Home Reviews

Meridio Vintage Apple Watch Band review

REVIEW – When Apple debuted their Watch nearly 4 years ago, one of the selling points was the option to swap out the bands … sporty silicone, stainless steel links, and of course, classic leather, like Meridio’s Vintage Apple Watch Band.

What is it?

Meridio’s Vintage style watch band is a rugged, stylish leather watch band specifically made for the Apple Watch. It comes in several colors and includes matching hardware to fit the style of your Apple Watch’s finish.

Fine leather, nice details.

Hardware specs

  • Color: brown
  • Materials: soft calf’s leather
  • Origin: Italy
  • Hardware color options: Gold, Silver, Space Grey, Black, Rose Gold, Stainless
  • Designed for Apple Watch Series 4, works with all previous versions
  • Optional initial engraving

What’s in the box?

  • the leather Watch band (Watch not included, obviously)
The packaging is nice but maybe a little excessive.

Design and Features

One of my favorite features of my Apple Watch is how easy it is to swap the bands. I have around 5 different bands that I cycle through depending on what I’m wearing that day or what I’ll be doing. So I was excited to get my hands on what would be my first leather band, Meridio’s Vintage style Apple Watch band.

The construction and quality of this band is very good. It is made from thick, Italian soft calf’s leather (which may be a turn-off for some). So it’s sure to last for quite some time and look better with age. Indeed, when I first started wearing it, there were no marks on the band, but after just a couple weeks of daily wear, there were a plenty of creases and nicks. I love that worn look.

You can see the creases and wear from as little as a couple weeks of normal use. They even punched my initials into the end of the band.

During the initial break-in period, the band was fairly stiff, even uncomfortable, until it started forming to the shape of my wrist. The hardware used in the buckle and watch fasters matches the finish on the watch and comes in several colors. Being a belt-style fastener, it offers the possibility of being either a little too tight or a little too loose. My wrist always seems to fall into that trap, but I usually just go with the looser option.

Overall, I really like the band. The color of the fine leather is practical for casual or formal dress, and it has nice details in the hardware and the thread looped near the base of the watch. The only negative I could think of would be the price, as is the case with most leather goods. You’d be looking at just over $100 for the band.

But, there are plenty of individuals who end up spending more money on watch bands than on the Apple Watch itself. Since nearly all bands have been compatible ever since the Series 1, and likely will be with future iterations of the Apple Watch, owning a band that will look even better years later is an attractive option for many collectors.

Like with any other belt style attachment, it could run a little loose or tight.

What I like

  • very handsome, goes with everything
  • will certainly last longer than your Apple Watch
  • looks better with age

What needs to be improved

  • may take a while to break in
  • expensive

Final thoughts

One of the best parts about owning an Apple Watch is collecting bands to adjust your style and function to your activity or mood. And Meridio’s offering adds a touch of class that will likely last longer than your Watch, albeit for a high price of entry.

Price: $104.00 (but currently on sale at $76)
Where to buy: You can pick up a Vintage Watch Band in several colors directly from Meridio’s website.
Source: The sample of this Apple Watch band was provided by Meridio. You can find out more and check out their other fine leather products on their website.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged:

Meridio Vintage Apple Watch Band review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 20, 2019 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.

GameSir Marsback Mini Game Arcade review

REVIEW – If you want to relive all of your favorite childhood Game Boy, NES, PS, and other games on your phone, you have to use an emulator, but playing these games with onscreen controls is not fun (at least I don’t think so). The GameSir Marsback Mini Game Arcade is a fun way to turn your Android or iPhone into a tiny retro gaming console. Let’s check it out.

What is it?

The GameSir Marsback Mini Game Arcade is a Bluetooth joystick controller and holder for your smartphone that turns it into a mini arcade machine.

What’s in the box?

  • GameSir Marsback Mini Game Arcade
  • 2 AA batteries
  • Instructions

Design and features

The Marsback (where’d they get that name?) is a square plastic device with a joystick and 6 control buttons on top and a slot for your phone.

On the bottom are the power switch and battery compartment (2 AA’s are included with the unit).

The device isn’t very large at only 3.25 x 3 x 3.5 inches.

Behind the phone slot is a pull-out backrest if you want to use the phone in landscape orientation with the controller.

Here we see my Pixel 2 XL resting against the backrest on top of the device. This orientation works fine as long as you are going to play the games on a flat surface. I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to hold the Marsback controller in your hands to play games as there is nothing to secure the phone in place and it could easily fall off.

