Five Star Locker Organizer, Tri-Pocket with Dry Erase Surface, White with Cobalt Blue Pockets (72622)

  Great Organizer, Not Necessarily Great for What It Is Designed For...

The organizer shown with 2 pens, a highlighter and a
calculator for comparison. Photo by DWD.

The magnet on the back shown with a pen and a
calculator for comparison. Photo by DWD.

I like this locker organizer for its very strong magnet and the idea that it is completely made out of a dry erase board like material so that any of the white can be written on with a dry erase board marker and then erased (mostly, about 99% of it comes off, kind of like on a white board).

But, the fact that it is so hard makes it less valuable as a locker organizer, especially if you put it inside of a door that is going to be slammed like the picture on the packaging shows. The big "pocket" is clearly designed to hold a calculator or a cell phone and those would just bang around in the organizer and those devices tend to dislike a lot of banging around. I recommend not putting it on the door, despite the strong magnet.

On the other hand, if this were to be used for just about any other place where you need to hold a few things, such as holding markers on a refrigerator, holding pens or small frequently used tools on a big toolbox this would be an excellent choice.

This organizer measures 7 inches x 7.5 inches and is about 1 inch deep.

I rate this organizer 4 stars out of 5.

MeasuPro CCT300 Digital Clock, Timer, and Stopwatch

When you get down to it, this is a basic kitchen timer that does its job very, very well with a couple of extra interesting features added to it. 

That being said, I'm always glad to recognize quality when I find it so here are the positives:

The magnet on the  back of the timer with a pen for
size comparison. Photo by DWD.

1) Very strong magnet so you can stick it to the refrigerator or some other appliance and not worry about it falling or sliding;

2) The magnet is on a little leg that also serves as a kickstand that can be propped out so that the timer stands on its own on the kitchen counter;

3) The timer takes one AAA battery (included). This is important - when the battery dies you don't have to try to find some sort of special battery at the watch counter - AAA batteries are everywhere;

4) The settings on this timer are easy to change - there is a slide to change it from a clock to a stopwatch ("count up") or a timer ("count down"); 

5) The clock was very easy to set and everything is very intuitive;

The front of the timer. Photo by DWD.

6) The interesting new twist is that there are three different timer settings - Beep, vibrate and LED. The vibrate setting is fairly weak, certainly not as strong as the one in my phone but it is easy enough to feel. The LED setting flashes a very bright red LED light on the front of the timer in the place of the beep or the vibrate setting. The vibrate and LED settings would, of course, be helpful to people with hearing trouble but they would also be useful to parents who don't want to wake sleeping babies;

6) When you are setting the timer and the stopwatch settings, the timer beeps, flashes or vibrates depending on the setting, making it difficult to accidentally have it on the wrong setting;

7) The timer has a memory feature so that you can save a commonly used time (just one).

The timer is approximately 2.5 inches tall, 3.25 inches wide and sticks out about 1 inch from the refrigerator when it is hung there by the magnet.

Note: I received a free timer in exchange for an honest review.
I rate this kitchen timer 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on July 26, 2014.

SentrySafe OS0500 0.8 Fire Resistant Safe by SentrySafe

   Buy it for what it is, not what you hope it is


I admit it, when I saw the picture of this safe with the digital keypad I thought I was impressed and I was thinking more James Bond and less "fire safe." But, when you get down to it, this is a giant version of the little fire safes that you can buy in any office supply store. And, that is fine.

The problem with any small safe is that it really cannot stop a burglar because the burglar can just walk out with the safe and break into it on his own time. This safe can be bolted down, but I think I am going to go with a second option and just put it in a fairly out of the way place and rely on my home's general sense of disorganization to confuse a would-be burglar.

If you have true valuables (jewelry, precious documents, whatever) you should go with a safe deposit box in a bank. But, for those less-than-critical-but-still-important documents, this would be great. This would be a good place to store a pistol or ammunition or other things you want to keep around but not necessary out. If you want to keep the kids from messing with something important (or dangerous), this is your safe. If you have important and valuable heirlooms, go with a more expensive safe or get a safe deposit box.

