The eero Home Network System takes WiFi to a whole new level (review)

I love technology. I love that technology solves problems and makes them obsolete. There are many people who will argue that technology only makes our lives much more complicated, and it makes us less intelligent. I would counter those arguments by saying we are evolving and are becoming more intelligent because we waste less time doing the mundane things like driving to the library to research a science project. We save time with technology, and sometimes it is so ahead of its time that we don’t realize we need it until we have it.

Many people thought the first iPhone was a luxury item that was a waste of money for early adopters. Sure smartphones existed with Windows mobile phones, but Steve Ballmer made the biggest mistake of his career by turning his nose up to mass adoption smartphones. Over the last decade Apple proved that smartphones are essential to our lives and the proof exists in its market value as the richest company in the world.

Where am I going with this?

Imagine your life without WiFi or cellular service. It would be a radical change – some might even say it sucks real bad. Some of us experience life without WiFi or cellular data, but we make adjustments to correct that problem. There are many of us, without thinking, who search for WiFi or data when we are out of range or indoors in buildings with so much mass that they drown out our data signals. In those situations we suck it up, and the second we get a connection back, we check our smartphones instantaneously.

We are so dependent on our data signals that it is second nature that it must exist. Yet so many of us deal with bad WiFi at home and sit close to our routers to maintain a solid connection. Walls, furniture, wiring, electronics, and insulation all degrade our signals. 10 years ago this wouldn’t have been an issue as our dependance on wireless signals was much less.

Basic needs

Stop for a second and try to count all of the devices in your home that depend on a WiFi signal.

• Smartphone
• Laptop/Desktop
• Tablet
• Smart TV
• Chromecast/Roku/Apple TV/Fire TV
• Nest Thermostat
• Smart doorbell
• Security system/cameras
• Smart refridgerator
• WiFi speakers such as Sonos/Naim/Raumfeld
• Amazon Echo

Your answers will vary of course. And the more people you have in your family, the more people that rely on the WiFi signal to get their information, texts, calls, etc.

The average American home built in 2015 averaged 2600 square feet.  According to About Tech, the typical wireless router can reach 150 feet indoors. For an average 2600 square foot house, there shouldn’t be much of an issue getting and maintaining a signal, but walls can degrade range as much as 25% or more on a 2.4GHz frequency. 5GHz suffers even more through walls even though it is faster. Typically lower bandwidth frequencies penetrate walls better than the higher frequencies, which is why AT&T and Verizon perform better than T-Mobile indoors(they own the lower frequency bandwidth).

Let’s assume your ultra fast WiFi network at 5GHz degrades as much as 50% with all of the walls in your home. Older homes will experience even more degradation as they are built with more dense materials like lath and plaster. That means your effective range indoors with a single wireless router is 75 feet. The further you are from your router, the slower your connection is. Move beyond 75 feet and you will most likely drop your connection.

I can almost guarantee that all of you with homes 2600 square feet or more experience issues with your network. I live in a condominium which is 1500 square feet, and even I deal with bad wireless signals on a regular basis.

At least I used to, until I got eero

As a tech writer, you would guess that I would have all of my tech problems solved. That’s far from reality. I work a normal 8-5pm, M-F job as a Medicinal Chemist and don’t have the luxury of staying on top of all gadgets and technology.

In my 1500 square foot condo, I deal with a whole litany of WiFi networks that interfere with mine. I also have really thick walls that prevent me from hearing my neighbors and vice versa. Part of my problem is my main cable internet connection into my house is near the front door. That means my wireless router must reside on one side of my house. My bedroom is the furthest from the router, with my office in-between.

While I could take the time to find the right wireless extenders, repeaters, or amplifiers, I simply do not have the expertise to sit and figure them out. I’ve tried wholeheartedly to set them up before to improve my signal. I even tried at my parents house which was built in 1890 and has the worst WiFi I’ve ever experienced because of those damn lath and plaster walls. The WiFi literally only works in one room in that house, and I had to set up five extenders just to have WiFi around the main floor in the house.

