Posted in Products with tags Vivo on March 26, 2022 by itnerd
Ever since I got my FlexiSpot Electric Height Adjustable Standing Desk last year, I’ve been looking for a better way to have my Acer Nitro Gaming Monitor on it for a couple of reasons. For starters, when I did My Desk Setup article I had it on an old monitor stand which took up a lot of space and didn’t really look that great. Plus I wanted the option of having some extra adjustability should I need it. It’s taken a fair amount of effort, but I think I have finally found the solution in the form of the Vivo Single Monitor Desk Mount.
What I like about this solution is that it bolts right to the desk so that it looks like it part of the desk.
You do have another clamp option where you drill a hole into the desk and put a bolt through it to clamp it to the desk. But I decided not to go that route as I didn’t want to drill holes in the desk. One plus to this mount is that it’s pretty flush to the edge of the desk.
The stand comes with a VESA mount that supports 75mm x 75mm and 100mm x 100mm mounting, and you have to use their screws and washers to attach the mount to your monitor. I point that out because my monitor came with screws and they weren’t long enough to work. The knob that you see allow you to move the monitor up and down. From what I tell, unless you’re 7 feet tall, you should be able to put the monitor in a position that works for you.
The monitor is removable and secured with a single screw on the left hand side. I should note that their VESA mount allows 10 degrees of adjustment up and down, as well as the ability to rotate the monitor. However there’s no left or right movement. Which I’m fine with.
There’s very basic cable management included as well as I was able to get the power cable and HDMI cable out of the way. If they included a second one of these in the box, it would have been better to make things look neater.
Assembly was relatively straightforward and took about 25 minutes. Everything you need to assemble this stand is in the box with the exception of a Phillips screwdriver. Though reading the manual first will help you to plan out how you should mount this to your desk. Once assembled, it’s extremely solid. Which means when I do move the desk up and down, it’s not going to shake. And the net result is that I have a workspace that now has a bit more room for me to work, and is a bit more ergonomically correct as well. Not to mention looking much more modern.
I should note that the stand supports up to a 27″ monitor, and a maximum weight of 17 pounds. So that fits most use cases that most people should have. I found Vivo Single Desk Mount on Amazon for $54.99 CDN which as far as I am concerned as is money well spent as the result is top shelf. And the eagle eyed among you will note that I have some other stuff on my desk that you might not have seen before. I’ve been evolving my desk setup and I’ll have a new desk setup article posted in the coming weeks as I continue to tweak this setup to work for me.
Posted in Products with tags Chipolo on March 16, 2022 by itnerd
One of the smartest things that Apple did when they created the Find My network is that they opened it up to third parties so that you weren’t forced to only buy AirTags. Now the cynic in me says that this was only done to allow them to make a few extra bucks via licensing deals, and to blunt any suggestions of anti-trust, but it is still a great move by Apple. Because the problem with AirTags is that they don’t fit every use case. For example, you can’t put an AirTag in a wallet. Nor can you put it in a location where space is a premium and an AirTag would never fit into. That’s where the Chipolo CARD Spot comes in. It’s a card sized tracker that works on the Find My network. In fact, it only works on the Find My network. Let’s have a look at it.
This is the “mostly black” colour which sounds kind of like something that Google would do. It’s also the only colour available at present. The CARD Spot and one piece of paper is all that you get in the box. Which by the way is taped up so well that ripping the box apart to get the CARD Spot out is faster than cutting the various pieces of tape that keep the box sealed. But that would be a bad idea as the instructions to add the card to Find My are on the inner part of the box. And adding it is trivially easy. Here’s what I did on my iPhone running iOS 15.4:
Open the Find My app on your iPhone
Go to Items and click on the plus sign
Click on Add Other Item
Press the button that’s located on the bottom left corner CARD Spot until it makes a sound
Follow the onscreen prompts.
Speaking of prompts, if you’re running iOS 15.4 and presumably later as at the time of writing this review iOS 15.4 was the latest version of iOS, you’ll see this:
I’ve removed my personal information from this screen shot, but the message is clear. Don’t be a scumbag by using this to track people without their knowledge. And if you decide to be a scumbag, law enforcement will hunt you down like U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard tried to hunt down Dr. Richard Kimble. If that reference is alien to you, this will help.
After you click on that, you have to name it and you’re done. In short, the setup process is almost no different than an AirTag. Which is good.
