photo: Home Screen Router I know it's been a while since I posted, but I come bearing plenty of techie goodness! While I've been away I had the chance to use the Home Screen Router. This little device, that can fit in the palm of your two hands, can function as a standalone router, or a range extender. The device which boasts a small touchscreen and built in setup wizard was really simple to setup. I'm not just saying that. My dad could've done it. I took it out of the box, removed the plastic, and plugged it in. Once it was plugged up the device powered on, and the wizard came up. It began with asking what I was going to set it up as, a router or a range extender. Since I have one of those all in one cable routers with built in wifi, I went with the range extender option. It prompted me to pull the stylus from the upper right side of the device, it blended in so well I didn't even notice it. Also a note, the screen is very responsive to the touch of your finger so the stylus isn't necessary but comes in handy when having to type in information on the screen. unpacking the router, Photo: My Samsung camera setting up the router Photo: My Samsung Camera Since I chose to set it up as a range extender it will amplify the strength of the signal of my current wireless network. This is also good when you have alot of devices connected in the house as well. The password information for connecting to the signal from the Home Screen Router is the same as my current setup. Now with that all done, it's now time to connect the Home Screen Account to the router. I ended up having to contact support as when I tried to download the app it wouldn't let me create my account from the app so I had to go through the web interface. Now with that all connected I can see and control the settings on my Home Screen Router from there! Can also mention that their support team was extremely helpful. I feel that the app should work fluidly with the device but all in due time I suppose. I think I will get a true test of this when I use it in a larger space, I have an apartment. I didn't get to test the functionality of the sensors, since I don't have any, but the feature has potential. The app is available on iOS and Android. The Home Screen Router is available on Amazon for $99.99 but readers of my blog can use the code CHICDIVA for a %10 discount. I was given the device in exchange for my review of the product. ~ChicDivaGeek

Happy New Year my fellow geeks and techies! What better way to start off this new year than to let you know all the happenings at CES 2015 (Consumer Electronics Show)? If you are unfamiliar with this event, the movies and shakers of consumer technology come out and show off their latest and greatest offerings and some things that are still in development. First up is LG! I mean why not Life's Good right? This company is at the forefront of appliances, TVs, smartphones, and well consumer tech, so I got to catch their online live stream of the press conference at CES2015 and here are the highlights. The presentation was kicked off by LG's President and Chief Technology Officer, Dr Scott Ahn. The focal point of his speech, "Innovation for a better life" and that concept (which is a common thread amongst technology companies and the like) is "The Internet of Things". LG introduced the next version of it's WebOS platform, WebOS 2.0. It will support 4K streaming, faster and a simpler UX. Consumer will also get a chance to see the new WebOS in action without having it in their homes, as it will be apart of signage and hotel TVs. LG is also embracing open standards to make their platform more widely available, to make the integration of technology so much easier! Now what would an LG presentation on consumer technology be without televisions? They unveiled 7 new OLED television sets ranging in size from 55" to 77". They come in both curved and flat models and have 4K Ultra HD. Picture credit: LG While we are talking about televisions, Netflix's Chief Streaming and Partnership Officer, Greg Peters, was brought out to say a few words and revealed that Netflix will now offer the Netflix Recommended designation. Products with this designation will let consumers know they are getting the best in accessibility, performance, and ease of use with their Netflix streaming service. For my fellow audio enthusiasts, LG announced the new LG Music Flow, a smart hi-fi audio system that can be controlled using the Music Flow app. Did I mention these speakers are wireless, run on a dual band mesh network, and they are expandable, start with a pair of speakers now and add more as you see fit. I think the coolest feature was the ability to play different songs on different speakers at the same time, I can have a party in the living room and classical dinner music in the kitchen! I know, I know, so much already but there is more! LG couldn't make a presentation without making some splashes in the home appliance realm (and of course they are known for it) they announced the new TWIN wash system, allowing you to wash a large load at the top and a small load on the bottom compartment. This may not mean much to non-domestic people, but I am mom and this made me excited! LG's Twin Wash system, Photo Credit: LG.com Blog Last but not least the LG G Flex 2, this made a huge splash when first announced, it's innovative curved flexible design, and durability. The G Flex 2 boasts a Snapdragon 810 processor, a 5.5 inch curved P-OLED screen, 13.0 megapixel camera, and the Self Healing back on the device has faster healing time as well. The G Flex 2 will run Android OS Lollipop and comes in platinum silver and flamenco red colors. Photo credit: LGUSAMobile twitterStay tuned for more updates on LG's products from CES 2015! ~ChicDivaGeek

