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Around the time I agreed to review the Lastar Standing Lamp, my wife and I began to overhaul the kids’ play area. We decided to add a table to the room to allow for all the reading, coloring, and crafting that comes with young children.
At first, we used a desk lamp with a flexible neck to light the table but found the lighting inadequate. Since the desk lamp is on the table, part of the table was incredibly bright, while the rest of the table was left in darkness. Not really a great situation for kids wanting to be creative in the Winter months. Enter the Lastar Standing Lamp.
Design
Putting this lamp together is painless and intuitive. It works like many lamps of this style. The lamp comes in sections that you screw together. It took me longer to remove the protective plastic wrap than it took to set up the unit.
This lamp is not a decorative piece and largely blends into the area it is in. There is something nice about the utilitarian nature of the lamp, but a decorative piece this is not.
The head of the lamp is where the long, LED-filled (66 LEDs in total) light source is found. The LED lights have a white protective cover over them to protect your eyes and disperse the light.
The neck of the device is fully flexible and covered in soft rubber material. You can bend and twist the light in any direction you need. You can even point the light at the ceiling and enjoy creating hand puppets with the kids.
Below the neck is where you find your light and power options. These capacitive buttons are where you can adjust the color temperature, turn it on/off, and adjust the brightness level.
A Stable Base
Below the controls, is a pole that attaches to the base of the unit. The base of the unit is wide enough to keep this lamp stable, but not so wide that it makes placing it in tight spaces difficult. I have uneven hardwood floors and although I can make the lamp rock a bit, I have no concerns about it tipping. If you place it on a more even surface it will be as stable as a floor lamp can be. Just don’t expect it to withstand children tackling it.
The Lastar Standing Lamp feels durable and solid. Even if you do accidentally knock it down, you won’t have to worry about it shattering. At under five pounds, even your small children can safely pick this lamp back up.
Performance
This lamp has been absolutely perfect for the kids’ table. The power and light buttons stand above the table by a few inches, allowing for easy adjustment and powering on and off. The neck swings about a quarter of the way over the table and with this being a standing lamp, you gain back some of the space that a desk lamp takes up.
Lighting options
There are three different light modes and four brightness levels for each setting. With 12 different lighting options in total, you can always find the right color temperature and brightness level.
The light modes you get are:
A soft and warm light that operates in the 3000k-4000K color temperature range. This mode is great to use before bed, as it cuts out the blue light and gives you an orange glow.
A regular light mode that has a 5000K color temperature. This has been our default setting and has a nice incandescent bulb feel to it. It doesn’t have so much blue light that the light looks blue.
The third light mode is full of blue light to keep you awake and focused. This light mode has a color temperature of 6000K. It would work great for late-night study sessions or if you work from home to combat those early nights in the winter.
The regular light mode on the 2nd or 3rd brightness level has been our default light mode for the standing lamp. It is pleasing to the eye and puts out more than enough light. Between the white cover over the LEDs and the flexible neck, I have no worries about using it and protecting my kids’ eyes. We have the light on a slight angle and tilting away from them, to shield their eyes from looking directly at the light source.
Light Coverage and Use
I am happy to report that this lamp lights up the table significantly better than the desk lamp. The far edge of the table still has some darkness, but the light is far more evenly distributed and not concentrated on one spot.
We don’t use the soft and warm light mode much as it tends to cover the area in an orangey color. I can see the usefulness of this color temperature if you are worried about blue light keeping you awake at night. I personally don’t like when my light source changes the color of the surrounding area.
Final Verdict
The Lastar Standing Lamp has been a pleasure to use. The versatility of this lamp allows for it to be used anywhere in your home. It is not obtrusive and just kind of blends into the area it operates in.
With 12 total light options, you are sure to find one that works for you and your family. Making this a wonderful option for everyone in the house. At the brightest setting, this lamp only uses 12-watts, so it is energy efficient as well.
You can get the Lastar Lamp from their website or from Amazon for $39.99. As the go-to space for our children, we needed a lamp that was stable, pleasing to the eye and did its job well. We found that with the Lastar Standing Lamp.
