The Amazon Basics range of products generally offer very good value so I was keen to try out their portable Bluetooth speaker. You can take a look at my video review before reading the article if you like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiLnETTcVg Overview Inside the box you get the speaker itself, a micro-USB charging cable and the instruction manual. There's no … [Read more...]
Speed up your ailing iPhone (or iPad) – iTunes not required
I find that with all the iPhones I've owned, within a year, they start lagging more and more noticeably. A complete reset always gets things back in order, and the procedure to do this has become easier year on year. It was the turn of my iPhone 6 Plus last night. The first thing you need to do is a backup, which is easily accomplished using iCloud. The trick is to make sure … [Read more...]
Parrot Cargo Drone – review
The Parrot Cargo MiniDrone is Parrot's second generation MiniDrone after their very successful Rolling Spider MiniDrone. The changes are subtle but overall this new iteration does seem more polished. Again, the build quality is very good and replacement parts are available from Parrot which is very reassuring. The Cargo has eschewed the wheels of the rolling spider for a … [Read more...]
Making a walnut veneered retail slatwall cabinet
I needed a cabinet for the middle of my shop that could provide retail space, but also allow a customer to sit down for an overview of their new laptop for instance. This has been on the to do list for some time now and I had a few sheets of walnut veneered MDF ready and waiting. This will be a brief overview in picture form, but please see the video above for more … [Read more...]
Canton Musicbox XS Portable Bluetooth Speaker – review
Canton are a well regarded German HiFi brand which have achieved a number of awards for their TV sound bases like the DM55. The diminutive Musicbox XS is their first entry into the portable Bluetooth speaker market and has just been released in the UK. I saw the speaker at a trade show in September and was impressed - although it's always difficult to judge in a noisy … [Read more...]
Sonos Playbar versus Canton DM55 Soundbase – review
As TVs get thinner, the laws of physics dictate that sound quality must get worse! There's simply no room for decent speakers. Hence the rise in popularity of sound bars and bases. The difference between them is simply that sound bars usually sit in front of the TV whereas sound bases normally sit underneath the TV. However both have options for positioning them elsewhere. I … [Read more...]
The best duct tape – Duck, Gorilla, 3M or something else?
Is it duct or Duck tape? It is duct tape (Duck is just a brand of the tape) and the one thing it shouldn’t be used for is sealing ducts! Foil tape is much better for that. It is however useful for pretty much anything else, from temporary repairs, hanging your Christmas lights or even making wallets! But I noticed recently just how much it varies in quality and price, so I … [Read more...]
How to use all your loyalty cards with Apple Wallet straight from the lock screen
If you use Apple Pay you'll be familiar with the double tap of the home button from the lock screen, to let you pay for goods under £30 just using your phone. You'll need an iPhone 6 or later for the NFC technology that makes all this possible, to be incorporated. When you double-tap the home button from the lock screen, you're actually accessing Apple Wallet which … [Read more...]
Can the new breed of office inkjet printers replace a laser printer? Canon MAXIFY MB2350 versus HP LaserJet Pro M451DN
I do a fair bit of printing, both at home and at my small business. Ink costs are a huge expense so I have always been tempted to try one of the new breed of home office / small business inkjet printers. In this article I'm pitting Canon's MAXIFY MB2350 (£117) against my HP LaserJet Pro M451dn (400 series) (£217, new version M452dn). This printer from Canon is aimed squarely at … [Read more...]
Give yourself 1000GB storage on your phone using Dropbox and Carousel
The biggest frustration using your smartphone as your camera is the limited storage. Particularly if you have a non-expandable iPhone, which currently starts at a rather paltry 16GB (12GB useable space) for the iPhone 6s! Then you'll have some apps installed - so you might only have 4GB of space for photos and videos. On my iPhone 6 Plus, a typical 30s video clip at 60fps … [Read more...]
App of the week – Readdle’s Scanner Pro. Turn your phone into a portable scanner!
Scanner Pro, Readdle, iOS This is a very handy app for iOS devices, that uses the camera on your smartphone to convert paper documents to PDFs, and then uploads them to Dropbox. It has all sorts of uses but I use it for scanning receipts, business cards, important documents and even the childrens' artwork! To get started, you hover the phone over what you want scanned. This … [Read more...]
Braven 705 portable Bluetooth wireless speaker – review
Video review and overview Braven like to refer to themselves as the GoPro of the portable speaker market and they do make lots of wireless speakers that nearly all have some form of ruggedness. Here I'm looking at the Braven 705 wireless speaker (£89 RRP) which is part of their "design" range (they also do an "outdoor" range), but this speaker is still splash proof to IPX5 and … [Read more...]