Now let’s talk about the CARD Spot. It’s 2.4mm thick. Which makes it the size 2 credit cards stacked on top of each other. Thus making it perfect for your wallet or any other tight spot. It is IPX5 water resistant, which means that it is protected from water jets projected by a nozzle from any direction. It has a non-replaceable battery which lasts two years. More on that in a bit. And it has a 105dB speaker. Though when I tested it, the Noise app on my Apple Watch never got any higher than 88dB when the card was right next to my Apple Watch. Though 88dB is still plenty loud. And it’s 8dB louder than the AirTag that I tested. My wife and I put this to use immediately by adding these to our Ekster Aluminum Cardholder.
Now to be fair, the Ekster does have the option of adding this tracking card which also happens to be made by Chipolo to it which requires Chipolo’s own app to use. My issue with that was that you had to one more app to your phone to use their card. Now we have an option that lives within the iOS ecosystem.
Now over to that battery. Or more accurately, the non-replaceable battery. It’s slated to last two years. And when it dies, Chipolo will give you a 50% discount on a new one and remind you about the discount two years from now. On top of that they will make easy for you to send it back to them to recycle. But only if you register the CARD Spot using this card:
The big white spot is a QR code that goes to a website and fills in the serial number of the CARD Spot for you when you scan it with your phone. All you have to do is enter your email address and you’re done. While not having replaceable batteries isn’t ideal, this reduces the environmental impact that one of these cards will create in two years. Though the next version of the CARD Spot that Chipolo ships needs to have replaceable batteries as Tile figured out years ago that not having replaceable batteries in their products was a liability due to the environmental impact of creating eWaste. Another reason why Chipolo may want to get a move on having replacement batteries is that competition is inbound in the form of the AirCard by Rolling Square which promises replaceable batteries in a package that’s only marginally thicker than the Chipolo CARD Spot. As an aside, I’ll get one in to review once they do start shipping.
One thing that I should point out is that the Chipolo CARD Spot is Bluetooth only. Why should you care? Well, AirTags use Bluetooth and Ultra WideBand. That give you the advantage of not only finding your items over a longer range as well as leveraging the Precision Finding feature of the Find My app. Assuming that you have an iPhone with an Ultra WideBand chip. So in the case of the CARD Spot, you don’t have the ability to use those features. Which means that if you lose an item that has the CARD Spot on it, you can only get the general location of the Item, and then use the Play Sound feature to play a game of Marco/Polo to find it. This makes the CARD Spot more along the lines of a Tile tracker. Which to be clear isn’t a bad thing. But I would love to see the next version have Ultra WideBand functionality to increase the ability of the CARD Spot to help you find your lost items.
The Chipolo CARD Spot goes for $35 USD for one or $60 USD for two. The latter has free shipping on top of that. If you’re in the iOS ecosystem and you need a tracking device that is thinner than an AirTag for use in the Find My network, this is the one to get. At least for now.
Posted in Products with tags Apple on February 8, 2022 by itnerd
February is Black History Month and Apple over the last couple of years has released a limited edition Apple Watch band. Last year they released a Black Unity Sport band which was… Ok. But it didn’t make me want to run out to get one. But the 2021 version which is a Black Unity Braided Solo Loop is different and made me order one on Apple.com.
Before I show the band, let me talk about the solo loop watch band. The Braided Solo Loop is made from recycled yarn interwoven with silicone threads. It’s a soft matte-finish stretchy band in one piece, making it especially comfy because there are not clasps or buckles attached. Assuming that you get the right size. More on that in a few minutes. But now let’s look at the band. Starting with the packaging:
Unlike Apple’s non-Nike watch strap packaging, this packaging is black and shows off the watch band in its glory.
On the back of the box is this notice that Apple supports organizations that are dedicated to advancing racial equity and justice. Which is positive.
Inside the box, there’s a piece of paper with the same design as the band with some text on it that you can barely read. But I’ll help you with that. It says the following:
“This watch band is inspired by Afrofuturism. It honours generations of who have been seen and unseen, and symbolizes a communal belief in the necessity for a more equitable world.
Afrofuturism is a philosophy that explores the experience of the African diaspora through a narrative of science, technology, and self-empowerment. It aims to dismantle systemic inequalities by creating better conditions for the present generation of Black people.”
That same text is on the back of this card in several languages.
Now let’s get to the band. It’s wrapped up in instructions at the top for how to get it onto your Apple Watch.
There’s a matching watch face that you can get here by either scanning the circular QR like code or you can get it here via opening that link on your iPhone as long as you are running watchOS 8.3 or higher and iOS 15.2 or higher. And if you want to complete the look on all your iDevices, there’s matching wallpaper for your Mac, iPhone, and iPad as well.
