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    May 13, 2016
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    December 16, 2018
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Gerbil's Reviews
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If you’re like many busy people, you have a dozen things going on at once, and working on the computer is no different. There’s a good chance you’re already using all your computer’s ports and wish you had extras to connect new devices. Thankfully, this hub helps optimize your workspace by adding two extra USB ports, an ethernet port, an HDMI port, a USB-C Power Delivery port, and SD and Micro SD slots. Simply plug it into your computer’s USB-C port and start connecting your mouse, keyboard and other accessories. Transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps move files quickly and efficiently and its compact size makes it perfect for slipping into a purse or backpack. Don’t limit your connected devices – enjoy more options with the Insignia NS-PH571MS23 7-Port USB-C Hub.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Lacks USB-data port
on October 23, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
The solid exterior (feels like it could be magnesium alloy?) and sturdy braided cable give this USB hub a premium look and feel.
My biggest complaint is that this hub lacks a USB-C data port. You can get this plus all of the features/ports this hub has in a competing hub that costs less (at the time of writing) from a top brand, which really knocks down the appeal of this hub.
The hub worked well for me in Linux, Windows, and Android. I couldn’t get HDMI working on my Pixel phones, but that’s a design problem of those phones (thanks Google). With the hub plugged into a PC with Windows 11, dummy-lettered ‘USB Drives’ were created for the card reader slots when no cards were inserted. This is likely due to the default Microsoft drivers used for this hub, but with seemingly no product support page offering alternate drivers, it seems I’m stuck with this behavior. I’ve seen this happen with other hubs, but then I’ve also seen this *not* happen for others (with (micro)SD card slots).
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
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Meet Pixel 8. The helpful phone engineered by Google, with an amazing camera, powerful security, and an all-day battery. [1] With Google AI, you can do more, even faster – like fix photos, screen calls, and get answers. [2] And Pixel 8 has personal safety features for added peace of mind. [3]
 
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Customer Rating
4 out of 5
4
Solid phone, mild improvements, many new gimmicks
on October 18, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
The Pixel 8 brings some slight improvements over the previous generation. Instead of getting features and fixes I’ve been hoping would come for years, I mostly got bad gimmicks that I wouldn’t miss if they disappeared. Still, I see this as a good phone I’d recommend to a friend.
I tend to hang onto and continue to use technology for a long time, so I greatly appreciate Google pushing the bar with seven years of updates for this model. If the first-generation Pixel had that level of support, it would just be running out of time as this model releases. Once a phone stops receiving support and updates, I immediately consider it e-waste, since having unpatched vulnerabilities opens the phone up to active exploitation which can cause *major* problems. This promise is backed by Google maintaining a stock of replacement parts for the same duration, though I find this part a little more sketchy. I once took a warranty-covered Pixel 4a to an authorized repair center where apparently they weren’t able to acquire a replacement screen. So mileage may vary on this part.
Other noticeable benefits I appreciate include:
- Increase in High Brightness Mode from 1,000 to 1,400 nits, and peak brightness from 1,400 to 2,000 nits.
- ‘Smooth Display’ provides up to 120 Hz refresh rate “for some content”. Especially great for people consuming a lot of visual content daily.
- A slight improvement in the audio quality of the built-in speakers.
- ‘Audio Magic Eraser’, one of the new AI-powered features, is actually somewhat useful. It can tone down background music (though it doesn’t seem to eliminate it altogether) and some kinds of background noise. However, it fails miserably when it comes to speech, such as from talking heads on the news coming through a TV in the background, which doesn’t seem to be detected as something that can be adjusted.
- Reorganization of the camera app into separate photo and video sections, making it significantly easier to navigate. Though this applies to previous models getting Android 14 as well.
Most of the AI-powered features feel incredibly gimmicky to me, like something that would be more at place in a child’s toy than a flagship phone. The results are inconsistent, and on average I would say pretty bad.
- ‘Face Swap’ works better than most other AI-powered features, because it works by analyzing multiple pictures of the same scene within a tight time frame, allowing you to choose faces from multiple pictures to create a new composite picture. The more stationary the subjects, the better. But even slight head tilts and rotations can significantly throw off the quality of the result. And what might look passable at first glance on a phone, might look glaringly bad on a desktop monitor where finer detail is more abundantly clear.
- The ‘Magic Edtior’ allows moving, resizing, eliminating, and replacing objects in an image. The problem comes with trying to fill in any gaps made during the process, as it does *not* have the option to learn from other similar photos, unlike Face Swap. The results are usually quite unpleasant. Trying to remove a car, for example, might give you an alternate (though probably horribly distorted) car, or might smudge the area into a nonsensical blur, or try to fill in based on the surrounding background (with most attempts being noticeably bad). Multiple options are provided to choose from, but I found it difficult to find even one that seemed remotely passable across multiple re-rolls. Trying to delete an entire ground surface has similar oddities. In one case, it tried inserting a tree that didn’t even remotely look like it belonged there and was distorted into an unnatural ball shape. Replacing the sky works best, but not without problems.
