If you are one of the many people that struggle with the dreaded “Black thumb” affliction, there is a solution. Just place a Koubachi WiFi plant sensor in the soil next to one of your potted plants and it will gather temperature, moisture and light information that will help you keep your plant alive and thriving. Using an iOS or Android app, the Koubachi sensor will tell you when you need to water the plant, fertilize it, move it to a better lighted or cooler area, or just lovingly stroke its leaves. Ok it won’t tell you to stroke its leaves… that would just be weird. The price to keep your plants perky doesn’t come cheap though. At €130.00, which is about $162.00 here in the US, this gadget is pretty expensive. It’s up to you to decide if you think Buddy the Begonia or Frank the Ficus is worth it.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: Nature

Koubachi Gives your Houseplants a Voice originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 25, 2012 at 3:00 pm.

A lot of people worry about getting help if something happens to them away from a phone. Maybe they are aging or becoming confused or forgetful. Perhaps they have limited mobility or a disability. Maybe they are concerned family members worried about their loved ones.

One popular option is an emergency dialing system, like the Bay Alarm Medical Personal Alarm Response System, which allows you to push a button, then be connected to an emergency dispatcher who can determine what sort of help is needed and contact the right people.  Bay Alarm sent one of their systems to The Gadgeteer for review.

Bay Alarm’s system is a type of Personal Emergency Response System (PERS), which generally consist of three parts – a button that can be worn in several ways, a base station (the Linear Security PERS-2400), and the response team on the other end of the line.

Base station and cords, call button and optional mounts

The Bay Alarm system’s base station installs just like a cordless phone. You plug one cord from the wall socket to the station and another from the station to the base of your phone. Plug in the power cord (a large wall wart on a nice long cord), turn the unit on, and you are pretty much set to go. I set this up at my mother’s house for the test, and like many older homes, the phone outlet and power outlets are not conveniently located near each other. This is just a minor annoyance that we struggled with for answering machines and cordless phones too – no big deal, just something to think about. The service works on regular phone service, or cable, VOIP (with an adapter), etc. If you can use a regular phone, you should be able to use this service.

Base station bottom view

The 8″ long, 7.5″ wide and 2.5″ high station has few buttons or features that might confuse someone in an emergency. The big button labelled ‘EMERGENCY’ in red is hard to miss – visually or tactility. It even includes Braille on the buttons. Besides that, there is a ‘CLEAR’ button to cancel an accidental press, and ‘HOME’. There are also four status lights – POWER, TROUBLE, SENDING, and HOME. (Note: the HOME button and light are not used in this configuration. There is even a small self-adhesive square to cover the button if you wish.)  The station contains a rechargeable battery that can operate the system for 32 hours (be sure to remove the protective cover from the battery before use.)

The station has a very sensitive mic built-in so it can hear someone talking to it from some distance away. In my tests, the operator heard my mom’s soft voice from several rooms away – pretty much if I could hear her as I sat by the station, they could hear her as well. The station has a lot of volume to it, so whenever they could hear my mom, she could easily hear them. You will want to think about where you locate the station – where would it be most likely to hear the victim? In mom’s older two-story home, if the station was located to hear her in the upstairs bedroom with the door closed, it would not hear her from the laundry room. One nice touch is that it can be wall-mounted. You don’t need to cover the entire house – the operator will call 911 if they do not hear anyone after an activation.

The call button remote is pretty straight forward. It is small, light, unobtrusive, waterproof, and tough. It can be worn as a pendant or watch, or clipped to a belt or pocket. It has a 300′ range, but a ‘long-range’ version is available that reached 1,000′. As usual, the range is affected by doors, type of wall construction, etc. In my mom’s house with wooden construction but lots of doors and walls, it was generally only about 100-150′, and it did not reach from the farthest corner of the basement or the backyard.

Small call button in my giant hand

I had no issues with the call button, and appreciate that it is waterproof so it can be used while bathing, as so many accidents happen then. The button is light enough that it is easy to forget you are wearing it, but one could wish the plain grey unit was more attractive if it was going to be worn all the time. (That might be an interesting line of accessories- nice jewelery and accessories that could hide or function as the pendant.)

My experiences with the operators were uniformly very good. They were always cheerful and helpful, even when doing test after test. In the real world, what happens is you trigger a signal – either with the big button or the pendant, then the station exclaims ‘emergency’ for several seconds. This serves as both assurance that the unit ‘heard’ you, and to let you know when it may have been accidentally triggered. There is a bit of a lag until the operator comes on (very loudly, as noted above), usually about twenty to thirty seconds in my tests. This is about the same lag as the security company at my workplace, but can seem like a really long time in an emergency.

You fill out a contact form as part of the registration process with addresses, emergency contacts, and instructions on accessing your home in an emergency. When the unit triggers, it tells the operator who this is so they can communicate with you by name, and already have the key info handy. They can also update the info easily if you move or change numbers. Not every PERS has the flexibility to call a contact person instead of emergency services, and this comes in handy when you really need help, but not the type 911 offers.

One thing they thought of that you might not is how to gain access to the locked house in an emergency. They offer a lock box (that you can also get from most hardware stores) that securely holds a key somewhere outside and requires a combination to get into. Bay Medical will pass the location of the box and the code to emergency workers.

The station and service are portable – you can take it and use it anywhere you can hook up to a phone line and power. All you need to do is to call in and update the current contact information when you have it set up. It is also worthwhile to note that they will try to help anyone who hits the button – you can even purchase additional call buttons to cover other family members with no additional monthly fees!

If you are thinking about this for your loved ones, the company can bill you directly for it, and can provide a monthly report outlining how it was used.

Bay Alarm has been in business since 1946 and has a very good reputation. The contract is straightforward – the cheapest rate is their annual rate of $239.40, billed as $19.95/month. This gets you the equipment and service with no other fees or costs, or without signing any contracts. You can add fire and CO2 monitoring for an additional fee. The responses are available in 170 languages and they offer discounts to AAA or AARP members.

This is not a fun or sexy gadget, but it is a very valuable one. I had no problems setting the system up, even though I could not find any instructions in my box, and the paperwork (contact form, contract, cancellation form) was all emailed in advance so I could have had it ready even before the system arrived. It is a good system – well-made and well-supported. As my mom pointed out, it cannot cover every contingency, but nothing ever can.

Filed in categories: Health Related Gadgets, Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Medical alert, personal emergency response, Security

Bay Alarm Medical Personal Alarm Response System Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 23, 2012 at 11:00 am.

NeoCover is a creation of designer Jake Frey that pairs rare-earth neodymium magnets with a light switch cover to create a super-strong solution to misplaced keys.  His website runs through a variety of uses for the pairing including holding a dog leash, Maglite, 27 keys, and–as a testment to its strength– a hammer.  The magnets have been tested and are safe to use with flash drives, security cards, and remote auto keys.  Installation is just a matter of unscrewing the original cover and replacing with a NeoCover.

Sales for now are directly through Jake Frey, and a standard white single switch costs $28 with free shipping, but he will work with custom colors and 2-4 switch versions by request.  Included with every order is a nickel-plated keyring.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: Keychain gear, lightswitch

Lightswitch Cover + Magnets = Genius! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 22, 2012 at 8:00 am.

The ColorTouch from Venstar looks like the ultimate gadgeteer’s thermostat. First of all, it is compatible with Apple iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Mac and PC devices, which allows you to easily change settings remotely. Who knew that the ability to customize your home thermostat was important to people. It must be because the ColorTouch has interchangeable faceplates and the ability to change the color background wallpaper with both AM and PM images. It also has screensavers that turn it into a clock or a digital photo frame. Of course it also has a touch screen that you can use to easily schedule up to 4 temp changes per day. It even offers a wireless outdoor sensor so you can see the temp outdoors with a weather display and an energy usage information report that lets you see how much energy has been used to heat and cool for the past seven days. The ColorTouch residential thermostat with Skyport Wi-Fi Key is priced under $300 but the main gotcha is that you can’t just walk into Loews or Home Depot and buy one. It looks like you have to have a Heating and Air Conditioning company buy and install it for you. I still want one. I hate my programmable thermostat. I installed one myself to replace an old mercury switch style unit. It’s a real pain to program and change settings. I’d love one of these. Anyone out there have a ColorTouch?

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News, Wireless

Tagged: WiFi

Forget About the Nest Thermostat, Check out the ColorTouch from Venstar originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 18, 2012 at 2:14 pm.

I’m sure most of us have a few powerstrips in use around our homes. They aren’t the sexiest looking devices and aren’t the easiest to store when not in use. A new Kickstarter project hopes to change that. It’s called the Plugbook and it offers 2 power recepticals with a retractable cable in the convenient shape of a book. The idea is to hide the Plugbook on your book shelf when it’s not being used. I like the idea a lot because I’m always trying to remember where I put my unused powerstrip. Is it in a drawer in my office or out in the garage on a shelf? With the Plugbook I would always know where to find it. The only issues I have with this product is that it only offers 2 outlets. In my opinion that’s not nearly enough to make me want to buy it. Four maybe… If the Plugbook looks good to you, you can pledge $25 to get one after the project is fully funded.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: Power

Plugbook – A Power Strip That Thinks it’s a Book originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 16, 2012 at 10:00 am.

The Cuby Light from Osram is a cube shaped LED light producing 20 Lumens and due to its flexible and bendable clip can be used for such things as a reading lamp or attached to bars or handles for accent lighting.  Made from dirt resistant rubberized silicon the cubes are light and shockproof.  Rather than using disposable battery they are charged via USB and have a running time of around 3 hours.

Available now in “black label” (black) for  €19.99 ($25US) , it will be also available in the European Summer in  ”snow” (white ), “love” (pink) and “sky’ (blue)  .

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Miscellaneous, News

Tagged: LED lamp, LED Light

Osram Cuby Light – Cute and Cuby originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 12, 2012 at 12:00 pm.

