Breaking

Showing posts with label Gadgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gadgets. Show all posts

Monday, July 9, 2018

7/09/2018 07:19:00 PM

Is the Anchor Cable the best smartphone charging cable currently available?

The Anchor Cable is a versatile, rugged cable that can be used to charge your iPhone, Android devices, Kindle tablets, USB-C MacBook, and much more.


One of the drawbacks of owning a plethora of portable devices is that brings with it the need to carry a multitude of cables. The Anchor Cable is one cable that tries to rule them all.

Anchor Cable is the world's first stainless steel, magnetic, cross-device charging cable featuring Apple Lightning, micro USB, and USB-C tips, and comes with a lifetime warranty.

The Anchor Cable does this by having swappable tips for the three connector types, with the tips being held in place during use with a strong neodymium magnet. Swapping ends is as easy as popping one off and attaching the required one, and the magnet means that there's no chance of connecting it the wrong way.

The Anchor Cable is 4 foot long (1.2 meters for you metric types), and its entire length is wrapped in a strong stainless steel casing, giving it strength, durability, and tangle-resistance. However, rather oddly, the outer stainless steel armor still feels soft to the touch and flexible in use.

In use, the Anchor Cable works well. It's nice only needing to carry around a single cable (as long as you have the tips you need - more on this later), and I've not come across any compatibility issues when using it to charge a broad range of devices.

Are there any downsides? I have encountered a few.

First, there's the length. It's nice having a 4-foot long cable, but sometimes it feels a little too long. It's a minor gripe, but personally, I'm used to 3-foot and 6-foot lengths.

A couple of the downsides relate to the tips themselves. First, the tips are small, and small things, especially when they enter my personal Temple of Chaos, have a habit of vanishing without a trace. I've not lost any of them - yet - but some method of storing them safely would be useful.


Another issue I've found is that it's possible for the cable to detach from the tip during charging, and yet stay in place enough to still look like it's charging. Unless the cable and the tip are perfectly aligned, and the weight of the cable and the device are well supported, this is a problem you can run into.

Oh, and you also need pretty decent fingernails to pull the tips out of the device you've used them in. You can't remove them by pulling on the cable.

Again, a minor one, but something to be aware of.

The Anchor Cable is priced singly at $38/£29 and is available from AnchorCable.com.



Monday, April 30, 2018

4/30/2018 04:16:00 PM

LG launches portable instant camera-printer hybrid

LG's Photo Pocket Snap is a hybrid of instant camera and portable printer that will allow users to print photos immediately after they take them.



LG Electronics has begun sales of Pocket Photo Snap, its instant camera, and portable printer hybrid, in South Korea.

The PC389 will allow consumers to take photos with its 5 million pixel camera and print out a copy of the photo on the spot.

The reprint button will also allow them to print out multiple copies to share with friends, unlike a conventional instant camera, LG said.

It is charged via USB Type-C and can print 30 photos at top charge. In Korea, it costs 249,000 won ($233) while the printing paper costs 25,000 won ($23) per 36 units.

Pressing the shutter button for 5 seconds will convert it to black and white mode.

The printer can also be connected to smartphone and tablets through Bluetooth to print out photos from other devices. It supports both Android and iOS.

Users can also download a photo editor app for Pocket Photo Snap to edit photos taken by the portable camera before printing them.

LG is preparing to launch its first flagship phone this year, the G7 ThinQ, this week.

Last week, LG Electronics posted sales of 15.12 trillion won ($14.1 billion) and operating profit of 1.1 trillion won ($1.03 billion) for Q1 2018.

The company's mobile division, however, saw an operating loss of 136.1 billion won. Mobile brought in sales of 2.16 trillion won, down from 2.99 trillion won in Q1 2017.