Synchronos watches are custom-printed to perfectly fit you

Synchronos watches aren’t smart watches, but they are clever.  They are custom 3d-printed to perfectly fit you.  The Alpha watch has a premium mechanical Swiss movement (Sellita-SW210-1) and a scratch- and shatter-resistant crystal.  The metal band is custom printed to your exact measurements and has a patent-pending, proprietary 3d-printed clasp mechanism.

When you order, or pre-order for some styles, an Alpha watch, you’ll first receive a scanning kit including a 3d scanner and instructions for precisely measuring your arm.  (Online help is available, if needed.)  Send that information in to Synchronos, and it will be used to adjust the watch printing pattern before your watch is printed.

Right now, you can order a titanium model for $1999.  These are limited to a production run of 10 watches.  You’ll be able to travel to the Synchronos studios (at your own expense), where engineers will do a personal fitting for you. You can pre-order the rose gold model ($749, 18k rose gold-plated 316L stainless steel, shipping in March 2018), the Onyx ($499, black ceramic-coated 316L stainless steel, shipping in April 2018), or the stainless ($399, 316L stainless steel, shipping in May 2018).  Learn more and order an Alpha watch from Synchronos.

Jabra updates and expands their Elite line of wireless earbuds

This week @CES, Jabra announced their new Elite Franchise, a line of headphones and earbuds “engineered for superior sound to provide the best combined voice and music experience”. Last year, I reviewed Jabra’s Elite Sport truly wireless earbuds one of my favorite review items of 2017 and my goto headphones for EDC, travel, and working out alike. Jabra is raising the bar this year by not only releasing a next generation set of active sport earbuds but an entire line of Elite wireless headphones.

Jabra is spotlighting three of these new products: Elite 45e, Elite 65t, and Elite Active 65t. The entire Elite line is engineered for outstanding music quality, strong voice capabilities, and the ability to communicate with Alexa, Siri, and Google Now. All of the new Elite products come with a two-year warranty against dust and water ingress (two years for the Elite Active 65t also includes sweat ingress).

The Jabra Elite 65t will be available for $169.99, the Elite Active 65t will be $189.99, and the Jabra Elite 45e will be $99.99.

Clipping your pet’s nails can be a peaceful experience with the Zen Clipper

Clipping my dog Teddy’s nails is such an ordeal that we usually just take him to the vet’s office when he needs a trim.  It’s expensive, but we need less styptic powder for Teddy and fewer bandages and antibiotic creams for us by letting someone else do it.  We’ve tried a couple of styles of clippers at home, but they always seem to crush the nails and leave rough edges, especially because of the fight to keep him from jerking his paw away from us after that first nail is clipped.  And we seem to always cut at least one nail too short, resulting in pain for Teddy and blood smeared everywhere.  The Safety Pet Nail Clipper from Zen Clipper promises to make trimming your pet’s nails easier and free of injury to the quick (the living tissue in the nail).

The cone shape of the Safety clippers is designed to prevent the nail from being inserted too far into the clipper, so you’re sure to only clip nail.  The stainless steel blade sheers the nail without crushing it.  The cutter is available in seven sizes, designed to clip the nails of everything from birds, kittens, and small reptiles, up to dogs greater than 50 pounds.  There’s even a nail-sizing guide you can print out with instructions to guide you in choosing the correct clipper for your pet.  They are guaranteed for a lifetime of easy nail clippings.  All seven sizes of the Safety Pet Nail Clipper is available for $19.95 each from The Grommet.

The MEATER wireless meat thermometer review

The Gadgeteer Kid & I are true carnivores without a doubt. We love all kinds of cooked meat from steaks to fish and everything in-between. IMHO, grilling is a science and an art form with cooking everyone’s meal to perfection a stressful experience more often than not. Managing all the variables and people’s preferences is challenging, add a little alcohol and the odds of missing the mark goes up exponentially. Well, the engineers who developed the MEATER (the G.K. and I still chuckle @the name), the first truly wireless meat thermometer, aim to help you “achieve perfect and consistent results every time.”

Design and features

I have used several “wireless” thermometer probes for measuring the core temperature of what you’re trying to cook. They all had a metal braided cable stretching from the basestation to the sensor inserted into the meat that is sitting inside your barbecue or oven. Then the basestation transmitted the temperature data to your smartphone or other device meant to let you know the status of your food.

The MEATER is a truly wireless, dual sensor probe created with the sole job of helping you cook your food to perfection with the unwritten goal of boosting your grilling street-cred to Master BBQ’er.

