Should Social Media Continue to Rely on “Likes?”

At one point Facebook was just a strict messaging system. There were no threaded comments and no Like buttons. But now the system has progressed to where the approval people get or don’t get makes some feel bad. This has led the Facebook-owned Instagram to try out a system of hiding the number of Likes on some posts, and now Facebook is considering the same. Should social media continue to rely on “Likes?” Our Opinion Andrew admits social media is free to evolve however they’d like, but he thinks the Like function is popular for… Read more

How to Set and List Environment Variables in Linux

It used to be that to use Linux you needed to immediately familiarize yourself with the command line. Desktop environments like GNOME and KDE have made using Linux much easier for beginners. You could use Linux for a long time without knowing a single terminal command. Eventually, though, you’ll want to do something that will require use of the command line, and once you dive in here, you’ll eventually need to know about environment variables. This might seem like an arcane term, but environment variables are easy to understand. Related: 17 Fun Linux Commands to Run in the Terminal… Read more

FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car review

REVIEW – The FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car is not your typical radio-controlled car, it’s a radio-controlled boat too. That’s what caught my eye and was the reason I had to try it out. And was it worth it? You bet! This car was totally fun to play with and seems to be pretty well made. It does actually drive on water, believe it or not. Will it last? Who knows, but it will be a blast to play with until then!

What is it?

The FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car-Boat-Truck is a radio-controlled car (or boat or truck) with very large wheels that has full function controls (but no brakes), including 360 rotation, and drives on many different types of terrain. It is waterproof and will drive on the water. 

What’s in the box?

  • Amphibious 4WD Radio-Controlled Car
  • Remote Control
  • USB Charging Cable
  • Operating Instructions
  • 6 V/700 mAh Nickel-Cadmium Battery
  • Screwdriver

Hardware specs

  • Waterproof
  • 2.4Ghz Anti-Interference Frequency Remote Technology
  • 6 V/700 mAh Nickel-Cadmium battery – 2 hours charging time will power the car for more than 20 minutes

Design and features

The FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car-Boat-Truck has a pretty cool-looking design, is made of plastic, and has large wheels that have a rubber track for gripping the surface. The wheels are large enough to let the car flip over and drive upside down. The car comes in green, blue, or red.

The top of the car has a fluorescent green silicone On/Off button as shown above. There is also an LED indicator light (the small white circle behind the On/Off button which is actually a silicone covering for the light). The battery compartment is located on the bottom of the car and is watertight. There are also drain ports to allow water to be removed (the green circular silicone plugs seen on the body of the car in the photo above).


The remote control unit is a gun-type design where the trigger is the accelerator. There is a red On/Off switch located on the left side of the remote control (shown in the first photo above) and a red LED indicator light on the right side of the remote (shown in the second photo above).

When both the car and the remote are powered on, pulling the trigger allows you to drive the car forward and pushing the trigger out allows you to drive in reverse. A turn knob is located on the right side of the remote that allows you to steer the car to the right or left. The remote control needs two AA batteries which do NOT come with the car.

The car requires a nickel-cadmium battery that DOES come with the car. You first need to remove the screws of the battery compartment located on the bottom of the car, connect the battery to the connector inside the compartment, lay the battery flat inside the compartment, then screw the battery cover back on.

Immediately, I could see that recharging the batteries would be a pain – requiring me to open the battery compartment, disconnect the battery, connect the battery to the other end of the USB charging cable, then find a USB charging port to charge the battery. The nickel-cadmium battery is a 6.0 V/700 mAh battery. You can also see in the above photo that there is a silicone ring around the battery compartment to make it watertight.

Performance

We had absolutely no difficulty with any of the controls. Every control feature worked as designed. The car is fairly easy to control, although it took some practice to get the hang of it. I first tried it inside our house, which was a bit difficult since the car goes so fast that it is easy to run out of space. It is much easier outside on a street where there is plenty of space.

This car moves pretty fast (we didn’t confirm the speed, but the specs say 16 mph).

