Admit it, there are times when you’re on a Zoom call, sitting in on a Google Meet or even on a regular old phone call where you’re interested and engaged in the content, but not 100%. In fact, a little part of your brain is spinning, trying to think of something you can do while you’re on the call without it being disruptive or too mentally taxing so you don’t completely tune out. Don’t want…Read More

I spent the afternoon working at a favorite coffee shop today and instead of listening to music, as I usually do, I decided to just enjoy the ambiance of the café crowd. Then I was fairly appalled to have the guy sitting next to me jump on a call. But he wasn’t just chatting on his iPhone, he had it on speakerphone. Even worse, he didn’t know how to use the darn speakerphone mode, so he…Read More

I’ve really jumped into the world of video in a big way and my YouTube channel – AskDaveTaylor – now has over 8500 subscribers and I’ve uploaded and shared over 500 videos. Mostly their product reviews of consumer electronics gadgets, but along the way I’ve also picked up a bunch of commercial clients and do video work for companies big and small too. Some of them I’m in the kitchen, in my car or even…Read More

I’m not a survivalist but every so often it’s good to get some gear that will help you survive the coming apocalypse. If there is one. And even if not, hey, next tailgate party at the stadium parking lot or next hunting trip to the back woods, I’m ready to roll. Because I’m equipped with the gold standard for coolers and additional gear, thanks to OtterBox:The Venture rugged cooler setup. In fact, I received a…Read More

It’s madness and mayhem, chaos and explosions, and ridiculously fun. Denver Maker Faire is coming up in just a few weeks and it’s guaranteed to be a splendid weekend adventure! Better yet, if you have kids who enjoy building, programming, or even tearing things apart, there’ll be plenty of hands-on opportunities to play. And just like all maker faires, it’ll be just as much fun for girls as boys, women as men: Makers are so…Read More

Note: This post is sponsored by Everywhere Agency on behalf of Char-Broil; however, all thoughts, experiences and opinions are my own. I’ve always liked grilling, whether it’s something as simple as a few hot dogs or as complicated as fish, veggies or shishkabob. There’s something about cooking over a fire that makes food taste better and, of course, there’s also probably some primitive facet of my masculinity triggered by cooking over meat, even if I…Read More

When your child goes to a school that doesn’t have a cafeteria, you spend a lot of time considering food logistics, whether it’s what to have for lunch or how to successfully transport it. We have quite a collection of metal food carriers, including actual Thermos brand containers. The goal: To have something that started out nice and hot in the morning and still be hot (or at least reasonably warm) by the time lunch…Read More

There I was hanging out at my favorite Caribou Coffee in Westminster, Colorado, waiting for a meeting when I jumped onto the wireless network as always. It’s  comfortable coffee shop and the surrounding area is growing like wildfire with lots of new restaurants and other retail establishments suddenly cropping up on the edges of its parking lot by the big AMC 24 screen movie theater. Twenty-four screens! But I digress. So there I was about…Read More

If your young gamer loves Minecraft, you can only imagine how excited they’ll be to learn that the could play Minecraft on a really, really big movie theater screen! Super League Gaming, the world’s first in-theater recreational video game league, will let your kids take their love of gaming beyond your living room and onto the silver screen. This is the big league gamer experience sized just right for your younger fans. It’s fun, social and kids…Read More

As the Internet of Things continues to spread into devices, gadgets and toys, it’s inevitable that what one company thinks of as smarts a hacker will see as opportunity. It’s one reason why you should think about having some sort of cover on your webcam and make sure that you only buy surveillance cameras from reputable manufacturers who have more secure firmware. And then there’s little Cayla. She’s 7 years old and lives in England…Read More

In a zombie movie it’s easy to identify who has been infected: they shamble, have a glassy look in their eyes and groan about their newly acquired taste for brains. But what if becoming a zombie was more subtle? What if the people around you could switch from living to undead with just barely any visible sign of the change? In a lot of ways, that’s how I see modern always-connecting devices and our children….Read More

Watching relatively little television my 12yo daughter is blissfully clueless about most modern tween and teen trends and I end up knowing more about things than she does because of my media consumption. When we watch a rare Disney TV show or similar the adverts feel very alien and it’s extraordinarily rare that anything pings her radar and makes her shift into acquisition mode. Not quite 13, she’s already very focused on fashion and makeup,…Read More

Have I told you the one about when I received a Kenmore Alfie for review as part of a sponsored campaign? It might be a bit of a shocker to some people, but not everyone in this Information Age is actually comfortable with technology, ready to embed chips in their skin, wear tracking devices and talk to their wrist or cellphone to make things happen. Some people are old school and prefer to push an actual button,…Read More

The American Academy of Pediatrics has boldly come out with new guidelines about children and screen time, a document called the Media and Children Communication Toolkit, and it’s getting a lot of press. But the new guidelines sound like they’re not written by parents at all, and don’t reflect two simple realities: less screen time is always better for children, whether they’re 18mo or 12yo, and that it’s increasingly difficult to accomplish that in modern…Read More

Your Windows PC is a complicated beast. Even if it’s just a humble little laptop, or it’s all running on a tablet, there are an extraordinarily large number of (digital) moving parts that mostly run completely invisibly in the background. These parts fill up over time and cause your PC to run extremely slowly or just act up as its memory fills up, Remember HAL’s memory banks in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Yeah, like that….Read More

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Wearsafe for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I try my best not to be a helicopter parent, but my oldest daughter is heading to her first year of college at a university 1000 miles away and while I trust her and am confident in her judgment and caution, I’m anxious nonetheless. It’s not even that I think colleges are full of dangerous boys,…Read More