It’s another weekday, which means another Apple rumor to chew up and spit out. This time, the rumors focus on a potential Apple gaming console.

Today’s Apple rumor comes to us from the generally reliable Apple rumor source Clien.net.

One user has reported that Apple is conducting feasibility studies on turning Apple TV into a gaming console.

It stands to reason that at some point, with Apple working hard on AR/VR devices, Apple might consider marrying those outputs with gaming.

It’s doubtful that Apple Arcade would support AR/VR products long-term. Apple would need something more substantial.

Rumors of an Apple video game console have been around for years

This isn’t the first rumor of this nature to fall from the Apple rumor tree in recent memory.

In 2021, the Apple gaming console rumors started swirling, giving optimistic tech writers reason to justify the rumors.

READ MORE: Is Apple working on its own gaming controller?

Then back in January of this year, it was rumored that Apple was poaching engineers from Xbox to work on its own console.

Naturally, that news was met with a hefty dose of skepticism. The existing Apple Arcade was reason enough to hire devs and engineers with gaming console experience.

With Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Sony’s purchase of Bungie, it makes it harder for Apple to enter the console arena with some sort of exclusive game appeal.

According to the rumor, Capcom and Ubisoft are active partners in creating exclusive titles for the imaginary Apple gaming console.

It’d be a strange world indeed if Street Fighter ends up locked to an Apple gaming console.

Does Apple have a gaming console?

Yes, Apple has tried its hand at game consoles before.

If the company works on an official Apple game console in 2022, it won’t be its first dip into the pool. We must never forget 1996’s Apple Bandai Pippin.

The Apple Pippin was forgotten and faded away into obscurity. It was flawed and unable to keep up with the technical specs of the time.

But from that came years of rumors, usually popping up shortly after the release of a new console from Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony.

Gamers are a sticky bunch, generally affixed to their console of choice.

It stands to reason that if Apple were to enter the gaming console market, it would do so with a complimentary device rather than a device intended to convert gamers directly.

While Apple TV supports third-party controllers and Apple Arcade is a thing that exists, it’s nowhere near a gaming console. It can’t even compete with the games on your iPhone.

So, once again, we are left asking ourselves whether this rumor is real. Is Apple truly working on a gaming console, and could it compete with Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo?

Will it be a handheld console similar to the Switch or something beefier? Could it be an amalgamation of a Mac computer and Apple Arcade?

Or should Apple stay in its lane and stick to slick laptops and iPhones?

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Sony’s new PlayStation Plus subscription launches in June
• GTA Online now has a subscription service for $5.99 a month
• Steam is now on Chrome OS – can your Chromebook run it?
• The new iPhone SE has production slashed due to low demand

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

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With that laptop comes a complicated mess of accessories, all brought together with a docking station.

Generally, the docking station is its own mess, but not the Dell HD22Q Dual Charge Dock. This is probably the cleanest, most compact docking station I’ve ever put my hands on.

Editor’s Pick

Learn More

Quick Verdict

The Dell HD22Q Dual Charge docking station changes the flatline expectation of what a docking station should be. This compact, multi-ported docking station comes with a twist: it’s also a wireless Qi charging station. If you are looking for a docking station under $300 that isn’t an unwieldy mess of cables and plugs, the Dell HD22Q fits the bill.

It calls itself a dual charge dock rather than a docking station because it’s a laptop docking station with a wireless charging station.

If you have a Qi-enabled smartphone or earbuds, you can charge it on this dock. Honestly, the form factor of the Dell HD22Q is no bulkier than most charging stands.

Remember those docking stations that were the size of a cookbook with more ethernet and VGA ports than anyone could need? This is not that.

Ports galore

What do you need from a docking station? You need ports. Tons of ports. The more ports, the merrier. With the Dell HD22Q, you can plug in two 4K monitors simultaneously.

You’ll have to use both the DisplayPort 4.1 connection and the HDMI 2.1 port simultaneously, but most monitors have multiple input selections.

The HDMI port can support up to a 4K HDR 120Hz monitor. That’s nice, but the one your office gave you was outmoded in 1998, so you’ll have to get a VGA to HDMI converter.

Aside from the display ports, you get four USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with PowerDelivery 3.0 port. That means that along with having a USB-C port, you can use it to charge things.

There’s also an RJ45 ethernet port. If you are working in an office (gross, go remote, it’s so much better), then there is probably a yellow ethernet cable dangling somewhere for you to plug in.

Workspace fit

Your desk, whether you work at home or the office, is likely a cluttered mess. Paperclips everywhere, Post-it notes hanging from your monitors.

There’s a maze of cables and piles of vapes, dip cans, loose change, and Sharpies. Or is that just my desk? There’s also a fidget spinner, two vapes, more binder clips, a KVM switch, multiple phones and empty Monster cans.

Regardless, a compact docking station fits right in. Literally. It literally fits right in. Well, I had to shove my speakers around and move one of the multiple USB hubs, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that the Dell HD22Q is not the bulky docking station of yesteryear. When I opened the box, I didn’t even realize it was a docking station.

It’s got the form factor of a simple charging stand

The in-line ports are designed to keep cables organized. The compact form factor matters as docking stations are generally used for on-the-go work.

There’s even a power button on the dock to wake up your laptop. Its small footprint means that you have more space for coffee cups and perhaps even an external keyboard.

If you are using external monitors, you may as well go full PC.

The Dell HD22Q allows for that by minimizing the amount of desk space it needs to operate. Dell knows your Formica desk has limited real estate.

Charging power

One thing you might not expect from a docking station is the ability to be something else. Most docking stations are clunky pieces of metal and plastic that barely fit in your laptop bag.

This one has a built-in Qi charger. While Dell recommends its own products for optimal use, any Qi-enabled device can be charged up on the docking station.

If your phone has fast charge capability, the Qi charger can kick out about 12W. It’s not like regular speed charging is an issue, you aren’t going anywhere after plugging in all your accessories.

There are three charging coils inside the charging stand. This allows for variable device sizes. You might have to stand your AirPods on an eraser or something, but it’s not a deal breaker.

It’s a surprise that no manufacturer has thought to make a docking station with a built-in Qi charger. That technology has been around for a while.

I suppose with our multitude of cables and expectation of just plugging stuff in, we didn’t demand it either. Since our phones are the center of our lives, it’s nice to see a docking station embrace that.

Clear the ports

It says right on the product page that the Dell Dual Charge Docking Station works best with Dell laptops via its ExpressCharge feature.

This is a small detail, but many office-issued laptops are Dell products. That’s not to say this won’t work fine with a non-Dell laptop.

I used it with an HP and, frankly, didn’t notice anything that didn’t meet expectations. So keep that in mind if you are on the fence.

Alternative options to consider

Imageㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ	Product	Price
9.8	CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 DockPremium Pick Features an impressive 18 ports 98W of charging power Ports galore $399.99	Learn MoreReviews
9.5	Plugable UD-3900HBest Runner Up 11 ports in total, 6 USB ports Capable of charging a MacBook Air in under 2 hours Mas resolutions: 2x 1920×1200 @ 60Hz $99.99	Learn MoreReviews
7.8	Kensington LD5400TBudget Pick 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports 1 display and 4 USB ports Scratch resistant $81.95	Learn MoreReviews

There are plenty of other docking ports on the market. The CalDigit TS4 is great for Thunderbolt users. The Plugable UD-3900H is perfect for those still stuck in the pre-USB-C era.

The Kensington LD5400T is a solid, old-school docking station. That one is also very cheap. But none of them have wireless Qi charging. That feature only exists on the Dell Dual Charge Dock.

The Dell HD22Q Dual Charge Dock retails for $278.99 (marked down $100) on the Dell website. That’s cheaper than the CalDigit models. You can also snag it from Amazon.

While there are differences, wireless charging makes up for the lack of SD card slots.

More and more traditional laptop/PC accessories will be produced with our phones in mind. This dual charging dock is just the start.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: Unihertz TickTock 5G smartphone
• Review: Ugreen Nexode 140W USB-C GaN Charger
• Review: Das Keyboard 6 Professional mechanical keyboard
• Review: Wemax Go Advanced portable projector

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s but one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

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As an extreme sports guy, I like to film my adventures so that others may live vicariously through my death-defying stunts. Whether it’s base jumping or off-road cycling, I’m always filming.

Which is what I’d say if the most extreme sport I did wasn’t middle-aged skateboarding. Regardless, the Akaso Brave 8 action camera is up to the task. Even if the task is lame AF.

The Akaso Brave 8 provides owners with a 4K 60 FPS action camera that serves double duty as a 48MP camera. On top of that, users can record 8K time-lapses and 16x slo-mo videos.

Budget Pick

Learn More

Quick Verdict

The Akaso Brave 8 is a great action camera packed with all the features you need, whether you are hitting the trails or walking around your neighborhood. And clocking in at $279.99, it’s considerably cheaper than its competitors.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the review to see where the Akaso excels and if it falls short anywhere.

Video quality with the Akaso Brave 8

When looking for an adventure camera, you just want something that works. You want something that takes an awesome video while strapped to your head.

As mentioned, the Asako Brave 8 offers 4K video at 60fps. That’s a standard, current spec that one would expect from this type of camera. Still image quality is 48MP. You won’t use this to take still pictures, though.

What you’ll use this camera for is crazy stuff. You’ll strap it to your outdoor cat. Perhaps you’ll take it kayaking. It’s not a drone, but you could attach it to one.

How about strapping to the front of your skateboard? This is not the camera you take to your kid’s recital. That’s what the iPad is for. Because everything is horrible.

While I mostly tested the camera under abjectly mundane conditions, a few features were absolutely engaging to use.

If you’ve ever shot an action video, you know where I’m going. Super 16x slo-mo and stunning 8K time-lapse. There’s nothing better than a sick stunt in slow motion or a time-lapse video of a thunderstorm rolling over mountains.

Naturally, in my life, this translated to a six-year-old waving his arms like crazy in slow motion and some lazy clouds over suburbia. It’s still neat to rewatch, if not a bit mundane.

AI detects faces and optimizes the exposure for portrait mode

The Brave 8 has a built-in AI that recognizes human faces. No information about these faces is stored.

This just means that it can tell a human face from, say, the grill of a Chrysler 300. This helps in portrait recording, as it adjusts the exposure automatically.

The digital lenses offer wide, super wide, and narrow angles in addition to portrait perspective. This helps you tighten up on the action or focus on the whole picture.

Is the Brave 8 durable?

If you’re about to hit that Black Diamond trail, you’ll want a camera that holds up. The Brave 8 is constructed to stay functional and compete as long as you are.

It’s waterproof up to 33ft without the case and nearly 200 with the case. So get right in that shark’s face, you daredevil you.

By itself, this camera isn’t necessarily rugged, but it is durable. The lenses are always exposed, but they are compact and can take some whacks.

The 9-layer array of glass lenses captures all the little pieces of gravel spitting up while not shattering. This is a camera made to take a beating.

The best part of the physical nature of the Brave 8 is the advanced image stabilization. Think of every trail video you’ve watched and how bumpy it is.

Most modern adventure cameras have some sort of stabilization feature on them, users just forget to turn it on. Turn it on and give the viewers a smoother ride.

With the case, I found that the camera feels sturdy in my hands and doesn’t add too much weight to your bike helmet. You feel it, know it’s there, but you get used to it quickly.

There is also one-click shooting, so you don’t have to fumble around with buttons. While you do have to scroll on the touch screen to activate features, this can be done with the voice control or remote.

There are also voice commands, which come in extremely handy while you are on the move.

Additional features

The 1550mAh battery allows for about 90 minutes of recording at 4K. The Brave 8 also comes with two batteries, which is nice.

Charged up, that’s like three hours of recording time. That’s a lot of downhill trail riding. Or, in my case, a lot of walking slowly through the neighborhood on trash day while looking for cool stuff by the curb.

It also comes with a bevy of attachment accessories. From straps to mounts and 3M stickers, you can slap the Brave 8 on just about anything. The dual-screen for instant selfie view can help line up the shot.

