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Adjust the angle of your Ring doorbell for a perfect view of who’s at the door

The placement of a doorbell usually doesn’t matter when it’s a regular doorbell.  But when you replace the old model with a video doorbell, the placement determines when and how well you can see people approaching your door.  Using the Homono Adjustable Angle Mount with the Ring video doorbell, you’ll be able to fine-tune the orientation of the doorbell to see people as they approach and as they stand at the door.

I just got a Ring 2 doorbell, and I ordered the Homono mount with it.  My doorway is at the end of a long, straight hallway, so I’d see – and probably be alerted to – everyone who gets on or off the elevator on my floor.  And because my doorbell is placed far to the side of my door, I wouldn’t be able to see the face of my visitor unless he moved to stand in front of the doorbell itself.  With the Homono mount, I should be able to angle the Ring so it doesn’t see the elevator doors and has a better view of someone standing at my door.

Homono makes mounts in black or white and sized to fit the original Ring, Ring 2, and the Ring Pro doorbells.  The Homono Adjustable Angle Mount for Ring doorbells start at $16.00 at Amazon.

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Adjust the angle of your Ring doorbell for a perfect view of who’s at the door originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 13, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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Showers Pass Trailhead Bamboo-Merino Hoodie review

Portland, Oregon based Showers Pass is a small company who make active apparel for people who like to hike, bike and enjoy the outdoors in clothing that will keep them dry and warm without a lot of bulk. They asked if I would like to take a look at their Trailhead Bamboo-Merino Hoodie which I’ve been enjoying for a couple weeks. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The Trailhead Bamboo-Merino Hoodie from Showers Pass is a lightweight long sleeved base layer top that is made of 50/50 bamboo and Merino wool and is available in both men and women’s sizes and styles.

Design and features

When Showers Pass first asked me to choose a color and size, I asked for the small men’s Trailhead hoodie because I liked the quarter zip on the front vs. the women’s version that didn’t have a zipper. Mainly, I just didn’t want to mess up my hair putting on and taking off the shirt 😉

They obliged and sent the men’s version of the hoodie in small, which swallowed me up because it was too large. But it did give me a chance to photograph it before I returned it to swap with a women’s small version of the hoodie.

The men’s version has a zip front, a drawstring hood, a thin stripe on the sleeves and hood, and zip kangaroo pockets.

The women’s version shown above is similar but has two stripes on the hood, stripes on the shoulder, and zippered kangaroo pockets on the front.

A kangaroo pocket is a pocket is one large pocket across the front of the shirt. If you put both hands in the pockets, you can touch your hands together.

There’s also a pocket on the back right hip that I didn’t even know was there until I was checking product details about the hoodie on the Showers Pass site. This pocket is large enough for a small wallet or your smartphone.

The sleeves of the Trailhead hoodie have cuffs, but the waistband of the hoodie does not, which is fine by me because I don’t like waistbands on my shirts.

The tail of the shirt is slightly longer than the front edge which keeps air from blowing up your back if you have to bend over.


I have some Merino wool socks, but I’ve never had a shirt or other garment made of this material and have never had any type of clothing made of bamboo. So I was pretty curious about how it would feel. I thought it might be scratchy like other wool clothing I’ve worn in the past, but I was completely wrong about that. The 50/50 combination of Merino wool and bamboo is soft and silky with a wonderful cool to the touch feel to it.

This material will keep you warm and is moisture wicking. Merino wool is known for breathability and odor control. I’ve been wearing the hoodie off and on for a couple weeks and it smells that same as it did when I unboxed it.

Here I am wearing the women’s Trailhead hoodie in small. I’m 5’6″ and weigh 130lbs. The hoodie fits me perfectly. It’s not too tight or too baggie and it’s so comfortable that I’d like to sleep in it.

I doubt I’d ever use the kangaroo pockets, but the thin zippers zip up the pockets to hide them from view.

I’m not really a hood on my shirt kinda girl, but the hood on the Trailhead hoodie is not bulky and doesn’t get in the way. It will even fit under a bike helmet and the shirt/hoodie provides UPF 50+ protection from the sun while you’re wearing it.

What I like

  • Very comfortable
  • Natural fibers are moisture wicking and odor repellant
  • Large kangaroo pocket and small hidden pocket on the back

What needs to be improved

  • Pricey

Final thoughts

Before doing this review, I hadn’t heard of Showers Pass or their Merino wool and Bamboo apparel. Now that I have tested and worn their Trailhead Hoodie, I’m a fan of this material combination and their products. The hoodie is well made and comfortable to wear. If the price doesn’t frighten you away, it’s definitely one of those “you get what you pay for” type of products. At least that’s how I see it now. I’ll have to see how it holds up as time passes.

