Impervious Drip Tips

For those out there that vape, drip tips are either something you buy to customise your mod, or you keep the stock drip tip. I tend to fall into the latter. However, this week I bought a new drip tip from http://impervious-tec.com which claimed "No Hot Spit - Self Cleaning - Antibacterial- Customisable - Certified Safe".

I'd never heard of Impervious Drip Tips before, until saw Victor Mullin review them on his Vaping With Vic YouTube Channel. I trust Vic and he gave a glowing review for a hygenic drip tip that prevented spitback. So I headed straight to impervious-tec.com and purchased 3 drip tips (2 black, 1 silver).

I gave one to my wife for her tank, and I kept the other 2. Putting 1 on my Smok Baby Beast (with RBA deck) and the other on my Wotofo Sapor. The first thing I noticed was that it was quite a tight draw, but there is a ball in the middle which is designed to prevent spitback, so this wasn't a major concern as I kind of expected a tight draw.

The second thing I noticed was I had a lot of e-liquid in my mouth. This shouldn't be happening, especially from a company who's name literally means "not allowing fluid to pass through". Remember, I bought THREE of these drip tips. I tried both of my drip tips on various tanks & drippers and various mods at various temperatures, and still this kept happening. I asked my wife what her experience was like with her drip tip, unsurprisingly she complained of lots of e-liquid going into her mouth also.

So the problem isn't with me, my vaping style, my mods or tanks because I'm not the only person I know experiencing this problem. We've both gone back to our stock drip tips, which is a real shame because I really wanted this to be an amazing product.

My message to Impervious is up your game or change your name. Until then, I cannot recommend this product to anyone.

SanDisk Ultra Micro SD Card

I needed to buy a microSD card for recording high definition video on a budget “GoPro” style action camera, the MUSON MC1, to use as a Dash Cam.

The price of SD Cards has plummeted in recent years. I remember buying my first 500mb SD Card in the early 2000s, which cost around £90 - nowadays SD Cards can hold more than 200Gb of memory, which is staggering compared to the early days.

In recent years SD Cards almost became obsolete as most high-end smartphones from Android to iPhone and even the lesser spotted Windows Phone, only offerd internal storage and no microSD slots. However expandable memory has made something of a comeback with newer handsets as they can store an extraordinary amount of data.

So what makes a great microSD card? In my opinion it is capacity and a fast read/write speed.

The SanDisk Ultra is a Class 10 microSD card, but what does that mean?
Well, put simply, it transfers data at a minimum of 10 MB/s. But this is the minimum speed, so you can expect faster transfer speeds.

Why the SanDisk Ultra?
£9.99 for 32GB and it writes data fast enough for even the most demanding tasks today. The SanDisk Ultra turned out to be an easy pick for three reasons.

1) It's as faster and cheaper than some other Class 10 cards.
2) The SanDisk brand has a name you can trust and overwhelmingly positive customer reviews.
3) The SanDisk Ultra will handle pretty much anything you can throw at it, including 4K video files.

The SanDisk Ultra is the most popular SD Card on Amazon with 1,978 other customer reviews averaging 4.6 out of 5, and 1,596 5 Star Reviews.

The SanDisk Ultra microSD was one of those rare purchases where I didn't have to research the SD Card market to find the best in my budget. I've been using SanDisk for over a decade, so know that they are fast, reliable and suitable for use in a smartphone or camera and at £9.99 it won't break the bank.

The SanDisk comes in Amazon's Stress Free Packaging so there is no fiddling with hard shell plastic covers. It also comes with a full size SD adapter. An extra bonus is the SanDisk Ultra lifetime warranty, so should it fail or corrupt, SanDisk will replace it.

To summarise, this is a superb SD Card at a great price and lifetime warranty so should anything go wrong, SanDisk will replace it.

Let's talk about Sky Mobile

Today I received an email from Sky with an "exclusive" invite to join their new MVNO, Sky Mobile.

