Jabra’s headphones have helped many people who have needed to work from home for the past year. (They are great in the office too but… you know.) Unfortunately, a good headset for Zoom meetings can be pricey. Now, thanks to the new Jabra Evolve2 30, that’s no longer the case. It’s a Jabra, and it’s under $100!
We’re used to hearing (or reading) the word Snapdragon regarding processors, but there is a new Snapdragon in town! If you’ve been frustrated by breaks in connectivity, audio dropouts and glitches, latency issues, and poor audio compression when listening to audio over your wireless headphones, Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound is a phrase you’ll want to remember.
Today is World Hearing Day, and Loop Earplugs has an amazing giveaway to celebrate the event and raise awareness for hearing loss. They desire to open a conversation about the conception that earplugs are boring and ugly. To that end, they’ve created Loop Bling, a one-of-a-kind set of earplugs made of 18K gold, set with 120 diamonds, and valued at $10,000. The best part? You can win them!
Have you found a pair of true wireless earbuds that fit well in your ears yet? Many people like foam and silicon tips because they help cut out ambient noise and give a more secure seal, but some people hate the feeling of something being jammed into their ear canal. The Earin A-3 Earphones take a different approach; they have an open audio design which leaves them sitting in the user’s ears’ concha. The result is a surprisingly comfortable fit for just about everyone, but it’s also a slightly different experience from wearing and using many other earbuds.
Need a helping hand with your iPad? Whether you’re looking for a way to position your iPad properly so that you don’t have twenty chins during video calls, or a place to keep your iPad out of the fray while cooking from a recipe on it, or a holder for your iPad so you can use it as a secondary display in your office, the Twelve South HoverBar Duo for iPad looks like a handy all-in-one solution.
When we talk about MediaTek, it’s usually in the context of their hard work behind the scenes in bringing 5G to phones everywhere. But they do more than just 5G chips; they’re also bringing their ability to provide AI processing units to 4K smart TVs with their new MediaTek MT9638 smart TV chips!
Home security is something everyone worries about. It’s become much more accessible with internet-connected cameras, doorbells, and smart homes that don’t require paying for a monitoring service or having a professional installation. This is great, except it still leaves one big issue to consider: privacy. How secure is it to have cameras in your home? Are you sure they’re not recording when you don’t want them to? Arlo has an easy solution to all your worries with the new Arlo Essential Indoor Camera with Automated Privacy Shield!
Who doesn’t love walking into a freshly vacuumed room that they didn’t have to clean themselves? I’ve been enjoying that with the Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid. Not only can it handle the daily morning vacuuming of my approximately 10′ x 14′ office, but it can even mop it for me — when I want it to.
I’ve got something of a mystery on my hands, and I’m hoping the readers of Gear Diary can solve it. I have a pair of TCL SOCL500TWS Wireless Earbuds, which are great, but they fell out of my regular headphone rotation about nine months ago. There’s no real reason for this, they didn’t do anything wrong; I’ve just been reaching for others for work and exercise. Apparently, they felt neglected because a very strange event happened today…
If you’ve been looking for a vehicle that is big enough to haul the entire family but isn’t as huge as a full-size SUV, the all-new 2022 Kia Carnival might be the perfect fit. Replacing the outgoing Sedona, the front-wheel-drive Carnival can hold up to eight people comfortably and haul all their gear.
Due to the United States’ trade sanctions against Huawei, Samsung and Motorola make the only folding screen smartphones currently available here. But if you live elsewhere and don’t rely on Google apps or services, this might interest you. The Huawei Mate X2 has just been announced; it’s their foldable flagship smartphone updating the 2019 Mate X, and it appears to be an amazing piece of hardware.
There are new Lenovo ThinkPads, just in time for you to get your tax refund and justify that urge for a new shiny upgrade! There’s a lot here, so brace your wallet and get ready. Even better, you can feel good about upgrading to a new computer since Lenovo has been aggressively targetting reducing their environmental footprint, lowering it by 92% relative to 10 years ago. On to the good stuff, the gear!
Do you remember the no-button iPod shuffle? Apple removed the buttons, and many of us bought accessories that brought them back. In recent years the same thing is happening with Apple’s laptops. My MacBook, for example, has just one USB-C port. That’s simply not enough. And that’s why moshi just released the Moshi Symbus Mini 7-in-1 Portable USB-C Hub.
Spotify has become the go-to music and podcast streaming service for many with good reason. Breaking the traditional recording industry model and making the release of new material more accessible and monetizable for musicians and content creators, the service has made it possible for unknown talent to break out and for established talent to get their material out to even more listeners. Whether you use Spotify Free or Spotify Premium, you’ll be interested in today’s Spotify Stream On event.
We’re big fans of Extract Labs here at Gear Diary. Their muscle cream saved the day at CES 2020, and we’ve had great experiences with their tinctures, gummies, and softgels. However, the one caveat whenever we sing their praises is that the kind of quality you get from Extract Labs is not cheap. Luckily, they’re having a huge sale this weekend, with an automatic 20% off discontinued flavors and 15% off the others if you use code FREE15.
I’m a huge advocate of AfterShokz, especially if you’re the type to listen to music while running, walking, hiking, etc. Having your ears open while still being able to enjoy music is a home run. AfterShokz thinks hearing your surroundings is important when you’re working too, and they’re applying their bone conduction headphones concept to a work-centric headset with the AfterShokz OpenComm. Does bone conduction spiff up well for the office? Read on to find out!
Tom Bihn makes some of the best backpacks on the market. I’ve recently covered their Synik 30, which I was thoroughly impressed with, so when I was offered the chance to check out the new Tom Bihn Guide’s Edition Paragon Backpack, I was eager to do so.
Nomad’s phone cases are some of the best, most refined, and most protective on the market. But when Nomad first introduced their iPhone 12 cases, they weren’t specifically designed to work with Apple’s new MagSafe charging system. The company has now released a line of Rugged Cases specifically designed to work with MagSafe for iPhone 12.
Raina and I have been trying to get out and hike in the woods near our home each weekend. It’s an important part of how we are getting through this pandemic winter. The new JBL Clip 4 is a great way for us to take our music with us. It is small, it is under $70, and it sounds impressive.
Calm is the #1 sleep and meditation app in the App Store today. Not only does it allow you to listen to peaceful audio to match your mood, but they now have Calm Mindful Puzzles.
A full Windows operating system isn’t necessary to accomplish much of what many people do on their laptops. Many of us have found that Chromebooks are an affordable go-to for getting things done. If you’re in the market for a new Chromebook, you’re going to want to check out the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2; it starts at $549, and pre-orders open today.