Category: gadgets

Short review of the Lenovo Smart clock

Introduction

I was not looking what I was doing and plugged in my Alexa power supply into my wooden LED digital clock that I purchased from Singapore for above 50 SGD and the next thing I know is the clock was beeping with screwed up display.

I knew that was the end of it. So there began my search to replace that clock. I checked out many websites in India and came across that the same LED clock including shipping would cost me much more than 50SGD. It was not worth it and I was wondering what to do when I came across the Croma web site which was selling the Lenovo Smart clock at a deep discount of 3999/- down sharply from the MRP of 9999/-

At the time it was launched the thought of someone having to pay 10k for that clock astounded me. So I did not for it at that time. However at 3999/- it was a compelling buy.

Unboxing

I made a short video on unboxing this clock. It was a fairly simple unboxing and took very minimal time and less fussy as well. Take a look for yourself.

Salient points about the gadget

The following are worth mentioning about the gadget

  • Quite some decent amounts of clock faces
  • pretty amazing brightness levels almost doubling up the clock as a night lamp for your room
  • Good readable main clock face font
  • Amazing loudness of volume for announcements and google replies
  • Main controls such as brightness, volume etc are neatly placed on the slide up menu on the clock
  • Other widgets such as alarms, weather etc are accessible by swiping left or right
  • Textured cloth finish with volume buttons on top of the clock
  • Triangular shape makes it sit on the desk without an issue
  • Other buttons such as mute, power cable input etc are neatly placed at the rear and are accessible without even seeing them, mute button being a slider is easy to operate
  • Hardware seems rock solid in the hand as well as throughout the operation
  • Since it connects to WiFi, even after a power cycle, it picks up the current time from the network without a fuss unlike other digital LED clocks
  • Integration with devices to cast to, is commendable
  • USB connectivity at the rear

CONS: There are really no points I can take to nitpick on this product. I really do not have much to say on the negatives of the product. In fact in my opinion there are really no negatives. Had it been sold for the original price of 10000 it would have been a huge negative, but that is also not the case now.

Conclusion

The Lenovo Smart Clock is a great buy at 3999/-, the hardware is slick and fuss free, the display is amazing and so is the sound. It does sound a bit tinny since it is not a bass machine like say the HomePod and rightly so. This is not a device built for music but still gives you listening pleasure if you wish to play music.

For what it has to offer, it is pretty accurate and integrates google tech very well inside what is a right dimension of hardware. The Lenovo Clock is a hardware that would get you to actually use it more than say a Google Home Device. Its understanding of Indian English accent is commendable as well considering how far Google has come with this.

So what are you waiting for, let me know in the comments below if you liked the review and if you are going to get yourself one of these.

Until my next post, Stay safe!

WAHL wired hair clipper – is it a good buy?

So finally I did it. The opportunity came across. COVID. I could not and did not want to go for a haircut to a salon outside due the risks. The only other option was me to have a haircut at home itself. And for my kids as well.

I had a Philips beard trimmer which was unsuitable to cut hair on the head. In fact it is even a wrong tool to use to do that. I had seen a lot of these hair trimmers in the salons that I was interested to see what they were using. And then it came through. I made an Amazon purchase for the WAHL corded clipper.

So was it a good purchase? Read on to find out as I will share interesting snippets about this product.

Features of the product

In short its a corded hair clipper. Period. But with a difference.

  • Very powerful and consistent motor
  • Adjustable blade with a mechanical handle
  • Chrome plated rust proof blades
  • Comes with four attachments for different hair lengths

Talking points

The clipper is heavy. If you do not hold it properly it can give you wrist pain. It is seriously heavy in a good way. It feels solid in the hand. The motor is powerful. Really powerful. You can feel it when you switch it on. Perfect build for the price.

The hair lengths attachments help you adjust how much of hair length you want to clip. It take a bit of getting used to.

Here is a video review of the product unboxing

Utilitarian aspect

This is the real thing about this product. Can you actually use it at home. I used it at home and this is what I found out, read on.

  • You need the person to sit on a bar stool preferably for you to stand upright while trimming hair. If you are bending forward and downward to where the subject is, its not a great position
  • There are tactical ways of running the trimmer on the hair, if you don’t keep the angle right, you are going to snip right upto the scalp. It takes a lot of getting used to get this right
  • You take the longest measurable attachment, move from bottom to top, then the next one move from bottom upto 3/4th of the top, then the next one from bottom upto 1/2 the top and the last one bottom upto 1/4 the top. This is the pattern to leave longer hair at top while having the shortest hair at bottom
  • For the top of the head its best to use comb, your hand and scissors. Weave your hand along the top hair, raise it up and snip a quantum that pops way out of your fingers, keep repeating this until there is no more hair that pops up beyond your hand depth when placed on the top of the head. This is by far the easiest thing to do as its a natural step
  • For all the attachments provided you still need the comb and scissors method too, and its not totally avoidable.
  • There is no magic formula to use this machine. Everything comes by experience. We need to use different mechanisms to get the haircut done.
  • There are other aspects such as lots of hair sticking onto body or falling on the floor at home which needs to be taken care of. We need a good apron preferably satin onto which hair does not stick. Again experience plays the part to find out what suits best
  • For the hair that needs to be completely removed such as edges, we can use beard trimmer without any attachments, but carefully
  • If you are using any of this on children, utmost care is to be taken to accommodate the fact children however old they are will move their head beyond a point as they begin to get frustrated. For an inexperienced user who gives the haircut this process can go on until 45 minutes to an hour and still result in imperfection.
  • There is no way to learn this without humans as that method is expensive requires dealing with wigs to practice, etc

