Home 2018

Thanks to Adorama, now’s the time to add to or update your camera equipment

NEWS – Summer seems to be a popular time for taking photos.  People are taking vacations, attending sporting events, picnics, and these are all great photo opportunities.  They are also opportunities to discover the gaps in your set of lenses and the shortcomings of the gear you already have.  Adorama is offering great summer specials, trade-in offers, and rebates now, so you can afford the better Sony, Canon, Olympus, and Panasonic equipment you need.

Sony trade-in bonuses and lens sale.  Get up to $300 trade-in bonus, plus new Sony lens rebates
Sony Semi-Annual Lens and Accessories Sale.  | Expires 09/08
Trade in Bonus Special!  | Expires 09/08
Sony A7R3 – $300 Trade-in bonus
Sony A9 – $300 Trade-in bonus
Sony A7R2 – $200 Trade-in bonus
Sony A7S2 – $200 Trade-in bonus

Olympus Late Summer Savings – Expires 09/01
Save Up to $150 Instant Rebates on Digital M. Zuiko Lenses 

Panasonic 
$300 Instant Rebate on Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Camera 

Canon
Canon Summer Specials have been extended:

Special buyback offer on select Canon Cameras. Set up a Trade

  • Canon EOS 6D Digital Camera (Body Only) – $450
  • Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens  – Trade in price $1000
  • Canon 16-35 f/2.8L EF “II” USM Autofocus Lens  – Trade in price $600
  • Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L “II” USM Zoom Lens  – Trade in price $900

Click the links above to learn more about these deals and rebates.

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Thanks to Adorama, now’s the time to add to or update your camera equipment originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2018 at 5:30 pm.

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Seabird 4K camera, Ti toothpick, Soundflux earbuds, and more – Notable crowdfunding campaigns

NEWS – This week we are bringing you info about four different crowdfunding campaigns that are currently running on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. This week’s campaigns are for people who are interested in photography, videography, music, and more.

Pick-iTi – Reversible Fully Titanium Toothpick

What is it?

The Pick-iTi is an EDC toothpick that is made of grade 5 Titanium and features a reversible design and a built-in bottle opener.

Why is it cool?

I like the Pick-iTi because it’s designed to last forever. Instead of using wooden toothpicks that can break or splinter, this one will retain its shape and strength so you’ll always have a toothpick ready to remove that speck of broccoli from between your teeth.

Where can I find more info?

The Pick-iTi campaign ends on 8/31/18 and they are still working towards their funding goal of $3,237. You can pre-order a Pick-iTi starting at $19. After the Pick-iTi campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in December 2018. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

Seabird -The Most Affordable True 4K Action Camera

What is it?

Seabird is a 4K video / 13MP image resolution action camera like a GoPro but at a quarter of the price.

Why is it cool?

I like that the Seabird action camera can record 4K video @30fps, has a 2-inch touchscreen, and a battery that allows for 90min continuous recording before it needs to be recharged.

Where can I find more info?

The Seabird campaign ends in a month and they have already passed their funding goal of $6,000. You can pre-order a Seabird camera starting at $89. After the Seabird campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in September 2018. Visit their Indiegogo page for all the details.

Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe Lens

What is it?

The Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe Lens from Venus Optics is a unique lens for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony FE, Pentax, and Arri PL mounts DSLR cameras that has been designed for macro photography enthusiasts. With this lens, you can get up close and personal to your subject while you and the camera itself are farther away.

Why is it cool?

I like the Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe Lens because it is so different than any lens I’ve seen before. The unique tubular barrel of the lens allows you to get into places where a traditional macro lens would be inaccessible. It can be used to take pics up to 2cm from the subject and you can take really interesting video with it too.

Things to consider before pledging

The lens is very expensive!

Where can I find more info?

The Laowa campaign ends on 8/31/18 and they have already met their funding goal of $9,999. You can pre-order a Laowa starting at $1399. After the Laowa campaign ends, rewards are estimated to start shipping in October 2018. Visit their Kickstarter page for all the details.

