The Dreem headset promised to improve our sleep, but it was a nightmare

Rythm

If you’re one of the 60 million Americans who have a sleep disorder, you’re probably willing to try anything to get a bit of shut eye. And while you may have already tried dozens of different sleep remedies with little success, a new sleep wearables manufacturer called Dreem believes it may have the solution.

What is the Dreem? Think of it like a minimalist cycling helmet designed by Yves Béhar you wear in bed, and you’re on the right track for the look. The headband contains five electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that monitor your brainwaves, along with an accelerometer, a heart-rate sensor, and a bone conducting speaker system. It’s light, coming in at a little over four ounces, and is wrapped in a plush fabric to make the device as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately for us, no amount of plush fabric could make it comfortable enough to make it through the night wearing the headset.

Dreem’s main benefits include falling asleep faster, which it promotes by playing white noise or simple audio tracks through the speakers, as well as improving the overall quality of your sleep by stimulating your brain during deep sleep stages with pink noise. Based on scientific research, this may help you wake up feeling more refreshed and better prepared for the day. Who doesn’t want that?

It could take up to a week to adjust and before you feel the benefits.

In addition to helping you fall asleep and get a better night’s sleep, Dreem offers an additional benefit: It helps you track your sleep patterns. Using the app, you’ll find data on your length of sleep, sleep cycles, position changes, as well as a sleep score.

Set up and pairing is relatively simple, though we wish Dreem provided more in-depth instructions in the companion app. Because the headset doesn’t directly connect to the app on your phone during the night, there’s no active Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals zapping through your head while you sleep.

The battery is only good for one session though, and we had to recharge it every day. The bone-conducting speakers work by using your skull as a sound conductor so there’s no need for earbuds or headphones.

The target demographic

The first night I tried Dreem, I fell asleep quickly, and slept soundly for a few hours. I’d soon wake up feeling the front of the headset “stuck” to my forehead. It wasn’t actually stuck, but the EEG sensors were definitely more attached than I expected. Like little limpets. It was uncomfortable enough that it woke me, which seemed a bit troubling since I didn’t have any trouble sleeping in the first place.

Rythm

In my drowsy, keen to get back to sleep state, I always took the Dreem off and fell instantly back to sleep. It helped me fall asleep, and it felt good during those early deep sleep stages — making me think there’s something to it — and I wanted to experience a full night. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

After this repeatedly happened, we spoke to Dreem, keen to find out whether this was a problem with us, or the headset. It turns out that while the company’s website is rather general about the benefits — it says it uses the technology to “improve your sleep every night” — it’s not really for people who sleep pretty well already, and is for people who don’t sleep well at all.

My first night with Dreem was, frankly, sort of a nightmare.

“We designed this for people with serious sleep issues, either falling asleep or waking up in the night,” Chief Marketing Officer Damien du Chéné told Digital Trends. “It’s best for people that have tried other methods to improve sleep, but without success, including sleeping pills.”

Du Chéné went on to explain that he believed people who actually have sleep problems would be able to acclimate to the device.

“We know it requires some effort, and that the first nights it’s normal to feel the headband. It’s an issue if it’s painful, but not if it’s uncomfortable. Those who are really motivated to change their sleep issues work past this.”

Since I am clearly not the intended audience for Dreem, we agreed to send the device to Steven Winkelman, a Digital Trends staff writer who has been diagnosed with a sleep disorder to see if he would have better luck.

Steven’s take

Since being diagnosed with a sleep disorder in my early twenties, I’ve tried dozens of remedies to get a better night’s sleep. I have no problem falling asleep mind you; I just wake up after a few hours, and am unable to fall back asleep. At that point, I either embrace the sleeplessness and pick up a book or, if I’m really tired, I’ll down a few Trazodone and pass out until the morning.

Before I even began to use the Dreem, I set up a call with executives from the company to learn more about the headset. I ended up not learning much else about it, but was strongly encouraged to try the headset for an entire week to get acclimated to it.

My first night with Dreem was, frankly, sort of a nightmare. When I initially put it on, I couldn’t really hear anything, so I fiddled with the volume slider at the top to turn up the speakers, only to find my partner complaining about the noise. Like usual, I fell asleep, only to wake up about two hours later. But this time, instead of being wide awake, I was wide awake with a headache.

