CraigB's stats
- Review count172
- Helpfulness votes2,719
- First reviewFebruary 11, 2013
- Last reviewMay 12, 2024
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.2
- Review comment count7
- Helpfulness votes6
- First review commentNovember 29, 2013
- Last review commentJanuary 31, 2017
- Featured review comments0
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- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
- Answer count43
- Helpfulness votes53
- First answerMarch 24, 2015
- Last answerNovember 6, 2021
- Featured answers0
- Best answers7
Improve daily oral hygiene routines with this Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush. An internal sensor regulates applied pressure to prevent soreness of teeth and gums, and the BrushSync reminder lets you know when it's time to change the brush head. This Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush removes up to seven times more plaque than a regular toothbrush to maintain oral health.
Customer Rating
5
A toothbrush that teaches you how to brush
on March 27, 2018
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
14-day break in for new users
14-day break in can be disabled
Can use original, cheaper brush heads without chip
Pressure sensor tells you when you are brushing too hard
Pressure sensor works even with original brush heads
3 brush modes depending on your needs
Smart brush heads can tell you when it’s time to change
Quadpacer helps train you to split time evenly when brushing
Audible beep when inserted into charging base so you know it’s charging
Status light makes knowing battery status easier
14-day break in for new users
14-day break in can be disabled
Can use original, cheaper brush heads without chip
Pressure sensor tells you when you are brushing too hard
Pressure sensor works even with original brush heads
3 brush modes depending on your needs
Smart brush heads can tell you when it’s time to change
Quadpacer helps train you to split time evenly when brushing
Audible beep when inserted into charging base so you know it’s charging
Status light makes knowing battery status easier
Cons
Smart heads are expensive
Mode selection is manual only
Brush and mode selection button are the same making mistakes easier
Smart heads are expensive
Mode selection is manual only
Brush and mode selection button are the same making mistakes easier
Sonicare is trying to do something very difficult by improving a nearly perfect product. Fortunately, with the Sonicare ProtectiveClean 5100 Phillips was careful not to ruin a good thing. The ProtectiveClean is nearly identical in design to previous generations but offers some useful additions. You have a choice of black or white for the main unit, but the brush heads only come in white. Included in the box with the toothbrush is a G2 Optimal Gum Care brush head, charging base, and travel case.
For those who have never used a Sonicare toothbrush before the standard 14-day break in period is enabled by default where brushing strength is gradually increased. If you are upgrading from a previous generation the instructions describe a way to skip the 14-day period. What is different is that you have 3 brush modes of clean, gum care, and white. On the 5100 series the mode selection is manual, so you should change your mode to match the installed head. This should not be a problem for most as changing to different brush heads frequently is unlikely. One small issue is that the brush button and mode button look and feel identical and are spaced closely together. This means initially there is an adjustment period where you might accidentally change modes instead of pressing the brush button. Although it is a minor deal and is easily remedied by changing modes back, a difference in the button styles or shapes would be a nice touch to indicate what button you are pressing. Maybe a change in future generations where the brush button protrudes out instead of being concave could further refine the design.
Brush heads come in an almost confusing variety. What is common is that they are all offered in three styles in the form of clean, gum care, and whitening. The only difference beyond that is if you are using a standard or premium brush head. Prices can get quite high, over $15 per brush head, depending on choice. The good news is the new ProtectiveClean 5100 is completely compatible with the old brush heads. In fact, even the pressure sensor still works! This is great if you want the new design but have some old brush heads still around or can’t find the new chip style ones.
This brings up to the real advantage of the ProtectiveClean 5100 and the reason why owners of previous generations may wish to upgrade even if their current Sonicare still works fine. It’s the pressure sensor. Brushing too hard is very common, according to my dentist, and as light as I thought I was brushing this new 5100 taught me I was still too rough on my gums. If you have a problem with receding gums or your gums are having problems with brushing this one can help teach you the right pressure to brush. You would think brushing lighter would lead to tarter buildup but so far, the only thing that has changed is that my gums are no longer sore.
If you are thinking of buying a Sonicare, the ProtectiveClean 5100 is in a nice sweet spot between price and features. You get less brushsync features, but unless you switch brush heads between different styles often you can save the money. If you already own a working Sonicare and are wondering if the upgrade is worth it, it comes down to one question. Could you use some help to make sure you aren’t overbrushing your gums? If you answer yes like me, this is a great toothbrush for you.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+33points
33of 33voted this as helpful.
Enjoy superior sound and voice quality with these Jabra Elite wireless headphones. Integrated controls let you answer calls, adjust the volume or pause music with the touch of a button, while the included carrying case doubles as a charging station. External ambient noise keeps you aware of your surroundings, while a background noise filter delivers crisp, clear voice calls. With Bluetooth connectivity, these Jabra Elite wireless headphones are easy to pair to a mobile device.
Customer Rating
3
Decent hardware needing software update for Androi
on February 24, 2018
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Sleek and does not stand out for completely wire free
Autopause pauses thesong automatically when an earbud is removed
Options for noise isolating or mixing outside sounds
Good sound quality and reasonably balanced
IP55 dust and water resistant
Quick and easy pairing process on iOS
Sleek and does not stand out for completely wire free
Autopause pauses thesong automatically when an earbud is removed
Options for noise isolating or mixing outside sounds
Good sound quality and reasonably balanced
IP55 dust and water resistant
Quick and easy pairing process on iOS
Cons
Earbuds don’t feel secure with sweat or when cold
Pressing buttons requires pressing earbud hard into your ear
While sound quality is good it sounds flat and equalizer can’t fix it
Options for mixing outside sounds miss some important low frequency sounds
Ambient sound option causes cycling of earbuds on and off following sound on Android
Call recipients report frequent microphone dropout with wind noises
Poor cross body signal quality causing sound dropout for some
Instructions are confusing of what app to use and multiple apps are required on Android
No earbud tracking or find option
Charging case finger slot is too small for opening for those with short fingernails
Charging case has no flat surfaces for laying down
Earbuds don’t feel secure with sweat or when cold
Pressing buttons requires pressing earbud hard into your ear
While sound quality is good it sounds flat and equalizer can’t fix it
Options for mixing outside sounds miss some important low frequency sounds
Ambient sound option causes cycling of earbuds on and off following sound on Android
Call recipients report frequent microphone dropout with wind noises
Poor cross body signal quality causing sound dropout for some
Instructions are confusing of what app to use and multiple apps are required on Android
No earbud tracking or find option
Charging case finger slot is too small for opening for those with short fingernails
Charging case has no flat surfaces for laying down
The Jabra Elite 65t true wireless headphones join an increasing number of wire free headphones. Included are four microphones to improve call quality while reducing unwanted noises. The earbuds are noise isolating but include an adjustable setting in the software to allow outside noises as needed for safety. Connectivity is by the latest Bluetooth 5.0 to allow high quality sound and more stable connections. Included is Alexa as a voice assistant or you can use your phones default assistant. Total listening time is rated at 15 hours with included charging carrying case. The Elite 65t also comes in an active variant, which is nearly identical to the standard 65t.
The design of the Jabra Elite 65t is very sleek, particularly for true wireless headphones. Most of the body of the earbuds stays hidden inside the ear canal with only a relatively small portion visible. The earbuds are held in place with a rubberized tip, which is said to have a special coating to improve grip. You put them in your ear with a slight twisting motion to lock them in place. It sounds nice but in practice, the earbuds loosen from moisture from sweating or if you ears become cold from being outside on a cold day. Fortunately, it is easy to tell when they become loose to correct them but considering their compact size, you might find yourself worried you would lose them. Unfortunately, unlike some other brands that keep a track of the earbuds via GPS on your phone and list where they lost connectivity these include no such feature. They also do not include a feature to ring the buds to assist in finding them as some other true wireless earbuds include. If you drop them and do not realize it, there is no GPS log to the rescue or other tools to help you find them.
Starting with setup, the instructions say to install the Jabra app on your on your phone. When using an iPhone this is not even necessary since the moment you pair the phone it tells you it needs an app and even sends you directly to the app store to install it. Very easy to use. On Android, the process is more manual. You must search for the Jabra app as indicated only to discover there are multiple Jabra apps, none of which match the name you are given. The app you need to install is actually called Jabra Sound+ in the Play Store but you aren’t done once you install this. After installed Jabra Sound+ you will receive a message stating you need to install Jabra Services. Once installed the confusion does not end. If you look later on your phone for the Jabra Sound+ you don’t find it. Instead, the app is called Sound+. Overall the setup experience on Android feels less refined and in need of updates.
Once you have the earbuds, set up you will find the app has options to choose your voice assistant. The options are to use Alexa or your phone’s default voice assistant. A section called Audio experience allows to you to adjust such settings such as how much ambient noise you want played through the earbuds, if you would like Autopause activated, and if you want headset prompts. Under Call Experience, there is a helpful feature where you can choose to hear some of your voice as you speak in calls or if you would like the Caller ID announced. An equalizer is available for some basic tuning of sound with options to adjust the 60Hz, 250Hz, 1KHz, 4KHz, and 7.5KHz ranges. Battery level is listed in the app but unfortunately the earbuds do not announce battery level on start. Overall, the app is simple to navigate and offers a good selection of settings for most people.
Continuing the split experience for Android and iOS users, sound quality and connection stability is different for each. Using an iPhone 6, music quality is good and mixing of outside sounds happens uniformly in each ear. When using a Galaxy S8+ sound quality sounds more of what can be best described as flat and the mixing of outside sounds results in an odd left to right cycling at random times. It not that music sounded bad using an Android phone. It just seemed to lack body. This seems to be related to the way the earbuds work with Android since more than one GS8+ was tried as well as other older Android phones lying around. It seems Jabra needs to optimize how they work with Android more. A problem common regardless of phone was cross body signal quality. If you kept your phone in your pocket and bent over the thickness of your leg could block enough signal to cause dropouts. The adjustment for ambient noise still needs fine tuning as well. Traditional earbuds that naturally allow ambient noise allow a small amount of all noises through. The electronic version in the 65t seems to favor allowing high pitch noises while blocking deeper noises. This means that when outside the noise of crickets will blend straight in with your music while a car passing by or a person with a deep voice will be inaudible. For safety reasons, this needs fine-tuning. If Jabra could improve this, the largest flaw would be a non-issue.
Just as the earbuds are surprisingly small for the feature set, the charging case is small as well. The earbuds are rated to work for 5 hours on the integrated batteries with the charging case allowing two additional charges for a total of 15 hours of playback. The case can be easily stored in back. The inside is lined with a soft plastic. The earbuds light up on a successful connection to the charging case. On the outside of the case is a single status light. The case is rounded on all edges, which makes placing it on a flat surface awkward. You could stand it on end but that also does not seem correct. It feels that Jabra, in order to create a sleek and smooth design, forgot you might want to actually place it on a flat surface. This is of course a small gripe but an important one to mention nonetheless.
Overall, the Jabra Elite 65t true wireless earbuds are a decent offering that, with software refinement, could make a very compelling case for anyone who wants to get rid of the cables without spending a fortune. If you are an iPhone user, they can already be a good option and would be rated 4 out of 5. For Android users the decision is less certain without some updates and would be rated 2 out of 5.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+16points
41of 66voted this as helpful.
Video editing doesn't have to be daunting or take tons of time. Go from hundreds of mystery folders to a visual view of your videos automatically sorted by date. Use automated editing options and step-by-step guidance to create and share everything from animated GIFs and video collages to new dynamic slideshows and full-length movies.
Customer Rating
3
Lots of features, dated needing refresh and polish
on December 20, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
-Large number of transitions, filters, music, and slides included
-Large number of options for import and export
-Download option for computers which do not have an optical drive
-Integrated options to export to Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo
-Large number of transitions, filters, music, and slides included
-Large number of options for import and export
-Download option for computers which do not have an optical drive
-Integrated options to export to Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo
Cons
-No touchscreen options
-Requires an Adobe account to activate instead of just using the Windows Store
-Help is very limited and buried even though it is targeted at home users
-Unstable and periodically crashes
-Slow to process even with a powerful computer and smaller videos
-Editing flow is inconsistent. Buttons change functions at odd times
-No Blu-Ray support
-No 4K export support for YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo
-No support for importing media from Google Photos, OneDrive, or iCloud
-Application launcher screen doesn’t open an older version of Photoshop Elements even if you have it
-Application launcher screen just adds extra startup time to an already slow program
-No touchscreen options
-Requires an Adobe account to activate instead of just using the Windows Store
-Help is very limited and buried even though it is targeted at home users
-Unstable and periodically crashes
-Slow to process even with a powerful computer and smaller videos
-Editing flow is inconsistent. Buttons change functions at odd times
-No Blu-Ray support
-No 4K export support for YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo
-No support for importing media from Google Photos, OneDrive, or iCloud
-Application launcher screen doesn’t open an older version of Photoshop Elements even if you have it
-Application launcher screen just adds extra startup time to an already slow program
Adobe Premier Elements 2018 is the latest in gradual evolution in Adobe’s video editing software directed at home users and prosumers. Premier Elements offers the core functionality of the professional products but tries to keep complexity down by cutting out less consumer-friendly features and by keeping the price down.