The email starts "Hi Dave, Sky Mobile is here, and you can be one of the first to join the smart network and enjoy a new way to manage your own data..." ok, so the hook has worked. I'm interested. I've been selected to join their new mobile network. Oh, how special do I feel right now? But it gets better...

"As a Sky TV customer you can get free Unlimited Calls and Texts on up to 5 SIMs - helping you and the whole family Save up to £600 a year." The key phrase here is "UP TO" Telecoms Companies love using "up to" because the average person doesn't register "up to" they just see the words before and after. Saving me £600 a year? Where do i sign?? Most people never achieve the Holy Grail of the "UP TO", whether that is broadband speed or a cash saving amount.

Sky continue to say "Only with Sky Mobile is your unused data yours to keep for three years. We'll automatically Roll it over into your piggybank at the end of every month to use whenever you like." Ok, so that's good. You get to keep unused data for 3 years. I like that idea.

"Simply create a plan that's just right for you. Pick your data and select your free Unlimited Calls and Texts. And no matter what you decide you can choose to change it whenever you like." Flexible plans, nothing new there. Free calls and text, also not a new concept. I think every network offers free calls and texts at some point in their tariffs. Just tell me how much Data you offer...

"1Gb Plan = £10 per month, 3Gb Plan = £15 per month, 5Gb Plan = £20 per month" WHAT?? At what point do Sky expect anybody to have surplus data that they can "piggybank"? I'm not even halfway through the month and I've already uses 6.35Gb. And this is just the SIM only option. Sky haven't even launched their handsets yet. So who is this aimed at? There are already much better SIM only deals out there:

1) EE are offering 10Gb 4G Data, Unlimited Calls + Texts - £19.99 per month

2) O2 are offering 10Gb 4G Data, Unlimited Calls + Texts - £20 per month / 20Gb Data, Unlimited Calls + Text

3) Three are offering Unlimited 4G Data, Calls Texts and 30Gb tethering for £32 per month

Vodafone's SIM only deals are compatible with that of Sky and aren't the best when compared to the other networks, but can be found here.

Sky also boasts "Sky Mobile also gives you a new way to access Sky Entertainment when you’re on the move. For the first time, you can Sync Sky+ recordings to your phone, creating a personal playlist of the shows you love, to watch wherever you want." however if, like me, you subscribe to Sky's flagship Sky Q service you won't be able to access this. A quick skim of the small print and you will see "Sync: Sky TV customers with a compatible device and Sky+ box only (see sky.com/compatible). Not compatible with Sky Q. Selected content only. Sky+ and Sky Go apps required."

So Sky aren't making this feature available to customers of their premium platform? Why? Are Sky abandoning the Sky Q brand because of low uptake or have Sky developed a Next Gen format in Sky Q that isn't compatible with anything without a strong WiFi network?

Speaking of WiFi, Sky also claim you will be able to access millions of Sky wifi hotspots for free, all you need is the Sky WiFi app. Well as an existing Sky Fibre customer I should already be able to access this service for free, right? Well allegedly so, but on downloading the app from the Google Play Store I was cryptically informed that "Sorry, this app isn't supported by the iOS version installed on your handset..." could that be because I'm using Android and not iOS?

Previously, when I've owned iPhones, I've had no problem using Sky applications. The user interface has never been pretty, but they worked. On switching to Android I soon discovered that Sky have little interest in supporting Android as an operating system. Very few of the apps in the Google Play Store are compatible across Android devices or various versions of the Android OS.

I have no idea who Sky are aiming their mobile network at as it is currently too expensive for what they are offering and their existing applications aren't fully compatible with my current OS. Add the fact that they have overlooked Sky Q customers for whatever reason, not only will I not be taking a Sky Mobile contact, I am now questioning the value of my £119 per month Sky Q subscription.

Sky, Believe In Better? I do, and I think I can get better somewhere else!

MUSON Action Camera

The MUSON Action Camera is the latest in a long line of budget "GoPro-esque" cameras, and it gives the competition a damn good run for your money.