Price: $129.00
Where to buy: Showers Pass
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Showers Pass.

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Showers Pass Trailhead Bamboo-Merino Hoodie review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2018 at 5:03 pm.

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IQAir AirVisual Pro Air Quality Monitor review

I live in Florida, the land of perpetual pollen, in an older home in the woods. And I have asthma. Those three strikes mean it can be difficult to enjoy the outdoors. But what about the indoors?

My husband, Bill “Mr. Headphones” Henderson, recommended I try the AirVisual Pro by IQAir to help me monitor our indoor and outdoor air quality index (AQI) in hopes we could identify necessary improvements to our indoor AQI and I would know when to avoid the outdoors.

What is it?

The AirVisual Pro by IQAir is a visual monitor of indoor and outdoor air quality. Plus, it displays the air quality from anywhere in the world that has monitoring stations. You can also register your monitor as a designated public station.

Design and features

My unit, which retails for $269 plus shipping, arrived in late January and was easy enough to set up. Able to run on electricity or battery power, the small unit has a distinct Jetsons vibe to it. It immediately detected my location and linked me to an outdoor testing site. The home screen would display my indoor AQI – which was well within the green, or good, zone but with a higher-than-desirable CO2 level – next to our outdoor AQI.

 

AQI is broken into several categories: good, from 0 to 50; moderate, from 51 to 100; unhealthy for sensitive groups (people with respiratory or heart disease, children and the elderly), 101-150; unhealthy, 151-200; very unhealthy, 201-300; and hazardous, 301 and higher.

The AirVisual Pro also measures PM2.5, which the manual describes as “particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers of less. Due to its size, PM2.5 is considered the most hazardous pollutant to human health as it can be absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs.” We had an initial PM2.5 that was quickly resolved, though I’m not sure how.

I also downloaded the app and linked it to my device using its serial number. The app allows me to see both my indoor and outdoor AQI, my indoor CO2 level and PM2.5, if applicable. It also shows me the air quality of some major U.S. cities.

Now to digress a bit. I also had recently received an Airfree Air Purifier to review. I placed that unit in our bedroom a few feet away from our bed. As a way to test the effectiveness of the Airfree unit, I placed my new AirVisual Pro on the other side of the room. The indoor AQI was 0, meaning the air in our bedroom was completely clean.

However, my AirVisual Pro warned me that outdoor air quality was poor and I should stay inside. So I decided to do an elliptical workout in lieu of going outside. The elliptical is also in the bedroom. With all my huffing and puffing, my workout bumped the CO2 level up about 300 points to 1471, causing the unit to suggest I open windows and doors to alleviate stuffiness. However, the outdoor air quality precluded that possibility. Using a ceiling fan didn’t nudge the CO2 reading a bit.

The next day, the indoor AQI was 35, which is still in the green, or good, range. Within a couple of days, I began to see a correlation between a higher indoor AQI and cooking fumes, but I hadn’t yet made that connection. So I decided to plug in my IQAir HealthPro Plus air purifier, which had been sitting idle in our family room. Also, within 45 minutes of plugging it in, the AQI in the master bedroom improved from 35 to 17.

It was a few days later that I actually connected the dots between cooking fumes and air quality. As my husband cooked bacon in the kitchen, two rooms away, our indoor AQI snuck up to 57, higher than the outside AQI. Obviously the machine doesn’t understand breathing bacon fumes cannot possibly be bad for you.

Two days later, the display inexplicably stopped showing the outside AQI when showing the inside AQI. In place of outside AQI, it displays the inside CO2 level. The manual indicated it was likely a wi-fi issue. However, the device itself and the app showed the AirVisual Pro was connected to the internet.

A couple of weeks later, when the display remained unchanged, I contacted the customer support team via email just to test the company’s responsiveness. The rep responded after a few days, suggesting something I had already tried. In the meantime, Mr. H was able to navigate the device’s menu, which has a bit of a learning curve, and he was able to restore and even improve the original display. Now one screen gives me the indoor and outdoor AQI, another gives me a three-day weather report, and a third gives me the CO2 level, which remains in the stuffy zone.

As Central Florida went immediately from winter to summer, it was time to turn on the air conditioning. The CO2 level was finally less than 1000, possibly from a whole day of AC. However, kitchen fumes from my dinner of oven-fried chicken, roasted asparagus, maple-glazed carrots and sautéed summer squash sent the indoor AQI soaring to 166. Again, the machine can’t distinguish between delicious and deadly. Once fumes dissipate, the AQI typically drops to 0.

I moved the unit to the family room – right next to the IQAir purifier and closer to the kitchen – for comparison’s sake. The indoor AQI remained at 0, and the CO2 count dropped to 570 – possibly from proximity to an exterior door that is often opened.