Adobe has made conservative changes to the product each year so overall the product has changed little over the years. You still purchase it on CD although a download option is now available even if you purchase the disk version. Although this change comes a big late as quite a few devices have omitted an optical drive for years it is nice to see the change made. Oddly, Premier Elements is not available via the Windows Store even though it’s companion, Photoshop Elements, has been available since for some time. Having the software available via the Windows Store makes it easier to find, buy, install, and move because you would already have your Windows Store Account the moment you configured Windows and a separate Adobe account wouldn’t be required. Moving licenses and tracking them would also be easier this way.
Adobe has made conservative changes to the product each year so overall the product has changed little over the years. You still purchase it on CD although a download option is now available even if you purchase the disk version. Although this change comes a big late as quite a few devices have omitted an optical drive for years it is nice to see the change made. Oddly, Premier Elements is not available via the Windows Store even though it’s companion, Photoshop Elements, has been available since for some time. Having the software available via the Windows Store makes it easier to find, buy, install, and move because you would already have your Windows Store Account the moment you configured Windows and a separate Adobe account wouldn’t be required. Moving licenses and tracking them would also be easier this way.
Premier Elements 2018 is a capable program albeit dated in design. It starts with a splash screen and a launcher screen as was the rage back around 2007 and showing every module as it loads as if even seasoned application users be able to do anything with the information if the application failed to launch. On launch you are greeted with a launcher screen that offers options to start a photo editor, organizer, and video editor. Besides adding unnecessary steps instead of allowing one to launch directly to a program, it also serves to confuse and slow things down particularly if you have purchased Elements and Premier in separate years. The launcher only launches the same version of the application it came with. This means if you are like a lot of people and purchase Elements one year and Premier another to spread out the costs you will have one launcher that launches Elements but fails to launch Premier and another that launches Premier but not Elements. A better solution would be simply to allow the shortcuts to open the corresponding application directly. There is an option to set a default program to start when opening the launcher but if you are not careful choosing you could end up conceivably having the Premier 2018 launcher trying to open instead Photoshop Elements. Once set, there is no clear way to reset or change this option either. Another aspect of the dated feel is how long it takes to launch Premier even on a modern fast computer. Videos editors on Smartphones and Tablets somehow manage to launch offering the lions share of features of Premier but without the 6-10 launch time required on a Core i5 rig with an SSD. It is hard to say if it is lack of optimization or just usage of old concepts, but younger generations will find the multiple steps and lag unacceptable.
Design concepts aside, Premier Elements is very capable for the price point. It offers a confusing array of options and has a basic and advanced mode. Unfortunately, the interface does little in the easy mode to make things easy. Once you are in the program, you are greeted with another launcher, in this case a wizard, offering options such Add Media or Create a Template Based Project. Once you start creating a project you are greeted with what feels like a near endless supply of options. Included are options for transitions, film effects, audio tracks, title screens, menu options, and various graphics that work much like stickers. Included are some smart tools such as Smart Trim which can look through video for the options such as people or action or a mix to find the best moments in the video to save you time. The timeline allows you to add media both through the standard interface or drag and drop.
Although very capable, the interface is mainly where Premier Elements starts to fall apart. Sometimes when working with a project, even on a modest project on a powerful machine, Premier crashes without any signs of what the error was. There is an feature turned on by default. It auto saves the project ever 15 minutes. A 5-minute autosave would be more appropriate but the problem is that sometimes, particularly if you have not saved the project manually at least once, the autosave feature fails when it crashes, and all work is lost. When adding and manipulating media the interface doesn’t always work as expected. When adding slides to a project, sometimes it adds them to the primary video timeline where other times it creates another video track and adds them to that track. The process seems random as adding the same type of slide in two different parts can yield different results. Another exactly is right click is a standard way to find options for an item Windows programs but in some parts of Premier the right click works as expected whereas other areas require a double click. Some of these seems like more polish is needed but some might be due to lack of experience. Professional tools often require training by third parties to fully utilize but with consumer products you expect the product to include ample training to have a firm grasp of the product’s use. Unfortunately, while Premier Elements does include some tutorials the number and scope is limited compared to the functionality of the product. It is great to offer so many features for what is essentially targeted at consumers and prosumers, but it really is lacking in documentation in training. If there is more training somewhere, it doesn’t make it clear.
Once you have a grasp of the basics of Premier Elements it is easy to make an attractive video. Importing videos from devices is easy and if you have done it on any Windows computer the process is standard. A tool to import media from more modern sources such as Google Photos, OneDrive, or iCloud would be a nice addition as more and more people use their smartphones to take videos over traditional video cameras. Export is a different story. The standard options are available to export the video to optical disk or hard drive where you can set the options but along with this are options to export to YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo. Unfortunately, 4K options aren’t available for any and Blu-Ray support is absent. This seems an odd omission for 2017/2018. If where hoping to use your 2-in-1 Windows device which are the most popular in recent years, expect touchscreen support to be poor. Following the theme of feeling powerful but dated, don’t expect to use the touchscreen on your device to be of much help as everything is small and designed for use with a mouse and keyboard.
Overall, Premier Elements is a powerful and affordable tool if you can get past the dated design, periodic instability, lack of tutorials, and just the overall lack of polish. It quite possibly offers the widest array of features for the price point and admittedly much of the same criticism of Premier Elements could be made against any video editing tool in the same class. If Adobe took more risks and put effort into modernizing and polishing the application this could be the go to tool for any consumer, prosumer, or potentially a budget minded/new professional. If you want the features Premier Elements 2018 offers can overlook the downsides you will find it should serve you well.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+7points
8of 9voted this as helpful.
Be amazed by stunning Ultra HD content with this 65-inch Hisense smart ULED TV. Its HDR support and 4K upscaler optimize your viewing experience, and its Motion Rate 480 performance delivers smooth, clear visuals. Connect high-definition components to this Hisense smart ULED TV via its four HDMI and three USB inputs.
Customer Rating
4
Great TV if you can accept some shortfalls
on November 30, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Near OLED quality for less
Very bright screen reduces effects of glare
Very thin profile
Includes option for professional color calibration profile
Metal frame is actual metal giving high quality feel
Ample inputs for nearly anyone
Colors accuracy is far better than nearly any TV
HDR makes challenging scenes better
Very good range can produce very dark blacks and white whites
Excellent controller has very nice feedback when pressing buttons
Large number of adjustments available
Extremely loud speakers
Smart functions are usually operate quickly
Near OLED quality for less
Very bright screen reduces effects of glare
Very thin profile
Includes option for professional color calibration profile
Metal frame is actual metal giving high quality feel
Ample inputs for nearly anyone
Colors accuracy is far better than nearly any TV
HDR makes challenging scenes better
Very good range can produce very dark blacks and white whites
Excellent controller has very nice feedback when pressing buttons
Large number of adjustments available
Extremely loud speakers
Smart functions are usually operate quickly
Cons
Metal backplate prevents devices mounted behind from passing wireless signals
Random bright flashes on screen. Frequency increases with HDMI inputs
Noticeable backlight uniformity issues in dark scenes. Black scenes appear to have faint clouds
Either remote or TV randomly stops responding for several seconds
Range of speakers is limited
HDMI Arc is unreliable often losing lip sync
HDMI Arc volume randomly pops up screen as 10 when volume hasn’t changed
HDMI CEC won’t allow other devices to turn it off or on
Very heavy for its thickness
Very fragile during moving
Opera TV OS lacks apps
Metal backplate prevents devices mounted behind from passing wireless signals
Random bright flashes on screen. Frequency increases with HDMI inputs
Noticeable backlight uniformity issues in dark scenes. Black scenes appear to have faint clouds
Either remote or TV randomly stops responding for several seconds
Range of speakers is limited
HDMI Arc is unreliable often losing lip sync
HDMI Arc volume randomly pops up screen as 10 when volume hasn’t changed
HDMI CEC won’t allow other devices to turn it off or on
Very heavy for its thickness
Very fragile during moving
Opera TV OS lacks apps
The 65H9D Plus is Hisense’s answer to OLED TV’s where you can get the quality of OLED without the premium price. It uses what Hisense dubs ULED. A combination of techniques are used to achieve very dark blacks and very white whites as well as an overall wide color gamut. Combined with HDR and a very bright screen, a viewer can make scenes punchy and vibrant or as accurate as the creator intended.
To start, the 65H9D Plus is a very thin TV. It measures in at just ¾ of an inch in all areas except the bottom where all the connectors are placed. Hisense may market this as more affordable but by appearance you would think otherwise. The frame and back are metal or convincing enough to appear metallic. Taking it out of the box the frame felt colder to the touch like metal but either way, it gives the TV a very premium appearance. The back is most certainly metal which, although giving more of a feeling of getting a great value, comes at the cost of blocking wireless signals. If you are thinking about hiding any streaming or gaming devices behind it, you want to plan otherwise now. Devices mounted behind it controlled wirelessly will work inconsistently and some not at all. Trying out three different devices behind the TV results in warnings of disconnected remotes to random fits where the remote would move long after commanded in random ways. Game controllers would randomly drop out in the middle of gameplay. Of course, this is easily solved by placing devices either on a shelf or on the wall around the TV.
Regardless of the actual materials used, one thing you will find is this TV is very heavy for its size and thickness. Although once placed it shouldn’t matter much you will find moving a tedious venture as the instructions are very specific on how you remove the TV from the box and how you move it. Ignore the instructions and you risk damaging your shiny new TV. This is a two-person job to lift. If you had any thoughts of wall mounting be sure do double check the weight rating of your mount as well. The way the TV hangs from a wall mount puts all the weight at the bottom of the bracket. This means it wants to tilt down. Without strong tilt brackets, the weight will cause the TV to simply tilt down even after you lock it in place.
Included with the 65H9D Plus is probably one of the more satisfying remotes to use. No fancy touchpads or voice controls but just plain old buttons with a satisfying click. You know distinctly when you press them. The sound produced may not be the most enjoyable but the tactile feedback of the pressing the buttons is very satisfying versus the spongy feeling of most traditional button style remotes. If anything could be improved about the design, it would the addition of a backlight for nighttime use. With this many buttons sometimes, you might find yourself turning on a light to look for more obscure ones. A slight annoyance when using the remote is something in the process will periodically pause. It might be a random lag in the TV of the remote but occasionally, the remote will stop functioning for a few seconds. Thankfully it isn’t very common and pausing a couple of seconds allows whatever is happening to recover.
Once you have the TV in place and start to use it the color accuracy will become immediately apparent. Often, color accuracy is left to very expensive TVs and more affordable ones have issues with colors such as red being so bright they appear to bleed and no adjustments can fix them. Thankfully, the 65H9D Plus doesn't have any of these problems. Color accuracy is surprisingly good, even performing as good as more expensive TVs. For those who want more true colors, the theater mode does very good while not creating an overly dark picture like some. Combine this with a newer movie with HDR support and the scenes reveal even more detail. Going even further with local dimming, blacks are nearly as inky black as an OLED where all but the most demanding people would happy saving the money.
Such an affordable TV doesn't come without sacrifices. Both the original and replacement unit exhibited the same odd bright flashes at random. There was no pattern to the frequency except it occurred more with HDMI inputs than the built-in apps. Hopefully this is something that can be corrected as a software update. Backlight uniformity is very poor. In scenes where the majority of the screen is black or dark, it will appear as though there are barely visible white clouds throughout. Thankfully it is rare in most scenes as other colors hide the effect.
If you wish to use HDMI ARC for sound you may find communication is inconsistent with devices sometimes dropping out. In trying to get HDMI ARC to work, four different HDMI cables were used including two high spec ones. All four cables worked without issues on HDMI ARC on a different setup. Ultimately, the TV would only work with one cable and only after a restart. Even when working sometimes voices would become out of sync with the actor's lips. Sometimes a restart would fix this. Another odd behavior was that while connected for audio using HDMI ARC the TV would randomly display the volume bar at 10 regardless of what the actual sound level was set. Nothing would change and no remotes were touched. The bar would pop up for a few seconds and go away. A quick workaround is to just use an optical digital connection. HDMI also has what is called CEC which allows devices to communicate and turn off and on together. Unfortunately, if you have a streaming device that has a remote with all the functions you want the 65H9D Plus does not accept commands to turn off but rather only wants to be the master. Standby commands from other devices at best trigger the TV to turn off and right back on. These are all issues that can be fixed via firmware updates. Hopefully the issues will be gone once the TV has been available for a while.
Sound is decent but nothing inspiring. The built-in speakers are extremely loud. In fact, in most cases, listening becomes uncomfortably loud above 20 and yet the volume goes to 100. While it might be the loudest built in speaker setup in a LED TV, sound quality is just good. Not quite up to par with the screen. It's definitely useable but honestly most people who want better sound immediately connect external speakers anyway.
