News – Page 48

The new Timbuk2 Especial series is made for weathering the storm

NEWS – Rain can be a drag if the wet gets into your gear, but Timbuk2 has you covered. The Especial Messenger was introduced a few years ago for the hardcore bike commuter, and 2019 brings us some new designs to protect your stuff from gnarly weather forecasts.

We’ve got three new bags in the series for 2019. The Especial Scope (shown in the picture) is a top-loading pack with a waterproof external admin panel that can expand from 24 to 36 liters of carrying capacity. The Especial Shelter is a monster roll-top pack with a 48 liter capacity. The Especial Stash is a new 20 liter messenger bag design with a beefed-up shoulder strap for comfortable carry. Each bag features extra waterproofing, magnetic clasps, reflective hits for biking, a padded and waterproof 15″ laptop compartment, and an external mesh pouch for your water bottle or U-lock. The color scheme is urban-cool black on black.

We have an assortment of Timbuk2 packs and messengers in my house; I’ve been a fan for a long time. I never got my hands on the original Especial Messenger but it gets consistently great reviews for its design and use of high-end hardware/materials. It looks like those elements have been carried through in the new series. Each bag in the lineup retails for under $200. Check them out on the Timbuk2 web site!

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Backpack

The new Timbuk2 Especial series is made for weathering the storm originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 23, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Belt buckles that James Bond could use if he had Oprah’s bank account

NEWS – Yes, this is a belt buckle. I know it looks more like… well… I am not really sure what it looks like. But trust me, it’s a belt buckle for the very VERY rich. How rich? I’m not sure because I can’t find any up to date pricing. I found a 5 year old article from 2014 that mentioned $400,000. Yes, that’s a 4 followed by a lot of zeros.

Roland Iten design and makes these luxury belt buckles because he felt there needed to be a better way to adjust the tightness of the belt when you sit. To solve that problem, he created a collection of buckles that feature some crazy mechanics made of expensive materials as well as precious gems. Check out this video which shows how the buckles work.

You can learn more about these incredible belt buckles and other insanely priced gear that you will never own by visiting Roland Iten.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Belt

Belt buckles that James Bond could use if he had Oprah’s bank account originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 22, 2019 at 11:51 am.

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Dyson lights the way with new products

NEWS – When it comes to vacuum cleaners, everyone knows the Dyson name. Their V-series stick vacuums are popular simply because they work and are way more powerful than many plug-in models. I love the Cyclone V10 vacuum I reviewed last year. It has replaced my older Ball Dyson upright I used for years.

Dyson has never been a company that’s rested on its success. They are constantly updating and innovating their products and that’s not changed for 2019. Dyson has recently introduced three new products: the V11 stick vacuum cleaner, the Dyson Pure Cool Me personal purifying fan and the Dyson LightCycle desk lamp.

The Dyson V11 stick vacuum is a major update to the venerable Cyclone V10. The V11 has what Dyson calls the Dynamic Load Sensor that controls the motor position 360 times-per-second, can detect brush bar resistance and automatically change motor speed between hard floors and carpet. The Dyson V11 vacuum lets you switch easily between Eco, Auto and Boost modes. Auto mode intelligently adapts suction power between carpets and hard floors. Boost mode provides twice the suction of any cord-free vacuum for intensive cleaning of ground-in dirt. Eco mode gives maximum run time for longer cleans. There’s a built-in LCD screen that reports run time, machine performance and reminds you about filter maintenance.

The V11’s digital motor spins up to 125,000 rpm generating 20% more suction than the Cyclone V10. Battery system monitoring measures capacity four times-per-second. The V11 comes with a wall-mounted charging dock.

The Dyson V11 Animal is available for $599.99 and the V11 Torque Drive (with more accessories) is $699.99.

The Dyson Pure Cool Me is a complete re-thinking of personal purifying fan technology. Homes can be 5 times more polluted than outside air and the personal purifying fan removes 99.97% of pollutants and allergens as small as .3 microns from the air. Air flow can be easily controlled by adjusting the dome with your fingers. It features Dyson Core Technology—a way to project a precise stream of air. Filters are easy to replace and the purifying fan even reminds you when to do it. It comes with a remote for easy out-of-reach control.

The Dyson Pure Cool Me is available for $349.99.

Finally, the Dyson Lightcycle task light uses time, date and GPS-driven algorithms to continually adjust color temperature and brightness in relation to local daylight. “Our bodies can be influenced by daylight’s changing spectrum of color and brightness. So our new light adjusts with the daylight where you live,” says Jake Dyson, Chief Lighting Engineer at Dyson.

