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Another useful gadget from those clever people In Hong Kong, this time a padlock that can truly only be opened by you because it has no key and can only be opened by your finger so be it a box, a door or anything else the contents inside are yours alone.
Things like SmartPhones or Notebooks have had the security from Finger scans for a while now you can protect bigger things from your kids or others and you cannot lose the key as it is controlled by your finger. The hasp is .5cm so quite substantial, the lock itself is 4.6x4.6x1.5cm and the total weight is 126grams. Setting up the padlock is fully described in the instructions. You become the Administrator.
With a good looking appearance, this next handset does have some faults.
Available in a choice of Liquid Silver, Deep Green, Ash Pink or, as in the case of my review sample kindly supplied by Vodafone, Liquid Black, the Xperia XZ2 is a Sony smartphone. This product certainly reminded me of Sony’s habit of using descriptive colours when describing the company’s products.
Recently a range of small home security cameras have been received to review. The trend is for them to be Wi-Fi operated so requiring where you place them just needs to be within the reach of a power point, this is one such device.
D-Link describes this as their smallest camera it is round at 3.5cm and 9cm tall. The face has no less than five things on the front, first Infra-Red illumination, below this the microphone, next in the centre of this column the lens, next light sensors that determine if it will show images in colour or infra-red and finally status LED it colours and what they determine are shown on the online manual. The rear has connection for the supplied Micro USB to USB lead.
Well-known for its work in the development of E ink display phone cases, Oaxis the award-winning technology company, has branched out with its product line up. This new addition, launched via the Kickstarter route, is entitled Timepiece with a price tag of £95 for Early Bird backers.
As its title might indicate, this new product is a wrist watch of the analogue variety. Designed as a fashionable device, the Oaxis Timepiece is available in a choice of four distinct styles featuring different colours and strap combinations. In the case of my review sample of the Timepiece, the watch consisted of a black, stainless steel case with a double domed glass face covering a black face with red pointer arms plus indicators at five minute intervals.
The latest Bluetooth earbuds to cross my desk arrived close to same time as a couple of recent SmartPhones neither of which have a standard 3.5mm socket so ideal to test these earbuds with so they have had a thorough work out.
From one bud to the other is 54cm as these are the type of earbud that have a cord connection between the buds. This enables you to link them behind or in front of your neck according to your preference. There is a tiny 1cm button in the lead that enables those with small necks to get any excess lead out of the way. A 4.5x1x.6cm box sits 10cm down from one bud that allows you to make music choices, answer phone calls etc.
Checking your ancestry can cause problems as this next game reveals.
Passwords are a pain, good passwords are a greater pain, but no password or one that is easily cracked are the greatest pain of all. Certainly you should never use words such as names and try not to repeat passwords however tempting.
Rather than Puff the Dragon, we have Puff the Dinosaur.
Dinosaurs have long been a popular topic of interest to young, and some not so young, children. The bigger the better with regards to the animal, while the hungrier they are will add to the appeal to young minds. As a result any recent collection of toys from various manufactures is almost guaranteed to include at least one example, if not a couple or so, of the prehistoric inhabitants in the mix.
In relation to another vacuum – many years ago – its founder said ‘so easy even a man can use it’ he was a man, so am I, his statement is also true of this offering from Philips. Literally you clip the base to the tube and the tube to the motor and storage container and switch on and use it. No screws and because each section fits only one way it’s that easy.
It can of course be used without the tube so you can vacuum things other than the floor – note I said floor – as it goes without changes required between long rugs to carpet to solid floors. So upholstery, curtains and even picture rails can all be cleaned. At its full size it is 114cm tall, the motor/storage container at the top is a maximum of 23cm from back to front and 12cm wide. The connecting tube is 4cm across and the cleaning shoe is 25cm across and 13cm deep.
This toy brings songs and sound effects to a young child’s play area.
With a mantra of “Grow, Develop and Explore”, Vtech has developed a number of products for the younger members of the family. Recently I have had the opportunity to check out one of the Vtech products from the company’s Toot-Toot Animal range. As its title suggests, this particular range consists of various animals including the furry cat that was the review sample that was currently occupying my attention.
To me anyway this is a totally new Chinese phone company, I first heard of them a few weeks ago when I received an invite at short notice to their new UK store at Westfield shopping centre, which due to conflicts I could not make, however I was sent their latest phone the Mi 8 Lite. Looking at their website sees they are far more than just a phone company as they are big – like the world’s fourth largest - in Internet, Connected Homes and Software.