Thankfully, Dreem does offer a 30-day money back guarantee if you want to give it a go yourself.

Since I expected the first night to be rough, I soldiered on thinking the experience would get better. It didn’t. I had the same headache on the the third night, and then the fourth night. By the fifth night, I pulled the Dreem off for the last time. I’d rather deal with insomnia over insomnia and a headache.

Conclusion

While the science behind Dreem is exciting and holds promise for people who suffer from sleep disorders, we’re not sold on the actual headset. In its current form, we found it too bulky and uncomfortable to wear for any reasonable amount of time. And at $500, the price of entry is just too high for a device that may or may not work. Thankfully, Dreem does offer a 30-day money back guarantee if you want to give it a go yourself.

‘League of Legends’ tournaments coming to ESPN+

ESPN has announced that League of Legends is coming to ESPN+. The cable sports network made the announcement on Friday, saying that it has signed a multi-year agreement with LoL‘s developer Riot Games. ESPN+ will kick off its coverage on July 16 — just in time for the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split. Following this, the summer finals will be held in September, followed by the world championships later this year,

ESPN’s agreement with Riot is not an exclusive one, so LoL fans will still be able to stream the matches on Twitch at no cost. ESPN is likely hoping this move will entice some people to sign up for its ESPN+ subscription service. The service costs $5 per month and gives users access to thousands of hours of live sporting events, original programming, and ad-free use of the ESPN’s site and mobile app.

Like many traditional media outlets, ESPN has struggled with adapting to how the internet has changed news and sports coverage. The cable news network has had to contend with dwindling subscription numbers, as many people opt to cut ties with cable altogether. In its prime, ESPN was one of America’s most popular outlets for coverage of sporting events, analysis, and player interviews. Now that virtually every professional athlete has their own Twitter profile, there is less need for traditional sporting coverage.

The decline of cable may play a large part in ESPN’s decision to move into the realm of esports coverage. A decade or so ago, the idea of ESPN covering video games in a major way was a laughable concept, but esports have grown into a multi-million dollar industry, with a fanbase just as devoted as those of any traditional sport. In fact, many esports teams, such as those in the Overwatch League and a handful of LoL teams, are owned by major sports teams.

ESPN’s deal with Riot is not the first time that ESPN has covered MOBA competitions. In 2015 and 2016, ESPN partnered with Blizzard Entertainment for coverage of the Heroes of the Dorm tournament, which focused on Blizzard’s own MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Everything you need to know about ESPN+
• ESPN+, the stand-alone streaming sports app we’ve been waiting for, is here
• Here’s everything you need to know about the Overwatch League
• Twitter doubles list of original shows with new deals, renewals from MTV to ESPN
• ‘Overwatch’ review

Best External Hard Drives for PlayStation 4

The days of cracking open a PS4 for expansion are over!

PlayStation 4 owners have no shortage of choice when it comes to storage expansion. Popping out the internal drive is fairly easy, but if you don’t want to go through that trouble there’s an alternative. Just plug a USB hard drive into your console, and instantly you have all the storage you could ever need.

All you need now is to pick the right drive for your needs. Here are some solid options available to you today.

Toshiba Canvio Connect II

If you need a storage bump but don’t want to take up another power outlet on your entertainment center or would prefer the hard drive be easy to hide away, Toshiba has what you need. The Canvio Connect II is a 1TB hard drive that is powered by the USB port and is small enough to tuck away behind the console.

See at Amazon

This will effectively double the storage of the more spacious PS4s you can buy today and will be more than enough for those upgrading a 500GB console. And for $47 you don’t have to worry about hitting the wallet too hard.

Western Digital WD Elements

People who want to massively upgrade the storage on their PS4 but don’t want the hard drive to take up a lot of space aren’t left with a ton of options, but one of the better choices comes from Western Digital. The WD Elements series isn’t small enough to be pocketable but can be concealed on most entertainment centers. Most important of all, it’s a 2TB drive, so you’re unlikely to fill it with your PlayStation 4 games anytime soon.