We spend up to 90% of our time indoors, yet poor lighting can affect our eyes and even our well-being. Even if you don’t notice it, low light, glare or flicker can cause eye strain. The Lightcycle provides more than 1000 lux brightness, combined with glare protection and low optical flicker‎ to help reduce this eye strain.

A free Dyson Link app continually communicates with the light to adjust for time, location and daily routine. There is both a desk and floor model available and are priced at $599.99 (desk) and $899.99 (floor). Visit dyson.com and Amazon for more information.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Cleaning, Vacuum

Dyson lights the way with new products originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 22, 2019 at 7:00 am.

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Put a dry erase board on your desk instead of your wall

Here’s a clever idea to help improve productivity and reduce paper waste. It’s the Glass Dry-Erase Desktop Computer Pad from Quartet. It’s a 18 x 6 inch glass dry erase board that you can position between your keyboard and your monitor so that your ideas, task lists, and doodles are right where you can see them instead of on the wall.

The Computer Pad features an easy to clean white glass surface, a pull-out drawer that you can use to hold small items like paperclips and extra dry erase markers. It even comes with one marker to get you started.

Put the sticky notes in the drawer and use the Computer Pad which is priced at $29.28 and can be purchased directly through Quartet and Amazon.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Office

Put a dry erase board on your desk instead of your wall originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 21, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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MoviePass tries unlimited again – with limits

NEWS – MoviePass – once the darling of movie lovers everywhere – then the bane – is back at it again.

First a refresher

MoviePass disrupted the movie industry with their unlimited movie plan. For ten bucks a month, paid annually, you got yourself a spiffy red debit card like this:

When you were jonesing to see a flick, you got yourself within 100 yards or so of your favorite cineplex and fired up the MoviePass app on your phone. Once your location was verified, you picked the movie you wanted to see at that theater. MoviePass loaded the full price of the ticket on to your debit card and you then used it to purchase your ticket. You could do this once per day, every day. Taken to its logical limit, and assuming $10 tickets, you could see $310 worth of movies for a meager $10. What a deal!

Much like the car dealer – “We lose money on every car we sell – but we make it up on volume!”, this model was not sustainable. The real dollars were supposed to be in the metadata about the consumers, their viewing habits and so on. But, that didn’t pan out so well either and the company bled cash like…well like a company losing money on every transaction.

Being recently retired when MoviePass came out, my wife and I jumped on it and used it. A lot. Not 31 times a month, but we saw nearly 40 movies in about five to six months.

Then the bottom fell out. MoviePass restricted available movies, forced you to take photos of your tickets, limited the number of movies you could see per month, and so on. And, they did all this, changing the terms of the deal, even though we paid for an entire year. We were given the option of canceling, so we did, and recovered just under 50% of our money back. All in all, we were out a total of about $120 – $60 each. Not bad for 40 movies – each.

MoviePass was dead, or so it appeared. But, just like this guy,

it appears it was just a flesh wound.

The here and now

MoviePass is back with a new “uncapped” plan. While that sounds like “unlimited”, there are caps.

For a limited time, MoviePass Uncapped is available for $9.95 per month for a 12-month subscription period when paid in advance via ACH payment. Monthly subscribers take a 50% hit at $14.95 per month via credit card payment – also a limited time deal. MoviePass says the standard full price will be $19.95 per month via credit card payment, once the limited time deals expire.

You can see an unlimited number of 2D movies, but only the movies MoviePass determines are available on any given day. One positive change is the ability to reserve tickets three hours before showtime and check in at the theater between 30 minutes before showtime up until ten minutes after showtime. MoviePass is good at over 30,000 screens across the country.

MoviePass’ Select, All Access and Red Carpet plans, introduced in December 2018 are no longer available but will be honored for the duration of a user’s paid subscription.

The verdict

That’s really up to you. If you love movies and want to see a lot for a little scratch, MoviePass is a great deal. But that’s only if you can live with MoviePass telling you what movies you can watch. From their website:

Your movie choices may be restricted due to excessive individual usage which negatively impacts system-wide capacity.

For someone that likes to see movies, especially not the latest blockbusters, MoviePass can be a real windfall. And, if you can be flexible, the blockbusters should eventually be on the list and available to see with MoviePass.

You can learn more at MoviePass.com.

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MoviePass tries unlimited again – with limits originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 21, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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