SoundFlux – Incredible Sound and Advanced Features

blurb by Julian Perry

What is it?

The SoundFlux by KNZ Technology earbuds claims to be the world’s first dual driver wireless earbuds, with 2 6mm drivers in each earbud.

Why do I like it?

The SoundFlux by KNZ Technology earbuds seem to be truly innovative earbuds that have listed specifications that should definitively provide a product that meets many of the features that demanding listeners want. They include features like stereo phone calls, dual-mic noise cancellation, waterproofing, an extended wireless range of 60 feet, the ability to adjust equalizer setting directly from the earbuds, and lots more

Where can I find more info?

The SoundFlux by KNZ Technology earbuds campaign has raised 2744% of their intended $10,000 goal surpassed with 2 days left in the campaign. You can back/pre-order the earbuds for $69 US. They have an estimated delivery date of September 2018. Visit their Indiegogo page for all the details.

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Seabird 4K camera, Ti toothpick, Soundflux earbuds, and more – Notable crowdfunding campaigns originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2018 at 12:24 pm.

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6 Smart gadgets that make moving or remodeling easier

ARTICLE – Moving to a new place or remodeling your home are two substantial life milestones. They’re usually things you anticipate happily, although some aspects could be stressful.

This list of six gadgets could help you take moving and remodeling in stride.

1. The Roomba 600 Series Vacuuming Robot

A new home is likely virtually free of dust and dirt when you walk into it on moving day, but it probably won’t stay that way as people bring boxes in, plus the mud that could get tracked in on their shoes if it’s raining. A Roomba 600 Series vacuuming robot is an excellent solution for keeping your place tidy as you settle into it.

It’s also indispensable if you’re remodeling and notice traces of sawdust or other debris that can accumulate after contractors leave for the day. The Roomba models have two brushes underneath, whereas most other robotic vacuums only have one. It gets rid of dirt and prevents you from the tiresome chore of cleaning the floors independently. (Starting at $299.99 on Amazon)

2. The Kyon Pet Tracker

One difficult thing about either moving to a different place or changing something about your current home is you can’t fully communicate what’s going on to your pet. A soothing tone helps, but a dog or cat still might get upset and decide to venture away from home.

In those cases, the Kyon pet tracker gives you GPS details to tell you where your companion animal went. It looks and feels like a standard collar, but features a light-up component that shows people “I am lost” in case they find the animal wandering around somewhere.

There’s also Kyon Sense, which uses algorithms to attempt to determine how your pet feels. If the accompanying app indicates your pet isn’t very active or feels moody, you might need to take extra steps to protect it from the upheaval caused by moving or updating your abode.

You can preorder the Kyon now. The anticipated first deliveries will happen in the third quarter of 2018. ($299.99)

3. The Pixie Item Tracker

Keeping track of your pet during and after a move is undoubtedly important, but what about keeping an eye on the box of things you can’t do without during the first 24 hours in a new location? One of the mistakes people make while moving is not packing a box of essentials. Of course, if you misplace it, it won’t do you much good, either.

The Pixie item tracker prevents you from losing the things that matter most to you. You put trackers called Pixie Points on each item you want to track, plus your iPhone.

Then, all the Pixie Points talk to each other and provide item location data that’s so specific, it shows an item’s location within inches. That capability is especially helpful if you’re standing in a room full of boxes and can’t remember which one has your essentials. ($19.99 for a pack of two on Amazon)

4. The Swatches Color-Picking App

The world is full of colors, and many might seem perfect for a remodeling project on the horizon. Swatches is an iOS app that works with your phone’s camera. Point it at any color that strikes your fancy, then immediately get the details about that particular hue — including Benjamin Moore, RGB and Pantone color specifics —  you can use when finding similar or exact paint or fabric.  Group the shades into palettes or share them with friends, too. (Free)

5. The Nest Protect Smoke Alarm

When researching gadgets to help with your move, don’t forget about the things that’ll help you feel at ease long after you get acquainted with your new abode. The Nest Protect smoke alarm is a great example. It screens your house for signs of both slow- and fast-moving fires. Then, you get alerts on your smartphone. In the case of a false alarm, use your phone to shut off the alert.