The rear main screen is a touchscreen as well. If you aren’t into touching buttons, the Brave 8 can be activated by voice commands. If you do like touching buttons, there is also a remote.

Overall, this is a competent, strong little camera that does the job. You might not have heard of Akaso, but so what?

Do you want to capture that snowboard run without breaking the bank in absolute 4K and quality sound? Then this is the camera you’re looking for.

Akaso Brave 8 alternatives

Imageㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ	Product	Price
9.1	GoPro Hero10 cameraPremium Pick 5.3K, 60 FPS video Cloud and wired transfers Exceptional low-light performance  $389.99	Learn MoreRead the Reviews
9.0	DJI Action 2 PowerAlternate Pick 4K, 120 FPS video Waterproof out of the box AI Editor app $345.00	Learn MoreRead the Reviews

The only real difference between this camera and the latest from GoPro is the lack of livestreaming.

There are a select few who livestream their adventures. Most videos are highly edited, so this shouldn’t be a huge detractor.

The Akaso Brave 8 retails for $279.99 via the Akaso store or Amazon. Compare this to the GoPro 10, which retails for $389. Both offer 4K videos at 60fps and waterproof features.

There’s also the DJI Action 2 Power, which retails at $345, but that doesn’t even include the protective case or improved battery module.

Should you buy the Akaso Brave 8 action camera?

The point here is the same as with a lot of technology: the main difference is marketing. The specs and form factor are similar enough to justify price shopping.

Plus, wouldn’t you rather lose a less expensive camera in the Futaleufú River rapids? I know I would.

The Brave 8 is a great action camera that’s packed with all the features you need, whether you are hitting the trails or just walking around your neighborhood.

Review

Akaso Brave 8 Action Camera

Sure, it’s not a GoPro, but the Asako Brave 8 camera is certainly comparable, cheaper, and shoots 4K video. What else do you need?

See at Amazon

See at Akaso

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: OBSBOT Tiny – it’s like an AI camera operator for your Zoom calls
• Review: Potensic D58 drone with 1080p camera
• Review: The Nubia Red Magic 7s Pro gaming smartphone
• Review: The Eagle One electric scooter by Varla

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s but one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Akaso Brave 8 action camera appeared first on KnowTechie.

The Utillian 620 is a big vape. It’s very reminiscent of the pre-Juul liquid vaporizer days, as it pertains to girth. You know the ones I’m talking about.

The size is not a dealbreaker, surely, but it is one of my only minor gripes with it. It’s best to get that out of the way at the top.

At its core, the Utiliian 620 is an impressive weed vaporizer that features standard vape controls and serves its purpose as a weed delivery device.

This is a fair-priced, solid vaporizer that is perfect for single-use sessions. I could end the review there, but you probably want to know a little bit more.

Hit that

When I look at a vape the first thing I look at is the heating chamber. Specifically, how hard it might be to clean the darn thing.

Some vapes have heating chambers that take a little scrubbing, while others are perfect little cylinders.

The heating chamber on the Utillian 620 is small, big enough for a single smoking session. But it’s easy to access and easy to clean with the included magnetic cleaning tool.

When you take off the mouthpiece, the screen is sealed on the bottom, also easy to remove. This can be cleaned or replaced as necessary. In fact, the whole magnetic mouthpiece can be easily disassembled and cleaned. It’s great.

The glass mouthpiece can be pulled out of the housing and the airflow path can be removed and cleaned. Due to its unique design (kind of like a very wide drill bit), it doesn’t require daily cleaning.

This spiral airpath and wide mouthpiece provide a very clean, very thick draw. You can almost spit out massive clouds with this thing.

But why would you want to? You’re not some vape bro. You’re a weed connoisseur. This vape is a very simple, very easy-to-clean puzzle one should appreciate.

It’s rare that the construction of a vape is so efficient. With its tiny parts, the Zeus Arc GTS was a bit of a pain in that regard.

Pass it

Like almost every vaporizer on the market, you press the button five times to turn it on. From there, it starts pre-heating.

You’ll get three vibrations when it reaches temperature. I found it takes about 40 seconds to fully heat up, but I didn’t have a stopwatch out.

Through a few button taps, you can change the temperature, change Celsius to Fahrenheit, and set the time and duration of heating session (three to five minutes). It’ll automatically shut down after that time is up.

The temperature information, along with battery life, is shown on a digital screen on the top of the battery. I’ve seen some on the side, some illustrated with dots, but this is better.

It’s a small thing in the overall streamlined design. Being easy to read is important for this kind of display. You don’t have to constantly turn the device around to look at the display; it’s right there. You pull it away from your face and have your battery warning and temp readings.

The charger for this thing is not proprietary (thankfully), but it is micro USB. I’m not sure when it was conceptualized and manufactured, but everything should be USB-C now.

Micro USB is fine, but this isn’t a digital camera from the mid-2000s. A personal gripe surely, but a gripe nonetheless.

Exhale

What do we use these vapes for? We use them to get high. The Utillian 620 holds 0.2 – 0.3 grams of marijuana herb. Is that enough to get you high?

I have no general idea of the amount of grams it takes a person to get high. Every person is different. However, because of the way the Utillian heats up the herb, those two-tenths of a gram go a long way.

The convection heating runs at a temperature of 320 – 428°F. The removable convection helix evenly cooks your cannabis.

Yes, cooks. These types of vapes don’t burn weed, they cook it. It’s a little oven. And it cooks every molecule that can be cooked.

So even a small amount of weed can be better utilized here than burning it. That also makes it easier to clean. You can just quickly dump or scrape out the brown leaves.

Some vapes create this weird ashy residue because they are burning the weed at too high a temperature. This can be user error, as well. Regardless, the Utillian 620 cooks your weed very evenly, so you aren’t left with ash.

This also helps reduce any odors from the device. I know I’ve used some vapes that definitely created a healthy skunk smell. None of that here. The only thing that stunk when I was using it was Kevin’s gym socks.

Re-Pack

Aside from being a very portable vape, the Utillian 620 stands out in its conservation methods. That is, you spend a lot of cash on weed so why waste it?

The Utillian 620 can take a little marijuana herb and stretch it through its efficient cooking process. This means you save money. Can you normally say that? How much does that case of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos cost?

There are plenty of comparable vapes on the market. The Crafty Plus is one that comes to mind, as well as Utillian’s own Utillian 720.

The DaVinci IQ is still a quality buy. The Airvape Legacy, the Arizer Air 2, Firefly 2, Pax 3, and G-Pen Pro are all continuous options that exist, as well.

Why should you buy the Utillian 620 over any of those? No one said you had to. But if you want to, the Utillian 620 retails for a modest $144.99 from TVape. It’s also available directly from Utillian.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: The New Puffco Peak Pro is a premium vape with premium features
• Review: The Gold Edition Storz and Bickel Volcano vape is one monstrous magma chamber
• Review: DaVinci IQ2 – this is the classiest vape I’ve ever used
• Review: G Pen Elite II vaporizer – simplicity at its finest

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

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The Haylou PurFree bone conduction headphones are a new experience for me. I have reviewed a lot of headphones. Most of them either stick in my ear, or at least hang out of my ear.

While the Oladance Stereo headphones were a surprise, these were something different. As a top hat-wearing, pocket-watch-wielding audiophile, I’m in it for the quality of music.

That’s hard to achieve when the headphones sit off your ears. There’s music somewhere, but it’s not in your head.

That’s not to say this is a criticism of the Haylou PurFree headphones. There is something to be said for bone conduction headphones and their purpose in this world.

This technology has a reason for existing, and after a few days of use, it became apparent to me. These headphones match a certain lifestyle. I found they can exist alongside headphones that are used purely for music.

Big sound, somewhere

Most headphones work by pushing sound through the air. The reason headphones like the JVC Riptidz sound so banging to someone like me, is because they are literally in your ear.

That’s what you want if you want music in your head. Bone conduction headphones work by transmitting sound through vibrations on your skull. They skip the eardrum and go right to the inner ear.

That means that there is less damage to your eardrum over time. Basically, if you just use bone conduction headphones, then your mom can’t yell at you about going deaf from listening to music at full blast all the time.

When it comes to the quality of sound, it’s almost not comparable because of the delivery system differences. I can’t say one is better than the other, but I can say the Haylou PurFree headphones slap.

After having them for a few days, I found myself wearing them all the time. They weren’t even in the right place on my head consistently. Sometimes they were on my skull, sometimes on my neck. But even with the directional sound, I could still hear them due to the vibrations.

If you like music on all the time, but don’t want to disturb the household while also hearing the household, then these are perfect.

Essentially, instead of music jammed in your head, blocking out the outside world, you have music vibrating into you. You stay aware of the outside world, but you have music in your bones.

While the depth of sound is lacking, that’s a comparison that shouldn’t exist here, so I’ll drop it. The headphones do come with earplugs, in case you do want to blank out your surroundings.

Run, sweat, cycle

As a part-time cyclist and full-time home chef, the Haylou PurFree headphones make sense. They are IP67-rated waterproof. This means they are sweatproof without degradation.

The wrap-around style stays on your head while you run, as well, if that’s your kind of thing.

When I cycle, I don’t wear earbuds. It’s dangerous around here. I need to be able to hear everything going on around me so I don’t die.

With these headphones though, that paradigm is changed. I can do both. I can have riding music while still being aware of my surroundings. That’s freaking awesome.

The directional audio delivers a moderate bass thump, if you press them hard against your skull. I’ll be honest, even in optimal head position, the sound you’re hearing has some distance to it as much as you feel it vibrating in your bones.

Using Bluetooth 5.2 technology, there is no fidelity loss. The sound is unbroken without major distortion. These are not audiophile headphones, they are active wear headphones.

Recharge your style

The Haylou PurFree headphones offer about eight hours of battery life when charged fully. They feature dual microphones and a cVc noise cancellation algorithm. This helps clear up background noise when you use them for a phone call.

There is one slight downside with these headphones, however. I review a lot of technology, and there is one serious pain point. That’s the physical charging technology.

These headphones have a proprietary charger. It’s a magnetic clip. You lose that cable, you’re shit out of luck. I can understand with the form factor why it’s not USB-C, but it’s still annoying.

I suppose, though, most earbuds have to sit in a case (which is proprietary) to be charged via USB-C, so it’s not that huge of a gripe.

All things considered, these are a great buy if you live an active lifestyle and need something that will workout with you.

They aren’t for pure music enjoyment, but they don’t dampen the experience either. They offer you music (or podcasts or whatever) when you might not be using regular headphones. That’s a bonus.

There are a ton of bone conduction headphones on the market, so it’s hard to say how these ones stack up. Many of them have seemingly made up names and vary in price from $40 to $150.

Shokz is the most popular brand for these types of headphones. Another popular option comes from Panadia, and they are on the cheaper end at $45.

The Haylou PurFree bone conduction headphones retail for $78.66 (down from $133.32) and are available at Amazon (for $95.99, oddly enough) and through AliExpress (for $78.66).

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: Blue Tiger Solare solar-powered headset
• Review: Monoprice Soundstage 3 portable Bluetooth speaker
• Review: EarFun Free Pro 2 – true wireless earbuds with ANC that won’t break the bank
• Review: DaVinci IQ2 Carbon Fiber

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Haylou PurFree Bone Conduction headphones appeared first on KnowTechie.

At some point in the career of a tech product reviewer, you just start saying yes without determining the personal usability of an item. Such is the case with the Blue Tiger Solare.

All the use cases are not relevant to my lifestyle. Regardless, Blue Tiger is a reliable communications technology brand. The Solare should continue its legacy of creating functional technology. Hell, it’s solar-powered. That’s a start.

The target market for the Solare headset is primarily truckers. Construction workers and people that work mostly outside could also find the headset useful.

While it could be applied to office workers in a customer contact setting, the solar power aspect might fall short. Yet, the strong Powerfoyle solar cell holds a charge longer than it probably should.

