Search here...
Subscribe
Home Blog Page 51

Cricut Joy Review: Start Crafting For Your Own Peace Of Mind

Marty
-
0
Cricut Joy Review: Start Crafting For Your Own Peace Of Mind

The great thing about writing tech reviews is getting to try out the best things. It’s the obvious perk. It’s not always the latest smartphones that pique my interest. Actually, it’s more likely to be the more unusual and surprising things that get me really excited. In 2021, perhaps the most surprising thing to land in for review is the Cricut Joy. The amount of fun I had with this smart crafting machine should be criminal.

In this review I’m going to cover:

What Does The Cricut Joy Do?

Cricut Joy is a small home crafting machine. It’s kind of like a printer but it’s capable of doing much more than that. Once you plug in and open the hood, you’ll see a small clamp fly across where you can lock in either a pen, marker or cutting head. You can there run various materials through the Cricut Joy and have it cut or draw designs for you.

It’s a neat little machine that’s easy to carry with you

 As you can see, it’s a rather small piece of kit too so you would be able to transport it in a backpack rather easily.

What Can Cricut Joy Cut?

The Joy is the baby of Cricut’s range, but it can still cut through over fifty different materials. Some of the best stuff for beginners like me are the Cricut Smart materials. These include Smart Vinyl, Smart Iron-On, Smart Label Writable Paper and Smart Label Writable Vinyl. These are the perfect size for the machine and don’t need an additional placement card to align before cutting.

There’s a list as long as my arm of other Cricut Joy-compatible materials from paper-thin faux leather to cardboard, but trust me when I say it’s flexible. If you need something specific just check that list on the Cricut website.

Cricut’s smart materials and alignment cards are great for crafting Luddites like me. They make the Cricut Joy really accessible despite a complete lack of crafting ability But I was quickly able to go beyond the obvious greeting cards.

Do You Have To Pay A Cricut Subscription?

There is a subscription available to make making a little bit easier with Cricut. The subscription costs €10 per month or €100 per year. I tested it out and personally didn’t see the point of it because I’m handy enough with Photoshop.

Now that you’re up and running, here are some of the crafting projects I took on as an absolute beginner with my Cricut Joy.

Cricut Joy Beginner Projects

You can personalise pretty much anything you can think of with a Cricut Joy. The only limit is really that the Joy is Cricuts smallest machine, capable of cutting about fifty different materials. The bigger machines can handle over 300 materials and cut bigger dimensions. This aside, It’s really important that I get across just how dynamic the little Cricut Joy is for a wide range of projects.

Greeting Cards With Cricut Joy

The most obvious place to start with my first crafting project is making a greeting card. My sister is an avid crafter and makes some of the best cards I’ve ever seen along with plenty of other things too. As luck would have it, my Cricut Joy arrived in for review just before her birthday so I got crafting.

One of the Cricut tools used for smooth separation of card and cuts with my first homemade card.

The delivery of my Cricut Joy included some other bits and pieces too. There were some tools to help separate materials after cutting and the likes, but these aren’t included as standard. The kit also included some of Cricut’s own materials, the handiest of which were the greeting cards. This is what you see above. You get the outer card, the inner piece of card and an envelope to wrap it in.

Making the card was fairly simple. There are loads of templates in the Cricut Design Space app. This is where the magic happens. The Design Space is free to use but there is a monthly subscription to access some premium designs. I used the trial but haven’t continued to use it since as I’m handy enough with Photoshop and working out how to get the look and feel I want in my designs.

Also in Design Space is a template designed specifically for the Cricut card packs. These include cut templates which you can see in the picture above. The template lets you easily slide the inner card in to show off the message you’ve cut out.

Finally, I swapped the cutting head for a marker and drew a balloon animal while the whole card was really just to joke about my sister who makes amazing cards.

The “Cards by Marty” logo give it that extra personal, and slightly creepy, touch

Now, no matter what the event is, I can make a personalised card. It does depend on having time, and even more so for me, a unique idea that I think is really cool or funny. No matter what I make though, I make sure to print my own little logo on the back for that personal touch!

Personalised Beer Glasses With Cricut Joy

I’m not afraid of a side project. During lockdown I also got into tasting craft beer, starting The Hoppy Ending with a friend of mine. What’s a beer project without your own custom-made beer glasses?

A lovely Imperial stout in my homemade custom The Hoppy Ending glass

I was floored by two things making this custom glass. First of all, how easy it was. I pulled together some design workm lined things up, put the gold vinyl into the Cricut Joy and hit “cut”. Then, using some transfer tape, I lined everything up and it was done.

The bigger thing that surprised me was how tough this vinyl is. I’ll admit I don’t have a dishwasher which maybe makes the vinyl last a bit longer, but the glass was perfect for the bones of a year until I broke it. I’ve made a few other similar glasses and they’re all going strong. I use a few at home and have passed a few along to friends and family as gifts.

Now, whenever I post a beer tasting on Instagram, it will often be sitting in a branded glass giving the whole thing a very professional look; or at least I think it does anyway.

Ironing Designs Onto Clothes With The Cricut Joy

Sticking with the theme of personalising stuff to look all professional, I’m going to move on to some Goosed.ie merch I made. I’m a baseball cap guy along with loving a good jumper. The merch choices seemed pretty straightforward from here.

The official line of Goosed.ie merch. Very limited edition.

To make this merch, I needed iron-on material. I took the easy option and just bought Cricut’s iron-on material specifically designed for the Joy. It makes life pretty easy when you’re crafting with the materials designed to spec for the machine you have. It does add a little cost but not too much and as you get more experienced you can wander away from Cricut’s own lines.