Straight out of the box, you are greeted with a professional looking carry case which contains a staggering array of almost every conceivable fixing that allows you to mount this camera on pretty much anything you can think of. If you're a complete camera novice it really is just a tiny bit daunting.

There are 9 different mounts to attach your camera to tripods/selfie sticks, dashboards, cycle/crash helmets, and harness/clothing. Whatever you are planning to do, MUSON have provided the attachments to get you started. They have also thrown in a spare 900mAh battery, which was a welcome bonus.

I was disappointed that the camera doesn't have any on board storage, but for a camera this cheap the manufacturer had to save money somewhere. So you will need to provide your own Micro SD Card with a maximum of 32Gb - MUSON suggest a "Class 10 Micro SD Card". If you aren't sure what a Class 10 SD Card is, just get a SanDisc Ultra 32Gb.

There are 4 camera functions:
Video (720p @ 60fps or 1080p @ 30fps)
Photo (Single shot photo)
Burst Photo (Series of photographs)
Time Lapse (Series of photographs at set time intervals)
The camera can record on a loop with an optional Date/Time stamp, so is ideal for use as a Dash Cam.

The MUSON MC1 is WiFi enabled and comes with a companion app, Ez iCam App. It is clear that this app was an afterthought as it is basic in its functionality, and none of the cameras in the connectivity menu look like the MUSON. I couldn't get my Android phone to connect with the WiFi no matter what I tried, however it took me seconds to set the WiFi up on iOS with the iPad.
Once the WiFi is set up, the app allows you to mirror the camera's LCD screen on your mobile giving you a massive touch screen record button. I could see this being a useful function to Vloggers.

Picture quality is quite possibly the best I have seen in this price range. It's not as vivid or sharp as some of its higher priced competitors, but it's ideally placed for the extreme sports hobbyist, or someone who wants a very good and inexpensive dash cam or helmet camera.

Should you buy a Fitbit or Pebble this Christmas?

With the announcement that Fitbit are lining themselves up to acquire smart watch maker Pebble, should you buy a fitness tracker this Christmas?

If you don't know who Fitbit or Pebble are, where have you been?

Pebble are the darling of Kickstarter. They've put themselves up for crowd funding no less than 3 times and, aside from Oculus, are the most successful start up on the planet.
Fitbit are the big name in fitness trackers, with products ranging from wearable wrist trackers, sleep monitors and scales.

It has been touted in the media that Fitbit will buy Pebble for their intellectual property and discard the rest of the business. This is a smart move for Fitbit, who obviously need to branch out from the limited market of fitness wearables. The easiest way for them to do this is to diversify themselves into the mainstream of app enabled smart watches to allow them to compete with iOS and Android.

So with Christmas only a few weeks away, should you consider buying or gifting a Pebble or Fitbit?

Well, I would say yes. Business acquisitions take a long time to finalise, so you're in no immediate danger of your device becoming obsolete over night. Having said that, I imagine that should the takeover go ahead, then as soon as Fitbit take control they will quickly abandon support for Pebble devices.

One thing is for certain, it will be interesting to see what Fitbit can do with Pebble OS and 2017 looks to be an interesting year for the wearable technology market.

Pinch, Punch, 1st of the Month - 1 Year living with the Nest Cam

This is my first blog post of December, and my first in over a week. I came down with the dreaded "Man Flu" about a week ago, and have been moaning about it ever since. Anyway, this week marks my 1 year anniversary of living with Google's Nest Cam. I won't give a full review as there are enough of them online, however I'll give you my list of pros & cons of living with Nest's all seeing eye.

The Nest Cam is a WiFi enabled Internet Protocol (IP) Camera that has a maximum resolution of 1080p - Full HD.