Regarding the Smart TV functions, the information on the TV doesn't say anywhere the box or specs but it uses Opera TV. The interface is a little confusing and leads make it look like there are two app stores and the main one is harder to find. You get support for staples such as Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, and YouTube but no support for Sling, Hulu, Vue, or DirecTV Now. Overall, the app store is filled with mostly unknown apps. If you need other streaming services a separate streaming device would be the way to go.
Overall the 65H9D Plus with some minor changes and some quality control issues fixed could be the TV to beat. It is still a very nice unit if you are aware of and accept its shortcomings and quirks it offers a great value if you want to be in the range of high end OLEDs but don't want to spend so much money.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+34points
44of 54voted this as helpful.
Use this splash-resistant Sony wireless speaker to skip a song with a wave of your hand. It comes with Google Assistant, so you can control it with voice commands, and its two-stage diffuser and bass port deliver rich, room-filling sound. This Sony wireless speaker has built-in Bluetooth for streaming audio from your smartphone.
Customer Rating
5
Nice sound from a compact package
on November 9, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Splash proof
NFC tag for quick Bluetooth pairing
Gesture controls are great for keeping it clean
Dots on front make it clear when Google Assistant is listening
Built in clock makes in useful in more places
Clock has 4 brightness setting and can even be turned off
Comes in multiple colors
Attractive design makes it acceptable to place in the open
Physical mute button
Music automatically pauses when it hears the wake word
Wake word is recognized even when the speaker is fairly loud
Includes Chromecast Audio
Splash proof
NFC tag for quick Bluetooth pairing
Gesture controls are great for keeping it clean
Dots on front make it clear when Google Assistant is listening
Built in clock makes in useful in more places
Clock has 4 brightness setting and can even be turned off
Comes in multiple colors
Attractive design makes it acceptable to place in the open
Physical mute button
Music automatically pauses when it hears the wake word
Wake word is recognized even when the speaker is fairly loud
Includes Chromecast Audio
Cons
Speech has enough bass to almost sound muffled
Gesture controls for volume are finicky
No backup physical controls for volume
Mute button is not easily accessible
Gestures can prevent you from placing it as close to walls
Speech has enough bass to almost sound muffled
Gesture controls for volume are finicky
No backup physical controls for volume
Mute button is not easily accessible
Gestures can prevent you from placing it as close to walls
The Sony S50G is one of the latest offering in an expanding line of Google Assistant powered speakers. Each one attempts to make more premium versions for those who like more than what the standard smart speakers from Google offer. The S50G, while still very affordable, offers a lot of nice features and an attractive design that would make this a welcomed addition to the home for those looking for a Google Assistant powered smart speaker.
The S50G comes in several colors, all with a fabric body and a chrome accent ring at the bottom. Sony claims the S50G is splash proof which comes in handy if you plan to place this in the kitchen or bathroom. Included is a hidden vertical clock behind the front fabric. Four levels of brightness are available as well as off. The brightest setting makes it very viewable in the brightest rooms whereas the dimmest setting could serve handy for someone who would like to make this their modern version of a bedside clock radio. It can be controlled either via a smartphone or directly via gestures. You have swipe forward to active Google Assistant, swipe back for play/pause, swipe right for next track, and swipe left for previous track. On top there are also sensors that, when you twirl your finger in either a clockwise or counterclockwise manner will turn the volume up and down hands free. On bottom is a dimmer button which controls the brightness for the clock. On the back bottom is a mute button to turn off the microphone as well as an NFC tag you can tap to quickly pair your phone for music streaming via Bluetooth. However; for maximum audio quality Chromecast Audio is recommended as the speaker streams the music directly. No audio output is included but with Chromecast you can group other Chromecast devices to expand your speakers.
To use gesture control, you will need some space between the speaker and any walls to allow you room to move you hand fully over the unit. It doesn’t require much but you cannot have it flush and use the gestures. Too close and it makes gestures feel overall awkward. Gestures work very well for most tasks except changing volume. Often you may find yourself twirling your finger waiting for the speaker to recognize you want to turn up the volume to suddenly having the volume change quickly to far higher than intended. Once this happens, there will be a pause of a few seconds before you can turn it back down as it seems the speaker has a built-in timer of 2 or 3 seconds before it allows another volume change once you stop. To prevent this, move your finger more slowly in a circle to change the volume gradually or even change it directly via your smartphone.
Overall sound quality is quite good for such a small package. In most cases, half of max volume is good. Max volume goes well beyond comfortable listening for most people but doesn’t distort. However; certain tones do become more emphasized making listening more unpleasant and extremely high volumes. In the end, the normal volume range that most people would listen to music is quite large and the sound quality is overall pleasant.
Overall sound quality is quite good for such a small package. In most cases, half of max volume is good. Max volume goes well beyond comfortable listening for most people but doesn’t distort. However; certain tones do become more emphasized making listening more unpleasant and extremely high volumes. In the end, the normal volume range that most people would listen to music is quite large and the sound quality is overall pleasant.
If you know about Google Assistant, then you already know what it is capable of. It has the same feature as on any other device. What you might not realize is the S50G is able to take advantage of specific voice recognition for users. This is particularly handy as, once activated and trained, it will realize specific voices and answer questions only to that user. For example, you could have multiple user profiles trained with their respective Google accounts configured. When a person asks a question such as, “What is on my calendar?” Google Assistant will recognize who asked the question and look in the specific calendar of the person who asked the question. This is much better than the first generation of assistants which required a single account, and anyone could access that information simply by asking. This approach is much more personal and private. Unfortunately, our family has been unable to use this feature yet due to laryngitis. Google Assistant could still understand us, but we didn’t want to train voice profiles with a compromised voice. The good thing is regardless of if voice profiles are configured there is a guest profile which applies to anyone else. You don’t get as much access, but it allows anyone to ask general questions of Google Assistant or issue commands. If you feel saying “Hey Google” feels more natural than “Ok Google” you are in luck. The S50G offers the updated version of the assistant which allows the more natural wake word. Furthermore, you can say Hey Google even when the volume is quite loud it will recognize the wake phrase, pause playback, and listen for commands or questions. This is definite improvement over previous generation of assistants which would require you to feel as though you were screaming to wake the assistant if the volume was even slightly turned up.
Overall, the Sony S50G is a quality smart speaker package with features to make nearly anyone happy. It would make a great addition to any room in the house. About the only significant issue was gesture volume control which is a rather minor gripe. If Sony could somehow improve response with a future update it would make this unit about as perfect as could be for the price point. If you are in the market for a Smart Speaker with Google Assistant device you should give the Sony S50G a look.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Prep meals quickly with this Ninja Intelli-Sense system. A 1200W motor pulverizes ice cubes and vegetables and makes it easier to create everything from frozen drinks and fresh salsa to soups and sauces. Use the Auto-Spiralizer function on this Ninja Intelli-Sense system to turn zucchinis and other vegetables into healthy noodles.
Customer Rating
5
Evolution of an already great product
on October 31, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Doesn’t feel any less powerful even though rating is 300 watts lower
Includes cleaning tool for auto-spiralizer
Top rack, dishwasher safe
Sleeker design means leaving it on the counter isn’t an eyesore
Includes 2 auto-spiralizer blades with others available to purchase
Preset options that light up based on attachment connected
Includes separate smoothie cup so you don’t have to clean two containers
Includes large recipe book
Includes layering guide to maximize results when adding food items
Sound output seems to be reduced from previous models
Doesn’t feel any less powerful even though rating is 300 watts lower
Includes cleaning tool for auto-spiralizer
Top rack, dishwasher safe
Sleeker design means leaving it on the counter isn’t an eyesore
Includes 2 auto-spiralizer blades with others available to purchase
Preset options that light up based on attachment connected
Includes separate smoothie cup so you don’t have to clean two containers
Includes large recipe book
Includes layering guide to maximize results when adding food items
Sound output seems to be reduced from previous models
Cons
Front of unit is fingerprint magnet
Recipe book is made from thin paper which needs to be kept away from work area
Suction cup base can be finicky to release sometimes
Front of unit is fingerprint magnet
Recipe book is made from thin paper which needs to be kept away from work area
Suction cup base can be finicky to release sometimes
Ninja is a company known for making unique problems that promise to solve multiple problems with one product. More expensive products existed that provided some of the functions but often at a much higher price and sometimes a more complicated setup for home use. The Ninja Intelli-Sense Kitchen System is the latest iteration which seeks to add more functionality while keeping operation as simple was possible.
The simplicity starts with the design of the base. Gone are all the buttons that were on the front with the different options to navigate. Instead, the base knows which attachment is connected and only displays options relevant to that attachment. This presents a very clean, simple setup on the front that at first might make you think it is missing options. The front of the unit is a single, clean piece of gloss black plastic that at first only shows a power button. It isn’t a touchscreen as much as they are touch sensitive buttons. Depending on the attachment, it will light up the corresponding buttons, so the buttons shift up or down on the panel. All the buttons are always there, just not lit up. They are very easy operate and possibly more durable since you don’t have a little piece of flexible plastic that gets moved around each time potentially wearing out. If there are any downsides, it would be there is a possibility that the buttons could be covered by food items making button operation not work. The good thing is with that shiny front you will see immediately that some food is affecting your ability to use the buttons. The downside is that if you want to keep this on the counter for display and easy access you will likely find yourself regularly wiping the front to keep that shiny plastic free of blemishes because they will show very easily. Depending on your viewpoint, that could either be a positive or a negative. It could frustrate you because it shows things so easily or it might be helpful to remind you that you didn’t finish cleanup. The base sticks to smooth surfaces by four suction cups on the base just like the old models. It does a good job so long as the suction cup as well as the counter below are both clean. What differs from older models is that instead of the release handle to break the suction it has two handles discreetly hidden as part of the base. You might miss them at first but once you know they are there you will find them easy to use and overall, they improve the clean look of the unit. Compared to the old single handle method, removal feels easier because it seems to release both sets of suctions cups equally.
The food processor attachment seems largely unchanged from previous generations, but the previous generations worked quite well so little change was required. The smoothie cup is larger than previous models and now includes a lid with a cover like a travel cup to prevent spills. If you are looking at a Ninja, you are likely concerned about health and BPA plastics are a concern. Per the manual all containers, blade assemblies, Blade Discs, and lids are BPA free. Second to safety of course would be convenience. Thankfully the containers, blade assemblies, and lids are all dishwasher safe. About the only manual cleaning you might need to do is if you need to use the cleaning brush to get leftovers off your spiralizing blade.
What sets the Ninja Kitchen System apart from other units is versatility. The Intelli-Sense system includes the normal blender, food processor, and smoothie attachments but also adds a new attachment call an auto-spiralizer. More healthy recipes have been created recently around the idea of using vegetables for noodles to cut down on simple carbs and get veggies back in the diet. Several companies have offered separate manual tools for creating these noodles but having it included with the Ninja is very convenient. The auto-spiralizer attachment may seem a bit confusing at first because it comes in 5 parts. You have a spiralizer bowl which has a gear reduction system, so you aren’t trying to make noodles at the same speed as you would blend. Inside the spiralizer bowl you insert the collection bowl for your noodles, then your blade disc, and finally the feed chute lid which includes a food pusher to safely push the veggies down. Although the first time putting it all together might seem a little confusing, once you see how it is done it is very quick an easy. Once you place the top cover on, the Ninja automatically turns on and recognizes the attachment offering modes just for the auto-spiralizer so no worry of choosing the wrong speed or setting. The pusher helps you keep pressure on the veggies as they are turned into noodles leaving only a sliver of leftover vegetable that it can’t cut, much like the same bit left when using a mandolin. Included are the spaghetti and fettucine blades and a cleaning tool. An angel hair, pappardelle, and ribbon blade available separately for purchase. If any criticism could be levied at this it’s that Ninja doesn’t offer even more blades. Our family loves cheese and it is by far cheaper in blocks that you shred yourself. If Ninja could offer cheese grater options it could add even further value to an overall great package.
Although the design carries over from previous generations, there are a lot of small refinements one would expect with a new model. The first change might have you question the design in that the latest iteration has dropped the maximum power from 1500 watts to 1200 watts. Whatever the reason, functionally no loss of performance could be detected as it powered through everything thrown at it and did so in every case better than it’s predecessor. Besides the dramatic cosmetic change, most changes are subtle. The blade for the blender has slightly different design. If you have the old model and place them side by side, you will see it. It seems to make a difference because the new combination can produce snowcone ice that is extremely fine. The best description is almost fluffy. This also comes as surprise because most blenders can’t fully crush ice without a liquid to pull the ice to the blade. In snow cone mode it automatically pulses the blade in a manner that produces very consistent results and manages to get all the ice fully crushed. This is part of the intelligence of the Intelli-Sense system. Previous generations could make quick work out of just about anything. However; sometimes to get it just the way you wanted, you had to resort to more manual control including in some cases manually pulsing the blend or changing speeds. With the new Intelli-Sense system it was fun trying to see how little work could be done and get great results. When making a smoothie all you had to do was add the proper ratio of ingredients, the liquid ratio is important for this attachment, and it would start off the blend and pulse or change speed as need as well as time the overall blend. If you liked smoothies with the old Ninja Kitchen systems but wished that spinach and kale were more finely chopped for a smoother drink, you’re in luck. Whatever they have changed in the process, smoothies were much smoother than previous generations of Ninjas and didn’t require any chewing of those leafy greens. The chop is not quite as fine as the units that the local smoothie shop, but it is so close you will find yourself happy to save the money and stay at home and making your own just way you want.
