Publication History For : Paul Smart
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Not an ordinary juicer that extracts a good amount of content from soft fruit but a masticating juicer that does much more with almost anything that has juice, so for those of you who want juice from Celery or Carrots or even things like onions this is the tool to do it.
It is 40cm tall, 37cm from back to front and 14cm from side to side, unlike most juicers that would require you to do most of the work like quartering an Apple before inserting this has a large capacity seven centimetre wide tube and once inserted any juice is soon extracted and then the remains – and in the case of soft fruit this is not much – is then masticated to pulp.
Regular readers will know that I find sleeping difficult, often its 4AM before I start to sleep even then its poor so the SleepHub from Cambridge Sleep Sciences was a no brainer for me to request to review. Initial tests were nothing short of amazing. I have a watch that records sleep length and more importantly the deep sleep part of that.
Often prior to the arrival of the SleepHub my sleep score was described as POOR and a figure of 20 was achieved. By night three I was scoring 80 and best of all my deep sleep was no longer in ten minute chunks but up to an hour in length. In good sleep you drift off in a ‘U’ shape with the bit at the bottom being the deep sleep part this can last the best part of 90 minutes and then with good sleep you just repeat with the nirvana eight hours.
Having recently told you about a Samsung Tablet that could make and receive calls here something a little smaller that can be held to your ear without attracting attention as it is more normal in size for a SmartPhone, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G measures 15.7x7.4x.8cm and weighs 192grams. The viewable screen is 15x6.8cm and this gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 6.5 inches. The screen is Quad HD+ at 3200x1440. Going around the outside it has the volume rocker and the on/off button on the right, the base has a speaker, USB ‘C’ socket and a pin hole microphone, the right side has nothing while the top has a pin hole microphone as well as the SIM entry point.
Sometimes there are things that you would like to view although there they are not immediately available because of where in the world you live. So a router that can be ‘elsewhere’ could be an advantage. This offering can help to achieve whatever you want it to, wherever you are in the world.
It is 14x21x3cm and out of this unit are four aerials that are each 19cm tall so the actual space taken may vary. The test unit I was sent comes with a UK plug on a one metre lead so power must be less that that away from where you set it up. There is also a 70cm Ethernet lead supplied. The router itself is not designed to stand and has a couple of holes in the back so it can be hung on a wall so not taking up valuable desk space as most routers do.
With all of us spending more time in our ‘bubbles’ clean air is vital as otherwise if one gets a cold – or worse – we all get it. So this device from Philips could well help. It is rare that I quote the top of the box in this introduction but here it seems appropriate ‘removes 99.97% of airborne allergens’ is the claim.
The claims are that it removes Pollen, Pet Danger, Household Dust, Outdoor Pollution, Gas, Dust Mite Allergens, Bacteria and Virus. You can track everything via the Philips Clean Home App. The Philips Air Purifier 3000i AC3033 measures 64.5cm tall and round at 27.5cm, it comes fully assembled but you have to remove the lower back half to remove the packaging from the filter which is already in place. It has a 1.8 metre hard wired mains lead that emerges from the base at the back.
While this is box that things can be stored in I do not think it describes it very well. Most will use it while sitting or lying in bed and it can support your Tablet at an angle and still leave you able to write or type on the top of the box without things moving around, it you like it’s a third hand.
The other word in the title ‘felt’ to me does not describe the moulded base and sides while they are felt my feelings make felt a soft substance that moves and this is solid. It is 36x24.5cm at the top and 33x21cm at the base, it is 7.5cm deep. My review period of it overlapped while I was reviewing the Samsung Tab S7 one of the Tablets along with various iPads mentioned in the instructions that came with the item.
Think of this large Tablet that can be used in the home, the office, and anywhere in between as it has a Sim and can therefore keep you in contact anywhere. It has rather good speakers however few will want to hold it to their ears because of size, so Bluetooth for a headset and some form or privacy for your phone calls.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 measures 28.5x19.5x.5cm and weighs 576 grams this with the supplied stylus attached in its charge port on the back. The viewable screen is 26.5x16.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 12.4inches. This review unit was sent to me by Vodafone who have it available in Black or as I was sent Mystic Bronze. It is currently available in 4G or 5G versions the former is £17 a month cheaper.
While a lot of devices claim to take your blood pressure they give a single figure and most will know your blood pressure is made up of two components systolic and diastolic the ideal reading is something like 120 over 80. What most devices give you is your pulse which in a fit and healthy person can be around 60 when resting.