Again, I lined up the designs in Cricut’s Design Space, hit “reverse” and then “cut”. Once completed, I cut the design out, stripped away the excess and then positioned it on both the jumper and baseball cap. Cricut does have its own special iron for this process, but I don’t think you really need it. I just used a regular iron and the job was done.

Despite the Joy’s small size, you’re not limited to small designs. I had another small project making some aprons for my “inlaws elect”. This required much bigger text which was passed through the Joy line by line to give more scale. We were delighted with the result which also showed me you really can personalise just about anything you can find out there.

Verdict: Is The Cricut Joy Worth It Or Expensive?

On the surface, I thought the entire world of Cricut was a bit pricey until I got hooked on it. I spent over €500 on my PS5 and can easily spend €80 or more on a game. Why? Because I’ll get hours of entertainment from it. This put the Cricut’s price into perspective for me. Now, I can spend some time crafting and shut out the rest of the world. It’s honestly therapeutic to let your creativity flow. Sure, it’s still possible to make a mistake and waste a couple of euros worth of vinyl, but it’s just generally fun.

Having a creative outlet in lockdown is so valuable. And I can totally see the appeal of machines like this to creatives. But what I want to finish on is just how much fun I get from this machine and I’m would have never classed myself as a crafter. But here we are.

The Cricut Joy is available from Harvey Norman for €190 and other outlets like Currys but at a slightly higher price. I’ve also bought various official Cricut materials on Amazon.co.uk.

Metroid Dread; The Goosed Review

Alex
-
0
Metroid Dread; The Goosed Review

The queen is back! Metroid Dread is finally here and it’s everything we’ve ever wanted from the Metroid-Vania genre. I know I’m a little late in getting around to writing this but there’s one very good explanation for that. I can’t put the game down. I’ve just finished my 5th playthrough in a row and I can honestly say that this is my game of the year, bar none. But what makes it so special? What makes the decade and a half wait so worth it? Well, that’s what I’m here to tell you.

A Long and Winding Road

It’s been a long time since this 2007 screenshot

We first heard about Metroid Dread in 2005 when it was set to be the next 2D Metroid in the franchise (as opposed to the 3D Metroid Prime games) and as a direct follow up to Metroid Fusion on the GameBoy Advance. However, since that day it seems that it was stuck in development hell. It was teased in Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii and it was discussed in interviews and endless articles from Nintendo since. It wasn’t until earlier this year, though, that we got full confirmation that it was happening (for real this time) and that it would be released only a few months. Needless to say, this sent the fanbase into a frenzy of hype. Hype that Nintendo was all too happy to indulge, giving us trailer after trailer after trailer. I bought into the hype just as much as anyone and even brought my Switch with me in the car to work so I could install it after buying it on the drive home. I was ready to jump right in as soon as I crossed the threshold of my apartment.

What’s the Story?

You can tell there’s a lot of history on ZDR

Once I got past the menu screen, I was greeted with the welcome sight of a recap video for the franchise (remember, it’s been 19 years since the previous entry) before being given free rein to explore Planet ZDR to my heart’s content. Picking up right where Metroid Fusion left off, the Metroids have been all but eradicated from the galaxy along with the organism they were originally created to hunt, the X Parasite. However, a mysterious video of an X in the wild means our heroine, Samus Aran, must travel to the planet ZDR to investigate. In typical Metroid fashion, this is where things go badly for Samus, and she loses most of her abilities and weapons. It’s up to you to exterminate the X, find Samus’ abilities and take down the mysterious enemy that seems to be behind everything. That’s it. That’s the plot. Simple, effective, and not something you need to think too hard about. While there is a deeper story that connects to the deeper lore of Metroid, there’s absolutely no barrier for entry here.

How does it Feel?

All the plot and backstory, however, is mere set-dressing for the real star of the show, the gameplay. Oh, the gameplay. This is the best the Metroid franchise has ever felt, and I will not be accepting any arguments on that. Samus is fast, nimble and moves exactly how you want her to. The timing windows for things like wall-jumps and space-jumps are just wide enough that you never feel under pressure to perform them perfectly but still need some amount of skill to pull off. All of Samus’ old techniques from storm missiles to the morph ball have been dialed in to feel the best they’ve ever felt. There are even some new additions to Samus’ movement arsenal that really modernise the game and bring it into the 21st century proper. Samus can now slide under narrow gaps, perform melee attacks to stun enemies (first seen in Samus Returns, the remake of Metroid 2) and she can now even vault over small ledges. That’s right, you no longer have to jump to get over an ankle-high wall. What a revelation!

This would be the part where I’d usually offer some kind of criticism of an aspect of the gameplay that didn’t really work for me, but I really can’t do that here. This game plays like a dream and I can’t think of a single way to improve it from a control perspective. Maybe change the button mapping for storm-missiles but that’s a minor nit-pick at worst!

How is it Presented?

Old habits die hard, old enemies die even harder

In addition to the gameplay, I think this is the best version of Samus we’ve ever seen from a character and personality perspective. She is fearless, she’s confident and if you ever wondered if someone could show absolute disgust or contempt for something without being able to see their face, take a look at some of the cutscenes in this game because it’s clear that Samus hates some of the villains here. Clearly, Samus has recovered from the character-assassination she suffered in Other M (the game that we don’t talk about).

