Darkiron N8 Headphones with Inline Mic and Volume

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I try a lot of products and after a while you get to the point where you think you know the quality of something before you've even tried it. Most often I'm looking at the materials it's made out of but with headphones you have to worry about sound quality too. When I tried these headphones I was genuinely surprised at both how they were made and how they sound. Even with my packed day and responsibilities I keep wanting to put them on to see if I was just imagining things. Don't misunderstand: I'm not saying they are on par with a pair that are over 100 bucks but they're certainly worth their price.

Build- These headphones pull of the rare feat of using materials that aren't anything fancy while applying them in a way that leave you still feeling like it's a quality product. Externally You'll find a soft touch plastic that makes  stylish matte look paired with a leather-esqe vinyl. This vinyl covers both the top strap as well as the ear cups and in both places holds just the right amount of padding for a comfortable fit. That soft foam on the ear cups does a surprising job of molding to your ear and blocking out external sounds. The expansion size allows for most head sizes and at it's smallest it's still small enough for a small woman's head.

Function- As I said at the beginning, you're looking at sound quality that matches at the very least budget versions of name brands. I have a pair of mid-range Sennheisers that I use all day at work and if it weren't for my preference for over-the-ear designs I'd be using these all the time. Also mentioned int eh build was the foam used as padding. I find it allows for several hours of use without making your ears start to feel it. The sound isolating ability is wonderful as well.

I don't mean to sound like I'm gushing over these but I was just not expecting to like them as much at this price point. As with all things you purchase it depends on what you're looking for; if it's High end audio you'll probably be looking elsewhere. However if the design is your style and you're just looking for good everyday sound, I highly recommend these. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.

Flavor Infusion Water Bottle by Live Infinitely

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My wife was the one who wanted some infuser bottles so we tried a couple different ones. What we found was that they're all somewhat similar but our favorites were the ones that didn't try to be too fancy. This was one of them.

Build/Looks- It's plastic of course. Anything else could get too heavy to carry everywhere. The two caps are made of a strong plastic and they should stand up for a long time. You won't want to go standing on the main tube but you could probably toss it around a little. Always be careful with the inner baskets though when you have it out because they aren't meant to take much abuse. The bright colors are handy for when you're out with a bunch of people and everyone has their bottles together. My wife likes blue so we grabbed that one and she really liked how intense and cheerful the color was. Live Infinitely has a fun design on the outside too.

Function- One of the features we like that this has is the basket on the bottom. Some others have it attached to the top lid with some sort of nozzle. By having it on the bottom the fruit won't get in the way of water flowing out. Also, by not having a nozzle this one just has a fully open screw-off top. It stays simple and makes it much easier to clean than others. Of course the actual infusion bit works too. Not much to say there as all it does it hold the fruit in the water for the flavor to seep out.

As I said, flavor infusion bottle technology isn't exactly complicated. All the them are just variations on the theme of hold-the-fruit-in-the-water-but-dont-let-it-fall-out. This one does that without issues and it's simplicity works well. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.

Sound Intone I68 folding headphones with microphone

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These days headphones can be a dime a dozen and separating out the ones for you can be quite a chore. After trying these I was impressed by a most of the elements but over all it falls short on some important points.

Build- Nothing feels cheap on these; even when everything is made of plastic. None of the surfaces are a glossy finish but instead varying levels of a soft-touch feel. On the ear cups you'll find the usual artificial leather covering a decently soft foam which still keeps and returns to it's shape after removing pressure. Those cups pivot up and down to adjust to the wearers head when expanding the head band. Speaking of the headband, I like the look. I opted for the green color which is nice and vibrant while being well complemented by the outer black. The shape is minimalist with it coming down flat on the sides and nothing gaudy sticking off. On the inside at the top is a piece of rubber covering the plastic which feels nice and provides grip to your head but you'll soon discover it has no padding underneath. This could lead to discomfort after long periods of use. The cord has a very strong but flexible "shoelace" type covering that should hold up to and amount of bending or pulling it's likely to encounter. With headphone cables being made of such small wire it's nice to see this reinforcement and is one of my favorite elements.

Function- Alright, but how do they sound? Ok. That's the best I can say. I hear nice low frequencies which is what a lot of people are looking for these days but I really want clarity across the whole spectrum. I'm not an audiophile but I can tell when something is missing and highs just sound muffled. I was able to clean it up a little with an equalizer but even then it wasn't perfect. Besides that, I like the rest. The inline controls work as expected letting you choose volume and play/pause without issues. The folding ability is nice as well. You won't gain a ton of space but what it really gets you is compactness. With everything close together there is less of a chance of anything breaking during transport.