Conclusion

The product is solid for its price. It has none of the efficiency issues that we may have with cordless trimmers. It’s a simple product with not much tech complications, but still can get difficult to use as the process is more about skill than anything about the product usage itself.

The other things it will teach you are patience, care, being slow, and getting to know how difficult a barber’s job really is. This is why everyone cannot be a barber. This is not a lawnmower job, it is a hair trimming job. And if the end result is a disaster you not only lose that customer, you will lose other customers also by word of mouth.

With every lost customer, the skill is hard to master. If you liked this review, leave me your comments below!

WWDC – Improvements to OS releases – part 3, Mac OS Big Sur & ARM

In the second of this three part series, I outlined the improvements to WatchOS, Privacy, Smart Home, and Apple TV coming up in iOS14. To conclude in this article we discuss the big daddy of all OSes, Mac OS.

Mac OS Improvements

This time the new operating system is going to be called Big Sur. The focus is on design and power of the OS. Some of the important introductions are as below

User Experience (UX)

  • There is a complete redesign of the user interface and experience meant for rich look and feel, maintaining simplicity and ensuring easy usage and great UX
  • Sidebars and Toolbars are added for most apps
  • Transparent Menu bar which merges with background
  • Soft sliders for controls like volume
  • Control center is now integrated into Big Sur, just like iPhone and its customisable to what you wish to have

Widgets, Messages, Maps & Catalyst

  • Widgets are now available to Big Sur
  • Messages on mac now carries over iPad based updates to memojis and powerful integrations of things like photos, icons, etc directly into messages.
  • MacOS supports all map features discussed previously for iOS 14. On the move though these may not be so useful but just before you leave you can setup a lot of data on your desk and it will all hopefully be there on your phone as well
  • Street level views and look around, points of interest, important locations known to you can now be pinned
  • Catalyst app now available and will support adapting iPhone apps to mac with enabling all the good features of Mac OS with respect to screen size, and lots of other things

Safari browser speed improvements

Big Sur claims that the Safari browser is now 50% faster than Chrome. And we all know that Chrome is going down the drain with its memory hogging functionality. This comes at a time when Microsoft Edge is blazing fast on all platforms. The real competition is now really between Safari and Edge rather than Safari and Chrome

Safari also has improvements to privacy and now will allow users to see how websites are tracking them, using privacy report button. Website passwords have stronger level of encryption within Safari in case of a data breach and Safari is now also allowing developers to port extensions to Safari easily.

The Mac app store will also feature a list of these extensions to find them easily. Being able to give extensions permissions just by the hour or day and giving them specific permissions for specific websites makes Safari very powerful. Safari also has a new look with custom backgrounds, and specific themes.

One of the issues we people have always had is to have multiple tabs open to the point that each tab shows only the icon. It would by then become hard to read and we would not understand which page is on which tab. For this the new browser comes with page preview just by pointing the button at that tab which in my opinion is a great move.

Another feature introduced by Safari also includes the fact that we can now close only tabs to the right or only taps to the left. Safari also comes now with built-in translation where we can translate an entire webpage in real-time contextually while being on the same page. This is especially great if you want to read content written in other languages, but shown in let’s say English.

Move to ARM

Perhaps the biggest update in WWDC but still nothing visual is the decision from Apple to move from Intel to ARM. This is by far the most important decision that will let Apple bring about newer tech in near future of at least five years. Every new hardware released hereon will be having ARM chips and it is an exciting time for both Apple and ARM knowing the sophistication of ARMs IPs in terms of performance and the likes.

Some of the key points about the hardware evolution are as below

  • 100x improvement in CPU performance
  • Larger GPU and wider memory subsystem for much better graphics performance over the years
  • 1000x faster performance in graphics in ten years
  • 2 billion devices shipped since ten years is a whopping achievement
  • Focus on devices giving highest performance with lowest power consumption
  • Big Sur is be default having native apps built for the new silicon
  • Universal 2 for converting apps to support native silicon or Intel
  • The real deal would be when users use complex apps like photoshop, final cut pro which would seamlessly provide performance most likely at less power consumption, like for example applying filters on 4k preview videos while editing on a project.
  • Rosetta 2 would help in automatically help translate intel based apps to work on new silicon even though the app is not completely refined
  • Gaming is expected to be super smooth for rendering frames
  • Support for virtualisation and support for iPhone and iPad apps to run seamlessly on Mac’s new chips
  • The SoC kit is available as a mac mini for using Big Sur and Xcode so developers can work with to perfect their apps

Conclusion

The developer betas are already available and the iOS 14 release would be officially available by Fall time (September in India). These OS updates are substantial in their own right and have finally caught up with what Android was offering all the while. But in a more sure footed manner.