Technical specifications

  • Stainless steel construction
  • Water resistant design, dustproof, and easy to clean
  • Wireless up to 33 feet (10 meters): Bluetooth LE connection to your smart device
  • MEATER Sense™: 2 temperature sensors in 1 probe
  • Internal temperature sensor range: 212°F (100°C)
  • Ambient temperature sensor range: 527°F (275°C)
  • Rechargeable Battery: Lasts 24 hours of continuous cooking between charges
  • Dimensions 130mm x 7mm (6mm diameter)

The MEATER comes with a bamboo holder that securely keeps and recharges the wireless (easily misplaced) probe. There is a battery power level LED & button located on the front of the wooden holder.

There are two embedded magnets on either side of the back that enable you to place the wooden charger on most metal surfaces (aka the side of a refrigerator, stove, BBQ, etc).

The MEATER is powered by a single AAA battery and can charge your MEATER probe up to 100 times before needing to be replaced. The back cover is also held in place by two small embedded magnets.

The MEATER probe has to be inserted into the meat beyond the line machined into the metal casing to protect the main sensor from damage due to high temperatures.

The ambient sensor is meant to monitor the cooking temperature of the oven or BBQ. It is located in the black plastic end of the probe.

Along with creating a very easy to use, high quality device, the folks @MEATER have developed a very polished ecosystem/app to make cooking with the MEATER nearly foolproof. The MEATER’s Smart Guided Cook system walks you through every step of the cooking process. The app guides you thru the type, cut, and doneness of the meat.

The MEATER’s dual sensors continuously monitor internal and ambient temperatures concurrently. The app also gives you elapsed cooking time and estimated time remaining until your meal is ready to serve.

Then to walk you over the finish line, the app let’s you know when to pull the meat from the cooker, let it finalize it internal cooking (aka letting it rest), and when its ready to eat. The estimated cook time has been spot on…within 5 minutes or so. Not bad considering the roast took nearly two plus hours to cook.

Overall, the whole system is brilliant. I used the MEATER several times over the holiday season and every cook in the room loved it, we all geeked out. All of the were a bit jealous and seriously considering buying one ASAP. The agreed upon, most loved features of MEATER was it being truly wireless, with built-in internal and ambient sensors, and its ability to estimate cooking time so accurately.

The only real limitation of the MEATER is it’s range and lost connectivity. I wouldn’t even consider it a true negative just a known issue that needs to be worked around. You’re sticking a small under powered Bluetooth device into a metal box, it’s range is going to be pretty limited. I found both in the BBQ and oven, the range of the MEATER was approximately 10 feet but would quickly reconnect once back in range.

Positives

  • Well made, thought out design
  • Truly wireless
  • Water resistant, dust-proof, easy to clean
  • Built-in dual sensors
  • Excellent app/ecosystem

Negatives

  • Limited wireless range

Final thoughts

I would give the MEATER 5-stars if it weren’t for its limited range. The soon to be released MEATER BLOCK will hopefully take care of this limitation. That said, I love this device and in most, if not all circumstance would make an excellent tool for any and all grilling/barbecuing aficionados. The MEATER’s truly wireless, dual sensor design in concert with its Smart Guided Cook system makes cooking meat stress-free and nearly idiot-proof.

Price: $69.00
Where to buy: MEATER
Source: The sample for this review was provided by MEATER.

This Bluetooth speaker harkens back to the days of vinyl LPs

Unlike most Bluetooth speakers today which are usually black, utilitarian, and often cylindrical, the Vintage Vinyl Bluetooth Speaker combines the looks of an old horn-shaped gramophone and the appearance of an old vinyl 10″ LP on display.  Actual reclaimed vinyl albums are turned in to a horn speaker to give a new spin to your modern music collection.  And to make the speaker truly personal to your tastes, you can customize the speaker in a variety of ways:

  • Request a genre, and Jeff Davis (the maker) will select an album for you.
  • Create a custom label by choosing a design and specifying your own text.
  • Supply a photo or artwork to have a photo label created for your speaker.
  • Send in your own album and have Jeff turn it into a speaker for you.
  • Request a particular album, and Jeff will source it and add it to your speaker.

The speaker stands 15.25″ tall x 8.5″ deep x 12″ wide (at horn); the 12- diameter horn has a 3.9″ depth; and the wood base is 6.8″ deep X 10.9″ wide.  It connects via Bluetooth to your modern digital audio sources, or you can plug an audio source into the AUX input on the back of the speaker.  The Vintage Vinyl Bluetooth Speaker is $225 for request-a-genre, $235 for custom label or submitted albums, and $275 for requesting a particular album.  Purchase it at UncommonGoods.