Home 2018 March

Marshall’s new MID A.N.C. Bluetooth headphones go up to 11

Marshall has recently announced a new set of wireless headphones, the MID A.N.C….their first foray into the world of active noise canceling. The MID A.N.C. headphones use Bluetooth aptX technology and are a follow-on to their original wireless MID Bluetooth headphones. The A.N.C.’s have an on-ear design featuring custom 40 mm dynamic drivers, soft microfiber wrapped headband, 3D hinges for transportability and ergonomic fit, and black anodized metal frame and brass logo that give a unique look & old-world style to the headphones. Marshall promises the headphones can last up to 20 hours of wireless playtime when active noise canceling is on or 30+ hours of wireless playtime without active noise cancelling activated. They are available from Marshall for $269.

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Marshall’s new MID A.N.C. Bluetooth headphones go up to 11 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 29, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Everything you need for a picnic for two except the food

Levenger says this picnic basket is inspired by pioneer wagons, hence the name.  It has a durable canvas exterior, a water-resistant polyester lining, and faux leather trim.  The Pioneer Canvas Picnic Basket measures 20″ x 12.75″  x 11.5″ and weighs 11 pounds.  It has a double lid, two storage pockets on the front, and a water-resistant base.

Inside, you’ll find everything you need for a picnic for two:

  • 2 porcelain plates (8”; navy/khaki plaid design)
  • 2 hand-blown wine glasses (7 ounces)
  • 2 stainless-steel forks, knives and spoons
  • 1 set of stainless-steel salt and pepper shakers
  • 2 cotton napkins (14” x 14”; navy/khaki plaid)
  • 1 stainless-steel cheese knife with wooden handle
  • 1 blanket (50” x 60”; quilted navy/khaki cotton topside and navy polyester underside)
  • 1 plastic food storage container

The Pioneer Canvas Picnic Basket is $120.00 at Levenger.

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Everything you need for a picnic for two except the food originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 29, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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PortraitPro 17 Studio Max photo editing software review

What is it?

PortraitPro 17 Studio Max is a very intuitive and easy to use photo editing software that allows even the most novice of users to quickly learn and edit photos for a truly professional look. It provides a set of tools that is able to fix just about every defect in a photo, and it also works as a plugin for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop to ensure that it fits into a complete professional workflow.

Design and features

When you first run the PortraitPro Studio Max application, the first screen is a splash screen with 2 choices that allow you to open a single image to edit or to open a batch of images for editing.

If you select to open a single image, the file manager will open and allow you to navigate and select a photo. Once the photo is selected, it will appear in the background with a selection dialogue box over it asking you to select if the picture is male, female or child. I do believe that the software uses this information for the face detection algorithm. This screen also has the option to rotate the picture to the correct or desired orientation.

Once the selection is made, and in this case, I chose child since I used my son’s picture for this review, a split screen appears with a left and right pane. It is important for me to explain that I bought this photo of my son’s graduation to support his school. However, it was painfully obvious that it was overexposed and taken in such harsh light that it just about ruined the photo. This made it the perfect photo to test PortraitPro.

On the left pane, there is the picture with the face detection mask outline with nodes, that allow you to change the shape to define the facial area as you would like. On the right pane is the same picture without any masking. The picture on the right pane reflects the changes that you make on the left throughout the process. The toolbar on the right shows the original picture on the top and the available editing categories and tools below. There is also a floating “tips” box that can be hidden as desired.


There are 3 main tabs for the editing tools which are Controls, Presets, and Snapshots. The Controls tabs contain all of the tools that you use for original editing. The Presets tab contains presets for the controls, and the Snapshots tab is for saved snapshots. Under the “Controls” tab there are 9 editing categories:

Face Sculpt


As depicted by the tool selection, the face Sculpt toolset allows you to reshape all the aspects of the face to either correct them to be true or to enhance them for the required look.

Skin Smoothing

Skin smoothing allows you to smooth out the normal skin imperfections like bags under the eyes, wrinkles, bushy eyebrows, skin texture, spot removal, etc. It really does a great job in this category as well.

Skin Lighting and coloring

Skin lighting and coloring is made up of two sections. There is the main section that allows you to edit all of the lighting properties of the portrait. There is also a second section that includes two categories that are Skin Color and Tan. Skin color allows you to edit contrast, temperature, and tint along with brightness and color correction of the skin immediately outside of the mask area.

The Tan section allows you to saturate and darken the skin color, and tweak the level of “gold” in the skin color to get the desired skin shade.

Makeup

The Makeup category is another section that really shines in this software. The ability to not only fix makeup imperfections highlighted by the lighting when the picture was taken is an amazing tool. You are also able to add makeup effects to enhance the photo.