And here we see the same Pixel 2 XL with a Pitaka case inserted in the phone slot. I think this is the preferred way to play games using the Marsback. Yes, the screen is smaller, but you can hold the whole thing in your hands which makes it more portable.

The Happy Chick app



The Marsback controller does not come with any games, but the instructions that come with the controller instruct you to download the Happy Chick app by using the QR code in the instruction sheet. You can see some of the errors and warnings that my Pixel 2 XL showed when I installed the app. Although these errors make the app look pretty shady, I decided to take a leap and installed it anyway. So far my phone hasn’t exploded. I also have read that lots of people use this app so hopefully, that means it’s not evil.

The app is basically an interface that lets you download and play game ROMs on your device. You can search for your favorite retro titles and find them for a variety of devices like the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, NES, and more.

If you’re thinking that downloading and playing copyrighted game ROMs (if you don’t own them) could be illegal, well yeah, you’d be right. Will you go to jail if you buy and use this device? Highly doubtful.

One of my all-time favorite retro games is Prince of Persia, so I downloaded it first. You can actually use the Happy Chick app all by itself to play games as it has onscreen controls, but when you pair the Marsback controller to your device it works perfectly with these old games.

By default, the games display in landscape orientation, but you can bring up the Happy Chick settings to switch orientations.

In portrait orientation, the layout is perfect for placing the phone in the Marsback phone slot to create a mini arcade machine.

The joystick and buttons are smaller than what you will find on a full-sized gaming controller, but they are responsive and fully functional. Holding a plastic box between your hands to play games can be a little awkward and not nearly as comfortable as using a regular controller. But the idea of the Marsback device is to be a cute nostalgic nod to the standalone arcade games from the ’80s and ’90s.

What I like

  • Cute!
  • Easy to use
  • Phone can be used in either orientation

What needs to be improved

  • Put the power button on top so you won’t forget to turn it off after a gaming session
  • Shady Happy Chick app

Final thoughts

I guarantee if you stick your phone in the phone slot of the Marsback mini arcade device and boot up Pacman, Centipede, Sonic the Hedgehog, Doom, or another iconic game from the past, that anyone who walks by is going to ask you about it and want to take a turn playing the game. The Marsback Mini Game Arcade isn’t the most fantastic gaming controller I’ve ever tested. But it is fun to use and at only $34, it won’t make your wallet cry but it will make you and your friends smile.

Price: $34.00
Where to buy: Vinpok
Source: The sample for this review was provided by GameSir.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: , ,

GameSir Marsback Mini Game Arcade review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 19, 2019 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.

Airthings Wave Plus indoor air quality monitor with radon detection review

REVIEW – I’m sure that you keep your house clean by sweeping the floors, dusting the furniture, and picking up clutter. But did you know that there could be serious threats to your health silently lurking in the air you breath while you’re relaxing in what you think is a safe environment? I’m talking about dangerous Radon gas, and TVOCs (total volatile organic compounds). The Airthings Wave Plus detector will let you know if there is an issue in your home so that you can keep you and your family protected. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

Airthings Wave Plus is a battery-powered sensor that detects Radon, CO2, TVOCs, humidity, temperature, and air pressure. Radon gas is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, so it’s very important to know if there are high levels of this invisible, odorless gas in your home. TVOCs are emitted gases from things like paint, cooking, cosmetics, and more. TVOCs can cause headaches, eye, and throat irritations, to serious respiratory and even liver problems. High CO2 levels can also cause headaches, brain fog, drowsiness, and more.

What’s in the box?

  • Airthings Wave Plus smart indoor air quality monitor with radon detection
  • 2 AA batteries
  • Mounting screw
  • Info sheet

Design and features

I reviewed the Airthings Wave last year and the newer Wave Plus looks very similar to that device, like a traditional smoke detector.

The bottom of the unit has a magnetic lid that has a hole in the center so you can mount it to a wall or ceiling using the screw that is included in the package.

Removing the lid will give you access to the battery compartments. The Airthings Wave Plus is powered by 2 AA batteries which are included with the unit and should last for up to 16 months before they need to be replaced.

As mentioned, you can mount the Airthings on a wall or ceiling, or you can set it on a shelf. The advantage of putting in on a shelf is that you can walk by it and just wave your hand over the unit to see a visual indication of the air quality status.

There’s a built-in LED on top that will glow green if all the levels are safe, yellow when there is a problem, and red when you should run screaming from your house. Just kidding, but not really. If you see red, the sensor is telling you that the levels for Radon or TVOCs are not safe. But how do you get more details? You can use the Airthings mobile app or web client.