Maybe I am dumb, but setting up flawless networks is no small feat. Or according to Gizmodo, maybe I am just super lazy. I beg to differ though. Of all of my college educated, and PHd colleagues, I would bet that one out of 100 could set up a flawless wireless network with extenders, repeaters or amplifiers.

That’s where eero solved my WiFi issues within nine minutes.

What is eero?

eero is a whole home solution for flawless WiFi. It uses access points to create a “mesh network” that blankets your whole home in strong and fast WiFi.

Instead of one wireless router in your home, you need to change your mindset from the last decade, and understand that as dependent as we are on WiFi, the proper solution for home wireless is multiple access points.

eero is the solution we have all been waiting for, whether we realize it or not. While I could test my home network by running my tablet, computer, phones and stream HD videos off Netflix or YouTube, I won’t because those video service use buffering to manage poor signals. It downloads a portion of video, and will not play it until it can play without stutters. Buffering is an indication of poor WiFi signal, or speed, or a combination of both.

Instead I have been testing my wireless signal strength and speed by using high fidelity wireless speakers from Naim audio. I have been using the Naim Muso and Naim QB which costs $2500 for the pair. Without question, they are the best WiFi speakers I have ever listened to, when the connection is strong. Once I move them into my office or bedroom, and they both stutter and skip parts of songs that ruin the entire experience. I could stream using Bluetooth, but that degrades the sound quality and has even shorter range than WiFi.

So I setup the three kit eero. One in my living room, one in my office, and one in my bedroom.

Setup started like this:

I opened the extremely well packaged eero kit and started with the one that said “start”.

I then installed the app from the Google Play Store. Then I plugged in my first eero into the main wireless router and let the app detect it. (check the screenshot time stamp at the top right)

The eero app then asked me to create my own network. Since eero spoke so highly of its product, I had to name my network “The Best Network” just so my neighbors would know that someone had the best and it wasn’t them.

Once I set up my network, with my own password, it then asked if I wanted to set up another eero. I hate the passwords that come with wireless routers. They’re impossible to memorize which meant I left the password taped to the router and had it written on a post-it note on my refrigerator. Not quite the safest way to keep my network secure.

eero even tells you where to place the next unit.

By 9:43PM my entire eero mesh network was functional (check the screenshot time stamp at the top right).

How does it perform?

Flawlessly. Netflix no longer buffers in my bedroom. My $2500 Naim speakers no longer stutter and sound like a concert hall in my office. eero even resets my network when it detects errors. If you have Time Warner high speed internet like I do, you would know that it drops at least five times a week. It’s aggravating to lose WiFi signal when watching a movie, but it’s downright angering when I am in the middle of a 2000 word post like this one and WiFi drops before I save my work. Many of you who work from home know exactly what I am talking about.

eero solves all of those problems. I get a sense of pride when I come home from work and know I can write without issue, watch Game of Thrones in full HD streaming from my iPad to my Chromecast, to be followed by high fidelity music on my Naim WiFi speakers before bed. eero is a dream come true.

The funny part is, I never thought about how bad my internet connection was until I learned what a good connection is. eero is now apart of my life and I can’t live without it. Sure there isn’t much glory to a great WiFi network, but I can tell you that there are those who maintain their home networks and get all of the blame for issues. Like my dad who has to answer to my brother and sister whine when we are all visiting him and my mom during the holidays. My dad is 67, and he just ordered his eero three pack so he never has to listen to them whine about WiFi again. I am 100% confident my dad will be able to set up eero on his own.

eero is so smart you can even create a guest network and invite users via text, tweet, or email. You no longer have to give out your crazy long and confusing password that most people will type in wrong on the first and second attempts. It’s one of my favorite features.

In a recent update, eero added family controls which does not apply to me. However, I know plenty of people with children who would care about the new family features. Best of all, eero updated itself with the latest software upgrade.

