Now that the weather is warming up we are starting to get a case of spring fever. Everyone is busy planning camping trips, beach days, outdoor festivals, and road trips. To kick off vacation season, we have put together a list of the top five accessories to take with you this spring, wherever you may go! Check out our list of must-haves when heading outdoors and on the road.

Bluetooth Speaker

This is a must for any camping trip. No matter how many friends are with you for the trip, music is what makes a camping trip fun. Get a portable one that runs off of batteries so you don’t have to worry about finding power sources.

USB Battery Back-Up

This is a must for traveling when you are going to be somewhere without power outlets. This is perfect for an outdoor festival because you can throw it in your bag and use it to charge up your phone or any other USB device that you have.

A Spare Set of Earbuds

One pair is not enough. Sometimes when you are on a trip with a group of people, the only thing that can save your sanity is a pair of earbuds. With them you can checkout and listen to music or a pod cast. These particularly come in handy if you are on a road trip or airplane. Ear buds are the universal signal for “don’t bother me.”

Back-up Charging Cables

A lot can happen out on the open road. Stuff gets lost. Throw in a couple of back-up micro USB or Lightning cables to your suitcase so you can make sure you don’t get stuck without a charge.

Collapsible Beer Glass

This is the perfect way to stand out in a sea of generic plastic beer cups. If you are paying over $10 per beer, you might as well use a re-usable cup. Drink beer while helping the environment. This cup collapses to a small circle that will fit perfectly into your pocket.

Stay tuned for more great ideas from the tech experts at Cable Wholesale!

Internet congestion is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? Did you know that high bandwidth issues can slow down your WiFi and wired internet connections? Follow some of our tips to get your home WiFi connection running flawlessly. In order to fix the problem, you must identify what is causing the trouble in the first place. Bandwidth lag can happen for a few different reasons.

One of the biggest drains of bandwidth comes from content streaming. Streaming can affect your WiFi’s performance in a big way. Streaming YouTube videos and video applications like Netflix and Hulu can really eat up your bandwidth. When you are running different programs and also downloading or streaming material, a bottleneck effect can occur, and your connection will slow or become “clogged.” This means that you do not have enough bandwidth to carry the load that you are trying to stream. This will typically result in a weak signal, which in turn causes buffering. Once the bandwidth gets clogged, you must increase the amount of bandwidth in order to transmit additional data.

Streaming Internet radio sites like Pandora and Spotify can also take up a lot of bandwidth. This can especially become an issue if more than one site is open at once. The same goes for downloading videos or movies. High bandwidth may also arise when you ignore your wireless router’s firmware update. In order to keep your router running seamlessly, keep up with its firmware updates. You can check for updates by checking the router’s part number on the manufacturer’s website.

Push notifications from your cell phone can take up some bandwidth, but unless you are in a room with multiple other people and you all receive a push notification at once, it shouldn’t be an issue. If you are looking to conserve all of your bandwidth, simply turn your push notifications off.

If after all this you still have an unsteady connection, don’t despair. There are a few ways to strengthen a weak WiFi signal. Upgrading your router’s antenna is one way to boost your WiFi signal. A weak antenna signal will definitely interrupt your WiFi. Also, make sure your WiFi is secured with a password. When your WiFi is not password-protected others may access your router and that can definitely put a drag on your bandwidth. If you have concealed your wireless router out of sight, try moving it to a more central location and see if that helps to strengthen the signal. If this doesn’t fix the issue, try buying a wireless extender. This type of fix can be pricey, so we recommend this as a last ditch effort.

The latest “buzz” on the street is about some new alcohol delivery apps that have just popped up for both iPhone and Android. These apps will deliver firewater right to your door, no questions asked.

Now there is truly an app service for everything. If you need a ride, you can order an Uber or a Lyft. If you want take-out transported to your front door, you can order from a food delivery service like GrubHub or from apps like Postmates and Seamless. Now you can have booze delivered direct as well.

Saucey is one of the newest apps on the alcohol delivery scene. Their tagline is “Beer, wine & spirits delivered at the push of a button.” Their guarantee is that alcohol will be delivered between 20 and 40 minutes. And to make you feel like a responsible drinker, Saucey will donate a percentage of profits from every bottle sold to a charity that provides clean drinking water to those in need.

Sqyre

This company’s claim to fame is that they do not charge an extra delivery fee. They will also send bottles of hooch directly to your love interest as a gift, if you so choose. Who needs flowers anyway?

MiniBar

This app has limited delivery areas in SF but is widely available on the East Coast. They promise that spirits will be delivered within an hour. They also have informative product pages that give you ingredients of the booze you are selecting, as well as the alcohol content and the region it originates from.

Some might wonder why an alcohol delivery app is necessary when most big cities have a liquor store on every corner? We can see this being most convenient if you are throwing a party and have some extra thirsty guests, and you don’t want to run to the store. There is also the instance when you might want to have a few drinks at home, it’s late at night and you live in a sketchy area of town. Maybe you live a couple blocks from a liquor store and you don’t want to drive. Or maybe you just shouldn’t be driving. Whatever the reason, we think these apps are going to be pretty popular. Going for a “beer run” just might be a thing of the past.