It’s important to take a break from bounty hunting every now and then

The design of the world and Samus’ suits are top-notch as well. From the clean sterile environments of the Computer labs to the wild, forested areas later in the game there’s a lot of variety here. The Varia and Gravity suits that you acquire throughout the game look excellent as well with fresh designs for the modern era of Metroid.

The game does an excellent job in guiding players as well. If you’re new to the franchise you have no need to worry about getting lost or overwhelmed at any time. The environments will always funnel you towards your next objective or they’ll make it painfully obvious that you need to use the ability you just gained to get yourself out of a sticky situation or room. Don’t listen to what grumpy old men say, this game is as beginner-friendly as it gets.

It can’t all be good, right?

If I had any criticism of the game, I’d say that it opens up a bit too late. In all 2D Metroid games, you’re usually given carte-blanche to explore the different levels to your heart’s content. This is essential for finding health upgrades, extra ammo capacity, and nice little titbits of lore. In Dread, however, it keeps you in an enclosed space almost right up until the very end. While there is a lot of exploration to be done at any time it can be a little frustrating knowing that there’s an upgrade on the other side of the map that you have the necessary upgrade to reach, but you’re being restricted by some other part of the game.

Secondly, it’s possible to earn artwork representing some of the games in the franchise depending on how quickly you finish the game, and on what difficulty. Following one of my playthroughs I set about trying to finish the game on hard mode within 8 hours so I’d unlock the second-highest tier reward (the top is finishing in under 4 hours!). Now I thought I’d unlock everything up to the second-best reward and I could call that a day. Not so. I unlocked the rewards for hard mode, but not the rewards for easy mode. Meaning that if you want everything you have to play the game through in under four hours on normal mode, then again on hard mode. This is a tiny point but it’s one that stuck out to me.

Conclusions

Overall, I cannot recommend Metroid Dread enough. It’s not hard to see why this franchise continues to be the apex of its genre. Whether you’re a long-time fan or a series newbie this is one of the best Switch games out there right now and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t pick it up. Now if someone could just remake Castlevania Symphony of the Night we’d be set!

Nanoleaf Elements Review: Bring Circadian Rhythm Into Your Home

Marty
-
0
Nanoleaf Elements Review: Bring Circadian Rhythm Into Your Home

A few days ago I was listening to a fantastic, older, episode of The Blindboy Podcast. Blindboy was speaking with Dr. Sabina Brennan, a neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. They were discussing all things “brain”, but one thing, in particular, piqued my interest; circadian rhythm. It was of interest not least because a few weeks back Nanoleaf sent over some Elements lights for me to test out. I’ve been living with them for a while now and love the mood they give my gaff.

What Are Nanoleaf Elements?

Nanoleaf is a smart light manufacturer. I met them a few years ago at IFA and have to say they’ve come on leaps and bounds since then, even though they were exciting back then too. Nanoleaf focuses on bringing products to market that no one else does and their uniqueness does shine through. I love my LIFX Beam for example, but there are others on the market like it.

Nanoleaf’s Elements are a twist on the colourful light panels which brought the manufacturer to the fore. Elements are faux-wood panels with a gorgeous grain design making their wood look very convincing. While they look great turned off, they’re in their prime lit up. The pack I was sent came with seven panels and how you organise them is totally up to you.

Close up shot of the Nanoleaf Elements. Maybe the grain should align?

Unlike many similar products on the market, Elements are limited to warmer colours because they only produce white light and an orange hue from the panels natural colour. Personally, I’m loving these colours on cold winter nights, but some may see this as a bit limitation of choice. The atmosphere the lights pump into the room is immense. Since getting the LIFX Beam and the Dyson Lightcycle Morph, I’ve become a little obsessed with lighting not simply being a bulb in the ceiling in the middle of your room.

Controlling The Nanoleaf Elements

I’ve positioned the Elements somewhat out of reach as you can see above. One downside of this is that I can’t make use of the touch controls.

The physical on-board remote for Elements

First, there are controls built into the panels. This will appeal to the many seeking atmosphere without the need for smart connectivity. The panels themselves react to touch too and can even be set to bop along to your music.

As you might very well expect, you can also control Elements from your smartphone or by connecting to your smart assistant. The latter is my primary way of controlling the lights along with them being on a schedule. This finally brings me to talking about circadian rhythm.

How To Fix Your Circadian Rhythm With Nanoleaf Elements

The podcast I opened with spoke about how messed up our natural rhythms are thanks to lockdown and extended periods working from home. Let’s jump in.

What Are Circadian Rhythms?

We are completely hardwired based on our surroundings. What I mean by that is that how we spend out day massively impacts our moods and energy levels. Circadian rhythms follow a 24-hour cycle and are directly linked to how much light or dark we’re exposed to. Ultimately, these rhythms are why we sleep during the dark night and wake during the bright day.

I’m sure you’ve heard that you shouldn’t be using your phone too close to bedtime, right? Well, that’s because the blue light from your screen messes with your natural circadian rhythm and melatonin production leading to poor sleep hygiene and likely a bad nights sleep.

What Can Nanoleaf Elements Do For Your Circadian Rhythms?

In the Nanoleaf app, you can choose from a wide range of lighting scenes and options. You can animate your panels, schedule them and have them react to various different parameters. Another option you have is called “Circadian Lighting”. Once you pop in your location, your Nanoleaf Elements lights will automatically adjust themselves to align with the ideal lighting for your locality. The idea here is that the lights help you light the room you’re in with lightning that can adjust to get you ready for bed.

Just be aware that if you’re going to brush your teeth before bed, the bathroom is really bright and can undo lots of your good clock setting work! Dr. Brennan recommends that you brush early instead of just before bed so you can get your clock back into position, along with no phone before bed either.

