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X-mini sent in a few speakers for review. I have been kicking the X-mini II and X-mini MAX II Capsule Speakers around for a few weeks now. The X-mini II is shown above, it’s a single speaker mono device, the X-mini MAX II is the one shown below and is a stereo speaker set. Both speakers come with a USB charging cable, audio input jacks and a carrying bag. The X-mini II is quite well designed, it has a smooth rubberized feel that provides a nice anti slip surface. There is an integrated audio input jack that snaps into the bottom of the unit which means that after it is charged up you can just un-clip the audio input wire and jack it right into your MP3 player. What makes this little speaker stand out is the cool accordion center which expands the internal speaker volume and enhances the bass sound quite a bit. The speaker is expanded by giving the two halves a twist. The sound level of this small speaker is limited, I would describe the volume being comparable to a full size laptop speaker system however the sound quality is much better. The included bag makes this perfect to bring some tunes down to the river when doing some fishing with a few friends or to lunch when you want to share some tunes. The X-mini MAX II is a set of stereo speakers. Just like the X-mini II these speakers also twist open and have an accordion center. They also snap together into their compact egg shape with the help of some magnets built into the underside of each speaker. I have been using these speakers with my laptop and I am impressed with the sound level and quality that these small speakers can produce. They are much better than my built in laptop speakers as long as they are being used in the expanded air volume configuration. The size of the speaker is a bit too big to stuff into a laptop bag easily so I think they would be ideal as a stationary set of speakers that are used when your laptop is in a set location. As I type this I am unfortunately not listening to them since my 10 year old daughter fell in love with them and has swiped them to use with her iPod. The internal battery lasts a long time between charges so you don’t need to be concerned too much about that. Overall the build quality of the two speakers are great, they are not going to replace your home stereo but they can make listening to music on your laptop or portable music player very enjoyable. If you are looking for something a bit bigger, complete your audio system with a bookshelf speaker.
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Warnlaser sent in a few of their laser pointers for Hacked Gadgets to review. They sent in a 20mw Razor series and a 5mw tiger. The Razor is royal violet and the Tiger green. 20mW Razor
The shiny black case is very nice, I have purchased many laser pointers and most of them don’t have this outer protective sleeve. The actual case of both lasers is very sturdy, much like a quality glasses case. I had a look at the Razor laser first, upon opening the case I was puzzled to see a dirty accessory in one of the AAA battery slots. I don’t think the shipping department knew this unit was going out for a review. It looks like some type of yellow glue somehow got onto the silver accessory. The label on the laser was also not adhered very well, both edges were peeling. The case design doesn’t help though since as it is placed in the case both edges of the stick on label get rubbed. With a current price of $99.99 for the Razor I would have expected a better cosmetic appearance. The accessory turns the beam into a ton of tiny dots in a grid pattern, it looks neat but I am not sure what the use of this would be. Someone will fill me in on the practical application that I overlooked. Another gripe is that the black and gold laser has a large silver tip when the attachment is installed, too bad it wasn’t a matching color. It also doesn’t fit into the case when installed. The actual beam color is very appealing because it is different than the typical red and green that everyone else uses. Even though it is 20mW the visual intensity to the human eye is much less than a typical 5mW green laser. The beam doesn’t stay tight over a long distance, so at about 20 feet you are left with a dot that is about 1 inch in diameter. I am not sure if the quality of this unit is representative of all lasers coming out of Warnlasers but I would not personally purchase one of these lasers at this price. 5mW Tiger
The other laser we looked at was the Tiger 5mW green laser pointer. This one didn’t have any cosmetic issues like the Razor did. I did notice that both laser pointers were slightly different though. The Razor had a mat black finish with a gold button and the Tiger has a gloss black finish and a grey rubber button. Not that the actual finish matters, it was just an observation. The position of the clip is also in a different location on both pointers. The $28.99 Tiger was what I would have expected for a good green laser pointer. The dot was bright and tight even when shot a long distance. The button was responsive and when the batteries were installed the weight in hand was pleasing. This would make for a good presentation laser choice. See the gallery of images after the jump. |
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Hacked Gadgets was sent a GPS Tracking Key Pro by Land Air Sea to review. There are many GPS device types available these days, this one acquires a GPS signal and records the time and location of the device to internal memory. Later the system is connected to a computer and the data is retrieved from the device. There are two ways to view the data in text form, or you can view the data on Google Earth. When viewing the data as text it shows things such as locations that the device was, driving time, stop time and distances traveled. When Google Earth is used you are presented a map with routes shown on the maps, there are tacks in the map that indicate where stops were made. Clicking on the tack shows when you arrived there and how long you were there for. The tracking system is very small and light. There is two openings, one is protected by a rubber flap, this is where the USB cable is plugged. The other opening is where the two AA batteries are housed. The battery housing is sealed with a rubber gasket. While this device is not waterproof they have gone to considerable measures to keep the elements out. There is a magnet on the unit that is there to facilitate affixing the unit to a vehicle. I don’t think I would trust the magnet to hold the device in place to the exterior of a vehicle though. While the magnet is quite strong a few well placed potholes would be sure to dislodge it from a wheel well of a vehicle. The other issue is the placement of the magnet, it is mounted to the battery compartment which is a removable part of the unit. I have never had the battery compartment open when it was being bumped around but I’m not sure what would happen with a few good jolts. I would hate to retrieve the unit and find only the battery lid left behind. There are lots of other places that you can place the device though and not have to worry about the magnet holding though, I tried it in the glove box, my pocket, dash board, center console, in the wife’s purse (She put it in there) and it worked fine in all those locations. The supplied software was simple to install and the manual indicated that Google Earth was also needed, both of these software packages were simple to install. There are two small lights on the unit, one green LED indicated power and the other one flashes when the system is recieving a GPS signal. When in my basement it doesn’t get a signal but when it was upstairs on the kitchen table which is about 5 feet from a large window it got a signal and was flashing away. There was only one time in the day of testing where the vehicle was driven out of a parking lot after about 1/2 hour of shopping and about 400 feet of driving was not recorded. Since the unit goes into a low power standby mode when it is at rest I can only assume that it took awhile to scync up to the satelites and that’s what caused the gap in data. Have a look at the image below to see what that gap looks like when viewed on Google Earth (Portage Ave. image). Overall I was impressed at how small and robust the unit is. If you are looking for a method of tracking the movement of a vehicle this works well. I would just not recommend using the magnet to affix to the outside of a vehicle. These devices are good for Fleet Management since if your employees know that you will have a GPS tracking where they drive your vehicle all day they are less likely to abuse their vehicle privileges. |
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Thanks to the book publisher for sending us a copy of Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction for review. It brings back memories of high school hijinx. This book by John Austin is packed with over 200 pages of fun weapon build guides. It is actually meant for office warriors but I am sure a home office will work just as well.
