Reviews – Page 235

Tsumbay Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Wireless Headphone review

We get a lot of headphones here at the Gadgeteer. Various ones of us prefer different styles – some want to have sweat-proof workout units, some want minimalist buds with no cables, some prefer on-ear or in-ear wired units. I prefer over-the-ear wireless headphones. If they have noise canceling, well, that’s just icing on the cake. The latest pair I’ve been sent is from Tsumbay, and they are wireless, over-the-ear, and noise-canceling. Let’s see how they fared.

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

What is it?

Here’s the info from the website:

Description:
Quiet the Noisy World
Get tired of the whir of the plane wings? The drone of a lawn mower? Or the city traffic? Advanced noise reduction technology significantly reduces noise. Let you focused more on what matters.

Wear It for All Day Long
Kindle Paperwhite weight, adjustable headband, soft earmuffs and over-ear cups. No pressure on your ears or head. Designed for comfortable wearing for all day long.

No Need to Worry about Battery
23-30 hours playtime in Bluetooth mode left countless similar product behind. When battery is dead, go on enjoying music with provided 3.5mm audio cable.

Impressive Audio Quality
Reduce noise and won’t damage the immersive Hi-Fi sound at the same time. 40mm large-aperture drivers for robust, balanced and crystal-clear sound.

Universal Compatibility
Optional Bluetooth and AUX-IN mode. Compatible with Anroid, iOS operating system, iPhone, iPad, Samgsung, Blackberry, Nexus, Smartphone, Computer, PC, Notebook, MP4, MP3 and more.

Worry-Free Warranty
we believe in our products. That’s why we back them all with an 18-month warranty and provide friendly, easy-to-reach support.

*Playtime varies according to volume level and audio content.

Design and features

The headphones appear on first glance to be high-quality, with faux-leather earcups and headband cover. Stitching is even and hidden, all screws are counter-sunk so that everything feels very smooth. The metal and plastic areas have a slight nappy, satiny texture. It’s not something added on or scratchable, it’s just the surface.

Inside the earcups, the speaker grille has the channel printed in grey in a single large letter. It’s very easy to get the proper earcup on the correct ear. The deep foam inside the cushions seals out room noise, so you’re alone with your sound. If that doesn’t help, there is active noise cancellation.

Everything is accessible to your thumb or index finger on the left earcup: Power on/off, Noise canceling on/off, volume down/up. At the very bottom of that side, there is an AUX input, for older devices that have these ports and no Bluetooth. (Casts a glance at Apple, Google, and others who eschew AUX ports on recent devices) On the right earcup, there is a power port (microUSB) for charging.

Tsumbay allows the listener the privilege of listening to both wired and wireless sources at the same time, which I find myself doing a good bit while watching a video on iPad and working on my computer. I’ve also used this for working on the computer (getting sound feedback) and talking on the phone as well. The unit also works while being charged.

Noise-canceling worked fairly well. There is a fair bit of attenuation in the earphones, where random touches to the device are heard inside the sound space. When noise canceling was on, it was less noticeable, but it was very evident otherwise.

While I was writing this review, the soundtrack for Stranger Things 2 was released on Spotify. I pulled it up and listened to much of it. The analog synth pads and melodies are a great mind salve while writing. With the noise-canceling, you can feel like you’re floating through space. (I’ve not watched the show, but someone in my Twitter feed said it was good for working with, so thought I’d try it. If I knew the story, it might bring up different responses.) Frequency response on this and other music was very acceptable, but I don’t think thumping bass would be as full through here.

What I Like

Over-ear comfort
One-hand control of all sound
Wired or wireless use
noise-canceling covers environmental noise

What needs to be improved

Some attenuation when not using noise-cancelation
Playback not as crisp as other units in price range

Final thoughts

When I listened while moving around a lot, the attenuation was really noticeable, so I had noise-canceling on most of the time. This makes all the environmental noises fade out, but brings in non-repetitive noises. When working, I’ve had several instances where someone would have to tap my arm or shoulder, because they were trying to speak to me. If you’re wanting to be quite alone in your personal soundscape and you’re not moving about a lot, these cans may be a good bet for you.