Here’s the Black Unity Woven Solo Loop on my wrist with the Unity Lights watch face, which is one of the better watch faces that Apple has released. While you can’t customize it all that much, it’s great because it leverages the graphics capabilities of the Apple Watch to look stunning. As for the Black Unity Woven Solo Loop band, it is black with flecks of red, yellow and green. It’s a subtle and appealing design. I should also point out that this is the only woven solo loop that Apple makes that has black in it. I can easily see myself using this for more formal events as well as for daily use. Plus seeing as it is water resistant, you can use this for working out with.
While this picture is a bit blurry, it does say “Black Unity” inside the lugs, which are space grey for the record.
Now about the sizing. I am a size seven. And I figured out by not using the Apple sizing tool that’s available online because according to that, I am a size eight. Instead I used this guide by John Gruber of Daring Fireball who has a far better way of determining your exact size. When you get your size right, these woven solo loops are insanely comfortable and snug without being tight. Not to mention breathable seeing as it is woven. And I should mention that I was also able to get my Road ID onto it as well without an issue. Your other option to get the size right is to go to an Apple Store if you can and let them get it right for you.
The only thing that might keep you from getting one is the price. In Canada, you can expect to pay $119. And for the record, the 41mm model fits 38mm and 40mm Apple Watches, and the 45mm model fits 44mm and 42mm Apple Watches. The price is steep. But the Black Unity Braided Solo Loop is a Apple Watch strap that has a meaning and a message. Thus for me, all of that was an incentive for me to grab one. Just make sure that you get your sizing right and you’re good to go.
UPDATE: There is a round version of the Unity Lights watch face that unlike the square version, it allows for four complications. One in each corner.
In the last couple of months I am discovering that app controlled devices are everywhere. But an app controlled water bottle that claims to help you to ensure that you’re drinking the proper amount of water that your body requires is a new one for me. However that’s what I am reviewing today. Meet the HydrateSpark PRO smart water bottle. Here’s what you get in the box:
You get the bottle (which comes in 17, 21, and 24 ounce sizes. I got the 21 ounce version) a box with the charging cable and instructions, and a piece of paper that declares HydrateSpark’s love for happy customers. The bottle is made of stainless steel vacuum insulated material, keeping drinks cold up to 24 hours (hot drinks are not advised by the company) and lightweight but shatter and odour resistant plastic. You also get the choice between a lid with a straw and a lid that allow you to chug your water. I got the latter. It feels solid and well constructed.
Let’s take a look at the charging cable:
It’s a USB-A cable that is unique to this set up. Or put another way, if you lose or break it, you’re going back to HydrateSpark to get a new one. It attaches magnetically to the bottom of the water bottle which HydrateSpark calls the sensor puck once you unscrew the bottom from the rest of the water bottle:
And it glows slowly when it is charging as seen in this video:
Once it is fully charged, it will have a solid green light. That took me about three hours to get it fully charged and it lasts 10 to 14 days between charges. Once it’s charged, that’s where we get down to business. My wife volunteered to the the guinea pig for this review as she isn’t good at keeping herself hydrated. For example, she used our Withings Scale which among other things, measures hydration levels, to get a sense of how much water was in her body on the morning that we started doing this review. The number was 44%. Which is below the 50% that Withings says is “normal” for most humans. Thus underscoring why she was the perfect test subject for this review. The company cites a number of clinical studies to show why consuming water on a regular basis has positive health benefits. And she recognizes that she needs to better on that front.
Thus I installed the HydrateSpark app on her iPhone 13 (also available on Android) and then went through the process to pair it via Bluetooth, and calibrate it by putting it on a flat surface while empty, and then filling it up and putting it on a flat surface as that is how it figures out how much water you drank. My wife tried to use it as intended by drinking some water. Except that it didn’t work. As in nothing was automatically recorded. So after looking through the online help we decided to unpair it and go through the pairing and calibration process again. This time it did work as intended. As in every time you took a drink from the bottle, it records how much you drank every time you place it on a flat surface. More on the accuracy of that in a bit. I should also note that there’s an Apple Watch app that helps you to keep track of this information as well. Should you lose the bottle, the app can also tell you where the last location was that it connected via Bluetooth. There’s also a gamification aspect as it will give you awards for things like using the app three days in a row for example. Here’s an example:
You can see what trophies that my wife got. And anything that is locked is the next target for you to achieve. One thing that caught my attention is that you can see how many plastic bottles that you’ve saved. Which shows the environmental impact that you’re having. You can also compete with friends who also use the app. Overall, my wife found the gamification aspect to be very engaging as it helps her to ensure that her water consumption is on point.
