Todd Bernhard

Author Details

Todd Bernhard's picture

Author Details

Todd Bernhard

Todd Bernhard is a bestselling (6+ million downloads) award-winning (AARP, About.com, BestAppEver.com, Digital Hollywood, and Verizon) developer and founder of NoTie.NET, an app developer specializing in Talking Ringtone apps including AutoRingtone. And his profile photo is of the last known sighting of Mr. Bernhard wearing a tie, circa 2007!

An iPhone is almost always attached to his hip or in his pocket, but over the years, Mr. Bernhard has owned an Apple Newton, a Motorola Marco, an HP 95LX, a Compaq iPaq, a Palm Treo, and a Nokia e62. In addition to writing for iPhone Life, Mr. Bernhard has written for its sister publications, PocketPC Magazine and The HP Palmtop Paper.

There are a bunch of Bluetooth trackers out there to help you find your purse, or backpack, or keys; but the folks at Breadcrumb have found an underserved niche: outdoor enthusiasts. If you want to find your favorite hunting spot or you're a hiker looking for your base camp, you might want to check out their Bluetooth Location Marker ($39.99). Breadcrumb sent me the marker to try. It has a lot of unique features.

I have been going to trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every year for decades now, to try to find the best consumer gadgets to review. I also try to go to shows like Comic-Con, as today's toys are increasingly intelligent and connected. So I was glad to see the Audio Pet Animal Bluetooth Speaker ($39.99) from My Audio Life at the most recent New York Comic-Con. The company let me try the adorable Narmony, a Narwhal that would be at home under the sea, or more accurately, submerged one meter for up to 30 minutes according to it's IPX7 waterproof rating. 

I wrote this review on the anniversary of the moon landing. It's about time we had a space dividend for iPad users! Enter the Capsule Case ($59.99) that Phoozy sent me to try. The case is sold in a gold or silver finish that looks like something an astronaut would carry. For those who don't want that kind of attention, Phoozy also has a modern camouflage design or basic black. I prefer the gold, myself.

Like a lot of iPhone users, I use a MacBook at home and also at work. And I have large-screen monitors in both places. So I'm constantly juggling USB-C adapters that can accommodate multiple HDMI ports. Usually that means two different adapters, which is a hassle to plug in, and often the computer doesn't recognize which is the left or right screen and I waste time adjusting my display settings. So I'm always on the lookout for a better docking solution. I tried the J5 model, but it uses a software trick based on AirPlay to leverage the second screen and that disables unlocking via Apple Watch. It's a pain and I gave up on it.

If you consider an iPhone case a fashion statement, you can now make a new statement every month without breaking the bank. The folks at Casely gave me a sneak peak at one of their cases of the month, via their Case Club (starting at $15/month). It's a novel idea. Many of us like to change cases periodically, but that can get expensive. With the Casely subscription box, you can have a new case every month for as little as $15 per month, with free shipping.

In my ongoing quest to find the best wireless car charger, I tested the Airframe Wireless Charging Car Mount ($59.95), which Kenu sent me. I appreciate that it works with any case (or case-free iPhone) with no special cases or magnets required. In fact, it should handle even the biggest phones in the most rugged cases thanks to the wide spring-loaded arm design.

I travel a lot, so I'm always looking for the perfect portable charger. I think I may have found it with the Powerstation Hub ($99.95), which Mophie sent to me to review. It checks so many of my boxes. First, it has a 6,000 mAh battery. That's typically enough to either charge an iPhone twice or top off four devices. Mophie claims 36 hours of battery life, but that depends on the devices that are plugged in. The hub can charge up to four devices at once, via two USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and a built-in Qi wireless pad. The USB-C port supports power delivery for fast charging with 18 watts of power while one of the USB-A ports supports 15 watts and the other supports 5 watts. The Qi wireless charger uses 5 watts.

I travel a lot, often by airplane, so I am always looking for a good workhorse set of headphones, ones that have a long battery life, the option of using a 3.5 mm cable when I forget to charge them, and over ear-design for comfort plus noise cancellation to drown out the airplane noise. Taotronics sent the SoundSurge 46 Wireless Headphones ($89.99) to review and they check all the boxes; plus, at under $90 (currently on sale from $110), they won't break the bank.

During the Space Race, the United States spent millions to develop a Space Pen that could work in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil. The lesson is that sometimes there can be too much technology. While numerous businesses are developing robotic toys and pet food dispensers, the folks at Cheerble have introduced a lower-tech, but still technically solid alternative. It's being crowdfunded, but I know it's a real product because they sent me a review unit of the Wicked Ball (starting at $34) to try.

I've been researching and reviewing a wide variety of security cameras but the common thread seems to be that you have to pay a lot to protect your valuables. However, the folks at Wyze sent me their Wyze Cam Pan ($29.99). For around $30, you get a remarkably full-featured indoor camera that has capabilities beyond cameras costing twice as much. For example, the Pan in the name stands for Panorama. The camera actually rotates on its own, covering 360 degrees, at 110 degrees per second, sensing motion and recording in 12-second increments. You can even mount it on an industry-standard tripod mount. This makes it ideal as a security camera in a centralized, wide open area of your house. While it is for inside use only, it incorporates night vision thanks to 6 infrared LEDs, for 18 shades of gray.

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