Forgive me for that silly title, I just couldn’t help myself Seriously though, the mininch Tool Pen looks like a fantastic pocket tool that has been designed to hold 6 screwdriver bits in its 5.75 inch long handle. And since it’s less than 7 inches long, that means it’s TSA friendly.
The Tool Pen has an aircraft grade aluminum unibody housing that is available in several colors and the bits are made of S2 tool steel.
The mininch Tool Pen Premium is available in Imperial hex and Metric hex versions. Each Tool Pen Premium comes with 16 bits:
To use it, you remove the magnetic cap and either start using the exposed tip or pull it out, pop it in the back to extend the next tip in line. Small windows in the handle allow you to see the location of the bit you need.
You can read all about the mininch Tool Pen Premium at mininch.com and order one for $69 from Amazon.
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It’s tax time! If you’re due for a fat refund and are a fan of design who also appreciates fine audio, grab that refund check and check out the new Master & Dynamic MA770 wireless concrete speaker. Yes, you read that right … concrete. You’re not going to be carting this 35 lb. monster around like a boombox. Nope, the MA770 speaker is designed for the home—inside the home. Designed by Sir David Adjaye—the architect behind Washington D.C.’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture—the MA770’s modern, minimalist good looks have a structural quality unlike other speakers. The MA770 speaker comes ready to play with two 4-inch kevlar woofers and a 1.5-inch titanium tweeter, with diamond-cut anodized aluminum controls—all powered by a 100 watt Class D amp. The MA770’s concrete composite dampening properties are so high that the speaker can play at full volume without causing a record to skip or a table and floor to vibrate. Bluetooth, Chromecast and an AUX input are used for connectivity. The MA770 can be used as a single unit, stereo pair or multi-room setup via built-in Chromecast.The design of the MA770 speaker is so paramount, that it will be available soon in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) store in New York City (and other stores also) as well as directly from Master & Dynamic. If it matches the quality of Master & Dynamic’s headphones, then buyers will be in for a treat. Once available, the MA770 will sell for $1,800 US (less than the average refund amount). Visit Master & Dynamic for more information.
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Remote controlled planes, helicopters, and drones can be a lot of fun if they are easy to fly and don’t shatter into a million pieces when you crash them, which you know will happen. The newest drone to fly the skies near my house is the Parrot Swing minidrone. Let’s see how fun it is to fly and if it can survive a crash.
What is it?
The Parrot Swing minidrone is a remote-controlled flying toy with a built in camera.
What’s in the box?
Parrot Swing drone
2 Batteries
Flypad remote control
4 replacement propellers
micro USB charging cable
Manuals for the Swing and Flypad
Design and features
The Parrot Swing drone is an X-shaped drone with lightweight foam wings.
The front of the Swing has 2 LEDs that give it a bug-eyed appearance, but they are really only there to provide status on the drone as far as battery life, connection to the Flypad, etc.
The rear of the Swing has a battery slot, micro USB charging port and a tiny camera which is located to the left of the micro USB connector. Before you get too excited, the camera will NOT capture video. It can only capture snapshots.
The Parrot Swing comes with 2 batteries. In the image above, one battery is installed in the drone. Charging is done with the included micro USB cable which can be connected to an existing USB power adapter or a port on your computer.
The power switch is located on the bottom/belly of the drone.
Also included with the drone is a very nice handheld controller called the Flypad. This controller pairs with an Android or iOS smartphone which attaches to the Flypad using the spring loaded holder.
The Flypad has joystick controls and shoulder buttons. It feels like a premium gaming controller.
In the image above, I have an LG G6 connected to the Flypad. The Flypad has built in rechargeable batteries which charge through a micro USB port in the center bottom edge of the controllers.
Let’s fly the Parrot Swing drone!
Before you can take the Parrot Swing on its first flight, you will need to charge it using the included micro USB cable. It takes about 30 minutes to charge the battery. My suggestion is to charge one battery, remove it, insert the second battery and charge it too. This way you can swap batteries for double the flight time. It’s too bad that Parrot doesn’t include an external charger that will charge both batteries at the same time.
