At this point if the news that your phone company has been selling customer location data to bounty hunters surprises you, you may need to catch up on the last few years of privacy revelations. If you’re just generally suspicious of places that collect your data, congratulations on being right (again). AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon are currently being sued for selling customer location data to third parties known as data brokers, who then sell the data to other people with an interest in finding you – especially the “kinda-sorta” officials like bail bondsmen and bounty hunters. Related: Surprising News that Popular Apps Use Location… Read more
Storing data at scale isn’t like saving a file on your hard drive. It requires a software manager to keep track of all the bits that make up your company’s files. That’s where distributed storage management packages like Ceph and Gluster come into place. Ceph and Gluster are both systems used for managing distributed storage. Both are considered software-defined storage, meaning they’re largely hardware-agnostic. They organize the bits that make up your data using their own underlying infrastructure, which is what defines this choice: what underlying framework do you want supporting your data? That’s a decision you want to make based on the type of… Read more
REVIEW – We are moving closer and closer to having our entire house controlled by our voices between Amazon’s Alexa and Apple HomeKit. Having previously review the Eve Flare portable light, I was excited to also get a chance to review the Eve Energy Strip, another Apple HomeKit compatible device.
What is it?
The Eve Energy Strip is a 3 port power strip with surge protection, overcurrent protection and overvoltage protection, that is also compatible with Apple HomeKit – which means it can be controlled via Siri voice commands.
What’s in the box?
Eve Energy Strip
Instruction Manual
Warranty Info
Quick Connect Guide
Design and features
The power strip has a 6.3 ft cord, so plugging it in and then tucking it in behind or under furniture along a wall is pretty easy. It has an aluminum frame and black matte finish on the face of the device. Three buttons with LED indicators allow for manual control of the three outlets, and give a clear indication of whether the plug is currently active or off. There are also separate LED indicators to show proper grounding and surge protection. There is a surge indicator on the side of the unit if a surge protection occurs it will pop out and to reset the unit you just push it back in.
Setup
The first step is to download the Eve app onto your phone. Then it’s a pretty painless app guided set-up that involves plugging in the unit, getting it connected to your wifi and then assigning the individual plugs to the type of device that will be utilized. For us, we put it in the bedroom to control our fan, air humidifier, and sub-woofer for our sound system. Set-up couldn’t have been easier and the app does a great job of guiding you through each step.
Performance
After set-up, it’s simply a matter of telling Siri to “Turn on Fan” or “Turn off Air Humidifier” – whatever item you’ve assigned to the outlets. If you have an iPad that stays at home on the same wifi as the power strip, you can then set it up to turn items on and off while you’re away. This would be highly beneficial if you use this for lighting in an entry or if you leave in daylight & come home after dark. Additionally, you can use Apple HomeKit automation tools to have, for instance, outlets controlling lights to activate when you come home – triggering off your phone connecting to your wifi when you arrive home. Here are some screenshots of our set up:
So from the main “room” menu, you can see each item and its current status. Here you can manually control the On/Off function as well. By clicking on one of the items, you can go into the detail of the overall unit.
Here we get into the meat of the app utility, where you can schedule on/off times, look at consumption & projected cost per day as well as total consumption. Then there is the bar chart showing the usage by hour. There is quite a bit of information pulled into the app for a simple power strip, in my opinion.
Initially, the plug and Siri seemed to have a bit of an issue communicating. Several times as I got ready for bed and told Siri to turn on the fan and air humidifier, it had problems communicating – but this may be an issue with our wifi, so I’m not going to hold this against the product. Over time though, it has become very consistent and reliable with either my wife or me using our phones to activate Siri’s commands.
What I like
Easy command use with Siri to activate or deactivate plugs
Surge Protection for our devices and surge protection indicator
Sleek Design
Long cord
Manual buttons to turn on/off in case wifi isn’t working or you’re just nearby
What needs to be improved
More plugs, having only 3 plugs is a bit limiting
Possibly add USB ports as many items are now powered directly via USB
Final thoughts
We love the Eve Energy Strip, it provides us an easy way to control the devices we use every night and provides the surge protection that gives a bit of peace of mind against some of the major storms here in Colorado. Incorporating it into our HomeKit devices and automations was easy as well. The only thing I could find for improvement, I kind of felt I was knit-picking in wanting more outlets and possibly some USB ports. For those looking for more automation and voice control capabilities for home electronics, this is an ideal unit to add to your connected home. Eve seems to be rapidly expanding its product line, and I’m pretty impressed with their products thus far.
Price: $99.92 on Amazon or $99.95 on Tink.us Where to buy: Amazon and Tink.us Source: The sample of this product was provided by Eve.
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REVIEW – When I first saw the Tineco A11 HERO vacuum, it immediately reminded me of the current similar and very famous brand vacuum that I own and have been using for quite a while. The main glaring difference is that this vacuum is available for half the price. Hmm!! I wonder if its performance is even close. Let’s see!!
What is it?
The Tineco A11 HERO Vacuum is a portable rechargeable battery powered vacuum that is versatile enough to be used for carpets, floors, stairs, couches, blinds, etc. It can also be used for your car.
