I hate the Internet of Things. It's a load of overpriced junk, which abuses your privacy and demands a monthly fee in return. That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see this fall out of the eufyCam 2C box. There's no monthly fee. The recordings stay in your home. The batteries last for ages. I can get on board with this! The package costs around £220 (discount of £40 if you use my code) and …
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None of us are going out to gigs in the foreseeable future, right? So the next best thing is watching shows on video. Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets is an epic blast. Recorded at the Roundhouse, it is gorgeously colourful and has just the right amount of "backstage" interviews", And, being a disc, there's no sticky floors and the beer is a lot cheaper. The surround sound speakers get a good …
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I read this wonderful article about the invention of the rice cooker and, because I am easily influenced, bought one. This is the YumAsia Panda Mini. It seemed to hit the sweet spot for physical size and price. For £80 you get a rice cooker, steamer, and utensils. Makes enough rice for 2 people. Although, when full, we felt like it was more like for 4. Depends on how hungry you are. It's …
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We're all stuck on endless video calls now, right? So it behoves you to share your face in the highest resolution possible. Because your colleagues deserve to see your wrinkles. Most laptops have pathetic 720p webcams built in. Which is weird, because even the most basic smartphone has a front-facing camera capable of 4K photos. Some can even do 4K video. The good folks at INDMEM have sent me a …
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The Web Planet puts the first Doctor and his companions in the middle of a war between two alien races - the moth-like Menoptra and a hostile race of ant creatures known as Zarbi - for possession of the planet Vortis. With the help of a grub-esque people called the Optera, the Doctor discovers the Zarbi's hidden weapon; the seductively voiced spider creature the Animus, which plans to ensnare…
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This rather generic USB Floppy Drive has just arrived for me to review. It's sold by Dainty / ChuangZhiJLB - but it has the same internals as every other floppy drive on the market. It worked instantly in Linux and MacOS. Shows up as a USB drive. Shove a disk in there and your OS should automagically mount it. Appears to draw about 500mW in power. The disk read and write speed is pretty good…
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The fine folks at Poweradd have sent me one of their gadgets to review. This is their 26800mAh USB-C power bank with Power Delivery. It's pretty similar to most normal portable batteries - but because it has USB-C-PD, it can charge MacBooks, Nintendo Switches, and other high-power devices! Let's take a look: In the box A big black battery. A weird hybrid cable. It is USB-A to Micro-USB…
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I am rubbish at video games. I don't have the twitch-reaction speed for shooters, I can never remember what all the buttons do, and I frequently get lost in open-world games. Basically, I'm the opposite of my wife, who will rattle through Dragon-Ages, Mass Effects, Spiders-Men and the like. Factorio is sort-of-like Sim City. Or Populous. You have an open, discoverable world, full of natural…
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I've been sent a Flyland USB-C hub to review. It's a small but versatile unit - perfect for people who need to connect legacy equipment to something with USB-C ports. For £21, you get 7 ports: 3x USB 3.0 1x HDMI 4K 1x Micro SD 1x SD 1x USB Power Delivery It worked perfectly on Linux (more below) and Windows. No drivers required. It also worked on Android. Simple plug and play. Exactly the …
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I accidentally bought a load of vinyl records. So I decided to buy the cheapest, shittiest, turntable possible. This is the E1372. Made by Jia Yin King Technologies. This is sold under a variety of names and costs about £30 including postage from China. It's a plastic shell, motor, and ADC (Analogue to Digital Converter), which is powered via USB. It is the cheapest brand new player I could …
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This is a curious set of headphones. The OpenEar Trio by Shenzen Alex Technology. They're completely flat and designed to sit outside the ears. They're designed so you can hear your surroundings. If you're outside exercising, it's useful to hear cars creeping up on you. If you're on a conference call, being able to hear the doorbell ringing is essential. These are super-lightweight. Once…
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The only thing I miss about my old MacBook was its magnetic charging cable. It was just so convenient to be able to hover the plug near my laptop and have it snap into place. If I walked off with my machine, I knew the cable would easily spring out - rather than jerking me back or breaking. So here's a gadget to convert any USB device to magnetic charging! Chinese company TOPK have sent me some…
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