If you are like me, and often find that your cell phone battery charge is low, there are so many USB battery packs in every shape and size to solve that dilemma. But have you ever been in this situation with no way to recharge your phone or battery pack? I have, and I found it to be the most frustrating experience with no alternative but to head out of the house in the freezing New York temperatures, and huddle in my car to get enough charge to keep my power-hungry apps going on my iPhone.
Enter the Candle Charger by Stower! This is an ingeniously designed device that allows you to charge your cell phone when conventional electricity is not an option. It is the first of its kind charger that uses the candle flame from a small fuel canister and water to create an electrical charge. And, if you run out of fuel canisters, a regular candle of similar size can work.
While it is miniature in size, it provides charging power anywhere, whether during a blackout or outdoors on a camping trip and maybe in some extreme places when the cell phone is dead and emergency help is needed. It even has an advantage over solar chargers, since they need sunlight to recharge. It will recharge the standard cell phone twice per one fuel canister.
The Candle Charger by Stower is available at Amazon for $99.99
This BESTEK surge protector packs a lot of power into a small footprint. Instead of the long-strip form that surge protectors usually take, this 1500joules protector is a vertical column. Along the sides you’ll find eight power sockets and six USB charging ports. And the cherry on top is the wireless charger on the top of the column.
The sockets all have safety doors to keep kids safe from inserting something in them. Each row of sockets has a power switch to turn them off when they aren’t needed. BESTEK says the USB ports “can intelligently detect your devices to deliver its safest maximum charge speed, up to 2.4A per port and 40W/8A total“. And on top of the column is a 5V/1A wireless charger that works with all Qi-compatible devices.
The BESTEK 8-Outlet Surge Protector and 40W 6-Port USB Charging Dock Station with wireless charger is $49.99 at Amazon.
Bluetooth headphones have come a long way in the last few years. With the transmitter requiring just a small trickle of energy, power cells have been whittled down to unnoticeable sizes. Wires are out, all-day battery life is in, and the lightweight DRIIFTER headphones by FIIL are a solid, great-sounding combination of both.
What is it?
The phonetically-creative FIIL DRIIFTER is a lightweight behind the neck set of headphones designed for all-day wear without becoming a hindrance. The earbuds feature magnets that clasp together on your chest when they are not being used, forming a sort of lanyard approach. The feel nearly identical to the BeatsX earbuds I reviewed last year, so much so that one could easily confuse the two at first glance.
Clasp it like a necklace.
Hardware specs
Extremely lightweight
Extended-range Bluetooth technology
Sweat, dust and water resistant for any weather or sport
KINETIIC Tangle-free necklace mode with a start-stop feature
Multi-device pairing
Full-function cable and wireless voice call technology
Up to 11 hours continuous listening between charges
What’s in the box?
DRIIFTER headphones
Micro-USB charging cable
3 sizes of earbuds
Design and Features
When I opened up the DRIIFTER headphones, the similarities to the BeatsX headphones that I use at work every day were staggering. They rest behind your neck like a lanyard, have magnetic clasps on the earbuds that form a closed loop, and even have a volume control and call answer button on one cord.
Power/answer button, volume controls and the USB port covered by a rubber cap.
I don’t want to make this entire review about how these two headphones differ, but just for those keeping score, the DRIIFTER is charged by micro USB, while the BeatsX have a Lightning port, and the BeatsX are connected via Apple’s W1 Bluetooth chip instead of Bluetooth 4. What’s the difference? Not a whole lot. It comes down to what sort of cables you have on hand, and most people, it seems, have both lying around, unless you’re staunchly in the Android camp.
That aside, I really like the design of the DRIIFTER. The weight is light enough to forget about. They stay out of the way and deliver long-lasting power. And they look fairly unassuming and wouldn’t call them flashy or attention-grabbing, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Setup
Charging the headphones is quick and easy… you just plug in the USB micro adapter into the slot and let it do its thing for a few hours. The red LED goes off when it’s fully charged. And if you’ve ever set up a Bluetooth device, you know what you’re in for. A simple long-press puts the headphones into pairing mode and they show up on the Bluetooth sync screen. A quick tap and you’re all set.
Performance
The sound quality and volume that I was able to get out of these headphones were exceptional. I think they had a clearer sound than my BeatsX, the only other headphones I had to compare them with. It’s not like Beats are the end-all of portable audio, but I was impressed that the DRIIFTER buds could punch in their weight class.
Ideal for all-day music and podcasts at your desk!
I had a bit of difficulty getting a good seal with the largest earbud size, but that’s the sort of thing that will vary widely between users. There are three earbud sizes, so one of them will likely fit. You will need a good seal, though, as in-ear headphones rely on that for the best sound, using the natural acoustics in your ears and head.