What’s in the box
1 x Tineco A11 Vacuum Main Body
1 x Extension Tube
1 x Full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush
1 x Mini Power Brush
1 x 2-in-1 Dusting Brush
1 x Crevice Tool
1 x Extra Battery
1 x Powerhouse Storage/Charging Base
1 x Pre-Filter Cleaning Tool & Extra Pre-filter
1 x Hair Cleaning Tool
Design and features
Features
Two batteries for a total of 60 minutes runtime
Enhanced extreme suction
Inside-out beautility
Dual charging powerhouse Base
4 stages of fully-sealed filtration system
Continuous power mode switch lock
Rinse-free pre-filter cleaning tool
450W digital motor 120W suction power
50% larger one-touch-empty dustbin
Specifications
The main components of this vacuum that would be most often used are shown in the first photo below. They are the main body of the vacuum, the battery, and the extension tube. These would be used along with the full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush for general vacuuming of carpets and floors, etc. All other uses would involve adding one of the included accessories.
The following illustration shows the parts/functions of the main body of the vacuum:
The base storage/charging unit has a cable storage capability on the bottom.
The picture below shows the storage/charging base with the main body of the vacuum inserted along with the spare battery, and some of the accessories which in this case are the crevice tool and the pre-filter cleaning tool.
As seen above, the storage/charging base has a built-in clip/slot on the side that allows for the storage of the long vacuum tube extension and attached accessory such as the power brush.
Performance
Having used an expensive famous brand of this type of vacuum for a few years, I have to be honest and say that I did not know what to expect and that I really did not expect much. Unboxing it was very simple and within minutes I was ready for testing on my living room carpet. And, what a surprise!! The first thing I liked was the power button lock that allows you to lock the spring loaded power button in place and to vacuum without having to keep a finger on the button. So, I turned it on, locked the button in place and started vacuuming. It did a pretty good job in the standard mode, and then I pressed the “Max” button for maximum suction, and the effect was just great. This vacuum will suck up just about any dirt and debris in the “Max” suction mode, and with its large size canister, it can take care of a whole lot of square footage without any need to empty the canister. Then there is the feature of the removable battery and the fact that a second battery is included. My problem with the famous brand vacuum that I already own is that when I select the maximum suction option, the charge lasts about 12 to 15 minutes and then I have to place the entire vacuum back on the charger and wait for what seems like forever before it is fully charged and ready to go again. With this vacuum, I can just swap out the batteries, and keep going. I am quite sure that in standard more I can get about an hour of vacuuming out of the 2 batteries collectively, but I always use it in the maximum suction mode which gives me about 15 minutes each.
The next feature that I love is the pre-filter that is reusable and the cleaning tool that you just attach to the vacuum that cleans the pre-filter. And to make things even more convenient, an extra pre-filter is included with the vacuum. Once again, this is an issue with my previously owned famous brand vacuum because I have to wash that pre-filter and leave it to dry and I eventually had to buy an extra one to be able to use the vacuum while the initial one dried.
This vacuum has a charging/storage base that charges both the battery attached to the vacuum and the extra battery in a charging slot at the same time, so there are always 2 batteries at the ready.
The additional attachments perform all of the functions as regular vacuum including sofas and stairs, etc.
To add icing on the cake so to speak, its compact size allows me to use it to vacuum the car and solves the problem that I have been dealing with of finding a vacuum for this use that has enough suction power.
The vacuum is also attractive even when being used. The top half of the main body of the vacuum lights up nicely with blue LEDs as well as the front of the Full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush. With one touch you can switch into the maximum suction mode. You can see the vacuum in action in the video below.
What I like
The build quality
The removable battery
The dual battery charging function
The Suction power
The filter cleaning system
The portability
The usability time of each battery per charge
The included charging/storage base
What can be improved
It does exactly what it is designed to do and what is promised by the manufacturer
Final thoughts
This is the second vacuum of this type that is used regularly in my household. The other of this type is a famous and expensive brand that is referred to as the leader in devices of this type, (I will still not mention the brand but I am sure you can guess). This vacuum has an easily removable/swappable battery while the other brand thas an expensive battery that has to be screwed in and used as what can be considered permanent to the extent that is cannot be just swapped out during vacuuming and replaced so that you can continue. I also love the pre-filter cleaning process of this vacuum that is practical and does not involve washing and drying the filter. The suction of this vacuum is really great and since it is portable, I plan to make it the primary vacuum for the cars in my household. All of the car vacuums that I have tried lack the proper suction, but this vacuum does the trick. I am giving it two thumbs up!!
Price: $299.99 Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample for this review was provided by Tineco
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REVIEW – When I first started writing for The Gadgeteer, I never in my dreams thought that I would be reviewing light bulbs. And now, I’m reviewing a second one from the same company. But SANSI has good products, and their new A21 LED is lighting my office as I type this. 5000ºK is daylight-bright. I’m finding all sorts of things in here that I’d thought I lost.
What is it?
An omnidirectional light bulb that screws into standard light-bulb sockets and shows your world in a whole different kind of light.
Design and features
When I was assigned the SANSI A21 LED bulb for review, I thought “OK, another LED replacement bulb. No big deal.” When I put this into the regular table lamp in my office and switched it on, however, I was floored. This office has never been this bright. But it’s not a harsh, other-worldly brightness. It just looks like we removed the ceiling and the sun is shining in and lighting everything up, but there are no noon-day shadows. It’s really hard to put into words what it’s like to suddenly have a skylight in a room with no construction.
It’s a light bulb. But it delivers a totally different color and intensity of light than traditional light bulbs, and uses less energy, to boot!
What I like
Full-range natural light
No warm-up or delay – flip it on, and the sun’s out.
Not harsh or overpowering
What needs to be improved
You have to start keeping up with the time because it can be full sunlight at 3 AM with this thing!
Final thoughts
$25 per bulb sounds like a lot of money, but this light is so natural and relaxing, you find yourself being more relaxed and calm. I can’t wait for winter now – SAD will not get to me!
Price: $49.99 for a 2-pack Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample of this product was provided by SANSI.
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