Solar truckin’

The solar charging can be achieved through interior or exterior light. Regardless, it’s probably not going to charge as well under weak fluorescent lights, trapped in a cubicle.

Even if there is a window somewhere on your floor. That’s not the outside world, that’s an illusion of freedom.

This constant solar charging means nearly indefinite use. Who needs sleep when you can be in constant contact with anyone on the frequency?

If you are using the Solare while driving, then not having to charge the headset is helpful. Just lean a bit toward the sun and you’re good to go. No concerns about battery life at all.

That’s rare in any technology these days, much less a headset device that usually needs to be plugged in. Whatever the task, you can stay focused on it with a constantly self-charging headset. Eyes on the road, bud.

Side note: if you don’t like the solar charging, or generally work at night, the Solare headset can be charged through traditional USB as well.

Sounding off

Does it really matter how the Solare sounds? Of course it does. While these are not designed for music, they still take advantage of the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol.

The speaker is clean and readable. In the sense that with the 97% noise cancellation and a comfortable fit, you can understand what is being said. Whether you have the noise of the office behind you or the sound of the road.

The Wide Band Audio Speaker is powered by the solar cell. Since it’s continuously charging, that means you’ve got a clear connection constantly.

Voices were clear on Zoom and Teams calls, and my voice played back to me sounded just as disorienting and clear as through my Samson Satellite microphone. The single-ear speaker isn’t stereo (since it’s singular), but the depth is there.

With the Bluetooth 5.0 technology, you’ve got up to 100 feet of connectivity. I found that this was a fairly close assessment. Though when I was counting feet, I kept losing count. I was able to walk down to the mailbox while on a call, so that’s something.

If you don’t want to use your hands at all, there is Siri and Google Assistant connectivity available. Which actually lends to the accessibility options of this headset.

There is no cord, provides hands-free use, and constantly charges. The Solare basically maintains itself.

Staying tough

There are so many cheap headsets out there. Both in quality and sound. It’s difficult to find one that isn’t a flimsy piece of plastic.

You know the kind, your company probably handed it to you on day one. The kind of headset bought in bulk and about as sturdy as thin ice. The Solare is the opposite of that. This is a tough, reliable headset.

I am not kind to my technology, and for the sake of testing, I tossed the Solare around the room. It helps there is no cord to break, but also the thing is Military graded MIL-STD-810, which means it has met a rigorous standard of testing.

The Solare was put through the paces in extreme environments and came out a hardened warrior. Its durability can only be truly tested if you are actually trying to break it maliciously.

The actual earpiece is comfortable, as well. It’s not that sticky plastic that makes your ear sweat endlessly.

While I didn’t wear the Solare on a coast-to-coast trucking run, I had it on long enough to understand that it wouldn’t be terrible to wear all day with breaks. No one wants to wear a headset during every waking hour.

The Solare is also IPX4 water resistant, so if you do sweat, it’s not an issue.

Signing off on the Blue Tiger Solare

There are other solar-powered headphones on the market. Like the Urbanista Los Angeles, but the Blue Tiger Solare is a headset. There’s a difference.

When it comes to solar-powered headsets for communication, it appears Solare stands alone.

Sure, Blue Parrot makes a quality headset, but they aren’t solar-powered. Solare also offers a more traditional option with a detachable earcup if that is more your style.

Whether you work in your home office on the back porch, drive a truck, deliver goods or talk to customers all day, the Solare is a good addition to your work-related technology.

It currently retails for $219.99. That might seem daunting for a headset, but not ever having to worry about charging is worth the price.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: EPOS H6Pro Open Acoustic gaming headset
• Review: JVC Riptidz wireless earbuds
• Review: Monoprice Soundstage 3 portable Bluetooth speaker
• Review: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Blue Tiger Solare solar-powered headset appeared first on KnowTechie.

I have reviewed a lot of vapes. Never in my weed smoking history would I have imagined I’d review so many vapes.

I come from a generation of smokers that would roll scratch weed in napkins. I have smoked weed out of Mountain Dew bottles, apples, and paper towel rolls.

The introduction of vapes as a marijuana consumption tool was more than a game changer. It was a paradigm shifter. It was a smack to the ass of traditional inhalation. The Zeus Arc GTS is the culmination of perfecting this technology.

The vaporizer offers a premium experience from the moment you unpack it, to the first hit using it.

One of the main selling points of this portable vaporizer is the use of ArcPods, small containers that allow you to prepare your herb ahead of time. With that in mind, let’s jump into the review.

Heat it up

The Zeus Arc takes about 80 seconds to heat up fully. This is after packing dry herb in the little ArcPods. While you can use the heating chamber without an ArcPod, it’s a bit counterintuitive to do so.

The ArcPods provide a much cleaner experience, literally. Cleaning vapes can be annoying enough, scrubbing the heating chamber with a Q-tip. You can preload your ArcPods and just drop them in.

This change in function from previous Zeus models is huge. While there will still be resin build-up in the bottom of the heating chamber and the airflow tunnel, this delays cleaning a bit.

Once the Zeus is charged up, you can change heating levels depending on how hot you’d like to get the dry herb.

This was demonstrated to me by my impatient mother, who wanted the heat at level two, and then basically slapped my hand when I attempted a draw before the light on the vape had turned green. The haptic feedback gives a little buzz when it’s ready for consumption.

The Zeus Arc is a conduction-style vaporizer, so that means you won’t be ripping fat clouds, bro. That’s not what this device is for.

This is for a smooth smoking experience. It’s not box wine. Except for the USB-A charging port. You’d think a vape with a gold-plated heating chamber would utilize USB-C.

Take a tasty pull

Once your herb is heated to your desired temperature (there are three heating levels) it’s time to take a draw. The mouthpiece is on the side and is like sipping a RC Cola. Because you cherish the moment with RC Cola.

I found that the draw was much smoother when I removed the little packing tool from the bottom of the vape. This little tool is helpful, but kind of blocks the airflow path. Thankfully it’s magnetic, so it still sticks to the vape.

In order to get the full power of the Zeus Arc, you are going to want to keep it clean. It comes with some basic cleaning supplies, like a rod you can shove up the air flow tunnel.

But even with the gold plating, you are going to accumulate a healthy wall of resin blocking your airflow. Clean often and clean well.

With a hefty 3500mAh Battery, you can burn at three different levels. While my mom prefers level two, I like my weed like my tater tots. Burnt. I like them very burnt.

I know that’s not the best way to smoke most strains of marijuana. However, one of my long-standing issues with electric vapes is delivering a powerful enough pull to simulate a traditional pipe or bong hit.

The mouthpiece on the Zeus Arc is the best mouthpiece I’ve come across. You inhale from the side, which reduces transient heat on your lips. It opens easy and has a rubber liner that keeps it sealed.

What’s both odd and great about the heating chamber is above where the ArcPod goes, it has plenty of space to gather vapor. It doesn’t require a constant strong pull.

Cooling down

I almost lost the flowsink and flowsink screen on first use. These are tiny, gold-plated parts that go in the heating chamber.

While these aren’t necessary if you are using the ArcPods, if you take them out, you’ll probably lose them. Eventually, they’ll just get caked with resin and won’t fall into the void of nothingness that is your couch.

On second use, during photography for this review, I lost both the flowsink and flowsink screen in the backyard. I simply forgot they were in there, and they flung right on out.

These little parts are the one negative in the overall form factor of the device. It would make more sense for them to perhaps be shaped like the ArcPod, or one piece instead of two. They serve no purpose now.

The Zeus Arc also came with a massive grinder called the Xtruder. The nice thing about the Xtruder is that you can place an ArcPod in the bottom of the Xtruder and automatically fill it.

This isn’t a motorized process, it’s manual. When the grinder has filled the ArcPod, it’ll pop out. This is a great way to think ahead, and get a dozen or so ArcPods filled for the week. Beats hand grinding herb every night.

Final toke

The Zeus Arc GTS combines sleek design with gold-plated features such as the cleaning tool and heat sink. This is a solid vape that continues to stand out among its peers.

The Zeus Arc isn’t the only heavy duty, quality vape on the market. The first Davinci IQ blew me away. The Pax still remains one of the most reliable dry herb vaporizers out there. And the G Pen Elite II offers a premium experience for just a bit cheap (albeit less features).

While vape tech once seemed to be stagnating, the Zeus Arc GTS is taking advantage of every spec on the market.

You can get the Zeus Arc GTS HUB (which includes the Xtruder) for $239.99 from Zeus, TVape, Haze Smoke Shop, and Tools420.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: The New Puffco Peak Pro is a premium vape with premium features
• Review: G Pen Elite II vaporizer – simplicity at its finest
• Review: DaVinci IQC vaporizer – I think I just unlocked a new level of stoned
• Review: Stündenglass gravity infuser
• Review: EZQuest Ultimate Plus Dual HDMI USB-C hub

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Zeus Arc GTS Vaporizer (3rd Gen) appeared first on KnowTechie.

JVC has been a long-trusted brand of home and car A/V technology. If you didn’t have a Sony VCR back in the day, you probably had a JVC.

We know the brand, so when we put the JVC Riptidz earbuds in our ears, we know we are getting maximum effort.

No brand makes it out of the boom box era without honing its craft. Keeping that in mind, it’s not to say that JVC is a stodgy old brand. Obviously, it’s hip with the kids.

These earbuds are called “Riptidz” with a Z. That’s rad, bro. My ripped-up jorts approve. Do they sound as good as their implied street vibes?

Hell yeah they do. The JVC Riptidz are some of the best wireless earbuds I’ve had in my ears this decade. Sure, the decade is less than a year old, but I use a lot of different earbuds.

All the feelz with the JVC Riptidz

The JVC Riptidz aren’t groundbreaking when it comes to modern 21st-century design. These are what earbuds are now. They have changeable rubber ear thingies (ear gels, ear tips, whatever you want to call them).

They sit in the ear all snuggly without any pressure if you use the right size ear tip. They operate through touch controls as expected. With the ear tips, they stay in place through moderate activity. They’d probably fall out if you are engaging in pugilism.

READ MORE: Review: Haylou PurFree Bone Conduction headphones

As an in-ear type of earbud, noise isolation is acceptable. This comfortable fit creates a cavern of sound. They aren’t totally noise-canceling, but if you turn the volume up enough, they are. As I listen to everything at a solid 11, the outside world was a distant hum.

The nice thing about these earbuds is the auto connect feature. Once you remove them from the charging case, they automatically connect to your phone (assuming you’ve paired them already). There is a microphone for hands-free calling as well.

They are sweat and splashproof with an IPX5 rating. This means you can’t go swimming with them, but you can get caught in the rain walking the dogs. They take about 15 minutes to charge in the charging case.

This equates to about 90 minutes of play before recharge. This cycle can be repeated for around 30 hours before the charging case needs to be recharged. That’s enough for at least two international flights. Or queuing in line when Popeye’s drops a new chicken sandwich.

Bass dropz

Bass is the best. What you look for in bass from Bluetooth headphones is crisp and clear delivery. I don’t want any distortion or crackling. I don’t want the bass to overwhelm the vocals or accompanying instruments.

Listening to Son Real’s “Can I get a witness”, the bass was clean and loud. There was no distortion on the heavier bits. While this isn’t the most bass-heavy track in existence, it’s a good litmus for overall bass performance. It’s not Basement Jaxx, but few headphones can handle that thump.

When the bass is not overwhelming, it allows the mids and vocals to shine. The Riptidz also smooth out high, normally piercing ranges like the guitars on “Out of the Black” by Royal Blood. Here, these ranges are sharp and driving but not blasting the speaker out of your ears with high distortion.

Bluetooth 5.1 has really revised my previous opinions on wireless music delivery. Where once the idea of wireless earbuds would make my stomach turn, now it’s just as reliable as wired headphones.

Bass has always been a marker of the quality of wireless delivery. There always seemed to be some fidelity loss. With the current standard of Bluetooth as evidenced on the JVC Riptidz, that loss is nonexistent. Or so minutely decipherable that it doesn’t matter.

