Product review: HeadRig 1 - Universal smartphone head mount for Hands Free Video Capturing

I do a lot of "how to" and review videos so I was excited to test this HeadRig to see if it can replace my current set up with a table top tripod. It worked but not as well as I hoped. Here are my observations

1. The best videos are steady without any shake. To keep the video totally steady in a head harness is difficult.

2. For a good video the subject should be centered in the frame or at least not cut off. The issue with the harness is that it is hard to see the screen even though I positioned it as low as possible so I can peek at the screen of the smart phone which is facing me.

3. Operating the camera video app is difficult as the rig itself covers up important parts of the screen.

On the positive side, the rig holds the phone very security. I was able to accommodate my phone which is 5 7/8" long. The size of my phone is about the maximum size the harness could fit. I had to remove one of the balls on the ends otherwise it did not open enough. The HeadRig can accommodate a phone 1/4" larger (with both balls removed) more but not any larger.

Because I extended the phone as far as possible and as low as possible from my head (so I can see as much of the screen as possible for better framing) the harness felt rather top heavy and I had to tighten the harness on my head very tightly otherwise it slid forward.

So what is the bottom line? It certainly was easier to do the demos when I did not have a tripod in front of me, but the final video with the tripod was better because it had zero shake and I could frame the shot better. In addition to the shake and framing the quality of the videos taken by the phone is not as good as one taken with a dedicated camera. In my videos taken with the harness I could see the focus go in and out.

I received this head harness with a request for an evaluation and an honest review. I described pluses and minuses of my experience. At the end of my video review you can see a video I shot with the harness for another one of my reviews, I decided not to use that video because of the shake and the focus going in and out as my head moved slightly.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★☆☆☆

Product review: Que Products 5.5 Unlocked Android Smartphone - budget phone

This a fairly nice phone. Its strongest points are bright display, decent battery life, and that it comes with a standard Google interface. There is no custom shell or invasive bolted-in apps that can't be uninstalled as I have seen in other phones that are originally aimed at Chinese market.

The weakest points are a small amount of memory (only 2.4G available for app installs), weak speaker, and that it is aimed at Chinese market (and what I mean my that is that some portion of the UI are not translated). The first time I turned on the phone it display something in Chinese and would not start up. As I pushed on various buttons it displayed more messages in Chinese. After I removed the cover and the battery, put it back together again then the phone booted up normally.

This phone and its battery are shipped separately. So the first thing you will need to do is to remove the back cover and insert the battery. The phone does not have a paper version of the manual, the manual is installed on the phone itself. However, if you wanted to consult the manual to see how to remove the cover you are not able to consult the manual which is installed on the phone. Most of my phones have a back cover that slides open. For this phone I had to flick the cover off starting in one of the corners. When I eventually was able to consult the manual it did not show how to remove the cover, so my method may not be the best way to remove the cover but it worked for me.

Que smart phone has a nice form factor it is 6" x 3.125" x 1/4" and weighs 6.7 oz. The phone is running Android 4.4.2 operating system.

I installed a large number of my favorite apps and all of them loaded and ran without a problem. They felt speedy, the touch screen is very responsive, the text is crisp and easy to read. I was able to pair a bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth speakers without any problems.

To test its WI FI capabilities I run OOKLA speed test and the results were not as good as Nexus 5 but not bad. I got an average of 36 Mbps upload and 13.5 Mbps download. For comparison, my best results with another phone done at the same time are download 47.05 Mbps and upload is 37.84 Mbps (placing both devices at the same distance from the wireless router).

Using the SIM card the speed was significantly slower because this is a 3G phone (not 4G). I ran OOKLA Speedtest at a few locations and it showed 2.62 Mpbs download and 0.86 Mpbs upload. By comparison Nexus 5 with 4G service was getting 39 pbs download and 13 Mpbs upload. So what does this difference means in practical terms? It means all apps work, just the response time is slower.

The speaker on this phone is acceptable not great. When I spoke on the phone, I was told I sound clear, the sound on my end was clear but sounded slightly tinny and I could not make it very loud.

The camera on this phone is ok. It best under good conditions when it was light, but not too bright. When it was very bright it overexposed, when it was dark it was a bit grainy. Attached video include some photos and video taken by the phone.