Price: $25.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Tsumbay. Please visit their site for more info.

Roadie 2 guitar tuner review

If you play a stringed instrument, there’s one thing that you always do before you play a song. You make sure the strings are in tune. If you aren’t blessed with perfect pitch, you own a tuner. Tuners come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but most of the ones you see today, clip to the instrument’s headstock and use a microphone or vibrations to help you tune each string.

As you pluck each string, the display will tell you if you’re higher or lower than the desired note. You then tighten or loosen the string, pluck it again, check the tuner’s display, and repeat until each string is in tune. Today I’m going to show you a tuner that you just put on the instrument’s tuning peg, pluck the string and it does ALL the rest of the work. Let’s take a look at the Roadie 2 guitar tuner.

What is it?

The Roadie 2 guitar tuner is a handheld stringed instrument tuner that has a built-in motor and peg head winder.

What’s in the box?

Roadie 2 tuner
USB Type-C cable
Product manual

Design and features

The Roadie 2 is made of plastic, with a square grip in the center, a power button and selection wheel on the left, a display in on top, and a peg connector on the right.

The peg connector has an open cross cavity that is designed to let it fit over most instrument tuning pegs. But more about that later.

The power button on the opposite side has an LED that lights up in blue when you press it to turn on the tuner and it lights up in green or red to let you know if the string is tuned or if you’re trying to tune the wrong string.

Around the button is a selection wheel that is used to navigate the Roadie’s built-in menus.

On the bottom of the tuner is a USB Type-C port which is used to recharge the tuner’s batteries. One charge should last about a month depending on how often you tune your instruments.

As mentioned above, the Roadie has been designed to fit over a string’s tuning peg like you see here. I tested the Roadie with 5 of my ukulele’s. The tuner’s peg connector fit fine on all but one of my instruments.

One of my ukes has thicker tuning pegs and the Roadie’s peg connector was too small fit over the end so the tuner did not work at all for that instrument. This is an important fact to keep in mind if you plan to buy this tuner as the peg connector might be too small or too large for some tuning pegs. Roadie does offer an adapter to make the peg connector smaller for mandolin sized tuners but I can’t find any info on how to use it with larger tuning pegs.

Let’s tune something!

To start using the Roadie 2 tuner, you first must charge it. Then all you have to do is press the button on the side to turn it on.

A white on black display on the top edge of the tuner turns on and you can use the wheel on the left to select an instrument. The tuner has guitar, ukulele, mandolin, and banjo instruments already loaded. If you want to load other instruments, you have to use the Roadie iOS or Android app and sync them to the tuner.

If you choose guitar, you can choose between Acoustic, Electric, and Classical which is weird because all of those guitars use the same standard tuning. You can also customize the number of strings that your instrument has depending on the instrument you choose.

Since I have ukuleles, that’s what I picked and was only given the choice of 4 strings, which is fine because that’s all they have.

Once selected, you will see the lowest string highlighted on the display. At this point, you put the Roadie’s peg connector over that string’s peg on your instrument and pluck that string. The Roadie 2 will use a sensor to detect the instrument’s vibrations to determine if the string needs to be tightened or loosened to put it in tune. The peg will turn a little bit and you will then need to pluck the string again and again until the tuner beeps and the button on the side glows green to tell you that the string is in tune.

You’re then prompted to put the peg connector on the next string. If you try to fool the tuner and put it on the wrong string, it will let you know by showing a warning on the display.

And the button on the end will turn red to let you know that you’ve been very bad.

Tuning proceeds with each string until you’re done. You don’t even need to be able to see the tuner’s screen, the color of the power button, or hear the beep to know that the string is in tune which is great if you’re in a noisy environment because the Roadie 2 will also vibrate to let you know.

If you’re wondering how accurate the Roadie can tune your instrument, their website says that detection accuracy: is less than +1 cent, tuning accuracy is up to +2 cents. All I know is that when it’s all said and done that my ukes sounded in tune.