- The Google Assistant’s new ability to summarize web pages would be great if it actually worked, but for me it was pretty bad. The web is flooded with articles that stretch two to four useful sentences into many paraphs, all for the sake of inserting superfluous advertising and inflating page view times. As an example, in the summarization for an article about how to access the legacy version of CS:GO on Steam, it created three bullet points: one rewording the article’s title (useless), one semi-useful tidbit stating that you needed Counter-Strike 2 in your library for this to work, and completely whiffed on the third point. Completing missing were the instructions for actually accessing the legacy game, which is almost certainly what the visitor actually wanted from this article.
The speech-to-text was said to be improved on the Pixel 8. I’ve noticed some steady improvements over time on older Pixel models as Google has improved on this feature behind the scenes, but I’ve noticed no improvement on the Pixel 8 compared to my Pixel 7 Pro. The assistant still creates run-on sentences for me with a marked allergy to commas despite my very deliberate pauses (one of the supposed fixes), among other issues.
Some other observations:
- Having been spoiled with the 6 Pro and 7 Pro, it’s hard to say if the main camera sensor has had any improvements. That’s because with image stacking across the main sensor, a much better wide-angle lens, and a telephoto lens, the Pro phones can manage to pick up *much* more detail in a single photo at any zoom level–including non-zoomed–than the Pixel 8 can. There seems to be a difference in the default color balance and contrast levels, but nothing that actually seems significant.
- The battery is tough to test thoroughly in the short timeframe I was given before my review, but the active usage time seems on par with the previous two generations. There does seem to be an improvement however in the standby time (the time the battery charge will last when the phone is not actively being used) from the start. With the Pixel 6 Pro and 7 Pro, the standby time started out really bad, and took longer to reach the point that my Pixel 8 is at now. Not a perfect unit comparison, but it’s what I have to go on.
- I was a bit surprised by Google’s choice to reserve the manual exposure controls (shutter speed, ISO, and white balance) exclusively for the Pro model. This strikes me as a sleazy and manipulative business tactic, and I don’t think it necessarily serves Google’s business model well.
- Pixel 8 and 8 Pro get ‘improved’ facial recognition that also works for app unlocks and payments. Unfortunately, I don’t trust facial recognition to be a single point of failure in the security model. I think we need more customizable authentication options. For example, I’d be good with authenticating either with fingerprint, or with facial recognition *combined with* a PIN or pattern match. This currently doesn’t seem possible.
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
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The 800 cfm – 12-amp Electric Turbine Blower is, quite simply, the most powerful electric blower in the marketplace. Other 800 cfm (Cubic Feet per Minute) blowers don’t put out wind power at 135 mph. Physics shouldn’t allow it, but our engineers found a workaround. And even though you’re going to want to blow at that speed all the time, you can use the variable speed control to dial it down. When you need even more power than the 800 cfm/135 mph can provide, there’s the Hyper-Stream nozzle that focuses all the airflow right where you need it. Believe it or not, all that power can be controlled with one hand. The whole unit is only 6.6 lbs., and that amazing Turbine tech creates a wind tunnel that is easy to point. The cord retainer keeps extension cords from pulling apart, even on snags. And you don’t need any tools to put it together. Time to go clear that lawn.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Lack of secondary handle/pommel is a bummer
on October 12, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
The Worx WG521 is a powerful corded leaf blower, but the lack of a secondary handle or pommel makes it look lackluster compared to other options.
[ Pros ]
- Good power-to-price ratio, comparable to similar options I’ve seen.
- It tested well on leaves, and grass and weed trimmings. It only really got caught up with leaves in bushes and among various plants.
- The rheostatic wheel allows fine-grained control over the fan speed and is easy to access and operate (by thumb while holding the blower).
[ Cons ]
- My biggest gripe by far is the lack of a pommel or secondary handle(s) for two-handed operation; this is a very common feature in competing products. Full fan speed produces considerable push-back which can be tiring to fight against with single-handed operation. I really don’t understand this design choice, and it greatly detracts from the appeal of the blower for me.