Family Profiles allows eero users to:

• Create Profiles: Create a unique profile for each family member in the eero app and assign devices to an individual’s profile.

• Set Schedules: Set automatic times when family members cannot access the Internet at home. Rest assured your children aren’t on their devices during certain times without having to constantly monitor them.

• Pause the Internet: Instantly pause and unpause all devices associated with a specific profile, granting and revoking internet access at the click of a button.

• Nickname Devices: Now you can nickname each device connected to the home network. No more confusion over which devices belong to which member of the family.

How much does it cost?

$500 for a three pack. Read other reviews about eero and many of them scoff at the price. Sure $500 is a lot of money by any measure, but put into context at how important your WiFi actually is, and it isn’t as expensive as you think it is.

I pay $74.99 a month for 50mbps internet from Time Warner. That is $900 a year. What’s the point in paying for such expensive internet when you can’t get the most from it? Typically routers aren’t replaced more than every three years in my experience. $500 over 36 months is $13.88 per month for three eero hubs.

Other reviewers like to compare the price to a single router in which case it will always be cheaper. Or they compare eero to WiFi extenders which are complicated to setup, sometimes create separate networks, and they slow your internet speed. They’re also a lot of work to maintain with firmware updates as well as manual restarts.

If you’ve ever tried to give your router a boost with an “extender,” then you’ve experienced true disappointment. That’s because “extenders” can only stretch your signal a single hop — you can’t connect multiple in a row. They often create an entirely separate network (SSID), so you find yourself having to continually switch from one network to the other as you move through your house.

Worse, many range “extenders” cut your bandwidth in half because they rely on a single wireless radio to both send and receive data. In contrast, each eero has two radios — both of which communicate with your devices and sync with other eeros — so your connection is always fast. Not only does an eero system operate on a single network name (SSID), but you can also walk throughout your home and devices like your iPhone will connect to the nearest eero. – eero

Conclusion

eero is my favorite tech upgrade that I have used in 2016. That is saying a lot considering how much access I have to gadgets. I suspect eero will continue to develop features making its mesh network even better than it is now which is hard to believe, because it is awesome. eero is also paving a path for copycats with whole home network solutions, because as people experience eero for themselves, they will want their own creating a massive market for mesh networks. Like the first iPhone, which wasn’t the first smartphone, eero is the first to make entire home WiFi accessible and easy for all. And just like Apple, the eero is not the first solution for WiFi. There are millions of routers and extenders in existence, but none of them are nearly as good as eero.

eero just works.

eero just hit a home run while Linksys, ASUS, Motorola and the likes sit in the parking lot just trying to get into the game.

While $500 is a large chunk of change, eero is a great investment that will allow you to take full advantage of your WiFi signal. Your videos, music, and work will all improve because of it. The engineers at eero recommend one hub for every 1000 square feet, and suggest no more than 10 eero hubs on one network. Although there are customers with triple that amount that don’t experience any issues.

If you suffer from poor WiFi, I wholeheartedly recommend eero to you.

Get an eero three pack at http://www.eero.com, http://www.bestbuy.com,or at Amazon.com. You will not regret it.

I have the best wifi network in my condo complex.

“I Hate You” is a mobile game to help you exorcise those phobias (review)

Overview

A lot of us, while being otherwise normal, functioning humans, harbor some deep and rather irrational fears against generally ‘normal’ items in daily life. Be it clowns, spiders, or even a trip to the dentist, sometimes a certain thing or event can create life-stopping fear or paranoia.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a gaming outlet to virtually crush, maim, and destroy these haunting bug-a-boos? Now you can with I Hate You, a mobile game (available in Google Play or the App Store) from the developer Sunrise Games that allows you to get in your car and literally run down your fears.

Gameplay

Pretty simple stuff here.  You start in the main menu, where you have two main sets of options to choose from:

Your phobia you’d like to run over.
Your vehicle in which to do the running over.

