Product review: JENNIE LIU Women's 100% Cashmere Button Front

Shopping for clothing on-line does not always work because some manufacturer size charts don't match the garments exactly right. However, this is not the case the with Jennie Liu. My sweater matches the chart and it is a good fit.

I got purple color and it is a beautiful vibrant color. The design is very simple and clean, I wear it with a lot of things.

I ordered XL which supposed to be 43" at the chest. It is exactly the same width at the bottom of the sweater as at the chest and it drapes well. The length of the sweater is 23" (measured in the front from the neck lines to the bottom). The sleeves are 26.25" measured from the shoulder seam to the edge of the sleeve, they have a ribbed cuff. The sleeve are a little long for me, but I fold them back and they look fine.

I love the way this sweater feels, it is very to touch. It is 100% cashmere and it feels as nice as as you would expect a cashmere sweater to feel. This is a fairly light sweater, perfect either for laying or to wear on its own.

Note that I also got a Jennie Liu's purple and blue plaid scarf where the scarve's shade of purple is a good match with this sweater and they look quite nice together.

Cleaning instructions: dry clean.

Overall, I am very pleased with the sweater. Good fit and it looks beautiful.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: JENNIE LIU 68" X 12" 100% Cashmere Scarf

I got the "Purple and Blue Plaid" version of the this scarf. It is a beautiful color combination. The scarf looks the same on both sides (i.e. it is a woven design, rather than a printed design). It feels very soft and warm, just as one would expect a 100% cashmere scarf to feel.

The scarf is 63" long (not counting the fringe) and 12" wide. The fringe is 4".

I also got Jennie Liu's purple cardigan. The purple shade of the sweater matches the purple in this scarf very well. The sweater and the scarf look very nice together.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: VonHaus 600W 2-in-1 Upright Stick & Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

What surprised me about this vacuum is that it weighs just under 3 pounds! This vacuum can be used either as a hand-held or as an upright. It has a 240" (20 feet) AC cord. It has a pretty good suction, but no moving brushes. It works best on hardwood and tile. It also works on rugs with a shot nap, but not a long nap. For example, it cleans my silk rugs very well but not the wool rugs which might have little threads or hairs tangled in the fibers.

The vacuum has a telescoping handle. When the handle is extended to the max the top of the handle is 48" high from the floor. The vacuum has a HEPA filter and it is washable. The manufacturer recommends washing it twice a year. The replacement filters can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OHUQYNQ.

I love how light this vacuum is and how easy it is to use.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Tronsmart Draco AW80 Android TV

As a background for my review I reviewed the previous version of Tronsmart (Vega S89) rating it 3 star ok "Capable device which needs a little more refinement". I am happy to report that the new version made those refinements and I am quite pleased with it.

✅ Set up was very easy. All I had to do is plug in power and connect HDMI cable to my TV. When I selected HDMI output on my TV display it was operational. All I had to do is turn on WI FI and connect.

✅ Tronsmart Draco 6.5"W x 6.5"L x 1.125"H in size.

✅ The screen display is 1080P and it rendered beautifully on my TV.

✅ Tronsmart Draco is running 4.4.2 (KitKat) Android operating system. I have tried a large number of apps that I normally use and have not found any that did not work.
Some of the applications I have tried YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, TuneInRadio, SpeedTest, AccuWeather, Browser, Play Store. All operated smoothly and quickly, I did not run into any problems. My video includes a couple of snippets from different apps such as YouTube, Netflix, and Pandora.

✅ Tronsmart Draco has Ethernet connection built into the unit. I tested both WI FI and Ethernet (the TV is in the room without direct Ethernet connection and I am using Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit). Both worked well.

✅ I ran OOKLA load test to test network speed and it showed impressive performance. The speeds I get in the TV room are as good as I get with my phone when measured in the same room (this room is on a different floor from the main router). By comparison, Vega Tronsmart did significantly worse compared to my phone. So this functionality was greatly improved in this version.