If you go into it with these expectations they're an acceptable choice. I've found others that fit my tastes better but if you find these for a good price and want to look good in them, give them a try. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.

Snugcam Baby Monitor

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I found this to have a fairly standard set of features for a pan/tilt ip camera. Once you figure the operation everything worked great and I can't wait to find a place for this in my house. Many commenters on Amazon have pointed out there are some things missing in the documentation and no support to help you with them, I've included a bunch of helpful information I found on my own at the bottom of this review.

Build- The camera itself is the standard size of any other pan/tilt ip camera: more than you'd want to hold in your hand but light enough that the included small wall-mount bracket can hold it without issues. It is made entirely of plastic but nothing about it is flimsy. Around the lens are 10 infrared LEDs that really light up the room, a light sensor, and a status LED that CAN be turned off. Also included is a power adapter and Ethernet cable.

Function- If you just want to get this going fast the instructions give you the direct route to use it with your phone. A quick app install and plugging the camera in to both power and your router should be good to go. Remember that you need to get into the settings and configure the wifi information before the camera can work wirelessly. The app allows you to control where the camera is pointing with swipes but I find arrows are just easier. Night vision works great and with the help of the infrared LEDs can see across a large room in complete darkness. It switches to that mode automatically once the light is to low and switches back once there is enough light.

Once you get past the lack of documentation this really is a nice camera. Pan and tilt functions are great and the night vision works so well I may have it watching my yard. Sometimes you pay upward of $100 for these features so I consider this a bargain. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.
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Important setup information
-If the App can't find your camera even with it powered and connected to the router, you may need to go into the router settings and make sure a setting called upnp is on. It can't find it without that.

-Wifi will not work until you get in the settings and set it up using the wired connection

-I like to get my home automation system working with things and there certainly was a lot of documentation missing. After hitting the camera with Nmap I found port 81 was open on this camera. If you put your camera's ip address in your browser followed by :81 this will take you to the web interface(example 192.168.1.101:81). There are a couple options here but I chose the video stream mode. From here you can find the tools menu at the bottom which opens up many more settings than can be found in the app.

-You can turn the status LED off in the PTZ settings

-You can change the time settings in here but it doesn't account for daylight savings so it will be one hour off half the year unless you switch the timezone manually

-If you just want a plain video stream use this URL: <camera ip>:81/videostream.cgi?loginuse=admin&loginpas=
or the snapshot here: <camera ip>:81/snapshot.cgi?loginuse=admin&loginpas=

I still haven't figured out the telnet login to the camera so if you find it drop me a comment.

Life-Phorm All-in-One Camera Positioning Device

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Also! 20% Off Promo code: 9N6T4CCF Until Nov 30th 2015

Unique. It's certainly unique and you can't have a conversation about the Life-Phorm device without bringing that word up. I have to admit most of what had me interested in it was what I DIDN'T know about it. I had a few ides in mind but it does lend itself to creativity when it comes to putting it to work. This one pretty much adapts to anything.

Build- The main body is made of a strong plastic but I would like to give a word of caution: while id should hold the weight of anything it's attached to, I have to imagine any carelessness or children playing with it will crack something. That's the trade off for having something so compact. This all comes attached to a steel clamping device for holding tablets and phones. The clamp is lined with a rubbery covering that does some to grip devices but I found it to be a little too glossy for keeping a firm hold. The adhesive holding in on is also not quite strong enough as I find it sliding off the metal when too much force is put on it. Lastly the clamp is attached with a bolt coming through the bottom with a standard tripod thread. This means that you can take the clamp off completely for attaching things like camera and flashes. I even had a bluetooth speaker that could attach to it could be held out of the way. Each arm pivots horizontally as well as having two vertical pivots to allow for unlimited articulation and movement.