Moreover, the smoke alarm gives a vocal alert by speaking to you and providing early warnings. For example, it could tell you there’s smoke in the kitchen, letting you deal with a piece of burnt toast. Due to the gadget’s custom algorithms and humidity sensor, it won’t go off when you’re showering. ($127 on Amazon)

6. The Sense Home Energy Monitor

One of the most common unknown factors about moving is the cost of your first electricity bill. You could also deal with that mystery after a remodeling project, especially if it involves an addition or more lighting.

Sense is a home energy monitor that installs on your home’s electrical panel. The corresponding smartphone apps provide insights about energy usage and activity levels. It also tells you which appliances use the most energy. If it turns out your old microwave is an energy hog, for example, it might be time to treat yourself to a newer, energy-efficient model that doubles as a housewarming gift.

Because Sense offers in-the-moment statistics about energy usage, you don’t have to wait until your first bill arrives to keep tabs on things that could make your monthly utility expenses manageable immediately after you move and long afterward. ($299 on Amazon)

Stress Less During and After Your Move and Remodeling Project

It’s normal to feel a bit anxious if you’re moving or remodeling your house.

These high-tech gadgets could keep your nerves at bay and promote excitement during the process — plus, let you enjoy life more after the milestone happens.

Image by bruce mars

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6 Smart gadgets that make moving or remodeling easier originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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VIZIO M-Series (M65-F0) 4K HDR Smart TV review

REVIEW – I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a couch potato and next to my smartphone and MacBook, my wall-mounted TV is my most used “gadget”. Jeanne and I enjoy keeping up with our favorite TV shows and every weekend it’s our habit to make popcorn and watch several movies. Since we spend a lot of time in front of a TV, we both appreciate picture quality and special features that make TV time as enjoyable as possible. Today I want to share my review of the VIZIO M65-F0 4K HDR Smart TV which was provided by VIZIO for free in exchange for posting this review. Let’s get started.

What is it?

The VIZIO M65-F0 4K HDR Smart TV is a 65 inch TV that has smart features like a built-in Chromecast and various streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, and more.

What’s in the box

VIZIO M65-F0 4K HDR Smart TV
Set of feet for table mounting the TV
Power cable
Remote control

Hardware specs

Class Size: 65″
Screen Size (Diag.): 64.50″ / 1638.30 mm
Panel Type: VA
Smart Platform: VIZIO SmartCast™ with Chromecast built-in
High Dynamic Range: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
Resolution: Ultra HD – 3840 x 2160
UHD Upscale Engine: Spacial Scaling Engine™
Display Processor: V8 Octa-Core Processor
Backlight Type: Full Array LED
Local Dimming Zones: 40
Clear Action™: 360
Effective Refresh Rate: 120Hz
Active Pixel Tuning™: Yes
Dynamic Contrast Ratio: 20M:1
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Viewable Angle (H/V): 178° /178°
Number of Colors: 1.07Billion
Built-in Wi-Fi: 802.11ac Dual Band
UHD Codec Support: VP9 and HEVC (H.265)
HDMI Ports: 4 (1 side / 3 bottom)
Component: 1 (side/shared with Composite)
Ethernet: 1 (bottom)
USB Ports: 1 (side)
TV Tuner: Yes
ARC: Yes
Speakers/Power Output: 15W x 2
Analog Audio Out: 1 (bottom)
Digital Audio Out (SPDIF): 1 (bottom)

Design and features

When it comes to the way the VIZIO M65-F0 looks, it is pretty much perfect in my opinion because it’s all screen. No gaudy chrome accents or huge bezels, just a big gorgeous display with thin bezels that you barely notice and a tiny status LED in the lower left corner.