The next step is to install the free FreeFlight Mini app on your iOS or Android device. You can use your phone as the controller, but it’s a lot more fun and easy to fly if you charge up the Flypad.
When the Swing’s battery is fully charged, the app is installed on your mobile device and the Flypad is charged, it’s time to head outdoors.
You press the power button on the Swing power it up and then place it on the ground with the propellers facing upwards.
When the 2 “eyes” on the drone are solid green, you can launch the FreeFlight mini app on your mobile device and make sure Bluetooth is enabled. The app will see the drone and connect to it. You can then turn on the Flypad controller and the app will detect and connect to it.
Pressing the dedicated take off and landing button on the Flypad will cause the Swing’s propellers to start rotating and will raise the drone a few feet in the air. Moving the left joystick on the Flypad up and down will raise and lower the drone, and using the right joystick will make the drone fly side to side.
When you first start flying the Swing, it’s in quad mode (image above) which means it can fly up, down, left, and right like a typical drone. But if you press the right shoulder button on the Flypad controller, it will switch to plane mode which flips the Swing over so it looks like a flying dragonfly (other images in this review) instead of a flying X if that makes sense. The joysticks and buttons on the Flypad react differently depending on the mode you’re in.
There are also dedicated buttons that will do a U-turn and a loop in the air. The U-turn is very useful if you happen to be flying straight towards a building or tree!
If you don’t want to use the Flypad, you can fly the Swing just using the onscreen buttons in the FlightTime Mini app. But I think the Flypad provides a much better experience.
The app does give you details about each flight and allows you to see and share the images that you took with the Swing’s built-in camera to Facebook or download them. But trust me when I say that you probably will not be sharing any of the images.
I kept trying to get a picture of myself and as you can see from the samples above, it wasn’t an easy task. Even if I would have been able to get a good picture, the resolution is really low.
See it in action!
I thought it was difficult to control the Parrot Swing the first time I flew it. But it only took a few minutes to get the hang of it. Unfortunately, the flight time per battery charge is just that, only a few minutes. That’s why I suggested that you charge both batteries before you head outside to fly it. Thirty minutes of charging will allow you to fly for about 10 minutes give or take. The app will start beeping when the battery power is down to 7% and the Parrot Swing minidrone will go into quad mode and land by itself when battery power goes to 2-3%.
Can it survive a crash?
Yes, it can and yes it did. Multiple times. But there was some “damage”. After one crash I noticed that one of the propellers was missing. Trying to find a small black or white object in piles of leaf clutter was impossible. The propellers really should be a brighter, more noticeable color.
I didn’t freak out though because I remembered that an extra set of propellers are included in the package. So I went back to the house and installed one of the black propellers. I then went back outside to resume flying. But each time I tried to fly, the Parrot Swing would flop over. I double checked all the propellers and the wings to make sure there wasn’t some additional damage that I had missed, but everything looked and felt fine. I continued to try to fly it, but each time the propellers spun up, the drone will flop over on its side.
I returned to the house, flipped through the manual to see if there were any instructions for replacing the propellers and found none. So I searched around on Parrot’s website and found a user forum where another person was asking about the same problem. Long story short, there are clockwise propellers and counter-clockwise propellers. But the weird thing is that the color doesn’t designate which way they should turn or be installed. I had to install a white propeller in place of the missing black propeller.
Once I had the right propeller installed, flying fun commenced.
Final thoughts
The Parrot Swing minidrone is a LOT of fun to fly either in quad or plane mode (I like the plane mode the best). It’s not hard to get the hang of it and once you do, crashes don’t happen that often unless you’re flying near a lot of trees like I am. But if you do crash, the Swing seems to be tough enough to handle it. Just make sure that you have extra propellers handy and know which one goes where.
At about $99, the Parrot Swing isn’t too expensive. I just wish the built-in camera was better and the flight times were longer. But even with those minor complaints, it’s still a really fun flying toy.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Parrot. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.
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From the same company that brought you the Vibram FiveFingers shoes comes Furoshiki footwear. Designed to mimic the Japanese practice of wrapping objects in cloth, Furoshiki footwear wraps the soles of your feet with rubber treads.
