Product review: Satechi RideMate USB Rechargeable Bicycle Taillight

My bike's tail light is a reflector. I decided that will be a nice safety upgrade and it is!

This taillight has three modes bright steady red light, dim steady red light, and flashing red light.

♦ Bright steady light functions three hours on one charge
♦ Dim steady light functions six hours on one charge
♦ Flashing light functions six hours on one charge

The taillight recharges in 2.5 hours. When you plug it in the red light turns on and when it is fully charged the red light turns off. The charging cable is a little difficult to insert as the bracket for mounting makes it a bit difficult to insert the cable straight down, so just make sure that the red light charging indicator turns on to indicate that proper contact has been made.

The mounting bracket is made out of rubber and it is easy to mount and get a good fit. Since it is rubber it is not going to scratch the bike finish.

This taillight is bright and very noticable. A good safety feature!


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Zeetron Ultra Compact Emergency Keychain Usb Cable

This gizmo is pretty neat! It is very compact (1 7/8" x 1 1/4" x 1/4") plastic case which can be threaded on your keychain. It gives you 3.25" USB cord.

Sure, it is small and cute, but does it work well as a micro USB cable? Yes.

I used the current monitor to see how well this cable chargers my Samsung Nexus phone. This cable provided 0.96A and 5.10V.

I test all my chargers and cables with the current monitor, running the tests starting with the same charge level of the phone to account for non-linear charging. My favorite charging cables using the same phone and the same charger gives me 0.98A - 1.02A. So this little cable comes very close to being as good as my best cables.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Satechi RideMate 2500mAh Portable Energy Station 500 lumen Bicycle Light

This is a bright light with 4 different light modes. It is designed to work a forward facing bike light. But the stand is removable and it can be used a powerful hand held flash light as well. It also works as an external power bank when needed.

The button closest to the rider is is the on/off button, the button closest to the light head changes the mode from bright to low to flashing light. To turn on the light you need to press the Power button first then press the Function button to turn on the LEDs. This is because the Power button powers both the LED and power bank. The power bank is operational after the initial Power button push.

Four lighting modes:
♦ High powered beam lasts 2 hours on one charge
♦ Medium powered beam lasts 4 hours on one charge
♦ Low powered beam lasts 8 hours on one charge
♦ Flash mode lasts 120 hours on one charge
♦ The beam has upper cut-off so it does not blind on-coming traffic

The light is water resistant when the charging ports cap is closed. It is not water resistant when the light is being charged or when the light is used as an emergency charger. As a charger it provides 1A of current, which works well for MP3 player and Android phones, but a underpowered for Apple devices (this means it will charger them slowly).

The light is easy to mount, its bracket adjust to bar from 1" to 1.25". The light feels high quality. The mounting bracket is plastic. It feels solid, but plastics gets britle in the sun so if the bicycle is left in the sun when not in use, I remove the bracket when taking the unit to get re-charge. It is easy to reinstall and not leaving it the sun I hope will prolong its life.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Rocketek LED Illuminated Backlight Keyboard - Programmable Gaming Keyboard

My computer desk has a keyboard tray so the physical size of the keyboard is very important for me to have a good fit next to the mouse pad, so I will start with dimensions:

Rocketek keyboard is 19 inches wide, 9 inches front to back, 1 inches thick at the tallest part (in the back). It weights 2 pound and 10.5 oz. This is a wired keyboard with a 60" cloth covered cord.

In the attached video I show this keyboard next to a regular sized DELL keyboard. DELL is 1 inch wider, and 2 inches shorter front to back.

Rocketek keyboard has a large number of programmable keys and a big knob at the keyboard that can control keyboard illumination. The light comes from between the keys and it can be totally turned off. The video includes the keyboard with the light at its maximum and turned way down (but not totally off).

The keyboard has a nice heavy feel. The keyboard feedback felt a little spongy to me, but I like the feedback of an old mechanical keyboard that's why I keep using my old DELL keyboard. It has built-in wrist rests which I did not particularly liked, but they don't interfere with typing just take up a bit of extra room.

The description of this keyboard says it is Windows compatible, but I am using it with Linux without any problems, including setting up programming of the special M function keys.

