Archive for Ugreen

What’s In My Tech Sling – The 2024 Edition

Posted in Products with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2024 by itnerd

When I get a phone call from a client from a client to assist them with some sort of tech issue, I need to grab a handful of things that I know that I will usually need on a job and go. For years, I’ve sort of scrambled to find what I need on a moment’s notice. To make my life easier, I have built up a tech sling bag that has my commonly used items that I need when I go to see a client. By doing this, I simply have to do a “grab and go” and I can add it to my backpack if I need to as it doesn’t take up a lot of space. Let’s start with the bag itself:

The is the tomtoc Explorer-H02 EDC Sling Bag in the 8 inch size which has an outer compartment that holds miscellaneous items, a compartment in the back that holds one item that I will get to in a moment, and a middle compartment that holds the majority of my gear. Because it is a sling bag, it goes over my shoulder which is handy if I am just using it by itself. But it will also fit inside my laptop bag or backpack.

Inside the sling bag is this OWC Envoy 1 TB SSD which recently was added to the sling bag. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, but it is quick. That makes it ideal to travel with and use with my clients.

 The Victorinox Cyber Tool on the right the next item in my sling bag I find this to be extremely handy to do everything from open boxes to disassembling computers. Attached to that is Olight i3E EOS flashlight which makes life easier for me when I need light in a dark corner of a computer case or a room as it gets pretty bright.

I usually have a few random USB sticks with utilities on them. Such as malware scanning or unlocking utilities. But I also have a SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO flash drive which occasionally comes in handy with clients. Though with the 1TB OWC drive, I have to admit that I am rethinking whether I need to have that in my tech sling.

I’ve got an Apple AirTag in it so that if I misplace the tech sling, I can find it easily. Because I have left a customer’s site a few times without it, and then had an alert pop up on my iPhone telling me so. It’s inside a Belkin AirTag holder which makes sure that I can attach it to a loop inside the sling bag.

I have a plastic bag with batteries. Specifically some AA, AAA, CR1632, and CR2032 batteries. Because there have been numerous times where a customer had an issue that was solved by a battery, and the customer didn’t have any spare ones. Thus I cover myself for that eventuality.

I also carry a bag with some Woosh Screen shine and a microfibre cloth as I never know when I might need to clean a computer’s screen or keyboard. Be it mine or somebody else’s. This stuff works really well and it’s currently my go to for my computer cleaning needs. I also have some Q-Tips in the bag to get to those hard to reach places.

I have a small bag with a bunch of USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A adapters as they come in handy for customers who need to plug something into a computer and don’t have the right adapter.

Another recent addition to my tech sling is this Anker Ethernet to USB-C adapter that runs at 2.5 Gbps. Ideally, I would want to have a 10 Gbps adapter in my sling, but those are still pretty pricy. Thus this will work for me until prices drop.

To cover off any charging needs that I or others might have, I have a UGREEN Nexode 100W charger that has three USB-C ports and a single USB-A port. I can charge anything from phones to my MacBook Pro to my iPhone. Most of the time, I’ve used it to charge my client’s stuff quickly.

I have a variety of cables in my tech sling, starting with this Anker 100W USB-C power delivery cable for charging purposes only.

I also have an HDMI cable that comes in handy when I have a MacBook Pro and I need to plug into a projector or TV at a client’s site.

I also have a flat Ethernet cable which comes in handy when I need to plug into something using the Anker Ethernet adapter that I spoke of earlier.

The key cable that I carry is a RollingSquare InCharge XL which is my one cable to rule them all. I say that because it will cover any use case that I may need when at a client’s location as it is good for data transfer and for charging.

I also have that cable’s little brother the RollingSquare InCharge X as it it sometimes is handy to have a second cable that doesn’t take up a lot of real estate. It’s beaten up as it once was on my keychain. But it works just fine.

The second last item is this GearAid HeroClip. What this is for is to allow me to hook, hang, and carry my gear. I have it because if I have to use a public restroom, there is often no place to hang a jacket, or the sling bag, or a laptop bag. Thus making this piece of kit extremely handy. I got the large size to make sure that I could hang anything that I needed as it has a 100 pound weight limit.