It is an exciting time for buying Apple products especially with the very performant and less power hungry ARM cores and it is only anyones imagination how many avenues this will open for Apple in future. The only thing left to do is to wait to savour the new iOS14 for now and some great ARM based hardware in the years to come!

Apple WWDC 2020 – understanding the upcoming improvements to the latest OS – Part 1

Introduction

At the WWDC Apple launched many improvements to many of their operating system versions and many new features as well which makes Apples operating system exciting to use. This article aims to dig deeper into how these features translate into productivity or usefulness for the Indians at large.

We will understand how these features are going to be to use in daily life for many people in the Indian subcontinent. So what are we waiting for? let’s just dig right in.

iOS 14 updates

App Library

The app library is a welcome addition to what we already thought as a cumbersome operation of having to arrange apps the way we want. However I have a grouse about this, there are automatically arranged categories and sometimes that may not be what the user really expects.

My opinion is that the app library may probably have few useful blocks, but there could also be blocks that are not exactly those choices the user wanted.

In India we have different ways of organising apps. While some people have too many apps, and they have so many categories which themselves go into pages and pages, others just have hundreds of apps lying on different screens. All said and done no one goes beyond page 1 of the screens.

Widgets

This was never properly implemented in iOS since a long time due to which Apple may have lost business by users on Android buying many phones which offered these since a long time. However that is about to change now with apple offering widgets on the latest iOS. These widgets are beautiful and knowing apple they come in different shapes and sizes with different amounts of info with the unique feature that upon moving the widgets around app icons, the icons arrange themselves without asking you to show how the widget fits on the screen. This is a welcome move and now iPhone users will finally feel on par and in some cases even better than android users.

Smart widget stacks automatically move depending on time of the day to show you what you want and you can see all different types of the same widgets even before placing them on the screen. This clearly shows that Apple has understood the pain points about these widgets on Android before launching them here and has fixed all those potential problems.

Picture in Picture

The picture in picture is another Android feature that was available on Samsung and other phones since a long while. So its the same thing here the only quirk being that if you minimize the video, audio still keeps playing. Other than that its pretty much normal fare and is coming to iPhone a few years late.

Siri

Siri has been redesigned in iOS 14 to be more smarter and answer more complex questions. Other than that the results of questions you pose Siri are shown as notifications overlaid on the current app you are using if the information suits such a panel (like for eg., weather) which means you are less likely to be visually disturbed.

Other than that Siri button is now much more minimal and shows up in a really small area of the screen unlike the wavy UI we have known Siri for.

Audio messages and dictation are more integrated with Siri now. Nothing that was not there before, but hopefully more accurate.

Translate app

Siri would have been able to translate few sentences here and there anyways in due course, but what fun is it to just use it for that. What we would like to have is two panes with one showing the language I know, and the other showing the language I want to know, and both using audio inputs to help translate from one language to another side by side. So this is a good move to make it a separate app called Translate which would be very useful in due course.

Just that be aware for Indian languages the updates may take a year or year and half to be rolled out with mostly basic support for Hindi, and a few other languages. This is not easy so that is how it is going to be. There will be delays in rolling this out fully in all countries. With India the challenge is 26+ different languages and hence its also an opportunity for people to contribute to this app if need be. The specifics are yet to be rolled out in due course.

Only 11 languages are now supported and more are yet to come. This app works completely offline as well and securely so that your data is with you.

Landscape conversation mode is wow as usual !

Messages

In short, conversations are going to be supported now under messages. Also many more memojis as this seems to be gaining popularity. In line replies to messages were much needed and going by the demo it seems well implemented. The only thing you could do earlier was to show icons, but now real actual messages can be collapsed and expanded as replies to a message in the conversation.

Pinning conversations above, messages showing up on avatars and @ addressing someone so that you can subscribe to only those messages sent to you as notifications are some improvements to this feature. However this is where I have the biggest grouse with Apple yet in 2020. In India we know that 7/10 messages we get are spam. Mobile numbers are sold and within no time of acquiring a number you are beginning to get spammed already.

The junk section of the SMS messages was not implemented properly and it remains so in iOS 14. This is a big disappointment. With apps like true caller or advanced algorithmsappstools that could have helped to kill these promo messages by filtering has been given a miss (whether or not it is country specific). This could have been difficult to implement or too country specific – not sure – but its a disappointing miss nonetheless.

So dear fellow Indians, let us continue to not use SMS app on iOS. Bad. Or you can still look at that important salary credit information along with that SMS which provides you confidential massage or friendship services in utmost fairness in an area nearby where you live.

Apple maps

Every WWDC there will always be a talk about maps being redesigned ground up. I am not sure why maps has to be redesigned ground up. For me ground up means throwing out the old code and restarting from scratch, so unless you are doing that Apple I think usage of word ground up is not so correct in my opinion.

