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toddlermonitor lets you know when your child opens their bedroom door

NEWS – I’m not a parent and don’t claim to know anything about raising children, but if I was a parent, I’d probably have every baby and kid gadget known to man for both safety and entertainment purposes. The toddlermonitor fits in the first category – safety. It’s a cute motion detector that hangs on a doorknob and sends a notification to your smartphone when your little rugrat escapes opens their bedroom door.

The toddlermonitor device is easy to move from room to room and you can use up to three toddlermonitors at once if you have more than one child.

I can see how some people might think that this is just a gadget for over-protective helicopter parents, but I can see how it would be useful for parents who have kids that are known to sleepwalk or have other sleep issues.

The toddlermonitor is available in 3 colors and can be purchased individually for $89.99 or in 2 and 3 packs at toddlermonitor.com and Amazon.

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toddlermonitor lets you know when your child opens their bedroom door originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 20, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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The 12 Most Secure Email Services for Better Privacy

You can’t have too much privacy in today’s all-seeing Internet of big corporations, nosey governments, and “14 Eyes.” (If you don’t know what that is, do your research!) You don’t need to be a criminal not to want your emails spied on, but to have a guarantee of that, you’ll need to find an email service with your privacy as its main concern. These services are, thankfully, becoming more common, but even among them it’s important to pick out the ones that wouldn’t be able to spy on your data even if they received a government order to. Here are our favorite high-security, high-privacy email… Read more

Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm review

REVIEW – I recently moved to a city that has a very high incidence of vehicle break-ins, and while my 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser isn’t exactly showroom quality, I do worry about its well-being each night. I don’t worry so much that I’d be willing to spend very much money to address the situation though. Enter the very affordable, $49.99 Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm.

What is it?

The Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm is basically a two-port USB car charger that has a passive infrared (PIR) motion detector, 110dB siren, and rechargeable battery all built in. While you drive, the Technaxx charges itself via your car’s cigarette lighter and works as a standard USB car charger. Once your car is turned off though, the TX-100 is powered by an internal battery and you can activate its alarm functions with a paired remote control. Any motion within the car, such as a door opening or window breaking, triggers an ear-piercing siren.

The Technaxx TX-100 comes in a small box with details listed in both English and German. The box has a cutaway view so you can examine the unit, and the interior flap lists the device specs in four more languages.

What’s in the box?

  • 1 Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm
  • 1 Remote control with CR2032 battery
  • 1 User manual

Hardware specs

  • Detection range: Car interior, 120° cone angle
  • Remote control distance: 8m (open areas)
  • Alarm time: 2 minutes maximum
  • Alarm loudness: 110dB
  • USB charging ports: 2 5V/1A ports
  • TX-100 battery: Built-in rechargeable 450mAh lithium polymer battery
  • Remote control battery: Included CR2032 battery
  • Charging time: 3–4 hours
  • Battery standby: 6 days
  • Input voltage: DC 12–24V (cigarette lighter socket)
  • Charging current: 65mA
  • Operating current: 26mA
  • Over current protection: 2.8A
  • Maximum transmission power: 20mW
  • Transmission frequency: 433,92 MHz
  • Dimensions:
    • TX-100: 1.25 in (L) x 1.25 in (W) x 4.52 in (H)
    • Remote control: 2 in (L) x 1.22 in (W) x .4 in (H)

Design and features

The TX-100 doesn’t have a very sturdy build quality, both the unit and the remote control feel very light and quite breakable. Both are made of lightweight ABS plastic and are gray in color.

One clear indication that this isn’t a normal everyday USB car charger is the large shiny plastic PIR dome on the end of the unit.

The other tip-off is the round siren slot located just below the 1A USB charging ports.

The only metal on the device is the charging tip which is inserted into your car’s cigarette lighter socket.

The remote for the TX-100 resembles a typical car alarm fob, just a bit smaller and lighter and with only one button.

The remote comes with a CR2032 battery already installed, to activate the battery you need to pull out a thin plastic tab.

The remote also has a small status indicator light at the top. The light blinks each time the remote button is pressed.

