Teknovis

I recently travelled by air for the first time in 18 months. I was not travelling for work, but I was working while I was abroad, so I had to bring my laptop with me. The experience taught me that I needed to buy some new accessories!

Bluetooth Keyboard

I already own an Arteck Bluetooth keyboard, and I use it with my phone a lot. I think that it is extremely useful, and I love it. However, I needed to buy a new one for travelling. So I bought the Arteck HB220B. I also bought the Arteck HC220 Protection Case.

Both the keyboard and the cover are excellent. There are two features of the keyboard that are especially useful to me:

• It is backlight, so it is very easy to use in low-light locations (e.g., a room at night, on a plane). There are seven backlight colours to choose from!
• The keyboard can be used with three devices at the same time, and you simply switch device by pressing one of the bright blue buttons on the top right of the keyboard.

The keyboard and cover were the only accessories that I bought from Amazon UK. I was concerned that if I bought them from Amazon DE (Germany) then the layout of the keys would be slightly different. (I know that the functionality of the keys can be changed in the operating system, but the stickers on the keys would still be wrong.)

Screen Cleaner

I am extremely fussy about keeping my laptop and phone screens clean, and I really hate streaks or specs on either. So I bought this Mistify Natural Screen Cleaner Set that includes clothes and solution.

This is working well, and I have no streaks on my screens!

Carabiners

You can never have enough carabiners in my opinion! I think that they are extremely useful for connecting things to the outside of a laptop bag, and even to a trouser belt. A typical use for me would be clipping my headphone case to my trouser belt before boarding a plane so that I have easy access to them during the flight without having to open the overhead bin and opening my bag!

Unfortunately the exact pair of locking carabiners that I bought does not seem to be available any more, but these ones are similar: GnarCore Carabiner Set.

I also got a box set of cheaper non-locking carabiners: MyIdeaz Carabiner.

I love the colours, but I thought that individually wrapping each carabiner was a waste of packaging.

Combination Locks

On two separate occasions I have had people try to pickpocket my backpack while I was wearing it, so I bought Amazon Basics AB-PL108 Luggage Locks to prevent this.

There were many other brands to choose from, and some of the other locks definitely looked more secure. I wanted combination locks, but I did not want locks that could be opened using a TSA key.

I did not realise that there were two locks in the packet until I opened it!

The locks are very light, and they are unlikely to offer any resistance against a tool.

USB-C Cables

Finally, I bought some USB-C to USB-C Cables. My laptop has only USB-C ports, and my phone is USB-C, so it is very convenient being able to connect them together without any adaptors.

I liked this set because it contains three cables of very different lengths. I am probably using the shortest one the most when my phone is on a table beside the laptop.

Tags: Amazon

I recently bought a new Dell XPS 17 laptop. It has been years since I last blogged, so I thought that this would be a good time to post something new!

Unboxing

My unboxing experience with Dell has been very positive in recent years, and this was no exception. Having said that, I am not too fussed about the unboxing experience!

A courier delivered my laptop in a normal brown cardboard box. I opened this, and I took out the XPS 17 box.

I assume that the clear plastic wrap was to protect the black box from scruff marks, but I thought that it was an unnecessary use of plastic. Also, the black box looked much better without the plastic wrap.

The box itself is very nice. It is kept closed by a magnet in the flap. I have keep the box for some other (as yet unknown) purpose! The laptop is within this box.

The laptop is also wrapped in clear plastic, but this is probably more worthwhile then the outer plastic wrap on the box.

The charger and supplied adapter (Thunderbolt to USB and HDMI) are underneath the laptop.

I was actually surprised that so little of the box is used. I think that it probably could be less than half of its height.

Perhaps the best thing about the unboxing experience is that the plastic is 100% recycled, and some of it has been salvaged from the sea! Well done Dell!

Accessories

I also bought a new mouse and a wired network adapter.

The mouse is a Microsoft Surface Mobile Mouse. The most confusing thing about buying this mouse was its name, and the difference between it and the Microsoft Surface Mouse!

I generally like Microsoft mice, but this one was a bit a gamble because it is so slim in the vertical direction. Luckily I find that it is very comfortable, and I love that I do not need to use a dongle in my laptop because it is a Bluetooth mouse!

The wired network adaptor is from a brand that was not previously known to me. I use a wireless connection most of the time, but there are occasions when I need to upload/download gigabytes from my local network (e.g., raw photos for post-processing). I will use this adaptor on these occasions.

The only difficulty that I had when buying this adaptor was trying to understand the differences between a Thunderbolt adaptor and a USB-C adaptor.

I bought both the mouse and the wired network adaptor from Amazon Germany.

Tags: Amazon, Dell, Microsoft

I was browsing the Amazon site recently, and I came across the following advertisement:

I am extremely sceptical about the claim that it is “Lighter than Air“! Is this false advertising?

However, if it is true then I think it must be very inconvenient!

Tags: Amazon

I recently heard about SamKnows in the context of it being available in Ireland! In summary, it is a free to participate in scheme which involves plugging a box into your ISP’s internet connection in order to measure actual speeds! You can then compare these actual speeds to the advertised speeds in order to determine the difference.

Tags: Ireland, ISP, SamKnows

It is an old(ish) video, but it is still really impressive!

I can imagine some of the covert military operations that such a robot could be used for in the future!

There was a lot of news coverage of Google‘s announcement regarding smart contact lenses last week! The original Google blog post is Introducing our smart contact lens project, and some of the many reporting articles are Google Unveils Smart Contact Lens That Lets Diabetics Measure Their Glucose Levels, Google unveils ‘smart contact lens’ to measure glucose levels, and Google developing smart contact lens.

It is exciting technology, and it really makes me wonder what else the future has in store for contact lenses! My personal choice – the ability to change the focal length dynamically in order to “zoom in” on objects of interest :)

Tags: Google

A friend brought Amazon‘s latest announcement to my attention today – Prime Air! I think it is really impressive, although I am not sure if Amazon’s goods are particularly suitable. My Amazon orders tend to be bulky, relatively heavy for air lifting, and fragile!

Several people have questioned if this is a hoax, but I think it is believable!

Tags: Amazon

This evening I read that Doug Engelbart, the inventor of the mouse, died. See Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart dies at 88.

I had never heard of him before today, and it never dawned on me to think about how the mouse that we all use every day came into existence!

So thank you Mr. Engelbart for your invention, and may you rest in peace.

(On a side note, the associated 10 inventors who didn’t get mega-rich from their inventions article is also an interesting read.)

 

The maker of the Raspberry Pi has released an add-on digital camera, according to Creators of Raspberry Pi computer announce $25 camera module.

I bet this will be popular!

Tags: Raspberry Pi

This is really impressive visual insight into Google‘s data centres – Google Data Centres.

Tags: Google