Well, civilized world, we had a good run. We created airplanes, built skyscrapers, and put men on the moon. A few years ago, it seemed like the technology of Star Trek was finally coming true, from Bluetooth headsets to iPads. It’s over now though, because our engineering prowess is being used to build things like the Flip-It 4-in-1 Selfie Case.
I tested the LifeBEAM hat last spring and was quite impressed with the accuracy of their heart rate monitor. They’re expanding their market beyond hats and helmets, putting their heart rate tech into wireless headphones powered by Under Armour and JBL!
I am a big fan of time travel stories. Earlier this month, I saw a cool looking time travel book called Unhappenings by Edward Aubry was free on Amazon Kindle, and it was one of the best and most creative time travel tales I’ve ever read!
We’ve been trying to get our “junk drawers” organized, and in the process we unearthed my old Toshiba NB205 netbook. I loved this netbook, and it was a faithful companion for two years. Time took a toll on performance, and it slipped into the pile of unused electronics. It has new life, though, thanks to Neverware’s CloudReady (ChromeOS) build!
In the last year or so, I’ve noticed smartphone/tablet adjacent accessories have become big giveaway items. Instead of a crappy free pen, you get a crappy free pen with a rubber capacitive stylus tip on one end. Yay? At least pens are useful…the sticky card holder I received today is just weird, ugly, and useless.
The Amazon Fire Tablet has been an affordable tablet since it debuted at $49.99. Today they’re making it even cheaper and more irresistible for only $39.99! How cheap is that? Well, let’s see what else $40 could and could not get you…
It’s easy to find a tablet case with a built in stand, but most phone cases with kickstands tend to be pretty bulky. Tiltcard offers a better solution than choosing between a bulky case and propping your phone up against an assortment of objects by offering a collapsible stand that fits in your wallet.
We will be doing a full review of the Honor 5X soon; it’s a phone with the build quality of a flagship at budget pricing. But the Honor EMUI skin has gotten a lot of criticism, and it may not be as bad as first reaction seems. It’s easy to judge the EMUI apps and enhancements negatively if you’re a fan of plain, stock Android. But this is a phone aimed at people who aren’t looking for a flagship; Honor is a subsidiary of Huawei, and if you want a flagship, they make the Nexus 6P or the Huawei Mate…
Soylent is a very unfortunate/amusingly named meal replacement drink that has the added cachet of being crowdfunded via Kickstarter; basically, it’s the hacking and disruption movement coming for your food. The company says a steady diet of Soylent could replace your meals, as it is formulated to be nutritionally balanced. I had a free sample, and here’s what I thought:
Running shoes are the most subjective item to review, since everything from shoe type to foot size to personal preference become factors in judging the shoe. Having said that, I feel pretty comfortable saying the Brooks Pureflow 5 are probably the best running shoe I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in the last several years. Read on to learn why!
Have you heard of Theranos? The name might seem vaguely familiar because they are a wildly successful start-up that’s raised over 9 billion dollars! They claim they have a faster, more efficient way to test blood using a drop instead of the traditional blood drawn from the vein. Unfortunately, it looks like the enthusiasm over their idea may be misplaced.
There’s an old adage that says if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. If I followed it, this would be a very, very short review. It’s not that the Adidas Fit Smart is BAD, per se…it’s just that the handful of useful features don’t outweigh the major flaws.
If you were to ask any parent of a kid with food allergies what their biggest fear is, there’s a good chance the answer would be “other people feeding our kids”. Realistically, we can’t expect everyone to grasp allergy awareness like we do. But Allerguarder has a clever way to ease worries and remind caretakers of dangerous food allergies!
My wife recently challenged me to turn off my smartwatch. Instead of letting me discreetly stay connected, I was constantly reacting every time it buzzed, even if I didn’t check my phone. It was interrupting dinner, playtime with my son, and distracting me during meetings. Surprisingly, I’m not the only Gear Diary person who has disconnected from their smartwatch!
Is the phrase “I’m sorry, what did you say?” a common part of your day? It is for me. My hearing is…questionable, or, as my wife put it, “It’s not normal to be 34 and need the closed captioning.” The good folks at Etymotic have clearly experienced this too, and that’s where the Bean Quiet Sound Amplifier can shine.
It’s no longer enough to just tie on your sneakers and head out for a run. Now you need your watch, footpod, headphones, heart rate monitor, and smartphone. We’re about a week away from SPIbelt including a battery in their products just to keep everything charged. Kuai has a much simpler solution: Kuai Multisport Biometric Headphones. That’s a very long and fancy name for a very simple concept. Kuai took headphones, added sensors for heart rate and cadence, threw in 8Gbof memory for music and coaching downloads, and even added connectivity for Bluetooth and ANT+, so you can easily connect…
I have said many times if I win the Powerball the first thing I’m doing is buying a Tesla Model S, for one reason: I would love an electric car but I need decent range for my daily commute. GM has a much better plan than Powerball, though, with the new Chevy Bolt EV, which has a 200 mile range!
Do you have so many keys that you can’t keep track of them all? Can your family hear you approaching from down the street by the jingle of your keyring? Could you slim down your keys, but you just can’t part with your flashlight, pocketknife, and that mystery key you found in a drawer? Enter the Keyport Slide 3.0 and Keyport Pivot!
In the fall, Judie took a look at Ring’s video enabled doorbell. It is a new twist on security that lets you see who is ringing the doorbell, and even communicate with them when you aren’t home. Ring is expanding their offerings further, with the Ring Stick Up Cam!
It’s official, we’re living in the future. Not only is virtual reality quickly becoming everyday reality, but now you can wear a heads-up display while you’re riding a bike, literally seeing your ride statistics floating in front of you like a biking terminator. That’s the future that Solos Smart Eyewear is promising!
Casio is diving wrist first into the Android Wear world with their newest release, the WSD-F10 Outdoor Watch. It combines Casio’s trademark rugged designs with the power of Android Wear, perfect for those times when you need to check Facebook while at Basecamp for Mount Everest. All joking aside, Casio has thrown a lot of extra features into the WSD-10 to make it stand out in the smartwatch world. It has GPS, is water resistant to 40 meters, offers dust and shock proofing, and has a number of Casio-specific apps for outdoor activities. They also offer a time-only display to…