Videos by Andy Slye

Author: Andy Slye (Page 35 of 40)

Best $10 iPhone 7 Case? Spigen Ultra Hybrid Review

As much as I’d love to keep my iPhone 7 naked, it’s just not a smart thing to do. Since I want to keep my iPhone in mint condition to sell later, I need a case.

The Spigen Ultra Hybrid has been my primary case for the past four iPhone models because it’s everything I want in a case: good protection, low price, minimal, and clear.

I got it for about $10 on Amazon. This is the Crystal Clear version, but it also comes in other bumper colors. It’s made of thermoplastic polyurethane so it’s not a hard plastic, but instead it’s firm and flexible. It covers the back, the top and bottom, and the sides of the iPhone 7. It has all the precise cutouts for the lightning port, speakers, new grill, and new camera.

It’s very easy to put on, just insert the iPhone 7 top first and then snap it in at all four corners. One of the good things about the Spigen Ultra Hybrid is that it has a slightly raised lip on the front to protect the iPhone 7 display when it lays face-down on a surface. It also has the same type of small lips on the back of the case at each four corners so that the case doesn’t get easily scratched when it’s moved around.

The iPhone 7 power and volume buttons have protection with this case and I’ve always appreciated the Ultra Hybrid’s ease of pushing the buttons and the tactile feedback that it gives.

The Air Cushion technology on all 4 corners of the case absorbs most of the impact during small-to-medium drops. I’ve never experienced any damage to my iPhones during the past 3 years when using this case. I do try to be very careful with my phone so it starts there, but I do drop it from time to time when getting out of my car or when I’m pulling my iPhone out of my pocket so it does handle drops up to 4 feet very well.

The biggest question that comes up is “Does the case turn yellow over time?”

Well, this is my old Spigen Ultra Hybrid iPhone 6s case on the left compared to the new Ultra Hybrid iPhone 7 case on the right. You can see that, yes, the case did change color ever so slightly over time. The change mostly occurred on the bumper part of the case.

The 6s case on the left was used for a year and that’s what you can expect the color to look like after a year’s worth of use without any washing or cleaning. It’s not extremely discolored. The slight yellowing over time never really bothered me because as you can see when it’s on the phone it’s not a huge problem, at least for me anyway.

I think for $10 the Spigen Ultra Hybrid iPhone 7 case is great, and if you’re looking for an affordable minimal clear case that offers decent protection I think you’ll love it.

Anova Precision WiFi Cooker Review

I don’t like to waste time cooking because frankly I’m not that great at it and cooking takes away my valuable productivity time.

That’s why the Anova Precision Cooker seems to be the perfect solution for the typical millennial geek like myself. When I first saw this I did not think twice about getting it. I bought it, and I love it.

The Anova Precision Cooker is a tool for a cooking method called sous vide which uses a water bath to evenly cook food at a controlled temperature to retain moisture without overcooking. So it literally gets the perfect cook every time. Sous vide is popular among professional chefs, but the Anova is super simple for us regular people, and it even has a free app for Android and iOS that lets you cook from anywhere over WiFi. Magic? Well, here’s how it works.

First you need some type of pot. I actually bought this 12-quart container on Amazon for $16 and it works really well.

Fill your container up with water (or ice water if you plan to remotely start your cooking later in the day via WiFi)

Clamp the Anova cooker to the side of the container and plug it in. Use the Anova app to find out what temperature you need to set for the type of food you’re cooking. You can cook all kinds of stuff sous vide (chicken, pork chops, ribs, vegetables, hamburger, steak, and more).

f you’re using WiFi to start the cooker remotely, open the Anova app and pair your Anova to your WiFi connection then set the temperature and timer and proceed to the next step to place your food in the ice water and start the timer later in the day. To cook it right now like I’ll be doing, you can use the scroll wheel on the cooker itself to set the temperature, then click the Red button to start heating the water.

Next, get your food ready. I have a steak with some salt and pepper, along with some butter and rosemary. Put your food in a vacuum sealed bag or just use a regular Zip-lock plastic bag. Once your desired temperature has been met, slowly lower your plastic bags into the container until the food has been fully immersed, making sure it’s not blocking the Anova intake, then clip the top of the bags to the side of the container.