Overall the Ninja Intelli-Sense Kitchem System is an improvement over what was arguable already a great kitchen product. It offers even more versatility while improving ease of use. If it is anything like previous Ninja products it will last a long time. In fact, the previous kitchen system was still going strong and now just needs a new home. If you have a previous generation and are on the fence about upgrading, the main questions to ask would be would if you want a noodler or would you really like the automatic blend modes. If you don’t have a Ninja and want a versatile kitchen tool, it is hard to go wrong with a Ninja.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Control access to your garage with this Chamberlain MyQ Garage smart hub. It connects to your Wi-Fi router and lets you remotely control guest access for your existing garage door opener via the MyQ app. This Chamberlain MyQ Garage smart hub pairs with devices for seamless integration with lighting and security cameras.
Customer Rating
2
Barely smart and too restrictive
on October 30, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Works with nearly any garage door opener
Includes built in light
Includes door tilt sensor
Apple HomeKit Compatible
Xfinity Compatible
Nest Compatible
Can alert you when the garage is opened, closed, or left open
Works with nearly any garage door opener
Includes built in light
Includes door tilt sensor
Apple HomeKit Compatible
Xfinity Compatible
Nest Compatible
Can alert you when the garage is opened, closed, or left open
Cons
Google Assistant Capability requires a subscription
IFTTT Requires a subscription
Not compatible with Smartthings or other major smart home platforms
Integrated capabilities limited only to basic scheduling
Scheduling process confusing for such limited capabilities
Integrated light cannot be controlled separately
Google Assistant Capability requires a subscription
IFTTT Requires a subscription
Not compatible with Smartthings or other major smart home platforms
Integrated capabilities limited only to basic scheduling
Scheduling process confusing for such limited capabilities
Integrated light cannot be controlled separately
The MyQ Smart Garage Hub is Chamberlain’s latest offering in what is becoming a crowded market. What is different about the Smart Garage Hub is it works with other garage doors which aren’t MyQ enabled and could potentially be manufactured by competing companies.
What comes in the box is a Wi-Fi hub, garage door tilt sensor, and mounting hardware. The tilt sensor communicates with the hub to determine if the door is opened or closed. The hub plugs into an outlet and the sensor is battery powered. The hub also has a light and speaker to warn you when the garage is closing. During setup, you install and app on your phone which asks a series of questions about the type of garage door you have. It will then proceed to tell you how to connect the hub to you garage door by essentially mimicking a standard garage door opener so no complicated wiring is needed. Overall, the hardware installation process is very basic and doesn’t require any special skills or a technician. This is great.
What is not so great is the basic theme carriers to the “smart” functionality. You would assume that something labeled smart would focus first on functionality while attempting to make things simple. In the case of the MyQ Smart Garage Hub, anything more than basic scheduling of opening and closing at a specified time is either not available or hidden behind a pay wall. Besides a basic schedule, you can get notifications for the garage opening, closing, or left open. Apple Homekit, Nest, and Xfinity are included at no extra cost but oddly, the big players in the smart home business are either absent or require a monthly subscription. Google Assistant and IFTTT integration are available for a fee but Insteon, Wink, Iris, and SmartThings are nowhere to be found. It was rumored that SmartThings integration was to be available a long time ago, but it appears Chamberlain has decided otherwise. This leaves you with very limited options which arguably offer only the most basic of smart capabilities. This is very disappointing, and many other devices realize that a smart home requires collaboration and not locking you out.
A perfect use case example would be if you have a smart home hub which allows basic rules. We have all left the house in a hurry and left our garage open. With the MyQ Smart Garage Hub you could get an alert that your garage was left open and close it via the app. Helpful, but smart homes are capable of so much more even without getting complicated. With integration with the mainstream smart home providers you can set your home so when you leave and your garage door still open, it closes automatically. You haven’t even left your neighborhood and your house is automatically secured. Even better is that they can alert you if the garage failed to close while you are still near your house allowing you to turn around and fix the problem before you go across town.
Overall, the MyQ Smart Garage Hub is a nice idea hampered by lack of compatibility and attempts to make what is generally a free system an a la carte subscription based system. The potential is there if they would add compatibility. If you use Apple HomeKit, Xfinity, or Nest this might be right for you to add a little smarts to your garage. If you are building your smart home and want more functionality than just being able to remotely open and close your garage without paying an extra fee and you desire the simplicity of integration, it would be best to look at other solutions
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Demanding workouts demand SoundSport Free truly wireless in-ear headphones. They're completely free of wires, so you'll enjoy complete freedom of movement. They're sweat and weather resistant, too. Bose StayHear+ Sport tips are designed to stay secure and comfortable all workout long. And the earbuds are packed full of technology that makes your music sound so clear and powerful, you'll push past your limits.
Customer Rating
5
Great sound without dropouts
on October 7, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Solid Bluetooth connection with extremely rare dropouts
Great overall sound range
Securely stays in ear
Fit is comfortable
Weight is barely perceptible while worn
Total play time with case is 15 hours
Find my headphones can make headphones play a sound if they are in range
Tips allow ambient sound in for safety
IPX4 sweat resistant
Earbuds have all controls needed for music playback and calls
Solid Bluetooth connection with extremely rare dropouts
Great overall sound range
Securely stays in ear
Fit is comfortable
Weight is barely perceptible while worn
Total play time with case is 15 hours
Find my headphones can make headphones play a sound if they are in range
Tips allow ambient sound in for safety
IPX4 sweat resistant
Earbuds have all controls needed for music playback and calls
Cons
No option for noise isolating tips
Sweat resistance is listed to decrease with age
No equalizer option
StayHear+ tips can cause discomfort with extended use
Control buttons are tight during initial use
No option for noise isolating tips
Sweat resistance is listed to decrease with age
No equalizer option
StayHear+ tips can cause discomfort with extended use
Control buttons are tight during initial use
The Bose SoundSport Wireless Free are the latest in the sport earbuds from Bose and the first completely wire free. The left and right earbuds work as a pair but without any wires tethering them together. This can be great for those who have problems with the short wire between traditional sport earbuds snagging and pulling them out of the ear. Battery life feels shorter than others at just 5 hours but with the included charging case you have up to 15 hours of use. The case is the only way to charge them and serves as the standard way to turn them on and off. The moment you remove them from the case they turn on and will be ready to use. If left on they will turn off to save battery but the recommended way to turn them off is to place them back in the case. This is most certainly a good idea considering how easily the earbuds could be lost.
The SoundSport Wireless Free are larger than normal Bluetooth earbuds because each earpiece needs to house everything it needs within the small casing and it shows. Traditional earbuds could be easily overlooked but the SoundSport Wireless Free looks like you are wearing two old fashion Bluetooth earpieces that were all the rage several years ago. Not much can be done about this so if you are wanting truly wire fee, this cosmetic issue must be accepted first. About the only people who could wear them unnoticed are those will long hair. With as large as they are you would think that they would be very heavy, but they feel surprisingly light during use. You can feel the weight but they feel secure even with rapid head movement.
The earbuds are secured in the ear with what Bose calls StayHear+ tips. They are uniquely different from other earbuds tips and only come in three sizes of the same style. For now, this means replacement tips won’t be as easy as buying a universal set from your local electronics store. It also means if you must have noise isolating earbuds you will have to look elsewhere. If you like earbuds to allow ambient sounds for safety, these work great. You can easily hold a conversation while wearing them without yelling. They stay secure by hooking behind the cartilage of your ear so, unlike others, a secure fit doesn’t mean jamming the tip tighter in the ear or wrapping a wire around your ear. This method works well, although some might feel some slight discomfort during extended use. Controls for music, volume, and voice controls via your phone assistant are all on the right earbud. There is a distinct difference between each section making finding the right control by feel easy. Using the controls is a little imprecise as the buttons are quite hard to press. Sometimes when pressing you may tend to initially pull the earbud slightly out of the ear. This creates an adjustment period on becoming accustomed to using the controls. Hopefully with repeated use the buttons will break in. After a couple of days of use, pressure required decreased slightly and control felt easier.
Sound quality is something you expect to be great coming from Bose and with the SoundSport Wireless Free they do not disappoint. The most important part of great sound with compact wireless sport headsets where failure is common is keeping a solid connection. Bose claims to maintain a reliable wireless connection with a special antenna design and it seems they have achieved what they claim. A connection to the phone could be maintained walking into the next room of the house while leaving the cell phone in place. Another, more important, test is cross body signal strength. It seems that no matter where the phone was kept on the body, the earbuds kept a strong signal with no dropouts. Bose does not list if they incorporate Bluetooth 5.0 to handle higher quality sound. If they do not, they have done quite well with the limitations of traditional Bluetooth. Bose incorporates what they call a volume-optimized EQ. Whatever the techniques they use they seem to work quite well as sound was very well balanced throughout the range. Unfortunately, if you like to customize the sound to your likely there are no such controls unless your device offers an EQ. If any criticism could be leveled at the automatic EQ is that highs, such as vocals, could be just slightly higher. This is more of a personal preference though. For most, this will not likely be a problem as the default setting does quite well.
Of course, any earbuds today will include the ability to place and take calls. Accepting calls is a matter of pressing the play button. You can place a call by pressing and holding down the play button to launch your phone’s assistant. Depending on the assistant of your phone you may have other functionality as controlling music as well as reading and responding to texts. Call quality is not usually a strong point of sport earbuds simply because the microphone is so far away from the mouth. As with others, callers reported I sounded farther away as if I was on a speakerphone. However; generally people reported I sounded closer or clearer than on other sport earbuds used in the past.
Durability is an important area for sport earbuds. The SoundSport Wireless Free are IPX4 which means they are sweat and what they call weather resistant. This isn’t the highest rating in sport headphones and some car with water should be taken. A run in the rain is probably not a good idea nor is washing them off under the faucet. This seems to be a side effect of higher sound quality earbuds as other high-end earbuds often have a similarly limitation. Listed within the information is a warning. The IPX4 rating is expected to decrease with age.
Overall, the Bose SoundSport Wireless Free earbuds are a solid first time offering from Bose. Although long term durability is hard to gauge, they feel very well made and as though they will last. Use is about as hassle free as you can get allowing you to enjoy using them and the sound they produce. Hopefully as Bose continues to evolve the design the cons will be improved or even eliminated. Even with the cons, there is no reason to avoid enjoying great sound to help keep you motivated during your workout.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Amplify your Full HD viewing experience with this Epson home cinema projector. It lets you project 1080p content up to a size of 300 inches, and it provides brilliant picture quality thanks to its 3,100 lumens of color & white brightness and 3LCD technology. Connect high-definition media sources to this portable Epson home cinema projector via its two HDMI ports.
Customer Rating
5
Great projector designed for home use
on October 2, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
3100 lumens for both color and white
Good brightness even with indirect sunlight in room
Nearly silent on ECO and barely audible on Normal
Dual HDMI inputs
MHL support on second HDMI input
Useable integrated speaker for a projector
Color balance is very good
Great quality for the class of projector
Automatic keystone often works well.
Cons
Status LEDs cannot be disabled and can be distracting
Keystone adjustment leaves dark gray square making sometimes appear incorrect
Front angle adjustment typically means blocking lens and picture
Front angle adjustment steps often do not stop where expected
Manuals provided on CD instead of other more modern digital formats
Zoom and Focus controls are difficult to move when fully to a side
Doesn’t include any input cords, only the power cord
The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1060 is a midrange, Full 1080P projector for people looking for a projector that is both capable and affordable. With the primary purpose being home use, noise levels are also given attention. As the name suggests, the Cinema 1060 can operate as a cinematic projector but it's primary focus is on casual viewing.
The Cinema 1060 can achieve up to 3100 lumens in both color and white, whereas cheaper projectors often only have higher lumens in the whites leading to a washed-out image. This translates to a very bright image in a light controlled room and a usable image in one with indirect lighting. The proper projector screen would go a long way in boosting its capabilities. Color accuracy is very good, which is helpful since color adjustments are limited. With a 15,000:1 contrast ratio you will have a good range of blacks but don't expect inky blacks. The most the Cinema 1060 can achieve is dark gray without a screen but if you have a white or light tan wall it can still display a very good image. When playing a movie on a textured tan wall at night it was hard to even notice that the wall had texture or that there wasn't even a screen.
Even without the inky blacks of a modern OLED screen, the Cinema 1060 feels like a worthy tradeoff. The image is larger and more immersive than even the largest flat screen. Typically, flat panels playing lower resolution content will create noise or artifacts making the picture look strange. Since projectors blow up the image optically instead of digitally you still have a very clean image, only softer like in the movies. Motion blur was never detected but our family doesn't typically watch sports. Epson says their display technology prevents blooming and it appears they have solved the issue as no blooming could be detected. Gaming is very enjoyable but there is a short adjustment period. Playing games on such a large screen can initially feel so immersive you feel as though you are physically moving creating some initial disorientation. If you prefer oversaturated colors over color accuracy you can use Dynamic mode. One thing to keep in mind is that using Dynamic or what is call Bright Cinema turns off Eco mode. It you get a much brighter image with the tradeoff being shortened bulb life and a slightly louder noise output. Thankfully the bulb should still last a long time and is relatively cheap to replace and the noise levels are still very good.