As part of the setup process, it takes into account your sex, weight, age, and activity levels to come up with a goal in terms of how much water that you should be drinking. In my wife’s case that’s 3.5 bottles a day for the first day she used it. Which is a lot. Now to save you some effort, the app can pull the data it needs from Apple Health if you have it entered there, and it can record how much you are drinking in Apple Health. Which is great for Apple Health users like my wife and I. It also supports this list of apps as well. And if you start to slack off in terms of drinking water, the app can prompt you to do so. And the prompts are kind of funny and humorous at times. But they are also supportive as well as they are designed to get you to drink water as often as possible. All of those reminders can be customized from this page:
Plus as an extra party trick, the bottom of the bottle can glow in a multitude of colors that you can customize when you need to take a sip.
In terms of accuracy, we performed testing over several days and the HydrateSpark PRO is pretty accurate in terms of measuring how much you drink as long as you calibrate it daily. Failure to do so results is completely inaccurate measurements of how much water you are drinking. And the fact that you have to calibrate it daily may turn off some users as it can become a bit of a chore. Especially since the wizard makes you pick the size of bottle and walk through the process of calibration as if it is a new bottle. That’s a bit of a pain that HydrateSpark should be able to fix seeing as when you set up the bottle, they know what size you have. Thus they could streamline this process. Though on the flip side I will note that you can manually add water consumption to the app if it is inaccurate or you had a drink from something other than this bottle.
If I did have a gripe, it would be about one aspect of the app. At a macro level knowing what your daily target happens be is simple based on this screenshot:
In this screen shot above the goal looks simple. My wife has drank her way to 31% of her goal and she has 2.5 bottles to go. But see the dot on the 9 o’clock position of the circle? If you click on it give you another goal. Here’s a close up look at that.
And it also moves around the circle on its own and it allows you to set your own target. But why is does this exist in addition to the other target? My wife and I could not figure that out. For the record, there is this FAQ that does sort of explain how the daily target is calculated. But it didn’t help us to explain what this is. And I think it needs to be crystal clear if people are going to properly leverage this tech to help people stay hydrated.
So, does this work? Well, after the first three days of using it, the amount of water in my wife’s body went up from 44% to 46%. Still not the 50% that it should be, but it’s headed in the right direction. And she’s hitting her daily water consumption goals based on this screenshot:
The confetti that appears when you hit your target for the day is a nice touch.
Let’s get down to the price. The HydrateSpark PRO retails for $69.99 USD with free shipping. It’s not exactly cheap. But as far as my wife is concerned, the health benefits outweigh the cost of this smart water bottle. And though you have to expend some effort in terms of remembering to calibrate it every day, she considers this a win. And seeing as she has a health sciences background, I’ll buy into that as I just fix computers for a living and health is her area of expertise. So my advice would be that if you want to move the needle in terms of your health, the HydrateSpark PRO is worth a look.
With most of us still working from home in whole or in part, it means that our work from home setups have to be top shelf so that we’re productive as possible. And that often means having as much functionality as possible while taking up as little space as possible. That’s where the Kensington Studio Caddy comes in.
From top left to bottom right you get a stand for your laptop and iPad, a dual wireless charger, some adapters to hold different iPhone models for the wireless charger, a power adapter and plugs for different countries.
I want to now focus on the dual wireless adapter part of this:
On one side you get USB-C (20W) and USB-A (12W) plugs. Perfect for charging other devices such as Apple Watch or an iPad.
On the other side there’s a power button and the plug for the power adapter.
The wireless chargers are on the top. On the left is a wireless charger that is perfectly sized for a set of AirPods. Though just for fun, I put my iPhone 12 Pro on it and it started charging. The right side is for a phone and adapters come with this to ensure that you have a perfect fit. Each charger can do up to 10W of charging. I have to say that whatever material Kensington uses on this charger really feels premium along with the brushed aluminium.
So there’s a couple of ways that you can use this setup. Now if you’re like me and you use a MacBook Pro, you can use it to hold the MacBook Pro in clamshell mode so it frees up space on your desk.
So as you see here I have my MacBook in clamshell mode while I am charging an iPhone and AirPods Pro. You’ll note the blue lights at the bottom that indicate that the wireless stand is charging. Now the stand can hold not only a MacBook, but it can also hold an iPad. Thus all your devices are covered. Both parts of this attach magnetically and nothing moves around easily on your desk which is a good thing.
