Home 2018 August

Learn calligraphy or take your lettering to a new level with the Ensō Parallel Pen set from Pilot

NEWS – If you’ve ever wanted to learn calligraphy, the Ensō Parallel Pen Set from Pilot can help you on your way.  Pilot says these pens are a major breakthrough in calligraphic pen design:  “The nib consists of two parallel plates and allows for sharp, monoline writing with the narrow edge, and expressive, calligraphic writing with the broad edge.”  Ensō Parallel nibs also allow you to easily draw color-blended letters by simply touching the nib of a pen filled with one color to the nib of a pen filled with another color.

The Parallel Pen set consists of four pens with 1.5 mm, 2.4 mm, 3.8 mm, and 6.0 mm nibs; 18 refill ink cartridges (12 assorted colors and 6 black); a pipette; a nib cleaner; and an instruction book to get you started.  Check out Pilot’s product page to see examples of hand lettering done by some of their customers.

The Ensō Parallel Pen Set is $47.08 at Pilot.  The same kit is available at Amazon for only $28.49.

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Learn calligraphy or take your lettering to a new level with the Ensō Parallel Pen set from Pilot originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 26, 2018 at 8:10 am.

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Sonos Play:5 speaker, Brooks England backpack, Rowkin Micro Touch earbuds, and more – Weekly roundup

We posted 12 reviews, 1 article, and 19 news posts this week including a post about the Satechi Type-C gadget giveaway that ends tonight at midnight. To make sure you didn’ miss anything that you might be interested in, here’s a list of all our posts. Enjoy!

Articles

Bowers & Wilkins introduces an improved line of affordable speakers

Reviews

Moshi Tego Slingpack bag review

Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2 review

eMeet OfficeCore M2 conference speakerphone review

Brooks England Pitfield Backpack review

IOGEAR USB-C Travel Dock review

Zagg Nomad Book tablet case review

Pad & Quill Journal Notebook and Deluxe Leather Journal Cover review

ThiEYE T5 Edge Action Camera review

Rowkin Micro Touch wireless Bluetooth earbuds review

Turtle Beach Stealth 300 Headset review

CISNO Electric Portable Espresso Machine review

Sonos PLAY:5 speaker review

News

Philips announces the new Hue Play light bar for your TV

KAMVAS Pro 22 pen display features battery-free pen

Take command of your coins

Add solar lighting to your house gutters with this set from Falove

Turn your MacBook charger into a Supercharger with the PlugBug Duo

Working out is more relaxing with these beer glass dumbbells

This bracelet is an undercover hair accessory

RHA has produced the CL2 … the world’s first and smallest wireless planar magnetic in-ear headphone

Satechi Type-C gadget giveaway!

The Gaston Floating Secretary Desk gives you an office even when you have no room for one

Find inner peace with this Buddha ice cube mold

The Monet grip adds 3-in-1 functionality to your smartphone

WaterField’s Tech Pocket is for the minimalist who carries only a small amount of gear

Philips announces the Adore mirror with smart Hue lighting

Capture the perfect selfie of your furry friend

Save the world, one meal at a time, starting in your kitchen

The SOUNDBOKS 2 portable Bluetooth speaker’s 122 dB will blow you away

The Buca Boot adds storage to your bicycle

Replace your clunky wooden cutting board with the woodNflex flexible cutting board

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Sonos Play:5 speaker, Brooks England backpack, Rowkin Micro Touch earbuds, and more – Weekly roundup originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2018 at 4:40 pm.

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Moshi Tego Slingpack bag review

REVIEW – Messenger style bags are my favorite type of gear bags. I sometimes think I want to try switching to a backpack, but as soon as I do, I go right back to a messenger bag. I like them because they have one strap that you can wear cross body and they typically have a large flap that you can flop back for full access to all the stuff inside. But what about when I want to travel light and don’t want a full-sized messenger bag hanging off my back? For those times, I’m trying to find something smaller like the Moshi Tego Slingpack. Let’s check it out.

What is it?

The Moshi Tego Slingpack is basically a miniature (12.8″ x 3.54″ x 9.45″ (32.5 x 9 x 24 cm)) messenger bag that is available in 3 colors including the stone grey version that was sent to me.

Design and features

The Slingpack is small. Much smaller than my everyday messenger bag. But the Slingpack isn’t designed to hold a lot of gear, it’s designed to allow you to carry just the essentials.

It’s made of a weather-resistant material that is cut resistant and has a 3M Scotchlite reflective strip so people can see you at night.

The front of the bag has a small metal Moshi badge on one corner but that’s all. There aren’t any zippers on the front because the bag has been designed to be theft resistant.

