Latest Quick Looks and Reviews

A place where I take a quick look or a more in-depth review of software and technology.

My Review of the Ecobee Thermostat and HomeKit

Let’s take a closer look at my Ecobee thermostat. I have the Ecobee 3 Lite. This version does not have a sensor to where it detects if I am home, but I can buy those if I want. The thermostat is also HomeKit compatible. What does that mean? I can control the temperature of my house from Siri, my iPhone, my iPad,  and even my Apple Watch. Being that I have a newer Apple TV, I can also control it from outside my house. How does all this work? Let’s see if I can clarify it for you.

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A Quick Look at how I use HomeKit at my House

In this post I am going to introduce you to how I use Homekit at my house. In future posts I’ll look at the HomeKit devices I have in more detail, but let’s first look at what HomeKit is and how it is being used at my home.

Reviews

Tap Forms 5 for Mac Review. Organize your life with this easy-to-use database.

I’ve always loved databases. With a good database like Tap Forms 5, you can organize most anything. Read more about tap Forms 5 for the Mac in my review.

Reviews

iMovie for Mac Review. Create great looking movies out of your Photos and Videos.

I’ve been intrigued with creating movies since I was a kid. It may have been the 8mm film camera we had. My friends and I would go out and create scenes from TV and movies including recreating the Six Million Dollar man running. When you watched it on TV, he was running in slow motion. We had to recreate this by speeding the shutter up in the camera. Back then all the editing we did was in with the camera. It was fun, but very limiting.

Reviews

Runtastic Pro – My New Running Partner on my Apple Watch

Runtastic Pro
I’ve been wearing the Apple Watch now for several months and one of my favorite features is the Activity and Workout apps. Whenever I go out for a run, I start a workout in the Workout App and go. Saying that, the Workout app is not great. Sure it tells me my heart rate, split times (with iOS 9), active calories, and distance. But it’s not great for looking up your history, you can’t view your route, as well as missing other features I am used to. I used to wear a Garmin watch and I loved how it connected to Garmin Connect and I could look up my past runs easily. This is what Workout was missing for me. I loved the information Workout was giving me while I ran, but that was about it.