Tag: review

Ugmonk Analog Starter Kit Review: Go Analog to Be Productive

[ad_1]

Many years ago, I asked my most accomplished, successful friend what his secret to success was. His answer was simple, but it also changed my life. He said, “I make a list of all the stuff I need to do, then I do it.” He happened to use 3×5 index cards for his lists, so I copied the idea.

Over time, I took his simple system and worked it into my life, and decades on, I still start most days by pulling out an index card and working on whatever it says I need to do. At the end of the day, I glance at a longer list of projects (not on an index card) and a list of more strategic goals, along with my calendar, and decide what to put on the index card for tomorrow.

I talked about this system in our Best Paper Planners guide, and a WIRED reader emailed me to ask whether I had ever heard of Analog, an index-card-based system similar to mine (but better looking). I contacted Jeff Sheldon, founder of Ugmonk, the company that makes Analog, and he sent over an Analog Starter Kit. I’ve been using Analog for a couple of months now, and I’m happy to say it’s an excellent way to organize your day and get things done. It’s simple, elegant, beautifully made, and, well, analog. I wouldn’t say it replaced my decades-old system, but it sure makes it look a whole lot nicer.

Getting Things Done

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

There’s a slogan on the Analog site that reads, “Analog doesn’t replace your digital tools, it works alongside them by helping you focus.” I think that’s important to keep in mind. While I use and have almost always used a paper-based system, you don’t have to go completely paper-based to get something out of Analog. And really, even I don’t. I keep track of appointments on a digital calendar.

Still, when planning my days and making lists of what I want to accomplish now, I have always been a fan of paper. The tactile, mechanical process of writing things down etches them in my brain in ways that nothing screen-based ever does. That’s where Analog comes in.

Analog consists of a cleverly designed, beautifully made wooden box (available in either walnut or maple), custom-printed cards, and a metal divider/lid that keeps everything tidy. It’s designed to sit on your desk, show you what you need to do, and look good doing it.

There are three card colors: white cards for what you need to do today, cream-colored cards for items you won’t get to until later, and darker cards for those someday/maybe tasks you haven’t committed to doing but are interested in. The cards are 100-pound smooth, uncoated paper that’s sturdy enough to stand up in the provided slot so you can see your tasks for the day at a glance. The back of all the cards have a very faint dot grid pattern printed onto them, which makes them handy for jotting notes.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 5, 2024
Nemo Tensor Ultralight Insulated Sleeping Pad (2024) Review: Unparalleled Comfort

[ad_1]

Nemo Equipment’s Tensor sleeping pad was my introduction to ultralight sleeping pads. I’ll confess that when I unwrapped the Tensor (I went for the insulated version) and inflated it for the first time five years ago, I immediately thought of a hiker joke I’d seen on Reddit: Inflatable sleeping pads are for people who want to sleep on the ground, just not right away.

How would this impossibly thin, light, seemingly fragile pad not leave me on the ground after a few nights on the trail? Fast-forward five years and that same sleeping pad has been under me for over 40 nights now, and it still hasn’t left me anywhere but comfortable and well-rested. That’s not to say it can’t fail—many a pad has left me on the ground over the decades, but the Nemo Tensor is still going strong.

Last fall, the company sent me review samples of its new Tensor line, which has been revamped for 2024 and consists of three pads, each with varying degrees of thickness and R-values (how much insulation the pad provides, which I explain in my Best Sleeping Pads guide), tailored to specific backcountry needs.

Three Little Pads

The three pads include the Tensor Trail, which is the lightest but has the lowest R-value; the Tensor All-Season, which has an R-value of 5.4; and the Tensor Extreme Conditions, which boasts a whopping 8.5 R-value and has the highest warmth-to-weight ratio on the market.

All three come in four sizes: regular, regular mummy, regular wide, and long wide. Put it all together and that’s 12 pads to choose from—from a single lineup from one manufacturer. This is why we have an entire guide devoted to sleeping pads to help you pick the best one for your needs.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Two of these pads, the Tensor Trail and Tensor All-Season, are updates. They see marginal temperature boosts, but the construction remains like previous iterations. Nemo still uses a quilt-like design that helps baffles stay inflated and eliminates that springy sensation you get with vertical baffles. The insulation consists of multiple layers of bonded mylar.

