Home 2017 September

Bit Bar is the “Pocket Friendly EDC Screwdriver”

I’m a big fan of space-saving EDC tools, and if you are too, have a look at the Bit Bar from BIGiDESIGN, maker of lots of cool and useful EDC items. The Bit Bar is essentially a slim, compact screwdriver that carries its own bits in a spring-loaded, magnetic rack inside it. Just push on the bottom of the rack with your thumb and you have access to all of the bits. Then, just insert one into the end of the Bit Bar and you are in business. It also includes a keyring slot, a pocket clip and the center can be used as a bottle-opener. Available in glass-reinforced nylon ($75) and two colors of Grade 5 titanium ($120 each), the Bit Bar is a bit pricey, but for anyone who uses a screwdriver frequently but wants a slim design, check out the Bit Bar. Visit BIGiDESIGN for more info or to order.

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Bit Bar is the “Pocket Friendly EDC Screwdriver” originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 26, 2017 at 6:56 pm.

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Scissors inside a pen, X-Bows ergonomic keyboard, Coolala solar powered AC, and more – Notable crowdfunding campaigns

Check out this week’s picks for crowdfunding projects from Kickstarter and Indiegogo that are worth your consideration.

The Five-Day Performance Dress Shirt by Bluffworks

blurb by Andy Jacobs

What is it?
A dress shirt designed from the ground up for travel and loaded with features, from a company that has proven that it knows how to design and build travel clothes.

Why do I like it?
Lots of reasons! For starters, it features soft-feel fabric in multiple checked patterns. And although it’s soft, it’s still breathable and has 2-way stretchy to keep you cool and comfortable when you’re active. Additionally, travelers will appreciate that it’s anti-microbial, wrinkle free and can be machine washed and dried (or even washed in a sink and hung up to dry). While some or even many of these features may be present in other, similar products, it’s the combination of these features, plus the attention to design detail, manufacturing and quality that puts the Meridian Dress Shirt in a class of its own. It includes brass collar stays, a pattern-aligned pocket and reinforced buttons. And if all of that wasn’t enough, Bluffworks is the real deal. I can tell you firsthand that their Blazer and Travel Pants are top-notch, for travelers or anyone else who appreciates well-designed, well-built clothing.

Where can I find more info?
The Kickstarter campaign began on September 18 and ends October 23, so you have plenty of time to become a backer. In fact, after only a few hours after going live, it exceeded its minimum goal of $10,000 and raised over $65,000 in funds with over 375 backers so far. Pledge packages start at $98 for a single shirt and top off at $280 for a package with three shirts. Estimated delivery is December 2017 for all packages. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

Coolala Affordable In/Outdoor Solar Powered Portable Air Conditioner

blurb by Julie Strietelmeier

What is it?
Coolala is the first outdoor and indoor solar-powered portable 7 pound 3,500 BTU air conditioner unit that has 150 square feet of cooling power.

Why do I like it?
It’s been in the 90’s here in Southern Indiana this week, so our AC unit at home has been running like it’s still summer. AC units need a lot of juice, so having a small portable unit that is powered by sunlight sounds like a genius idea. The Coolala has a built-in rechargeable battery that can run for up to 8 hours when fully charged by either plugging it into an AC outlet or by using solar panels. You probably won’t try using Coolala to keep your 3000 square foot house cool, but it would be great for an enclosed patio, camping, a garage, etc. It even has a built-in light.

Where can I find more info?
With 9 days left in the campaign, the Coolala campaign has already met their funding goal of $25,596. You can pre-order a Coolala starting at $219. After the Coolala campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in April 2018. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

X-Bows Mechanical Ergonomic Keyboard

blurb by Julie Strietelmeier

What is it?
The X-Bows keyboard is a QWERTY keyboard that has a unique key layout for better ergonomics.

Why do I like it?
Traditional keyboards are designed so that our fingers, hands, and wrists need to be at a right angle to the horizontal keyboard for optimal typing speed. The problem is that after long sessions of typing, the placement of our hands and wrists can cause pain and discomfort. The X-Bows keyboard positions the keys in a more natural layout that should allow for more comfortable typing without having to learn a brand new key layout.