Eye

The “eye” tool is another amazing capability of this software. As I played around with the tools I was really impressed by the effects that can be added and how much you can actually alter the mood and/or facial expression by altering the appearance of the eyes.

Mouth and Nose

This is simple but effective set of tools that allows you to enhance the appearance of the mouth and lips and remove some of those unwanted digital artifacts that can be the result of bad lighting or an unprepared subject.

Hair

The hair tools are a simple set of tools that allow you to get the correct look and smooth appearance of hair which is key to a good portrait. Smoothing and tidying hair that may have been a bit ruffled from movement or from wind is a great ability. Being able to alter the color of the hair is also nice.

Picture

The picture tools allow you to change the overall lighting and other attributes of the picture including vibrance, exposure, temperature, tint, etc.

Background

I had a really enjoyable time playing around with the background tools. This category offers two sub-categories.


The Background Mask tools allow you to fill the foreground and the background along with several other adjustments. I am sure that once these tools become familiar, that replacing backgrounds is easy and very well done.

The Background Image category allows you to add background images or colors, and to adjust the background and foreground to blend as desired. The color gradient can also be tweaked to satisfaction. There is also an Auto Color category that allows you to blend the colors.

 What I like

There are so many really great things to like about this software. It includes a really great set of tools that are in my opinion, a great asset to any level of photographer or editor. I was very impressed with what I was able to do to fix and enhance the photo. I really like the numerous specific tools and tweaks that are included that allow you to get a picture just right. I was able to edit what I considered to be a horribly taken photo of my son, albeit that it was taken by a supposed professional photographer, and I was able to fix almost everything that was very wrong. Whatever I was unable to fix was due to my lack of knowledge of how to manipulate all of the great tools, and I am very sure that the more I work with this software, that perfection will be obtainable.

I also like that compared to the many other available software packages, PortraitPro is a great bang for the buck. Its ability to be added as a plugin to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop makes it a permanent part of my workflow.

What needs to be improved?

While the PortraitPro software is a simply excellent photo editing set of tools, there are a few improvements that can be made to make it the obvious “go to” application. I feel that the face masking could be slightly more accurate in its initial detection, and could include more nodes on the lines of the masked areas, for more precise adjustments to the facial contours. I also think that the background detection can be more accurate by possibly doing a better job at detecting the edges of the subject so that a basic mouse can do the job as opposed to the Wacom Tablet that I had to use to get more precise edges of the photo. While the brush size can be adjusted, using the mouse for this did not feel as comfortable.

I also think that this software can be the perfect tool if a hardware controller is designed to precisely adjust the sliders, much like the Loupedeck does for Lightroom.

Final thoughts

Before

After

I am very impressed by what PortraitPro offers and what I was able to accomplish with my first try with the software. As you can see from the photo above, my initial attempt while not perfect has yielded very nice results. I have no doubt that as I continue to work with the software that I will not only get better at using all of its editing tools, but I am sure that it will continue to be an integral part of my workflow, especially if PortraitPro continues its current trend and releases updates and new versions to add to its already great set of tools.

PortraitPro is available in three editions: Standard, Studio and Studio Max which is the version used for this review.

Price: Starts at $39.95 for the standard edition.
Where to buy: PortraitPro
Source: The free software license for this review was provided by PortraitPro

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PortraitPro 17 Studio Max photo editing software review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 28, 2018 at 4:52 pm.

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Alexa in your car, Bellroy wallet, and more – Review updates

Do you ever wonder what happens after we review a product? Do we immediately stop using the product because it breaks? Or do we continue to use it for years and even decades? To answer those questions, we periodically like to update our past reviews with new information. Check out our latest review updates by clicking on the review links below and then scrolling to the bottom of the page to read the newest dated updates.

Speak Music Muse Alexa voice assistant review by Julie Strietelmeier

Optoma NuForce BE6 Bluetooth wireless headphones review by Andy Jacobs

Bellroy Note Sleeve wallet review by Andy Jacobs

ONOTONE Concrete and Bamboo iPhone X Case review by Ryan Pagel

SOLGAARD Lifepack: The Carry-On Closet review by Ryan Pagel

Albert Clock review: Improves your math skills and looks cool by Ryan Pagel

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Alexa in your car, Bellroy wallet, and more – Review updates originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 28, 2018 at 12:15 pm.