I’ve been a fan of DYMO label printers for years. I still use their  Twin Turbo label and stamp printer which I reviewed 6 years ago (see related posts at the bottom of this review). They recently asked if I would be interested in reviewing their LabelManager 500TS. The TS stands for touch screen. Let’s see if this label makes a nice addition to a home or office.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Package Contents

DYMO LabelManager 500TS
AC charger
Rechargeable battery
Label Cartridge
USB Cable
Quick start guide

The LabelManager 500 is a stand alone label maker that does not require a computer in order to work. But, if you want to connect it to your PC or Mac, you can use those computers to load other fonts and clip art into the printer. I didn’t test the computer software, so this review will cover the LabelManager as a stand alone device.

The printer has a color touch screen situated above a QWERTY style keyboard. Between the keyboard and the screen is a strip of buttons for Power, Home, Zoom and Print. In the center is a 4-way nav button with a select / ok button in the center.

The keyboard keys have decent tactile feedback and are large enough to press. The only button I had problems with was the 4-way nav button. It’s just too narrow to easily press. My fingers aren’t large, but I always seemed to accidentally press the OK button when I was only trying to press one of the arrow buttons.

On the left side of the printer is the slot where the printed label comes out. Above the slot is a cut button. I’m not sure when you need to use this button as the labels are automatically cut after they are printed.

The bottom of the LabelManager has a large door that provides access to the battery and label cartridge area.

The rechargeable battery snaps into the left side and the cartridge fits into the center. Loading the battery and label cartridge is easy and straight forward.

The LabelManager comes with a 1″ sized label cartridge, but it can accommodate 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2” and 3/4″ sized DYMO D1 labels as well. Labels are available in several color combinations of the tape color and ink color. Shipping with the printer is a 1″ White tape with Black ink cartridge.

To use the LabelManager you first must charge the battery by plugging in the included AC adapter.

Pressing the power button will turn on the printer and present you with the main menu that you see above. If you had previous been working on a label, you’d see it on the screen as it remembers what you were working on before powering off. You can store over 500 labels on your machine so that you don’t have to recreate them. Up to 5 user profiles can be created as well.

Clicking the New Label button will start the label creation process. From this main editing screen, you have access to 10 fonts, 25 font sizes, 32 text styles, 5 boxes plus underline, and 325 built-in symbols and clip-art images.

Accessing all the styles and options requires you to use the touch screen. This is a pressure sensitive touch screen, not a capacitive type. I found the scroll bars, pull down menu buttons, and some of the other buttons to be a little too small and the touch screen a little insensitive. Using a stylus helped a bit, but I think the user interface could use some improvement. Or at least add a row of physical punctuation buttons.

Depending on the font and font size selected, you can make labels with 5 lines of text like you see above.

There are 6 frame styles to choose from.

You can expand the label view to make it easier to select text if you need to make changes. The nav button helps you move around in the text too.

Pressing the magnifying button lets you set the number of copies for each label.

The resulting labels are printed in 300 dpi resolution. The text is crisp and clear and will not smear or scratch off (I tried…). The back of the label has a split backing, making it easy to peel and stick.

I like this label maker. There are a few things that could be improved to make the user experience better like dedicated punctuation keys and larger touch screen buttons. The $199.99 MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) is a expensive, but you can find it for around $135 at Amazon.

All in all, I found the DYMO LabelManager 500 Touch Screen Label Maker to be a useful label printer for home and office.  It makes it easy and fun to make quality labels.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: label maker, Printer

DYMO LabelManager 500 Touch Screen Label Maker Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 11, 2012 at 11:00 am.

I have loved Tervis tumblers since discovering them during a vacation to Sanibel Island Florida one year. They have become my go to idea when I need to find a gift for someone and are pretty much all we drink from at my house. When the folks at Tervis contacted me to see if I might like to try their new 24 ounce water bottle, I didn’t have to think about it very long before agreeing. My favorite feature of Tervis tumblers is their double insulating walls that keep cold liquids cold without sweating. Let’s see if the water bottle performs as well as their tumblers.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

The Tervis double wall insulating plastic mug was invented back in 1946 and they’ve been going strong ever since. They are made of BPA free plastic (including the lid) and are dishwasher and microwave safe.

One of the really cool things about Tervis tumblers, mugs and water bottles is the huge variety of designs to choose from. The designs are actually embroidered patches are that are placed between the two walls of the bottle. I’ve had Tervis tumblers for years now and have never had one of the patches slip or shift position.

The water bottle is 10.4” tall with a 3.4” top and 2.5” bottom that is sized to fit most cup holders and bicycle cages. The sides have a flattened area that provides a nice grip. There are also measurement indicators embossed into the plastic that you can use to aid in mixing two liquids together.

The flip lid for the water bottle screws on securely. I didn’t have any problems with liquids leaking.

The top has two parts. The part that screws on to the top of the bottle and the flip lid that has a rubber lined plastic loop that you can use to attach a carbiner.

The lid flips open by pressing in on the rubber button while pressing up on the latch. The lid fits very tightly, so it does take two hands to pop it open and close. One hand to hold the base and the other to open the lid.

If you open the lid as far as it goes, it will stay open instead of flopping closed on your forehead as you’re trying to take a big drink.

There is a rubber ring inside the lid that helps seal the lid tight to the bottle to prevent leaks.

The info on the Tervis site says that ice cubes can fit in the opening. Unfortunately the ice cubes from my ice maker do not fit. But, if you want to add ice, you can just unscrew the whole lid.

The bottle is easy to clean either by hand or in your dishwasher. Just remember to put the flip lid on the top rack…

During my time using the Tervis water bottle, I’ve found it to be just like other Tervis products. It is made extremely well with no defects, scratches, cracks, etc. It keeps cold drinks cold without annoying condensation dripping from the sides or base. Once you discover Tervis tumblers, I know you’ll want more of the products. Trust me. You should see my cabinets.

Filed in categories: Fitness, Sports, Home Tech, Outdoor Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Beverage

Tervis Tumbler 24oz Water Bottle Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 8, 2012 at 5:01 pm.

One of the downsides of living rural is the lack of cellular coverage, at least in my neighborhood as I’m lucky to get a signal on my T-Mobile phone and have a weak signal on my Verizon phone in my house.  The folks at MyAmplifiers.com think they may have the solution with their AnyTone AT-400C CDMA Cellular Repeater, so I jumped at the chance to give their mobile phone booster a test drive.  If nothing else, it turned out to be a learning experience.

My first mistake was that I looked at their website and the AT-400C page shows a picture of a device with the letters GSM printed upon it.  Not thinking, I assumed (I know what assumed means ), that it would amplify my T-Mobile cell phone signal.  When the package arrived in a plain white unmarked box, I was surprised that the device had CDMA printed on it.  I then took a look at the specs.

Technical characteristics:

Indoor coverage: 80 m2 
Up-link frequency: 824~849MHz
Down-link frequency: 869~894MHz
Up-link Gain: 30 dB
Down-link Gain: 40 dB
Power supply: DC 9V (AC 220V power adapter supplied)
Working Temperature: -25 to +55 C
Humidity: 5-95%
Size(mm): 123x86x33
Weight: 2 kg

Further investigation revealed that the AT-400C will work for GSM phones, just not in the US.  T-Mobile operates in the 1900 MHz band here.  Luckily I also have a Verizon CDMA phone that operates in the 800 MHz band, so the review could go on.  To be fair, the MyAmplifiers web site does show other models that work for the 1900 MHz band.

This is part of the equipment that makes up the AT-400C.  Notice the mains adapter.  The wall wart is meant for European style outlets.

There are 9 meters of cable to attach the receiving antenna with the amplifier.

One side of the amp has connectors for the re-transmitting antenna and a power in socket.

The other side has the connector for the cable coming from the receiving antenna.

A look at the bottom of the cell phone booster illustrates 2 things:  the mounting holes are very small and I found it difficult to get a screwdriver past the connectors.  And you may have noticed, nowhere on this device is there any indication of who or where this device was made.  There was a packing slip inside the package indicating shipping from ShenZen China.

Following the directions for installation that came with the device, I searched around my residence for the best possible signal strength with my Verizon phone.  I admit I had some help, because I have a thing about heights.   Around my house we found the best signal to be at the roof peak on the second story.  Because I didn’t want to punch holes in the side of my house, I went into the attic and found the same signal strength on the other side of the wall, so I mounted the receiving antenna there.

 An advantage to mounting the antenna inside is that I don’t have to worry about lightning strikes and it was easier to mount on a piece of wood rather than attaching it to a pole.

Here’s a shot of the signal strength at the point where the receiving antenna was placed.

The amplifier was also  mounted in the attic, directly above my home office.  It was positioned more than the minimum of 5 meters away from the receiving antenna and at least 2 meters above ground.

The signal strength at the amplifier was 2 bars before the amp was powered up.

After power was applied to the amp, the strength jumped to 4 bars.  This was at a distance of about 2 feet from the antenna.  However, the signal strength dropped fast as I moved away from the amp.  At about 4 feet I was down to 3 bars and at 10 feet 2 bars was the maximum.

The AT-400C specification states that it is suitable for an 80 m² space (861 ft²).  As my house is 2 story and 2000 ft² this should cover at least the upper floor.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.  At any distance greater than 10 ft, there was no benefit to having the amp on.  I had the same signal with and without the amp.

Perhaps my results would have been better had I installed the receiving antenna outside on a pole as illustrated in their installation sheet, but I had the same signal level at the same point on both sides of my attic wall.  Also, there is drywall between the transmitting antenna and the place where I use the phone which may have attenuated the signal.

I expected more from this device.  There are other versions available from MyAmplifiers.com that purport to cover a greater area, but there are some basic issues even if they did work.  Compared to vendors of similar devices, the AT-400C is a bargain, but you get what you pay for.  To the best of my knowledge they have no presence in the US, for those of us here who would be interested.  From what I can glean from the website, their target market is Asia and Europe.  I also have a problem when there is no indication on the device about where it’s made or who made it.

This device may work for those who have a strong signal outside which they wish to duplicate in an area of 80 m² or less.  The documentation for the device is confusing.  Sometimes the AT-400C is referred to as a repeater and at other times it states that the device will amplify the signal.  In my experience it’s probably not for someone who lives in a cellular dead zone, but if you live near a cell tower and want to repeat the signal inside, it may work.  Be aware that to install the device correctly, you may need to hire a contractor to mount the outside antenna and run cables to the area you wish to cover.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Wireless

Anytone AT-400C CDMA Cellular Repeater Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 2, 2012 at 11:06 am.

