Archive for Keyport

My Every Day Carry (EDC) – The 2024 Edition

Posted in Products with tags , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2024 by itnerd

My every day carry or EDC has evolved slightly since the last time that I covered what my EDC consists of. I’ve tweaked some of the items that I carry not only for meeting my daily needs but to add some style as well. So let’s have a look at what my EDC consists of the following:

I am still using the iPhone 14 Pro as it’s a fast phone and none of the Apple Intelligence stuff or the camera upgrades have enticed me to switch to the iPhone 16 Pro. I have a dbrand Grip Case on it and I protect the screen with a dbrand Prism 2.0 screen protector. The only thing that I have done to the phone is have the battery replaced under AppleCare when the battery health went below 80%. Now for formal occasions I have been known to switch my case to this one from Mujjo, but I might be able to get away with not having to do that as the dbrand case is something that I might be able to roll with for any occasion. We’ll have to see the next time I have to do something super formal.

I now use the original Apple Watch Ultra as that fits with the sports and other athletic activities that I do. I’ve had this for over 2 years and the battery health is currently at 94% which is outstanding after two years. While you see it here with the Apple Nike Sport band, I do have a selection of bands that I can swap to if the need arises. Including this recent addition. I’ve also customized the watch with apps that make it close to a Garmin watch as that fits with the fact that I am a very athletic person.

Next up is the Ekster Carbon Fibre Cardholder which is made of 3K carbon fibre. All the cards and ID that I need are in this slim and light package that I barely notice in my pocket. It does have RFID blocking capabilities which is a good thing. One thing that I should point out is that if I am wanting to slim down what I carry, I can switch to either this MagSafe wallet for formal occasions, or this MagSafe wallet if I am going for a bike ride. In either case, I just take my ID out and place it in the MagSafe wallet of choice and the wallet on the back of my iPhone 14 Pro.

I make sure that I know where my wallet is at all times by having this Zike Smart Tracking Card inside the wallet which integrates with Apple’s Find My network. One thing that I really like about this tracking card is that unlike a lot of them, this one is rechargeable. So when the battery goes dead, I just toss it onto a wireless charger and I get a charge that lasts about six months as opposed to having a card that works for about two years that you then have to replace when the battery goes dead.

If I want to listen to music while I am on the go, my Apple AirPods Pro is my go to as they allow you use active noise cancelling to shut out the outside world, or use transparency mode to stay aware of what’s going on around you. I have been wanting to replace them with the AirPods Pro 2 but these won’t die. They are wrapped up in the dbrand AirPods Pro Grip case to make sure that I don’t drop and damage them. I should also mention that I did replace the stock silicone ear tips with the Comply Foam Tips which not only make the AirPods Pro feel more comfortable in my ears, but they allow the AirPods stay in my ears better. They also sound better and noise cancelling works better.

When I am not driving, my sunglasses of choice are the Rudy Project Zyon’s. My wife originally got them with the prescription inserts. But she then moved onto a different Rudy Project model. Thus I took them, removed the inserts and have been using them ever since. I really like these as they provide a great amount of coverage, which means better protection for my eyes.

My keys are the next things that I grab. My keys are in a KeyPort Pivot 2.0 key holder which on the inside I have a 64GB USB stick, a multi-tool that in a pinch can open an Amazon box, a SIM card ejector tool, and a pen. Oh yeah. It also has my keys as well. One thing that I appreciate about this setup is that keys don’t dig into my thighs and they don’t jingle. I also have my key fob for my condo along with an Apple AirTag on them to find them when I misplace them. Since you can’t directly mount an AirTag to anything, I use the Belkin Secure Holder with the AirTag as it’s secure and cheap relative to the cost of what Apple wants you to pay for their products.

If I am driving I take my car keys with me as well, and they too have an Apple AirTag along with a Belkin Secure Holder on them.

The Groove Life Groove Belt is a great addition to my EDC as I can use it for formal occasions or just wearing jeans. It comes together using some really strong magnets and you feel like a superhero when you put it on. I’ll also point out that you can resize it at will which is handy as I have steadily been losing weight over the last couple of years.

