Office – Page 4

Edge Desk System kneeling desk review

I don’t have room in my home for a full-size desk so when I’m writing for the Gadgeteer I usually end up working at my kitchen table, or in my recliner. Neither one is optimal. After about an hour or so my back, neck, and legs need a break. Then I was offered the chance to review The Edge Desk system. Becuase of its portability, it sounded like it would be a perfect solution to my problem. With my back issues, I was a little skeptical about using a kneeling desk, but I decided to give it a try. Man, I’m glad I did!

What is it?

The Edge Desk is a portable, adjustable, ergonomic all-in-one kneeling desk system. It adjusts in five different ways and can go from desktop to easel. And when you’re done it quickly folds down and can be put away until you need it again.

Specs

Dimensions: 40″ x 30″ x 26-31″
Weight: 28-lbs
Maximum desktop load: 15-lbs
Maximum seat load: 300-lbs

In the box

1- Fully assembled edge desk
Setup instructions

Design and features

The Edge Desk’s all-in-one design is insanely cool. It’s as unique as any desk system I’ve ever seen. The aluminum-bodied frame is very sturdy and strong, yet lightweight. And the plastic desktop provides a spacious work area.

Quick setup

Setting up the desk is quick and easy. It comes fully assembled with nicely illustrated setup instructions. I will admit first time set up was a little slow. However, after a couple of uses, I was able to set it up and break it down in around 30 seconds.

Fully adjustable

One of the great features of the Edge Desk is how fully adjustable it is. Multiple adjustments for tilt, angle, and height make it extremely versatile. There are four separate height adjustments for the seat alone. I used a permanent red marker to mark the holes once I found the settings I liked. Which made setup quicker and easier.

A pull-out handle located on the underside of the desk allows it to go from desktop to easel in seconds.

Portability

The Edge Desk is the ultimate in portability. When folded down the desk is just 61/2” high, which allows me to easily slide it under my bed when I’m not using it. It’s so compact that you can stand it up against a wall or in a closet.

Its portable size and built-in carrying handle make it easy to take virtually anywhere, inside or out.

Let’s see you do that with a typical desk.

Use and comfort

Like I stated earlier I was skeptical about how comfortable a kneeling desk could be. Needless to say, I was amazed at how comfortable the Edge Desk is. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now for writing and drawing. I love it! I’m able to use the desk for long periods of time without back or neck pain. I also found that the desk forces me to use better posture. It all adds up to me being more productive and that’s a definite plus.

Accessories

Along with the Edge Desk, I also received three different accessories (sold separately). A water bottle holder, phone/tablet holder and a set of transport wheels. I found them all to be extremely useful. Both the water bottle holder and phone holder allow you to keep the desktop clutter-free. They both use the proprietary “Edge” universal clip to hold them securely to the edge of the desk.

And the water bottle holder doubles as a pencil holder when I’m sketching, allowing me to organize my pencils and keep them off the desktop.

The transport wheels slide onto the front feet of the desk and secure with a snap of a locking collar. The wheels definitely make it easier to slide the desk under my bed and to maneuver it when it’s setup. And because the desk weighs 28lbs they could come in handy if you’re moving it any distance.

Just wheel it along like you would a piece of luggage.

What I like

Easy to setup and breakdown
Portability – you can use it virtually anywhere
Easily stores away when not in use
Fully adjustable
Can be used as both desktop and easel
Comfortable for long periods of time

What needs to be improved

Would be nice if there was a raised lip on the desktop to keep things from rolling off when using it as an easel.

Final thoughts

I’m in love with the Edge Desk. It’s the desk solution I’ve been waiting for. Its portability and storability solved my problem of not having enough room for a full-size desk. I’m more productive and it really helps reduce the stress on my neck and back. And now I have a space that I can dedicate to my artwork.

The Edge Desk might just bring standing desks to their knees.

Thank you Edge Desk and Bravo!

Price: Edge Desk – $ 399.99, water bottle holder – $24.99, phone holder – $24.99, transport wheels – $29.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Edge Desk System.

The post Edge Desk System kneeling desk review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Computer furniture, Desk, Office

Edge Desk System kneeling desk review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 16, 2018 at 11:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

FluidStance Bamboo Level balance board review

Standing Desks are everywhere nowadays. So, once you’re no longer seated, what do you use to keep your feet occupied and in motion while you’re just standing there? One suggestion is a balance or wobble board. We were sent one from FluidStance, their Level model in cast aluminum and bamboo, to test in the Gadgeteer way. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and here’s what I have found.

Note: Photos may be tapped or clicked for a larger image.

What is it?

The Level is a beautiful Bamboo (also available in Dark Walnut and Natural Maple) deck mounted to a solid cast aluminum framework that allows you to stand, rock, pivot, and in general keep moving while in a standing position. Made from quality materials with a conservative modern design, it will fit into any office or home environment where a standing desk is in use.

