Today is Teknovis’s birthday! So it is fitting to celebrate this with a blog post.
I am getting increasingly strange adverts from Amazon.
I do not mind that the adverts are not relevant to me. Indeed, this makes sense, because I generally restrict (as much as possible) my personal information from being shared.
The thing that fascinates me about these adverts is that I do not know what most of these products are, or what function they provide. This seems somewhat like an advertising failure for two reasons:
If you do not know who your audience are, should you try to advertise something useful to a large proportion of the population?
If it is not obvious what a product is or does, should you include a title and/or description of the product?
I will include some of the adverts below. My personal favourite is the toilet roll drying machine 🤣
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!
All 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.
Bluetooth Keyboard Boxed
Bluetooth Keyboard Unboxed
Bluetooth Keyboard with Cover
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.
Screen Cleaner Boxed
Screen Cleaner Unboxed
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.
Locking Carabiner Boxed
Locking Carabiner Unboxed
I also got a box set of cheaper non-locking carabiners: MyIdeaz Carabiner.
Carabiner Set Boxed
Carabiner Set Unboxed
I love the colours, but I thought that individually wrapping each carabiner was a waste of packaging.
Carabiner
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.
Combination Locks Packaged
I did not realise that there were two locks in the packet until I opened it!
Combination Lock
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.
USB-C Cables
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.
I recently bought a new DellXPS 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.
Dell 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.
Dell XPS 17 Box
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.
Dell XPS 17 in 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.
Empty Dell XPS 17 Box
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 MicrosoftSurface 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!
Microsoft Surface Mobile 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.
Wired Network Adapter
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.
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!
The other advantages that these developers will experience is that they no longer need to get approval from Apple (which can make planning and time lines difficult), and their apps are now cross-platform!
Yes – I am annoyed by Apple for its behaviour. Although I imagine Google must be more annoyed! See Google Patent Woes for more details.
There has also been considerable interest in some of Apple’s patent applications that become public this week. For example see Apple Patents Hint At Multi-Part Gestures, Touchable OS X and Patent application: Apple wants to put projectors in its iPhones. The first of these is very interesting, and it makes me wonder if there is more to gestures on touch devices than we are currently considering. I do not think that I would be interested in the second idea, due to the extra hardware requirements it would impose on the device. Anyway, we will know if these applications are successful in about 5 years time.