Let your food cook for the allotted time. You can see all the temperatures and times for the most popular types of food using the free Anova Culinary app which has a ton of recipes on it that you can follow.

Once the timer is up, remove the food. If it’s a piece of meat like this steak you can choose to sear it and add a dark and crispy outer layer to give it the ultimate finish. I usually sear it on high heat for about 90 seconds on each side.

When you’re done you will be left with the perfect cook every time. This steak was cooked medium-rare, but of course you can adjust the temperature for medium or medium well or however you like it. Just use the app and it will tell you exactly what temperature to cook it at for your desired doneness.

Bottom line, the Anova Precision Cooker is an awesome gadget. It’s made cooking more fun and less stressful. The cleanup is a breeze because there’s practically none at all. Just dump out the water. What will you be cooking with your new Anova Precision Cooker? Leave a comment and let me know!

iPhone 7 Unboxing + New Features

I just got back from the Apple store with the new iPhone 7 and this is my unboxing video where I’m going to let you see it up close and personal and quickly go over the new features for you.

The iPhone 7 now comes in 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB so the storage has doubled from the iPhone 6s. No more 16GB, thank goodness. The first thing you may notice is that the iPhone 7 comes in 2 new colors: black which is what I have here and jet black which has a glossy finish, and it also comes in silver, gold, and rose gold so no space gray this year.

Other than the phone itself, in the box you’ll find some stickers and quick start guides, the new Lightning EarPods with the 3.5mm to Lightning adapter since one of the biggest changes for the iPhone 7 is the removal of the headphone jack. Also in the box there’s the Lightning to USB cable and the power adapter.

I’m really liking the new matte black finish, it looks super sleek. Has kind of a Batman feel to it (the Christian Bale batman, not the Adam West batman).

So here’s how the iPhone 7 stacks up to last year’s iPhone 6s which I also have here, in the space gray color.

As far as design goes, it has the same 4.7” screen size and same resolution but the iPhone 7 has a new wide color gamut and the display is 25% brighter which helps on bright sunny days. The amount of RAM is still 2GB.

The iPhone 7 has a new solid state home button, so it’s no longer a physical button that presses, but instead it has a haptic engine that provides tactile feedback which I’m not gonna lie, feels kind of weird at first. I’m hoping I get used to it quickly because it is a definitely a different sensation compared to clicking a physical button.

The iPhone 7’s re-engineered enclosure now makes it dust and water resistant which is a first for iPhones. So you no longer should need a waterproof case if you plan on getting wet. The iPhone 7 should be able to withstand it by itself now.

As I previously mentioned, one of the biggest changes is the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom which has been replaced with another grill so you’ll probably want to get some Bluetooth headphones which is what I’ve been recommending for years now anyway. On the bright side, the iPhone 7 has stereo speakers, one on the bottom and one towards the top and the speakers are supposedly twice as loud than the iPhone 6s speaker.

The iPhone 7 is rocking Apple’s latest A10 fusion quad-core CPU which helps boost performance to twice as fast as the iPhone 6. It also helps battery life which has also improved due to the slightly bigger 1960mah battery that should give you around 2 more hours of use compared to the 6s.

The new camera on the 7 has the same amount of megapixels (12) but a larger aperture at f/1.8 and it’s also equipped with a new quad LED flash. It can record 4K and full HD slow motion like the 6s but the 7 has optical image stabilization built into it which was only on the Plus models last year.

The ever so popular front facing camera has been slightly improved to 7 megapixels, and last but not least the iPhone 7 does come with iOS 10 installed.

So that’s my quick unboxing and first look at the new iPhone 7. Be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out on my full review coming soon. Hit that Like button if you enjoyed this video. My name is Andy, thank you for watching and I’ll talk to you in the next video.

