Adagio Teas simplifies making a pot of tea with the VelociTEA kettle

NEWS – I thought we had our tea-making process under control here, but Adagio Teas can streamline the process even more with their new VelociTEA kettle. You just add water to the kettle, choose the perfect temperature for brewing the variety of tea, put the leaves in the dishwasher-safe brew basket, then press the button to get started. VelociTEA will heat the water to the proper temperature, then steep the leaves for the proper amount of time. The kettle can even hold the tea at the proper drinking temperature for up to an hour. If you simply want hot water, the VelociTEA can heat that, too.

The VelociTEA will ship on December 15, 2018. You can pre-order the kettle now for $99 and save $20. Place your pre-order now at the Adagio Teas website.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Beverage, Home and Kitchen, Tea

Adagio Teas simplifies making a pot of tea with the VelociTEA kettle originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 19, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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LiftMaster WLED Garage Door Opener review

REVIEW – You probably don’t think of a garage door opener as being something super techy or cool right? I didn’t either until LiftMaster changed my mind when they offered to let me test their WLED garage door opener with built-in Corner to Corner Lighting system. Let’s check it out.

What is it?

The LiftMaster WLED DC Battery Backup LED Wi-Fi Residential Garage Door Opener is just you have already guessed it is. It’s the motor box that lifts and lowers your garage door. But this one from LiftMaster has some great tech features built-in like high powered LED lights, motion detection, WiFi control, and more.

What’s in the box?

I don’t have a complete listing of what was in the box because the LiftMaster WLED garage door opener is packaged for professional installation and not for a DIY homeowner installation. Chamberlain, LiftMaster’s parent company, sells similar products online and through major retailers (e.g. Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) for those homeowners who wish to install it themselves (no dealer necessary). Chamberlain’s version of this particular WLED can be found here.

LiftMaster WLED garage door opener
Installation hardware
2 3-button car remotes with clips
Wall door controller
User guide

I have a 3 car garage that has one overhead door that has to be lifted manually and two others that have Craftsman openers.

I’ve not had any troubles with the Craftsman openers except that the one on Jeanne’s side of the garage has a really crummy 1-bulb light built into it.

Here’s the light from the old garage door opener

Jeanne’s always complaining that the light isn’t bright enough to see to get her belongings out of the car when she gets home at night. The garage doesn’t have any windows, so it’s pitch black except for the garage opener light when she gets home after dark.

Besides the dim light, neither openers work if the power is out. Unhooking the openers so that they can be lifted manually isn’t difficult, but getting them hooked back up later is always a pain in the you-know-what. I don’t know why, but I always have a heck of a time reattaching chain thingy. Yes, that’s what I call it. Don’t judge me!

Design and features

When LiftMaster contacted me to ask if they could install their WLED WiFi enabled garage door opener so I could test it and write about it, I immediately thought of Jeanne and her complaints about the lighting in the garage and said heck yeah to their offer.

They shipped me the box with all the hardware and then set up an appointment to have a local garage door company come to do the installation for me.

The LiftMaster WLED garage door opener features:

Built-in Wi-Fi and myQ technology: provides the ability to open and close the garage door from anywhere and send alerts if it’s left open.
Battery Backup: Keeps the opener working in a power outage so you don’t have to raise and lower the door manually.
Quiet Operation: An ultra-quiet DC motor and soft start/stop vibration reduction.

Installation

On a cold afternoon a couple weeks ago, two guys from Sterling Garage Door in Columbus, Indiana arrived and got to work on the install. I didn’t stick around to watch them install it because it was about 40 degrees outside (and in the garage since it’s not heated).

Less than an hour later, they were gone and I was left with a brand new shiny new garage door opener with a nice set of tech features that I never knew I needed until that day.

The LiftMaster garage door opener is larger than the one that was previously installed in the same space as it has lights on both ends instead of just the one.

A nod of satisfaction came when I went to the newly installed controller mounted where the old one had been. I guess I should have taken a picture of the old one before it was removed but it was basically one button like an old-school doorbell. As you can see, the new one has a bright backlit screen with the time of day in large easy to read numbers. The display cycles between showing the time and temperature which I really like. It also shows the built-in battery capacity of the opener in event of a power outage.

Above the display is the opener button and below the display, there are four buttons which are used to interact with the menus to customize settings for the clock, time to close, language, lock, WiFi setup, and more.

