Up on the ladder: electronic

Showing posts with label electronic. Show all posts

Since I got the bonsai kit and growing trees, I definitely need to get myself a grow light to keep it going during the winter. There are a lot of lights on Amazon that red and blue, but not many are just white. Until I found this iPower LED light bulb that is the most affordable one I saw. I got it with a clamp which will power the bulb. So far this lamp is doing its job. I'm even growing cool temp vegetables with this lamp!

It arrived undamaged and the bulb itself is quite heavy. The clamp is also strong, but the weight of the bulb makes the clamp not the most secure. I had some difficulties finding something that I can clamp it on in a stable manner. The only thing I could feel its secure is if I have the clamp facing up and just position the bulb down. This worked on the Ikea indoor greenhouse. Since my plants don't fit in the greenhouse I have it facing outside it. Its able to lit about a square foot of area. So this is good for a plant or a small amount of small plants.

Since we don't get much sunlight and in the winter the sun doesn't even shine through the glass doors in the room we keep our plants, this light has helped a lot. It helps maintain the health of the plants as well as have us continue to do a bit of gardening. The light is bright white, buts it not the kind of lamp to light up a room. Overall, I am pleased with this product and would recommend it!

I saw this machine at Home Good and was curious about it that I bought it. The box said it uses pods so I mistakenly thought it took k cups but it doesn't. It takes the ESE espresso pods that are flat like a disk. I'm not sure why there isn't a machine that does everything, but this is close enough. I'm not a big coffee drinker so I didn't want too many coffee tools, but I wouldn't recommend this one. The drip coffee works fine and the espresso maker works ok. The milk steamer is poorly made as its performance greatly deteriorates the more I used it. Without the steam working properly to do its jobs it just makes the espresso maker part kind of useless.

I think I paid about $120 for this machine. There was some assembly to put this together. The machine doesn't look bad and using it wasn't too terribly difficult to understand. I do like the design of it and it didn't take too much space either. There's quite a bit of items to clean, but they are rather easy to clean. Cleaning the dried milk off the steamer is the only part that takes a bit of effort.

Not going to talk about the drip coffee maker as its works the same as any drip coffee maker. It does include a mesh coffee filter as well which is nice. I use the drip coffee the most and it has yet to fail me. You can keep the coffee warm for up to 5 hours which is nice.

The espresso maker I feel is good enough to make lattes. Its not going to make great espresso, but if quality is not a concern this does the job. Using ground coffee hasn't produced a strong enough coffee taste to mimic the coffee shop lattes. Anyways it comes with 3 different sizes that you can put into the handle to make a single, double, or an ESE pod. The box also included a plastic spoon measure with a flat disk at the end that you can pack the grounds down with. Inserting the handle is like a regular espresso machine, but this isn't designed the best. I actually hurt myself the first time I tried to make an espresso with this machine. I tried to get the handle all the way to the left where the locked icon was indicated. But the handle couldn't go all the way because it was really tight to get it through. So when I tried to unlock the handle I ended up smacking my hand on the machine since its quite cramped. I ended up tearing a bit of skin off. So now I only just locked it enough to not move.

The steamer can swing and its quick short. This machine doesn't include anything to put milk in so you may need to buy that separately. Since its short you can't get anything big. The steamer includes a rubber black nozzle thing that froths the milk. Without it it won't froth the milk. I tried using this steamer many times and it is not an enjoyable thing to use. Since its short and the machine itself is not tall, I don't get a lot of room to handle to pitcher I use to hold the milk. I have to tilt it to get the steam nozzle in and most of the time I end up spilling some milk on the table. The nozzle only goes side to side and does not tilt up or down at all. As you steam the milk it doesn't steam fast enough before the machine has to recharge it. It doesn't heat the milk as hot as I'd like either. And over time it loses it strength so it hasn't been a year yet and I've given up on the steamer. I've cleaned it and all, but it hasn't improved.

Overall this machine isn't great, but its not useless enough for me to get rid of it. So i wouldn't recommend this coffee machine.