The zippers are located on the airmesh padded back side of the Slingpack which will be against your body when you’re wearing it.

There are two sets of zippers. There are dual zippers that open the main compartment and there’s another zipper which provides access to a flat RFID protected pocket that you can use to hold your wallet or credit cards.

I immediately had a problem with the Moshi Tego Slingpack when I tried to unzip the main compartment. Although there are two zippers with handy pull loops, pulling the zippers around the corners of the bag is awkward and close to impossible while wearing the bag and it doesn’t seem much easier if you take the bag off to unzip it. I tried pulling and twisting the zipper in different ways but no matter what I tried, unzipping around the corners is not quick and not easy.

Once you are able to fully unzip the main compartment, you’ll be greeted with a deceptively small but roomy storage area with two organization pockets on the back wall of the bag.

The pockets are sized to be able to hold a phone, wallet, etc. Shown in the image above, I have a Waterfield Design Finn Access wallet in the left pocket and a Pixel 2 XL smartphone in the right pocket.

The other zippered pocket on the back of the Slingpack is RFID protected, so it’s handy for storing your wallet or passport so people can’t steal your info.

To give you an idea of what this bag can hold, here’s a picture of what I’ve been carrying in it while I’ve been testing it. This little bag can hold quite a bit of gear.

From left to right: Mentos fruit candies, short USB-C charging cable, Cummins badge, X47 journal, Big Idea Design TI Pocket Pro pen, MINI Cooper car fob, Identity wallet, Dunu Titan-1 earphones, Carmex lip balm, Leatherman Micra user guide, Leatherman Micra, Leatherman Squirt, Photon X-Light Micro LED flashlight, Lexar USB flash drive, and a Waterfield Design Finn Access wallet. Not pictured is my Pixel 2 XL.

If you have an 8-inch or smaller tablet, Moshi says that it will fit in the Slingpack. I don’t have a tablet that small so I wasn’t able to test this claim.

The Moshi Tego Slingpack is designed to be worn crossbody style like you can see above. To give you an idea of the size of the bag vs. my size. I’m 5 foot 6 inches and weight about 129 lbs.

The adjustable seatbelt style shoulder strap is comfortable and features a quick release system that makes it easy to loosen and tighten with just one hand. Note that the bag is configured to be worn across your left shoulder and can’t be switched.

There’s also an ActiveStrap that can be used to provide extra stability if you wear the bag while riding a bike and don’t want it to shift around. Note that the ActiveStrap can be removed if you don’t want or need to use it.

What I like

  • Attractive and compact
  • Comfortable to wear
  • Despite the small size, it can hold a lot of gear
  • RFID pocket

What needs to be improved

  • Zippers to the main compartment are difficult to fully unzip

Final thoughts

The Moshi Tego Slingpack is well made and looks great. If it wasn’t for the awkwardness of the zippers for the main compartment, I’d say that it is a great little crossbody style bag. But the zipper problem pretty much killed it for me. If I can’t quickly get to the contents in my bag then I’m not going to use the bag.

Price: $119.95 MSRP
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Moshi.

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Moshi Tego Slingpack bag review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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Philips announces the new Hue Play light bar for your TV

NEWS – Philips latest smart lighting product is the Play light bar.  You choose from 16 million colors to enhance the atmosphere of your room.  The light bar integrates into your existing Hue lighting and pairs with your Hue bridge.  It can then be controlled by the Hue app or by the variety of 3rd party apps for the Hue lighting system.  It also can be controlled by Hue switches or with Amazon Alexa, Apple Homekit, and Google Home, which allow you to control your lights with your voice.  You can also set timers, notifications, alarms, and sync it to music (using the Hue Sync app), and more, as you can with other Hue lights.

Play can be added to the back of your TV for backlighting using the included clips and double-sided tape.  Add the stand, and Play will stand on a table to serve as an accent light.  Or you can lay it on the floor to wash a wall with color.  It can even be used as under-cabinet lighting for kitchen counters.  Up to three Play light bars can be connected to a single power supply.

 

Philips Hue Play will be available with a single light bar for $69.95 or with two light bars for $129.95.  A separate light bar will be available to expand the kit to the maximum three bars.  Shipping is expected in October.  Learn more at Philips.

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Philips announces the new Hue Play light bar for your TV originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2 review

REVIEW – As newer laptops become thinner and more portable, they have fewer and fewer ports available. As a result, users have to purchase USB hubs to provide the missing necessary ports. My Lenovo Yoga 730 only has two USB Type-C ports (Thunderbolt 3), one USB 3.0 Type-A port, and a 3.5 mm audio input/output jack which means that I really need more ports. I had decided that I wanted a USB hub that has at least two USB Type-A ports, an Ethernet port, microSD and SD card slots, an HDMI port, and a USB Type-C port. Thankfully Satechi makes an adapter that has all that I was looking for.