That said, Google maps now shows you which lane you are on when you are going by a flyover, whether under or over it. A guy from fast company shares an opinion that apple maps is way better than rival google. Well please come to India and start using Apple maps and I will bet you that if you do not ditch apple maps in half an hour, I will be surprised.

Let me be a blunt here, finding great places is not what we do on everyday basis with maps. We use maps to get from point A to point B in India, in the least amount of time. All we want to know in Bangalore is whether we will spend 3 days at silk board, or 1 week before we get a move on. Having said this, all we wish to know is how long it will take to get from A to B. 70% of Indians dont use maps or have smartphones. 90% of the remaining 30% use maps for the reasons I stated and the remaining 10% of the 30% maybe using it to find “great places” using guides.

Now coming to some good things about maps, there are cycling routes introduced. But in India you cycle over the same flyover someone drives through. So big deal again! For us we have only one set of clogged roads whether you are on cycle or bus, or auto, or car, or a bullock cart. And for us if a cycle can go somewhere so can an auto or a two wheeler, we will somehow squeeze through. And we only lift our cycles while crossing the road or giving it to service.

As for EV routing, hopefully we would need that feature in 2030. As for notifying which areas are congestion zones don’t bother. Just show a huge big circle around Bangalore. That is all. The whole city is a congestion zone for us anyways.

Car Play

Ok so you have great improvements on Car Play which includes – wait a minute – new wallpaper options? Really? Wow!

And you want to digitally open the car. That is great. So how do I use it? Wait what? I need to purchase the next year’s BMW for that feature? Hmmm …..

When launching features like this how about using SMS, bluetooth and some existing tech to make every car digitally lockable and unlockable? That would have been real innovation. Well I am hoping some accessory guy will come up with that shortly.

And sure yes you are making this tech available with iPhones and new cars only, but why not old cars? With a mod maybe?

App Store

App clips are small part of apps, and launches to just let you pay or do some important things only instead of needing full apps. That now is a good move apple.

iPAD OS

So basically Apple have launched something called sidebar which in effect is windows explorer’s clone on ipad. Calls on iPAD now have compact notifications instead of full screen one, again something Android has finished eating for breakfast lunch and dinner long long back. What took you so long? And on top of that you say customers will love it? No doubt, they were already getting frustrated and were about to switch to Android for something as basic as this. Good for you, you held them back.

The universal search is a good addition and was always there on other devices such as TV from sometime. I am not sure such a thing is there for Android yet and so deeply integrated, so correct me if I am wrong there. Good for Apple with this feature.

Apple Pencil

Here is where Apple has innovated this year and it shows. Using Scribble feature you can directly enter a URL into a browser address bar for example. But for longer URLs that is going to be a pain. I do not see many people using pencil to do that. However it is about continuity where a person doing free form writing actually also can input text without putting the pencil down.

It is the intent Apple had that has to be lauded. Of course a larger scale reading written text and able to paste that as analysed text into some other context is where Apple seems to have beaten Samsung at least with this release of the operating system.

Using scribble on any text field is a welcome move. Pretty cool ! Allowing me to draw figures and making them accurate, interpreting phone numbers and directions from what I write are just the most natural way of seamlessly adding richness to content. I hope you have patented that Apple!

Airpods

Airpods now switch to the nearest device you are using. Without asking you. That is pretty seamless and a much wanted feature. And this time around Apple has worked on the spatial audio algorithms to give you the best sound experience with Air Pods. Tracking your head as your head moves to alter the sound distribution is way too tech savvy for sure.

The only thing left for apple is to read your brain waves and interpret what you are thinking about that secret date you are planning for and sending reminders about it which others in your family can see 🙂

Read about the rest of the WWDC updates in the Part-2 of this article.

Redmi K20 Pro review

Introduction

The Redmi K20 pro is a medium priced phone that was launched in India in mid May of last year (2019). The actual availability was somewhere after that towards late 2019. This blog post attempts to provide some details regarding the phone and also contains a link to the detailed video review of the phone.

Specifications

The phone comes with the following features
  • Snapdragon 855 chip
  • 6.4″ AMOLED display
  • 6GB / 8GB RAM
  • 128GB / 256GB ROM
  • 48MP + 13MP + 8MP triple rear camera
  • 20MP popup selfie front camera
  • 27W charger
  • In display fingerprint charger
  • 4000 MaH battery
  • 3.5mm headphone jack

Initial and usage impressions

Video Review

The video review of this phone is available here for your viewing

Chipset and performance

After a long time the Snapdragon chips have come of age and 855 is no slouch either. Although SD has moved onto 865 chipsets already, the 855 is still a fast processor and Android blazes through with apps loading super fast on this phone. I tried having different apps load and in the background and multiple pages on browsers, everything loaded just fine. In fact I will go one step more to say if you use this phone you will be hooked onto these fast processors and will not look back to the sub 15000 rupee phones anymore. At least I will not anymore!
The Snapdragon or any fast processor for that matter, really makes a difference and I could not imagine apps load so fast on a Mi phone. 

