Back to school supplies – dorm room food edition

ARTICLE – It’s not long until classes start again for college students in my area.  I was thinking about doing a couple of back-to-school supplies posts, so I talked to my daughter about things she recommended for college students living in dorms.  Several things leaped immediately to her mind.

Many of the things she mentioned were for preparing foods and beverages.  Naturally, your student will need a dorm fridge and a small microwave, too.  And they’ll also need a few dishes, cups, glasses, and flatware.  Some of the other things she mentioned include the following items, most of which I got at Amazon.

One of the things she most liked that we had gotten for her was her breakfast muffin maker.  She said the eggs always cooked perfectly, and the muffins, Canadian bacon, and cheese were nicely heated.  She often used it to make breakfast before classes.  The Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker is perfect for making a tasty breakfast egg muffin in five minutes.  It’s $24.99 at Amazon.

Rachel is a big fan of both tea and coffee.  There are three things she needs for her caffeine fix.  First up is the Proctor Silex Electric Kettle she’s had since her freshman year.  It has a 1000W heating element that they claim heats water faster than a microwave can.  She used the water for instant oatmeal and ramen noodles, too.  It’s $14.99 at Amazon.

For coffee, she used the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker.  (We have one at home, too.  It’s great for making a single cup quickly.)  It operates a bit like a French press, but it makes a single cup.  Measure in your coffee grounds, pour hot water in, stir, and then press to express the coffee into a cup.  It’s quick and tasty.  The AeroPress is $29.95; an AeroPress with a travel bag included is $31.95.  Both versions are found at Amazon.

For tea, nothing works like the Ingenuitea Bottom Dispensing teapot.  Put loose tea in the pot, add water of the correct temperature for your type of tea, steep it for the recommended time, then set the pot on top of a mug to drain the tea into your cup.  The Ingenuitea is $19.99 for the 16-ounce size or $29.00 for the 28-ounce pot.  Both are available at Amazon.

Depending on your student and how much they want to cook for themselves, they might also want a slow cooker or Instant Pot, a toaster, or a toaster oven.  Be sure you check the dorm regulations at the college to be sure these cooking appliances are allowed before purchasing anything.

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Back to school supplies – dorm room food edition originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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A beautiful multifunctional fire hydrant for the future

NEWS – When you think of a fire hydrant, a certain image pops into mind, doesn’t it? It hasn’t changed in, like, eons. But is it time for a change? Dimitri Nassisi thinks so. According to an article in Dezeen, as an industrial designer, Mr. Nassisi redesigned the fire hydrant to provide drinking water for people and their pets in addition to functioning as a water source to fight fires. He realized as he observed his surroundings in Switzerland, that there were just not enough drinking fountains for people to hydrate, so why not use the existing fire hydrant infrastructure to solve this problem? While he was redesigning it, he wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing to people, yet practical for use by firefighters. His design adjusts the water pressure depending on what it is being used for. It is currently a prototype but perhaps such a clever, practical, functional, beautiful fire hydrant will become a commonplace item in the future!

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A beautiful multifunctional fire hydrant for the future originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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YI Cloud Home Camera review

REVIEW – When the YI Cloud Home Camera review offer came along I thought it would be nice to review and contrast it with other cameras that I have reviewed. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose – keep reading to find out which this was.

What is it?

The YI Cloud Home Camera is an indoor surveillance camera that has quite a few useful features including motion tracking and cloud storage.

What’s in the box?

  • YI Cloud Home Camera
  • Power cord and wall plug
  • Quick connect sheet
  • Window stickers
  • Wall mount bracket

Design and features

The YI Cloud Home Camera features a 1080p full HD camera with “Complete 360° Coverage”, enhanced night vision, smartphone control, baby crying detection, motion detection and real-time activity alerts as well as two-way intercom audio capability.

The YI camera was fairly simple to set up. The process begins with signing up for a YI account and verifying your e-mail with a link they e-mail to you:



After a pointless 4 page intro, you simply tap the “+” to add a camera and follow the simple on-screen directions to connect to the camera and your home wi-fi.






The camera has a much-too-small QR code on it that you must scan with the phone camera to pair it to the camera, it took it a little while to finally focus well enough on the camera to get it to connect. The camera has audible voice prompts as well, which I thought was a nice touch.

Once connected you’re presented with the default screen for the app, which is a list of the cameras you have connected, which also features an image from the last session as well as options for viewing Sharing, Alerts, Settings, and Watching cloud-stored video. Tapping the image starts the viewing of live video from the camera.