A reliable emergency radio radio is a great idea for anyone. Something that will work even if you forgot to replace the batteries and that can get the weather bands can literally be a lifesaver in an emergency. The Eton Corporation, in conjunction with the American Red Cross, offers several radios that fit this need. I was sent the Eton Axis to put to the test.

The Eton Axis is a nicely compact package with several features:

• Digital tuner with AM (520-1710 KHz) & FM (87-108MHz)
• NOAA weatherband – all 7 channels plus “Alert”
• Direct USB power transfer (includes USB cable)
• Built-in white LED light source
• Flashing beacon red LED light
• Can be powered from three different sources: Self-Powered Aluminum crank with Hand Turbine Technology, 3 AAA batteries (not included), or AC Power
• Digital clock with alarm
• Connectors with rubber gaskets/plugs to seal out moisture, 3.5 mm headphone output, DC-in, USB cell phone charger and AUX-IN input
• Telescopic antenna provided for maximum range and reception
• DC 5V input
• Rechargeable NiMH battery
• Includes: USB cable, owner’s manual, warranty card
• Dimensions: 6.375” x 6.625” x 2.125” (W x H x D) 162 x 168 x 54 mm (W x H x D)
• Weight: 1 lbs. 8.3 oz. (688 g)

Radio, cable, and manuals

The casing is mostly a tough plastic molded in bright reds and whites with an aluminum crank and upper handle/flashlight. There is a little noise during the world-famous Gadgeteer Creak Test, but it seems to be a solid package, fairly compact with a little heft to it. Other than a comment about rubber gaskets in the jacks, there is little information about how waterproof the unit is. I would assume, based on how it is built, that it is lightly water-resistant, but not water-proof. Overall, I think it looks a little toy-like.

The upper section is the flashlight and crank ‘hand turbine’. The 4-LED flashlight has a rotary switch around the head for on, off, and flashing red. The flashlight is a fairly broad beam with a large ‘ringed hot spot’ in the middle. It is not a great light, but would be helpful in an emergency. The flasher is a single red LED and not very bright, but it probably can go for a long time. The solidly-built hand crank is not bad to use. The relatively small knob gives my fat fingers a cramp if I turn it for very long but it is designed to get a pretty decent charge from a fairly small of effort. As you crank, an LED will show red/orange if you are doing it fast enough and green when the small Ni-MH battery is charged.

Aluminum hand crank

LED flasher and radio band selector dial

The radio section is a combination of digital and analog components: large, easy-to-see digital display, with rather ‘clunky’ dials for tuning and volume. The radio can receive AM, FM, and 7 weather bands – chosen by a  dial on the side. There is a folding telescopic antenna to use with the weather and FM bands. When folded, it partly tucks into a recess in the back of the radio. There is a clock and an alarm built into the radio that are set in a typical way. The manual is helpful to remember how to do it but you can generally figure it out just by looking.

Radio section

Sound quality is good with very good volume for a smaller unit. I think that in an emergency, sheer loudness and clarity is much more important than musical quality.  This thing can get nice and loud, but it is still does music nicely enough that it would make a decent bedside clock radio. One helpful feature is the ‘Alert’, which will sound an alarm when the National Weather Service issues an alert in your area. Note:  This feature means that the radio is actually ‘on’ when it is in use, and it will drain the batteries rather quickly!

Power options are what makes these sorts of emergency radios especially useful. The Axis has one really interesting feature here. While billed as running on AC power, it is actually more flexible than that. The Axis uses a 5v, 500mA miniUSB cable to power the unit and charge the Ni-MH battery (miniUSB-USB cable included). By going this route, you can use an easily-replaced cable to charge the unit from any powered USB source – a laptop, an auto USB charger, a wall/AC USB charger, etc.

Ports, AAA batteries, and Ni-MH battery pack

The Ni-MH battery pack is a standard package that looks like 3 ‘N’ or ’123′ batteries side by side. It takes about 8 hours of AC power to fully charge the pack. It also charges via the crank, but for every minute of cranking, you get about 5 minutes of quiet radio, or a 30 second phone call. There are also 3 AAA batteries in the unit that will operate everything. You can use rechargeable batteries here, but the unit itself will not recharge them.

Cell phone charging is an increasingly common element in emergency radios, etc. and the Axis does this as well with a full USB port. You can charge the phone from the crank, Ni-MH battery pack, or AAA batteries. Hint: Get yourself an adapter tip that goes from mini-USB to your phone’s tip, such as this one for miniUSB to microUSB. Then, you can leave it on the charging cable (the attached lanyard makes it hard to loose the adapter) and store the cable by wrapping it around the handle.

In a previous review of another Eton radio, I was unhappy with the way the buttons worked – it did not seem as user friendly as I would have hoped. While not perfect, this unit is a lot better. When you hit the main power button, you can select the desired power source – ‘BATT’ (the 3 AAA’s), ‘DYN’ (the Ni-MH battery or the AC power source). If you forget to select the right power source, it will use whatever you were using last; this could be a problem if you let it drain something you cannot easily recharge in time. I still think the buttons are awkward for emergency use – small overall, small labels, and not as intuitive as it should be.

Overall, this is a pretty decent unit. SMRP is $70, and is often available for under $55. You can use it as a decent bedside radio – which means that it will be charged and easy to find in an emergency. However, I think one of the smaller offerings would be a smarter choice for an emergency kit.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Outdoor Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Emergency preparedness, NOAA weather band radio

Eton Axis ARCPT300W Emergency Radio Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2012 at 11:00 am.

I have my thermostat set to go down to 68 degrees at night because I sleep better when it’s cool. When I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing the PolarPillow,   I was intrigued by their claims that it would keep my head cool for hours without the need for refrigeration, batteries or water. They sent me one, I’ve tried it for a few nights and here are my thoughts…

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

First of all, you might be asking, What are the benefits of cool sleep?

Cooling the brain helps you fall asleep! Your circadian clock keeps your body at its warmest during the day for high-level functioning and its coolest during the night for dozing off. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported that a primary cause of insomnia is hyperactivity in the brain’s frontal lobes at night. This activity increases the brain’s temperature making it difficult to fall asleep. Cooling your head at night can help slow down this activity and allow your brain to rest. Falling asleep may simply be a matter of cooling off.

The first words out of my mouth when I tried to lift the box off my deck after the UPS man dropped it off was “What the heck!” The weight of the box was totally unexpected. When you think about pillows, you usually think of something light and fluffy. But the box with the PolarPillow was heavy. So heavy that I thought there had to be some mistake with what was actually packaged inside the box. When I opened it though, all that was there was the PolarPillow in a protective plastic bag.

The PolarPillow is approximately 21″L x 16″W x 3″H and weighs an incredible 15 lbs! No, I’m not kidding. Inside the pillow is 200 ounces of a special gel that is cooled by the ambient room temperature.

As you can see it’s significantly smaller than a standard sized pillow, which means that it will look a bit odd on your bed and pillow cases will not fit well.

The Polar Pillow is also pretty flat compared to the foam pillow that I normally use.

When it is exposed to normal room temps for at least 30 minutes, the pillow will stay cool for 2hrs. The thought is that 2hrs is plenty of time to fall asleep.

The gel in the pillow does not slosh around, so it won’t bother you with weird sounds when you’re laying on it or moving your head. Squeezing the pillow, the gel reminds me of the feel of those blue icy packs that you can use to sooth sore muscles or keep your lunchbox cold. It has that same basic consistency.

I’m not going to beat around the bush; sleeping with a 15 pound pillow was not a good experience for me. I think this pillow is better suited for people that sleep on their back instead of their side. Laying on my back, the pillow worked fine. It was comfortable and did keep the back of my head cooler than normal. I do wish the pillow was fluffier or thicker, because I’m used to that with my foam pillow. That said, I could probably get used to the PolarPillow if I only slept on my back. But I don’t. I turn on my side and like to put my bottom arm  under the pillow and top arm over the pillow kind of like I’m hugging it. You really can’t do this (comfortably) with the PolarPillow due to its small size and weight.

The price and fact that it’s flatter, heavier and smaller than a normal pillow really turned me off.  But if you sleep on your back, have a problem with headaches or night sweats, I can see the advantages of using the PolarPillow. It’s just not for me.

Filed in categories: Health Related Gadgets, Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Health

PolarPillow Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 14, 2012 at 8:30 pm.

Ringtones for your phone is nothing new, but how would you like to customize the “ringtone” of your doorbell? The MP3 DJ Doorbell from Swann gives you that power. The wireless system is comprised of a speaker unit and a push button doorbell unit that attaches to the outside of your door. Insert an SD card (not included) and use the included software to edit your favorite songs to play any part of the song as the “ringtone”. When the doorbell is pressed it sends a wireless signal to 330ft/100m to the speaker unit. The speaker is powered by 3 AA batteries (not included) and the doorbell is powered by a 23A battery (included). You can even use the speaker unit as a stand alone MP3 player as the SD card can hold up to 600 songs (2GB) – 10000 songs (32GB). The Swann MP3 DJ Doorbell is priced at $49.99.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: MP3

Swann MP3 DJ Doorbell Gives Your Front Door a Ringtone originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 13, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

Once upon a time, a locomotive train ran through my son’s bedroom and he didn’t wake up.  Well, maybe not.  But if a train ever did run through his room he wouldn’t wake up.  Perhaps you have a family member who would fall into that category because they sleep so hard.  We have tried a dozen different types of clocks, including those that speak to you to wake you up, in hopes of finding a clock that would actually wake him up every morning.  Nothing has worked. He simply doesn’t hear them, yet it wakes the whole house up.  So it was with great anticipation that I agreed to review the TCL 200 Digital Alarm Clock with Wireless Vibrating Pad from Amplicom because of a few key features that might, just might, be able to wake the sleeping giant.  Did the Amplicom work?  Did my son finally make it to school on time?  Let’s find out!

Features and Hardware

Before I tell you the results of our tests, let me go over the features of the clock and show you some pictures.  The clock comes with a power charger, a phone cord, a user guide (yes, can you believe it?), a wireless vibration pad (more on that soon) and a cable that connects from the vibration pad to the clock for charging. The clock also runs on batteries (door on the bottom of the clock) in the event that the power goes out.

