Satechi’s Fast Wireless charger and multi-port station have all of your charging needs covered (including USB Type-C)

There’s a good chance that you own a new smartphone made in 2016. One of the biggest changes across Android smartphones is the change to USB Type C, the new charging standard. USB Type C brings a fully reversible plug that can be used on both ends of the cable, whereas the older microUSB standard had a full size USB A plug on one end that fit into the wall or car charger with a non-reversible microUSB plug on the other end.

The switch to USB Type C brought about faulty chargers, cables and other accessories due to the lack of quality control from third party manufacturers. It also made Google’s Benson Leung ultra popular amongst tech enthusiasts as he became the trusted voice as to what USB Type C accessories were trustworthy. He fried a couple of his own devices on faulty USB Type C cables and chargers in the process. By doing that he also brought the attention of bad and rushed Type-C products to general consumer. He saved us all thousands of dollars in damages, and reemphasized the need to stick with reputable companies.

A company I trust with accessories is Satechi. Satechi was founded in 2005 with a goal to produce high quality accessories to improve our lives. It’s based in my hometown of San Diego, and Satechi recently released a new wireless charging pad as well as a multi-port charging station with USB Type C included.

Satechi Fast Wireless Charging Pad

Satechi’s Wireless Charger is made from aluminum giving it an ultra premium feel and look. The top is made of an ultra glossy plastic that is so shiny that is looks like glass. While I dig the look, glossy surfaces always attract fingerprints. However, given this is a wireless charger there should be no need to touch the surface. The metal edges are chamfered giving this thin charging pad a sophisticated and luxurious look. It is only 7.8mm thick and being made of metal, it has a decent amount of weight to it with rubber feet on the bottom, to prevent it from sliding off your desk or nightstand.

SEE ALSO:   Sweet Candy: Logic Experiments – Always think five steps ahead. [Review]

Satechi’s Wireless Charging pad comes in four colors, Gold, Silver, Space Gray, and Rose Gold. To be honest all of the colors look like Apple devices, but there is nothing wrong with that as Apple has some of the best color schemes around.

This is a fast wireless charger with backwards compatibility for all Qi enabled smartphones. In order to take advantage of the fast wireless charging, you will need a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 or later charging plug and a device with fast wireless charging capability like the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and S7.

Fast wireless charging works as advertised with no side effects like extreme heat build up. It happens with some of the lesser quality wireless chargers. There is a small LED indicator on the front of the charging pad, blue indicates the device is charging while green lets you know your device is fully charged. I like that Satechi kept the LED indicator small so that it doesn’t light up my entire bedroom when I sleep. What I can also appreciate is Satechi’s attention to detail. Even though the surface of the charging pad is glossy, a + symbol made of soft rubber provides enough surface tension on my Note 7 to prevent it from sliding around or off the charger altogether.

At $24.99 the Satechi Wireless Charging pad is a bargain when compared to the official Samsung Fast Wireless Charging Pad which retails for over twice the price at $59.99. It works as advertised and the attention to detail is something that I rarely see with third party wireless charging pads.

If you own a device with Qi enabled wireless charging I highly recommend this charging pad from Satechi. You will not be disappointed, especially at the $24.99 price point.

Get the Satechi Fast Wireless Charging Pad from Amazon here.

Satechi 60W multi-port charging station

If you’re still using single port chargers, like the ones provided with your smartphones, you’re doing it all wrong. With a plethora of accessories and wireless devices, just about all of us need a charging station like this multi-port one from Satechi.

SEE ALSO:   Satechi releases a new wireless gamepad to turn your smartphone into a gaming device

The 6-port charging station has four full sized Type-A 2.4A USB out ports, with two Type-C out ports for charging your compatible devices. If you own an Apple iPad, wireless headphones, wireless speaker, portable power bank and a Note 7 this charging station is perfect for you. It’s compact at just 4.5 x 2.75 x 1.13 inches, making this perfect for setting on your desk, nightstand or bringing it as your sole travel charger. It’s made of high quality plastic with no awkward seams, and it looks pretty cool for a charger too. Generally most charging stations are flat bricks, but the Satechi version has lines and groves that make it look unique and stylish.

The standard 2.4A USB Type-A ports don’t have enough juice to charge the LG G5 or Note 7 at full speed, but nonetheless they can still charge them. Instead of taking an hour to fully charge my Note 7 at the fastest speed from 0-100, it takes just over 1.5 hours. Like the wireless charging pad, this charger does not get hot, even with five devices charging at the same time.

The high powered USB Type C ports do charge my Nexus 6P at Fast Charging speeds but you will need a fully reversible USB Type-C cable on both ends like this one from Amazon.

What I love about this charger is that it can charge my most current devices while also having backward compatibility with my older devices. At $29.99 the Satechi Multi-port charging station is competitively priced with its rivals, but its quality is unmatched by third party accessory makers.

You can get the Satechi Multi-port charging station from Amazon for $29.99.

