I am not a technology expert nor a computer programmer, but I am a tech user and amateur blogger; so I decided to write this blog to share with you what I have found useful this year--oh yeah, and that one disappointment. Maybe you will find this helpful if you haven't already own these items that I will review. As always, please feel free to give me some feedback or share with me some of your helpful gadgets.
Pebble Time Steel
Last year, I was shopping around for a smartwatch to pair with my then Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Naturally I poured over the Samsung smartwatches: Gear Live, Gear 2 Neo, Gear Fit, etc. As I was going over smartwatches, using the Amazon website, the website also listed the Pebble watch. I checked the specifications of the watch and was impressed with the battery life and how uncomplicated it seemed. It was monochrome using e-Paper display, but I didn't care to be that fancy with color like the Samsung watches. For my needs, I needed a smartwatch to be able to notify me so I wouldn't have to take out my phone every five minutes because I thought I heard it vibrate--I don't use ringtones on my phone. So I bought the Pebble watch and loved it.
Earlier this year, the company Pebble went back to Kickstarter--where they had had their first start--to crowdfund a new project: Pebble Time (PT) and Pebble Time Steel (PTS). Knowing more about the Pebble--the watch and the company--I jumped on the chance to help fund their new project, specifically the Pebble Time Steel. In the middle of summer, I finally got the finished product. Like its predecessor, the PTS connected easily with my now Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Moreover the PT and the PTS now use colored e-Paper display.
I downloaded the Evernote app on the PTS so I can access my lists as well as my notes, but mostly for my checklists. I also downloaded an app so I can keep score while playing pétanque. I can also control the volume on Google Play Music as well as skipping to the next song. Yes, all from my watch. It's great while traveling because I can also change the time zone on the phone and/or sync it with the time on my Note 4. The watch came with a matching leather strap, but as a Kickstarter contributor I also got the matching steel strap which really upgrades the watch in looks and style. I won't go into everything it does, but you can check out the Pebble website and find out for yourself.
Canon PowerShot SX700 HS
A point-and-shoot camera?! I know, but this camera is wifi enabled. In this era of cell phone cameras, it's so much easier to snap a photo with your cell phone and then post it onto social media. I didn't think I would ever really need to use a camera, but on a trip to Europe I realized that it would save my battery usage on my cell phone. It did. While on a cruise with no internet access--too expensive--my Canon PowerShot generated its own wifi signal so that I could connect my camera with my phone. With the help of the app Canon Camera Connect, I was able to see all the photos on my camera and choose which ones I wanted to download on to my Note 4. Another advantage to using an actual camera instead of my cell phone is that I can zoom in on an object. My camera sports a 4x digital zoom and 30x optical zoom. One last thing, you can save the storage of your cell phone by keeping the majority of the pictures you take on your camera in the memory card. I usually download all my photos onto my Google Photos by using my Chromebook.
Maxway Power Bank 12000mAh
From past trips I knew I was going to need one of these, especially after the latest update for Note 4--it was sucking up the battery life faster than what I'm used to before the update. Furthermore my partner has two phones: one as a cell phone (iPhone 6) and the other as a camera (Nokia 1020). This portable battery was able to charge my Samsung phone, my partner's iPhone as well as his Nokia while we were on vacation in Paris. It was also able to charge my PTS. I was amazed how fast it charged my phone, but it was slow charging my partner's iPhone--my guess is that the phone needs to be idle.
Urban Pack by Cambie
"Urban Pack" is another way of saying manpurse. Yes, manpurse, but it is a very useful manpurse. This was another Kickstarter project that I help fund earlier in the year. The final product arrived the day before my trip to Paris. Naturally, I brought it along with me because I thought it would come handy--and it was.
So what was I able to fit in this wonderful manpurse? My 11'' Chromebook and its charger; my Note 4 and its charger; my Canon camera and an extra battery; my Maxway power bank; memory card reader; mini tripod; earbuds; earplugs; passport; wallet; and a pack of gum. The Urban Pack was small enough that I took it everywhere with me, and it was big enough that I could have carried my Chromebook with me if I wanted.