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Colonel Littleton No. 30 Leather Composition Journal review

OK, we’re definitely going old school on this review. The Colonel Littleton No. 30 Leather Composition Journal doesn’t have any chips, batteries, buttons, etc…it doesn’t even protect or carry tech. This journal is meant to capture your thoughts, dreams, notes, todos by putting pen to paper. Over the years, I have attempted (and failed for the most part) to write down what’s going thru my mind or take better notes when need be, hopefully a closer look at the Colonel’s latest creation will help me get that done.

What is it?

The No. 30 Composition Journal is a leather book cover, designed to hold Colonel Littleton’s journal register paper insert. The exterior is made from polished, full grain leather with a timeless, Old World style and functionality to it, meant to hold and protect the notepad (and what’s written) within. 

According to Colonel Littleton –

The leather composition journal has been around since the mid-1800s or thereabouts.  Even with a proliferation of electronic devices, its popularity and relevance endures.

Funny thing is, my 20-something nieces have preferred to read real books (vs ebooks) and take notes on an actual pad of paper their entire lives. I’ve dogged them a bit over the years but they continue, even into adulthood, to prefer the feel of flipping the pages and putting pen to paper. My point is, the Colonel is spot on and this sort of classic design and functionality spans the test of time, generations, and technological progress.

Design and features

The journal is made of thick, well-finished leather that is not only gorgeous but durable enough to last decades of use. The No. 30 Composition Journal is created for executives, writers, journalers, educators, students, note takers, list makers, etc. Really anyone who wants to memorialize something in real life vs virtual zeros and ones. The leather notebook measures 10.5” H x 8” W and opens vertically. There are insert pockets on both sides that hold the front and back cover of the writing journal securely in place.

The leather pieces are sewn together using high-quality thread that is finely stitched. The spine is reinforced with an extra piece of leather for greater strength and added style.

The inside cover has slipper pockets meant for business cards and pens. Both slipper pockets are initially very tight and take a bit of force to get the cards and pen inserted, but should loosen with time and use.

The Colonel Littleton composition journal has dedicated space for date, owner information, and subject on the inside cover, enabling you to chronicle/organize each notebook when filled. The journal is lined and is meant to be written on both sides of each sheet of paper.

The Colonel includes a wood pencil and brass paper clip to truly round out the Old World functionality of the journal.  In addition to the (very lose-able) brass paperclip, the No. 30 journal has two integrated leather bookmarks for saving locations within the notebook.

Specifications:

  • Leather Composition Journal Overall Dimensions 10.5” H x 8” W (Closed)
  • Journal Register Paper Insert 9.75” H x 7.38” W x 0.5″ D (Closed)
  • Left and Right Journal Insert Pockets (hold writing journal secure) 10″ H x 3.25″ W
  • Business Card Pocket 3.5” H x 2.25” W (Inside dimensions)
  • Pen Pocket 4.25” H x 2.25” W (Inside dimensions)

Material quality and craftsmanship:

Like all of the Colonel’s products, the journal’s craftsmanship and attention to detail is second to none. It is definitely eye-catching with an Old World charm that truly stands out. The front of the journal has a riveted brass plate where your initials can be engraved. The back has the Colonel Littleton logo embossed into the leather. The edges are all stitched for strength and well finished. The black with brown trim version of the No. 30 journal has opposing thread color which really gives it a nice touch.

The No. 30 Leather Composition Journal is handmade in Colonel Littleton’s leather workshop in Lynnville, TN. It is available in vintage brown, saddle tan with brown trim, black with brown trim, American alligator, and American buffalo.

Colonel Littleton designs his products to last a very long time. He stamps each one with a single word: *warranted* and backs that promise up. I use my 1943 Navigator bag almost every day and it’s definitely aging very well. But when one of the brass clips failed, his crew didn’t bat an eye when I asked if it could be repaired. My point is, that it’s nice to know that in our disposable society there are still those who create things meant to last a lifetime and backs that up without hassle or BS.

Positives

  • Handmade from thick, supple leather
  • Excellent Old World craftsmanship & functionality
  • Comfortable to carry from meeting to meeting
  • Captures your thoughts, ideas, notes, todos, etc.
  • Great warranty

Negatives

  • Expensive

Final thoughts

As I have gotten older my memory has gone to cr@p, so I have been haphazardly writing things down more and taking better notes when I think to do so. Though I typically do this on scrap paper and old business cards I find in my wallet, most of which I sadly misplace or worse yet, loose. I hate to say it, I need to be more diligent and systematic about upping my game on this front. The Colonel’s No. 30 leather composition journal is an excellent and stylish was to make that happen.

Price: $137.50
Where to buy: Colonel Littleton.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Colonel Littleton.

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Colonel Littleton No. 30 Leather Composition Journal review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 28, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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