Hardware specs

From the website:

26.5″ long x 12.2″ wide x 2.5″ tall
Approximate weight: 7lbs, 12oz
Designed for use under 250 pounds
Ships in 1-2 business days

Design and features

The idea behind balance boards is that while standing, your feet will be happier with constant small movements, to keep the blood flowing. Your calves, ankles, and toes will all get a workout, and your core muscles will be engaged. This dramatically ramps up the health benefits of just standing versus sitting. Think of it as skateboarding, but without going anywhere. I’ve seen balance boards in materials from high-end laminated woods and exotic hardwoods all the way to cheap plastics. A work colleague recently had her 2-year-old get one as a birthday gift in plastic with decals and eye-popping colors. Another model had a ball-in-slot maze, where your challenge is to move the trapped ball from one part of the maze to another by changing your balance. (Think of it as a Labyrinth game that you play with your feet and shifting body weight instead of two knobs.) It’s all about moving.

The Level is FluidStance’s second tier product, but it’s far from a cheap-o board. The cast aluminum .19” military-grade aluminum frame raises the bamboo deck off the floor about 2.5”, and is designed for folks under 250 pounds. At 7.75 pounds, it’s not something that will slide out from under you, and it’s not going to crack or fall apart in normal use.

I used it for a day or two at home, just to see if I was going to survive using it. (At my age, that’s the first criteria! Note warning in the photo above.) I dropped it off at my office over a weekend and started using it there on Monday. My office is equipped with sit-stand adjustable desks throughout. Many folks spend all or part of their workday standing, so I was not sticking out by elevating my desk. I used it for 30 minutes or so, and then took it down to a sitting level. My legs felt good like I’d just done a quick run or ride, rather than the usual stand. I stood and used the Level a few more times that day, and have been using it more and more since.

I’m up to about 4 20-30 minute sessions a day now and find that a good place. Since most of my work is phone calls from customers, it’s not necessary for me to be perfectly still, and the note-taking/typing I do while on calls if not hindered by moving around. I did move my standing setting up a few inches to take into account the height of the deck. (There are 4 saved settings I can use, but it is fully adjustable across a huge range. I use heights from 27” – 43”.)

As soon as someone walked by and saw my feet and legs going, however, they were intrigued. I’ve loaned it out to several folks in the office, and they all really enjoy using it. (Note the variety of feet in the photos!) My boss even brought in one she had found at a discount store made of plastic. It’s not nearly as heavy or stable as the Level but still gives you a workout.

What I Like

Well designed and crafted from quality materials
Gives your legs and core muscles something to do while standing.
Conservative but modern design fits in with any office decor.

What needs to be improved

I really couldn’t think of anything, except maybe a chain lock to keep coworkers from borrowing it and not returning it!

Final thoughts

If you’re someone who chaffs at having to be sitting or standing at a desk while doing work to pay the bills, this may keep the fidgets under control. If you’re a more sedentary person, who needs to move a little or a lot more for your health, this may be the best thing you can get. It’s a bit of an investment, so you may want to try a less expensive model at first, or you may want to take the leap and use your financial investment to force yourself to use it more. However you decide to use it, you’ll probably enjoy it, and benefit from it.

Price: $389.00
Where to buy: FluidStance
Source: The sample of this product was provided by FluidStance.

The post FluidStance Bamboo Level balance board review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Computer furniture, Desk, Office

FluidStance Bamboo Level balance board review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 21, 2018 at 11:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

Santa Cruz Wurf Board review

This is the first time I have written a review while actively using the product I am reviewing. I am in the standing mode of my workstation and beneath my feet is the Santa Cruz Wurf Board and I feel great. The Wurf Board is an inflatable pad for use when standing in one place for any amount of time. When I received a standing desk station from my employer, I went out and bought what I thought was the best available pad for standing on while I work. I thought I had the best there was, that is until I received the Wurf Board. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the product, it had everything I thought I needed and I was moderately comfortable using it for long period of time. The Wurf Board has changed my expectations of a pad for my standing desk.

I honestly didn’t know much about the Wurf Board when I agreed to review it. I had a picture in my mind of what one of these pads was and I thought that this was just another one of those with some bold graphics on it…wrong. I hadn’t researched enough to know that it is inflatable. At first, I thought “why would someone want an inflatable standing pad for their desk and how durable can this thing be?”. Those questions were answered as soon as I inflated it in a matter of seconds using the pump that is included and standing on it for the first time. INSTANTLY, I could feel the micro movements in my feet and legs and the pressure on the bottom of my feet was gone.

