Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
New hardware in the headlines for this week’s “Geek Beat” on the Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning show, and the big hit was the Nintendo Switch. But LG and Samsung also unveiled their heavy hitters in the premium Android smartphone ring.
For this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now Sunrise morning news show, we tackled a trio of tech stories: The ability to applied for “Verified” status on Twitter: I’ve coveted the “blue checkmark” since they first showed up, but up until now there was no way to...
There was no way to avoid talking about Pokemon Go this morning, considering how massively popular the newly launched game has become in just a few days. But this morning’s Sunrise “Geek Beat” segment allowed me to spend a little time giving credit where credit is due. Before there was...
New rules for commercial drone use led off this week’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning show. We also touched on the growing popularity of first-person view (FPV) drone racing, including a recent competition on Maui and the upcoming Drone Worlds championships taking place at Kualoa Ranch in October....
‘Tis the season for year-end recaps (see today’s Bytemarks Cafe), top-ten lists (more on this tomorrow), and yes, New Year’s resolutions. For this morning’s Geek Beat segment on Hawaii News Now‘s Sunrise morning show, we covered three apps to help you keep those resolutions. Of course, our last Geek Beat segment...
An award-winning documentary about a Hawaii teen athlete who chased her dream of competing nationally in both judo and wrestling will get its local premiere, four months after it debuted nationally. As reported here in May, “Winning Girl” aired on the World Channel as part of its “America ReFramed” documentary series. But no cable providers in...
Instead of our usual Wednesday morning visit to the Hawaii News Now studio, Burt and I joined the Sunrise morning crew today at their “On the Road” remote at Wet N’ Wild Hawaii. The theme of the day was summer fun, with segments on barbecues, sunscreen, and drones (which was summer...
My wife and I love Anthony Bourdain. He’s a famously acid-tongued chef and writer turned celebrity chef and travel host. He’s anchored several travel and food shows: “A Cook’s Tour” for the Food Network, “No Reservations” and “The Layover” on the Travel Channel, and now “Parts Unknown” on CNN. Bourdain featured...
Australian chef, paleo diet crusader, and avid surfer Pete Evans is bringing his traveling food show “Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking” to Hawaii next week. The series is a partnership between Boston-based public television station WGBH and Fine Cooking magazine, and is currently filming its third season. Earlier this month,...
Update – May 13, 2015: Following the broadcast, “Winning Girl” was added to PBS’ streaming library. Watch it online for a limited time here. If you ask the Guiness Book of World Records, the quietest place on Earth is in a sound test chamber at a lab in Minnesota. Most people can’t stand the...
Today brings the national broadcast premiere for an award-winning documentary telling the story of Honolulu teen Teshya Alo as she competes at the national level in both judo and wrestling. But while the film “Winning Girl” features a local girl from Kamehameha Schools as she beats boys and even competes with women...
Children’s television network Nickelodeon this week released a digital animated short called “Menehunes,” a fun and colorful story loosely based on the menehune of Hawaiian mythology. There’s young Leilani and a hidden village of menehune in the trees, a gang of cockroaches, and more than a few silly tropical-themed puns. It was...
Since blogging about the Meerkat livestreaming app a couple of weeks ago, I’ve gone a little bonkers. I said at the time, “I could easily see myself falling head over heels in love with Meerkat,” and I did. I talked incessantly about it. I livestreamed random moments — hanging out...
It seems as if I can’t go more than a few days without writing something about drones. Things are definitely changing quickly in the UAV space. If you’re either a drone pilot or want to become one, there are a couple of notable opportunities coming up to learn more. This Friday, preeminent...
I’m one of those sports ball neophytes who’s more interested in Super Bowl commercials than the game itself. And obviously, the NFL would rather people talk about deflated footballs than some of its messier problems. But this year’s big game ads did tackle some heavier topics, from the chilling “NO...
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just wrapped up in Las Vegas, once again generating its annual torrent of gadget headlines. Even though it seems like barely half of the products ever actually make it to market (“pricing and availability to be announced!”), it’s certainly the single largest global showcase...
With the competition for eyeballs as fierce as ever, you won’t normally see one television station promoting another. But that’s what Hawaii residents will see tomorrow night, when Hawaii News Now, Hawaii’s largest combined commercial television network, will donate airtime to help PBS Hawaii raise money for its new building....
Making New Year’s resolutions is easy. Keeping them is the tricky bit. For our last “Geek Beat” segment of 2014, Burt and I talked about apps that just might help you keep the promises we make to ourselves every Dec. 31. First up is Lift, which I’ve used for over...
This morning’s segment on Hawaii News Now focused on the latest iPhones from Apple (including the latest flap, “Bendgate”), the iOS update that comes with them, and finally the upcoming fourth generation of Samsung’s original “phablet,” the Galaxy Note. Burt, who is currently gallivanting around Japan, escaped the latest escalation...
On this week’s “Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now, we featured more locally-grown apps. Of course, we could barely scratch the surface in explaining each, so here’s more background on RouteView HNL, Pic-A-Papaya, and The Plant Doctor. RouteView HNL This app for iOS allows a simple and elegant way...
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