Reviews – Page 337

TEC Accessories Orbiter fidget toy review

Fidget toys are the latest gadget craze for geeks. Stop chewing your pen cap or twirling your pencil and grab the Orbiter fidget toy from TEC Accessories. It’s a fun and unique stress reliever. Let’s take it for a spin – literally.

What is it?

The Orbiter is a two-piece fidget toy made of grade 5 Titanium, Neodymium magnets, and a 5/8″ steel ball bearing.

Design and features

The Orbiter is comprised of two parts. There’s the Titanium and steel sandwiched base with embeddedNeodymium magnets, and the steel ball bearing.

Ways to fidget

The magnets in the base hold the steel ball in the depression in the base. The easiest way to fidget with the Orbiter is to just roll the ball around in the depression like a trackball for your computer.

The base also has a groove around the depression. Another way to fidget with the Orbiter is to spin the ball around in the groove. For me, this was the hardest to do. It’s not impossible, just tough, which is actually a good thing as it gives you something to practice.

The easiest way to fidget with the Orbiter is to spin the ball around the outside of the base. Once I got it going, I could keep it spinning for a long time.

Flipping the Orbiter over on the ball bearing and spinning it like a top is pretty easy too once you figure out how to do it.

See it in action

There might be other ways to fidget with the TEC Orbiter, but so far those are the ways I’ve figured out.

Final thoughts

I love little fidget toys and right now, the TEC Accessories Orbiter is one of my all-time favorites because it’s unique, well made and just plain fun to play with. It may be a little pricey, but there are no moving parts, so there’s nothing to break. This toy will last forever. The only issue you might have is losing the ball bearing, but you can order replacements from TEC.

Happy fidgeting!

Source: The sample for this review was provided by TEC Accessories. Please visit their site for more info.

Product Information

Price:	$64.95
Manufacturer:	TEC Accessories
Pros:	Multiple ways to fidget Fun Easy and hard Titanium
Cons:	Pricey

Filed in categories: Geek Toys, Reviews

Tagged: Toy

TEC Accessories Orbiter fidget toy review originally appeared on on March 1, 2017 at 6:21 am.

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MGCOOL Cam 360 action camera review

Typically, the videos we capture stimulate our eyes and ears and that’s usually as far as it goes. But with cameras like the MGCOOL 360, watching videos captured with this camera can be an interactive activity rather than a passive one.

MGCOOL is Elephone’s newly-established sub-brand covering sports cameras, intelligent wearable devices, and other gadgets. Their flagship products are sports cameras and 360 degree cameras. The MGCOOL 360 is a camera equipped with two 220° panoramic lenses that record simultaneously capturing footage from both the front and rear of the camera. The aperture of the lenses are f/2.0 and the focal length of the lenses are 1.1mm. The physical dimensions are 2.36” x 1.93” x 1.26” inches (6.00 x 4.90 x 3.20 cm) and the camera weighs 0.120 kg or 4.23 oz.

On the top of the camera is a small LCD screen where you can read the status and Menu items. Along the edge of the LCD screen is the Power Button, the Wi-Fi Button, and Record Button, and also a pin hole for the Reset button.

On the side of the camera is a small flap which covers the MicroSD card slot as well the MicroUSB port. From the micro USB port, you can charge the batteries of the camera. The MGCOOL camera supports MicroSD cards up to 32gb. Make sure to use at least a Class 10 MicroSD card or you will not get the camera to read the MicroSD card properly. If you can afford a more expensive UHS (ultra high-speed) MicroSD card then go for it. When I first unboxed the camera, I had a Class 6 card laying around that I popped in the camera for a quick test but I couldn’t even get the camera to record with that card in it. So, then I switched to a Class 10 MicroSD card and it started recording as soon as I hit the Record button.

Overall, this is a set it and shoot camera. Just attach it to your tripod, mount, or whatever you want to use with it and start recording. Naturally, you can hand hold this camera but I find that having the camera mounted securely makes for better viewing footage. On the bottom of the camera is a threaded screw mount for tripods, extension poles, or selfie sticks. This is a nice feature to have in case you don’t have or want to use one of the included mounts to secure this camera down.

