Tag Archives: Pros and Cons

Garmin Forerunner 920XT Watch with HRM-Run Review

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The company that launched the world’s first GPS multi-sport devices has just recently launched another watch that’s going to be perfect for triathletes. Garmin’s new Forerunner 920XT is a swim-bike-run focused watch that efficiently took hold of all of the latest new features from other new Garmin fitness devices and merged them into this watch.  More so, there are also a number of features that are fresh and are not featured elsewhere on Garmin devices like the cycling-specific VO2Max, a new metronome mode, and a support of Garmin Connect IQ that allows companies to make apps for the watch. Know more about this watch through this Garmin Forerunner 920XT Watch with HRM-Run Review.

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The Forerunner 920XT is indeed packed with advanced running dynamics and virtual link features. It impressively records detailed metrics for swimming, biking and running, which makes the Forerunner 920XT the perfect wearable device that can take an elite or a novice athlete’s training to a higher level. And going further than just being a sports watch, this watch can also be linked to smart phones via Bluetooth to get notifications on your wrist for incoming texts, emails, calls and calendar reminders.

What are the best features of this Sports Watch?

The Forerunner 920XT’s sleek and slim profile gives an even more comfortable fit compared to its predecessor. It is also 15% lighter and 18% thinner than FR 910XT, and showacses flexible, hinged watch bands for a more suitable fit. This watch has a notable high-resolution color display that makes it easy to view stats at a single glance during any activity like training or even on race day. The high-resolution color display has a watch mode and shows daily activity tracking that includes steps, distance, calories, countdown to a personalized daily goal, audible move alert after one hour of inactivity, and sleep tracking. Other sophisticated unique features also include running dynamics, VO2 max estimate, smart notifications.

When used in water, the Forerunner 920XT can withstand up to 5ATM yest still provides advanced swim metrics for training in a pool or even in open water. This watch features drill logging which allows athletes to easily log swim drills and kick sets at the pool, along with registering the swim distance, pace, stroke type, stroke count and even the SWOLF score. In biking, FR 920XT’s advanced cycling features include a built-in altimeter for precise ascent, descent and gradient data in the course of training. These features are well-matched with sensors such as speed, cadence, heart rate and power meter, and can receive GLONASS signals besides GPS for improved accuracy. Lastly, this watch allows you to train for the best running performance with Garmin’s advanced running dynamics which will be a perfect duo with the HRM-Run monitor. Impressively detailed reports such as cadence (total steps per minute), vertical oscillation (amount of “bounce” in a runner’s step), and ground contact time (how much time a runner’s foot spends on the ground during each step) will be shown in the watch with a color gauge so runners can compare their values with the other runners. The beast feature though is the UltraTrac mode which will be good for ultra runners as it extends its up to 24 hours in GPS mode battery life for up to 40 hours.

PROS

  • Known quality Garmin technology and durability
  • Has two color options
  • Built to be used for swimming, biking, and running
  • Up to 5ATM water proof (can be used both on the pool or in open water)
  • Transition between the different sport modes with the push of a button
  • Also measures record speed, distance, ascent/decent, grade, and more
  • Paired with ANT+ compatible sensors it measures heart rate, speed, cadence, and power
  • Running dynamics (with Garmin HRM-Run monitor) include cadence, vertical oscillation and ground contact time
  • Built-in Metronome feature with vibe and audible alerts for cadence training
  • Offers VO2 max estimate, race predictor and recovery advisor (when used with heart rate)
  • Estimates VO2 max for cycling as well (when used with a power meter)
  • Wet suit-friendly and about 15 percent lighter than its predecessor, the Forerunner 910XT
  • Features swim distance, pace, stroke type identification, stroke count, drill logging and rest timers
  • Smart notifications let you see email, text and other alerts on your watch (with compatible Bluetooth Smart ready phones)
  • Battery life: Up to 40 hours in UltraTrac mode, up to 24 hours in training mode, and up to 4 months in watch mode
  • Connected features: automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, live tracking, social media sharing (when paired with compatible Android or Apple device and Garmin Connect Mobile)

CONS

  • FR 920XT does not have weight scale & fitness equipment support.
  • Not the best watch for hiking or outdoors enthusiast (does not have solid course support and may have perfect accuracy on routing and altimeter data)
  • Really heavy on the budget but makes a great all-in-one watch for triathletes

