danielmaney

TAKING AN UBER IN SACRAMENTO VS A TAXI! EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW. It was a pivotal moment. Decision time. Call a cab or take an early morning uber in Sacramento? Okay…I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up to a few minutes earlier in this story.  “Natural Mystic” on my smartphone startled me awake on the eve of Thanksgiving. I reached for my cell phone and as I turned the alarm off I yelled, “F#$@!” so loud that my neighbors must have woken up. I sprung out of bed, ran into the bathroom, took a two-minute shower. Ran a comb through my hair, brushed my teeth and jumped into my clothes…all while cursing myself for hitting the snooze button a second time.  It was 6:10 a.m, I overslept an hour and ten minutes. My flight out of Sacramento International Airport was set to leave at 8:45 a.m and I was scampering around my apartment in Vacaville. a good 30 minutes (without traffic) away. I got hit with a 3X surge price, but I didn’t really care, I just needed a ride t...

Ever wonder why smart locks from leading vendors – August, Danalock, Kevo, Kwikset, Schlage – don’t have an integrated video camera or two-way audio so that you can communicate with the person at your door? It’s because these require more power and adding them would force users to replace the lock’s batteries too frequently. Battery life issues with smart locks impact more than advanced functionality. They impact the customer’s desire to install the locks. No one wants to be locked out of their home, and especially not because they forgot to change a battery on a lock. Some locks have emergency power supply through 9V batteries, but would I really carry a 9V battery with me at all times just in case? That’s where wireless power comes in. By delivering much more power than a battery can reasonable deliver (without weekly battery changes), several benefits come into focus: Customers never need to replace batteries As a result, customers have fewer reservations about smart locks ...