3 Baskets of Bottled Water - Starbucks (Photo credit: djwaldow)

Time after time, we start research all sorts of gadgets, from technology to productivity tools to…well, home tech.

This week, we are talking about water filtration filters. Many people buy bottled water. We’re not sure why they do this. Some bottled water is actually tap water. Tap water is actually more regulated than bottled water.

Bottled water isn’t a good value. The cost per bottle is significantly higher than a that of tap water. Bottled water actually has a higher per gallon markup than gasoline, and takes substantially fewer resources to produce. And it must be stored in bottles. which are estimated to total 1.5 million tons of plastic waste each year.

If you don’t like the taste of the local water supply, that is what filtering is for. If you are concerned about contaminants, that is what water filtration is for. Assuming you get water from your municipal water service, this water is already treated to a degree, but filtering in the house can give you a better experience.

Home water filtration began to become popular with the pitcher filter. The quality levels of these can vary, but a single pitcher is usually not enough water for a whole family. We migrated from this to the faucet filter. In edition to not being aesthetically pleasing, these filters can slow water flow significantly.

We chose to go with the under-sink filtration option. The first problem with these filters is that they require, if not a plumber, someone who feels comfortable with plumbing. You can either filter the cold water running through your faucet, or add a dedicated spigot, which may require drilling a hole. Our sink already had a cutout, so we went for the spigot option.

In reading review after review of these types of systems, the most common issues stem from installation. The systems leak, sometimes because of improper installation and because many manufacturers include cheaper plastic parts instead of heavier duty fittings and piping. For this reason, we brought in a plumber to do the job, and empowered and encouraged him to replace all parts in the box with more secure fittings, and to add an extra shutoff valve in the event there was a leak. This may be overkill, but the last time we had a leak under our sink, it turned into a mold issue.

This is probably the best lesson we can give about these filters. Go to your local hardware store and buy better quality fittings than any of these filters supply. The price shouldn’t add much to the bottom line. And add an extra shutoff valve, which will assist when you replace your filters, if nothing else. The cost of a valve is minimal.

There are two other types of filters we didn’t mention. A whole-house filter can remove some basic contaminants, such as sediment and rust, and are probably better if you have a more serious issue with these contaminants. Reverse osmosis filters use a tank under the sink as well as filters, and are the only type that can remove arsenic. However, they are slow, take up a lot of space and waste a lot of water.

We opted for a lesser known brand, but well thought of brand, based on a combination of reviews and research.

Watts Premier 531130 Filter-Pure UF-3 3-Stage Water Filtration System

Price: $133.00

(55 customer reviews)

5 used & new available from $116.52

The above is a three-stage filter. The price was reasonable compared to most two-stage filters, and the mail-order price for a years supply of filters was reasonable. It contains no electronic filter change reminder, so we added a recurring reminder to Google Calendar.

The same company does offer a 1 and 2 stage filter as well, but with the installation effort being equal, we opted for the best decision long-term. You will probably be served reasonably well by filters from a variety of different companies, but do your research.

Watts 500313 2-Stage Undercounter Lead, Cyst & VOC Reducing Drinking Water System

Price: $79.24

(26 customer reviews)

3 used & new available from $56.79

Watts 500315 Counter-Top Drinking Water Filter

Price: $42.99

(73 customer reviews)

6 used & new available from $25.91

Review: Home Water Filtration is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

Asus_EeePAD_Transformer_TF101_49 (Photo credit: blogeee.net)

Last time on Gadget Wisdom, we were asking the question of whether a tablet can be your primary computer.

After we wrote this, we headed off on a long weekend with only an Asus Transformer. This is the original Asus Transformer TF101, not the newer Transformer Prime, but the concept is basically the same. If you want the benefits of a tablet, with the option to produce longer form content as needed, this is a perfect choice.

The tablet is wonderful for consumption of content. There are not enough tablet apps for Android, but there are enough to make us optimistic for the future.