Additionally, there is a daily point/cash bonus mini-game and achievements list, but we’re here to avenge our nightmares, so let’s get to it.

As with most games of this type, you start with just a basic car, and you can ‘purchase’ bigger/faster ones with money gained during previous gameplay/mini-games.  Also, you start with just one phobia avatar, the dreaded clown.

Once your game starts, your controls are also pretty basic.  Your vehicle automatically
accelerates up to its max speed; you can control steering by tapping on the left and right sides of the screen. Tapping low-left and low-right brakes your vehicle in that respective direction.

Using these controls, your goal is to run over as many phobia avatars as possible before your health meter (essentially a timer) runs out.  Once this meter is empty, your game is over.  You have a short amount of time to buy back into your current game, or you can go back to the main menu to change vehicle, phobia, or just start over with your current settings.

Vehicle options range across numerous rather generic-looking car types (though there is a police cruiser and tank available!). More importantly, the phobias you can choose to pursue include the aforementioned clown, cockroach, boss, dentist, spider, vampire, snake, dog, rat, and ZOMBIE (of course).

During gameplay, you may also run across several ‘power-up’ items including added time, saws, guns, and magnets.  There are also three maps available: city, castle, and winter themes.

What We Liked

• Original game theme based on everyday issues.
• Simple but repeatable gameplay.

What Could Use Improvement

• Controls can be too simple at times, making fine maneuvering difficult.
• Sound and graphics are OK, but nothing more.

Monodeal’s Noise Canceling Headphones: Lower price would make it more attractive (Review)

Searching for the right pair of headphones can prove to be quite the chore. There are a number of things to factor in when making this purchase. Comfort, design, sound, and price are all things that must be considered. The price is the biggest consideration when making this decision. It would be nice if money was no object, but for many of us, this is simply not an option. Today, I bring you a mid-range headphone at a mid-range price, Monodeal’s Noise Canceling Headphones for $50.

In the box

• Active noise canceling headset
• Headset pouch
• Airplane adapter
• USB Charging cable
• User manual

Design

Monodeal’s Noise Canceling Headphones are a lightweight set of headphones with adjustable headbands, earpads made of a spongy material, and an outer shell made of glossy plastic. It has a long cord with an inline microphone and noise canceling feature.

Let’s start with the outer shell of the earmuffs. The shiny plastic looked cheap in the pictures and I hoped it was just the pictures. But if I’m being honest, it throws off the look for me as it does look cheaply made. The headband is made of plastic as well, but its matte finish looks better and the housing would have been better if it had followed that design.

On the other hand, the headphones themselves are a comfortable fit. The spongy padding feels good on the ears and prolonged use will not cause any pain. The adjustable headband combined with the soft earpads provide a nice tight fit. There is never a sensation that they are going to fall off.

Sound

The sound from Monodeal’s headphones is run of the mill and provides more of a hollow sound. I never really detected any mids when listening to music. Hip hop was heavy on bass while rock was trebly. I will admit watching Star Wars with these headphones wasn’t bad at all. So maybe watching TV and movies is the way to go with these headphones.

The inline microphone, to be honest, is nothing special from any other mid-ranged headphone. You could understand callers, and callers could understand you. I wouldn’t use these as a primary talking device, but they will work in a pinch.

The noise canceling feature is what these headphones are really about. There was a considerable difference when in use. Even when around loud machinery, you could tell a difference in the lower level of background noise.

Summary

Monodeal’s Noise Canceling Headphones has quite a few pros and cons about it. It’s hard to justify $50 even with the noise canceling feature. I would price them in the area of $30. With that being said, I will say they are a decent pair of headphones that will do the job.

Buy Monodeal’s Noise Canceling Headphones

Sasha Morse Flashlight: A handy flashlight app with some new tricks

Overview:

Sasha Morse Flashlight is a flashlight app with a built-in Morse Code generator and guide, to help you learn to read and write, as well as send messages automatically, in Morse Code.