I love using light in this manner and I have to say my LIFX Beam is where I notice it most. I have these beside the bed where I’m naturally woken up by an artificial dawn. I’ve noticed that I regularly wake just before my alarm and feel far more energised. So now I have an extra bit of circadian rhythm management in my life thanks to Nanoleaf.

Nanoleaf Elements: The Verdict

Let’s kick off with the price because this is the biggest hurdle you’ll need to overcome while weighing up whether or not to buy the Elements. You can buy the Elements directly from Nanoleaf for €229. For just lights, that’s steep. But if you view these as a feature of your living space it quickly becomes a great value inclusion in your living room. The Nanoleaf Elements are almost like a piece of art, as much as they are lights. Add in the additional benefits of training your circadian rhythms and you might very well start to see that price tag as a great investment.

Long Term Ebike Hire In Dublin With Bleeper Subscriptions

Marty
-
0
Long Term Ebike Hire In Dublin With Bleeper Subscriptions

For my sins, I’ve had a few spins in Dublin City centre in my car lately. It’s something I try to avoid like the plague. I see my car as a specific tool for a very specific job and Dublin City centre just isn’t the place for it. I much prefer active travel, particularly cycling, even though I don’t own my own bike. I use Dublin Bikes, Bleeper Bikes and from time to time, Moby Bikes. So I was pretty excited when Bleeper got in touch and offered me access to Bleeper Subscriptions, their long term ebike rental scheme.

What Is Bleeper Subscriptions?

Bleeper Bikes launched in Dublin back in 2017. Despite a rocky launch due to Dublin City Council restrictions, the service has become a popular and widely used method of getting from A to B in the city. Ebikes have, in parallel, grown really popular amongst those opting for active alternatives to public transport. Bleeper spotted an opportunity to create a longer-term bike rental scheme where customers can lease an ebike. This is called Bleeper Subscriptions.

Bleeper Subscriptions start at €28 per week for a folding ebike. I was testing out the Bleeper eCity 1 Subscription which will set you back €35 per week, or €140 per month. This subscription will over you cycling up to 250 kilometres per week, which should be loads for most users. There is one further plan which costs €51 per month for a cargo ebike if you have heavy transport requirements.

The final thing you need to know about is the €100 deposit. You’ll get that back once you look after the bike and return it at the end of your subscription which you can cancel at any time with seven days notices.

What’s It Like Living With An Ebike Lease?

Given I’ve never owned a bike in Dublin City, I wasn’t expecting much from leasing one. I’ve been able to get by just fine using various bike-share schemes. Fortunately, the test came just as I had quite a bit of getting around to do, between going to the office and a few dentist visits. The only oddity in my trips is that they were all quite short hop inner-city trips. Still, the result of having a bike sitting there waiting to be used was me getting very attached to my Bleeper Ebike.

There’s some next-level convenience in having a bike to hand, exactly where it’s expected at all times. No more worrying about a bike being at the dock or walking halfway across the city to find one. I didn’t have to worry about the dock at my destination being full or the area being disallowed for parking.

All of these points I’ve experienced while using bike share systems.

Leasing an ebike comes with a much higher sense of ownership. Now I did have an electric scooter before but that was more of a pain than anything else, mainly because I couldn’t charge in my secure bike lock-up. This is just one of the many features I loved on the Bleeper City eBike, so let’s take a closer look at the bike itself.

Is The Bleeper City eBike A Good Bike?

My first impression to look at Bleeper’s ebike was that it wasn’t anything special. This might actually be a good thing given the level of bike theft in Dublin City. But upon closer inspection, I found so many things I loved with this bike.

The Bike’s Design

I have a soft spot for step-through bike frames. Stopping in traffic is an unfortunate fact of life cycling in Dublin and there’s nothing worse than struggling to get your feet on the ground or when you want to jump off your bike quickly. The first big win for the Bleeper eBike was the general design and the fact it’s a step-through frame.

ebike parked outside cafe with food
Parking up outside Bibi’s Cafe in Dublin 8

Ride Comfort

To be totally honest, I didn’t expect this to be the comfiest bike in the world, but it really was nice to cycle. This was mainly down to fork suspension on the front and a very easy to miss shock absorber under the seat. The curved handlebars give you a really nice cycling position with a great combination of posture and control. Control is a key term here because you want to have loads of that when taking on Dublin traffic.

The shock absorber under the seat makes for a comfy ride

Ebike Features

Right, the important stuff. What makes this an ebike? The front wheel is home to the motor that assists you up to 25kmph. On the rear you’ll find the detachable battery which stores enough power to give you 40km to 100km range, depending on how much assistance you’re using.

The detachable battery is an excellent feature as it means you can charge the bike in your garage, kitchen or workplace depending on which is more convenient. Given my own bike lockup isn’t connected to my home and is powerless, I loved this feature.

The minimal onboard computer system shows the remaining power and assistance level next to power and assistance controls.

I mentioned there that the power usage depends on your chosen assistance level. This is controlled with a minimal onboard computer system with a simple interface.

The motor itself on the bike has plenty of oomph too. When up to full assistance, you’ll feel it giving you a great boost when you need it most. I love having this while navigating junctions in Dublin and being able to get a genuine jump on motor traffic. It helped me feel safer

Safety And Security Features

There are no light controls on the bike. It’s all automatic so when you start cycling and it’s dark enough, you’ll be lit up on both the front and rear. The only other controls you have are the usual three-speed gear shift a bell and brakes for both wheels. One note on the brakes; they are strong which is needed given the extra power the bike delivers. The right is your rear brake and don’t forget that. I pulled the left in an emergency stop and somehow avoided catastrophe! Good brakes are important, but just pay attention to how you’re using them.