See at Amazon

WD Elements do also come in 1TB and 3TB variants, but for $75 the 2TB model is the most competitively priced and will be more than enough for most PS4 owners.

Seagate Expansion

If all you really care about is storage, and you want to make sure you never have to worry about running out of storage on your PlayStation 4 ever again, the Seagate Expansion series has you covered. These external hard drives will go up to 5TB in capacity but is one of the few 3TB options for under $100 if you’re also concerned with your budget.

See at Amazon

These drives are big, so don’t grab one thinking you’re going to be able to easily hide it next to your PlayStation 4. As long as that isn’t a problem for you, these $86 drives will get the job done.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Drive)

Not everyone needs to buy a whole new external drive to expand a PlayStation 4; you just need a solid enclosure to put an existing drive in. If that’s you, the Inateck enclosure is everything you need. It’s USB 3.0 enabled, offers an aluminum body to better handle heat dissipation when under stress, and doesn’t require any additional software to set up.

See on Amazon

Drop your drive in, connect to your PlayStation 4, and you’re done. Not bad for $27, assuming you already have a drive you aren’t using.

Update May 2018: This post has been updated with our favorite portable drives for PlayStation 4.

Why are we talking about PlayStation 4 stuff on Android Central? Let us explain.

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon

Get lifetime access to 1TB of cloud storage for only $39!

Our current, tech-obsessed world demands a storage solution for your multimedia data, the most convenient being cloud-based storage which you can access from anywhere. Most cloud-based storage services charge a monthly fee, which, over time, adds up to quite a fee. Those of you sick of subscription fees need a storage solution that requires a single payment for a lifetime of access. More importantly, you need cloud storage that is encrypted and can be accessed from all your devices.

Keep your stuff backed up for life! Learn More

Right now, Android Central Digital Offers has a deal on 1TB of cloud storage from Zoolz — a single payment of $45 gives you lifetime access. Does this seem cheap? It is — but it gets even cheaper when you use coupon code MEMDAY15 to take an additional 15% off! That drops your final price to just $38.21.

You will never be charged any extra fees, and you can access your cloud storage from multiple devices. Your data is protected with 256-AES encryption to better safeguard your stuff, and you can schedule backups and throttle bandwidth during uploads. Place files you know you won’t soon need in cold storage — takes three to five hours to access — or place files you frequently need in standard storage that can be accessed instantly.

Use coupon code MEMDAY15 for extra 15% off! Learn More

Considering 1TB of storage from other popular services costs about $10 per month, this deal will pay for itself in four months, and you can keep using it forever. Even if you don’t think you need it now, you probably will need it in the future. Don’t miss this great opportunity to snag 1TB of cloud storage for only $38.21!

Here’s your weekend comments thread with a dose of gratitude

We have Monday off because others gave their lives for it.

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S., and while many of us will be grilling burgers or otherwise enjoying a relaxing long weekend, we should remember why we have it.

I’m not one to glorify why we need armed forces. As a child too young to understand, I can remember each evening when several of my mother’s friends would join us to watch the news; that’s where Walter Cronkite would tell us all how many young men and women were killed in action that day in the Vietnam War. Growing up in an Army town meant there were usually tears and I learned at an early age that even to a civilian, war is hell.

But all Americans need to remember that those young men and women, along with countless before them and countless after, gave their lives because they thought they could make ours better. Try to take a moment sometime this weekend to honor them in your own way, then celebrate with friends and family because that’s why they made the sacrifice.

I’ll be spending a quiet weekend at home for the most part, simply enjoying the company of my lovely wife. I don’t deserve her, though she would disagree, and with the kids gone and the house to ourselves I’ll have an excellent weekend just because she’s with me. There will be peace and quiet, thick rare steaks, and plenty of red wine.

Take a moment and share your weekend plans with everybody in the comments and spend a few minutes connecting — that’s how the internet is best used!

Here’s what we’re reading, watching, playing, and listening to this week

How we’re spending our leisure time.

Everyone has a bit of quiet downtime once in a while. Whether you’re sitting quietly at home or trying to relax on a plane or just giving your busy mind and hands a break, it’s important to relax.

A good way to do that is to read a book, listen to some music or watch a movie or show. See what’s caught our attention for the week of May 26th.