- Lacks finesse. The wide nozzle is fine for blowing stuff away, but makes it a bit more difficult to corral debris into a tight area, or to have fine control around things you don’t want to blow away or overwhelm (mulch, plants, etc.) It would have been nice to have an optional narrower nozzle, but I didn’t see such an option on the Worx website.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
0points
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The U6 Series continues Hisense's mission to bring leading-edge technology to everyone. Adding Mini-LED and over 4X the local dimming zones in 2023, along with Quantum Dot Color and Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos, the U6 series delivers must-have features for uncompromising performance and value. The U6 series incorporates Dolby Vision IQ to its already long list of supported HDR formats. Dolby Vision IQ leverages the full intelligence of your TV to deliver a perfect picture in your room at every moment. It dynamically adjusts to the light in the room and delivers the best experience possible for all content types and HDR formats. Add Game Mode Plus with a variable refresh rate at 60Hz for smoother gaming on next-generation game consoles. And, with Hands-Free Voice Control searching and playing all your favorite content is simple and seamless.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Decent for a low-budget TV
on July 6, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
[ Picture Quality ]
For the price point, the picture quality is good. The mini LED backlighting works very well. I didn’t notice any blocky localized dimming in the content I watched, whereas I do tend to notice this in TVs with larger backlighting zones. True black shows as very dark. Brightness and vividness seemed lacking compared to the more expensive TVs I’m more used to, but I’m not disappointed at this price point. Having both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support in a budget TV is nice. This was my first TV with Dolby IQ, which adjusts the picture based on the current ambient lighting in the room. I imagine this will work very well for many or most people, but I found myself preferring to manually fiddle with the display settings.
The hardware seems slightly underpowered. I noticed occasional hiccups when watching some content (probably due to codecs being used with higher processing requirements), while not seeing issues with others.
[ Setup & Operation ]
The setup was hassle-free. Google TV isn’t my favorite streaming platform, but it has a lot to offer, is superior to custom OEM software/solutions that I’ve used, and integrates well with the Google smart home ecosystem. Controlling the TV from the Google Home app, via assistant voice prompts from other Google Home devices, and using the remote controller all worked well.
[ Misc. ]
When the microphone is muted (using a slider at the bottom), four particularly annoying yellow/gold LED lights remain lit. The remote controller has half black, half white buttons on a black base, which is not a great look. It also does not have numeric buttons for manually entering channel numbers (when viewing ‘live’ TV, such as OTA, cable, or satellite), instead having a generic number button that pops up a number row overlay on the display that is quite cumbersome to use.
I attempted to connect a gaming laptop via two different HDMI cables but could not get any output to display. The laptop works fine with another 55” 4K TV over HDMI, as well as every computer monitor that I’ve tried, and my Blu-ray player connected via HDMI cable to this TV worked fine, so I’m baffled as to what went wrong here.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
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Design meets function with the Bespoke Jet Cordless Stick Vacuum. Innovative design combines a Clean Station, charging stand and powerful Jet Stick into one show-stopping vacuum. Available in contemporary colors and premium finishes to beautifully fit your décor and lifestyle. Built-in Clean Station lets you empty the dustbin at the press of a button while also charging your vacuum. The Bespoke Jet is a powerful Jet Stick, so you can tackle any mess across multiple floor types such as carpets, hardwood floors and tile. The Bespoke Jet is engineered around a lightweight, maneuverable design, plus a multistage filtration system that maintains cleaner air in your home.
 
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Customer Rating
2 out of 5
2
Poor carpet cleaning, clean station a bust
on May 19, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
[ SUMMARY ]
Poor cleaning performance on carpet. Clean Station dumping is not great. I would not recommend this vac, especially in households with furry pets.
[ CLEANING POWER ]
While the Bespoke Jet does OK with bare floors and low/no-pile rugs, when it comes to pulling up hair, fur, and dust from medium-pile carpet, it performs poorly. I’ve used many cordless stick vacs, and the performance of this vac for me is easily among the worst. On a carpet run with this vac on ‘MAX’ setting, it picked up less dust, hair, and fur than another stick vac that I immediately followed up with afterward, vacuuming the same carpeted area. Reiterating just to be clear, the Bespoke Jet vac failed to pick up *most* of the detritus in my carpet.
With other vacs, the power of the roller tends to result in easier pushing, in some cases even being slightly self-propelled, but this vac’s roller doesn’t seem to offer the same advantage. It requires a good amount of manual force to maneuver the vacuum.
[ CLEAN STATION ]
The big gimmick here is the vacuum-powered dump built into the station. The idea sounds great, but this just didn’t work well for me. The problem is that dust, hair, and fur tend to collect around the metal mesh grille filter inside the dust bin of the vacuum cleaner, and the dumping mode of the Clean Station is insufficient to pull this mess out, thus requiring manual intervention to fully clean out the dust bin. This was not an issue with overfilling the dust bin (which has a pretty low capacity, by the way), and I didn’t vacuum up anything wet, damp, or sticky.
Neither the vacuum itself nor the Clean Station offer a place to store the included combination brush and crevice accessories; it seems users are expected to waste more money and space on their separately purchasable accessory cradle for that convenience.
Probably a unit fluke suggestive of poor quality control, my Clean Station tilts very visibly to the left. Using a level tool, I verified the base of the station to be level, then confirmed the top of the station to be quite un-level.