They’re perfectly suited for the office or the gym, though I would caution against using them in a situation where you need to be audibly aware of your surrounding, like biking in city traffic. They really do block a lot of outside sounds.
One small bug I ran across was the play/pause button didn’t seem to work when using it with several music apps on both my computer and my phone. I can’t say I ever got it to actually stop or start any music, so perhaps that button is more reserved for picking up a phone call, which does work. The attached mic seems fine for voice calls.
What I like
Lightweight and comfortable
Magnetic clasps
Sounds great for the price range
What needs to be improved
Play/Pause button didn’t seem to work with all music apps
There are a lot of options out there for less expensive, similar headphones
Final thoughts
Outside of having great sound quality and a long-lasting battery, the DRIIFTER is about as basic as they come. They’re good. Yes. However, a quick Amazon search for Bluetooth headphones presents a mile-long list of less expensive options that look very similar on paper.
Price: $99.99 Where to buy: You can buy the DRIIFTER in black or matte red by ordering on their website or Amazon. Source: The sample of this product was provided by FIIL. Visit their website for more information.
What do you do with your earbuds when you’re not listening to music? Forget about sticking them in a pocket where they’ll get tangled up – wear them on your wrist instead. The Wristband Headphones with Microphone by Wraps are worn as a wraparound bracelet when you aren’t using them. The wires have a braided textured fabric covering that prevents them from tangling and are thick enough to easily wrap and unwrap around your wrist.
They have 10mm dynamic speakers and a 20Hz frequency response microphone. You click the button microphone to pause or play music and make or take a call. They measure 51.18″ x 1.65″ x 0.47″ and are made of TPE, plastic, and polyester fabric. The Wristband Headphones with Microphone are available in denim, coal, or camo colors for $24.95 at The Grommet.
Some gadgets are perfect for everyone – the USB battery pack can be used by just about everyone. Other gadgets are only used by those in certain industries but appreciated by many more. The Butterfly iQ is an ultrasound system that connects to the iPhone; it’s useful to doctors but cool tech to everyone else.
The Butterfly iQ for iPhone is the world’s first Ultrasound-on-a-Chip based imaging system. This device takes the place of larger cart based systems that have multiple transducers and can cost 100 times as much. Its small size and low cost means that the device can be more available to more doctors. Because the system is battery powered, it can also be readily used in the field. Butterfly achieved this reduction in cost and size in a way similar to the transition from transistor based computing to integrated circuit and system-on-a-chip based computing. They replaced thousands of piezoelectric transducers with tens of thousands of MEMS sensors on a chip. Because of this change in technology the manufacturing of these systems, which is traditionally labor and material cost intensive, can be done with cheaper materials in a way similar to computer manufacturing. The transition of the ultrasonic probe to a chip based device has the ability to make this technology as available as a digital video camera is today, compared to the tube based recorders of the past.
Butterfly Network’s Chief Medical Officer has said, “Offering a unique blend of affordability, diagnostic versatility, and assistive intelligence, Butterfly has the potential to impact human health more profoundly than any diagnostic device since the stethoscope, invented over 200 years ago. At less than $2,000, healthcare providers can purchase an easy-to-use, powerful, whole-body medical imaging system that fits in their pocket…By removing the barrier of price, I expect Butterfly to ultimately replace the stethoscope in the daily practice of medicine. We can now provide a diagnostic system to address the millions of children that die of pneumonia each year and the hundreds of thousands of women that die in childbirth, and these are just two examples of the impact this technology will have.”
Not content with ushering a hardware revolution, Butterfly Network has developed deep learning-based artificial intelligence applications that are tightly coupled to the hardware and assist clinicians with both image acquisition and interpretation. “Deep learning and ultrasound imaging are a perfect combination,” said President Gioel Molinari. “As physicians use our devices in the field, they help improve the neural network models. The more physicians use Butterfly devices, the better they will get. Improvements to acquiring and interpreting images will ultimately enable less skilled users to reliably extract life-saving insight from ultrasound.” Butterfly plans to release assistance and interpretation functionality in 2018 as a software add-on to the Butterfly iQ system. The system is also paired with a HIPAA-compliant cloud which enables image storage and collaboration among clinicians as well as connectivity with traditional hospital medical record systems. The combination of AI assistance and cloud based communication means that one day people with limited medical training may be able to use this device as a diagnostic tool in the field, and provide the information to medical centers in preparation for treatment.
Hopefully, one day, Doctors Without Borders will carry this around instead of a stethoscope and bring this level of medical diagnostic to patients worldwide.
Tangle-free necklace mode with a start-stop feature
