Technology

22nd January 2023 – Written by Nick Rowe @ Technuovo.com

It’s the New Year and after taking some time off, we’re back at it, products are arriving at the office and It’s time to get back into the swing of things. First up this year is the new Cleer Scene Bluetooth Speaker. 

The Cleer Scene is a $100 Bluetooth speaker, it comes in two colours, grey (what we’ve got) or red. It’s IPX7 water resistant, it’s got dual 48mm drivers, a built in microphone for calls and a 12hour battery life via a 2600mAh battery

Opening the box for the first time, I can see there has been some thought and care in the packaging and the speaker comes well-protected and present in a thick cardboard box, lined with foam. In the box, you get the speaker, instructions and a USB cable for charging. 

The speaker itself is pretty heavy, which is generally a good sign in terms of quality construction and components but it still can be held in one hand and moved around. It’s a modern look, cylindrical with a sweeping front. Plastic construction, with mesh fabric around the majority of it, plus a large rubber base to help provide a sturdy grip on your surface. Buttons to the top include play/pause, volume/track control and microphone. To the rear, power on and Bluetooth buttons, plus the USB port and aux-in behind a thick rubber cover. All the buttons are push buttons and easy to use. As for speakers, or drivers I should say, there are two 48mm dynamic drivers to the front of the speaker, behind the mesh, plus associated passive radiators at either end.  

Set up was very easy, charge it and away you go. This has Bluetooth 5.0, so you can connect straight to your smart device or if you have something that requires a wired connection, you can do so via the 3.5mm input to the rear. 

Audio performance was very good, as expected at this price point and very enjoyable indeed. Volume is good, it can get very loud which you may want to do when outside but otherwise, don’t push it. When I pushed it to max volume, it did struggle with something and the quality did drop off. However, low, great, mid, great and even high volumes, are surprisingly good, just don’t max it out. High volume was more than enough to fill a busy room, with people chatting and thanks to the rubber mat or foot underneath, it heald the bass really well. 

There is no EQ with the speaker, and no app you can pair with it which is a shame but the default sound profile is ok and generally caters to most genres of music. I listened to rock, country, Radio 1, and even some Central Cee popped up and was actually quite enjoyable. The bass was really good, this is a well-built speaker. 

Battery life quoted at 12hours, ‘a whole day’s worth’ but In testing I didn’t quite achieve that, instead it was about 10 hours. I would have liked a longer battery life, maybe two days’ worth of usage for me on average but then I’ll be out of juice and likely forget to charge it. 

As mentioned earlier, this is IPX7 rated, which means it is fully waterproof IF the rating is indeed correct and I say that as the Cleer website says waterproof and water resistant which are quite different. If we refer to the IP rating chart, X7 means it’s fully waterproof and can be submerged in water upto 1m in depth, for 30 minutes. Did I test it, yes, but not for 30 minutes. I submerged the speaker in water, left it for a couple of minutes and all was fine. Would I recommend doing it, no, the sound quality sucks, so is there really a need to? This is purely protection against accidents and splashing if you’re around a pool on a sunny day. Ensuring the rubber flap at the back is key as if that is open, water will find its way in. 

This does have a microphone built-in, so you can use it for making calls, personal or perhaps conferences for work. When I made calls, it worked well, quality was great on my end and had no complaints on the other end. If on a table, with me about 1m away, it picked up my voice just fine. 

Overall, I’m impressed with this little speaker and enjoying it a lot. It looks somewhat different from what else is on the market, it’s well built, with quality components and it generally sounds great. Grey is the right colour I think, the red is a little less sophisticated in my mind. Don’t forget to charge this too as the battery could be better.

At £99, I don’t think it’s overpriced but there are many other speakers on the market between £50 and £100 which may entice you but when you hear this and compare it to others, you’ll appreciate the price isn’t that bad. 

To find out more and to purchase, head over to the official Cleer website.

Hey, Stef here from TechNuovo, and in this video, I wanted to talk today about the Google Pixel watch. Now I’ve been wearing the Google Pixel Watch now, on and off for the past few months, really because the battery life on this thing is pretty terrible so on and off is really all I can manage. But I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the best features available on the device.

Fitbit Integration

I’ve been using a Fitbit now for quite some time. Last year, 2022, I decided to begin looking after myself as lockdown saw the pounds slowly creep on. You know being stuck at home all day, literally eating through boredom, wasn’t really the best. I used a Charge 5, the little bracelet watch from Fitbit before, and it worked well for what I needed. But having that Fitbit integration on my Google Watch is just absolute quality. Google now owns Fitbit, and has done since the beginning of 2021, so it’s no surprise it’s on the phone. I can keep up with my health tracking, it has a heartbeat sensor, and I can track my workouts all from one place. It has around 40 preset workouts to choose from which can be synced to the watch from the Fitbit App, though disappointingly, a dedicated workout for football for some reason isn’t on there when literally every other sport you can think of is for some reason. And it also has features like food and water intake tracking, an ECG, sleep tracking to tell me if I’m getting enough shut-eye, and many other features. It’s a real pro that Google decided to integrate Fitbit.