Details: 

-The interior of the safe has a 0.8 cubic foot capacity.

-The manufacturer says that it will protect documents, CDs, DVDs, flash drives and USB drives for 1 hour in a 1700 degree fire.

-The safe is supposed to survive a 15 foot drop without opening.

-The safe weighs 85 pounds and measures 19.3 x 16.3 x 13.7 inches.

-The digital keypad uses 2 AA batteries.

I rate this safe 4 out of 5 stars.

Note: I received this safe from the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program.

Belkin QODE Bluetooth Keyboard Folio Case for Kindle Fire HD 7" (Previous Generation) by Belkin

    Adds a Valuable Dimension of Usefulness to my Kindle Fire HD 7" (Previous Generation)


Yes, I realize that this keyboard is out of production. But, Belkin makes a similar product (superficial differences in the molding, where the logo is placed and the way Kindle is attached to the case) for the new Kindle Fire HD 7" and the HDX 7" and I figured that this review would give you a solid idea how those would work. The Amazon link on the left is for the keyboard that fits the older Kindle, the one on the right is for the current keyboards.

My Kindle with the keyboard attached.
My Bic pen is included for comparison.
Photo by DWD.

The keyboard and rubberized case just about doubles the height of the kindle if it is laying flat on a table. It has a magnetized flap to keep it closed. The keyboard is almost the same dimensions as the Kindle but it weighs less than half as much as the Kindle. The keyboard is charged by way of a mini-usb port.

In my opinion, this keyboard case would be a poor everyday case - it holds the Kindle snug but not tight, the keyboard would bump against the screen leaving scratches (I have a protector on the screen, but it would scratch it as well). I use a simple leather cover to protect it from water, everyday bumps, etc. This case is equally susceptible to water and bumps and can be damaged.

But, it is great for those times when a regular computer is not an option. This keyboard virtually turns my Kindle Fire HD 7" into a netbook with a touch-sensitive screen and that makes this keyboard a worthwhile purchase. Removing my Kindle from the other case and moving it to this case and syncing it up only takes a couple of minutes, but it is well worth it if you have to do a lot of typing and you hate the on-screen keyboard. The keyboard is relatively small, like a netbook, but it does the job and it has added a valuable dimension to my Kindle Fire HD 7".

Note: I received this keyboard for free from the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program. 

I rate this keyboard 4 stars out of 5.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Wallet Case - CM4 Q Card Case for Galaxy S4 - Black Onyx - QS4-BLACK

    I Got This For My Wife...

...and she loves it.

My wife's phone with a business card, a shopping list
and my Bic pen for comparison. Photo by DWD.

My wife has a Galaxy 4 and she loves this cover. She puts the phone in her purse and she has her phone and her ID and a bit of cash handy and easy to find. The case came with a card to give another person when they asked about the case with ordering info on it. She kept it just for fun and sure enough, she was asked about the case in just a couple of days so she gave that person the card because they were interested. And the interested comments keep on coming from everyone who sees it.

My wife has thanked me for this case many times - it is both practical and cool.

The case comes in black, red, pink, brown and Pacific green.

Note: I received this case for free in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program.

I rate this phone case 5 stars out of 5.

XBOOM Mini Portable Capsule Speaker with Rechargeable Battery and Enhanced Bass+ Resonator

          This Little Speaker Rocks


I have a Galaxy S3 phone and a Kindle Fire HD 7". Both have pretty good speakers on them considering their size. But, when I plug in just one of these little speakers (they are designed to daisy chain several in sequence) into either device it fills the room with a richer toned, bassier sound than the original speakers could ever deliver.

The speaker, its wires, the instructions and the
little cloth bag that it all comes in. Photo by DWD.

Experiment with just one speaker and you find that if you position it certain ways you get more bass or less. Even better, if you place it in a corner (let's say the corner of an office cubicle) and the sound is impressively amplified. Honestly, I never thought one of these little speakers could make that much noise, but it really does.

