Product review: ELUNLANY Beach Slippers Sandal Flipflops

These flip flops are very comfortable. They are made from synthetic rubber.  The sole material has some give so it feel very comfortable.

These flip flops are unisex, I ordered the small size and they are a pretty good fit for a woman's foot.  In attached photos you see how it fits my foot which is normally is 7.5 shoe size.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: SEREE S2 Ultra HD 4K 360 Degree Action Waterproof Panoramic Sport Camera

The unique feature of the camera is has a fisheye lens which produces 360 degree video. Overall, the video quality is pretty good under many conditions but not all. It overexposes video when the camera is shooting in very sunny conditions and it does not compensate well when you move from shadow to the sun (like when you come out from under the bridge into the full sun). I show small clips which show the camera at its worst and at its best in attached video. Under good lighting the color rendition is good and true to life. It also takes pretty decent night time video. The camera microphone is worse than other sports cameras I have used. You will hear sound distortions in my video. Keep in mind that Amazon compresses video, so it is best to watch it as postage format so the compression effects are not visible.

The camera user interface is menu driven, but you can only see two lines. The documentation is not detailed and not good, so I am finding myself fumbling with the keys a bit as I navigate through menus even after several weeks of using the camera. The navigation and keys are not obvious in many cases. All buttons are overloaded with several functions depending on what mode the camera is in.

This camera support WIFI mode where live video can be see on the smart phone. The app for live product is called "XDV360°" (by Shenzhen Pisoftware Technology). The app is not great, but at least it is available from Googplay and the manufacturer did not ask me to load the app from an untrusted site. Downloading software from untrusted site is not safe and I never down load apps from manufacturer web site unless it is a well known trusted company.

The camera supports micro SD cards up to 32GB (the micro SD card is NOT included). To recharge the camera takes about 2 hours from empty, I am getting about 2 hours of video on one charge.

The package includes a large number of clamps and holders as well as a waterproof case. Windshield suction cup mount is not included, and because of the shape of the camera none of my old window suction cup mounts fit the camera facing forward.

The manual is very sparse. The manual is very small and only has a few basic operations. It does not have instructions for every button. Plan on doing some experimentation to figure out controls.

I received this camera for testing and review at a special discount as part of the new product introduction. If reviews for discounted items make you skeptical, examine reviewer record. I have a long history of leaving critical reviews when products deserve it. I covered pluses and minuses of my experience. I really like the fisheye lens. The video quality is very good under many conditions, but not all. The sound recording is not good. The user interface is not as user friendly as some other sports cameras. Overall rating OK.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Product review: Delida B-32C portable 5 Section Carbon Fiber Monopod for Cameras

I like this telescoping monopod because it is light. It weight under 1 pound (15.4 oz to be precise).  In its most  compact configuration it is 18.5" and when it is fully extended 67".

It has a regular camera mount to which you can attach either a regular small camera or a phone holder attachment.  It comes with two different feet (a spike and a rubber foot).

The package include a carrying case.  It fits well.  The only thing I wish was different is the length of the strap.  It is 27" long, long enough to carry over my shoulder, but not long enough if I want to carry it as a sling to have it totally out of the way when I don't need it.  However, it is an easy fix - I extended it with a piece of strapping material, it took only a few minutes.

This monopod is provided by DELIDA at a special discount for evaluation. Overall,  very nice monopod that can be used as a walking stick and used to stabilize a camera.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: VANSILK 100% Mulberry Silk Floral Pattern Pillowcase 2Pcs

I own several silk pillow cases, I like how cool they feel on my face during the summer and comfortable they are year round.  Until this pillow case all my pillow cases were solid color.  This pillow case has a beautiful flower design and is the most beautiful pillow case I own. One side has a floral design (predominately blue, with some yellow, white and green) and the other side a solid light blue. My sheet sets are either blue or yellow and the colors of this pillow goes well with both.

The quality of the silk of these pillow cases are top notch. They feels very smooth and very silky.