As a home projector, it certainly feels like Epson simplified some of the traditional complications and drawbacks of projectors. It comes with a basic setup guide and a full manual on CD, but the basic guide should be enough for most. The white color is easier to blend with most home interior colors when mounted so you don’t necessarily need to try to hide it. If you are accustomed to the loud fans on work projectors you will be thankful that Epson has found a way to keep noise levels more reasonable. On Eco mode, it is possible to sit 1 foot away from the projector and watch a movie without being disturbed. You can hear it but the sound is neither loud, nor unpleasant. On normal mode your movie experience is not adversely affected by being even 3 feet away. If there is anything to be annoyed about, it is the status lights on the top of the unit. The power light is bright blue and the Wi-Fi blinks bright blue continuously. An option to turn them off or if they turned on only for a brief period during changes it would be much better as the lights can be distracting in a dark room. If the projector is located behind the viewers this is not an issue so the severity of this issue depends on projector location.
3100 lumens for both color and white
Good brightness even with indirect sunlight in room
Nearly silent on ECO and barely audible on Normal
Dual HDMI inputs
MHL support on second HDMI input
Useable integrated speaker for a projector
Color balance is very good
Great quality for the class of projector
Automatic keystone often works well.
Cons
Status LEDs cannot be disabled and can be distracting
Keystone adjustment leaves dark gray square making sometimes appear incorrect
Front angle adjustment typically means blocking lens and picture
Front angle adjustment steps often do not stop where expected
Manuals provided on CD instead of other more modern digital formats
Zoom and Focus controls are difficult to move when fully to a side
Doesn’t include any input cords, only the power cord
The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1060 is a midrange, Full 1080P projector for people looking for a projector that is both capable and affordable. With the primary purpose being home use, noise levels are also given attention. As the name suggests, the Cinema 1060 can operate as a cinematic projector but it's primary focus is on casual viewing.
The Cinema 1060 can achieve up to 3100 lumens in both color and white, whereas cheaper projectors often only have higher lumens in the whites leading to a washed-out image. This translates to a very bright image in a light controlled room and a usable image in one with indirect lighting. The proper projector screen would go a long way in boosting its capabilities. Color accuracy is very good, which is helpful since color adjustments are limited. With a 15,000:1 contrast ratio you will have a good range of blacks but don't expect inky blacks. The most the Cinema 1060 can achieve is dark gray without a screen but if you have a white or light tan wall it can still display a very good image. When playing a movie on a textured tan wall at night it was hard to even notice that the wall had texture or that there wasn't even a screen.
Even without the inky blacks of a modern OLED screen, the Cinema 1060 feels like a worthy tradeoff. The image is larger and more immersive than even the largest flat screen. Typically, flat panels playing lower resolution content will create noise or artifacts making the picture look strange. Since projectors blow up the image optically instead of digitally you still have a very clean image, only softer like in the movies. Motion blur was never detected but our family doesn't typically watch sports. Epson says their display technology prevents blooming and it appears they have solved the issue as no blooming could be detected. Gaming is very enjoyable but there is a short adjustment period. Playing games on such a large screen can initially feel so immersive you feel as though you are physically moving creating some initial disorientation. If you prefer oversaturated colors over color accuracy you can use Dynamic mode. One thing to keep in mind is that using Dynamic or what is call Bright Cinema turns off Eco mode. It you get a much brighter image with the tradeoff being shortened bulb life and a slightly louder noise output. Thankfully the bulb should still last a long time and is relatively cheap to replace and the noise levels are still very good.
As a home projector, it certainly feels like Epson simplified some of the traditional complications and drawbacks of projectors. It comes with a basic setup guide and a full manual on CD, but the basic guide should be enough for most. The white color is easier to blend with most home interior colors when mounted so you don’t necessarily need to try to hide it. If you are accustomed to the loud fans on work projectors you will be thankful that Epson has found a way to keep noise levels more reasonable. On Eco mode, it is possible to sit 1 foot away from the projector and watch a movie without being disturbed. You can hear it but the sound is neither loud, nor unpleasant. On normal mode your movie experience is not adversely affected by being even 3 feet away. If there is anything to be annoyed about, it is the status lights on the top of the unit. The power light is bright blue and the Wi-Fi blinks bright blue continuously. An option to turn them off or if they turned on only for a brief period during changes it would be much better as the lights can be distracting in a dark room. If the projector is located behind the viewers this is not an issue so the severity of this issue depends on projector location.
Setup follows the theme of simplicity. On startup, it automatically searches for a valid input. If you only have one device plugged in or turned on, it will automatically switch the appropriate input. HMDI2 is MHL compatible so if you want to use a streaming stick plug it in there. You can manually switch just by pressing the input button or the input menu on screen as well. When setting up, you can adjust the angle with a single foot on the front. It is simple to operate although you will likely block the projected image while adjusting since your hand will be in the way. The foot also has stops which seem to drop just a little right after you set it down. Keystone adjustment appears to be optical and not digital. This does create one minor issue. When you adjust the keystone, it creates a "shadow" of where the overall projector light lands and then the actual corrected image. The shadow area is a dark gray area in color. When watching light scenes, the picture will appear to have the correct shape but if the colors at the edge begin to match the dark gray it will give the perception the projected image is distorted. Ideally, a projector should be displaying as close to a 90-degree angle to the screen as possible for best picture and at this angle there would be no issues with the shadow.
Overall the PowerLite Home Cinema 1060 is a great home projector that offers a nearly hassle-free setup and control experience allowing you to spend more time enjoying your new home theater experience. Even at the full suggested retail price this projector is well worth the money. It does have a speaker but to further enhance your experience you should use external speakers. Also, if your budget allows, you should purchase a good quality projector screen to further enhance your experience as projectors can’t reach their full potential without the other half of the equation. If the screen isn’t in the budget yet you can still enjoy the benefits of the Cinema 1060 with a light colored surface.
Overall the PowerLite Home Cinema 1060 is a great home projector that offers a nearly hassle-free setup and control experience allowing you to spend more time enjoying your new home theater experience. Even at the full suggested retail price this projector is well worth the money. It does have a speaker but to further enhance your experience you should use external speakers. Also, if your budget allows, you should purchase a good quality projector screen to further enhance your experience as projectors can’t reach their full potential without the other half of the equation. If the screen isn’t in the budget yet you can still enjoy the benefits of the Cinema 1060 with a light colored surface.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Take precise, intuitive control of digital projects with this wireless Logitech Craft advanced keyboard. Its creative input dial lets you make accurate object size adjustments, zoom images quickly and perform other shortcut functions with design tools in multimedia and office applications. The backlit keys of this Logitech Craft advanced keyboard automatically adjust their brightness to your environment.
Customer Rating
5
Solid keyboard for creative type
on September 25, 2017
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Backlit keyboard with proximity sensor
Backlight is adjustable
Sturdy build, has a plastic shell but metal spine
Indentations on keys help make keys distinct
Has Windows and MacOS keyboard markers
Compatible with multiple OSes
Stores 3 different and switchable connection profiles
Offers Bluetooth as well as unifying receiver
Scissor keys have better feedback than chicklet keys
Built in, rechargeable battery
USB-C cable
Profiles available for popular software and switch automatically
Additional profiles application profiles can be created
Backlit keyboard with proximity sensor
Backlight is adjustable
Sturdy build, has a plastic shell but metal spine
Indentations on keys help make keys distinct
Has Windows and MacOS keyboard markers
Compatible with multiple OSes
Stores 3 different and switchable connection profiles
Offers Bluetooth as well as unifying receiver
Scissor keys have better feedback than chicklet keys
Built in, rechargeable battery
USB-C cable
Profiles available for popular software and switch automatically
Additional profiles application profiles can be created
Cons
Backlight cannot be set to auto off when room is lit
Shorter key travel makes for an abrupt bottom stop
No included profiles for lesser applications
Profiles created manually have limited options
Function keys beside space bar have dual Window/Mac text making them confusing
Backlight cannot be set to auto off when room is lit
Shorter key travel makes for an abrupt bottom stop
No included profiles for lesser applications
Profiles created manually have limited options
Function keys beside space bar have dual Window/Mac text making them confusing
Lately it seems many new devices that have come out have a focus on the creative types. Of course, most of the devices are expensive and more geared towards people with a large amount of funds towards a single purpose device. Although not necessarily cheap, the Logitech Craft keyboard seems intended to bring the functionality to more of the everyday person by adding functionality.
The Logitech Craft in no way feels cheap, beginning with the box. It is still distinctly Logitech but more premium than the regular offerings. When you first see it, you will notice the satin gray metal finish at the top of the keyboard holding the crown. You might be forgiven for thinking it is just metal colored plastic but rest assured, it is really metal. This begins very apparent when you feel its weight. The main part of the keyboard is plastic but according to the specifications it is strengthened by the metal spine. The keyboard is thin but feels very sturdy. There is no battery tray because it includes an integrated, rechargeable battery that connects via USB-C. The keys include a backlight with a proximity sensor so they don’t turn on until you place your hand over the keyboard. Hopefully this helps improve battery life because, although you can manually turn off and adjust brightness of the backlight, it currently isn’t smart enough to know to not turn on in a brightly lit room. The website says the backlight adjusts to changing light conditions so hopefully this is just a software issue to be corrected in a future update and the keyboard will recognize it doesn’t need to turn the backlight on in a bright room.
The keys are not much higher than chicklet style keys but with more travel due to Logitech’s scissor design. The travel and feel is unique to Logitech, quiet and smooth with a bit of spring but a good amount of travel that ends with a dull thump at the bottom of travel. If you like the feel of mechanical keyboards but don’t appreciate the loud clatter they produce, this might be just your type. Oddly, after a short time of using this unit the space bar has a distinct squeak when depressed. None of the other keys made this sound so hopefully this is just an oddity of this unit. Overall, be prepared for the more limited travel. An interesting design feature is the tops of the keys are cupped. It might at first seem odd but with use it helps you feel exactly where you have hit the key. As with all keyboards, there is an adjustment period as one gets used to the specific spacing and overall placement of the keys but the cupped tops almost seem to help correct and shorten that adjustment period.
The main differentiating feature of this keyboard over other offerings is the what logic refers to as the crown. It is a rotating knob not unlike a volume not on a stereo. In fact, depending on where you are in the OS it can serve as a volume knob. Calling it a volume control would be oversimplifying things. It is clickable, rotates, and is touch sensitive. By default, pressing down and turning adjusts the computer volume. In programs where multiple functions are available you touch the dial to change modes and then turn it to change settings. There are default profiles available for more popular software packages such as Office, Photoshop CC, Edge, and Chrome. You can create custom profiles for other applications but options are more limited than the ones from Logitech. Profiles from Logitech include a tutorial which make using them easier. An example use is in Microsoft Word. A light tap on the crown brings up a menu with Theme Style, Theme Color, and Theme Font. To select a mode just tap again to highlight the mode you want and then turn the dial to make the adjustment. Changes will be made immediately allowing you to quickly compare changes without clicking through menus. Just spin the dial and you can easily see the effect and choose the one you like. The greatest number of options are included if you use Adobe creative products such as Adobe Photoshop where you can adjust things such as brush size or brightness.
It would be great if profiles for more affordable software, such as Photoshop Elements or even video editing apps such as Sony Vegas, were available. The crown could make an excellent video scrubber without needing to purchase any special accessory. Hopefully Logitech sees this opportunity and has plans to continue or at the very least expands the options for custom profiles. Until then, it is still a great keyboard that adds extra functionality without taking up any more space and requiring something else to charge or change batteries. If you are in the market for a new premium keyboard and would like a more creative focused option you might give the Logitech Craft Wireless keyboard a look.
My Best Buy number: 2528554201
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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CraigB's Review Comments
Watch your favorite movies, TV shows and sporting events in crisp 1080p resolution with this Samsung UN65FH6001FXZA HDTV, which features Clear Motion Rate 240 to preserve picture detail during fast-action sequences.
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5This is an awesome TV for the cost
By Korom
from Raleigh, NC
First, this is a fantastic monitor. If you have a receiver for your HDMI switching and watch TV with the sound through that receiver then this is the PERFECT TV for you. I use it with my Denon e300 receiver, all my HDMI inputs go into the receiver with one HDMI cable going to the TV. Minimal fuss and muss. The picture quality is truly incredible for a LCD TV, the blacks are very very good, almost as good as my Panasonic Plasma but its understandable that its not that good as LCD cannot show true black like a plasma can. I checked 3 bars for the sound quality but honestly I never used the internal speakers. I gave this 5 stars and would have given it 6 stars if I could have (on a 5 star scale) because the picture quality is just that good.