The newest Nintendo console that can seamlessly go from TV to portable.Whether this will replace the 3DS handheld systems is kind of hard to say as well as too early to tell. Since it seems to be selling well I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The challenge will be if the Switch would get as many games as 3DS has. Wii U hardly had games, but 3DS has much more games which makes it worth buying. Switch is selling well due to the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild which is understandable since its quite a good game. Heck, it even got me to buy the Switch and I don't regret it. Getting your hands on a Switch has been quite a challenge since there are people buying them in order to sell them for a higher cost. Retailers seem to try to discourage this by only offering them in bundles. Unfortunately these bundles aren't saving you money and they have been costing around $500 which a lot more than what some people are comfortable with buying. Not sure when this will stop, but if you're impatient like me you may have to bite the bullet and take that price.

While I only wanted the game for Zelda, I may try out the other games that also came with the bundle just to give the console some more use for when I'm done with Zelda. The console itself has 32GB of storage. My bundle unfortunately only came with digital games so it did take up the majority of the space in the system. Digital games also aren't eligible for Nintendo coins which is lame. You will need to get a micro SD card if you want more storage. The slot for it is located right under the kick stand thing on the console. You will need to pop it out and the slot of the SD card is right there. For the game cartridge, it is located on the top right side of the console.

The power is connected right on the bottom of the console. This is quite an inconvenient spot if you're on the go, but also want to charge it. You can't have it upright with the kick stand and charge it. You may have to look into third party makers who can do that. The dock has a flap that covers the screen unfortunately.

Like others have said, the dock is pretty simple. The console can got into the USB-C slot. On the back are the USB-C for the power cable that comes with the console, HDMI slot, and a USB slot. I don't think its worth the price that they put on it. I don't think its cheaply made, but it could be cheaper as its not worth the price to buy it by itself.

I prefer to play games on the TV mode, but the portable screen isn't too bad. Its is more plastic-y than glass like on smartphones. It also has touchscreen functions so you can tap on the keyboard instead of using the controllers which is nice. Obviously you can't do this when your on TV mode since the dock covers the screen. As for battery life, playing Zelda would last me about 3 hours till the console starts to warn me about low battery. While 3 hours isn't impressive, I think that its reasonable. You can always buy an external battery or charger if you need more time. Charging requires a USB-C so be sure you have the right cable. The portable performance doesn't heat up as much as when its docked. I saw a few people say the dock scratches the screen, but I have yet to see that happen with mine. There are glass covers you can purchase if you want to protect the screen.

The controllers seems like its a hit or miss with people though luckily it does have variety so it may depend on which works best for you. You can have the controllers attached to the sides of the console. For me, my hands are on the small side, but I find having the controls on the side is not the most convenient to reach all the buttons. I do have to adjust my hands which isn't something I want to deal with while playing a game like Zelda. Though it hasn't really hinder my play so its not an annoyance to me. You can also use the controllers wirelessly and freely. Zelda uses both controllers so you can hold each in your hand, or you can put them in the grip handle attachment. You slide the controllers in it to make it more of a traditional controller. This feels better for me, though you can always buy the Pro controller which I hear people like more. The Pro controller is separate and not included with the console.

The home screen for the Switch is rather simple. You can register multiple users, but you will need a Nintendo account to be able to go into the eShop. There's an album that has screenshots that you've taken. Screenshots are done with the square-ish button on the left controller. There's no feature to record videos, but it was mentioned that feature would come in the future. You can edit screenshots in the console too. You can share them on Facebook and Twitter too. There's a screen for controllers, this is where you can check the battery life of your controllers and pairing your controllers. Press any button on the controller and the console would read it. The options menu has a lot of things going in it from managing data, users, and many other options. Last is Sleep Mode which is like turning off your console. I don't think there is a turn off button or option. Sleep mode can keep your game right where you left off. You can of course close the game too.

For a single player game like Zelda, you can have different saves on different users. A user who was playing it would have their avatar on the game in the home screen of the console. You will have to close the game to remove that user off the game so another user can play it. You have to wait 10 days before the Switch shows you how many hours you've played on a game in your profile. It doesn't show the exact amount either. Just says "XX hours or more played" next to the game title.