Where can I find more info?
With 42 days left in the campaign, the X-Bows campaign has already met their funding goal of $32,345. You can pre-order an X-Bows keyboard starting at $119. After the X-Bows campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in December 2017. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

Xcissor Pen – One Mighty Scissors Hidden in Your Sleek Pen

blurb by Andy Jacobs

What is it?
The Xcissor Pen is a sharp-looking writing instrument that has a sharp hidden feature inside: a miniature pair of scissors, for those times when a knife blade may just not be right for the job.

Why do I like it?
I’m an EDCer, and I appreciate items that can perform multiple functions. The mininch Xcissor Pen does just that, and looks good doing it, plus it looks durable as heck. Just pop off the main body and disengage the safely lock and you are ready to cut away. The body are made from Stainless Steel and are available in various combinations of silver pen or scissors (nickel plated) or black pen or scissors (Teflon coated) and it uses a Mini D1 Ballpoint Pen Refill. Also, the cap threads on for security, but also posts on the rear for better balance while writing. The mininch folks have already run several other hugely successful Kickstarter campaigns for similar EDC tool gadgets, including the Wrenchit, the Tool Pen and the Tool Pen mini.

Where can I find more info?
The Kickstarter campaign is in full swing and will end November 9, so there is still time to become a backer. It’s worth noting that the campaign has already met its minimum funding goal of $10,000 as of this writing. Pledge package pricing starts at $45 for a single Xcissor Pen and combo packages are available. Estimated delivery is March 2018. Visit the Xcissor Pen Kickstarter campaign page for more details. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

VIITA Watch – Custom Wearable Fitness Coach

blurb by Julie Strietelmeier

What is it?
VIITA is a smartwatch with regular smartwatch features and fitness features like sleep tracking, stress tracking, heart rate tracking, GPS, dehydration tracking and more.

Why do I like it?
I’ve yet to find a smartwatch that I want to wear day in and day out. The VIITA smartwatch looks promising for a couple of reasons. First of all, runs for up to 4 weeks on a charge which cuts out the huge hassle of charging the watch every night. VIITA also tracks hydration levels which is interesting to me because I know I don’t drink enough liquids and would like some type of visual prompt to help me change that. I also like the My Sets feature that lets you find the right timing between your resting periods and sets, to optimize your muscle growth.

Where can I find more info?
With 30 days left in the campaign, the VIITA campaign just working towards their funding goal of $30,000. You can pre-order a VIITA watch starting at $135. After the VIITA campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in December 2017. Visit their Indiegogo page for all the details.

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Scissors inside a pen, X-Bows ergonomic keyboard, Coolala solar powered AC, and more – Notable crowdfunding campaigns originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 26, 2017 at 12:17 pm.

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OVC H15 Noise Cancelling Earphones review

When you travel as much as I do, the ability to shut off the outside world and immerse yourself in music or a movie is not just important, it is a necessity.  And when hear about a small, lightweight product which claims up to 60 hours of battery life, active noise cancelling, and all in an affordable package, you have to investigate.  Today I am doing just that with the OVC Noise Cancelling Earphones.  How well does the real-world performance stack up against the claims?  Read on to find out…

OVC packs a lot of stuff in the box.  You get a small carry pouch, two sets of earbuds (one white, one black with small, medium and large sizes in each color), a charging cable (micro USB but no wall plug so plan on using your computer to charge these), an increasingly unnecessary dual airplane plug, and a cord manager.  Pretty complete setup for such a low price point.  You can see what you get in the picture below.

So how do they stack up in the real world?  I started this journey just listening to music on my phone while at my home office desk.  The H15’s sport a bass boost mode that is activated via a switch on the volume/microphone inline control.  When turned off, the H15’s sound like the cheapest earbuds you can buy – tinny, muddied and the volume (even at maximum) feels low.  Turn on the bass boost, however, and the sound is great.  You get the bass (not Beats-level, chest-thumping style but enough to let you feel the music) plus the music clears up – you can hear the highs, vocals are clear and crisp, and the volume is much louder.