When you hold the trigger down the car moves very fast in either the forward or reverse direction (with all four wheels turning), depending on which way you pull or push the trigger. Given the way the car is designed (the front of the car looks very similar to the back of the car), it is sometimes difficult to tell which is forward or reverse. There also isn’t any way to adjust the speed. It either moves at full speed or not at all.

Brakes aren’t really needed since the car comes to a stop fairly quickly when the trigger is released. As the car is moving, the turning knob on the remote control will allow turning, and as long as there is adequate space. When turning the car this way, the controller stops the wheels from spinning on one side, and since the car is moving very fast, it will turn fairly quickly. The turn knob spring-returns to the center position when you let go of it, and does not provide precision steering control. It is more like a three position switch where it is either in the left position (only right side wheels are spinning), center position (all wheels are spinning), or right position (only left side wheels are spinning).

If the accelerator trigger is not pulled or pushed, then turning the turn knob causes the car to spin in a circle very vast (one set of wheels is going forward and the other set is going in reverse). It was fun to make the car spin like this, but it isn’t a very effective method of picking a direction of travel since it spins so very fast. I found it difficult to get the car aligned using this method.

The car drives best on hard surfaces but has some trouble in taller grass and would get stuck if the grass was too tall as shown in the video above. It also had some trouble climbing up a pile of dirt, mostly because of the uneven surface and the fact that the car has no speed control. It would very quickly veer to one side based on the slope and it was difficult to correct it before it tumbled off the pile. We also tried a pile of rocks, and it did okay but not great. This car is definitely best for flat surfaces, and maybe some gently sloping terrain, but not much else beyond that.

One thing the car will do is climb up a wall and then flip over. It is just as easy to control the car when it is driving upside down as it is right-side up.

We took the car to our community pool and drove it off the edge and into the water. It performed well in the pool. The wheels have integral paddles that allow it to move fairly well in the water, and the steering controls worked also.

Given the fact that we live in Texas and it is August, we were not able to test the car out on the snow. Bummer.

The car ran for about 15 minutes before the battery needed to be charged and it took about three hours to charge the battery.  This doesn’t quite meet the documented specifications.

What I like

  • The FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car is fun to drive on large flat surfaces and even more fun to drive in water.
  • The car is reasonably well made and isn’t too difficult to control, as long as you have adequate space.

What I’d change

  • I’d prefer more precise throttle control (instead of just go or stop) so it could be driven at a slower speed. This would make it easier to control and might even help it to drive better on rough terrain.
  • It would be better to be able to charge the battery without having to remove it from the car.

Final thoughts

The FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car is very fun to drive around and even more fun to drive in the water. The controls worked well once I got the hang of the turning knob on the remote control. However, the battery only works for about 15 minutes or so before needing to charge and charging the battery takes about three hours. Charging is also a pain since you have to remove the battery from the car and connect it to a charging cable. For some of you, this may be a deal-breaker, however, if you don’t mind this, the car is really fun to play with especially in water and seems fairly well made.

Price: $39.98
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by FREE TO FLY.

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FREE TO FLY Amphibious Radio Control 4WD Car review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 5, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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Safy Anti Theft Travel Bag review

CROWDFUNDING REVIEW – Keep your stuff safe while you travel, and look good doing it! We’re taking a look at the Safy Anti-Theft Travel Bag, a clever little bag that offers hardcore protection for your travel essentials from thieves and the elements. This is a Kickstarter project that ends this week, so you’ll want to jump on it if you’re interested. But let’s see how it works first! To the review!

What is it?

It’s a bag that protects your phones, cash, credit cards, and essential documents while you’re traveling.

Hardware specs

  • 8.9″ by 6.1″ by 2.5″
  • 1.43 pounds
  • IP44 water resistance
  • 60″ adjustable shoulder strap
  • RFID blocking pockets

Design and features

The Safy Anti Theft Travel Bag is a sharp looking piece of carry. At first glance, it just looks like a stylish little side bag. Mine came with the black leather face, but they offer a number of different styles and colors (including custom covers — more on that later). Here’s a front profile.