Overall, the Switch console isn't the most impressive system for the price. I would've like it to be a bit cheaper. But I think its worth getting for Zelda, and once your down with it you can always sell it. Though if you are patient you can just wait for more games to come out to make the system more worth it. I do recommend it and will highly suggest not paying scalpers who are trying to make money off its popularity and stock scarcity.

A lot of electronics use USB to charge, but there are only so many USB ports on my computer. So I needed a hub so I can connect more devices at once. I liked the slim look of this Anker hub plus the $10 price I got it wasn't too bad.

I like the slim design. My desk is a bit of a mess and has quite a bit of stuff on it so having a small hub is great. The cable is a bit to short for my liking, but its not a big issue. There's so setup or installing. You just plug it in and your computer would probably automatically make it work.

As for its performance, so far its 50/50. I can connect my iPhone into the hub and my computer would read it like it were connected to it directly. For my older devices like my ipod and my old external hard drive it has problems. My ipod touch does have trouble getting recognized right away and I was having issues with it on iTunes as well. My iPhone is newer and I didn't really have this kind of an issue. As for my older external hard drive, the hub was having issues keeping its connection stable. It would keep disconnecting and reconnecting and at times it was make the hard drive make weird noises. There's nothing wrong with this hard drive since when I plug it in directly to my computer it works perfectly fine. Whether it might be an issue with the hub being USB 3.0 or not, I don't know but its just my guess. Though my newer external hard drive works fine with this hub.

Overall, I'd recommend this hub for charging. I wouldn't buy this to primarily connect devices to use on your computer especially if those devices a re a few years old.

I was searching for wireless earphones in curiosity and found these on Amazon at a affordable price of about $25. The reviews were pretty good too so I figured I should get it. I live with other people so I didn't want to bother them with whatever I'm listening to as I do chores.

The package was slightly greasy from something I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter since I'm throwing it away. It includes little booklets, 3 sizes of ear buds things and ear hook things. It also includes a usb charger and the earbuds are in suede black bag that has one of those closures that stay close so you have to push it in to pop it open. I have no idea what they are called.

The usb charger has a very short wire length. The left ear bud had the tiny usb to plug the charger in. It didn't take long to fully charge the earbuds like about an hour. Took me a minute to understand how bluetooth worked. I tried connecting it to my laptop, but it took me two days before I finally got it to work. My laptop was able to find it and pair it, but it failed to connect. I had to update my windows 8.1 to the latest update, and then I was able to see it downloading and installing the drivers for the earbuds. Unfortunately it still didn't work and I saw "driver error" flash for a second. It took a number of install and uninstall (forgetting the device and then pairing it again to install drivers again) before it finally was successful! Connecting to my iPhone was a lot simpler and better. I just turned it on and it got it. Not even a minute did it took to successfully connect to my iPhone.

The earbuds are a little awkward to wear, but I hope it get more comfortable over time. It does create like a vacuum in your ear just like an ear plug so it does muffle outside noise which is nice. I work in noisy places so it helps to muffle them. I know these earbuds are for working out, but I am not using them for that at all since I don't workout. Perhaps one day.

I mostly use them to connect to my laptop, but I noticed the range in my laptop is very poor compare to my iPhone sadly. I couldn't go to my kitchen with them one since it disconnect there. My iPhone doesn't have that range problem.

Sound quality is good enough for me. It didn't take me long to get use to it, and it isn't bad quality. It doesn't seem like you can hear anything outside the earphones either, but I usually have my volume below 50%.

I'm not use to have earphones go so deep into my ears like ear plugs. It is uncomfortable and even painful to wear especially over long periods of time. So I don't wear them all the way in which makes the ear hook things stick out which is fine since they don't give me any issues. The earbuds do stick out beyond your ear a bit. Hopefully the earbuds will get softer and more comfortable over time.

The left ear bud has volume controls which is nice. The right ear bud just has a power button, but you can also use it to pause and play as well as skip if you double click it. There is also call and Siri features but I don't plan on using them so I can't comment on how the mic works and its quality. I do feel silly and awkward when I go to press the buttons on the ear buds, but its not enough to really bother me since the having their wireless experience is so much nicer than with regular earphones and headphones with wires.