It has a bunch of buttons on the front and even more on the back, and I honestly had to read the user guide to figure out some of the functions.  I guess you could consider that a pro or a con, but it’s a pro for me because I like User Guides.  For this clock you need to hold onto the manual because in 6 months when you need to figure out how to do something, you are gonna need it.

On the back is where most of the action is, so let’s talk about some of these buttons. At the bottom is where you plug in the power cord, the charging wire for the wireless vibration pad, and the phone cord.  If you connect the clock to a phone jack in the wall then when the phone rings in the house the clock will act as an amplifier. This could be good, I suppose, for a person who was hard of hearing and needed to know when the phone was ringing.  On the back you also get to adjust the dimmer setting, the snooze duration, the volume of the alarm, the pitch of the alarm, and which signal (out of 5) that you want for your alarm.  The alarm signals range from just a constant beep to a series of beeps, to longer tones, etc.  It really is a personal preference as to which one you choose.  You also get to choose if you want the alarm to make a sound, just vibrate, or both.  With one of the switches on the back you also get to decide if you want the display on the clock face to flash when the alarm goes off, to add to the probability that the person will get  up.  And a nice touch is that you can set 2 different alarms and each one can be set to go off every day of the week, just on the weekend, or just M-F.

On top is the snooze button and on the right side is a really big knob that turns the alarm off and on.  One of my biggest gripes with alarm clocks in general is that the on-off buttons are small, and on most clocks the labels on the buttons are hard to read.  Not so on this clock.  That on-off knob on the side is not only clearly labeled, it is probably the biggest on-off switch I have ever seen.

On the front are indicator lights to tell you which of the 2 alarms are active and if the M-F setting is active.  On the front you will also find the buttons for setting the time on the clock and setting the alarm settings that you prefer.  Also, an interesting feature of the clock is that you can set the time to be announced in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

The 2 main reasons why I wanted to try this clock were the sound level and the vibration pad.  The alarm volume on this clock can be adjusted up to 90 dB.  How loud is that? Loud.  I have read online that 90 dB is the equivalent of a police whistle, a lawnmower, a power drill, or a circular saw. Needless to say, this clock is loud.  The vibration pad is round and semi-flat with a non-slip grip on top and bottom. The on-off switch is on the front and the battery indicator light is located right above the switch.  It has an 800 mAh battery that is supposed to give you up to 80 hours of charge, and it charges by plugging it up to the back of the clock.  The best way to use it is to slip it inside the pillow cover so that it doesn’t fall off the bed.  If you have the clock set to include vibration in the alarm and you have the vibration pad turned on, then when the alarm goes off the vibration pad will start vibrating. The vibration is similar to the vibration on your cellphone, only much stronger.

Final Results

So did my son make it to school on time?  Oh yes. We had hoped that the vibration pad would do the trick to cause him to wake up. But the truth is that he didn’t need the pad to wake him up. This clock is so loud that it wakes him up without needing the vibration pad.  We finally found a clock loud enough to rouse him from his slumber.  Thank you Amplicom.  And even though I consider the price of this clock to be a little high for an alarm clock, it is a no brainer. If you need to get someone up in the morning, look no further than the Amplicom TCL 200.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Watches and Clocks, Wireless

Tagged: Alarm Clock

Amplicom TCL 200 Digital Alarm Clock with Wireless Vibrating Pad Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2012 at 11:00 am.

It seems more and more gadgets, although they may have a wall wart, are ultimately USB-chargeable.  Replace a normal AC wall socket with the USB Outlet Quattro from CurrentWerks, and you’ll be able to charge up to four USB devices at once without using those wall warts.  With the Quattro, you have four standard USB ports in a single wall outlet.  The Quattro accepts 90-132VAC 50/60Hz 0.7A current and outputs 22 Watts 5VDC 4.4A (2.1A maximum per port).  CurrentWerks says the Quattro has been tested to UL standards, fits all standard single gang electrical boxes, and draws no vampire power.  It’s available in white, ivory, and light almond for $39.98; faceplate is included.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: charging, USB

USB Outlet Quattro from CurrentWerks originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 7, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

The All-In-One Laser Level (BDL100AV) from Black & Decker makes it easier than ever to hang pictures, paintings, shelves, or mirrors.  It can also be used to space any items evenly apart on a variety of surfaces.  Let’s give it a closer look.

To use the Black & Decker All-In-One Laser Level, attach it to the wall with the temporary wall mounting suction cup, or use a push pin for non-smooth surfaces.  It was very easy to press in the wall suction cup button.  The button has a broken red line at the base to let you know if you need to compress and create more suction in order for the unit to stay mounted to the surface you are attaching it to.  I used the push pin to mount the laser level to a soft, solid wood (Douglas Fir) and when I tried to remove it, the pin part pulled out from the plastic head and so the push pin is no longer usable.

The Black & Decker All-In-One Laser Level can be used as just a level or laser and level combined.  This image shows the on/off switch, which is labeled on both sides of the level body.  The laser level can be flipped to project a horizontal line right or left.  It has a metal plate on each side to connect with the wall attachment by a magnet.  The metal plate is located under the Black & Decker label.  There is an adjustment of about 0.75″-1″ that allows movement up and down between magnet and metal plates.  With the magnet and metal plates both being smooth surfaces to allow play, I feel there could be some discrepancy in reading when going from one direction and then flipping it over 180 degrees to read the other direction to keep the same level plane.  It maybe could be more accurate if there was a spring lock mechanism built into the magnet for more of a consistent attachment.

The top image shows the red light in the bubble vial if the device is not level.  The image on the bottom shows the green light that indicates level or near level.  There is also an audio button on the right end that can be used to notify when an object is level, which is helpful when you can’t see the level itself.  The laser level will beep and the beeps will increase in frequency when the object is near level.  It will then have about a two second solid tone before it stops when the object is level.

The laser light is said to illuminate up to 15 feet, depending on light conditions.  I thought this was correct.  The projecting horizontal was listed as +/- 1/4″ at 10 feet.  While the level light displayed green,  I moved the laser level up and down on the magnet and got a difference of 3/8″ at 10 feet.  Even when the laser level displays green, you should still look at the location of the bubble in the vial for a perfectly level reading.

Make sure when you use the Black and Decker All-In-One Laser Level that the back is completely against a solid surface.  I had it mounted with part of it hanging over a ledge and it threw the electronic internal level (sensor) into a state of malfunction where the LED light that illuminates the bubble vial was flashing and then the unit needed to be turned off and then back on to be reset.

The Black & Decker All-In-One Laser Level has a suggested retail of $30.  The unit comes with 2 AAA batteries.  The door to the battery compartment is removable and unhinged so there is potential of it being misplaced.

Overall, the Black & Decker All-In-One Laser Level is good for the do-it-yourself person.  If you are doing a reading that needs to be precise, do not rely on solely the green light – check the position of the bubble also.  It is user-friendly, lightweight, can be used on multiple surface types, and it can be used as solely a small level or laser level.  The cons are: play in the magnetic mount can skew the accuracy when changing direction 180 degrees, personal experience with pin breaking, and if entire device does not rest completely against a solid surface, you may experience an error that can be cured by resetting the device.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Tools

Black & Decker Laser Level BDL100AV Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 7, 2012 at 11:00 am.

I’ve mentioned several times that the Piedmont area in North Carolina where I live has a lot of bad weather – tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hurricanes in the summer; ice storms and sometimes even tornadoes in the winter – that can leave us without power for days.  No power means no lights and no telephone service for us because we only use our cell phones.  It seems the only flashlight I can find when I need one has dead or dying batteries, so I need to have a ready source of light that doesn’t depend on non-rechargeable batteries.  I also need a way to be connected to the outside world – both a source of news and a way to keep my cell phone battery charged up for emergency calls.  I was able to review the Eton SolarLink FR360 emergency flashlight/radio/charger in the past, and I found it was a good emergency preparedness device to keep around the house.  I was pleased to be selected to review the Eton Rover Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight and USB Cell Phone Charger.  I’m hoping this will be good for keeping in the car.

Features

• AM (520-1710 KHz) & FM (87-108MHz)
• NOAA weatherband – all 7 channels
• 3 Built-in white LED light source
• Self-powered aluminum crank with TurboDyne technology
• Direct USB power transfer (includes USB cable)
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• 3.5 mm headphone output
• Telescopic antenna provided for maximum range and reception
• Includes: USB cable, owner’s manual, warranty card

The Rover measures 6.25″ X 2.75″ X 2.25″ and weighs about 12.6 ounces.  It’s made of white plastic and machined aluminum parts with red and gray accents.  It comes with a red wrist strap that can be added to the end.

You’ll notice the Rover’s box shows the American Red Cross name and logo.  Eton works with the American Red Cross  to “encourage all families to take the proper steps as soon as possible to become prepared in the event of the unexpected.”  Eton has a series of devices branded with the Red Cross logo that serve as an important part of your emergency preparedness kit.  Eton Corporation contributes a portion of every ARC-branded unit sold to support the mission of the American Red Cross.

All of these devices can be powered by multiple sources, including: alkaline batteries, hand-crank/dynamo, or rechargeable batteries with AC, solar, or USB chargers.  The Rover is simpler than the FR360 I reviewed previously.  It has the hand-crank/dynamo and a built-in battery that’s USB-chargeable.

The Rover has a hand-held flashlight silhouette.  The front has a a red dial for tuning in an AM/FM radio station (bottom) and another for power and volume adjustment (top).  There’s a status light that displays charging status and power state, and there’s a speaker grill in the “handle”. There’s a circular dial for displaying radio frequencies, too.

The outer, silver-colored ring of the frequency dial turns to select AM or FM frequencies or to select one of the seven NOAA weather band stations.  There’s also a Cell setting that diverts the power to the USB port for charging a cell phone.  The large red button is the power switch for the flashlight.

The bottom has a couple of barrel-shaped gray rubber feet to steady the Rover when it’s sitting on its bottom.  The large gray flap covers a miniUSB connector used for charging the Rover’s battery and a full-sized USB port that’s used to charge your cell phone.  Finally, there’s a 3.5mm audio jack for using headphones.  (Using headphones instead of the Rover’s speaker for listening to the radio will conserve battery power.)