Google Pay

So you’ve just nipped into your local supermarket, pick up some bits and start heading to the checkout. You realise you’ve not got your phone or your wallet on you. You think about how you’re going to pay for your goods. It’s chucking it down with rain outside and you really don’t fancy that dash back to the car. Not to worry if you’ve got a Google Pixel watch on your wrist, as it now comes with Google Pay. You can physically tap your watch onto the little card reader device like you would your contactless card and pay for your goods that way. You’ll also get a notification too telling you how much you’ve just spent. The bonus is that if you’ve already set up Google Pay and contactless payments on your phone, it’ll transfer seamlessly over to your watch. You’ve got to confirm some security questions and that but it’s no big deal. It’s a very simple setup. And better yet, you can have multiple cards attached to your watch, much like your phone.

Wear OS 3.5

The Google Pixel watch comes with a version of Wear OS which is 3.5 and it’s been made to integrate Google Services at every turn, and it’s laid out pretty seamlessly as it’s all in a tile-like fashion. You swipe and twist the dial on the right to navigate menus, and the screen itself is super bright and super clear so you can get all the information you need right in front of you. Some stand-out features to Wear OS 3.5 include Maps, which puts directions right on your wrist, so you don’t have to keep getting your phone out of your pocket or follow the screen as you’re walking through busy streets. The other great feature is having your Google Assistant on your wrist so you can give it instructions on things you need, like saving a calendar entry or changing a track on Spotify or turning on a smart light in your home.

Remote Camera Screen

The remote camera screen is a pretty unique feature on the Google Pixel Watch. It shows you a copy of what your camera on your phone is showing, and in pretty decent real-time too. The quality of the watch screen isn’t very sharp, but it’s clear enough to see in direct sunlight if you’re outside. So if you’re trying to frame up a photo from range, you can check the screen on your watch, to ensure that you’re actually taking a photo. It comes default with a three-second timer so you can click the shutter button and pose, so there’s no worry about missing a shot.

The Google Play Store

And of course, finally, the Google Play Store is available on the watch, which offers Google Pixel Watch-specific apps, and there are loads to choose from. From fitness to nutrition to sleep tracking, to specific golf tracking apps, a calculator, and music streaming services like Amazon Music, Deezer, and as I said, there are just loads of apps to choose from.

But it’s not all singing and dancing…

The Google Pixel Watch is a fantastic bit of kit, it really is. It looks great, feels great, has a great screen, and has been built really well But, I feel like in my experience that the watch is incredibly hindered by its battery life or lack thereof. I mean I’m reaching for my charger every two days, and for a smartwatch, that’s supposed to track every aspect of your life, you could potentially be missing some valuable time. I’ve woken up several times so far with a dead watch, from where I’ve worn it to track my sleep, and it’s run out of juice throughout the night. I’ve tried reducing the brightness of the screen by some margin, which is okay if you’re not using it on a regular basis and it’s literally acting as a watch, but if you’re going to be using it for apps, checking emails and texts or following it while walking around for directions, then you’re going to have to sacrifice your sleep tracking later on in the evening as you’re going to be charging your watch overnight for the next day. From dead to 100% battery, you’re looking at an 80-minute charging time, so if you’re prepared to charge it at intervals throughout the day, then you should be okay. Google states that the watch should last for around 24 hours, which should consider sleep tracking, and this time is based on the following usage: 240 notifications. 280-time checks.

So, yeah, the Google Pixel Watch, it’s great and I much prefer it over my Fitbit Charge 5. But the battery life sucks, and that needs sorting out on the next iteration for sure. Let us know your comments below if you own a Google Pixel Watch, or which smart watch you prefer to use for your lifestyle. Have I’ll good one, and we’ll see you in another video very soon.

Every PC fan knows they need the right case for their fresh build and the variables that need to be satisfied appear endless – we are here today to help some of you with making some of those decisions. It seems with the eruption of RGB, looks and aesthetics have overtaken almost every other consideration – well, this F15 G from Gamemax has that covered out of the box. And with a remote control option, it is super easy to sort out, too.

We’ll look at more of this a little later. We suggest if you are starting out, ease of build is the most important bit to get right when it comes to sourcing a new case, and Gamemax has done that so well with their F15 G.   They do like to use macho names for their cases like Abyss, Black Hole, Aero, Commando, Predator and Kamikaze. Look past these cheesy names and you will find an enviable range, mostly in the £70 range here in the UK, which is around $80 or $90 US. Heaps of style and colour seems to have been their mantra at the design stage. But they are good. No sharp edges on our F15 and acres of space inside for motherboards right up to the rarely used Extended ATX. An ITX will look a little bizarre though in that black cavernous interior. There is also room for a proper water loop if you are so inclined. Even around the back, there appears to be plenty of space for just about anything.

So, let’s get some of the basic specs out in the open.  The case itself is 215mm wide, 483mm tall with a depth of 461mm.  Tempered glass panels are on the front and side, and are pretty substantial at 4mm thick giving some extra confidence when handling. There is an option to buy a mesh front for extra air flow but the glass one does have some decent sized mesh style slots running vertically. Once inside, if storage requirements are your thing, you are in luck. The Gamemax F15 G has room to install four mechanical drives and five more for your SSDs or 2.5 inch laptop style hard drives. There are seven full size expansion slots to take a graphics card 365mm in length and a processor cooler 165mm high.