Airthings mobile app




The app’s data syncs automatically when your mobile device is within range as it uses Bluetooth to communicate with the monitor. The app’s dashboard shows the current levels for radon, TVOCs, CO2, Humidity, Temperature, and Pressure. If you want more info on each reading, you can scroll for a 48 hr, week, month and yearly graph.




The provides easy to interpret data for current sensor levels, but to get more info, you can use the Airthings web client.

I do want to mention that I’ve had issues with the app losing data when adding a 2nd device and once when I hadn’t synced in over a week due to being away on vacation. Since the unit uses Bluetooth instead of WiFi to sync, this could be an ongoing problem, but I’ve not taken another extended vacation yet to find out.

Airthings web client

The web client provides a better interface for viewing the graphs for each sensor’s data. Like the mobile app, the web client has a dashboard view, but clicking on one of the sensors takes you into graph page that makes it easy to spot trends.

You can see graphs for the past 12 hours, 48 hours, week, month, and even the past year.

I’m still trying to figure out what is triggering the high TVOC readings that you can see in the graph.

Changing to an expanded view helps provide more details and hovering over any part of the graph will show the date, time and level for each sensor.

You have the data, now what?

I became a fan of Airthings when the original unit that I reviewed last spring started reporting high radon readings this past fall. Everytime I’d walk by the unit and wave my hand over it, it would show red so I kept an eye on the readings and they were high. I’m talking through the roof high readings of 11 pCi/L. I read the following info on Airthings site:

It is important to do a long-term measure in places where you normally spend a lot of hours like bedrooms or your office. Overall, if concentrations are:
0 – 49 Bq/m3  (0 – 1.3 pCi/L):  No action necessary.
49 – 99 Bq/m3 (1.4 – 2.6 pCi/L): Experiment with ventilation and sealing cracks to reduce levels.
100 Bq/m3 – 299 Bq/m3 (2.7 – 8 pCi/L): Keep measuring. If levels are maintained for more than 3 months, contact a professional radon mitigator.
300 Bq/m3 (8.1 pCi/L) and up: Keep measuring. If levels are maintained for more than 1 month, contact a professional radon mitigator.

After a month my radon levels were still too high, so I ended up having a mitigation system installed and within 6hrs the levels were down to 0.5 pCi/L and have remained that low. Whew! Crisis averted!

The high powered fan on the outside of my house isn’t the most attractive thing in the world but it sure helps relieve the anxiety of worrying that I (or Jeanne) might develop lung cancer from the radon gas. I’ve already had cancer once, and don’t want it again thank you very much. FYI, the smoke in the image above isn’t from the radon fan unit, it’s from the dryer vent and the fact that it was only 30 degrees outside when I took the pic.

What I like

  • Easy to use
  • Helps detect dangerous radon levels quickly
  • Battery powered

What needs to be improved

  • The app is buggy especially when used multiple Airthings devices
  • Needs a carbon monoxide sensor too

Final thoughts

Airthings sensors are just as important to me and my home as our smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and security system. I will admit that I mainly pay attention to the radon levels and haven’t really cared that much about the TVOC levels unless they remain in the yellow or red (haven’t seen red yet) level for any length of time. So far the TVOC levels have only spiked a couple times into the yellow levels, so I’m not too concerned (yet).

The Airthings Wave Plus indoor air quality monitor with radon detection is pricy at $269 and I do wish it included a carbon monoxide sensor, but when you consider that this monitor can help protect your health, it’s priceless. If there are known issues with radon gas in your area you should consider a sensor like the Wave Plus or the lower priced Wave.

Price: $269.00
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Airthings.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: ,

Airthings Wave Plus indoor air quality monitor with radon detection review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 18, 2019 at 11:05 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.

Saddleback Leather Boot Leather iPhone Case review

REVIEW – A warm leather hug for your iPhone. That’s what I’m testing this week with Saddleback Leather’s latest phone case design. Forget about plastics, silicone, or rubberized bits… this is 100% leather, and each one is made by hand. To the review!

What is it?

The name says it all. It’s a handmade leather iPhone case. ‘Nuff said.

Design and features

The Saddleback Leather Boot Leather iPhone Case is made from a single piece of heavy boot leather, by hand, in a process that takes 5 hours to complete. Not only are there no plastic or rubberized components, but you won’t even find a stitch of thread in the build. Check out this video to see how each case is cut, shaped, and molded by hand for the final product. Neat, huh?