Overall, this is a phone pretty nice phone. It scores well on the two key features: easy to read bright display and battery life. Some of the cons I listed in this review are preventing me from giving it 5 stars but it is a good buy for the money.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat by Calibre Art

I am a quilter so I have a number of rotary cutting mats in various sizes, I can't imagine quilting without my rotary mats and my rotary cutter. Most of my mats are self-healing Olfa mats. They have a life span of about 4-5 years of frequent use. Eventually they lose the self-healing properties. CalibreArt Mats are noticeably thicker than any of my other mats. In my video I show one of my Olfa mats next to CalibreArt Mat so you can see the difference.

My Olfa mats have markings on one side and are plain green on the other side. CalibreArt Mats have inch markings on one side and centimeter markings on the other side. Even though centimeter are not useful for me to quilting, they are useful when I just need to lay fabric on a straight line. I find double sided mat more useful than having a totally unlined side like Olfa mats.

One of Olfa mats does not lay flat, it has a bit of a wave which presses down when I cut. CalibreArt mat is much thicker and heavier, it lays totally flat. Calibre mat's thickness (measured with a digital calliper) is 0.115". Olfa mat's thickness is 0.062".

I got the large size (24" x 36") it covers almost my entire sewing table and it really makes cutting easier, I do not have to reposition and move the fabric. This is a very nice mat!

Can anything be improved? Yes. My Olfa mats show the measurements on all 4 sides of the mat. CalibreArt mat shows numbers only on the left and bottom. Sometimes the fabric covers the bottom and left side and it is harder the tell the measurements. It is a minor nit but I am including it in hope that the manufacturer is reading reviews and might make this great mat even better in the future.

Update 2/28/15: Manufacturer contacted to let me know that they will add additional measurement markers for these mats. Nice to hear when manufacturer is so responsive to customer suggestions.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Hame H16 11000mah Ultra Compact External Battery Portable USB Charger Power Bank

♦ size: 3 5/8" x 2 1/8" x 1 1/4"
♦ weight: 9.7 oz
♦ number of ports: 1
♦ flashlight: no
♦ pass through charging: yes (i.e. the battery can charge while being charged itself)
♦ cable: 11" charging cable
♦ comes with a silicone sleeve

This battery has a fairly large capacity (11000 mAh) in a relatively compact size. It has one charging port. For a battery with 11000 mAh capacity I really prefer to have two or more ports because I always have more than once device that needs to charged, and its capacity certainly would allow for more than one device to be charged.

To see how well different chargers and external batteries charge my mobile devices I use a Nexus phone and an iPadMini tablet to test each of them. I do my tests with the devices charged to the same level, running the same applications and using the same cables to keep everything the same. This allows me to compare them to each other in a fair way. I use the current monitor to see what current is delivered to each device which tells me how well each external battery is working.

This battery worked with both of my devices, but charged both of them below average speed. At the end of the review I include th exact measurements for those who are interested in the nitty gritty numbers.

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 support charger through charging. It can charge while being charged.

In addition to testing with my own cable (to keep everything the same during tests), I also test the cable included in the package to see if it is a charging cable or a data cable. This package includes a charging cable. Most of the time external batteries come with a charging cable, but every now I run across a manufacturer that encloses data cables with external batteries. It is not easy to tell what cable you got unless you have a current monitor. I always include this test in my reviews so people can improve the performance of the battery by switching to a charging cable.

Samsung Nexus phone:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.89/4.99V (below average)
(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this phone is 1.00A/5V)

iPad Mini tablet:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.92A/5.01V (average for 1A port)
(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this tablet is 1.70A/5V)

Overall, this is not the speediest battery but it has a fairly compact shape for its capacity. When size matters more than speed of charging this battery is a reasonable choice.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Pawtec Retractable Micro USB 2.0 A Male to Micro B Cable High-Speed Charge and Sync cable

I have seen a number of cables that claim to be charging and data sync cables but they charge devices only at a slower USB rate. This is not the case with this retractable charge and sync cable. It charges my Android phone at the optimal rate and it is capable of data sync of the phone with my PC. I got both the white and the black version of this cable and both showed the same excellent results when tested with the USB current monitor. Consistent performance between different units is a sign of good quality.