See it in action

I ran into one other issue using this tuner that is worth noting. When I tried to tune one of my favorite ukes, it unwound each string instead of tuning it. I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work and checked to make sure that the strings were installed correctly, which they were. It finally occurred to me that the tuners on that uke were friction tuners which doing use gears and are very touchy. I guess the Roadie just can’t handle that type of tuner.

Roadie app

The Roadie 2 can be used as is or you can install the Roadie app on your mobile device to add other instruments and alternate tunings. One thing I did run into was that I could not use the Roadie with my Pixel 2 XL. The app would not connect to the tuner. However, I tried it with a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 and it worked fine.

I only use standard tuning with my ukes and guitars so I didn’t really find the app all that useful to me.

More than a tuner

You can also use the Roadie and a string winder and unwinder when you replace your strings. It makes quick work of that task and is much easier than using your fingers or one of those cheap plastic peg winder gadgets.

What I like

It does the tuning and all I have to do is pluck the string
Rechargeable battery
Can setup alternate tunings if that’s your thing
Can be used to rapidly wind or unwind when replacing strings

What needs to be improved

Peg connector may be too small or too large for some instrument tuning pegs
Expensive

Final thoughts

I’m lazy, so I like it when gadgets can do most or all of the work for me. The Roadie 2 is such a gadget. As long as it can fit on your instrument’s tuning pegs and you don’t have friction tuners, it works great. The Roadie 2 guitar tuner is a fast, easy, and fun way to keep your favorite stringed instruments in tune.

Price: $129.00
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Roadie.

Contour Design Unimouse mouse review

I’ve been dealing with pain in my right hand and thumb for a while now and it’s progressed to the point where I know that I need to do something about it. Instead of going to the doctor which I haven’t yet, I’ve been trying to “fix” it myself by doing exercises and trying ergonomic mice. The latest mouse that I’m testing is the Contour Design Unimouse. Let’s take the cursor for a spin and check it out.

What is it?

The Unimouse is an ergonomic mouse with multiple physical adjustments that are used to customize the mouse to your hand for optimal comfort.

What’s in the box?

Contour Design Unimouse
micro USB cable
USB 2.0 cable adapter
USB receiver dongle

Design and features

The Unimouse looks similar to a traditional mouse at first glance, but a second look reveals that it has additional buttons and other features that set it apart from the mouse you may be using now.

First of all, it has three buttons AND a scroll wheel which isn’t all that typical these days. There are also forward and backward buttons on the left side.

The bottom of the mouse has a power switch and a slot that holds 4 weights.

But the most interesting features of the Unimouse are seen from the side. As you can see in the image above, this mouse has a strange looking thumb rest and a clamshell design.

The mouse also has a micro USB charging port which you will need to use every 3 months or so. Next to the port is a row of status LEDs and a button. When you press the button, the status LEDs light up to show the DPI setting and then the battery charge status. If you press the button additional times in succession, it will change the DPI which adjusts the cursor speed from 800 DPI (slowest) up to a maximum of 2800 DPI (fastest).

The tilt of the Unimouse can be adjusted from as low as 35 degrees to a maximum of 70 degrees.

The idea of adjusting the tilt is to put your hand and forearm in a more normal resting angle to prevent RSI (repetitive stress injuries).

The angle of the thumb rest can pivot in all directions, from up and down…

And it can also pivot forwards and backward.

Learning curve or easy from the start?

I thought it might feel awkward to use the Unimouse given the sideways orientation which looks stranger than it feels. But it actually feels pretty natural and comfortable right from the first use of this mouse.

There are a couple things that I’ve after using the Unimouse for a few weeks though. For one, the middle button is set to double click by default instead of a right click. The right click is the right mouse button. I’m not accustomed to using my ring finger to right click, so it would be nice if there was a way to swap the middle and right buttons.