Side view below. Looks deceptively simple, right?

But flip it over, and you’ll see that it’s actually a hard case made from an ABS & polycarbonate material that offers impact and puncture resistance. It’s a little tank of a case.

You’ll also note that there are no zippers and no seams that wandering fingers can make their way into. The only way into the bag is through a combination lock that you set on the top of the bag.

Spin the wheels, push the button, and that’s the only way you get access to the goods. Check out the beefy frame on the sucker. It’s like a traveling safe deposit box!

The bag opens like a clamshell. Check out those hooks on the front face that prevent someone from prying it open. Coupled with a rubber gasket that seals the perimeter, you also get IP44 water resistance. It will keep your stuff dry, even if you venture out to the beach or the pool.

And look at the internal hinges! Someone is not going to pry those open either. Safy clearly thought through how to make this bag as secure as possible from all angles.

Now, you might think that a wandering thief could cut the bag loose at the straps… but no, my friend. They’re embedded with steel wires. And here’s another really clever bit: the attachment points are heavy plastic “keys” that insert into slots on the sides of the case. Once they’re locked in, they can only be released from tabs on the inside of the bag.

That means that you can secure this bag to a park bench, a beach chair, a picnic table, a train seat… and it ain’t going anywhere until you unlock the bag. Really clever, especially if you fancy a dip in the pool or a quick nap while traveling. Maybe someone could crack the strap with a pair of bolt cutters, but you’d see that coming.

You have two storage areas in the case for your stuff. On the rear face is a chamber that is roughly 7.25″ by 4.25″ by 1″ deep. An expandable pocket keeps your big items in place when you open the bag. I have my travel wallet, field notes, and headphones in here with plenty of room for my iPhone. I suspect that a smaller e-reader might fit in there.

The pockets on the front face are for your quick access stuff. There’s a cash pocket with a magnetic clasp, two card pockets for ID and credit cards, and a document pocket for your passport, boarding passes, and such. These pockets are RFID protected as well. That rear pocket also expands a bit if you have extra documents.

Performance

So how does the Safy Anti Theft Travel Bag work in practice? Pretty great, actually! I’ve used it for travel, and the top-opening design is great for quick access to the important stuff without your things spilling out. We locked it on a lounge chair by the pool where it kept 2 iPhones, my keys, my wallet, and assorted cards and cash (for pool bar drinks… you know) safe from overzealous splashing and wandering hands.

It’s just the right size for a wandering sidekick, too. You won’t get a whole bunch of stuff in there, but the essentials are nicely secured. Unfortunately, my vacation pics got all messed up, but here’s a shot of the Safy riding along with me.

(Go ahead. Try and take it. You still won’t get into my stuff.)

Here’s a side profile shot so you can see how compact it is. The 60″ shoulder strap is adjustable so it’s easy to find a comfortable position as a cross-body bag or slung to your side. Even on my chunky 5’10” 200 pound frame. You’ll need to get your own Star Wars shirt, though. I ain’t giving up mine.

Safy offers the case in multiple cover options as well. Mine is the black leather, which is also offered in beige. A black and white carbon fiber look lid can be had, and Safy will offer additional leather & fabric patterns if they reach their Kickstarter goal. And if you REALLY want to get funky, they’ll print a custom swappable cover for you from whatever picture or image you like (as long as it isn’t copyrighted). Check out the kickstarter link below for more information.

What I like

  • Maybe not bomb proof, but close!
  • Excellent build quality and construction.
  • Just big enough for the essentials while maintaining a slim profile.
  • Solid protection against pickpockets and thieves… every detail is covered.
  • Great beach bag or pool bag.
  • Lockable strap is a nice bonus feature for when you don’t feel like carrying it around.

What I’d change

  • Sized for the essentials, which I like. But a larger option might be nice if you’re rolling with a tablet.