The last item is some Blistex or some other form of lip protection as I get really dry lips.

That’s my EDC or every day carry. What do you think? What do you think I should add to it or change? And were you able to spot the theme? Drop a comment below and share your thoughts. In the meantime, stay tuned for a look at my Tech Sling that I carry with me when I see clients as that has a lot of interesting things in it.

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My Every Day Carry (EDC) – The 2022 Edition

Posted in Products with tags , , , , , , , on May 20, 2022 by itnerd

My every day carry or EDC has evolved over the last year or so. I’ve tweaked some of the items that I carry not only for meeting my daily needs but to add some style as well. As we go through this, you’ll see a trend. Let’s see if you can spot what it is. Let’s start with the phone that I carry on a daily basis:

My current phone is the  iPhone 12 Pro. It covers my needs for a fast phone with great cameras, lots of storage, and an amazing screen. I always keep my phones in a case, and the case that I use on a daily basis is the Spigen Tough Armor which has a kickstand for watching media hands free. But more importantly promises twice the military standard for drop protection. Something that I’ve unintentionally tested on a few occasions. To add to that protection, I have added a FloLab NanoArmour Anti-Microbial Screen Protector screen protector on it so that scratches on the screen are a non-issue and it gives the screen some extra resilience. The anti-microbial features are really just a bonus. You’ll also note that on the back I have a carbon fibre skin done by dBrand which is most evident around the camera and Apple logo.

The Apple Watch Series 6 with cellular is my smart watch of choice as its a great way to stay in touch without carrying my phone if I choose to do that as I can stay in touch minus my phone as this is the cellular model. It also keeps track of all my health metrics as that’s important to me these days. While you see that I have a Nike sports band on it at the moment, I have a variety of bands to choose from.

My keys are the next things that I grab. My keys are in a KeyPort Pivot 2.0 key holder which on the outside includes a flashlight along with a Lightning to USB cable which can allow me to charge my phone if I need to in a pinch. On the inside I have a 64GB USB stick, a multi-tool that in a pinch can open an Amazon box, a SIM card ejector tool, and a pen. Oh yeah. It also has my keys as well. One thing that I appreciate about this setup is that keys don’t dig into my thighs and they don’t jingle. Besides having actual keys and a key fob for my condo along with a hook to allow me to hook onto things like door handles that look sketchy, I also have the Apple AirTag on them to find them when I misplace them. Since you can’t directly mount an AirTag to anything, I use the Belkin Secure Holder with the AirTag as it’s secure and cheap relative to the cost of what Apple wants you to pay for their products.

My car keys also live in my pocket and they have an Apple AirTag which is being held in a Belkin Secure Holder so that I can find them when I misplace them.

A new addition to my every day carry is this Ekster Carbon Fibre Cardholder which is made of 3K carbon fibre. All the cards and ID that I need are in this slim and light package that I barely notice in my pocket. It does have RFID blocking capabilities which is a good thing. It also is a statement piece when I whip it out to pay for something. Or as the kids would say, it’s a flex.

I have this Chipolo CARD Spot tracking card in my cardholder so that I can use Apple’s Find My app to find it should I misplace it. While it hasn’t got the same sort of precision finding functionality of an AirTag, it does allow you to play “Marco/Polo” to find it if you lose it. One bummer is that it has non-replaceable batteries. That means that I will have to spring for a new one in a couple of years time. Hopefully by then there will be other options in this form factor that have replacement batteries.

I’ve been carrying this Victorinox CyberTool M for years. And if you look at the picture, it shows as you can see that it does have some light scratches on it. Despite that it still looks great and works just fine. That’s a testament to the quality that Victorinox builds into I use it to do everything from open up computers and to open up Amazon boxes as it has 32 different tools on it that are useful for almost any situation that I have found myself in. I have a pouch for it that has a loop that allows me to put it on my belt. It is beaten up. But that’s not a surprise as the CyberTool M and the pouch are well over a decade old.