Beyond these typical features of the bike covered so far, I want to add a few lines on the locking system. I’ve never used the AXA locking system before but it’s absolutely brilliant. Bleeper eBikes come with a dual locking system. First is the ringlock that goes through the rear wheel spokes. In addition the this, there’s the chain lock. It’s all managed through a central system and you have to leave the chain on the bike so you can’t forget it. When using the bike, you can’t remove the key either. This is a feature, not a bug, that encourages you to lock the bike when not in use.

Is Renting An Ebike In Dublin Worth It?

I’m always super aware of one thing in reviews like this. I’m not paying for it. Normally, that doesn’t bother me very much but on the surface this scheme is expensive. €140 per month is a lot of money and that needs to be considered before I even spend a second weighing up value for money.

But when you do some digging and look at this as a choice between passive and active travel, things start to get interesting. A monthly “rambler” pass on Dublin Bus will set you back €165 and because this is an ebike, it genuinely can replace longer haul commuting. Systems like this are naturally cheaper in cities like Amsterdam, but this is a good start for a very new concept in Dublin. One big advantage is having Bleeper on hand if something goes wrong. If a chain breaks or a tyre goes flat, give Bleeper a shout and they’ll fix you up.

Personally, whether or not I would pay for the service is still up in the air a bit for me and I think that makes sense. I live slap bang in the middle of the city so that’s a big outlay for a small convenience boost. I wouldn’t be getting a Dublin Bus from A to B regardless, and I think that’s what this is all about.

The Switch To Active Travel

Active travel is all about using your own power to get from A to B. I hung up my scooter for active travel in a bid to get fitter and lose some weight. Ebikes let you adopt active travel for longer commutes and that’s who I think this is really for. It’ll do your body and mind a world of good and maybe you’ve already been thinking about it but the prohibitive cost of buying an ebike is putting you off. If that sounds like you, renting an ebike from Bleeper for a few months to see how it feels might be the best place to start.

Revolut Outages: Over €1 Million Toy Show Donation Promise From Bank

Marty
-
0
Revolut Outages: Over €1 Million Toy Show Donation Promise From Bank

The morning after the Toy Show is always that little bit sad, knowing it’s a whole year away from now until we get to go again. However I’m feeling about it though, I can only imagine how the Revolut tech team is feeling. After major rolling outages all day during Black Friday which continued into the Toy Show hours, RTÉ was forced to remove Revolut as a donation channel for the Toy Show Appeal. As a gesture to make up for lost donations, Revolut’s CTO, Vlad Yatsenko, has offered to make a personal donation and match public donations too.

The Revolut Outages

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Revolut to have outages. I was in a cafe grabbing some lunch and trying to add some cash to my Revolut card when I noticed what was going on. A quick check of the Revolut Status page for Ireland told a grim story as everything was down.

Naturally, the assumption is that Black Friday sales were reaching record-breaking levels and placing incredible stress on the digital-only bank with Ireland’s 1.5 million customers getting their spend on.

Unfortunately, the outages carried into the night and impacted donations to the Toy Show Appeal. At one stage during the night, Revolut was removed from the on-screen promotion of the Toy Show Appeal and when the show came back from a break, the host, Ryan Tubridy, pushed people towards the official appeal website instead. The app did come back functioning during the Toy Show. I tested it and got my own donation in, but it was not promoted on-screen anymore.

This led to quite a bit of backlash online with members of the public, including Dustin the Turkey’s official Twitter account, calling for the online bank to make up for lost donations to the charity.

Vlad Yatsenko To Personally Donate Over €1 Million To Toy Show Appeal

Vlad Yatsenko is Revolut’s co-founder and Chief Technical Officer (CTO). Basically, that means he would have been the one in Revolut having to answer the big questions about what’s going on with the outages.

The status screen during the Toy Show

Vlad answered the call to make up for missed donations to the charity. In a tweet from his personal account, later shared by The Late Late Show’s account, he announced that he donated €100k directly to the charity himself. He continued to state he would “match further donations this weekend via Revolut up to €1 million”.

At the time of writing, Revolut donations to the Toy Show Appeal stand at €1.6 million. It’s unknown what the number was at the time of Yatsenko’s tweet and how much more will need to be donated for him to end up donating, but I find it very likely it’ll be the full €1 million. Once that €1 million figure is hit, the charity stands to benefit well over €2 million from Revolut along which at the peak of the night was the source for 50% of donations before the outages hit.

toy show appeal card on revolut homescreen
Revolut pushing the Toy Show Appeal in-app.

Revolut has also added a call to action in the app’s home screen, encouraging people to donate and prior to the show sent a communication to all customers who had opted in.

Update: Article updated to include the planned customer communication was sent prior to The Late Late Toy Show.

JBL’s Reflect Pro Flow: The Best Headphones For Running And The Gym

Marty
-
0
JBL’s Reflect Pro Flow: The Best Headphones For Running And The Gym

JBL is a brand that has grown massively in my estimations in recent years. My feelings have evolved from seeing them as a value brand to being really excited when their tech lands in for review. The latest gear to land in is the JBL Reflect Pro Flow. They landed at a great time, just as I was starting to hit the gym. I’ve been going now for nearly three months using these regularly. I definitely feel like these are the best earbuds or headphones for running or working out in the gym.