Developer: Sasha Lab

Cost: Free (with ads)

Impressions:

Sasha Morse FLashlight is a pretty standard flashlight app. It has the same switch and sounds, and triggers your camera flash as you’d expect. However, if you press the little purple button above the lightswitch, a new menu appears, and grants you access to the morse code generator.

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The morse code generator allows you to input text, then press the send button and it will transcribe whatever you have written into morse code that flashes from your flashlight. The app also offers a handy guide to the letters and symbols of morse code, in case you wanted to try to write it for yourself. The feature works as expected and is harmless, but I really can’t see a practical application for it outside of a bit of fun. Very few people I know can read morse code, so sending them a message in it seems rather pointless, and I imagine many are in the same boat.

Otherwise, Sasha Morse FLashlight isn’t a terribly unique app. The flashlight app has been around in some form or another since the earliest smartphones, and some have more practical and useful features than Sasha Morse does. The morse code is a nice novelty, and works well but just isn’t something that makes it a must have over other flashlight apps, if you still use them.

Conclusion:

I can see this app as appealing to someone who wants to learn morse code, or uses it regularly for whatever reason, or maybe someone who is interested in morse code for historical reasons. Other apps do flashlights better, and even now they are becoming obsolete as phone manufacturers include flashlight functionality baked into the phone at launch, making this an even harder sell.

Download Sasha Morse Flashlight from the Google Play Store

Dead Zombie Land: Simple game that’s close to fun (Review)

Overview

Sometimes you’re just bored and you don’t really want to think too hard, but you want to play a game. A couple questions you can ask yourself. Do you like tap style game? Do you like zombies? If you answered yes to both then, Dead Zombie Land may be for you.

Developer: Cruel Bytes
Cost: Free with In-App purchases

Review

This game takes place in a post zombie apocalypse world where the zombies have won and rule the world. The main character, you, are a zombie as well and your head is about to explode. So your goal is to take out as many zombies as you can before that happens.

The concept is quite easy to understand. You have ten seconds to take out as many zombies as you can. Once you explode you respawn in a different location and you are given another ten seconds to get yourself in the position to take out more zombies. The catch is each time you have to take out more zombies than your previous attempt. So needless to say it gets harder each attempt. If you don’t explode more zombies than before, then the game is over.

The controls for this game are simple, swipe your character in the direction you want to go and tap if you want him to explode earlier. While these controls are simple, I did have problems with the swipe. It just wasn’t as responsive as it should be. I would swipe and he just didn’t seem to move much, if at all sometimes. This made it hard to maneuver into a large group of zombies This should be a simple adjustment.

The graphics are done well and mimic the block style made popular by Minecraft, It also incorporate Google Play Game’s leaderboards and achievements to compete against your friends. You may also connect ” Dead Zombie Land”  with Facebook as well.  

There are various levels of in-app purchases to purchase coins that allow you to buy different characters. They vary from 1500 coins for $.99 to 12,500 coins for $5.99. You can also collect coins based on how many zombies you kill and you can watch videos as well to get coins,free of charge. If you share a gameplay video that nets you another 20 coins. 

Conclusion

Dead Zombie Land isn’t an overly exciting game, but it is a time killer. I’m not sure how you make it more exciting as the general concept is not very appealing. I do give kudos however to the attempt at changing the way a tap game is done. If you’re interested in a game that will help you kill time when you’re bored, and don’t want to get hooked on a thriller, feel free to check out Dead Zombie Land at the Google Play Store.

Get Dead Zombie Land in the Play Store

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Inateck 2-Port USB Car Charger: 2 Ports and a bonus (Review)

I just recently wrote about an awesome 4-Port car charger from Inateck. It’s a sleek looking charger with a lot to offer. Today, from that same great company I present to you Inateck’s 2-Port USB car charger for $15.99. It not only has USB ports for charging your devices, but it has a little bonus.

