Product review: Nejiri Gama Hoe weeder

I learned about this garden gadget from my neighbour. She has a beautiful garden and when asked her how she keeps her garden so weed free she showed this tool. It is very sharp and the fact that it gets wider allows me to quickly weed fairly large area. I am using it in combination with Gardena 8943-U Garden Hand Weeder which is narrow and works better is narrow cracks and between stones. The Gama Hoe handle is a little shorter than Gardena weeder, so I find Gardena a little more comfortable to use. But for a larger area I definitely prefer the Gama Hoe.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Rii® i8+ Wireless 2.4G Mini Keyboard and mouse for Google Android Devices (Smart TV)

Rii remote control works very well with my Android TV. I also tested that it works with my Windows laptop and my Linux desktop however I found that the keyboard is too small for how I used the PCs. However for the smart TV it is perfect. The touch pad is very sensitive and it is easy to control the cursor with it. The keyboard has three ways to do selections, there are keys on the keyboard for left and right mouse click (2 sets of keys on the left hand side, and two other keys next to the touch pad). But I prefer the third method - tapping on the touch pad. Single tap is the left mouse click, double tap is the right mouse click, to scroll I move up or down with my two fingers. The keyboard also has a lot of short cuts, a button for search, a button for mail, a control for music (volume, and next/forward).

The entire keyboard controller is 5.75" wide x 3.5" front to back. They keyboard has nice feel to it, the keys are hard plastic with mat rubberised finished. They keys are pretty small (3/8") but well spaced out, so when when I press one key I don't press the neighboring key.

This is a very nice controller, a perfect match for my Android TV. Much nicer than having a separate mouse/keyboard to control it. It works well and it looks kind of cool.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Gardena 8943-U Garden Hand Weeder

I learned about this garden gadget from my neighbour. She has a beautiful garden and when asked her how she keeps her garden so weed free she showed this tool. It is very sharp and narrow, so it work well in rock garden as well as a flower bed. The sharp blade has a cover for when you store it. The handle is very comfortable. I just started my spring garden cleaning and this weeder made this chore much easier. I am using it in combination with Nejiri Gama Hoe weeder, which is wider and I use it when I need to deal with big patches of weeds.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: BrazelBerries Raspberry Shortcake Bush survived New England winter

I purchased BrazelBerries Raspberry bush last May in a local garden store. By July I had lovely full size berries as you can see in my video. I waited to write this review until I saw if the bush survived in the planter through the harsh New England berries. I left the planter outside. I did wrap it in burlap, but we had a very harsh winter and I was not sure if the bush would come back. I saw no signs of live until last week when I finally saw two fresh shoots growing from the root ball. It made it!

Fruits grow on second year canes. The sprouts from the ground will become canes that fruit next year. Old canes with new growth fruit during this year. The old canes that have no new growth should be cut to the ground level.

The bush was attractive all summer, the container kept the raspberries from spreading, and the berries were delicious. This raspberry bush has no thorns so it easy to pick. I did not get a huge amount of berries but there was a few berries every day. I liked it and was happy to see it made it through the winter.

Ali Julia review

Product review: Lerway Qi Wireless Car Charger Dock with Windshield, Dashboard and Air Vent Mount

We do a lot of weekend trips and always use a GPS. My husband is pretty set in his ways and it takes a big improvement to change how he does things. This mount changed what he uses to navigate and where he places it. Previously we used the GPS built into the car, but since the car GPS is a bit old and some maps are out of date we also have Nexus 7 mounted on the windshield that runs Sygic. Sygic has the latest maps but Nexus 7 mounted on the wildshield it is hard to reach when route changes are needed or when the volume control needs to be adjusted. It also needs to be unplugged and removed when we leave the car. Nexus 5 was not used because it the screen was a bit too small to see when mounted that far from the driver.

And now Lerway Qi Wireless changed the game. It can be mounted on the car vent near the driver within easy reach for adjustments. We switched to using Nexus 5 to navigate because at that distance its 1080 x 1920 pixels display is easy to see. The car mount has a Qi wireless charger built in, so there is no need to plug and unplug the charging wire into the phone. The charger has outstanding performance. We used Nexus 5 to navigate on a 45 minutes trip using Google maps. Not only was the Lerway charger able to keep up with the power consumption, it charged the phone up by 3%. Not all wired chargers are not able to do this, so this performance is pretty impressive.

This car charger can be used for Qi wireless charging as well as wired charging. If your mobile device supports Qi charging the attached charging cable is attached to the cradle, if your mobile device does not support Qi charging then the cable can be plugged in directly into the mobile device. The mount can be either mounted on the windshield, the car vent, or on the dashboard (using provided plate that is glued to the dashboard).
The suction mount works well too. I tried the suction mount on the windshield and the hold is very strong. The mount's jaws open smoothly with one button push.

In attached video I show how the holder mounts in the car vent. We decided this is the mount we like best.

Performance tests:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I use the current monitor and a 10 minute charging to test to test all my chargers, these tests give me two data points to compare different chargers to each.