June of last year President Obama announced the ConnectEd initiative, which was created to rich education for grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. The program was created with the idea that it would provide teachers and students with the best technology and training. Well yesterday the Maryland State Department of Education announced in response to this that it will be piloting the Microsoft IT Academy program in 25 schools statewide. This is a partnership between the state and Microsoft. The 25 IT Academies will be spread out over 10 county school systems. The Microsoft IT Academy program is filled with training, tools, and other resources so that students will learn advanced computer skills and be more technical going forward. I remember the most I got in school was keyboarding (aka don't look at the keys when you type). In addition, all Maryland students will also get Office 365 ProPlus for free on up to five computers (PC or Mac) as well as Office apps on mobile devices. Thereby ensuring that all kids have access to the software that can help them complete their work. As a parent and a techie, this makes me very happy. Good job MSDE and Microsoft! You can access the site to sign up and download Office 365 here: https://marylandaccess.education/ ~ChicDivaGeek

screenshots courtesy of MobyGames So I may be telling my age, but who remembers going to computer class and that one day in the week the teacher would say you could play games? I definitely do. Well now you can play over 2,000 MS-DOS games of your childhood in your web browser! Games like Oregon Trail, Sim City, and Stunts to name a few. Thanks to the Internet Archive these games are available to you, however according to the site, it is still in beta but there is a pretty extensive FAQ if you run into any problems and you can even send suggestions if there is a game that you remember that isn't there. Am I the only one who remembers " On your own in Suburbia"? Anyway, it's a great way to waste some time while on the web and these games are free, so check them out here: Archive MSDOS Games Tip: It tends to run better in Chrome web browsers ~ChicDivaGeek

Photo credit: William Petroski/Des Moines Register Ever find yourself fumbling around in your wallet or purse for your license? Well the state of Iowa may be working on a solution to that. The Iowa Department of Transportation is preparing to launch a smartphone application that will allow drivers to have their license on their smartphone. In this age where everything is digital it does kind of make sense, if you can show your car insurance card on your phone, why not your driver's license? Iowa DOT said that the app will come at no additional cost to the drivers, and they are also pushing for a very secure app, with it having pin number verification. The application is expected sometime in 2015. There is also talk in New Jersey of a drivers license app, State Senator Thomas Kean Jr is planning on proposing a bill to look into the feasibility of a electronic drivers license. Not sure how this is going to play out, will this open the doors for phony apps that do the same thing, similar to tangible fake IDs? What are your thoughts? ~ChicDivaGeek

Who remembers typing papers on a typewriter, the attention to detail, so you didn't make mistakes because there was no backspace or undo feature? Most of this generation won't know what a typewriter is, but there was a point in time when it was the best thing to happen to a writer or anyone who wanted their work to look professional. Well Hemingwrite offers that with a modern twist. The Hemingwrite is touted on it's kickstarter as a "minimalist digital typewriter that offers writers a retreat from over-connectivity". This is actually quite refreshing in a time where your phone essentially can perform all the functions that your desktop can perform and you are constantly connected to the world via social media. Now of course the are some other things that make the Hemingwrite different, it has a digital paper screen, full size keyboard, wifi connectivity, and 4+ weeks of battery life. It also allows for secure cloud backups for your documents. The goal is to provide you with a writing experience sans distractions, i.e Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. Ironically I am working from a computer with two screens and about 12 tabs open so I am all too familiar with the distractions. The Hemingwrite is going for $349 to KickStarter backers until January 23, 2015. The first batch is expected for delivery in September 2015. It will go up to $499 when it goes to retail. Check out the kickstarter campaign here: hemingwrite.com/ks ~ChicDivaGeek