The difference in R-value between the Trail and All-Season comes down to how many layers of insulating metal film each pad has. The Trail uses one layer, the All-Season gets two layers, and the Extreme uses four layers of what Nemo calls Thermal Mirror insulation (a metalized film). It also uses a different baffle type (more on that below). Also new this year is the beefier fabric on the bottom of these pads. Nemo now uses 40-denier nylon on the bottom, up from 30D nylon, which makes it more durable. Take that, Reddit funny guy.

Nemo’s new pads are made of Bluesign-approved nylon (Bluesign certification looks at both environmental impact and worker safety) and come with the company’s Vortex pump sack, which works well to inflate your bag via the zero-profile valve. I wish there were a standard for these valves so I could use the Nemo pump sack with other pads, but there isn’t. There’s also a stuff sack to store your pad, with a handy repair kit in the closure flap. The Nemo lifetime warranty covers any manufacturing defects, which is nice, but for more immediate solutions to that much-feared puncture, just remember the repair kit is in the stuff bag.

All-Season All the Way

If you want an all-around sleeping pad that will keep you comfortable not only in the summer but also during those shoulder seasons, the All-Season is the way to go. The All-Season’s second layer of mylar film increases the R-value to 5.4 and adds only 2 ounces of weight. The packed size is nearly the same. At only $30 more for a barely heavier pad with almost double the R-value, I think this is the best sleeping pad for most people out of Nemo’s current Tensor lineup.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

[ad_2]

Source link

April 5, 2024
It’s Time for Nothing to Do Something

[ad_1]

From having no products, the Cayman-Islands registered company was able to assemble a device with off-the-shelf components (the first generation Ear 1 didn’t even have custom drivers) quickly and sell it, drawing on connections the co-founders had made while at OnePlus, another brand with similar strategy.

Nothing’s initial product had a good marriage of hardware and software, and the headphones sounded pretty solid compared to others. We liked them on review, though not enough that they’re a top pick for us.

The second generation of earbuds, the Ear (Stick) (7/10, WIRED Review) and Ear (2) (8/10, WIRED Review) brought custom drivers and a better case, although they still look, feel, and sound very similar to the vast majority of earbuds that I call “AirPods but”. You probably get the idea: Airpods but with color. AirPods but with better eartips. AirPods but with LDAC lossless audio or noise canceling. Nearly every brand has them, nearly all of them are pretty decent. LG doesn’t even make cell phones anymore and yet it has a pair of AirPod clones. The fruit hangs to the ground.

The new Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) appear to once again offer incremental performance increases. I say appear to because though the company asked WIRED to announce these new products to the world, it has yet to provide us with usable images, battery life, a release date, or pricing, despite repeated inquiries. All the brand would supply was the picture you see at the top of this article.

Nothing did provide us with a bit of info about the inside of the headphones, which we have to assume will resemble the older models until proven otherwise. The brand claims a new ceramic driver will make crisper, clearer sound up high, and a new internal architecture will offer deeper bass. It also touts new adaptive noise canceling tech in the Nothing Ear (a) as being now 5db quieter overall (from 40db to 45db of reduction between generations). That’s fine, but it’s not staggering.

I’m not sure whether these incremental innovations are enough to put the brand on the top tier of consumer audio, but at least they keep it from falling behind. Apple itself has incrementally updated the AirPods and AirPods Pro for generations—but it also has the world’s best-selling product.

No Solid State for Nothing

It’s not like Nothing doesn’t have the capacity to develop new things. When it released its first headphones, it had a combined staff of 30 on audio. That staff is now up to 300, according to Evangelidis, including five dedicated acoustic engineers, and a team of 30 folks alone to debug the new active noise canceling. That’s significantly more brainpower, which is exactly the kind of stuff that might lead to noticable innovation either in these new models or down the line.