Ara Wagoner

The new YouTube Music is here, and as I continue to dig into every nook and cranny of the new app looking for new quirks, old flaws, and more tips to our loyal AC readers, I’m also indulging an ungodly amount of music. YouTube Music has a selection that is unparalleled, between official music from the labels, remixes, covers, and live concert recordings from musicians and roadies of every shape and size, and so, so many songs that users have uploaded after seeing them missing from the catalog.

YouTube Music’s recommendations have also been taking me back in time with albums like Play, Disneymania and Baby Got Back, which has been stuck in my head for days and refuses to get out. Among the newer suggestions, I’ve been rocking a lot of Ariana Grande, including her gospel-backed take on Hercules ‘Zero to Hero’ from We Love Disney Vol. 1. It’s also a fitting song for an app that most people had completely written off before last week, don’t’cha think?

Marc Lagace

Netflix keeps churning out docu-mini series on different gruesome topics and it can be a bit exhausting to watch them all. Having said that, I gotta recommend the new show “Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist”.

The four-part series takes a deep dive into the 2003 Pizza Bomber mystery, in which a man named Brian Wells robbed a bank with a live bomb locked to his neck. The story became the inspiration for the 2011 comedy film “30 Minutes or Less” starring Jesse Eisenberg, but the true story is dark and disturbing. This one is not for those with a weak stomach for violence and murder, but if you enjoyed “Making a Murderer” then you’ll like Evil Genius, too.

Joe Maring

I’ve been in a podcast mood this week, and to crave that itch, I’ve been spending a lot of my time listening to The Moth. The Moth is a non-profit based out of New York that frequently hosts live events around the country where people come to tell their life stories.

These stories are selected from the various events and compiled into about an hour-long program based around a certain theme, and the end result is phenomenal. It’s incredibly easy to keep listening to episode after episode without any intention of stopping, and that’s fine by me. Some stories have made me laugh out loud while others have sent chills down my spine, but they all have one thing in common — they’re raw, uncut, and human.

As much as I’m loving The Moth, I did take a break to watch Deadpool 2 on opening night in IMAX. I think I still enjoy the first one just a tad more, but that didn’t stop me from having a great time with the movie. Just like the first Deadpool, the sequel is action-packed, gut-busting funny, and has the best mid-credits scene ever.

Tom Westrick

I saw Deadpool 2 this week, and while it’s not as enjoyable as the first one, it’s still an entertaining movie in its own right. Since we’ve already seen most of the characters interact with each other, it’s nearly impossible for a sequel to have the same magic that the original does. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say the last act dragged on more than it needed to. But overall, the movie was hilarious while still having an emotional story, like the first.

Elsewhere, I’m almost at the end of watching Frasier, and I’m debating what to jump into next. It’s between Cheers (yes, I know I should have watched that before Frasier), The West Wing, or diving back into my Plex library.

I’ve also been listening to Jake Bugg, an English singer that sound an awful lot like Hank Williams (Sr, not either of the crazy Jrs.). I’ve only listened to the album Shangri La, but I’ll give the rest of his albums a listen before long.

Essa Kidwell

I’ve never been the type that watches shows as soon as they come out. My attention span is in a thousand places at once, so sitting down and designating times for me to catch up on the latest shows and movies was never really something that was ever on my to-do list. Instead I wait till there’s enough to marathon on a streaming service and binge watch all of it at once while I’m writing.

This week I’m addicted to American Gods.

Much like what happened to me when I binged Game of Thrones I ended up addicted and needing more. I already know when I finish the last season available on my PlayStation I’m going to be dying for more. Good thing the American Gods book is waiting for me on my bookshelf! Checkmate!

Kennedy Weston

My fiance and I recently invested in the latest multiplayer game, A Way Out. It’s a pretty awesome game that has a unique way of using multiplayer. Instead of being able to do your own thing that still helps out the other player, you have to actually work together in order to progress in the game. It’s an interesting way to make sure that you and your friend or significant other can and will actually work well together.