Speedtest using WI FI connection:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tronsmart Draco download: 33.01 mbs
Tronsmart Draco upload: 28.75 mbs

For comparison my phone in the same gets similar speeds.

Nexus phone download speed: 35.68 mbs
Nexus phone upload speed: 29.94 mbs

✅ Tronsmart Draco provides straight Android interface, no custom shell layer. This is what I prefer. One of the thing I did not like in the Tronsmart Vega was its custom UI which took extra effort to remove (a firmware update which allowed to change the custom UI to the standard Google UI).

Is Draco perfect? No. I have a couple of quips.

❌ I found the joystick style remote that came with the Tronsmart Draco cumbersome to use. To enter anything on a keyboard you had to use it as joystick and scroll through the keyboard like a grid. Selecting items on the screen was difficult, more difficult in some application than others. After 10 or 15 minutes of frustrated usage, I switched to an air mouse (my own) which includes a full keyboard on side and a mouse pointer which you can use by pointing at the TV screen. I also tested that a regular keyboard/mouse and that combo work well also. Tronsmart Draco has two USB ports built into it, I am using one of them for my air mouse. This unit really should ship with an air mouse, I can't see any user having a good experience with a joystick control if they are used to a touch screen on their phone or tablet. This is a major quip.

❌ No on/off button on a device. To power it off I need to remove the power cord. Not something I have to do often, but any computer occasionally gets wedged and needs to be recycled now and then. This is a minor quip.

So what is the bottom line? This is a very capable device. After replacing the joystick remote with my own air mouse I am very pleased with it and it has been working flawlessly for several weeks of daily use.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: BESTEK® Wall charging station power strip

I rate this charger as OK. This model addressed some of the issues of the original model (for example, there is no brightly lit logo on the front) but there are couple of things that prevent me from loving it.

1. This charger combines USB port and AC ports, however it has a cover which covers USB ports. When the cover is opened it make a bulky unit even more bulky because it extends out more than an inch. I did not like that it took extra room. However, the good news is that it can be removed - if you flex the plastic the cover pops out.

2. This wall charger has a dock which is compatible with the older (pre-iPhone 5) models of the iPhone. This is a bit dated now plus the dock is not compatible with any Android phone. It would have been better if this dock was just another USB outlet.

3. The unit overall is quite bulky:
Wall charger size: 4.25"W x 6"H x 1.5"H
Wall charger weight: 11.55 oz

4. I measured charging performance with a current monitor and the charging for Android devices is at USB level not AC level. This is disappointing and below average compared to other wall chargers. The performance for my iPadMini was OK (average). I am including details below for those who are interested in the specific numbers.

The outlets are spaced close together so the first two can only take regular plugs, however the bottom plug on each side allowed to plug in two fairly large plugs - my vaccum cleaner plug is shown in the video.

I dislike chargers that have bright charging indicators, I am happy to report that this wall station does not. I read that the older versions of this charger had a brightly glowing logo - the logo does not have any light at all now. I included a photo of the charger in the dark. The station does have a light which can be turned on my pushing a button. If the station is plugged into a wall, the light shines down and does not provide too much light. It could work as a night light but you need to turn it on my hand (it is not photo sensitive). I am not finding the light useful but it is not a negative since I can control whether it is on or off.

Charging test results:

There are two 1A port and two 2.1A ports. I measured their performance with a current monitor and found them a bit disappointing, they did not provide optimal charging power like some of the better USB chargers.

Nexus Phone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Port 1: 0.53A / 4.99V (USB rate)
Port 2: 0.56A / 4.98V (USB rate)
Port 3: 0.68A / 4.99V (USB rate)
Port 4: 0.69A / 5.00V (USB rate)
(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this phone is 1.00A/5V)

iPad Mini Tablet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Port 1: 0.64A / 4.99V
Port 2: 0.73A / 4.98V
Port 3: 1.30A / 5.01V
Port 4: 1.26A / 5.02V
(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this tablet is 1.70A/5V)


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Product review: GMYLE(R) 40W 8A 5 Port USB Desktop Power Charger

I really like this charger. It is quite compact for being able to charge 5 things at the same time. We own a number of mobile devices from different manufactures, we have Android devices, Apple devices, Samsung devices. Google (starting with Jelly Bean 4.21) figured out the Apple protocol and starting with that release is able to draw the optimal charge on ports designed for Apple. My Nexus devices work well on different ports for most chargers, but the same is not true for my Apple devices and my older Samsung Tablet.

