Category: general

Yeasu FT 4XE is an amazing simple Handheld transceiver. It does use the radio on a chip design like the cheap Chinese ones  but  Yaesu did a good job on it. I don’t have any issue with it.  easy and simple to use. If you find a local repeater all you need is add the output frequency to that and radio will do the shift ctss etc. You have to do this before though 

This is exactly same as the Yaesu FT-65e internal but this one has  smaller battery and bit of an old style screen. as an easy radio to carry around, I would highly recommend this. quite small you can easily carry around.  

I have added the picture to compare with Baofeng UV 5R 

There are 100s of reviews out their including videos etc. I’m going to be very short. It’s ok for the price If it’s your 1st radio don’t buy it without programming cable. Very hard to programme. If you have the cable and the Chirp  software it works beautifully. There are 100 different models in they are pretty much all same.   It’s all based on the same circuit and firmware some come with slightly more power. you are not going to see much difference.  I bought the one for £18.99 It’s fine works fine. Annoying it receives lots of unwanted signals. other than that it’s ok

It doesn’t work the same way as the Kenwood the d74e model but that is £500. If you have the right cable if you use windows 10 retevis cable seems to work fine. I wouldn’t buy the cheapest cable.

just updated my pixel. initial impressions very good. not many new features but an improvement on the existing ones. I really like the work profile you can switch off in 1 click and dynamic battery features.  I will update this blog as I use it a bit more. the new interface is so good. It so natural you don’t even think you are doing it. Their UI designers need to a pay rise

Android notification is improved, I do use phone less and less

I’ve always had an interest in it but now I have time to do something about it. signed up with a local club going to do my fundamental exam with them. hoping to get my full licenses in a few years. when I tell this to people, they always ask the same question why now we have internet why do we need this etc.

We now use the internet for everything even all the phones I think the even mobile phone will be soon moving to data only and we use voice over data option on that some already use. which makes cost-effective for everyone. but we need an alternative way of communicating that doesn’t use internet. more people who have this is better.  it’s just figuring things out how all works will be interesting.

I’m thinking to get Kenwood TH-D74E Digital after I pass my exam. I know I can get cheap Chinese ones but this looks nice. and have a digital mode call D-Start which lets you access the internet through the reader.  I have a D-start reaper very close as well. If I’m bord on analog I can spend time on digital doing different things. It has so many fectures and yes also plays FM radio  🙂

I will update my call sign etc ones I have them

 

 

 

I have nothing but good things about this phone, yes it’s expensive to what you get in terms of Hardware. The software is amazing. everything is smooth so far no glitches. I know lots of issues on the internet I didn’t have any I use the 128GB version from EE.

The camera I would say the best all done through software but It makes the best pictures and it has a google lens built in let you know what you taking like famous landmarks etc.  It’s super fast I have the original pixel that is slightly slower this one picture comes up instantly.  It has different modes to play with but just point and shoot works brilliant even on the late night.  It comes with unlimited storages for 3 years. so now I take more pictures and it’s tidy up by removing the backed up pictures so I can still see them on the phone but don’t take up spaces.

Software updates are amazing super fast. the phone is back up and encrypted. comes with fast charger. network connectivity is amazing.

Overall it’s a great phone

 

 

 

Most of the smartwatches now on the market are just another screen for your phone. It’s not a bad thing, but to me, I need a watch as a watch 1st,  I’m a big fan of their pro-Trek line. I still have  2 Casio so call ABC watch one of them (Casio PRG-80L) since 2008,  it’s solar. I didn’t even have to change the battery.  The only thing I need to do is change the strap. send it to Casio UK they send it back with a new strap for very little money. 

Why I like this smart watch for starters it’s not another screen for my phone it’s working as a standalone product. Battery life is great I charge the watch every day but I always end the day with 50% left.  another thing I like about this watch is that it doesn’t rely on Casio services for the phone to work. It has it’s own ABC functionality along with mic and GPS.

It’s a great watch I wouldn’t recommend to everyone. It doesn’t have the features that other smart watches have like sending kisses and heart beats etc. as they don’t run any backend services, you don’t get pretty graphs on the online and see how you doing etc, you can export the data from the watch and do it yourself but no online services come from Casio. If it becomes popular someone else develops app for it. It’s an android wear 2 phone with Casio skin and apps,  It doesn’t have a heartbeat sensor. another annoying thing is the charging cable it’s a special magnetic cable.  It’st not massive issue, if you email Casio UK they will send you a new cable is 3 weeks. It’s not expensive at all but still would have been good if they just used USB- c cable.