The speaker comes with a little cloth bag to store it in and two plugs. One is a short audiojack plug (maybe 4 inches long) that tucks into the bottom of the speaker. The other is a detachable USB/audiojack plug that serves as the charger for the unit and a longer audiojack plug (maybe 2 feet long) you can play it while it is charging.

The speakers come in nine different colors, including pink, yellow, red and white.

Note: I received one of these speakers for free in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this speaker 5 stars out of 5.

ADX Durable Aluminum CREE LED Flashlight Lantern Adjustable Light Lamp with High Low Strobe

  Great Emergency Light

From time to time the power goes out - it's just a fact of life. This is a great light to have around for those emergencies. The flashlight feature is good (those little LED bulbs are SO bright) but the real strength of this "flantern" (flashlight + lantern) is the lantern feature. While this would be fairly worthless in a bigger tent or in any large area it is more than sufficient to light up a small table top.

This would be be good to keep around the house for emergencies or in the car - the lantern feature would be good for maps and the strobe function might be helpful on a back bumper to help other drivers notice you and not hit you.

The light is 4 inches tall.

Note: I received one of these flashlights for free from the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program.

I rate this light 4 stars out of 5.

Rayovac PS68BK Phone Boost Emergency Charge

     Good in a Pinch

If you are a person that constantly uses his or her smart phone and wants to bring some extra juice along so that you can constantly use your phone all day and all night, this is not your device. It does not deliver enough power to do that.

The charger broken into all of its parts with my Bic pen 

for comparison. Photo by DWD.

This device is designed to be an emergency power source for a cell phone - the kind of battery designed to deliver you enough power to call AAA if you find yourself with a nearly dead phone battery and a very dead car battery at the end of the evening. To help with that goal it is very sleek and very lightweight (it weighs 1.1 ounces). It would easily store in a purse or a glove box. I have no idea how long it stores its charge. If you keep it on a key ring or in a car it would be wise to plug it in every once in a while just to make sure it is topped off. On my Samsung Galaxy 3 it raised my charge from 13% to 24% before it died after the Phone Boost had been sitting around for about two weeks after being fully charged.

The charger comes with mini-USB and Apple-compatible adapters.

Note: I received this item from the manufacturer for free in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this item 3 stars out of 5.

Camco 43546 Bamboo Cutting Board with Juice Groove and Padded Feet

Since my wife does a lot more cooking than me, I asked her what she thought about this bamboo cutting board. In no particular order she mentioned the following as reasons why she loved it:

-the juice groove

-the board is not too big and not too small

The cutting board with my Bic pen for comparison. Photo by DWD

-very sturdy

-washes up well

-very attractive

-the bamboo is environmentally sustainable

-the feet raise it off the counter a little bit

-the rubber feet keep it from sliding around.

The cutting board is almost 12 inches long, 8 inches wide and almost 1 inch thick.

Note: I received this cutting board from manufacturer in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine Program.

I rate this cutting board 5 out of 5 stars.

Big Boss 9358 Multi-Speed Stainless Steel Power Juicer, 800-watt

         The Pros and the Cons

Pros:

-The Big Boss goes after whole apples and just about anything else you want to put into it without a problem.

-The instruction book was clearly written and reads like it was actually written in English, not poorly translated from another language (although, those can be a hoot to read).

-Nice recipe book is included.

-Great warranty

-Amazon has this product at a nice price for a juicer with this much power.

Cons:

-Some of the knobs and plastic parts feel a little cheap

-This thing is fun to use but a real chore to clean so it can make the user question if it is really worth it.

I rate this juicer 4 out of 5 stars.

Magnetic Storage Pocket, Neoprene, Black/Blue by Five Star

I got this for my daughter who is going to her first year in high school and will have her first real locker. This is quality construction, strong stitching and, most importantly, super strong magnets so that this pocket can hold lots pens, pencils, and a calculator or a cell phone and not fly off of the locker door if (let's face it, when) it gets slammed shut.

