REVIEW – I have lost count of how many portable gyms and gym-like devices I have purchased over the years that have promised to fit into my busy schedule and to provide a relatively quick full body workout that will keep me fit. One way or another they have fallen short of the goal either because they did not live up to their promise or they were not as portable or as easy to use as expected. I have all but given up on these types of devices and I use my treadmill as much as I can. But now, I see a new device that has gained my interest enough for me to try one more time. Let’s see if the OYO Fitness Gym can earn any redemption for its counterparts or if it ends up in the historic pile in the corner of my storage room.
What is it?
The OYO Fitness Gym LE is a total body gym that weighs 2 lbs. but produces up to 25 lbs. of resistance for training and exercise. It can be folded to fit in your EDC bag or large pocket so that you can use it on the go wherever and whenever you choose to.
What’s in the box
1 x OYO Personal Gym LE
1 x Door Attachment
3 x Flexpacks
2 x Leg Attachments
1 x Product Guide
Design and features
When you open the OYO Fitness box, the inside cover reveals a quick start guide describing how to attach the flexpacks.
The picture below shows the OYO Fitness Gym with 2 flexpacks attached. The first flexpack must be a 10lb resistance pack and a total of 3 flexpacks come with the gym. OYO Fitness does not sell additional flexpacks separately. You can also see that in the second picture below, the gym can be collapsed into a very portable package.
In the close-up picture below of the flexpack, on one side there is the center spindle with internal gears that lines up with the other flexpacks which allow them to connect to each other. The red arrow shows the marking for the correct orientation to add each flexpack to the other. There are 3 holes that accept the “legs” from other flexpacks as a part of the securing mechanism. On the flipside of the flexpack, there is the gear spindle with external that protrudes and connects to another flexpack and three notched “legs” that also connect and secure the flexpacks to each other.
The following picture shows the 2 included straps that connect to each side of the OYO gym and allow the gym to be strapped to your legs or arms for different types of exercises.
The other included strap allows you to attach to a door or pole or other objects for various exercises.
Performance
When I opened the OYO Fitness gym box, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of each component and the compact size. The instructions are clear and you can get started right away. Adding and removing the Flexpacks to adjust the resistance is quite easy and the basic exercises can all be performed with just the OYO and the Flexpacks. OYO includes straps that allow you to attach the gym to a door or any such structure to accomplish pulley type exercises that you would normally do with a larger gym system. At first, I was skeptical about whether or not this compact device could actually provide enough resistance to even make most folks break a sweat, but I soon found out that it is quite capable of doing so and very versatile. It gives me a full workout and can be used by the enthusiast, the occasional visitor, or the fitness fanatic.
The following are some of the exercises performed by my model:
One issue I did experience is that the rotation of the spindle with the gears in the center of the flexpack changed and I could not attach it to any other flexpack. Once I recognized what had happened. I used an adjustable wrench to turn it back to the correct orientation. It did take some effort to do so.
What I like
The compact size
The versatility
The build quality
The portability
What can be improved
Ability to add more flexpacks
Flexpack spindles go out of orientation and tools are needed to fix them
Final thoughts
With each day that goes by, life gets even busier and dedicating time to workout without interruptions or within my hectic schedule often leads to a great plan that becomes very short-lived. As I get older, using heavy weights or even many of the machines and equipment that a conventional gym offers is not as desirable or as necessary as it used to be as when I was much younger. While the OYO Fitness Gyum does not replace a Planet Fitness or that type of gym, my experience with it has been great for my goals. I am able to keep my muscles working, do some resistance and cardio (via repetitions) training and there is enough built-in versatility to get a complete fitness workout. It is not a bodybuilding gym but it fulfills its purpose of allowing me to workout whenever and wherever my schedule allows and it is compact enough to go with me without becoming a burden. This is another type of device that is individually subjective, and while it may not be a fit for all, it does a great job for me, and enough so that they get two thumbs up. Looking forward to the next version with the ability to add even more resistance.
Price: $149.95 (Other versions are available at different prices) Where to buy: OYO Fitness and Amazon Source: The sample for this review was provided by OYO Fitness
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NEWS – Yes, the title does say you can add a hub to an iPad Pro! Satechi has a new USB-C hub that works with the new 2018 iPad Pro models and with most Type-C smartphones and tablets. With the hub, you’ll be able to attach peripherals easily. The connectors include:
4K HDMI: allows for seamless presentations, conference calls, and video streaming on-the-go.