[ BATTERY ]
The battery runtime seems mediocre. It seems to get about 15 minutes of runtime at ‘MAX’ setting. The ‘JET’ setting really chews through battery charge and is thus only useful for spot cleaning. Fortunately, the battery is hot-swappable allowing for extended cleaning if you have multiple batteries, and theoretically allows for extended product lifetime compared to vacs with non-replaceable batteries. The run-time available from the battery is visible on the built-in LCD screen while using the vacuum, and the current charge level is visible when the vacuum is docked and charging. The battery seemed to charge reasonably fast, about an hour for the last 40%, for example.
[ OTHER ]
The adjustable length of the main pipe is an unusual but nice feature. It gave me a reasonably comfortable length when extended for main use, and the shortened length was helpful when cleaning stairs.
The quick and easy thumb access to power and suction controls on the handle are very nice. Many vacs place these control in much less convenient locations.
Unlike many stick vacs, the roller continues to operate while in a fully upright position. This helps when vacuuming carpeted stairs.
While it’s possible to empty the dust bin without the use of the Clean Station, this doesn’t seem designed with that option in mind. The bottom hatch release button is situated on the rear of the dust bin, obscured by the main pipe when the dust bin is secured in place. It’s possible to access the button without removing the dust bin, but it’s probably better to do so first. Even then, the hatch release button was awkward to press and didn’t reliably release the hatch for me. The dust bin release button was even more awkward to use.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+1point
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Tackle everything. Worry about nothing. This laptop is co-engineered with AMD to adapt to you – peak performance when you need it, not when you don't.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Great performance, some issues, soldered SSD?
on May 16, 2023
Posted by: Gerbil
[ SUMMARY ]
CPU and memory offer amazing performance for an ultraportable laptop. Great construction quality. Good battery life. Bright and vivid display but only FHD 60Hz. Great camera. Sad keyboard. Decent speakers. Stingy port selection. Soldered SSD feels abusive. The last point especially pushes this into ‘not recommended’ territory for me.
[ PERFORMANCE ]
The AMD Ryzen 7 7736U (basically a reiteration of the 6800U) is the star of the show, and is among the best–if not the best–CPU you can get in an ultraportable laptop (at time of writing) between performance, features, and battery usage optimization. Paired with DDR5 6400 MHz RAM, this laptop performs extremely well at every task you could reasonably expect to do with an ultraportable. Of course, without a discrete GPU, this can’t be compared to gaming laptops (which don’t fall in the ultraportable category anyway). But when playing older 3D games or some newish games with more modest settings, the integrated graphics performed surprisingly well in my testing. Full benchmark data is out of scope of this review, but if interested, do a little searching and I can’t imagine you’ll be disappointed.
[ CONSTRUCTION ]
The magnesium alloy base and frame seem extremely sturdy and resistant to bending. The aluminum back cover is less so, but still great. Both appear to have an oleophobic coating applied that does well at resisting fingerprints and smudges. Both have a very mildly textured surfaces (not as smooth as flat aluminum, for example). Magnets hold the display overly firmly to the upper frame when closed, making it annoying to open.
[ DISPLAY ]
This display is likely the brightest (at max setting) of all laptops I’ve had, and very decently vibrant and good color representation, though with plenty of glare thanks to the glossy finish. I didn’t have any issue with touch sensitivity or accuracy. The 16:10 aspect ratio is a decent compromise between 4:3 and 16:9. Where it falls short is merely having FHD resolution and 60Hz refresh rate; there are plenty of non-gaming laptops out there that do better at one or both.
[ CAMERA ]
The camera is quite good, handling a wide range of lighting conditions brilliantly, even in low-lighting conditions. I was able to record 2560x1440 video at 15 FPS and 1920x1090 video at 30 FPS. Windows Hello login/unlocking is supported. The electronic shutter, while better than nothing, gives a me a little less confidence in privacy compared to either an electronic shutter that is clearly visible, or better, an external and manually/mechanically activated privacy slider.
[ KEYBOARD ]
I’m disappointed with the keyboard. I’ve been spoiled by the top-tier laptop keyboards of a certain other competitor. The key travel is *extremely* shallow. While key actuation is pretty snappy, the tactile feedback in general just wasn’t doing it for me. The macro keys did not seem responsive for me, I’d usually have to press them multiple times or hold them down for them to trigger. For whatever reason, they only made one of the four macro keys programmable, which seems to be a disappointing waste of space. Both fingerprint reader and power buttons are implemented as faux keyboard keys in the function row, but they aren’t meaningfully aligned. Because of this, I have to spend a little extra time and effort to hunt them down. Simply moving them both one position to the right could have negated some of this inconvenience.
[ TRACK PAD ]
Super annoyingly, mostly due to the addition of the column of macro keys, the touchpad is off-center relative to the main keys by a significant margin. Unlike the rest of the laptop, it is a fingerprint and smudge magnet. But it is large, and it seems to be some variant of their pressure-sensitive line. It has force feedback and some useful gestures not found in most other laptops, including my favorite, the one-finger click and drag.