Strong soundz from these earbuds

In order to really determine if an earbud is going to pass muster, there needs to be a superior depth of sound. Putting on “Hard Liquor” by SOHN and the Metropole Orkest, I was confronted with a fantastic depth of sound.

You can hear the freaking orchestral bass drum thumping between your skull. While you might not be able to mentally pin down every single instrument, the backing orchestra isn’t muddled together like it is with many car speakers.

What you want here is centered sound in your head. This is where you aren’t hearing a left and right, but it’s all in the middle. That’s what I got here, and I like it.

Consider “Look” by Venus Hum. This is a vocal-centric track with computer-generated music (for the most part). With these earbuds, it sounds like she’s singing all around you and, most importantly, in your head.

Electronic sounds don’t drown the vocals in high ranges. There isn’t that piercing ear drum destruction found with most headphones.

There aren’t really any negatives here with the Riptidz. The touch controls can be a bit sensitive perhaps. If you are listening to higher quality MP3 or FLAC files, you won’t find any issues with sub-$40 earbuds.

Streaming music comes with a slight loss of fidelity, but that’s on the service not the earbuds. If you need a new pair of earbuds and you don’t want to spend much, the Riptidz are perfect.

These other earbuds

In addition to the Riptidz, JVC also sent along its basic JVC True Wireless Earbuds. Honestly, don’t bother with these. Unless you want to save $10 and don’t really care too much what the music sounds like.

These are classic earbuds that just sit in your ear. These are the types of earbuds you buy when you really don’t like music but you listen to it.

Everything that the Riptidz delivered, these ones come up short on. There is a serious lack of true bass (unless you hold them shoved in your ears). Depth of sound is a tin can in a rainstorm. Everything sounds a few yards away. Sure, you can hear music through them but it’s a hard meh.

These are just earbuds that exist. There is nothing special about them to be sure. They aren’t much more than what you’d find in the $5 bin at Walmart with subpar charging cables and knock-off pop sockets.

Alternatives and where to buy these JVC earbuds

If these JVC earbuds (especially the Riptidz) sound good, but you are looking for other options, the market is overflowing with them.

Considering these pairs are budget-friendly, you could look at something like the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2. For gamers, these Logitech G earbuds are on a bunch of top-10 lists and are under $50.

If you want to splurge, however, the EarFun Free Pro 2 earbuds come in under $100 and feature active noise canceling.

Both the JVC true wireless earbuds (HA-A3T), and the HA-A9T (Riptidz) offer Bluetooth 5.1, auto-on and connect, and Quick Charge. The latter provides 90 minutes of playback from a 15-minute charge.

They retail for a moderate $24.95 and $39.95, respectively. You can get the Riptidz from Amazon and Walmart. The cheaper JVC earbuds can be found on Amazon and Best Buy.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: GravaStar Sirius Pro wireless earbuds
• Review: Obsbot Tiny 4K AI-powered webcam
• Review: Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker
• Review: ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 portable AC unit

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: JVC Riptidz wireless earbuds appeared first on KnowTechie.

Clothes drying is a dull process that takes up way too much time. But it’s a necessary evil. After getting a chance to test out the Morus Zero portable clothes dryer, I wonder why portable clothes dryers haven’t become a staple in every home.

Thankfully, the Morus Zero portable clothes dryer is looking to break the mold.

This appliance exists in a world that demands dry clothes on the go. Or at least provides a solution to the problem of wet clothes. But, there are more use-case applications than this. Here’s who the Morus Zero Portable Dyer is perfect for:

• Small apartments 
• RV and outdoor enthusiasts
• Mothers of newborns/toddlers 
• People who need an extra dryer to dry clothes 

Listen, it’s a portable dryer. It has a singular function. That function is to dry clothes. It’s not that heavy (28.7 lbs) and allows you to dry clothes while doing yoga in your studio loft.

So what does the Morus Zero portable clothes dryer have to offer? Do you actually need it, and is it worth buying? After testing it for a few weeks, I have the answers to all those questions and more. Let’s dive in.

How much does the Morus Zero portable dryer cost?

Situational technology has its place. These items exist for a niche market of specific users. The Morus Zero portable clothes dryer is one such appliance.

The $600 price tag is not the issue here. Sure, a used full-size dryer on Craigslist can be had for $140. A used washer and dryer sell for $500 in most cases. That’s not the point.

The target market here is not for price-conscious shoppers. It’s those who don’t live a full-size appliance life. Ironically, minimalism tends to run on the expensive side.

The Morus Zero uses something called Morus drying technology. Basically, this is the dryer creating a low-pressure chamber and applying 43.5 MPH vast airflow to dry clothes.

It takes about 15 minutes to dry a load of clothes. This is optimal for a singular person drying a singular load of clothes. It’s not optimal for family use unless you use it for underwear and expensive garments. 

Like newer full-size dryers, the Morus Zero is equipped with a self-optimizing AI system. This senses when things are dry, and the dryer can stop prematurely.

It worked as indicated, the dryer often stopped early to tell me that my load of just socks was done. Wet socks, the ultimate dryer test. And with the included drying rack, you can dry shoes too.

Vacuum+ technology dries items in half the time

The built-in UV sterilization is a nice touch. It claims to kill 99.99% of bacteria and mites.

There are no extra exhaust pipes or vents on this thing. Morus Zero uses air condensation to collect water from the garments into the water tank.

The control panel has a child lock and a few simple options. Warm, refresh, shoe, sanitize, quick, shirt, silk, and smart. It’s easier to just choose smart if you aren’t drying shoes. 

RV and campsite use is a huge part of why the Morus Zero exists

However, if your shoe collection doesn’t demand its own dryer, the portability of the Morus Zero is the next best selling point. It oddly doesn’t include a power inverter to convert its standard plug into a car plug.

Considering RV and campsite use is a huge part of why the Morus Zero exists, you have to buy an inverter too. That’s not a terrible thing, just a thing.

If you don’t own an RV, but are limited on space, then the Morus Zero might be what you need. Small studio apartments, dorm rooms, and shared domiciles will benefit here too.

I’m sure if you did the math on how many quarters you’ve shoved into laundromat dryers, the price point is easier to swallow.

The Moruz Zero portable clothes dryer vs. conventional dryers

There’s a comparison on the Morus Zero website to traditional dryers. It makes some obvious claims: traditional dryers take longer, can over-dry clothes, and so on. Yet, these comparisons are quite flat.

The real comparison is portability. If the Morus Zero was a full-size dryer, it couldn’t compete with brand-new washer/dryer sets. Sure, there is no installation because you just plop it on a surface and plug it in. A traditional dryer is just a heavier version of that.

Trying to determine if this thing dried my clothes better than a traditional dryer was futile. All my clothes are Walmart exclusives. There is no risk. The ability to easily and quickly dry shoes were probably the greatest dryer-function difference.

The Morus Zero portable dryer carries a modern aesthetic. It’s not a bulky square hidden away in a lukewarm laundry room. It’s a conversation piece as much as it is an appliance.

At $600, it’s surely a luxury item, but it has a specific appeal to a niche group of target users. That group might love it as much as those who do six loads of laundry daily are rolling their eyes.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: GravaStar Sirius Pro wireless earbuds
• Review: EcoFlow Delta Pro battery backup
• Review: Obsbot Tiny 4K AI-powered webcam
• Review: Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Morus Zero Portable Dryer appeared first on KnowTechie.

We’ve come a long way from the days of floor speakers like the classic Pioneer CS-77. Wireless speakers are all the rage. Speakers such as the Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker.

This speaker is essentially what we’re all using now. A wireless speaker that connects via Bluetooth or WiFi. Sometimes paired with a twin, often alone. What we’ve lost in RCA connections we’ve gained in our phones becoming stereo controllers.

The Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker is a speaker that exists. You can play music on it through WiFi or Bluetooth. Edifier has a wide selection of audio products, which I discovered when I downloaded the wrong app.

One app is for other Edifier products, and all in Chinese. The correct app must be downloaded in the box via a QR code.

This QR code downloads an APK file, which my Android phone was not happy with. Random apk files often contain malware, but I flipped a coin and took a shot.

READ MORE: Review: Haylou PurFree Bone Conduction headphones

The app is only necessary to connect the speaker via WiFi, but I thought it was needed to get Bluetooth to work. This is due to Bluetooth not working right out of the box.

But after restarting the speaker a few times, I finally got it to show up on my phone. So I uninstalled the app before opening it because of general technological paranoia.

You’ll have to use the app if you want to connect Amazon Alexa, Spotify, or Apple AirPlay to the speaker. I was also wary about connecting my Amazon account to some random speaker app, so I didn’t do that.

Put it in your face

The marketing says that the Edifier speaker has drivers that are delicately tuned for bass booming and treble spiking.

That’s the case for most speakers in existence. No company intentionally sells speakers that aren’t tuned for at least three music ranges.

If you were to take this speaker apart, the actual speakers would differ slightly from the door speakers in your 1994 Chevy Cavalier.

Edifier specializes in speakers, so perhaps these are more finely tuned than car speakers, however.

If you are standing right in front of this speaker, your head level with the speaker, then it sounds fantastic.

Great leveled bass, clean mids, and the highs are faded enough not to be overwhelming. That’s within a foot, and you can smell the fabric.

If you stand up and walk around, this speaker sounds like half of a pair, and the other speaker is blown.

That’s kind of the sacrifice with wireless speakers sometimes. You have music in the room, and it’s not terrible, but it’s also not a superior sound system.

On Sturgill Simpson’s “Sing Along,” a song with a lot of distortion baked in, the speaker delivered a very acceptable translation across Bluetooth.

The bass on Glass Animals’ “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” was very leveled. This song has some thump, and it was certainly contained.

This is kind of a good thing for this kind of classy-looking speaker. It’s not meant to be the sub in a box in the back of your 1997 Celica.

Take it outside

Where this speaker sounds best is with vocal-driven music or more indie rock stuff.

I know, that’s specific, but the Lumineers‘ new album and anything by Heartless Bastards sounded absolutely great while chilling on the back porch.

There was no fuzz during the quiet bits, and the small sounds of guitar and vocal inflections were very clear. While it’s not waterproof or weather resistant, if you have a covered spot on your porch, that’s where this speaker belongs.

While the sound does carry throughout the house or interior room, inside, it really needs a companion pair.

Outside, it serves its purpose well. The lack of walls doesn’t contain the sound so much that you notice the lack of two-speaker stereo sound.

Since I’m not connecting a Chinese speaker (or any other speaker through an app) to my Amazon account (and I don’t use Spotify), I didn’t test the WiFi connection.

WiFi might deliver a little better fidelity, but there is nothing substantial in the audible difference over the current Bluetooth standard.

For depth of sound, it’s not lacking, but it’s certainly not at the level of more expensive speakers that pride themselves on such a thing.

Using the orchestra-backed SOHN Live With the Metropole Orkest, I could still hear all the instruments, but the wideness of that kind of music was lost. Perhaps it’d be better with a second speaker.

Regardless, most general listeners won’t think this is a small thing. For its purpose, the Edifier delivered what would be expected from a Bluetooth/WiFi speaker.

Should you buy this Edifier speaker?

The Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker has a few things in its favor that place it above standard market speakers. There is no built-in microphone. A great addition for privacy protection. The touch controls are easy to use also.

Then there is that sweet mid-century modern wooden look of the thing. As per its sound, it’s what you’d expect from a Bluetooth speaker. I wasn’t blown away, but I also wasn’t let down.

It works as intended, and its connectivity options and sleek look justify its $149 price tag. It’s available directly from Edifier, or you can snag it from Amazon and Best Buy.

Are there better speakers on the market? Sure. If you don’t care about music, there are also much cheaper ones. This option from TronSmart is only $60. JBL has a small portable Bluetooth Speaker for under $60, as well.

Regardless, if you want your music to sound like music and not noise, the Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker is a good place to start.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: Truly Ergonomic CLEAVE keyboard
• Review: CineHome II wireless surround speaker system
• The GravaStar Venus is a small Bluetooth speaker with big sound
• Review: EarFun Free Pro 2 – true wireless earbuds with ANC that won’t break the bank

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more. A sample unit was provided for this review.