Grab yourself a GPU riser cable and you can mount it vertically right out of the box. Gamemax has given you 29mm for the cable management from all those fans and the standard ATX-sized power supply. And of course, you will need every single scrap of space if you end up with nine storage drives. Also inside is an easy-to-use fan hub, already wired and you get that aforementioned remote for the fans’ speeds, modes, and colours.  It is also fitted with a three-pin AURA connector and VDG connector.

You need to power it using a SATA connection, and where the hub is placed from the factory you will need a flat connection  – not one where the cables come out at right angles – you can buy adaptors, or some power supplies will come with in-line wiring, or just simply move the hub. It is held in place by a piece of Velcro, so it’s easy to do. Oh, and the hub will take up to six fans. and is compatible with Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte RGB Fusion.

The reset button is wired into the hub so you can change the lighting mode by cycling through them all with the push of a button. On the front, there are the usual suspects of the power button, two USB2 and one USB3 slots along with HD audio and LED indicator. So, back to those fans and cooling in general.  At the front, it comes with two 200mm ARGB fans but you could swap them for two 140s or three 120s and at the rear, there is one 120mm ARGB fan.  There is room for two LED strips as well if that’s your thing. But of course, there is space up top for a wide range of radiators – at the front, there is room for up to a 360mm, on the top a 240, a 120 at the rear, and two 120mm fans on the bottom. Should be enough for anyone.

The F15 G is a sinch to build in – the motherboard’s rear plate clipped in place easily – something that can leave you pulling out hair with some other cases, so not such a minor concern.  The motherboard stand-offs screwed in easily. Even the usually fiddly front control connections like the power switch and hard drive LEDs are easily reached. I literally had nothing to complain about when building a modest PC for the sake of this video – it all went together so well defying the relatively cheap cost these days of the case. Yes, there are smarter-looking cases, but a whole raft of worse ones, and those posh ones will cost you a kidney. Gamemax has come a long way in its relatively short history since its key players met by chance at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and we are eagerly looking forward to what they can achieve in the coming years.

If you’re into your music, especially live music, you’ve probably heard of Marshall. They’ve been making amplifiers and guitar equipment for what feels like centuries, and have a real staple within the music industry. Just look at the amps your favourite band is using when playing live. Chances are it’s a Marshall. They’ve also had a hand in the consumer electronic market for a while now, and have had a pretty successful run with their Bluetooth headphones. Now they’ve had a range of speakers in the past, and the Acton III here follows on from the Acton II, but I’ve never personally used one until now.

The Acton III is a small, somewhat portable Bluetooth speaker, though size and weight may say differently. It measures at 26 X 17 X 15 centimeters and weighs 2.85 kilograms or 6.28 pounds. Its size very much says portable speaker to me, but its weight? No chance. The fact it also needs hardline power to run too I suppose is key to the fact this speaker isn’t portable, nor are there any ways to power it from some form of external power supply. But that’s okay.

It’s been designed to look like a traditional Marshall speaker cabinet, you know, the speakers that sit underneath the amplifier when you’re on stage, so it’s meant to be shown in the house and stand loud and proud on display. It looks really, really good. I mean I’m a fan of Marshall gear and used their equipment when I played music, so maybe I’m a bit biased. But if this was being displayed full-time in my home, it would look awesome.

It gives off a bit of a retro feel, with its black faux leather surrounds, and bronze accents. The speaker grill sports the well-known Marshall logo and is more of a brown colour on my one here anyway. The knobs on top follow suit of a traditional guitar amplifier and feel extremely solid when turning. There’s no real visible wobbling of the knobs or switches, and there’s even some nice subtle light indication on top so you know which level you’re at. You’ve got three knobs, one for volume, one for bass, and one for treble. There’s a rocker/button on top for skip track and play/pause, you’ve got an aux-in for wired connections, and a power switch that you can flick forward and back, and it makes a very satisfying click when doing so.

Behind the grill you’ve got yourself a single 30W Class D amplifier for the woofer, and dual 15W Class D amps for the tweeters which have a frequency range of 45Hz to 20KHz. Pretty decent stuff right now, and the speaker itself is front firing, of course. It’s designed to sit in a corner of a room, or on a kitchen worktop and fire out music towards you. It’s compatible with Bluetooth 5.2 and can play music from your smartphone pretty seamlessly. My Google Pixel 7 picked up the speaker before I even went into my Bluetooth settings and asked if I wanted to connect to it. It does unfortunately lose out on higher-quality codecs like AAC and AptX so if you’re more of an audiophile, then you’re going to want to look elsewhere for maximum-quality playback. It’s also missing speakerphone functionality. I’m not sure how much it would have taken to stick a small microphone into the speaker, or a button or two for answering calls, but alas, it’s not here. I know it is a speaker, and its intended as such, but for a common feature now in speakers, it’s surprising it’s been missed.

There is a partner app that can be downloaded to your phone, but it’s not really great, nor I feel is it very essential to the overall use of this speaker. There is EQ controls to change your bass and treble levels, though there are physical knobs on the speaker to do this, and you do get a positional setting, so you can tell the Marshall Acton III app if the speaker is against a wall or in a more open plan setting. Again, this function doesn’t really do much to the overall sound quality you gain, and I feel you have way more control over your sound using the three knobs on top anyway.