And now we see that some of the better chargers are beginning to add intelligent technology to the chargers so can figure out the optimal protocol to use for each device on any port. This GMYLE wall charger is one of this new breed.

I tested this wall charger using a current monitor with my Android phone and iPad Mini. I ran my tests with each devices on every port while it was the only one charging, as well while the charger was charging three tablets and two phones. The charger provided optimal charging on every port on every test. Impressive! I am including details below for those who like to see the technical details.

➨ Test results
======================
--------------------------
✔ Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phone (the only device charging)
--------------------------
Port 1: 1.04A/5.15V
Port 2: 1.03A/5.14V
Port 3: 1.03A/5.14V
Port 4: 1.04A/5.14V
Port 5: 1.04A/5.14V

--------------------------
✔ Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phone (with 6 other devices charging)
--------------------------
1.02A/5.15V
--------------------------
✔ iPad Mini (the only device charging)
--------------------------
Port 1: 1.64A/5.05V
Port 2: 1.61A/5.05V
Port 3: 1.51A/5.05V
Port 4: 1.59A/5.05V
Port 5: 1.56A/5.05V

--------------------------
✔ iPad Mini (with 6 other devices charging)
--------------------------
1.55A/5.15V
--------------------------

To summarize this charger did well charging my 5 devices at the same time as well as one at a time. The charger is compact in size and takes up only one spot on the power strip.
size: 3.5" x 2.25" x 1"
weight: 5.70 oz
AC cord length: 59"

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Link Laces No Tie Shoelaces - Elastic Shoe Laces

This my second set if shoelaces of this type. Turns out I like these better for two reasons.

(1) The opening through which one needs to thread the shoe laces opens wider on Link Laces and it took me no time to thread them through. In addition the tips of the shoelaces are stuff, so it easy to make them go through the hole. Because the threading mechanism is easy to work with you can reposition the round lock easily - how tight it is or which direction it faces (this is not the case with my old shoe laces).

(2) The second locking mechanism that holds the tips is small and it looks better and less noticeable. Note the tips lock is permanent, once you close it you cannot open it again. I wanted to make the tips shorter but turns out it was not possible. So to shorten the tips I just tied a knot to prevent the tips from hanging down (see video).

This shoe laces work well for anyone who has trouble bending or does not want to spend time lacing the shoes/sneakers/hiking boots. Before my bike accident that resulted in a back surgery that made less flexible my favorite footwear was hiking boots even when I was not hiking. Since my back surgeries I rarely wear my hiking boots because tying the shoe laces puts my back in a position that is not comfortable. With elastic shoe lace system I am back to wearing my hiking boots and other shoes that lace up. Elastic shoe laces stretch and allow me to just slip into the boots/shoes.

The laces do not hold my foot in the shoe as tightly as regular laces because they stretch. They are perfectly fine for walking around on flat surface. If I was hiking the boots would be too loose for me on uneven rocky surface. However, the target audience for this shoe laces is unlikely to need the type of lacing you would want while climbing a mountain so I don't think this is a problem.

To lace up the shoes for the first time:
♦ First you lace the boot with the elastic shoe laces like you would normally do
♦ Then you need to thread both ends through the round lock
♦ Next step is to tighten the laces to your liking and cut the laces 3" from the lock
♦ Finally, put the ends into the tips lock and close it. This lock cannot be opened, so be sure that the ends are not too long.

These shoe laces let me wear lace-up shoes again without hurting my back, so I am very pleased.

You can find them on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★