Let’s say that I can’t carry my Swiss Army knife because I’m getting on a plane. Or I choose not to carry it. I have two other options for multi-tools to choose from. The first is the Axiom FLAT PACK TO 8 multi-tool. Originally designed for cyclists who might need to fix something on the road, I’ve found that it is useful for opening up computers as it has Allen keys as part of the deal. It doesn’t take up a whole lot of space in my pocket and it’s durable.

My second option is the Swiss+Tech Transformer 11-In-1 multi-tool. While it is on the heavy side, it does have a full array of screwdrivers and a flashlight among other things in a package that fits in my pocket. I’ve only ever had to replace the batteries for the flashlight. Beyond that, it’s survived the test of time as I have had this since the late 2000’s.

If I want to listen to music while I am on the go, my Apple AirPods Pro is my go to as they allow you use active noise cancelling to shut out the outside world, or use transparency mode to stay aware of what’s going on around you. I put them in a Spigen Rugged Armour AirPods Pro case which protects them from scratches and provides some drop protection. The case came with a carabiner that recently broke. Thus I replaced it with a more heavy duty carabiner that has a screw lock along with a matte black ring. One other thing that I have done is replace the silicone ear tips with the Comply Foam Tips which not only make the AirPods Pro feel more comfortable in my ears, but they allow the AirPods stay in my ears better.

If I am going to be out for while and I need to ensure that I have enough power to keep my phone online, I drop this Jackery Mini power bank in my pocket. It’s a 3200 mAh power bank that allows me to get about a 70% charge on my iPhone 12 Pro should I need it. It will also give my AirPods Pro a full charge as well. It doesn’t take up a lot of real estate in my pocket which is a good thing. In terms of a cable, that’s when the Lightning cable that’s on my key holder comes in handy as both my AirPods Pro and iPhone 12 Pro can use that to get a charge.

In a rare photo of yours truly, you can see the Rudy Project Deewhy sunglasses with Polar3FX HDR Grey lenses. Rudy Project doesn’t make these anymore, but that doesn’t matter to me as they work extremely well for me. The lenses are polarized lenses that filter harmful UV rays and eliminates glare by selectively filtering non harmful wavelengths through the lens. It’s designed to filter glare from car headlights, sun rays and the refracted light on wet or shiny surfaces like water and snow. All of which means that my eyes don’t take a beating when I drive. I also use them when I am walking around town. You can also see the Devon+Lange 3 layer face mask that is made from silver infused premium modal, and it has a filter pocket to hold the included PM2.5 filters. There’s also a removable and replaceable nose piece to ensure that they fit properly. These masks are comfortable to wear, I can breathe in them and I can wear them for long periods of time without an issue.

When I can’t be bothered to take a trip down to the car to get my Rudy Project Deewhy sunglasses as that’s where those sunglasses normally live, I often grab these Rudy Project Agon sunglasses which live at my desk. They have the “Laser Black” lenses which allows for about 12% light transmission. But I also notice that they enhance contrast and I can wear them while driving, or taking a walk in the woods or just walking around. The fact that they enhance contrast means that you can pick up small details that would have gone unnoticed even by the naked eye. Such has cracks in the road while driving or uneven terrain while hiking. That makes them a great general purpose pair of sunglasses for me.

From the mundane item department comes this tube of Blistex. I often have dry chapped lips. So to mitigate that I always have some lip balm on me. In this case it’s Blistex, but I have also been known to carry ChapStick as well.

That’s my EDC or every day carry. What do you think? What do you think I should add to it or change? And were you able to spot the theme? Drop a comment below and share your thoughts.

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Review: Keyport Pivot 2.0

Posted in Products with tags on April 12, 2021 by itnerd

You might recall that I recently did a story on my everyday carry and asked for your help in terms of upping my game on that front. One of the things that many of you pointed out is that I need something to organize my keys. I looked around for such a piece of kit and finally settled on the Keyport Pivot 2.0. Now this is something that I have to say is impressive. For starters, you can customize it in a number of ways to fit your use case. You can have everything from knives and tools to a control for your smart home gear. And you can get faceplates to make it look unique. The level of customization is seriously off the hook.

