Tips from The Tech Doctor

I have been in technology all of my adult life and it is amazing how confusing things are getting in pursuit of being the one that controls the highway into your home.  This blog is an attempt to give you some knowledge and let you make the choice that is best for you! To preface this discussion, I have been a Comcast customer for 17 years in my current home and an AT&T wireless customer for over 20 years.  So loyalty is something earned and guarded carefully.  As is the case with every person out there, I believe I am paying too much to have these services in my home.  I am old enough to compare things to over the air "free" TV and phones from the only "phone company" that existed. While I yearn for the simplicity, I know that the advances we have had would never have occurred without the deregulation of these industries. We pay on average 5 times what our parents did for these services. We have more choices and functionality and we have become dependent o

It is truly interesting how the more computing changes, the more it stays the same. Each of the Big 3 computing players with "Ecosystems" for the user all want you to believe that they are the answer.  The search for the all in one solution continues with each making a case for "why us" versus them! The device-centric approaches are giving way to the Cloud-centric approaches.  There is now more choice than there has ever been, yet people are still swayed by advertising, the herd mentality and the media. At the core of this issue is a huge payoff for the companies that get you hooked on their ecosystem.  Promises of easier, and faster, never mention cheaper or cost effective. If you compare the average Americans' spend on communications from 1995 to 2012, it has increased 1,000%.  The promise of making our lives easier to manage and communicate costs the average consumer $1,200 to $1,700 per year . This doesn't include all the accessories and apps t