There aren’t any manual settings to change such as exposure, ISO, or frame rate like on other action cameras such as a GoPro or a SJCAM cameras. However, there is a setting on the app to change the white balance. The recorded image was pretty good in bright sunlight as well as a cloudy day. I haven’t had a chance to record anything at night yet so I can’t comment on the low light factor.

The MGCOOL camera has a built-in 1500 mAh Lithium-ion battery with an average battery life of an hour. This is about the same as other action cameras I have used but the thing about this camera is that you can’t swap out batteries. However, I have read that the company has plans in the future to have a removable battery.

Since having two camera lenses doesn’t leave any room for a monitor, the only way to frame or review your footage is through the camera’s app on your smartphone. I didn’t have any issues of installing the app nor did I have any problems using the app. The app worked just fine for me and I was able to use it right after the install on my phone. You connect to the MGCOOL camera via Wi-Fi. And on top of the camera is the Wi-Fi On and Off button.

The camera and my smartphone synced and communicated with one another flawlessly. I was happy that I wasn’t spending a lot of time trying to connect the two so I got to test out the camera right from the start. Right away you can rotate the view on your phone and experience the camera’s ability to capture the 360 footage around you.

Capturing footage on the MGCOOL camera is only half the battle because there is going to be a point where you want to share your video and have others see and experience your video too. Unfortunately, you are not able to just share a video by uploading it to YouTube or anywhere else. You have to convert your video first and then upload to YouTube. That’s fine for me since I like to edit and tweak my footage before I upload it but the majority of people probably would rather just want an easy Share button. However, for quick and easy videos I wouldn’t mind having a convenient Share button that could just upload to YouTube but at this time there isn’t one.

You can download the smartphone app as well a player for your PC or Mac here: App and Player

Also, when you take photo with this camera you will get an image with two spheres. Unfortunately, there is no photo editor provided with the camera so you will need to get a software to stitch the image. If you want to share photos to sites like Facebook then you will have to inject the metadata into the photo as well for Facebook to identify the photo as a 360° image. You can’t just upload photos from the app to Facebook or other sites. You will only upload an image like the one above. The MGCOOL camera takes photos at a 3008 x 1504 resolution.

Since the manual doesn’t go into detail on how to get your footage uploaded correctly to YouTube I will share the method the was easiest for me through research on the internet. First and foremost you need to download and install the 360 Converter app or get it here at EnterVRWorld .

And you also have to also download and install the 360 Video Metadata app for YouTube. This Metadata app creates a 360 enabled video file and lets YouTube know that your footage is a 360 type video.

The first thing was to copy the footage I recorded from the MicroSD card onto a folder on my computer. Then you have run the footage through the 360 Converter. Once that is done, you take your newly converted footage and run it through the 360 Metadata app. There are instructions on the YouTube site for the settings that you need when you run your footage through the 360 Video Metadata app. It’s basically making sure that one of the check boxes is checked only.

I trimmed my footage in Premiere Pro and exported the video using the YouTube export settings. After the export, I ran that footage through the 360 Converter. Then when the 360 conversion was done, the last step before I uploaded the video to YouTube was to run converted footage through the 360 Video Metadata app. It seemed like this was a lot to go through to upload the captured footage to YouTube. I think since the camera only records at 1080 x 960 (@30fps) the was a black circle at the top and bottom of converted footage where the footage was stitched.

I was concerned about the clip I uploaded to YouTube since the video seemed softer and not as sharp as the video clip on my computer. This is weird because the clip I exported from Premiere Pro was significantly sharp but when I view it on YouTube the footage to me isn’t very desirable. See for yourself below.

The MGCOOL 360 camera comes with a manual, Reset pin, MicroUSB cable, bike mount, and a couple of other mounts. I do wish that it came with a few more mounts like SJCAM provides with their cameras such as the SJCAM X1000. At least the X1000 includes a waterproof housing, whereas this MGCOOL 360 camera has their waterproof housing sold separately. You can read my review on the SJCAM camera here: SJCAM X1000.

To learn more about the MGCOOL 360 camera, you can go to these sites: MGCOOL Site and MGCOOL Facebook.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by MGCOOL. Please visit their site for more info and order one at Amazon.

Product Information

Price:	$99.99
Manufacturer:	MGCOOL
Retailer:	Amazon
Pros:	360 degree footage capture. Includes several mounts. Ease of use. Dual lenses.
Cons:	No manual settings. No photo editing software included. No video or photo share option. Waterproof housing not included.