The cool thing about this process is that the finished piece also shows all the little handmade details, so each item has its own unique personality. Here’s a shot of the front and back of the case… note that mine has been in use for several weeks now, so it’s started to pick up some patina from use (and maybe a water spot from an accidental splash… but that’s another story):

The edges are cut and molded to wrap around the phone. You’ll even see the marks from the shaping process:

The volume buttons on the left side are covered, with the leather being shaved to a thin bevel to allow for clicking. The mute switch is also shaved, but a bit of a cut out so that you can flip it:

The main button on the right hand side is also covered & shaved from the leather, while the camera pod is cut out:

 

I’ve got an iPhone XS Max, and the case is perfectly sized for a snug fit.

Just slide it into the case, and you’re good to go. Note that the bottom panel is completely open for access to your speaker and ports. The camera pod cutout is right on the money, cut perfectly so that it doesn’t interfere with the functionality.

And that’s all there is to it. Slide your iPhone into the case, and you’re off and running!

Performance

There’s something refreshing about the simplicity and elegance of the Saddleback Leather Boot Leather iPhone case. Don’t get me wrong, I love how designers are pushing the limits with cutting-edge materials to create new products. But it’s also impressive to see a company that’s able to create the same modern usability we demand from our tech with the classic attributes of materials like leather.

From the minute I opened the package, the Boot Leather iPhone case was fully functional. Not only is it easy to install, but I haven’t seen any signs of stretching or loosening in the case that would cause it to slip off the phone. It’s just as tight and snug as any molded plastic or silicone case I have played with. In reading the product details, it looks like Saddleback made some tweaks to this design to address issues with access to the ports and buttons. I’ll tell you that I have seen no issues with any of that so far. The lightning cable pops right into place, buttons work as designed, and the speakers aren’t obstructed. The cutout for the mute switch was a *teeny* bit tight but loosened up after about a day of use. You really don’t notice any degradation in performance or functionality when using the phone on a regular basis.

The protection offered by the phone is also excellent. I’m prone to fumble fingers, so my iPhone takes its share of drops and bangs on a regular basis. The heavy leather does just as good a job of protecting my precious as any silicone or rubber base I’ve had. Now don’t get me wrong… I’m not planning on tossing it out a second story window to be sure! But for general whoopsies, it’s good. Note that the screen is not protected, but that’s common to all phones in this category. I have a secondary screen cover on the phone for that purpose anyway.

You also get all the benefits of beautiful full-grain boot leather with this case. The leather is just fantastic, as we’ve come to expect from Saddleback Leather products. A month in and my case is already starting to pick up a nice patina as well as some personality from use, which will just get better over time. It’s also surprisingly slim and lightweight, well in line with other cases geared towards protection. I’ve had no issues carrying it in a bag or in my jeans pocket; I really don’t notice anything different from a typical phone case.

What I like

  • Simple, elegant construction
  • No parts of any kind that could come loose, break, or fail
  • Beautiful leather that will age wonderfully
  • All the protection benefits of modern-day materials in a classic looking case

What needs to be improved

  • None that I am seeing yet

Final thoughts

This is my second review from their newer lineup of Saddleback Leather products that feature the simpler, streamlined design language. Like the iPad case review I did last October,  the Boot Leather iPhone Case is another winner. Usability and functionality are both excellent, imparting all the benefits of modern design with the simple goodness of high-quality handmade leather. It’s beautiful and durable, and will probably outlast my phone. It also retails at $79, which is well within the competitive price range for high-end iPhone cases… and pretty great for a hand made product. I’m a fan.

Please note that, as of this writing, the Boot Leather iPhone Case is available for the newer generation of iPhones (X, XS, XS Max, and XR).

Price: $79.00
Where to buy: Get ye to the Saddleback Leather product page for this item.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Saddleback Leather

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: ,

Saddleback Leather Boot Leather iPhone Case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 18, 2019 at 9:17 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.

Easy Digital Downloads Review: A Superb WordPress Plugin for Selling Digital Files Online!

Easy Digital Downloads is a popular eCommerce solution for WordPress that was created to help website owners sell digital products such as eBooks, documents, music, graphic designs and more. The plugin is free to download, and, as with other high-quality WordPress solutions, its functionality can be extended by many free and premium addons. A host… View Article

The post Easy Digital Downloads Review: A Superb WordPress Plugin for Selling Digital Files Online! appeared first on WinningWP.