Edward Kiledjian

Portable battery backups are an incredibly useful category many users ignore. In the last 30 days, I have used one a couple of times and was thankful to have it every time. I used it while camping in the woods, while travelling to LA and when a day seemed to be neverending. 

Ultimately I test dozens of these portable battery backups everyday and this time around it's the Jackery Bar's time.

Physical

I was actually impressed at the weight and size of this device. It is fairly small and compact compared to many other similarly powered devices. The exterior shell is aluminium while the 2 end caps are made of strong plastic. 

I'm worried that long term, the aluminium will get dented and scratched. Time will tell.

The device is sleek save one button on the left side to turn the device on or to power the built in LED (more on that later).

The top has 3 charge level indicator lights.

The front has the 2 LED lights, a standard USB 2.0 out port (5V 2.1A) and a micro-USB to charge the device.

Some have complained that these 2 ports are too close but I didn't experience any issues with the setup. there was never a situation where I was charging the battery and a device at the same time.

Battery

The Jackery USA website seems to be confused about the battery capacity of the Jackery Bar. Let's assume it is 6000mAh.

The company goes to great lengths to communicate that it is using Grade A Samsung batteries. Which is a good thing.

I compared the charging speed of a completely dead iPhone 5s of charging it to 100% with the Jackery bar and the Apple branded 2.1A wall plug charger. They both charged the device at similar speed. This device was also able to charge a Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Note 3 a Nexus 7 and an iPad. 

Most phones use between 2 and 2.1 amps to charge (you can check the power output on the OEM provided wall plug). The only phone that is designed to charge faster is the OPPO Find 7 /7A which can charge at 4.5AMPs. This means that using this battery with that phone will charge it at half the speed of the OPPO wall charger (but that is an exception because the phone is unique) but it does charge.

Once my device was fully charged, the  battery seemed to switch itself off (which is a good thing).The device comes with a micro-USB cable to charge the battery (from a computer or wall plug) but you have to provide your device's USB cable.

I cooled the battery to just slightly above freezing and testing it's charging capacity. A room temperature Jackery Bar gives you about 3 charges. A near freezing Jackery Bar gives you just slightly more than 2 iphone 5s charges. You lose a bit with the cold temp but this is similar to other quality external batteries. 

The company claims their battery lock technology will keep the device charged for up to 6 months of storage. I tested it for 30 days and was able to get 3 charges out of it. 

You can recharge the battery using a wall plug and at the same time charge a device using the Jackery Bar but this isn't recommended as it will shorten the life of the lithium ion battery. so don't do it but it does work. 

To charge a device, you plug the USB cable into the battery and press the white button on the side. That's it. You can of course use your smartphone or tablet and charge it at the same time. This is a nice option when taking lots of pictures or using high drain functions like GPS navigation.

Flashlight function

I love flashlights and have all kinds from 70 lumen very small pocket sized ones and up. I tested this devices 2 LED flashlight function while camping in a pitch black forest (ideal environment to test a flashlight) and it is only usable to read something up close or to find your car's key hole. 

Other than the above, the flashlight is pretty useless.

Charging the Jackery Bar

Charging the Jackery Bar using a high quality 2.1 A wall plug took about 6 hours. Here is my biggest complaint: The Jackery Bar should have a fast charge wall plug adapter (ideally with prongs built in). 

Verdict

Ultimately I think the Jackery bar is a nice little battery that delivers on its promise of fast consistent charging. It is light durable and relatively affordable Buy from Amazon now at $29 (link). At $29, it definetly a good buy.

Headphones (or earphones) come in all shapes, sizes and budgets. You can use the cheap ones included with your smartphone or buy $1000 audiophile ones powered with a headphone amp. A question I hear often is "Can I get good sound from cheap headphones?"

Good is very subjective and means different things for different people but the simple answer is YES. A $20 pair of cans won't sound as good as a $1000 pair but more often than not, it will be good enough for most users (especially since the source is often a compressed MP3 played through a weak headphone amp in a smartphone or PC).