Display

Finally seeing an AMOLED display on a Redmi is refreshing. I cannot rave more about the display as much as I have in the video review, but all I wish to say is that the display is crisp and clear and it is really good to watch videos or photos on. The brightness is sufficient and more than enough for games, videos and photos even in a dimly lit room. And this is a big plus for this phone.

Storage and RAM

6GB RAM is pretty standard for android phones these days and so is 128GB storage. RAM and ROM getting cheaper by the day means for the same money you get more bang. The storage is more than enough for keeping those large photos for days on end, and for your browser or mail attachment downloads. And in the case you need more you have support for micro SD card although I dont see myself using it much. 128GB is more than enough for a start and if you have the 256GB nothing to beat it.

Cameras

Everyone is jumping onto the camera bandwagon these days and Xiaomi is no different. When the whole world is converging onto the phone so also will the memories in terms of videos and photos. With large storage and good cameras this means you can now enjoy photography more than ever on the phone itself. Of course people do still use DSLRs and the likes, but there is a lot more the phones can do nowadays compared to yesteryears. 
The triple camera of this phone helps produce some great shots. Night photography is not excellent but sufficient enough for a phone this expensive and there is nothing much to complain about.  The popup camera in the front for selfies at 20MP is really good beating most of the average selfie phones. But I kind of felt the image was a bit too softened with noise removal and it did not look very crisp.
I will post images taken from this camera in a short while more. This phone also supports 960fps HD slow motion video too. Other than there is a wide angle mode, a telephoto mode to complement your photography skills.
In summary the cameras on this phone are very good and though not in the league of the Samsung phones, they come a pretty decent second in the race. There is still some way to go for Redmi phones to sport awesome cameras but this also means the cost goes up if they do it. So either for the tech or for the cost we have what we have on this phone and it is seriously not so much a bad deal.

Other features

There are some features unique to this phone
  • The pop up camera is one such feature. It is surely more gimmick than substance, but it feels premium and works well, its definitely eye catching.
  • Form factor is very good even though display is 6.4 inches, since width is a bit narrower it feels premium to hold in the hand
  • There is an in display finger print sensor which is again a bit gimmicky but still a cool feature and feels pretty modern compared to some older phones. It does not work all the time like I said in the video, but it still is an interesting addition.
  • The 4000 MaH battery is a standard on all Xiaomi phones and this one also sports the same prowess. This is really good as I never have to charge the phone for 2 full days for my kind of limited usage. If you are worried about whether the battery will last at least the whole day, you need to stop worrying on that count. If this phone cannot do that no other phone will.
  • Although understated the 3.5mm headset jack being there means all your old headphones, earphones will still work on this phone! Yaay!

Conclusion

You can buy this phone on Amazon for a good discounted price in 2020. For a price point of 27000 (after 2000 off on MRP) on Amazon, its a very good buy. There are further discounts on credit cards upto 3000 rupees more and also exchange offers on your older phone. With a no cost EMI also on offer this phone comes at a juicy not to be missed price and deals.
Do you own this phone? If so let me know in the comments what you feel about it. Until the next review, take care and stay safe.

The Dyson V11 absolute pro review

Introduction

 

After being accustomed to Eureka Forbes for most part of my life with the demo man coming to my home and later managing to convince me to buy one of their vacuum cleaners each single time, I slowly moved on to the likes of Karcher. All of these vacuum cleaners however were wired and had to be lugged around the house along with the wire. This was irritating at some point and I wanted something which would cut free the cord. Here is where the Dyson family of vacuum cleaners used to appeal to me since a long time. Finally I decided to take the plunge in 2020 and went in for the DysonV 11 absolute pro.

 

What it claims to be

Dyson V 11 absolute pro is a cordless vacuum cleaner obviously with rechargeable battery about the size of a laptop battery and can be easily used around the house to clean the house. So what is special as compare to the other vacuum cleaners you may ask? Well from the looks of it there’s nothing really different from other vacuum cleaners but when you begin to use this machine you see the finance with which it is built. The looks, the attachments, the ease of attaching and removing something, the way it glides over the floor, the way in which you can keep it clean, the way charges, and so many other things in between – these are what makes it really different from other vacuums.

So basically it comes with the main unit along with many accessories for which you Will need a bag to store them. It’s a professional design with the stunning blue look and feel extremely premium to hold in the hand. It’s almost like the Apple of phones.
 
 

Installation

 

After the purchase of the vacuum cleaner the goods were delivered to me by courier within a couple of days. Post that an appointment was set for demonstrating the vacuum cleaner and me being the usual guy decided not to go for it since I knew how to use vacuum cleaners. Nevertheless after sometime I thought I should still let the appointment go through and called the guy for a demo.

The guy said he will take a Ola cab and reach my home. I have never seen any service personnel come by taxi for a demo. Just imagine the level of comfort his company gave him to do a task well. Small things matter right? He was at my home on time very professionally dressed and already to show me the demo of the vacuum cleaner. He went about to explain all the parts very well and detailed some specifics of how to use each part.
 
He had to wall mount the vacuum and he did that in an extremely professional way. Not a single bit of dust fallen on the floor anywhere. I was extremely impressed with his way of working and vacuum cleaner was on the wall in no time.
 
