The IT Nerd

Since working from home became a thing during the pandemic, many of us have been doing Zoom and Teams calls via laptops with built in webcams. The only catch with that is webcams inside laptops often have small components, influencing the level of camera performance and image quality. Which is why having an external webcam is preferable. So to help my wife up her webcam game, I hooked her up with this.

This is the Kensington W1050 1080p Fixed Focus Wide Angle Webcam. It’s an easy to install and cost effective webcam that has the following features:

• Easy installation
• 1080p @ 30fps video
• Privacy shutter
• Two omnidirectional microphones with noise cancelling
• Kensington Konnect software that allows you to tweak things to your liking. The software is available for both Windows and Mac. 
• Meets MIL-STD-810H Method 504.3 Contamination by Fluids testing for resistance to breakdown when exposed to cleaning and disinfecting solvents such as alcohol and bleach for at least 24 hours.

Setup is easy for the most part:

• Mount the camera on your monitor
• Plug it into a USB-A port
• Install the Kensington Konnect software
• Done. Declare victory and have a beer.

The reason why I said that setup is easy for the most part is that this camera is USB-A. My wife’s laptop has nothing but USB-C ports and there wasn’t an USB-A to USB-C adapter in the box. That sent me hunting though my parts drawers to find an adapter for her. My advice would be that Kensington should consider adding an adapter to this to save someone an extra trip to the computer store or to Amazon.

As for mounting it onto a monitor, here’s what that looks like:

To keep it stable, there’s a clip on the bottom that perches along the top edge of the screen, and its position can be adjusted 37° vertically and 360° horizontally. It felt solid and didn’t move at all.

In terms of actual usage, the first thing that I would recommend is that you spend some time in Kensington Konnect to tweak things to your liking. This software gives you the following features:

• You can set a focal area of the shot as well as pan or tilt the image.
• There’s an Effects and Adjust tab to edit the picture with some preset filters, as well as manual controls for brightness, contrast and saturation. 
• More advanced controls let you customize the backlight, low light, white balance, sharpness, hue and gamma.

Once you’ve found the perfect balance you can save a camera profiles. For example, you can have different presets saved for daytime, night time, when you’re at work or when you’re at home. 

Once my wife did that she did a number of Microsoft Teams and Zoom meetings, plus we tested the camera as well and compared it to the one on her corporate issue laptop. The things that we noticed is that images from the W1050 were brighter and more detailed. Even though both cameras were 1080P. Viewing angles are very generous which allows this camera to be used in a variety of situations. As for the microphones, they made her voice sound clear and loud enough to understand. You do get a small amount of background noise coming through but it doesn’t overwhelm the sound enough to make it an issue.

The best part of this is the price. I found it on Amazon for $103 Canadian which is a good amount to spend to move your webcam game up a couple of notches. Just make sure that you grab a USB-C adapter if you need it, and spend some time in Kensington Konnect to get your camera tweaked the way you want it, and you’ll be good to go.

Seeing as I am largely working from home, I am always on the lookout for new gear to help me to improve my work from home setup. As part of that setup, I’ve been using this Kensington mouse for the last few months and it’s been fine. But I’ve decided to give another mouse a try to see if it could make things better for me. And that mouse is the Kensington Pro Fit Ergo Vertical Wireless Mouse.

As you can see, this is a pretty unique looking mouse which is clearly aimed at those who are right handed. When I hold the mouse, it really feels like someone took the time and effort to create a mouse that fit my hand. And the angle that the mouse places my wrist is very comfortable. It actually feels that this is the angle that my wrist should be in.

Besides having the usual left and right buttons and scroll wheel, you also get an extra button that increases the DPI of the mouse to up to 1600 DPI which is how I run this mouse.

There are two other buttons on the left side of the mouse that your thumb can use. All the buttons can be programmed using the KensingtonWorks software for PC or Mac. Since I’m a Mac user I have my mouse programmed like this:

I have the middle button set to activate the Launchpad so that I can get quick access to apps.

The two buttons on the side are set to Mission Control and Show Desktop. What this means for me is that I can do a lot of the things that I used to need my trackpad on my MacBook Pro to do from the mouse. If I wanted to, I could also set things up on a per application basis which means that control enthusiasts out there can use this mouse to control everything.

All of this connects to your computer using a 2.4 GHz USB dongle. I wish that this mouse had the option to use Bluetooth instead as I have to burn a USB-A port on my dock to use this mouse. But the flip side to that is that this mouse tracks extremely well and is very responsive because of the fact it uses that dongle. So I am mostly fine with that.