I am a semi-audiophile and love high quality headphones but to really appreciate them, you need lossless audio files, played on a device that support the lossless format (usually FLAC on Android and ALAC on Apple) and a high quality headphone amp between the two. Did I mention you need a fairly quiet room?

Assuming you will be listening on a street, train, plane or at the office, you will be served by a good pair of headphones that can be bought at a reasonable price. Nothing is more distressing than travelling with super expensive headphones and having them break because of all the hustle and bustle. 

The cheaper the headphone (or earphone) the more the sound will be compromised. Compromise here is a more restrictive sound-stage, less neutral reproduction, less clarity in the low/mid/high, etc. 

$20 earphones

I wrote about this buds almost a year ago so I recommend you go and read my review (link). You can buy them from Amazon (link) for $13 or from Monoprice for $8 (link). To say these headphones have a fanbase is not an exaggeration. They offer a more bass-heavy clean sound with decent mid-range.

They achieve better than normal sound for this price-range by using larger driver. These larger drivers make the device slightly larger and heavier than other. Some people love the fit, others complain. some people find them easy to wear for long periods of time, others find them slightly heavy.

Everyone agrees that they offer an incredible value. They perform better than many other headphones in the $50-70 range.

In the same price range, they offer another pair of decent headphones that offer a more balanced sound (less bass heavy) called the 9396. You can buy this on Monoprice for $8 (link) or on Amazon for $10 (link)

$20 headphones

If you prefer headphones, then let me recommend the Monoprice 8323 for this price range (aka the Premium Hi-Fi DJ Style Over-the-Ear Pro Headphone). You can buy them from Monoprice for $23 (link) or from Amazon for $33 (link).

Like the above Monoprice earphones, these headphones offer a fantastic value proposition. They are comfortable and offer decent sound at an unbeatable price. It is plastic and feels like plastic but at the same time it is remarkable durable. the pleather earpads worried me at first but that can easily be modded or is easy to forgive considering the price. 

Like the Sennheiser CX300 MK-II, this headphone provides a small bass boost but nothing overly aggressive. The Mid/High are decent but sometimes come through a little muddy (but are fairly crisp most of the time). 

These headphones work great plugged into your device but the performance is taken up a notch when you pair this with a headphone amplifier. 

Read related articles:

• Do I Need An Amplifier For My Headphones?

• A Fantastic $60 Headphone Amp

My second headphone pic in this range is the Sennheiser HD 202 II (buy it for $25 on Amazon link). The Sennheiser HD 202 II offers great value with clean sound (not bass heavy - more neutral), decent build quality and good noise isolation. 

My one complaint is that these seem to be weak when used with most smartphones. To really get decent performance, you need to power these with a headphone amp (the amp in most smartphones is too underpowered). 

I found these comfortable for the first 30-45 minutes of wear but then my ears started to get a bit sweaty. My other con is that the cord is too long. Otherwise this is an incredible value.

$30 range

I am a big fan of sennheiser headphones. They make some solid products with excellent performance. for for this price range, the Sennheiser CX 300 MK-II is a natural choice. The CX300 MK-II offers a little more bass (isn't completely neutral) without being too punchy. It offers a nice combination of rich bass and clear mids / highs.

I was really surprised at the larger than expected soundstage (for such a small in-ear device). These are light, well built and provide a decent amount of noise isolation. 

You can currently pick these up on Amazon for around $36 (link).

If you are willing to spend about $10 more, then you can upgrade to its bigger brother (about $45 on Amazon link). The CX 400 offers improved sound in a package the same size.

At the 2014 World Wide Developer conference, we learned that Apple plan's to release a slew of new integration feature between its desktop operating system (Yosemite) and IOS 8. 