The post Review: Edifier MS50A wireless smart speaker appeared first on KnowTechie.

You’ve never tried headphones like these. As the kids say, the Oladance Wearable Stereo headphones hit different. These are not earbuds. This is a wearable stereo.

In some instances, that might be just marketing speak.

Here is an accurate descriptor of how these headphones deliver music to your head.

Unlike other open earbuds (earbuds that don’t actually go in your ear), Oladance Wearable Stereo earbuds sound like they are in your ear. It’s weird.

I had the chance to test these open-ear earbuds for the past few weeks, and I have to say, I’m thoroughly impressed.

However, they might not the best option for everyone. Are they worth buying? Let’s jump right to it.

Stereo on your head

Wearing the Oladance headphones is like wearing classic over-the-ear headphones without sweat.

You can barely feel these sitting on your ears. There is a bit of disconnection as the sound comes mere millimeters away from your ears.

READ MORE: Review: Haylou PurFree Bone Conduction headphones

This makes it feel like you are in a room with an excellent surround sound system.

You can hear the outside world since there is air between the speakers and your ear holes, but that makes these things perfect for activities where I can’t use earbuds, like cycling.

Or, from the perspective of a 13-year-old, it is perfect for them to hear me asking them to do chores and not ignore me because they have earbuds in their ears.

Since these sit on the ear instead of deep in them, they would be better compared to external speakers.

The bass is there; the mids are there; the highs are there — they are just a few millimeters away.

The bass isn’t as thumping as it would be in the ear, but it’s super clean. Highs are distant enough to be distortion-free and crisp.

Middle ranges are delivered with excellent clarity. Overall, the stereo sound is there without the physical compression of earbuds.

The depth of sound is different here; it’s difficult to explain. Imagine sitting in a clean room with perfect acoustics closing your eyes, and your ears are numb.

You can’t feel if there is anything in your ear. Then the music starts. It’s all around you and in you, but you can’t feel it. It’s kind of like that.

This feels like truer surround sound than any in-ear earbud might claim.

The music is all around you, and the outside world is there too. You just have to focus to let it in, as you can easily trick your brain into only focusing on the music.

Pioneering technology

Oladance claims it first proposed the concept of OWS (open wearable stereo).

I can’t confirm this, but the copy on its website would likely have had to pass legal muster, so we’ll accept it as gospel.

OWS changes how we consume music through our head holes. Instead of jamming things in our ears, we get an open music experience.

The chip technology and algorithms improvement has enabled Oladance to create multiple sound points and dynamic monitoring. This is calculated to form synthetic sounds.

Along the way, it adjusts the phase relationship between synthetic sound sources to do a bunch of other technical stuff.

There is some very smart-sounding copy here. The point here is that Oladance combines design with functionality and sound.

Sound frequencies that the human ear can’t discern are moved to frequency bands that it can. This helps with poor sound quality in open earphones.

It also prolongs hearing health by not jamming all frequencies simultaneously at varying levels.

Oladance, as focused as it is on sound quality, dreams of a world in which technology is a force for positive good.

Sustainable, health-focused technology exists in some kind of utopia, likely devoid of us terrible humans.

360° Cinematic sound

Listening to cinematic music (such as anything by Electric Light Orchestra) sounded amazing these things.

Probably the best-sounding skull-oriented delivery system for digital versions of classic rock I’ve ever used.

Roger Waters was in my head and all around me simultaneously. I could still hear the idiot dogs barking at nothing walking by outside, without the barks busting the sound.

It was just some distant awareness sneaking through the space between my antitragus and the headphones.

From the intricate artistry of Ólafur Arnalds to the spacious tones of Eli & Fur playing live from the mountains in Italy, the Oladance Wearable Stereo headphones delivered a fresh musical experience.

I’m used to listening to music with earbuds, not walking or cycling anywhere with a full stereo on my head.

You’d think the ability to hear still the outside world would be a bother, but you only notice it if you want to.

With 16 hours of battery life and utilizing the latest Bluetooth protocols, there was no place for distortion.

Fidelity was clear, and though they don’t touch your ears, the music comes through without popping or breaking.

It’s all ear gravy

You will be hard-pressed to find a better-sounding open-ear headphone out there.

Between its 16 hours of battery life, waterproof construction, and Bluetooth 5.2 protocol, the Oladance Wearable Stereo headphones are an experience.

This is a revolutionary way to deliver music to your head without losing touch with the world around you.

You can jam some earbuds in your ears, but you’ll feel those more than the music. Here, you feel the music and forget you are wearing things on your ears.

Other open earbuds are on the market, but they all seem to lack attention to the craft. For instance, the Sony Linkbuds are big goofy things. The Cleer Audio ARC headphones sit high on your ear.

Avantree’s TW116 Open Ear headphones come close, offering similar specs. The construction of these appears not as solid, however. Same for these from Conduction Labs.

The Oladance Wearable Stereo headphones retail for $179 and are available in four colors. They can be found on the company’s website or Amazon.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 portable AC unit
• Review: The Proxy by Puffco – an innovative modular vaporizer
• Review: SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini mechanical keyboard
• Review: Truly Ergonomic CLEAVE keyboard

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Oladance Wearable Stereo open earbuds appeared first on KnowTechie.

As the world continues to heat up due to the human race’s inability to temper its reliance on fuel systems that slowly burn us alive, we are always finding ways to cool down.

For the moment, a portable AC unit will have to do. The ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 is one such unit, functionally situational and a luxury for traversing the developed world.

After running a successful Indiegogo campaign, the ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 is now available to the public. As we lean into eternal summer around the country, a portable air conditioning unit sounds kind of nice.

Regardless, it does have its use cases and might not satisfy your imagination as it pertains to such a thing. It’s also got a massive battery on it, which explains that $1,499 price point. Let’s see how cool this thing really is.

The ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 cools all your sweaty crevices

Unlike the portable AC unit that your apartment complex dragged in when the apartment AC went out again, the Mark 2 will not cool an entire domicile. This thing is made for specific sized spaces, generally, outside of one we would consider a regular living space.

It’s designed for travel purposes; the selling points are tents, campers, trucks, boating, etc. This is not something you purchase to cool down an attic or basement. It simply cannot compete with the ambient atmosphere in large spaces, especially ones that trap heat.

The ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 pumps out 2300 BTU of cooling power. It’s quite honest about the limitations of that output in the spec sheet. It mentions that the heat generated by sunlight is 283.6 BTU/sq. ft. in a 25 sq. ft. area (the optimal cooling area handled by the Mark 2).

This equates to 7090 BTU, which is hotter than the Mark 2 can cool. An average car air conditioner pumps out 10,000 BTU. But if there is competent insulation or the sun is down, the Mark 2 can do the job. It’s an odd flex, but at least they’re honest about it

As mentioned, the optimal cooling space is 25-40 sq. ft. with some additional qualifications:

• Humidity at about 50%
• No direct sunlight
• Good insulation
• Ambient temperature no greater than 100F/38C

If these conditions are met, the Mark 2 can reduce the temperature by 9-22F/5-10C. Since I was unable to meet these conditions, having no small space to test the Mark 2, any estimations on relative coolness are just that.

Standing next to the unit or using it to cool my lower half while writing this review is effective. It gets hot in this office. It is a 180 sq. ft. room and outside the optimal range of the Mark 2.

However, I was still able to feel a bit of cold air. So I didn’t have to turn on the floor fan. I would not buy a portable air conditioner for this reason, but it does what it says. It sucks air through one tube, cools it with a compressor, and spits out heated air through another tube.

It should be noted that the refrigerant used in the unit (R134a hydrofluorocarbon) will be banned from use starting in 2024 in most HVAC units and in vehicles starting with 2021 model years, according to the EPA.

Venting, draining, and sounding

The Mark 2 portable AC runs at 52dB, but that doesn’t really register with the brain as to how loud or quiet it is. Basically, it sounds like a vacuum running in another room. A constant hum. Not overwhelming, but certainly there.

It certainly runs quieter than a traditional in-window unit. It’s a small price to pay to cool down your camping trailer or the cab of your semi-truck.

Like any air conditioning unit with a compressor, the Mark 2 generates water waste. It can store water inside for a few hours. Thankfully, there is a drainage tube that can be led outside or into an empty water bottle.

The internal circuits are only waterproof enough to sustain against general use, but not against long-term exposure. The Mark 2 needs to tilt back to drain, or the pipe should drain into something.

Venting didn’t cause a problem when testing because the space was too large for it to matter. If you are using the unit in a vehicle or camper, you will want to place the tubes in the included foam thingy and stick them out a window.

You don’t want that heated air spitting back into the space, creating more work for the Mark 2. This is a standard operation of any portable air conditioner and the reason in-window units are in the window.

That battery though

A massive 18650 lithium-ion battery pack can be docked with the Mark 2. This provides about five hours of use on six hours of charging.

Charging in the car would likely take a bit longer. Your best bet is to get a solar adapter, especially if you are using the Mark 2 for camping since you will be outside anyway.

Capacity runs at 24V 35Ah/840Wh. This doesn’t put it on par with an outdoor portable battery. It does serve well as a 12lb charging station with its USB-A and USB-C ports.

Of course, the more things you charge with it, the less power you’ll have for the Mark 2. But, it’s a good feature to have with a portable AC. Something that you might struggle to be able to plug in when on the go.

Is it cool enough?

As it dropped its temperature output to 59F, the five-year-old declared the Mark 2 to be simply awesome. Then he set it to strong mode (a rocket ship icon) with the included remote control.

The unit also has a light, fan mode, and sleep mode. All this is on the remote control and buttons on the unit itself. The display is bright and visible. Unless you have the extension tube on it, in which case you have to peer down the tube.

It’s not an unwieldy unit, but it’s not something you want to carry around while hiking through the woods. You’ll want to leave it covered in a blanket at the campsite, so the bears don’t steal it.

It’s a bit difficult to adjust the temperature. The temperature controls are the same buttons as the fan speed controls. A longer press changes the temp. However, the display doesn’t change at the same speed you press buttons, so it’s quite the guessing game.

Possibly posing some design issues, it would make more sense to have the fan speed and temperature control buttons separate from each other. It could have easily been an arrow key type layout. This alone creates frustration with the unit that shouldn’t exist.

Final thoughts on the ZERO BREEZE portable AC

Outside of an industrial air conditioner, there aren’t portable units on the market like the ZERO BREEZE Mark 2. It has a unique portable quality that doesn’t exist even with units that bill themselves as portable.

The price point is a bit higher than most so-called portable units. Those units aren’t designed for what the Mark 2 is designed for. Most are designed for closed, in-house spaces. The Mark 2 is designed to be taken with you.

Sure, you could get a tiny air conditioner for under $100, those are basically desk fans. Most portable air conditioners are stand-up units for cooling your feet at a LAN party with the boys. That is another use case for the Mark 2, aim it at your overheated PC in-between camping trips.

The ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 portable AC is available now on the company’s website for $1,499. At the time of writing, that’s the only place you can buy it.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: The Proxy by Puffco – an innovative modular vaporizer
• Review: SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini mechanical keyboard
• Review: DXRacer Craft Series gaming chair
• Review: Ardent FX – an easy bake oven for edibles

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: ZERO BREEZE Mark 2 portable AC unit appeared first on KnowTechie.

Ergonomics are a strange thing. As I attempt to type this sentence on the Truly Ergonomic CLEAVE keyboard, I am continuously missing the “N” key and typing like I’m in a third-grade typing class. Yes, some of us had to take typing classes back in primary school. We’re that old.

The Truly Ergonomic CLEAVE keyboard touts itself as “the most comfortable ergonomic keyboard on the planet.” Its mission is to reduce hand and wrist pain caused by typing. It does this through a columnar layout with a vertical stagger arrangement.

This forces all the keys into a sweeping arc, across a symmetric split layout. And it puts the most commonly used keys right in the center for your massive thumbs to whack.