The two lights on the front are at a good intensity level and won’t be distracting in a dimly lit room. But the power button on the left is a bit brighter, which may make it a bit distracting in a dimly lit room as illustrated here:
Now if having a MacBook and iPad stand isn’t your thing, you can use just the charger by itself:
And of course, you can use both parts separately to fit whatever your workspace happens to allow. In other words it’s versatile and I am sure that you can find a set up that works for you. Expect to pay $179.99 USD for this handy addition to your work from home setup.
Posted in Products with tags Creative on January 24, 2022 by itnerd
Creative is a name that has been around for a very long time. In fact as a kid in the 1980’s and early 90’s I would insist on having a Sound Blaster audio card in every PC that I built on the kitchen table.
There. I’ve dated myself.
Creative past the 90’s then fell off my radar screen. Largely due to the fact that sound cards started to be built into every PC motherboard. But thanks to the Creative Outlier Air V3 True Wireless Earbuds, Creative is back on my radar screen as these are very good true wireless earbuds at a pretty compelling price. Let’s start with what comes in the box.
Here you get the earbuds which can be used independently as they connect as two separate devices to your phone, and the charging case. You get up to 40 hours of total playtime factoring in the case with up to 10 hours of battery life per charge of the earbuds which is none too shabby.
You also get small and large ear tips (mediums are installed), a USB-C to USB-A cable, and the usual documentation. But if you have a Qi wireless charger, you won’t need the USB cable as it is Qi compatible. Simply drop it on your charger and watch it charge.
One thing that I really have to highlight is that the case makes it really easy to discern what the charge status is.
The above video shows three red lights that are flashing. This means that the case as well as the individual earbuds are not fully charged. I have this placed on this wireless charger which is charging them.
In this video you’ll note that there’s one green light in the middle. That means that the case is charged, but the earbuds are still charging.
Alternately in this example, the earbuds are charged as shown by the green lights on the left and right side. But the case isn’t charged as shown by the red light in the middle.
If everything is charged, you get three green lights. You can also see the USB-C connector that you can use to charge via a cable. All of this makes it crystal clear what the state of the earbuds are. I applaud Creative for making it simple.
Here’s the earbuds in the case which slides to the left to give you access to the earbuds. I have to say that while you can still put these in your pocket, they are not going to fit comfortably in the pockets of your skinny jeans.
With all of that out way, here’s the key specs:
6mm drivers
AAC and SBC audio codec support
Bluetooth 5.2
IPX5 Water resistance
Support for virtual assistants such as Siri or Google Assistant
Two microphones per earbud for a total of four
Ambient Mode and Active Noise Reduction
Support for Super X-Fi
Touch controls on each earbud
I want to draw your attention to the fact that it has IPX5 water resistance. That’s kind of unusual in a good way as most truly wireless earbuds have IPX4 water resistance. That makes these perfect for those who work out and sweat heavily. But on the flip side they aren’t waterproof. So if you submerge them, they will likely die.
Pairing them is just like any other pair of truly wireless earbuds. But to make sure that you have the best experience, I would recommend downloading the Creative App which is available for Android or iOS. This will help you to update the firmware and set up the touch controls to your liking. And as a plus you have total control over most things that matter like volume, switching between Ambient Mode and Active Noise Reduction, going to the next track or back a track, or summoning your smart assistant. Not to mention tweak the Ambient Mode and Active Noise Reduction to your liking. Now there’s a second app called the SXFI app which according to Creative helps you to “Create your Super X-Fi profile and enjoy a preview of Super X-Fi Headphone Holography’s cinematic audio wirelessly on your mobile device’s local content. The Super X-Fi Headphone Holography works for local music files downloaded onto your device; it does not support streaming content (e.g., Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix).” In other words, it’s Creative’s answer to Apple Spatial Audio. It’s also available for Android and iOS and I’ll talk about that more in a bit.
My first test was to do a voice recording and see how it sounded like if I was on a phone call, a Zoom call or a Teams call. I’ve got the recording below and I’ll let you listen to it before I share my thoughts.
Like I said in the audio test, it sounds a bit hollow. But the audio is otherwise fine. Thus if you need them for Teams or Zoom calls, people will be able to hear you just fine. Ditto for old fashioned phone calls.
Music however is where the Outlier Air V3 start to shine. I tested these against the AirPods Pro in a variety of scenarios. Some of which included background noise so that I could see how they would handle blocking out the noise, or letting it in. My test song was “Let’s Do This” Danell Arma and here’s my thoughts:
Compared to the AirPods Pro, the Outlier Air V3’s had a bit more bass but bright treble and mids. The result is that music doesn’t sound as “flat” as the AirPods Pro. This is a sound that I personally like. The Outlier Air V3’s also do a great job of picking up small details as well.