I also used the H15’s for business meetings via Skype and my computer, and once or twice to make phone calls.  The microphone works well – in both Skype and the phone others could hear me clearly and I could hear them – but, again, only with the bass boost activated.  Without it, while callers could hear me I could hardly hear or understand them.  Pretty clear that the only way you want to use these is with the bass boost on at all times, which does reduce the battery life.  More on that in a minute.

The H15’s also have active noise cancelling.  Pretty unusual to find this in a sub-$50 earbud.  On the outward facing side of each ear bud, you can see a series of small holes on an O shape – these are the microphones used to generate the anti-sound waves that active noise cancelling produces.  The feature is activated via a button on a control close to the end of the cable that plugs into your device.  Press to turn it on or off.  Noise cancelling seems to work OK, but I have a specific problem that prevents me from getting the full benefit.  Each size of the rubber earbuds comes with a “stabilizer” that you can see in the picture below.  I have unusually large ear holes (hmmm…) but small ears.  The stabilizers push the earbud slightly out of my ear canal and breaks the seal.  If I hold the earbuds in place, the intact seal gives me the full effect of both the bass boost and the noise cancelling.  I cut off the stabilizer on the large size black buds and problem solved, although I feel I am not alone in this problem and OVC should include standard earbuds in the box.

With the stabilizers out of the way, I could begin the real test of the noise cancelling feature – 4 cross-country airline flights in 8 days.  Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.  That said, the noise cancelling feature is a partial success.  With a good seal in my ears and the feature activated I could drown out the engine noise from the plane.  Weirdly, though, I could still hear snippets of conversation around me – not a constant thing, mind you, but the occasional word or phrase would come through reasonably clearly, most likely the result of the noise cancelling feature choosing to continue the suppression of the engine noise over a higher-pitched sound like human conversation.  On phone calls and in Skype while in office surroundings, the noise cancelling feature works as advertised.

One thing missing, however, is sidetone.  This is the ability to monitor your speech while listening to an active conversation.  The H15’s seemingly don’t support this, so if you use the noise cancelling while on a phone call your voice sounds like it is coming from two rooms away.  Getting this to work properly is not an easy task, and even headphones like the Logitech H800 – which are made specifically for Skype-type communications – can’t get this to work.  So just be aware that if your use case is primarily communications, these may not be the earphones you want.

Finally the quirks.  There is the standard inline volume and call accept/end control at the place where the earphones split into the separate channels.  The bass boost switch is on the side of this control.  If you look at the picture, though, you will see the noise cancelling box (and, I assume, the larger battery this headphone supports).  The plug for your device is about 4 inches away from this control.  That means if you put this in your pocket along with your phone and are involved in pretty much any sort of activity you are constantly going to press the on-off button for noise cancelling.  Plus, given where my headphone jack on both my laptop and tablet lives this control just sort of dangles there – too close to the plug to lay on the table or desk.  Thankfully the control is not heavy or this could present problems.  A better design choice would be to have incorporated both the inline and noise cancelling controls into one and placed that higher up where the inline control lives.

Also bass boost and noise cancelling are not mutually compatible.  If noise cancelling is on, the bass boost switch does not appear to do anything.  You do get what I would consider 90% of the bass boost in noise cancelling mode, but the bass didn’t feel as deep as without noise cancelling, most likely because of the dampening sounds the earphones produce.

As far as battery life goes, I was never able to get to 60 hours active use no matter which configuration I used (noise cancelling on/off, bass boost on/off).  I was able, however, to get a very respectable 14 hours use with noise cancelling on.  That’s on par with my Bose QC-35’s so good job there.

For what they are – a sub-$50 active noise cancelling earphone – the OVC H15 delivers on most of the promises.  The places where it fails are either easily overcome or a personal choice.  These won’t replace my more expensive noise cancelling headphones, but if I were looking for earbuds for a child or were on a budget, these would be near the top of the consideration list.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by OVC.  Please visit their website for more info or Amazon to purchase.