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Garmin Forerunner 920XT White/Red Watch With HRM-Run

Muse Brain Sensing Headband Review

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Holistic wellness is something that one person would want to achieve. Though achieving this can be quite tricky, it is impossible. Along with holistic wellness is also the idea that a healthy body would be great to be matched with a healthy brain. Example, if one wants to increase physical fitness efforts to achieving this would include a gym membership, set off   an exercise habit or get a personal trainer to assist you in attaining your goal. For mental and emotional fitness, technology has indeed a solution for giving a work out for the brain. This device is same as a heart rate monitor for your mind. Muse is a techy device that senses brain signals during a focused-attention exercise similar to how a heart rate monitor detects your heart rate during physical exercise. This measurement provides the user valuable feedback that can be used to train your brain on a daily basis and as time goes will result to improved your focus, attention and composure. Learn more about this product through this Muse Brain Sensing Headband Review.

Click here to check product pricing and to read more user reviews.

How does this device work exactly? The main idea on the concept of Muse originated from electroencephalography (EEG) technology, which measures electrical activity of the brain. Typically, an EEG test needs the sensors attached to your head, these sensors are then connected to a computer via wires. The Muse is wireless and connects to your mobile device via Bluetooth.

 What are the great features and the benefits of this brain sensing headband?

An unfortunate thing about adulthood is that stress and anxiety seemed to come along with it like it is part of the package. It is during these times that moments of quiet meditation or even yoga really helps a lot in telling your brain that amidst all the stress, it has to calm down. What the Muse does is that it magnifies your meditation and yoga exercises to a higher level. This device is a nifty tool to boost your wellness by helping you to train your brain through a daily guided training sessions on a minimum 3 minutes a day. It is technologically engineered to work on a attaining lesser stress on your mind, where in, with the exercises done with this device, you get to somehow shut-off your thoughts through a series of focused-attention exercises in partnership with the Calm app. Through this process it is giving you real-time feedback to help you understand how well you are maintaining your focus. Developing this skill will help you reduce anxiety and stress, focus the mind, boost concentration and productivity, and increase your composure during stressful times.

The device itself is adjustable, lightweight and can snug comfortably to your head. It looks just like those wearable mp3 players on the market, except that the band goes across your forehead and has two arms tucking behind your ears just like a pair of glasses. At the back of each arm is a micro USB slot that is used for charging the device. The battery lasts for up to 5 hours after full charging. Muse has a single button that’s flush to one of the earpieces for turning the device on and a thin strip of light illuminates on the earpiece that tells the user the is already active. Along the forehead band is a thin strip with 7 finely calibrated sensors – 2 on the forehead, 2 behind the ears plus 3 reference sensors that detect and measure the activity of your brain.

PROS

  • Lightweight, comfortable to wear and portable
  • Easy to set-up and use
  • Has lower intrinsic noise and great sensor geometry which makes the sensors more responsive
  • Uses clinical grade EEG
  • Helps improve emotional intelligence, productivity, and motivation
  • Great real-time real-time audio and visual feedback plus long-term tracking to monitor progress
  • Lowers stress level and eventually reduces levels of cortisol, your body’s stress hormone
  • Strengthens the area of the brain related to composure and empathy
  • Guided training sessions are designed to build the skill of focused attention which help manage stress

CONS

  • This device is not medically approved, hence those who have serious issues must seek the help of a professional
  • Limited things to do with the device
  • Sometimes it takes a while to get the sensor attached properly but this is only a very minor issue

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Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband

Basis Peak Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker Review

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Now owned by Intel, Basis, one of the companies that are leading in wearable device technologies for fitness, sleep and wellness applications has just recently launched the Basis Peak where they branded their new product as the Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker. This new product impressively features a lustrously sleeky touchscreen design and with a highly improved sensor technology. Peak provides 24/7 heart rate monitoring – WITHOUT wearing the chest strap! Yes, that’s right folks. This interesting wearable gadget does not need to have a strap around your chest to monitor your heart beat during exercise or running or any other activities. Learn more about this exciting new device through this Basis Peak Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker Review.

Click here for product pricing and to check for availability and color options.

What makes the Basis Peak the Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker is its unique mash-up of automatic activity tracking, advanced sleep analysis and healthy habits that the user experiences which are all geared to encourage real behavior changes hence bringing the most competitive depiction of fitness and sleep of any product of its class.

What are the best features of this Fitness and Sleep Tracker?

