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Skyroam SOLIS 4G LTE Global WiFi hotspot review

When we are researching for places to spend our vacation, I always ask Jeanne to make sure that the place where we’ll be staying has internet access. Because perish the thought that I take a vacation where I can’t get a little Gadgeteer work done too.

We went on our last vacation knowing that there wouldn’t be any internet at the cabin we were renting, but I stuffed down my panic because I knew we’d only be gone for 2 full days. And as luck would have it, I had a secret weapon to take with us… the Skyroam SOLIS 4G LTE Global WiFi Hotspot.

What is it?

The Skyroam SOLIS is a portable 4G LTE WiFi Hotspot and 6000mAh power bank that provides unlimited daily internet connectivity by using Skyroam’s proprietary global WiFi network which uses local SIM service from nearly 200 carriers. It partners with the best providers to offer a seamless mobile WiFi experience for world travelers in over 100 countries using a virtual SIM, which automatically picks up the cellular connection in your area.

Using Skyroam means you don’t have to mess around with changing your existing wireless plan or worrying about roaming and overage charges.

What’s in the box?

SkyRoam SOLIS
USB Type-C cable
USB Type-C to USB adapter
Quick start guide

Design and features

The SOLIS looks like a bright orange hockey puck that has a power button on the side and a WiFi button on top.

On the back of the SOLIS is a USB Type-C connector that is used to charge the device which can run for 16 to 20hrs on a charge. The Type-C connector is also where you connect the Type-C to USB adapter so you can use the SOLIS as a back battery for your other gadgets.

The bottom cover of the hotspot can be removed to provide access to the battery compartment. In an age where our gadgets are usually sealed, it’s refreshing that the Skyroam SOLIS has replaceable rechargeable batteries.

Let’s get online

As mentioned above, I was excited to receive the Skyroam SOLIS the day before we were planning visit Turkey Run State Park where I knew that there would be no WiFi at the cabin we’d rented.

I made a mistake of not setting up the SOLIS before we left figuring I could do it when we got to our destination. That was almost a fatal mistake because the first thing you have to do to set up the SOLIS is to create an account – ONLINE. Our Verizon phone barely had a signal, which made getting online to check my email for the account info almost impossible.

After several tries and some patience, I was able to create the initial account and the SOLIS began the connection process. You have to sit through this loading screen every time you disconnect from the SOLIS hotspot and reconnect. It can take several minutes.

Luckily, SOLIS gives you 20 minutes of free time to set up the hotspot, but without a reliable connection where we were staying, it took a few tries to get it up and running.

Once you’re fully connected, you can buy your daypasses. The SOLIS comes with one pass and each additional pass after that is $9. Each daypass gives you unlimited internet access for 24 hours.

Note that you can’t turn off the SOLIS an hour after initiating a daypass, wait a day, turn it back on and expect to still have 23hrs of access left. Each daypass only lasts for 24hrs no matter if you use it during that time or not.

Also, if you travel to different countries within a day, the time left on the daypass will be calculated from the time of the location where you activated the device.

You can always see the status of your connection and time left on your daypass by logging into the Skyroam dashboard.

Each Skyroam SOLIS can support up to 5 connections. While we were staying outside the park, we had our phones and my MacBook connected to the SOLIS. The speed was pretty slow and sometimes the dashboard said it was only a 3G connection because there was barely any coverage for Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. But whichever wireless carrier that the SOLIS was using at the time, it was good enough for surfing, emailing, and some light Gadgeteer work.

Just be aware that the Skyroam SOLIS is not a magic internet puck. One of their partnered cell providers has to have coverage in your area for it to provide WiFi access.

Skyroam even works great while driving which means it comes in handy for long road trips where you might not want to use your phone as a hotspot.

Fast forward a few weeks… As I’m writing this review, I’m back home now and am connected to the SOLIS in my basement and have the connection speed that you see above. That probably looks really slow to a lot of you, but it works fine even for watching YouTube and Netflix videos (after some buffering time).

But is it too good to be true?

When we were at the Turkey Run State Park, the speed of the Skyroam SOLIS felt noticeably sluggish, but I was just happy to be able to surf and respond to emails so I wasn’t complaining. I thought the significant slowness of the connection was due to the fact that the cell providers in that area had very weak coverage. But as I was working on this review, I stumbled upon info that was buried in the Skyroam support pages and it made my heart sink a bit.

