I’ve bricked a pair of cheap true wireless earbuds more times than I care to admit — usually by interrupting a firmware update or experimenting with unofficial mods. A lot of the “dead” buds can be resurrected with the right tools and a bit of patience. In this guide I’ll walk you through...
Read more...
Reviews
I’ve spent rainy afternoons hanging a bunch of battery‑powered smart locks...
Reviews
I get asked all the time which tiny USB‑C wall chargers really give you full...
How-Tos
I keep a small travel kit in my backpack: a compact battery, a cheap Android...
Reviews
Minimalist bedside setups are all about clean lines, small footprints, and...
I keep a small travel kit in my backpack: a compact battery, a cheap Android phone that’s no longer my daily driver, and a few cables. Over the years I’ve turned that setup into a stealthy, travel-ready hotspot that gives me private DNS...
Minimalist bedside setups are all about clean lines, small footprints, and removing visual clutter — but there’s one device I refuse to let become an afterthought: the smoke detector. The challenge is obvious: traditional smoke alarms are bulky,...
I spend a lot of time testing pocket-sized storage because, for many photographers, a small external SSD is the easiest way to get off a memory card and keep shooting. If you’re carrying minimal gear and tight on budget, you don’t want a huge,...
I spent a recent long-haul flight testing a Belkin Boost Charge power bank to answer a practical question I get asked all the time: can it keep an iPad and a phone topped up during a long flight? I ran a hands-on test on a 7-hour flight, tracking...
I spend a lot of time testing small chargers and power banks for travel, and one question keeps coming up: what compact USB‑C charger will actually keep a Nintendo Switch Lite and an iPhone topped up for long train trips without taking up half...
I ran a real-world test to answer a question I see a lot: which pocketable 10,000 mAh power bank can actually take an iPhone 14 from 5% to 80% while also keeping a Bluetooth headset topped up? No bench-theory here — just me, a handful of compact...
I often get asked how to let friends, family or short-term guests use parts of my smart home without handing over access to everything — cameras, door locks, voice histories and automations. I’ve been testing compact smart devices and juggling...
Why I put the Soundcore Liberty buds through a sweat testI’m always skeptical when earbud marketing promises “sport-ready” performance. Specs only tell part of the story — fit, durability, and real-world sound under strain matter more to me...
I wanted a home that notices me without shouting about it. That meant no beeping sensors, no blinking LEDs, and—critically—no constant battery drain from noisy network chatter. After several iterations with different coin-cell Zigbee motion...
If you're juggling short naps between shifts or trying to sleep in strange slots because of night work, you know that not all wearables are built for that life. I’ve spent time testing several budget-friendly trackers and smartwatches under £150...