First sorry for the extended hiatus, studying for my upcoming certifications and life took priority. But now that I am back I wanted to share with you this awesome little find. As you know, or may not know it is Computer Science Education week. The people over at Made with Code (which is apart of Google) have an initiative called Code the Holidays. This allows for you to do some basic coding and your code will light up a tree in the nation's capital! How cool is that. You go to the site and then click on the Code the Holidays button and the site walks you through how to use code to set up the lights on your tree. Literally there are step by step directions to it. You even get to choose the color of the lights and the pattern. Once you are finished you select one of the 56 state/territory trees that your code will go on. ( I am aware there are only 50 states, we're counting the US territories as well) That's it! It gives you a date and time that your code will go live on the tree you selected. Pretty neat right? Check out my tree below. You can also share your coding holiday cheer on your social media outlets and you can download a gif of your tree. So check them out here: www.madewithcode.com ~ChicDivaGeek

credit: LivingLanguage.com So I know I am not alone as a Game of Thrones fan, I've read the books and I watch the show. Well now you have something you can do while you wait for George R. R. Martin to finish his next book, Winds of Winter and HBO to complete the next season of Game of Thrones, you could learn to speak Dothraki. You could be privy to what they are saying in the show without the subtitles. Living Language is an website that offers online language courses. So you could learn to say "My Sun and Stars" in Dothraki. The course is $30 for one year, and includes a 128 page guide and a CD that has over 200 words, phrases, exercises and more! There is also the book and CD package for $19.99 and the companion app for iPhone and iPad for $3.99. Check it out here: http://www.livinglanguage.com/dothraki/ ~ChicDivaGeek

Photo: Screenshot from Windows Blog Yesterday Microsoft held an event to give consumers a better look at the new upcoming operating system, Windows 10. They kicked off by announcing that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 users for the first year (nice right?). It looks as though they are going the way of Apple with offering current users/consumers free upgrades to keep the loyalty, and to be honest it's not a bad idea. Now let's look at some of the details on this operating system I have been tinkering with the Windows 10 Technical preview on a virtual machine since it came out and honestly I like it. It's like a merge of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Pulling the best features from both. The users have been providing feedback and Microsoft has been listening. This operating system will be cross-platform, working on both touch devices, regular laptops/desktops and mobile. Windows 10 will also be bringing with it a new web browser, currently codenamed Project Spartan, which boasts distraction free reading view, Cortana (Microsoft's virtual assistant) integration and the ability to annotate directly on the webpage. Speaking of Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant is also incorporated into Windows 10, you can talk or type commands to Cortana, and there a variety of options to allow for you to control how it functions. If you want to download the technical preview you can do that here and you can download a free program to run virtual machine called Virtual Box. Virtual Box is a program that allows for the creation of a system within a system if that makes sense, you can create a virtual computer, and install the operating system there to see it. The program is free. You can also check out this article for step-by-step instructions on how to complete the install of the Windows 10 technical preview. No exact release date as of yet, but if you check out Windows 10 you can sign up for emails to keep you in the loop when it's available. I'll also be keeping you updated here! Oh and one more little thing they introduced, Microsoft HoloLens, HoloLens is a holographic computer, it has no wires, or peripherals. It uses the HPU (Holographic Processing Unit) to put 3-D images into our world, so think of it as a virtual reality computer system but better! Windows 10 photo credit: Microsoft presentation ~ChicDivaGeek

