The device is a well-designed sensor that you can set on your night stand. To best use the features of the ResMed S+, the user must point it at their chest and keep the device at an arm’s length, to ensure it can properly detect your vitals. Once downloaded, the app that works on iOS and Android, the user needs to create an account and sync the S+ with a smartphone via Bluetooth. In testing, the setup was more difficult than anticipated.

Every night, before bed, the user must make sure their phone is properly synced with the S+ and they also must complete a questionnaire that inquires about their level of stress, alcohol and caffeine consumptions, and how much they exercised that day.

We had a few members of our staff take the S+ at home and test it. We found that with people who generally get a good night sleep, they got tired of using the S+ and were uninterested in the results.

The S+ seemed more useful for people who don’t always get a good night’s sleep. The S+ calculates how many hours of actual sleep you had each evening and it breaks it down into light, deep and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. It then compares this number to an average cycle of expected sleep and informs the user if they should get more REM sleep. This is helpful because your brain is more refreshed the next day or more deep sleep so your body has more energy with an increased amount of REM sleep.

The S+ app provides the user an overview of how they slept the night before as well as the history of their previous nights. The user can also log into the website to view a more detailed history of their sleep. Just recently, a new feature has been added to the website where users can select up to 28 nights of sleep and have a summary prepared to take to your doctor. While the concept of sharing your sleep results with your doctor is appealing, we didn’t like the lack of detailed information. A sleep doctor might want to see more details to properly evaluate your sleep patterns. In general, we feel that with the amount of data collected, ResMed can do a better job at presenting a more thorough analysis on the website.

While the S+ does a fairly good job in collecting sleeping patterns, we came across a few glitches during testing. For example, if you wake up and stop your sleep session through your phone, and later decide to go back to sleep, the website doesn’t comprehend that you had two sleep sessions in one night. We also found that re-syncing the phone with the S+ every night is not always so simple, as it often times requires restarting the Bluetooth connection and rediscovering the device. Testers had this issue with both iPhones and Android phones.

Our biggest complaint is that we would expect from ResMed to detect if the person is snoring or having sleep apnea episodes, and the S+ does not have that function ability. We had one of our editors who suffers from loud snoring and severe sleep apnea, to use the S+. The S+ did not detect the snoring, not even as loud noise, nor did it detect episode of sleep apnea.

The S+ has a retail value of $150, but ResMed doesn’t charge a monthly fee for the sleep monitoring or the website access, which is a big plus. In general we like the concept of the S+, but we expected a bit more from ResMed. A fully featured website and the ability to properly detect sleep problems would turn the S+ into a great product.

The Dropcam Pro is an improvement compared to the original Dropcam. It comes with a wider viewing angle, 130 vs 107 degrees, an improved night vision as well as support for 5G Wi-Fi. The Dropcam Pro offers the ability to stream 720p video and audio to any PC or smartphone connected to the web. It even offers you the ability to remotely talk back to whoever is nearby the camera.

Unless you own a newer iPhone or iPad, setup requires connecting the camera to a PC in order to properly set it up with your Wi-Fi network. We found this to be very annoying. To make things worse, once the camera is up and running, you cannot change your network settings unless you reconnect it to a PC.

The quality of the night vision is pretty good. In general we liked the quality of the image and the convenience of being able to watch the last 7 days or 30 days of recordings, in case you missed something. While watching your recorded streams, you can go to areas where motion or sound occurred. These markers are not always precise and we came across instances in which the software didn’t detect motion or audio.

We weren’t too pleased to find out that the recorded video playback lacks a basic function that even our defunct VCRs had, the ability to fast-forward. In fact, you can only playback from the cloud at regular speed; that can be very annoying, especially if you are trying to skim through hours of recording looking for a particular event.

Unfortunately, the cloud recording comes at a steep price, $10 a month or $99 a year to view the last 7 days or $30 a month or $300 a year for the last 30 days. If you add that to the cost of the camera and the fact that you might want to purchase 2-3 cameras, the cost can become prohibitive. There is no option to record your videos directly to local storage or to your own cloud storage account.

When you start looking closely at the Dropcam Pro, pricing is not the only issue, there are several issues that make us question the quality and reliability of the product. Throughout our extensive testing period, we came across some quirks that we didn’t like. Unless you have a reliable internet connection with upstream of at least 5Mbps, the Dropcam Pro might struggle in offering a reliable continuous video stream. Additionally, for several months this year, we noticed that on Friday nights the Dropcam Pro would often fail to connect to the server. After talking to their tech support, our only plausible explanation is that their server couldn’t handle the amount of new connections that customers initiate when the weekend starts. It was a real bummer.

