For a long time now magnet links have been a mainstay of all the major web browsers, making life a little easier for people downloading torrent files. But what exactly are magnet links? How do you set them up and open them? And how do you change the program that they link to? We reveal all here. Note: You’ll need to have a Bittorrent platform like Vuze, Utorrent or Transmission to use magnet links. What Is a Magnet Link? First, a quick introduction. Magnet links and torrent files go hand in hand, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. In fact, if you use a magnet… Read more
Google Photos is one of the easiest ways to back up your digital snaps and keep them safe. Thanks to Google’s new Backup and Sync application for computers, you can now back up Google photos to your Windows PC or Mac automatically. The desktop app for files and photos replaces the previous Drive app for Windows and Mac and syncs to Photos and Drive. This change was brought about because of the growing concerns by users over the confusing connection between Google Drive and Google Photos, so Google made changes to simplify the experience. New photos and videos from Drive won’t show automatically in Photos,… Read more
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REVIEW – BluShark is a relatively young company that specializes premium pass-through (i.e. NATO-style) watch straps, but also makes traditional two-piece straps. I’ve been wearing pass-through straps on my watches for many years (for a variety of reasons discussed later) and have tried straps from most of the well-known brands. The opportunity to review BluShark straps came at an opportune time as I was about to replace one of my straps that had become a bit shabby looking and had been looking to dress up my every-day watch for the past 6 months or so.
What is it?
BluShark’s pass-through straps are high quality, reasonably-priced straps for wristwatches.
What are pass-through straps?
The pass-through strap is a single-piece of strap with runs over the 12-o’clock springbar (or fixed rod) between the upper lugs on the end of the watch case, under the watch, and then back up and over the 6-o’clock springbar / rod. The single-piece strap offers multiple advantages over traditional two-piece straps when wearing a wristwatch, especially when wearing a mission-critical watch in an “extreme” environment (even something as simple as day-hiking or camping, to scuba diving, motorcycle racing, or mountain climbing) or wearing a wristwatch with great intrinsic or sentimental value. These advantages include
protecting the back of the watch
allowing for a snugger fit with less risk of damaging either the strap or the springbars
security: failure of a single springbar will not cause the watch to fall off, just merely flop around. This allows the wearer to relocate the watch to a pocket rather than having to try and locate where the watch fell or having to replace the watch when he/she returns from the current expedition.
There are several good references to wearing a NATO strap online. One of the more comprehensive ones is at Watchient, although until looking up this reference, I had never seen a “single loop” described, but have since found several references to this “thinner’ way of wearing a NATO strap. Personally, I find it to be very awkward to put on and frankly uncomfortable to wear with thicker straps.
What’s in the box?
I was sent two BluStrap pass-through straps:
22 mm Bond – Orange Watch Strap
24 mm 3-ring Orange Watch Strap
Each strap arrived in a protective plastic sleeve. Also included in the box was a small microfiber watch cleaning cloth.
Design and features
The 3-ring strap is constructed of a soft, pliable nylon weave with a decorative and functional stitch line running down the center of the strap. The round-profile rings are brushed stainless steel. It is a standard length strap that measures 11 inches long.
The Bond strap is built around a ballistic nylon strap with polished stainless steel hardware with a rectangular profile for a more refined look. The design of this strap includes a separate backer strap that lays flat against the skin. This strap also 11 inches long.
The photographs below show how the BluStrap 3-Ring compares in dimension and construction to a similar 3-ring Martac strap.
As you can see the nylon material used in the Martac strap is slightly thicker, but the metal rings on the BluShark are slightly thicker.
The stitching on the BluShark is slightly neater than that on the Martac strap. The edges of the hole for the central bar of the buckle appear neater on the BluShark strap as well.
A comparison of the Bond dual-layer strap to a much-larger Martac strap (designed to be worn over the top of diving suits (including some semi-rigid suits) shows that Bond strap is designed to be a more refined strap with thinner material ad more attention to the aesthetics of the stitching as compared to the heavy-duty Martac.
The Bond strap is definitely more of a gentleman’s watch strap, or at least matches style and performance as compared to the more utilitarian styling of the Martac strap.
Performance
I have been wearing the Bond strap on my vintage Glycine Airman SST (my daily wear watch) for a month now, and I am very happy with the fit of the strap and the way it complements my timepiece of choice. The only thing that I would change is an aesthetic choice–I would purchase a brushed metal finish strap rather than a polished one.
The black-gray-orange stripes on the Bond Orange band are an excellent complement to the colors of a vintage Glycine Airman SST “Pumpkin.”
The tail on the Bond sits comfortably inside the rings and does not catch on my sleeves.
I tried the 3-ring strap with my camping / working in the yard / swimming / snorkeling watch, a Suunto Core All-Black. I had no problems with the way the strap felt on my wrist and it worked well for the five-or-six days that I wore it. However, I found that the geometry of my arrangement of mounting bars requires a strap longer than 11 inches. The tail didn’t stick out far enough to stay tucked in and was just long enough to keep getting caught on the gauntlet buttons on my shirt sleeves, or worse on branches, twigs, and other plant appendages.
My current Martac strap is many millimeters longer than the BluShark.
Here is my Suunto Core in its historical configuration. Note that the strap is long enough to tuck back under.
These photos show the BluShark 3-Ring strap installed on my Suunto Core.
As you can see the tail of the strap stick out awkwardly. For this particular watch setup on my wrist, the BluShark is not the best option. Those readers with wrists smaller than a baseball bat may have better luck.