Once again: I haven’t yet heard or seen a pair, and I have no idea what they’ll cost. They are set to release later this year, with samples coming to reviewers in short order. On paper, and without the vital information of pricing (but knowing that historically Nothing’s buds have cost $100-150), they seem like they’ll be competitive buds that will likely offer many of the same features as options from JLab, Jabra, Oneplus, Samsung, and countless others.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 5, 2024
OnePlus Watch 2 Review: A 3-Day Battery Smartwatch

[ad_1]

I will note that OnePlus isn’t the first company to try a novel approach to solving smartwatch battery life. Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro series has long used dual-display technology to conserve battery life, providing similar results to OnePlus. But that watch is bulkier, the software feels clunkier, and the company’s update policy is spotty.

Speaking of, OnePlus is promising two Wear OS updates and three years of security updates. That’s similar to what Google offers for its Pixel Watch lineup, but paltry compared to what you’ll get from Samsung, which promises four Wear OS updates and five years of security updates for its Galaxy Watch6 series. What OnePlus offers here is decent, but it would be nice to see it match Samsung so you can enjoy the watch—with new features, security patches, and bug fixes—for as long as possible.

One of my favorite parts of the OnePlus Watch 2 is the fact that you only need to deal with one app. No need to have two separate apps for the watch’s functions and to access health and fitness data like with its competitors. Everything is managed in OnePlus Health (OHealth). But health and fitness is where the compromises start to creep in.

Puzzling Health

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

I like how everything is laid out in accessible tiles in OHealth, and you can click on them to access more information, but the app has some quirks. For starters, and you’ll see this in the picture above, there are some design issues, like words running into each other (see the step count goal). There are also missing health features like an electrocardiogram, skin temperature sensing, period tracking, and fall detection. All of these are on similarly priced competitors, but the quality of the information available is really the issue.

The discrepancies largely stems from step count and distance traveled. Wearing the Pixel Watch 2 on my other wrist, I noticed a big difference in these two metrics, with the OnePlus Watch 2 frequently undercounting, sometimes by 2,000 or 3,000 steps. On February 29, I traversed around Barcelona, sightseeing, and the Pixel Watch 2 says I walked 12.35 miles with 25,000 steps. OnePlus’s watch says it was 5.82 miles with 24,000 steps. With rudimentary estimates, 25,000 steps equates to roughly 12 miles, so there’s clearly some issue here with the OnePlus.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 5, 2024
TCL QM8 Review: A TV That Scratches the Projector Itch

[ad_1]

Since the beginning of broadcast, TV brands have been battling for technological supremacy. They were all expensive. From initial tube models to plasmas, LED, and now Mini LED and OLED, you used to have to pay an arm and a leg for a large screen that looked good. (Unless you wanted it in a Michael Scott dinner-party size, of course.)

These days, you really don’t have to pay that much. Enthusiasts can shell out for 8K resolution or OLED displays with perfect black levels at extreme sizes, but most people who are just streaming movies, sports, or video games can get a great viewing experience with a mid-tier option like this TCL QM8. Unless you’re hoarding an epic 4K Blu-ray collection in the basement or hosting a massive server with lossless rips, you probably won’t see much of a difference.

Folks ask me all the time whether they should buy a projector, and the fact is that TVs like this one now compete on size, but offer a much better picture that’s much easier to set up and use. If you want a big screen experience at home, start here.

Easy Going

Getting started with TCL’s flagship model is just as simple as with any more affordable TCL, which is to say it’s dead simple. You unbox the screen (ranging in size from a manageable 65-inch to a gargantuan 98-inch), place it facedown on a table or padded flat surface of capable size, and attach the included pedestal mount. Depending on which size you have, this might take two people or three or four, but it’s really not that hard. If you’re wall mounting, make sure you mount it to a stud, or several. This isn’t a light TV.

I personally enjoy the fact that the QM8 model isn’t as thin as higher-end TVs from LG, Samsung, and others. It makes it easier to carry and mount without feeling like I’m going to bend it in half, especially at the larger 85-inch size of our review unit.

Photograph: Parker Hall

Plugging in the TV and popping a pair of batteries into the lengthy rectangular remote, you’ll find yourself greeted by the Google TV interface, which quickly enables Android users and Google account owners to log in to a smorgasbord of streaming services. If you can’t find it here, it’s probably pretty shady. (You can also cast using the TV’s built-in Google Chromecast and AirPlay functionality.)