We had issues with the ability to automatically turn the night vision on or off, the Dropcam Pro would keep the night vision on even 2-3 hours after sunset in a well lit room. We also noticed that when there is a sudden or fast movement, the Dropcam Pro handles it poorly with a lot of pixelation. While I am not too worried about seeing every pixel of my baby flipping in bed, I surely would want to clearly see the face of an intruder in my apartment. Basically, while the camera is capable of a 720p stream, the video is often extremely compressed, compromising the quality of the image produced.

It’s great to be able to monitor the camera through your smartphone, but the functionalities are limited and in our tests the app often crashed on several devices.

The Dropcam Pro is a great camera with a lot of potential. With some tweaks to its software and some additional new features, it could easily become the best internet surveillance monitoring camera on the market.

We followed the steps that any customer could go through in this situation. We bought a new TV, the TCL 50FS5600. We set it up and connected our Time Warner cable box to the HDMI-1 port. There is no audio. We then tried connecting to the HDMI-2 and HDMI-3, but the problem persisted.

We then called TCL’s technical support and we were advised that they never heard of such a problem. We even escalated the issue to a supervisor in the technical support department. They claimed there is nothing wrong with the TV, so it must be our cable box.

At this point we contacted Time Warner Cable’s technical support. We rebooted the cable box several times and changed several settings on the cable box. Their technician even remotely updated our box with no luck. After a lengthy troubleshooting that went on for several hours, they offered to replace our cable box. We declined that, it wasn’t really Time Warner Cable’s fault in this case.

Knowing that it wasn’t an issue with the cable box, Jonathan decided to take it a step further. Without revealing his identity, he contacted a TCL engineer at the US corporate office. The engineer was able to confirm that there is a known issue with their newer TVs and TCL does not have a solution for it and there is no good workaround.

Our Editor-in-Chief figured out that the HDMI-1 port on this TV is also a DVI port. It is connecting to the cable box as a DVI connection and once the handshake is registered in the TV, there is no way to reset it and the handshake will apply to all other HDMI ports on the TV. Jonathan was able to confirm his theory with the TCL engineer.

To summarize, our investigation shows that if you plug in certain cable boxes into the HDMI-1, the TV will detect it as a DVI connection and won’t give you audio. At this point nothing you do helps. You can reboot both the cable box and the TV, you can try a new HDMI cable, you can reset the TV settings, you can try ports HDMI-2 and HDMI-3, nothing will work. Basically once the TV decides that this input is a DVI, which it shouldn’t do in the first place, there is no way to reset that.

Jonathan devised a quick work around to offer to our readers who can no longer return their TVs. If you plug in RCA audio cables, they will work along your HDMI cable. It’s not ideal, but it works.

We were extremely disappointed with our experience with TCL’s technical support. In addition to being on hold for over an hour to speak to a representative, both the technician and his supervisor were clueless about this issue.

We have attempted to contact TCL for several weeks, but we have not receive an official response yet.

At this time, with no solution from TCL, we do not recommend buying this TV. If you already own it, try to return it and purchase something else.

Currie Technologies is a California-based company that specializes in hybrid electric bicycles and scooters. The eZip E-1000 is their top-of-the-line electric scooter, designed for transportation and an entertaining ride outdoors. The E-1000 only comes in black and unfortunately the company doesn’t offer any other color options or upgrade accessories. While the scooter is designed for riders 13 and up, due to its weight and size we would suggest it to customers 18 and up.
The way it works is simple: the scooter arrives in a box with the tires already assembled. Just finish assembling the steering column and handle bar, then plug the scooter in to charge. Once the battery is fully charged (6-8 hours), turn the scooter on and accelerate by twisting the right throttle grip to the speed desired. The scooter maneuvers easily and braking works exactly like on a regular bicycle. Teenagers and adults alike could ride this scooter, although unfortunately the bicycle-style seat is not adjustable.