The Bond Orange strap has replaced the Martac orange-stripe strap that I’ve been wearing for 5 years. The Orange 3-ring will unfortunately not be replacing my old strap on the Suunto. I like the way the BluShark straps feel against my skin, but in the case of the Suunto, function will have to trump form. I’m going to put the 3-Ring in my collection of 10+ pass-through straps to await duty on a TBD future watch.
What I like
High quality material and construction techniques
Reasonable cost for the quality of the product
Good variety in the type, style, color, and materials (see website)
What I’d change
I would like to see the straps offered in a longer length for those of us with larger wrists.
Final thoughts
BluShark straps are of superior quality. The attention to detail and style, coupled with their reasonable prices make them an affordable and simple way to dress up your office watch and keep your outdoor watch with you even in the event of a springbar failure.
Price: $18+ (Bond $18, 3-ring $19) Where to buy: BluShark Straps Source: The samples of these products were provided by BluShark Straps.
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REVIEW – I own a lot of home entertainment devices, and with that comes a plethora of remote controls. I’ve looked into purchasing a universal remote, but most of them seemed intimidating and hard to use. Then I stumbled upon the Harmony Express Universal voice remote. Can a universal remote really control all my devices using just my voice?
What is it?
The Harmony Express remote is a universal voice remote with Amazon Alexa built-in. It allows you to control up to 15 home entertainment devices with your voice. And it works with over 250,000 devices.
What’s in the box?
Harmony Express remote
Blaster
IR mini-blaster
Power adaptor
USB cable
Design and features
The Harmony Express remote is about the least intimidating universal remote you’ll ever see. It’s only 5-inches long and fits perfectly in the palm of your hand, so all of the buttons are easily accessible with your thumb. Aside from its diminutive size, the other thing that sticks out is the lack of buttons. Express only has the essential buttons for home entertainment. There are only 9 in total. That’s because most of what you control can be done using your voice and Amazon Alexa.
The OK/Alexa button is located at the top part of the remote surrounded by a directional pad. Below that are 3 rows consisting of 3 buttons. The top 3 buttons can be configured to send one command when using a long press, and send an alternate command when using a short press. For example, when watching DirecTV a short press of the home button brings up the channel guide, a long press brings up the info screen. The remaining buttons control playback and volume control.
The buttons are backlit so you can always find the right button, even in low light.
There’s a small speaker on the back of the remote for Alexa and a Micro-USB port on the bottom for charging the remote’s battery.
Setup
To set up and start using Harmony Express, you have to plug in the blaster and place it in an open space near your entertainment system. You can also use the included mini-blaster to extend the blaster’s infrared range if you have devices that are located inside of a closed cabinet or are out of the blaster’s range.
The remote needs to be charged before using it. Express uses a rechargeable battery that charges via a USB cable. The remote’s ring will pulse when charging and will remain solid when fully charged. The battery will last about a month with normal use.
Harmony Express app
The rest of the setup is down from the Harmony Express app. The app is what you’ll use to set up and connect all your devices. It makes setup fairly easy, the whole process takes about 15-20 minutes.
When you open the app it will guide you through the following steps: connecting the Blaster to Wi-Fi, creating or linking your Amazon account, selecting the room you’ll be using the remote in, and adding your devices.
During setup, Harmony Express recognized my AppleTV and DirecTV Genie automatically, but I had to connect my other devices manually. This is done using the devices model #. It’s not hard to do, but it is kind of a pain.
The app determines how many HDMI inputs your TV has. From there, just drag and drop the device into the proper input to connect it.
Aside from setting up the remote, the Express app can be used to check its battery level, edit setup, Change Room and Device settings and see a list of “What to say” to control your devices.
The Express app also acts as an extension of the physical remote, allowing you to control a single device like your tv or set-top box. Selecting a device will bring up a list of commands. To control the device, just tap on the desired function.
And if you lose or misplace your remote, just tap on the remote icon in the app and Harmony Express will emit a tone to let you know where it’s at.
Using Harmony Express
Pressing and holding the OK button activates Alexa, you can then ask her to do whatever you want. You can turn on the TV, open an app like Netflix, or tune to your favorite channel.
The Harmony Express app does all the hard work of keeping track of devices, inputs, and settings. A simple command will turn on all the devices you need and make sure the settings are just right. For example, if I say “Go to Netflix”, Harmony Express will turn on my TV and soundbar, switch inputs to my AppleTV, and launch Netflix. And when switching devices, Express automatically powers off the last device used.
There are specific commands you have to get used to saying. For example, if you want Express to turn on the TV, you would say “Turn on TV”. If you want to go to a specific channel on DirecTV, you would say “Go to ESPN”, or say a channel number “Go to channel 230”.
Launching apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or ESPN is just as easy.To launch Netflix you would say, “Go to Netflix” or “Go to Amazon Prime Video”.It does take some getting used to, but you become accustomed to it the more you use the remote. The short video below shows how some of the voice commands work.
Harmony Express isn’t just for watching TV. It can do just about anything that Alexa can do. You can set reminders, get the latest weather, or find out when your favorite team is playing. Plus, anything you already control via Alexa can also be controlled with Harmony Express. I use it to control both my smart bulbs and smart lock. About the only thing you cant do is play music or make phone calls.
What I like
Easy to set up and use
Amazon Alexa
Backlit buttons
Voice control
Good size
What I’d change
Doesn’t automatically recognize all devices during setup
Final thoughts
The Harmony Express packs a lot of punch for such a small remote. It has much of the same functionality as their Harmony Elite remote ($349.99), but it’s easier to use and less expensive. It’s great being able to use one remote to control all off my devices. And having access to Alexa is a nice added bonus. If you’re looking for a universal remote that’s easy to set up and even easier to use the Harmony Express is a great choice.
Price: $249.99 Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample for this review was provided by Logitech.
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