Posts Tagged electronics
Nu-Force Bluetooth Headphones
I’m on my third pair of Sennheiser earbuds. I really like them, at least I want to like them, but they keep breaking at the mini-jack. The first pair gave out when they were so very new that I was convinced there was something wrong with my phone. The warranty has proven good, and this third pair seems to be less willing to fail. It’s the connection wire that’s failing so the clear solution? Try wireless.
The husband really likes the BT-860 headset that came from Nu-Force. His new laptop has built in Bluetooth, so the wireless headset (with a built in mic) is great for things like watching back episodes of Eureka or doing Skype calls with the far away in-laws. Pairing the headphones with your device is simple — I tried it with my phone and my iPad, no problems there. The range is pretty good, I left my phone on a chair in the backyard and wandered around on the lawn, the signal started to get a little muddy at about 20 feet away from the source, but it was still connected.
The controls for the headphones are on the ear piece — skip forward and back, the volume controls, and the call overrides. I didn’t find them particularly intuitive and I wish the little relief buttons were a bit more prominent, making it easier to know what’s what. This probably becomes second nature with more use. Don’t be trying these things for the first time while driving, okay, hands free or no.
As for comfort, I’d say they’re okay. The headband is adjustable for fit, the ear pads are your classic foam pads. Weirdly, they’re square, a design choice, but they do cover my ears. These aren’t isolation or noise blocking, they’re more for use at your hotel room desk than they are for making the noise of the airplane or bus go away. The sound quality was totally acceptable and I appreciate the fact that they’re rechargeable.
In fact, I’m not convinced that they’re for travel use. They don’t have a carrying case and they don’t collapse to a particularly small size. If I’m going to sacrifice luggage space, I want active noise cancellation. I’m going to pass on including these in my carry-on. though if you’re looking for day and/or office use, they’re totally fine.
I’m still on the hunt for those affordable, compact, active noise cancelling headphones, but if you’re looking for an affordable set to pair with your laptop, these aren’t a bad choice. Like I said, the husband rather likes them, but he’s using them on the couch.They’re 79.00 on Amazon.
More headphone reviews? Try these:
Posted by Pam in Business Gear, General Gear on September 9th, 2011
Motorola Atrix Smart Phone: Small Cost, Big Features
When I finally broke down and got a smart phone upon returning from living in Mexico for a year, two of my traits made me get this Motorola Atrix Android phone instead of an iPhone.
1) I’m a value shopper at heart and 2) I’ve always rebelled against doing something just because it’s the popular thing to do. I didn’t want to be one of the iSheep.
I’ve got an iPod Touch and except for the horrible battery life, I like it. So I’m able to do a reasonably fair comparison. I’m totally digging this Atrix phone and here’s why.
The Price is Right
Without any special discounts, you can usually get the Motorola Atrix for $79 to $99 with an AT&T contract. I paid $49 because of a promotion running. So I essentially got a 4G, dual-core smartphone that does everything an iPhone does, with 16GB of storage to start with and the ability to add 32GB more any time, for 1/4 the price of an 16GB iPhone. I can also pull up Flash websites with ease—a huge plus. The music player can handle Apple files AND regular MP3 or WMA files.
Features Galore
For that $49 I got a smartphone with front and back 5 megapixel camera that shoots HD video. I’ve got Wi-Fi, 4G, and access to all my different e-mail accounts. It uses micro USB to connect to the charger and computer, which is not proprietary. (The phone comes with a USB cord and a charger attachment, plus an HDMI cable to connect to hi-def TVs.) There’s a speaker phone that works great in the car and Bluetooth connection ability of course. I can make any song a ringtone by just selecting “make this my ringtone.” Nice and easy.
Every important regular-usage app I have on my iPod Touch I’ve been able to get for this from the Android store. So I’m a ready traveler with dictionaries, currency converters, maps, flight searches, and all that. For those who want to document their life as it happens, you can put on Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, Foursquare, and whatever flavor of the month is bubbling up. Shazaam, Yelp, Evernote, and all the other cool apps that can make this a real multitasker. With the Skype app on here, calls that come to my Skype subscription number ring on this phone, wherever I am, with a different ring tone.
The screen is gorgeous and the interface works well. I find it a little easier to type on this than my Touch, probably because it’s a tad bigger and there is a vibration for each letter typed. It offers word suggestions you can click on, but doesn’t automatically do text correction—thankfully. There’s a fingerprint recognition function built in to turn it on, but I haven’t used that because sometimes my wife needs to answer my phone for me if I’m in the other room or in the shower. Speaking of using the phone, the dailpad is turned off when you’re talking, but a sensor can tell when you’ve removed the phone from your ear and need to punch the dialpad or hang up. Almost like magic.
Perhaps the most important advantage this has over the iPhone for many people will be a battery life that’s far superior. Without any significant conservation commands in place, I generally get two days out of this phone before I have to charge it. The worst I’ve gotten is 16 hours after playing a bunch of games for a stretch and pulling up a map while I was driving. That’s a huge improvement.