The last item is this pen. Because everyone needs a pen.

So that’s what is inside my tech sling bag. This works for me, but I would be interested in hearing from you in terms of what you think I should add to it or change. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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Review: UGREEN 4-in-1 USB 3.0 SD Card Reader

Posted in Products with tags on November 12, 2024 by itnerd

I am in the midst of finalizing my new desk setup having made some major changes. I’ll be sharing the final result with you in the coming weeks. But right now, I’m here to talk about one of those changes. Which is the UGREEN 4-in-1 USB 3.0 SD Card Reader/

So the reason why I need this is that I am redoing my desk setup to support having my MacBook Pro in clamshell mode. As in the lid is closed and connected to an external monitor. So I wanted to either replicate on enhance the ability to read SD cards and the like. I went the enhance route and got this at Memory Express for $22.99 CDN. One the front, there’s a Compact Flash card slot at the top and a Sony Memory Stick Card slot on the bottom. I don’t have any of those and I don’t know who else would have any of those. But if you have one of those, it’s there.

On the right side there’s a SD Card slot at the top and a Micro SD card slot at the bottom. Short of doing CF Express cards which I don’t have any, I’m covered for most situations. One thing that I should point out is that this card reader is a fingerprint magnet. Though it’s not visible in the picture, there’s also a blue light that seems to only indicate that it is plugged into a USB-A port and getting power. The light isn’t all that bright so you can leave it connected without lighting up a dark room.

In terms of performance, I plugged it into a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port that does 5 Gbps, and used a SD card that was rated for 95 MB/s read speeds and got this result:

91.14 MB/s validates that this card reader is performing very close to expectations and the card reader along with the USB bus isn’t really holding it back all that much if at all.

One cool feature is that each card slot appears to act independently. For example, if I pop in a Micro SD card and an SD card, both will appear on the desktop of my Mac and I can copy items between them. I don’t know when I would need such functionality, but it’s handy to know that I could do that if I needed to.

Honestly, I have no complaints or drawbacks about this card reader. It does the job by supporting a number of card type, it’s fast, and doesn’t break the bank. I highly recommend it.

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What’s In My Tech Sling Bag – The 2023 Edition

Posted in Products with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2023 by itnerd

Often when I get a phone call from a client from a client to assist them with some sort of tech issue, I need to grab a handful of things that I know that I will usually need on a job and go. For years, I’ve sort of scrambled to find what I need on a moment’s notice, and that came to a head when I lost my Victorinox Cyber Tool. Thus I decided that I needed to do something different and have a bag that has the most commonly used items that I need when I go see a client. That way I know where everything is, and I can get out of the house quicker. Not to mention reduce my chances of losing something. I decided on a sling bag as that is compact enough to fit inside a backpack or a laptop bag, but holds everything that I need. This is the sling bag in question:

The is the tomtoc Explorer-H02 EDC Sling Bag in the 8 inch size which has an outer compartment that holds miscellaneous items, a compartment in the back that holds one item that I will get to in a moment, and a middle compartment that holds the majority of my gear. Because it is a sling bag, it goes over my shoulder which is handy if I am just using it by itself. But it will also fit inside my laptop bag or backpack. Another plus is that it will fit some of my EDC should the need arise. Be it my sunglasses, AirPods Pro or anything like that.

As for what’s inside of it, here’s the current list.

I’ve got an Apple AirTag in it so that if I misplace it, I can find it easily. It’s inside a Belkin AirTag holder which makes sure that I can attach it to a loop inside the sling bag.

In the back compartment is this GearAid HeroClip. What this is for is to allow me to hook, hang, and carry my gear. I have it because if I have to use a public restroom, there is often no place to hang a jacket, or the sling bag, or a laptop bag. Thus making this piece of kit extremely handy. I got the large size to make sure that I could hang anything that I needed as it has a 100 pound weight limit.

I also carry some Woosh Screen shine and a microfibre cloth as I never know when I might need to clean a computer’s screen or keyboard. Be it mine or somebody else’s. This stuff works really well and it’s currently my go to for my computer cleaning needs.

I carry two cables with me at all times. The first is an Anker USB-C cable that does power delivery, as well as a RollingSquare InCharge XL which is my one cable to rule them all. I say that because it will cover any use case that I may need when at a client’s location as it is good for data transfer and for charging.

