Home 2018 April

The Coach phone crossbody bag is a perfect go-to-lunch bag

Unless you’re one of those ladies who can stuff everything you need in your pockets, you probably carry some sort of bag whenever you leave the house.  When you leave for work, you probably have to carry a bigger bag to fit everything you need for your job plus the things you need for the day away.  And you probably don’t want to lug that bag around when you go out for lunch or stop off to run a couple of errands on the way home.  Having a small bag just big enough for cash, cards, and a phone tucked away in your large bag makes those quick runs easier.  Coach has a crossbody phone bag that’s perfect for those quick errands or a lunch outing.

The Coach Phone Crossbody is made of smooth leather.  Inside, it has all the functionality of a normal Coach wallet, plus it has room for a phone.  The wallet has a snap closure, as does the interior phone sleeve.  It has six card slots and a zippered pocket for cash, coins, or other small items.  The strap has a 22.5″ drop so you can wear it as a shoulder or crossbody bag.  You can remove the strap for use as a normal wallet.

Closed, the tri-fold wallet measures 7″ x 3.75″.  It can accommodate all phones up to the size of an iPhone X and Samsung S7 Edge.  It’s available in black or oxblood with light gold hardware, melon or heather gray with dark gunmetal hardware, or marine or peony with silver hardware.

The Coach Phone Crossbody is $135.00 at Coach.

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The Coach phone crossbody bag is a perfect go-to-lunch bag originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 18, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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EZVIZ ez360Pano panoramic WiFi camera review

I’ve been using home security cameras for many years now. I find that they give me peace of mind when I know I can check in at any time and from anywhere to see what’s going on when I’m not physically at home. But there’s one problem with most cameras that don’t offer a motorized pan and tilt feature. The camera’s field of view usually isn’t wide enough to let you see an entire room without setting up multiple cameras. That’s where the EZVIZ  ez360Pano WiFi camera shines. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The EZVIZ ez360Pano is a panoramic WiFi camera with a 360° field of view and a maximum of 1344 x 1344 pixel resolution in fisheye mode.

The EZVIZ ez360Pano offers two-way audio, night vision, microSD local recording, cloud recording with a subscription (the camera comes with a 30-day free trial), and it supports dual-band WiFi 2.4GHz/5GHz.

What’s in the box?

EZVIZ ez360Pano camera
Mounting plate and hardware
USB power cable
Power adapter

Design and features

The ez360Pano camera is about the size of a tennis ball, with a metal housing around the camera lens.

There’s a microSD card slot in the base of the camera that is protected by a snap-on cover.

And there’s a micro USB connector on the base that is used for power.

The camera needs to be mounted to a wall or the ceiling using the included base plate and hardware. Unfortunately, the ez360Pano camera isn’t designed to be placed on a shelf or a window sill.

I installed the EZVIZ ez360Pano camera in a temporary location on a support beam for our upstairs banister. I would have rather installed it on the ceiling, but we have a cathedral ceiling in the main room of the house with no easy way to get to it or provide power. So I settled for the easy way out and rubberbanded the camera to the stair rail. You can just call me the MacGyver of home security cameras.

EZVIZ app


Setting up the camera is relatively quick and easy using the EZVIZ app. The app guides you through the steps of connecting the camera to your wireless network by using the QC code on the bottom of the camera and with sound. Yeah, don’t ask me about the sound part, I was really confused and surprised when the app showed that it would be using sound waves (I couldn’t hear anything) to set up the device.



Once the camera is placed and connected to the network, it will show up on the home screen of the app. The home screen shows a snapshot of the camera’s live view at app launch time. Below the snapshot is a link to the messages page and settings page.

The messages page is a list of motion detection alert thumbnails. Tapping the thumbnail image will let you view the captured video.


The app allows you to switch the view style from ceiling mount to wall mount and you can also choose from fisheye, 360 panorama and quad split screen views. The fisheye view is shown above on the right.

Turning the phone to landscape orientation enlarges the view. In this view, you can’t zoom in or anything. What you see is what you get.


This is the 360 Panorama view which I like best. The app offers a cool feature when you’re in this view. It lets you watch all the motion captured video clips one after the other for the current day and 2 previous days. It’s kind of like a time lapse of the entire day’s events. If you have a micro SD card installed in the camera, you can also view the video history which shows a timeline and red lines for different events. You can scroll through the timeline and watch the clips that way too.

When you turn the phone to landscape orientation you can see a full-screen view in 360 panorama mode. You can’t zoom using two fingers in this view.

The EZVIZ ez360Pano camera has really good night vision as you can see from the image above.

