smart home
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Flyboarding with a GoPro Hero 8
This past weekend I had the opportunity to try flyboarding for the first time at Find A Way Flyboarding in Turkey Point, Ontario. Along for the ride was my GoPro Hero 8 on a basic floating handle. Below, you will find still 2022-08-29_14-04-34 from one of the videos I recorded.
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Yale Assure Bluetooth Smart Lock – Review
Last year, more than once, someone inevitably forgot their housekey and ended up getting locked out of my house. While it’s feasible to just leave a key hidden somewhere (which I now also do, as a backup), I wanted a more elegant solution for day-to-day operations. Sometimes I bike to work, sometimes I drive, and sometimes […]
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IKEA’s TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting – 1 Month
I wanted to love the TRÅDFRI system during the month I had it installed. In fact, I tried hard to make those 11 TRÅDFRI components part of my life. But today I have exactly 0 TRÅDFRI components in my house; they are all back at their original home in IKEA (or wherever returned products go). […]
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LE Portable LED Lamp and Bluetooth Speaker – Review
Stores are awash with portable Bluetooth speakers in almost every imaginable shape, size, and feature set. From shower head speakers to flower pot speakers, it seems no form factor is off limits to a speaker and Bluetooth connectivity. The LE Lights01 from Lighting Ever combines a Bluetooth speaker with a bright multicolour LED ring and a claimed 5-hour battery […]
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IKEA’s TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting – First Impressions
This is the first in a long-term-test series I plan to do about IKEA’s smart lighting TRÅDFRI, released earlier this year. Intended to compete with the like of Hue, by Phillips, this line includes both warm white dimmable, and colour temperature adjusting white dimmable bulbs. I purchased their Gateway kit, which includes two bulbs, the network gateway (to allow app-based control), […]
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HelloFresh – Meals (& Packaging) Delivered
Last week we received our first delivery from HelloFresh. They are one of the many meal kit delivery services available in Canada and the first we’ve tried. A little skeptical about how a company is able to ship fresh ingredients like shrimp to my door, I was also curious to experience this trend for myself. […]
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Mi USB Fan – Review
This summer I traveled to Europe. In the heat of airport queues and non-air-conditioned rooms, one tiny product made a huge difference to my comfort. It was a USB-powered fan from Xiaomi, known simply as the Mi USB Fan. Together with a USB power bank, it enabled me to catch a breeze while standing in line, or […]
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Aftershokz Trekz Titanium – Long Term Review
A year has passed since I first took the leap and purchased a pair of open ear (aka bone-conduction) headphones. This style of headphone doesn’t cover the ears, but rather primarily delivers sound through the cheekbones. After extensive research in July 2016, I settled on the Aftershokz Trekz Titanium, a 3rd generation model. I continue to wear […]
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Robotic Floor Cleaning
In the 6 years we’ve owned our home, my wife and I have never used a traditional vacuum cleaner. Rather, our hardwood floors have been cleaned by a rotating army of robotic vacuum cleaners. An original iRobot Roomba was followed by several generations of both iRobot and Neato models. Our current dirt-vanquishing robotic assistant is […]
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Back online!
In 2014/15 I posted a series of “MD Great Gadget” public posts on Facebook, providing brief comments on gadgets I use. Those posts were fun to write and also shared my love of tech with a wider audience. Reflecting on that experience, I recently decided to revitalize my domain name in the form of a […]