Other devices are extremely easy to setup with the TV too. I plugged in a soundbar, the KEF LS50 Wireless II (8/10, WIRED Recommends); my computer; and a Nintendo Switch (8/10, WIRED Recommends), and all of them performed flawlessly. Especially impressive is the 144-Hz refresh rate at 4K and 1440p resolutions with really low (sub-10-millisecond) input lag for instant onscreen action. It made playing fast-paced games like Assetto Corsa Competizione and F1 2023 particularly gorgeous when sim racing via my PC.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 4, 2024
Celestron Trailseeker Review: High Quality Binoculars Without the High Price

[ad_1]

I started bird-watching around the age of 0. That’s what happens when your parents are birders. I started using binoculars by age 5, an ancient pair of Bushnell 10x50s I’d grab when my father wasn’t looking. They were huge—so heavy I could barely lift them—but the world they opened up was well worth the neck strain. Forty-five years later, I am less cavalier about the neck strain.

When I head out of the house these days, my binocular of choice is 8×32. (I explain what these numbers mean in my Best Binoculars guide.) Celestron’s TrailSeeker 8×32 ED binoculars offer the best combination of image, quality, durability, and price that I’ve been able to find. Many a time have I brought these to my eye and thought, I can’t believe these are only $324. They perform well above their price, matching the performance of models that cost twice as much.

Optical Performance

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Celestron’s TrailSeeker 8×32 ED binoculars have phase and dielectric-coated BaK-4 prisms, which are rare in binoculars of this size at this price. You might also see them listed as “roof prism binoculars with multicoated optics.” What this all means is that the air-to-glass surfaces have multiple layers of antireflective coatings, ensuring that very little light is lost within the prism. More light being reflected off the prism and getting to your eye ensures a brighter, sharper, and more contrasty image.

In practice, the TrailSeeker binoculars deliver an excellent image with a sweet spot—where the image is sharpest and has the most contrast—that is absolutely tack sharp and occupies roughly 60 percent of the image, expanding out from the center. That’s very good for a $320 pair of binoculars. The image softens toward the edges, but not to such a degree that I notice, unless I go looking for it.

The edges are still sharp enough that I catch motion, at which point I can move the binoculars to center the bird, or whatever subject it is, into the sharper center. Additionally, based on my testing, most of the minimal distortion near the edge can be corrected by focusing for the edges. I never felt the need to do this in real-world use, but for the sake of testing I discovered it is possible (with a corresponding loss of sharpness in the center, since you’re adapting to curvature distortion at the edges).

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

[ad_2]

Source link

April 3, 2024
MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo Review: A Lightweight and Powerful Laptop

[ad_1]

MSI has long been an under-the-radar producer of PCs and laptops, with as many hits as misses in its repertoire. As we enter the “AI laptop” age, MSI’s first volley in the new category lands squarely on the hit side, with its Prestige 13 AI Evo nailing an effective balance among price, performance, and portability.

As the name suggests, the Prestige 13 is an ultraportable 13.3-inch laptop, featuring a 2,880 X 1,800-pixel OLED display (no touchscreen). Inside is an entry-level Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU with 16 GB of RAM and a 512-GB SSD. Nothing fancy, but enough to get the job done. There’s also a version with the Core Ultra 7 with double the RAM and storage for not much more.

For those of you who haven’t been following the microchip world closely, Intel’s Core Ultra series features (among other innovations) a new neural processing unit designed specifically to improve artificial intelligence operations. The “Evo” designation is bestowed on devices by Intel for laptop designs that “pass rigorous testing around performance, battery life, connectivity, audio and visual quality, size, weight, and more.”

Photograph: MSI

With that preface, I’ll start where the laptop soars the highest: performance. The Prestige indeed lives up to its name on general apps and AI-related tests. MSI’s ultralight Windows machine ran rings around the performance of the more tricked-out Lenovo X1 Carbon, which features a faster Core Ultra processor. The MSI bested it on general app benchmarks by 3 to 47 percent, depending on the test, and the difference was noticeable in daily use, as the Prestige felt whip-crack fast to load apps, recalculate spreadsheets, and the like. The picture wasn’t as rosy in its graphics capabilities, as the lower-end CPU and lack of memory suppressed frame rates on video tasks considerably—although the Prestige did perform surprisingly well on photo rendering tests.

