Tag: hardware

When it comes to interior design, I’m a big fan of minimalism — which one can notice from the photo of my workplace (and that’s how it looks in real life and not only on the photo).

Long time I wished to build a wireless Qi phone charger right into my desk so that I could charge my mobile by simply laying it down onto the desktop.

There was an issue though. My desktop is a sheet of 10 mm-thick hardened glass, and common wireless chargers only support charging over a distance up to 8 mm.

Recently I have been able to find a solution to this and make it exactly the way I wanted.

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About a month ago we’ve bought a peculiar gadget, the pocket thermal printer PeriPage A6.

Quite a bit of thermal paper has been spent since so I think I can share my experiences about the device.

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At home I’m using my laptop in a kind of a stationary setup. It has all the peripheral devices, like a 4K display, a keyboard, a mouse etc., constantly attached to it.

This is pretty neat and looks as follows:

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My mesh router Netgear Orbi Pro SRK60 (see my review of the router) has recently received the firmware version 2.5.0.108.

What’s new in this version:

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Being in the software business for a couple of decades, I used to think it’s generally a good idea to test the software you develop before you ship it out. Yet, I keep stumbling upon situations where the developer doesn’t seem to recognise the value of tested software.

Say, I’ve been using the Foscam C1 webcam for a couple of years, one that looks like this:

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Preface

I’ve been using my Linksys E4200 router for about eight years and was quite happy with its very robust operation. However, any hardware is destined to get outdated over time.

Firstly, as soon as we’d moved from our former apartment into a three-storey house it became evident the Wi-Fi coverage was suboptimal. In some remote corner you’d sometimes hardly get any connection at all. Secondly, it didn’t support modern IEEE standards such as 802.11ac, which was also hurting the bandwidth.

Thus eventually I’ve decided to go for a mesh Wi-Fi system.

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I’m not really into reviewing gadgets, but in this case it’s worth doing it. Today I’d like to review Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD by the well-known Chinese make Xiaomi.

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I’ve stumbled upon a cute and convenient DC adapter the other day, with four USB charging ports (up to 4800 mA total), a power socket, and a tablet stand. All of that for less than € 15.

A bit later turned out there’s a pitfall, too: it produced annoying whining noise. The noise was quiet but clearly audible in silence, especially while the adapter was unloaded.

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Being quite happy with my 75 inch whopper Samsung UE75HU7500, the only thing I wanted to do about it was giving it ambient backlighting. When watching TV in complete darkness your eyes get quickly tired because of the stark contrast between the bright screen and its dark surroundings. Even though this device features an ambient light sensor, which is used to automatically adjust the screen brightness, the contrast is still all too harsh.

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Intro

There was a moment when my smoke detector, which is as old as the house it’s in, had to be replaced.

And I did that with pleasure, because at that moment it started chirping regularly in a very annoying way. First once every five minutes, a bit later once a minute. And that would not be a big issue had this not been happening at 5:00 AM. And, of course, the chirping was so loud that no human being could ignore it. Just like in that scene from “Friends”.

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