Function- As you can tell from my pictures I found several possible uses. I grabbed things that I wanted to place somewhere where they wouldn't normally stand up on their own and immediately could see how to make use of the Life-Phorm. From hanging flashes at an event to positioning a camera for time-lapse or remote photography you really can use it anywhere. The obvious uses though are phones and tablets. This is where I ran into some trouble. Phones are great but to allow for holding larger devices the clamp folds out and reattaches. The problem is that in it's small configuration it's just too small to fit a 7" tablet and when you make it bigger it now too big to hold it horizontally. You can of course just keep on making it bigger and hold it the tablet at the farthest apart ends. This works fine for holding in portrait mode but if you turn it horizontally the grippy rubber, as I said earlier, just doesn't hold on tight enough and things start sliding out. If this happens to you I'd recommend orienting it so that you can raise one of the legs to prevent it from sliding out. The last complaint is the folding of the clamp. Because it is just pivoted, when you're trying to clamp it on a tablet it keeps folding back and releasing tension on your device.


I really did enjoy thinking about uses for this. I would have included pictures of various helmet camera using it too but they are all currently being borrowed. This clamp needs some redesign and that's the main thing that needs work. It's not unusable by any stretch but if they did some work there it would truly be a five start product. I look forward to seeing what else it can do. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.

Krazilla Home Lux Bluetooth speaker

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I've tried a few bluetooth speakers recently and while I have some favorites this is actually at the top of my list. Five stars are something I only give out to a product that I can't find anything I don't like about it but this one deserves them. It's not the best at anything but it has a combination of things that suit me perfectly.

Build- Size is an important factor with something portable and I like how this one take sup very little space. It's about the size of your average walkie-talkie and would have no trouble fitting in most pockets. Even though it's about 5 inches long you only have one speaker in it as most instances do. On top you have your 4 usual buttons: Play/answer call, up/forward down/back volume/track buttons, and your mode/paring one. Operating

them is pretty simple and honestly I usually never touch them relying instead on my phone to control the volume. In the back your'll find several things.There's a loop for attaching a lanyard to, a power switch, micro SD slot, external USB input, and micro USB for charging. I was intrigued by the removable panel you'll also notice. It turns out this unit has a removable battery which I love. If you're looking for a speaker that you plan to use a lot for extended periods you have the option of buying another $4 battery that you can swap instead of finding a place to charge. To cap off the build I got one in red and I love the bright colors that are available.

Function- It sounds great. Always remember that's relative to other bluetooth speakers. You're not going to get anything mind blowing out of it but some are better than others. I tried a couple different ones next to each other and switching one by one on my phone and I came to the conclusion that I like this one the best. It has some very clear high frequencies; not a huge feat for something small but it was better. The compliment to that of course was that it could still reproduce the lower ones. As I said earlier operation is simple but I usually just turn it on and make sure it pairs with my phone before hitting play.

I've seen some pretty fancy bluetooth speakers before costing upwards of $100 but for something meant to just be portable sound I don't know why you'd every need them. This one is moderately priced while still delivering on convenience and quality. Give it a shot. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.

AYL Water-resistant Bluetooth speaker

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Having used quite a few bluetooth speakers lately I have to say this is one of my favorites. It combines good sound with a nice build making it convenient to have anywhere. It's not something you'd leave sitting out as a decoration in your house but it fits in anywhere else.

Build- Waterproof? Not quite. Even the descriptions of this product start calling it "resistant" after you get past the title. Either way though, unlike a camera a waterproof speaker isn't much good as it would sound horrible under water. I did take off the speaker cover though and what I saw there satisfied me enough to say I wouldn't worry to much if this did fall in some water. The buttons are part of the case and the port cover has a decent seal. Size wise this one is a little bigger than some other offerings but still fits in your hand fine. Remember; the bigger the speaker the better it will be able to reproduce lower frequencies. It has two grilles but only one speaker so just make sure the light is facing you when it's on. Off one corner is a nice thick strap so you you're out-and-about canoeing or hiking you can keep a good grip. One bonus to this speaker is the inclusion of a standard tripod threaded mount so you can securely attach it to something.

Function- I found use to be quite simple; once I paired  my music immediately started playing. As with any small speaker you have to have the right expectations and while the bass didn't blow me away it was able to reproduce low frequencies clearly. All the buttons have a noticeable click to them so you'll always know when a command was received. One feature that I don't know if I'll ever use is the speakerphone functions but they worked fine. You can accept a call and even hold the play/pause/call button to redial the last number.

This is a bluetooth speaker that has what you need without any thing too fancy. You get the convenience of the water resistance with sound that doesn't hurt your ears like other ones I've tried. Don't forget the solid mesh bag and cables that come with it which help make sure you're always prepared. I didn't find anything I didn't like about this one so I recommend it. I received this product free in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.