Organise your laptop and smartphone repairs, using an old computer tower and some magnets
Having run a computer repair business for 6 years, you get to know the importance of organising all those pesky, minute screws. It’s not too difficult getting most things apart, but if you don’t take care, putting everything back together again can be a challenge. A while back I started using some small rare earth or neodymium magnets and the thin steel sides of our … [Read more...]
App of the week – Pro HDR for iPhone
HDR or High Dynamic Range photography is a way of combing two exposures to create one image with a far greater dynamic range than would otherwise be possible. The resulting photo is intended to represent more accurately what the human eye is capable of seeing. The concept is that one photo is taken under-exposed and another over-exposed. These two photos are stitched … [Read more...]
Aquapac wet and dry 25L backpack review
I was looking for a replacement for my small, 20 year old, Lowe Alpine (15L) rucksack, for commuting to work in the main. Since I live on Dartmoor, rain is a constant so I wanted it weatherproof. Up until now I've used a Camelbak raincover off my Camelbak Mule hydration pack (that I use for mountain biking). But this doesn't stop the rain from providing embarrassing wet patches … [Read more...]
Fix anything with Sugru, the wonder glue?
I stumbled across this mouldable glue that sets to a hard rubber, about 5 years ago at the Gadget Show Live trade day. It's come a long way since then and I've even seen it at our local B&Q. It comes in packs of small 5g sachets and is available it multiple colours which can be mixed to make even more colours should you desire. Once a sachet is opened, it goes off pretty … [Read more...]
Holding out for the best price on Amazon using camelcamelcamel price tracker
This has been around for a while but I mentioned it to a friend recently and they'd never heard of it. The oddly named camecamelcamel website is a price-tracker specifically for Amazon. It records historical pricing on all products listed on Amazon. It can be used in two ways. The first way, is to check before you purchase an item whether you are buying at a good price or … [Read more...]
Lifeproof Nuud waterproof case for iPhone review
I've heard a lot about these Lifeproof cases and often had them recommended to me but this is the first time I've tried one out. I needed something mainly for cycling, that could fit in my back jersey pocket. I've always used Aquapac pouches but since my iPhone 6 Plus is such a big phone, this solution has outgrown the pocket! Lifeproof do two types of waterproof cases: the … [Read more...]
Making a bandsaw box from scraps of wood
I decided to make a bandsaw box for my daughter from scraps of wood leftover from other projects. This is a great little project if you have a bandsaw and something I've never tried before. If you don't own a bandsaw, then I hope you still may find this of interest. The attraction of a bandsaw box is that they can be made any shape or size you want, from scraps of wood. And … [Read more...]
AmazonBasic’s laptop sleeve for MacBook Pro review
Finding a case for your new pride and joy is always a frustrating task. I usually just chuck my MacBook Pro 13" into my rucksack - but after a few years of abuse I thought I'd take a (pretty safe) gamble on the incredibly cheap Apple cases in the AmazonBasics range. I got the AmazonBasics laptop sleeve for my 13" 2011 MacBook Pro. But they do cases in this range for everything … [Read more...]
Soundpeats Qy7 Bluetooth headphones review. Is there a better value pair of wireless headphones?
I was recently after a pair of Bluetooth headphones mainly for cycling. I'm aware this is a controversial practice - but I usually only want to listen to podcasts cycling to work on a cycle path, and generally have just one earbud in my kerbside ear. The main danger is over-eager dogs! I wanted an inexpensive pair of headphones, since there is a strong possibility they'll … [Read more...]
iPhone 6 Plus versus Canon’s G7X. Is the iPhone’s camera all you need?
As a keen photographer I upgraded to the iPhone 6 Plus mainly for the camera. And specifically the Plus for the optical image stabilisation that the standard iPhone 6 doesn't have. This improves its low light performance significantly. And since smartphones generally don't have decent flashes this is even more important. My other camera was Canon's Prosumer 70D. And whilst … [Read more...]
How to fix your hijacked web browser
The first sign that your browser has been hijacked is a change to your normal homepage. Typically you’ll also start seeing ad pop-ups on your screen, and your machine can start to slow down. You may also be unable to browse to certain web pages. Depending on how severe the hijack is, you may be able to fix the issue yourself. Resetting your browser can remove basic browser … [Read more...]
All you need to know about passwords
Passwords have always been a source of frustration but it’s worse than ever now with the average user having to remember at least 10 web logins. And gone are the days where you could use the name of your first pet or your mother’s maiden name. I used to shudder when a website asked me to change my password – to something I’d not used before! And rarely can you get away with … [Read more...]
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