In the box

• 2-Port car charger with built-in MFi Lighting cable
• Four-foot microUSB cord

Review

Inateck’s 2-Port car charger isn’t quite as sexy as the previous charger I reviewed, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking the goods to make it worth your while. As you have seen the bonus is its built in MFi Lighting cable for Apple products. So when your non-Android friend forgets their charging cable, you’ll have their back.

Like many other modern chargers, it comes equipped with the built-in smart chip to deliver the safest current for your device. This lowers the risk of overheating, the potential of causing a fire and damage your device.

This 2-port charger’s outside is built with fire proof materials to ensure the highest standard of safety. It is also certified in many areas such as MFi, RoHS, CE, and FCC so you can rest assured it’s safe.

Summary

Inateck produces a reliable product that is gonna last and this product is no exception to the rule. This 2-Port charger with the lightning cable could be the life saver your friend needs. At $15.99 you can pick one up for yourself or even that friend.

Buy Inateck’s 2-Port Charger with Lightning cable

Gululu Water Bottle: Pricey, but fun (Review)

Keeping our kids healthy is one of the top priorities as parents. It has become increasingly harder to do so with all the fast food chains, numerous snacks, and drinks of all flavors. Getting them to drink water can be a task. Especially a 5-year-old who has just discovered the wonderous joys of sodas. But water is an essential part of life. Bowhead Technology has a Kickstarter that can change all that with its new Gululu Water Bottle.

Design

The Gululu water bottle is made of a durable rubber shell that withstands multiple drops, which is needed for kids. It comes in five different colors so they are sure to have something that will please your little ones.

The bottle can be taken apart into separate pieces. The main body is where all the sensors, screen, and the water is located. There are multiple sensors located throughout the bottle. The sensors and inclinometer on the inside are used to accurately measure how much water the child has consumed, while sensors on the outside allow the child to interact with the pet.

Also removable are the lid and the spout. The spout breaks down into two pieces that are easily replaced and is also BPA-free. The bottle is leakproof and waterproof, but it is not dishwasher safe, so make sure you hand wash it.

Charging is a breeze with is easy to use charging stand. Just plug the charging station in and sit the bottle on top and you’re good to go. It also links to WiFi for data transfer.

Setup

Setup takes no more than ten minutes with simple to follow instructions after downloading the app from the Play Store. Once you have created an account, you enter some information about your child and get a recommended water intake level.

Then comes the fun part for your child. They get to pick from three different cute companions that will accompany them on their healthy adventure.  Once that is done, it will walk you through the steps to of connecting to the WiFi.

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Once you have set the bottle up, you can then adjust your settings in the app for more or less water, school mode and bed time. These two modes simply shut the companion down for a desired amount of time so there are no interruptions.

Review

Gululu is a neat water bottle that combines drinking water, virtual pets, and gamification. Think Tamagotchi pets on a water bottle. It makes drinking water fun as they help their new companion grow.

The sensors on the side allow the child to interact in fun ways. The companion will do a few different tricks depending on how you touch the sides. It also has a built-in feature that allows to kids to shake their bottles together and their pets can visit each other and become friends.

The app is a simple and useful tool for parents. You don’t have to be any kind of techie to understand how to use it. Once the bottle is in WiFi, the data is uploaded and then open it up and monitor your kid’s habits.

What is there negative to say about this device? I mean it’s got it all. There has to be a downside right? Usually, all that would be followed by a no, but in this case, it’s not. This bottle has a future retail price of $129 before shipping and taxes.

I realize there is a lot of technology in this bottle and I understand. But it is hard to pay that kind of money for an item like this. If you go to the Kickstarter you can get one before that price kicks in for $89, which may still be pricey.

Summary

With a colorful array of bottles to choose from, there is no doubt this bottle is cool. Kids love it and it’s a wonderful aid in keeping kids healthy. I’m not sure what the long term future holds in pricing terms. But I feel they will have to come down in price at some point.

The Kickstarter has less than 20 days and is fully funded and expected to deliver anywhere starting in Septemer.

Pre-Order on Kickstarter