This is my first time using bluetooth, and so far I am enjoying it. It didn't meet all my expectations, but for the price I find this product to be impressive. I do recommend giving it a try if you're looking to try wireless earphones.

So I've had this Luvvitt case for my phone for nearly a year and it has done a great job so far. The case is very affordable and it isn't bulky. I do like the slim design of the iPhone and this kept it slim while giving it a bit more grip in my hands. Also the clear design is nice since I do like the look of the phone.

The case is a clear plastic. The backing is hard plastic that's thicker than the rest of the case. The sides of the case are more flexible so you can fit it on your phone. Its snaps into place pretty well. The power and volume buttons are covered. Pushing them isn't hard to do at all. The camera, ringer switch, headphone jack, charger connector, and speakers have cut outs. There is a bumper along the screen so the screen doesn't touch the surface of a table, and the camera is the same as well. Dirt and dust can get in, but its very little.

I like to think I'm careful with my phone but falls do ends up happening. It would fall out of my pocket or from a table 3 feet above the ground. Its dropped on concrete, wood floors, and tile floors. It has fallen on both front and back of the phone and no damage to the phone. Not sure how people brake their phones with this case on. Though I don't have a very active lifestyle.

Overall, this case is excellent and well made. I'd definitely continue to buy their cases.

I've heard good things about this toothbrush, but I've always found it too expensive. Also thought manual brushing should be good enough., but recently I find that its not. I've been good on brushing and flossing though I still get problems. My dentist has been recommending the Sonicare for all their patients now. Luckily, Amazon has Sonicare at a reasonable price. Phillips has listed this brush for $70 but Amazon has it for $50! Hard to say no to that. I was expecting $100!

This Sonicare 2 is their most basic toothbrush. It has one button and function. It comes with one brush head, protective cap, and charger. Putting on the brush head is super easy, just stick it in the protruding metal stick on the base. It doesn't go all the way down which I'm hoping is normal. This brush is automatically set to a beginner setting where the first 14 uses will gradually increase in speed to help you adjust. If you use this twice a day its a week long period.

I've used the OralB electricbrush before, and after first using the Sonicare it really surprised me how powerful the Sonicare is. The noise and power was a little startling at first, but I got use to it quickly. Its about the same noise level as the OralB but just at a higher pitch for the high vibration speed. I saw in the Sonicare promotional video that the actors just slide the brush across the teeth. The manual says to let the brush do most of the work. To me this is good since it would mean the bristle would maintain its shape better.

( manual Colgate toothbrush - Sonicare - OralB electric toothbrush )

The brush head is the most simple and basic type. There are several different brush heads, but they're quite expensive. The best thing about the Sonicare brush heads is its smaller and slim design. They make reaching the back teeth so easy and comfortable than any tooth brush I've ever used. I've always had issues with reaching in the back, but this really makes cleaning those teeth much easier. I really wish I've bought this sooner! The first couple weeks my teeth did feel a lot smoother and cleaner than before. Well until I eat something, haha.

Overall, I think this an important product to have to improve your dental health so don't see this as a luxury item. It beats having to pay for dental work. No batteries needed and a full charge can last for a week. Hopefully the next time I go see my dentist she would notice a difference.

I rather tough it out with the heat, but since I use the computer most of the time I do need to keep the room cool to protect it from over heating and damaging the hardware. We cannot afford to install central a/c so we opt for the window units. Unfortunately our windows are too narrow for the majority of the window units except this Frigidaire mini one. It's also one of the cheapest.

The unit is about 15.5" wide so it fits our 23" windows. It has two controls on the left side. The top one sets the temperature with 7 cool settings. The bottom is the fan and cooling controls: low fan, high fan, low cool, high cool or off. There's a scroll wheel type control on the top that controls the airflow direction.

The noise is about the same as a vacuum to me. It's pretty noisy but it will get quieter when it goes into fan mode. The unit is automatically programmed to switch between cooling and fanning to keep the room to the temperature you set it to.Unless you set it to max cool then the a/c just keeps cooling till you turn it off or turn the temp down. I'm not a huge fan of it since the noisy level differs a bit, but its not anything one can't deal with.

