40" Wide X 5 Yard Long Natural Burlap from A.K. Trading Company

I am using this burlap in the garden to protect bushes from harsh New England weather. I am very pleased with this order.



✔ The burlap is of good thickness. I am attaching a collage of three photos: Photo #1 shows my hand under the burlap in the sun, so you can really see the weave and the thickness of the material. Photo #2 shows one of the edges, Photo #3 shows the others edge as the finish is slightly different on two sides.



✔ The entire 5 yards I ordered are very even. There are no imperfections, knots, holes, thinning. The entire piece is good.



✔ I ordered 5 yards, which is 180 inches, I received 188 inches. Nice!



The material has a typical burlap smell which mostly aired out in a couple of weeks.



Good quality product and getting a little more than ordered go a long way to build repeat customers. I will be back!



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Bolse® Charging Dock Cradle with 2nd Battery Charger for Galaxy Note II

If you use your cell for phone for business or are in general a heavy cell phone user you know that one battery is not enough to take you through the day. This cradles allows you to charge the phone and a spare battery at the same time.



The cradle weighs in at 4.4oz on my digital scale, and 4" wide x 3" tall x 3 3/4" long. The bottom has non-skid feet. It comes with an USB cable which is 48" end to end. The phone can be charged with or without the skin. The status of charging will be displayed on the phone. Battery charging is indicated by a red LED. When the charging is completed the LED will turn green. If the LED does not light up when you insert the battery check if you inserted the battery correctly.



One nice thing about Samsung phones is that you can swap out the standard battery for extended battery. The extended battery more than doubles the capacity of the original battery, however it also significantly increases the phone thickness. Note II with standard battery is 6.4mm thick, the extended battery it is 8.4mm in the middle section. The phone thickness with extended battery is 18.4mm.



This cradle is designed to fit only the standard battery and the phone with the standard battery.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link



AshopZones review ★★★★☆

Mondial Slow Juicer

This juicer works very well. It quickly processed all the fruits and vegetables I have tried so far. I tried tasting the pulp produced by the juicer and it was pretty tasteless, no juice left in it at all. I had no problems with the juicer jamming or having any other issues.



The juicer is very simple to use. It has only three settings: off, forward (on), and reverse.



The manual has several the following recommendation for usage:

✔ Do not use longer than 10 minutes at a time

✔ Remove hard seeds before juicing

✔ Do not operate with wet hands

✔ Do not use anything as a pusher other than the provided pusher

Note that I never to needed to use the pusher as the juicer "sucked in" all the fruits and vegetables out of the spout without needing any help. I did pre-cut fruits and vegetables into 1 inch to 2 inch chunks.

✔ If the juicer gets stuck turn off the juicer, then put it in reverse for a few seconds, and then restart normally again.



The juicer is fairly heavy and substantial, it has suction cups on the bottom, so it attaches itself very well to the counter top and does not move during the juicing process. I found it to be quick to assemble and disassemble.



The manual recommends not using the dishwasher to clean. At the end of my video you will see me washing the juicer. There is one tricky part to washing - getting the pulp out of the spout where the pulp comes out as this spout is a narrow closed tube. The juicer comes with a nice cleaning brush, which I found quite helpful in cleaning the juicer.



I received the juicer from the manufacturer with a request for an honest review whether positive and negative. I was also asked to provide a video review to document my experience with the juicer, so that the potential buyers of this juicer could see it in action and have a good idea of what to expect. I hope you will find my video useful. Overall, I thought the juicer worked very well and I would recommend it.





You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

UtechSmart USB 3.0 Card Reader

UtechSmart card reader is SD and micro SD card reader that plugs into your USB port. The unit itself is fairly small 2.5" x 1.375" x 0.375". It does not require an external power source, it gets the power it needs from the USB connection. The unit weighs 0.5 oz.



I tested the card reader on Windows 7 and Linux. Note that it is documented to work with Windows and Mac, but I have successfully tested it under Linux as well.



I tested with microSDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card and Class 10 SD card.



Each operating system I tested saw USB memory sticks and cards plugged into all slot in the card read without problems.



To evaluate similar devices I test each by copying the same large set of mp3 files totalling 638916 Megabytes. I measured CPU time and clock time. My goal is to test that each port works, and to compare the performance relative to other card readers I have tested. Since I use the same set of files I can compare different devices in "apples to apples" comparison.



