Product review: Cat Window Seat SmartSpeed with Suction Cup

I want to start with a few words about the construction of the seat. The suction cups are LARGE (3.25"), so they provide a secure hold. The string that holds the seat is made out of twisted metal wires, like a heavy duty picture frame hanging wire, so that is also very secure even if the kitty runs its claws over it. The seat is made out of canvas bag with a waterproof lining inside the bag. The top material has a feel of canvas (it is not plush). The plastic tubes are hollow this provides structural strength. So I believe it can hold a couple of heavy cats. Our kitty cats are pretty small (7 and 8 pounds) so it sure holds them well. In attached video you see them rubbing against the wires supports and pulling on them with their paws, we held our breath watching them but the shelf held without a problem. The shelve has been up for more than 2 weeks with the cats going up and down and we did not need to readjust or reattach it.



Assembly was easy. The plastic parts push together to form a frame. The canvas bag is pulled over the frame. The canvas seat has two small holes through which you need to feed the wires that to to the top suction cups. As the cats sit on the shelve it does not remain taught, it kind of sags in the middle forming a nest.



I have to say that our kitties did not take to the shelf right away. They did not like the texture of the canvas. We fixed that by putting a towel over it as we know our cats love any towel. With the towel in place they had an initial fear of the seat, but we enticed them to try it out by placing a couple of Greenies in the middle of the shelf. Our kitties love Greenies so they went for it. Once they were on the shelf they realized it was a pretty good place to be. By the next day they did not need any enticement, and we see our cats taking turns sleeping there as well as looking out of the window. We put the window seat on the windows across from our bird feeders as our indoor cats often look at the birds through the windows.



The seat comes without assembly instructions. My video include the major steps

1) putting together the frame of the seat

2) threading the wires through the seat

3) inserting anchors into the suction cups

4) attaching the seat to the window



This shelf was provided to our feline testers for review. Once they got over their initial fear they like it and told me to give it a 5 star rating. We see them on the shelf quite often, mostly sleeping rather than gazing out of the window, but they like it.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Rosewill 750W ATX12V EPS12V Power Supply Capstone G750

This is a nice power supply with enough for any personal computer. Its capacity of 750w and a large number of connectors (total of 8 connectors and 10+4 Main plug that is hard-wired). This power supplies provides a lot of room for growth.



Capstone 750 is 6 3/8" x 3.5" x 6". It uses ribbon cables, which are more flexible than round cables.

Connectors:



--> One 20 +4 Main plug, it is hard-wired

It can handle motherboards with both 20 pin or 24 pin connectors.

--> Two EPS12V CPU plug (modular)

The power supply supports two CPUs. It maybe be used for servers that use two CPUs, most desktops use one CPU.

--> Two PCIe (modular)

Supports two SLI graphics cards

--> Four SATA or Molex plugs

2 SATA cables, each with 4 plugs, total of 8 SATA devices

1 Molex cable, four Molex plugs and one floppy plug



I measured the power supply with a power supply tester and all votages are within tolerance. The attached video includes several screen shots that show the power supply tester output. The top number for each rail shows the expected results, the number below (in a slightly larger font) shows the actual reading. 0.5V is the acceptable tolerance. All readings are well within the tolerence. Its a good one!



This power supply is provided by Rosewill.



You can find it by following this link



AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Balichun White Goose Down and Goose Feather Pillow

I have been sleeping on 100% down/goose pillows all my life, so I know exactly how they feel. This pillow is a bit different. It has a spongy center that I can feel. It has a core that feels like foam and goose/down envelope on the outside of the core. What I like about down pillows is that they are not spongy, this pillow has a lot of resilience while a 100% goose/down pillows do not. This is a high loft pillow.



This is not a bad pillow, I like it more than a pure polyester foam pillow, but if are looking for a down pillow that is made totally of goose feathers and down (like The Company Store pillows, for example) this is not it.



I ordered a standard size and the size was spot on - all my standard pillow cases fit perfectly.