Below the buttons are two more features that I like. First of all, there’s a motion sensor which will automatically turn on the garage door opener’s lights when it’s tripped. I LOVE this feature because I leave the house before the sun is up and always have to feel around for the opener button to open my garage door when I walk into the garage to leave for work. Now that the LiftMaster WLED is installed, I just open the door to the garage and the motion sensor flips on the opener’s lights.

There’s also a button below the motion sensor that toggles the opener’s lights.

Here’s the light from the LiftMaster WLED garage door opener. Although it looks like it, the bulb next to the opener on the right is not turned on.

If you scroll back up towards the beginning of this review, you can see how the previous garage door opener’s light lit up the garage. Weak right? Now, look at this image. It’s like night and day Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But seriously, the LED lights on the LiftMaster are really bright. 3100 lumens to be precise. Jeanne no longer complains about how dark the garage is when she gets home at night.

We both love how the lights come on automatically as soon as we open the walk-thru door to walk into the garage. The motion sensors are a great feature especially when your hands are full.

Safety Sensors

We haven’t had safety sensors configured correctly with the old doors. Whoever installed them, just taped them together and ran the wires out of the way. The guys that installed the LiftMaster had to do the install to code, which means we now have a light beam sensor on each side of the door at the bottom. These sensors are designed to protect people, vehicles, pets, etc. but stopping the door from closing on obstructions and reversing (opening) the door. When this happens, the lights on the opener will flash 10 times to signal the problem.

Time will tell if the sensors become more trouble than they are worth though as we get a lot of leaves that like to pile up in from of the garage and sometimes if it’s windy, they will blow into the garage. I’m curious if we’ll have any issues with the door not wanting to close. I’ll report back if that is the case.

24 hour battery backup

The LiftMaster WLED has a built-in battery that will provide power to the opener for up to 24 hours if the main power goes out. I live in a rural area where the power goes out at least once a month if not a lot more. Heck, I was working on this review a couple days ago and the power was out 3 different times in one day for 1-2 hours each time. I’m lucky because I have a whole home generator, BUT my garage is on its own circuit box. That means if the power goes out, I have to use the emergency release handle and operate the door manually. UGH. I know, first world problems… But with the LiftMaster, I don’t have to worry about that. If the power goes off, I can still operate the door normally. Note that the door will run slower, and the lights will not turn on. But that’s a small price to pay.

Note that I’ll need to replace the battery from time to time, which according to some googling, will cost me around $20-$30 from stores like Walmart.

Using the myQ app

In addition to the features I have already mentioned, you can also control the LiftMaster WLED garage door with your phone. As long as the LiftMaster opener is within range of your home’s WiFi (2.4Ghz, 802.11b/g/n), you can do things like open and close the door remotely, know the status of the door, up or down no matter where you are in the world. You can also set a recurring schedule to close a garage door and use the app as a door opener if you happen to lose remote openers that come with the LiftMaster.

Setting up the myQ app with the LiftMaster was as easy as setting up other smart devices. I just installed the myQ app, then used the wall remote to get into the WiFi setup screens and from there I followed the onscreen prompts in the app which told me what to do on the remote.

The app can be set up to provide real-time notifications to alert you when the door goes up or down. This is an added home security measure provides extra peace of mind when you’re waiting for someone to come home late at night when you’re already in bed, or when you get an alert when you’re not at home that the door has gone up.

You can also set schedules when to shut the door. I’m not exactly sure why you might want this feature, but it’s there if you need it. Note that you can only schedule a time to close the door. You can set a schedule to open the door and you can see a history of when the door was opened and closed.

I mentioned that you can’t set a schedule to close the door, but you can set the TTC (timer to close) feature which will automatically shut the door after 1-99 minutes. This might be a good thing to set for people who can’t seem to remember to press the remote button after they leave the house

What I like

Bright LED lights that light up the whole garage
Quiet, smooth operation
Motion detector on the wall remote automatically turns on the lights when you walk in the door
Ability to know the status of the garage door (up or down) using the myQ app
Lifetime warranty on motor

What needs to be improved

Nothing

Final thoughts

The LiftMaster WLED garage door opener was a product that I didn’t know I needed or wanted until I got one. From the ultra quiet operation, extra light that it provides in my garage, and the fact that I can control the door remotely with my phone and get notified when the door opens provides extra home security benefits, the LiftMaster gets two thumbs up from me. Now I want to replace my other opener so I have a matching set.