Speaking of sound quality though, this gave me mixed feelings. When you think of Marshall, you think of loud, thunderous music that’ll shake the entire house. In the case of the Acton III, yes this speaker can get incredibly loud. Like, incredibly loud. It booms. But, when you start to hit those louder volume levels, an uncomfortable amount of distortion begins to creep into your music, which is seriously offputting. This can be compensated by turning down the bass, but then you’re left with your music, though extremely loud, feeling super empty which again is not really an ideal listening scenario. No, the Acton III works best at mid-volume levels. But this may suit you. At a mid-volume, you get a lot more control over your treble and bass frequencies, and depending on the music type you’re listening to, you can get a really decent full sound from the speaker. Bass hits can sound punchy, and that sub-bass rumbling feeling you can get from electronic music feels great. Being able to mix in a bit of treble, and all of a sudden once your music can feel very much alive, there’s a very nice presentation of sound. For me, with my main genre of music sitting within that rock/punk/metal type genre, I left my bass level around 70%, which was enough to get a decent sound from kick drums and bass lines. And my treble remained at around 40% which gave enough mid and treble for vocal lines to lift over the main bodies of music and for guitar solos to ring out.

So would I recommend the Marshall Acton III? Sure, but not based purely on the audio quality you get. The app is pretty pointless, it’s missing high-end codecs, and has ignored features like hands-free calling and a route to your voice assistant on your phone and finally its distortion at top volume is a little disappointing. It looks absolutely superb though and I can’t take that away from the Acton III. If you’re somone who loves their rock music, or are into that “retro” speaker design, then you can’t really go wrong. It is expensive, and I’m not sure with the missing features above I can justify its £239 price tag, but that’s me. It sounds pretty good once you’ve found your mix for bass and treble, and have no need for loud music though, so yeah, Marshall, it’s not a bad speaker at all.

So AOC has decided to enter the PC peripheral market. They’re generally known as a monitor brand, producing monitors for work use as well as high-refresh gaming panels, which are actually pretty decent and also pretty cheap. We’ve got one of their new gaming mice on the desk, the AGON AGM600, and by the way AGON is their new brand of gaming peripherals, much like Ford has their Focuses and Fiestas and I must say I am actually enjoying my time. But let me tell you why, because it has to really do with another current popular mouse on the market.

And that is the Logitech G502X we reviewed not too long ago. Now that mouse was an absolute game-changer to my gaming rig in my eyes, with its superb shape and plentiful buttons, which is mirrored here on the AGM600. You’ve got 10 programmable buttons of which come as your top left and right clicks, and a scroll wheel that clicks in too. It scrolls in increments and is not smooth which is great for gun changing inside of games. You’ve got a DPI switcher just underneath the scroll wheel, two buttons front left, two typical thumb buttons, and a forward thumb button. Everything is pretty reachable though the forward thumb button was a bit of a stretch to hit. This front thumb button however follows suit with the Logitech G502X. It’s called the Sniper Button, which when pressed and held down, will reduce your DPI sensitivity until you release it, making it easier to track shots in FPS games with a sniper rifle. This can be changed though if this isn’t what you desire inside of the driver software. There’s a nice extended thumb rest on the left-hand side which is a nice touch, and it’s nice to rest your thumb there when you’re not trying to hit the side buttons.

The mouse is covered in a nice soft-to-touch material, there’s no rubber down the sides and unfortunately, it can be a bit of a fingerprint magnet on the left and right clicks. The sides of the AGM600 do have a rough texture pattern though which does work for grip. I had no issue with swishing the mouse around my mouse pad. At 146 grams, it’s not the lightest mouse on the market, and remember the G502X came in at 102 grams. But you’ve got to remember, this is a wired mouse, so a chunk of that weight is being taken up by the braided cable. It isn’t a huge difference though while in use if comparing both mice only, and the comfiness of this mouse in my hand while using my go-to palm grip. It’s nicely domed towards the rear, which aids with a palm grip so I can rest my entire hand over the mouse, though the shape does lend itself to a palm grip too if that is your go to way of holding a mouse. There’s a thin RGB strip that runs around the base of the mouse, which isn’t the brightest, and then the logo on the back does light up too. There’s a small pin light just under the DPI switch that’ll give you an idea on which sensitivity you’re using on the mouse, though once your hand is covering it, you’re not going to see it.

The AGON AGN600 uses Kailh switches for its clicks and is polled for 80 million total clicks which is huge., and to tell you the truth they’re not too bad. I’m especially keen on the satisfying click of the buttons, though the actuation has a bit of travel before it hits though there’s no real post-click travel, as long as you don’t press down too hard. It’s not the lightest of clicks I’ve felt on a mouse yet, especially around the sides, these need a bit of force to hit, though while playing FPS games unless you’re a part of the hardcore e-sports crowd, you’re not going to mind it too much. There’s a nice sprung return on the clicks too that was very satisfying, and the side clicks almost followed your thumb movements, so that’s good there.

The driver needed on your PC for the mouse is called the G-Menu. And again, the comparison to Logitech’s software is uncanny, called the G-Hub by the way. The G-Menu software is laid out pretty well and I had no issues finding the settings I needed to change to suit me. The first screen will allow users to change the functionality of their mouse clicks. Screen two is for adjusting your DPI sensitivity levels which run up to 16,000 DPI, of which there are five different modes. You cannot seem to change the colours here, and you cannot remove any of the sensitivity levels, so you’re stuck with five levels. There’s a setting for your polling rate, which can hit up to 1000Hz, and things like scroll speed and double click speed. Screen three is for your RGB effects of which there are really only very few, and these consist of things like static lighting, a breathing effect a flash, and the like. These can be set to random colours or a single static colour and screen four is for your Light FX sync settings if you’re using other AOC products.