Skyroam markets the SOLIS as a 4G LTE unlimited global hotspot. Which it is. BUT (and it’s a big but), you don’t really get unlimited 4G speeds with this device. After you use 500mb of data, the speed throttles down to 2.5G speeds for the rest of the 24hr daypass. When I asked Skyroam to explain this wrinkle, Cory Jones, Skyroam’s Vice President, Global Marketing & Product, responded with:

“Our goal is to deliver convenient, omnipresent global connectivity for international travelers at a great value. To deliver that, we’ve optimized our service to give Skyroam customers the best performance across our global footprint of 100+ countries. Most users experience the fastest speeds possible since the majority don’t reach 500mb in 24 hours. For those that exceed 500mb in 24 hours, data speed changes to 2.5G for the remaining period of the 24-hour daypass, which compares favorably in the telecom market.

Many find the simplicity Skyroam offers to be a lifesaver – WiFi on-demand data at one rate worldwide. You can even use one daypass in multiple countries, as well as being shareable with travel buddies and among your gadgets with five devices simultaneously. We focus our service on global travelers who see the value through that lens.”

Well, that stinks.

So I created a test. I checked my speed BEFORE using 500MBs of data (see above) and then I started downloading a 512MB test file.

I thought that I had already hit the 500MB threshold before I started the test download because my MacBook reported that it was going to take 2-4 hours to download the 512MB file. Yikes…

But 30MBs into the download, I was still getting good speed using speedtest.net. So I worked on other things (using the Chrome browser with the same WiFi connection to the SOLIS) and let the test file continue downloading in the background.

I watched a few Youtube videos, surfed some of my favorite sites, read news using Feedly, answered emails, and worked on this review.

Everything slowed to a crawl when the test file download hit the 220MB mark. At that point, other tabs in my browser would not refresh. I paused the test file download and did another speed test and got the results shown above. OUCH. I waited 10 minutes and ran the speed test again with almost identical results.

Just to be sure, I checked the Skyroam dashboard to confirm that I was still connected to 4G. I was. I then decided to toggle power on the Skyroam SOLIS, connect back to it and do another speed test.

Same speed.

That speed might look much too slow to do anything worthwhile on the net, but right now I’m watching a YouTube video while I’m writing this. Granted, it took a minute or so for the video to start playing but once it started, it was fine. Low res, but viewable. So is reading and writing emails, reading my news feeds using Feedly through a browser, and even writing this review.

Bottom line: I do think that the >500MB throttling information should be highlighted for potential buyers instead of hiding it in the Skyroam FAQ pages. What do you think, does a 500MB 4G speed cap make the SOLIS less desirable?

Final thoughts

If you are an avid traveler – especially an international traveler who likes to stay connected, the Skyroam SOLIS Global WiFi Hotspot is an affordable way to have internet access where ever you travel (see the country list on the Skyroam site) when you can’t use your mobile phone as a hotspot.

As long as you can live with slower 2.5G speeds after using 500MB of data, I think the SOLIS is a useful gadget for on-demand internet access that at an affordable price.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Skyroam. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

 

Product Information

Price: $149.99 + $9 for each data daypass
Manufacturer: Skyroam
Retailer: Amazon
Pros:
  • Easy to use
  • Global Internet connectivity
  • Affordable day passes
  • Doubles as a power bank
Cons:
  • Only 500mb is at the highest 4G speeds. Once you go past that, the speed goes down to 2.5G speeds
  • Can sometimes take several minutes to get connected

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Skyroam SOLIS 4G LTE Global WiFi hotspot review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2017 at 2:19 pm.

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ZTE Axon M’s dual screen foldable smartphone will make you do a double take (Hands-on)

With ZTE’s AXON M, you can watch videos on one display and scroll through your Twitter feed on the other.

ZTE has a new Axon phone to show off, and while it’s not a follow up to last year’s Axon flagship, it is pretty much one of the coolest devices we’ve encountered so far in 2017. That is because the new Axon M is a foldable dual screen phone. Because two screens are better than one! At least thats the concept behind the Axon M.

The ZTE Axon M houses 2 5.2″ displau

ZTE did research and learned that most folks do prefer larger screen phones, but that they top out at 6” when the phone stops becoming pocket friendly. Their solution is to provide users with not one, but two 5.2” screens in the Axon M. Each display is a 1080P TFT FHQ Gorilla Glass display with 426 PPI.

