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Bradley C

Bradley has worked at K-12 independent schools for much of the last 20 years, serving as the head of the information technology department and leading classroom technology integration. He’s well-versed in enterprise Wi-Fi, macOS and iOS system management, school technology, and SaaS tools.

Review: Quip’s new Bluetooth toothbrush has its own iPhone app and integration with Apple Health

Quip

If you follow my HomeKit Weekly series, you know that I am a sucker for anything I can make “smart.” In my never-ending quest to have an app for everything in my house, I now have a Bluetooth enabled toothbrush from Quip. I’ve been using Quip for a couple of years after I heard a podcast ad for them, and now every member of my house is using one of them. I recently got an email about a new ‘motor’ for their existing toothbrushes that adds Bluetooth support, so I jumped on to add it.

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HomeKit Weekly: Homebridge without the complexity? Check out HOOBS

HOOBS

I consider myself a technology enthusiast, but I am not someone who wants to maintain a complicated setup. I previously wrote about the Starling Home Hub and how it turned the Nest Homebridge project into a turnkey solution. This product is my ideal type of setup. It’s a turnkey solution that accomplishes something very technical. Homebridge is a growing platform, though. There are countless other projects going to make all of your smart home products HomeKit compatible. Suppose you want to take advantage of the growing Homebridge ecosystem (2,000 plugins) without the hassle. In that case, you’ll be delighted to hear that HOOBS is available as a Homebridge in a box setup.

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Making the Grade: LEGO Education SPIKE Prime kit provides hours of classroom activities for teachers of all skillsets

Lego Education Spike Prime Set

One of the brands that seem to transcend to all people of all ages is LEGO. I am continually amazed by how the company continues to create unique products. LEGO Harry Potter products are some of my all-time favorites, and my kids play with LEGO products almost every day. LEGO products aren’t just for offline play, though. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime kit

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Review: Prologue for iPhone turns your Plex server into an audiobook paradise

When I moved in 2013, I decided I was done with physical media for TV shows and movies and ripping all of my DVDs into digital format. I set up my first very Plex server running on an old MacBook Pro I had, and it worked well for several years. After that, I used an Nvidia Shield for several years and recently moved to an Intel NUC with a 14 TB external drive to house all of my media. I then have my setup rounded out with a Backblaze subscription to keep everything backed up. Plex is an essential part of my media life for TV and Movies. Earlier this year, I added a new type of media to my server: Plex audiobooks with the Prologue app.

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Making the Grade: Meeting Owl is an essential tool for virtual learning

Building an IT system entirely on campus is one challenge, as is making one for completely remote is another challenging process. Trying to come up with solutions for when some kids are off-campus, and others are on is a daunting challenge, though. As we headed into summer, we knew that some of our kids would not return for the start of school regardless of what was going on in the world, so we wanted to be ready.

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HomeKit Weekly: Ready to change up your lights? Philips Hue has plenty of options

Hue Bulbs

My family has never used overhead lights unless we have company over. We prefer natural light and lamps. A few years ago, I swapped out all of our bulbs to LED light bulbs, and I invested in HomeKit compatible outlet switches as a way to control them from the Home app, HomePod with Siri, and HomeKit automations. As part of my outdoor lighting project I did earlier this year, I invested in a Philips Hue Hub with the Hue outdoor floodlights. After a few months of using them, I decided that I was ready to begin converting my switched outlets to Hue bulbs.

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Apple @ Work Podcast: How has the iPad and iPhone impacted digital signatures?

Apple at work podcast

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Sunil Patro from SignEasy to talk about how the digital signature industry has evolved in the last decade.

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Motion for Peloton

Motion for iPhone is a new challenge-focused app to help Peloton users stay motivated

Since receiving my Peloton bike in the middle of May, it’s been a constant in my life. Outside of days I’ve not been at home, I have only taken one day off from riding. I’ve become immersed in the community over on Reddit where I’ve enjoyed the group rides, celebrating milestones, and just chatting about connected fitness. Peloton is an ecosystem instead of just being a fitness product. A new iPhone app, Motion, is a perfect example of the ecosystem expanding with new options to extend the built-in functionality.

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HomeKit Weekly: These are the best apps to extend HomeKit features beyond Apple’s Home app

The Home app is a handy application for managing HomeKit products regardless if you’re using iPhone, iPad, or even the Mac. With tvOS 14, even Apple TV can access some HomeKit products. The Home app isn’t perfect, though. Several third-party applications can provide extended functionality or even a more focused way to access certain aspects of HomeKit. Here’s a round-up of the best third-party HomeKit apps.

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Comment: Spotify isn’t trying to take over podcasting, but rather become the YouTube of audio

Spotify podcasts

The podcast industry is at a crossroads in 2020. Since 2004, we’ve enjoyed an open ecosystem with podcasting driven by RSS feeds. Once Apple released the iTunes podcast directory in iTunes 4.9, but it’s still been based on the open RSS standard. When listeners subscribe to a show, it is directly pulled from the RSS feed and, therefore, a direct download from the podcast’s server. As Spotify has made its mark on the industry with exclusive shows, it’s worth discussing the differences between free shows, the open podcast market, and paid podcasts.

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