On the underside, you can find four glide pads that aid with the movement on a mouse pad. There are plastic covers on there so make sure you peel those first otherwise it’s not going to feel as smooth as you’d like. The mouse uses a Pixart PWM3389 sensor which is great for FPS games as there are no noticeable acceleration or prediction algorithms. It’s purely for enhanced FPS gameplay where accuracy is important. It does however according to the spec sheet have 50G of acceleration and 400IPS. There’s also a profile button down there too to switch between different profiles if you’ve set that up in the G-Menu software. Now one thing that is a definite advantage with this mouse is the fact it takes advantage of Nvidia Reflex, which is designed to reduce the latency between mouse and PC, making actions feel more instantaneous with your mouse clicks.

Playing games with the AGON AGM600 felt very satisfying as stated before. The mouse is very comfortable to push around the mat, and it is very responsive to what I am doing on the screen. And for a mixture of games too, like Two Point Hospital where it’s a lot slower, at a higher DPI I didn’t need any effort really to play the game, and likewise, with something like Hunt Showdown, it was really nice having different sensitivity levels, and even the sniper button too.

While yes, throughout this review I’ve made okay, not-so-subtle hints that this AGON AGM600 is basically a 502X, it does feel as if there’s been a good amount of inspiration taken from that mouse. It’s nigh on identical, and while it’s not as light, its performance is still absolutely solid. What is also advantageous is the fact that this mouse only costs £39.99 which is an absolutely astounding price compared to the performance it gives you. Now AOC is generally known for this budget gear, and this is true here, I’d class the AGM600 as a budget-friendly mouse, but there’s no way that this mouse should be ignored if you’re after a new gaming mouse. Save your Christmas money on getting this over other expensive mice on the market. You definitely will not be disappointed. Find out more info on the AOC website.

15th December 2022 – Written by Nick Rowe @ Technuovo.com

These are the brand new Urbanista Copenhagen earbuds, I’ve been using them over the last month and here are my thoughts.

Typical earbud set-up, buds and a charging case. Traditional-looking earbuds, I will say like AirPods because most people know what they look like but Apple didn’t create that look by any means. Shaped for your ear, they sit inside but there is no rubber tip for extra support and sound isolation. They include a shortish stem to them as well. They are very lightweight and fit well within my ears, although it’s not all that snug or secure. 

The case, is black, with some matte and gloss finish to it, with some subtle branding on the top. There is a USB C port to the side for charging, plus four white indicator lights just below the lid that indicate the battery life of the case, not the buds. The buds and case come in four colours, black as I’ve got here, plus white, dusty pink and sage green. 

Overall, a pretty sleek and compact affair. Well built, and easy to store or carry around with you and I think they look pretty good in the ear as well. 

As for features, there is a total of 32hours playback between the buds and the carry case, which is about 8 hours in the buds, then 3 extra charges. There is a noise-reducing microphone apparently, touch controls, they’re water resistant IPX4, they’ve got Bluetooth 5.2 and there is app support but more on that later. The retail price, is £69.99 here in the UK so not the cheapest, far from the most expensive and about middle tier in the Urbanista earbud range. 

Given the price and spec, the audio performance is as expected and I’ve enjoyed using them. They offer a fairly neutral sound profile, fine to just pick up and go, however, I would say out the box, the bass is lacking and I do want a little bit more. This can be linked to the Urbanista app to personalise your sound, which you kinda can but it’s very limited. The app shows the battery level in each bud, you can mod the controls and select between 6 preset EQ’s. Default is just that, default, plus you’ve got bass boost, treble boost, energise, balance and speech. Switching between them is instantaneous so you can straight away hear if that profile is better suited for your content or not. I said I wanted more bass, so I went straight for the bass boost but that muddied the sound so much, it wasn’t what I wanted. I then tried Energise, which does offer more bass and the clarity remains so it does sound better than the default, for me anyway. There is no ANC with these, there are no rubber tips, so yeah, you will hear the outside world while wearing these. 

I did take several calls while wearing the buds, they worked fine, conversations were heard, no complaints at all. 

These do include touch controls and the sensitive part of the bud is the stem. Controls are limited, there is no volume control out of the box but that’s fine because we’ve got play/pause or answer/hang up a call with a double tap, or if you want to change to the next track or previous, its triple tap. To activate voice assistant if you have it set up on your phone, touch and hold. If you want volume control, you can set this within the app and swap the triple tap to it. The controls work ok, you have to make sure you tap at the top of the stem and there is slight delay but it’s fine, I had no issues with double-tapping to pause my music. If you remove a bud, your content will not automatically pause. If you wanted to use just one bud, you can and the other can go back in the case and it will turn off. 

Other worthwhile mentions, there is no wireless charging which is a shame but you are pushing your luck with that as a feature at this price point. No mention of IP rating either, although by looking at them, probably sweat proof so you could use them while exercising. 