[ OTHER / MISC. ]
- While I didn’t manage to get close to the advertised battery life, it still seemed quite good when compared to other laptops I own. I played with the brightness and audio volume a lot, but it seems on average, streaming a medium-quality video full-screen for an hour using the built-in speakers while having a Bluetooth mouse connected but not being actively used consumed about 11% battery charge.
- Very stingy port selection; Thunderbold/USB-C only. No USB-A, no headphone jack, no HDMI or DP.
Soldered RAM and SSD. I can ignore the former, but the latter is plain wrong considering how prone storage devices are to failure (even SSDs).
- The SSD benchmarked for me at 3552 MB/s read, 3478 MB/s write. The write speed is decent enough, but the read speed is rather lackluster. I can notice the difference in app and OS load times compared to a faster SSD.
- The speakers are decent, but offer neither the loudest nor clearest sound among laptops I own, whether of the same size/class, or even among Bang & Olufsen sound setups.
- Has extremely minimal Insyde EFI firmware.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+2points
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The Google Pixel Watch has a beautiful circular, domed design and new experience with Wear OS by Google.₁ Live healthier with sleep, heart rate, and activity tracking on Fitbit₂ and get things done on the go with Google Assistant, Maps, Wallet, Calendar, and Gmail.₃ Works with most phones running on Android 8.0 or newer.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Rough debut, but not terrible
on December 22, 2022
Posted by: Gerbil
The Pixel Watch is a rough introduction to the smartwatch market for Google, feeling rushed and unpolished. It’s not a bad smartwatch, and may still be worth consideration for early adopters and those heavily invested in the Google/Android ecosystem. But I think the average user would better off waiting (and hoping) for improvements in future iterations. I did not test the LTE functionality of this model. I was expecting the non-LTE model, but a shipping mix-up left me with the LTE model.
[ The good ]
For all the nitpicks I may have with this watch, it’s still a very functional device. It does most of what I’d expect from a smart watch, and a lot of what I’d expect from a fitness tracker. It looks sleek and comes with two silicone bands which feel nice, cover a reasonably wide range of wrist sizes, tuck away nicely, and are quick and easy to swap. Build quality all around seems solid. The built-in Google Assistant is quite handy, providing a convenient means of navigating around the various functions of the device, as well as providing voice input as an alternative to the tiny on screen keyboard which can be cumbersome to use. The user interface is highly configurable, including watch face layout customization, ‘complication’ selection, a large array of pastel color themes to choose from, and a tile system that acts as both the display of useful information, as well as launching points for commonly used apps. The heart rate tracking is exceptionally responsive. The screen is reasonably bright and quite useable outside in the sunlight. Provides convenient access to notifications from your phone, with meaningful interactions/responses provided in many cases.
[ The bad ]
The elephant in the room is the “all day” battery capacity which is an overly generous description. I might manage 24 hours with battery-conserving settings and light usage. But more demanding settings such as always-on display and tracking several exercises/activities throughout the day can really put the hurt on battery charge. If I accidentally fail to turn on ‘bedtime’ mode, then I’m likely to wake up with a completely empty battery and either no or partially tracked sleep. I haven’t seen a way to schedule this mode automatically. Making matters worse is that only the official/included charging cradle is supported. I think, at a minimum, they should have supported reverse wireless charging from Pixel phones, the type of feature that can be found in a popular competing product. I can imagine battery life decay over time becoming an exceptionally annoying issue, especially considering the battery seems to be non-replaceable. The minor saving grace here is that the battery charges quickly (officially about 30/55/80 minutes for 50/80/100% recharge, which closely matches my experience).
This watch doesn’t quite feel like a full-blown fitness tracker. Some sensor features like blood oxygen and skin temperature are missing completely. Automatic activity tracking seems minimally implemented (not really a listed feature). Activity tracking lacks many metrics and features found in Fitbit and other competing watches. The way many features–which are purely software logic–are locked behind the overpriced Fitbit Premium membership feels practically predatory. And the fact that the Fitbit app is completely separate from the Watch app (the latter used to set up and configure the watch) and requires a separate account is just clumsy.
Various nitpicks include:
- Some apps didn’t feel as useful as they could or should. For example, when paired to a phone, voice prompts in the Maps app were played through the phone’s speaker instead of the watch’s speaker. Ideally, there should be a setting to change this behavior, but I did not see one. It also doesn’t seem to support offline maps the way the Maps app on phones does. Home integration seemed to be lacking some basic features that would be nice to have; like I couldn’t view my Nest doorbell or security cameras.
- The maximum volume of the speaker is rather anemic, though usually sufficient in a quiet atmosphere to understand assistant voice responses and phone calls.
- The button above the crown, used for accessing recently used apps and activating the assistant voice input, is sized and placed in a way that made it quite inconvenient for me to use.