Bottom line: Fantastic TV for the price.
CraigB
Texas
An LED TV is a type of LCD TV
November 29, 2013
Folks. For those of you telling this reviewer that he is talking about the wrong TV because he calls it an LCD, it is an LCD. LED TV's are still LCD TV's. The difference is the backlight behind the LCD is LED's instead of CCFL(fluorescent). Both still have and LCD screen that you actually look at up front.
+2points
2of 2voted this comment as helpful.
Microsoft Band 2 (Large): Keep track of your health and fitness goals throughout the day by monitoring your heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, sleep quality, hours slept and other helpful metrics. Just pair with your Windows Phone, Apple® iOS or Android device via Bluetooth to receive alerts at a glance.Discover how the technology of Microsoft Band 2 can assist you in a healthy, productive lifestyle. Learn more ›
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Best fitness tracker for the money
By CraigB
from Texas
When choosing high end fitness bands, my choices went back and forth between the Microsoft Band 2 and the Fitbit Surge. Fitbit has been in the business for fitness wearables for longer but I chose the Band 2 for what I felt was better value for my money. I purchased during a $50 off sale making it even more attractive and $50 less than the Surge. My main phone for this review is a Lumia 1520 with Windows 10 Mobile. I assume others will write reviews of the phone for other platforms and that is where this review starts. This fitness wearable is by far the most compatible. It supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone/Mobile. Fitbit does as well but support for Windows Mobile is more limited. Comparing it to the Surge, it has more customizability, color screen, and a partially metal build. It feels more premium than the Surge. The metal does have 2 downsides. The first is that the finish used shows scratches extremely easily. See included picture. The second is that sweat and soap cause a foul smell very quickly requiring regular cleaning.
The Band 2 can be worn in two positions. The first is with the screen facing outwards like a watch. I tried this but it felt uncomfortable and viewing the screen was awkward particularly considering the screen doesn’t have a vertical view. This leads me to my preferred position which is with the screen facing inwards. It is much more natural to view and operate. It also feels more comfortable and is in fact the recommended way to wear the device. If there was any concern it is that wearing it inward the screen is always contacting surfaces when you lay your arms down. It uses gorilla glass but it still concerns me that I might scratch the screen. Every fitness wearable wasn’t completely comfortable to wear for one reason or another but this one starts to feel about like a watch after an adjustment period. Before you get the size right you might put it a place that binds you wrist or hits a nerve. I also learned it can get the heart rate just fine without tightening it down so far you hit nerves. Just like a watch it will take some fiddling to find your perfect tightness. Fortunately, the latching mechanism feels strong and has more adjustments than a tradition watch as well giving you more flexibility. Just make sure you use the sizing guide on the size of the box to choose the correct size. It shows wrists sizes with the wrist sideways.
Now the big question is how it works for tracking vitals. I haven’t worked with VO2 Max so I can’t comment on that but after getting the fit correct, the heart rate seems pretty close. Checking manual it was usually within about 10BPM or less from actual. Tracking steps seems a little different. It is difficult to verify but it seems to be a little high on the number of steps sometimes compared to my old hip worn pedometer. It just seems like I can reach 5,000 steps fairly easily. I am not a runner so I have not tested the GPS but I have read that some units have come from the factory with a bad GPS. What’s really nice is with all the vitals it gathers, more than just heart rate, it should be a fairly accurate color estimate. It has guided workouts you can add but I used the generic color tracking and added my own workout types to track. You can add things like HIT and weight training for your own purposes but it uses all the sensors to estimate the color burn instead of estimating based on the workout type. I feel this is more accurate but cannot verify. When you start workout mode, by default the screen stays on showing your workout time and heart rate. I suspect it is not as accurate as a chest band but it seems pretty good. After your workout is done you can see the entire workout on your phone or the website with your heart rate the entire time and your max marked. If there was any gripe it would be that you can’t have it vibrate when you hit your target or max heart rate. That would have been a great feature but, who knows. Maybe they will add it in the future. You can even use the website to compare your vitals to others in your height, weight, and age category. It’s all anonymous and very informative.
When not working out it still tracks your heart rate all the time but the other useful time to check is when you are sleeping. It can detect your sleep but if it gets it wrong you can only delete the time, not edit. You are better off starting your sleep tracking yourself. While sleeping, it will monitor you and in when you wake up you can see what your resting heart rate was overnight to get an even better picture of your health. It also has a smart alarm you can activate. If you want to wake up at a set time, just set the alarm and it will vibrate to wake you up. What I really like is if you activate the smart alarm and set it for 7:30am it will wake you up somewhere between 7:00am and 8:00am when you are most awake. That means you don’t wake up to an alarm feeling like you haven’t rested. You can even set the strength of the vibration.
Since this is a little bit of a smart watch you can add some apps. Since the phone doesn’t have any memory though, expect to only have them work when around your phone. It can control music on your phone and even use voice recognition with Cortana. I am running a prerelease build of the phone software so on occasion the connection dropped but it wasn’t hard to get back. I have found the notifications actually quite nice. I can leave the phone in one place in the house and still get notifications and respond to basic texts. I can also connect my phone to the stereo and change tracks and turn the volume up or down. It’s a standard feature for a smart watch but this is a fitness wearable and much cheaper than a smart watch. There are even some extra apps you can add and some third part utilizes to customize it further but if you want a smart watch more you might want to go that route. If you want a smart fitness tracker, this thing is hard to beat.
Pros
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Cons
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
CraigB
Texas
Additional Findings
January 9, 2016
I just wanted to add an extra observations to my original review.
For those of you who want to view the display outside in sunlight, it doesn't seem to get that bright. For me that is not a big deal because outside exercises are typically the type where I don't use real time tracking but if you are the type who needs to read the display in direct sunlight, you might find it difficult. I will be checking further and report back if I find anything because indoors it is so bright that I wonder if I have done something wrong in the setup. Even with this finding I still feel it is the best for the money.
Also, if you happen to swap between phones or get a new phone you will have to factor reset the band. I periodically switch phones and discovered this. The system is designed to easily replace your band while using the same phone but if you move the band to any phone, even one that was restored from a backup of your original you will have to factory reset the band and set it back up. Not a huge deal because little is actually stored on the phone.
One other huge bonus for Windows Phone/Mobile users. If for some reason you either forget or choose not to wear your band and have a Lumia that is capable you can use it to augment your Band. Sometimes for different reasons I don't want to wear my band and only need to track steps. If I just keep my Lumia 950 in my pocket, it will track my steps and add them to what the band couldn't track. That particular feature is one I really love. The only caveat to that is while it updates the steps on the app and portal, the extra steps from your phone don't get transferred back to your band. This means if you took 2,000 steps with your band and phone and an additional 5,000 with only your Lumia the app will report 7,000 steps total which is correct but your band will continue to report 2,000 steps. Minor quibble though for a great additional feature for Windows Phone fans.
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ecobee ecobee3 Programmable Touch-Screen Wi-Fi Thermostat: Maintain a comfortable home with this programmable thermostat, which is Apple® HomeKit-enabled, so you can control the temperature remotely using your compatible device. Home IQ helps you conserve energy.
Overall
1 out of 5
1 out of 5cant set custom temps..sensors are glitchy
By annaj
i was trying to get this thermostat to set 4 or 5 different temps automaticly per day. an ecobee tech couldnt help me get this done on my web portal account . the sensors dont read the occupancy after being in the room for hours like being in a bedroom all night when u wake up the sensor will read unoccupied or sitting in the living room all day the same thing will happen after a few hours. a regular programable thermostat would have been a better choice.
CraigB
Texas
Did you try IFTTT
February 7, 2016
I was just wondering if you have looked into IFTTT to set those custom automatic temps. I haven't tried your exact scenario but the Ecobee3 can be connected to an IFTTT account to extend it's functionality.
0points
0of 0voted this comment as helpful.
Your household wants to play, stream and work online all at once. With this Linksys router, you can do it all without buffering or other interruptions. Use the Smart Wi-Fi app to get started, control, and monitor your home network from anywhere.
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Solid router with good range and speed
By CraigB
from Texas
I am posting this review after about a week of use. If I find anything more significant after posting I will add it as a reply to my original post. Be sure to check there for additions.
I needed to upgrade my WiFi because the internet service in my area was about to be upgraded to exceed the capacity of my current wireless N solution. This router seems as if it was marketed towards moderate power users as well as people with less technical skills who need an upgrade. Packaging is minimal the same as most routers today. It comes with a CD for documentation but it is not used for setup. This is a good thing because as an AC router most people upgrading to this would have newer devices, few of which have an optical drive.
I needed to upgrade my WiFi because the internet service in my area was about to be upgraded to exceed the capacity of my current wireless N solution. This router seems as if it was marketed towards moderate power users as well as people with less technical skills who need an upgrade. Packaging is minimal the same as most routers today. It comes with a CD for documentation but it is not used for setup. This is a good thing because as an AC router most people upgrading to this would have newer devices, few of which have an optical drive.
For the non-technical
This is not very hard to set up. You plug power into the only spot it fits. There are three antennas that screw into very noticeable spots on the back. And the internet plug is clearly labeled. The instructions tell you what to do in a few steps to get the device to take care of the rest. It also has the wireless already set up if you are afraid to do it and even comes with a sticker with the information so you will know what the password is to get on the WiFi. It already has a guest WiFi too but there is a separate login so someone can’t just borrow your internet without you giving them the password. If you feel more comfortable there are apps for iPhones and Android phones to control the device. Speed and range are very good but if you can it is always recommended to install it as close to the center of your house and avoid metal. The router can pretty much take care of itself after that and it shouldn’t require any further work.
This is not very hard to set up. You plug power into the only spot it fits. There are three antennas that screw into very noticeable spots on the back. And the internet plug is clearly labeled. The instructions tell you what to do in a few steps to get the device to take care of the rest. It also has the wireless already set up if you are afraid to do it and even comes with a sticker with the information so you will know what the password is to get on the WiFi. It already has a guest WiFi too but there is a separate login so someone can’t just borrow your internet without you giving them the password. If you feel more comfortable there are apps for iPhones and Android phones to control the device. Speed and range are very good but if you can it is always recommended to install it as close to the center of your house and avoid metal. The router can pretty much take care of itself after that and it shouldn’t require any further work.
For the technical people
If you are looking for a device with tons of granular settings, this might not be the device. Of course the power users I am referring to would probably be better suited sticking with the WRT series. I doubt this device will ever see an aftermarket firmware. It attempts to have a clean interface but that means it will feel slower than a power user router for some settings changes as transitions and animations run their course. Setting changes that require a reboot happen nearly as fast as the fastest routers out there. Although the stock firmware attempts to look fancy and simple it still has a decent amount of settings for all but the most extreme power users. The antennas use a standard connection so if you wanted to upgrade to larger ones later that is possible. Hardwired speed has been very good. I’m just a casual gamer but this hasn’t slowed me down at all and I cannot tell the different hardwired from my old gaming router. Wireless speed is actually very good as well although I was never able to achieve the 1300Mbps link speed advertised even right next to the unit. I maxed out at 900Mbps and it is possible that is related to my AC devices. My old router would drop down to the 39Mpbs on the opposite side of my house whereas this one can maintain at least 177Mpbs and often more.
If you are looking for a device with tons of granular settings, this might not be the device. Of course the power users I am referring to would probably be better suited sticking with the WRT series. I doubt this device will ever see an aftermarket firmware. It attempts to have a clean interface but that means it will feel slower than a power user router for some settings changes as transitions and animations run their course. Setting changes that require a reboot happen nearly as fast as the fastest routers out there. Although the stock firmware attempts to look fancy and simple it still has a decent amount of settings for all but the most extreme power users. The antennas use a standard connection so if you wanted to upgrade to larger ones later that is possible. Hardwired speed has been very good. I’m just a casual gamer but this hasn’t slowed me down at all and I cannot tell the different hardwired from my old gaming router. Wireless speed is actually very good as well although I was never able to achieve the 1300Mbps link speed advertised even right next to the unit. I maxed out at 900Mbps and it is possible that is related to my AC devices. My old router would drop down to the 39Mpbs on the opposite side of my house whereas this one can maintain at least 177Mpbs and often more.
So far during my ownership the stability of this device has reminded me of the old Linksys routers how even the cheap ones never locked up. I’m hoping it stays this way. If you want to change settings, you can do so the standard way most technical people do via the IP address or it has a built in URL. Thankfully it doesn’t require some odd application for initial setup. Unlike standard routers, this one is cloud connected when you choose so meaning remote access is passed via the cloud. It does support some dynamic DNS options but they seem more to push you towards connection via their cloud. Fortunately, this is optional except if you want to take advantage of the built in USB ports and access files remotely. I don’t have a spare drive to test right now so unfortunately I could not test the NAS performance. It does have a very basic QoS which allows you to set up to 3 services or devices as high priority but that’s pretty much it. It has some newer options but then oddly has more old services, such as Real Player and Rhapsody.