Overall, they’re alright. They’re somewhat budget-friendly, they look good and come in four different colours. Performance is ok, it didn’t blow me away but nor did I think ‘put these in the bin’. Battery life is good and they are comfortable in the ear, although on that secure. I think if you can get these in a sale, maybe around the £50 mark, they’re worth buying. At £69, if you can add a little bit more, you’ll get something with ANC and rubber tips, which will likely perform better. 

For more info, head over to the official Urbanista website.

Being a new dad can be exciting, rewarding and overwhelming at the same time, especially when thinking about the challenges and demands of parenthood. It is common for new fathers to feel confused on how to care for their new arrival – that’s where technology comes in. In this modern age, there are a plethora of apps that are available to help you and your partner on this journey and make your lives easier. Check out the list below for some top apps for new dads.

The Stella Sleep offers a big collection of specially written sleep stories, lullabies, meditations, and music to help children and their parents to fall asleep faster, sleep for longer, and have fewer night-time wakings. The app is ideal for newborn babies with a big range of lullabies and white noises. There are educational guides for parents in the app that can help you establish a bedtime routine. And we believe that a good night’s sleep is a fundamental building block for the health and happiness of the whole family. The Stella Sleep app contains 50+ hours of stories and voices, including world-renowned voices such as John Cleese. And you can use it for both daytime relaxation and bedtime. Make bedtime as easy as a dream!

Aim to become a super parent and understand your child to the tee with this app. It has a range of 15 minute long tutorials on how to tackle various parenting issues such as childhood development crisis, how to deal with sibling jealousy, bereavement, bullying, the ‘one year old’ tantrums – amongst others. This is available on iOS devices? and costs £42.99 a year.

This free app aims to give peace of mind by helping keep track of everything to do with your baby, from when he or she feeds to how much he or she grows week to week.The most handy feature, however, is the Diaper Challenge, which lets you time yourself when changing a diaper and Poo Management to log when the baby fills her or his diapers.

This lumberjack themed app is aimed at preparing soon-to-be dads for the big day by debunking parenting myths and helping them stay on track. This includes everything from how to pick a baby name to the amount of paternity leave they should take. It also includes a weekly pregnancy tracker, journal and preparation checklist. This app is free and available iOS and Android.

Having your little one making random calls on your phone can often lead to some very awkward conversations. Child lock stops this by creating a separate screen where they can enjoy colourful graphics and soothing sounds while preventing them from using other apps or making calls. This app is free and available on iOS and Android.

Coming back home from work and trying to create some innovative fairytales can be a challenge. However, this app solves that by providing a range of interactive audio stories to prepare the kids to fall asleep while teaching them morals such as friendship, kindness, etc. This is available on iOS, iPad and Android and costs £42.99 a year.

6th December 2022 – Written by Nick Rowe @ Technuovo.com

Cleer got in touch, they’ve got a new pair of sports earbuds called the Roam Sport and after using them for a few weeks, they are now my go-to when exercising. Why? Let me run you through it. 

Typical bud and charging case affair. However you’ll see the lid of the case is clear, and you can see the buds inside the case which is quirky, you don’t see that very often. The case is typical in shape, size, and weight, it’s easy to hold, carry and store in your pocket. There is a USB C port to the side for charging and a cable is provided within the box. 

If you’ve seen the Roam NC earbuds from Cleer, these look identical apart from one difference, the rubber wing that’s been added. They’re small, and discrete, with some subtle branding on the front of each bud which is also the touch-sensitive sections. Rubber tip to the inner part, then this thick, flexible wing that sits in the outer part of your ear and adds support. 

Within the box, you get the buds, case, USB cable, different-sized rubber tips, and wings, plus some instructions. 

As for features, we’ve got active noise cancellation and ambient mode stated battery life of up to 5 hours in the buds, plus an additional 15 from the case but varies depending on how you use them. IPX4, so sweat resistant, ideal for exercising. They can also be paired with the Cleer app which opens up options for EQ. Spec-wise, they include 5.8mm, dynamic drivers, for each bud. SBC and AptX codec support and Bluetooth 5.2.

Audio performance out of the box is really quite good and I initially enjoyed the experience enough to not even consider opening the app up. Punchy, well-defined vocals, and overall a very nice sound profile. From the Cleer+ app, you can control and customise the buds to suit you. You can adjust settings, change what the touch gestures do, check for firmware updates, and turn ANC on or off but the biggest bonus from the app, the EQ options. Default EQ is called flat and there are four others, classical, jazz, pop, and rock. Plus you can customise and create your own EQ. It’s just a matter of sliding frequencies on the app and adjusting to suit. 

ANC works well overall, it’s not the best but far from the worst either. The difference between ANC on and off is very subtle and as these are buds, you get a good amount of passive isolation anyway. Within the app, there is a slider that allows you to select the balance between ANC and ambient. 

Comfort and support are on point, which is fantastic and the main reason why these will now be my go-to when exercising. They’re easy to put in my ears and then thanks to that additional rubber wing, they don’t move. While cycling, not once did I have to pause, adjust, or fiddle with them. I could be going hard on the bike and they never moved, it was fantastic. The default tips and wings worked for me but there are extra sizes in the box to help you get the best fit. 

Taking calls while wearing earbuds is a big thing and I can confirm these worked fine. The mic quality is more than good enough and I had no complaints during testing and making calls to various people. 