Your doctor will use a cuff that fits on your arm and in the times when it was possible to see a doctor in person outside of an A & E visit they would attach such a device to your arm and then tell you to stop talking while they take your reading. This unit has a solid rechargeable internal battery which means the display sits on your arm along with the cuff and will work either on a bare arm or over a shirt and still give accurate readings. The solid part is 15x4.
Two small and useful items for the young, the first a table game and the second two musical toys that may even lead them into a useful career as a musician. They are from the same PR company that sent the large .pdf file in August these items are both reasonably priced. With current restrictions both items are suitable to be posted without costing a fortune.
First the Table Top Bowling Game that does not need a huge amount of flat space to play it. It is 1.2metres long and 23cm wide and weights 294 grams. The flat laminated sheet is supplied rolled up in a box with the weighted pins and balls there are two weighted magnetic strips that go at either end of the sheet to keep it flat. The six pins are each 7cm centimeters tall with a small weight to help keep then standing.
Acer seem reluctant to bring in new names, as I have reviewed an Aspire 5 in the past, only the bit after the ‘5’ varies here however there is doubt that this a different unit as the previous one weighed over 2kilos and this one only clocks in a tad over 1.5 kilos so what else is new on this small and light laptop?
The Acer Aspire A514-52 laptop computer measures 32x23x1.5cm and weighs 1524grams. The viewable screen is 31x17.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of close to 14 inches. The screen is HD 1920x1080 with the default display set at 150% but I was perfectly happy using it at 125%. The 84 key keyboard has 4cm clear behind 2.5cm clear either side and 9cm clear in front with the 10.5x6.5cm trackpad mounted 9.5cm from the left and 12.5cm from the right.
Do you know someone who has everything and is therefore a nightmare to get presents for? I may have a solution especially if they work at a desk, a range of three basic items but made in high quality brass any of which would be a huge talking point. I am told that only two of the three are currently available and the third is a pre-production sample.
First the Stria Ruler – pre production – it folds out to 30cm – 12 inches – and is marked on both sides one in centimetres and the other in inches. A two centimetre area in the centre is what it pivots round. Open or closed it’s an accurate measure with the centimetres and the tenths marked as inclines to .5cm. The inches are marked in sixteenths of an inch.
I am used to review samples coming with a US keyboard where only a few keys are differently placed but this arrived with a German keyboard and when you use a UK keyboard overlay on it a number of keys move the most obvious is that the Y and Z are transposed but harder to fathom is where other keys have gone the most vital on initial setup of this Notebook is the ‘@’ key as try entering an email address without it, once booted you can investigate further.
The Honor MagicBook Pro measures 36.5x23.5x1cm and it weighs 1.674 kilos. The viewable screen is 35.5x20cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 16.1inches. The margin on the top and sides is only .5cm. The unit is 1920x1080 with the screen resolution defaulting to 125% but it is quite useable at 100%. It has an AMD Ryzen processor and graphics running at 3GHz. It comes with 16GB RAM.
Most recent ‘outdoor’ cameras that have crossed my desk have been battery offerings that would require you to climb up to change the battery or recharge it. They of course require only fitting, this offering from D-Link is wired so it needs to go through either a wall window or door frame to get power and to deliver its signal to you.
It is 8.5x5.5x6.5cm the last figure the depth is increased by the bracket so could be as much as 12cm. The hard wired lead that emerges from the back of the bracket is 4.2 metres long ending in a round 1cm across fitment that carries both power and signal. There is a further plug/fitment on another 3 metre length of cable that ends in a power plug so however you link it you need power within three metres of entering your home. Also in the box is a ten side fold out Quick Start Guide.
This is a new phone brand – to me anyway – it comes from Nigeria and seems to be a good build quality with components to match. My initial observations note that the rear mounted cameras seem to extend by more than a normal amount from the rest of the case.
The Infinix Zero 8 measures 17x7.5x.8cm but the last figure increases to 1cm where the diamond shape area that holds its cameras protrudes. It weighs 207 grams. The viewable screen is 16x7.3cm the corner to corner measurement is 6.85 inches and the screen has 1080x2460 pixels. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and the on/off and fingerprint reader on the right side. The base has speaker, microphone, USB ‘C’ connector and 3.5cm socket for headphones.
