Nick Kawakami

Residential Real Estate, Photography, and Life in Honolulu, Hawai‘i

Island Living

Alexa vs. Google: My Experience

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During the Black Friday bonanza, both Amazon & Google were discounting their voice assistant speaker systems, prompting many people to take the plunge and begin talking to their devices. Being an Amazon Echo owner for several months myself, I also took that plunge and decided to purchase a Google Home as well to see the differences. This post is some notes from my experience, as well as my thoughts on the whole smart speaker market in general. [Read more…] about Alexa vs. Google: My Experience

No Fear in Homebuyers, Despite Halloween! 🎃

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Happy Fall Everyone! The leaves are beginning to turn brown…well, the leaves that are dead are brown, but the rest are still green #fallinhawaii. In fact, thanks to a couple HEAVY rain storms, the island is extra green and lush!! Speaking of green, green arrows mean median prices are up along with closed sales! Let’s take a look at the stats for October and see if there’s anything new to report… [Read more…] about No Fear in Homebuyers, Despite Halloween! 🎃

Don’t Do That: Self-Leaked Passwords

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From time to time, I’ll see a story pop by that reads something like, “Former CIA Director Assures Us He Did Not Just Tweet His Password” or “Sean Spicer Just Tweeted Something That Looks an Awful Lot Like a Password.” And up until now, I’ve always thought, “Idiots! How can you be so dumb to send out your password?!” Well, today I found out. On today’s episode of “don’t do that,” I show you how easy it is to send someone your password. [Read more…] about Don’t Do That: Self-Leaked Passwords

The Real Estate Balloon Keeps Soaring Higher! 🎈

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What!? Fall already!? School is back in session, the REAL summer heat has set in, and real estate prices continue to set year-over-year gains. A quick shout-out before we get into the numbers, as my thoughts are with all of the people affected by the unprecedented weather in the southeast United States. I have a lot of friends and family affected by all of it, and ask that everyone do their best to help out those in need this fall! Anyway, on to the stats… [Read more…] about The Real Estate Balloon Keeps Soaring Higher! 🎈