The good folk at Nank (Naenka) have sent me their latest waterproof Bluetooth headphones to review. Wear 'em while you're in the shower, swimming, jogging, or just on an endless sea of Zoom calls about quarterly budgets. Unboxing Bone Conducting??! Yup! Rather than sticking speakers in your ears, these literally rattle the bones in your head to produce sound. It takes a little getting used to, but is rather pleasant. I also find it more comfortable than traditional in-ear products. It…
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Here's the problem: the current Bluetooth spec doesn't allow high-quality audio to be sent to a headset when it is also sending audio from the microphone. Instead, it switches to the Hands Free Profile (HFP) which only streams low quality mono sound. It makes Teams calls sound like garbage. The usual solution in Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams is to manually tell the app to use Bluetooth for speakers but a separate mic for input. In my experience, that never works with Teams. It forces HFP…
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Problem: My wife and I are going on a long plane journey and don't have seats next to each other. How can we communicate? Constraints: The plane WiFi is ruinously expensive. The in-seat messaging service isn't private. We both have Android phones. Preferences: Open Source. Secure. Easy to use. Solution: Use Bluetooth messaging app Briar. The Good The app was pretty easy to set up. Enter a username and password. Grant it the permissions it needs. Then add a contact. Briar lets you send…
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Back to the office! The only thing which makes other people bearable is being able to block out their chatter (sorry colleagues, I love you all dearly!). So I picked up this pair of on-ear Bluetooth headphones with active noise cancelation. They're pricey (a bit under £200) but are they any good? First impressions Not great. None of the buttons are labelled, so it's surprisingly hard to figure out how to turn it on and start pairing. It isn't either of the two large, prominent buttons, but …
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This is a curious set of headphones. The OpenEar Trio by Shenzen Alex Technology. They're completely flat and designed to sit outside the ears. They're designed so you can hear your surroundings. If you're outside exercising, it's useful to hear cars creeping up on you. If you're on a conference call, being able to hear the doorbell ringing is essential. These are super-lightweight. Once on, it's easy to forget you're wearing them. They're a discreet colour - rather than the garish dayglo …
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All printers are objectively awful. But this might be the cutest little printer I've ever used! This is the Phomemo M02 Pro. If you remember the late, lamented Little Printer you'll immediately understand the appeal. Connect your phone to it, and immediately print out text, graphics, drawings, rules, Tweets, the weather, ANYTHING! It uses thermal paper, so there's no ink to run out and no expensive refills. Phomemo sell their own paper in a range of colours and styles - but it looks like it …
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I recently went to a university hackathon, where students were trying to invent novel ways to help prevent pandemics. This was purely an academic exercise - they were not developing a fully-fledged app, nor were they creating official policies. I spent some time with one group discussing the privacy implications of what they had built. Thesis By monitoring nearby Bluetooth devices, we can tell who has come in to contact with an infectious person. We can warn people that they may have been…
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I've been waiting for these for a long time. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent#LazyWeb can anyone find me some Bluetooth headphones which recharge via USB-C.All the C ones I've found are wired.❤️ 0💬 3🔁 017:18 - Fri 04 November 2016 Anker, through its sub-brand SoundCore - have released the "Life Q10" headphones. They're usually about £45 - but Amazon had an instant coupon which took them down to £33. Bargain! They're exactly what I want in over-ear headphones. They're large enough for my flap…
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Here's a weird market gap. Most modern phones use USB-C to charge. Increasingly, they forego a headphone jack in favour of using Bluetooth. Peachy! But all of the Bluetooth headphones that I can find are charged via Micro USB. Which is bloody annoying! I want to charge my phone, laptop, camera, games console, and headphones from the same charger. Even looking at the wholesalers on Ali Express - there are plenty of wired USB-C headphones, but an absolute dearth of wireless ones. What…
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Many years ago, when I worked for a mobile phone company, a group of us were encouraged to come up with crazy ideas which the organisation could patent. I had one idea come this close to getting through until someone found an unnervingly similar patent and the whole thing was dropped. Well, it has been a dozen years and no one has released my killer idea, so I'm setting it free. It's simple. A set of Bluetooth headphones with a built in display to show off album artwork. Here's a quick…
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Last week I reviewed the Chipolo Plus. It's a small Bluetooth beacon which you can use as an item tracker - attach it to your keys or wallet and know where they are at all times. As I said in the review, the only downside is that it has a non-replaceable battery. I'm not sure I want to buy one for £20 and then throw it away after 12 months of use. A few of you asked how tightly sealed the unit is - so I'm going to take one apart and show you its guts! Warning! Opening your Chipolo will …
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This is a sponsored post by LOPOO UK who've asked me to review their Oittm Bluetooth Realsound Speaker. Let's get one thing out of the way first, this is not the Amazon Echo! It's about the same size, shape, and design - but it has a very different purpose What's it for? This is a big Bluetooth speaker with integrated LEDs and microphone. At a basic level, you pair your phone with it and the Realsound acts as a speaker and microphone - so you can hold telephone conversations with it. But …
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