On the right is a replacement Victorinox Cyber Tool as I find this to be extremely handy to do everything from open boxes to disassembling computers. On the left is a 1TB NVMe that I use to transfer data at a customer’s site. This is something that I built myself so let me explain what went into building this. I started with a SABRENT 1TB SSD Rocket NVMe m.2 4.0, Gen4 PCIe M.2 SSD which is one of the fastest drives that the company makes, then I got my hands on this four pack of thermal pads from Amazon as NVMe SSDs tend to get hot, and I wanted to make sure that it didn’t nuke itself while I was using it. I also got my hands on this enclosure from Amazon that did USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps transfer speeds. That’s more than fast enough for my needs. Plus it’s made of metal so it will dissipate heat. Putting it together was a bit tricky as I wrapped the thermal pads around the SSD which made sliding it together a tight fit. But by using the thermal pads, I can be assured that the heat that the SSD generates would be transferred to the case and then dissipated from there. I will say the case does get hot when it is used for extended periods of time, but that does not concern me given the care that I have taken to put this together.

The next thing in my sling bag is this Ugreen Nexode 100W USB charger. This allows me to provide power to my MacBook Pro or customer’s computer, tablet, or phone should the need arise. And you would be surprised how often that happens. Because this adapter is 100W and doesn’t take up a lot of real estate, I am covered for almost any charging related issue.

If I am away from a AC outlet and I need to top off my iPhone, or a phone belonging to someone else, I have this Jackery Mini charger along with the RollingSquare InCharge X which between the two of them allow me to charge any smartphone to past 50% at the very least.

Finally, I have the Bic 2 in 1 Pen. This is a lightweight pen plus stylus for any capacitive touch screen device which is handy for an iPad or iPhone. I have an emergency pen as part of my EDC, but it doesn’t hurt to have another one in my sling bag.

I have a CR2032 battery in this sling bag. Why? I can’t count the number of times that I have come across a PC with a dead clock battery, and then had to find a battery either at a corner store or a local “The Source” store in a panic. Thus I keep one in my possession at all times.

So that’s what is inside my tech sling bag. This works for me, but I would be interested in hearing from you in terms of what you think I should add to it or change. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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Review: Ugreen Nexode 100W USB C Wall Charger 

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 16, 2023 by itnerd

I am currently in the midst of setting up a sling bag with a bunch of tech related items in it that I can grab at a moment’s notice and head out the door should I need to see a client. I’ll be detailing the items and the logic behind what’s in the bag in a coming post, but for now, I want to focus on one item that will be in that bag. Which is the Ugreen Nexode 100W USB C Wall Charger:

So what we have here is a USB-C charger that puts out 100W of power. That’s enough to charge a 2021 16″ MacBook Pro. And clearly anything else from phones to tablets.

There’s two USB-C ports and the charger will decide how to split the power between both ports. That way you can charge an iPhone and a MacBook Pro at the same time for example.

You get foldable prongs to keep things compact. If I could make a suggestion, the next version of this needs to be able to be used internationally as this would be a great travel item if you go overseas. Here’s why:

On the left is the adapter that came with my MacBook Pro which is a 140W adapter. On the right is the Ugreen adapter. Both use GaN technology to deliver power more efficiently, while generating less waste of energy and heat. But clearly Ugreen tried a lot harder to shrink the size of the adapter. Though I will admit that they both weigh about the same.

I tested this by running down my MacBook Pro to almost empty and then charging it up. I was able to get to just under 50% in 30 minutes which more or less matches the power adapter that came with the MacBook Pro. So in short, I have the ability to keep my MacBook charged using a power adapter that takes up less real estate. Plus it will charge anything else that I need to charge. This is a total win and it has earned a place in the sling bag that I am building.

I got my Ugreen Nexode 100W USB C Wall Charger on Amazon for $79 CAD minus $10 CAD off as there was a coupon that was on the product listing. Given Apple’s 140W charger is $120 CAD, and is physically bigger, the Ugreen charger is the clear choice for people on the go who need to ensure that their gear is fully charged at all times.

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