Price: $450 – $500 (including installation)
Where to buy: LiftMaster certified dealers, or the DIY Chamberlain version is available on Amazon.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by LiftMaster.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Car Gear, Garage

LiftMaster WLED Garage Door Opener review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 19, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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Forget about Qi, soon you’ll be able to charge your devices with light

NEWS – I remember being excited the first time I learned about the ability to charge a device without having to physically plug in a power cable and I jumped on the wireless charging (Qi) bandwagon as soon as I could. These days wireless charging is commonplace, but soon a new wireless charging tech is going to revolutionize how we charge our devices. What is this new sorcery that I speak of? It’s light. Infrared light.

The company who will be bringing this tech to light (sorry) is Wi-Charge. The tech uses patented infrared wireless power technology that can deliver several watts of power to client devices up to 10 meters away without having to put the device on a special charging pad as we do now. Eventually, our devices may have this new charging technology built in, but the first solution that Wi-Charge will bring to market is specific to the Amazon Echo and Google mini devices.

I had some questions for Wi-Charge about this new tech:

When will this tech be available to end-users? In 2019.

What will be the cost of the charging device/light? The Wireless Power Kits are going to be available as a reference design for our OEM partners. This means that these partners set the end-user price. For example, our wireless charging capability can be priced as an accessory to the device.

Will we be able to retrofit existing devices to use it? The solution has two parts:
– A wireless charger that can be plugged into the wall. This sends out the energy.
– A cradle that connects to the Amazon Echo or Google Home. Basically, you just place the smart speaker inside the cradle.

If you are interested in learning more, visit Wi-charge.com to read more about this new infrared light charging tech.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Wireless charging

Forget about Qi, soon you’ll be able to charge your devices with light originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 19, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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2018 Gift Guide – Musician gift ideas

ARTICLE – It’s another year almost over, and it’s time to admit you still haven’t started music lessons for your child or yourself. Let’s look at some gift ideas for getting started learning to play an instrument like the rock god you know you must be!

Squier Mini Strat by Fender

While this may look like a standard Fender Stratocaster, it’s actually a “mini”, or 3/4 sized, Strat from the Squier sector of Fender. This guitar is designed for children, for people with smaller hands (like me and my short fingers), or for a travel guitar for anyone. At only $130, you might think these are toys, but they really aren’t. Check reviews online, and you’ll see that some adults swear by these for their own use and not just as a learning guitar for kids.

That’s not to say they couldn’t use a few adjustments. I just got the gorgeous all-white mini Strat from the local Guitar Center, and we took it to the guitar maintenance guy who takes care of all my husband’s guitars. It needed some rough fret ends sanded down and the tuning heads tightened. Less than $40 later, the guitar tech said the guitar was good to go – after all, he said, it’s a Fender Strat.

You’ll probably want to add a cheap (or not so cheap) little practice amp, some picks, and a strap, and you’re ready, ready, ready to rock tonight!

Price: $129.99
Where to buy: The Guitar Center

Fretlight Wireless Guitar

Fretlight guitars may look like a standard guitar, but they offer two features that set them apart from the mainstream: they are wireless, and they have light-up fret markers that help you learn new chords as you learn to play guitar.

The Fretlight 600 series wireless guitar connect to a smartphone or tablet via the latest Bluetooth BLE technology. This means you’ll always get the fastest connection to the device you’re using whether it be a mobile device or a computer. When used with the app, Fretlight’s patented, wireless lighted-learning system guitars light up songs, chords, scales, and riffs right on the fretboard to help you learn.

These guitars come as electric or electric/acoustic in various body styles and as right- or left-handed guitars. They come in several colors, and some are even offered signed by either Alice Cooper or Orianthi.

Price: starting at $300.00
Where to buy: Fretlight

Roland Modern Compact Digital 88-key Piano F140R

Roland says about their F140R digital piano: “With superior build quality and innovative technology that far exceeds other instruments in its price class, the F-140R is a serious musical instrument that will last you through years of musical growth and piano enjoyment. Roland’s SuperNATURAL Piano sound engine delivers the rich, complex sound of an acoustic grand, providing a truly incredible playing experience. The PHA-4 Standard Keyboard inherits the Progressive Hammer Action and Ivory Feel texture of keyboards found in our high-end pianos, and includes advanced sensing technology to take full advantage of SuperNATURAL Piano’s enormous tonal range.”

