Reviews by The Church of Apple

Tag: portable

  • Spracht BluNote+Chat Review

    The Spracht BluNote+Chat is a portable, wireless, battery powered speaker that allows you to listen your music and have a conversation with someone wirelessly on the go. The BluNote+Chat’s best quality is the portability of the speaker without eliminating good sound. The speaker is available from Spracht for $99.00 or $54.99 from Amazon. Let’s see if it’s the speaker for you.

    Form

    One of the first things you will notice about this speaker is it’s size. The speaker is very small and very light. It makes you wonder how such a small speaker would ever produce a good sound. For what it is, it produces excellent sound. The portability of the speaker, I feel is it’s biggest point. It is small enough to fit in a large duffel bag or small backpack, perhaps even a large enough purse. The speaker is all black for all of the speaker except a nice silver brim at the bottom of the speaker that adds to the look of the speaker. The speaker has a nice black chrome finish, with the speaker felt below it and of course the aforementioned silver lining at the bottom. The top of the speaker has a set of touch sensitive buttons that light up red. These buttons add to the overall cool-ness of the speaker. In addition, there is an led screen that lights up to tell you a caller ID, whether or not bass is on or off and the up and down of volume. I appreciate that the screen only lights up when it needs to so that it isn’t a distraction nor does it subtract from the look of the speakers. In addition, to the solid look of the speaker, the speaker is also made solid. It is made to be carried around so as such it is made pretty sturdy. It isn’t unibody but it doesn’t have to be, the different parts that make it up are put together tightly and no parts are loose. I do raise a slight concern with the rubber pads on the bottom, but I’ve never been a fan of these on any product so it’s so much the product itself, it’s just my prejudice against rubber pads on the bottoms of things since they eventually fall off. Also, I wish the speaker was available in other colors. Overall though, this speaker has great aesthetics in such a small package.

    Function

    One of the main points of this speaker is the fact that it is small and compact. However, at a $99 price tag, it needs to have a powerful punch in the small package. Fortunately, Spracht has delivered on that. The speaker, while small, has a good sound range. The bass and treble are both hit pretty well. The notes are hit and while it doesn’t sound like you are in a theatre or music venue, it still sounds great. In addition, the sound of a call on the speaker sounds like it would on a clear phone with great signal. In fact, it sounds better than listening to it to your ear. The screen will display a caller ID on it so you know who is calling. It does not show names of people who are calling so you will have to know someone’s number in order to recognize who is calling. I think that it would be great if the speaker had that capability. The speaker is all wireless, including the fact that it is rechargeable so it can literally go without wires including a power cord for several hours. That leads me to the battery. I have gotten great battery life on the speaker, with an average of about 5-6 hours which more than enough for me. If I needed to have it for longer than that, I would just get a corded speaker. The only problem I have with the speaker, and this is somewhat slight. Let’s say I am playing music and I pick up the speaker, I really have to watch where I pick the speaker up at because I might end up touching the buttons at the top, which are very sensitive. I may put the device on standby, change the song, pause it, change the volume all without intent. Of course, the buttons aren’t all bad, I appreciate that they are lit up at night so that I may see the buttons. However, I do wish they weren’t so sensitive. Overall, the functionality of the speaker is great and will impress anyone intending to buy a small, portable speaker.

    Conclusion

    Pros

    -Great design

    -Put together well, not falling apart

    -Small and compact

    -Great sound

    -Great minor features

    Cons

    -Only comes in black

    -Future of the rubber pieces at the bottom

    -Buttons are a bit too sensitive

    Things to improve

    I believe that the company should try selling different colors on the speaker. I think that would attract the younger demographic. The rubber pieces at the bottom should be removed or make it better integrated with the speaker rather than just gluing it on. Finally, touch sensitive buttons are great but I think the product would do better with physical buttons that are engrained in the speaker.

    This is a great speaker that I feels earns high marks. It’s light, portable and still has a great sound. While I think it is a bit on the high end in terms of price, I personally think it is worth it. Great job Spracht, your speaker earns 4 and a half stars from me.