Typing, reimagined?

The $249 CLEAVE asks you to forget everything you know about typing, every muscle memory shelved as it puts two backspace keys in the center of the keyboard. It’s weird.

There’s also a cut key and a copy key, eliminating the need to press CTRL-X or CRTL-C. Because that action is made more complex by the layout of this keyboard.

But it wouldn’t be fair to judge this keyboard negatively just because it’s a new layout. We mustn’t fear the new and unknown just because we’ve been trained to do something else.

The front page of the website has a crude diagram (shown below) comparing the CLEAVE keyboard to traditional keyboards in the sense of ergonomics and the angle of your arm-related joints.

The traditional keyboard seems to imply we type with our wrists bent outwards at 90-degree angles, almost typing as if we were lifting a kettlebell. Meanwhile, the CLEAVE diagram, with green lines instead of red, looks much more comfortable, as far as angles are concerned.

No one types with their arms at perfect 90-degree perpendicular angles from their bodies, it separates the hands too much. And even the CLEAVE’s sections aren’t spaced far enough apart to make this possible. You’d need at least a good eight inches between keyboard halves.

That being said, after spending a few minutes adapting to the layout (if not being able to competently type), I did notice the straightening of my wrists. So the angle is right and comfortable.

Mechanically sound

The subjectively oddest thing about the CLEAVE keyboard is that it’s a mechanical keyboard. While alone, this isn’t a strange thing, ergonomic keyboards are often soft keys, not mechanical. Since I hate typing on mechanical keyboards (traumatized by primary school typing class) this was hard to accept.

Mechanical keyboards are easy to clean, at least, because you can easily pop off the keys. The CLEAVE comes with a few extra keys (as expected) just in case. I always liked to swtich the keys around before leaving class.

There is more comfort here than traditional mechanical keyboards, and the keys are optical. That is, there is an infrared light connection instead of a rubber bumper or metal contact.

This reduces wear and tear and creates a better actuation response. The clickity-clack of the mechanical keys feels a bit better when you know you aren’t slowly destroying the internal bits with every keystroke.

There is also a silent version of the keyboard, but it’s not silent. Even my low-profile Razer DeathStalker keyboard isn’t silent. Nothing is silent. That’s not possible. There is also a clicky version and a Linear (smooth and silent) version, but sound isn’t really the issue here.

Ultimately, the issue is the weird layout

Look, if you want to take the time to completely re-learn how to type for the purpose of expertly correcting your ergonomics, then the $249 CLEAVE keyboard is for you. Because that’s what it’s going to take.

The layout of this thing is too weird to just jump on and use. It’s going to take some getting used to, but in the end, it might save you from having to wear a wrist brace for the rest of your life. That’s the selling point.

Is that enough though? We’ve been clacking away on traditional keyboards for decades now. It’s really difficult to change that ground-in paradigm. It’s possible that the next generation of typists would be able to quickly adapt to a new standard in typing, but this isn’t a new standard, it’s an outlier.

If you are looking for other ergonomic style keyboards, and don’t have $250 to spend, you have options. The X-Bows Lite will set you back only $89. This option from Cloud Nine is a bit more expensive, but still comes in under $200.

Finally, Fellowes has an option for under $50. This would give you the chance to try out an ergonomic keyboard without dropping a ton of cash on one. Then, if you like it, you can always upgrade in the future.

Because that’s what it comes down to. The CLEAVE has great potential if you are willing to sit down and re-train yourself to type, but let’s be honest, you probably aren’t. Especially not for $249. I have too much work to do to take the time to get used to using this thing.

That being said, we all should take the time to do what’s best for our health. And that might be re-learning how to type.

So this keyboard will ultimately sit on the shelf until the day exhaustion with wrist pain sets in, and I start my typing journey all over from the beginning.

You can snag the CLEAVE keyboard from Amazon, Walmart, or directly from the company.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: DXRacer Craft Series gaming chair
• The Cooler Master CK721 is a gorgeous, satisfying gaming keyboard
• Review: Alienware 720M wireless gaming mouse
• Review: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: Truly Ergonomic CLEAVE keyboard appeared first on KnowTechie.

With Microsoft leaning heavily into Xbox Game Pass and Sony launching its new PlayStation Plus tiers on June 13th, streaming games is the new paradigm. That’s right, paradigm.

Yet, there is some trepidation. The lack of AAA titles has caused some users to express a bit of worry about the service. While others are worried that a subscription service will harm the actual sales of games.

This could be one reason why Game Pass is lacking the star power of major AAA releases. Developers want to sell games, not stream them for a pittance. Or do they? Does it really make a difference?

Is game streaming scaring developers away?

It’s still unclear, but former Microsoft Xbox Executive Ed Fries is making headlines today for his gloomy opinion of the Game Pass type services.

Speaking to Xbox Expansion Pass, Fries (who left Xbox way back in 2004) expressed an opinion on Game Pass, comparing its impact to that of Spotify.

“The one thing that they’re doing that makes me nervous is Game Pass,” said Fries in the interview. “Game Pass scares me because there’s a somewhat analogous thing called Spotify that was created for the music business. When Spotify took off it destroyed the music business, it literally cut the annual revenue of the music business in half. It’s made it so people just don’t buy songs anymore.”

Fries’ claims about Spotify destroying the music business can be easily disputed. Industry experts would be quick to point out the detriment of piracy to sales, or how Spotify opened up a world of music to users who previously might not have ever listened.

The same could be said about Game Pass. According to CEO Satya Nadella, subscribers play 40% more games and spend 50% more than non-members.

Gamers will always spend their time in three camps. There are gamers who play all the games. They subscribe to Game Pass so they have a variety.

Then there are gamers like me, who play one game for a long time. Right now, it’s FIFA 19 and Fortnite. One of those games was free. The other was purchased. These gamers tend to purchase a game and play it. I’m still working on getting 100% in Far Cry 5 and Just Cause 2.

Then there are gamers who do both. The point is, with microtransactions and DLCs still a thing in Game Pass games, gamers are spending money regardless. Fries is correct though, in his assertation that streaming AAA games won’t see the immediate revenue desired.

The thing is, while gamers won’t be paying $60 for a new game, more gamers will pay less for access to that game. More gamers than would buy the game outright. The math will work itself out. AAA studios will alter their distribution strategies. Life will find a way.

In the end, we’re all going to be streaming everything

The worry is that people like me, who play one or two games a year, won’t want to subscribe to a service. As time moves forward, that will become an outlier.

Developers and studios will press harder into streaming distribution, leaving gamers like me no choice. Subscribe or die. We might bitch about it, but it’s the way things are moving. And they don’t move in such a direction without reason.

Of course, it’d help if Microsoft could get its shit together. Gamers are still waiting for the Game Pass video game roadmap. After the Starfield debacle, Game Pass is answering some rightful criticism. But this is a slow process. It’s still a new thing to the game industry.

You’d think large corporations such as Microsoft would do better, but they are still children in the streaming world. Learning to walk.

We’re not to the point yet when we have to choose between buying or streaming

Right now, we have both options. Frankly, Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are much better options than spending hundreds of dollars on single games in a year.

Just like Netflix is a much better option than renting three movies every week. It just works. Some weeks it sucks and there’s nothing to watch. Other weeks it’s the freaking best. The same will be said about game streaming services. Patience is key.

Because, ultimately, we’ll still be buying games. We might not be buying them at the same frequency as before, but they will be bought. There will be a slowdown as gamers transition to streaming.

Single-game purchases might look like a dying industry, but we still buy movies. We still buy music. Hell, we buy it on vinyl. We buy Atari and Nintendo games. GameStop still exists (somehow).

Aside from that, AAA studios will learn how to make more money through streaming. Either from DLCs, microtransaction, or something we’re not thinking of yet. If they want to survive, they’ll adapt. And if we want to keep playing video games, so will we.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Xbox is working on a Roku-like device for game streaming
• Did you know that PlayStation has a dictionary for gaming terms?
• Valve tripled the number of verified Steam Deck games since launch
• The PS5 and Nintendo Switch will still be hard to come by in 2022

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Will game streaming finally kill single-game purchases? appeared first on KnowTechie.

Health Connect is a platform and API that will allow developers to create data syncs across Android apps and connected devices. Developers can compile this data into an encrypted hub on a user’s device.

Even though it’s established that Google, like any other large tech company, loves to share your data, users will get full control over what data is shared and with what apps it’s shared with.

READ MORE: The new Samsung Gaming Hub brings cloud gaming to your TV

If you like tracking things like activity, body measurements, cycle tracking, nutrition, sleep, and that pesky heart rate thing, Health Connect will support all that.

It’ll support over 50 types of data initially but will surely support everything you track through a health app. Additionally, Samsung Health will integrate with Health Connect later on in the year.

In a press release, Samsung’s executive vice president Taejong Jay Yang notes:

“We’re working alongside Google and other partners to realize the full benefits and potential of Health Connect. With users’ permission, this will enable app developers to take advantage of accurate and optimized data measured on Galaxy Watch for Samsung Health and use it in their apps as well.”

Google has always made an effort to work with other companies in order to further its own technology. Currently, it’s working with Apple and Microsoft to develop a standard for passwordless sign-ins.

It is odd to see Apple, with its exclusive ecosystem, playing in the sandbox with others. It’s probably not something we should get used to.

Connectivity just makes sense with Android

Health app connectivity across tech brands seems like a no-brainer, especially with so many Android-based products out there to choose from. A user might have a Pixel phone, a Samsung watch, and a smart scale from another brand.

Perhaps, in the future, Health Connect will work with exercise equipment such as Peloton. All our health data in one place is initially a higher level of security implied, but we’ll probably be reading a story in five years on how it was all sold or something. That’s hyperbole, but history supports that cynicism.

Health connect is in open beta and will most likely be landing on the Pixel Watch when it drops later this year. MyFitnessPal, Leap Fitness, and Withings are all on the early access list. Additionally, Google Fit and Fitbit will obviously be adopting Health Connect as well.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Google’s AR project shows what real-world subtitles could look like
• Lawsuit targets Google for allegedly burning Fitbit owners
• Peloton finally learns most people don’t give a damn about pricey fitness equipment
• Apple accessories could drop the Lightning cable for USB-C

The post Google and Samsung partner up for better fitness tracking appeared first on KnowTechie.

There have been a lot of black, grey, or white rectangles that have come in fancy boxes, but for some reason the OnePlus 10 Pro just hits different. Right out of the box this thing impresses even though it’s just another matte black smartphone.

The OnePlus 10 Pro is a competitive phone at the level of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra or the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Between the camera, battery, refresh rate, screen, and storage, the differences are negligible. Frankly, it comes down to what manufacturer you prefer.

Throughout its history, the OnePlus line of phones has stood off to the side while Samsung, Google, and Apple fight for dominance. With the OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus should be right at the top of that competition.

Available on T-Mobile and Verizon networks, the $900 smartphone gets a lot right, so let’s dive right into the review.

It’s all about the camera

Perhaps it’s the massive camera block on the back with three cameras courtesy of a partnership with Hasselblad, but the OnePlus 10 Pro feels like a camera with a phone attached.

The main camera is a 48MP beast. This is complemented by an ultra-wide lens at 50MP and a telephoto lens at 8MP and 3.3x optical zoom. The front camera is 32MP, if you prefer high-quality selfies.

There’s a ton more specs on the camera, but since I’m not a photographer, I’m not going to pretend I know what they mean. It shoots 4K video at up to 120 FPS, 8K video at 24 FPS and 1080p video at 30/60 FPS.

If you’ve been using a Google Pixel or comparable phone, the only thing that the OnePlus 10 Pro might be second to is a brand new iPhone 13 Pro Max. If you live outside the Apple ecosystem and pride yourself on your mobile photography, then you might want to check out this camera.

There is still something off about smartphone camera technology. The better it purports to get, the more it looks like created art, rather than pure photography of actual things. It’s hard to really put into words.