To program M function keys:
♦ To start definition of the key hit "Mr" key on the left
♦ Hit the M key want to program, say M1, the special <-> on the left hand start will blink slowly indicating you are in the recording mode
♦ Enter the sequence of keys you want to be played out next time you hit M (stands for Macro) key
♦ Hit Mr key again
♦ <-> light will blink quickly several time and turn off
♦ Hit your newly defined key, M1, and you will see the sequence of keystrokes played out

Overall, pretty good keyboard with a standard key layout. All special keys are above so they don't interfere with anything I do as a touch typist.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Jumbl Multi-Purpose Steam Cleaner

The first steam cleaner I received did not work. By reading other reviews I saw that I needed to push on/off button on the side which the manual does not mention and then use the steam button on the handle, but on the first model the on/off button had no effect. The replacement unit I received works fine. By comparison when I pushed the on/off button on the second unit it immediately began making noise indicating that the steamer is doing something.

As I mentioned earlier the instructions are not clear on how to turn on the unit. The instructions refers to the button on the side as "calcium removal button", but it is also an on/off button. It needs to be pressed in order for the steam button on the handle to work. Once the button on the side is pushed then you need to slide the steam button located on the handle. The on/off button can be also pumped on/off on/off to remove calcium build up.

Jumbl steamer generates quite a bit of steam. It takes it a few seconds to get going but when it does the steam is stronger than my old hand held steamer. It should be noted that the steam continues to blow for about 5-6 seconds after I turned off the steam button. Be careful not to burn yourself and give the steam time to escape. This long steam action caught me by surprised the first time I used the steamer.

The steamer comes with with several nozzle heads: steam nozzle, ironing nozzle with a brush, round brush nozzle, and fiber cloth cover. A small squeegee is also included in the package. This squeegee does not attach to the steamer but can be used together with the steam for glass cleaning. The steam cleaner has a fairly long (114 inches) cord that gives me a good range for cleaning without moving the plug.

In attached video I included cleaning of bathroom sink with 1 week worth of mess in it, including dried up toothpaste. Everything came off with steam, no cleaning solution was needed.

I rate this steamer as "okay". The second steam cleaner works well, it was easy to assemble, the steam flow is strong, a long cord makes it easy to use without needing to move the plug. On the negative, the first steamer was defective and I don't like how long the steam continues to blow after the steam button is turned off.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Product review: Mpow® Streambot Y Wireless Bluetooth FM Transmitter Radio Adapter Handsfree Car Kit

Mpow Streambot Y FM transmitter allows you to transmit sound from your mobile devices to your car stereo if it does not have a built-in bluetooth. To start the transmission you need to find a vacant station on your FM dial and then tune both the car the Mpow transmitter to that station. To find vacant FM stations in my area I used a web site "radio-locator (dot) com/cgi-bin/vacant" where you can enter your zip code and get a list of stations to try. This web site ranks vacant stations as "best", "great" and "good". Their suggestion worked well for me, the first station are tried gave me a clear reception.

To change what station is tuned on the transmitter you need to rotate the ring on the transmitter. The bluetooth operated smoothly and connected to my iPad Mini without any problems. You can see this transmitter in action in attached video.

Mpow FM transmitter has a USB port. This port can be used for a pass through charging. Since the Mpow transmitter is using the car outlet pass port allows me to run another device from the same car port, for example, to power a GPS without a splitter.

Overall I am very pleased. This transmitter has not lost the transmission when I drive even over some bumpy road.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Ogio Brooklyn Women's Purse

What a great bag! First, I love the cobalt color. It matches many of my things and it looks really nice. Second, I love all the compartments. There are three main compartments and 4 small pockets.

♦ The purse is 11" long (measured from top to bottom in the middle). It is 12.5 wide (side to side). It is 4" deep.
♦ The inside the bag there are three main compartments. One of them is padded and zipped. It could be used for a tablet, or for things you want to keep from flying around in the purse. The two open compartments are equal in size (11" long x 12.5" wide x 2" in depth)
♦ In addition one side a large zipped side pocket (9" wide), and the one one has 2 small open pockets plust 2 pen holders.
♦ It also has a "hidden" zipped compartment under the buttons on the front. I call it hidden because the buttons are pretty fussy to open, so I only put things in that pocket that I don't use all the time.
♦ The strap is 41" long and 1.75" wide in the most narrow part at the top. It is nice and comfortable and spreads the weight of the purse well on my shoulder. It also feels comfortable when I hung it across the body.

The inside lining is white with colorful dots. This is the only thing I wish was different. It is pretty but from the practical point of view I wish it had a darker lining so it does show the dirt.

I love this bag and I use it pretty much all the time.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★