When I unboxed the Rover, I used the included USB-to-miniUSB cable to charge the Rover using a port on my laptop.  You should be able to charge the Rover’s batteries using any USB charger.  The status light on the front showed red as the battery charged and green when it was fully charged.  Eton says a full charge will provide about 8 hours of low-volume radio play.

When the internal battery is drained, the Rover has a hand-cranked turbine that can provide you with power for the radio or your cell.  You have to put some elbow grease into this, as you have to crank it at 130RPM to create a charge.  The status light on the front lights up green when you are turning fast enough.  Cranking for one minute will give you about 15 minutes of low-volume radio.  If you want to charge your phone, it will take 7 minutes of cranking for about 5 minutes of talk time.  Seven minutes of cranking is going to be an arm-killer, but it could be the difference between life and death in an emergency situation.

The Rover has a flashlight with 3 white LEDs.  It’s bright enough to see your way around a dark room.  The shape of the radio allows you to hand-carry it when using it as a flashlight.  You can also set it on a table, as shown, for general lighting.

With the Eton Rover’s battery fully charged, I was able to partially recharge my husband’s iPhone.  It went from about 35 percent to 85% before the Rover was drained.

You can charge any phone or device that’s chargeable with a standard USB port.  If your device is charged with a miniUSB plug, you can use the cable that comes with the Rover, or you can use the USB cable that came with your phone.  If you need a cable for your phone, go to iGo to purchase a charging cable and tip that can be used with the Rover.  I was able to use the 30-pin connector that came with my iPhone.

There’s a telescoping antenna that pulls out of the end of the Rover.  I was able to tune in AM and FM stations in my area.  The reception was good, but the thumb-turned dial could make it a bit tricky tuning in that fractional frequency, especially when there are multiple stations close together on the dial.  I could fine-tune the reception by moving the position of the radio.  You can adjust the volume to an uncomfortably loud level, if you need to.

The NOAA weather band stations performed on the Rover like they do on everything else I’ve tried.  You try all seven bands until you find the one that’s broadcasting information for your region; WB1 worked best for me.  There’s some background hiss with the weather band station, but I always hear that on any radio I’ve ever tried.

The Rover is missing some of the features found on the Eton SolarLink FR360 I tried before – no solar charging and no weather band alert feature.  It’s still feature-packed and a great emergency tool for home use or to keep in your car.  It will fit into the glove compartment in my car, and I can use the cell phone charger I have for the car to periodically charge the Rover’s battery.  I’ll always have a flashlight, and I’ll always have a way to make a call for help, no matter how dead the cell phone and the car batteries are.  You can’t put a price on safety, but if you have to, $50 seems to be a very reasonable price.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Outdoor Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Emergency preparedness, NOAA weather band radio

Eton Rover Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight and USB Cell Phone Charger Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 29, 2012 at 11:00 am.

This post brought to you by Fellowes. All opinions are 100% mine.Although my ID hasn’t been stolen, my husband’s debit card number has been stolen twice in the past few years – once at a fast food place and once at an outdoor ATM that someone had put a skimmer on.  Luckily, the credit union was on the ball and recognized some questionable purchases before they got through in both cases.  So you can understand that I’m very concerned about all the pre-approved offers that show up in the mail daily, bills, and other personal information that could fall into the wrong hands.  I’ve had various shredders before, but most of the ones I had cut wide, long strips that could easily be reassembled by a determined thief.  They were constantly getting jammed, and I was afraid I’d lose a finger trying to dig out all the clogs.  I was very happy to be selected to try out the Fellowes 79Ci shredder when one was offered to The Gadgeteer.  No more jams sounds great! Click on any of the following pictures for an enlarged view.

The 79Ci is a large shredder.  It’s 21.50″ x 12.75″ x 15.38″, and it comes in a couple of easy-to-assemble pieces.  The shredding head is shown above.  There’s a master power switch on the back, and another power switch on the front.  The exterior of the shredding head is made of silver and black plastic.

Flip the head over to see the shredding teeth.  The 79Ci is a cross-cut shredder for extra security.  Your documents will be cut into 5/32” x 1-1/2” pieces (classified as Security Level 3).  That’s small enough to deter anyone from trying to reassemble your information – except perhaps Abby from the NCIS TV show. 

The 79Ci is heavy enough that you’ll appreciate the included casters.  They snap into the bottom of the collection bin easily, but they do require a little effort to get them in – just enough so you know they’ll stay in place.  You also get a bottle of Powershred® Shredder Oil & Lubricant for periodic maintenance to extend the life of the cutters.  There’s also a few Powershred® Waste Bags for Professional and Deskside Shredders to get you started.

Assembly is very easy – you just snap the shredding head on the collection bin, remove the tape holding the pull-out door closed for shipping, and put in a collection bag.  The 6-gallon bin will pull completely out of the shredder cabinet, but the collection bags will make emptying much faster and cleaner.

The PowerShred 79Ci is designed for personal use, and, as its name suggests, it’s a powerful shredder.  Fellowes designed the first personal shredder back in 1990, and they’ve stayed at the forefront of technology to make personal shredders better and safer. Shredders I’ve had in years past were noisy, messy, and easy to jam.  It seemed that a wrinkled paper was enough to make some of my old shredders jam with the papers half-way through.  The 79Ci is designed to be 100% jam-proof.  You can send 14 pages through this shredder, and it just eats through staples and paperclips, too.  There is a sensor at the throat of the shredder that measures the thickness of the stack of papers and a lighted guide on the right side of the shredding head that shows green or yellow when the stack thickness is okay or red when the stack is too thick.  You’ll know before you start feeding it through if the stack is too thick. I tried shredding some papers, and I made sure I had some paperclips in my stacks, too.  Everything fed through with no problems, and the paperclips went through without even causing a change in sound. And speaking of sound, Fellowes uses their SilentShred technology in this shredder.  As the paper was being shredded, the 79Ci made less noise than shredders I’ve had in the past as they idled.  This quiet operation will be especially appreciated by your officemates if you place one of these by your desk at work.

I did try to send through a stack of more than 14 sheets to test the Fellowes 100% jam-proof system.  The red light came on, and the shredder stopped before more than 0.25″ of paper fed in.  I was able to just lift out the paper with no tugging or pulling.  The shredder can also sense when papers have mis-fed, and it will either turbo-power the stack through or automatically reverse it out to prevent jamming.  This will make shredding much less frustrating and safer for me in the future. I will admit that I didn’t put one feature to the test.  Fellowes’ patented SafeSense Technology senses when a hand comes into contact with the paper opening and immediately stops the shredder.  It’s good to know that the 79Ci is designed to keep users safe from injury if they accidentally get their fingers too close to the cutting blades.

The 79Ci can also shred CDs, DVDs, and credit cards.  This picture and the previous one show the shredder set up for shredding these items.  For shredding papers, the clear plastic flap is to the back, leaving the teeth exposed.  Flip the clear plastic bar over the teeth and use the guide slot for shredding disks or cards.  The CD I shredded went through as easily, and about as quietly, as did a small stack of papers.

Here you can see the remains of my papers and my CD.  The iridescent pieces are all that’s left of the CD. I like the Fellowes PowerShred 79Ci shredder.  I can keep it beside my desk and roll it out to quickly shred junk mail as it comes in.  I don’t have to worry about jams making it take longer to shred three pieces of junk mail than it took for the Post Office to get them to my door.  And it’s quiet enough that it won’t deafen me in the process.  Best of all, I know my personal and financial information – on paper or on CD – and expired credit cards will be safely disposed of.

And now, Fellowes is offering you a chance to win a  PowerShred 79Ci 100% Jam-Proof Cross-Cut Shredder for yourself.  The contest (the “Contest”) is open to anyone who (i) is a legal U.S. resident, and (ii) is at least eighteen (18) years of age.  Employees of IZEA Holdings, Inc. (“Sponsor”), Fellowes, Inc and Participating Blogs, and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising agencies, and the families and persons living in the same household as such employees, are not eligible to participate.  The Contest is subject to all federal, state, and local laws. Void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulations. To enter at The Gadgeteer, simply leave a comment for this review stating what you would shred if you won (destroying old love letters, etc – that kind of thing).  Read the full contest rules and find a list of other participating blogs here.  The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on March 8, 2012.  Ten lucky winners will be selected and will be notified within 3 days of the ending time.

The CONTEST closed. The winner will be announced soon.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: shredder

#FellowesInc PowerShred 79Ci 100% Jam-Proof Cross-Cut Shredder Review And Contest to Win One for Yourself originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 24, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a home body. I’d rather be home than anywhere else in the world. Sometimes I think that I would be perfectly happy as a hermit. Of course I’m not a hermit and I don’t keep myself barricaded in my house 24/7. I go to work every day, go on vacations, etc. For those times when I’m away from home, I like to be able to check up on things remotely. I want to know if my cat Max is up in the windowsill when he’s not supposed to be. Or if the Fedex guy dropped off a package. Wireless network cameras like the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) let me do that with a computer or a smartphone.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Package Contents

D-Link DCS-932L camera
Ethernet cable
Mounting screws
AC Adapter
Installation Guide
CD-ROM with D-View Cam Software (Windows)

Hardware Specifications

Built-in Network Interface – 10/100Base-TX Fast Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WLAN
Wireless Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n Wireless with WEP/WPA/WPA2 security
Video Codecs – MJPEG, JPEG for Still Images
Resolution – 640 x 480 at up to 20 fps, 320 x 240 at up to 30 fps, 160 x 120 at up to 30 fps

This D-Link camera is very similar to the Dropcam Echo wireless camera that I’ve been using for over a year now. The main hardware difference is that the D-Link camera has night vision.

The camera itself is made of white plastic. There’s a small LED below the lens that lights up Green when you’re connected to the network and Red when you’re not.

The camera is connected to a base that can be mounted on a wall or any other flat surface. It’s not necessary to attach the base to anything though as it is heavy enough to stand on a table or shelf.