Because the outdoor AQI is still not displaying on the device, I refer to the app, which tells me the outdoor AQI is a low 41. However, this is the same day my state of Florida is called out for having the highest pollen count in the nation. This information is enough to inform this asthmatic to avoid being outside, though the app would have me believe otherwise.

A couple of days later, the app is telling me our local AQI is 30 – in other words, excellent for outdoor activities or opening doors and windows. However, the pollen count is still the highest in the nation, and I have to cover my nose and mouth when I’m outside because of smoke from a nearby wildfire. Obviously the reading station wasn’t getting accurate measures. So I ignored the recommendation on my unit to open doors and windows to alleviate stuffiness in our indoor air.

I even moved the device to a screened porch, which would result in outdoor AQI readings, so I could compare those readings with those of the local station. The readings from my back porch, which faces a couple of hundred trees, was a mere 13, compared with the local station reading of 30. Both are well within the green zone, though pollen levels remain high. I’m still confused by how outdoor AQI doesn’t reflect the high pollen counts.

What I like

The IQAir AirVisual Pro gives an accurate—and quick—reading of any changes in indoor air quality. It provides reassuring feeling knowing how good or bad our air quality is.

What needs to be improved

Outdoor readings are subject to monitoring stations which may not always be reliable.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I found the IQAir AirVisual Pro helpful in that it shows the Airfree and IQAir air purifiers are doing what they’re supposed to do. It also alerted me to the problem with our home’s high CO2 levels, a problem I still need to address. I suspect the outdoor AQI information will become more accurate as more testing stations become available and the technology evolves – especially if testing begins to take pollens into account.

Price: $269 US
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by IQAir.

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IQAir AirVisual Pro Air Quality Monitor review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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Take pics with your DSLR without touching the shutter button

There are several types of photography that I find very enjoyable. I love close-up macro photography and also outdoor photography when I can place my camera on a tripod somewhere in nature and capture amazing photographic moments.

When I first started this type of photography, I would either have my camera handheld or next to me on a tripod, and I would depress the shutter release button to take the picture. When taking macro shots, I quickly understood that no matter how steady I tried to be, depressing the shutter release would cause some vibration on the camera and distort the full clarity of the image, because of the impact the movement had on the focus. When shooting in nature, I would try to capture insects or other natural inhabitants, but my presence next to the camera would almost always scare away the subject.

I realized that I needed a remote shutter release so that I could be away from the camera or in the case of macro photography, I could avoid the vibration of the camera.

I purchased the Vello FreeWave Plus Wireless Remote Shutter release after researching the many available remote shutter devices. My decision was based on both cost and features.

The Vello Remote Shutter Release consists of 2 components, a transmitter, and a receiver. The Receiver connects to the camera via the Canon 3-pin connector and the Transmitter is the hand-held trigger that can send a signal to the Receiver from up to 100 meters away. I have never tried it from that far, but it works very well from all the distances I have tried. The Receiver and Transmitter each work on 2 AAA batteries and communicate via the 2.4Ghz frequency. In the event of any interference, they offer a selection of 16 channels to find the best signal.

If you would like to purchase the Vello FreeWave Plus Wireless Remote Shutter Release, it is available at B&H Photo Video and Amazon for select Canon, Sony, and Nikon cameras for $59.95.

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Take pics with your DSLR without touching the shutter button originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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Add the unique beauty of natural wood to your Apple Watch with Ottm’s Hardwood bands

 

In a world full of watch bands Ottm’s hardwood Apple Watch straps really stand out. Made from two eye-catching hardwoods: Gabonese Zebrawood from West Africa best known for its striking finish and Indonesian Sandalwood which is prized for its fragrance and widely used across Asia in incense and oils. These distinctive and handsome straps have subtly rounded edges that are hand sanded to a smooth finish so that it feels comfortable on your wrist. Each band has a unique grain pattern and is hand-finished and treated with tung oil. Making them waterproof and weatherproof as well.

Ottm uses high-quality stainless steel for both the easy open butterfly clasp and the carefully fitted Apple Watch adaptors ensuring both durability and elegance.

The length of each band can easily be adjusted for a perfect fit using the included resizing tool. Extras include a pin removal tool, extra links and resizing instructions.

The Ottm hardwood Apple Watch band is available in both 38mm and 42mm sizes. Wood choices include Zebrawood, Sandalwood, or my favorite, a combination of the two.

The straps can be purchased at Amazon from $34.99-$49.99 depending on the size and wood finish you choose.

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Add the unique beauty of natural wood to your Apple Watch with Ottm’s Hardwood bands originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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