Many cables are made using a thinner wire (28/28 gauge), this cable uses a thicker 28/24 gauge. 28/24 gauge is 60% thicker than 24/24 gauge and can deliver more current to the device. A thicker cable is also less like to break and last longer at the connector, where general use stresses the wire by compressing it.

The re tractability of the cord is handy especially for my MP3 player with external speaker which I have permanently plugged into a power bank. This cord helped me got rid of the dangling wire. When the cord is extended to its back it is 36" long. To retract it from that position you need to yank on both end to trigger the retracting mechanism.

Current monitor results:
black cord: 1.02A / 5.05V (excellent)
white cord: 1.02A / 5.09V (excellent)
(for comparison this is on par with the best charging monitor result for this phone 1.00A/5V)

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: E-PRANCE® D101 FHD 1080P Video DashCam

I own a couple of dash cams and each one of them prior to this one had something that did like: a permanent mount, did not record well in the dark, non-micro USB charging cable... E-prance seem to have made the right decisions in each of these areas:

1) video quality - good during the day day and during the night
2) mount - should not require a permanent mount
3) non propriety cables - micro or mini USB
4) wide angle lens
5) have LED display so I can tell that the cam is aimed correctly

E-Prance is compact. It size is 3 3/8" x 2". It has a wide angle lens (170 degrees). It record video, GPS, and audio. It has an auto turn on/auto turn off feature. It turns on as soon as it gets power so you don't have to remember to turn it on. It can be turned off manually if desired. It is powered by a regular mini USB cable, so even though it is designed for a car if you want a general purposes recorder that records to a micro sd it can do that job as well. This video recorder has many options: video quality, recording in a loop or stopping when disk is full, recording all the time or only when motion is detected, and so forth. The camera records full HD 1080p video, the quality of the video is excellent.

In attached video I show video of E-Prance as well as the video recorded by E-Prance.

The E-Prance package includes the camera, 135" inch power cord that plugs into the car cigarette lighter output, and a mini USB cable. The maximum size of the micro SD card supported by the camera is 32G.

The camera has a suction mount. I greatly prefer a suction mount to permanent mounting. It can be moved between our two cars, plus if the car has to be left parked in a bad area the mount can be removed so it is not obvious that the car has interesting electronics in it.

The user interface is straightforward and even though the manual does not contain details for each button and each option, it contains a picture where each button's function is labelled. I found the manual sufficient to configure my video cam. All defaults were very reasonable.

Overall, I was impressed with the camera and the video it captured, even night time video shows everything clearly.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product reveiw: Ready SIM Talk+Text+Data 7 Day: Unlimited Talk+Text + 500MB Data 4G

When we have visitors from outside US I get them a Ready Sim card. I like this specific card because it includes both data and talk/text.

The setup is very simple. I get the card in advance as it starts the count only when the card is activated. When the guests arrive I insert the SIM card into the phone, send a text message to Ready SIM which contains our zip code. A few minutes later two text responses arrive. One contains the phone number, another the expiration date. The documentation states that the phone number will be local to our location, but that is not always the case. Sometimes I get a number with an area code in another state. This has not been a problem for me, but I wanted to mention it in case it is important to someone else. The carrier I get is T-mobile which is a carrier with least extensive network so the coverage is be spotty at times.

INSTALLATION:

1. I inserted Ready SIM into the phone and turned in on.
2. When I turned on the phone I received a prompt that a new SIM card was recognized
3. I sent a text message to the Ready SIM shortcode 7850. The message body contained just my zip code.
4. Ready SIM sent back a phone number plus the expiration date of the service. The response took several minutes to arrive.
5. My data plan was automatically turned on. I was able to turn off WI FI and browse the internet without additional setup steps.

The fact that my data service was automatically turned on was a pleasant surprise. In the Ready SIM FAQ I read that some phones require a manual step to turn on data service. Some phones need to create a new Access Point Name (APN), which is located under Settings-Mobile Networks-Menu-New APN. Ready SIM documentation include the info for the new APN:
Name: "Ready SIM"
APN: "wholesale"
APN type: Internet+MMS

Overall, Ready Sim is a good solution when I have a short term need for phone and data service.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★