At this point, I began experimenting with different amounts of air in the board. When I released some air, the board obviously became softer but I immediately noticed that I was moving a lot more while standing in the same place. My weight was shifting and I was engaging my core and leg muscles without thinking about it. I tried it with my shoes on and off, both felt great but honestly, I remove my shoes at every chance I get to use this because of how great it feels. On the website, there is a link called “The Science” that has a number of resources for customers to utilize to learn about the benefits of standing desks, active standing, overall benefits of movement and more. I really recommend you checking it out because I was aware of the benefits of my standing desk since, after all “sitting IS the new smoking” but I didn’t think of my feet or legs getting fatigued while using it.

Included in the package is also a poster with different exercises you can do using the Wurf Board. These are easy motions that you are all most likelyfamiliarr with anyways but using the slight instability of the air filled board helps to further engage those small muscle groups and your core. I cannot say that I do the exercises every day but I am probably doing some or all of them 2-3 days per work week. This is a benefit to this product that is not possible with the first standing pad I bought nor did it ever cross my mind.

Nearly every time someone walks into my office and sees me standing on the Wurf Board, they ask what it is. People have seen standing pads before but never one with a surfboard graphic on it. I don’t mind the surfboard look since that is part of the marketing behind this product but I do wish there were other options in this product. I wear a size 14 shoe so the large was the only good option for me. The Santa Cruz is offered in small, medium and large sizes ($199, $239, $269) for either more space to move on or to accommodate larger feet like mine. All of the Santa Cruz models have a similar surfboard graphic on them. They also offer the Maui Wurf Board, which is currently offered in the medium size ($299) and features a slight curve on the bottom that encourages even ore movement while standing. This product is offered in three different colors and features a water/geometric design.

The large that I have is 32.9″ x 17.7″ and can hold up to 300 pounds. It weighs in at only 2.2 pounds so it is very easy to pick up and move around. The surface features a no slip dimpled design that grips all types of flooring when weight is applied to the board. It is designed to work with or without shoes but not stiletto heals. Every board comes with a 2-year warranty against manufacturer’s defect and offers free shipping within the USA. All Wurf Boards are FDA Class I registered Medical Devices, which may open doors for help paying for this product with your FSA or insurance but please check with your individual policy first, I just thought it was worth noting.

Overall I am extremely happy with the Santa Cruz Large Wurf Board. I use is every day and slip in some desk exercise with it when I can. I would definitely recommend this product to those who have or who are looking to get a standing desk. I do wish it was offered with other graphics options as I am not a surfer and it looks a little out of place in my office but the function it provides makes this something I would buy no matter what the color or design is. The price is definitely more than a vast majority of pads out there but having owned another standing desk pad before that I paid about $150 for, I think this is well worth the money since I am able to stand at my desk for much longer using this than I was able to previously.

The sample for this review was provided by JumpSport Inc. For more information on the model I reviewed, please visit the product page and order from Amazon.

Product Information

Price:	$269
Manufacturer:	JumpSport Inc.
Retailer:	Amazon
Requirements:	300 pound capacity, no stiletto heals.
Pros:	Lightweight; adjustable firmness; engages muscles while you stand; eases foot and leg fatigue while standing at your desk; easy to inflate and get going; FDA registered Medical Device
Cons:	Only one color/graphic option; price may push this out as an option for some.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Desk, Health and fitness, Office

Santa Cruz Wurf Board review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 1, 2017 at 9:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

Jaswig Nomad standing desk is smart and affordable enough for students

The Jaswig Nomad standing desk is inexpensive enough to be a student desk but flexible enough for any office. It was actually invented for and by a PhD student to help with her neck and back pains. It’s made of all natural materials, like FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified birch plywood and low-VOC, low-formaldehyde varnish. It adjusts from 36″ to 48″ tall in 1.5″ increments, and its built-in footrest allows you to shift your weight from leg to leg for even more comfort as you stand. It can support up to 100 pounds. Its tabletop reminds me of an old school desk from the mid-20th century, with a storage cubby under the top. You can choose from the standard desktop size of 20″ X 25.5″ or the large desktop of 21.5″ X 31.5″. The Jaswig Nomad standing desk starts at $295.00 for the standard desktop. And there’s even a Jaswig My First Standup for little students, too, for $245.00.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Desk, Office

Jaswig Nomad standing desk is smart and affordable enough for students originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 29, 2017 at 10:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

Lioe Phantom S420 scissors review

When Lioe design reached out to see if I would like to review the Lioe Titan business card holder they asked if I would also be interested in reviewing the Phantom S420 scissors. I told Julie I’d be happy to check them out. Many of the items reviewed on The Gadgeteer are evaluated to describe and demonstrate their technical or tactical features. These scissors were primarily designed to enhance the aesthetic of everyday scissors, but also to cut. We’ll demonstrate the various ways to show off these scissors but also evaluate how they cut. Read on to see what I think!