Now my needs were really simple. I wanted to carry my keys of course. But I also wanted to have a pen on my person as well as a flashlight. Plus I wanted it to match my iPhone 12 Pro’s carbon fiber skin from DBrand. So with that in mind, here’s the parts list that I came up with:

Assembling this was easy. Keyport has this video to help you put everything together. But it is really simple.

I unscrewed the single screw that is part of the Keyport Pivot 2.0, opened it up and stacked my keys and the pen so that I could put the screw through them. The Keyport Pivot 2.0 holds 2-8 keys. In my case I had four keys and the pen insert to stack.

I folded it over and then screwed things together. I also added the S-Biner which is on the right hand side of this picture.

The next thing that I had to do was to charge Pocket Flare Module. Which is a flashlight that does a couple of things that I will get to in a second. It uses a Micro USB cable to charge the lithium ion battery that powers it. While charging it is red. When it is fully charged it is green. If I could make a suggestion, Keyport should replace the Micro USB connector with a USB-C connector as Micro USB is dead.

I then added it to the Keyport Pivot 2.0. It slides and locks into place. And once locked into place it isn’t coming out. The Pocket Flare Module has two modes. It can be used as a traditional flashlight, or as a lamp as seen here. The flashlight is surprisingly bright given its size. The button is flush with the rest of the module and requires a bit of force to press. Thus you don’t have to worry about it accidentally going on in your pocket. I also added a Tile sport to allow me to track it if I lose it along with a circular key and my proximity key for my condo. The latter two are items that I need to have on me at all times and have easy access to when I need them.

I got this carbon fiber faceplate for looks so that it makes the look complete. To be clear, it isn’t really carbon fiber but it looks the part well enough that I wanted to add it.

The pen insert is very cool because of the fact that it uses Cross Matrix replaceable refills which you can pick up at places like Amazon or your local pen shop. It also means that I always have a pen on my person. Something that is kind of important these days.

When you buy the Keyport Pivot 2.0, it comes with a laser engraved serial number that is slightly obscured by yours truly in this picture for privacy reasons, along with this card which will help someone who finds your keys return them to you should you lose them. More details on this program here. This combined with the Tile Sport will hopefully allow me to either find my keys or get my keys back should I lose them.

Overall, this setup is a touch heavier than having just a traditional keychain. But the advantage of this setup is that the keys do not dig into thigh when they are in my pocket. Plus they do not make any noise. Thus I am fine with the weight given the functionality that it provides. The fit and finish is excellent. For example, when you screw everything together, it is designed to click and lock every 90 degrees. That way you can be assured that you will not be in a situation where something loosens up. There is no question in my mind that this is a quality product.

The use case for the S-Biner is to add my Lever Gear CableKit and my SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB 3.2 Solid State Flash Drive to this setup when I need them. I will admit that Keyport makes a WeeLINK Charger Cable Module Kit that I could have used in place of the Lever Gear CableKit, but I decided not to go with that as I had previously invested in the Lever Gear CableKit and it has the functionality that I need. I also could have used one of Keyport’s USB drive inserts as well. But my SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB drive is likely way faster.

Downsides? There’s really only one which is that using your keys is no longer a one handed affair. You now have to take your keys out of your pocket, rotate to the one that you need and use it. If one of your hands are full, that might be an issue. But given what I get out of this setup, I’m okay with that. And to add to that, I am finding ways to use this one handed as well.

My specific setup costs as follows:

  • Keyport Pivot 2.0 – Black Aluminum $24.99 USD
  • Pocket Flare Module $14.99 USD
  • Faceplate – Carbon Fiber – $5.99 USD
  • Pen Insert w/Black Ink – $10.99 USD
  • S-Biner – Black – $1.99 USD

That’s a total of $58.95 USD.

I have to admit that I am very impressed with the Keyport Pivot 2.0. Besides having great build quality, it has a massive amount of customization from both a functionality perspective as well as a looks perspective. Plus if you lose your keys, Keyport has a way to get them back to you. This is a total win for those who are looking for a key organizer to make carrying their keys easier.

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