On the back of the camera is the power connector, Ethernet jack, reset switch and a WPS button. WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. Some routers have this feature to allow you to easily setup the D-Link for wireless viewing. Sadly, my older Linksys doesn’t have this feature, so I had to go through a little more work in order to get the camera to work wirelessly.

The camera comes with a CD for Windows users, but I had to download the setup app for my Mac from D-Link’s site. The setup wizard allowed me to easily get the camera up and running as long as it was connected to my router with an Ethernet cable. I had to go into the advanced options to set it up for wireless use. This wasn’t difficult, but the instructions do not mention how to do it or where to look for the settings.

One thing to note is that once the camera has been setup, you don’t have to have any computers on to use it. As long as your router is powered on, you’ll be able to access the camera from the web or your smartphone.

As part of the setup procedure, you create a free mydlink account. With this account you’ll be able to remotely view your camera and change the settings. I found the mydlink web interface to be a little slow to load. It installs a Java applet every time you login, which can take a few seconds.

From this web interface you can watch live video, digitally zoom in and listen to audio through the microphone built in to the camera. Video quality isn’t bad, but it’s a little fuzzy and the audio quality tends to have a lot of static / white noise. You can hear things, but the static in the the background gets annoying quickly, so I almost always turn it off.

Advanced settings allow you to adjust various options for image quality.

By default, the video size is set to 320×240 medium quality. I adjusted it to be very high quality which improves the slightly fuzzy image quality.

Motion detection settings give you the ability to mark areas of the image to watch for changes. By clicking squares on the grid, the software will keep an eye on those specific spots and will notify you via email when motion is detected. You can set it up to send you one image or have it send 3 images before the motion was detected and 3 images afterwards.

You can also specify the day and time period that the software can send email notifications.

The great thing about the D-Link camera is that you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for the email notification feature.

By default, the camera will automatically switch back and forth between day and night vision depending on the level of light. But if you would like to manually schedule when the camera will switch between the modes, you have that ability.

In addition to viewing a live feed from your camera on any web enabled computer, you can also view the feed with your Android or iOS device.

Here we see the free mydlink lite iOS iPhone app. It has a simple interface that loads quickly (much faster than the web browser viewer). There’s also a 99 cent mydlink+ version for the iPad that is full screen.

Turning the phone to landscape orientation provides a larger view. As you can see, the image isn’t exactly crystal clear. It is noticeably fuzzy. It’s not as bad as some network cameras I’ve tested, but isn’t as good as the Dropcam.

Tapping on the display will bring up a few options such as the ability to take a snapshot, toggle sound, and zoom. Like with the web viewer, audio through the smartphone app has static.

This is what the picture looks like when the camera is in night vision mode.

Here’s an example of what the camera shows in a normally lit room. This happens to be my utility room, which has florescent lights in the ceiling. I had one set of lights turned on when I captured this image with the iOS version of the mydlink app.

This is what the camera shows when all the lights are off and the door is closed. The room is in almost complete darkness. The image turns black and white, giving it a Ghost Hunters vibe. The D-Link uses infrared (IR) illumination for night vision up to 5 meters (16.4 feet).

You can also record video via the D-ViewCam interface if you have a Windows PC. At this time, there isn’t a Mac version of the D-ViewCam software. I tried to test D-ViewCam on the only Windows machine I have (an HP Mini netbook), but didn’t have much luck because it requires 1024 x 768 resolution which the Mini can’t quite do.

That’s one feature that the D-Link lacks, a DVR feature built in to the mydlink web portal. Dropcam has this, but they charge you a monthly fee for it.

I wish the picture was sharper, but all in all, the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) is a good choice for an easy to use wireless networked camera. It’s not too expensive and offers decent control over motion detection and email notifications without having to pay a monthly fee.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Surveillance

D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 6, 2012 at 11:00 am.

Samsung has a created their own version of a robotic vacuum called the NaviBot.  It is to offer a more efficient and intelligent way of cleaning your home.  NaviBot features a visionary mapping system, multiple cleaning modes, a triple brush system, and auto recharge and resume.

The Samsung NaviBot is engineered with 38 sensors, which features three cliff sensors to detect the edge of stairs and other surfaces, three anti-tangle sensors that automatically unwind cord or carpet tassles if it encounters them, and auto-stop at lifting sensor to immediately shut the NaviBot off if it falls over or is lifted up.  It also has a self-adjust function that allows it to overcome obstacles of up to 1.5 cm and can automatically adjust for different types of flooring.

It is also equipped with an onboard camera that captures 30 frames per second to create a virtual map of the home.  It captures a picture of the ceiling in the room it is about to clean and then can analyze the space it is to clean. The picture is then utilized by the NaviBot to create a virtual map and create the most efficient route to clean the entire floor.  Just set it to go as you walk out the door, or use the delay function to start at a specified time during the day.  It has a “virtual guard”  feature, which can make an imaginary barrier and not enter other rooms.

The NaviBot features a rotating triple brush system underneath to work efficiently on picking up dirt, dust, and hard to capture pet hair.  The NaviBot effortlessly picks up hair and fluff without it wrapping around the brushes due to Samsung’s patented pet hair care system.  It can hold up to 600 ml of debris with its bagless dust collection and is equipped with a HEPA filter.  The noise level is at approximately 73dBA.

There are various cleaning modes to the NaviBot.  They include:  Auto, Max, Manual, Spot and Edge. The edge mode uses the spinning brushes to clean along walls and other hard to reach places.  The delay start mode can be used before leaving the home so it runs through its routine hours later, or you can rely on the daily schedule time to create a specific time of the day to run.  The manual mode allows you to control the robotic vacuum with its remote control.

The Samsung NaviBot needs minimal human intervention.  When the battery is running low, it will automatically return to the charging station.  It can even resume cleaning where it left off before recharging.  The NaviBot  SR8855 has up to 90 minutes run time when fully charged, and the charging time is to be 33% faster than other robotic vacuums.  There is also a Samsung NaviBot SR8845 available, and a more quiet-to run-version is a new addition to the line.  Samsung’s robotic vacuums have a suggested retail starting at $599, price varies with each model.

Filed in categories: Gear, Home Tech, News

Tagged: robotic vacuum

Samsung’s Take On Robotic Vacuums – The NaviBot SR8855 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 4, 2012 at 10:13 am.

With a traditional baby monitor, you have a camera for the child’s room and a monitor that you carry around with you so you can see what’s happening with the baby.  You’ll need a power source for the monitor, and that means finding an outlet in the room you’re in or keeping the monitor supplied with batteries.  With the BabyPing monitoring system (from a newly-created division of Y-cam Solutions Ltd), you won’t have to worry about lugging around a separate monitor.  Place the BabyPing camera in the baby’s room, connect it to your home WiFi network, and use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as your monitor.  The free app “offers a wealth of security and safety features which include double-layer security and alerts to inform the user if the baby cries, if the Wi-Fi connection has been broken or if the monitoring iOS device is out of range.  Using specially developed technology, the Smart Filter™  cuts out the background noise and static normally associated with baby monitors, while Constant-Connect™ acts as a permanent tether between the app and monitor, instantly notifying the user when the baby is upset or if the connection is broken at any point, ensuring parents can put their trust in this new technology.”  The BabyPing will be available in the UK starting in February for £149.99 (about $230).  You can sign up at the BabyPing website to be notified of availability.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Kid Gadgets, News

Tagged: baby monitor, Security

Use BabyPing and Your iOS Device to Monitor Your Child originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 18, 2012 at 10:00 am.

If you have used a video monitor around your home then you know the peace of mind that it offers knowing that you are seeing what the camera is seeing. However, you have to be home to view that monitor. But with the Lorex Home Video Monitoring System, you don’t need to be home to do that. Thanks to Lorex‘s Live Connect and the world-wide web, you can view the area that the camera is monitoring with the use of a computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Having a video monitor in your home is like having an extra set of eyes. You can use it to monitor the baby sleeping, to watch the kids playing, to see who is at your front door, and even see if the dog is getting on the couch. When you have that sense of security, it really puts your mind at ease.

Set up was fairly easy. Just plug in the camera and turn on the handheld monitor. That’s it.  The monitor comes paired to the camera right out of the box and can accommodate three additional cameras. That’s perfect if you need to have multiple cameras around the house.

The monitor and camera are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and each comes with a MicroUSB plug to charge the batteries, or they can be kept plugged in for continuous power.

Speaking of pairing, you can pair three more cameras to the Lorex giving the monitor the ability to view 1 camera or a 4 camera split screen. The image was decent with the LCD screen being only a 2.4″ in. display and the screen resolution being only 320×240.

The camera and monitor work great in the day and just as good in the night thanks to its automatic night vision. The image quality is decent for a small screen. The image quality was comparable to a webcam image.  The picture shown is my daughter walking  in the center of the picture. There was significant motion blur so just know that you will see motion blur in anything you are monitoring that has fast movement in it.

The night vision is great for when you turn off the lights in the room where you are monitoring a sleeping baby, and like a standard baby monitor, the Lorex allows you to listen to audio. But a great feature the Lorex has is that you can record video or take a snapshot and save it to an SD card. The Lorex has a slot for an SD card so you take a picture with a push of the camera button on the handheld monitor or record video when you hold the camera button down for 5 seconds. Perfect for when you have one outside the house so you can record any unknown person or persons loitering around and have that footage later as evidence. But bear in mind, to record anything you have to manually press the record button. A nice add-on would have been motion detection; however, the Lorex does not have that much needed feature. The Lorex does come packaged with a 1 GB MicroUSB card.

Below is a snapshot from the Lorex handheld unit. Keep in mind that the capture resolution like the screen resolution is only 320×240 pixels.

Sad to say, you can’t record audio, which is just as well because the sound coming out of the small speaker on the monitor was not only subpar, but also had a big delay in it. The audio coming out sounded like a children’s toy walkie-talkie. I wasn’t very impressed with the audio especially when I was watching something on the monitor mainly because it didn’t sync up. Maybe from the years of video editing and syncing footage, but it just bothers me when the video and audio do not match up properly.