Let’s go over a few of the apps we’ve started to use…

 News Reading

• Reader HD (Free Version, Ad Free Version) – The best Google Reader app for Android tablets, in our opinion. The developer is very responsive with bug and feature requestss

There are a variety of magazine style news readers that draw from a variety of sources. Even Reader HD offers a magazine mode. We hope the promised version of ReadItLater Pro for tablets arrives soon, but the current version is adequate.

Word Processing/Document Creation

We have yet to find the best document suite for Android tablets. The Transformer comes with Polaris Office, which is not offered in the market. We also have copies of QuickOffice HD and DocumentsToGO.

We’ve actually been using a simple text editor, DB Text Editor, which is built into the Dropbox Android client.

We blog, and use WordPress, and WordPress for Android (Market Link) was recently updated and now supports tablets. It is still, like many things, not perfect. Nor is using WordPress in the browsers, but these things continue to get better..

Browsers

There is a build-target for a full build of Chrome for Android, but so far, there isn’t a full browser for Android. But the choice of browsers is not bad. While there is a tablet version of the popular Dolphin Browser, it is still in beta and has not been updated in a while. The HD version works fine for now, as does the Android version of Firefox. We hope to see more in this category in the future.

Email

Gmail is an example of what a good tablet app can be. It works nicely, efficiently, and it is a reference for many other apps.

Finance

Mint’s Android app(Market Link) just updated this week to support tablets. It shows that any app can become an indispensable part of one’s productivity if properly designed.

In the end, the market for tablet apps on Android is expanding. There are many good apps so far, including many we haven’t mentioned. There will be more, and the ones we have will only continue to improve.  So, what is the conclusion?

An Android tablet is one of the best options out there for content consumption and simple productivity. For word processing, with the addition of the Transformer’s keyboard dock, it means you can handle your on-the-go and travel word processing. We wouldn’t use it as our primary computer, but having it around means you can use your primary computer less and be more mobile around your house.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101-A1 10.1-Inch Tablet (Dock Sold Separately)

Price: $392.00

(800 customer reviews)

78 used & new available from $300.00

Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Mobile Docking

Price: $124.99

(221 customer reviews)

46 used & new available from $108.99

ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-B1-GR Eee Pad 10.1-Inch 32GB Tablet (Amethyst Gray)

Price: $559.99

(326 customer reviews)

35 used & new available from $499.99

Asus Transformer Prime TF201 Mobile Docking – Amethyst Gray (TF201-DOCK-GR)

Price: $149.99

(30 customer reviews)

47 used & new available from $149.99

The Asus Transformer as a Productivity Device is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

The simple answer is no. The distinction between a tablet and a full-fledged personal computer is being blurred, but they are still very different animals.

The primary built-in input of tablets is the touch-screen, which is not conducive for creation of long form content. The occasional brief email, but even that can be a chore.

Having acquired an Asus Transformer, we know there are markets for tablets that offer an optional keyboard dock. For other tablets, there is the option of a variety of bluetooth keyboards, which is what Mr. McCracken uses for his iPad. These keyboards, dock and other tools add the typing ability needed to turn a limited device into a full device.

Once you have the keyboard, you can start long-form typing. As pointed out in our referenced article, “You’re typing into a radically different set of apps than are available on a notebook.” You have to find out how to perform everyday tasks you would use a computer for normally.

Tablets and their lower power processors allow for hours of battery life, and the manufacturers are always searching for better battery life..So, you pair a screen the same size as a common netbook with an optional keyboard, long battery life, and functionality equivalent to many computers…What is missing?

When you add a keyboard to a tablet, what you essentially get is a netbook. But a netbook that costs more and has limitations in comparison to an actual netbook sized computer. In the end, what is missing is the larger screen and increased flexibility. But, maybe it can’t be your primary computer, but could it be your primary travel computer? What about on the go?

We’d like to hear your opinion? Where is the line and what do you do?

Related articles

• Harry McCracken uses the iPad as his prime computer (teleread.com)

Can a Tablet be your Primary Computer? is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

We started with Energystar:

For heat, the presets are:

• Wake and evening: less than or equal to 70 degrees
• Day and Sleep: Setback at least 8 degrees

Keep your thermostat set at energy saving points for long periods of time(at least 8 hours). This should include during the day when no one is home, and throughout the night after bedtime. You use more energy if you constantly override the pre-programmed settings. Cranking your thermostats up or down will not heat or cool your house any faster.