10 minute charging test: 5% up charge (this compares well with the other wireless chargers I own)
Current monitor: 1.42A/5.21V
Charging at AC rate

Size info:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inside jaws open 3.75"
Inside pad is 4" tall, open on top
Car mount neck is 5"
Charging cord is 58"

We like everything about this charger! It chargers well and the vent mount is very convenient.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★




Ali Julia review

Product review: Silicone Basting Brush & Pastry Brush

I like kitchen tools that make my life easier. This silicon pastry brush replaced my old pastry brush because it is easier to clean. It is nubs are made out of silicone and the handle is transparent plastic. It it easy to clean it by just putting it into the dishwasher. Silicone does not absorb foods or scents so it really works well in the kitchen.

It has 4 rows of nubs (see video), 13 and 14 nubs in each row. Each nub is 1.5" long and ends with a little ball at the end. The handle is 6.5" long and has a loop at the end so it can hung.

By comparison to natural bristles the silicone brush nubs are much softer. In my experience so far the brush carries a little less liquid than the brush with natural bristles.

I like it, my old brush is going to take a long rest in the kitchen draw.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Rocketek 3A/15W car charger with 2 USB and 2 car splitter adapter

Can this charger power 4 devices? Yes, with caveats.

This charger allows you to split one car outlet into 4 outputs: two car ports and 2 USB ports. We always have a lot of devices along 2 tablets, 2 phones, sometimes we use a dedicated GPS rather than the tablet for navigation, we also have external speakers and occasionally a cooler. Could this one splitter power 4 devices at once? Yes, although I found some limitations.

Limitations:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I could not charge two tablets (iPad Mini and Galaxy tablet) on the two USB ports at the same time. I could charge one of the tablets and a phone. The two tablet together was drawing too much current, it would only charge one of them, the other one was discharging. However, I could charge two tablets if I put one of them on USB port and another one one of the cigarette lighter ports.

In our car one of the car ports was very close the gear shift, which made it difficult to plug an adapter into it because it interfered with the driver's ability to shift (see video). This will obviously vary from car to car.
Rocketek charger is 3.5" wide, 4.25" long (from ports to the end that goes into the car port), and 1 1/8" thick (the face where the outlets are). It weighs 2.7oz.

Options that did work:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two two cigarette lighter ports have no electronics, they are just like having an extension cord. So each of them could deliver as much power as the original cigarette lighter.
I was able to put a double USB car charger in middle cigarette light port (the one that did not interfere with the driver) and was able to charge 4 devices at the same time: 2 phones and 2 tablets. The charging of speed of each devices was excellent, at the top of the chargers I have tested.

Android devices (starting with Jelly Bean 4.21) perform as well on port designed for Apple as the ones designed on Android. So Nexus 5 phone, Samsung Nexus phone, and Samsung Galaxy 7.7 performed equally well on both USB slots as well as on the two car ports. iPad mini performed well only on the port designed for Apple. It worked on the port labelled Samsung, but at much slower speed at the protocol on that port was not designed for Apple devices.

Both cigarette lighter ports are rated as DC12-24.
Output voltage is 5V and output current is 3A.

For those who like reading the details of the tests I am including the two sections below.

➨ How I tested this charger and cable
======================

To test this charger and cable I used a current monitor. In addition to the current monitor I also used a 10 minute charging test which is less abstract than the measurements of current and voltage. These tests allow me to compare various chargers and charging cables to each other in unbiased way based just on their performance.

The 10 minutes test consists of charging each mobile device on each port of the battery pack for 10 minutes and measure how much each unit was charge in that 10 minute period. Since the charging speed is non-linear I start charging each device from approximately the same charge level. Each line in the table below represents a separate 10 minute test. I use Battery App by Elvison to determine how each device recognized the charging source. 'AC' status means the charging is at full charging rate. 'USB' status indicates charging at a lower charging rate. 'Discharging' status means that the charging rate is below the power that the device is consuming so it slows down the discharge rate but does not re-charge.

➨ Test Results:
======================

✔ 4 devices together Nexus 5 phone, Nexus Galaxy phone, Galaxy tablet, iPad mini
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

iPadMini ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple USB port ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6%
Nexus 5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Car port + Bolse car charger ~~~ 6%
Samsung Nexus phone ~~~~~~ Samsung USB port ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10%
Samsung Galaxy tablet ~~~~ Car port + Bolse car charger ~~~ 3%

✔ Devices charged one a time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
iPadMini ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple USB port ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7%
Nexus 5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Car port + Bolse car charger ~~~ 9%
Samsung Nexus phone ~~~~~~ Samsung USB port ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 9%
Samsung Galaxy tablet ~~~~ Car port + Bolse car charger ~~~ 4%

✔ Current drawn by each of the devices Nexus 5 phone, Nexus Galaxy phone, Galaxy tablet, iPad mini
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Samsung Nexus phone draws 1.03A/5.11V on both Apple USB port and Samsung USB port

iPad Mini draws 1.64A/5.07V on the Apple USB port, and 0.93A/5.07 on the Samsung USB port

Nexus 5 draws 0.80A/5.04V on both Apple USB port and Samsung USB port

Samsung Galaxy tablet draws 1.42A/5.10V on both Apple USB port and Samsung USB port

The charger worked well and provided a lot of flexibility for charging multiple devices.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★