TaoTronics standing desk review

The TaoTronics Height-Adjustable Standing Desk provides great value in a space-saving vertical lift design. Whether you are looking for a boost in productivity or exploring the health benefits of standing, this desk will be a great addition to your home or office workspace.

What is it?

The TaoTronics Height-Adjustable Standing Desk is a pneumatic assisted standing desk converter that lifts and lowers smoothly to any position you need. Switching from sitting to standing is as easy as a press of a lever.

What’s in the box?

Standing desk
Keyboard shelf
Brackets, Screws and Hex Keys
User Guide

Design and features

The TaoTronics standing desk features a space-saving vertical lift design which doesn’t encroach on your floor space like some other designs that move outward when raised. Raising straight up above your normal workspace, it provides a compact and ergonomic workspace.

Supporting up to 80 lbs, the standing desk is strong enough for multiple monitors, speakers, and more. The desk also has a height range of up to 12 inches above your desk surface.


The desk’s upper surface footprint of 32 x 24 inches provides a lot of surface space for all the things you might want to have at eye level, However, this may also be a disadvantage for some people that may not have a desk that is very deep. The desk requires a 23 x 25 inch area to sit on, and the total area of the upper surface and the keyboard shelf is 32 x 33 inches.

The desk is operated by squeezing the levers on each side and pulling up or pushing down. This is somewhat of a disadvantage to an electrically operated desk, as it requires both hands to operate. The upside to this type of mechanism is that it’s much faster to operate than an electrical one.


The keyboard shelf is adjustable by simply turning a knob, and is also easily removable if you wish to use your keyboard on your desk surface or on the surface of the standing desk.

There’s also a slot in the upper desk surface, it’s for tablets and phones. That’s a pretty handy feature. There are no monitor arm mounting holes, but the frame design does allow for a clamp-style monitor arm on the back edge.


What I like

  • Large footprint
  • Option to easily remove the keyboard shelf
  • Tablet and phone slot
  • Beveled edges
  • Range of adjustment
  • 80 lb capacity
  • Excellent height range
  • Ease of assembly
  • Sturdiness

What needs to be improved

  • Lift mechanism requires two hands to operate.
  • Sometimes sticks slightly when at the lowered position.
  • No monitor holes for a monitor arm.
  • No cable routing. You’re pretty much left to yourself on figuring out where to run the cables for your computer equipment. Although a few zip ties help, it would be nice if it included some kind of cable routing solution to both make it easier and neater.

Final thoughts

With the plethora of standing desks on the market today and the various designs and mechanisms they employ, you’ll probably want to do some research to see which one would best fit your needs. That being said, you’d probably be pretty happy with this one.

Price: $249.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by TaoTronics

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TaoTronics standing desk review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 3, 2018 at 2:00 pm.

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Empower women by purchasing this beautiful smartphone stand

This beautiful, hand-carved smartphone stand helps empower women while you power your phone.  The stand is carved with a tree design from brown mango wood and stands 3.25″ wide x 5.75″ deep x 8″ tall.  Two holes route charging cables, and you can disassemble or fold the stand flat for easy carrying.

A group called Matr Boomie in India brings this beautiful stand to Levenger, who says: “Guided by a deep respect for Mother Nature, Matr Boomie is committed to using eco-friendly and ethically sourced materials. Each product is handcrafted to honor the traditional Indian art forms. Their efforts have provided sustainable employment and ongoing education for over 1,000 artisans throughout India.  They hope to empower women and those in marginalized communities by connecting them to global markets, alleviating poverty and promoting sustainability. They also invest in development projects, skills training, healthcare, and more. ”

The Carved Mango Wood Smart Phone Stand is $49.00 at Levenger.

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Empower women by purchasing this beautiful smartphone stand originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 3, 2018 at 1:00 pm.

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The iFootage Cobra 2 C180 Carbon Fiber Monopod is a nice addition to your photo/video gear


Staying on the subject of monopods, I found another interesting one that I think is worth mentioning, and has its own place in the photo/video gear box.