Filed in categories: Camera Gear, Reviews

Tagged: action camera

MGCOOL Cam 360 action camera review originally appeared on on February 28, 2017 at 8:45 am.

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Bellroy 13-inch Laptop Sleeve Extra review

Like you, I have a sizable investment in my gear so I am always on the lookout for anything that helps me protect that investment. And I choose bags and sleeves like I choose my clothes – smart, stylish and functional always attracts my attention. Bellroy – a company I have known more for their wallets than any other type of product – has a laptop sleeve that satisfies my first two requirements, but how well does it do with my third – functional? Read on to find out.

Fit and Function

The first thing to catch my eye with the 13-inch Laptop Sleeve Extra is the color and material combination. I personally think the combination of leather and a canvas-type material can be very business-like and on this sleeve the combination is stunning. The sleeve I received to review is the Warm Grey Woven version, a tan leather with a medium gray body. This color combination nicely accents the black leather Tumi bag I carry my laptop in. The sleeve also comes in a Charcoal Woven (black leather accent with a darker gray body) and Teal Woven (medium gray leather with a teal body) in case you are a taste hipper (or not) on the color scale.

The sleeve is well made. The stitching is tight and no loose threads. There is a very small and subtle stamp of the company name on the top flap so you don’t feel like a walking billboard. On the back of the leather accent, there is an imprint of the owl logo for the company. Personally, I would like that in reverse, but if the name is going to be front and center at least it was done nicely and with style. There is a magnetic catch to hold the case closed and under the top flap there is a very small pocket. More on that in a minute. The interior of the sleeve is lined with a microfiber and the bottom of the sleeve has about a 1.5-inch opening.

Depending on the task and the client, I switch frequently between an early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro Retina, a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (12.3-inch screen) and Microsoft Surface Book (13.5-inch screen). According to the information on the front of the package, the sleeve “Fits MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and other 13 inch models”. Going in, my expectations were that the MacBook and the Surface Pro would fit nicely and the Surface Book would be questionable. I started with the first on the list, the MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro Retina

I would have thought that having been called out specifically on the packaging this would have been without question the one that worked. And I was wrong. No matter what I did, I could not get my MacBook in the sleeve and get the flap to lock in place with the magnet. When inserting the laptop I could get it about a third of the way in reasonably easily, but the remainder took quite a bit of effort as did removing the laptop from the sleeve. To be fair, I would hope that over time this would become easier, but I tried this 10 times and each time it was just as difficult as the time before. I have a decal on the front of my MacBook and a few times the friction from removing the laptop caused a part of the decal to come off.

The bigger problem, though, is that when fully inserted the protective flap just can’t close over the top let alone get to a place where the magnet can engage. As you can see in the second picture above, it looks like it should close, but the laptop is just too thick for the sleeve to handle. And that is where the second problem comes in – the front pocket. There is a pocket on the front of the sleeve that is just below the leather trim (where the other part of the magnet is located). At just 6 inches deep, I am not entirely sure what you can store in there – it is too small for an Apple power supply or most mice, and it definitely will not hold papers or writing tools. Plus, when a thick laptop like the MacBook Pro is in the sleeve, anything in the pocket will protrude from the front of the sleeve. There will also be a gap at the opening of the pocket that will serve as a scoop to collect anything rattling around inside a larger bag.

So, on to the Surface Pro 4…

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

My Surface Pro 4 is slightly thinner and smaller than the MacBook Pro, and it is better suited for this sleeve. The tablet hybrid fits snugly all the way in the case and the flap locks nicely in place. When secured, the Surface is protected all the way around except, as expected, at the opening at the bottom.

The tablet is easy to put in and remove from the sleeve, so in this case, the sleeve passes my third test.

The unique hinge on the Surface Book simply laughed at the sleeve and suggested the ridges on the hinge would rip the stitching out of the sleeve. Since it wasn’t really made for this device, I passed on the attempt.