I’ve also recently got to Season 3 of a TV show called Community, which takes place in a community college and it’s all about the shenanigans that go down. It’s absolutely hilarious and has wonderful actors and actresses like Joel McHale, Donald Glover, and Yvette Nicole Brown. If you have a Hulu membership or Crackle, you can watch all of the seasons of the show on those streaming services.

Quentyn Kennemer

Being a big fan of the original State of Decay and disappointed when they eventually canceled plans to bring out a multiplayer mode, you know I was all over State of Decay 2. This Xbox One and PC zombie survival game is just as much about battling the scarcity of resources as it is battling a zombie plague, and doing it with friends makes the experience infinitely more fun. I’m also still getting my butt kicked by Nordic trolls in God of War, so that’s fun.

When I need a break from all the zombies and draugrs, I’m turning to my huge backlog of Marvel shows and movies I have yet to watch. Yes, spoiler alert, I haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity Wars, and I have a lot more to catch up on before I do that. I’ve just finished the first season of Luke Cage. Next stop: Jessica Jones, followed by season 2 of Luke Cage on Netflix next month.

Your turn

What are YOU reading, watching, or listening to this week? Let us know in the comments!

Update, May 26, 2018: This is a weekly series where we tell you what we’re into, so check back every weekend!

Ride around without getting lost thanks to the $15 iOttie Bike & Motorcycle Phone Mount

Secure your phone on your bike or motorcycle with this inexpensive mount.

For the first time ever, the iOttie Easy One Touch 4 Bicycle and Motorcycle Mount dropped in price down to $14.95 at Amazon. While it’s still somewhat new, it’s been selling between $17 and $20 since its release last October.

The iOttie Easy One Touch 4 can universally hold all phones and even many with cases between 2.3 and 3.5 inches. It features a mounting system which can lock or release the device with one… easy touch. It fits bars from 20 to 34mm in diameter and is fully adjustable allowing you to rotate it 360 degrees with the ability to view in landscape or portrait mode.

iOttie also includes a one-year warranty with this phone mount. While this product only has a few reviews on Amazon, iOttie mounts for automobiles have numerous well-rated ones that should be assuring enough to give this one a try.

See at Amazon

iOS 12 to Allow iPhones to Unlock Doors Via NFC

Apple is expected to expand the NFC capabilities of its iPhones beyond mobile payments, allowing users to securely unlock doors equipped with the technology, according to The Information. The company is said to be planning to announce the new functionality “next month,” suggesting it will come at WWDC as part of the iOS 12 unveiling.

The change to the near-field communication, or NFC, chip, which is expected to be announced next month, could pave the way for people to use iPhones for other security-sensitive interactions, from paying transit fares and opening car doors to verifying their identity in other ways.

Already, employees at Apple’s new campus in Cupertino, Calif., are using their iPhones to gain access to buildings and offices, suggesting that the technology has been deployed there, people familiar with the matter said.

The Information reported nearly four years ago that Apple was looking to expand NFC capabilities to building security and transit ticketing, working with its campus security vendor HID Global on the technology.

Today’s report notes that while Bluetooth is already used to manage some smart locks using iPhones, NFC offers a more secure method for connections and authentication, an important consideration for companies and government agencies in particular.

Related Roundup: iOS 12Tag: NFC
Discuss this article in our forums

Ditch the milk crates. Store your vinyl properly in this elegant DIY stand

A few weeks back we showed you how to make some sleek wall frames that put your favorite record covers on display. This week we have a handsome stand where you can keep the rest of your collection. We made ours from a thick slab of exotic hardwood called bubinga, but practically any kind of wood will look great with this minimalist, flip-friendly design. And thanks to our painstakingly simplified build process, this stand is incredibly easy to make and only requires a small number of tools. Here’s everything you need:

Tools and Materials

• Hardwood slab (roughly 1 inch thick, 10 inches wide)
• Miter Saw (capable of cutting 10-inch boards)
• Jigsaw
• Pencil
• Clamps (x2)
• Sandpaper
• Teak oil

Step-by-Step Build Process

Step 1: Get some wood and cut it to create your four pieces

You can embark on this project in one of two ways: either start with multiple smaller boards of the same thickness, or use one large board and chop it up to create the pieces you need.