Final thoughts

I really enjoyed using the Safy Anti Theft Travel Bag. It’s a simple and absolutely secure porter for my essential travel bits. Safy did a great job of dialing in the design to focus on its mission without complicating the overall usability. Style may be a subjective thing, but I think it works just as well as a men’s or women’s bag.

And if you want in on this one, you need to know that the Kickstarter only has a few days left! It closes on September 9 at 4:30 PM EDT, and there are still a good number of early bird specials available. Check out the link below for more info.

Price: Pledges start at $66 plus shipping. Super early bird specials are still available that include the extra customized lid.
Where to buy: Go forth to the kickstarter page while there is still time!
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Safy.

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Safy Anti Theft Travel Bag review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 5, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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ASTI LectroFan Micro2 sleep sound machine / Bluetooth speaker review

REVIEW – Sleep.  We all need it, but for many of us, we don’t get enough.  Sleeping in hotel rooms is especially problematic. Loud climate control systems, aircraft or traffic noise certainly contribute to the issue.  My favorite are these two: the ever-present “I don’t care that this isn’t my house and I’ll talk as loud as I want to in the hall at whatever time of day I please” idiot down the hall from you and the person in the room next to you that believes that “100” is the proper television volume setting, only because it doesn’t go to “101”.  How can anyone get a reasonable night’s sleep under these conditions?  Many people rely on sleep sound machines.  These machines use digital or recorded sounds to mask other ambient noise, providing a sound environment more conducive to sleep.  This means yet one more bulky thing to pack, usually with its power cord and massive wall-wart power supply.  What if there was another, more portable and flexible solution?

What is it?

The LectroFan Micro2 is a tiny (check the specs!) sleep sound machine that also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker with a microphone for calls from your smartphone. It is battery powered, so you can charge it during the day, and use it at night on the battery while you charge your phone, reducing the number of chargers you have to carry.

What’s in the box?

  • LectroFan Mirco2
  • User guide
  • Note that no power adapter is included – you just use one of yours

Hardware specs

  • Dimensions: 2″W x 2.1″H (3.4″H when speaker extended)
  • Weight: 3.2 oz
  • Recharging port: Micro USB, 5V/1A
  • Sounds: 11, non-looping digital sounds
  • Battery life: Up to 40 hours in sleep sound mode, up to 20 hours in Bluetooth speaker mode

Design and features

The Micro2 is diminutive. At about 2″ x 2″, there simply isn’t much to it. It is available in three colors. The metallic red, soft-touch white and soft-touch black. I was sent the soft-touch black model. The body is covered in a soft-touch rubberized coating that feels quite nice. The speaker has a brushed silver rim and a black speaker grill.

If you grab the speaker and twist it either clockwise or counterclockwise, the speaker rotates and angles up.

When it hits completely upright, it clicks into place.  This allows you to provide some degree of aim so you can direct the sound in your general direction.

The bottom of the Micro2 is rubber and provides a non-slip grip to keep it where you put it.

It also provides very basic instructions as well as their website address.

The control buttons are along the lower portion of the Micro2.

Taking a closer look, we find rubberized buttons to skip to the next or previous sound, a play/pause button, and volume buttons.

On the other side, near the logo, we find the power switch and USB port.

Again, taking a closer look, we see the two available modes, Bluetooth to the left and sleep sound mode to the right.  The center position is the off position. The USB port is directly below the poser selector.

Setup

The only setup is charging the Micro2. The indicator glows red when charging.

Once charged, the indicator turns green.

Performance

First, I gave the Micro2 a test run as a Bluetooth speaker. When it is connected to a Bluetooth source, the LED indicator turns a familiar blue.

As a Bluetooth speaker, the Micro2 is about what you’d expect from something this small.  The sound is good, not great, and bass is all but absent. When you are playing music, the skip buttons on either side of the play/pause button will skip ahead/back one track.