Available in a variety of colors, the Furoshiki sole wraps are made of 72% Polyamide and 28% Elastane and feature a stretchy breathable material that wraps around the top and bottom of your foot to completely enclose it.
The wraps are multi-sized to allow for a tighter or looser fit to adapt to your foot. The material is not waterproof, but it does dry quickly.
They fold down to a small package that takes up minimal space in a bag compared to traditional shoes.
The Vibram Furoshiki footwraps look like they’d make a comfy round-the-house shoe, or even everyday shoes if you like minimal footwear. Vibram even sells a boot version of the Furoshiki.
You can find more info about these shoes from Vibram and can order a pair for $65 – $110 from Amazon.
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Today I am sharing four crowdfunding campaigns that I thought you might like to read about. Click through to see my list of this week’s notable crowdfunding campaigns.
The Mirabook turns your smartphone into a laptop
What is it?
The Mirabook is a laptop that is powered by your Android or Windows Phone (and even Raspberry Pi) smartphone and provides it with a larger display, keyboard, touchpad and a higher capacity battery.
Why do I like it?
I like the Mirabook because I still have a dream of using my smartphone as my everything device. The only thing that sort of worries me about the Mirabook is that it physically tethers to the phone with a Type-C cable. That just seems a little awkward to me. I’d still love to try it though.
Where can I find more info?
With 30 days left in their campaign, The Mirabook campaign is still working towards their funding goal of $50,000. You can pre-order a Mirabook starting at $180. After the Mirabook campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in December 2017. Visit their Indiegogo page for all the details.
Code Angel: Learn to code amazing games on a Raspberry Pi
What is it?
Code Angel is a Raspberry Pi game programming kit that includes the Raspberry Pi computer and lessons to teach you coding in Python.
Why do I like it?
I like Code Angel because it is designed to teach computer programming in an easy and fun way by coding games. Programming helps develop problem-solving skills and analytical thinking skills that are important for all types of jobs and hobbies that are not just computer related. I’ve always wanted to tinker with a Raspberry Pi AND learn Python, so I’m really tempted to pledge for this campaign.
Where can I find more info?
With 24 days left in their campaign, The Code Angel campaign is still working towards their funding goal of $4397. You can pre-order a Code Angel starting at $124 for a reward that includes a Raspberry Pi. After the Code Angel campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in August 2017. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.
What is it?
The B-2 Nano Blade is a tiny folding and locking pocket knife that has a blade with serrated and non-serrated sections.
Why do I like it?
I like the B-2 Nano Blade because it’s so small, but has a serrated part of the blade that can be used to saw through things. I also like the locking blade.
There are a couple things to consider before you pledge. We’ve reviewed Bomber & Company products before and the review wasn’t too favorable. Also, this item won’t ship until February 2018 which is a crazy long time to wait for a reward and makes me wonder if the people who have pledged for it really paid attention to the estimated ship date.
Where can I find more info?
With 47 days left in their campaign, The B-2 Nano Blade campaign has already wildly surpassed their funding goal of $5000. You can pre-order a B-2 Nano Blade starting at $25. After the B-2 Nano Blade campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in February 2018. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.
miniRIG – Capture more with your smartphone and GoPro
What is it?
miniRIG is a video stabilizer for GoPros and smartphones.
Why do I like it?
I like miniRIG because it comes with extra accessories like a LED light, microphone, and legs that attach to turn the miniRIG into a small table top tripod. It is being made by the same people who brought you the Smoovie which I reviewed last fall. I wasn’t impressed with the Smoovie and didn’t recommend it, but it appears that they’ve vastly improved the design to create this new product that has a lot more features.
Where can I find more info?
With 23 days left in their campaign, The miniRIG campaign has already surpassed their funding goal of $12,563. You can pre-order a miniRIG starting at $52. After the miniRIG campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in August 2017. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.
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Seriously though, the mininch Tool Pen looks like a fantastic pocket tool that has been designed to hold 6 screwdriver bits in its 5.75 inch long handle. And since it’s less than 7 inches long, that means it’s TSA friendly. 