The big question is how does the mouse feel in my hands? Well as I mentioned earlier, the mouse places your wrist in a position where it feels very comfortable. I’ve been using it for the last few days and I have had no issues with it thus far. Though I will note that I am still getting used to it as I find myself trying to hold it like a regular mouse. To enhance the comfort, I am continuing to use my DeltaHub Carpio 2.0 wrist rest with it. Which makes this combo a win for me. I can see this mouse also being a win for those who have issues using a regular mouse because they have wrist problems, or because it doesn’t give them a comfortable position to work in. I’d also recommend it if you want to avoid having issues in the future with your wrist.

The Kensington Pro Fit Ergo Vertical Wireless Mouse goes for about $30 CDN. That’s not a lot of money to get a comfortable mouse that you can use all day. If you’ve had problems with regular mice, I’d recommend that you give this one a shot as I think it can work for you. Plus because of the programmable buttons, it will enhance your productivity as well.

When I travel I tend to use a laptop case. In fact, the laptop case that I have had for well over 15 years has not only served me well, but it is in amazing condition. But since getting my hands on the Kensington Contour 2.0 Business Laptop Backpack, I am thinking about retiring it. More on that in a second. First let’s get to the backpack:

So this looks like your typical backpack. It’s made of water resistant 1680D ballistic polyester. There’s nothing special here. Right? Well, that’s not so.

For starters it opens up like this so that you can leave your laptop AND tablet in your backpack while going through an airport security checkpoint.

Though my version is for laptops up to 15.6″, my 16″ MacBook Pro fit just fine. There’s also a tablet pocket in front of the pocket for the notebook.

If you were going someplace overnight and you wanted to travel light, I can see a change of clothes fitting in here with ease.

Here is the backpack in a more “normal” configuration. Both sides have polyester with velcro attached that allows it to get into the flat configuration that you saw earlier.

The zippers for this section has hoops so that you can lock them and secure the contents.

There’s a port for those people who still use wired headphones.

Here you can see a zippered pocket that is not easily seen. You can pop sunglasses or perhaps valuables in there.

There’s a compartment where you can store, pens, your phone, and other random items. And there’s a strap with a hook for something that you don’t want rattling about.

What puts this laptop into “top tier” is the fact that it comes with an RFID blocking section. Drop your passport or anything else with an RFID chip in here and it will be safe from threat actors who might try to scan it.

There are two zippered pockets on either side of the backpack. One has mesh that allows you to pop a water bottle into it. The other has a pocket for small items.

There’s another zippered pocket for smaller items. By the way, this Kensington logo is the only noticeable logo on the backpack. While there are logos on the zippers, the branding is pretty minimal and low key. Bonus points for that.

Moving to the back, there’s a strap that allows you to slide the backpack through the handle of your carry on. That’s a feature I really like when travelling.

Above and below that is padding that’s designed to get rid of heat. The straps also are designed to do the same thing as well. It also moves the backpack into a body hugging position which makes it easier on your back. That of course assumes that you take the time and effort to adjust the straps properly. I should also note that the padding feels really great when I wear the backpack.

I have to admit that this is a well designed backpack that once the world stops ending, I can see myself using when travelling. The build quality is excellent, which means that I wouldn’t have any concerns about it falling apart or getting damaged. I should note that there are two other versions of this backpack. There’s one for 14″ laptops, and one for 17″ laptops. So it is highly likely that Kensington has a Contour 2.0 backpack that fits your needs. My version has an MSRP of $114.99 CDN which isn’t cheap. But in my opinion it’s worth it given the feature set and the quality that this backpack has.

So what started out as a revamp of my desk setup has turned into a complete revamp of the den that my wife and I work out of because my wife is redoing her desk setup, and we’re also making some changes to other parts of the den. In regards to what my wife is up to, she’s running two computers. A Lenovo ThinkPad and my old 2015 15″ MacBook Pro. And she needs to have them both on her desk in a way that works for her. To help her with that, I set up her ThinkPad on a Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go laptop riser.

Now this laptop riser folds up into a thin package that allows you to put into your laptop bag and take it with you. It’s made of plastic that feels solid and it appears to be well engineered. This specific one is designed for 14″ laptops or tablets. But Kensington makes a 17″ version of this as well.

