Category: general

I had this watch from 2008 this is was my gift from my Mrs. It\’s still working for this day all the triple sensor on the watch works as the day I got them. Even the battery is great if you see them battery is still high, I just leave it near window and It had a hard life. I wear it every where. only thing I changed on this watch was the strap. it was bit rubbish. Casio UK replaced it for me for £40 I send it to them and they send it back with new strap installed and all good after that. here is the picture after 11 years of hard use

I got the google pixel 3 xl as a gift, what can I say all the reviews talks about notch is not an issue at all. It\’s just some reviewer created issues. It doesn\’t affect me but you can turn it off, If you don\’t like it. It doesn\’t bother me. UI is same as pixel xl so that wasn\’t a issue for me.

Phone is faster lot faster than I was expecting and speakers are really good and mic It can hear me from anywhere. as their signature feature camera is amazing. Low light night time any situation works well.

I don\’t install lots of application even the apps I install have only the permission they need for my use. try and close it when I don\’t need it. so I didn\’t come across any issue with memory management etrc.

Charging is so fast I can do that in the morning and enough for me to use it all day. I don\’t do wireless charge but if you don\’t buy the pixel stand it will only do 5 w charge that is slow. If you are thinking of the planet you shouldn\’t be wireless changing anyway. because lots of energy is wasted on converting. It\’s little but add up if everyone is started using it.

I bought the pixel fabric cover It\’s really nice hand feeling case but gives really no protection though, My weekend activity if I keep fabric case will end up a Fabric mud case 🙂 so bought a tech21 case which will be my weekend case that case is plastic so can easily washable. phone its self now have ip68 rating.

Security update this is the good thing about pixel phones. every month I get updates without any issues. even the old pixel still get updates never missed a month.

Another thing people don\’t talk about it is storage with google phone you get unlimited storage when you take photos and videos with the device even the high-resolution one. It\’s free for 3 years. one you can do is remove the pictures from the phone they all live in Google servers and I can still see them and download again as necessary. with Apple devices, you have to pay something like £9.99 per month to get these features.

Overall it\’s a good device. It doen\’t has all the bells and whistles of Samsung phones. to me, this phone works really well.

I think google is going after iPhone users with this device, It even copy all the data from iPhone users and all the cables and ear phones are on the box.

If you are normal user this phone is fine and will last you long time. because google will keep this phone updated for 3 years you will have the latest android all the time.

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.