It has built-in speakers for powerful sound and a headphone jack for private practice. It has too many features to list here, but included are multiple grand piano sounds and other voices, built-in rhythms, MIDI functionality, and more. Go check it out at Roland, and purchase one at your local store or at the link below.

Price: $1249.99
Where to buy: Sweetwater online

Casio LK280 Portable Keyboard with 61 full-size touch-sensitive lighted piano-style keys

If that Roland piano isn’t in the budget, or maybe you need some help learning to play, check out the Casio LK280. This is a 61-key keyboard with full-sized, touch-sensitive keys that can also light up to show you where to play.

Touch-sensitive keys, with 48-note polyphony for expressive playing. Lighted keys let you easily review which notes to play.
Allows you to send MIDI files back and forth from your computer to the keyboard. USB port for easy connection to your PC. Secure Digital card slot expands storage capability (card not included).
Step Up lesson system makes it fun and easy to learn to play the keyboard.
180 rhythms/accompaniments, plus digital reverb and chorus effects, and up to 600 possible tones, including stereo pianos, to fuel your creativity.
Multitrack recorder lets you layer and save your creations.
1/8″ line input for connection of an MP3 player or other audio device, so you can play along to your favorite tunes.
Headphone jack lets you practice privately.

Price: $199.99
Where to buy: Best Buy

Yamaha DTX400K Compact Electronic Drum Set

Perhaps you yearn to beat the skins, but your neighbors don’t want to hear you “banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee”, as Mark Knopfler says. Using this drum kit, you can play all night long without causing a war. Yamaha says about their DTX-400K drum kit: “The DTX400K is a full-size electronic drum kit with newly designed drum pads and large 10 inch cymbals, all on an adjustable steel rack system. It’s a great feeling kit that let’s you play in comfort without disturbing others. And because it’s from Yamaha, you can count on durability and dependability.

The DTX400K includes 10 drum training exercises for any level player that help improve timing, accuracy and endurance. It features the KU100 Silent Kick Unit that greatly reduces vibration and acoustic noise.“

It has USB MIDI capability, and it’s upgradeable and expandable. You’ll also have access to three Yamaha iOS apps to help you learn or practice: DTX Drum Lessons, DTX400 Touch to customize the sound, and Song Beats to help you learn the drum parts to your favorite MIDI songs.

Price: $479.99
Where to buy: Amazon

BOSS Katana-Air 30W Stereo Combo Amplifier

The BOSS Katana-Air 30W Stereo Combo Amplifier comes with a proprietary wireless transmitter to connect to your guitar to the amp. The Katana-Air is a true stereo amplifier with two custom-tuned speakers. You’re ready to play anywhere with this BOSS. It provides 30W of audio power when plugged into a power outlet or 20W when running off battery. The amp uses “low-latency digital-wireless guitar technology developed by BOSS to provide transparent sound without any lag or dropouts.”

BOSS says: “Equipped with the same tones and sound-shaping controls found in larger Katana amplifiers, the Katana-Air offers timbres for any style. Five amp characters provide a wide range of tones, from sparkling clean to a custom, high-gain Brown sound evocative of a Marshall stack. There’s even an Acoustic character optimized for playing acoustic/electric guitar. The amp also provides integrated access to over 50 BOSS effects, including modulations, delays, and reverb effects optimized for the Katana-Air’s stereo speaker system. With six onboard memories, you can store and recall your favorite amp and effects setups at any time.

Available for both iOS and Android devices, a dedicated BOSS Tone Studio app gives you complete control of the Katana-Air right from your smartphone or tablet. You’re able to adjust all the amp’s panel controls, as well as access effects types and routings solely available from the app. You can also save setups to the amp’s memories, organize sound libraries on your device, and download free patch collections directly from BOSS Tone Central. The app corresponds with the amp over Bluetooth.”

When you aren’t using the BOSS Katana-Air as a practice amp, it’s a Bluetooth speaker for music playback from your computer or mobile devices.

Price: $399.99
Where to buy: B&H

KLIQ UberTuner

The UberTuner has an advanced microprocessor and a sensitive piezo sensor that ensures your instrument is quickly and accurately tuned. It has guitar, bass, ukulele, violin, and chromatic tuning modes; it has transposition settings for Bb, Eb, F, and D woodwind and brass instruments. It has an easy-to-read, full-color display, a long-lasting 3V CR2032 lithium battery, and a power-save feature for extended battery life.