The iFootage Cobra 2 C180 Carbon Fiber Monopod is not necessarily considered a small footprint monopod for traveling or for easily attaching to a backpack, but its features are great, and it would work well on location. It does come in two sizes, but for this news story, I will be focusing on the larger one that when fully extended reaches a height of 70.9 inches, and when collapsed is still reasonably small at 27.8 inches. The leg has 4 sections and uses “buckle-like” leg locks. It can support a load up to 22 pounds, and the mounting plate includes both ¼”-20 and 3/8”-16 threaded studs to accommodate just about any tripod head. At the base of the monopod there are 3 feet that provide stability. The base has a lock, and includes a knob that allows you to adjust and apply the correct amount of friction to accommodate the weight of your camera. The base is also completely removable. The feet have a button release that either allows them to fold up completely, or at specific angles of 20, 50 or 78 degrees. Despite its size, this monopod weighs only 3 pounds. If necessary, the entire base-foot section can be removed, and the monopod can be used as low-angle minipod.

If you would like to take a closer look at the iFootage Cobra 2 C180 Carbon Fiber Monopod, you can head over to B&H photo video and check it out. You can also purchase it there for $179.

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The iFootage Cobra 2 C180 Carbon Fiber Monopod is a nice addition to your photo/video gear originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 3, 2018 at 12:00 pm.

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Easily clean pet hair off of carpet with the OXO Good Grips Furlifter Carpet Rake

Pets shed a lot. Enough to make you think you could make a completely new Fido with all that fur, right? And cleaning up all that fur is the pits. It’s worse if your home has a lot of carpeting because that means you have to pull out the vacuum. If you dread this torturous task, you may want to try the Oxo Good Grips Furlifter Carpet Rake.

The Furlifter Carpet Rake is a double-sided microfiber brush that you pull across your carpet to pick up pet hair. To clean it, you pull the brush into its bin then push it out. No refills required! It stores in an upright position when retracted into its bin. Reviewers on Amazon have said that it works really well, but needs to be cleaned often, has a short handle, and you have to scoop the fur out of the bin instead of being able to just dump it out. The Oxo Good Grips Furlifter Carpet Rake is available through Amazon for $32.59.

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Wofalodata Fast Wireless Charger review


What is it?

The Wofalodata Fast Wireless Charger is a 2 in 1 wireless charging pad with a kickstand that meets the QI fast charging technology standard.

What’s in the box

Package contents:

1 x Wireless charger
1 x Kickstand
1 x Micro USB cable
1 x Instruction booklet

Design and features

The Wofalodata Fast Wireless Charger is a small and compact wireless charger that conforms to the QI wireless charging technology standard. It is made up of a wireless charging pad and a removable kickstand that can be neatly tucked away in the back.

On the side, there is a micro USB port that accommodates the included micro USB cable to supply power to the pad for charging.

On the front of the charging pad, there is a LED light. When the charger is first plugged in, the LED blinks red and then goes to a steady blue when it is ready to provide charging. The instructions suggest that you can place your phone in a horizontal or vertical position, but I found that with my iPhone 8Plus, it was awkward and would tend to want to tip over. The vertical position did not seem to allow the larger phone to make good contact with the charging pad. Horizontally, it fit well, but that is as far as the good news goes when trying to charge my iPhone 8Plus. Once I placed my phone to charge, it would initially charge for approximately 2 minutes with the steady blue LED light, and the blue LED would start blinking for about 90 seconds and then the LED would turn red and the phone would stop charging. After a few seconds, the LED would turn blue again, and start charging again. This cycle of events continued until I removed the phone from the charger, and occurred each of the dozen or so times I tried.
Now it is important to note that I have at least 3 other Qi wireless charging pads, 2 of which are cheap no frills pads, and one is a more expensive Samsung pad. Irrespective of the make, they all perform flawlessly. This issue that I experienced with this charging pad is unexplainable.

After deciding to no longer risk trying to charge my iPhone on this pad, I tried an old Samsung Galaxy 6 phone, and that worked without issue. In about 30 minutes, the Samsung charged approximately 30 percent.

What I like

  • Wireless charger is lightweight
  • Nice and convenient Kickstand

What can be improved

  • Wireless charger must be able to charge all cell phones that meet the QI wireless charging standards.

Final thoughts

There are numerous inexpensive wireless chargers available today, and each one needs to meet the basic criteria for wireless charging to be considered for purchase. While this charger is lightweight and has a nice compact form factor, the issues I experienced with it when trying to charge my iPhone 8Plus, make it a “no go” for me.

Price: $12.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Wofalodata.

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Wofalodata Fast Wireless Charger review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 3, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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