• Reviews

    Road trips: what’s in my Verizon bag

    I had a series of road trips earlier this year and now that fall is here (festivals, college football, weddings), I’m ready to hit the road again. I wanted to share some products I recently tried out courtesy of the folks at Verizon. Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Duo This little 2-inch by 4-inch device went in my bag nearly every time I left the vehicle, especially at events like Bonnaroo where I was taking lots of photos and video and my iPhone battery was quick to drain. What I like most about it: you can charge two devices simultaneously, it has a special high-output battery that allows for ultra fast…

  • Reviews

    Verizon’s Google Nexus 6 review: It takes two

    If you’re not an ’80s child, you might not get my headline reference to Rob Base’s It Takes Two song. In this case, I’m referring to hands – it takes two hands to operate Verizon’s Google Nexus 6, which was a downside for me. I’m sure I’d get used to it eventually but I’m pretty happy being able to one-hand my iPhone 5s and snap a quick photo. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I judge phones mostly by what they can do for me in the camera department. I also own a DSLR and several point-and-shoot cameras but I want to be able to rely on my phone…

  • Randomness,  Work

    Hands-down and hands-free: my pick of Verizon Bluetooth headphones

    I’ve been in the market for a pair of high-end headphones to use to listen to music as well as to conduct hands-free telephone interviews. Verizon Midwest provided me with two different Bluetooth options to try out for several weeks each: Tracks Air by Motorola X SOL REPUBLIC and the LG Tone Infinim headset. These were two completely different styles but I wasn’t sure which I would prefer until I tried them out. The Tracks Air is an over-ear headphone while the LG Tone Infinim headset sits around your neck. While music sounded great on the Tracks Air, telephone conversations didn’t sound as good. Those on the other end of…

  • Lee,  Photography

    Droid Turbo Review: a phone to finally bring my husband up to speed

    Verizon Midwest provided me with a Motorola Droid Turbo to try out for three weeks. I’m an iPhone user and enjoyed checking out the 21 megapixel camera and the screen that made my iPhone 5s look tiny. But the real impact happened with my husband, Lee. By the end of week one, he went to our local Verizon store and replaced the phone he’d been using for less than two years. It was a HUGE step for him because it is his first phone without a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But as soon as he saw the capabilities of buying the latest and greatest phone, he was a believer. I’ll let…

  • travel

    Extreme travel: Riding Verrückt, the world’s tallest water slide

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — “I think I see something menacing out there,” said Ken, one of the travel writers on our Extreme Kansas City press trip, as our van turned into the drive at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. A 79-year-old writer from Tennessee, Ken had been fairly quiet on the first two days of the trip so his quip surprised us and the understated delivery of his words made us laugh. For those of us preparing to ride Verrückt, ours was a nervous laugh. “Something menacing” looked downright threatening as I walked toward the wooden tower jutting into the otherwise flat landscape. The ride is twice as high as Kansas City code officials normally allow structures.…