The only drawback is the price - it just seems about $4 too expensive. The product description says that it will last an entire school year. My guess is that yo

The Magnetic Storage pocket with a Bic pen
for comparison. Photo by DWD

u could get two years out of it if care was taken and that might make it worth the price.

Of course, this is not just a pocket that can be used for school lockers. It will stick to anything that a magnet will stick to so this would be good for refrigerators, tool boxes, work lockers, work trucks, magnetic dry erase boards, etc.

Note: I was sent this product by the manufacturer through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this product 4 stars out of 5. 

AYL® 2nd Gen 6000mAh (2.1A Output) by AYL (Accessorize Your Life)

 Great Backup Power for Your Phone or Other Handheld Device


I was sent this battery backup by AYL to review so I decided to charge it up and see what happened.

I charged the external battery and then hooked it to my phone. I have a Galaxy S3 and it was only at a 4% charge. 3 hours later, it was up to 100%. I immediately disconnected it and hooked it to my Kindle Fire HD 7 which was only at 13% charge. The battery charged it up to 62% before it finally gave out. That's a lot of back up power.

A size comparison for the AYL battery.Although it
looks like a flip phone it does not open up.
It weighs less than 5 ounces. Photo by DWD.

On top of all of that, the thing is a flashlight - it's a wimpy one, but still it's a flashlight that will stay on for 250 straight hours straight according to the instruction booklet. That's almost 10 and 1/2 days!

Compare the price to other external batteries (I have another one that costs about half as much but barely added 10% to my phone's charge) and this is a bargain.

The instruction booklet recommends that it can be charged and then sit for 3-4 months before being recharged.

The battery comes with a short mini-USB cord and a mesh travel pouch.

Negatives: This battery is heavy. Too heavy to put in your pocket, but it could easily be tucked into a backpack or be put into a car's glovebox.

I rate this battery 5 stars out of 5.

BlueAnt Pump - Wireless HD Sportbuds - Black by BlueAnt

This is a great bluetooth headset/earbuds. The earpieces fit snugly but do not pinch or rub, the sound is good, but not so loud that it literally hurts your ears. Instead the "comfort seal tips" (the rubbery bits) seal off the sound so well that a quieter level seems loud by comparison.

The earbuds include 7 sets of "comfort seal tips" and stabilizer arms to help with the headset if you are involved in extreme sports. The earbuds are easy to charge (it uses a micro USB plug to charge and a micro USB to USB adapter is included).

Pictured are the earbuds with an ink pen for comparison.
The power controls are on the earpiece on the right side
of the picture. Photo by DWD.

It also serves as a standard bluetooth phone headset. There are buttons on the headset you can push to answer the phone, raise or lower the volume and change tracks but I just use my phone instead.

The BlueAnt Pump claims to extend up to 100 feet from the device it is connected to via Bluetooth, depending on the device. I have not had that kind of range with my Samsung Galaxy 3. I can get 10-15 feet away before it breaks up. 

The device is super lightweight, weighing in at 1.1 ounces and are very comfortable to wear. 

I rate these earbuds 5 stars out of 5.

Note: I received these earbuds from the manufacturer through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for a fair and honest review.

NETGEAR AC750 -802.11AC Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Range Extender (EX6100) by NetGear

      Easy to Install


So, a WiFi extender is a simple enough concept - pick up the wifi signals and repeat them. In my case, the WiFi is in one corner of the house and does a so-so job of reaching all of the house. I put this extender about 2/3 of the way across the house so that now the signal reaches everywhere in full strength, even several feet out into the back yard and out to the street in the front of my house.

This WiFi extender has two ways to set it up. The easy way is to use a button on your router called a WPS. My NetGear router does not have a WPS button. I have no idea what a WPS button is but if you have one, this looks like the easiest way to go. It just causes the router and the extender to sync up.

The extender plugs into the wall but does not have to take up the entire wall outlet. It has two external antennae that are kind of ugly. The manufacturer claims that the device works better because they are external antennae and not built into the unit. 

