Gadgets and Tech | J.D. Hodges

Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech

Tip: shock protection unnecessary if you have a SSD!

Wednesday, 2012.01.11 J.D. H. One comment

The Lenovo X220 ThinkPad, as well as many Dell & HP laptops, ship with a form of anti-shock protection enabled by default. This is great if your laptop has a conventional hard drive that can be easily damaged by a fall or drop. The laptop is smart enough to pause disk activity and ‘park’ the head (or other similar techniques) to prevent disk damage. However, if your laptop is exclusively using a SSD (solid state drive) then that protection is

7mm SSD list / 7mm HD list

Friday, 2011.12.16 J.D. H. Leave a comment

UPDATE 2012.05.30: added a list of 7mm SSD and 7mm HDD at the end of this post… The most-excellent Lenovo Thinkpad X220 laptop supports a rather odd thickness for its hard drive/SSD: 7mm This is unusual since most laptop drives are 9.5mm and some are fatties coming in at 12mm or 12.5mm. However, the 7mm thin drives are likely to become more and more common as Ultrabooks and other similar devices require thinner drives to maintain their low profile 🙂 So,

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Kindle Fire Unboxing Photos [Nov 16th]

Thursday, 2011.11.17 J.D. H. Leave a comment

The Kindle Fire arrived today via UPS and here are the first photos: Review to be posted once I have a good feel for the device 🙂 Top Search Terms:kindle fire unboxing (11)"kindle fire lock screen (2)amazon kindle 2011 unboxing (2)umboxing kindle fire (2)unboxing+kindle+fire+picture (2)remove screenlock kindle fire (1)kindle+fire+unboxing (1)kindle fire unboxing photos (1)kindle fire preload (1)kindel umboxing (1)

How to sideload Android apps onto the Kindle Fire & Nook Tablet

Thursday, 2011.11.17 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Thank goodness both of the hottest new 7″ tablets support side loading Android apps onto the devices! There are a LOT of tutorials out there, some of them pretty complicated, so here are the TWO best sideloading tutorials I have found… Sideloading for the B&N Nook Tablet: How to sideload apps on the NOOK Tablet (Amazon Appstore, GO Launcher EX) – Liliputinghttp://liliputing.com/2011/11/how-to-sideload-apps-on-the-nook-tablet-amazon-appstore-go-launcher-ex.htmlFortunately it’s pretty easy to install third party apps on the NOOK Tablet. You don’t even need to

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Christmas Camera Recommendations

Friday, 2011.11.04 J.D. H. Leave a comment

I always enjoy hearing from friends and readers. Recently a long time friend emailed me asking for a camera recommendation. And thus begins my 2011 Christmas Camera Recommendation post! JD, I hope all is well, and congrats on the 2nd little one coming your way. Michelle and I are expecting our 1st in February which brings me to the reason I am e-mailing. We are looking to upgrade our digital camera so we can take lots of photos! We currently use

Bought & Sold: Acer Aspire One A0722 Netbook 11.6″ LCD

Sunday, 2011.10.23 J.D. H. Leave a comment

The latest entry in the Bought & Sold series… This is where I list items that I purchased and then sold at a later date. Simple enough huh? Here we go… [begin] Acer Aspire One 11.6″ HD Netbook AO722-BZ454 with upgrade to 4GB RAM Excellent condition, FREE fast shipping Condition: This laptop is in excellent condition, checkout the photos! No scratches/problems on the LCD. Everything works well, no problems. Still has the protective plastic sheets in place. Laptop has only had

Upgrade Acer Aspire One AO722 memory/RAM

Tuesday, 2011.10.18 J.D. H. 130 comments

UPDATE: Many readers have asked what memory I recommend for upgrading the A0722. My recommendation is 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 Kingston memory because it offers a lifetime warranty, solid performance AND it is only about $22 with free shipping! 🙂 Another great way to improve performance is to replace the AO722’s slow hard drive with a SSD. The Crucial M4 128GB (which includes a data transfer kit) or the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB (drive only) are my top two choices. They both offer 3 year warranties along with

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Secure LCD TV/monitor lock (for hotels, businesses)

Sunday, 2011.10.09 J.D. H. Leave a comment

I came across this cool product for securing LCD TVs or monitors. It uses the standard VESA mounts found on most LCDs and flat screen TVs. It can also be keyed so that one key locks/unlocks ALL your equipment: Flat Panel TV Security Lock Kithttp://ddsecurity.com/product/472Additional Comments: I use this product on both of my Hotels to secure all of our TV’s. They keyed all of the locks to the same key code which made it really easy to install and…