What’s the downside?
Even the most staunch Apple haters have to admit that the company is tops when it comes to ease of use. The Android interface may be logical, but it isn’t nearly as intuitive. There are surely ways to customize it to have what I use most front and center, but I need to look at a manual to figure out how. The Motoblur function overdoes it when importing your contacts and throws your Twitter and Facebook ones in with your phone contacts and e-mail ones, creating a big overwhelming mess of people. Getting rid of them is not so easy. There are some functions I haven’t figured out yet and others I’ve stumbled upon by accident.
There are a few games and destination apps that are not available for Andriod, which could matter to some people. Most will just find an alternative though. You’re not integrated with your iTunes collection with this phone, but it’s very easy to import from there.
Overall, I consider this Motorola Atrix to be about the best bargain I’ve gotten all year. I was going to sign up for a new 2-year plan anyway, so getting a smart phone with this much power and this many features for this price is fantastic. Sorry Apple—advantage Android on this deal, by a wide margin.
See the long list of features and specs at the Motorola site.
Posted by Tim L. in Business Gear, General Gear on August 11th, 2011
Five Things I Always Pack — Jessica Spiegel
Jessica Spiegel is a Portland-based travel writer with BootsnAll Travel Network, where she’s the WhyGo Italy travel guide writer. There are way more than these five must-haves on her “I always pack” list, but these are five that she hasn’t seen on most other packing lists – which is why she wanted to share them.
1. Travel Sound Machine
I don’t care what anyone says, there’s no such thing as “silence” when I’m trying to sleep. It never fails, no matter how tired I am – all I hear are the random nighttime noises that are perfectly normal but that distract my brain from actually falling asleep. I combat this with a little sound/white noise machine that makes ocean or rain (plus about 18 other) noises all night long. Yes, this can be irritating if you’re my roommate. Bring earplugs.
2. Purse Hook
Ladies, who’s tired of uncomfortably perching your handbag on your lap while you try to look graceful lunching at that sidewalk Parisian cafe, all because you don’t want to set your pretty purse in whatever’s on the ground and you’d rather not wave the “rob me now” flag by hanging it over the back of your chair? Yeah, me too. Enter the purse hook. And guys, most of them are sturdy enough that they’ll hold a daypack-sized backpack, too (and not all of them are bedazzled or ridiculously girly).
3. Chinese Fan
To be fair, this is really only something I carry when I’m going to be in hot/humid places, but since most of us try to go on vacation where it’s sunny this does make it onto my “must pack” list frequently. Even if you’re springing for a high(er)-end hotel with A/C, buses and subway cars are often muggy. In those situations, I’ll pull my cheap Chinese fan from my purse and – voila! – instant relief. Be prepared for the strangers sitting next to you to lean in your direction to catch some of that moving air. Fans like this aren’t exactly durable, so don’t be surprised if you break them now and then; luckily, they’re as cheap as they are fragile.
4. Ginger Candies
I’ve been blessed (ahem) with the world’s most sensitive gastrointestinal system, which means I get sick for no apparent reason at home as well as in countries where you can totally drink the water. (I’m terrified of how ill I’ll get when I finally get to places like India and China.) For this reason, I always have a handful of ginger candies in my purse at all times – and a larger supply in my suitcase for restocking purposes. I particularly love Ginger People‘s ginger chews (so much so that I bought a five pound box of them from the company’s website). Added bonus? They’re spicy-sweet deliciousness, in addition to helping with my upset tummy.
5. Teeny Perfume Bottle
Frankly, I don’t even know if they do this anymore, but there used to be a time when tiny perfume samples were doled out not on paper magazine inserts but in miniscule bottles. I’ve got a few of them, collected over the years, and I always tuck at least one into my TSA-approved zip-top baggie. It takes up essentially no room at all, and dabbing a bit of perfume on my wrists can make me feel much more freshened up than I actually am when traveling. (I refrain from using perfume on planes or trains, though, because that’s just the nice thing to do.) Oh, and if you can’t find the tiny bottles of liquid perfume anymore, there are TSA-approved solid perfume options, too.
Follow Jessica on Twitter: @italylogue
Posted by Pam in General Gear on July 15th, 2011
5 Things I Always Pack – Chris Epting
Chris Epting is the author of 18 books including James Dean Died Here, Roadside Baseball and Hello, It’s Me – Dispatches From a Pop Culture Junkie. He also writes for many publications and is the longtime national spokesman for the Hampton Hotel Save-A-Landmark program. Here’s what always goes into his bag:
1. My well-worn copy of Blue Highways – this venerable, classic travel tome by William Least Heat-Moon sits in my bag like the old friend that it is. Oh, I’ll have some other books and usually a few magazines as well, but Blue Highways makes every trip. I’ve read it many times, and for me it’s so good, that I will just randomly open to it, read a few a few pages, then stow it again until the next time I need a little smile or inspiration. See, it functions not just as entertainment for me, but also as a lesson book – a powerful example of the importance of evocative, descriptive writing. Since I almost always write on the road,
a book like this becomes indispensable – because its literary rules of the road are so timeless.