Energysavers, also a government site, recommends setting your thermostat back 10-15 degrees, setting it to 68 when you are awake.

It is not an easy thing. We’ve covered what the government recommends for programmable thermostats, but what else is there? Do you want a touchscreen thermostat? Do you even need a programmable, despite what is recommended?

And let’s go the ultimate in control…a wi-fi enabled thermostat. You can control your thermostat from anywhere in the world. But, unless you are in frequent need to change your settings on the go, this seems unnecessary. The new NEST thermostat is actually a wi-fi enabled learning thermostat that learns from your habits and from weather forecasts to make adjustments.

But, as nice as NEST is, it doesn’t seem like something we’d get. We are upgrading our thermostat after this reading, for a different reason. Programmable thermostats come in a few varieties. 7-day programmable, 5-2, 5-1-1, etc, based on the complexity of the program. We are replacing ours to go from a 5-2 to a 5-1-1 with a special vacation mode for when we go away, to override the normal program. And that upgrade cost us less than $40.

What are your thoughts? Do you have trouble setting your thermostat? Did you give up on even trying?

Related articles

• The Nest Learning Thermostat (gadget.com)
• 3 Ways To Keep The Heating Bill Down (consumerist.com)
• Winter Weather Tip: Save Energy & Money By Installing an Energy Star Thermostat (smarthome.com)
• Energy Savers: Install A Programmable Thermostat For Better Savings (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
• iNeed a new Thermostat? (noodleonthis.com)
• Allure Intros EverSense Thermostat System (jetsongreen.com)

A Few Quick Thoughts on Thermostats is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

It’s been a while since we’ve updated our Downstreaming series. The concept of downstreaming was one of simplification, and how you can downgrade your paid cable

bill and look at internet based alternatives. Some people talk about cord cutting…but it is clear the alternatives aren’t quite there for everything.

The Wall Street Journal featured an article which was written as a tearful goodbye to the author’s cable service.

“Everyone’s getting their shows and movies through the Internet these days. I’m sorry. It’s just the reality of things… Yeah, I’ve changed, but you know what? You’ve changed more. I mean, come on. How many shows about housewives are there? I like chefs, but I don’t need to see them on television 24/7. Ghost hunters? Dancing celebrities? Talent shows? “Shark Week”? Celebrity ghost-hunting talent shows during “Shark Week”? It’s too much of too little. You’re full of a lot of inescapable crap.”

And we have to agree. Television is catering to someone, and it isn’t us. The Sci-Fi Channel is SyFy, and where’s the Science Fiction? The TV Guide channel no longer shows a tv guide. The Learning Channel….what the heck are we supposed to be learning on it now? There are so many channels, and how many of them do you actually want.

In a recent appearance on the MythTVCast, our editor was commenting on how hard it was to figure these things out. Too many channels, not enough package choices, and a resistance to changing with the time. And our own conception continues to involve. We continue to realize things about ourselves and our habits that we want to use to change what we do.

Related articles

• Your console is your cable box as Comcast, HBO Go, Verizon FIOS, and more come to the Xbox 360 (arstechnica.com)

Downstreamer’s Realization is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

Image by Beraldo Leal via Flickr

Twice in 2011 we had the pleasure of attending a speech by Jon Hall, who is the Executive Director of Linux International. In both cases, he told a story of the early days of software, about companies that were small enough that the service department was the programmer himself.

As these new small startups, and this 1-2 person software companies spring up to make mobile apps, or cloud apps, or what have you, you have the same situation. You can contact a developer of a mobile app, in many situations, and get them to work with you, or have them seriously consider feature requests.

The developer of Poweramp for Android, a popular music player, was recently on Twitter asking people for feature requests to consider, for example.