Final Thoughts

So the Laptop Sleeve Extra is smart, stylish and in the case of the Surface Pro, functional. Is it a value for the money, though? At $139.95 retail for the 13″ version, it certainly is pricey. It is made from quality materials and feels well made, but in my opinion not actually worth the price tag especially since it fails at the thing it tells you it does best – fit the MacBook Pro. It protects my Surface Pro in my daily carry bag, but I am not willing to pay the “style tax” that goes along with owning this. At a more reasonable $99.95, I would be an enthusiastic customer.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Bellroy. For more info visit their site and Amazon to order.

Product Information

Price:	12 inch: $129.95; 13 inch: $139.95; 15 inch: $149.95
Manufacturer:	Bellroy
Retailer:	Amazon
Pros:	Stylish Well-made
Cons:	Pricey Fails at its primary mission – the MacBook Pro

Filed in categories: Cases and Covers, Reviews

Tagged: Laptop Sleeve

Bellroy 13-inch Laptop Sleeve Extra review originally appeared on on February 27, 2017 at 8:30 am.

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Prynt case review

In this day and age, it’s nice to still have physical copies of favorite photos to have something tangible to look at on your desk or wall. Prynt brings a polaroid type experience by printing photos straight from your phone. It will also replay a video if you hold your phone over the photo with the Prynt app. Let’s take a look at this nifty case!

I received the Prynt case in white, along with a pack of Zink paper (a special inkless photo paper), instructions, and a microUSB cable to charge the case.

The Prynt case is compatible with the following smartphones:

iPhone 6/6S
iPhone 6/6S Plus
iPhone 5/5S/SE
Samsung Galaxy S5

My iPhone 7 Plus wasn’t listed on the compatibility list, but I was lucky and found it to work just fine!

I made sure to charge the Prynt case with the MicroUSB cable. It only took a couple of hours to fully charge, then I was ready to go. I added the Zink paper into the hatch, which fit one ten-pack at a time.

I had to press this side button to get my iPhone into the case.

Here’s the back of the case with lightning port.

The iPhone 7 Plus fit very snugly into the Prynt, but I had to remove my own iPhone case. It made me a bit nervous to push in, but then I realized I was able to remove the “top” portion of the case by pressing against the two latches, and then snapping the cover back in.

Here I used the Prynt case with the super thin Totallee case, which I’m reviewing soon. It doesn’t sit well, so I recommend to just remove any case altogether.

After downloading the Prynt App from the iOS store, I connected the Prynt case by hitting the shutter button, and it connected automatically.

Here’s a screenshot of what the Prynt app shows you when taking a photo. You can mail a Prynt, physically print it, or edit the photo.

When printing the photos, it comes out of the case near the top of the phone. It’s similar to a Polaroid camera, but the nicer since the photo is printed right away, instead of having to wait for the photo to develop.

I found that when printing my photos, the colors were a bit “washed” out, and not very accurate to what’s on screen. It’s not terrible, but not great.

Here I was playing with the built in photo editor in the Prynt app. They have basic effects such as adjusting light, color and hue, as well as fix redeye, and adding text to the print.

You can do some freehand drawing right on the photo before printing.

You can also create your own memes. This is the best I could do for this coffee setup.

There is a cool feature within the Prynt app where it can record a short video while you’re taking a photo. That six second video that was recorded after the shutter press is actually embedded into the photo. The video plays on the photo itself in augmented reality style when you hold the Prypt app over the physical photo. It’s like AR (Augmented Reality) with your own printed photos and the Prynt. More can be seen on their own website via the “how it works” link.

Overall, I had fun using the Prynt case. I printed a few shots and gave them out to my friends at a party, which was fun, but having the phone in the Prynt case was a pain since it’s so bulky. I think I’d rather have a thinner case or separate printer. I’m going to guess that the next revision of the Prynt will be thinner, and hopefully, the quality of the photos will be better. For now, it’s a lot of fun to have at gatherings and nice to have a physical print of your favorite photos.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Prynt. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

Product Information

Price:	$149.99
Manufacturer:	Prynt
Requirements:	iPhone 6/6S iPhone 6/6S Plus iPhone 5/5S/SE Samsung Galaxy S5
Pros:	Fun to use Never failed to connect
Cons:	Huge in size Photos look washed out and not accurate to digital version

Filed in categories: iOS, Reviews

Tagged: Printer

Prynt case review originally appeared on on February 26, 2017 at 9:45 am.