On first look this looks like any of a recent breed of quality mobile phones, however it has plenty to offer. It is 15.5x7.4x.7cm; the diagonal imperial screen measurement is 6.26 inches. The screen is 1080x2280. It weights 171grams. It runs Android 8.1 (the last but one version) with a skin of MIUI which unlike certain other skins does not seem to affect performance. The processor is an Oca-core Max 2.2GHz. It comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Internal storage and around 50GB is available.
The Fuzzy family needs help. Are you up to the task?
Gems of Magic - The Lost Family is a Match 3 game that has been developed by Graphium Studios. When playing this game you can create profiles for individual players. These profiles will record the progress of the specific player as they progress through the various levels. You can also adjust the volume levels for sound effects and background music plus opt for full screen mode and use of the game cursor.
Power over Wi-Fi, range extenders and Wi-Fi Extenders are all ways to allow you to get a signal where you may not be able to do so normally, here an offering from Devolo called Magic 2 to allow places that otherwise would need a carrier pigeon to get information in or out help to allow you to stay in touch. Be it loft or basement you can now have connection.
The Devolo Magic 2 Whole Home Wi-Fi Kit consists of three units which each connect to a mains outlet. First the master that needs to be placed near your Modem it is 13x6.5x5cm and has an Ethernet port on the top of the unit and a 13amp plug on the face so whatever was in that socket before you plugged in the Devolo Magic LAN can still be inserted without affecting the Devolo.
Even 45 years later, the Rubik effect continues to be felt.
1974 proved to be a challenging year for those of us who enjoyed the thrill of solving puzzles. In this case the puzzle, that was dominating the brain power of users in 1974, was the creation of the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, Emo Rubik. As you have probably already guessed by now, the puzzle was the Rubik Cube, originally known as the Magic Cube until it took on the name of its creator and become a must buy product.
Not everyone can afford all the bells and whistles available from top of the range panels, so here a basic offering that still offers a good sharp image and it is of course flicker free to give an excellent panel available at a budget price.
The AOC 27E1H 27inch Monitor measures 62x37x1.5cm and it sits on a stand that is 20cm square that raises the screen by 8cm from your desk. It has a lot more back tilt than most other such offerings at close to 20 degrees and amazingly offers nearly half that of forward tilt. The viewable screen is 59x33.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 27inches. The display is 1920x1080. This is described as a ‘Business’ Monitor.
It is that time of year when many people decide on a route to improve their lifestyle but some care should be taken.
Have you made your’s yet? I must admit to be rather lax in this particular matter and have allowed other issues to take up my time. This situation had already arisen before I received an email that stated “those that do, could well find themselves vulnerable to a particular type of scam.
A streaming service for more than just music as you listen via a small box and either input to your TV or from the 3.5mm port on the back of the box to external speakers, it is also possible to listen via a soundbar connected to your TV.
The box is either red, blue or black it is 13x13x2.5cm it has an on/off button on its top and a line of five connections under a small overhang at the back. These are 3.5mm socket for external speakers, USB, Ethernet, HDMI for connection to the TV and power input. In the box you also get a 17.5cm long wand/microphone/controller that is 3x3cm and also the same colour to match the box, don’t lost this as the box relies on it to function.
With a bargain basement approach, this next offering consists of five separate titles.
Belonging to the Hidden Object game genre with game play aplenty, this next offering consists of five separate titles. Appropriately entitled "Hidden Object Stories 5 in 1", these five titles are not connected apart from the style of playing. Each of these five games allow the player to turn off background music, sound effects, check out a brief Help feature and reset the game's default settings.
While a 1TB hard drive for a decent desktop machine is now the norm larger drives are available and as the size of the machine gets smaller a second drive bay gets rarer so having multiple partitions may be the way to go with a single larger drive. However with Windows making the formatting of anything over 2TB more difficult this 8TB offering may be more for those with more specialised uses.
While it is not impossible to format this as a single Windows drive the will require more knowledge than most have to do so. In fairness would you want such a large single drive anyway especially if it was the boot drive. It is most likely to end up in a NAS unit where even this huge capacity can soon be swallowed up by backups and the like. The drive measures 14.7x10.2x2.6cm which normally gets called a drive to fit into a 3.
Edifier continues to offer a choice of speaker systems.
Forming part of the Edifier family of speaker systems is the R1580MB multimedia model. This kit consists of two speaker units, a remote control device and a selection of appropriate leads. The R1580MB speaker system also provides support for Bluetooth connectivity through the introduction of mobile devices to supply the audio content. As might be expected, the pair of speakers making up this system consists of a passive and an active unit.
Early in 2018 One Plus 6 had a worldwide launch for their flagship new phone in the Olympic Park in Stratford, here a phone from OnePlus 6 with an added ‘T’ that has a lot of the features but at around half the price.
