As my house has slowly become more Alexa-enabled, I have been playing with many different ways to interact with her. Whether the Echo Show is showing me who is at the front door or the Echo Spot being a super fancy clock, there are so many options now available in New Zealand. Finally, I had a chance to take the spruced-up OG, the Echo Dot, to see if that has a place in my home. Design https://youtu.be/XNA8-i_IBLM The first thing I am going to address is the design, and not because I love it. When I think of Echo Dots,…
Author: Blair Loveday
If there is one thing I didn’t know I needed in my life, it was audio sunglasses. Well, JBL decided they were a thing with the new JBL Soundgear Audio Glasses, and now that I have experienced them, I certainly have a slot for them in my life. What even are audio sunglasses? https://youtu.be/uqE8n_f9WmY The short answer is sunglasses with speakers in them. The longer answer is they are a pair of sunglasses equipped with a little speaker in each of the glasses arms. This means you can enjoy your jams on the go. Of course you can currently do…
Not wanting to lose their spot cornering the market of affordable phones, Motorola has dropped their latest phone the moto g85 5G. https://youtu.be/Gu3_yZUivhI At just $499, the moto g85 5G boasts a whole list of premium features that are a rarity for devices at this level, including: Seamless 6.7″ pOLED endless edge display with full HD+ resolution 50MP main camera and 32MP front camera Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5 screen for enhanced durability Long-lasting 5000 mAh battery keeping you powered up for over 34 hours 5G connectivity And of course, Motorola’s signature vegan leather finish
My house has become more and more Alexa enabled. This is for no reason other than that the devices are bloody awesome. After being blown away by the Echo Show 5, I was keen to see how the less functional Echo Spot would slot into the house. It turns out, perfectly. It’s a clock! https://youtu.be/s3-qGPGtE8s The most important feature function the Echo Spot has is that it’s a clock. A smart clock, but a clock. If you are after a bunch of features, like being able to watch a movie, then the Echo Show series is what you are after.…
I have been using and loving JBL earbuds for a while now. Despite having used a few brands, from Sony to Xiaomi to Panasoinc, every time I returned to my JBL Live Pro 2. Well, now I am taking a new pair of JBL earbuds for a spin to see if they can dethrone my Live Pro 2’s, and the short answer is, I have a new favourite pair of earbuds. What’s so great about the JBL Live Beam 3’s? https://youtu.be/FJwCsPpDEbM The first and most obvious thing is they have a screen. They aren’t the first JBL earbuds to have…
I have fallen in love with the Ring Video doorbells and camera options in recent years. The simplicity of use and the functionality on offer have consistently blown me away. Well, the new Ring Battery Video Doorbell has come in with a great price, packing a whole lot of features and some serious design improvements. Design improvements? What are you talking about? https://youtu.be/98w_b-HoClg The ring video doorbells to date have been pretty consistent, for better or worse. They all had the same shape, all mounted to the wall the same way, and had the same removable batteries that could slide…
Oppo has been one of my favorite phone brands for a while. It entered the New Zealand market with mid-range phones offering close to premium-range features, which quickly had me enamored with the brand. In the last few years, they have started releasing premium phones that vary from the powerful to the foldy. Last year they dropped the Oppo Find N3, and I was glad to finally take one for a test fold. It’s foldy https://youtu.be/NyhVMmy0Ljs I had used the Oppo Flip before, which I liked thanks to it taking up less height space in my pocket. The problem was…
When Bloomburrow released, it was a bit of a polarizing set. Some people loved the cutesy animal aesthetic, whereas some people didn’t gel with it. Well, if cutesy isn’t your thing, then the newest Magic: the Gathering set, Duskmourn: House of Horror, might be your jam! But what’s it like to play? I will get to that soon. A House of Horror? https://youtu.be/EPGyMsjsg8k Yup, the newest plane is a giant haunted house. There was a big baddy called Valgavoth who was imprisoned in a house, so what did he do? Scary things. He basically expanded the house to engulf the…
To date, I haven’t been too much into the smart home life. I have smart devices, but things like the voice assistants never appealed to me. Then I fell in love with my Ring doorbells, and knowing they were owned by Amazon made all of this seem more appealing. So given the chance to give the Echo Show 5 a spin as a smart home hub, I was keen to see if I wanted to have an Alexa home. Turns out, I do. The 5th Echo show? Or the 3rd one? If you are getting into this for the first…
When Astro Bot Rescue Mission launched on PSVR, it served as a fun game that showed off the tech in a fun, albeit short, way. Then, when the PS5 was released, we got Astro’s Playroom for free, which yet again was a great way to show the tech. This time it was showing off all the cool stuff in the dual sense controller, and though it was short, coming free with the console was amazing as it was an amazing game loaded with PlayStation references. At the end of that game, I was hoping for some more Astro Bot action. …