Accuracy is very important when it comes to tracking your sleep and even more important in tracking your fitness activities. With Basis Peak‘s  four different sensors, this beastly little device simply gives the accuracy that every person with an active lifestyle yearns for. It precisely and accurately measures steps, calories burned, heart rate, skin temperature, perspiration (sweating), and sleep. This device has impressive improvements when it comes to engineering and technology. One of which is its automatic activity tracking with BodyIQ technology that detect your walks, runs, bike rides as well as sleep and wake times. The same technology is also responsible for its advanced sleep analysis that captures REM/Deep/Light Sleep, Toss-and-Turns, Interruptions and Sleep Quality. And lastly, this activity tracker also features Healthy Habits system for transforming health insights into action.

Not only that the features of Basis Peak is strikingly remarkable, its built is also durable and lightweight yet comfortable to wear, chic and stylish. This watch can be worn day and night, even in going to work, working out, play time, and going out. It’s constructed with a forged aluminum body, a sensitive touch screen with gesture recognition, Gorilla Glass 3 for extra screen protection and soft silicone straps that are modifiable. Peak can can also be worn when swimming at it is tested for water resistance up to 5A. More so, Basis Peak is capable of displaying smartwatch notifications, alerts for incoming calls and texts from your smartphone (compatible with iOS and Android smartphones).

PROS

  • Sturdy built
  • Elegant, classy design and wearable 24/7
  • Water Resistant to 5 ATM, enough to withstand swimming
  • Has Gorilla Glass 3, touchscreen with gesture recognition
  • No need for a chest wrap in monitoring your heart rate (real time heart rate is taken from your wrist)
  • Automatically syncs via Bluetooth Smart
  • Has 4 sensors:
    • Optical Heart Rate Sensor
    • Galvanic Skin Response
    • Skin Temperature
    • 3-Axis Accelerometer
  • Habit notifications keeps you on the look-out
  • Automatically adjusts weekly goals based on user’s performance
  • Automatic sleep detection ( no need to set anything, just fall asleep wearing Peak)
  • Spontaneously understand sleep trends based on your ongoing average
  • Both heart rate & accelerometer data combine to provide rich sleep insights
  • Peak uses Basis’ habit system to help you make small but powerful changes to your sleep or activity patterns
  • 4 days of battery life but depends on usage

CONS

  • Only available in two colors (black and white)
  • No size options (for women like me who have smaller wrists – but I guess this won’t be much of a con since a smaller size also means smaller screen)
  • Only works with Android or iPhone (to activate the Basis Peak). Also it works only with with selected iOS and Android (iOS 7+ – iPhone 4S+ – and some Android 4.4.2 BLE phones) so make sure to check compatibility with your smartphones before getting Basis Peak

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Basis Peak – Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker (Brushed Metal/White)

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Docking Station Review

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Upon the launch of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, the company has undoubtedly and deliberately distorted the boundaries between a laptop and a tablet. This lighter 12-inch screen tablet  not only makes a great tablet, it also works great as a laptop. This device is definitely great for many of those who has really taken full advantage of Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s portability and flexibility. Considering all these, the release of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 Docking Station has most like to brought the seventh heaven that many users have always wanted. Know how and why through this Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Docking Station Review.

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The docking station facilitates multiple possibilities in making the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft’s 3rd generation 2-in-1 tablet/laptop become a bona fide all-in-one device as it is now capable to serve as a desktop computer too. The device is able to connect with a mouse, a keyboard and a monitor, in which the Surface Pro 3 users can finally relish what computing enthusiasts desire: one single, powerful device to rule them all.

What are the best features of this Surface Pro 3 docking station?

A valuable aspect about the Surface is its high productivity, and succeeding the Surface Pro 3 device itself, mounting into the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is indeed a mark of virtuosity as it is all about exhausting the possibilities of flexibility and increased efficiency. From a two-in-one device (a tablet and a laptop), this device instantly turns your Surface Pro 3 into a full-blown desktop PC, allowing the user an easy access to your external monitors, keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers, and etc. This latest version essentially has kept the same practical and functional design of the original Docking station which already has the ease and coziness in docking and un-docking the tablet into the device. It’s basically the same design with quite a number of improvements and one of the improvements noted on this latest model is the security lock slot that secures the docking station.

