A much better way to get a strong Wi-Fi signal.

At press events gadgets that use WiFi often don't work well because so many people there are all using WiFi. That's why I was attracted to the new Portal device. As you'll see in the video we shot there that they were using their Portal WiFi device to stream four 4k videos and they all looked great - no buffering at all. The company says Portal is built for crowded and demanding urban environments. The said the primary cause of WiFi being slow and unreliable is overcrowding of the shared public radio airwaves that all WiFi devices compete to use. Portal is designed to be a WiFi system unlike any other. Their “Fast Lanes Technology” lets it use exclusive protected radio channels to eliminate the crowding and congestion that is increasingly common with WiFi. (They hard to work a long time with the FCC to achieve this.) Then the device also uses nine innovative and powerful internal antennas arranged in arrays support the latest radio techniques like MU-MIMO and beamforming for even longer distance. Portal combines the security and privacy capabilities of iOS or Android devices with those of WiFi. This results in your network being much more robust against anyone trying to hack it. Portal also protects your family’s privacy with things like continual intrusion detection, geo-fencing and ID obfuscation. The video on their Amazon page (link below) helps make it clear how they can offer a much better WiFi signal that other routers. And it's priced like many other high-end routers at $199.99. It starts ships November, 2016, but can be preordered. 

Giz Wiz Video: https://youtu.be/QtT0JvVdOxU

Company website: https://portalwifi.com/ 

Video here has a good explanation of how they achieve faster WiFi:

https://www.amazon.com/PORTAL-Turbocharged-Self-Optimizing-Gigabit-Router/dp/B01JQROZZS

Comic Con 2016 & DC Entertainment Has It's Annual Ferslugginer Fun Fest.

Tom Richmond, DickDe, Ryan Flanders. Behind us, Dave Croatto, and hardly visible, the way he likes it, Jacob Lambert. And below, (most of) the special drink menu for the ferslugginer DC Entertainment bash.

I had a couple of "Alfred E. Neuman's", followed by "The Lighter Side" beer chaser, then I folded-in. This special menu is a one-night-only thing.  

The 6th Annual Giz Wiz Meet-Up is October 2nd & OMGchad is flying in to join us!

The 6th Annual Meet-Up takes place Sunday, October 2nd, 2016 from 2 to 4 PM.  

OMGChad is flying in from Dallas to attend so it will be a super meet-up!!! It's at the same great place as all the other meet-ups, www.boatbasincafe.com 

Friends, Fun, Match Game questions, prizes too! It's all free, but we'd like to know if you're coming so we can save the proper amount of space. Just send an email to gizwizbiz@aol.com and put "Meet-Up" in the subject line. If you're bringing guests, "Meet-Up +2" or whatever number of guests. Hope to see you there. Come early and treat yourself to breakfast, or stay late and treat yourself to dinner. Food is great and priced right. Menus are on the Boat Basin Cafe website. Great location too, overlooking the Hudson River. (And my little work boat.)

Thanks to Joe Bolanos for the great photo. Who knew so many people would grow mustaches for the event!

One meet-up happened to fall on my birthday. Long time Giz Wiz fan Beckee was kind enough to bring Kazoos for all, so I had my own 'Kazoo Band' Happy Birthday. It's at the link below. Don't worry, it just lasts one minute!

And TWiT's (and Giz Fiz director) Alex Gumpel (red jacket back row right) has come in for two of the meet-ups. Will he be there for the 2016 meet-up? Hmmm.... Come and be surprised with the rest of us.

The Kazoo Birthday Song: http://youtu.be/BXpN-Vqe4cg

Hope you can make it October 2nd, 2016. 

Who shoots those Giz Wiz Videos & much of my ABC WNN b-roll?

Dennis Wunderlin does that. (He's already shot more than 300 videos for various Giz Wiz appearances!) And I know you're asking: "What's b-roll?" That's the video we use on World News Now when the gadget we're talking about has a demo that can't take place in the studio. For example we needed b-roll when we field-tested the Fugoo Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker. I dropped it in the Hudson River as the engine on my boat ran at full bore making waves, while Dennis shot the video of it still playing! (More info is at www.fugoo.com)

Dennis also shoots all the videos for The Giz Wiz Show on TWiT. (This Week in Tech.) Although his videos are downloaded via iTunes over 20,000 times a week as part of my Giz Wiz show on TWiT, we also put a few a on YouTube as a stand alone videos. We recently added a green screen to our recording abilities at Gizneyland Studios, but if you want to own a green screen, here's a fun video of a device we found at Pepcom, the Jakks Pacific Selfie Booth! It has it's own built in green screen so you can be 'anywhere' digitally! You can find the Selife Booth at Target. Adult size is about $60 and a smaller kid's version is in th $30-$35 range.

Giz Wiz Video: http://youtu.be/Wigp6XOlrpk 

And I have my own YouTube Channel with hundreds of Dennis' Videos:

www.gizwizvideos.com

PLEASE! No more Star Wars talk. - A Giz Wiz Holiday Message.

Let's concentrate on the importance of the holidays.

Yes, it's the time of year when kids are so excited that The Force Awakens them early Christmas morning. Most will like love want gifts they receive, but a few will not like anything and throw a tauntaun.

Some folks will stay close to home while others will travel to a galaxy far, far away often on jet-eye night flights.

But once they arrive, it's time for drinking eggnog and making Wookie. For many the main event takes place on December twenty-fifth, but then it's all over on December twenty-sith.

Through it all, keep it light and airy, or to put it another way: “May the Froth Be With You.” 

Happy holidays.

DickDe