One thing that I especially liked about the Lorex is its portability.  The camera and monitor each come with a rechargeable lithium battery with a battery life of up to 5 hours making it truly portable. That’s perfect for a new mom and her baby who would go to a friend’s house without having have a baby monitor she could take along. Now, the baby can be monitored from any room of the friend’s house and without searching around for a wall plug. Just set up the camera, turn on the monitor and you’re done.  Pretty convenient. When I tested  the monitor and camera using only the battery, I got a really good amount of juice. I had them running at least 4 hours so I would say the 5 hour life could be expected. The monitor has a Power Save feature to help extend the battery life; the video portion will turn off when you set it . You can set it for 15 seconds, one minute, or it can be turned off all together. You will still hear the audio when it goes into Power Save mode. You just have to tap any button on the handheld unit to view the video again.

View from HTC EVO 3D

And speaking of convenience, what better way to monitor your camera than when you are on a computer, iPad, or smartphone. With the use of Skype you can connect to a live view of the camera through  Lorex’s Gateway. The Gateway is connected to your router via a RJ45  Ethernet cable. However, keep in mind that you need to have two Skype accounts for it to work. The Lorex Gateway needs to have a Skype account of its own so that you can connect to it through your personal Skype account whether using a computer, iPad, or smartphone. All that needs to be done is call up the Gateway through Skype, and you can view the image from the camera. I pulled up my Gateway on my HTC EVO 3D, and it did fairly well. Of course the smoothness of the video depended on the availability of network/Wi-Fi connection. When the connection was constant the streaming video was as if I was looking at the Lorex monitor unit itself.

Unfortunately, you cannot view video with the monitor unit and the Gateway at the same time. But that’s alright, chances are that if you are using the handheld monitor then you probably won’t be using the Gateway at the same time.

According to Lorex’s website, the camera and handheld unit have a digital range of 150 ft. indoors.  I had no signs of interference when keeping the camera on one side of my house and the monitor on the opposite far end on the house. Even without a clear line of sight, the video was  constant. Setting up the camera base was fairly simple. You can adjust it so that it can stand upright on its own or you can hang it from a nail or tack on the wall. Whether plugged in to the wall or battery-powered, there was no issue setting up either camera or handheld monitor. Simple.

But all in all, the Lorex Live View gets my vote for a convenient home monitor that allows for great portability and expansion. And it’s great for keeping an eye on your pet that you swear climbs on your couch when you are not at home, or for keeping a watchful eye on the baby, or even as a simple home security system.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: baby monitor, Security system

Lorex Home Video Monitoring System Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm.

Dropcam announced this morning that they will no longer be using a third party camera vendor. Their new WiFi camera is completely redesigned to include HD quality 720p video, night vision, 2-way audio and digital PTZ. The online viewer has also been enhanced to increase user experience. They are claiming that the Dropcam HD will be the most full featured, lowest priced point camera on the market and the easiest to set up, guaranteed. I know that their previous version (see my review listed below in the related posts lists) was very easy to setup and I continue to use it on a regular basis to keep an eye on things at home while I’m not there. I can’t wait to try this new camera which will be available later this month for $149. Read the full press release after the jump.

Dropcam Shows CES Attendees How to Keep an Eye on Their Homes While They’re Away

World’s smallest Wi-Fi video monitoring camera with night vision, video streaming, mobile viewing and recording capabilities provides peace of mind when on the go

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Consumer Electronics Show 2012), Jan. 9, 2012 –Dropcam today unveils the Dropcam HD Wi-Fi Video Monitoring Camera – its newest camera for the connected home. From initial setup to daily dependable service, the small, stylish award-winning Dropcam HD camera makes it effortless to use live and recorded video to check in on the kids, share moments of a new baby, keep an eye on a pet, or make sure your home is safe when you are away.The easy-to-set-up video camera integrates seamlessly with Dropcam’s enhanced online video streaming and cloud-based DVR services, which also go live today.

With access from any computer, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet, the live and recorded video from your Dropcam HD camera is available to you anytime, anywhere. When you’re not actively checking in on your home, you’ll still stay up to date with email and push alerts when motion or audio is detected. You can also take a look back through events with Dropcam’s DVR service, which can record up to 30 days of video. All video is encrypted using bank-level security standards to ensure user privacy.

Dropcam HD ($149) is now available for preorder on www.dropcam.com and will begin shipping later this month.

Dropcam HD enters the scene as the most full-featured Wi-Fi video monitoring camera in its category. Features include:

·        60-second setup – Plug it in. Select your Wi-Fi network. Personalize it. Your Dropcam HD is online in three intuitive, simple steps.

·        Watch and check in 24/7 – AC-powered Dropcam HD gives you reliable, quality video at all times. It’s plugged in, so you don’t have to worry about missing video due to drained batteries.

·        Night vision – Reasons to keep an eye on what you care about don’t stop when the sun goes down. The night vision mode turns on automatically when a room darkens to make sure you don’t miss a moment.

·        Talk back with two-way audio – Respond to what you’re watching as it happens with two-way audio. Ask who is at the front door, check in on the kids while chores get done, tell the dog (or husband) to get off the couch.

·        Digital zoom – Pick which part of the room to focus on. Zoom in on the baby’s crib, the front door, or one of the cars in the driveway.

·        Versatile placement – Dropcam HD is adjustable to quickly mount on a wall, stand on a table, or you can pop out the lens to create a smaller, more discreet profile that can be placed anywhere.

Breaking the Mold

To date, Wi-Fi video monitoring cameras have been designed as utilitarian and unattractive, and they were coupled with outdated video viewing software that was difficult to set up and understand. Thoughtful design with a focus on simplicity and usefulness was paramount in creating the new Dropcam HD camera and the accompanying online services. The camera’s monochromatic colors and unique shape blend naturally into a living room or office.

“Our users are our first priority – from the design of the camera through the easy product setup to the simple daily use of our video services. User experience is at the forefront of all that we create at Dropcam,” said Greg Duffy, CEO and Co-Founder of Dropcam.  “It’s an exciting time to launch Dropcam HD, a product that introduces quality hardware and intuitive user experience to a space that has missed it completely.”

Cloud-based DVR Services and CES Demo

Along with Dropcam’s new camera come best-in-class video streaming and DVR services. Video from your Dropcam HD camera is stored in the cloud, so it doesn’t slow your computer and you never have to worry about running out of memory on your PC. Unlimited real-time viewing from any device as well as email and push motion/sound alerts are always free for users.Recording plans to capture moment-by-moment HD video start at $9.95 per month. Your video stream can also be safely shared with friends and family for free by inviting them through a secure link, so they can share in the things you care about most.

Dropcam’s cloud-based viewing and recording service is all you need to access your Dropcam HD camera 24/7. There’s no need to keep a computer running – just connect to your Wi-Fi network. Dropcam DVR can record up to 30 days of continuous video from each camera.

See a demo of the Dropcam HD camera and online services during CES Jan. 10 – 12 at booth #3421 – LVCC, North Hall, and at the Pepcom Digital Experience media event Jan. 9 in the MGM Grand.

Also, join Dropcam CEO Greg Duffy on Jan. 12, 4:20p in the Mommy Tech area – LVCC, North Hall N256, when he speaks about “Moms as CEO of the Household.”

About Dropcam Dropcam, Inc. is an agent of change at the intersection of video, data, and the cloud. Its award-winningWi-Fi video monitoring camera and intelligent software services capture life’s moments, making it easy for users to check in on the things they care about from anywhere, anytime, on any device. Founded in 2009, San Francisco-based Dropcam is funded by Accel Partners and top angel investors. To learn more, please visitwww.dropcam.com, watch our demo videos on YouTube, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @dropcam. Dropcam, Inc. is located at 160 Spear Street, Suite 1700, San Francisco, CA 94105.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Home Tech, News

Tagged: Surveillance, Video

Dropcam will be launching a new camera at CES originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 9, 2012 at 9:00 am.

Another day, another media player.  Is it me or what?  Now micca has a new entry in the plethora of players available, the EP600 Premium Full-HD media player. This networked player is supposed to play all your media files on your HD TV from connected storage devices and streams from devices on your LAN.  We’ll give it a test drive and see what it really can do.

The hardware specs are fairly impressive:

• Hardware – Realtek 1185DD 500MHz Decoder/Processor – 256MB DDR2 Memory – 256MB NAND Flash
• AV Output – HDMI 1.3 (up to 1080p 60Hz) – Component Video (YPbPr) – Composite A/V – Coaxial Digital SPDIF Audio – Optical Digital SPDIF Audio
• Storage Supported – External SATA Drive Connector – 2 x USB 2.0 Host Port – SD/SDHC Flash Memory Card Reader
• Network – 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet LAN – Optional 802.11n WiFi

Most importantly for a media player are the files types supported.  Here we also have a very comprehensive list of types:

•  Video Files – BDMV, BD-ISO, MKV, MOV, WMV, TS, M2TS, MTS, FLV, AVI, DVD-ISO, VOB, M2P, MP4, MPG, DAT, ASF, TP TRP, SWF
•  Video Codecs – H.264/AVC, MPEG1/2/4, DivX/Xvid, VC-1, and RMVB
•  Audio Formats – DTS/DTS-HD MA, Dolby AC3/True-HD, LPCM, ADPCM, FLAC, APE, LC-AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, OGG, WAM, WAV
•  Image Formats – JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and TIF

Here’s what you get in the box.  The cable at the top of the photo is for a SATA drive.  The cable below that is a special component video cable unique to the micca.  It has a mini plug branching out to 3 RCA plugs for the 3 component video inputs on your HD TV.  Be aware there is no HDMI cable or audio cable.  You’ll have to supply your own.

The front of the unit only has a power button which illuminates blue when power is on and red when off.

On the rear there are the connections for digital audio, composite and component video, a LAN port, HDMI connection and power input.  The small jack between the red RCA connector and the LAN port is where the special component cable pugs in.  Click on the image to get a better view.

On the left side are the connection for the SATA cable and memory cards.  There is a rubber piece that covers the SATA slot, but it fell off after the first time I put it back on and it’s disappeared.

The USB connections are on the right side of the EP600.

The device itself is solidly built, the case being made from aluminium.  With the exception of the SATA cover, all sockets held the cables with no problems.