I said that the VIZIO has thin bezels and I meant it. The sides and top bezels are only about a 1/8 of an inch wide and the bottom bezel with the VIZIO logo in the bottom right corner is only about half an inch wide. This TV has the thinnest bezels I’ve ever seen. They are almost non-existent.

The back of the Vizio M65-F0 TV has a black plastic panel with the AV inputs arranged in a recessed L shaped layout on the left bottom edge and a physical power button and volume buttons on the same side.

The side of the input panel has a USB port, component connections, and an HDMI port.

The bottom part of the input panel has 3 more HDMI ports (one with ARC), an optical audio out, audio out Left & Right, and an Ethernet port. But don’t worry, the set also has built-in WiFi so there’s no need to hardwire it into your network. The VIZIO M65-F0 also has a coax connector for an antenna and it has a built-in tuner. So you can cut the cord, hook up an OTA antenna and enjoy free content.

On the right side of the TV is the power port.

The port is recessed which is helpful if you plan to mount your TV on a wall like I do.

The VIZIO comes with a set of legs/feet if you want to use it on a table, but I don’t have a separate cabinet or entertainment system. I mount my TVs on the wall to get that home theater look and feel.

Installation

I was pretty excited when I first saw the back of the VIZIO with the VESA mount screws. Yes, I know that this it’s not unusual for TVs to have a VESA mount on the back. But upon first glance, I thought the screws in the back of the TV were the mounting screws.

I started to give kudos to VIZIO because I thought that they were nice enough to include screws for wall mounting. That’s until I removed them and realized they were just useless short place holder screws. Bummer! I was lucky that the screws in my previous TV were the same size/length needed for the Vizio but why can’t TV makers include the screws? I doubt that it would add more than a $1 to the price.

Here we see the M65-F0 mounted on the wall and ready for movie night!

Setting up the VIZIO M65-F0

It took only a few minutes to set up the VIZIO once it was mounted on my wall and connected to my Onkyo TX-SR608 AV receiver via an HDMI cable connected to the HDMI/ARC port on the back of the Vizio and a DirecTV receiver connected to the Onkyo.

The included remote has a good layout and includes dedicated buttons to launch the SmartCast menu and for the built-in SmartCast apps for VUDU, Netflix, Amazon, XUMO, Crackle, and iHeart Radio.

One cool thing about the VIZIO is that you can control it using your voice control from Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. I don’t currently have an Amazon Echo or a Google Home to test it but according to what I’ve read you can use your voice to power the set on or off, adjust volume, and other basic commands. I can see this as a useful feature if you are a true couch potato and are eating in front of the TV and don’t want to use your greasy fingers to change the volume using the remote when you can just use your voice.

During setup, you’re prompted connect the TV to your wireless network so it can install any needed firmware updates. From there you can explore the menus that will let you customize the settings which you will definitely want to do because the default picture color settings out of the box didn’t impress me.

The M65-F0 has 6 picture modes to choose from: Standard, Calibrated, Calibrated Dark, Vivid, Game, and Computer. All of the modes except for Vivid looked washed and blah to me while the Vivid mode made people’s faces look too red or orange. I was a little worried by this during the beginning stages of my testing, but after some tweaks to the color settings, I got everything dialed in and looking great to my eyes. The TV has 6 custom memories to use for your own adjustments and you can save them with your own custom name like “Julie’s Daytime Settings; etc…”.

Blacks and whites on this set are deeper with more levels and the whites are brighter than my previous TVs which is a good thing but sometimes the whites are almost too bright which is where the Calibrated Dark mode is useful. Especially if you like to watch TV in the dark.

I do most of my TV watching through DirecTV, which isn’t exactly a great source of UHD programming to highlight the strengths of this set.

That said, DirecTV HD content looks sharp and the colors are vibrant. The M65-F0 has pretty good viewing angles too. You’re going to want to be directly in front of the screen for optimal sharpness and color, but off angle isn’t too bad.