 

Detailing the parts

The vacuum comes with the following parts

 

 
  • Main unit which also has charging port
  • charging cable
  • Wall mount apparatus
  • One long tubular attachment
  • One floor cleaning part
  • One crevice cleaning part (for in between mattresses, sofas)
  • One mattress, sofa cleaning part
  • One carpet, mat cleaning part
  • One electronic screen cleaning brush
  • One cobweb and wall corner cleaning brush which can also be used for windows
  • One bent attachment to reach above air conditioners, fans
  • One spring attachment to pull, extend and clean inaccessible areas
 

Detailing the modes of operation

There are basically three modes of operation, Turbo, Medium/Auto and Eco

 

 
  • Eco stretches the battery upto an hour
  • Medium / Auto takes the battery until 40 minutes
  • Turbo is usually around 15 minutes
 

All these vary the suction power and produce different results.

 

Cleaning the parts

The user manual has a lot of information about how to attach the parts how to clean them and so on. These are pictorially depicted and easy to understand. The user manual has a lot of information on how to interpret alerts from the machine, understand if there is a blockage in the machine, and how to look for blockages within the vacuum cleaner in such rare instances. The level of instructions are not confusing and are very pictorial easily get the point. Two of these parts can be cleaned with water. The main unit has a filter which can be cleaned washed and dried in sunlight and put back again.

The dust holder area in the vacuum is within the main unit and can be open to dispose of everything in a dustbin. You need to ensure that when getting rid of the dust you don’t put your face to close with the dustbin, else there is lot of micro dust which could fly out causing cough.
 

Summary of the gadget

There are very few things that are professionally designed in the world while at the same time addresses real life issues while we humans use these gadgets.

Pros

Here are a few things that tilted my favour towards the Dyson v11

 
  • Professional look of the device
  • Heard a lot about the professionalism of the company and the level of investment they do into their design (such as bladeless fan etc)
  • Cordless vacuum means no more wires worry or tangling or hurtling vacuums across the house
  • Easy way to dispose dust straight into the dustbin – no dust bag etc
  • Suction power is uniform until the last drop of battery
  • Charging is done overnight and its ready to go again in the morning
  • Professional installation support and easy to read manual
  • Wall mount option
  • Attachments that are sensible to use and easy to attach/detach at any height
  • Entire vacuum can be held in one hand like a huge gun
  • Slickness in the tech
  • Easy cleaning options
 

Cons

Here are a few things why people may not buy a Dyson

 
  • Karcher and Eureka are still at affordable range of about 5-15k INR. For everyday vacuuming at cheaper price these are still great options
  • At nearly 50000 INR this is one of the costliest vacuums in India and is not affordable to someone who likes it but is restrained by the cost factor
  • The main unit is heavier than I expected and hence you need to keep it at an angle while cleaning the floor else your wrists are gonna hurt after a while.
  • For floor cleaning I would still prefer something like the Roomba simply because its automation level vs the price point of 2/3rds of Dyson means it would do its job without me having to intervene.
  • At the end of the day no vacuum can ensure your entire house is clean always. Its a mix of vacuuming mopping and sometimes even deep cleaning windows and doors that ensures maximum results.
 

In summary I purchased this gadget at a zero cost emi of 2500 INR a month for two years. I know that this gadget is there to remain with me for a couple of years and this offer was great for me. I know I have invested in a company that puts thought into design for addressing real world issues and does that in style with their products. I am a happy customer of Dyson and feel that their products and their professional approach will give a lot more choice to the customer in future.

If you have the money and are looking for a good vacuum in the market, there is nothing better than this one at the moment. Go for it !

Logitech K480 keyboard review

Intro

I happened to get a good deal on the Logitech bluetooth keyboard K480 on Amazon. It was retailing about 35+ % lesser than MRP since it was existing since some time. At this price I felt it was a value for money possession.

The fact that I may need something to keep my iphone on and type made this more useful. In fact this post is typed using this keyboard with my iPhone on the dock and it is just so super useful as compared to the on screen virtual phone keypad.

Features offered

The keyboard offers functionality to connect to three devices which we can activate the keyboard for with a turn wheel. It supports iOS, Mac OS and Android/Windows and Chrome OS combinations.

There is a power switch to the bottom of the keyboard and once powered on, it will connect to the device to which the turn wheel is setup for use with. Since this is a keyboard that supports different types of OS, the buttons too reflect the same. 

There are buttons for start menu, for command (Mac OS), Alt and Option keys. Other keys include function keys, media playback keys, volume keys. 

Keys and how they feel

There is a good amount of tactile feedback from the keys on this keyboard though this is not a mac keyboard as such so just dont expect such levels of ease of use with this one. I could type fairly fast with this keyboard but I did encounter some key misses which is not the expectation. 

The keyboard runs on a couple of AAA batteries and I have not done much research on how long it will last beyond standby times. Only time will tell. 

Conclusion

If you are in need for a good bluetooth keyboard on the lower side of Rs.2000/- look no further than the Logitech K480. Though it is a tad bit heavy and bulky, it suits the purpose well, and the bonus is it comes with a phone or iPad dock as well.