As a Bluetooth speaker for phone calls, I’d recommend using something else.  While I could hear my caller very clearly over the speaker, they couldn’t hear me well at all.  If I wasn’t yelling, they could barely tell I was talking. I tried it again, but I put my wife on the speaker end of the call and I was on another cell phone.  Like my previous caller reported, I could not make out anything my wife said.  I could tell someone was speaking, but the sound quality was simply terrible. It was essentially unusable for phone calls.

These features are really add-ons for the Micro2.  It is primarily a sound machine, and that’s where it gets more impressive.

The Micro2 can produce eleven unique, non-looping digital sounds. There are five different fan sounds, four brown and pink noises and two synthesized ocean wave sounds.  Most of us have heard the term “white noise”.  But brown and pink?  From their soundofsleep.com website:

White noise, probably the most familiar of these, sounds like a radio tuned to an unused frequency. Similar to the way white light contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum at equal intensity, white noise has equal power across all frequencies audible to the human ear.

Pink noise is white noise, but with reduced higher frequencies. It resembles the sounds of steady rainfall or wind and is often considered to be more soothing than white noise, which some people find unpleasant. Several studies on pink noise have shown that sleeping with it can improve our memories the following day, and potentially even long-term.

Brown noise lowers the higher frequencies even more. It’s a bit “rougher” than pink noise and resembles the roar of a river current or strong wind. Common benefits associated with brown noise are relaxation, improved focus, and of course, sleep improvement.

They provide a variety of sounds because there is no one “right” sleep sound – different sounds work for different people.  For me, the ocean sound is my favorite.  I typically use Alexa’s ocean wave sleep sound and home.  The Micro2’s versions are rhythmic and soothing.  For a hotel, however, a more constant sound like pink or brown noise is probably a better choice.

Still, how loud can a little thing like the Micro2 really be?  I turned on the sound meter on my phone and recorded the ambient sound level in my house.  Then, I turned on one of the louder brown noise sounds at full volume and put my phone about 18 inches away.

As you can see, the sound level jumped from whisper quiet to really, really loud.  Suffice it to say that the Micro2 should pack enough punch to effectively mask any annoying sounds.  And, if you don’t need all that volume, turn it down, or choose one of the quieter sound effects.

This weekend, we are in the Detroit area for our son’s wedding.  Since we are staying in a hotel for the weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to put the Micro2 through its paces.  Here it is sitting on top of the coffee box in our room.

In the afternoon, I had Amazon Music streaming from my phone. While it certainly isn’t top-quality sound, it was more than adequate. Like I mentioned earlier, some bass would really improve the overall sound quality.

When we went to bed in the hotel, I cranked up the Micro2 on one of its synthesized ocean sounds.  It was way too loud for the room, so we turned it down to a level we both liked and drifted off to sleep.  The volume that this little speaker can produce in sleep mode is pretty darned impressive and should be great, no matter how large your sleep space or volume of ambient sounds are. It worked all night and did a great job masking the various sounds that seem to be in all hotel rooms – doors, climate control, voices in the hallway, etcetera. The only thing that interrupted my sleep was the canceled flight home because of that unwanted visitor named Dorian…

What I like

  • Tiny size
  • Surprising volume
  • Good variety of sounds
  • Good battery life
  • Also runs off USB power

What I’d change

  • A microphone that works for phone calls is really needed
  • A little more bass would be nice when listening to music

Final thoughts

I really like this little speaker and sound machine.  It’s so small, packing it is a no-brainer.  With its wide variety of sound effects and great volume, nearly everyone should be able to find a sound or two that works to help drown out whatever ambient sounds are disturbing sleep. The fact that it also doubles as a basic Bluetooth speaker is a great bonus. Since it can run off power, or on battery, it offers great location flexibility. If the microphone actually worked for phone calls, it would be nearly perfect.

Price: $33.95 – $34.95 based on color
Where to buy: Amazon
Also available (and on sale as of this writing) for $29.95 direct from ASTI at soundofsleep.com.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Adaptive Sound Technologies Inc (ASTI).

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ASTI LectroFan Micro2 sleep sound machine / Bluetooth speaker review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 5, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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