Many of my  "normal" users (less technical) users asked for a simple summary so here goes:

• AirDrop - This is a file sharing feature that currently works mobile device to mobile device. Apple will open this feature up to its desktop platform making the exchange of files, photos and other digital assets as easy as drag and drop (as long as the devices are nearby on the same network).
• Continuity - Apple understands that sometimes your phone is just out of reach which causes you to miss important conversations so with Yosemite and IOS 8, you will be able to answer calls from your Mac as well as send and receive SMS' using your phone. The only requirement is that they be on the same WIFI network and be newer model devices with bluetooth 4.0.
• Handoff - Apple understands that users wants a seamless experience between its various device. Every Apple device you own will be aware of the work you are performing on the others and you will be able to quickly switch devices but continue working on the same file. As an example, you will be able to start creating a document on Apple Pages on your PC, then pick up you iPad and continue to working on it exactly where you left off without worrying about synchronization or copying of files. It will just work. Handoff will work with all Apple default applications (Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar and Contacts) but third party developers will also be able to add this feature to their apps.
• iMessage - A slew of improvement are coming to iMessage including jutting the alerts on iMessages per conversation, a tap to talk feature and the ability to share your location, simple way to see all the attachment in a conversation (instead of scrolling through an interminably long list), and the ability to auto-expire content so your devices storage doesn't quickly fill up with old attachments (voice, pictures, videos).
• Instant Hotspot - Many of the above features require a shared WIFI network between your phone and laptop but what happens where you are on the move or in a foreign environment? Your Mac will sense that that you are not connected to a WIFI hotspot and will automatically create a temporary one for your phone without requiring any intervention from you (all automatic).
• Maildrop - Most email systems have a hard cap of 12-20MB for attachments. Considering that most modern dSLR cameras create 15MB files, that cap is starting to create a real problem for users. Apple's new MailDrop feature will automatically transfer files up to 5GB per message using iCloud. If the recipient is on Apple tech then they will see everything as they do today (except they will be able to send and receive attachment of up to 5GB in email). Non Apple recipients will receive you email which will contain a URL to download the large attachment.

All in all I think Apple is making the right moves. Its environment is becoming increasingly powerful and is being simplified at the same time. Apple is trying to convince users that its products are better when used together (Mac, iPad and iPhone).

Most of us over the age of 30 have this false belief that the ideal laptop is powerful, with lots of ports and runs Windows. The reality is that most of what we do (except running powerful games) no longer requires that type of expensive machine.

The new generation of computer users want to watch online streaming movies (Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, etc), perform basic photo editing (you can use sites like PicMonkey.com), write basic documents (with Google Docs or Microsoft Office Online) and have a sleek light device with all day battery life and minimal maintenance. Enter the Google Chromebook. 

Chromebooks are Google's response to this new computing paradigm where most tasks are performed through a browser anyway.  Go to my previous article (link) that explains why ChromeOS (the operating system powering the Chromebooks) is a respectable choice. In summary it is a fast, low cost, no maintenance device.

I still like the Dell machine written in my article but it isn't always available so here is my new choice, : Acer C720P Chromebook.

Why the C720P?

The Acer C720P seems to provide the best combination of features, reliability and cheap price. It has a faster (than most) Intel processor which  makes a world of difference when opening multiple tabs or running process intensive web apps. 

It has a nice touch screen which is a cool feature for some touch optimized web apps.

It has a respectable keyboard and a fairly good trackpad. It comes with one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 port, which is great to add external peripherals. It has an SD Card slot to upload your photos to your cloud service of choice. It has a 32GB solid state drive which makes it shock resistant, power efficient and extremely fast (many other Chromebooks still use cheaper but slower mechanical hard drives). 

Like the Dell I had originally recommended, you buy a Chromebook for functionality not looks. This isn't an Apple-like product but what do you expect for $360. 

The other advantage of a Chromebook is the fact that you won't spend hundreds of dollars on additional software. Since this is built to leverage web based services, you won't be forking over money for Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, or other similar apps. 