At 2.1 pounds and 18-mm thick, this laptop is about as portable as it gets in the 13.3-inch category, though more diminutive 13.0-inch units can be a few ounces lighter. Available in white or black, the magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis isn’t the sturdiest I’ve felt lately, but at the same time, it doesn’t come across as flimsy.

Photograph: MSI

[ad_2]

Source link

April 2, 2024
Garmin Forerunner 165 Review: Better Sensors, Same Great Training

[ad_1]

Even the most advanced fitness trackers can’t catch everything. While testing the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music, I got a severe case of food poisoning and spent two days in bed. There’s nothing more irritating than your cheery fitness tracker notifying you that you’ve gotten tons of sleep and your Body Battery is at 100 as you’re struggling not to throw up water. It’s almost as irritating as your children shouting to ask if you’re still trapped in the bathroom.

When I finally got back to working out, the watch counseled me to build up my base with long, slow runs. This pace is insanely slow, particularly since I live next to a college campus full of long-legged teenagers, humiliating me with their vigorous strides, youthfulness, and hope. Nevertheless, I persist. My legs feel great. The Forerunner has allowed me to graduate to tempo runs, and my heart rate is lower than ever. Amazing!

The Forerunner 165 is the latest entry in Garmin’s Forerunner series, but there are no duds in the Forerunner lineup. If you’re a beginner runner who can find the barebones Forerunner 55 for under $200, that one is perfectly fine! However, the Forerunner 165 has enough additional features that, to me, it justifies the extra cash.

A Few More Features

The Forerunner 165 looks like your standard technical Garmin. It has the familiar five-button layout—three on the left and two on the right—with a chemically reinforced screen, a polymer bezel, and a silicone strap. Note: You will need to wash the strap every two to three days if you don’t want to get a wrist rash. It now also has a new, bright AMOLED display that I had no problem seeing in bright, direct sunlight.

Photograph: Adrienne So

It’s also a touchscreen, so instances where I spectacularly fail at navigating the button system have decreased dramatically. Same with times where I accidentally call my emergency contacts from holding the wrong button down for too long. (It’s the Up button on the left side. Don’t hold that button unless you’re in trouble.)

The higher-end Forerunner models are aimed at multisport athletes, but the Forerunner 165 is pretty explicitly aimed at runners. In addition to personalized, adaptive training plans, you can also now see metrics like running power and cadence on the screen on your wrist, as well as some of Garmin’s more esoteric proprietary metrics, like Training Effect, which helps you determine how impactful each workout was on your overall performance.

The reason you get a Forerunner 165 over a Forerunner 55 is that in addition to a nicer display, you also get more sensors. In addition to the now-standard multiband GPS positioning systems—GPS, Glonass, and Galileo, which lets you position yourself precisely for accurate workout metrics—the Forerunner 165 has the pulse oximetry blood oxygen sensor, as well as a barometric altimeter, compass, and ambient light sensor.

Photograph: Adrienne So

[ad_2]

Source link

April 1, 2024
HP Spectre x360 14 Review: The Best Windows 2-in-1 Laptop

[ad_1]

Once an edgy alternative to stuffier laptops like the Lenovo ThinkPad line, the HP Spectre x360 series has settled into a much more corporate groove of late. Back in the late 2010s, Spectres looked like props from Tron, with sharp edges, cut corners, and gold trim on some models, for Pete’s sake.

Alas, those days are over, and while the Spectre x360 is still a top-shelf ultralight Windows laptop, it has traded in style for consistency. All-gentle, OSHA-friendly curves clad in corporate black, silver, and blue give the sense that the Spectre didn’t sell out, but rather bought in.

The 2024 rendition of the Spectre x360 sticks closely to the design of the 2023 model, all built around showcasing the “360” portion of the name. A pair of hinges allows the screen to fold back 180 degrees, converting the laptop into a 14-inch tablet. A fingertip works on the screen, as does the stylus included in the box, and the rechargeable active pen snaps magnetically to the side of the chassis when not in use.