- Enormous unused bezel around the display.
- The domed bottom surface creates a bit of a pressure point on the wrist which may bother some users, especially if wearing it to bed at night where certain positions can increase that pressure.
- The stiffness of the band can make firm docking to the charging puck awkward and can require a bit of fidgeting.
- The smart home integration is a bit lacking, though it appears that Google is working on improving on this with future updates.
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
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Chromecast with Google TV (HD) brings you the entertainment you love, including live TV,₁ in up to 1080p HDR. Get personal recommendations based on your subscriptions, viewing history, and content you own – all in one place. No more jumping between apps to decide what to watch. And use the remote to search with your voice.₂ Easily control with the Chromecast app. Watch content from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube, Apple TV app, Peacock, HBO Max and many more.
 
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Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
A decent streamer
on December 6, 2022
Posted by: Gerbil
The Chromecast HD with Google TV is a decent option for turning computer monitors (which have audio output) or old non-smart TVs into smart streaming devices, or as an alternative to the built-in software of smart TVs which are often slow, clunky, and lacking in features.
[ The good ]
- The remote is reasonably convenient to use. The voice assistant button is especially handy, as the assistant is capable of doing many things, such as launching a specified app, finding and playing requested media, showing the weather forecast, and much more. The voice assistant button can also be used to fill in text input fields where supported, which I find to be much more convenient than navigating an on-screen keyboard.
- Good Google ecosystem integration. I can, for example, launch applications on the Chromecast by voice command from a Nest Hub, cast to the Chromecast from the Chrome browser on another device, or use the remote to stream video from my Nest doorbell or security cameras to the Chromecast. Unfortunately, however, there doesn’t seem to be a way to browse local devices from the Chromecast like I can with the Nest Hub.
- Direct access to the Google Play Store provides a large selection of apps.
- Navigating the user interfaces is reasonably snappy.
[ The bad ]
- I went through the initial setup process on two separate Chromecast units. In both cases, the process took a long time and hung up with the Chromecast waiting for the Google Home app on my phone to complete the setup process. In one instance, the Google Home app indicated that setup was complete (while the Chromecast remained in its ‘waiting’ state). In the other instance, the Google Home app appeared to crash or abandon the setup process around the same spot. In both cases, I had to manually continue setup on the Chromecast/TV.
- Though the setup process stepped through configuration of the volume buttons and power button, it completely skipped the input button which didn’t work directly after setup. I had to manually enter the settings and configure this button to get it working.
- While some users may appreciate the content discovery provided by the prolific amount of advertisements present, I greatly prefer the basic app launching type of screen that a popular competing product has. The Chromecast does have an ‘Apps only mode’, but this comes at the severe punitive cost of 1: the inability to use the voice assistant button, 2: the inability to install apps (at least the two search bars used for installing new apps are removed), though apps that are already installed can still be launched, and 3: even though the home screen is reduced to an ‘Apps’ tab, they now throw in a gigantic advertisement banner that wasn’t there previously.
- Some of the apps I tested from the Play Store are a bit different than the same apps on other smart TV and streaming devices and behave a bit differently, sometimes not even being properly adjusted for use on TVs (such as expecting the presence of a touch screen).
- The lack of an Ethernet port means you’re stuck with WiFi being a potential weak point in your viewing experience.
- The two app buttons on the remote are not reconfigurable (at least not natively).
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Meet Pixel 7. Powered by Google Tensor G2, it’s fast and secure, with amazing battery life and the advanced Pixel Camera. Take beautifully authentic, accurate photos with Real Tone and stunning video with Cinematic Blur. And with the certified Titan M2 security chip and a built-in VPN, Pixel helps protect your personal data.₁
 
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4 out of 5
4
Minor upgrades from 6 Pro, but great phone
on October 23, 2022
Posted by: Gerbil
I think the Pixel 7 Pro is what the Pixel 6 Pro should have been. Having previously used Pixel phones starting with the first generation XL on through to the 6 Pro, I feel like the 7 Pro gives the smallest impetus to upgrade from the previous generation compared to other models. While the upgrades over the 6 Pro are relatively minor, most are meaningful and appreciated. Comparisons aside, the Pixel 7 Pro is a great phone that I’d easily recommend it to others.
My TL;DR synopsis is that the cameras are great. Though the upgrades to the camera kits are minor, they are quite useful. The 10-bit HDR for videos is a hot mess that isn’t ready for general use. The battery is the most lackluster core component, but I think should roughly match the Pixel 6 Pro.
___[ The Cameras ]___
The wide-angle camera kit gained a 10% bonus field of view over the 6 Pro which is a nice boon, as I thought the wide-angle lens of the 6 Pro was a bit too restrictive. It also gained auto-focus which enables the new ‘Macro Focus’ feature allowing very up-close shots. The first picture attached is of a flower taken in macro mode. This feature feels less impressive though when realizing in certain lighting conditions, you’re better off zooming in from a distance to capture more detail with the other camera kits.