With the ZTE Axon M, the second screen is able fold out to a 180 degree angle, so the device can be used flat or in a laptop-like mode. And that’s where the possibilities roll in – and oh, there are so, so many, for this form factor.

Mirror mode is useful for two people watching movies on either side, or playing a game like Battleship.

Extended mode takes a single application and extends it across 2 screens. For example, that means double the real estate for your Facebook News feed.

Multitasking Mode

Multitasking mode lets you run a different application on each screen – so you can have your email opened on one display while viewing your calendar on the other. It’s pretty much a multitasker’s dream, and so much better than having just a split screen window mode on a single smartphone display. A simple 3 finger swipe moves an application over to the opposite display.

Mirror Mode

Under the hood, the ZTE Axon M is powered by an 821 Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 4GB of RAM, and it comes running Android Nougat (7.1.2). The rear-facing camera sports a 20MP sensor with dual image stabilization, and a dual LED flash, and it can record 4k video at 30fps. Its aluminum full metal unibody weighs 230 grams, and it comes with a micro-SD card slot for expansion. The Axon M even includes a 3.5mm audio jack along with an AKM 4962 HiFi main chipset for HiFi listening and recording.

One thing is for sure – the ZTE Axon M is one of the most exciting and unique mobile devices we’ve seen in a while. Personally, it brought me back to my fond memories of using a Sidekick. Of course, it remains to be seen how many folks will gravitate to this kind of form factor, but from what we can tell, ZTE has done a great job with the first gen Axon M.

The ZTE Axon M will be available from multiple carriers, including AT&T. We’ll update this story once we have pricing and availability.

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ZTE Axon M’s dual screen foldable smartphone will make you do a double take (Hands-on) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2017 at 10:40 am.

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Windows 10 Fall Creators update brings mixed reality and 3D to the masses

The Mixed Reality Viewer lets you bring your 3D creation into a real-life setting

If your Windows 10 PC isn’t up to date, you’re going to want to make sure you update your system with the Fall Creators Update. That is because the Fall Creators Update brings a slew of super cool new “tricks” and practical features. Specifically, on the creative front, the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update helps the “average joe” create some incredibly advanced 3D and mixed reality masterpieces. It’s no coincidence that Microsoft also announced today that Mixed Reality headsets are finally available from Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Acer, starting at $399. It’s clear that Microsoft is committed to encouraging the masses to start using Mixed Reality, and this update ensures that folks can get really creative with Mixed Reality beyond just playing games. 

Here are 15 features that the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update brings to the table:

1. The Photos app has been completely reimagined. The app now lets you easily edit and create polished video slideshows using photos, videos, and transitions. You can even throw 3D effects onto them. Available 3D effects include everything from lightning to confetti. A future update will even let you bring in 3D objects and animations.

The redesigned Photos app lets you create video slideshows, complete with Ink and 3D effects

2. Remember when the Paint app was just for scribbling? Well, times have changed and the Paint 3D now makes it incredibly easy for just about anyone to create and edit advanced 3D objects. You can create and design a 3D object from scratch, or you can import one to play with from the Remix 3D library which has thousands of free 3D objects to use. But wait – it gets better! Microsoft is focusing a lot on mixed reality in this update. But as cool as mixed reality is, until now, most users have just been end users. The Creators Update changes all of that with the Mixed Reality Viewer. Using your camera, Mixed Reality Viewer lets you bring your 3D creation from Paint 3D into a real life setting. You can also easily share your creation afterwards on social networks.

You can draw and create 3D objects from within the Paint 3D app

3. You can now bring your 3D creation into Powerpoint presentations, as well as Word and Excel documents.

You can bring your 3D creation from Paint 3D into PowerPoint

4. You can now pin your “favorite” people to the taskbar so that you can quickly communicate with them via Skype or Mail. When you want to share a file with that contact, all you have to do is drag a file directly onto the pinned contact.

5. Pinning your favorite web sites to the taskbar is back! This is one feature that I sorely missed.

6. Game Mode now enables developers to access all the power of the PC and dedicate it to games for an even better gaming experience.

7. Annotating your ebooks from within Edge is now possible. This includes being able to highlight in 4 colors, underline, and make comments.