More Gadgets to Review
As I have mentioned before, I have backed several Kickstarter projects that I now currently use. Kickstarter is a great place to see all the great ideas out there and to fund them so people like us can bring them into reality--later to be made available through retail. There are other projects that I have backed but am still waiting for their delivery--be on the look out for another gadget review in 2016. Another great site for gadget ideas is The Gadget Flow. Another website like Kickstarter is Indiegogo, but I am not an Indiegogo user.
So by now, you might be wondering, What is that one disappointment.
The NFC Ring
NFC means near field communication. It lets two devices communicate with one another. The NFC Ring basically lets me unlock my phone without having to enter a code, pattern, or fingerprint (for those who have sensors). To be honest with you, I was getting tired of having to do this each time I wanted to look at my phone. I thought this NFC ring would help solve that, and it did. I placed the ring underneath the phone so that they communicate with each other--the ring telling the phone to unlock itself.
First of all, the installation of getting this gadget to work was incredible. Yes, I was given instructions, but they were much too simplistic for the actual work. I had to download, not one application, but two: one to read the ring and the other to unlock the phone. What the instructions do not tell you is that you also have to set up the NFC on your phone--name the device and give it access to your phone. After trying to figure this all out, I was able to get the ring to work.
The ring has two NFC sides so one can be to unlock the phone while other can be public, like giving out your contact information to a business associate. I had difficulty knowing which side was which. I usually used the reader to let me know which side was the one that unlocked my phone.
Another problem that I kept running into was the phone's difficulty in picking up the NFC. I placed a sticker, that the ring company provided, on the "sweetspot" on my phone so that it would be easier to read, but it was never one hundred percent. At times it didn't even register.
Finally I decided to no longer use the ring because each time I received a phone call, I had to unlock my phone, either with the ring (too long) or use the code that I provided as a backup. I would've been able to live with just unlocking my phone, but having to scramble to unlock my phone when someone calls me was too stressful and unnecessary.
There is a "workaround" for unlocking your phone--as I have discovered digging around information about NFC and unlocking one's phone. If you are at home, you can set your phone to trust the wifi network, unlocking your phone each time it connects with your trusted wifi network. Another neat thing I learned was that I can also unlock my Chromebook if my phone was also unlock. Instead of typing in my password for my Chromebook, I just click on my photo and I'm in.
I know there are many more gadgets out there, but I only have so much money that I only buy the ones that are useful to me--or that I think are useful. Please let me know if you have a useful gadget that you use that I haven't listed here. Or is there a gadget that you have found to be useless?
Have a great and wonderful Christmas holiday!
Pebble Time Steel
Last year, I was shopping around for a smartwatch to pair with my then Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Naturally I poured over the Samsung smartwatches: Gear Live, Gear 2 Neo, Gear Fit, etc. As I was going over smartwatches, using the Amazon website, the website also listed the Pebble watch. I checked the specifications of the watch and was impressed with the battery life and how uncomplicated it seemed. It was monochrome using e-Paper display, but I didn't care to be that fancy with color like the Samsung watches. For my needs, I needed a smartwatch to be able to notify me so I wouldn't have to take out my phone every five minutes because I thought I heard it vibrate--I don't use ringtones on my phone. So I bought the Pebble watch and loved it.
 |
| Pebble Time Steel (Gunmetal) |
Earlier this year, the company Pebble went back to Kickstarter--where they had had their first start--to crowdfund a new project: Pebble Time (PT) and Pebble Time Steel (PTS). Knowing more about the Pebble--the watch and the company--I jumped on the chance to help fund their new project, specifically the Pebble Time Steel. In the middle of summer, I finally got the finished product. Like its predecessor, the PTS connected easily with my now Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Moreover the PT and the PTS now use colored e-Paper display.
I downloaded the Evernote app on the PTS so I can access my lists as well as my notes, but mostly for my checklists. I also downloaded an app so I can keep score while playing pétanque. I can also control the volume on Google Play Music as well as skipping to the next song. Yes, all from my watch. It's great while traveling because I can also change the time zone on the phone and/or sync it with the time on my Note 4. The watch came with a matching leather strap, but as a Kickstarter contributor I also got the matching steel strap which really upgrades the watch in looks and style. I won't go into everything it does, but you can check out the Pebble website and find out for yourself.