Setup

The initial setup instructions require you to charge the TX-100 fully before its first use, and this was my biggest problem with the unit.

See, the TX-100 take 3-4 hours to fully charge and the ONLY way to charge the unit is via your car’s cigarette lighter or an external cigarette lighter power adapter. And since I, like most people, don’t have an external cigarette lighter adapter, it took me about five days of commuting with the TX-100 plugged in before it was fully charged and ready to use.

There’s no reason why this unit couldn’t be designed with a micro USB charging port or the ability to take a charge via one of the USB ports. It was extremely frustrating to have the TX-100 plugged in and glowing red, indicating that it was still charging, for close to a week before I was able to properly test it. I have about a 35 minute commute to work each way, so depending on the length of your daily commute, the TX-100 will charge faster or slower.

Once the TX-100 is finally fully charged, the red light will shut off and the first thing to do is pair the remote. Pairing is only possible in the first five seconds after you plug the fully charged TX-100 into the cigarette lighter socket. Press and hold the button on the remote until you hear four beeps. The light will blink blue and after you hear the beeps, the remote will be paired with your car alarm. If you want to, you can pair one remote control with more than one TX-100.

Performance

In my testing, the two USB 1A charging ports proved pretty inefficient for charging iPhones or Android Pixels. I’m not sure if this was because newer phones require more than 1A to charge effectively or if charging the internal battery of the TX-100 simultaneously affected the ports’ ability to provide power.

The TX-100 did work great as a car alarm though. Granted, there were no attempts to break into my car during my testing, as far as I know, but each time I opened my car door while the TX-100 was activated, the siren was triggered immediately. I was worried that the TX-100 might get triggered by movement outside of the car windows, but despite my best efforts, I couldn’t trip it without opening the car doors.

It was also easy to activate the alarm once I left my car because the TX-100 provides an audible confirmation beep and a five second activation window. I did occasionally forget to deactivate the alarm before I got into my car each morning because I’m used to just using the car’s key fob to unlock it and having to remember to then hit the car alarm fob as well was too much for my sleep deprived brain to handle.

When the TX-100 is armed, the blue light flashes every five seconds. If activity is detected, blue light flashes quickly and the siren sounds continuously for about two minutes. In theory, a thief could immediately snatch a triggered, screaming TX-100 from the cigarette lighter socket, throw it to the ground, and smash it pretty quickly. But for the price point, that’s a chance you need to be willing to take.

Since the unit runs off the internal battery while the car is off, the battery needs to recharge. My daily commute time proved just enough to top the battery off each day for it to be able work overnight. To conserve battery power or to store, it is possible to completely shut the unit off by pressing and holding the remote button for four seconds.

What I like

  • Affordable alarm for late model cars
  • Easy to operate
  • Works reliably

What I’d change

  • Takes way too long to charge initially via cigarette lighter, should be able to charge with a USB cable as well
  • Poor build quality
  • Charging ports are low-powered and inefficient

Final thoughts

The Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm is an ingenious, affordable, and reliable way to secure your car and possibly prevent theft. Although, the small size of the unit and the fact that can be easily spotted and removed has me questioning its ultimate practicality. An additional charging option would be useful and the construction of the unit is a bit lacking. But, at $49.99 this item might be a good preventative measure for those who have late model cars and live in areas where car break-ins are common.

Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Technaxx.

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Technaxx TX-100 Car Alarm review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 13, 2019 at 10:30 am.

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Beachsafe keeps your stuff secure and your phone cool

NEWS – Do you always worry that someone might mess with your stuff when you’re walking on the beach or swimming in the pool? Beachsafe is a portable lockable safe that you can use to store and secure your valuables when you’re not right there with them. It features a stainless steel cable, and a 4 digit combination lock.

But the features that make the Beachsafe interesting to me is that it also has a built-in charger and a fan to keep your phone juiced up and protect it from baking in the sun.

Available in four bright colors, the Beachsafe is made in the USA, priced at $59.99 and is available now at thebeachsafe.com.