Annotating your ebooks from within Edge

8. Microsoft Edge is coming to Android. A preview is already available in the Google Play Store, and the idea here is that just like with Chrome, you can use Microsoft Edge on your phone to catch up where you left off with the tabs you had open on your PC.

9. Do you often lose your pen? The new Find My Pen feature will tell you where you were the last time you inked on your PC, hopefully helping you figure out where you might have left it.

10. Your Pen can now be used as a PowerPoint Clicker!

11. OneDrive files can now be accessed on demand, allowing you to save disk space. So online-only files download on demand with just a double-click when you need them. Of course, you can choose to have select files readily available offline.

12. You can now recover your PIN or Password right from the lock screen – even if you’re using an AAD or MSA account.

13. The native calculator app now includes a currency converter, which even works offline for times when you’re traveling internationally and might not have internet access.

14. Filling out and annotating PDFs no longer requires a third party app! You can fill in PDFs right from within Microsoft Edge, you can ink on the PDF, highlight text and erase your annotations.

15. There have been improvements made for accessibility, including the addition of Eye Control.

EyeControl with the onscreen keyboard

Overall, the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update allows just about anyone to create advanced masterpieces for everything from videos, to 3D objects, and afterwards, that can easily bring their creations into a mixed reality setting with minimal effort.

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Windows 10 Fall Creators update brings mixed reality and 3D to the masses originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2017 at 9:30 am.

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Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 can replace your gaming PC (Hands-on)

The Surface Book 2 now comes in a 13.5″ and 15″ model

The Surface Book was announced way back in October of 2015, so you might say that a Surface Book 2 has been long overdue. Fortunately, the Surface Book 2 has finally arrived and it offers fives times more graphics performance than the original. Not that the original Surface Book was a slouch by any means, but the new Surface Book 2 is quite frankly a beast. To that effect, the new Surface Book 2 is 3x more powerful than the original Surface Book. Microsoft says it’s powerful enough to be your gaming PC, and also a workstation replacement. You’ll be able to play 1080p games on the Surface Book 2 Pro without a hitch. A big part of that raw power is thanks to the Intel Quad Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce GPU it’s running on. 

Improved hinge

Design wise, the form factor is now more or less the same. But Microsoft has improved the dynamic fulcrum hinge for a more stable touch experience. There are now two Surface Book 2 display models to choose from – a 13.5” and 15” model. Both come with a PixelSense display and an improved backlit keyboard. The 13.5” model packs in a 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) display, and the 15” model houses a 3240 x 2160 (260 PPI) display. The 15” model also comes with Xbox Wireless built-in.

When it comes to battery life Microsoft says that the Book 2 offers 70% more battery life than it’s predecessor and twice the battery of life of today’s MacBook Pro. More specifically, Microsoft is claiming a battery life of up to 17 hours or 5 hours in tablet mode. Microsoft has conveniently included both a USB Type-A and USB Type-C port.

Pricing for the Surface Book 2 begins at $1,499 (with a Core i5 configuration). Visit microsoft.com for more info.

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Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 can replace your gaming PC (Hands-on) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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This pill bottle will remind you to take your meds and warn you if you already did

At least once a day I roll my eyes at an announcement for a new IoT (Internet of Things) gadget. Do we really need another toaster, refrigerator, or toilet that’s connected to the internet? Ok, I made up the last one… at least I don’t think there’s a toilet that’s connected to the internet – yet. But back to the point of this news post. Pillsy is a pill bottle that’s connected to an app that’s connected to the internet. Wait, don’t click your back button yet because this IoT gadget actually sounds pretty useful.

Pillsy is really a pill bottle cap that uses Bluetooth to pair with your mobile device and the Pillsy app to remind you when it’s time to take your meds or vitamins. Yes, I know you can just use the calendar app on your phone to remind you to take your meds. But Pillsy goes two steps further. It records WHEN you took the medicine AND it will warn you if you try to take another dose before it’s due. This is really convenient if you have memory issues or if two people give meds to pets and humans in the same household.

Pillsy is available with a child-resistant vial or a twist off bottle for vitamins. Either version is $49 for one cap/bottle combo which I think is a little pricey. However, the price goes down a little when you purchase additional caps. For more info go to pillsy.com.

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This pill bottle will remind you to take your meds and warn you if you already did originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2017 at 8:00 am.

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