Canon PowerShot SX700 HS
Maxway Power Bank 12000mAh
From past trips I knew I was going to need one of these, especially after the latest update for Note 4--it was sucking up the battery life faster than what I'm used to before the update. Furthermore my partner has two phones: one as a cell phone (iPhone 6) and the other as a camera (Nokia 1020). This portable battery was able to charge my Samsung phone, my partner's iPhone as well as his Nokia while we were on vacation in Paris. It was also able to charge my PTS. I was amazed how fast it charged my phone, but it was slow charging my partner's iPhone--my guess is that the phone needs to be idle.
Urban Pack by Cambie
"Urban Pack" is another way of saying manpurse. Yes, manpurse, but it is a very useful manpurse. This was another Kickstarter project that I help fund earlier in the year. The final product arrived the day before my trip to Paris. Naturally, I brought it along with me because I thought it would come handy--and it was.
So what was I able to fit in this wonderful manpurse? My 11'' Chromebook and its charger; my Note 4 and its charger; my Canon camera and an extra battery; my Maxway power bank; memory card reader; mini tripod; earbuds; earplugs; passport; wallet; and a pack of gum. The Urban Pack was small enough that I took it everywhere with me, and it was big enough that I could have carried my Chromebook with me if I wanted.
More Gadgets to Review
As I have mentioned before, I have backed several Kickstarter projects that I now currently use. Kickstarter is a great place to see all the great ideas out there and to fund them so people like us can bring them into reality--later to be made available through retail. There are other projects that I have backed but am still waiting for their delivery--be on the look out for another gadget review in 2016. Another great site for gadget ideas is The Gadget Flow. Another website like Kickstarter is Indiegogo, but I am not an Indiegogo user.
So by now, you might be wondering, What is that one disappointment.
The NFC Ring
NFC means near field communication. It lets two devices communicate with one another. The NFC Ring basically lets me unlock my phone without having to enter a code, pattern, or fingerprint (for those who have sensors). To be honest with you, I was getting tired of having to do this each time I wanted to look at my phone. I thought this NFC ring would help solve that, and it did. I placed the ring underneath the phone so that they communicate with each other--the ring telling the phone to unlock itself.
First of all, the installation of getting this gadget to work was incredible. Yes, I was given instructions, but they were much too simplistic for the actual work. I had to download, not one application, but two: one to read the ring and the other to unlock the phone. What the instructions do not tell you is that you also have to set up the NFC on your phone--name the device and give it access to your phone. After trying to figure this all out, I was able to get the ring to work.
The ring has two NFC sides so one can be to unlock the phone while other can be public, like giving out your contact information to a business associate. I had difficulty knowing which side was which. I usually used the reader to let me know which side was the one that unlocked my phone.
Another problem that I kept running into was the phone's difficulty in picking up the NFC. I placed a sticker, that the ring company provided, on the "sweetspot" on my phone so that it would be easier to read, but it was never one hundred percent. At times it didn't even register.
Finally I decided to no longer use the ring because each time I received a phone call, I had to unlock my phone, either with the ring (too long) or use the code that I provided as a backup. I would've been able to live with just unlocking my phone, but having to scramble to unlock my phone when someone calls me was too stressful and unnecessary.
There is a "workaround" for unlocking your phone--as I have discovered digging around information about NFC and unlocking one's phone. If you are at home, you can set your phone to trust the wifi network, unlocking your phone each time it connects with your trusted wifi network. Another neat thing I learned was that I can also unlock my Chromebook if my phone was also unlock. Instead of typing in my password for my Chromebook, I just click on my photo and I'm in.
I know there are many more gadgets out there, but I only have so much money that I only buy the ones that are useful to me--or that I think are useful. Please let me know if you have a useful gadget that you use that I haven't listed here. Or is there a gadget that you have found to be useless?
Have a great and wonderful Christmas holiday!
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