I had to use the "smart setup" plan. It looks like a total pain on paper but it was very easy once I figured out how to get into the network manager on my Chromebook. After that, it was a simple three steps and then I was extending WiFi all over the place.

The extender creates two new WiFi sources to log into. You can name them whatever you want but the default is a variation of your WiFi's name. After testing them, the two new channels seem to work just as well as the original WiFi signal. 

It may seem obvious to some, but after having a discussion with my high school-aged child, let me point out that the extender does not create more WiFi, it just makes it easier to access your existing bandwidth.

NetGear has an app for a smartphone that measures your WiFi strength. This is meant to give you a better idea where to place your extender. If you place your extender where the signal is weak, you'll just be extending a weak signal. I did not use the app. I just walked around with my phone and my Kindle and watched the signal strength indicators on them both and put the extender in a location that both showed had strong signal strength.

I do suggest that you put the instructions away in a very safe place.

Also, I must commend the manufacturer for its packaging. It is all recyclable. All of it.

Note: I received this WiFi extender for free from manufacturer in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Digital Kitchen Scale in Tempered Glass, 11-Pound, Blue by Mira Brands

             Very Impressive


This review is all positives.

1) The flat profile makes this scale much easier to store than the other types of scales we have in the kitchen;

2) This scale is very easy to clean - no grooves to clean out;

3) The toggle button to switch from grams to ounces is on top and is very easy to switch;

4) The directions are well-written and concise;

My scale with a pen and egg carton for comparison.
Also, we learn that a classic Bic pen weighs 2/10
of an ounce. Photo by DWD.

5) Love that it takes AAA batteries rather than a special watch battery;

6) The numbers are big, easy to read and bright;

7) It is a good size for lots of different containers.

8) It easily resets so you can do the tare weight of an item (in plain English that means that it remembers the weight of the bowl you put your ground beef in so that it is really just weighing the ground beef)

Dimensions: almost 10 inches longs, almost 6 inches wide and almost 3/4 of an inch tall. Weighs about 2 pounds.

Note: I received a scale from Mira Brands in exchange for a fair and honest review. Honestly, though, this scale is great. I rate it 5 stars out of 5.

Qifull QT10 Qi Wireless Charger Receiver Set for Samsung Galaxy S3 /i9300 (White)

WOW! This Is a Nifty Piece of Tech.

To be honest, when I found out about this wireless charger I thought it was likely to be a bunch of bunk. An idea whose time has not yet come .

But, I must admit that I was wrong - this thing is not only cool in theory but it works in practice.

Qifull makes a whole lot of chargers so make sure you get the one that matches your device. In my case, I have a Samsung Galaxy 3. It is white (I think they all are) and the charger matches its color perfectly.

This charger comes with a little device, a "patch" if you will, that plugs inside of your phone. Personally, I don't mess with the inside of my phone so this was a leap of faith for me. I haven't even taken my protective case off of my phone and I have owned it for almost a year! So, I pulled off my case and removed the back of my phone. The little "patch" lays over your battery and plugs into a plug that is already built into your phone that also charges your phone. I put the back cover back on the phone, replaced my protective case and set up the rest of the equipment.

My charger. The green light indicates it is ready to charge.
If my phone were on it, the light would be blue.  Photo by DWD

You can plug the white stand into a wall charger or a computer with one of the two mini-USb/USB cords that are provided (one long, one short, depending on your needs) and you should see a green stand-by light. You lay your phone backside down on the stand with the center of the phone over the circle that says "wireless charger". The light turns blue and...Voila!...you are charging!

It charges about as quickly as it does when plugged into my wall charger and much quicker than it does with my car charger. The best thing is that there are no little plugs to put in or pull out of the phone. It just lays there and charges.

The only concern I have is that the phone gets warm if it sits on the charger too long, much like it does when it sits on my car charger. I pull it off once it charges up.

Note: I received a charger in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I rate this product 5 stars out of 5.