You’ll note the colour coding in this picture. This is the unique feature that sets this laptop riser apart from pretty much everything else on the market. These colours allow you to size this riser so that it is ergonomically correct for you. Kensington calls this their SmartFit System.

What you need to do is place your palm on this diagram and see what colour you match up to. In my wife’s case, she was green. That led me to set the stand up like this:

And when you add her ThinkPad to the mix, this is what you get:

For her, this is the perfect angle to view the screen of her ThinkPad. And so far this is working for her. Now one thing that I should point it is this is not meant for you to type on. Which is why she also got this Kensington keyboard from me which she is now using with both this ThinkPad and with her 15″ MacBook Pro as it supports multiple connections. The net result is that this setup is a win for her. The Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go laptop riser has an MSRP of $29.99 CAD and this is an easy recommendation from me whether you are on the go, or working from home like my wife is.

An item that I have thought about adding to my desk setup is a keyboard. Now I’ve been using the keyboard on my MacBook Pro because it is so fantastic and has Touch ID to allow me to unlock the MacBook Pro quickly. But in the interest of seeing if I could I could do better, I gave the Kensington Multi-Device Dual Wireless Compact Keyboard a shot. Here’s what you get in the box.

Besides two AAA batteries and a 2.4 Ghz USB-A receiver, you get the keyboard. The keyboard is plastic, but it feels like high quality plastic. By the way, if black isn’t your thing, you can get it in white.

One handy design feature is that you can store the 2.4 GHz receiver inside the battery compartment. That way you should never lose it should you need it in the future.

The keyboard has some weight to it. That’s important because it means that will not move on your desk while you type. It’s pretty compact so you can travel with it without having it take up a lot of real estate in your bag. You’ll also note that it has a layout that works with PC or Mac. Thus you can use it with either platform, or both platforms via its marquee feature, which is that this keyboard has the ability to connect to three devices at the same time and switch between them using Bluetooth 3.0, Bluetooth 5.0, and 2.4 GHz wireless. That’s handy if you run multiple computers as part of your workflow. Once paired, you use the F10 key to switch between keyboards. And it worked without issue for me during my testing between a pair of Macs via Bluetooth, as well as a Mac and PC via Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless.

From a typing perspective, the keyboard has a great feel. The keys are a bit firm, but they have great travel as the keys are scissor switches. That means that for people like me who learned to type on typewriters back in the age of the dinosaurs, it feels familiar. The keys are also about the same size as ones that you typically find on most notebooks. Which again will feel familiar. Meaning that you can type without having your brain go through gymnastics to deal with something that it perceives as being radically different.

Finally, the keyboard also claims AES-128 encryption as well for data that’s shuffled from the keyboard to the computer. There’s not a whole lot of documentation on this, but it’s nice to know that your keystrokes can’t be sniffed by a threat actor.

So will I use this keyboard going forward? As good as this keyboard is, I like to keep my desk minimal so I won’t be using it. However my wife works with both a PC and Mac at the same time, and she is also in the midst of re-doing her desk setup. So I’ll be setting this so that she can use it as it fits her use case much better than my use case. The Kensington Multi-Device Dual Wireless Compact Keyboard has a MSRP of $39.99 CAD and is absolutely worth having a look at if you juggle multiple computers and you only have space for one keyboard, or you need a small keyboard for when you travel.

In my quest for the perfect desk setup I’ve considered a lot of things to add to the setup. One of them however wasn’t a mouse. I have always found the trackpad that’s built into my MacBook Pro to provide me with the best way to scroll and swipe my way through macOS. But I am reconsidering that position after spending a couple of days with the Kensington SureTrack Dual Wireless Mouse.

Here’s what you get in the box:

You get a AA battery, the mouse which is made of plastic and pretty lightweight. And it should be noted that if you don’t like black, there’s four other color choices. And a 2.4 GHz USB-A receiver. The mouse feels very good in my hands. There’s no sharp edges or weird shapes that I can feel. Which means using it for long stretches of time will likely not be an issue. The buttons have great feedback along with the scroll wheel. And finally it’s also compact should I want to travel with it as it won’t take up a lot of real estate. So from those perspectives this mouse is a winner so far.

