Portable Power when you need it most!

ResQPower

Powerbanks. Their popularity has risen and is on the increase as more and more people rely on its instant supply of portable power when their battery on their smartphone is nearly kaput. It was only a matter of time before these ingenious tools took it up a notch…

I give to you the all new ResQPower that is as portable as it is necessary. 

ResQPower Q3

It charges your smartphones, tablets AND laptops. But…and I’ve saved this for last, it’s a portable powerbank that can even jumpstart your car.

Come on, really? This, can jumpstart my car? Believe it. This is the Q3 version, there’s also the Q2 and Q4, and with it’s 400 amp peak, it can jumpstart most cars and it’s 7500 milli amp hour capacity can stay charged for up to 6 months. So you can charge it once and leave it in your car’s cubby hole.

It's also dead easy to use! We simply connect the supplied crocodile clamps to the battery... attach the jumper cable leads into the Resquepower and turn the ignition.  The powerful unit boosts enough energy to easily start the car, and best of all, you can now simply re-charge the unit from your power socket inside the vehicle, or from any 220v outlet once you return home.

So besides the genius of being able to jumpstart your car, or motorbike for that matter, it also does the usual powerbank type responsibilities. It charges, your smartphone, table and even your laptop. It’s weight of only around 300grams, it’s very portable and it even comes in a nifty little carry case.

So, now you have NO excuse for your cellphone battery dying, or even being late for work because your car battery was dead…with a retail price of around R2,000 it would make a nice present…

The Fitbit Surge - Ah yeah!

My new love affair - The Fitbit Surge is a powerful 'smart' watch that essentially tells the time and tracks your fitness. But it's HOW it tracks your fitness that I'm in love with.

First of all, during the course of the day it counts how many steps you've taken using it's built in pedometer, it also measures your heart rate, calories burnt and how many flights of stairs you've walked up. All of this adds up to a substantial amount that you can use together with a workout which can then be uploaded to the Discovery Health website where you can earn up to 150 points / day.

Secondly, when you do a workout e.g. a run, it will not only track your route (using it's built in GPRS) but it will also give you a summary of the run itself:

Once synced via Bluetooth to your smartphone and using the Fitbit App, it'll then show you the map of your route as well as the KM splits. 

Oh, and in case you run with your iPhone because you like listening to music, you can use your Surge as the control. It will also in turn show you who's calling or who's just sent you a text message. Nifty, hey? 

Also, just like the Charge HR, wearing the Surge at night will allow it to track your sleep so that when you wake up in the morning and download the data to your phone, you can see how well you slept. Am still unsure of what to make of this info though...

I can't actually think of one thing I don't like about the Surge. Even the price isn't that bad at around R4,000 and they come in a variety of colours.

There is, however, one small pain - charging. Look, you can do it overnight every week or so, so it's not bad. Stop Whining! 

It's been ages since I've worn a watch that I truly have enjoyed wearing. Am wondering what's next on the Fitbit agenda...

The fitbit Charge HR!

Let me start by saying that today, so far, I've completed 1,422 steps. Now this information wouldn't usually mean much to me but for some reason since I've got my Fitbit, I can't stop counting them! Dammit! It's becoming a vicious competition with my fitbit friends too. Nerdy, perhaps, addictive, absolutely!

The fitbit Charge HR comes soon after its predecessors the Flex, and the Charge and besides being able to tell the time, count your steps and see how far you've walked/run, it's introduced a brand new function that measures your heart rate, hence the HR.

I've never owned a wearable health type device before and sure I could be using my iPhone's Health App to track my steps but the fitbit Charge HR is not only a pedometer or a heart rate monitor but it's also a sleek looking watch that you can wear anywhere, even to bed, because well, it tracks how you slept the night before. I'm not too sure what I'm gonna be doing with this bit of information but it's still cool nonetheless.

Oh, let's not forget how easy it is to sync your daily info onto your smartphone app or even to your computer using its wireless & bluetooth technology! Too easy.

One of my favourite features, once synced with your phone, is that when you get a call on your phone, the caller ID, with a bit of a vibration, shows up on your Charge HR! Come on! That's cool!

So what's the damage? Well, it's RRP is R2,299 at all iStores. Not bad for what you're getting. It might not be a must have but definitely a must want!

Philips Shaver Series 9000

First off I'll let you know that I've been quite comfortable with my Babyliss shaver over the past few years. It cuts cleanly and it's easy to use. I'll also tell you that I've never enjoyed those triple rotating whizzing blades that you've got to pass over your face a few times before you're cleanly shaven. I found them actually quite sore to use as it felt like I was using mini tweezers to pull the hairs out of my face.

Anyway...that has since changed...

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to the brand new Philips Shaver Series 9000 wet & dry electric shaver and was given one to use. For the first week I only used the Smartclick Precision Trimmer because of my fear of the triple rotating blades pulling my hairs out. 2 days ago I decided to be a man and use the Smartclick V-Track Precision heads.

I first used the trimmer to get rid of as much hair as possible (as indicated in the directions of use) and then I clicked on the precision heads and mowed away. Man...it felt so good! No pulling of the facial hair at all and I hardly had to pass over the same area to get a smooth finish! I realised that the trick was indeed to get the hair as short as possible before using the precision heads.

Now one of the coolest things about the 9000 is the fact that it comes with a charger/Smart Cleaner. You simply slip the shaver into the holder and it starts cleaning the heads. 4 hours later your shaver is charged, clean, disenfected, dry and ready to use.