The active noise reduction is good, but not as good as the AirPods Pro as that will eliminate things like HVAC units while the Outlier Air V3’s simply reduces the noise. Having said that, these will work well in an office environment as they eliminate all but the loudest of spoken words.
The ambient mode is pretty good as it does let in the outside noise pretty decently. But it doesn’t measure up to the AirPods Pro which are freakishly good. But I doubt that you will have any reason to complain in terms of what the Outlier Air V3’s deliver.
Now let’s get to Super X-Fi. As mentioned above this is Creative’s answer to Apple’s Spatial Audio. I tried this out with the same song that I used with my earlier testing and found that X-Fi does make what are pretty good even better. The catch is that you have to use their SXFI app and create an audio profile using your phone’s camera to listen to music this way. Creating the audio profile was a bit of a challenge as I had to use a bathroom mirror to help me position the rear camera relative to my ears and my face. But once you do that, you never have to do it again.
My final test was to test how well they performed in a workout seeing as Creative advertises them as being ideal for workouts as they are marketed as being “sweat proof”. To that end, I did two bike rides on Zwift. The first was an all out 7 kilometre ride which made me sweat a lot. The second was a moderate 1 hour ride that had two all out efforts lasting 40 seconds each and one all out effort lasting 7 minutes. The all out efforts made me sweat a lot. The result was that once I had the proper ear tips installed, they had no issues staying in my ears and felt comfortable the entire time. And I had no issues with sweat as the earbuds still worked fine after both rides.
Gripes? I have three that are sort of minor:
The first is that these earbuds don’t support multiple connections. While they can pair with up to nine devices, you can only use one device at a time. So connecting with a phone and a laptop at the same time for example is a no go. That functionality would be handy for those of us who spend a lot of time on Teams and Zoom calls on the computer, but at the same time you still need to answer a call on a smartphone. It’s not a deal breaker for me, but it would be nice to have that functionality as I am used to it with the AirPods Pro. And there are other earbuds that do this as well. Perhaps Creative can bring that functionality to these earbuds via a software update in the future.
The sensitivity of the touch controls is kind of finicky. For example, I tried to go from Ambient Mode to Active Noise Reduction and I got Siri instead. While I am sure that you will eventually get used to the touch controls, it would have been nice to have tactile physical buttons to make life easier.
Finally, there’s no in-ear sensor that stops the music when you take one of the buds out of your ears. It’s not a deal breaker for me as I’ve turned that functionality off on my AirPods Pro. But it may be a deal breaker for someone.
Now to the cool part of this review. The price for these is $69.99 USD. But Amazon Canada has them for $79.99 CAD and Amazon US has them for $54.99 USD. So you can find a deal if you look around. The bottom line is that the Creative Outlier Air V3’s are a great value given the sound quality and the feature set. Thus they absolutely deserve your time and attention if you are in the market for truly wireless earbuds.
Wireless chargers are now a necessity of life if you want to keep your phone charged. And there are a billion wireless chargers out there. But this one from Native Union which is called the Drop Classic Leather Wireless Charger caught my eye.
The surface of the charger is made of Italian leather. And while I got mine in black, it also comes in brown which I would imagine will patina over time giving it a unique look. It also has some weight thanks to the aluminum that the base is made of, along with a rubber base which means it’s not going anywhere on your desk.
The cable that comes with it is a 6.5 foot USB-C to USB-A cable that is woven and has a leather strap as well. It’s such a good quality cable that I would be tempted not to use it and save it instead. The only thing that isn’t included is a power adapter. Just make sure that the adapter supplies at least 10W of power because here’s what the charger is capable of:
Qi enabled devices up to 10W
iPhones up to 7.5W
Using this charger that I recently reviewed, I tested this with my iPhone 12 Pro with its Spigen case on it and I had no problems charging the iPhone. Ditto for my AirPods Pro with its Spigen case. In other words it works as advertised without an issue which makes it very easy to recommend. Native Union sells the Drop Classic Leather Wireless Charger for $79.95 CAD. But if leather isn’t your thing, there is the Drop Wireless Charger which comes in four colors and has a textile feel to it for $64.95. Either way, this charger is an easy way to add some function and style to any desk.