USB-C PD 3.0 CHARGING: keeps the iPad Pro and other Type-C compatible products powered while running high-performance applications. It can also be used as a power bank to charge other USB-C devices while away from an outlet.
3.5MM HEADPHONE JACK: restores the ability to connect to a pair of 3.5mm wired headphones.
EXTRA USB 3.0 PORT: for fast data transfer (up to 5Gbs) or to connect a USB keyboard to the iPad Pro or other compatible Type-C tablet.
The Aluminum Mobile Type-C Pro Hub is $59.99 in silver or space gray from Satechi and Amazon.
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Free web hosting isn’t a smart option (very limited).
The popularity of free web hosting has exploded in recent years.
And it’s easy to see why – with all the different expenses required to run a successful website, it’s tempting to try and cut costs wherever possible to stay within your budget.
And what’s more budget-friendly than free web hosting, right?
Well, not exactly…
Free web hosts aren’t always what they market themselves to be. Tight restrictions they place on bandwidth, storage capacity, server speed, and uptimes can make your new site all but unusable.
But don’t worry… we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. In this review, we compare 7 free hosting options to help you find the best fit for your site.
After nearly 15 years in business and a client base of more than 29,000,000 people spread across 178 countries, Hostinger has become one of the free web hosting industry’s most dominant players.
Ok, so they aren’t technically “free”…
… But at only $1.45/month for their limited shared hosting plan they’re still one of the most budget-friendly web hosts on the market.
With average load times of only 345ms (the second best we’ve ever recorded), they’re also one of the fastest.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Even their most basic plan comes armed to teeth with a whole bag of goodies including:
1 MySQL database
1 FTP user
Access to their website builder
One click install of WordPress or other CMS
A free domain name for 1 year
24/7 customer support (seriously, it’s one of the best)
100GB of Bandwidth and 10GB of Disk Space
One free email account
And, if the needs of your site outgrow the limits of their basic hosting plan, you can always upgrade to their premium shared hosting plan and get unlimited websites, email accounts, and bandwidth (not to mention 2x the memory and weekly backups) for less than a pack of gum.
Limitations
One of the only major annoyances we had while reviewing Hostinger is that their user interface doesn’t give you access to a classic cPanel…
Instead, you’ll get a slightly downgraded made-in-house interface called the hPanel.
It’s not our favorite user interface, but – considering the exceptional speeds, customer support, and features – we’re hard-pressed not to hold it against them.
Hostinger’s “shared plan” average uptime and load time in 2018:
Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
With some of the fastest speeds we’ve ever seen and uptimes on par with those of HostGator’s Cloud, Hostinger is the best “almost free” host that we’ve ever reviewed.
“Zero cost web hosting with PHP, MySQL, cPanel, and no ads!”.
That’s the marketing slogan of 000webhost.com, Hostinger’s partner company and one of the top-rated free web hosts in the world.
Now, if it sounds just a little too good to be true – IT IS!
Yes, 000WebHost offers impressive speeds (especially for a shared free host) and their no-ads policy makes for a much cleaner and friendlier user experience.
Unfortunately, these two factors alone simply aren’t enough to compensate for the myriad of other limitations.
*Note: It’s worth mentioning that 000WebHost experienced a massive security breach back in 2015 where the private information of more than 13,000,000 customers was leaked.
Limitations
Of the many problems that we experienced while reviewing 000WebHost, none was more prevalent or frustrating than their utterly unusable uptimes.
With an average uptime of only 97.06% you can expect to experience at least an hour of downtime on your site… every. single. day. Think of all the traffic and sales you’ll lose.
To make matters worse, you’re also limited to a mere 10GB of bandwidth, 1Gb of disk space. To top it off, there is no email or live chat customer support to assist you in the (all but certain) event you encounter a problem with their service.
Here’s 000WebHost free plan average uptime and load time in 2018:
Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
Despite having admittedly impressive speeds, with such horrible uptimes and heavy limitations, we cannot recommend 000WebHost to anyone unless it’s an absolute necessity.
With only 200,000 customers, InfinityFree is a relatively small player in the web hosting game.
Despite their small client base, they’ve managed to carve out a reputation for themselves as the most feature-rich free web host on the market.
Even though you will undoubtedly experience some problems with their service, this reputation is well earned.