We recently have had a lot of luck in this regard. We emailed a developer, and they looked into an edge case issue to see if they could address it. We made another suggestion of another, and today they sent us a beta to test and give our opinion of. And these are mobile apps. Most mobile apps are less than five dollars, more are less than ten. That a developer is willing to take you seriously when their profit from you might be less than a fast food meal is also very inspiring.

Compare that to another medium sized company that took two days to explain the status of a shipped item, or the large company that took three days to arrive for a repair appointment. Some companies have grown to the point where the service staff are barely able to support their product.

Is smaller better? Can these small companies provide good service and make a decent profit? Either way, it is worth considering. At the least, before you leave a bad review, contact the developer and discuss the matter.

What do you think?

The Responsive Developer is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

worrisome. In fact, the ability to get all that information in the cloud would be limited, with slow internet connections.

Now, everything is Cloud Cloud Cloud. Now, as we mentioned before, never put all your eggs in one basket. always keep copies in multiple places. But backup services are a separate issue for another day.

What we were looking for in a photo service was not what everyone was looking for in such a system. Some people want their photos to be social.

Flickr,, for example, states that its mission statement is twofold…to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them, and enable new ways of organizing photos and video. There are tons of great images on Flickr, and it has a great community if your goal is creating a community around photo sharing. There are a lot of serious photographers on Flickr who want to share with other serious photographers.

Flickr offers a free service, and a $25 a year Pro account. The Pro account gets you unlimited uploads, storage, and bandwidth, and ad-free browsing. But Flickr is run by Yahoo, and Yahoo’s performance of late has been less than stellar.

Google’s Picasa is also popular, and is transitioning to Google Photo, which is part of Google’s rebranding of their services with an eye toward social. As part of its integration with Google Plus, the service now allows unlimited photos, but the terms of service allow Google to use the uploaded photos to display, and for promoting services royalty free.

Facebook has become one of the most popular places to store photos. However, it suffers from the same pitfalls as other services. It is free, but the quality and organization is limited by Facebook’s desired function.

So, we went to Smugmug. It is the most expensive option, but with that comes reliability and control. Most serious photographers agree that it may not be a place for sharing, but it is a place for photographers.

Smugmug offers unlimited uploads, a variety of privacy and safety options, prints, customization, and is ad-free. You can use your own domain name(Power Account) and customize your gallery theme. All photos are backed up, and you can download your entire collection easily. They offer three levels…Basic($40/yr), Power($60/yr), Pro($150/yr).

The Basic account allows for most of the functionality you could want. The Power account adds the ability to use your own domain name and further customize the site, and it adds video support for clips of 20 minutes or less, and right click protection to prevent people from saving your images. The Pro account is for those who sell their photography.

And if you like to share your photos, Smugmug supports sharing to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous, and WordPress. If you don’t want people to share from your galleries, this can be turned off. You can also turn off external linking of all kinds. So, you keep control of your photos, but you have the power to do whatever you wish with them. It has given us a chance to take our photos out of an archive where they were never seen, and start getting them in presentation order.

What do you use for your photos?

Related articles

• Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Photo Stream, Carousel, oh my! (theoccasionalphotographer.wordpress.com)
• When can we stop talking about the cloud? (gigaom.com)

Choosing a Cloud Photo Service is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

Image by JaulaDeArdilla via Flickr

The Commodore 64 is still a computer that has a special place in our hearts. The original 64 launched at CES thirty years ago this week in 1982 and was the successor to the VIC-20.

This was the machine we used to first play with programming, using BASIC and classic sprite graphics. It lasted until 1989, but there are still people who remember them fondly, and there is even a reproduction Commodore 64 being sold now with modern hardware.

So here’s to the C64, and days of playing Space Taxi, Mr. Do’s Castle and Tapper, and Reader Rabbit. here’s to 5 1/4 floppies…it will never come again.

Related articles

• The Commodore 64 Turns 30 (wired.com)
• The Commodore 64 Is 30 Years Old (techcrunch.com)
• Commodore 64: 30 years of wins and fails (news.cnet.com)

30th Anniversary of the Commodore 64 is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

Image by wabisabi2015 via Flickr

We’ve just recently returned to Firefox after some time with Chromium, Chrome’s open-source brother.