The increased zoom of 5x for the telephoto lens over the 6 Pro’s 4x is a very noticeable improvement, allowing great high-detail shots from a distance. This of course multiplies the effectiveness of digital zooming beyond that range but also enhances the intermediary zoom levels which use image stacking between the main and telephoto sensors. The second, third, and fourth photos attached are of a fountain on a pond using the wide-angle camera (0.5x zoom), standard camera (1x zoom), and telephoto camera (5x zoom) respectively.
All of the camera kits now support 4K video capture at 60 FPS which is one of those ‘about time, Google’ features. But we also get 10-bit HDR support at 30 FPS which I think needs some refinement before it's ready for use. I found that this mode regularly created unnaturally bright, blown-out shots and often captured much less detail compared to the standard/default HDR. The fifth photo attached is a frame grab from a video of a water feature captured by a Pixel 6 Pro (I know, not a perfect comparison, sorry), which provides a good representation of the natural overcast lighting outside. The sixth photo attached is a similar frame grab from the Pixel 7 Pro, recorded just a few seconds later with the same lighting conditions, but with the new 10-bit HDR enabled. Default settings were used otherwise with no manual adjustments in either case. The sixth photo is much brighter and shows a ton of white speckling added to many of the rocks. The rock at the very bottom left has clearly visible tan and grey tones in the fifth image which is almost completely overtaken by the speckling seen in the sixth image. Worth mentioning is that 10-bit HDR videos are recorded with HEVC (H.265) and codec support/compatibility on other devices could be a problem for some people (I ran into this issue myself). AVC (H.264) is used otherwise (unless manually set to HEVC in the advanced camera settings).
___[ Misc. ]___
When the Pixel 6 Pro was originally released, I had major issues with tapping the screen very often not waking the phone, slow response from the fingerprint sensor, and a high rate of fingerprint rejections. Many updates later, these have all improved greatly. The Pixel 7 Pro seems to have improved even more on these issues.
The screen being up to 25% brighter than the Pixel 6 Pro sounds good on paper, but I wouldn’t have guessed the improvement to be that high by looking at them. The built-in speakers sound the same to me as the 6 Pro. It felt to me like the batteries drained roughly the same on the 6 Pro and 7 Pro with active usage, but right now my 7 Pro has less than half the standby time of my 6 Pro. My typical experience with Pixel phones is that they start out with bad standby duration and get better gradually over time, so I expect and hope it’ll eventually match the 6 Pro. Even if it does, I’d say the battery is the most lackluster core component of this phone.
I appreciate the reduced curving of the sides of the screen, but any curve provides less than no benefit to me. Unfortunately, many or maybe even most of the standard Pixel 6/7 Pro cases I’ve seen have almost no side screen protection, relying heavily on lips on the top and bottom for bump/crash protection, all for the sake of–it seems–not impeding side-swipe gestures. A silly aesthetic feature that is mostly obscured anyway by cases, coming at the cost of an increased chance of trashing the screen is not my idea of a good tradeoff.
For those wanting the arguably least secure and least reliable way to authenticate to their phones among the commonly available options, we now have face unlock. Yay?
Apps and Games ran smoothly, though the 7 Pro runs quite hot especially when running graphically taxing games. Cases help a lot as most heat permeates through the back, but a decent amount of heat can still be felt through the screen.
While I’ve heard of some people experiencing 5G issues with the Pixel 6 Pro, I didn’t really have such issues on either the 6 Pro or 7 Pro while on the T-Mobile network, so I can’t comment on whether there have been improvements. Calls continue to sound fine with decent volume and clarity on both ends.
Google, I get that you are incredibly fond of adding every blurry post-processing gimmick you can think of, but *please* take a moment to add focus bracketing/stacking to your camera app, so we can quickly and easily adjust/increase the effective depth of field of our shots. I think this would add great value to users for relatively little development time invested.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Meet the CORSAIR K100 AIR Wireless RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, an ultra-thin keyboard that places outstanding performance and productivity in a sleek brushed aluminum frame. Its unbelievably thin profile – just 11mm at its slimmest point – makes the K100 AIR the stylish centerpiece of your entire desktop and workspace. Hyper-fast, tactile CHERRY MX Ultra Low Profile mechanical keyswitches deliver a responsive, satisfying mechanical keyboard experience – you will want to use the keyboard for everything.The K100 AIR offers three ways to connect to your PC, Mac, and devices for optimal, hyper-fast wireless versatility: sub-1ms SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS, Bluetooth, or USB wired. Connect to multiple devices wirelessly and switch between them with the press of a button, with secure AES 128-bit encryption. Wired mode enables CORSAIR AXON Hyper-Processing Technology to transmit keystrokes up to 8x faster than standard gaming keyboards, helping you stay one step ahead of opponents during competition. The K100 AIR offers endlessly customizable lighting and workflows for total control over your setup. Four dedicated G keys are fully programmable to perform custom actions, shortcuts, and macros to elevate your productivity. The K100 AIR shines with brilliant per-key RGB backlighting, for nearly limitless customization for up to 20 lighting layers simultaneously, powered by AXON. Unlock full control over lighting, key remapping, and more with powerful CORSAIR iCUE software. With up to 200 hours of wireless battery life and all the premium features in CORSAIR’s thinnest gaming keyboard ever, the K100 AIR enables you to play elevated.