Photograph: HP

As with most new machines hitting the market this season, the major upgrade here is the introduction of the AI-infused Intel Core Ultra CPU—in this instance, the Ultra 7 155H model, backed up by a beefy 32 GB of RAM and a 2-TB solid state drive. The unit is a bit light on ports, with two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports (one used for charging) and a single USB-A port partially covered by an awkward and unnecessary spring-loaded, flip-out panel.

Sure enough, there’s ample power in those specs, and the Spectre x360 turned in the best performance I’ve seen to date on general business apps—by a healthy margin of 20 percent or more versus other Core Ultra laptops on many tests. It was about par for the course on graphics apps, though no slouch in this department either. Despite improvements in the Core Ultra’s integrated GPU, you’ll still need to upgrade to a laptop with a discrete graphics processor if you want to undertake significant gaming or rendering activities. On AI tasks, the Spectre fell just a hair shy of the high mark set by the MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo in my prior testing.

Size and weight are fine, although the unit is heavier than the similarly sized Lenovo X1 Carbon, with 19 millimeters of thickness and a 2.4-pound weight. That’s not bad considering the inclusion of a touchscreen and the 360-degree hinge. The extra weight may also reflect a slightly larger battery. My testing (with a YouTube video playback at full brightness) achieved 10.5 hours of running time—significantly better than other Core Ultra laptops I’ve tested to date.

Photograph: HP

The OLED screen is dazzlingly bright, which is right in line with the rest of the market today. The speakers on the unit are also excellent, with top-firing tweeters and two front-firing woofers, improved by an impressive cooling system that barely saw the super-silent fan kicking in at all.

My only real complaint is a fairly mild one. While the Spectre’s keyboard is fine, the haptic touchpad can be erratic, missing taps and clicks, depending on where you hit it. I don’t know whether this is a simple user error due to freakishly long fingers, but it’s an issue I’ve had with various Spectres for years. It has arguably improved a bit with the new touchpad, but it’s still a thorny problem that created a minor headache for me during extended use.

Pricing is tricky, as the exact specification I was sent isn’t readily available. You can get a close version for $1,400 on HP.com with 16 GB of RAM, but if you configure it on HP’s website, you’ll come up with a price of around $1,850. Even at the higher price, I’d say the exceptional performance, battery life, and usability options merit the outlay.

[ad_2]

Source link

April 1, 2024
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 Review: Too Dang Expensive

[ad_1]

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon line dates back to 2012, and now, in its 12th incarnation, the laptop has reached a level of maturity few other brands can boast. Today’s X1 Carbon has been honed to a fine point—yet it would be legitimately difficult to distinguish from the original. I’d know, because I reviewed it for WIRED way back when.

Photograph: Lenovo

The song writ large remains the same as ever. This is Lenovo’s flagship ultralight, the business laptop designed to kill all others. It retains the same size 14-inch LCD (with 16:10 aspect ratio, now at 2,880 x 1,800 pixels) that it has always had, with the weight now hitting 2.2 pounds— exhibiting a healthy and steady weight loss over the years.

I measured the thickness at 21 millimeters, largely owing to a sizable rubber foot that runs along the back of the base to prop the keyboard up a bit. The current chassis, in Lenovo’s words, is made from “recycled aluminum, magnesium, aerospace-grade carbon fiber, as well as post-consumer materials that are used throughout its construction.”

Many other innovations here are incremental at best. I mean, when the brand starts talking about “new tactile markings” on the keyboard—those little bumps on the F and J keys—you know we’re getting close to an innovation terminus. There’s also a small ridge that juts out at the top of the screen where the webcam (featuring a manual shutter) appears, plus a relocated fingerprint reader, but any other cosmetic changes are tough to suss out.

Photograph: Lenovo

The big news is under the hood, with the inclusion of the new Intel Core Ultra CPU, this model featuring an Ultra 7 155H chip running at 1.4 GHz. A small brigade of manufacturers is dropping machines with Ultra chips this month, with the big pitch being around artificial intelligence performance, better power efficiency, and improved integrated graphics. AI-driven benchmarks are still a new thing, so until I have a decent base of results to draw from, I’m reporting on my standard battery of tests that mix various business apps and graphics benchmarks.

[ad_2]

Source link

March 31, 2024