 

Product Information

Price: $43.99
Manufacturer: OVC Audio
Retailer: Amazon
Pros:
  • Sounds great with bass boost and a good fit
  • Priced well with lots of extras
  • Fantastic battery life
Cons:
  • Hard to get a good fit
  • Odd control design choices
  • Not as responsive in noise cancelling as other earphones

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OVC H15 Noise Cancelling Earphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 26, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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World Maker Faire New York 2017

This past weekend I attended the 8th Annual World Maker Faire New York held at the New York Hall Of Science. Started in 2006 by the publisher of Make: magazine and sponsored heavily by Barnes & Noble, Maker Faires are “family-friendly festivals of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” Everything a gadget lover could ever desire is represented in some form at a Maker Faire.

I spent two whole days touring the exhibitions and still feel like I might’ve missed out on some cool stuff.

Mainstays of the Maker Movement, like microelectronics, 3D printing, drones, and robotics are always represented well at these events. Several big names like Dremel, Mimaki, and Otterbox often display and demo prototypes of up-and-coming tech that they’re working on. It’s a great chance to get hands-on with the next level of DIY gear.

3D printers abound at Maker Faire, there’s a whole section devoted solely to vendors selling the biggest, smallest, fastest and cheapest 3D printers on the market. In addition, plenty of booths and exhibits showcase every type of 3D printing accessory and artwork.

Kids are definitely the target audience for a good part of the exhibits and the DIY spirit is strong. Little Makers were able to craft everything from a cardboard pinball set to their own soap to PVC marshmallow guns. All types of kits and workshops were being offered and enjoyed throughout the weekend.

With a strong emphasis on STEM learning, even the toys and fun workshops were geared toward teaching the participants critical thinking and the basics of science and mathematical theory

Art and music are also a big focus of Maker Faire. There are roaming street bands and tech-inspired performers making music nonstop.

The art on display tends toward the big and impressive sort. Where else can you see a fire-breathing dragon/bus as well as a robotic dinosaur being controlled by a hacked Nintendo Power Glove?

Competitions at Maker Fair are a great diversion after spending the day deciding which of the hundreds of vendors you’ll be giving your money to.

The Power Racing Series, known as “the only sub-$500 electric vehicle racing series that features grown-ups driving kids cars,” is great fun and offers a lot of thrills and spills.

Drone Racing, featuring competitors from the Aerial Sports League, is a fan favorite as well. With races running all weekend long, there was always something cool happening by the race area.

This year drone racing was even more exciting because fans were able to “ride-along” during races by donning FPV goggles that tapped into racers’ feeds.

And no Maker Faire would be complete without some Coke and Mentos shenanigans. The crowds lined up each day for the soda fountain fun.

If you like technology, are a nerd at heart, or just like arts and crafts, there’s something for you at a Maker Faire, be sure to check one out. To find a Maker Faire near you visit Make: magazine or the Maker Faire website here.

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World Maker Faire New York 2017 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 26, 2017 at 8:00 am.

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Ninety7 LOFT adds stand alone power to the Google Home assistant

Ninety7, the same company who created the VAUX speaker for the Amazon Echo Dot which Joe reviewed earlier this summer, now has two new products. The LOFT and the DOX that have been designed for the Google Home and latest generation of the Echo Dot.

The LOFT is a battery base for the Google Home that makes your Google Home assistant portable. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery in the base provides up to 8 hours of unplugged freedom.

The LOFT is available in three colors that include the copper color you see above, carbon, and snow. The battery base is priced at $39.95. Shipping for the carbon version of the LOFT will start shipping mid-October and the other two colors will ship at the end of October.

If you have the 2nd generation version of the Amazon Echo Dot, the new DOX will turn this small Alexa device into a cord-free assistant. The DOX has a built-in rechargeable battery the provides up to 10 hours untethered portable use.

The DOX is available in carbon and ash and is priced at $29.95 with shipping to start mid-October.

Visit ninety7life.com for all the details.

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Ninety7 LOFT adds stand alone power to the Google Home assistant originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 25, 2017 at 3:55 pm.

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