Unboxing

The Phantom S420 scissors come in a slipcase covered black box appropriate for gift giving.

Below the slipcover is a black box emblazoned with the Lioe (pronounced Lee-Oh) logo.

Inside the scissors and display stand are fit into a precision cut foam insert. The box also includes an instruction card on how to use the display stand and a warning card that brings attention to the fact that these scissors are a sharpened cutting tool recommended for adult use only. The card includes language that waives Lioe’s liability for injuries due to improper use. Apparently, these scissors were used to cut a check to the Lioe Design attorney.

Display

Scissors used for routine secretarial work still spend most of the time in storage. The idea behind these scissors was to get them out of a desk drawer or pencil cup and display them as a unique piece of functional art. The feature image at the start of this review and the images below demonstrate how the shapes, surface finishes, colors, and textures evoke artistic elements of industrial design that transcend functionality and have come to be appreciated as objets d’art. The flutes on the image above and voids on the image below remind me of the flutes and vents on a set of disc brake rotors of a world-class racing car, or the sides of a Reading Streamliner. The thumb and finger holes look like the voids cut out of steel beams. The red bushing on the central screw looks like a ruby jewel used in watchmaking. All these elements give the phantom scissors an appearance of something other than scissors.

The scissors are meant to be displayed. They come with a highly polished stainless steel display stand. The scissors slide into a groove and the stand widens the base enough for the scissors to stand upright on their side.The scissorss may be displayed as shown on the feature image or the image above, but may also be displayed by positioning the stand according to the images below. These positions give the display potential energy and adds a sense of strength. The scissors appear ‘stronger’ because they must support their own weight.

The two configurations above are probably the easiest way to display the scissors. Getting the scissors to sit in the stand at the end of the handle requires the stand be in a particular location versus it being positioned anywhere along the handle as in above. The configurations below require two-hands to hold the stand up on edge and also place the handle steel into the notch.

Use

The Phantom scissors have an artistic compromise that makes them a little bit different to use than the typical pair of scissors. The edges of the blades are positioned behind the knuckles of the thumb and fingers when holding the scissors and the edges do not pivot directly opposite the screw. Because of this design (or even in spite of it) the cutting seems a bit more difficult to control than compared to using a standard scissors from OfficeMax. The tension can be adjusted by the central screw, but it is a Torx T8 style bolt.

Although the design is somewhat ambidextrous in that the thumb and finger holes are not contoured, the design of the scissors is actually left-handed, with the thumb blade on top of the finger blade when the thumb is positioned on the left. This means that right-handed users will tend to force the blades apart when closing. The area where the screw is located is very large so perhaps this effect will be minimized. My impression of this phenomenon is poor because I’m a lefty who has used right handed scissors all my life. Even if the alignment of the blades is unaffected by the asymmetric mechanics of the left and fight hands, right-handed individuals will need to cut across their body to see the paper being cut because the finger blade will obscure the view if the scissors are held out strait.

Performance

Since I don’t have access to one of these I needed to come up with my own performance evaluation. The first test was to cut precisely across the lines of a piece of paper. The results below are from the Phantom 420.

The results below are from the OfficeMax scissors pictured above. I think that the OfficeMax scissors were easier to use. The results may appear to be the same but I had to concentrate a lot more to complete the cuts with the Phantom.

The next test was seeing how many sheets of paper the scissors could cut through and how those cuts looked. The paper below demonstrates the cutting performance through the indicated number of sheets. In reality, I just foled the paper upon itself and cut across the bundle. The sheet below was cut by the Phantom 420.

This sheet was cut by the OfficeMax scissors. There is barely a difference. The OfficeMax scissors were more comfortable because the handle is padded, but overall the results of the cuts look very similar. Both scissors had difficulty with the 32 sheet count.

Conclusion

These scissors are fantastic to look at and I can admire them all day, but when it come time to use them I miss my generic (right-handed) OfficeMax scissors. Also, in keeping with the maxim “good art isn’t cheap, cheap art isn’t good” the Phantom scissors cost $65; quite a bit more than the $5.99 OfficeMax pair. Maybe if I keep using them I’ll learn to like them more, but for now I feel like they are like a great looking pop music act with only an average voice. Perhaps with some refinements they will be more appreciated, but for now they don’t make the cut.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Lioe. Please visit their site for more info and you can order one from Amazon.

Product Information

Price:	$65
Manufacturer:	Lioe
Retailer:	Amazon
Requirements:	Light Duty Office Use – Paper or Card Stock Only
Pros:	style left handed design for left handed people
Cons:	price performance left handed design for right handed people unpadded finger/thumb hole

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Office, stationery

Lioe Phantom S420 scissors review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 14, 2017 at 2:00 pm.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.