I also noticed that the scroll wheel doesn’t feel as smooth as other mice that I’ve used. It has built-in detents which are fine, but the whole mechanism feels a little cheap when I compare it to a similarly priced mouse like a Logitech MS Master 2S which can be set to free scroll or detent scroll.

Another issue is that the forward and back buttons sit too far back to easily press with your thumb unless you remove your hand from the mouse.

What I like

Mouse tilt and thumb rest angles can be customized
DPI adjustments
Lasts for 3 months on a charge

What needs to be improved

Only for right hand use
Forward and back side buttons sit too far back to easily press with your thumb
Can’t program the buttons

Final thoughts

Did the Unimouse cure my hand and thumb issues? While I have liked using the Contour Design Unimouse, it hasn’t cured my problem. I’m still having issues with my right hand and thumb. Using this mouse hasn’t made my existing problem noticeably better or worse for that matter. Of course, the Contour Design Unimouse doesn’t claim to fix problems if they already exist. This mouse has been designed to prevent the problems in the first place and this is the most comfortable and feature rich ergonomic mouse that I’ve tested so far. So as much as I don’t want to, it’s time for me to go see a doctor.

Price: $89.95 (Wired) or $109.95 (Wireless) MSRP
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Contour Design.

Ember Ceramic Mug review

Hot beverages like coffee, cocoa, and tea are obviously meant to be enjoyed when the beverage is hot. But if you don’t chug your mug of joe minutes after pouring the cuppa, your hot beverage quickly becomes lukewarm. I usually get up at least twice to reheat my mug of tea in the microwave before I’ve consumed it. There has to be a better way to keep your drink at the perfect temperature from the first sip to the last drop right? Ember thinks they have solved this problem, so I ordered one of their Ember Mugs and am here to share my experience with it.

What is it?

The Ember Mug is an 8-ounce mug that has a built-in heating element that will keep the contents of the mug at the right temperature for your beverage.

What’s in the box?

Ember Mug
Recharging saucer
AC adapter

Specs

Capacity: 10oz.
Weight: 0.75lb
Size: 4.2 x 3.25 x 4.3 inches
Temperature range: 120° F – 145° F
IPX7 rated (fully submersible under water)
Cleaning: hand wash only

Design and features

At first glance, most people would mistake the Ember Mug for an ordinary white ceramic coffee cup. But the Ember Mug is actually made of stainless steel with a FDA food grade ceramic-reinforced coating.

The bottom of the mug reveals a non-slip base, a power button, and gold rings.

The rings are electrical contacts that connect to the saucer which is used to recharge the Mug’s built-in rechargeable battery.

Connecting the included AC adapter to the saucer and then setting the Ember Mug on top will cause the status LED on the base of the mug to glow red to indicate that the Mug’s batteries are recharging.

After about an hour and a half, the mug’s battery is completely charged and the status LED glows green.

Once fully charged, you’re ready to start using the Ember Mug. However, you might want to wash it first! But only wash it by hand because it’s not dishwasher safe due to the electrical components inside. The saucer should only be wiped clean and not submerged in water.

To use the Ember Mug, all you have to do is pour in your hot beverage and enjoy. By default, the mug will keep the beverage at a temp of 130° F degrees from full to the last sip. If you want to customize the temperature, you will need to install the iOS or Android Ember app and pair the mug with your mobile device.

The app has temperature presets that you can choose for different beverages, or you can choose any temperature from a minimum of 120° F to a maximum of 145 °F.

Using the Ember Mug

The first time I used the Ember Mug was at home before installing the app. I boiled water on the stovetop like I always do and poured the water into the Mug over a tea bag. I waited a few minutes, removed the tea bag and moved to the couch where I sipped the tea for 90 minutes or so. Every time I wanted a sip, the tea was still hot which was great. I didn’t have to get up and reheat the tea in the microwave which helped me improve my couch potato skills. The only troubling thing that I noticed was that the LED on the mug started glowing red after an hour to let me know that the battery was getting low. I was surprised that the mug’s battery only lasted for 60 minutes because the tea in the mug was hotter than the set temp, meaning the mug was not having to use any juice to keep the tea at the right temp.