Cleaning instructions from the label: do not wash in water, do not dry clean, tumble dry



I received this pillow for testing and review, as part of a new product introduction.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★☆☆

Product review: NewNow 20000mAh Power Bank Portable

This external packs turned out to be larger than I imagined from the stock photos. Its size is 5.75" x 1.75" x 0.75" and it weighs slightly over a pound. The power pack has two ports, both of them are 1A. The external pack as a small built-in flashlight. It generates a very small beam of light and is not very bright.



The external battery performed very well charging with my Android phone. It did not perform at am optimal range for IPad Mini. My current monitor showed that neither of the ports delivers over 1A, which is required for an optimal charge for Apple devices.



To see how well different chargers and external batteries charge my mobile devices I use a Nexus phone and an iPadMini to test each of them. The current drawn from the battery depends on each device using the battery. I always use the same two devices and I do my tests with the devices charged to the same level, running the same applications and using the same cables to keep everything the same. This allows me to do a relative comparison of each battery and identify the ones that do not perform well. Note that these tests are not testing for the maximum current each device can draw on each port as neither of my devices can max out the port.



I also tested to see if the battery supports pass-through charging (i.e. whether the battery can charge mobile devices while it is being charged). This battery does NOT supports charge through charging. It can not charge while being charged.



Samsung Nexus phone:

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

port 1: 1.02A/5.05V (excellent comparing the performance of the same device with other chargers)

port 2: 1.00A/5.04V (excellent comparing the performance of the same device with other chargers)

(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this phone is 1.00A/5V)



iPad Mini tablet:

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

Neither of the ports delivers over 1A, which is required for optimal charge for Apple devices.

port 1: 0.93A / 5.08V (average for 1A port for the same device with other chargers)

port 2: 0.93A / 5.10V (average fpr 1A port for the same device with other chargers)

(for comparison the best charging monitor result for this tablet is 1.70A/5V)



Summary:

' size: 5.75" x 1.75" x 0.75"

' weight: 1 lb 7 oz

' number of ports: 2 - both ports are 1 Amp

' flashlight: yes

' pass through charging: NO (i.e. the battery CANNOT charge while being charged itself)

' cables: 1 charging cable



Since neither of the ports produced more than 1A this battery is best suited for Android devices, MP3 players, portable speakers etc. Just not devices that work best with 2A ports such as Apple devices.



This battery pack is provided by NewNew for testing and review. Getting a review product does not influence what I say, I run tests and report what I see purely based on a performance of the product.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★☆

Product review: Nitecore HC30 1000Lumens CREE XM-L2 U2 LED Headlamp Handheld Flashlight

This is a unique headlamp. It is a band that accepts a small flashlight, which can be used by itself or as part of the headlamp. I really like the flashlight, but using it in the headband was not ideal. First, I am not able to shine the flashlight down because the light gets into my eyes if the flashlight is pointed down. This does not happen in a typical headlamps which have a light that can be ratcheted down because the casing shields the light from the eyes. The ratchinging mechanism gives me a better control over where the light is aiming. The flashlight is larger than a typical headlamp light and it makes the headlight more top heavy than my other headlights.



The flashlight itself is very nice. It is relatively small - 4 inches long and it weighs 4.5 oz (with battery installed). The flashlight has 5 brightness levels: Turbo, High, Mid, Low, Ultra-low.



Lux meter readings:

At 12 inches the lux meter showed

' 13840 lux on turbo high setting

' 7210 lux on high setting

' 2050 lux on medium setting

' 45 lux on low setting

' 4 lux on ultra low setting

' For comparison, a 60 watt fluorescent bulb at the same distance produces 1119 lux.



It runs on one 18650 battery which is included. The battery was totally discharged when I received and required a full recharge before it would work in the flashlight. The elastic band is adjustable.



Overall, I like the standalone flashlight more than when it was in the headband.