Pros
Large, replaceable antennas
Great Range
Reliable
Gigabit Ports
Fast Processor
Status lights can be turned off
Decent amount of features for all but the heavy power users
Doesn’t require a special application for setup or CD
Has USB ports for attaching a hard drive
Offers automatic firmware upgrades to keep security up. Good for keeping non power users safe (Can be turned off)
Documentation is thorough if you need help. You just click help on the top bar
Major changes that require a restart are almost unnoticeable to users as it restarts fast
Has WiFi secured by default and requires a password to be configured during setup. This is good if you are buying one for family and just want it secure without needing to help them. It even has a handy sticker with device specific WiFi passwords so someone can’t just look up a default WiFi password for the unit and borrow internet.
Large, replaceable antennas
Great Range
Reliable
Gigabit Ports
Fast Processor
Status lights can be turned off
Decent amount of features for all but the heavy power users
Doesn’t require a special application for setup or CD
Has USB ports for attaching a hard drive
Offers automatic firmware upgrades to keep security up. Good for keeping non power users safe (Can be turned off)
Documentation is thorough if you need help. You just click help on the top bar
Major changes that require a restart are almost unnoticeable to users as it restarts fast
Has WiFi secured by default and requires a password to be configured during setup. This is good if you are buying one for family and just want it secure without needing to help them. It even has a handy sticker with device specific WiFi passwords so someone can’t just look up a default WiFi password for the unit and borrow internet.
Cons
Interface tries too hard to be attractive slowing it down with animations
Only supports 2 Dynamic DNS providers.
QoS settings seem to cater to power users but offer little customization
QoS rule changes require moving service or devices boxes around and the interface jumps quickly between sections. This often causes you to accidentally move something you didn’t intend to.
Included “Apps” are of limited usefulness and only work on iOS and Android which leaves out anything Windows (No Windows 10 Universal Apps) and no Mac. No configuring your router with touch, like via a Surface, using a Windows App.
Interface tries too hard to be attractive slowing it down with animations
Only supports 2 Dynamic DNS providers.
QoS settings seem to cater to power users but offer little customization
QoS rule changes require moving service or devices boxes around and the interface jumps quickly between sections. This often causes you to accidentally move something you didn’t intend to.
Included “Apps” are of limited usefulness and only work on iOS and Android which leaves out anything Windows (No Windows 10 Universal Apps) and no Mac. No configuring your router with touch, like via a Surface, using a Windows App.
Final Notes
Higher end units near this price point I have owned have had large aluminum heatsinks to dissipate heat. This one has one very small heatsink. I suspect heat stress will be higher on this unit and might be why this case has such a large open cavity you can easily see straight through the vent holes. I suspect longevity will be lower but only time will tell. So the unit has not felt very warm so fingers crossed.
Higher end units near this price point I have owned have had large aluminum heatsinks to dissipate heat. This one has one very small heatsink. I suspect heat stress will be higher on this unit and might be why this case has such a large open cavity you can easily see straight through the vent holes. I suspect longevity will be lower but only time will tell. So the unit has not felt very warm so fingers crossed.
CraigB
Texas
Longer term observations
February 22, 2016
Adding to my original review I have found some new observations to add to this router. I switched to using it as an access point, which takes a little digging, and found out that once you do so you lose a lot of features that should still work but are removed. For example, as an access point you get no guest networks. You can only have 1 2.5GHz WiFi and 1 5GHz. All features such as WMM and QoS are completely gone. Remote administration is turned off. I have also experienced an odd condition where my Xbox One cannot connect using the exact same key as my old router that my Xbox was connected to. I have also experienced 1 lockup where the unit just completely stopped responding and had to be power cycled. Over all it's still a good router but it feels like it could use a little more firmware refinement.
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Microsoft Band 2 (Large): Keep track of your health and fitness goals throughout the day by monitoring your heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, sleep quality, hours slept and other helpful metrics. Just pair with your Windows Phone, Apple® iOS or Android device via Bluetooth to receive alerts at a glance.Discover how the technology of Microsoft Band 2 can assist you in a healthy, productive lifestyle. Learn more ›
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Best fitness tracker for the money
By CraigB
from Texas
When choosing high end fitness bands, my choices went back and forth between the Microsoft Band 2 and the Fitbit Surge. Fitbit has been in the business for fitness wearables for longer but I chose the Band 2 for what I felt was better value for my money. I purchased during a $50 off sale making it even more attractive and $50 less than the Surge. My main phone for this review is a Lumia 1520 with Windows 10 Mobile. I assume others will write reviews of the phone for other platforms and that is where this review starts. This fitness wearable is by far the most compatible. It supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone/Mobile. Fitbit does as well but support for Windows Mobile is more limited. Comparing it to the Surge, it has more customizability, color screen, and a partially metal build. It feels more premium than the Surge. The metal does have 2 downsides. The first is that the finish used shows scratches extremely easily. See included picture. The second is that sweat and soap cause a foul smell very quickly requiring regular cleaning.
The Band 2 can be worn in two positions. The first is with the screen facing outwards like a watch. I tried this but it felt uncomfortable and viewing the screen was awkward particularly considering the screen doesn’t have a vertical view. This leads me to my preferred position which is with the screen facing inwards. It is much more natural to view and operate. It also feels more comfortable and is in fact the recommended way to wear the device. If there was any concern it is that wearing it inward the screen is always contacting surfaces when you lay your arms down. It uses gorilla glass but it still concerns me that I might scratch the screen. Every fitness wearable wasn’t completely comfortable to wear for one reason or another but this one starts to feel about like a watch after an adjustment period. Before you get the size right you might put it a place that binds you wrist or hits a nerve. I also learned it can get the heart rate just fine without tightening it down so far you hit nerves. Just like a watch it will take some fiddling to find your perfect tightness. Fortunately, the latching mechanism feels strong and has more adjustments than a tradition watch as well giving you more flexibility. Just make sure you use the sizing guide on the size of the box to choose the correct size. It shows wrists sizes with the wrist sideways.
Now the big question is how it works for tracking vitals. I haven’t worked with VO2 Max so I can’t comment on that but after getting the fit correct, the heart rate seems pretty close. Checking manual it was usually within about 10BPM or less from actual. Tracking steps seems a little different. It is difficult to verify but it seems to be a little high on the number of steps sometimes compared to my old hip worn pedometer. It just seems like I can reach 5,000 steps fairly easily. I am not a runner so I have not tested the GPS but I have read that some units have come from the factory with a bad GPS. What’s really nice is with all the vitals it gathers, more than just heart rate, it should be a fairly accurate color estimate. It has guided workouts you can add but I used the generic color tracking and added my own workout types to track. You can add things like HIT and weight training for your own purposes but it uses all the sensors to estimate the color burn instead of estimating based on the workout type. I feel this is more accurate but cannot verify. When you start workout mode, by default the screen stays on showing your workout time and heart rate. I suspect it is not as accurate as a chest band but it seems pretty good. After your workout is done you can see the entire workout on your phone or the website with your heart rate the entire time and your max marked. If there was any gripe it would be that you can’t have it vibrate when you hit your target or max heart rate. That would have been a great feature but, who knows. Maybe they will add it in the future. You can even use the website to compare your vitals to others in your height, weight, and age category. It’s all anonymous and very informative.
When not working out it still tracks your heart rate all the time but the other useful time to check is when you are sleeping. It can detect your sleep but if it gets it wrong you can only delete the time, not edit. You are better off starting your sleep tracking yourself. While sleeping, it will monitor you and in when you wake up you can see what your resting heart rate was overnight to get an even better picture of your health. It also has a smart alarm you can activate. If you want to wake up at a set time, just set the alarm and it will vibrate to wake you up. What I really like is if you activate the smart alarm and set it for 7:30am it will wake you up somewhere between 7:00am and 8:00am when you are most awake. That means you don’t wake up to an alarm feeling like you haven’t rested. You can even set the strength of the vibration.
Since this is a little bit of a smart watch you can add some apps. Since the phone doesn’t have any memory though, expect to only have them work when around your phone. It can control music on your phone and even use voice recognition with Cortana. I am running a prerelease build of the phone software so on occasion the connection dropped but it wasn’t hard to get back. I have found the notifications actually quite nice. I can leave the phone in one place in the house and still get notifications and respond to basic texts. I can also connect my phone to the stereo and change tracks and turn the volume up or down. It’s a standard feature for a smart watch but this is a fitness wearable and much cheaper than a smart watch. There are even some extra apps you can add and some third part utilizes to customize it further but if you want a smart watch more you might want to go that route. If you want a smart fitness tracker, this thing is hard to beat.
Pros
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Cons
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
CraigB
Texas
Band split after serveral months
May 23, 2016
As others who have discovered after owning the Band 2 for a while, the band itself tends to split. Even if you are gentle the rubberized material just doesn't seem to hold up. The good news in my case is I leave reasonably close to a Microsoft Store. I brought it to them and as always they took great care of me. The assistant store manager was the one who assisted me and he said that Microsoft is aware of the problem and is already working to fix the issue. I had the same problem with the first generation Type Cover for the Surface. Back then they took care of me and ultimately Microsoft corrected the issue. It's unfortunate this kind of thing gets through but at least it doesn't seem to be a hassle to get it resolved.
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Enjoy powerful performance with this compact HP Pavilion Wave computer. The Intel i3 processor provides fast data handling, while the 1TB hard drive lets you store plenty of files. This HP Pavilion Wave computer has 8GB of RAM to run the latest applications and four USB ports for connecting multiple accessories.
Overall3 out of 5
3 out of 5Still can't get the speaker/microphone to work.
By Murphdad013
from New York , ny
The HP help line is terrible and Best Buy was no help at all. In fact I spoke directly ....finally...with someone at HP who said that my Paviliion Wave needed an external microphone headset for montonaccess Cortona. WRONG!!!!
CraigB
Texas
It has a built in microphone
January 16, 2017
I own this unit and it has a built in microphone. I use it for Cortana regularly. Sounds like the support person got it wrong.
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Arlo Pro takes the worrying out of life with the 100% Wire-Free indoor/outdoor home monitoring system. Arlo Pro includes rechargeable batteries, motion and sound-activated alerts, 2-way audio, a 100+ decibel siren, and 7 days of free cloud HD video recordings. Arlo covers every angle to help keep you safe and protected.
Overall4 out of 5
4 out of 5Good system with lots of potential
By CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Extremely Quick setup (A 2 camera system takes roughly 30 minutes)
Very easy set up. It comes with basic instructions but the app nicely walks you through each step
No need to run wires
Compact
Discreet cameras easily blend in with lighter color homes
Good daytime video quality for the price
Includes microphone and speaker
Flexible mounting options. Included option is easy but other fixed mounts can be used
Large rechargeable batteries
Motion trigger is supposed to get an update to determine if the motion is by a person
All devices get regular security updates. Even the cameras get updated wirelessly. Nice considering cameras are a new target for hackers.
Inanimate objects don’t seem to cause false motion triggers
Standard external hard drive can be used for local storage
Basic plan included for free
Easily expandable
Extremely Quick setup (A 2 camera system takes roughly 30 minutes)
Very easy set up. It comes with basic instructions but the app nicely walks you through each step
No need to run wires
Compact
Discreet cameras easily blend in with lighter color homes
Good daytime video quality for the price
Includes microphone and speaker
Flexible mounting options. Included option is easy but other fixed mounts can be used
Large rechargeable batteries
Motion trigger is supposed to get an update to determine if the motion is by a person
All devices get regular security updates. Even the cameras get updated wirelessly. Nice considering cameras are a new target for hackers.
Inanimate objects don’t seem to cause false motion triggers
Standard external hard drive can be used for local storage
Basic plan included for free
Easily expandable
Cons
Support for Windows is poor for the new touchscreen devices.
No Windows app for Windows 8 and 10 devices of any size.
Video quality, mainly night time, is probably not good enough for legal purposes.
Night video quality makes recognition near impossible past approximately 10 feet
Easy to steal or move regardless of mounting
Camera speaker is not very loud
Provided screws use too fine of a thread and the metal head strips out easy
All videos are public if someone can intercept your emails on the way to your inbox. (Email delivery by design is not encrypted so if someone intercepts your emails on the way they can see any of your videos with audio)
Recording time is fixed so even if motion or sound is still occurring you can miss recording
Web interface has some bugs such as freezing on zoom, Live play button disappears, and touch doesn’t work.
Sound recording doesn’t occur until a few seconds after video recording
At least one camera exhibited a noticeable “ticking clock” sound when recording audio
Connecting them hardwired defeats the weatherproofing
Instructions do not give tutorial about advanced features but rather let you discover them
No organizer for hard drive recordings
Dependent on good upload internet speeds. The more cameras you have, the faster the upload speed you need. This can be a limiting factor for some.
Long lag time to start live viewing even with very fast connection
Support for Windows is poor for the new touchscreen devices.
No Windows app for Windows 8 and 10 devices of any size.
Video quality, mainly night time, is probably not good enough for legal purposes.