IP Cameras are predominantly used for surveillance, and unlike traditional CCTV cameras, Nest can send and receive data via a computer network and the Internet. The benefits of using Nest over CCTV are:
Two-way audio via a wireless network allows users to listen to and speak with the subject of the video.
Google's video analytics allows the camera to analyze images in real time and alert you only when a human is on camera.
Remote accessibility, which allows live video from selected cameras to be viewed anywhere in the world from any computer, mobile smartphone or other device with the Nest App installed.

Disadvantages of using Nest Cameras over standard CCTV are:
Higher initial cost per camera and optional monthly/annual subscription fee. (£300pa/£30pcm for 30 days recording on 1 camera - additional camera subscriptions are slightly discounted)
A fast and reliable internet connection is required.
Video playback on the app can be temperamental.

The Nest Camera can integrate with other connected devices, such as the Nest Thermostat and Smoke Alarm amongst many others. So for example, if Nest doesn't track movement for a period of time around your house, it will turn your heating off.

After a year of Nest would I recommend it? If strengthening your home security is what you're after and it's within your budget, then yes, absolutely. I think the security and remote control of my home that Nest offers is fantastic. I just wish the subscription fee was lowered as it quickly mounts up if you have more than one camera.

Ring Video Doorbell

Ring Video Doorbell The Ring Video Doorbell is, as you might assume, a doorbell with a WiFi enabled 780p HD camera built in. 

I first became aware of the Ring Doorbell in 2014, when I was scouring the internet for an alternative to my monitored Burglar Alarm. I’ll take you back to 2012, when I bought my first house. I paid in the region of £300 up front for my burglar alarm system, plus an additional £20 per month subscription fee for the alarm to be monitored 24/7. 

One evening in December 2014, about a week before Christmas, I was at work for a night shift, when I received an alert from the company monitoring my alarm system. I was informed that motion had been detected in my house. I knew that my wife was out visiting relatives and as I was the last person to leave the house, it was locked and secure. I called my wife to check, she confirmed she was still out of the house. I then called the Police who asked “Are you at home? Have you seen anyone inside your house yourself?”, the answer to both questions was a resounding “No”. The Police informed me that they would not send anyone to my address as it was probably a false alarm. They said unless somebody could confirm the presence of an intruder, the Police won't attend as it may be a false alarm. This was frustratingly understandable. 

I left work immediately. I arrived home to discover that we had been burgled. They had gained entry by smashing through the back door. I called the Police again, who said that they would be round within the hour to report. While I was waiting for the Police I began to question the value of my monitored alarm system. It became apparent that it was not a deterrent to the burglar, and only served as an early warning system. So I began to look for an alternative solution. 

My first purchase was a set of Nest Cameras, which I discreetly dotted around the interior and exterior of my house. I have built up a Smart Home network around these. Interestingly, one of my neighbours said that on the evening of the burglary, they saw a couple of males at my front door at what would have been about 5 - 10 minutes before my alarm was activated. 

During my research period, I became aware of Ring Doorbell and SkyBell . Both are connected video doorbells with similar features. The downside for me was that at the time they were only available in the USA and retailed for around $250 each. Add to that shipping fees and import tax, and you are looking at a hefty bill for something that may not have worked in the UK. 

Fast forward to October 2016 when Ring contacted me and asked me to review the Ring Video Doorbell. Ding Dong, Who's There? The Ring Doorbell comes supplied with all the tools needed to attach the doorbell to your wall, installation guide and app support, spirit level, drill bit, screwdriver, screws and rawl plugs. All you need to provide is the drill. 

The installation was very easy and took me approximately 20 minutes. Linking Ring to your WiFi network is done entirely through the mobile app. The app will walk you through the motion zone and smart alert settings. You have 6 different motion zones over a 180 degree field of view, and can set the distance Ring can see movement from. Distance ranges between 30ft to 5ft, and you can select and deselect motion zones. There are 3 Smart Alert settings: Light, Standard, and Frequent. Each of these determine how often Ring will notify you of motion within the desired field of view. I kept mine on Standard, as Frequent was notifying me every time someone walked or drove past, and Light never seemed to notify me. 