Another astounding highlight of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is that is enables you to use external monitors which definitely boosts up work output. More screen means more things that can be done at a time. With the docking station, the user is able to run up to 3 screens. More so, it is almost entirely made from a thin, metal material which makes the size and the weight of this dock is just enough to carry it around (if you would wanna go mobile carrying this dock) and yet has enough density to hold its place and will not be moving around when you use other accessories like the keyboard or mouse.

PROS

  • Lightweight and portable
  • Durable built
  • Leaves the ports on the tablets uncovered (adds to the second mini display port and another USB3.0 on top of the many ports in the docking station)
  • A magnet along the left edge of the dock so users can hold the Surface Pen
  • Extends elegantly to the sides allowing the user place the Surface Pro 3 with ease and a slight push snaps right back to connect with the computer
  • Great viewing angle
  • Elegant and sophisticated design
  • Great amount of useful ports
  • Allows you to charge
  • Extends display to other monitors
  • Easy to use
  • Makes the tablet feel like a desktop PC

CONS

  • Viewing angle is fixed
  • No HDMI but has MDP (adapter may be useful for this)
  • Security lock slot only secures the docking station itself and not the device
  • A must have for those who have Surface Pro 3 but the price makes the whole package heavy on the budget

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Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Docking Station

Honeywell 3800G Handheld Barcode Scanner Review

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Built to deliver instinctive scanning of the barcodes with impressive accuracy, the Honeywell 3800G Handheld Barcode Scanner definitely meets the needs of consumers in  retail, warehouse, manufacturing, and distribution.  For those that do not know much about this company, Honeywell makes hand-held barcode scanning products using advanced technology that makes scanning barcodes easier and intuitive. This company produces retail-ready high scan intensity scanners, rugged rubberized warehouse scanners as well as different kinds of hand-held scanning solutions to meet business needs. Knowmore about this product through this Honeywell 3800G Handheld Barcode Scanner Review.

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This handheld scanner is able to function on tasks that needs high-performance linear barcode scanning and can also be an economical solution for occasional PDF417 barcode reading. The Honeywell 3800G Handheld Barcode Scanner has a dense, ergonomic design and foremost durability, making it the ideal choice for customers seeking a reliable and versatile solution for light industrial environments, including retail, manufacturing, government, healthcare and distribution.

What are the features of this handheld scanner?

The Honeywell 3800g Handheld Barcode Scanner is one of the best selling scanners of its class. This scanner is remarkably aggressive, has a high durability, and it is very easy to handle. It is ideally suited for a variety of applications at the cashier desk, in the office, as well as in workshops, shipping, the laboratory, storage, or in production-related environments. The linear imager of this device is robust and quick, and in that way, it guarantees swift and secure scanning of 1D and GS1 bar codes. The high-resolution camera also guarantees predominantly reliable scanning, even for poorly printed, damaged, or uneven bar codes.

The impressive ergonomics of the Honeywell 3800g brings you innovative features such as a sturdy housing and a trigger that is designed in a way that both right and left-handed users can easily operate the scanner. Aside from its remarkable scanning performance, it also has a lighter weight, so users can use it at a longer time  without the fatigue. However, there is also an optional scanner stand affords free-handed scanning from two positions.

PROS

  • Durable: built-to-last with no moving parts to wear out
  • Fast and reliable performance
  • Lightweight
  • Scans stacked bar codes such as PDF417 and composite or micro-PDF bar codes
  • Provides fast, accurate, and economical PDF barcode reading
  • Snappy performance
  • Intuitive working range and the ability to read damaged or poorly printed barcodes ensures ease of use
  • GTIN compliant
  • GS1 DataBar capable
  • Easy to aim and scan codes, regardless of lighting conditions or close barcode proximities

CONS

  • This device is factory programmed for use on common terminal and communications settings. If the user needs to change some settings, programming is accomplished by scanning the bar codes that are provided in their guide which can be a bit tricky. Read carefully and scan the codes provided in the guide accordingly.

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More feature of this device is that its technology offers additional advantages for scanning of 1D and GS1 bar codes, that the Honeywell 3800g markedly improves employee productivity when collecting data. To get a picture of what this means, the standard version scans bar codes at up to 270 scans per second and at a distance of up to 46 cm. Thanks to its Adaptus Imaging Technology 5.0, this products leads the way in processing scanned information, even from badly printed or damaged codes.

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Honeywell 3800G Handheld Barcode Scanner with USB Cable