This is what the screen looks like if you choose the ceiling mount 360 panorama view mode. I’m sure this mode would look much better if the camera was actually on my ceiling…

The only viewing mode which allows you to pan and zoom with your fingers is the quad split screen view and as you can see from the image above, that mode looks pretty bad. I think each section should have a larger frame around it so you can more easily differentiate between each window.

The EZVIZ  ez360Pano WiFi camera comes with 30 days of free Cloud Play which saves the notification video clips to the cloud and also lets you watch a video montage of the current and previous day’s motion detected events.

The camera comes with a 30-day free trial of the Cloud Play service which saves the motion clips to the cloud. After the 30 days, you have to subscribe to one of their plans for each of your EZVIZ cameras if you want to store the video clips in the cloud for safe keeping. The prices are:

7 Day Playback per Camera
Save 7 days of video
$5.99/month
$59.99/year

30 Day Playback per Camera
Save 30 days of video
$10.99/month
$109.99/year

Of course, you can also use a micro SD card in the camera which will also store the motion clips.

What I like

  • I like the 360Pano’s 360-degree wide view because it lets me see a large area without needing to pan and tilt.
  • Easy camera setup

What needs to be improved

  • micro SD card is only used to store motion detection clips and not 24/7 video.
  • The app doesn’t offer the ability to block certain areas of the view from sending motion detection alerts.
  • The push motion notification alerts sent to Android devices can’t be dismissed by swiping them from the lock screen. You have to go into the app for them to disappear from the notification bar at the top of the phone’s screen.
  • The app only allows you to zoom and pan in quad view which offers four tiny windows that are hard to see on a smartphone display.
  • The app doesn’t always remember camera view mode settings.
  • Cloud Play subscription is per camera.

Final thoughts

The EZVIZ ez360Pano WiFi camera is a nice camera because it has such a wide angle view. It’s also easy to setup and does a good job of capturing motion and delivers a clear image even in the dark. The main things that I don’t like about this camera are the Cloud Play subscription service and the fact that the camera doesn’t record video to the micro SD card 24/7.

Right now there are so many security cameras on the market that it’s a buy’s smorgasbord. While the ez360Pano does offer the panorama feature which 99% of other cameras lack, the price per camera and the subscription fee per camera may take this one out of the running for a lot of potential buyers.

Price: $179.99 (Cloud Play subscription is an additional purchase but is not required)
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by EZVIZ.

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EZVIZ ez360Pano panoramic WiFi camera review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 4:59 pm.

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The MeFOTO GlobeTrotter Air Travel Tripod: Don’t leave home without it.


For those of us who pursue the adventures associated with photography and videography, traveling light is a must. We have to take so much gear in anticipation of what we might get the opportunity to shoot, that every little reduction counts.

One way to reduce weight and bulk is by using a compact lightweight tripod that can still get the job done by handling our regularly used equipment including full size DSLR cameras, etc.

The MeFOTO GlobeTrotter Air Travel Tripod is exactly such a tripod. It is sturdy and lightweight since it is made of aluminum alloy. It is capable of supporting up to 17.6 pounds and extending to 68.1 inches. “The telescoping 5-section HyperLock design allows the user to set-up and break-down the tripod with speed and ease by simply turning the rubber foot in one direction to extend the leg and in the opposite direction to lock it at the desired length”. It features an Arca type compatible ball head with an Arca type plate, and it can be adjusted to work as a monopod. The legs can be spread so that the tripod is lowered down to 12 inches, and folded closed it is so compact that it measures only 12.2 inches.

If you would like to purchase the MeFOTO GlobeTrotter Air Travel Tripod, you can head over to B&H Photo Video and purchase one for $159.00.

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The MeFOTO GlobeTrotter Air Travel Tripod: Don’t leave home without it. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 1:33 pm.

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Forget about stirring your coffee, Stircle it instead

Do you ever stop and think about how much trash is generated at a coffee shop or restaurant? For those of you who like to add cream and sugar to your coffee and tea, do you use a wooden or plastic stick or spoon to make sure everything is well mixed? Where do those stirring implements go within seconds of you using them? Straight into the trash and that’s a waste for many reasons.

Inventor Scott Amron, the same person who brought us the Keybrid keychain, has invented the Stircle. What is it? It’s a stirring device that has been designed to stir beverages inside various sized cups. Just place the cup in the Stircle and it does all the work to make sure your beverage is perfectly mixed without using a spoon or a stick.

The Stircle is designed to sit in a hole cut out of any countertop with a simple hole saw and is available in a basic and advanced version which has faster stir times. It should stir 50,000 cups using only about $0.10 of electricity at $0.12 per kWh. The Stircle is priced at $345 or $490 depending on the model. For more info visit stircle.com

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Forget about stirring your coffee, Stircle it instead originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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Speck Presidio Sport Case review

What is it?