Overall it’s a good reliable watch even on power saving mode it will show you data and time as they use dual layer screen. so another smartwatch thing is you have to move your wrist to see the time but on this one, you can see it all the time. I have attached the screen graph of how it looks all the time.

 

LeapFrog are selling this as a two models one is LeapStart Preschool and other one LeapStart Primary School both are  same. It’s just a sample book is different. each has appropriate sample book. Unit cost is about £34 but each book is about £10 but Mrs manage to buy the whole preschool books for £35 in here

I’m very skeptic when it come to this things. I thought it will be like another gimmick kids product,  but they actually put a lot of thought on this, for starters no screen it’s a real book you put in you have to connect the LeapStart unit to the computer and download the audio books and sync this audio books to the unit. It’s very easy soon as you connect they will walk you through the steps and I downloaded the whole audio books even before we bought it. it’s take double AA batteries so no charging troubles.

I tested the sample book with my 2 + years old daughter. she liked it. unit is very durable she dropped it many times.  carried around. the pen can take lot of beating too. 1st book I bought was leap start preschool STEM  I actually paid the full price as I bought that on amazon.  My daughter loved it she actually enjoyed playing with it and I think she learned few things with out screens.  We sit with her and go through with her. Unit is designed for her to play on her own as it has audio book telling what to do etc. It’s more fun for her to sit and go through with us (I think)

We thought her alphabet need improving. so now she now going though this  our lady doesn’t likes it as much as the STEM book but she is learning fair bit on this.

We buy lot of things for kids some of them are surprisingly good. This is one of those products. not sure who designed and plan this up. but they done a good job on  this.

 

 

 

 

 

I actually wanted to buy the lifeproof cases for the phone but it’s not avalable on the UK site and it will be very expensive to get them from US. so I decided to go with Otterbox commuter case. It’s a good case bit bulky no waterproof  though but it will keep your phone safe from drops. On the other reviews you will read power button is bit tight and yes it’s true but it’s true for all new cases thought.  with google pixel you don’t need to use the power button as well.  over all I’m happy with it. and yes case will let you put edge to edge screen protector.

I was always been a fan of Sony mobiles. They did a good job of making a good phone with enough power and releasing  new phones every 6 month so I can buy the older model for cheaper. I don’t like buying 2nd handphone phones.

Any way this Christmas I was given a google pixel xl 128 GB one.  this is the most expensive phone I ever owned. I was given  google daydream view headset  (Virtual Reality) as well.

1st I’ll write about the phone. in one word amazing. It’s really fast. My old sony z3+ had a snapdragon 820 CPU, but google pixel felt really fast compare to my old phone. operating system on it  is amazing as well. It’s only  had the base google apps and nothing else. GPS is amazing even is central London. it’s picks up location very quickly.  mobile signal is pretty good as well. I can get good signal to places where I couldn’t (with O2) with other phones.

Only downside I can think of is it’s a big phone. I bought a Otterbox commuter case   which makes it even bigger. if you don’t  have a case it’s very slippery phone. google assistant wasn’t all that, I think it’s not smart enough for UK yet.

google daydream view is better than I expected. It will come in handy when you making those long flights.

So far I haven’t found any issues, If I do I will update this blog post

update 10/01/2017

I really enjoy watching google daydream view. It’s can be just a normal youtube move makes it look like you watching it on a massive screen. quality is bit off  compare to real cinema

 

 

 

Now I have a google pixel xl  phone ( Christmas present ).It’s uses a USB-C port.  I thought I will buy a  USB-A to USB-C cable so I can use all my exiting  wall/ car chargers etc.

It’s not easy as I thought. google play store selling that cable for £25 so I looked in to other places.  You can get them cheap but apparently they don’t meet to USB-C spec and might damage the device or charger.  google engineer call   Benson Leung done lots of research on this.

going by what he was saying it’s safe to buy a USB-C charger with USB-C cable with known brands.  even to buy USB-C chargers from other phones like Microsoft Lumia 950 XL chargers, you can pick them up cheap.

Moral of the story is don’t buy the cheap cables. It wont save you money.