WiFi in your home is an affordable and convenient method to connect to the internet. A drawback of using wireless signals in your home is that the further you are from the signal, the harder it is to maintain a stable connection and stable internet speeds. With interference coming from walls, microwaves, and countless other devices, there is a strong chance that the signal doesn’t cover your entire home. For only $64.99 you can fix that with a WiFi Booster Repeater Signal Amplifier.
At 18% off you are getting two WiFi repeaters to boost your signal and cover your entire home. A WiFi repeater connects to your original signal and then retransmits that signal, covering your home and getting rid of dead spots.
What you get
These WiFi repeaters are capable of extending your 802.11 b/g/n/a signal and delivering speeds up to 300mbps. These devices are capable of extending your WiFi signal an additional 2640 square feet.
In addition, you have two different connection options. You can connect these repeaters via Ethernet to your router, providing a fast and reliable signal. You can also connect to your existing wireless network and enhance the current signal.
Get rid of lag in your favorite games and video chats and speed up file transfers with these WiFi repeaters. For only $64.99 you get a pair of these repeaters so you can rid yourself of WiFi dead spots and speed up your connection with a Wifi Booster Repeater Signal Amplifier.
EDITOR NOTE: This is a promoted post and should not be considered an editorial endorsement. AndroidGuys received compensation for the aforementioned content.
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If you reside in a location where gambling, sports betting or betting over the internet or through an is illegal, please do not click on anything related to these activities within this post. You must be of proper legal age to click on any betting or gambling related items even if it is legal to do so in your country.
You can improve your poker skills and game in many ways. Playing casual or real money games at your favourite online casino can help you get a feel for the game and understand the structure. Once you understand the basics, many apps and websites analyse your games and help you make better decisions. Read on for reviews on a few of the best poker training apps available on Android devices.
SnapShove
As mentioned above, the structure of poker games and calculators can be very confusing, especially for beginners. SnapShove gets rid of all the clutter and only shows you the important stats from your games. The app also helps you make the right decision during a game and trains you on the best ways to react to certain plays.
You can get a free or paid version. The free version analyses six and nine-handed games and offers some training. SnapShove pro offers games for any number of players and access to all their training resources.
PokerGo
PokerGo is an online streaming service that shows almost every televised poker game all in one place. You can watch shows, tournaments, commentary, and even the World Series of Poker. Apart from watching games played by international champions, you can access hand histories and analyses on each game you watch.
ShareMyPair
ShareMyPair is a revolutionary app that allows players to share their hand histories, get analysis, and replay the hand easily. One of the biggest challenges with sharing hand histories is writing out the whole game to describe a hand accurately. This app allows you to convert this wall of text into a game that players worldwide can replay and analyse. This app aims to change how players share and analyse past hands and helps players get many differing opinions on how they could have done better.
PokerCruncher
PokerCruncher claims to be “The App Store’s Top Texas Hold ’em Odds/Equity Calculator”, and it seems there might be some truth to that. The app costs $12.99 to install, but it seems worth it. It’s more than a simple calculator app. PokerCruncher gives you information on key points of your game, such as flop texture analysis as well as calculations of your odds. The app is very well known, and even poker coaches and vloggers use and promote it.
Final thoughts
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to improve your poker skills is to use training apps and calculators like the ones we recommended in this article. Watching games and analysing hand histories are also extremely useful. Apps like those above give an in-depth analysis of your hand, your odds of winning, and other stats and analyses that help you make a good decision.
Once you’ve spent some time training and watching other poker games, you’re ready to try casual and real money games at a casino. These are very different from the training, and you might need to go back to analyse your games and why they turned out a certain way.
Paige and Glenn began the BillionDollarArtGallery out of necessity and it turned into a passion project for the couple. After setting up a television solely for the purpose of displaying images and photos, they eventually realized that they love art. So they started collecting paintings to display on their TV.
Going into this review, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the BillionDollarArtGallery. I am not an art aficionado, but on occasion, I do attend art museums. Knowing art is subjective, I entered this review period with an open mind.
Packaging and design
I was expecting to get the standard small box or bubble-wrapped packaging. To my pleasant surprise, I received a minimalistic and elegantly designed maple-etched box. The box is a light-colored wood, is soft to the touch, and feels durable. Maple was a great choice as it is light and cuts down on shipping costs.
