Accessories

Anker 10-in-1 Charging Station Adds Versatility, Keeps Your Desk Clean

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Today’s gadget: Anker sent over this clever 70W charging station that clamps onto your desk so it appears to be tiny on the surface, yet has 6 outlets, 2 USB-A, and 2 USB-C. It does not have a screen or touch controls (unlike some of its other chargers), it just charges things and stays out of view. I like it! I installed it on my desk in place of a larger charging station that had fewer outlets. Not much more to say! It charges all the things. It should work with most desk edges; mine is from IKEA.Link for convenience …

Anker 10-in-1 Charging Station Adds Versatility, Keeps Your Desk Clean Read More
Computing

MacBook Neo: Apple Sets the Bar for How Nice Budget Laptops Can Be

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Summary The MacBook Neo is a good small laptop for general purpose computing, and an astonishing value. A MacBook that runs MacOS and MacOS apps at $599 is disruptive, finally hitting the price points that drive the volume segment of Windows PCs. Apple has reset the bar for how nice a budget laptop needs to be. Is a Phone Chip Fast Enough for MacOS? The MacBook Neo comes in two versions with a significant education discount: $599 for 256GB storage or $699 for 512 GB storage plus TouchID fingerprint reader on the power button. In both cases, anyone with an …

MacBook Neo: Apple Sets the Bar for How Nice Budget Laptops Can Be Read More
Accessories / Audio

Cleer ARC 4 Plus: On-Ear Earbuds Can Sound Good!

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Cleer Audio is not as well-known a brand as Bose or Sony, but it was one of the early pioneers of the on-ear earbud design with the ARC back in 2021. While Cleer now has plenty of competition — I have at least a half dozen similar products in a pile in the corner of my office — Cleer has been continually iterating on the concept ever since. Cleer calls these “Open Ear Headphones,” but they aren’t headphones — they’re earbuds that sit on the outside of your eardrum, with stems that wrap around your earlobes to hold them in …

Cleer ARC 4 Plus: On-Ear Earbuds Can Sound Good! Read More
Accessories

Function101 WorkPad: Portable Flat Surface Saves Me From Freezing

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

It’s freezing in my basement office right now, so I went up to our kids’ 2nd floor homework area where it’s toasty. However, the surface on the 30-year-old desk up there is really …gross. A small business, Function101, has a solution to this problem that they sent over. The $50 WorkPad desk mat lies flat, folds up for easy transport, and feels great. There is some metal inside the WorkPad and Function101 includes a magnetic cable stay to keep cords organized, even in temporary workspaces. It’s fantastic. I usually have a dedicated home office but if your work-from-home space is …

Function101 WorkPad: Portable Flat Surface Saves Me From Freezing Read More
Accessories / Smartphones

Anker 45W Charger: How Much Better Can an Accessory Get?

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Anker’s new Nano Charger shows the power of iterative improvement and the extent that the smartphone supply chain has made everything from silicon to displays incredibly inexpensive. Thankfully, the smiley face is not a chatbot, there is no microphone or camera on the charger, and the inclusion of a display adds value without adding too much cost to what is still just an accessory. Critically, Anker has managed to sell the charger for $40. MSRP on the 45W charger is $50 to establish perceived value, but even at launch there is a $10 coupon automatically applied on Anker.com and as …

Anker 45W Charger: How Much Better Can an Accessory Get? Read More
Smartphones

Lock Your Wallets: Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold Goes on Sale in U.S. on Jan 30 for $2900

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Samsung announced U.S. pricing and availability for the Galaxy Z TriFold — the first dual-hinge smartphone available in this market that has the thickness of a robust bar phone but opens up into a full-sized, 3.9mm thick 10″ tablet. Other key specs include a Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, 200 MP main rear camera, titanium hinge, reinforced display, and a design tested for 200,000 folds. The interface allows tablet-sized apps, a native DeX windowing environment, or just running up to three phones apps side by side. (But is there AI? Of course there is!)This is early adopter tech, not a mainstream phone, …

Lock Your Wallets: Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold Goes on Sale in U.S. on Jan 30 for $2900 Read More
Accessories / Computing

FKCaps: Exciting – If Imperfect – Topre Keycaps Option for Fujitsu Realforce Keyboard

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

TL;DR: If you like keyboards with Topre switches, there are few aftermarket keycap options. FKCaps has a Minitel-inspired version with a great URSA profile, but the set’s color is off and is inexplicably missing a few keys for my Realforce PFU keyboard – one of the few Topre options. Topre keyboard switches have some of the qualities of cheap rubber dome keyboards and some of the best mechanical switches. They’re quiet like the cheap stuff, tactile like mechanical switches, and smoother and often significantly more expensive than both combined. There aren’t that many keyboards that use them, with most coming …

FKCaps: Exciting – If Imperfect – Topre Keycaps Option for Fujitsu Realforce Keyboard Read More
Computing

Quick Take: HP OmniBook X Flip 16

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I need to get through my backlog before the new product barrage at CES! This is HP’s OmniBook X Flip 16, an Intel-powered 2-in-1. Highlights: Cons: At over 4 lbs it’s too bulky for use as a handheld tablet, but fine as a budget digitizer with the pen, or for use in tent mode for media consumption or presentations. Overall, it’s a solid value in the maxxed out configuration I’m testing, and an absolute bargain in mid-tier configurations on sale in the $700’s. Entry models start in the $500’s and the performance hit is acceptable but you lose the gorgeous …

Quick Take: HP OmniBook X Flip 16 Read More
Smartphones

OnePlus 15 Review: Specs Monster

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The OnePlus 15 offers specs you simply don’t find on other smartphones outside of China. U.S. carriers aren’t offering this one, either, but consumers can buy them directly. Finally. After a month of teasing and then a formal announcement, OnePlus had to wait for the U.S. government to reopen so the FCC could rubber stamp its approvals for sale in the U.S. In the meantime, OnePlus has started talking about the OnePlus 15R – a lower spec’d model – and the OnePlus Pad Go 2 tablet, but the OnePlus 15 is now available for general sale and it’s worth considering. …

OnePlus 15 Review: Specs Monster Read More
Accessories / Gaming

Seagate Has An Astro Bot 5TB Game Drive Because Gaming is Supposed to be Fun.

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

If you have a modern PlayStation and you’re adding games this holiday season, you may be running out of storage. Sure, you could buy an NVMe SSD drive for the fastest solution, but large capacities are expensive, and thanks to the ongoing AI datacenter memory shortage, getting more expensive every day. Hard drives are a great way of adding significant capacity at more reasonable prices, but they suffer from being boring. Seagate has solved this problem with a Limited Edition Astro Bot Game Drive. It typically costs around $20 more than the plain white version, but adds more than $20 …

Seagate Has An Astro Bot 5TB Game Drive Because Gaming is Supposed to be Fun. Read More