Although this does not have ‘Smart’ in its name it is far more than just a watch it is taking your pulse counting your steps and is the first watch I have used that tells you your blood oxygen saturation and of course it also tells you the time.
The Honor Watch ES measures 4x2.5x.6cm and weighs 33grams with the strap. You need to link it to your phone via the Huawei App and a search down the various watches finds the Honor ES. Once linked you are met with a very bright and colourful display screen with the hours in yellow below this are the minutes in white with the day and date to the minutes left. Below this are three dials the red one is heart – pulse - turquoise blue for steps walked and green for battery state.
This is a piece of software that I have used for many years, sometimes it’s a single file that I need to get back but twice now it’s been that Windows refuses to bootup and I have been happy to say in one case it was only a few hours work to get up and back to a few days previous, the other occasion took longer as I needed a new hard drive but in both cases it saved me.
The latest version states it will protect you with Active Protection for Ransomware Attacks, Malicious Files, Zoom Injection Attacks, Illicit Cryptomining and Malicious Websites and of course what it was first designed for to protect you from inadvertent delating of files and folders and allows complete reinstallation of Windows even if your PC fails to boot. All these extra protections do come with a downside in that the overall complete backup takes a little longer.
Normally I get a lot of ideas from ‘Christmas In July’ events, of course with the Pandemic there were none but one clever PR company sent links in a very large PDF file with some of the items available to review during what is normally a quiet month August and here is the first of those offerings a pair of pocket pruners that are also a multi-tool.
I am certainly not a gardener and I am sure anyone who spends hours in their garden everyday will have several pairs of secateurs of different sizes. However someone who has a few plants may think this is a great set of tools as it not just a collapsible pair of pruners but also a total of thirteen tools in the arms of the pruners. On day one I was cooking a tinned pie the sort you get from Poundland and my can opener would not go through three points on the tin lid.
A substantial Tablet in that the screen is over ten inches, it runs Android 10, however as you probably know Trump had a falling out with Huawei and because of that certain features cannot be included, probably the biggest miss is the Google Store for Apps.
The Huawei Mate Pad 10.4 measures 26.5x15x.8cm and weights 453 grams. The viewable screen is 22.5x13.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 10.4 inches. The screen resolution is 2000x1200 pixels. By default it wants to use Gestures to navigate which may seem a little daunting to those used to Home, Back and Opened Apps.
It’s been a while since a pair of shoes or trainers has passed over my desk. Here an offering from Brooks that will support the complete foot. When I first took them from the box I thought that they looked a little small but a comparison with what was currently on my feet disproved that.
Like clothes shoe sizes do vary and I have in the past been happy and comfortable with some shoes that are sold as 9½ but others need to be 10. I loosened the laces as they arrived tightly tied and then loosened them some more and still my foot resisted and then I realised that the top edge of the trainer was rubberised for extra grip and so while the laces do have a job to perform you need to push quite hard to insert the foot but when in the trainer the foot is held very securely.
I rarely get a chance to see an Apple device as they do not seem interested in UK journalists. So it is nice when a telecoms company offer one for review. It looks very smart and while it uses much the same system to turn on you are met with a wall of permissions just to get to the Home screen.
The The iPhone 11 Pro Max measures 15.5x7.5x.8cm and weighs 222 grams. The viewable screen is 15x6.8cm which gives the notional imperial diagonal measurement of 6.5 inches, however there is a notch 3.5cm long digging into the top of the screen for the selfie cameras. The screen is 2688x1242 pixels at 458PPI. It comes with a 3046mAh battery, so a long day of battery life for most unless you spend it watching Apple TV+ that comes on the unit for a year.
These earbuds are one of the best buds I have used, ideal for gamers, movie buffs or music fans. Certainly all three examples are improved by these buds they make the standard for those who prefer their enjoyment to be in ear. This is not just another set of earbuds.
These buds are for use on a Tablet or Notebook and also any USB ‘C’ SmartPhone that uses the port via an adapter for sound, you do not need the adapter just plug in the USB ‘C’ and hear your music, sound from your game or movie. In the box are six pairs of Gels to fit on the buds, the next to largest 15mm are fitted, however you get sizes from 10mm to 16mm and not just jumbled up in a plastic bag but fitted into the box.
This is a large and heavy multi-function unit suitable for an office environment as it has the ability to set up all sorts of restrictions with times and users so you do not end up printing magazines for whatever local group. This is a colour laser All In One unit that comes with starter cartridges pre-installed. It is certainly a two person move at 35kilos.