In the time since we’ve left, Firefox has iterated so fast. In the last calendar year, it has gone from Version 4 to Version 9. It did so mostly by eliminating minor version numbers. Every version is now a major version.

Over the last year, there have been a lot of changes. Firefox 4 was the first to bundle Firefox Sync, which syncs browser settings. The speed of Firefox has increased sevenfold, and the memory usage, a common complaint about Firefox, is down 50%.

The Browser Wars are an arms race to see who can make their browser faster. Recently, Chrome overtook Firefox for the first time. But it has issues, despite its features.

Chrome creates a separate process for each tab, which protects against any single failure bringing down the whole browser. However, this can have pros and cons. Both Firefox and Chrome have reputations for memory issues, although Firefox is more famous for this, the two browsers use more or less memory at different times, because of this design. Firefox has made a good push to reduce its memory usage.

While our situation might not be typical, the new Firefox is definitely seeming more snappy than it once was. There are things in Chrome that are not currently available in Firefox. One of the nicer ones, although Chrome unfairly calls it an App, are the large bookmarks of commonly used programs on the Blank New Tab menu. We’ve been able to reproduce this in Firefox, however, using a plugin called Fast Dial, which creates the same sort of visual bookmarks.

We aren’t the only ones who enjoy Firefox, while looking for some, but not all, of the features of Chrome. We located a Firefox extension to enable the HTML5 desktop notifications according to the API Chrome implements. This allows an open Gmail window, for example, to pop up a notification.

So, in the end, Chrome and Firefox both offer compelling features, and we’ll keep them both installed, but we keep running back to Firefox. It just suits us. And it suits many others.

What do you use and why?

Related articles

• Chrome to Overtake Firefox in Browser Popularity by End of Year [In Brief] (lifehacker.com)
• The Power User’s Guides to Chrome and Firefox [Web Browser] (lifehacker.com)
• The rise of Chrome, the decline of Firefox? (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Chrome Overtakes Firefox of the Day (geeks.thedailywh.at)
• Chrome Engineer: Firefox Is A Partner, Not A Competitor (readwriteweb.com)
• Chrome Usage Surpasses Firefox for the First Time [Browser Wars] (lifehacker.com)

Firefox vs Chrome is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.

Image by pmsyyz via Flickr

Out of the various online music lockers that are springing up, Google Music seems to have the best interface for metadata. This is especially important if you intend to be able to sort through your music. This is why, despite supporting Moozone, we decided to upload our music to multiple clouds. In terms of user experience, Google wins hands-down.

Amazon Cloud Drive, by comparison, seems to offer no ability to edit the metadata, which affects playback and search. It makes the experience a bit harder. Their web player is not very feature filled and their Android app is equally lacking in aesthetics. Google Music could use more functionality, but it offers a compelling set of features.

Amazon makes it easy to download files, Google does not. You can make files available offline in the Android app, but you can’t download them. So it isn’t a backup solution.

Neither company offers a public API, so third-parties can expand their offerings, however. Amazon Cloud offers a free and paid product. Google has yet to offer a paid product, and it may or may not.

We’re still on the fence about this. Ironically, we prefer the Amazon music to the Google Music store, but Google has the better interface. And neither supports OGG, unfortunately. But, so far, in this battle, Google has won. But we often find ourselves using Amazon’s MP3 App for Android right after we’ve bought a song. Something to be said for ease of use.

What do you think?

Related articles

• Google Music opens up to everyone … if you’re in the US (androidcentral.com)
• Custom Google Music App Coming To All Devices By Cyanogen Mod Team (goandroid.co.in)
• What’s so cool about the Google Music Android app? (droidflash.wordpress.com)
• Changing Music Landscape (thetechscoop.net)
• CyanogenMod 9 Brings Custom Version Of Google Music App (pocketnow.com)

Google Music vs. Amazon Cloud Drive – Some Limitations is a post from Gadget Wisdom. All Rights Reserved.