The next day I took the Mug to work with me and that’s when more problems with this product started becoming apparent to me.

First of all, at work, I don’t have access to boiling water like I do at home. I do have access to a hot water machine, but the water is only 160° F at its hottest, which isn’t the right temp for brewing the black tea that I prefer. Since you can’t put the Ember Mug in the microwave to heat the water to boiling, which is what I have been doing several times a day with a traditional mug when I’m at work. I filled my glass mug with water and put it in the microwave to boil the water.

Once the water was boiling, I put the teabag in the Ember Mug and dumped the water from my 10-ounce mug into the Ember Mug. Problem #1: The Mug’s true useable capacity is only about 8-ounces instead of 10-ounces and Problem #2: I made a mess pouring water from the glass mug into the Ember Mug.

Here’s a history of the temps using the Ember Mug and an IR thermometer which I pointed straight down into the center of the mug.

160° F degrees out of water machine in a glass mug
Microwave glass mug of water 1.5mins to a temp 185° F degrees. Transferred water to Ember Mug with a teabag.
167° F degrees after 3 mins steeping. The status LED starts pulsing white to show that the temp is either over or under the desired temp.
152° F degrees 5 mins later
142° F degrees 5 mins later
130.5° F degrees 10 mins later – The status LED glows solid white to show that the desired temp is achieved.
129.5° F degrees 3 mins later
123.5° F degrees 3 mins later – The status LED is pulsing to show that the contents are below the desired temp.
127.5° F degrees 15 mins later
125.5° F degrees 15 mins later
126° F degrees 5 mins later and the cup is empty.

I then set the mug on the saucer to charge it. For my next test, I went with green tea which can steep at the temp out of the hot water machine. I also installed the Ember app so I could compare what it thinks the beverage temps are vs. what my IR thermometer reports.

142° F degrees 8:46am
132° F degrees 8:54am – app shows 136
125° F degrees 9:04am – app shows 132

The app reports a higher temperature than my IR thermometer. Not a big deal though. What is a big deal is that the app loses connection with the Mug and it has to be paired again when you want to use it to check the temp or customise it. Almost every time that I would launch the app, it would not reconnect to the mug. I finally got frustrated and stopped using the app altogether since I am fine with the default temperature setting of 130° F degrees.

What I like

Perfect hot beverage temps from the first drink, to the last drop.
No cables to plug in for charging. Just set the mug on the saucer to charge.

What needs to be improved

Capacity
Battery life
App loses connection to the mug

Final thoughts

I had high hopes for the Ember Mug at work and thought it would be the perfect solution to my lukewarm tea woes. Unfortunately, the fact that the mug doesn’t hold that much liquid and the battery life is too short makes the Ember Mug an expensive novelty item. Sure, I could just place the Mug on the charging saucer and not worry at all about battery life. But then I can also buy a cup warmer like this one from Amazon for less than $10. Disclaimer: I’ve never used a cup warmer plate, so I don’t know how well they really work. But, the cup warmer can be used with any mug including my favorite glass mug which I can use in the microwave to boil water to brew my tea. I plan to order one and try it.

When it’s all said and done, the Ember Mug is a nicely made product but needs to have a larger capacity and at least double the battery life before I would recommend it.

Price: $79.95
Where to buy: Ember
Source: The sample for this review was purchased with my own money.

Conbrov T17 Car Dash Cam review

While cars have gotten much safer over the years in terms of protection, there is still little to protect you from other drivers. In the event of an accident, even a little fender bender, it’s easy to miss important details that could prove vital in an insurance claim. We could all use a little more peace of mind in that regard, and that’s exactly what Conbrov hopes to bring you with their T17 Car Dash Cam.

What is it?

The Conbrov Car Dash Cam is a tiny HD video recorder that can be easily secured to the windshield of your car for recording events and details while driving. It automatically records while your car is running and could provide vital proof in the event of an insurance claim or if you like to record yourself on off-road adventures.