For as crisp and vibrant as photos taken with an advanced smartphone camera can be, there is something ethereal about them that doesn’t quite tie into the reality behind the photo. Regardless, the OnePlus 10 takes damn good pictures, even if there is a sense of detachment.

Tom’s Guide has a good rundown of the specific camera specs as well as side-by-side comparisons. Within this review, however, you can see a few unfiltered, natural light pictures from around my yard that do well to highlight some of the abilities of this camera setup.

Settling in with settings

The thing is, every year there is a slate of black rectangles released. We flip these smartphones over in our hands, compare the cameras, and argue about Apple vs. Android operating systems.

Reviewing these phones, especially within the Android OS ecosystem, can often come down to the smallest of technical details.

It seems that with each new iteration of a phone, there is a slew of boxes to check in the settings. The OnePlus 10 seems to suffer from too many options. This isn’t necessarily negative, as the depth of options gives you more control over your smartphone experience.

The downside, however, is that you get the feeling you are repeating actions to enable or disable a single option.

For instance, in order to manage notifications, it seems that they not only have to be enabled within the app settings menu, but in the overall settings as well.

Some of these specific menus are buried within themselves, adding a one-time burden of tapping through every menu available. This is a minor inconvenience considering the overall smartphone experience.

This isn’t the only minor issue that other reviewers have noted. There’s something about the scrolling refresh rate that seemed to ruffle some feathers. This isn’t something that would get noticed by most users though.

It’s basically one of those situations where someone tells you that they can visually tell the difference between 4K and 8K on a 42-inch TV. In all reality, they probably can’t but want to seem impressive.

10 is greater than nine

I skipped the OnePlus 9, but apparently, the 10 does make some slight improvements, especially within the Nightscape camera mode. The OnePlus 7 Pro McLaren and OnePlus 8 spent time on my desk, but neither ended up displacing my LG Velvet due to durability issues. I drop things a lot.

The OnePlus 10 Pro comes with a screen protector pre-installed over Corning Gorilla Glass. Unlike the LG Velvet (which, was only a $600 phone at the time of release), it’s not IP68 or MIL-STD-810G rated, so you’ll need a case.

It comes in about 3mm taller than the OnePlus 9 and still doesn’t have a headphone jack (another reason I stuck with the LG).

It’s still a strange thing that more phone manufacturers don’t make their phones strong enough so that a case isn’t necessary. There was something very comforting about having a phone that was as durable as any case.

To be honest, most of the OnePlus 10 Pro is what you’d expect from an Android-based phone. But a bit faster. It runs OxygenOS based on Android 12, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU. The OnePlus Pro 10 has 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM so you can doom scroll with superior speed.

It comes locked at 128GB UFS 3.1 2-LANE storage. You really don’t need much more than that since you back up all your photos to the cloud anyway.

Watching and charging

As good as the photos look on this phone, video looks even better. Save for the fact it’s still a tiny screen for my old ass, video was as perfect as it could be on a phone. The 120 Hz Fluid AMOLED with LTPO screen provides just as much depth and saturation as any TV out there.

There is active color calibration that adjusts based on your environment. This means that whether in a dark room or a park bench at noon, you get visible, awesome video.

If you are watching video or gaming all day on your phone, you are going to worry about the battery life, but that’s basically any phone. The OnePlus 10 Pro has one of the best batteries on the market. It holds about a 12-hour charge if you are going hard.

If you are just using your phone in a more casual manner, checking Facebook on the toilet, and texting friends, you will certainly get away with charging every other day. The 65W charger will pump the battery from empty to nearly full (93%) in about 30 minutes.

The final verdict

Three dark mode options sold me completely on this phone. You know I believe in dark mode everything. Gentle, medium, and enhanced dark modes are icing on the cake with the OnePlus 10 Pro. That, the AMOLED screen, and the battery life should be enough, but it never is.

Honestly, the camera on this thing for the price is the biggest selling point. I liked messing around with the tilt-shift feature as well as the 150° feature.

I didn’t get to try the long exposure out as much as I would have liked, but I did capture some lightning in a cloud (shown above) and the kids found that fascinating.

It’s tough to find a phone these days that checks all the boxes in the way of a professional-level camera and display for less than $1,000. The OnePlus 10 Pro checks those boxes without cutting any obvious corners.

This phone should put the Google Pixel out to pasture. It won’t, but it should. If you fancy yourself a smartphone photographer but live outside the Apple ecosystem, the OnePlus 10 Pro is the phone for you.

You can get a OnePlus 10 Pro for around $900, which is a good $200 less than the next comparable camera in the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

It’s available on T-Mobile and Verizon networks in either black or Emerald Forest (green). You can get it directly from OnePlus, Amazon, or BestBuy.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Review: XGIMI Elfin portable projector
• Review: TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS smartwatch
• The G Pen Elite II vaporizer is simplicity at its finest
• Review: Withings Body Cardio smart scale

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more. A sample unit was provided for the purpose of this review.

The post Review: OnePlus 10 Pro – a great smartphone for under $1,000 appeared first on KnowTechie.

The document was produced last year by engineers tasked with keeping the ad business running, the engine of the Facebook machine. The purpose of the document was a warning to management.

Because of the troubles organizing and storing data, it would be difficult to comply with regulatory edicts from governments around the world. From the document:

“We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as ‘we will not use X data for Y purpose.’ And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation.”

Many regulations against Facebook (think about the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) demand that personal data be used only for specific purposes and not spread around like Marmite on toast.

This makes not being able to track and organize data a problem for Facebook sooner than later. Facebook has done this before and this memo would imply those types of instances were not entirely intentional.

Facebook can’t control the data

Data engineers around the world would likely agree that it can be tenuous to manage data sets this large. Think of every data point being collected by Facebook. Then, multiply that number by its user base.

It’s billions upon billions of points of data, all having to be stored and accessed in order to serve ads. But that doesn’t mean it is impossible and Facebook engineers aren’t necessarily implying that. Rather, they are bringing to light continuing struggles with managing that data set as it continues to grow.

“Considering this document does not describe our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it’s simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance. New privacy regulations across the globe introduce different requirements and this document reflects the technical solutions we are building to scale the current measures we have in place to manage data and meet our obligations,” a Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard.

Between this statement and the release from the engineers, Facebook could easily claim that while its data collection processes are justified, it simply has too much data to adequately control. Which is ridiculous.

It means that Facebook, up to this point, has lacked the planning, staffing and organization to wrangle all that data. It doesn’t mean that Facebook doesn’t intend on complying with regulations, it means that it can’t. Which, in the eyes of many critics, is the same damn thing.

And it kind of is. Facebook and its infinite money has had years to build its ad revenue machine correctly. It has had years to build processes and databases to manage data.

Whether it has or not, whether any of this is actually accurate is still debatable. Facebook has proven in the past that while its motives are clear (money), its processes aren’t.

Facebook has toyed with ways to collect less data

The company is apparently planning to launch something called “Basic Ads” at some point, though the document pointed out the deadline for that was back in 2020. Basic Ads would enable users to opt out of almost all third and first party data advertising.

As it is now, this opt out would follow the data wherever it goes within Facebook’s system. So presumptively, Facebook would still collect the data, but not use it.

We have to always remember, if the product is free, then you are the product. Facebook has become the data repository for a good chunk of humanity. Some of you have your whole lives sitting on a Facebook server somewhere, some of us just have memes taking up space.

Yet, as damning as this document seems, it seems just as much expected. People are going to use Facebook regardless of data collection. It’s clear that many don’t care. So, why would they give a shit how it is stored?

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Meta is opening a physical store to conquer the metaverse
• You can now add music clips to comments on Facebook
• Jack Dorsey says he trusts Elon Musk with Twitter
• Instagram really wants you to stop sharing TikToks as Reels

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The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS is a $254.99 smartwatch from Mobvoi. It’s not an Apple Watch and it’s not a Samsung Galaxy Watch. It’s one of the scores of competitive smartwatches on the market that offer comparable, if not slighter better, features than the rest of the market.

There are smartwatches that focus on appearances (think of any smartwatch produced by a luxury watch brand) and those that focus on strict basic functionality. This is neither of those.

While in appearance it’s closer to a Samsung Galaxy, it is a watch that is built to be used. Between the processor and the toughness, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS smartwatch was designed to be (and this is the actual tagline) “ready to go where you go.”

There are two types of people who wear smartwatches: those that do things that require the data and tracking provided by a smartwatch, and those who just want to check text messages on their wrist. Dick Tracy saw it coming but didn’t predict we’d be checking the air pressure with our watches.

The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS contains many of the features people have come to expect from fitness-focused smartwatches — GPS, health tracking, sleep tracking, texting — but let’s dive in to see if it is worth the price tag.

So what makes the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS different?

The differences are negligible between most of the smartwatches on the market. For most consumers, the choice is seemingly between Apple and Google OS devices. That’s just marketing. The truth is that there are plenty of quality smartwatch devices on the market, including the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS.

Finding a true difference outside of brand name can be tenuous, to say the least. It usually comes down to comparing stats and price. While those are valid reasons to make any tech purchase, it’s the combination of certain specs that truly makes the difference.

In the case of the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS, it’s about battery life, overall performance (it’s packed with functions), and the quality of the screen.

The Pro 3 Ultra can run up to 72 hours on smart mode and 45 days in Essential mode. Essential mode shuts down most functions to extend battery life, leaving sleep, step, heart rate tracking active, as well as the time. Because if you aren’t using your smartwatch to tell time, then what are you doing with that thing on your wrist?

With regular use, this kind of translates to about three days of use before having to plug it into the charger. That’s essential to a smartwatch, as what’s the point if it’s on the damn charger all the time?

We heard you like tracking tons of biometrics alongside the air pressure. Well, the Pro 3 Ultra heard that too. Steps, sleep and heart rate tracking is standard. It’s the beyond standard that makes the difference.

Those beyond-standard features start with its IHP/AFib detection system. This uses heart rate tracking to monitor, and alert, you to irregular patterns in your heart rate. If that’s not enough, the watch also has a fatigue assessment. This is an interesting feature for those of us who are just over it all.

Fatigue assessment is a great way for your personal tech to validate the way you are feeling all the time. We all are feeling a bit fatigued by the world and existence itself, so it’s logical a smartwatch reinforces that feeling.

Sensors feed info to the software, which then analyzes your HRV (heart rate variability) and through the connected app, visualizes your energy levels and mental fatigue. But let’s be real here, are you really going to make any changes to your lifestyle based on the recommendations of a smartwatch?

If you like picking between multiple colors for your smartwatch screen backlight, then the Pro 3 Ultra has you covered. Not only is it IP68 dust and water-resistant along with a military certification of MIL-STD-810G, but it offers 18 different colors for the backlight.

That’s less important than the fact that whether you are in sunlight or under several quilts in the middle of the night, you can see the watch face. So here’s a screen that is not only visually appealing, but can take a beating as well. Kind of like Josiah after three whiskey sours.

The juicy bits

So does a watch that continuously monitors your stress and fatigue levels along with the expected basic stats really change your life beyond awareness? Well, after using the watch for a month, these are the bits that really mattered.

When you don’t have your smartphone with you, say because you left it at home because the children were being especially bratty, you basically have a pretty brick on your wrist.

This isn’t to say it wasn’t still tracking things, it just limits what you can access without the app. For instance, if your smartphone isn’t within connective range, you can’t use the timer because the Mobvoi app can’t log you in.

While without your phone it still somehow keeps track of what little exercise you performed that day, the multiple logins from Google and Mobvoi present minor roadblocks. For some reason, it almost always required a login when pulling up features, especially if it had been away from the phone for a bit.

Those are minor grievances though, as the overall app functionality and the backlight on the top display are fantastic. Also, a small but welcome feature is that you can view the time like a normal watch without having to tap the screen.

It’s not too bulky and feels natural even on smaller wrists. While the stress and fatigue features are nice adds, the functionality of the apps we expect to work a certain way is clean.