And that list is only the stuff that I use daily. It doesn’t count things like my Garmin Edge 830 cyclocomputer, or the various power banks that I have. All of which need to be charged on a regular basis. And having separate chargers plugged into a power bar is a complete waste. Which is why I jumped at the opportunity to review the Topvork 60W PD 6 port USB charging hub as I can see a three use cases for it. One is at my desk, one is on a nightstand, and one when travelling becomes a thing again. Let’s look at the charging hub:
It comes in two colours, white and black. I got the white one and it is pretty nondescript. Which means it will blend into your decor just fine. And it doesn’t really take up a lot of space as it is about the size of a bar of soap that is still in the box. It’s also pretty light which means that carrying it won’t be a chore. But the stuff you care about is in the next picture:
You get a USB-C that supports 30W charging using the Power Delivery standard or 25W using the Programmable Power Standard (PPS).
You also get a USB-A port that does 18W via Qualcomm’s Quick Charge standard.
Finally you get four USB-A ports that do a max of 12W of charging each, or 30W combined.
All told, you get up to 60W of charging power. Here’s how the math is done:
What this basically means is that you can charge anything from an iPhone to a MacBook Air using this one adapter via one wall outlet. Not to mention things like an Apple Watch, AirPods, and the like. And charge them all at the same time.
Another thing that I’d like to point out is that this supports voltages from 100v up to 240V. Which means that you can travel with it and easily keep all your gear charged. You either have to use the right cable or a travel adapter and you’re good.
Let’s get to the charging part. To test this I ran a number of experiments:
I borrowed a M1 MacBook Air from a client and charged it via USB-C from 9% to full in just under 2.5 hours. From what I could tell, it charged at the same rate as the Apple charger that it came with.
I watched my iPhone 12 Pro go from 8% to 50% in just under 25 minutes via the USB-C port.
I plugged in four USB-A devices to have them charge at the same time. They seemed to be charging slightly slower than if I charged them in their respective chargers. But only slightly.
I plugged in the M1 MacBook Air, my iPhone 12 Pro into the USB-A QC port, and for other devices and observed to to see if any of them didn’t charge. But they all did without an issue.
Clearly this hub had no problems handling whatever I threw at it.
My only gripe is that I wish the case had something on the bottom of it to make it more grippy. I say that because it had a tendency to slide around my desk which was mildly annoying. But that really is just a minor complaint.
Regardless of your use case, Topvork 60W PD 6 port USB charging hub is an easy recommendation from me if you need to charge multiple devices at the same time. Amazon sells this for $49.99 CAD and as far as I am concerned, it’s money well spent.
Posted in Products with tags Apple on January 6, 2022 by itnerd
One of the things that you might have noticed in my desk setup article is that I have connected my 16″ MacBook Pro to my Acer monitor and my UPS via a big white adapter. That adapter is the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter from Apple and I’m going to take a closer look at it today so that you can see if it is right for you if you have a MacBook of any description. First, let’s have a look at the adapter:
On one side of the adapter, you get a USB-C connection that is for charging the MacBook. It won’t work for any other purpose besides that. In the centre you get an HDMI connection which supports video and audio output, and to the right of that you get a USB-A connector which supports USB 3 data-transfer speeds up to 5Gbps.
The other end of the adapter which goes into your MacBook is USB-C.
This is what it looks like in action:
Now, why would you want this adapter? Well, what this adapter allows you to do in short is to plug in a monitor, as well as a USB-A device while still charging your MacBook. Although you also need this cable to charge your MacBook if you don’t have one already. So In my use case, I have one cable to plug in to have access to my external monitor, have the MacBook work with the UPS, and charge which is super convenient. If I didn’t have the UPS, then I could use the USB-A port for things like flash drives and external hard drives. I can also see this being of interest to MacBook Air and 13″ MacBook Pro users as they only have two USB-C ports on that notebook. That in my mind makes it a must get for those specific users who want to use their notebooks as desktop computers.
Let’s talk about the HDMI port as that will be of keen interest to many. Apple states that the HDMI port supports audio and does video (with support for HDR video in HDR10 and Dolby Vision) at the following resolutions:
3840×2160 at 60Hz
1080p at 60Hz or UHD (3840 by 2160) at 30Hz
However, in my usage of the product, I was able to get 1080p at up to 240 Hz without an issue on my external monitor. So depending on the MacBook and the monitor that you are using, you may be able to exceed Apple’s specs on that front. I should also note that this adapter is stated to work with the iPad Pro 11-inch and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later), as well as the iPad Air (4th generation). So users of those devices may find some value in having this in their gear bag.