Design

One of the most important things to look out for in a pair of headphones for running or working out is the design. If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds you need to ensure they’re going to be a snug fit. Ironically, not that long ago this was the downfall of JBL earbuds reviewed by Alex, so I was on high alert straight away.

I’m doing lots of new stuff in the gym. Lying down for bench press, jumping up for burpees and generally just moving around quite a bit. Combining several important design aspects like weight and multiple tips and winglets in the box ensure you get a perfectly snug fit with these buds.

JBL’s mix and match fit guide

All of this reduces the strain of the buds on your ears, meaning you can wear them longer and focus on your workout. JBL actually launched Project Rock a while back so pop on his rap track and you’re guaranteed to lift more than ever.

An important additional note on the design front is the IP68 rating. The secure fit means you can, in theory, wear these swimming or more conservatively in the shower after your workout.

One area of the design which does stand out as fairly poor is the touch controls. I do feel for JBL here because they’ve fit in an impossible amount of quality and tech into these tiny buds, leaving a small surface area for controls. Through a series of single, double or triple taps on either bud you can control everything. For me, it’s just too much and I always give up and reach for my phone.

Sound Quality

Straight out of the traps I’m saying the sound is brilliant, which I’m not at all surprised by for JBL. There’s supreme balance between treble and bass that makes various styles of music crisp and clear but also packs quite a punch. The only fault I could find is that the Custom EQ isn’t going to be for everyone, but at the same time, most people will never go near it anyway.

To support the great sound is some incredible active noise cancelling, an area of earbuds that are mind-blowingly good these days. Whether it be the blocking out the electro house of the gym’s playlist or the grunting counting of the guy on the nearest machine, you can focus on your tunes or podcasts much better than you could with regular earbuds.

The final, also very important, area of sound quality is for calls. While these don’t quite meet the same call quality as the Huawei Freebuds 4, mainly down to the lack of a stem, they are perfectly ok for calls in most scenarios. This is thanks to six internal mics picking up your audio.

Battery And Other Features

The onboard battery life of these buds is something else. With ANC turned on you’ll get up to eight hours and that’s legit. Turn off ANC and you’ll get up to ten hours. That makes these a proper alternative to over-ear headphones on long-distance flights. Better still, the nicely designed carry case stashes a further 20 hours which means you can stay away from a plug for 30 hours. The case even supports wireless charging which, for me, is far beyond a gimmick when you do have wireless charge pads dotted around the home. You can also charge using USB-C if that’s more your thing.

In terms of bonus features, the JBL Reflect Pro Flow support Google Assistant and Alexa, giving you touch-free controls and access to the smart assistant of your choice on the go.

JBL Reflect Pro Flow: The Verdict

There are no better headphones for the gym on the market right now. I’ve tried lots of different styles and approaches to audio while working out but the JBL Reflect Pro Flow are the only buds that are bordering on perfection for working out. Along with my smart padlock, these are one of my favourite gym gadgets.

The one catch is that these are pricy at the bones of €200. You can buy the JBL Reflect Pro Flow from Amazon.co.uk.

Roccat Torch Review: Is Roccat’s Flagship Streaming Mic Worth It?

Marty
-
0
Roccat Torch Review: Is Roccat’s Flagship Streaming Mic Worth It?

The console era of gaming has taken quite the hit because of gamers investing in their PC gaming rigs. Hand-in-hand with this comes increased interest in streaming and a world where RGB lighting aesthetic is a must. While there’s plenty of great mics on the market, like the Blue Yeti, few appeal to gamers. This is what Roccat set out to fix with the Torch USB microphone for streaming and gaming. Roccat sent one over for me to test drive and here’s what I think of it.

Unboxing And Design

Sometimes when I get gadgets in to review, I start developing preconceived notions in my head. It might be as soon as I’m told a gadget is on the way or from the first time I see the box. The Roccat Torch did this to me as I thought it was going to be a wireless studio-grade mic. That’s not the case, as unboxing the mic revealed loads of cables. One to connect the microphone to the base and another to connect the base to your computer.

The Roccat Torch is not in the slightest bit wireless

First Impressions

My first impressions of the mic itself are that it’s incredibly well built, passing the “weight as a sign of quality” test with flying colours. The mic has high quality metal grill and is finished with high-quality plastic. The mic is screwed into the control base where you’ll find three primary switches to control pattern, volume and gain; more on all of this later.

Features

The standout features at first glance are the simplistic controls and useful interfaces. Atop the mic I can see a sensor for handsfree muting and front and centre of the base is a “Live” light to indicate mics are “hot”. I love this design and the features that give this a real “studio” vibe.

To add to that studio vibe, the Torch can be setup on a boom arm. I invested in such a boom during lockdown and I love it. Included in the box is a super long USB-C cable that lets you connect the mic to the boom arm and keep the mixer table sepearately on your desk.

Build Quality

The two knobs display great build quality but the gain slider on the right does feel flimsey. The real appeal of the Roccat Torch is the, still somewhat subtle, RGB lighting. If you’ve got some other RGB products from Roccat that support AIMO, this slots right into the mix. For streaming, your mic is often visible and the balance Roccat struck here was creating a great looking and feeling mic that offers the RGB light without distracting too much.

Overall, the feeling here is relatively premium. I’d be happy to recommend the mic as a gift idea for the gamers or streamers in your life. But it does offer lots more to make it appeal to wider audiences.