Hit up the link to buy it from Amazon now. 

Focal Spark wireless bluetooth earphone unboxing and review

Introduction

In my quest for a good pair of earphones, you will have already noticed that I experienced with many of them here and here. During this journey I chanced across a suggestion from a friend on the Focal brand and the fact they were selling their earphones at a discount on Amazon.

Since the offer was too good to resist, I purchased these online.

Unboxing video

Here is a little unboxing I created for you to understand what the packaging of the earphone looks like.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/257Ei2DYDRf54sRn6

 

Strong points

The Focal Spark has these pros going for it

  • Very easy to wear for long hours

  • short cable means lesser tangling unlike the Samsung UFlex

  • Good sound quality – bit of muddy bass, but largely good distributions of highs mids and lows

  • Very good battery standby time – you charge it once and when you don’t use it the earphones does not lose battery power too soon – this is in stark contrast to the Uflex earphones from samsung which used to annoy me during the middle of that long walk

  • Charging is quick and gives full charge that does not let you down anywhere

  • You can pair two different phones to this earphone over bluetooth at same time (which could be a boon or a bane)

Weak points

The Focal Spark like any other earphones has few cons that I noticed during my usage which I will like to point out here

  • The wire is a tad bit too short, it needs to be about 20% longer to fit better

  • The earphone is best suited for music but not necessarily phone calls, I did have a feedback that the phone calls were not pretty clear. You can check that here.

  • The earbuds are a bit tight so wearing them for longer hours means it will feel like your ears are blocked. This is exactly where the Airpods do better. They are there and not there at the same time.

  • The bass was not exactly clear and was a bit muddy. Focal has still some way to go to beat Bullets V2 by OnePlus.

  • The asking price of 7000/- is not exactly less, but right now you can bag a pair for close to 3000/- which makes it either a steal or well, unpopular as the case maybe!

  • It comes with micro usb charging which is not so 2018, but this was not such a downer for me, would have still preferred usb-C which is quite the standard these days.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these are an excellent pair of wireless earbuds for music purposes if not exactly phone calls. The buds have excellent battery life, and are good to hear and use. They are comfortable over long hours of wear and you just need to find an eartip of the size that suits you better. Having said that, for the current price on offer, this is a steal, and you should go for it !

Review of the sharp air purifier and humidifier KC-F30E-W.

Introduction

After years of struggling with Bangalore’s weather, I tried to understand why my kid was getting sick with asthmatic symptoms over and over again. It struck me there’s something about the air quality that creates this problem other than the pollen in the air.
Looking at Bangalore go from bad to worse it was only an eventuality that I had to really think of investing into an air purifier for my bedroom. Over the years the technology for air purifiers has only become better and better and with standard HEPA filters and air filters being used in air conditioners and the like, the same also started being used for air purifiers. With cities like Delhi almost have an air purifier for every home the concept is still catching up for Bangalore which is taking some time to reach the level of dust pollution that is seen in Delhi.
There are a lot of companies working on air purifiers such as Sharp, Philips etc. A quick search on Amazon shows a host of companies offering air purifiers. I also understood that when the air becomes dry within the room or the atmosphere we are in, it starts to cause an irritation in people’s throats which further cause a lot of cough and runny nose symptoms. couple this with the usual asthmatic symptoms and the whole situation turns nasty with an allergic cough that lasts for over a week or two in small kids.
So now I not only needed a solution to purifying the air at home, I also needed a solution which helps me to humidify the air within the room.

Two in one

Given my need, I wanted a unit which had both the air purifying function and humidification function in a single unit. After having seen a lot of reviews on YouTube and checking out some products on Amazon, I came across an advertisement regarding the sharp KC-F30E model.
For once I did not want to make an online purchase and I wanted to just pay up the cost and have the air purifier on the hand immediately. For this reason, I picked up the contact number for the customer care for Sharp, and make a call to them to understand the models they have and the payment options to secure one of these models.

Purchase experience

Sharp could not answer my call when I called them but they promptly return the call and assigned an executive from Bangalore city to deal with my case. The executive was in constant touch with me in spite of my busy schedules and I asked him if there was a no-cost EMI option to purchase this product.
Due to my busy schedules the executive was kind enough to meet me at a time of my choice and place of my choice and he brought in the purifier unit to my office along with the payment machine. The device cost me 23500 rupees and I paid the whole thing by a credit card with no cost EMI option for 1 year which cost me around close to 2000 rupees every month.

Device statistics

The device itself is around 5kgs in weight and is as big a personal computer desktop tower or slightly more. The whole unit fits into the boot of my car and I could get it home easily. ,The device itself is constructed in a simple manner with easy access to the filters, the water bay and the controls on the front panel of the device. The device runs on a 5A socket and it’s very easy to use.

Unboxing video

Below is the video I made for the unboxing of the device which you can see to understand what the device looks like in reality.