This past weekend I had the privilege of covering Awesome Con, and it lived up to it's name. Of course most of geeks know what a Con is, it's short for convention. Awesome Con took over the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC for 3 whole days, and there was no shortage of well...awesomeness! From scores of graphic artists to comics by the boat loads, there was something for the geek in all of us. They had $1 classic comics! There was a Lego table, with a huge assortment of super hero legos, my son was assisting me during this so of course Legos were purchased. And no Con is complete without the cosplay. Cosplay is dressing up as a character from a book, movie or video game. Me and DJ entering Awesome Con Oh and there were quite a few celebrity guests as well. The original Power Rangers, Karan Ashley (Yellow Ranger), David Yost (Blue Ranger), Austin St. John (Red Ranger) and Walter E. Jones (Black Ranger). I remember being a kid and watching this show EVERYDAY after school. Sean Astin (Sam) and John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) were also there from, Lord of The Rings. Kristin Bauer of True Blood and most recently Once Upon a Time was also a the celebrity guests. But I wouldn't be a trekkie if I didn't mention that William Shatner was there! Although I didn't get to see him, I saw the lines that were anticipating his arrival. Needless to say Awesome Con pulled out the stops. Perusing the Lego table Artist booth, these were hand drawn, Amazing right? Can you name all of these Batman villians? Rikki Simons, voice of Gir from Invader Zim Ahhh Zelda Cosplay!!! Lego Avengers Send in the Storm Troopers Super Girl DJ and Arrow The force is strong in this pictureAwesome Con had everything a geek needed to have a great time and then some. I stongly urge you to attend next year if you missed out this year. Very well worth it, I had a great time covering it (as did the kid in me) and so did my son. He thought it was the "Best place ever!" ~ChicDivaGeek

Stock photo In this day and age many of us are on some type of social media platform, be it Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook. At any given time you can log into any of these social media platforms and you're getting updates from people, with most activity being during the work day. According to studies, nearly 1/3 of employees use Facebook while they are at work. So it's not surprising that Mark Zuckerberg has launched, Facebook for Work? But is it a good thing or a bad thing? Facebook (as is any social media) is there for you to interact with people online, to be social. But how does this translate to the workplace? I mean you already talk around the water cooler, or at someone's desk or at the company potluck so is there really that much of a difference? The public pilot of the social media giant's corporate social platform was launched late last week. There is an app for both iOS and eventually Android, but your company does have to adopt it. If your company has Facebook at Work, there is a separate account but you can link it to your personal Facebook, but they are still separate. In some aspects this idea is like the company intranet on steroids or on a more relaxed scale. Because it's not something that you as an employee can initiate on your own, but it would planning social things with colleagues more relaxed, and more lighthearted. On the business side though, how do you control from the corporate aspect what goes up on the Facebook at Work site, documents, do's and don'ts there is a lot to take into consideration. There are already sites and things such as SalesForce, Asana that were attempting to foster the social aspect with corporate collaboration, will Facebook really be a viable option for companies, Will it be secure, will employees even want to use it? You can check out the help page here to find out more: https://www.facebook.com/help/work and if you want to check out the app on iOS Facebook at work on iTunes ~ChicDivaGeek

Over the weekend TechCrunch held it's Disrupt 24-hr Hackathon ahead of the actual Disrupt NY event that is happening right now. Now before I share my favorite gems from the hackathon, keep in mind that some of these may never come to fully exist or don't expect a complete turn around in the next week. I mean the coders and creative minds were up all night. Photo credit: TechCrunch.comFirst up, Pager, this turns your Facebook page (talking to small businesses here) into an actual website. I know for a lot of small businesses, having a fancy website is not at the top of their list and often for a really good web designer you're going to spend a little bit of money. The basis of Pager is using the Facebook API. You log into Pager with your Facebook credentials, then pick which page you want and tada! you've got yourself a functioning website. Photo credit: TechCrunch.com My number two pick from the Hackathon was Split. The concept like the name is simple this is an app that allows you to fairly split the bill with friends. Key word being fairly, you could just take the total and divide it amongst the number of people there, but what if you only had lemons and water (just kidding, lol). But seriously if one person had two appetizers, several shots and a full meal, splitting the bill evenly doesn't seem fair does it? With this app, you take a picture of the receipt go through the items and you can split the items off and bill them to friends via a Venmo request. Happy Tech Tuesday! ~ChicDivaGeek