2. Yellow pads and No. 2 pencils – In lieu of travel journals I instead always pack a couple of yellow legal pads and some sharpened No. 2 pencils. It’s what I write with at home and I like to replicate the writing experience as much as I can on the road – that is to say lots of scrawls, random thoughts, snapshot impressions, diagrams, etc. Nothing against nicely crafted journals and fancy pens, but the pads, for me, are a reminder that this whole journey is an ongoing work in progress; a creative continuum from one pad to the next.
3. Maps – either in book form or just map form, I like to take some physical representation of where I’m headed. These days, people tend to get hung up with onboard GPS, handheld mapping and lots of other cartographic gadgetry. That’s fine (and I use those occasionally too), but for me there’s nothing like using an old-fashioned map to get a sense of scope, terrain and organization – even if I’m returning to familiar place. The hand-held, bird’s eye view is invaluable to me. And if the map is worn, creased and has a few miles on it – all the better.
4. A handheld digital recorder – I’m used to traveling with a couple of cameras because I shoot a lot of pictures, video, etc. But more and more I find myself relying on my little digital recorder. Whether it’s for interviewing someone I meet along the way, or even ambient sounds of a sonically pleasing place, my little recorder has come in handy dozens of times. Off the top of my head, I remember a few years ago being at an old-fashioned amusement on a humid summer night. The music being piped through the carousel (“Beautiful Dreamer”), the laughter of children under the stars, the bell from the Strongman Striker, the whoosh of a wooden coaster – that recording made the piece I wrote all the more powerful when I got home.
5. A St. Christopher Medal – My wife packed this in my satchel years ago and I’ve never taken it out, whether I’m traveling with my family or by myself. The medal, in honor of the third century martyr and “Patron Saint of Travel”, is special to me. It’s said to guard against lightning, archers, storms, floods and other threats to we, the wanderers. And these days, I’ll take whatever I can get.
To see a sampling of Chris Epting’s work, check out his Perceptive Travel stories on Death Valley; cocktail birthplaces and historic bars; and places where rock stars spent their last night on Earth.
Posted by Tim L. in General Gear, Kids and Family on July 6th, 2011
Protect your iPad with the Defender by Otterbox
I remain unconvinced of the perfection of an iPad as a travel computer, though I do think it’s one of the best ways to make your friends look at pictures of your vacation. I have a first generation iPad that I bought for a project and I do enjoy using it as a reader, a browser, and for pestering my friends with photos of penguins. I find Apple hardware to be a bit hothouse flower in nature, the pretty brushed metal surfaces get smudged, the touch screen gets scratched. Their machines are just a little too delicate.
There’s a whole array of companies cashing in on the fragility of these devices. Indeed, if you’re going to drop the cash on an iPad, you want it to last, of course. And if you’re going to haul your iPad with you around the planet, you really should find a way to protect it. That’s where Otterbox’s Defender comes in. The Defender wraps your iPad in bumpers and hard plastic, and includes a screen protecting sheet. Pack your iPad in this superhero suit and it’s ready to go out into the world.
Getting your iPad suited up is a little bit tricky. You’ll need to follow the instructions in exactly the order they’re presented, otherwise you’ll find yourself trying to get the iPad back out of the case to apply the screen protector. This isn’t easy, in fact, it’s so counter-intuitive that a number of people have made YouTube videos showing you how to remove the case. Once I’d watched three videos too many, I was able to remove the iPad, no problem, and then, apply the screen connector before putting the case back on.
The case adds substantial weight to your iPad, there’s no two ways about it. You can carry it around without the easel base that also comes with it, but I found that I liked the base for two reasons. One: It’s quite nice for table top reading. Two: Flipped over, it makes a nice full case for your iPad. It protects the screen even further when it’s not in use.
The rubber bumpers around the edges have protectors for all the buttons and jacks; you won’t get the dreaded fluff in the headphone jack situation using the Defender because the jack is covered over when it’s not in use. (The phone cases have this feature, too, and it’s a good one.) The silicon surface is very non-slippery to the touch — your iPad won’t fly out of your hands or slide across the table, and even the easel has grippy little foot pads.
I feel a lot more secure schlepping my iPad around when it’s wrapped in this protective housing. The Defender runs about $80 dollars directly from Otterbox and comes in two models, one for the first generation iPad, one for the iPad 2. They’re slightly less on Amazon and eBags, so check prices there, too.
- Learn more: Protecting your Gear: Otterbox Cases
- You’ll need a bag, too: Briggs and Riley Excursion Field Bag
Posted by Pam in Business Gear, General Gear on June 24th, 2011
