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 ★★★★★

3 in 1 Card Reader Adapter Cable Camera Connection Kit, 3 Port Card Reader for Ipad and iPad Mini by Eurekka®

I tested this 3 in 1 card using my SONY NEX-5N camera, USB memory stick, and SD card with iPadMini. I am attaching a photo collage that I will be referencing in this review, which can be found by following 'customer photos' link under the main photo.



Attaching the camera with USB cable just worked. Copying photos, videos, and other files from a memory card/stick also works if you follow the rules that iPad Mini expects. I describe these rules below.



Sometimes I need to copy files to my iPad Mini while I don't have a Wi Fi or my PC with iTunes handy. I want to be able to insert a memory card and copy the files to my iPad Mini. 3-in-1 card reader allowed me to do this, but it required me to figure out how to use what iPad Mini allows me to do to accomplish my desired goal.



I discovered that not every memory stick works in the card reader. Some memory sticks generate an error message "The connected USB device requires too much power". See photo #1 in collage of photos I am including for reference in this review. The smaller older memory sticks tend to work better. None of my large memory sticks worked, however one of the old non brand name 1Gig memory sticks worked (an old 1Gig SanDisk did not).



The 3 in 1 Card Reader documentation says "When you insert U-Disk/TF/SD card into the reader your iPad automatically opens the photo app which lets you select which photos to import." This is how it worked when I used it directly with the camera. However, when I copied several photos to a memory stick and inserted it in to the card reader and nothing happened.



Turns out I had to follow a very specific format for naming my files and the directory structure where I place them:



✔ 1. Use FAT file format on the USB drive (this is the format used by cameras and thus expected by iPad)



✔ 2. Create a folder on your memory stick called DCIM.



✔ 3. Copy your files into that folder. The files have to be stored directly in the DCIM folder of the memory card or memory stick. No sub-folders are allowed, images at the top level are not seen.



✔ 4. Name the photo images following the camera image conventions:



"_DSC" followed by 4 digit number followed by ".JPG", for example, _DCS0001.JPG.

You can also transfer movies by naming the files with an 8 digit number followed by .m4v extension, e.g. "00000001.m4v"



✔ 5. As soon as I renamed the files on my card/stick to follow these conventions iPad Mini immediately began showing thumbnails of the images that are on the card. When the transfer process is done you'll be asked if you want to delete the images that were just transferred or if you'd prefer to keep them on the memory stick/card.



This technique could be used to move files other than photos or movies, as long as you have an iPad app that knows how to open such files. For example you can zip text files into a zip file myfile.zip and then rename the zip file to be called myfilezip.pdf. When Photo app starts you can import your PDF file. To get the PDF file out of the Photo import folder, you need to open it with an app that knows how to handle pdf extension (for example, Files Pro). Then you can rename the file back to myfile.zip and extract your files.



➨ ➨ Warning: do not leave the card reader plugged into the iPad (even without a memory stick) if you are not using it. I left it in for the day and it totally drained my battery. Without the card reader plugged in I only need to recharge my iPad Mini every few days.



I received this card reader from the manufacture for an honest review. All in all 3 in 1 Card Reader is a useful gadgets at a very good price. I hope my tips will help you get the most out of it.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★