Controls are fairly simple and easy to use and all touch gestures are detailed in the instructions provided. Touch control and you either tap, tap and hold or tap multiple times to play. Pause, change track, and so forth. 

Stated battery life of 20 hours, I agree it’s there or thereabouts. I’ve probably racked up about 50 hours and charged at least 3 times so far. Charging is only via the USB port, there is no wireless charging available. 

There is no auto-pause when removing one of the buds which some people like, me too as if someone is talking to me, I’d take a bud out to talk to them and my content would pause. If you wanted to use just one earbud, that’s do’able, take both of them out of the case, start playing content and then put one back in the case. It’ll turn off. 

I experienced one issue with connection or interference which was a little odd. I used them on the train into London without an issue, about an hour’s journey. I then arrived at Victoria station with the phone in my pocket and the buds kept cutting out randomly. It lasted a few minutes and then when I walked out of the station, it didn’t happen again that day or any day afterward. Why I’m not sure and It’s not happened to me before with any buds. As I say, it’s not happened again but if it does, I’ll leave an update in the comments below. 

Price, they retail at £99 which I think is fair when you compare to the market and you can pick up some equally good ANC buds between £75 and over £100. However, If you can pick up the Roam NC buds from Cleer for just £60, and they appear and on paper look identical, apart from the wing, so you’re paying an extra £40 just for a bit of rubber for the wings, which seems excessive to me.

For more info, head over to the official Cleer website.

So… important question… what is better than one Creative Muvo GO? TWO Creative Muvo GO speakers! Let’s get on with the video!

Creative has launched a brand new travel speaker in the Muvo range, the Creative Muvo GO, it’s perfect for camping trips, pool parties, hiking, or any other activity you can think of when you go on your holidays. It’s been a few years since Creative has had a new speaker within their Muvo range, the last being in 2019 when they released the Play. So, is it any good? Let’s find out.

The Creative Muvo GO is a small speaker, that’s light and portable to be able to carry around with you. It’s designed to be a travel speaker so you can listen to music on the go. It weighs just 570 grams and measures at 20 centimetres wide, seven centimetres in height and six centimetres in depth. It’s pretty much the perfect size to fit inside a backpack’s water bottle slot, so if you’re hiking, this speaker could be the perfect companion. It’s covered in a black mesh material over its body and has two exposed radiators to help with those bass hits at either end and inside you can find two full-range drivers. The sides are made from hard plastic which will enable the Creative Muvo GO to stand in a vertical orientation, or if you’ve got the space, there are two rubber feet on one side so you can fire your music upwards. On the right-hand side, you can find a lanyard clip to give you the choice to hang the speaker somewhere, like in a bathroom for example while you’re taking a shower as the speaker is waterproof thanks to its IPX7 rating which means it can take a dunk in the pool without worrying about it breaking.

There are three buttons on top in bright orange on the black speaker version I have here for play/pause, and two more buttons for volume and skipping tracks. Twisting it around you can find a power button as well as a Bluetooth button to activate pairing. There’s also a USB Type-C port to charge the speaker, and you get a supplied USB Type-C to Type-A cable in the box. One thing I was a little perplexed to see is that there is no interface for plugging in wired devices, like a 3.5mm aux input for example, nor can you use a microSD card as found on older devices. This is probably to keep it protected more from water damage, rather than relying on sealing that users could forget to close properly. The Creative Muvo GO is a fully wireless system, so music must be played from Bluetooth sources. They do come in a number of colours, black, green and blue, which as you can see we’ve got two black ones here, but I must say I do like the look of the bright blue version! Overall the Muvo GO is a very smart-looking speaker.

The battery life on this thing will last for around 18 hours which is a huge amount of time for a speaker and one that’s quite impressive actually. Will definitely be enough for a weekend trip away. It has access to Bluetooth 5.3 and can produce a total peak power of up to 40 watts which is huge. As they’re capable of pairing with other Muvo GO speakers, they’re capable of a pretty decent volume level which will be great for a house party setting or pool party! Pairing is very easy too. Just hold down the Bluetooth button, and it’ll give you a pairing prompt. From here, tap the power button on each speaker twice, and they’ll connect. Seamless. There’s a prompt to let you know which one is the right speaker, but once that prompt happens, you’ve got no way of knowing which is which. I would have liked the indicator light to glow a different colour for the right and left for example.

The Creative Muvo GO has two full-range Neodymium drivers capable of producing 20-watt bass power, and I must say that music actually sounds pretty decent from this small speaker. It’s not an omnidirectional speaker. The drivers very much fire out of one side of the speaker, so this could mean that placement while outside could be important. Music produced by the Muvo GO is incredibly balanced. Sure, if you’re playing some bass-heavy music, bass frequencies will take president, and yes while they can be a little overpowering at times, it’s been very rare for me to actually think that music is suffering because of this. Mids and highs are still very present and sound extremely clean and can cut through with precision. Even at louder volumes, the Creative Muvo GO is a very capable speaker and featured very little distortion to music, if any distortion at all depending on the genre of music being played. And if you’ve got two of them like we have here, then wow, a pair of these can really fill a large room with sound.

The Creative Muvo GO speaker is an incredible device, that would be welcome on any holiday or trip away, to bring some music into your life. It not only sounds superb but also has an amazing battery life and more importantly for a travel speaker, is nice and light and shaped to fit into pockets that chances are you’ll have on your bag anyway if you’re going on holiday. It only costs £65, which to be honest I think is a bit of a steal at the moment, and for this speaker, you can really tell that Creative has put a lot of time and thought into the design and I for one am absolutely impressed with the Muvo GO. Great product.