Controls

The device has a few easy to use buttons on the front console. There is a button to switch between the display of humidification level and temperature in the room. There is a timer button which can help you set the humidification / air purification function to last between 1 hour & 8 hours after which the unit will switch off automatically.
The mode button helps you to switch between the modes auto/ night-time /slow and fast. The Haze button helps to operate the unit at Max high fan speed for 10 minutes followed by 50 minutes operation at high fan speed, and then alternates between low and high level for 20 minutes each.
Then there is the power button for switching the unit off or on, and it also remembers what state the unit was in in the event of a power cut. Further to this using this buttons by the means of a long keypress we could switch the modes between humidifier and purifier, and using either or both, and so on.

Filters

The unit has a back panel which can be easily removed which gives access to two filters one being the HEPA filter and the other being the deodorizing filter. These can be separately removed and vacuumed or soap cleaned whenever needed.

Besides this, there is a humidifying filter which resides within a filter frame, which sits further in humidifying tray that holds the water needed for humidification. This tray is easily accessible and we can fill it with water up to the specified level and plug it back into the unit very easily.

General notes on operation

As a consumer, I understood how to use this device. I went about trying to use it with the water filled into the humidifying tray. The unit is pretty noisy at higher fan speeds but upon setting it to automatic it settled down to a very quiet operation which is barely audible.
If you are expecting the unit to cool the room just like an air conditioner you are mistaken and you will not be able to achieve that with this unit. However, the dampness in the room is clearly felt after a while because of this unit doing its humidifying function.
The lighting on the unit is good and it shows different colours based on what it possesses the dust quality within the room (Green / Orange). The device claims to remove dust particles upto 0.3 microns which would mean coverage on most categories of dust commonly found in homes.

Tangible benefits

I am yet to understand what the exact tangible benefits of using this unit are and my metric of measurement would be how healthy my son would be if this unit is in operation every night in the room that he sleeps in.
If his levels of asthma are under control and he does not get into an allergic cough situation because of using this unit then I would believe that this unit is functional to the extent that I expected it to be.

Conclusion

For the given price the humidifier and air purifier unit combined in one is a worthwhile investment for now as it doesn’t break your bank. it is a bit bulky but it is also quite during operation and the only need is to find the space for it within your room.
The tangible benefits of this unit would be understood only over long term use but for heavily polluted cities it is almost becoming necessary to have an air purifier as of today.
With constant industrialisation and construction activities going on around the city and the temperatures within the city heating up it is only important that dry cities need the function of humidification as well within the homes that we live in. The sharp purifier and humidifier unit exactly aims to achieve this need.






If you liked the review, please spare few moments to let me know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Written with StackEdit.

How to use Samsung Pay in India using Galaxy devices

I had the opportunity to receive an update on my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 for the Samsung Pay app. Back then when Apple launched apple pay they marketed it as the next wave of payments and (as usual) just with yet another Apple ceritified payment terminal payment could be as easy as waving your iPhone across the counter when you were with a merchant.
However Samsung had to do something to counter this onslaught of Apple and they looked at this whole payment thing in a different light. What if they could replace card swipes across existing payment terminals with an app (and needless to say some hardware technology) ? They could then pull the carpet under Apple’s feet. And that is precisely what they finally did. Launched Samsung Pay. An innovation that did not need any change in existing hardware at any merchant. The only thing was that Samsung had to align with the banks for virtualizing their cards on the phone or equivalent devices such as the smartwatch and it was pretty much done.
This whole thing became so seamless that you could use it from day one. Its unfortunate that while the feature was already available since 2015 end in other countries it has made it to India only by 2017 which is really late and I hope Samsung learns from this. But then demonetization, alignments with banks, etc have impacted the launch a bit and they had to clearly plan it out. Alignment with banks in India is still a cumbersome process but something Samsung has finally completed. Not all banks participate with Samsung but many are about to sign up and you already have the major ones such as SBI, HDFC, Axis and ICICI on board. Standard Chartered and Citi are on the way too. Given these biggies control most of the banking market in India, pretty much many of these cards would then be covered under Samsung Pay.
So what really does it take to use the application? You need a supported version of a Samsung smartphone such as Samsung Galaxy S7, Note, etc  or a smartwatch such as the S2 or S3 series. You need to install the application, add your credit or debit cards that are supported by the application. Adding a card involves authenticating the application to use your bank details by verifying an SMS sent to your registered mobile number. Its really that easy. And you are done. As for the smartwatch you can install Samsung pay application which is specifically tuned for the watch and add the same cards there as well.
Walk over to any merchant near your house, make a purchase and when you are about to pay, fire up the card by swiping up from home screen, choose your card, and you have options to pay using PIN or fingerprint. Once you input either of those an MST (magnetic secure transmisison) happens and your card data is provided to the card reader. Then on you still need to enter the 4 digit PIN for your card and your transaction is completed.
The same thing works from both the Samsung S3 frontier smartwatch as well as the smartphone and will be a big boon in how easily a payment can be made. Imagine taking out the right credit card from a bunch of cards in your wallet? Those days are over. And if you have a watch, even the days of using your smartphone to make that credit card payment will be over soon
Take a look at the video and if you like it, and you appreciate Samsung’s innovations for its users, please do like, and share the post.