The pillow case a envelope closure.  The envelope is 6" deep, which is pretty deep and keeps the pillow inside of it very well. The pillow cases fits a standard size pillow well.  After washing the pillow case the size of the area that holds the pillow is 29.5" and 19.5". In addition it has a 2" sham that goes around all four sides, making the total length 29.5"+4" and 19.6"+4" when I lay it flat on the table.

I hand washed the pillow cases to see if they are color fast, and they are. After washing it has some wrinkles. The pillow case can be ironed, but I typically don't iron my silk pillow cases the slight wrikles relax on the pillow and I don't find ironing necessary and it saves me time. However if you prefer the ironed looked it is best to turn the pillow inside out and iron from reverse side on the silk setting of the iron.  It can be machined washed in cold water on gentle cycle.  For extra protection I put silk pillow cases into wash bags to prevent other things snagging on them.  I wash my pillow cases in the washing machine. My oldest silk pillow case is several years old and still looks fine.

This pillow case feels very nice and it looks very pretty.  I really like it.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Shinngo 6700mAh Ultra Compact Power Bank

♦ size: 3 3/4" x 1 3/4" x 7/8"
♦ weight: 4.4 oz
♦ number of ports: 1
♦ flashlight: no
♦ pass through charging: no (i.e. the battery can charge while being charged itself)
♦ cables: 1 micro USB cable

The external battery performed well using Nexus 5 and iPad Mini.  Both charged at their optimal rate using the same single port. Pretty good! 

iPadMini 4.65 / 1.53A
Nexus 5 Android phone: 5.00V / 1.10A

I also tested to see if the battery supports pass-through charging (i.e. whether the battery can charge mobile devices while it is being charged). This battery does NOT supports charge through charging. It can not charge while being charged.

The battery is pretty compact for its capacity 3.75" x 1.75" x 7/8".  The capacity allows me to charge my phone twice from almost empty to full.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: LAPA key finder

There are things about LAPA key finder that I like, but also it has some shortcomings.

On the positive side it is small, thin, and light. You make it beep by using an app on your phone. I have other finders that beep when you press a button their special remote.  They are bigger and are more cumbersome to carry on the key chain.

On the negative side I have doubts about the experience level of LAPA engineers in web security. I am a software engineer with a lot of experience in security. There were several things that I did not like.  First, the documentation told the user to load an app not from Google Play but from their web site.  This is unsafe. I would never load any application that has not gone through the scan by Google Play store or Amazon app store.  To my surprise, the app to control LAPA is in Google Play store, so the fact that instruction do not lead the end user to Google Play is even more surprising.  I loaded the app from Google Play.

The second thing that concerned me that when I created my password with letters, numbers, and special characters (i.e. a good strong password) I received an error that only letters and numbers can be used.  This is bad! A company with engineers that have experience in security would never put such restrictions on passwords.  Usually the restrictions are the other way - you can't create a password without adding at least one special character.  In the world where every site is constantly under attack from hackers the users are not as well protected as they should be.  Make sure you don't use real words as passwords, use gibberish that would make it more difficult to attack with a dictionary style guessing.

I hoped I could use the key finder as a GPS tracker for my car. I hid LAPA in my car and then tried to see if I can display its location on the map when it was far away from me.  Unfortunately that did not work unless I was within 100 feet from the car.  Within 100 feet from the car it does show the location of the car on the map. Unfortunately, the map is shown in a small circle so it is hard to identify.  the map cannot be zoomed in our zoomed out to get a better idea of where it is or zoomed it to get more details of the area.  So it is only marginally useful.

Bottom line?  I think LAPA has a lot of potential, but in the current implementation it has shortcomings.  I am giving it a 3 star rating with several asterix - do not load app from any site other than GooglePlay, overcome password shortcoming by using complex random string of letters and numbers that does not form any real words.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Product review: Spa Massage Foam Flip Flop

These are plastic flip flops.  Their surface has texture and the texture combined with the hard finish feel like a massage to the soles of your feet.  These are not the kind of slippers I can wear all day, but they are good around the pool or on the beach where I want something that can get wet or could be good for walking on uneven pebbles of a rocky beach.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