No Brand Multi-Function Jump Starter: Box
[USER EXPERIENCE] While owning a car offers lots of convenience at times, it may also be some work to take care of it. For instance, just 2 weeks back, my car battery went totally flat. So the natural course of action is to power up via another vehicle battery.

But then I recall seeing this car jump starter on Qoo10 and at the IT shows, so following the principle to buy a gadget whenever necessary, I invested. And it really work as advertised!

Back of the box
This one that I bought is a no-brand one, supposedly an OEM product, mainly because a search on Qoo10 shows many products that looked the same albeit with a slightly different specification. The differences are largely the battery size ranging from 20,000mAh to over 60,000 mAh.

The specification of the unit I bought is;
  • 68,800mAh
  • 4 USB ports (output 5V)
  • Short circuit proof
  • 3 LED SOS modes
  • Laptop Output 15V/16V/19V
  • Window breaker
Contents
There plentiful in the box. The start jumper itself, the connector to the car battery and an array of cables such as various types of power adaptor tip converter, car cigarette port and USB converter to lighting, micro USB etc.

The array of accessories gave me a hint the car jump starter will do more than just jump start.


Out of the box, my device is nearly full charged as I can see from the battery gauge meter to the left of the power button you see in the image above.

So I tried it immediately, connecting the blue-red power connector to the device, where it says "Engine Start", then to the car battery and viola! My car started when previously it's completely died.

I had to jump start again the next day to drive to the workshop and it works well again to prove that a small device like this packs in enough to start a car a few times!


The main objective fulfilled, I proceed to check out the USB ports and the flashlight and it's SOS modes. There is also an cornered edge on one end of the device that the user manual says is used to break the car window in emergencies.

I guess features that we shouldn't use often, at least we hope not.


All-in-all this will be a life saver when the car battery runs out and in some other emergencies. Though the build quality of the device looks below decent, thus I somehow have this concern of placing it in the car where temperatures can get high. That said, the specification states the operating temperature up to 60 degree celsius, I am probably paranoid then.
Yale Look Door Viewer: Box front view
[HANDS-ON] My brother-in-law acquired the Yale Look Door Viewer yesterday in an attempt to make his home smarter and as well monitor what is happening outside his door.

Yale Look Door Viewer is essentially a door viewer on steroids. Replacing the traditional door viewer, the device allows you to video chat to whoever is at the door via the Yale Look App with a 720p camera and live motion detection at your door providing snapshots/videos.

Yale Look Door Viewer: Box back view
It is an intriguing gadget because it seems to be a cross between a CCTV camera and a door walkie talkie you see at some condominium and on top of it, it offers video chat.

My time with the door viewer started with the installation process for the viewer to be mounted to the door. It is safe to say not many have the experience of removing the original door viewer. A few Youtube videos later, we have a gaping big hole in the door with the original door viewer removed.

We are eager to find out if the hole meets the minimum requirement of 14mm diameter. Luckily it does, and FYI, it's an HDB (built in 2015) door in this case. The next step is easier, the put the camera through from the front and tighten it to the metal plate holder with 2 screws.

The final step is to connect the physical monitor to the plate. Removing a small cap on the hanging wire, it will be connected to the back of the physical monitor.

Device attached to the door
Physical connection completed, it's time setting up the door viewer to the Internet. Step number 1, the Yale Look Door Viewer is in WiFi-direct mode, your phone is supposed to connect to it directly and so your router information can be entered.

However, we tried it several times, Yale Look App setup wizard could not automatically connect, we have to sort of connecting it manually by looking for a Wifi connection named "DDV-XXX" and apply the Yale default password, 12345678.

I suspect this could pose trouble for more than a few because the App does not say the device is Wifi-Direct mode and Wifi-direct mode might be a concept not everyone might know instantaneously.

Thereafter onwards, the setup wizard poses no more problems though it took like more than 5 minutes or so for the wizard to complete.

Front view of the door viewer
Finally, when everything is done, we await the moment of truth when we press the doorbell (I forgot to take a picture of the front part camera with the doorbell button on it). Viola! The moment the doorbell is pressed, my Brother-in-law got a notification on his phone.

Opening up the notification, the app will ask if you would like to pick up the doorbell and speak with the visitor.

However, generally, this process isn't as good as it sounds. First, the doorbell button is not noticeable, it is more likely the visitor will press a regular doorbell if there is one. Also if the door is looking out to the sky, the backlight affect the images taken, faces of the visitor might be darker than you expect. Finally, the times when the video streaming did connect, the images are rather choppy.

Security is other concern too because the door viewer is connected to the net, maybe not be much of a big deal since the camera is facing out of the main door.

All in all, Yale Look Door Viewer is does what it claims, you should be able to get good updates on what's happening outside your door and remote communication with the person at your door. The latter is somewhat not as smooth as I would have like and I get a feeling it is something that a software update will take care of. That said, I fancy the door viewer more like a novelty rather than something is that is actually going to be productive unless you are really interested in what's happening behind your closed door.


Updated 8th October 2017: Feedback from Brother-in-law, the door viewer works fairly well to capture movements in front of the door, he caught mostly flyer distributors. What will work better is that when the door is not close, no more images should be captured since it is then capturing of movement within the door way, which is not very useful.
Dreamcore One: Official Website Image
[NEW GADGET] Desktops seemed to be a thing of the past for awhile then it makes its comeback somehow through the gaming folks. It appears that they are the main type of consumers that go for Desktops today where laptops are cheaper.

That said, Desktops should still be an option for in an use case where one would bring out a tablet on-the-go and go back home to a proper Desktop because it is still cheaper to build a powerful Desktop than buying a top-end laptop and as well Dreamcore is probably another reason why you would want a Desktop, style!

Dreamcore is a Singapore-based custom PC shop. The box you see the image above is one of their flagship product called, Dreamcore One. The case features a compact design weighing 4kg (without the power adapter, the case uses an external power supply) and more interestingly an industrial outlook that would fit into any hipster home interior design.

I visited the Dreamcore booth at the recently concluded Comex 2017 and personally loves the Dreamcore One design.

Dreamcore operates a build-to-order model where one can customise order a PC with options to the cases, CPU, storage, GPU, essentially nearly all computer parts. Check them out at the link below.

Link - Dreamcore Website

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