It should be noted that having the motion detection on will have a significant drain on the battery, unless your doorbell is wired to the mains supply. Speaking of the battery, Ring claim that one charge will power the unit for a year. In my experience I'll be lucky to get 2 months out of a full charge. After 4 weeks the battery has dropped to 45% - however this is still quite impressive for an always on, always connected device. 

Ring has a 780p HD Camera with Night Vision, which produces a very clear image day or night (depending on the strength of your WiFi). The night vision is very good, enabling you to see who is at your door at all times. The camera is only activated on either motion or bell push, so you won't be able to open the app and monitor without something triggering the camera. Once motion or bell push has been activated, you will be alerted by your phone, tablet or computer. If your device is set to silent, you will not receive an audible alert. The doorbell will chime, so whoever is at your door will hear a chime, but you won't. Ring do sell an additional Chime unit that plugs into a spare electrical outlet within your house. This is retailed at approx £25.00 - It would be nice if Ring could include a chime with the doorbell unit, as I can imagine that there would be a market for elderly & vulnerable people without smartphones and concerned relatives who wish to monitor who is attending. 

Another really good feature is the ability to talk to whoever is at your door through the app. No matter where in the world you are, if you have a 4G phone signal, you will be able to talk with your visitor. I have only used this feature a handful of times, mostly to talk to the postman or identify people I don't recognise. The sound quality is average. It's good for speech, but if there is a car passing or heavy rain it can be hard to hear what is being said. However 9/10 times I haven't had any problems with communication through Ring. 

HD CAMERA

Always have a clear view of your home's entrance with wide-angle HD video. 

LED RING 

LED ring provides an array of light patterns to indicate the device’s current function. 

SPEAKERS 

Two configurable speakers ensure that not a word is missed, regardless of your surroundings. 

MOTION DETECTION 

Motion sensors activate the camera and trigger instant mobile alerts when movement is detected. 

MICROPHONE

Only hear what matters most thanks to perfectly tuned echo cancellation. 

Because Ring is a connected “smart” device, it has the capacity to receive firmware updates. These updates can add additional features or link Ring into other Smart Home ecosystems (Google Home , Apple Home Kit, Amazon Echo , Samsung SmartThings). Currently there isn't any native connection with these existing platforms, but it is a safe bet to say it will happen eventually. Ring have already indicated this is likely with their own Ring+ ecosystem. Ring can be connected to other Smart Home devices via the If This Then That (IFTTT / IF) application. IFTTT allows Ring to connect with Philips Hue, Nest Thermostat , Evernote, Facebook and many more. 

The Ring Doorbell retails between £120 - £150. Quite a high price for a doorbell. However, it's being sold as more than just a doorbell. It's being sold as the first line of defence against burglary, and crime prevention doesn't come cheap. Ring also offer a subscription service that will store recordings to a cloud server for playback. The price for the subscription is £25 per year or £2.50 per month. In my experience of monitored security, this is extremely good value for money. 

Ring isn't perfect, however. Sometimes Ring will alert you and record triggered motion moments after the person that triggered it has been and gone, so you will end up with a recording of someone walking away from your house. This only happens on average once a week, but it's worth noting. 

As a standalone security device, it's limited as to its usefulness. However no security product is 100% effective. In my experience security devices work best when paired with other security products to provide a multi layered approach, and I think Ring themselves understand this, from looking at the companies they have chosen to partner with for Ring+. 

So, the question is, would I recommend Ring to anyone looking to improve their home security? The answer is yes, I would. The flaws I've mentioned could be fixed or improved with a firmware update, but they are existing flaws that need to be taken into consideration when considering purchase. As an addition to existing home security it could prove to be invaluable. Having Ring linked up to an Internet of Things connected Smart Home acting as a trigger for lights or other devices, it adds a subtle additional layer of security that could act as a deterrent to any would be intruder. 

Device reviewed: Firmware 1.6.125