Roccat Torch Setup

Setting up the Roccat Torch was interesting. First of all, prepare to get irrate as I am testing this mic on Mac. It works perfectly fine, but you do have to connect the base to your computer using the USB-A cable. For some reason, USB-C to USB-C just wouldn’t work.

Sticking with some of the odd frustrations with the USB-C cables, the ports and cable ends have little notches on them. This means you can ony plug everything in a certain way and you need the cables that come with the mic. Lose or break one and you’ll have to come back to Roccat. Instead of functionality, this feels more like an attempt to shoehorn a proprietary cable into the mix. Rather annoying that if I’m honest.

After all this was said and done, I’ll still admit the setup is rather easy. There’s no drivers to install on my Mac either. It’s just plug and play.

Roccat Torch Functionality

Once again, the gamers reading this will die a little as I tell you how I tested the mic; using Microsoft Teams. I’m so rock and roll, but to be honest it’s a great way to test things out. Compatibility wise, it worked immediately and the “Live” light kicked in to indicate my mic was on.

Swiping your hand over the top of the mic puts it into mute mode while another swipe brings it back. You can change the sensitivity of this on the rear of the mixing table.

A sensor on top of the Torch lets you wave the mic into mute mode.

As someone who’s in a lot of Teams calls I like the idea of taking the microphone control away from my Teams interfact and having it on a phyisal mixing board on my desk instead. Also, having a clear indicator of your mics “Live” status means no awkward moments giving out about Jim in accounts.

The “mic is hot” indicator is a great feature to avoid awkward work moments.

Sound Quality And Pickup Patterns

The first control on the left of the mixing board is for pickup patterns. This literally means which directions the mic is going to pick up sound from. The first setting is front and back audio, switching the mic’s RBG colours to purple. One notch counter clockwise changes the mic to front only, displaying a orange colour. Twist once more and you get a blue colour with additional front-only boost before one more twist turns the input off completely.

The volume knob does what you’d expect and is fully compatible with the volume on my Mac acting as a midi controller. As I mentioned, the gain switch is a bit flimsey but one cool feature is that the lights in the mic reflect the gain.

In terms of quality, I have to say I’m impressed. I usually use a proper studio-grade Prosonus MIDI setup and this is right up there. Some of the tone is sacrificed for clarity, but we’re not recording music here, we’re gaming, streaming or joining work calls. If you’re looking for the Blindboy-style podcast hug level of audio, you’ll need to stick to more complex media style setups like the Presonus AudioBox iOne.

Low-latency audio playback is made easy too with a 3.5mm jack right on the back of the mixing table. One thing worth noting is that live monitoring isn’t easily done, so bare that in mind.

Roccat Torch: The Verdict

The Roccat Torch isn’t going to be the mic of choice for streamers who just want impeccable audio. It is, however, the obvious choice for gamers who want a great mic that matches a gaming or streaming aesthetic. It offers enough to sit in the mix and has enough unique features to set it aside for some, while being ruled out for others. By know, you should know which side of the fence you sit on.

Toy Show Appeal Donations Now Possible Though Revolut

Marty
-
0
Toy Show Appeal Donations Now Possible Though Revolut

You’ve killed Revolut with kindness! Revolut is currently experiencing an outage. You can still donate to the Toy Show Appeal on their website.

Donate

There are two kinds of people in Ireland. Those who can’t wait for the Late Late Toy Show and those who claim they can’t, but are still really excited. Last year, the annual Christmas toy fest launched the Toy Show Appeal. This year it’s back and if you’re a Revolut customer donating will be easier than ever as the popular digital bank has added the Toy Show Appeal to the charities section of their app.

What Is The Toy Show Appeal?

The Toy Show Appeal has a fantastic back story. The whole idea was inspired by Saoirse Ruane. After a cancer diagnosis, Saoirse raised money for a prosthetic leg she needed. It turned out that she raised more than she needed so she donated the excess to help other children in need. 2020 was the first year and the Toy Show Appeal really hit the ground running, raising over €6.6 million over a single weekend to help various charities.

The incredible Saoirse Ruane; Image from RTÉ

Naturally, given the incredible response to the first call, the Toy Show Appeal returns for 2021.

Later this week, if you’re a Revolut customer you’ll be able to donate directly to the Toy Show Appeal from within your Revolut app. This is great news given that Revolut now boasts an impressive 1.5 million customers in Ireland. The online-only bank has also confirmed that 100% of the donations to the Toy Show Appeal will go to charity with no fees or charges being levied at any point.

This will be possible thanks to Revolut’s Donations feature which already supports the Irish Cancer Society along with many other charities here in Ireland and around the world. As well as allowing customers to donate instantly in the app, Revolut will also support the appeal by sending a dedicated message to its Irish customers on the night of the Toy Show asking them to donate.

Head of Public affairs at Revolut, Sebastian Hamilton highlights that “the past two years have been extremely challenging for young people across the island, so being able to help the Toy Show in changing childrens’ lives for good is a true privilege. Everyone in Revolut Ireland is thrilled to be able to support the RTE Toy Show Appeal in this way”.

 



Watch Peacock In Ireland: Sky Customers Get It For Free

Marty
-
0
Watch Peacock In Ireland: Sky Customers Get It For Free

If you don’t have a streaming service, are you even making money these days? I’m saying that from the perspective of the networks of course. Sky and NBC Universal have today announced that Sky customers in Ireland will be able to watch Peacock content starting from tomorrow with no additional cost.

What Is Peacock?

Peacock is yet another streaming service to add to the pile of Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and all the others out there. I’ve slated tech companies and networks in the past for exposing Irish consumers to “death by a thousand cuts”. So it’s good news today that Peacock will at least be free to existing Sky Ireland customers.