We went with the latter option and started with a single hardwood board, roughly 1 inch thick and 10 inches wide, though a slightly thinner or narrower board would work too. If you’re going this same route and using one board for the whole project, you’ll need a slab that’s at least 60 inches in length. We began by chopping our pieces to rough length using our trusty miter saw, and then cut them to width on a table saw — but don’t worry if you don’t have access to a table saw. The beauty of this project is that you can make all the same cuts with a jigsaw (though you’ll likely end up with rougher edges that will need more sanding).

Don’t feel like jigsawing everything yourself? An alternative is to take the drawing below to your local hardwood retailer and ask if they will crosscut your pieces to rough length and “rip” them to the exact widths you need. Once that’s done, you can do the rest of the project with simpler tools. Most independent lumber stores will be more than willing to make cuts for a small charge. A decent handsaw will cut out all the parts too — with a healthy dollop of elbow grease, of course.

Step 2: Mark where your notches will go

Once you have the basic rectangles cut, the rest is fast and easy. The stand is held together by intersecting notches in the pieces — a tried-and-true method that not only lends itself to an easy setup, but also allows you to break down the rack in seconds if necessary. Best of all, we did all the dirty work for you and came up with some surefire tricks to that’ll ensure you end up with notches that fit together perfectly.

As you’ll see in the video above, we started by trimming the ends of the base boards (aka the “feet”) at 10 degrees on the miter saw. Then we made a couple of key landmarks for the notches and set them about 2.5 inches in from the top edge. Now the fun part begins.

The first trick is to use the angled ends of the feet as layout tools, helping you pencil in the notches at the same 10-degree angle, but facing in the opposite direction. After you’ve penciled the outside edge of each notch, it’s time for the next trick.

The key to nailing the width of the notches is using the actual workpieces to lay them out. Knowing that all the parts came from the same board, we knew they were all the same thickness. So we used one of the feet to lay out the last line on each of the notches, lining up the foot with the first line we laid out and using a very sharp pencil to trace the other side of the board. Presto, perfect notch.

Step 3: Use your jigsaw to cut the notches

It’s now time to bust out your trusty jigsaw: a small but powerful tool that can make all kinds of cuts, both straight and curved. What makes your jigsaw even trustier is an upgraded blade. For this project, we recommend picking up a jigsaw blade designed specifically for making smooth cuts in hardwoods. They typically cost just a few bucks, and will provide drastically better results.

To make the square notches, we started by cutting straight down each side of the notch, along the inside edge of each pencil line, and then pulled back to make curved cuts that removed the waste from the middle. One straight cut across the bottom finished the job. Don’t sweat the bottoms of the notches — they’ll be hidden when the rack is assembled, so they don’t have to look perfect.

Before you put the saw away, give your pieces a quick test fit. If any of your notches are a little too tight, feel free to take a thin slice off the inside edge with the jigsaw and try again. The great thing about this rack is that the intersecting notches don’t have to be perfect for the whole thing to be solid and stable.

Step 4: Sand it smooth and bevel the edges

The board we bought for this project was already surfaced smooth, so its faces only needed a bit of sanding to get them ready for an oil finish. Our saw cuts on the edges, however, needed extra work.

In both cases, we backed up our sandpaper with a wood block, alng with some self-adhesive cork shelf liner stuck on it to even out the pressure. The sandpaper simply wraps around the block. A block is critical for even sanding, and helps you keep edges flat and crisp.

On both the edges and faces of the board, I started with 120-grit paper, and then moved up through 150- and 220-grit, wiping away the dust each time. Oily, exotic woods like bubinga can be very irritating to your airways, so we recommend wearing a dust mask while you sand.

The last important touch when sanding is to break all the edges and give them more of a bevel. This makes a project look more finished and is friendlier to the hand as well. We did this with 150-grit paper wrapped around the block and the block held at an angle to the edge (roughly 45 degrees). Then we just counted our strokes in order to get a light, even bevel along every last edge and corner. Eight or 10 strokes usually does the trick.

Step 5: Throw on some finish and make it shine

To finish the job, we suggest applying a couple coats of Minwax Teak Oil. Just shake the can, apply it liberally with cotton rags or paper towels, wipe off the excess, and let the parts stand somewhere to dry overnight.