A very protective case offering full, rugged protection with a smooth sport visual instead of harsh angles.

What’s in the box?

Presidio Sport Case for iPhone X

Design and features

Speck isn’t new to the case business. They’ve been creating protective products for devices since 2001, and I want to disclose that I worked for them around 8 years ago. They’ve learned a lot in the past 17 years and the Presidio Sport Case showcases a lot of that knowledge.

There’s a number of features so I’m just going to lay them out here and we’ll take a closer look at the key ones in the review.

These features are called out on the packaging…

  • 3-Layer construction of a polycarbonate shell, an Impactium™ Shock Barrier and an Impactium Sport outer layer.
  • Military-grade 10 feet drop protection
  • 360º port protection
  • Raised bezel screen protection
  • Soft-touch no slip grip
  • Microban® anti-microbial technology

Additionally these two are called out on the website description; the first of which seems rather important to be absent from the packaging.

  • Qi wireless charging compatibility
  • Lab-tested durability

It’s available in 5 different color combinations. The one shown here is Gunmetal Grey/Cobalt Blue/Slate Grey.

Installation

Installing the case is pretty easy thanks to the flex corners in Speck’s design. Lead with the left side of the phone so that the mute switch and volume keys tuck under the edge of the case, then press down on the right corners of the phone until fully seated.

Performance

It can be hard to think about performance when talking about a case, but that’s what we’re going to do. To start, let me say that I would prefer to run my phone without a case. All the buttons and switches function just the way they should and feel great. As is the case with a lot of us, a phone is too important to my work and personal life to risk an accident. So, a case it wears.

More protective cases like this one add enough dimension that the buttons get recessed too far for easy access. The solution is to cover the buttons and try to maintain functionality. Well, Speck nailed it. All the buttons press beautifully and you know you’ve pressed them. Similarly, the mute-switch dial is a fantastic alternative to a cavity that would be too small for my fingers. A small turn and the haptics of the phone vibrate to let you know you’re muted. When you find yourself idly playing with a feature like this, you know they got something right.

The inner frame has a scalloped design all the way around the inside edges which provide rigidity while reducing weight and serving as an anchor for the softer, shock-absorbing layers. The case weighs about 48g which brings the already hefty iPhone X up to 174g when installed. It doesn’t feel significantly bigger than most normal cases and is definitely smaller than some of the real rugged options out there. The outer layer has a great feel and walks that fine line between avoiding a slippery case and one that’s too grippy. No issues with wireless charging either which I wondered about initially.

Testing drop performance is a tricky thing if you don’t have a budget to replace a phone. I’m happy to report that this case protected mine beautifully when I accidentally fumbled my phone picking up my car from the dealer. It fell from waist height to polished cement and landed on a corner with a sound that didn’t give me that uh-oh feeling. All good.

The hinged door does a great job of protecting the lightning port in between the speaker holes which line up the way they should. The door is large enough for some cables with large connector overmolds, and opens and closes with a nice positive snap. The living hinge design wants to stay in the closed position, but it doesn’t overly fight you when connecting a cable. The back is totally flat including the lens area which is great for tapping out messages with your phone flat on a table, at least until a cable is connected, when the displaced port cover lifts the end of the phone off the table.

So what’s this Microban? They’re a company that’s been around for over three decades fighting damaging microbial growth before it starts. Here’s the thing; it’s not the kind of feature that you can really see or tell is working as a consumer. So maybe think about it this way. How frequently do you hand your phone to someone else to share a photo or a website? Set it down in a taxi, or on a cafe counter? If it works even close to as well as they say it does, it definitely can’t hurt and if it’s on a case that you like, why not?

What I like

  • Flat back – the back of the case is perfectly flat counteracting the normally protruding camera lens. Tap away to your heart’s content without your phone rocking around.
  • Button feel – The tactility is perfect. You can press and know you’ve pressed.
  • Rotary switch – Great solution for a case that would otherwise have a deep finger hole recess for accessing the switch.
  • Hand feel – the case has a silky touch without being too tacky or slippery.
  • Screen protection – the iPhone screen is recessed into the case even when using an additional glass screen protector.

What needs to be improved

  • I would love to see the lightning cover be removable. It’s great protection, but when open with a connected cable the case doesn’t lay flat. It would be great to see this as an optional part that can be removed before installing your phone.
  • A mention of Qi compatibility on the packaging.

Final thoughts

There’s a lot to like about this case, and very little to gripe about. If you’re looking for a case with better than average protection against drops and accidents, this is a solid choice.

Price: $44.95
Where to buy: Speck Products and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Speck Products

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Speck Presidio Sport Case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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