InfinityFree comes with a free SSL certificate with all plans (a very nice bonus), no front-end ads a free CloudFlare CDN, 10 email accounts, 1 FTP account, unlimited bandwidth and storage space, and 400 MySQL databases. It’s safe to say that InfinityFree gives you a big bang for your unpaid buck.
But when you skim through their terms of service and acceptable use policies, things start to get a little more “interesting”.
Limitations
What InfinityFree doesn’t advertise on their website is that their offers of “unlimited” bandwidth and storage space come with some seriously limited restrictions.
In their terms of service, they place significant (and intentionally ambiguous) restrictions on the types of content and files you’re allowed to upload and the amount of the so-called “unlimited” bandwidth that your site can use.
And the best part?
The penalty for non-compliance with the limitations on their “unlimited” offer is the suspension or elimination of your website and data – Ouch!
Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the months
Although we are still running our own tests to gather more concrete data on the real uptimes and load times of InfinityFree’s hosting, a perfunctory glance at the other reviews around the web suggest they fall squarely into the box of “passable but not exceptional.”
With more than 10 years in the free hosting game and the promise to provide a free “full web hosting suite” that includes unlimited bandwidth and storage, PHP, MySQL, cPanel access, and one-click installation for over 30 third-party applications, x10Hosting sounds like something straight out of a frugal geek’s dream.
However, as seems to be the case with every free web host, x10Hosting makes some pretty bold claims that it simply cannot backup (as well as the data on your website).
Limitations
The unlimited bandwidth and storage are admirable, as well as their uptimes impeccable, and their speeds are solidly above average. Nevertheless, when you read the fine print, you will quickly realize that – as has been the case with every host on this list – “unlimited” is a far stretch in this case.
Since x10Hosting maintains the right to suspend your account in the event that your usage is “too high” (a term they conveniently fail to define), it’s safe to assume that you can expect significantly greater restrictions than the company advertises.
After briefly checking other web hosting forums and review sites we found countless customer complaints of “inexplicably” deleted websites, incompetent customer support and unusable features, confirming our sneaking suspicion that x10 doesn’t quite live up to their lofty promises.
With over 2.5 million customers and 15 years in the web hosting business, AwardSpace has carved out a name for itself as one of the top free hosting providers available.
From their 100% ad-free hosting to the MySQL database, 24/7 customer service (an admittedly enticing bonus), one-click CMS (WordPress/Joomla) installation and 99% uptime guarantee – everything looks amazing.
Unfortunately, when you pull back the curtain and actually try to use their free hosting plan, the reality is a bit disappointing.
Limitations
Although AwardSpace does a few things well, there are several glaring issues with their free hosting which prevent them from serving as a viable option for any serious webmasters.
For starters, free users are limited to only 1 GB of disk space and 5GB of bandwidth. It means that your new site will be little more than a glorified “demo” of AwardSpace’s premium hosting packages.
There are also a few disconcerting lines of legal jargon in their ToS that seem to give them permission to sell off your data to third-party vendors.
None if it really matters since the biggest problem with AwardSpace is the abysmally slow load times which average close to 1500 ms.
With nearly a decade in the web hosting business and 15,000 customers, a European company, FreeHosting.com has grown in popularity over the past few years. Nonetheless, as we’ve seen time and time again – popularity and performance aren’t always correlated.
Equipped with unmetered bandwidth (granted your website complies with their rather stringent acceptable use policy), a multilingual cPanel, 10 GB of disk space, one email account, and a MySQL database, FreeHosting.com seems like one of the better free hosts available.
As is axiomatic with free web hosts, the endless stream of technical issues posed by FreeHosting’s service makes it all but unusable.
Limitations
With abysmally slow load times that border on the 2-second mark – it’s one of the worst uptimes we’ve ever seen (seriously… they’re AWFUL), and countless customer complaints of deleted websites and non-responsive customer service, FreeHosting.com is yet another web host that makes big promises but ultimately fails to uphold any of them.
While FreeHostia may set itself apart from the competition with its unique plan names (who knew you could buy “Chocolate” web hosting?) and load-balanced server clusters – which allows for increased load times across the company’s assets – these unique “features” don’t do very much to improve the quality of their hosting.
