News – Page 322

Use your laptop as an aromatherapy diffuser

If you like to use aromatherapy while you work but are restricted from using a stand-alone diffuser because of space limitations or by workplace regulations limiting what you can have on your desk, you need a USB Aromatherapy Diffuser. The one in the image is from Sharper Image, and it requires you to use your own essential oils. You put a drop or two of the oils on the scent pad, place the pad in the diffuser, and plug it into a USB port. It has a sliding control switch for normal level / strong level / or off. The USB Aromatherapy Diffuser is $29.99 at Sharper Image. If you don’t have your own oils, and you’d like a better price, there’s a similar, highly user-rated Gaiam USB diffuser with a set of four 100% natural essential oils for $19.99 from Amazon.

Pick up a trunkful of hardcover Harry Potter books in dust jackets designed for each house at Hogwarts

Juniper Books has designed a set of Harry Potter books with special book jacket designs created for each of the houses at Hogwarts. The books in our image are for Gryffindor. These books are based on the hardcover version issued by Scholastic Books. Juniper says they “buy heirloom quality hardcover books from publishers we love and respect. For our jacketed sets, we design, print, and fold each cover by hand to ensure a beautiful set you will treasure forever. Our jackets should be thought of more as art prints than the typical jackets which come from publishers.” Each set is then stored in a cardboard trunk that looks like something a Hogwarts student might use it to take their belongings to school.

Each set of seven books with their custom dust jackets and trunk is $275.00 plus about $20 shipping from Amazon.

Experience life in 3D with the Owl Sterescopic viewer

You’ve probably seen someone in an old movie looking at photo cards using a device that looks like funny binoculars mounted on a wooden handle. That device is a stereoscopic viewer, and they allow you to see 2D photographs in apparent 3D. They were quite popular around the turn of the previous century, with many photo cards created covering a huge variety of subjects. Brian May, Queen’s guitarist, started collecting stereoscopic cards when he was a child, and his fascination with 3D photography followed him into adulthood. He even used a 3D camera to document the history of Queen from the Freddie Mercury days through the current time with Adam Lambert.

May decided to make reproductions of some of his collection of vintage photo cards available to the public, but he knew people would need a viewer to appreciate them. He created the Owl, a stereoscopic viewer that folds flat for storage. He also offers sets of stereoscopic photo cards, and he has written a few books with compilations of the vintage photo cards printed right in the books. The Owl viewer works with both the individual cards and with the photos printed in the books.

I first learned of these viewers when I heard about May’s book collecting some of the 3D photos he took of Queen, called Queen in 3D. I received the Queen book for Christmas, and the included Owl viewer works wonderfully well to transform those printed images into a 3D look at Queen. (I still miss Freddie!)

You can purchase the Owl viewers at May’s London Stereoscopic Company LTD online store. The store also offers several photo card sets and books covering topics like Diableries – Stereoscopic Adventures In Hell, Crinoline: Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster, and the Queen book, of course. You can also find the Queen book at Amazon.

Nokia is removing a function from their Body Cardio scales by mandatory software update

Owners of the Nokia Body Cardio scale (formerly called the Withings Body Cardio when reviewed by Julie) may have received an email that warned them that Nokia will be removing the Pulse Wave Velocity function from all Body Cardio scales in a mandatory update.

The Pulse Wave Velocity function set the Body Cardio apart from other smart scales that calculated your BMI and measured a few other parameters as they weighed you. The PWV measurement was, in effect, a measure of how fast your blood moved through your blood vessels, which in turn was a measure of the health of the vessels. This measurement was based on previous studies, and when it was added to the Body Cardio scale, it apparently wasn’t a test that was regulated by the FDA. Now, Nokia says of the scales: “We are now learning its capabilities in the area of measurement of pulse wave velocity may require a different level of regulatory approval. In light of this, the decision was made to turn off the pulse wave velocity feature.” This removal was not prompted by the FDA; Nokia voluntarily removed the function to prevent possible future problems.

This update is mandatory and will be applied January 24, 2018; there is no way to opt out. No other functions of the Body Cardio scale will be affected by this update. For the time being, Nokia has announced they have suspended shipments of the Body Cardio scale; in a few months, they will resume shipping the scale without the PWV function.

To compensate their customers, Nokia is offering two options. You may elect a $30 credit for a future purchase of a Nokia health product at the Nokia store, or you may choose to return your Body Cardio scale for a full refund. If you refuse both of these options, you will not be allowed to change your mind in the future.

Read more about Nokia’s decision and learn how to ask for your compensation at the Nokia website.

Add a faucet to your laundry room when you buy a new clothes washer

Having a sink in your laundry room would be ideal because it would allow you to start pre-treating stains before laundering without having to then carry soaking wet fabric through the house to the washing machine. In many space-conscious homes these days, there’s hardly room for a washer and dryer, forget about having room for a laundry sink, too. The 4.8cu. ft. HE Top Load Washer with Built-in Water Faucet from Whirlpool has a faucet built in, so you don’t need a separate sink.

You can easily pre-wash a piece of laundry using a stream of water from the faucet inside the machine’s stainless drum. The machine has lots of other features, too. It has a dispensing system that can hold a supply of detergent, bleach, and fabric softener and dispense the right amount for your selected load. It has auto load-size sensing, to select the right amount of water, and intuitive touch controls to make selecting from the 27 selectable wash cycles, 4 soil levels, and 5 wash/rinse temperatures easy. MSRP is $899.00 for the 4.8 cu.ft HE Top Load Washer with Built-In Water Faucet and Intuitive Touch Controls. Learn more about the features of this clothes washer and locate a vendor in your area at Whirlpool’s website.