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Find great gift ideas in the Technology Tell Apple Gift Guide

These days, pretty much everyone knows at least one person who carries an Apple product for daily use. In my house alone, there are four of us. With that many Apple products out there, you just know there has to be even more gift opportunities, and figuring out what to buy can be overwhelming.

That’s where the Technology Tell Apple Channel steps in...

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Can your music pass the TIDAL test?

TIDAL, the premium music streaming service that launched in the U.S. this fall, has launched a new site to test the difference between compressed and uncompressed music.

The test, available at test.tidalhifi.com, is meant to allow users to directly compare compressed music with uncompressed, to assure that they are “achieving the most out of their audio equipment.”

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Review: Icon Q Boundless bluetooth earphones

Icon Q’s Boundless bluetooth earbuds are unexpectedly neat. I’ve been walking around with them around my neck for two weeks now– not solely because I constantly forget they’re there– and I’m feeling myself becoming increasingly obsessed with them.

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8 gadgets and apps for tech-savvy teachers

Classrooms today consist of much more than a chalkboard and textbooks. In fact, many present-day classrooms have done away with both.

Today’s students are digital natives, so their well-prepared teachers should come armed with the tools necessary to feed their appetite for instant knowledge.

Tech gadgets for the modern-day classroom are aplenty. Check out these sizzling gadgets and apps that have the potential to help sculpt a proper classroom for the modern day:

1. Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer

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Review: Adonit Jot Script & Touch

I’ve spent the past week or so with the new Adonit Jot Script and Jot Touch. For some background, if you haven’t seen my other stylus reviews, I love to draw on my iPad– I draw disney characters and not much more, because I’m eternally nine years old.

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The 4 worst parents on the internet

The Laptop Cowboy

This dad is an “IT expert”, which you find out early on in the video during his first Humble Brag moment, of which there are many– too many for a video not about him, I’d say. He found a nasty status update on his 15-year-old daughter’s Facebook wall condemning her parents for treating her “like a slave” and making her life harder than it needs to be, presumably because she was feeling some pressure from her accumulating responsibilities, of which she’s never known in her ~10 years of self-awareness. A 15-year-old feeling pressure? What a WILD CONCEPT! If only she had loving, supportive parents to guide her through this period of turmoil.

Instead of recognizing this complaint from his daughter as the same whiny, angsty musings that every middle-class American teenager in the history of the entire post-Industrial Revolution nation has, he takes this as a personal attack on his character and chooses to express the valid point that she “has it easy” by wagging his cigarette-gripping finger at her via Youtube and shooting ~*~special~*~ exploding cowboy bullets through her computer. Because the best way to teach a child about privilege is to directly antagonize her on a public stage. Sure, can’t see how could that would breed anything but respect and submission from his daughter….

The worst part about this video is that this father is not only literally dressed like a cowboy, he actually displays textbook Cowboy behavior by stroking his own ego, delivering self-praise, and comparing his adult self to his adolescent child before literally pulling out a gun and destroying a $700 computer while explaining how badass his bullets are– because taking down a wild laptop in the wilderness requires a ~*~special~*~ kind of weapon. He’s not like a regular dad, he’s a cool dad.

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6 things the Harry Potter fandom doesn’t even know it wants yet

I'm going to start off by saying that the title of this story is misleading and yes, it's because the title field doesn't fit "Weird fan fictions I either invented or have indulged in that should be made into a real Later Years book".

Here are the six things that the [easyazon-link asin="0545162076" locale="us"]Harry Potter[/easyazon-link] may or may not know it wants that J.K. Rowling will probably never give us. (Never say never?)

1. Malfoy/Granger affair

Let's skip the part where everyone goes, "Ewww I HATE Malfoy!" and jump straight to part where we all admit we want this to happen for real:

We all know tragic Draco had a huge hard-on for Hermione and, if we're being honest with ourselves, we wanted it so bad. If you think you don't want it, you just don't know it yet because you totes didn't read the books (book-shaming you!) or you read them after your Hogwarts-age hormones stopped confusing you. #millennialproblems. Either way, it doesn't take a literature expert to deduce that Malfoy had a major guilt complex about his infatuation with Granger Danger that drove him to his sociopathic ethos before he was rescued from true evil by that harsh smash of reality in year 6.

In 2016, a more mature Malfoy and a maritally jaded Hermione meet again at the Leaky Cauldron and fall into a forbidden love affair that ends in a dual between Ron and Malfoy. Malfoy is ripped with blonde five o'clock shadow and his newfound character is written by Nicholas Sparks.

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Sonos Studio NYC merges art, tech and music

Sonos, a company that has long pursued the perfect merger of music with technology, furthered that cause—with a strong artistic flair—as it previewed its Sonos Studio NYC experience on Sept. 30. The attraction will be open through Oct. 5th.

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Luxy Diary: Day 1 1/2 on ‘Tinder for rich people’

Yesterday I set out on a brave new journey to find my rich soulmate and was completely disappointed to find that the app was broken.

I waxed UNpoetic about the trials and tribulations of Tinder “riff-raff” (STREET RAT!) and patted myself on the back for being just attractive enough to slip on in through the “attractive female” door that doesn’t require a six figure salary. Then, I attempted to log into the magic land of good-looking trust fund babies only to spend a half an hour sobbing over what almost was.

