James Garriss

James is a systems engineer, has been married for 30 years, and has a pair of energetic toy poodles. His favorite gadgets are those that solve problems around the house and yard.

OGIO Alpha Convoy Travel Bag review

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REVIEW – Our family has several pieces of luggage, but after traveling to Asia and back and all over the east coast, they’re pretty beaten up.  Additionally, they are not very flexible, as they have one main compartment for storing everything.  It’s time to try something new, preferably something that is both durable and flexible. 

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Tronsmart Element T6 Plus Portable Bluetooth Speaker review

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REVIEW – Sometimes I want to consume audio content alone, but often I want to share it with my wife.  We listen to music together while working in the garage, audio books while driving in the car during our vacation, and podcasts while cooking and cleaning in the kitchen.  For times like these, it’s nice

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How the gadgets my daughter took to college are working out so far

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Previously I have reviewed three different gadgets with the intention of giving them to my daughter as she headed off to her first semester of college:  the Osprey Tropos everyday backpack, the Kensington Thunderbolt 3 Nano dock, and the BunkTrunk PhD footlocker.  At the time of these reviews, I believed that each of these would

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BenQ ZOWIE XL2411P 144Hz 24-inch e-Sports Monitor review

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REVIEW – Without a doubt, the two most important components of a good gaming system are the video card and the monitor.  The monitor is what gamers are looking at while playing, and the video card is what renders the games on the monitor.  When I designed my current system, I included a GeForce GTX

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Brightech Maxwell Floor Lamp with Wireless Charging Pad review

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REVIEW – When our family first started buying mobile devices several years ago, I purchased an Anker USB charging hub and put it on our pie safe.  This created one central location in the house where everyone could put their gadgets for high-speed charging.  These days, however, it seems that we always want to keep

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The ZeroLemon Charging Station – Notable crowdfunding campaign

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CROWDFUNDING NEWS – The ZeroLemon Charging Station from Lauco is a small charging station that can simultaneously charge two USB-C devices and two USB-A devices while wirelessly charging a phone that supports the Qi wireless-charging standard and an Apple Watch.  It has a 130 W for full-speed charging for all devices, 90 W for the USB-C,

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Cosori Premium 5.8-Quart Air Fryer review

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REVIEW – Fried okra?  Yes, please!  Chicken-fried steak?  Of course!  Fried chicken?  You betcha!  When it comes to home cooking, it seems that I’m a bit of Southern boy.  But while I love fried foods, I don’t like cleaning up the mess that frying makes, and I really shouldn’t be consuming all that oil.  What

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Letscom Fitness Tracker (ID115PlusHR) review

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REVIEW – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that American adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.  This roughly translates into taking 10,000 steps a day.  The Mayo Clinic, however, estimates that the average American only walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, far short of what

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