For more precise information you can click here: http://www.philips.co.za/c-p/S9111_31/shaver-series-9000-wet-and-dry-electric-shaver-with-smartclean-plus-and-aquatec-wet-dry

They'll be in South Africa soon and will retail for around R3,500.

Apps to calm

(Make sure you check out the video at the end)

Finally!! It’s the end of the year! I can breath a sigh of relief but my neck’s sore and my body needs to relax. I've still got Christmas shopping to do, finish organizing the holiday and then I gotta start worrying about the new year! It’s all too much…here’s a couple of apps to help alleviate the stress even for a short while.

The first app will without a doubt make you calm and so conveniently that’s what it’s called: Calm.

Available on both Apple and Anroid, Calm is a free app that allows you to choose between 3 scenes which will continue to play in the background whilst you slowly but surely relax to the soothing voice of Samantha, well that’s what I call her anyway, who in about 5 minutes will help you become completely de-stressed.

There are a number of in-app purchases providing you with different calming scenarios and if you feel like paying $0.83 / month, you’ll get the entire package!

Now an important part of de-stressing is learning to breathe well and well, that’s what we’re gonna help you do. 

Breathe Well is a free app also available on both Apple and Android that will take you through various levels of breathing exercises helping you to concentrate on breathing properly and ultimately become more relaxed.

Now both of these apps require the use of a quiet room, headphones and a calming posture, whilst our third app requires none of the above and yet can still help you de-stress…it’s time to dance!

Dance Party works similar to WII but it uses your iPhone coupled with your Apple TV. Utilising the iPhones built in accelerometer, the app collaborates with the Apple TV, allowing you to mirror it onto your normal TV and picks up how and where you move your hand that has the iPhone in it. Mirroring the dancer's moves, will increase your score and let’s face it, dancing always de-stresses! Oh, and you can play it with a friend or your family!

So forget about the year that was and the year that will be and just Calm down, Breathe Well and start your own Dance Party. See what I did there, I named all 3 apps in one sentence and it made sense. Clever hey? 

The all new Blackberry Passport

(Make sure you check out the video review at the end)

Blackberry owned the South African market for a while until iPhone and Samsung's wildly popular smartphones hit our shores. While its star might be waning, it does still rank in the top 2 within the retail industry (that's the straight phone purchase market). It's not anywhere near as popular as it was with the contract buyers but Blackberry is making a play that will change that...well they hope.

I give to you the all new, rather eye catching, Blackberry Passport. 

It’s unique design and productive features will have you wondering if you should consider changing phones. Soon.

It’s built for productivity and Blackberry have included many features which will ensure that that sentiment is carried through its operating system and physical features. We’ll touch on just a few:

The passport, which got it’s name due to being the actual size of a passport, and is also quite pleasant to hold, brings back the tactile element of a physical keyboard which in itself is something quite refreshing and fun to use.

But they’ve gone one better, by making the keyboard a track sensitive trackpad. 

So I’m typing, whoops, I’ve made a mistake, I just simply swipe back on the keyboard and voila, the word’s erased. Shortcut words…simply swipe up under the word you want to use. Want more characters, swipe down in the middle. It’s a very cool feature!

The operating system is simple and not as involved as Android and comes with it’s own set of built in apps including Blackberry App World and Amazon Apps.

 

You see the reason for this is due to the fact that Blackberry offers a sparse array of apps compared to those of Android or Apple however they’ve tried to increase this number by incorporating Amazon Apps where you can get a few more apps but don’t expect to find all you want there either.

I did find an app called 1 Mobile Market which offers the more recognized apps like Instagram but even that can be dodgy. So we must still wait with baited breath.

Apple’s not the only one pushing for continuity between it’s products, Blackberry Blend allows you 

to seamlessly interact between your phone and computer even if you left your phone at home!

The Passport is the most powerful out of all the blackberry’s and boasts an impressive 3450 mAh battery which is substantially more than the 1810 on the iPhone 6 and the Samsung 5’s 2800. Over the past few days that I’ve been using it, it’s been lasting me easily into the following day before I have to charge it.

We don’t have the time to go through everything but I can assure you that from a productivity point of view, you’re not going to get much better than the Blackberry Passport. It’s solid phone with a bunch of features and I for one am actually torn to have to give this back…cos I only review, I don’t get to keep.    

The LeapBand

(Make sure you check out the video review at the end)

You know, gone are the days when you regularly see kids playing outside kicking a soccer ball or even climbing a tree, instead you're more likely to find them inside watching cartoons or playing games. One company has decided to use games to get kids back outside. The company behind LeapPad has reinvented the adult fitness tracker for kids. Think of it as a crossover between the 90's Tamagotchi 

Pet and a fitness tracker, rewarding the kids with points for tasks completed.

At first glance it’s a bit bulky, but for kids, the bigger the better, right? They come in a variety of colours and there are personalized pets such as a monkey, panda, dragon or unicorn that "live" in the band to help guide the kids through activity challenges.

Games like Pet Chef (collect the healthy food items), Pet Boogie (a dancing game), and Pet Salon (teaching proper hygiene) provide fun ways for kids to interact with their pets and learn about healthy living, while 14 preloaded challenges command kids to "pop like popcorn," "walk like a crab," and "wiggle like a worm" with the accelerometer tracking their every move. Additional challenges can be downloaded from the company's LeapFrog Connect app. Parents can then track their kids' activity through an accompanying app.

Speaking of which, as a parent, you can lock the watch so that during school hours it’s just a digital watch and then back to it’s normal fun self afterwards.

Overall there is no doubt in my mind that at around R450, you can definitely afford to get one for your kids especially if gets them outside and let’s face it some kids need to lose some weight.