Flipping the lid open reveals a chrome-plated USB stick. This USB stick has “BillionDollarArtGallery” laser-etched on the front. The stick itself sits in a snug-fitting foam.
When I went to pick the USB stick up, I was expecting to grab a standard plastic USB device. To my surprise, this stick was made of metal. The packaging itself is simply a work of art in its own right. I wish other companies put this much thought and care into their products.
Playing the Art
Being comfortable around technology, playing the USB stick on my aging Samsung TV was straightforward. Pop the USB stick into the port on the back and head to the media player.
Not everyone is that tech-savvy. If you head to the help section of their website, you can find a set of comprehensive instructions to get this device playing.
You get a breakdown of how to access the paintings on your TV, printable instructions for TV brands and their remotes, pictures of what a USB port looks like, and even a picture demonstrating the difference between a USB port and an HDMI port.
The help section even shows alternative devices that can accept the BillionDollarArtGallery USB stick. Alternative devices listed on the site are the Roku Ultra, the ABOX Android Media Player, a PC, and the Micca Speck.
Although this is a relatively simple product, you can tell how much care and thought has gone into making it. At this point, I was excited to see the Art.
Enter the Art Exhibit
The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
After my initial unboxing, I was excited to put this device to the test. Although you can see all the paintings on their website, I purposely avoided looking at them. I wanted my first experience viewing them to be on my TV.
I plugged the device into my TV, sat down, and got started. The collection is simply staggering. This little device carries 500 paintings that span 900 years and with a wide variety of styles, you have plenty to look at.
The BillionDollarArtGallery lists all the artists and their paintings on their site. This device has artists and paintings that are well known, like Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh’s works as well as artists and paintings you may have never seen.
As a quick side note, some of the paintings have been modified. Some older paintings have ragged edges or deteriorating frames. As a result, frames were cut and colors extended to fill in the edges, as well as water damage from faces having been removed. Glenn and Paige argue this is what the painter would have wanted, while others may argue it interferes with the experience.
The Art Experience
Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte
There are a few ways you can view the various paintings. You can select just one painting to view at a time or have it scroll through as a slideshow. While playing it as a slideshow, you can listen to original music by Alex Cap, a Hollywood composter. As you enjoy each painting, the name of the painting, the painter’s name, the year it was made and the art museum that has it at fades in and out at the bottom of the screen. This was a nice touch as it gives you the opportunity to enjoy the piece, while learning more about it.
As I made my way through the gallery, I thoroughly enjoyed some of the paintings. Some of the paintings that jumped out at me were The Sea of Ice by Casper David Friedrich, Westminster Sunset by Albert Goodwin, Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, and The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Some paintings left me feeling neutral, and I could take them or leave them.
Still-life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose by Francisco de Zubaran
Many of the paintings had me realize that I wouldn’t be displaying this freely in my home. As a father of two young children, some of the paintings are beyond what I am comfortable with them seeing. Many of the paintings feature some kind of nudity. I am all for the body is beautiful, but my kids aren’t there yet.
Other paintings depict death, suffering, or some other type of gruesome event. I fully understand both the cultural and historical importance of these paintings, but I don’t want them in my living room.
I did discover that by plugging the USB stick into my computer, I could remove any unwanted paintings. It’s just something that I wish I didn’t have to do. It was disheartening and a massive letdown to realize that I won’t be freely displaying this in my home.
Wrapping it all Up
The packaging, product support, and return policy are top-notch. What I loved most is that you can really tell how much thought and care went into this product. It is available from their website or Amazon for $39.99. If you have people in your life that enjoy art or frequent art galleries, this would make a great gift.
If you don’t have kids, are a huge art buff, or are more open with your children than I am, then you will absolutely love what the BillionDollarArtGallery offers. It, unfortunately, just isn’t right for me at this point in my life. You can check out the gallery on their site to determine if this is right for your home.
Programming and computer science are incredibly important skills to have. You are never too young to learn the foundational skills of coding. Using CodeSpark Academy, you can teach your kids the basics of computer science through puzzles, games, story creation, and more.