What Can You Watch On Peacock?

Peacock currently offers a wide range of recognisable content.

Peacock Originals

It didn’t take Netflix long to realise that the real goldmine to be tapped was making your own content instead of just buying up others. Similarly, Peacock is bankrolling and publishing a lot of their own original shows.

Along with the new series based on Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol, Peacock carries Saved by the Bell, Rutherford Falls, Punky Brewster, The Girl in the Woods, Five Bedrooms, and Vanderpump Rules. There’s also a plethora of new content coming with upcoming series like MacGruber, Bel-Air, Joe Exotic, Killing It, Vampire Academy, The Undeclared War, Irreverent, The Innocent, The Resort, The Missing, The Best Man, Angelyne, Ted, and Battlestar Galactica

Current And Classic Shows

It took Disney+ a little while to realise that the Disney back catalog of movies and shows wouldn’t be enough to justify a subscription. That’s why a lot of streaming platforms also offer content from elsewhere. Peacock will also be offering classics like The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Psych, Superstore, A.P. Bio, The Mindy Project, Will & Grace, Mr. Mayor, Young Rock, and Saturday Night Live.

Also appearing are popular dramas such as Battlestar Galactica, Monk, Bates Motel, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, 12 Monkeys, Downton Abbey, House, Suits, Quantum Leap, Warehouse 13, The Equalizer, and Grimm; and unscripted hits like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Million Dollar Listing, Southern Charm, Below Deck, The Real Housewives, and Top Chef.

Movies

And no streaming platform is complete without great movies to sit down and grab the popcorn for. You’ll be able to watch he Best Man, Bird on a Wire, Bowfinger, Brüno, Bulletproof, Children of Men, Definitely, Maybe, Far and Away, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Game, Hanna, Hannibal, The Last House on the Left, MacGruber, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Meet Joe Black, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Out of Sight, Pride & Prejudice, Scent of a Woman, Seed of Chucky, A Simple Wish, The Skeleton Key, Tower Heist, United 93, Very Bad Things, What Dreams May Come, and You, Me, and Dupree.

How To Watch Peacock In Ireland

Peacock is “soft launching” in Ireland tomorrow. This means there won’t be much fanfare. Instead, it’s a small bonus for existing Sky or NOW TV customers. I’m just checking whether or not Sky customers can watch on the Peacock App or SkyGO when out and about or if this is only for Sky TV at home and NOW TV on the go. Watch this space for an update.

It’s The Beginning Of The End For Those Annoying Cookie Banners

Marty
-
0
It’s The Beginning Of The End For Those Annoying Cookie Banners

A couple of years ago, websites started to display cookie banners to visitors. Overnight, nearly every website in the world seemed to prompt you to accept cookies before continuing to read some content. On the one hand, it was annoying, but on the other hand, it meant websites cared about privacy, right? Wrong. Today, the Belgian Data Protection Authority published a draft decision stating that this system, designed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and used by massive companies such as Google, is illegal.

The crux of the problem here is that a massive group, tasked with representing online advertising, developed a system which gave users the impression they had control over their privacy on websites when they really didn’t. All those times you clicked “accept” or “reject” cookies, it didn’t really matter.

The IAB tried to deny that pseudo-anonymous codes attributed to people browsing the web and apps was not “personal data”, making it fall outside of GDPR. They also denied they were a “data controller” under GDPR. They have a vested interest in ensuring the continued tracking of users by way of cookies was retained after GDPR. This is why they developed the cookie system which allowed people to opt in or out of cookies being dropped on their device. But a group of concerned data protection minds were concerned that the system didn’t have publics’ best interest in mind.

The Panoptykon Foundation, Stichting Bits of Freedom, Ligue des Droits Humains, Dr Jef Ausloos, Dr Pierre Dewitte, and Dr Johnny Ryan made up this group who’ve been on a long journey trying to get to the bottom of the problems with the IAB’s cookie consent system. Their work has led to today’s draft decision which states the IAB’s consent system is “misleading”. According to evidence from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties the “IAB Europe knew that conventional tracking-based advertising was ‘incompatible with consent under GDPR’ before it launched the consent system”.thattheir “Transparency and Consent Framework” (TCF), adopted by over 80% of European websites, impacting every user that visited since.

This should be the beginning of the end for cookies banners. Websites are fast learning that many solutions have been selling snake oil as data protection regulators play catch up to issue decisions outlawing dodgy approaches to user data. It pains me how slow moving data protection complaints are. I’ve been stuck with a complaint against the Catholic Church for years, with, along with the IAB complaint, dates back to 2018 and the introduction of GDPR.

Will this be the immediate end of cookie banners? No. But it’s absolutely the beginning of the end.

You’ll be able to follow the draft decision being updated through the the Irish Council for Civil Liberties website.

1...505152...196Page 51 of 196

About Goosed

Welcome to Goosed.ie! We test the latest consumer electronics and tech from around the world to help you find gadgets that make your life just a little bit easier.

Must Read

Pure Advance Flex Electric Scooter Review

Gadgets 0
I’ve been using electric scooters in Dublin City since...

Aer Lingus Launches Starlink Wi-Fi, But Not Everyone Is Cheering

News 0
Aer Lingus has become the latest airline to roll...

Sora is Dead. Good. AI Bubble Shows Weakness

Artificial Intelligence 0
OpenAI pulled the plug on Sora this week, quietly...

Subscribe

© 2024 Goosed. All Rights Reserved.