I was sent the Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2 to review. It has three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a 4K HDMI port, an Ethernet port, SD and microSD card slots, and a USB Type-C port which provides pass-through charging and will output up to 49W. I found that all the ports worked well but that the three USB Type-A ports were a little too close together to accommodate three different shaped USB flash drives simultaneously. In addition, it’s expensive.

What is it?

The Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2 is a device that when plugged into your laptop’s USB Type-C port, provides you with three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a 4K HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a USB Type-C port, and an SD and microSD card slots.

What’s in the box?

The only thing in the box was the adapter with its built-in USB Type-C cable. There was no information provided.

Design and features

I received the silver Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2. The outer portion of the adapter is made of a matte aluminum. The adapter also has a built-in 6″ USB Type-C cable (measurement includes connector). The Satechi brand name is also displayed on the top of the device.

One side of the adapter has a tiny LED status light that glows blue to indicate when the adapter is plugged in. The microSD and SD card slots are also located on this side.

As the above photo shows, the Satechi adapter tapers from one long edge to another, thus making it a little more portable. The end of the adapter shown above has an Ethernet port and USB Type-C port, thus, the adapter replaces the USB Type-C port that it uses when plugged into your laptop. The adapter’s USB Type-C port will allow you to charge your devices (up to 49W) or allow you to charge your laptop.

The other side of the adapter has a 4K HDMI port and three USB 3.0 Type-A ports.

The length of the entire adapter is a little over 10″ long when including the built-in cable.

And it is only a little over 0.5″ thick and is thus very portable.

Use

I plugged the Satechi adapter into my Lenovo Yoga 730 laptop and was able to successfully use all of the ports simultaneously.

As shown in the photo above, I have plugged in the following (starting at the top right of the adapter and continuing counterclockwise): my TV using an HDMI cable, a USB mouse dongle, my camera using a micro-USB cable, a USB flash drive, an Ethernet cable, my laptop’s USB Type-C power cable, a microSD card, and an SD card. Notice how the SD card sticks out a great deal. When inserting this storage device, you only need to slide it into the adapter until it stops to seat it properly.

Each of the windows displayed on my laptop’s screen (and my TV) shows the photo stored on my camera, the music playing on my USB flash drive, the photos stored on my microSD and SD cards and the web page I pulled up using the Ethernet connection.

Using this adapter, I was also able to do things like easily transfer data from our larger external hard drive to our smaller portable hard drive as shown above. I had no problems doing this, nor did I have any problems transferring data between any of my portable storage devices or from my laptop to any of the storage devices using the USB Type-A ports and microSD and SD card slots. I also didn’t have any difficulties charging devices (or my laptop) using the USB ports, connecting to external monitors using the HDMI port, or using the Ethernet connection.

There was one thing that I noticed while using the adapter. Actively using some or all of the ports causes it to run a little warm. Satechi states that the operating temperature of the device is 86-122 degrees Fahrenheit, so apparently, this is normal.

My only complaints about the adapter are that it is expensive ($79.99), the USB 3.0 Type-A ports are too close together to accommodate anything other than physically small squared-off USB flash drives or cables, and in order to properly insert the microSD card, I needed to use my fingernail to push it far enough into the slot to get it to click into place. When inserted, the card sits flush with the adapter. And last, in the process of inserting or extracting the microSD card, sometimes the card would unexpectedly shoot out of the adapter if my fingernail slipped off of the card. *PEW* Whoa, look out! Where’d it go?!? This tiny projectile proved to be difficult to find a couple of times!

What I like

  • My laptop now has lots of ports available (3 USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a 4K HDMI port, an Ethernet port, a USB Type-C port, microSD and SD card slots) to accommodate my needs

What needs to be improved

  • Satechi should increase the spacing between the USB 3.0 Type-A ports
  • Inserting the microSD card is a bit of a challenge unless you have long enough fingernails
  • It’s expensive!

Final thoughts

I really love having the Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2. It drastically increases the number of ports on my laptop and allows me to transfer and access data on my USB flash drives and microSD and SD cards. It also allows me to connect my laptop to a monitor or TV, my camera, or accessories that require a USB dongle.

The adapter’s drawbacks are that the USB 3.0 Type-A ports are too close together to accommodate physically large non-square USB flash drives, inserting the microSD card requires you to use a fingernail, and the adapter is quite expensive.

Price: $79.99 – $89.99
Where to buy: Satechi and Amazon
Source: The sample used in this review was provided by Satechi.

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Satechi Type-C Multi-port Adapter 4K with Ethernet V2 review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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