Do I have any complaints? No. But I will note this one oddity. I have noted that three times since I started using this adapter that the external monitor will go blank for a couple of seconds and come back to life. I’m not sure why that is, and my attempts to troubleshoot the issue haven’t gone anywhere as it happens on an infrequent basis. I’ll post an update if I can figure this out.
Finally, if you’re buying this, ensure that you are getting Model A2119 as Apple has two versions of these floating around and they don’t behave the same based on my research.
The USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter from Apple goes for $89 CDN direct from Apple. But I was able to get it for $20 off on Amazon. Thus I would check there to see if you can save a few bucks. If you have any of the new MacBook Pros or the new MacBook Air, this is a very handy item to get.
Posted in Products with tags iMazing on December 22, 2021 by itnerd
A while ago I wrote about a product called iMazing which among other things claimed to “easily” detect spyware from The NSO Group among other types of spyware. At the time I promised that I would try it out and see what it was like. I finally got around to doing that last night. And here’s how it went for me.
First of all, let me get this out of the way. It is extremely unlikely that 95% of you or more have any spyware on your iPhone. That’s because spyware on the iPhone tends to be aimed at specific targets. Such as journalists, human rights activists or government officials. And on top of that, while exploits do exist for iOS devices, they are rare and highly valuable as iOS is a highly secure OS by default. Which is why groups like The NSO Group are in a cat and mouse game with Apple to use these exploits before Apple shuts the down. Which means that those exploits are more likely to be used on a high value target rather than the common person with an iPhone 13.
Having said all that there is a school of thought that says that it pays to be sure that you aren’t one of the 5%. That’s where iMazing comes in. Here’s how it works. The short answer is that iMazing makes a backup of your iPhone, and then performs an analysis on it to see if you have any spyware type activity.
The more nerdy answer adds to what I said above via this statement from the company:
iMazing’s spyware detection tool is available as a free feature in iMazing 2.14 and above. It can be used to detect signs of infection by NSO’s Pegasus and has the potential to evolve to detect other threats. The methodology implemented closely mirrors that of the open-source Mobile Verification Kit by Amnesty International’s Security Lab. The ability for the user to customize the analyzer by providing indicators of compromise in STIX format may be useful for early investigations of future threats. For more context on the development of iMazing’s spyware detection tool, please refer to this blog post.
So all you need to do is to follow the instructions in this document which will require you to connect your iPhone to your computer and have iMazing perform an encrypted backup using the “Detect Spyware” option. It will then analyze the backup and produce a report in the form of a spreadsheet. All analysis is local to the computer in case you were wondering if iMazing gets to see your data. The whole process takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes and is largely painless. In my case I got a report that said that I had no spyware on my iPhone. But I did get 7 warnings.
The timestamp traces back to a suspicious text that I was investigating. The text had a link in it and the link never opened in Safari. Thus this is explainable. And according to iMazing, HTTP redirections, indicator matches, and signs of manipulated entries will end up in entries like the above. HTTP redirects are logged as warnings to bring your attention to them. And they are not a sign of infection in themselves as long as they do not point to a known malicious domain. Other than that, my iPhone was clean.
Now there are some things to note:
There are some differences between iMazing’s tool and the one from Amnesty International. iMazing works only with iPhone, and it does not support analyzing from jailbroken devices.
In the interests of privacy, iMazing does not save extracted records to the analysis file. The process happens in system memory, then the results are exported and the memory is wiped.
iMazing cannot prevent a spyware infection. It can only tell you if you have one. That means that you have to still be careful so that you don’t get infected. Doing things like ensuring that you have an up to date OS on your phone, you don’t click on links that you get from anyone, and the like will keep you safer. Though I will point out that Pegasus which is the spyware that The NSO Group serves up is zero click in nature. Meaning that if you’re a target of one of their customers, you’ll get pwned no matter what you do as it require zero interaction from you to take over your iPhone.
If your iPhone does come back as positive for spyware, you need to reach out to iMazing here and have them analyze your backup. In the meantime, you should refrain from any communications which may put you at risk but keep using the device as you did before so as not to reveal that you have become aware of the infection. Assuming that you don’t have a false positive which iMazing can confirm. If you don’t have a false positive, they will put you in touch with professional help.
iMazing goes for $59.99 CAD per year for unlimited devices and has the option for doing a one time purchase based on the number of devices that you want to use iMazing with starting at $44.99 CAD for one device. But the spyware scanning functionality is free.
Again, I will point out that it is highly unlikely that 95% or more of you would be a target for spyware. But if you think you are one of those 5%, or you just want to be sure that you aren’t infected with something evil, iMazing has a solution for you.