The settings section for the camera is fairly extensive, providing quite a bit of control and options.


I liked how that during viewing of the camera, you can choose between SD and HD video or choose the Auto option to have the app decide, presumably on your available bandwidth. Other controls include the microphone, record video, take photo, take a panoramic photo, and view full screen. There are also three icons at the bottom of the screen that allows for manual camera positioning, motion tracking, and alert viewing.

Full screen viewing

The manual camera positioning is a nice feature, however, it is slow to respond, which makes the positioning of the camera less than easy. The motion tracking feature works very well and is able to track a person as they walk through the room and was even sensitive enough to pick up my motion while just sitting at my desk.

The panoramic photo feature is very poor. When you take a pano image, the camera rotates and takes a picture, repeating this throughout a full rotation and then stitches the images together to produce a 360° image. However, the image stitching is very poor, often leaving gaps in the image coverage up to 3 feet wide.

Another thing that the app needs to improve on is the turning on and off of the motion detection/alert feature. You have to go into the Camera Settings, then once in the Camera Settings you have to tap on the Smart Detection settings, then toggle the Motion Detection setting. This would be really annoying if you had multiple cameras. There is also no indication from the main screen of the app that the camera is set for Motion Detection, so you have to go through the above steps just to see if its on.

Perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks of the YI Cloud Home Camera is the cloud storage subscription price. The options range from $8.66 a month for 7-day storage to $19.99 a month for 30-day storage. You can choose to either upload motion detected videos only (up to 5 devices) or 24/7 around-the-clock upload for only 1 device. I thought these prices were a bit high. The camera also supports a micro-SD card, but that wouldn’t do you any good if the thieves also steal your camera.

The app also notifies you of new logins to your account, which is a nice security feature.

What I like

  • Audible “Waiting to Connect” voice prompt when turned on
  • Activation link email
  • High quality still photos
  • Manual camera control
  • Login notifications

What needs to be improved

  • Very poor pano stitching
  • Alert frequency ranges from low, medium, and high with no indication of what that time period is
  • Notifications are inconsistent. I did not always get a notification while using the app, even if I was not viewing the camera at the time. There’s just an in-app Alerts icon that gets a red dot over it
  • Works only with the app, no website or IP camera capability
  • Motion Detection setting is too buried in the app

Final thoughts

Although the YI Cloud Home Camera features look inviting and seem to have everything you’ll want, the actual use and storage options may be a bit of a turn-off. However, if you’re looking for a budget camera for casual monitoring, this camera might be one to consider, it really depends on what you intend to use it for.

Price: $44.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by YI Technology

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YI Cloud Home Camera review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Crochet Yoda, you will.

NEWS – I know crocheting isn’t normally something you’d expect to read about here, but it’s not the craft we’ll be interested in.  With this Star Wars Crochet kit, you’ll be able to make Star Wars characters.  The kit includes materials needed to craft a Yoda figure and a stormtrooper.

A full-color book included in the kit has instructions for creating both Yoda and the stormtrooper with the supplied materials, plus it includes instructions for making Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Jabba the Hutt, and other characters.  There’s a lot of gift giving possibilities here.  You could give the kit to a crafty Star Wars fan, or you could make the figures yourself to give to a Star Wars fan / collector.

The Star Wars Crochet kit is $23.87 at Barnes & Noble.

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Crochet Yoda, you will. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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The Aeiusny Portable Power Station might be your best companion during a storm


NEWS – I have spent quite a lot of time searching the internet for such devices that would possibly meet my needs for a portable power solution. My main uses for such a device would be to power photography/videography related equipment and accessories while at locations where power is unavailable, and also for use at home during a power outage which is usually an issue during storms and hurricanes. Also, a CPAP machine is used in my household, so being able to power it during the night, during a power outage would be great.

The Aeiusny Portable Power Station is a powerful 500W (peak 1000w), 288Wh portable battery that can power small appliances and equipment including a CPAP machine. The company claims that it can power a PC and display for 3 hours, a 12 volt LED for 96 hours, a 13” laptop for 8 hours, a 50 Watt fan for 6 hours, a 32” LCD TV for 4 hours, etc. It has 3 AC outlets, $ DC ports, and 4 USB ports. It can be charged via the AC adapter or solar panels. It measures 12.7” x 5.9” x 8.6” and weighs approximately 7lbs.

The Aeiusny Portable Power Station is available for purchase on Eco Sweet Home for $269.99.

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The Aeiusny Portable Power Station might be your best companion during a storm originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 30, 2018 at 12:00 pm.

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