 
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4
My New Favorite Keyboard
on October 2, 2022
Posted by: Gerbil
I’m not going to pretend to be a connoisseur of mechanical keyboards; my knowledge and experience here are limited. But so far, I really love the parameters of the key switches and I like the aesthetics of the overall design.
[ The key switches ]
The Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches employed feel like the polar opposite of the Cherry MX Red (linear), which I absolutely hated to use. The pre-activation travel is very short but is also masked by not being ‘soft’ travel. There’s an extremely narrow margin between having just enough pressure to activate key travel, and having enough to bottom out, to the point that if you can get the key moving, you’ve almost certainly reached the point of no return. While it has less total travel than the pre-travel of most other keyboard switches, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on tactile feedback. I’m sure this won’t suit everyone’s preference, but I happen to really like it. I think I have better typing accuracy with these switches than any others I’ve used. It felt a little unusual when gaming, but I think I’m just going to need a longer adjustment period than the three days I was allotted for testing before reviewing.
[ Aesthetics ]
The brushed aluminum front plate looks sharp. Corsair did a very good job of limiting the bleed-through of lighting around the edges of the keys; it’s really only visible from extreme angles. This is something either not done well or overlooked entirely by many other backlit/RGB keyboards.
I can see why they decided to combine the G-keys (macro keys) with the wireless/Bluetooth keys, but it makes using both features inconvenient. Using them for wireless switching requires holding the 'Fn' key which, because of its distance, will require two-handed operation for many users (myself included). Using them as macro keys, the location above the keypad is far from ideal for use in general but downright problematic for gaming. This is by far my least favorite design choice of this model.
My second least favorite design aspects are the status indicators at the middle top. They’re too small for my taste and have a sort of mottled pixelation that just does not look good.
Coming in third among my disapprovals is the inconsistent lighting coverage across the cutouts of the keys. For example, in the ‘scroll lock’ key, the ‘C’ loses a significant amount of lighting compared to its neighboring ‘R’, and the ‘S’ is downright dark.
It’s worth noting that the secondary function cutouts on the keys are unlit. For example, the percent sign under the number 5 key, ‘END’ under the number 1 keypad key, and the wireless icons on the G-keys are all unlit.
[ Other thoughts ]
This keyboard seems to be more susceptible to wireless interference and poor signal quality than other wireless keyboards and mice that I’ve used, both when using the dongle and when connecting via Bluetooth. This can result in laggy key responses or even cause events to drop entirely, like a key up event dropping causing a key press to trigger constant repeats.
The ‘hardware’ profile is used instead of the ‘wireless’ profile when connected via Bluetooth which may seem counterintuitive but makes sense from a technical perspective.
The iCUE software has improved since I last used it, but it still has its issues. For example, it wanted to constantly nag me about saving hardware profiles to the keyboard’s memory even when I had done so and verified them to be working. It still lacks scripting support which a top competitor implements in their software, though Corsair does provide an arguably less convenient developer SDK. On the positive side, the lighting effects configuration is pretty extensible with lots of preset animation types and options, as well as support for layers.
[ Conclusion ]
I’m particularly critical in my judgments; I almost always find a lot of things to nitpick about, and this keyboard proved no exception. However, it feels like a step up from any other keyboard I’ve used, thanks primarily to the Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches used. The short key travel won’t be for everyone, but you might be pleasantly surprised if you give it a try.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
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Dive right in and do something amazing with your videos. Auto-generated photo and video slideshows and collages are created just for you and delivered upon launch. Get up and running quickly with the new home screen - see what's new since your last version, discover fun things to try, and get inspiring ideas, help, and tutorials. Effortlessly edit and create thanks to photo and video automation powered by Adobe Sensei AI technology. Easily make movies in the redesigned Quick Edit mode, which offers a simplified scene line that puts clips, transitions, text, effects, and more at your fingertips. Try artistic techniques and effects with 20 step-by-step guided edits. And share your favorite memories in everything from animated GIFs and video collages to dynamic slideshows and full-length movies.
 

Does this include the “pencils” feature (that my son wants for Christmas)?

If you mean the new digital inking set of features that allows you to draw on a document, then yes, that is included in Office 2019.
5 years, 3 months ago
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Gerbil