It cooled my room fairly well and my room is small so it didn't take long. Installing is rather simple, but window units are heavy and bulky so having another person makes it easier. It comes with a strip of foam to stick between the window, but I usually don't use it so its thrown away.

Since the window I put it in is under a lot of greenery, I taped a piece of cheesecloth or netting over the grates of the unit. I did manage to cut myself on the back metal grating while I try to tape the net. Its like a paper cut so be careful. The net helps keep the inside clean of debris and bugs. The bad thing about this unit is that bugs can get in easily. The side wings do not fit snugly on my window so I have to tape the edges to keep bugs from getting in. Also the fan part of the wings aren't flush against the edges so I have to tape up the entire wing to keep bugs that manages to crawl through from getting into the house. Using all this tape is dumb, but I don't know any other way. There were some fat bugs that somehow got in so I rather tape everything and so far it has worked. Its a bit nasty to see bugs come in and get stuck on the tape, but its better than having them in my house. The bugs may not be much of a problem if you don't stay up late at night often. I stay up pretty late so the light of my room definitely attracts the bugs or at least that is what I assume. You can see the tape and maybe a bug if you look close in the photo I put in this post.

I've had this unit for two summers now and its still works well. So if you have small windows this one isn't too bad. I don't see any this small to fit in my windows so its hard to really compare it to anything. If anyone knows one that is better please let me know.

Since the iPhone6's screen is quite big I figure it be nice to get a stylus to do some sketches on. Been searching and researching for a good stylus for a long time. I finally saw this Musemee one and the reviews seem to be pretty good. The price isn't too bad, and the design is nice since you can cover the disk.

I was really hesitant on getting a disk stylus since they don't look that nice, but since the other stylus without the disk is ridiculously expensive I've decided to get it anyways. The main reason I wanted to try to draw on my phone is that I saw some nice drawings people have done on the Galaxy phone with its nice stylus. This stylus with the iPhone may not be able to compete with that, but its good enough so far.

The stylus has a nice weight to it, and the disk is soft that it doesn't scratch or do any damage to the screen. The stylus is quite flexible, and the iPhone 6 responds pretty well enough with it.There isn't as many drawing apps for the phone as there are for iPad as far I know. I did try a few, and wasn't able to draw as well as I would with just a paper and pencil. Its really hard to have good control on doing small details. So this is best to do small drawings and paintings when using it on the phone. I'm sure with an iPad it would be better since it has a bigger screen.

So for the phone, its probably best for just writing, and simple drawings. Otherwise this stylus is pretty good, and doesn't feel cheap.

I recently got the iPhone 6 a few days ago and this is just my first impressions on it. I have been a long time iPod user, and never had a reason to get a smartphone since I rarely text or call. The phone was a gift so I couldn't refuse.

So compared to the ipods its definitely enormous. Its also heavier even though its not much thicker than the iPod Touch 5th Gen model. iPhones are known to have the phone jack on the top, but its at the bottom like the iPods are. So if you have those toy like phone jack plugs they may not be so neat anymore. The screen seems to be the same as the iPod too in terms of quality. Still the same clear high quality screen Apple is known for. The phone maybe big, but it surprisingly can fit in some of my pockets comfortably. Obviously not my pants pockets, but jacket pockets and cardigan pockets. The Plus will definitely not fit in these comfortably unless you have mens' pants that have deep enough pockets.

I'm not a fan of the speaker though. Its sounds quiet and muffled compared to my iPod Touch. Even with headphones on it doesn't sound as clear as ipods which is weird to me. The camera though is nice too. It has auto focusing which you can see it happen and its definitely a bit clearer and sharper than previous iphone models. The camera also includes panoramic photo, slo mo videos, and time lapse videos. There are some filters there as well. If you take photos or videos a lot this definitely is the best out there so far in terms of smartphone camera. The bad part is that the camera protrudes out from the back of the phone. It will be wise to get a case to protect it. Now as for the battery, I am able to to use the phone throughout the day without needing to charge it. By the end of the day I do get that 20% battery warning. If I play games a lot the battery will run low faster so it definitely depends on what and how long you use the phone for. I have my screen brightness at the lowest setting, and also have auto brightness. Having the screen brightness at the lowest does save battery power.