Bose SoundTouch 130 Home Theater System Review

Bose SoundTouch 130 Home Theater System Review

Buy on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2aZ5hlQ

Bose was kind enough to sponsor this video, and in this video I’ll be reviewing the Bose SoundTouch 130 Home Theater system. If you’re like me and you love movies AND music, this is a perfect addition to your HDTV.

The Bose SoundTouch 130 Home Theater system’s main hardware consists of a 37” soundbar, a wireless acoustimass module, a SoundTouch wireless adapter, and a control console. It also comes with a universal remote control, HDMI cable, speaker cable, USB cable, power cords, and an ADAPTiQ headset. A common question for a system like this with many components is how hard is it to set up? Well it comes with an easy to follow guide and I was able to set up everything in about 20 minutes which is pretty good. Part of the setup process includes connecting the included ADAPTiQ headset which is an audio calibration device that will optimize the SoundTouch 130 home theater system for your specific room layout which was a really fun and interesting experience.

Let’s start off with the king of this home theater system, the soundbar. It’s one of Bose’s best performing soundbars delivering a lifelike surround sound that will blow your mind when you’re watching movies. When I watched Mad Max with this, I was getting freaked out because I was hearing voices coming from the left and right of me. Not gonna lie I was a little scared at first, I thought there was an old woman whispering in my kitchen. But it was actually a result of how good this soundbar is and how detailed the TrueSpace multi-channel technology sounds. Inside it there are six drivers and two PhaseGuide sound radiators which makes it possible for it to easily fill a room with surround sound. What’s also great about this soundbar is that it’s only about 5 inches wide and 2.5” deep weighing only 7.8 pounds so it’s not a huge monstrous bar which simplifies the setup when you first get it. It also has Bose FlexMount technology that senses whether the speaker has been placed horizontally on a surface or mounted vertically on a wall. So you can install it either way, and it will automatically adjust the sound to make it the most natural which is pretty awesome.

The control console is a small box with all the inputs you need for high quality audio. Mainly it has an HDMI output to your TV and 4 HDMI inputs for your various different sources such as gaming consoles, Blu-Ray players, and even streaming sticks like a Google Chromecast which is what I use on it and it works great. So not only is this the control center for your theater system but it’s essentially like adding a hub of HDMI and audio ports for your TV which is great if your TV is like mine and has hard to reach HDMI ports.

The Acoustimass module is a wireless subwoofer that only requires a power outlet. It connects to the SoundTouch 130 wirelessly and has a range of up to 30 feet so it can be placed just about anywhere in the room, and it provides a pretty powerful bass. It’s not overbearing. The lows it produces are very tolerable, but you will notice how strong it is with certain audio.

Last but not least, the SoundTouch wireless adapter turns this home theater system into a music lover’s dream. Not only can you play audio from any Bluetooth device, but with the free SoundTouch app for Android and iOS devices you can wirelessly stream music to the SoundTouch 130 system from your favorite music services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime music, and even your own music library. The app walks you through the setup of adding the home theater system to your WiFi network and from there you just use the app to play your music. You can also set up to 6 different presets with the app. For example preset 1 can be your favorite Pandora station, Preset 2 can be your favorite Spotify artist, and so on. The universal remote or the app allows you to start playing any of the presets with the touch of a button.

Since it’s part of the Bose SoundTouch family, if you have other SoundTouch speakers in your home you can play music from all speakers at the same time. As a music lover, that is one of my favorite features of this system because I can easily fill up my entire apartment with music. Apologies to my neighbors.

So in summary, even though this is a pricey home theater system at over $1000, the highly detailed surround sound it produces when watching movies really turns your living room into its own mini movie theater. I don’t think I have a reason to even go out to the movies anymore because with a premium sound system like this one, with everything from the sound bar to the wireless bass module, the movie watching experience is just extremely satisfying. When you pair that with the ability to wirelessly stream music from any Bluetooth device along with the ability to play from the SoundTouch app and presets, the SoundTouch 130 home theater system is hard to beat. I would highly recommend it to music and movie lovers like myself. Thank you for watching. My name is Andy. I hope you enjoyed this review and I will talk to you in the next video.

By Andy Slye

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