The minute a ChromeOS update is available, it will automatically be downloaded and installed the next time you reboot. 

No antivirus, no disk defragmentation or any other device management activities. If your child manages to somehow "screw up" the Chromebook (which is really really hard), you activate a feature called PowerWash which brings the device back to its original shipped state. Since everything is in the cloud (Google gives you 100GB of Google Drive storage free for 2 years), you never have to worry about losing your information. 

Overall this is a great device for kids in elementary school or as a second device in a house.

Amazon seems to be the best place to pick one of these up in the USA (link)

There is something fun and exciting about road trips. They are a great way to discover wonderful places and people. So I wanted to share my top 3 iPhone (IOS) / Android apps every road-tripper should download now.

GasBuddy

Gas Buddy is a free app that helps you find the cheapest gas in your area (Canada and US). It is a great way to decide whether to fill up now, somewhere on your route or at your destination. It also has a handle alert feature that will notify you if it thinks gas prices in your area are heading up (fill up cheap while you can).

iExit

The manufacturer describes the app as

Obviously a great tool to have when travelling in the US. 

Google Maps

Google has become synonymous with the word maps and their latest Google Maps product is fantastic. It gives you maps for 220 countries and now even allows you to download routing maps to use while offline. 

If you are connected via 3G/LTE, you will get live traffic information (now with Waze traffic data integration), active rerouting, lane guidance, easy searching for local establishments (restaurants, bars, stores, etc).

Overall this has become my defacto mapping app and every smartphone should have it. If you own an Android device, it is already installed (just make sure you update it). For IOS:

Amazon has a 2 day promo giving away over $100 of free Android apps via its AppStore. The loot this time around is 30 apps ranging from games, utilities and more. 

Follow this special link to get it while it is available (link)

The Russian government has released a tender worth $US111,000 (4 million rubbles) to device and implement a technology to decrypt TOR traffic and to de-anonymize users. The Russian government says this will help their law enforcement efforts by catching criminals using TOR to hide their tracks.

You can read the official procurement notice from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs here (link). Contest is only open to Russian organizations (application fee is about $US5,500) and contest closes August 20.

It is unquestionable that many criminals use TOR to hide their online activities but it is also important to remember that many law abiding users also hide using TOR sych as activists, journalists and researchers.

It will truly be sad day when anonymity is lost in the name of protection. 

WordPress is an extremely popular blogging platform that makes extensibility easy through thousands of third-party plug-ins. Now one of those plug-ins, called MailPoet (link),  is causing issues for thousands of sites (some estimate the number to be between 50,000-100,000).

A MailPoet vulnerability has been discovered and exploited in the wild that allows attackers to inject malware, spam or defacement webpages into any site running the vulnerable plug-in without authenticating.

CEO of Sucuri, a security research firm, has seen a huge spike in sites being compromised by cybercriminals to install and deploy backdoors. (link)

This blog is a hobby and in my day job (as the Chief Information Security Officer of a major international company) I see all kinds of attacks and malware. A considerable amount of infections are caused by users who run files that subsequently infect your machine. Doing so is as foolish as having unprotected sex.

Before you run any file, make sure you scan it first. You should always scan files using the antivirus on your computer first but there are also 2 very good services that scan your file using over a dozen different scanners (since no one scanner detect every malware),

The two sites are:

• VirusTotal (link)
• Jotti's malware scanner (link)

Here is a simple walkthrough using Virus total

1 - Go to the site

2 - You click on Choose file and select the file you want scanned

Click Scan It

If the file has already been scanned by someone else (recently) it will show you a screen like this

Even if you see this, I recommend you click on Reanalyse. If it hasn't been scanned, it will go straight to the scan screen.

As it scans, you will see this message on the top of the screen. Just wait

Once the scan completes, you'll see something like this

In this case the site believes the file is harmless and I am much more comfortable running it.