At nearly midnight last night (just call me Luxy Cinderella, mostly because it sounds like a Nicki Minaj song), the gold- and -diamond-encrusted gates swung open and the holy land revealed itself to me. Here’s how day 1.5 went:

11:30 PM Was just about to go to sleep but oh my god the app just opened. Welcome to your destiny, sweet one.

11:32 PM My profile automatically incorporated a photo of me holding my niece and NOW EVERYBODY THINKS I HAVE A KID. CRAP. I don’t even want to know how many hedge fund heroes have swiped left on me because of this COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE BLUNDER.

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Luxy Diary: Day 1 on ‘Tinder for rich people’

Luxy is a new dating app, straight from the crucible that is Silicon Valley, which employs the catchphrase “Tinder minus the poor people,” in case you were wondering where it lies on a one to 10 scale of elitism. (It’s a 10.)

As a Tinder veteran with what I would call expert-level Tinder game, I downloaded this app quite literally immediately after reading about it on the beloved Internet.

It’s certainly true that Tinder has declined in its usefulness over the past two years; now completely saturated with every frat guy, cheater and self-proclaimed playa’ who can afford an iPhone, it’s forcing us ladies to wade through a pile of delusional Average Joe’s who come saddled with all the best kinds of baggage, including but not limited to chronic unemployment, alcohol abuse and, most often, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS.

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No, Ebola isn’t likely to become airborne

The Ebola virus has been the talk of the town– the town being the planet, in this case– and contagion mongering is spreading faster than pregnancy rumors in a 1940s suburb.

As most pop-culturally relevant folks born before Y2K have seen and pooped their pants over the film “Outbreak”, the natural course of fear mongering during this epidemic is to result in widespread panic over possible airborne mutations of the virus, even finding a home on our major news outlets.

To be sure, Ebola’s mutation into an airborne killer in “Outbreak” was 100% written as a plot device and not a social commentary on what lies ahead. Had it not been for this film, virus evolution speculation likely would not be reigning over our Facebook Timelines.

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Angelina Jolie signs on to make ‘Africa’ her next directing project

Apparently, it’s not good enough to be an Academy Award winning actress (for ‘Girl, Interrupted’), or a major league international box office superstar (her latest effort, Disney’s ‘Maleficent,’ has earned a staggering $755 million worldwide). It’s not enough to be married to one of the best looking men in the world (Brad Pitt) or to be considered one of the most beautiful women working in movies. No, Angelina Jolie wants it all and she’s bound and determined to get it, including a chance at being taken seriously as a filmmaker. Her first effort, ‘The Land of Blood and Honey’ was an arthouse attraction, and her latest title, ‘Unbroken‘ (about World War II hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini), is already earning massive End of the Year buzz.

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Win one of 5 free downloads of Tomb Raider for Mac

At the end of last month, we told you Mac gamers that you need to play the Tomb Raider reboot. We were serious. So is Feral Interactive, the publisher of the Macintosh version, and that’s why they’ve given us five Steam codes for Tomb Raider.

As described on Steam:

Tomb Raider explores the intense and gritty origin story of Lara Croft and her ascent from a young woman to a hardened survivor. Armed only with raw instincts and the ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance, Lara must fight to unravel the dark history of a forgotten island to escape its relentless hold.

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Our totally unnecessary iPhone 6 unboxing video

I received my iPhone 6 today. I removed it from the box. I filmed the process. Why? I have no idea. I have no idea why I go to graduation ceremonies and parades when I don’t get their point, either, but I’m told it’s appropriate behavior. I’m also told unboxing videos are appropriate behavior, too, so here’s our iPhone 6 unboxing video.

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iPhone 6 bullet point impressions

You may have seen our iPhone 6 unboxing video earlier today. It’s a good opportunity for me to show off my giant hands, but after that was shot and uploaded, the real fun of actually using the iPhone 6 commenced. Having played around with it for the better half of a day, here are my early impressions.

It’s noticeably bigger. I mean, yeah, of course, but years of looking at iPhones that have been relatively the same makes even the 4.6″ iPhone 6 look like another brand at first glance.

That said, it’s very easy to hold and use. The curved edges are quit comfortable and make it easy to reach over with your thumb to use the screen.

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How the Internet tricks smart people into believing everything they read

The other day I was offered a free flu shot here at the office and my initial reaction was, “Hell yeah, free immunization!” Then a co-worker told me she wasn’t getting it because it always makes her sick and another co-worker told me he “doesn’t believe in them.” This confused me and made me uncomfortable with the shot, a feeling that was exacerbated when I was handed two waivers to sign before I could receive the shot.

The waiver essentially said, “You can’t sue us if you get a headache or, you know, become a paraplegic.” Wat.

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GeoTech: 7 tricks to doing Halloween at Disney World right (Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party)

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is one the few things in life that makes Disneyphiles absolutely bonkers with excitement. Between the faint briskness in the air, the decorations, the unusually short ride lines and the impending sugar rush, Disney World guests are hard-pressed to find something to complain about during this time of year.

Now that the decorations are out, the sun is going down earlier and the party has started, I’m inclined to share all the secrets to getting the most out of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, from experience both as a Guest and a Cast Member!

1. This is the only time of year you can dress like a Disney character in the parks without risking banishment.

This family is doing life right.

And you’ll regret it forever if you don’t dress accordingly. The creativity that goes into some people’s costumes rivals that of San Diego’s Comic Con...

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