Its definitely runs my apps a lot faster, and my games run smoother and crashes less. Definitely a plus for those gamers out there. However, if you run a game that uses a lot processing power it will heat your phone up. The phone can get really hot! I never had this happen to my iPods. My iPods just get slightly warm, but iPhone 6 can get hot which is quite concerning. I wouldn't run my game too long if this happens. It probably wouldn't be felt through a case, so be wary that your phone may be hot if you have a case. Heat can damage the hardware in computers and I don't see iPhones being an exception especially since they don't have cooling fans.

I will update this as I continue to use my phone, but so far it does have its drawbacks. If Apple plans to continue with iPod Touch I would continue to use them, but it seems they no longer want to keep developing iPods.

So I saw that there were clocks on sale, and got this one since its has lots of information displayed. It was 75% off so I got its for about $4!

Its a nice slim black digital clock. It displays the time and underneath it displays the day of the week. Pressing the mode/set button will display the date as well. It also displays forecast icons, humidity with comfort level smilies, and them temperature. Beside the temperate is a temperature trend graph.

Setting up is pretty easy too. My only complaint is that its a tad hard to read sometimes, but it does have a light button that will shine a bright blue light for 8 seconds. I think it amazes me how accurate the forecast is. It only displays the current forecast, and not upcoming ones. The alarm is just a mildly loud beep a second alarm. May not be enough for some people.

The clock takes two AAA batteries which aren't included. Overall I really do like this clock. Definitely recommend getting it on sale now at CVS!

I needed an outlet plug to charge my iPod when I'm not able to charge it with my laptop. My iPod touch is the 4th Generation model so its dated. It's going through the battery quite quickly so it gets quite annoying to have to put the brightness to the lowest possible point in order to get more time.

Saw that this PowerGen is the best seller on Amazon and it was at a affordable price. It comes with two USB outlets: one labeled A and the other NA. The A stands for Apple. The NA is for non Apple devices but you can plug an Apple device in NA but it won't do as well as if you plug it in A. The metal prongs sits in a indented area of the charger which makes it nice for travel since it won't be in the way of anything. A bit of it sticks out which makes it easier to have it snap up to plug it to the wall. The USB slots themselves are a little out of alignment, but plugging in the usb cable and charging has been smooth so it didn't prove to be an issue. My iPod was immediately charged when plugged in. A blue light does turn on when its charging a device which I think is unnecessary. It is made to be look like an apple product though. Its small enough to make room to use the second outlet which is good since I despise chargers that are that big to make the other outlet inaccessible.

This charger is made in Hong Kong and the only thing it listed that its not compatible with is Asus Transformer. Its specifications from the booklet is as follows: Input 100-240 Volts AC (50/60 Hz) 150 mA maximum, Output 4.8-5.3 Volts up to 2.4 Amp total PortA 2.4 Amps max Apple protocol PortNA 2.4 Amps maz standard protocol, Dimensions 45.5x34.5x49.mm (1.79x1.36x1.95 in), Weight 53 grams (1.87 oz), Temperature & Humidity limits Operating -20 to 45C 20% to 80% Storage -40 to 60C 20% to 80%, Energy efficiency is greater than 80%, and it conforms to FCC and cTUVus standards.

Overall, I highly recommend this charger!

iPower Multi-Spectrum LED Grow Light Bulb w/ clamp

Espressione 3-in-1 Espresso machine + programmable drip coffee maker

Nintendo Switch

Anker Ultra Slim 4 USB Port Hub

Anker Soundbud Sport Earphones

Luvvitt Clear Case for iPhone 6

Phillips Sonicare 2 Series

Frigidaire Mini Window Unit Air Conditioner

Musemee Notier V2 Stylus

iPhone 6

Equity Desktop Station

PowerGen White 2.4-Amp (12 Watt) Dual USB Wall Charger w/Swival Plug

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