    Thanks for reading,

    Joe

     

  • Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt Review

    The Buffalo MiniStation ThunderBolt is a Bus-Powered Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive available in 500 GB or in 1 TB (1000 GB) storage options. It is available for $173.99 for the 500 GB model or $196.49 from B&H. Thunderbolt is a new technology that Apple has integrated with their computers. It is Apple’s retry at FireWire (this time without the licensing fee). It is regarded as faster than USB or FireWire and will provide amazing speeds for backup and storage. Let’s check out Appl… I mean Buffalo’s hard drive.

    Form

    I made that mistake of thinking that this product was an Apple product. Yes, this drive is just that good aesthetically. The product looks like a product that Apple would make. It is clean, smooth, easy to hold, light and thin. It’s texture feels like that of a unibody laptop from Apple. On the bottom it has a light that reminds me of the light that the plastic MacBook has though this product is much more durable. I feel as though if I were to drop this product, it would not even dent. The colors on it again remind me of an Apple product. The white reminds me of the white MacBooks and the silver reminds me of the silver on a MacBook Air or Pro. If you were to remove the branding, you would think it was made by Apple, and we all know that Apple makes beautifully designed and well-made products. Therefore, in terms of aesthetics, this product is right on. It’s the most well-designed portable hard drive I have seen and Apple should stop making the Time Capsule external hard drive and sell these instead.

    Function

    Truth be told, I have not actually owned a product that used the ThunderBolt connection before so therefore I did not have a Thunderbolt cable. Luckily, Buffalo had me covered there, they supplied the cable for me. Not only did they supply a cable but they supplied a short cable, which some may say is a bad thing but I view it as a good thing. Information between computer and external hard drives transfer faster when they are connected by shorter cords. Therefore, the already fast ThunderBolt was made faster by using a short cord. I have had no problems with the speed of the drive at all. The first time I backed everything up it took about 30 minutes while a USB 2.0 drive took about an hour and a half. Therefore, the claim that it is two times as fast as USB 3.0 is misleading. While ThunderBolt can be two times faster than USB 3.0, that is at the highest point. Also, the drive inside the enclosure does not handle fullest ThunderBolt speeds. However, despite this, I did see a significant speed increase over USB 3.0 and USB 3.0 was pretty fast too. The drive, with it’s small profile went right underneath the iMac and I never really see it, so it is out of the way and always connected. If you don’t have a lot of space, you can still fit it somewhere in tight corners. It contains huge amounts of space while taking a little amount of physical space. It does not have a second ThunderBolt port to be able to daisy chain so you must make it the last thing on the chain, if you already have another product that can not be daisy chained, you will have an issue. Despite that though, the drive definitely is a great machine that can store a lot of data so if your Mac is running low on space, this is the drive for you.

    Conclusion

    Pros

    -Best aesthetics for a portable hard drive
    -Bus-powered
    -High capacity for storage
    -Fast USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt
    -Small and compact

    Cons

    -A bit pricy
    -Can not be daisy chained

    Ways to improve

    The only way I could see to improve is to add the ability to daisy chain as I know that some people like to chain multiple drives together to create a super drive or to be able to connect multiple devices together. It would not be a bad plan as people who wanted to create a “super hard drive” out of a daisy chain of these hard drives would buy multiple hard drives from them, the company would make 10 sales from one consumer rather than one or none.

    To conclude, this could be an Apple product. It’s sleek design and fast transfer of data make it an ideal drive, that is if you can mind the price and the lack of daisy chain ability. It is recommended most to those who have USB 2.0 and ThunderBolt since with this drive you will see a significant speed increase. This external drive earns a 4 and a half stars from me. Great job Buffalo!

    Thanks for reading,

    Joe

    Images Courtesy: Buffalo

  • The Portable Charge: myCharge Trek 2000 Review

    The myCharge Trek 2000 is a portable charging dock that you can take anywhere you go and add battery life to your dying Apple product should it be dying. It is available from myCharge for $55 at Amazon. Let’s see if it’s the right charging solution for you.