TICWATCH PRO 3 ULTRA GPS SPECS
Model	TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS
Dimensions (mm)	47 x 48 x 12.3
Weight	41g
Color	Shadow Black
Watch Case	Stainless steel and high-strength nylon with fiberglass
Screen	Corning Gorilla Anti-fingerprint Cover Glass
Watch Strap	Fluoro Rubber (interchangeable), 22mm
Operating System	Wear OS by Google
Chipset	Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear 4100 Platform and Mobvoi dual processor system
Memory	RAM: 1GB / ROM: 8GB
Display	1.4“ 454*454 326ppi Full Color Always On Display AMOLED + FSTN
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi:802.11b/g/n
GNSS	GPS+Beidou+Glonass+Galileo+QZSS
NFC Payments	Google Pay
Speaker / Mic / Vibration / PPG	Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes
Sensors	Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor, HD PPG Heart Rate Sensor, SpO2 Sensor, Low Latency Off-Body Sensor, Barometer
Battery Capacity	577mAh
Durability	IP68, Pool Swim/MIL-STD-810G

There is also a sleep sensor in the watch, but that wasn’t tested. The only thing noticed during the night is sometimes the watch would get tapped and there would be a bright backlight shining in the room.

Some of us are too old for nightlights and that can be disturbing. They should make night covers for smartwatches.

Is the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS worth buying?

Sure. Why the hell not? It’s comparable, if not better, than most of the non-Apple smartwatches on the market. It’s got a killer Snapdragon 4100 processor and 1GB of RAM, so it’s fast and smooth.

There were no hiccups when scrolling through or utilizing apps, that’s for sure. Mobvoi’s co-processor kicks up the chipset to 2.0GHz and Bluetooth 5.0, so this watch is speedy.

While one might note that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 offers some additional health features, some of those features require a Samsung phone. And not everyone brand pairs all their devices.

The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS smartwatch is a competent smartwatch, especially if you spend a lot of time outside or in rough conditions.

This is one of those smartwatches that appeal to consumers who like durability alongside their functionality. Because who wants a smartwatch that breaks like a dumb one?

If you are interested in the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS, you can snag it directly from Mobvoi (where it is currently on sale) or from Amazon.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. But remember, it’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post Review: TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS smartwatch appeared first on KnowTechie.

It’s impossible to fully sum up what this means, as the populace is still grappling with the news. There is no concise way to grab every hot take and every opinion on the subject. But that didn’t stop them from flowing out into the void.

Everyone has a different theory on what this means for Twitter, but not everyone was commanded to spout theirs onto an online tech blog by their editor. And away we go!

When does the Twitter exodus start?

Almost immediately after the news broke, The Verge tweeted a link to a post titled “How to deactivate your Twitter account”. Some people claimed they were going to move solely to Mastodon Social, a smaller Twitter-type social network that’s been around for a while.

There are other smaller social platforms built in a similar way to Twitter, but none have taken off. Will this be the catalyst for success? Doubtful.

READ MORE: Jack Dorsey says he trusts Elon Musk with Twitter

How many times over the years have we seen people seemingly fed up with the platform? They post a ridiculously long thread about quitting before actually quitting, and then coming back a month later.

Social media is a drug. We’re addicted and we’re not going to detox that easy. The only way there will be a mass exodus from Twitter is if Twitter itself was to no longer exist. While that is an eventuality, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Think about Facebook. Facebook was almost singlehandedly responsible for the shift in how we consume news and information. Its rampant serving of right-wing propaganda and lies turned an election. Meta has made billions off the data collected from users.

The good of social media generally outweighs the bad, until it doesn’t. Every social media network has a shitty underbelly of filth and traitors.

While this isn’t totally an act of complacency, it’s the way these networks are built. Until we pay for the service, the service will be draining our souls through our smartphones.

Does this mean Trump and the hate train are coming back?

Musk, like many GOP politicians, suffers from the same thing many Americans suffer from: a blatant and deliberate misunderstanding of the 1st Amendment.

The commonly referred to free speech Amendment doesn’t state that anyone can speak their mind freely with no consequences, it means that those consequences cannot come from the government.

Hate speech is an exception, as is dangerous speech (the classic yelling “fire” in a crowded theater argument). This is where most of the confusion, conflation, and worry comes in with Musk now owning Twitter. Twitter is not, nor has ever been, the government.

So it’s logical to assume that Musk will blow the walls off the prison and reinstate those who have been banned because of their hate speech, misinformation, and dangerous rhetoric.

This would include the former moron-in-chief and his ilk, a villainous hive of alternate truths, conspiracy theories, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and so on. That said, Trump told Fox News he isn’t coming back. We’ll see about that.

It’s too early to tell whether or not Musk will actually dip his hands that far into content moderation, but one would assume that the billionaire would meddle just because he can.

The thing about Elon Musk is that he’s popular on both sides of the political spectrum. There is just as good of a chance of him doing nothing as doing something that would empower the white supremacists.

After all, that’s what this is all about. It’s not about free speech, it’s about hate speech. It’s about thin-skinned white people whining they can’t spout their hateful rhetoric without consequences.

They screech about free speech, without understanding what in the hell that actually means. It’s about Elon Musk buying Twitter because he thinks it’s broken because he doesn’t agree with its policies. The thing is…

Twitter is broken and always has been

Twitter has always suffered from being too big for its britches. Content moderation on this scale is near impossible. Sure, banning Trump helped, but until all the spambots are gone and hate speech is eradicated Twitter is going to be a festering garbage dump.

The thing is, Musk might actually help with part of this. He wants to eliminate the spam and he wants to verify all human users of the platform. He’s got the financial resources to pull that off, because that kind of systematic change to the platform is a matter of throwing money and developers at it.

Whether or not Musk really takes a hands-on approach to the platform is TBD. Not to mention its effectiveness. This is a man who once stood on stage, claimed a truck window was unbreakable, then immediately smashed it.

There is the possibility that the changes he makes to the platform could end up being positive, same as it’s possible they may never happen. Regardless, the wait-and-see approach won’t cost you anything because you aren’t paying anything.

We have romanticized it for too long

Frankly, Twitter’s problems started long before Musk thought about buying it. It was the banning of porn on Tumblr that sent tons of problematic users to Twitter. That was a stupid decision by Verizon or Yahoo or whatever stale business entity owned Tumblr at the time.

Porn belongs on the internet, and it belonged on Tumblr, though the problematic users belong head first in a cement pool. That’s beside the point. Sex workers are workers. Anyway, porn is good but porn drives certain users to certain places. It’s a very sticky conversation, to say the least.

Twitter never got a handle on content moderation, Twitter never seemed to roll out a feature without negative feedback. Remember Fleets or those dumb voice mail tweets? Only David remembers.

Twitter has allowed anonymous accounts to wreak havoc for years. It has allowed crypto scam accounts and Russian bots to thrive unchecked. It has been a terrible place to hang out for a long, long time.

We’ve had this strange relationship with social media that relies on advertising. We hate ads, but we need ads to keep the social networks alive. How will Elon Musk owning Twitter affect how Twitter advertises to us?

Advertisers will follow the users, as long as Twitter’s DAU doesn’t drop too much, the ads will still be served. Remember, we’re the product. Advertising is how Twitter keeps the lights on and Musk would have to make some seriously drastic moves to piss off advertisers.

The thing is, he can afford to keep the lights on without advertisers, which makes his off-the-cuff decisions that much more unpredictable.

Nothing matters anyway

The thing we need to understand about this purchase (which based on many of the tweets read today, is a concept lost on the masses) is that there is a lot of paperwork to sign.

This is not like buying a soda and popping the cap before walking out of the store. There are lawyers and legal shit that will need attending to. There will be endless meetings before anything changes. The deal isn’t set to close until later in the year, certainly not tomorrow.

What this means is that any changes are a long way off. Implementing even the simplest change takes time in development, sometimes testing, and implementation. Except when it comes to unbanning shitheads. That’s something we could see happen as soon as the ink is dry. Will it? See previous paragraphs.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter. You won’t quit. We can’t quit now, we’re too far in. The only hope is that the deal closes after the midterm elections. While Twitter hasn’t cleaned up all the trash, it’s trying.

Musk could deliver us a brand new Twitter experience. He could drive it into the ground. It could become a place so dark it couldn’t be hosted on the dark web. We live in strange times, and social media just highlights that strange, slaps us in the face with it, and makes us walk home through the mud.

That’s what Twitter is, and we damn well thrive on the pain. Whatever happens next is going to define a generation. Just kidding, it won’t mean a goddamn thing except we’re all subjugated serfs in a world of petty billionaires.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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The post Musk’s purchase of the cesspool that is Twitter won’t change a thing appeared first on KnowTechie.

Now, with our phones basically always in our hands or in our pockets, why wait until dinner time? For that matter, why call at all?

Like many smartphone users, spammers have adapted to general smartphone behavior, that is, they’ll happily send a spam text message instead of a call.

According to RoboKiller, an app that blocks these annoying spam texts and calls, on average Americans received 42 spam texts in the month of March. This isn’t just an annoying occurrence, it’s a fraudulent one that works.

Americans lost over $131 million to text scams alone in 2021, according to the FTC. These texts are usually some sort of casual bait, inviting the user to follow a link.

Eventually, either data is stolen that allows access to money or money itself is stolen directly thanks to the general gullibility of the average American.

The FCC handled a 146% increase in complaints about unwanted text messages in 2020 but it is still trying to work with phone carriers to implement something that handles this nonsense.

While email services have long managed to do at least the minimum when it comes to spam (Gmail not only allows some spam still but marks it as important for some reason), phone companies have been slow to the mark.

None of that is stopping spammers, however

Meanwhile, spammers just do shit like spoofing users’ phone numbers to get people to click links in spam texts. They are even messing with FaceTime calls in an attempt to sucker people.

Then, of course, there are social media scams, because we all want to send money to someone to get some imaginary crypto.

Basically, our reliance on our smartphones has given scammers the advantage of volumetric results. Send out an infinite amount of spam through all smartphone-capable channels, and get results.

We have a clear attachment to our smartphones, and the pandemic only strengthened that bond. So it makes sense that spammers would step up their efforts throughout our stay-at-home days. What this has led to, however, is a market for spammers that shows no signs of slowing.

They have found more inventive ways to communicate through text. We get spam texts appearing to have originated in our area code, or that might be from that friend we haven’t talked to in a while. It’s getting harder to tell the difference.

Tips and tricks to manage spam calls and texts

Some of us have had the same cellular phone number for upwards of two decades, so we have learned at least a few methods for dealing with the constant barrage of spam.

• Never respond to a number that isn’t in your contacts list – If you don’t keep a contact list, then how in the hell do you remember who is calling?
• Curiosity is the devil – If the text makes you curious and you kind of want to respond, block and delete it instead. It might be your mom’s new number, but that’s her fault for being obtuse.
• Don’t use your name or number on your voice mail – Why would you do that? People either know who they are calling or they don’t. Voice mail is the ruin of society, but if you use it, just leave silence where your information should be. Friends and family are in your contact list, and everyone else can be left guessing. Plus, with telemarketers, they’ll think they’ve reached a dead line.
• Turn off auto-text replies – Are you insane? This is like tickling the taint of every spammer out there. All you’re doing is letting them know they’ve reached an active number and can try again and again.
• Reply to every spam text with a picture of a dog taking a shit – If you are going to allow these texts, might as well have fun with them. Of course, that’s just inviting more spam texts.
• Throw your phone into the ocean and withdraw from society – Build a shack in the woods, write your manifesto. Spammers will never bug you again.
• Never answer the phone – This one is a given.

As technology continues to move forward, so will the efforts of scammers and fraudsters. While cell carriers still struggle to do what they feel like doing as it pertains to text spam, we have to learn how to recognize and fight it.

Yet, as this practice has been going on as long as phones have existed, it appears that the general public is just gullible enough to support an industry of cheats. Everyone gets spammed, but not everyone has to get scammed by the spam. Stay vigilant.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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The post Yes, you are getting way more spam texts than before appeared first on KnowTechie.