You’ll need to smooth the surfaces between each coat of oil you apply, but here’s another awesome trick for that: Tear some big pieces off a brown paper bag and use them to buff the surface to a soft sheen. Also be sure to buff off any excess oil that has worked its way back out of the pores in the wood. This method works wonderfully, both between coats and after the final one has dried.

Step 6: Assemble the stand

Putting this stand together is insanely simple. Just place your foot boards on a flat surface, with the angled notches facing upward. Next, space them out a bit and place your wider boards on top so that the notches come together. Voila! You’re done. Now all that’s left is to put your new record rack someplace where everyone can see it and load it up with your best albums. It’s pretty much guaranteed to get oohs and aahs from your houseguests.

“Oh that? Yeah, I made it myself.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Build a bottle opener that uses magnet magic to catch your caps
• Our ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ building tips and tricks will help you survive
• As Windows moves beyond the window, it’s going to get even better
• Nintendo Labo review
• How to build a computer

LaCie DJI Copilot backs up your photos and videos, without needing a computer

When it comes to portable, computer-less media backup, there are precious few options. Gnarbox sprang into life to address this very need, raising over half-a-million dollars on Kickstarter for its first product, a rugged backup solution designed to go anywhere built around a solid-state drive. But now, LaCie — a subsidiary of hard drive manufacturer Seagate — has entered into the segment with the new DJI-branded Copilot. That’s right, this thing has three brand names attached to it.

Built around a spinning disk of unspecified rotational speed, the Copilot is the first product in LaCie’s BOSS line, which stands for Backup On-Set Solution. It is battery powered and features an SD card slot, USB 3 Type-C and Type-A connectors, a built-in monochrome display, and comes with USB-C, Micro USB, and Lightning cables for plugging in your smartphone (which will charge while connected).

By using a traditional hard drive rather than an SSD, the Copilot’s most apparent advantage over the Gnarbox is capacity. At 2,000GB, it’s nearly eight times larger than the highest-capacity Gnarbox (256GB). The trade-off, of course, is transfer speed and physical size. However, due to the lower cost of hard disks versus SSDs, you can pick it up for just $350 — $50 cheaper than the 256GB Gnarbox.

But that’s not the Copilot’s only competitor. Western Digital also makes a line of battery-powered backup drives with built-in SD slots, both in SSD and HDD variants — although the SSD version isn’t terribly fast. Its 2TB HDD version sells for just $179, but lacks the screen and rugged design of the LaCie. It does, however, function as a Wi-Fi hotspot, support backups of phones and tablets via an app, and can even stream content to a TV using Plex. But the Copilot’s reliance on hardwired connections may actually be better suited to its target user of professional content creators.

Design and interface

Measuring 5.3 x 4.4 x 1.4 inches and weighing 1.2 pounds, the Copilot is about an inch wider, nearly half-an-inch deeper, and just slightly heavier than the Gnarbox. With its gray rubber bumpers, it looks like a more mature, business-ready version of LaCie’s Rugged-series drives (which sport much more eye-catching orange exteriors). One side of the bumper can be removed, revealing the ports behind it. A groove running around the perimeter of the device cuts through the bumpers and makes room for the phone-connector cable. It’s a smart way of fitting a longer cable without cluttering up the main port bay.

The status display completely vanishes when turned off, but blinks into existence at the press of a button, showing battery life and available capacity. There’s only one button (the “action button”), which, aside from waking the device, can be used to control the Copilot by essentially answering yes/no questions. Copy all data from memory card? Short press for yes, long press for no. (A short press is anything up to 1 second, while a long press is defined as 3 seconds.)

Daven Mathies/Digital Trends

The capabilities of the system are further expanded via the mobile app (more on this later), but we can’t help but feel that a two-button interface on the device itself would have been simpler than the short-press/long-press solution that LaCie went with. Also, should an issue ever arise that requires you to reset the device, make sure you have a thumbtack or paperclip on hand, because you’ll need to insert it into a pinhole to trigger a reset. Luckily, we never had any problems with the unit, but it seems like a simple power switch could have sufficed — although, presumably LaCie wanted to avoid this in order prevent accidental shutdowns while the Copilot is bouncing around in your backpack while copying data as you bomb down a rocky singletrack trying to look epic for your DJI Inspire 2 flying above.