Hello! and welcome back to the channel, my name’s Stef, and today we’re going to be checking out the RAZER VIPER V2 PRO. Oh, wait.. no we’re not. It’s actually a Klim Blaze Pro. My mistake. They’re just… erm… pretty much identical, I suppose. Well, you know where Klim has gained their inspiration for the Blaze Pro. But is it any good? Stay tuned.

Much like the Viper V2 Pro, the Klim Blaze Pro is a nice domed shape, made for right hands, and felt overall very comfortable to use while gaming. The hump of the mouse sat nicely in the centre of my palm, and I could palm grip this entire mouse with ease. However, I did have an issue with the side clicks. While they look quite stylish, following the shape of the mouse, they’re a bit of a pain to strike. It’s the fact the buttons are so domed, rather than straight and I found I was hitting the very back of one of the buttons as it was easier to hit than scrunch my thumb into the centre of the button.

The mouse is covered in white, soft-to-touch plastic, and can hide finger blemishes very well. The Klim logo lights up in an RGB effect and also gives you an idea on the remaining battery left in the mouse. There’s an RGB strip running around the base of the mouse which can be customised inside the Klim software to various colour effects. There are no rubber side grips, but I didn’t mind this too much and it didn’t really hinder my gaming performance not having that extra grip on the side. It also means that the mouse’s weight can be kept to an absolute minimum of 110 grams.

The charging dock also has an RGB effect around the base, though I couldn’t find anywhere in the Klim software on how to change this to match the mouse. By default it has a consistent RGB colour scheme that flows around the base, and the overall aesthetic matches the mouse really well. There is a button the bottom of the dock to change RGB effects, but no manual control. The charging dock is tiny too, which is nice if you’re a bit pushed for space on the desk, and the feet although are not sticky pads, are made from quite a sticky feeling rubber, so the dock stays in place. There’s a USB Type-A port on the front which can be used with the wireless dongle supplied with the mouse, and saves you from taking up an extra USB slot on the back of your motherboard.

I think I’ve been a bit spoiled by the Logitech G502X Lightspeed I’ve been using as my go-to lately, as the battery life there is absolutely fantastic. Here? Not great. It has a 930mAh battery and mine here will last a day or two of heavy use before I was reaching for the USB cable. However, if you can learn to return your mouse to the charging dock after every use, you shouldn’t have an issue. The charging dock is magnetic too, so all you need to do is find the contact points on the base of the mouse and it attracts into place. It’s pretty neat and saves you from having to hook the mouse onto the charging dock. The charging dock and mouse both have a USB Type-C connection on there and you do get a supplied USB Type-C to Type-A cable in the box, to plug into the back of your PC. You can also power and charge the mouse with the cable which I have had to do on a number of occasions, as I have forgotten to charge the mouse overnight.

So let’s dive into its native software. The main screen is where you can change your polling rate from 125 – 1000Hz, check the battery status and edit the button functions. These can be saved into a profile if you wish for certain games, but there is no hot-swappable profiles or even profiles that detect which game you’re playing like we’ve seen with the Logitech G502 Lightspeed reviewed earlier. Page two is where you can set your DPI sensitivities and give them colours so you can see which profile you’re in on the fly. You can also set your mouse sensitivity, scrolling speed and double click speed. The mouse has a max DPI of 6,000 as standard but with the driver, this increases to 10,000 if that’s more your cup of tea. Page three is for setting macros, and page four is for your various RGB effects which include a steady effect, breathing and streaming, which looks to me to be the same as steady. All pretty simple and all very self-explanatory. No complaints here with the Klim software.

In games though, this mouse works wonders. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m just getting better at the game, but I was hitting more shots in Hunt Showdown than I previously have before which has been great, and the mouse has felt pretty comfortable while doing so. I couldn’t find anything on the type of switches on this mouse, though the Klim website does state that it has “high-quality switches” whatever that means. Also, I couldn’t find much on the optical sensor either, but I can tell you that it felt great and accurate while in use. I never really felt a delay of action while using it wirelessly either, though the sensor is pretty much placed next to the mouse anyway, not that this makes a huge difference when it comes to input lag but I thought I’d mention it. Playing slower titles like Warhammer: Darktide – which by the way if you haven’t played it, get on it now – Satifactory, or even jumping into some RTS games like ANNO 1800 or Two Point Campus, I always felt like this mouse was comfortable enough to move around the map. The plastic on the sides, though soft, offers enough grip to be able to whip the mouse back and forth with ease.

The Klim Blaze Pro I must say, for the price it’s being offered at of €54.97 at the time of writing this review on the Klim website is great. The mouse performed exceptionally well when gaming. I’m not a huge fan of the small battery life, but that’s my personal experience with mice with killer battery lives, and I wasn’t keen on the semi-circle side button placement, but that’s down to my hands. If you’ve got smaller bendy thumbs, then your mileage will vary from mine. Overall, for a brand that I hadn’t heard of before the mouse turned up at the studio, I’m impressed, and will definitely keep this on my desk for the time being. I’ve just got to get used to charging it every night I think.