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Withings designed its Body+ Composition Scale to be intuitive and easy to use. This scale is focused on helping you reach your fitness goals and is designed to give you a broad overview of your health. In addition to weight, this scale tracks BMI, total body fat, water percentage, muscle mass, and bone mass.
When you stand on the scale it syncs all your data to the Health Mate app. It does this through Wi-Fi, so no need for cables or Bluetooth pairing. The Health Mate app contains a history of the metrics that the scale has recorded.
Design and Battery life
The Body+ scale is a square glass slab that has a sleek and minimalist approach. The scale isn’t trying to be the focal point of the room, but it is well designed and pleasing to the eye.
This device measures 0.9 inches tall, 12.9 inches long, 12.9 inches wide, and weighs 4.41 pounds. The 2.9 inch LCD display is clear and easy to read. It supports weight measurements in pounds, kilograms, and stones. It has a maximum user weight capacity of 396.8 pounds.
Generally, scales are most accurate when used on a hard surface such as on tile or wood floors. This scale does include “carpet feet”, which are caps that go on the regular feet and are designed to be used on the carpet. I used the device on a hardwood surface for most of my testing. I don’t have any real carpets in my home, but did test the scale on a bath mat and the results were within my normal range. Just keep in mind, depending on the size and type of your carpet, your results may vary.
The scale is powered by four AAA batteries. It has an auto-shutoff feature and Withings claims up to 18 months of usage from those 4 batteries.
Setup
Upon powering the Body+ scale for the first time, I was instructed to download Withings Health Mate app. From there you create an account and sync with the scale.
During setup, you can choose what metrics you wish to track. I chose to track everything, which includes, weight, body fat, muscle mass, body water, and bone mass. You then input your age and height. If you have a specific weight goal, you can input that in during setup in addition to how many pounds you would like to lose a week.
Overall, the setup process was efficient and easy, without any hiccups.
Price and Performance
The scale typically goes for $100, but you can often find it for less. At the time of writing, both Amazon and Best Buy had it on sale for $78.
Typically scales just measure weight, but this is a smart scale, designed to give you a clearer view of your overall health.
Using bioelectrical impedance analysis, the scale sends a safe and undetectable electrical signal to measure your full body composition. It works by detecting how long it takes the signal to travel through your body. The signal moves faster through muscle and slower through fat. It only takes a few seconds for this signal to travel and for your results to start showing on the screen.
The Data
When you stand on the Withings Body+ Composition Scale, you are immediately given your weight. It then shows you a graph to show the recent history of your weight. It’s a great way to quickly show if you are gaining or losing weight directly from the scale.
You then get the local weather displayed on your screen. I don’t really need the weather to be displayed when standing on a scale, but I came to the conclusion this “feature” was added to give the user something to look at while the electrical signal travels through your body.
After the weather, the scale will cycle through the metrics you chose to track. It will give you your results on top, with a bar underneath to show healthy ranges for each metric.
I found the results to be very accurate and the results did not deviate more than a fraction when I would re-check the data by getting off and standing back on the scale.
Syncing Users
The scale supports up to eight users and automatically detects who is standing on the scale. If you have a baby in the house, you will be pleased to know that this scale can easily track the baby’s weight as well. All you have to do is hold the baby and stand on the scale. It will then give you the results of the baby’s weight. As my children are not babies anymore, I couldn’t test the feature, but absolutely love that Withings incorporated it.
The Body+ scale will automatically sync your information over Wi-Fi. Your device doesn’t need to be near you when you stand on the scale. When you check your results later, they will be there waiting for you.
The scale does support Bluetooth Sync as well, but it isn’t nearly as convenient as Wi-Fi Sync and I didn’t test it for this review.
Health Mate app
The Health Mate app is simple to use and easy to find the information that you are looking for. The app goes beyond just showing you the results from the scale. It is an all-encompassing health app, allowing you to track your daily steps and activity level.
Tabs of Data
On the app’s home page, you are quickly given your current step total, current weight (with a graph of recent weigh-ins) exercise, fitness level, and recent health trends.
The dashboard tab gives you a quick look at all your health metrics. You get your fitness level, steps, workouts for the week, BMI, body water, bone mass, fat mass, height, muscle mass, and weight. If connected to other devices, it will even show your average heart rate and blood pressure. You can track your food intake here as well.