Hardware specs

Camera size is 2” x 1.4” x 0.3”
Captures 1080P HD resolution footage
Loop Recording
Night vision mode
“World’s Smallest Dash Cam”
1.5” LCD screen
Auto accident detection feature triggered by G-sensor automatically locks videos in event of an accident
Supports up to 32GB microSD cards (not included)
12-month warranty

Everything you need … except an SD card!

What’s in the box?

T17 Car Dash Cam
Car charger
USB cable
Car bracket with suction cup
Card reader
Pin for reset button
User-manual
VIP registration card

Design and Features

Let me start by saying this camera is tiny. Conbrov claims it’s the smallest dash cam in the world, which always seems to be a haughty claim, but they might be right in this instance. This allows the camera to be positioned in an area that’s out of direct sight from the driver, namely obscured by the rear view mirror, and that’s great for reducing distractions from a tiny, floating rectangle while driving at night.

Installation and usage are straightforward, as seen below.

Setup

The Conbrov Dash Cam was very simple to set up.

Handy little suction cup stayed on tight.

Once I found a spot on my windshield that was just out of my field of vision (I placed it so that it was mostly obscured by my rear view mirror).

I secured the suction cup bracket, attached the camera, plugged in the charger and ran the lengthy cable from the passenger side floor, up the side of the door, and around the edge of the windshield to obscure it from sight.

The wire wedged nicely into the plastic around the windshield, but your milage may vary.

Once the cable was plugged in, I turned on the car and the camera turned on as well and instantly started recording.

The supplied adapter includes a nice USB throughput so you can continue to use it with other devices.

Usage

The thing about a dash cam is that, like most safety features on your car, you don’t really actively use it unless you have to, and you hope that you never have to. Once I had the camera in place, I didn’t touch it, save for checking out the footage that I had recorded. It was easy enough to forget about completely while in use.

More on that point, it’s entirely hands-off. Once you start your car, the camera recognizes the power source and begins to record immediately. When you turn your car off, the camera continues to record for a set time (1 minute default, adjustable in the settings) and turns off.

While it does have a still camera setting, and you could use it like a pocket-sized video camera, the size and interface aren’t very practical for that purpose. It’s perfect for what it was meant for, a constant recording device that sees what you’re seeing behind the wheel, providing proof in the event of something eventful.

The camera features an adjustable loop recording feature. You can select the length of the recordings in the settings, in 1, 2, 5 and 10-minute increments. The loop recording basically means that it creates video files until the SD card is filled and then starts overwriting the oldest file. The size of the SD card determines how long the videos are archived.

For instance, the video files at full resolution took up about 800MB on average for a 5-minute clip. Given that, the oldest record on my 16GB SD card was about an hour and a half of drive time.

Fortunately, the camera features a G-lock setting which detects sudden stops, such as in an accident, and automatically “locks” the currently recording video. This prevents accidental deletion or overwriting of that important video file. One note: I found that a lot of the videos were locking themselves, which means the were not being overwritten and my card was filling up. I can’t figure out if it was because of the G-lock system being a little too finicky, so I ended up turning that setting off.

Video quality

Below are two examples of day and night recordings. The camera was set to 1080p resolution and highest quality.

Daytime

Nighttime

While reviewing the videos, I found the quality slightly lacking. It’ll do just fine for recording the cause of an accident in front of the car, but if you’re looking to capture something like the license plate of a hit-and-run vehicle, or any car that’s further than 20 feet away, that might prove difficult. Overall, it gets the job done. The night mode was pretty decent.

Positives

Very small and visually unobtrusive
Auto-start and stop
Relatively inexpensive

Negatives

Doesn’t come with a required SD card (which is common among dash cams I’ve found)
Power cable could be visible on dash
Mediocre video quality
Smaller SD cards fill up really quickly

Final thoughts

I was impressed with the Conbrov Dash Cam’s simple set-and-forget functionality. Thought it might not be the sharpest camera, its size and cost are very well suited for those looking for a little extra protection on the road.

Price: $42.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Conbrov.