The OnePlus 6T measures 15.5x7x.7cm and weighs 186grams. The viewable screen is 14.7x6.8cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of over 6.4inches. The right side has a slider switch which goes between silent, vibrate and ring and this is far easier than swapping things in settings. Also on the right side is the on/off button with three second switch off and fourteen second switch on. The base has USB ‘C’ port for both charging and connection of an On The Go device.
Swedish by design and Chinese by manufacture deliver a set of earphones.
With a company name derived from the words “Revolution” and “Next”, the Swedish company RevoNext has added to its product portfolio with the release of its in-ear QT3 earphones. With the brand number of RN-QT3, this in-ear headphones set come with a designed QT3 quad driver to help deliver a superior audio experience to the listener. Although Swedish by design and concept, these in-earphones have been manufactured by Dongguan City Tuotui Co Ltd.
One of the latest batch of notebooks to come on the market from Acer and not only is it powerful but has the absolutely latest version of Windows 10 that is V1809. Another of the recent inclusions is just USB ‘C’ ports on the unit. However for those that still need standard USB2 and USB3 an adapter unit is supplied in the box to attach.
The Acer Swift 7 measures 32.5x23.5x.7cm and weighs 1185grams, so very thin and light as the width was at the thickest point at the back at the front it is only .5cm thick at the edge. I normally spend quite a long time upgrading to the current version of Windows and here this was not needed as it is even more recent than my PC as this has V1809.
Are you up to the task of completing 200 levels of Match 3?
Heart of Moon – The Mask of Seasons is a Match 3 game. Developed by UNIKGAME, this title places you in the company of Clara and her adopted father as they set about on a journey to recover an ancient artefact known as the Mask of Seasons. Before setting out on this Match 3 adventure, you can adjust the volume levels for music and sound effects plus select from options to include a tutorial and play the game in full screen mode.
I am sure we all have all the devices – and more – available as single tools, however in this small multi tool offering, but when you need them can they be instantly located. You are more likely to find them if located on your keyring and this comes with such a ring attached.
The tool comes in a fabric case with the keyring attached to the ‘multi tool’ via a short 3cm chain, this enables the tool to be in the case rather than rubbing a hole in your pocket as it would without the case. The total weight with the case is 81grams. The multi tool is when folded in on itself is 8.5x3x1.5cm and as it fits snugly in the case that has a Velcro flap, that is the overall dimension as well.
With its new UK store and plenty of new products, Xiaomi has been busy of late.
What’s in a name? In the case of this next review product, the name is that of Pocophone F1. As part of Xiaomi’s product portfolio, the Pocophone’s brand of smartphones forms part of the more than 100 million smartphones shipped during 2018 by the company although what its percentage would be, I have no idea. Available in a choice of Graphite Black (my review sample), Steel Blue and Rosso Red, with dimensions of 155.5 x 75.3 x 8.
A visit to a barber between Liverpool Street and Old Street for a totally new brand to me had a presentation for a 99 year old company found me leaving after a very pleasant haircut from a barber at a shop called Ruffians and with a sample of the WAHL hair trimmer to try out in my own home, and before you ask the barber did use one for part of the haircut.
To give it the full name on the box it’s the Aqua Blade Wet/Dry Stubble & Beard Trimmer. It weighs 150 grams and is 16cm from base to tip 4cm wide near the head and 3cm deep at the same point. 8cm up from the base is the single on/off button. Just below this is an LED, the two pin power lead plugs into the back 2cm up from the base. The unit is matt black with silver coloured trim curving up from the front to the sides starting just below the on/off button.
This next headset combines Bluetooth, Noise Cancelling and Hi-Res delivery at a sub £80 price point.
Private listening headsets come in a range of formats that vary from the small ear-bud types to those featuring ear cups of different sizes. You could opt for the almost invisible in-ear type or the more obvious on or over-the-ear product with a choice of tethered to the audio source or the walk-about freedom of wireless (ie Bluetooth) for your listening pleasure.
A Wi-Fi security camera from Time2, this is an internal offering but I see this range of releases also has an external offering that I shall ask to look at when this one returns home. So what can this camera offer to help secure your home?
The camera is 9.5cm tall, 5.5cm wide and 5cm back to front. There is just one visible connection in the rear of the back of the unit a supplied micro USB cable. Setup is just a matter of downloading an App from either the iOS or Android store and following the instructions, there is a small Start Up Guide supplied but it just duplicates the instructions in the App.
Cygnett’s ChargeUp Boost and ttec’s PowerStones Trio each offer a different approach to ensuring that you have backup power for you mobile when you need it.
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