Fortunately for the action sports minded, the device should be able to handle rough conditions, and is drop, splash, and dust resistant — although, LaCie does not offer any specifics about how high of a drop or how much water and dust it can take.

No computer? No problem

Despite the DJI co-branding, there is nothing specific to drone flying about the Copilot — anybody who produces media in the field can use it to offload their memory cards. Drone pilots are one such demographic, but all manner of photographers and videographers can potentially benefit from this type of device.

The selling point is its completely computer-free backup. A regular external drive requires a computer to actually run it, which means you have to lug a laptop around with you to use it in the field. The Copilot has its own battery and runs its own operating system so that it can copy data from an SD card all by itself. Simply plug in your memory card, press the action button, and when it prompts you to copy the card, press it again. Alternately, you can connect the drive to your phone to initiate transfers via the DJI Copilot BOSS app.

By using a hardwired connection, you can also browse and manage files from your mobile device without any cumbersome Wi-Fi setup. Create folders, view and delete images and videos, and even transfer files for offline viewing. This all works really well, and while the Copilot keeps your phone’s battery topped up, take note that its own battery won’t last forever. Don’t run it too low until you’re done backing up all of your files for the day.

In our testing, we copied 58 gigabytes of data from a UHS-II SD card in roughly 7 minutes, for an average write speed of about 138 megabytes per second (the card was rated at 200MBps). In that time, the battery dropped 8 percent, so you should be able to back up around 725GB on a single charge.

While 138MBps is about what we would expect for write speed — and is, in fact, faster than the 100MBps write speed of the Gnarbox — the Copilot slowed to a crawl when transferring data to a computer. Here, we averaged just 39MBps over USB 3.0, which isn’t great. LaCie does not specify the read and write speeds of the Copilot, but perhaps this is why. Compared to the 270MBps read speed of the Gnarbox, this is probably the Copilot’s biggest drawback.

Given that transferring files to a computer from the Copilot is considerably slower than transferring straight from an SD card (assuming you have a relatively new and fast card), our advice is to use the Copilot primarily as a redundant backup and keep all of your media on your memory cards whenever possible. Naturally, sometimes you just won’t be able to do this — and part of the appeal of a device like the Copilot is the ability to keep reusing your same memory cards — but just keep in mind that you may endure some long ingest times when you finally return from the field. Also, particularly for high-bitrate 4K content, editing straight from the Copilot may not be possible.

Is it worth it?

As with insurance, the most valuable aspect of the Copilot is the peace of mind it brings you. For content creators who spend days or weeks at a time without the safety net of the internet or the ability to power a computer, getting 2TB of ruggedized, on-the-go storage is a big deal. LaCie also throws in a one-month Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, valued at $53.

But not everyone will need so much storage in the field, and the Copilot’s less-than-stellar export speed could be the deal breaker for such individuals. Here, the 256GB Gnarbox may be the better buy. As expected, some people have also raised concerns about the presumed risks of using a spinning disk, with all its sensitive moving parts, in rough field conditions. Rubber bumpers or not, nobody wants to risk dropping a hard drive. We encountered no issues, but beyond tossing it into a backpack, taking it on a hike, and letting it slide around the back of a car, we didn’t exactly try to push the limits. If consumers feel safer with solid state media — and if peace of mind is what they’re buying — they may choose to pay more for an SSD.

However, for those who need a high-capacity, portable backup system, SSDs may just be too costly. That said, with the much cheaper options from Wester Digital, the LaCie DJI Copilot may also be too costly. If you like the idea of its splash and dust-proof design, built-in screen, and hardwired phone cable, that could make it worth it, though. It is also easy to use, includes some practical connectivity features, and while it’s not exactly fast, it will get the job done.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Gnarbox review
• Kickstarter: Gnarbox 2.0 offers automated media backups without a smartphone
• Here is how to choose the best SD cards for your camera
• What is an SSD? The ultimate explanation of the solid-state drive
• Photo FOMO: Faster memory cards, color-neutral filters, and ‘Adventury’ bags