This headlamp is provided by Nitecore for testing and review. Getting a review product does not influence what I say. The review is based purely on my experience which had both positives and negatives.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★☆

Product review: Prime Pro Spy camera hidden in Glasses

I have tried a couple of "spy" cameras before this one: a pen which has a camera built into the cap and a clip with a built in camera. The main issues with those cameras is aim. You don't know what the camera is aimed at exactly and if you are trying to take video in covert manner you can't be constantly checking it and aiming it. Putting the camera in the frame of the eyeglasses totally solves the problem! All you have to do is look in the right direction. The biggest problem is solved.



Now, how is the video quality? The clarify and color is excellent in good light, the sound is captured well, however the video is not smooth, it is rather jerky. Seems like it falls behind and then skips a few frames to catch up. It is fine for a convert video to document something but not something that would look good in an artistic documentary project. The camera did rather poorly in the dim light and the dark. I am including several video clips (good and bad) to give you a better idea of what this camera is capable of.



The glasses are designed well, it is impossible to tell they have a camera - there are no give away lights, noises, the frame does not get warm. The interface is pretty easy and the feedback via blinks is simple enough that you don't need to carry a manual with you to know what is happening. One long hold puts the glasses into stand-by mode, a second long hold starts the video. The confirmation that video has began is three blinks with a red LED after which the LED is turned off so there are no give away lights. To stop the video you need to press the button again, the confirmation is the blue light blink.



As the camera records the video is saved every 10 minutes. After I fully charged the camera, I was able to record four 10 minute segments (each one was 1.5G). The camera still had a little more power left and I was able to record another shorter segment, about 4-5 minutes.



The camera has no controls. The only thing you can control is setting the date to the current date, and this is done by creating a text file which contains the current date. A sample copy of this text file is present on the micro SD card. Just edit it with any text editor and modify sample time to current time. Save the file. The name of the file us Time.txt.



To charge the glasses from empty to full takes about 2 hours. The charging cable is unique - I don't have anything like it in vast collection of cords. It is smaller than mini USB, I believe it is USB-MINI4P. Bottom line - DO NOT LOSE THIS CABLE!!!!



Micro SD is slot is revealed when you bend the arm of the glasses, it took me a few minutes to find it (I show where it is in my video). When I plug in the USB cord into my computer the 8G drive is mounted and I can copy all files from it to my computer. 8G SD card is included in the package. The glasses can take a card up to 32G. The camera produces either jpg photos (1280x1024) or AVI videos (1280x720).



Finally, if something goes wrong it is nice to have an escape hatch. There is a reset to manufacturer's setting pin hole on the camera.



Overall, a very good combination of stealth and video.



This camera is provided by Prime Pro.





You can find it on Amazon by following this link.







AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Flower Delivery - 25 PREMIUM FRESH ROSES by Spring in the Air

These are absolutely beautiful roses. Very long thick stems, big and full flowers. They are on par with best roses I got from a nice florist shop. They are better than other flowers I received when they were ordered through internet. The roses do not have a scent (the packaging was perfumed but the roses themselves do not have a scent). They looked good for 10 days. In attached video you see a "rose diary" where I took a photo of the roses every day for 11 days so you can see for yourself how they held up. The color of my roses is "Super Hot Pink".



The packaging of the roses was excellent, it kept the roses fresh and undamaged.



The package included two packs of cut flower food, enough to change water in 3 days. I changed the water 3 times.



The flowers came with a list of recommendations

1. Use a vase that is at least 12 inches tall and 7-8 inch wide. I did not have a vase that is that large

so I split them between two vases.

2. Remove the Guard Petal from the blooms. The Guard petals are the outer petals on each bloom. As I examined hte flower only 4 or 5 blooms had guard petals that required removal (i.e. they did not look as good as the rest of the flower).

3. Dissolve flower food in a vase with 1 quart of water. Change water in about 3 days.

4. Remove foliage below the water line.

5. Cut the stem diagonally.

6. Place the vase away from direct sunlight.

7. Change water every 2-3 days and recut diagonally to ensure the longest vase life.



These flowers are provided by Spring in the Air for review.



You can find these roses on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★