#5 Laptop of the the Year

I know there are people who will fight me to the grave on this one, but the rooster's trusty IBM Thinkpad T-Series bit the dust this year and it was time to upgrade.  The winner in the laptop comparison was the Mac Book Pro 13".  Except for the keyboard (missing a bunch of keys I like to use like PgUp and PgDn) this could be laptop perfection.  You can really sense that Jonny Ives from Apple agonized over getting this machine right.  What is right about it?

• The screen is amazing (retina display).
• The battery life is amazing, yes, you really can get 10-12 hours of battery life out of this laptop while using it.  I don't even carry the charger any more.
• It edits HD video like a dream.
• It is extremely lightweight and not a chore to lug around in the backpack or laptop bag.
• You can hook up to 6 external displays to it, yes, a laptop.
• If you are a heavy gamer or graphics/video editor and still want to have a hardcore video card, you can use the thunderbolt 2 ports and build an eGPU (external GPU) so that you can game at your desk with a high end video card.  This is not officially supported by Intel or Apple since it cuts into high end desktop and processor sales.  Shouldn't everyone should purchase a phone, tablet, laptop, and of course a desktop?  :)
• Now with HDMI out.
• You can Airplay Audio and your Desktop to any Apple TV or Airplay speaker, very nice.
• Did I mention the 10-12 hour battery life?

Please a moment of silence for the Thinkpad T61 and for the now extinct optical drive that allows the Mac Book Pro to be so very thin. 

Note: The Mac Book Air was a close runner up, but it fell short in ports, screen and performance, but definitely not battery life.

#4 Best Mouse

I tried quite a few mice in 2014.  Everything from the Apple Magic mouse to the Microsoft Arc.  The rooster award goes to the Logitech Performance MX mouse.

It works great on any surface, even glass.  It works with PC and MAC.  It feels really good in your hand and doesn't hurt your wrist.   It has a middle mouse wheel that can either click scroll or free spin.   

Have you ever worked with a website which has the "scroll of death" where you need to constantly scroll to get to the bottom?  Just click the button for free spin and hit the wheel and it will quickly scroll you there.  Also great for video editing.

The mouse recharges over USB and the rooster recommends putting ENELOOP rechargeable batteries in the mouse for longevity.  Normal rechargeable NiMh batteries bleed a little bit of charge each day, somewhere between 1-3% and ENELOOPS hold their charge for extended periods of time when the mouse is not in use. I also like to put them in camera flash packs that I don't use very often so that they are ready to go when I want to use them, but I digress, this is about the mouse.

Another great feature is the THUMB BUTTON which is programmable but defaults to Apple's Mission Control on a Mac which is great for managing windows and switching desktops.  There are variants of this mouse with even more buttons for gamers. The only bad thing about this mouse is that you will need to buy 2 or 3 of them.  One for home, one for the laptop bag, and one for work. 

#3 Best Streaming Video Box

Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon lost $7.4B (on paper) in 2014, but who cares?  He made some outstanding products like the  Amazon FIRE TV.

Why is it so amazing? You can talk to it. The tagline is "Say it, see it."

Push the microphone button on the remote and speak, "My Little Pony" or "Sound of Music" and it's ready to watch.

No more standing in front of the TV like a big dope as the DVD or Blu-Ray forces you to watch the stupid FBI warning and previews for the thousandth time.  No more drinking through endless menus or trying to spell works.

I have been hesitant to build a digital video library since it is out there in the cloud and you don't physically own it.  The two big cloud players for content have been Apple and Amazon.  The Fire TV stomps the Apple TV for access to content and is a great place to store your digital video purchases. If the Amazon Fire TV could just support Apple's Airplay, I could send Apple TV to my Ebay store.

#2 Best WiFi Router

If the wifi is down, the world comes to a screeching halt. No more streaming video, surfing the web, or access to the outside world.  When Scott McNealy said "The network is the computer!" he was definitely on to something.

So how do you keep your wifi rock solid? The rooster picks the ASUS Dark Knight RT-N66U dual band wifi router.

ASUS Dark Knight RT-N66U (black)

While it might seem a little pricey at $120.00 I can assure you it is worth every penny extra over that $69.99 wonder router you are looking at at Target or Walmart.

This router literally plug and play.  The wireless range and speed of this device are amazing.  I purchased about 10 of these in 2014 and every one of them got the job done without a hiccup.

ASUS Dark Knight RT-N66U (white)

I especially like the USB ports where you can hook up a printer or put in a memory stick and use it as a network file server.  Just setup your all All-in-One printer to store scans on the router which makes scans available everywhere even when your computer is not powered on.

Another nice touch is that it comes in WHITE or BLACK plastic. I did a wireless survey of my home and found the optimal place to put the router to cover the house and yard. I ended up mounting it close to the ceiling next to the doorbell chime in white so that it doesn't look like a big black spider up on the wall.

Let's talk security.  This year was a bad year for router hacks and security problems.  Many vendors that produced the cheap routers never release any updates. If you bought one you are left exposed or have to shutdown features to stay safe.  ASUS releases regular firmware updates for your router and they are painless to install right over the Internet.  In the off chance your firmware upgrade fails, the router resets in a safe mode and let's you try it again.   Other routers just break and end up as an e-waste brick since there is no way to recover from a failed upgrade.

Two other favorite features are VPN (Virtual Private Network) and having multiple SSIDS (router names).  If you have ever looked at your iPhone, you may have noticed the ability to setup a VPN, but thought that was only for your corporate network.  By setting up VPN, this gives you an encrypted network connection back to your house.  When you access the web, all the traffic is sent to and from your router without using the wifi network which you are connected.  This keeps the creepy people from monitoring what you are doing on public wifi.  Also, if the wifi you are on arbitrarily chooses to block something such as a website, as long as it isn't blocked at home you can access it over VPN.  I like to use VPN whenever I am out in public.  Some malls and restaurants are shutting down VPN access but stores like Target currently allow VPN use.  Thank you Target!

With this router you can have up to 6 SSIDs (router names).  This is useful if you want to add a public SSID to your router and be a great-guy or maybe setup a private network for guests when they visit.  This keeps people out of all the goodies on your home network , but still gives them Internet access.  Some of the more hilarious SSIDs I've seen on routers are"

"Everyone loves your barking dog!"

"The NSA is Listening!"

"Too Fly for Wifi"

Knock on wood, this router never crashes or needs rebooting.  Other routers I've owned tend to get weird after about 30-days of uptime, but not the ASUS Dark Knight.

#1 TOP USB Device

USB was a wonderful invention! It allowed us to quickly hot plug in hard drives, keyboards, mice, cameras, and Kindles without shutting down and rebooting our computers.  Now there never seems to be enough USB ports to go around with the tablets, phones, and power hungry USB accessories that need daily charging. This year my top pick in USB goes to the KDLINKS UMF66B powered USB expansion dock.   This is a powered USB expansion box, which means it needs to plug into the wall.  This 9 port gem charge 2-iPads, 1-phone, provides 6-USB 3.0 expansion ports for your computer and has a bonus SD card reader. 

Note: the charging ports are just for charging and you can't use them to access the device from the computer.

This device also has an unpublished feature.  You can use it with Garageband on your iPhone or iPad to record or podcast    Normally when you plug a USB mic into the iPad you get the dreaded, "The device requires TOO MUCH POWER." Since the power is being provided by the wall socket instead of the battery inside the iPad or iPhone you can plug it into the hub podcast and record away.

The best part about this little box is that you don't have to install anything! You can switch it from PC to MAC to iPad and it just works.