If you’re a cord cutter, you’ll love the VIZIO M65-F0’s SmartCast features. You might remember that I reviewed the Vizio M50-D1 back in 2016. That set came with a 6-inch Android tablet that could be used as the TV remote and a SmartCast app device. This 2018 VIZIO set doesn’t come with a tablet, but you don’t need one because it has the apps right on the TV or you can use your smartphone with the SmartCast app.

The SmartCast apps on the TV allow you to connect to your Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, YouTube, and other streaming services including VIZIO’s own WatchFree free content app that makes cord cutting a breeze. But the built-in apps don’t include some big names like HBO, DirecTV Now, ESPN, etc and from what I can tell, there’s no way to add them at this time. But, firmware updates might change that at some point. But it’s not a big deal since you can use the SmartCast app on your phone or tablet with any Chromecast-enabled app like HBO Go, DirecTV Now, and many more.

VIZIO’s SmartCast app is cool because it offers a bunch of apps all in one place, provides content recommendations and will let you search across apps so that you don’t have to search from them individually. But you can still go to other apps like Netflix, or HBO Go, or Vudu directly to find content.

One of my favorite features of this VIZIO TV is the built-in Chromecast which allows me to unplug the 2nd generation Chromecast that has been hanging off my AV receiver for the past year.

I love Chromecast and do a lot of content casting mainly from the Netflix app from my Pixel 2 XL. Using the VIZIO’s built-in Chromecast works exactly like the regular Chromecast I was using, so there was no learning curve. It just works. Actually, it works BETTER than the Chromecast that I was using before because the VIZIO’s built-in Chromecast is like a Chromecast Ultra which can stream UHD with HDR content from apps that support it.

During my testing of this TV, I’ve used it to watch content from DirecTV, BluRay DVDs, Netflix, Hulu, and VUDU through the built-in SmartCast apps and from my phone. The UHD content looks fantastic to my eyes even though my Onkyo AV receiver is around 8 years old and doesn’t support 4K or UHD. It does have a passthrough feature which is what I used.

I do plan to upgrade my AV receiver in the next couple of weeks and will update this review if I notice any big changes to the picture quality. I am looking forward to updating the receiver because the VIZIO was unable to use HDMI CEC feature to automatically power on/off the AV receiver and switch inputs as needed for audio. So until I update, I’m back to using 2 remotes. One for the TV/DirecTV and one for the AV receiver. This is a little annoying but it’s obviously not a deal breaker because this TV is a nice improvement over the one I was using.

What I like

  • Gorgeous picture
  • Almost no bezels
  • Built-in Chromcast
  • Built-in tuner
  • Voice controllable via Alexia or Google assistant

What needs to be improved

  • Screws included in the VESA mounts are useless
  • HDMI CEC wouldn’t work with my Onkyo AV receiver

Final thoughts

If you’re shopping for a new 4K UHD TV, the VIZIO M-Series (M65-F0) 4K HDR Smart TV will not disappoint with its rich blacks, bright whites, vibrant color, and sharp picture. It’s enjoyable to watch all my favorite shows and movies on this set and it’s earned a well-deserved place on my wall.

Price: $999.99
Where to buy: Best Buy, Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by VIZIO.

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VIZIO M-Series (M65-F0) 4K HDR Smart TV review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Photojojo Shutter Remote works with Apple and Android devices

NEWS – Photojojo’s Shutter Remote works with most every mobile device’s camera – Android or Apple.  Pair the remote to your mobile device via Bluetooth, and you’re ready to take candid photos or group shots from up to 30 feet away from the phone or tablet.  You can also use it to start/stop video recording.  There won’t be any blur or out-of-focus shots caused by shaking the camera while pressing the shutter, either.

The Shutter Remote is $25.00 at Photojojo.

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Photojojo Shutter Remote works with Apple and Android devices originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 8, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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