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.
Okay, now before you all immediately start discussing price, let me say this: the AirPods Max are absolutely expensive and the only reason you should get them if you truly want them. This review is not here to praise or condemn them, but instead to tell you about one of the few products that actually made them worth my $549 — the WaterField AirPods Max Shield Case.
I love a large portable speaker, and my latest in for testing is the JBL PartyBox On-The-Go. This massive and multi-talented speaker pumps out 100W of bass-boosted sound that can easily fill a large room or the typical backyard. If you like to sing along, the PartyBox On-The-Go includes a wireless mic with adjustable gain, echo treble, and bass. If you or a friend plays guitar, they can plug-in and either strum along to the music or use the PartyBox as an amp to play their own compositions.
It seems more and more people have started a podcast during the pandemic, and with apps like Clubhouse, Stereo, and Zoom, it’s been made even easier to connect to your community. But how do you do it without spending a fortune on the setup? The answer is with the Shure MV7 Podcast Microphone and Shure AONIC 4 Sound Isolating Earphones.
We’ve covered dry herb vapes here before, but they’re usually fairly advanced with fancy battery life, apps to control temperature, and other neat tricks. We recently tested a much simpler vape, the DynaVap M, and it blows the battery based vapes away!
It’s not often that I whisper the words “gorgeous” to myself as I unwrap a laptop, but that is exactly what I did when I unboxed the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 PC. This slim, Shadow Black laptop has a bonded black leather lid, and it presents as a couture accessory. The laptop is gorgeous and begging to be touched. And on the inside? There is plenty of power and enough tech to show that this convertible beauty is a perfect marriage of form and function.
True wireless earbuds have gotten dramatically better since they made their first appearance a few years ago. New models offer improved connectivity, increased battery life, and better sound. Many even offer active noise cancellation and battery cases that are Qi-wireless charging enabled. The new Jays t-Seven True Wireless earbuds offer all of these advances at an accessible price.
Mongoose has just released its first balance bike in 10 years, and we were one of the lucky few to get to test it out before launch. The Mongoose Title Tot is a balance bike designed to help kids 2 years and older build their confidence before riding their first bike.
Remember when a portable battery pack that held 20,000mAh was a beast to lug around? Thankfully, those days are over. The 20,000mAh Aukey Basix Blade Series Power Banks are much smaller and lighter than many similar capacity Li-Ion battery packs. Wait until you see what I mean …
As legislation to legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis moves forward in numerous states, and as CBD use continues to explode, new technologies for consumption are coming to market. The Omura Series X is a sleek device that heats, rather than burns, whole flower herbs with impressive results. It reenvisions the entire vaping process and looks like something Apple would release.
We recently took a look at the Goal Zero Sherpa 100PD. It’s a fantastic power bank that saved the day when we lost power some weeks ago. That was just one of the Goal Zero products that saved the day. The second was the Goal Zero YETI 200X Portable Power Station; it’s a powerhouse of a power station!
A storm some weeks ago left us in the cold, literally. We had no idea how long the power would be out, but my wife and I still needed to work. Thankfully, we’d been sent the Goal Zero Sherpa 100PD Power Bank and Yeti 200X Portable Power Station for us to check out; these power sources kept our phones, tablets, and computers going until our electricity returned.
The Google Pixel 5 was released last October as the follow-up to the Pixel 4. Rather than offering an XL version as Google had done with previous Pixel flagship models, the Pixel 5 was more of a “take it or leave it” proposition. It came in one size, a choice of two colors, and only one user memory option. There are some upgrades and some compromises, but overall it’s solid. Even so, I can admit that I wasn’t as enthused with it from the start as I had been with the Pixel 3 XL and the Pixel 4 XL.
One of the downsides to working from home is that there are fewer reasons to get up and move around. At work, I would get up from my desk and walk to visit coworkers, get coffee, or visit the printer; at home, that just doesn’t happen. I was starting to feel pain from this loss of routine movement in my back and hips, which is why I was excited to give the Victor DCX610 Standing Desk a whirl!
When Apple released the current Apple Watch, I immediately picked one up. I love the functionality, but there are times when I simply want a watch that tells time. That’s what the NOVE Trident Diver Watch delivers. The thin, 6.8mm dive watch is gorgeous; it is also tough and good for depths up to 660 feet!
I’m always looking for functional and stylish accessories to help me stay organized, and when it comes to green medicine use, this is no exception. As recreational and medicinal cannabis options become more mainstream, so do the network of accessories and accouterments to use alongside one’s favorite recreational or medicinal vice…and I am here for it.
I could have used the Audew Epower-188 Multi-Function Jump Starter a few months ago. Kev and I were about to leave the Eldorado High School Homecoming Parade, and that was the exact moment my Jeep’s battery decided to die. Of course. And did I have a set of jumper cables with me? Of course not.
My old eero system, now in my in-laws’ home, was a terrific mesh router. If you have a mesh system and are happy with it, there’s probably no reason to upgrade, but the upgrades we see with the new eero 6 are significant. My three-pack review sample is enough to cover a home of up to 5,000 square feet in size.
The Lenovo Yoga 7i is a 15” 2 in 1 laptop that is big, powerful, and it has a starting price of under $950. I’ve been using it for the past few weeks and, despite being a Mac guy, I’ve been rather impressed. The 15” screen hits a sweet spot between screen space and portability at an accessible price.
For a few years now, Apple and Samsung have battled for leadership in the global smartphone market share. This is particularly obvious in regions like the US, where both brands dominate. But did you know that Chinese manufacturer Huawei is consistently in the top three as well? In fact, it was #1 in Q2 2020 — yes, the same Huawei that the US government put on an entity list in 2019, barring it from doing business with US companies like Google.
For Christmas, I bought myself the new iPad Air 4 to replace my aging 2017 iPad. With its new form factor, I needed some new accessories, including something to carry it in. I searched on YouTube, and I’ve found my favorite one so far — the Tomtoc Padfolio Case.