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Beachsafe keeps your stuff secure and your phone cool originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 4, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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Firewalla review


REVIEW – By now, almost everyone who uses an internet connected device knows something about the dangers that lurk online. For those of us that have children, there is or should be a greater sense of awareness and desire to monitor and control what content they are exposed to, at least when they are home in an environment that we can control. I have tried a couple of firewall devices in the past, but they required major configuration and they came preset to block traffic that actually was required for some online college portals and other needed websites. The process of reconfiguring them was very tedious and ultimately, I unplugged them. I just got an opportunity to test and review a similar device called Firewalla. Let’s see if it is more of the same or a more user-friendly yet effective device and experience.

What is it?

The Firewalla Red is a Cyber Security Firewall device that is designed mostly for home use. Its features include network protection from Viruses & Malware, Parental Control, the blocking of unwanted Ads, and a free VPN Server. It connects directly to your router via its 100Mbs Ethernet port and there is no associated monthly fee. There is also a Firewalla Blue device that offers additional features and is designed with business users as its focus.

What’s in the box


1 x Firewalla Red
1 x Ethernet Cable
1 x Micro USB Cable and AC Adapter
1 x Information Card

Design and features

Specifications
Dedicated hardware for cybersecurity at 100 Mbit
Quad-Core 32bit 1.0 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 16GB SD Storage

Features

    • Auto-blocking: automatically block malicious sites
    • Device Management: manage who can get on the network, and what they can do when on the network.
    • Multiple apps manage one Firewalla: allow you to manage firewalla from anywhere in the world
    • Bandwidth Usage: prevent internet over usage, know your bandwidth usage from minutes to days to a month
    • Internal and External vulnerability scans: allow you to manage “open doors” in your network
    • Dynamic DNS: allows you to safely expose certain internet services
    • Alarm Management: easily view, allow, block, and archive alarms
    • Content Filtering and activity detection: always know what each device is doing

COMPLETE CYBERSECURITY PROTECTION – “Firewalla’s unique intrusion prevention system (IDS and IPS) protects all of your home wire and wireless internet of things devices from threats like viruses, malware, hacking, phishing, and unwanted data theft when you’re using public WiFi.”

One one side of the Firewalla, there is a USB port and an Ethernet port. The ethernet port connects to your router.

The micro USB port seen below is used for power via the micro USB cable and the provided wall adapter or you can also connect Firewalla Box to any power source that has 2A current. To the right of the power port, there is the installed SD storage.

There are air vents on the other 2 sides of the device.

At the bottom of the device, there is a QR Code that you scan via the Firewalla app to initiate the setup process.

Performance

This device is very easy to set up and use. I simply downloaded and installed the app from the IOS app store. Android is also supported. I then plugged in the device and scanned the QR code on the bottom of the device from within the app. The rest of the setup was automatic, and with a few selections like the mode option, in my case, I chose the Enhanced Mode (Beta), everything was operational. The operation and features of this device are better showcased via the following screenshots from the app:















Important note: COMPATIBILITY: This is * Firewalla RED * (NOT THE FIREWALLA BLUE), The IPS functionality is limited to 100 Mbits. The manufacturer suggests that not all routers are compatible with Firewalla. Click here to view the router compatibility list. You msy be required to log in to your router to do the basic configuration.

What I like

  • Compact size
  • Ease of installation
  • Ease of use
  • Performance

What I’d change

  • I would prefer an included hard copy basic user guide

Final thoughts

The Firewall was very easy to install, and so far I like it much better than other similar devices that I have tried. It is set up wide-open in its initial state, so you get to observe and make choices as you go as opposed to others that have preset values that can be a headache to configure if the setup is complicated. I have read reviews that suggest that this device slows down the network, but I have not experienced that, and it has been simple and easy to use. I would prefer that a hard copy manual is included as opposed to having to look for the desired info on their website, but so far it is doing a good job and in my opinion, it gets a thumbs up!!

Price: $119
Where to buy: Amazon
Sample: The sample for this review was provided by Firewalla

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Firewalla review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 23, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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