Boxing Day with Your Two Favorite Geeks – Mac Geek Gab 689

Recurring Keychain authorization requests bugging you? iMessages out of order? Want to know what to do with your dead drives? This is just where your two favorite geeks start this week’s episode. Then it’s on to a headphone and earphone discussion, including some talk about letting ambient sound in, and letting someone else listen in on your bluetooth connection! Cool Stuff Found rounds out the show. Press play, listen, and learn! Oh, and enjoy, too.

Blue Ships 'Satellite' Wireless Headphones with Built-in Amp

Blue Microphones shipped Satellite, wireless, over-the-ear headphones with a built-in analog amplifier. Satellite was announced at CES, where I was more focused on the wired Sadie and Ella models also introduced. Satellite is the company’s entry into premium wireless headphones, and they feature Bluetooth 4.1. They’re also foldable and support the Apt-X audio codec. Apple isn’t currently supporting Apt-X, but some Android devices do. I haven’t tested Satellite, but I’m a big fan of Blue’s other high-end over-the-ear headphones. Jeff Butts will be reviewing these for us, and I look forward to hearing what he thinks. Satellite is available now for $399.95.

8 Ways to See the Charge Level of Your AirPods

If you’ve got a pair of Apple’s bluetooth headphones, dubbed “AirPods,” then it’s good to know that there are tons of ways to check their battery levels. Considering that the AirPods don’t have a physical indicator of how much charge they’ve got, that’s a good thing! In today’s Quick Tip, Melissa Holt’s gonna go over a number of methods for finding out how much more listenin’ you can do.

Speeding Up a Sluggish Mac and Cool Stuff Found – Mac Geek Gab 641

Cool Stuff Found today contains lots of things you suggested after listening to recent shows, including tools to help your Mac sleep, help you manage your keyboard shortcuts and macros, privately sync your notes, auto-file your Mail, and free backup storage! Then its on to sharing your tips and answering your questions. Want to learn how to factory reset your AirPods, enable band-steering on your router, or have Siri search Google instead of Bing? Let’s go!

California Roll Bluetooth Speaker - Solar Powered, Water Proof

LAS VEGAS – I don’t often talk about Bluetooth speakers, but Lemon Tech caught my eye with its California Roll during Tuesday night’s CES Unveiled. That’s because it’s solar powered. It has a 5,000mAh battery in it and 32 solar cells on the back. 7 hours of sunlight will get about 20 hours of playback time. That’s handy, but it also has a USB port on it so you can use that battery to charge your mobile devices. And while you’re charging your mobile devices, it will be recharging the battery if it’s getting light. Right? So, rock on. Plus, it’s water and dust proof, making it suitable for the beach and other messy environments. It’s $249, and it ships in March. There’s a coupon code for 20% off (“5W20”), making it just under $200. It’s available in many different colors.

Bluetooth 5: It's All About the Internet of Things

Get ready for Bluetooth 5 because the Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially ratified the specification for the wireless protocol this week. Bluetooth 5 promises twice the speed and four times the range compared to the current Bluetooth standard, and will start showing up in devices soon.

TMO's Apple AirPods Earbud Alternatives Roundup

Apple’s AirPods wireless are set to ship some time in October, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait to get your hands on—or ears in—fully wireless earbuds. The Mac Observer found some options worth checking out, and they’re all available today.

OS X: Renaming a Bluetooth Device

If one of your Bluetooth devices (like your Magic Keyboard or Magic Mouse) has a name you aren’t fond of, how do you change it? The process is a bit different than it used to be, so we’re going to go over what you’ll do!

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