I ran each test three times to make sure the results were consistent.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TEST #1 SD card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



1.551s (cpu) 1:48.54 (clock time)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TEST #2 micro SD card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



1.373s (cpu) 2:24.55 (clock time)



I received this card reader for testing and review from the manufacturer. The card reader performed well in my tests. It was not the fastest card reader in my write test, a larger card reader which had external power performed slightly better (1:09.36 clock time for micro sd and 1:27.81 clock time for sd), but the small size makes this card very convenient to use. I find it especially handy to use with my laptop which does not have a built-in card reader.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

UtechSmart USB 3.0 Superspeed Multi-in-1 4-Slots Memory Card Reader

UtechSmart card reader is card reader that plugs into your USB port. It is capable of USB 3.0 speeds and also is backwards compatible to USB 2.0/1.1. It has a nice feature that indicates at what speed you are transmitting data: red indicator shows your transfer is at USB 2.0 speed and green indicator shows that you are transferring data at USB 3.0 speed. USB 2.0 speed is 480 Mbit/s. USB 3.0 is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 4.8 Gbps.



This card reader works with following formats:

SDXC (up to 2TB), SDHC, SD, CF, High-Speed CF(UDMA), MS, M2, Micro SDXC, Micro SDHC, Micro SD cards.



The unit itself is fairly small 2.25?" x 2.25" x 0.375". It does not require an external power source, it gets the power it needs from the USB connection. The card reader has a built-in USB cable which is 4" long. The unit weighs 1.4 oz.



I tested the card reader on Windows 7 and Linux. Note that it is documented to work with Windows and Mac, but I have successfully tested it under Linux as well.



I tested with Class 10 SD card and 133X CF card.



Each operating system I tested saw the cards plugged into the card reader without any problems.



To evaluate similar devices I tested each port by copying the same large set of mp3 files totalling 638916 Megabytes. I measured CPU time and clock time. My goal is to test that each port works, and to compare the performance relative to other card readers I have tested. Since I use the same set of files I can compare different devices in "apples to apples" comparison.



I ran each test three times to make sure they were consistent.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TEST #1 SD card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



1.242s (cpu) 1:40.82 (clock time)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TEST #2 micro CF card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



1.339s (cpu) 0:42.69 (clock time)



This card performed better than other card readers I have tested.



Hoo Too card reader (ASIN B00CDY0DSA):

CF card:___________1.234s (cpu) 1:27.81 (clock time)

SD card:___________1.241s (cpu) 1:46.49 (clock time)

UtechSmart USB 3.0 Card Reader (ASIN B00CBTQW6E)

SD card:___________1.551s (cpu) 1:48.54 (clock time)



I received this card reader for testing and review from the manufacturer. The card reader performed well in my tests. The card is small, fast, and a short USB cable allows it to fit well even into a laptop where the USB slots are tightly packed. I find it especially handy to use with my laptop which does not have a built-in card reader.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

FRiEQ® T2 Premium Universal Dashboard Windshield Car Mount Holder

The best feature of this cradle is that the jaws of this phone holder open up with just a push of a button. I am fairly short so it is always take extra contortions for me to reach the windshield mount, and if it does not open easily it takes me extra time to mount the phone. This windshield mount is quick and easy to use. The vacuum mount is a lever which is also easy to use. It sticks well not only to the windshield. Unfortunately when I attach it to my dash it falls off easily, just the movement of the car is enough to dislodge it.



The width of the holder adjusts from 1.5" to 3" (note that the description says 3.9", when I measured with a measuring tape the distance between inside jaws is 3"). The depth of the holder is 0.75". The depth of the holder works with a regular slim phone (with or without a gel skin) and even with extended battery which makes the phone significantly fatter than a standard battery.



The cradle can be rotated 360 degrees and adjusted in many different ways very easily. The suction is strong when the surface is perfectly smooth and is easy to operate by a lever on the base. The gel pad is washable, so when it picks up dirt all you need to do is wash it rather than replace it.



I received this phone holder from the manufacture for evaluation, testing and review. Based on my experience I recommend this phone for any smart phone with or without extended battery if you need to mount your devices on the windshield. If you need a dash mount, this is not the right holder to get. I give it 5 stars as a windshield mount and 1 star as a dash mount.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★☆☆

Dalen NB1 7-Foot by 20-Foot Bird-X Net 3/4-Inch Mesh

I purchased this netting to protect miniature raspberry bushes from the birds. The size of the netting openings is just right and it was fairly easy to work with.

I am attaching a photo which shows the netting on my hand so you can see the relative size of the netting grid, as well as over the potted raspberry bush so you see how it looks from a distance.



Overall, I am pleased with it and plan to re-use it next year.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



AshopZones review ★★★★★