here are a few ideas that you may not have thought of, that will be a treat for your hard-working Mom beyond that special day.

Instax Camera

If you thought the instant camera of yesteryear has gone the way of the dodo bird, think again. Mom can still take snaps and get some cool little pics almost instantly with the FujiFilm Instax Mini 8. This funky cool camera is focus free and features an automatic flash so Mom can just point and shoot. It prints out 62mm x 46mm credit card size prints immediately and within moments you can see the picture coming alive.     Read more… AT Canoe Tech Blog

Create touch-free music with iRing

iring_1

In the past, unless you were a vocalist, it would have been pretty tough to create music without your hands. Now iRing, a new nifty little product by IK Multimedia, changes all that. It uses motion-tracking technology to control music apps that will allow you to create musical masterpieces with your iOS devices using simple hand gestures and without even touching your screen.

iRing is a cleverly designed reversible double-sided wearable ring that you wear between your fingers rather than on a specific finger that acts as a real-time wireless motion controller for your iOS device.

It’s powered by hand gestures that can control three parameters simultaneously on each of the two rings (six parameters in total) through the simple process of moving your hands in front of your device in specific motion patterns.

Read more…at  CANOE Tech Blog

Win a Griffin Merchant Case + Square Reader for iPhone 5/5s/SE

 

griffinmerchcaseIf you’re keen on accepting credit cards for your business, garage sale or what have you and use an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S/SE, accessory maker Griffin Technology and mobile payment company Square have teamed up to offer a protective case and Square Reader in one nice little low-cost bundle.

Griffin Merchant Case + Square Reader is a case/reader combo specifically designed for merchants on the go.  It protects your iPhone from accidental drops, with a slot that allows you to store your Square point-of-sale reader in the back and easily carry it around.

 

[Read more…]

Apple beefs up MacBook Air processors and battery life

macbook-air

The MacBook Air still looks the same but under the hood they now have a little more zip, being updated with the latest power efficient fourth generation Intel Core processors.

All MacBook Air models now come standard with the fourth generation dual-core 1.4Ghz Intel Core i5 processors with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 2.7GHz and Intel Graphics HD 5000 video. They still feature 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as either 128GB or 256GB of flash storage. iLife and iWork are still included.

For even more power, the configure-to-order options can give you an even faster 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, up to 8GB of memory and up to 512GB of solid state flash storage.

Read more… at CANOE Tech Blog

Street Blaster Bluetooth speaker packs a 1000 watt punch

PyleAudio 1000 Watts

Pyle Audio’s latest speaker system is like a ghetto blaster on steroids.  Looking more like a rocket engine than a speaker, Street Blaster is a true stereo boombox that packs 1000 watts of power. You can stream music to it via Bluetooth using any iOS or Android device plus connect via NFC (Near Field Communication) if your device supports it.

Read more… at Canoe Tech Blog

Review: Nest Learning Thermostat

We can use Home Automation devices to monitor our homes, keep us secure and turn our lights on and off. So why not use technology to help monitor and control the energy used to heat and cool our homes? The Nest Learning Thermostat can do just that – on its own- via the web and also through an app. Nest isn’t totally new, but the latest version, the 2nd generation model, is certainly much improved and you don’t have to be a geek to make the most of it. Great news if you’re a resident of Alberta, you may have an opportunity to get one free from Direct Energy.

The biggest thing to appreciate is that Nest is more than just a programmable thermostat – setting the device to turn on and off at predetermined times. It knows when you turn it up and knows when you turn it down and even knows when you’re away. It monitors usage and learns your habits, when you want to be toasty warm and when you want it a little cooler. It does this for about a week or so after installation and then it programs itself. When you configure it upon set up, you also give it your postal code, so it knows what the temperature is like outside so it can also learn vis-a-vis your actual environment.

Read more… AT CANOE TECH BLOG

Nomad – ChargeCard, ChargeKey makers catch their breath

It’s rare you get a personalized special update message from a company letting you know where they’re at. But this is what happened to me today. Nomad which began as Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects and the makers of ChargeCard and ChargeKey, reviewed here and G4TV.ca, chimed in to tell me that they’ve cleaned up their backorders and are now able to fulfill orders the same day.
They’ve come a long way since their crowdfunding project kickstarted back in 2012 starting with the two co-founders in their grandparent’s basement to a full-fledged operation of 15 people in the heart of San Francisco.
So far, they’ve:
– Made over $2.5M in sales since launch
– Shipped nearly 100,000 cables
– Fulfilled all Kickstarter and Indiegogo pledges and pre-sales
– Become one of the top Shopify stores, the second in gross sales in the electronics category
Glad to hear about Nomad’s entrepreneurial success and look forward in hearing about their 3rd product which they are in the process of launching.

Apple CarPlay for the vehicle you already have

PioneerCar PlayWere you excited about Apple’s CarPlay that brings Siri’s voice control and other iPhone 5 functionality to your car, but saddened by the fact that it’s only available on new cars? If a brand new car is not in the cards in 2014, you might still be able to get Apple CarPlay in the vehicle you currently own as Pioneer Electronics will introduce a firmware update to their five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receiver systems later this year.

Read more…AT CANOE Tech Blog