    Form

    The device may only come in one flavor of color, white and grey, but it does look like it is well made. Of course, that is because it is well made. The product has a white, glossy top with green buttons that light up and tell you how much charge it has left to give to your devices. It has a grey dock that unclips from the back and and comes up in a 95-100 degree angle, giving your device the perfect viewing angle. The cords that clip into the device are rather short but one of them is to charge the myCharge and the other is to charge the thousands of devices out there that use Micro-USB. The cords may be short but they seem as though they won’t fray anytime soon, or ever, which is good, a charger with a frayed cord won’t work nearly as efficiently. Of course, the aesthetics aren’t nearly as important than it’s abilities to charge so let’s dive into how the charger performs.

    Function

    The first thing I noticed about the charger is that it charges fast. My iPod touch went from 0 to 100 in about an hour, on my computer it would be charged in 2 hours and on it’s own charger about 2 hours. My iPhone was similar, charged from 0-100 in an hour and a half to 2 hours while on it’s own charger charged it fully in 3. There is a great speed that this dock charges at. I can not make a claim for an Android device since I do not have one, however, it does charge 1000s of Android devices because of the added Micro-USB cord that it has. It has a charge indicator which tells me if I need to charge the myCharge or not, which is nice since I will now know exactly how much charge the charger has before I leave for somewhere. It also plays a sound if a device is put on it, if a device is taken off of it and when it is plugged in. The first and third sounds are useful since it gives you a confirmation that either the device is charging or the charger is charging which is useful since with most chargers like this one, you can not tell if it has charged or is charging until you have wasted time. The fact that it plays a loud sound when it comes off the charger is necessary for two reasons. One, if the device is in the charger and you want it to charge, you don’t want it coming off so if it happens to come off when you don’t want it to, you will know immediately that it has been unplugged. Similarly, benefit two is that if someone tries to steal your device while it is on the charger, it will tell you like a car alarm tells you of a burglar. With some luck and an incredibly stupid robber, you can prevent your device from being stolen while it is on the charger. One bad side that I do see about the device is it’s practicality. iOS device’s batteries, at least for newer devices, are built to last. You also probably charge your device at night anyways, so when it is night time and your phone still has a charge from the morning, it’s going on the main charger anyways. Another thing is that you can not use the device effectively while it is on the charger. Of course, this is a dock and that is why it won’t be very comfortable using your device on it, because it is a dock. My iPhone 4S, after extensive use, does drain so I do find myself using the dock to charge it but I want to be able to use the device while it’s charging and that can not be effectively done. An old iPod touch I used to have lasted maybe half an hour off of it’s charger, it’s battery was toast. This charger would have made the device much more effectively used since it did charge fast (the old iTouch could charge in 30 minutes, probably due to he fact that most battery cells were dead and charging the remaining ones was a snap). However, despite the fact that I can’t use it on the charger, does it really matter if I can’t? The device can charge my device is about an hour or two anyways. The charger, despite the flaw in practicality, works really well and I would recommend it.

    Conclusion

    Pros

    -FAST Charge
    -Great Aestethics
    -Not just for Apple products
    -Charge an Apple product and Android product at the same time
    -Different sounds to indicate different actions
    -Portable and light
    -Great dock viewing angle
    -Wrist strap to attach to your wrist
    Cons

    -Can not use device effectively while it is on the charger
    -Wires are very short

    Recommendations to improve the Product

    This is probably a section I should have added a little while ago, when I first started reviewing but we learn along the way. Anyways, recommendations to the company would include to lengthen the wires perhaps by utilizing the space that the cord currently uses to put a retractable wire. Also, putting a USB port on the device would allow the user to plug in his or her cord to the charger and still effectively use the device. Of course, they can leave the dock there since I know people prefer to dock their device whenever possible, perhaps when they are at a desk and working. When their phone rings, they can pick it up off the dock. I think a dock/USB power bank is what I am going for here. It would be a great improvement.

    This charger, for $55, will serve you well. I would consider other chargers from myCharge since they have USB power banks too but if you are a dock person, I would recommend this charger to you. I give the charger 4 stars for doing what it should being doing quickly, charging. The effectiveness of using the device on charger or a lack thereof, prevents from it receiving a five star rating.

    Thanks for reading,

    Joe

    Image Courtesy: myCharge and Amazon