Props to Satechi for making two very high-quality chargers that are reasonably priced. Learn more about Satechi and its other products at Satechi.net.

How dbrand skins made my cracked S7 edge glass look new and better than ever

Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones are without question some of the best looking devices on the planet right now. I’d argue nothing comes close when it comes to looks. However, its smartphones are made of glass which isn’t the most durable material as it is brittle and will crack or shatter under pressure.

I used the S7 edge for several months, and I went case free. Why would I want to cover up such beauty with a bulky case? I paid dearly for using that logic, as the S7 edge slipped out of my pocket enough times to crack. While the first crack wasn’t so bad, the next time it dropped completely ruined the look of the S7 edge. Replacing the glass doesn’t come cheap. Already an expensive phone at $750, it would cost another $270 to get the glass replaced by Samsung. Luckily my display glass was not cracked, it only cracked on the front corner as the curve does not withstand falls well, and the entire back shattered entirely.

Replacing the glass would be a nice option if I had a spare $270 laying around, but chances are I would crack the glass again anyways.

Earlier in the year I tried out dbrand skins on my Nexus 5X and 6P (you can read the full reviews by clicking on the hyperlinks). They elevated my Nexus devices to a different level and also gave my phones a unique and stylish look that stood apart from the stock crowd. I turned to dbrand once again to give my S7 edge new life.

dbrand skins

dbrand offers a wide selection of skins made from the highest quality materials from 3M. It takes no chances on quality and dbrand’s customer service is top notch. There are plenty of reddit feeds that can attest to the quality, price, look, fit and responsive customer service of drband skins. The wide selection of materials offered range in metal, stone, wood, leather, matte, carbon fiber and true color.

dbrand sent me a decent range of materials to choose from for my S7 edge, and whatever I didn’t use is to giveaway to you readers who want to update the look of their S7 edge. Or better yet, giveaway the skins to readers who cracked their glass just like I did.

The dbrand wood grain skin is legit. I have it up against the House of Marley Get Up Stand Up real wood speaker, and as you can see the grain on the dbrand skin looks as real as the speaker, just a different color stain. There are even real grooves in the skin itself which truly sets this skin off.

SEE ALSO:   Samsung Confirms Galaxy Tab to Launch with Android 3.1 in “Few Days”

The leather looks so real, I even had 10 of my friends verify the look. They all agreed that it looked like genuine leather.

The cleanest look is probably the Matte finish, which is perfect for those who prefer to keep their devices understated. The Matte finish does offer a little texture which makes the S7 edge much more grippable.

My favorite look of the bunch is the carbon fiber, particularly the bright orange. I am always misplacing my phone, but the orange stands out no matter where I leave it.

Installation is super easy. dbrand provides a cleaning cloth and instructions on its YouTube Channel which I have included below. dbrand includes a video for every device it sells skins for as each phone, tablet and computer are slightly different.

I am the type of person who hates putting on screen protectors. I don’t have the patience nor the dexterity to apply them without getting massive bubbles under the surface. However dbrand skins take me no longer than five minutes to install, and quite frankly, I’m probably slow. Once you watch the tutorial, installation is a breeze.

You basically just need to align the perfectly cut skin to the corners and camera, then apply pressure to have it stick firmly in place. If you don’t place it right on the first, second or even fifth try, simply lift off and realign until you get it right. The glue doesn’t come off and can be reapplied until you heat it up.

Once aligned, you take a hair dryer to warm up the skin and make it more malleable and then put the corners in place around the rounded edges of the S7 edge. Once you rub the sides down with the included cloth, you cannot feel any of the skins edges around the phone. The skin fits so perfectly that it now looks like my S7 edge was made out of real carbon fiber.

The one piece front skin is easy to install too. There are two versions that dbrand offers, a one piece front skin, or a split version without the edge pieces. I opted for the one piece that fits around the entire front of the phone.

SEE ALSO:   Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 vs Apple iPad Air 2

After watching the video, I installed the white carbon fiber on the front to contrast the bright orange on the back. I didn’t really want to stare at a bright orange skin when I used my S7 edge. Installation of the front was just as easy as the back, even with the curved glass on the smartphone.

The results speak for themselves. Check the images below.

If you don’t plan on using your fingerprint reader, you can cover it with the included cutout provided by dbrand so it will match the rest of your phone. The front capacitive buttons on the S7 edge still work while covered, or you can use dbrand’s seperate bottom piece with cutouts so you can see the illuminated buttons underneath. I opted for full coverage since it gave my S7 edge a complete look.

I can’t say enough about how great dbrand skins are, from precision cutting to premium materials, dbrand does it all the right way. Skins aren’t pricey, as they cost just $14.85 for complete coverage of your S7 edge. dbrand also makes skins for a wide variety of gadgets as well and it has a custom skin builder for each device as well. That way you can see how your skins will look before you commit to a purchase.