Their customer service has earned many glowing recommendations in recent years, they offer 3 free email accounts and up to 5 hosted domains (a rarity in the free web hosting space). Yet, these enticing offers aren’t nearly enough to offset the hefty restrictions and performance issues with which you’ll be faced.
Limitations
The biggest problem with Freehostia’s free hosting is the restrictions they place on your storage and bandwidth.
With a paltry 250MB of storage and 6GB of bandwidth, even the most minimalist of webmasters will struggle to build a site that contains more than a few images and a line or two of plain text.
However, the real nails in the coffin are the unreliable uptimes and incredibly slow speeds.
Freehostia might work for hosting a simple test site or low traffic blog… Nevermind – even that might be pushing it.
Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
Although the uptimes and load times aren’t the worst we’ve seen (they’re still pretty bad), there’s no reason to use a company like FreeHostia when you have so many other decent service providers available.
Why We Recommend Avoiding Free Hosting Services
Although the providers we’ve shared in this guide are among the best in the industry (which sadly isn’t saying much), even the most reputable of free web hosts struggle to live up to their promises and instead present their “customers” with slow, unreliable, and often unusable websites that stand no chance of succeeding in today’s hyper-competitive online space.
Also, they can delete your website (or online business) within seconds, leaving you no control…
So, does this mean that hope is lost for the low-budget webmaster-to-be?
Not quite…
Best Alternatives for Free Web Hosting
With the tight restrictions on bandwidth, storage, and basic features like email accounts and website installations, free hosts might talk a big game, but at the end of the day will leave you with a shell of a site that is unable to meet even the most basic performance standards required to run a successful business website.
However, as advances in server technology and competition in the marketplace have driven hosting providers to offer more and more competitive services and prices, you can secure fast and reliable hosting with truly unlimited bandwidth and storage for pennies on the dollar.
In fact, with the plethora of new-customer discounts and other offers, you can easily buy 2-3 years of web hosting for less than $100.
So if you didn’t find anything good on this list, we recommend you to browse our cheap web hosts.
NEWS – I received an email a few days ago informing me that my DirecTV monthly service is going to have a price increase in January. To say that I was annoyed by this email is an understatement given the fact that I’ve been with DirecTV for at least 20 years and they continually raise their prices. If that’s not bad enough, since their big firmware update this past spring or summer, the DVR’s electronic programming guide is buggy as heck. Half the time the shows and movies that were previously recorded don’t show up on my list unless I reboot the DVR. Add that to the fact that there’s a line item on my monthly bill for HD content when 99% of all content has been HD for years, I’m just ready to cut the cord.
I already stream some movies and shows with the big guys like Netflix and Hulu, but I haven’t been able to cut the DirecTV cord because Jeanne, my significant other, has several favorite programs on stations that aren’t on either of those streaming platforms. Or if they are, they don’t have the latest episodes.
Philo is a new streaming TV service that focuses on entertainment, knowledge, and lifestyle channels, the exact kind of programming that Jeanne likes and they are running a special holiday deal of $99 for six months of top entertainment programming, including channels like the Hallmark Channel, A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Lifetime, Logo, MTV Live, History Channel, Nickelodeon, TLC, Travel Channel, VH1, Viceland, and more.
You can stream through your computer’s browser, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, iOS, Android, and more to come.
Philo stands out from the streaming service crowd because it features 43 popular channels for only $16.50 a month, plus an additional 12 channels for a $4 add-on. Compare that to the $125 a MONTH that I pay for DirecTV programming which does not include any premium movie channels, and it’s almost a no-brainer to sign up at that price. Visit Philo.com for more info.
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NEWS – 2019 is nearly upon us, and for many of us, it’s a time for making resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are easy to make but all too often hard to keep. The Time Since Launch Clock is here to help you mark and hopefully keep them.
This unique time-capsule clock counts up the days from a single moment. It’s the perfect way to keep you on track to achieving those New Years resolutions. Whether it’s the day you start working out, start a new career, or quit smoking. It all starts when you pull the stainless-steel launch pin on the Time Since Launch Clock.
This initiates the clocks timer and the moment is burned into a chip. And it will actually keep counting up to 2,738 years!
TSL’s design was actually inspired by astronaut John Glenn who started a stopwatch when he launched into space, becoming the first American to orbit the earth.
The clock is made of precision-machined metals, and the timepiece is enclosed inside of durable borosilicate glass.
The Time Since Launch Clock sells for $160 and is available from Uncommon Good.
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