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You have probably heard about E Ink before. It is the new technology that is being used in portable book reading platforms such as the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. Thanks to Phosphor for sending in a E Ink watch for us to review, even though there are many devices that are using E Ink, Phosphor is the first company to use in a watch. We were sent a watch named Digital Hour, it came with the leather band option although the watch can also be ordered with a plastic or a metal band. The presentation of the watch is very good starting with the luxurious box, it has a texture something like leather, I would not be surprised if the intent was to house the watch in the box at night. The feel of the watch is good, the band is flexible and the body of the watch has a nice weight to it and does not feel fragile. The time mode shown below is interesting and would prevent people peeking at your watch to see the time. It is very simple to read when you know what you are looking for. The missing slot in the hour circle represents the current hour. The settings on the watch are simple since there are only two buttons to deal with. I like that you can change the background color to be black or white, it makes a dramatic change to the look of the watch depending on which one you choose. I wore this watch for two solid weeks and didn’t take it off for anything, the screen held up and didn’t get any scratches on it, the band also held up well and did not get any scuffs. I didn’t use the watch underwater but it is water resistant up to 50 meters. A few things that may be deal breakers for you is the fact that there is no stop watch feature and no light for night viewing. I found it a bit cumbersome the few times that I needed to look at the time when it was dark. I am not sure how consistent the display quality is since the review unit has a small black spec in it. Is this a small group of black balls that refuse to drop down? I am not sure but it does appear to be a tiny black mark on the actual display itself. The price may seem a bit high but is comparable to other exotic watches. If you are looking for a cool Christmas gift this might be for you if you like cool looking watches. You can also win one of these watches by entering the contest that they have running right now.
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Hacked Gadgets has been asked to provide a paid non-biased opinion of this technology. The GPS Tracking Key Pro is the latest product by LandAirSea Systems. They have been making GPS devices since 1994 so they’re not new to this industry. There is a laundry list of features that make this device quite appealing. Since this device is meant to allow covert tracking, size is very important. As you can see in the picture the device is tiny! The main bulk of the system is the two batteries that power it. Even with only two AA batteries it can still operate for up to 80 hours. Depending on the application I was thinking that may be a bit limiting but I see that you can also connect it directly to a vehicles battery with an optional cable. Since this device has been built with covert tracking in mind the internal GPS antenna doesn’t require a clear sky view of the GPS satellites, in fact you can stick this unit in the glove box and it will still work. When you are ready to see where the GPS tracking key has gone you need to plug it into a computer and run the custom software that comes with the device. You are then able to see where the device has been graphically on a map. If you are old school you can also just read a text printout. After having a look at the sample text printout I can think of lots of great uses for this. Small business owners need to keep a vehicle log to write-off vehicle expenses. The text log shows you by address where you have driven and it gives you the exact distance between the locations. This way it would be very simple to have a quick look at this every few days and determine what mileage was for business use.
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The folks at TV Clean sent in a cleaning system for us to review. It’s a cleaning device that is used to remove dirt and dust from your monitors and TVs. I have always been very careful when cleaning LCD monitors because unlike the old CRT ones then new flat screens are quite easy to damage. The TV Clean comes housed in a clam shell which keeps the dust out when it isn’t in use. It is a two part system, one soft sticky rubber blue roller rolls on the screen you are cleaning and picks up the dirt. As this sticky roller comes in contact with the white collection roller in the rear it transfers the dirt onto an adhesive layer. I used it on 5 LCD monitors, one CRT monitor and a 50 inch plasma TV. All but one looked clean before I used the TV Clean on them so I was surprised to see that the white adhesive collection roller was full of dirt when I was done. The white adhesive collection roller that catches the dirt is has many layers, the dirty layer is simply peeled away. The only problem I had with the product is that the blue roller which un-clips from the main unit can become dislodged if too much pressure is placed on the unit when using it to clean. This happened once and the roller simply snapped back in place. The kit came with a cloth that is used to clean fingerprints and other smudges from the screen. I only came across one small fingerprint and the cloth wiped it away with no effort. If you are looking for a product that will keep the dust off your expensive new TV the TV Clean should be a good fit. Additional product information can be found here. Get the best deals on flat screen tv and other home theater systems at Shopping.com.
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In the first section of a project there is a list of items you need to raid the office supply cabinet for. Common items needed are tape, paperclips, pencils, pens, binder clips, popsicle sticks and rubber bands. You are then told what tools are needed to make the project, most things would be at hand in the common office. Finally there are well illustrated pictures that show the steps needed to build the project. There are lots of launching projects where you can share the fun with your office mates. Flip to the end of the book to find targets that can be photocopied to hang up and keep track of who is the best office warrior!