To test the player out, I dug up an unused SATA hard drive plus a USB drive and plugged them in.  Theoretically, the EP600 will work with a BD-rom through the SATA port, but I didn’t have one.  I’ll just trust that it works.   With the player hooked to my tv using my HDMI cable and connected to my LAN using a Cat5 cable supplied by me, I fired it up.  The device will also connect via WiFi, but a dongle was not provided.  Because the SATA connection is on the side, there is no elegant way to position the hard drive.

Here’s the home screen.  As you move between the icons using the remote, a title pops up and the icon enlarges.  The first three are for the media libraries.  A feature of the EP600 is that it indexes all the drives connected to the device.  It looks for movie, audio and photo files.  This makes it easy to find a media file regardless of where it is.

For example, these movie files are split between the SATA and USB drive, but show up in one library.  There are duplicates in the list because I have the same movies on 2 devices.  To play the movie, simply hit the OK button on the remote and playback begins,  as long as the .ts file is in the folder with the movie.  You can also get to the media library via the buttons on the remote.

The second and third icon give the same results.  When the media library is created, it is just as easy to play a track or display photos from all the storage devices connected to the player.  The media library function will display the cover art for a file, if it is in the correct format.  I’ll be working on that in the future.

The file manager function allows browsing of media files on the USB, CARD, HDD and network.

Here my configuration has one SATA drive and is connected to the network.  From this screen you can also access UPnP servers and any NFS shares.  I was disappointed in the results using the UPnP option.  While it did recognize the Playon server on my PC, it would not play the streams.  This may be a function of Playon, but it would have made this device more useful if it worked.

My LAN has several computers and NAS devices.  These are accessible via the file manager function.  This allows me to display/play media files from these devices on my flatscreen TV.  You can access and copy files between micca and other LAN devices.

Another neat feature is that the device is DLNA compliant.   If you have a windows 7 system on the LAN, you can right-click on a media file and select the micca as a destination and your file will play on your HD TV.  I found this rather useful.

Also, by downloading an app to your smartphone you can push media files from these devices to the EP600 which will display on your HD TV.  I used iMediaSHare for my iPod Touch.  It has several channels, most of which I found useless, but hopefully they’ll be something more interesting in the future.

After selecting a channel, I was presented with the above display.   This allowed me to direct the media to a DLNA device for playing.

There’s also an Internet Media Service function giving access to network applications.

The web browser function, which brings up the Google page on the player, interested me the most, however, it was a big disappointment.  To use it, you’ll have to connect a mouse and keyboard to the two USB ports.  Unfortunately, the keyboard did not work in the Google search bar.  It only brings up an on-screen keyboard into which you can type commands.  When I did get a  selected page to display, it was cut off.  I gave up trying to make it work after a while.

Which brings me to my feelings about this device.  It seems to me that the micca EP600 is a work in progress.  I imagine that it was  put together from left over parts at a contract manufacturer.  The 12 page “manual” is short on any detail.   The device also exhibited many idiosyncracies, such as needing to be restarted after an update of the media libraries.  Sometimes it would not output a signal to the TV and I had to power cycle to get it to work.  And do NOT play with the TV mode function on the remote.  I toggled it and got a display mode incompatible with my TV and lost picture.  I kept toggling hoping it would come back, but I finally had to connect the player to the TV using a composite video cable.  This allowed me to see enough to switch the output to a compatible mode.

That being said, I actually like this device.  The best feature for me is the ability to play ripped DVDs by clicking the folder.  No need to fool around with .vobs and .ts files.  The media library function makes it very easy to access your media from on-screen.  There’s no need to know where the file is.  So, if you have some patience and $99, this is not a bad choice.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: A/V, Audio/video gear

micca EP600 Network Digital Media Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 8, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

Having the ability to turn your lights on and off at predetermined times can be really useful for a variety of reasons. But wiring your house for X10 and other home automation equipment can be pricy and time consuming. A simple alternative is this Automatic Wall Switch Timer which fits right over a standard wall switch plate and allows you to program up to 9 separate settings per 24 hour period (a total of 63 on/off settings per week). The switch is powered by 2 AA batteries and doesn’t require any wiring modifications or plate removal. The Automatic Wall Switch Timer is priced at $34.99 and is available from Skymall.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: Home Automation

Automate your house lights – No wiring required originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm.

A good label maker is one of those things that you do not realize how useful it can be until you have one. Pretty much every container, drawer, and file in my shop at work is labeled and it has made my life so much easier in so many ways (like trying to tell someone over the phone where a specific gizmo is.)

I had been using a pretty generic label maker, and was excited to try the more creative Epson LabelWorks LW-300 and play with all of its features!

The LW-300 is the more ‘home-based’ companion to the more ‘office-oriented’ LW-400. Both feature:

• 14 fonts, 10 styles, and 300+ symbols
• less margin waste than other brands
• memory
• multi-line printing (2 lines for the LW-300, 4 for the LW-400)
• wide tape capabilities (up to 1/2″ for the LW-300, 3/4″ for the LW-400)
• 7 languages
• quiet operation
• easy to apply ‘split-back’ labels
• specialty tapes from glow-in-the-dark to iron-on

The LW-400 can also print specialty projects like bar codes and cable wraps and on tapes that include fluorescent colors that do not come in the 1/2″ size used by the LW-300.

I was sent the LW-300 unit to try, and it is a lot of fun to use! It reminds me of when Print Shop originally came out and suddenly people were making signs with fancy fonts, borders, and clip art all over them. Sure, a lot of them were horribly ugly, but you could also do some neat stuff with it, as you can with this labeler.

Everything in the box

The labeler is packed in a box that, intentionally or not, makes a very functional storage box. It contained the printer, a warranty card, instruction booklet, symbols reference card, and a starter cartridge of 1/2″ black on white tape. I was also sent a roll of glow-in-the-dark, iron-on, and blue pearlized tapes to play with. It runs on 6 AA batteries or an AC adapter, neither is included.

The LW-300 is about 6″x5.5″x2″ with a QWERTY keyboard and several special purpose keys. Many buttons have another function when the ‘shift’ key is pressed. Most of the controls are labeled clearly enough and the unit is intuitive enough that you won’t need the instructions… most of the time. The default ‘enter’ key is the typical downward bent arrow, which keeps causing me troubles because it is also used to start a new line on this and other machines.

Front panel

Back, with cover off

Back, showing the big green 'cut' button, tape slot, and power jack

You can change the looks of the labels in many ways:

• 14 fonts, from Sans Serif to Roman to Script
• Character size, spacing, and width
• Styles such as italics, bold, outline, shadow, or combinations
• Label length
• Several frame options, vertical or mirror printing, and adding sequential numbers
• Using different tapes

Some possible variations

It can do so much that it is tough to convey it all on the controls, so you’ll want to keep the instructions handy for details on some features (or use the abbreviated reference sticker on the bottom). The screen shows a limited ‘WYSIWYG’ display- it will show the text and symbols, but not the font, frames, etc.

The entire back comes off easily allowing for very easy access to the batteries or to change the tape cartridge. A small window in the back shows you which cartridge is in place, and swapping tapes is very easy with the large index guide and a label path that is easy to get the tape into.

I was sent several samples of tapes to play with…

• The stock 1/2″ Black on White labels are very much like similar labels used on a variety of label makers. Like most of the tapes made for this machine, the backing is slit in the middle to make it easier to remove.
• Glow-In-The-Dark is a fun option. Like similar products, it charges with exposure to light. This tape will glow for hours, getting fainter as it goes. It would make an interesting ‘night light’ for kids, or be a handy way to label light switches or other things you may need to access in the dark. As the glow fades, it becomes harder to read the letters, so use bold fonts to get the best results.
• The Blue Pearlized labels were very pretty, but the black letters on the slightly dark background did not have as much contrast. On the other hand, they look great on projects like scrapbooks, etc. where you do not want such a stark or industrial look.
• I did not get a chance to try the Iron-On tapes for durability, but they did iron on easily and survived one washing without noticeable damage. This seems like a good choice for labeling clothing going to school or camp, etc., but it would also be an easy way to do things like personalize a work shirt, identify special purpose cleaning cloths (like ‘Glass Only’), and so on.

Tape samples

My primary use of a labeler is at work at a rehab center for adults with disabilities, where I use it to organize the shop. However, with the specialty tapes available, I can also tackle other projects, like attaching identification labels to seat cushion covers (Iron-On) and wheelchairs in the loaner fleet (Metallic or High Strength Adhesive), or identifying risks (Fluorescent).

But, as I play with this machine, I see more and more interesting uses, like…

• Customizing toys with the variable text options and sizes – trucks with door signs from ‘Mark’s Construction’, or signage in a toy town. You could even use the iron-on labels in small print sizes to put words and images on doll clothing.
• Return address label maker – setting up a memorized label with your address and city, state, and zip on the two lines, then tinkering with the settings to make a nice, legible, compact label you can print whenever you need one or ten of them.
• Make two identical vertical labels and stick them back to back on the edge of a page to make an index tab you can read from either direction.

Making labels for toy vehicles (Avatar(R) RC Helicopter- review coming soon.) "Guaranteed Delivery In 30 Minutes or Less, Or We'll Destroy Your House!"

Some special projects- photo album label, name tag, 'night light'. The page on the left is part of the symbol reference card

Like many printers nowadays, the base machine is fairly cheap (MSRP $39.99), but you can go broke on the consumables – the tapes range from $16.99 to $21.99, but the lengths also range from 5 to 30 feet. The basic black-on-white cartridge is $17.99 for 30′. Figuring two inches per label, you can get 180 labels from a roll at a cost of about a dime a label. On the other hand, the glow-in-the-dark tape is $29.99 for 5′, making each 2″ label worth about a buck each!

My two biggest complaints about this unit are both pretty petty. My older labeler did not let you press multiple buttons, so to get a capital letter, for example, you hit ‘shift’, then the letter. This unit requires pressing multiple buttons – shift and the letter at the same time. I also keep loosing track of which button I need to advance in the menu or to select the option I want.

Beyond those two nit-picks, this is a nice machine. It is well-built and passes the Gadgeteer Creak Test. It stores away nicely and goes a long time on a set of batteries. It is easy to use, and easy to figure out when you do get stuck.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: label maker, tape labeler

Epson LabelWorks LW-300 Label Printer Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 4, 2012 at 2:09 pm.