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Ably Apparel with Filium review

Do you enjoy doing laundry? If you answered yes, then click the back button on your browser because this isn’t a review that you need to read. But if you answered no, then stick with me because Ably Apparel with Filium might have the perfect shirts, hoodies, and sweatpants for your laundry hating heart.

What is it?

Ably Apparel makes clothing that repels odor and stains – for weeks. Their clothing line is made of 100% cotton that is Filium activated. Filium is an eco-friendly technology that makes natural fabrics like cotton repel dirt, stains, liquids and resist odors.

They carry men and women’s garments that include short sleeved t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, zippered jackets, hoodies, and sweatpants.

They sent me a sample of one of their long sleeved women’s t-shirt.

Testing their claims

I knew that I would have a hard time testing their odor claim because it’s very rare for me to have body odor. In fact, I already wear my clothes several times before washing them just because they never smell bad. I know it’s hard to believe, but my workout t-shirts don’t get smelly even when I sweat.

Stains, on the other hand, that’s where I have can have some issues. Especially when it comes to food or condiments that are red like ketchup and tomato sauce. Sometimes I think my shirts have a magnet for stains.

So let’s get to testing the Ably Apparel with Filium.

Instruments of torture

Red cooking wine
Kraft Classic Catalina salad dressing
French’s Classic Yellow Mustard
Heinz Ketchup

Red cooking wine

For test number one, I picked the red cooking wine, which I dripped on the shirt. As you can see, it beaded up perfectly and I was able to touch a tissue to the droplets and it sucked them right off the shirt without staining the shirt.

Result: The red cooking wine was no match for the Ably shirt.

Kraft Classic Catalina salad dressing

Next up is some red colored salad dressing. The drip did not bead up because salad dressing has a much higher viscosity (thickness) to it.

But I used a damp paper towel to wipe off the salad dressing blob with no residue remaining whatsoever.

Result: The Kraft Classic Catalina salad dressing was no match for the Ably shirt.

French’s Classic Yellow Mustard

Test three called for something of a different color… so I chose mustard, which I think is completely disgusting. I apologize to all mustard lovers, but yuck!

I deposited a quick squirt of the nasty substance on the Ably shirt and then followed up with a wet paper towel which smeared the mustard instead of cleaning it off the shirt. I got another wet paper towel and tried wiping at the mess a bit harder, but unfortunately….

The stain remained. If you click the image above, you can just barely make out a yellow streak to the right of the red arrow.

Result: The Ably shirt was no match for the French’s Classic Yellow Mustard.

Heinz Ketchup

Let’s go back to something red. This time I went with my all time clothes staining nemesis, ketchup.

Squirt, swipe with a paper towel, and…

Result: The Heinz ketchup was no match for the Ably shirt.

It wiped off easily with no residue. Wow. Filium, where have you been all my life?

After these tests, I lost a bit of interest and left the shirt in the laundry bin for a couple of days like I also do with my everyday clothes because no one who is “normal” immediately does a load of laundry when they get a stain on a shirt.

A couple days later I washed the Ably shirt with a load of other clothes and unfortunately, I could still barely make out the yellow mustard stain upon very close inspection.

I repeated the entire test with the freshly washed and dried Ably shirt and had the exact same results. Everything red could be cleaned off easily with no residue or resulting stain, but the mustard won again with another streak that I wasn’t able to clean off.

I also wore the shirt for several days during my workouts and checked for odors, but found none as expected.

Then I decided that I should try the same test with a regular 100% cotton shirt without the magic Filium. So I did…

As you can see, the results were not pretty.

Red cooking wine
Kraft Classic Catalina salad dressing
French’s Classic Yellow mustard
Heinz Ketchup

The reason for the large streaks is because that’s what happened when I tried to clean them off using the same method that I used with the Ably shirt. The difference between the Ably garment and another 100% cotton garment without Filium was like night and day.

Final thoughts

If your clothes tend to look like you used your shirt as a napkin, then Ably Apparel with Filium might be just the type of garments you’ve been looking for… that is as long as you stay away from mustard.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Ably Apparel. Please visit their site for more info.

Product Information

Price:	$48 and up
Manufacturer:	Ably
Pros:	Stain resistant Odor resistant Dries quickly
Cons:	Mustard wins

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Clothing

Ably Apparel with Filium review originally appeared on on February 25, 2017 at 9:30 am.

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