I’m giving away the extra dbrand skins to two lucky readers. In order to win, you must be a US resident (sorry international readers), and you need to make a comment below telling us how much you love dbrand skins. You’ll get bonus points for retweeting this post and including @dbrandskins in the tweet as well. I’ll be giving away one wood grain and one leather grain to two readers. I already used the carbon fiber, so don’t ask for that since I don’t have it to giveaway.

If you don’t want to, or cannot afford to fix your cracked glass, or simply just want to make your phone look badass, you cannot go wrong with dbrand skins. They look and feel like the real deal and are extremely affordable.

Head on over to dbrand.com to learn more.

Parallel Space allows you to run 2 Android app accounts at once (review)

For a lot of us, our smartphones live a double-sided life. For some, it’s one life as a business tool (and often provided to us by our employer), and the other life as a personal digital sidekick.

• The business tool side of our device is all business and allows us to perform our work: responding to emails, reviewing documents, reaching out to important customers and colleagues. It’s our professional assistant, and to reveal any silly, suggestive, or just plain private information would be embarrassing if not outright scandalous.
• The personal side of our device is our social and fun machine allowing us to connect with other like-minded people and show our individuality, quirkiness, and anything else that we choose to use to reveal about our identity.
• Multiple logins on a traditional device install can be cumbersome and time-consuming, and often one or more accounts are relegated to desktop-only duty. This negates the utility that your mobile device is meant to bring into your day-to-day in the first place!

For other people, there are simply multiple accounts of certain apps to maintain, and the traditional Android installation only allows for a single login at a time requiring you to re-login with a different username/password every time you want to switch. This can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Now in some cases, these two sides can generally co-exist on the same device. But there are many instances where it would probably be best to let one side dominate and
save the other side for only very private viewing. Or it would just be a heck of a lot easier if you didn’t have to re-login to switch accounts.

There is an app that allows you “partition” your device, allowing you to put up a virtual fence between your business and personal sides, or between multiple accounts. This app is called Parallel Space from developer LBE Tech.

Setup

The app is available free from the Google Play Store. To keep things straight from here forward, I’m going to take some artistic license and refer to Parallel Space as a “utility”, to separate it from all the apps you can load into and use within it. As far as the utility itself, that’s all there really is to it, unless you want to password-protect your second login (more on that in a moment).

SEE ALSO:   Fabulous – an attractive albeit limited music player (review)

Experience

Once into the utility (it has an app-like icon on your homescreen), you are shown a blank tiled screen. Each tile represents an app that you have multiple logins to load into Parallel Space. Once you select the app, it appears in that tile. The first time you select that app, you are greeted with that app’s signup/login screen the same as if you were opening the app for the first time on its own.

Here you log in with your second account login info and from there, you are launched into that app with the same look, feel, and screen space as the original app that you previously loaded directly onto your device! When done, you just close the app like normal, and you then can go back to Parallel Space to open another app using a secondary account or go back your device’s native homescreen to use the app with your primary account.

Overall, it’s a pretty slick experience especially if you run corporate social media accounts but also have personal accounts in the same app. Short of having a second phone or laptop at the ready, Parallel Space is a pretty neat solution.

It’s a pretty light one memory-wise, too. All you really load onto your device is the Parallel Space utility itself (total claimed space of 84 MB on my device); the secondary app ‘installations’ happen on the utility’s virtualization engine. All this means you don’t get bogged down with double Facebook apps and background activities clogging up your memory.

This talk of providing login info and 3rd-party virtualization engines does bring up the question of security. On the utility’s server-side, all I can offer is that the utility boasts almost a million downloads in the Play Store, and I can’t find an incident of a security breech anywhere on the web.

As far as security on your device, you are provided an option if you choose to use it. You can secure your overall utility access with it’s own password, which is a handy way of “locking the gate” to all your secondary app accounts. You can also manage notifications for each of your secondary accounts to ensure nothing “pops up” that you’d rather not be seen.

SEE ALSO:   VarageSale: online selling community looking for members (review)

Caveats

There are a few caveats here that I see, though I personally don’t find them major.

First is some reported problems with battery drain. It is enough of a problem that the utility’s developer addresses it on their website’s FAQ page where it’s related to a first-time login to your Google account with the utility essentially confusing the Google Play service framework.

Second is an occasional speed issue when opening your secondary app account through the utility. The little opening animation can seem to get stuck for a few seconds. Nothing terrible, but long enough that you may start giving your screen the evil eye….though this may likely be a testament to our fickleness than the utility’s performance (how DARE you make me wait 3 seconds to see who’s DM’d me!).

Third is that you can’t add a second app account into Parallel Space if you have or need quick access to three or more accounts. The utility simply can’t run multiple accounts within itself (which sounds kind of ironic).

Conclusion

Simply put, I really enjoyed using Parallel Space as a true Android “utility” that makes my device so much more usable when it comes to using and managing multiple app accounts, especially social media. If you have succumbed to the idea of doing the logout/login dance with any given app on your device, I heartily recommend Parallel Space to alleviate your pain and make your day just a little smoother.

Download Parallel Space from the Google Play Store here.