The devices tab shows all of your current Withings devices and their remaining battery life. This includes scales, watches, trackers, blood pressure monitors, sleep sensors, and the Aura (Withings’ wake-up light). This tab allows you to quickly sync a device by tapping install device and selecting whatever Withings device you are trying to use.
The profile tab allows you to share a PDF Health Report. It also shows your current achievements, how many times you have weighed yourself, the total number of steps you have taken since using Health Mate, your best step day, reminders, and connected apps.
Diving Further into the Data
Although all of your information is given to you in an easy-to-read format on the various tabs, things get a little more difficult to read when diving further into the metrics.
For example, clicking on the weight box brings you to a graph with your weight history. Up top, you have a weight tab, body composition tab, and BMI tab. Then a line graph is broken up into weeks, months, or years.
Looking quickly, you can see your overall trend on the graph. It gets a bit tougher to digest when trying to take granular control to see your past history. You can tap anywhere on the graph to see the results, but I found it doesn’t offer a great way to view your data.
At the top is an icon that looks like a list. If you click that it gives you a broken-down list of all your weigh-ins. This was easier for me to digest and see my progress.
I understand why Withings made the choice to show the graph first, as it is easy to see your trending data. It just feels a bit more difficult to drill into the data than the rest of the app.
When someone stands on the scale who doesn’t have an active profile, you are given the option to view the unknown measurements to see if any were yours or to dismiss them.
Connected Apps
You can use the Health Mate app to connect to over 100 different apps. You can choose to import or export data to and from the Health Mate app to match your needs.
Some popular apps that you can connect to are:
Google Fit
Samsung Health
Fitbit
Garmin
Apple Health
MyFitnessPal
Weight Watchers
RunKeeper
Nike Run Club
MapMyRun
Strava
I typically use the Samsung Health app to track all of my steps and my exercise routine. I chose to export the scale metrics to Samsung Health and I am happy to report it worked flawlessly. Within seconds of standing on the scale, the Samsung app was displaying all of my body composition metrics.
Unforuntanetly, syncing from the Samsung Health app to the Health Mate app didn’t work as well. My step count and recent exercise information were completely off. At times I had double the steps in the Health Mate app when compared to the Samsung Health app. When tracking running information, the Health Mate app would show my running times to be twice as fast.
This wasn’t an issue for my wife when syncing to Apple Health, so this may be a Samsung-specific issue, but one that needs to be pointed out. For what I use it for, exporting the data was fantastic.
Conclusion
The Withings Body+ Composition Scale was an absolute joy to use. I didn’t realize how important it was to track my body composition in addition to my weight. By doing so I have a much clearer picture of my overall health.
At $100, it isn’t the cheapest smart scale, but it isn’t the most expensive either. In fact, for the included features and great performance, this may very well be the best bang for your buck smart scale on the market.
I have no concerns regarding the durability of this device and plan on using it for a long time to come. With a renewed interest in my health, I am happy to have the ability to see more of the metrics that matter to me.
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Leaks of the Samsung Galaxy S22 series have been popping up over the last few months. As the launch of the Galaxy S22 nears, official renders and confirmed specs are starting to surface. Today it’s the mid-tier Galaxy S22+’s turn to smile for the camera.
Tipster Ishan Agarwal (via 91mobiles) took to Twitter to share the latest Galaxy information.
On the back of the is a triple rear camera that will reportedly use Adaptive Pixel technology. This technology will combine the images from the 108MP camera and the 12MP camera to create a 12-bit photo. This technology seems to be making its way into the standard S22 device as well.
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ will have up to 1,750 nits peak brightness as well as an adaptive refresh rate. The S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra will weigh in at 167 grams, 195 grams, and 228 grams respectively. The S22+ will have a 4,500mAh battery that is capable of 45W fast charging through its USB Type-C charging port.
Going against recent rumors, Ishan Agarwal believes the Samsung Galaxy S22+ will launch in the UK with the Exynos 2200 processor.
The latest edition to the Galaxy line should be officially announced within the next few months. As the announcement nears, I am getting excited to hear about its latest offering. The new Adaptive Pixel technology sounds intriguing and if the rumors are correct, this will be a solid device.