Here’s where things get interesting. You can connect this mouse using the 2.4 GHz USB-A receiver. Or you can use Bluetooth as pictured here:

As you can see here, the mouse supports Bluetooth 3.0 and 5.0. That is the first mouse that I recall that has that ability. Another thing that I noted was that Kensington says that the mouse when communicating encrypts the traffic using AES 128. Though the documentation doesn’t speak to how that is achieved. In any case, I went the Bluetooth 5.0 route as that lets me use Bluetooth LE which uses less power with no performance hit. It also exposes the battery status in the menu bar of my MacBook Pro as pictured here:

That will be handy so that I know if I have to change the battery. Which will likely be a long time from now as Bluetooth LE devices tend to have long battery life.

The really big reason that is making me reconsider using the trackpad of my MacBook Pro is how this mouse operates. It is insanely smooth and precise. And it has the ability to tweak the DPI (dots per inch) settings on the fly which is handy if you want to change the DPI for a specific task. That’s done via the button on the bottom of the mouse and it supports 1200, 2400, and 4000 DPI.

Honestly, I really love this mouse. And while it requires a couple of extra clicks to replicate what I would normally do with the trackpad, I’m willing to give this mouse a shot over the near to medium term. That tells you what a good job Kensington has done with SureTrack Dual Wireless Mouse. It has a MSRP of $39.99 and as far as I am concerned, it’s money well spent.

Over the last few months I’ve been evolving my home office desk setup. Which meant looking at the tech and other items that I have which allows me to be more productive. While I admit that this is still a work in progress, the pieces are starting to fall into place on that front. One of those pieces is the Kensington UH1400P USB-C Mobile Hub which is currently my docking solution of choice at the moment. Let’s have a look at the mobile hub.

From the back you get a HDMI 2.0 port capable of 4K resolution at 60 Hz, a USB-A 3.2 Gen1 port, and a USB-C port which supports USB-C PD 3.0 power delivery.

On the front you get two more USB-A 3.2 Gen1 ports as well as an SD card reader and a microSD card reader. The card readers do UHS-I speeds which is 104 Mbps.

On the side you get an Ethernet jack capable of gigabit speeds.

The mobile hub is tiny. If you’re using this on the go it will easily fit into a backpack or a briefcase. In my case, I’m using it on my desk because it takes up very little real estate. It’s also made of metal (which is handy because while it is in use it is warm to the touch) and feels very premium. Kensington promises that this mobile is plug and play. And that was the case when I plugged it into my Mac as it worked without any drivers or hopping through hoops to get it going.

Now my use case is to have it connected to my Acer monitor, my uninterruptible power supply, and have it charging my MacBook Pro. To help with that last part, I also got this:

This is the Kensington 100W USB-C Power Adapter which uses GaN technology to pack a lot of charging power into a small package. And as a bonus, it won’t produce a lot of heat in the process.

Here’s the Kensington power adapter next to the Apple 140W adapter that came with my MacBook Pro. As you can see it’s significantly smaller, and I can say it’s lighter as well. Now while I will highlight that the Apple adapter will do 140W, it will only do that over MagSafe. Via USB-C it’s capped at 100W. So if you’re travelling, you likely want to carry the Kensington power adapter with you because it will take up less space and it is lighter. But in my case, I replaced the Apple adapter with the Kensington one because it takes up less space on my uninterruptible power supply. That allows me to get this result:

This gives me a one cable solution that allows me to use my monitor and charge my MacBook Pro as well as have the uninterruptible power supply communicate with my computer. And unlike the USB-C adapter that I was using previously, I get two USB-A ports and a couple of card reader ports as well. I’m not using the Ethernet jack as I’ve got 802.11ax/WiFi in the condo which eliminates the need for a wired connection.

One thing that I did observe is from a video perspective, this hub delivers much sharper and more fluid video than my previous adapter provided. And it supported 120 Hz video via HDMI even though 60 Hz is the supposed limit of the Kensington adapter. In terms of data transfer speeds, while the Kensington adapter maxes out at 5Gbps a second, I found transfer speeds from USB-A attached devices more than acceptable. If you need something faster, Kensington can sell you a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 dock. In terms of charging, the Kensington adapter is capped at 85W which is fine for me as my MacBook Pro has amazing battery life and 85W allows me to charge it at a decent rate.

In terms of gripes? I really don’t have any major ones. This seems to be a well sorted piece of kit that I’d recommend either for a portable use case or my use case. Kensington UH1400P USB-C Mobile Hub has a MSRP of $99.99 CDN and the Kensington 100W USB-C Power Adapter has a MSRP of $99.99 CDN. That’s not a lot to pay for the functionality that you get. I’d take a good look at these products if you need a USB-C hub and power adapter at your desk or on the go.

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.