Night video quality makes recognition near impossible past approximately 10 feet
Easy to steal or move regardless of mounting
Camera speaker is not very loud
Provided screws use too fine of a thread and the metal head strips out easy
All videos are public if someone can intercept your emails on the way to your inbox. (Email delivery by design is not encrypted so if someone intercepts your emails on the way they can see any of your videos with audio)
Recording time is fixed so even if motion or sound is still occurring you can miss recording
Web interface has some bugs such as freezing on zoom, Live play button disappears, and touch doesn’t work.
Sound recording doesn’t occur until a few seconds after video recording
At least one camera exhibited a noticeable “ticking clock” sound when recording audio
Connecting them hardwired defeats the weatherproofing
Instructions do not give tutorial about advanced features but rather let you discover them
No organizer for hard drive recordings
Dependent on good upload internet speeds. The more cameras you have, the faster the upload speed you need. This can be a limiting factor for some.
Long lag time to start live viewing even with very fast connection
Setup was very easy, particularly for a security camera system. The entire process is achieved by following the steps one by one as the app tells you. Install the app, set up your Arlo account, plug in the base unit to power and internet, sync the cameras, hang the cameras, and you’re done. A two camera system only took approximately 30 minutes. The kit includes metal bases, screws, and wall anchors but the screws are small and easy to strip. The metal bases work with a strong magnet included inside the camera. Although convenient, the metal bases allow someone to easily steal or move these expensive cameras so placement is important. Netgear offers screw in mounts for a more rigid and secure mounting. The entire hardware and software process has had a lot of thought put into making it easy. There are no complicated router changes needed to be made at all or complicated programming. Oddly some features, like changing the recording quality, must be done on a regular computer for which there is no app.
There is one strange feature omission from Netgear. This system has a Pro designation and yet support for regular, more modern computers, is limited. Businesses by and large use Windows computers and the most popular type of Windows computers selling today are Windows 2-in-1 convertibles with touchscreens this trend is forecasted to increase and yet this system is barely even useable by any touchscreen Windows device. This is also odd because what better way to check out a security video than on a large screen. You are forced to use a browser to view videos which the experience varies based on browser. Simple things like moving a slider don’t work because the website doesn’t work with touch. Browser administration has other bugs, such as the Live Video button disappearing. If this was an app you wouldn’t have to worry about how the end user’s choice of browser affects the experience. Not having a Universal Windows app is a missed opportunity. I have seen a large increase in clients that are buying Windows 2-in-1 systems instead of desktops or Android/iOS tablets for their primary system. A Windows Universal app they could support such systems, or any other form factor of Windows for that matter. Imagine if the app was on Xbox One in your living room and you want to check on things outside. Just say “Hey Cortana, open Arlo” and you could see your video feed or videos quickly and easily from the convenience of your couch on a big screen. That would be great. If you have smaller Windows devices, the website is unusable. It tries to get you to use an app that doesn’t exist. Oddly enough if you have a link to a shared video the same website will serve you the video in a mobile optimized format. Smaller Windows devices and Windows Mobile devices are left unsupported. Future updates and app releases could easily alleviate this but for now Windows support is poor.
The base unit comes with a Sync/Siren button, network port, and two USB ports for storage. The siren is loud and sounds like newer smoke alarms. It can be trigger locally, by the app, or via configurable rules such as motion or audio sensing. You can switch the base unit to modes for recording for motion and/or audio, no recording, or armed or disarmed based using Geofencing. You can also define your own custom modes allowing specific cameras and audio for each to be on or off. Due to battery restrictions, there is no continuous recording. Recording time from motion is a default of 5 seconds regardless of if the motion continues. Cameras include built in IR for night vision, motion sensor, microphone, and speaker and are weatherproof assuming the charging plug cover is on. One large difference with the Pro version is the inclusion of large rechargeable batteries which should last quite a long time between charging. When video is recorded, it is uploaded via your internet connection to your account meaning a good upload internet speed is important. Videos are stored in a calendar format and can be viewed, shared, or deleted from the interface.
Overall performance when factoring in the price for features was good. Shuddering and lag was minimal with surprisingly good wireless range. Remote viewing of live video is reasonably quick although it still took several seconds and is highly dependent on your internet upload speed. Audio took about 2 seconds to start every time after a motion trigger recording or manual live viewing and had a slightly audible tick-tock sound. The built-in speaker is barely audible at max volume. As with all security systems, there is a loss of some detail to do recording compression. Daytime recordings show signs of video compression but subjects are still reasonably recognizable at approximately 25 feet. Nighttime viewing brings recognition down to approximately 10-15 feet before subjects hard to recognize. Although not official, friends in law enforcement said it is not good for legal purposes as they must have a definitive, recognizable face to use the video. Motion detection was generally good but people moving fast could often elude the recording. Due to the fixed recording time, the system could also miss recording an event if it ran past the configured time.
A big concern is the video sharing feature. Arlo by default emails you anytime it records. It conveniently sends you a screenshot of what it recorded. However; the email sends a direct link to the video that can be viewed without logging in. This would be even more concerning if you had cameras in your house. By definition, is sent unsecured between providers. Although the industry is trying to improve that, you should always assume your emails have no encryption when sent to you. This means that it is possible and relatively easy for criminals to eavesdrop and see your videos with audio without ever knowing your account info. The good thing is that is easy to remedy turning off the feature that emails you when it records a video. That way the link to the video won’t be sent out on the web unsecured and your videos are still stored in the cloud without being shared openly. Hopefully, Netgear will remedy this in the future.
Overall, it is a nice system for the price point when compared to the competition. Compared to legacy DVR and NVR security camera systems this makes the whole process a lot more accessible for the average consumer. As long as you keep your expectations in line it is a nice system. All security camera systems, particularly ones costing less than $2,500 have limitations.
Overall, it is a nice system for the price point when compared to the competition. Compared to legacy DVR and NVR security camera systems this makes the whole process a lot more accessible for the average consumer. As long as you keep your expectations in line it is a nice system. All security camera systems, particularly ones costing less than $2,500 have limitations.
A standout feature, even comparing to high end systems, is this system will automatically get updates for security. Anyone who watched the news in late 2016 saw that the biggest hack was perpetrated using devices, such as camera systems, that weren’t updated. That is something still lacking in the “professional” security camera world. You also won’t have to hire someone to come pull wiring through your house or small business. Cameras can be placed wherever you can mount a base. If for some reason, such as poor signal, the place doesn’t work they are easy to move. It not be a real high definition security camera system but it also costs nowhere near as much. Just be sure you can accept the Cons before buying. The overall system is well thought out and with continued improvement of the listed cons this could be the best system for nearly any price.
CraigB
Texas
New developments after extended use
January 31, 2017
I have discovered some new elements to the system with more use.
The first is that I did find a way to adjust video quality via the app and not just the website. It turns out the way it is displayed is as one of 3 choices instead of a slider.
Next is that the cameras only work with Netgear's proprietary charger. Even though it uses USB both the manual an other say it only works with the Netgear one.
Finally I discovered that the motion detection does sometimes act strange. I purchase one additional camera and for some reason no matter the sensitivity of the motion it records a motion even every 30 seconds at night. I have observed that it seems to happen more if my neighbor has a light on but even that is not consistent.
+4points
4of 4voted this comment as helpful.
CraigB's Questions
CraigB has not submitted any questions.
Bring out your creativity to share your life stories. Adobe Sensei AI technology* and automated options do the heavy lifting so you can instantly turn photos into art, warp photos to fit any shape, and more. Add moving overlays or 3D camera motion to take your photos to a whole new level, and save them as MP4s for easy sharing on social. Grow your skills with 60 Guided Edits that step you through how to create perfect pet pics; extend, remove, or replace photo backgrounds; and more. Effortlessly organize your photos, and craft personalized creations like dynamic photo and video slideshows with all-new styles and inspirational quote graphics. Transform your favorite photos into gallery-quality wall art, beautiful prints, and unique keepsakes with the built-in prints and gifts service. †And enjoy an updated look that makes the software even easier to use and navigate. *Adobe Sensei is the technology that powers intelligent features across all Adobe products to dramatically improve the design and delivery of digital experiences, using artificial intelligence and machine learning in a common framework.†FUJIFILM Prints & Gifts service is available in the U.S. only.
Can photoshop Elements 2022 edit both video and photos? Thanks,
Photoshop Elements does photos. Premier Elements does videos.
2 years, 6 months ago
by
CraigB
Sit back, relax and let the Samsung Jet Mop automatically clean your floors. Samsung’s Jet Mop automatically cleans all type of floors, like tile, vinyl, laminate or hardwood. This robotic mop features dual spinning fiber pads that easily and quickly remove dust and dirt. Now, you can simply take it easy as the intelligent Jet Mop does the hard work for you.
Does this unit require water(specific) or cleaner(special brand)? Example: deionized, distilled, tap, boiled, spring. Example: fabuloso, pledge, mop and glow, bleach/water, brand compatible.
Unfortunately, the instructions say to use only water and nothing else.
3 years, 6 months ago
by
CraigB
Monitor your property and capture 1080p footage with this eufy smart floodlight camera. The super-bright 2500-lumen motion-activated lights provide excellent illumination for nighttime recording. This eufy smart floodlight camera offers the option to livestream HD video from your smartphone, and two-way audio communication lets you interact with visitors from afar.
will it work with homekit
Not at this time but Eufy did add Homekit to their other cameras. Maybe this one will be added later.
4 years, 1 month ago
by
CraigB
eufy eufyCam 2, 2-Camera Surveillance System: See everything that happens around your home in 1080p HD with this eufy eufyCam 2 kit. Quick and easy to set up, two wireless cameras and a home base provide all that you need to get started, while smart integration ensures you can easily connect to other smart devices. This eufy eufyCam 2 kit provides 365 days of use from a single charge for continuous observation.
How are people posting reviews of these cameras, with photos and everything, when it's not available for pre order? Where are people buying them?
Probably the same way Amazon does. They let some regular people have a chance to try the product a little early and review it. They do that for movies and restaurants all the time to see if any tweaks need to be made before opening things up wide scale.
4 years, 6 months ago
by
CraigB
eufy eufyCam 2, 2-Camera Surveillance System: See everything that happens around your home in 1080p HD with this eufy eufyCam 2 kit. Quick and easy to set up, two wireless cameras and a home base provide all that you need to get started, while smart integration ensures you can easily connect to other smart devices. This eufy eufyCam 2 kit provides 365 days of use from a single charge for continuous observation.
How many cameras can connect to the home base?
I read in one place where it said 20 but the biggest question would be storage until they offer the USB expansion dongle. There is a place in the app help that talks about formatting up to 128GB flash drive so many that is already supported.
4 years, 6 months ago
by
CraigB
Why can't i sort the the home theater projectors by "Native Resolution"
One of the most important features of a home theater projector is its Native Resolution. Please allow us to filter our selection by this very important parameter. Every other retailer's site allows this. It does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling when you hide important information about a product.
Because in the consumer space, most projector manufacturers no longer release their native resolution. Projector Central is a good site for info but if you are looking for true, native 4K resolution you are looking at likely over $10,000.
4 years, 7 months ago
by
CraigB
Work or play on the go with this Dell G5 15 notebook. The 15.6-inch FHD display delivers a clear crisp picture, while the NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti graphics card supports most modern games. This Dell G5 15 notebook has a 256GB SSD and 1TB hard drive for ample storage and quick file access, and the Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM offer quick multitasking.
On the 1660 Ti model, does it ship with a DisplayPort input?
Work or play on the go with this Dell G5 15 notebook. The 15.6-inch FHD display delivers a clear crisp picture, while the NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti graphics card supports most modern games. This Dell G5 15 notebook has a 256GB SSD and 1TB hard drive for ample storage and quick file access, and the Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM offer quick multitasking.
Hi, I bought this laptop. I don't know how to activate windows 10 included. Thanks
Make sure all updates are installed first and then run the Windows Activation Troubleshooter under Settings->About. You will see text offering to troubleshoot. Took a slew of updates and three times troubleshooting before it stopped.
4 years, 9 months ago
by
CraigB
Work or play on the go with this Dell G5 15 notebook. The 15.6-inch FHD display delivers a clear crisp picture, while the NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti graphics card supports most modern games. This Dell G5 15 notebook has a 256GB SSD and 1TB hard drive for ample storage and quick file access, and the Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM offer quick multitasking.
What is the display refresh rate?
It's 60Hz. It's probably the only negative of this rig. Dell does offer it with a 144Hz screen.
4 years, 9 months ago
by
CraigB
Remove hair without wax or razors using the Lumilisse by Conair hair removal device. Rapid pulses of intense light help prevent hair regrowth, delivering permanent results with consistent use. The FDA-cleared device uses sensors to safely activate. Choose between continuous mode for large areas or manual mode to target specific trouble spots. The Lumilisse by Conair hair removal device includes two attachments to ensure perfectly smooth results all over.
Can this be used on Facial and Neck hair?
There is a special tip for facial hair but you can't use it very well around the chin and jaw line or close to the eyes. It is best to make sure to follow the initial test as for some it can cause a rash or heat burn. My wife has PCOS and tried to use it to treat the facial hairs and it caused a heat burn and very dry scaly skin and she could not continue to use it there.
5 years, 1 month ago
by
CraigB