The Canon i-SENSYS MF742Cdw measures 46cm deep 43cm from side to side and 48cm tall, these are all maximum figures and all leads used are contained within this footprint including the paper out tray, only if you use the second manual paper feed do these figures get exceeded and as the manual feed is a drop down to 45 degrees from the centre front of the unit this adds 15cm to the depth. You can use this via Wi-Fi or Ethernet or if required USB. Installation is from a CD or via the Internet.
Not a new name but certainly the contents are a lot more powerful than the unit I reviewed three years ago. This is a light Notebook that is powerful at the same time; it can happily show a presentation onto an external HDMI panel so ideal for those that travel around.
The Acer Swift 3 measures 31.5x21.5x1.5cm where the last measurement at the back with the front being as thin as 1cm. The viewable screen is 30.5x17.5cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial screen measurement of 14 inches; the screen resolution is 1920x1080 which by default is shown at 150%.
'How do I do that' or 'let me think' as I do not complete that task very often. Windows can do most things however it often makes the task difficult. Parallels Toolbox has a range of one step tools to complete the tasks that Windows makes more complex, some may even seem impossible this collection of over thirty different tools are in a simple package.
Let’s start with Archive, Block Camera and Break Time; I don’t think any need any great explanation the last named is perhaps the most important for those studying. The next three can all be done in Windows but each requires a separate two key selection to complete here they are simple for those who do this action infrequently; they are Capture Area, Capture Screen and Capture Window.
Normally writing this first paragraph is easy, it just explains very briefly what the item being reviewed is, be it software, hardware, something for the home, something for the office or even something for the children. This box connects to the Internet using your modem but it is not exactly a router, it’s really for the Internet of Things, any wiser?
The Neos Indoor Camera was developed in association with an insurance company and their clients were the first to benefit from it. Here are two more items that can save the householders money by avoiding water damage problems and the second a sensor kit so you can know when a door or window is opened or movement is detected.
Both of these items are add-ons that also require you to have a Neos camera installed as they link into your Wi-Fi and then give you push notifications via the camera. However it is possible to have the camera unarmed with the Neos App open on your phone and get notified of an open door or window that the sensor is attached to.
This is a scale that can help in the fight against Obesity. However it also does other things giving you other reading while on the scale, you decide from a list in the App and just for good measure it will give you the weather forecast, for those who weigh themselves first thing in the morning this may help you decide what to wear.
The Withings Body Cardio scales measure 32x32x1.2cm with a central bar to help you keep your feet apart. There is a 7x4cm display window. The numerals displayed are 2cm tall and very easy to read. While being naked during weighing yourself is not essential you do need to have bare feet to get the best from the scale as certain features require bare feet.
This is a new SmartPhone designed for 5G but that still works using 4G if you live or work in an area currently without 5G coverage. This is supplied with a transparent back and sides silicon cover that stops the cameras being proud on the back which means that you can lay it on any surface without any danger of scratching that surface.
The Moto G 5G Plus Smartphone measures 16.7x7.3x1cm and weighs 222grams with cover. The screen is 15.6x7cm which gives the notional imperial diagonal measurement of 6.7inches. The display is 1080x2520 pixels in a 21:9 ratio which is the same resolution as most recent films. The twin front cameras do bite into the display near the top left of the screen.
It looks a little like a ‘tank’ with the top removed so in one form it’s just the treads that grip but once it moves into the fitment it moves as if on stilts. There are some pieces supplied to guide your Power Treads unit around a course which you design but you can go freestyle and use things found in your home to make your own truly original track.
If this was just a vehicle with some curves and twists then the stated age of five plus would be fine however as you have to assemble not just the course which is a test in itself with the pieces provided but you also need to fit the treads to the vehicle so maybe an older sibling would be useful to tell you what is possible. Although it can do some amazing twists and turns it cannot defy gravity.
The only way you know if your Anti Virus or Total Security product is doing its job is if it fails; and, if you have no problems, then it is probably doing its job. While I have previously told you about what McAfee and Kaspersky have to offer today its BitDefender.
I have been using it for nearly a month and the only time I know it’s there is when I attach a memory stick while it checks its content. Some people are concerned that certain files are permanently deleted and here they have a secure shredder to do the job. The thing that most recently seems to be the thing that people worry about is Ransomware and BitDefender say they will stop files being encrypted once they know an attach is in progress.
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