Kathleen Chapman

I have just recently upgraded my phone to one that supports wireless charging and was excited to try it for the first time. I was going to purchase a five watt wireless charger until I came across a press release from Freescale Semiconductor about their 15 watt wireless charging solution. Their design will support faster, [...]

I have hundreds of photos stored on a computer and external hard drive just sitting there being neglected. :( I've always intended on printing my favorites but never got around to it and now there are so many, the task is overwhelming. I also intended on buying a digital frame to display them; however, I [...]

We have so many devices that are charged via USB in our house that multiport USB wall chargers have become a necessity for us. The Choetech 50 Watt 6 Port Desktop Smart USB Wall Charger is one that was offered to the Gadgeteer for review and I quickly volunteered to test it. To quote He-Man, [...]

Don't want to get a dog, cat, or gerbil for your kids? How about a fascinating different kind of "pet" - one that glows in the dark? Dino Pet is simply a container of photosynthetic bioluminescing dinoflagellates. These dinoflagellates are single celled algae that produce their own food via photosynthesis just like plants and will [...]

What would the world look like without music? Much less happy I would guess. Music is a vital part of our lives, however, it is not always appropriate to share that music with those around you (like at work) making earbuds or headphones a necessity. The Arctic P614 BT (for Bluetooth) headphones are one of [...]

Need a stocking stuffer for that diehard Firefly fan? How about getting him or her an 8 G capacity flash drive in the form of a three inch diecast metal replica of the Serenity? It has a loop for your keychain, a push button to eject the drive, and the engines even light up. In [...]

Soba Cable Director by Bluelounge is a wonderfully simple way to help detangle the mess of cables that accumulate in the dark corners behind our electronics gathering dust. The Vortex tube coils lengthwise and the zipper tool is positioned onto the tube allowing you to slide it up or down opening the tube to insert [...]

I just love the concept of LEDs. They save so much on energy and energy costs, run at a much cooler temperature than other lighting options (cool!), work forever (well okay, so not forever, but a REALLY long time), and now they have a softer yellow light available in lamps - take my money! The [...]

We cut cable a long time ago and opted for over-the-air (OTA) channels using antennas. Back in the day, we also bought DVD recorders to record our favorite shows but had problems with ALL of them, and never got around to replacing them. Most of the time I'm at home when my shows are on, [...]

Celebrate with the Force this Christmas by decorating with these Kurt S. Adler Star Wars lawn ornaments. Each 36 inch character (which includes Darth Vader, R2D2, a Storm Trooper, and Yoda) contains 50 lights and is decked out in Christmas apparel to join you in celebrating the holidays. When decorating this Christmas, "Do, or do [...]

The Microsoft Band is Microsoft's contribution to the wearables market. It is a cross-platform Bluetooth device that works on Windows Phone 8.1 update, iOS 7.1 and 8, and Android 4.3-4.4 devices. It has a full-color touch display and will track your sleep patterns, number of steps taken, calories burned, and heart rate and has watch functions such [...]

Want to organize your pantry and keep food from going stale? The Prepara Evak Airtight Glass Food Storage solution may be just the thing for you. I have been looking around for a durable airtight solution, but not necessarily to stave off stale food. My desire is to find a product that is truly airtight to [...]

Installing a whole home audio system used to be a chore. Now with wireless systems like the Korus V400 and V600 (reviewed on the Gadgeteer), Sonos, and others, you no longer have to deal with the hassle of hard wiring the speakers into your home. You can even buy speakers one at a time and easily expand [...]

The LifeBEAM bicycling helmet has an all weather compatible "advanced optical" sensor in the helmet to collect data on your heart rate, calories and performance. But the best thing about this helmet is that you are not tied down to communicating that data to only one device or app. This helmet will transmit the data via [...]

Living in Wisconsin (we lived there years ago) meant aeon long winters, heart stopping heating bills, and desert dry air. We used humidifiers to try to add invaluable moisture to the air to help decrease respiratory illnesses or alleviate the symptoms, but also to keep from shocking each other to a fine char. While cleaning [...]

Even though WiFi is usually provided for free in hotels here in the United States, it is very common to have a weak signal. Enter the travel router. It will connect to the hotel's internet connection via Ethernet cable (or wirelessly via WiFi) and allow you to connect all your devices to it wirelessly. Travel [...]

You can now text anyone without internet access or cell service, as long as you and the person you are texting have a goTenna device AND you are within a few miles of each other. How does it work? You first link your phone to goTenna via Bluetooth LE, then download the goTenna app, and [...]

We lost our internet connection for about 24 hours recently. After each of us wandered around aimlessly wondering what to do, we finally found some other things to occupy our time - you know, fun things like cleaning the house, playing board games, and being chased by angry wasps whose nest we had just sprayed [...]

I've been thinking about composting and buying a composter (or at least the materials for building one) for a long time now, yet the time, energy and space requirements have always been a discouragement for me. However, the Food Cycler CS-10 in-home composter from Food Cycle Science has brought composting back to the forefront of my [...]