Price: $23.97
Where to buy: Amazon

Fender Play step-by-step lessons

I’m sure there are guitar lessons readily available where you are, but sometimes you just want to not quite go-it-on your own, but not be tied down to expensive lessons you might not be able to make because of work or school commitments. Fender offers guided lessons for guitar, bass guitar, and ukulele for much less than formal lessons. You’ll pay $9.99 a month, or you can pre-pay for a full year for only $89.99 – plus, you’ll be given a 10% discount on Fender gear for a year when you purchase the yearly plan.

Lessons are available on your computer or mobile device (both Android and iOS). You’ll have step-by-step lessons featuring expert, experienced instructors that you can use at home or take with you when you travel. You learn at your own pace. And you’ll get a free 14-day trial so you can try it out before making a commitment.

Price: $9.99/month, or $89.99/year
Where to buy: Fender Play

String Stretcha

If you have tuning problems, it may be the strings and not your guitar, bass, or ukulele, according to the folks at String Stretcha. There are ways to stretch the strings using your fingers, but pulling on them at random places results in uneven stretch and using the “thumb and fingers” method takes a long time and causes a lot of pain. If you use the Stretcha tool, you can zip it up and down the strings in just five minutes and achieve a much more even stretch. And the tool has been tested in studios and on the road by professional guitar techs, who give the Stretcha a big non-sore thumbs up. You can find the Stretcha at retailers, but if you can’t wait to get your hands on one, you can order directly from String Stretcha.

Price: $14.50
Where to buy: String Stretcha

JS SERIES CONCERT BASS MINION JS1X

When my daughter was a kid, she wanted to learn to play guitar. She actually wanted a bass, but at the time, we couldn’t find a bass small enough for her to play comfortably. Heck, a full-sized bass is still almost as big as she is now! She has a couple of short-scale basses she plays now, but she recently fell in love with this tiny Jackson bass called the Minion. This is the bass you want to get for your younger child to learn on. It’s also great as a travel bass, or as an instrument for smaller adults, like my daughter.

The JS Series Concert Bass Minion JS1X has a 28.6″ scale length, which is even smaller than her other short-scale basses. It has a poplar body, one-piece bolt-on maple neck with graphite reinforcement rods, and a 12″ radius amaranth fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets and pearloid sharkfin inlays. It has a Jackson P-style pickup at the neck and a Jackson J-style pickup at the bridge. Each pickup has a volume knob. There’s also a hardtail bridge with black baseplate and Jackson-branded locking tuners.

The Concert Bass Minion JS1X is available in Neon Green, Pavo Purple, Satin Black, or Satin Silver with black hardware.

Price: $253.51
Where to buy: Jackson Guitars or Guitar Center (for $179.99)

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: 2018 Gift Guides, Music Gear

2018 Gift Guide – Musician gift ideas originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 19, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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Night Sight is available now for Pixel phones and I love it

NEWS – Just in case you didn’t already know, the Night Sight feature on the Google Camera app is now available for Pixel phones. This feature allows you to take better photos under dark lighting conditions. I have been eagerly awaiting this feature since it was announced in October. I’m an amateur photographer and anything that easily improves the quality of my photos, especially those that I take for the Gadgeteer, is VERY welcomed. If you’re curious about how it works, I’ll just point you to Google’s Research Blog, for a detailed explanation.

After updating your app, if the lighting conditions are low enough, a “Try Night Sight” button pops up. Tapping on it enables the feature and you are ready to go. After tapping on the shutter button, be sure to hold your camera steady until the software completes the task of taking the photo.

If “Try Night Sight” doesn’t come up automatically and you want to try it, you can also find the Night Sight mode located in the “More” section of the app.

I tried it out and am truly impressed. The following are a couple of my pics.

The above photo was taken in a VERY dark closet of our house.

Night Sight dramatically improved the closet photo.

The above photo was taken in a dimly lit room.

It’s not quite as dramatic as the first set of photos, but the improvement is readily observed.

What do you think of the Night Sight mode? Leave a comment and let me know!

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Photography, Pixel

Night Sight is available now for Pixel phones and I love it originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 18, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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