Reviews Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Seagate Backup Plus 4TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive

Posted on August 10, 2018

Are you frustrated by the lack of storage space on the typical external USB hard drive? Do you long for an external drive that’s super-fast, yet plugs into a standard USB 3.0 port?

Well look no further, because Seagate has both bases well-covered with their new Seagate Backup Plus 4TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive.

Most consumer-grade USB hard drives currently max out at around 2TB, but this Seagate Backup Plus doubles that to a massive 4TB.

Of course to take full advantage of all that storage space, the drive needs to transfer data at the fastest speeds possible – and this awesome drive is lightning fast! [Read more…]

Review: Anker PowerCore 15600mAh Portable Charger

Posted on August 6, 2018

Modern technology and the abundance of mobile devices we have at our disposal are great, but keeping all of our gadgets charged up and ready for use when we need them can be a challenge.

But that challenge is a lot easier to meet with a powerful USB charger and external battery pack combo.

I’m always eager to test and review new portable charging devices, and I recently had the opportunity to put a true powerhouse to the test. [Read more…]

5 awesome ‘Back to School’ tech deals for your child

Posted on August 3, 2018

Guess what? It’s almost time for the kids to head back to school for the new year!

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me like their summer vacation gets shorter every year – and this year’s is just about gone.

That means it’s time to start shopping for some new clothes as well as a bushel of school supplies like spiral notebooks, pencils, glue sticks and sanitary wipes.

But the really serious shopping will be for the tech items the older kids will need. You know, the laptop and other goodies that are pretty much required these days.

With that in mind, here are five suggestions to help you get started… [Read more…]

5 reasons why LED light bulbs are better than CFL bulbs

Posted on August 2, 2018

As you probably know by now, incandescent light bulbs are being phased out in the U.S., and when they are gone, they’ll be gone for good.

That leaves us all facing a decision going forward: Do we replace our bad incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs or Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs?

Both of these new types of bulbs are vastly more energy efficient than the incandescent bulbs they were designed to replace, but deciding which type to buy can be confusing.

Hopefully, this post will help clear up the confusion a bit.

Although I can’t tell you which type of bulb you would like best, I can tell you that I personally prefer LED bulbs over CFLs, for the following reasons: [Read more…]

Review: Klein Tools ET300 Digital Circuit Breaker Finder

Posted on July 30, 2018

If you have ever needed to find the circuit breaker that controls a certain electrical outlet you know how difficult the task of finding the right breaker can be.

It usually involves plugging a lamp into the outlet and then switching off all the breakers, one by one, until the lamp goes out.

If you don’t have a partner watching the lamp, that means you have to switch off each breaker and then make a trip to the outlet to check the status of the lamp. If the lamp is still on, you still haven’t found the right breaker.

What’s worse, after you have finally found the right breaker you discover that you have flashing clocks and powered-off appliances all over the house.

Needless to say, this almost always turns out to be a time-consuming, tiring and frustrating process.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Luckily, there’s an easy way to find the right breaker every time, very quickly, and without needing a partner to help you. All you need is a circuit tracer.

I recently had the opportunity to check out a Klein Tools ET300 Digital Circuit Breaker Finder, and to be honest I didn’t really know what to expect since I had never used a circuit tracer before. [Read more…]