All USB-C cables are equal. But some, as the saying goes, are more equal than others. This little gadget from Plugable is a fantastic bit of kit. Plug your USB-C power supply into one end of the gadget, plug the gadget in to your laptop, phone, or any other USB-C device. Watch the screen to see how much power is flowing. Action Shot https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/plugabble.mp4 Features A black and white screen! A button to flip the display over! That's it! There's…
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The good folk at Nank (Naenka) have sent me their latest waterproof Bluetooth headphones to review. Wear 'em while you're in the shower, swimming, jogging, or just on an endless sea of Zoom calls about quarterly budgets. Unboxing Bone Conducting??! Yup! Rather than sticking speakers in your ears, these literally rattle the bones in your head to produce sound. It takes a little getting used to, but is rather pleasant. I also find it more comfortable than traditional in-ear products. It…
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They say that The Best Camera Is The One That's With You - the same is true of Raspberries Pi. As much as I'd love a 4B, they seem permanently sold out. So I dug through my scrapheap of old tech and resurrected an ancient Pi2. It's old, outdated, slow, with limited RAM, and has a bunch of much-abused GPIO pins. But it works and - crucially - is still supported by Home Assistant OS. Well... ish! The official Home Assistant installation guide for the Pi says that you can use a: Raspberry…
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The Meta Quest 2 is almost amazing. It is a tantalising glimpse of a future which isn't quite here yet. I dislike Facebook's Meta's vision of the Metaverse - but the tech is undoubtedly fun when it works. I remember using VR way back in the 1990s. When on holiday, games arcades often had a VR helmet. I wasted all my pocket money on virtual tanks, creeping through virtual dungeons, and generally feeling virtually claustrophobic. A few years ago I tinkered around with Google Cardboard.…
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Sorry for the title gore. But it's the only way to let people know that all four of these laptops are identical. Taiwanese manufacturer Clevo makes the N151CU laptop. They sell it directly to resellers, who in turn sell it on to consumers. It has excellent Linux support. Both Entroware (in the UK) and System76 (in the USA) sell it pre-installed with Ubuntu. I purchased mine from PC Specialist where they sell it as the Lafité IV. PC Specialist sell it "bare bones" with no operating system. …
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The good folk at Nooie have sent me their 360 WiFi camera to review. Cost is usually £50 - but check the bottom of this post for a discount code. The design is gorgeous - and award winning. It's a sleek unit and, surprisingly, feels nice in the hand. It can store videos on an SD card (not included) or via the cloud. The app - which is pretty nice - also lets you view the camera when you're away from home. Let's tear straight into it! Unboxing Standard image Night Mode In low light, …
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We're all working from home now, right? I got this specific monitor for two reasons only: It rotates to vertical mode It was within my employer's home working budget There are no integrated USB hubs, no TV tuners, no gaming mode, no 4K, no HDR, no smarts. It is just a screen. That happens to rotate. Tech Specs Gloriously boring. For video, there's an HDMI socket. You also get a legacy VGA socket and a DVI. Audio is a 3.5mm jack in and out. That's your lot. It appears to have standard…
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Inspired by my friend Meri's WFH Setup Tips, I thought I'd share my home-working setup. We've moved house recently, so I'm still finding my feet - but as I work from home fairly often, and have a bit of RSI, I thought I'd show you what I've got and how I use it. The desk is just a plain IKEA table. Supplemented with a cheap Argos desk which didn't quite fit all my kit - so it becomes a side desk. Floor Much like Alec Guinness, I start with the the shoes. I don't wear any at home, and my…
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In my ongoing quest to open my house to hackers create the ultimate smarthome, I've added a new toy. A video doorbell! Why? I've got a tall house and can't be bothered walking down several flights of stairs just to tell a peddler to piss off. And, when I'm away, it's nice to know where couriers are leaving my packages. So, here's my review of the DophiGo DV-200. It was £40 on special offer. One thing to note - this is an energy efficient unit. There's no PIR sensor or movement detector. It …
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At the recent BarCampLondon Ⅺ I decided to run a little experiment. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentAnyone coming to @barcamplondon fancy doing a Tech Swap Table with me?Bring bits of (working) kit and old gadgets that you don't want in the hope they find a loving home.Let me know if you want to take part 😁#bclxi❤️ 7💬 3🔁 016:20 - Sat 04 May 2019 The idea is similar to Swishing - a popular way to recycle old clothes. In a Swishing party, you turn up with a jacket, swap it for a ticket, then s…
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I've an unhealthy amount of smart gadgets at home. Enough so that it's worth running an orientation session when friends come to visit. This is what the Alexa does, here's which light switches not to use, don't be scared if the Roomba attacks. That sort of thing. I don't know how long we'll live in this place. It's more than likely we'll move at some point. So what happens to the smarthome stuff we've accumulated? When we hand over the keys to the new residents - do we hand over all the…
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Way back in 2006, I got my first projector - a 720p model for a few hundred quid. Even after all these years, there's still something magical about watching a movie on a humongous screen. But projectors are still wildly expensive and out of reach for most people. Aren't they? DBPower have sent me their RD810 projector to review. It costs £60. That's not a typo. Sixty Quid. Let's get two things out of the way first. This is not an HD projector. The resolution is 800*480. That's fine …
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