The eZip E-1000 specs are promising, with a 1000W motor and a 36V10Ah 360Wh battery that Currie claims will deliver up to 12 miles in range at speeds up to 15 miles per hour. Of course, terrain, weather and rider weight are a factor, but we tested the scooter in ideal conditions: on generally flat, asphalt roads, sunny summer days and with a rider of about 200lbs. Still, we were only getting a range of 6 miles at most. That was disappointing. We also noticed that around 20% of the time, driving on an incline would cause the engine to choke and cut off. This interruption required a quick but annoying power-off – power-on to get the scooter running again. Upon further examination of the battery, it is a SLA (Sealed Lead Acid). Most competitive electric bicycles—including a few models from Currie Technologies—are equipped with a more modern lithium-ion battery which weighs less, offers a better travel range and has 2-3 times the battery life of a SLA.

Unfortunately, we encountered several other issues due to the subpar construction of the eZip E-1000. During our rides, the handlebar was squeaking with every movement, the brakes were continuously rubbing on the brake discs impairing speed, and the tires were wobbling. Because the scooter arrives with the tires already assembled, the brakes and tires were obviously not correctly aligned at the factory. The handlebar squeaking, on the other hand, is caused by some subpar parts. These annoying and uncomfortable issues can ruin the riding experience, shorten the travel range and even pose possible safety hazards.

We called Currie Technologies’ customer service to talk to them about the problems we were having. After a long wait on hold, we were brushed off and told that these issues are normal for their scooters. They also told us to take the scooter to the local bike shop to get it fixed. Why should we have to service a brand new scooter? Not to mention it weighs over 80lbs and would take two people to load into a car.

Overall, riding on the eZip E-1000 could be fun, but the issues we encountered quickly ruined our experience, and the customer service made it worse. As it is offered today, we don’t recommend this electric scooter. But, with some adjustments from the manufacturer there could be potential for a good product.

The Internet Phone Wizard works with free Internet program Skype. If Skype is installed on your system all you have to do is install the Internet Phone Wizard software included with the Internet Phone Wizard and plug the device into your USB port. The software automatically detects your Skype account and connects to it.

In the back of the Actiontec device you’ll find 2 standard telephone jacks. On one you connect your handset, on the other, if you desire, you can connect your landline. This allows you to switch between Skype and landline calls. It’s a useful feature, allowing you to manage both lines with one phone, but it would be even better if you could conference your Skype conversation with your landline one-a feature that’s not currently supported.

There are 2 ways to dial out. You can click on your list directly from your computer and pick up the phone once the connection is established. Alternatively, you can dial directly from the phone to any users already on your speed dial list. Either way, don’t expect to hear a dial tone on the on the Skype line!

In our tests the connection was as clear using the Internet Phone Wizard as when using Skype in standard mode with a headset.

The Internet Phone Wizard is a good solution if you are tired of wearing a headset or if you simply want the ability to use your home phone with your Skype account. Unfortunately, the Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard is a bit pricey-$69.99 direct from the manufacturer- for a device that works with a free service like Skype. The Internet Phone Wizard would definitely be a more valuable device if you could seamlessly interface it with your Yahoo or MSN voice chats, or even your VoIP softphone. Only if you are a hardcore Skype user and are tired of your headset, then the Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard is a valid alternative.

The Nike Philips MP3 Run runs for 12 hours on two AAA batteries. The menus are very easy to navigate, but the limited 256MB memory offered is disappointing. Nike Phillips has created MusicMatch-based software which allows you to create a playlist, or sort by title, artist, or song name, but it is not like some simpler players with which you can drag and drop files onto the drive. However, the transfer of files to the MP3 player using the software was a little slower in during testing than on players which allow drag and drop, mainly because the MP3Run is limited to the very slow USB 1.1 connectivity.

Running on two AAA batteries, The Nike Philips MP3Run has a powerful sound. With equalizer functions, you can adjust the sound to different settings, although during testing the default setting produced the best overall sound. The Nike Philips MP3run is notable for its unique design, including the rounded shape of the player and the earphones, which have special attachments that swivel in all directions to allow you to adjust and hold them to the best place on your ears. Although the shape of the player works well with the included strap while attached to your arm it is quite bulky as a stand-alone device. The ear buds could also be more comfortable and the attachments are sometimes more of a bother than anything else. Set up instructions are simple, and the website provides further useful information about the player and its functions – no need to look around for the manual.

Overall, the Nike Philips MP3Run is a must-have for the avid jogger who wants to listen to music while tracking their running statistics. The sound is good, although the unit is a bulky when used as a stand-alone.