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How to send View Once photos or videos in WhatsApp

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WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps on the planet, largely because of its rich set of features. However, up until now, a particularly interesting one has been missing from the experience.ย  That is, of course, the ability to send self-destructing photos and videos to other users.

On August 3, 2021, WhatsApp announced on its blog that it was rolling out a new View Once feature that lets users send photos and videos that disappear after being opened.

The much-desired feature is a cool one, and it doesn’t take too much effort to send self-destructing messages to others using WhatsApp.

If you’re wondering how to send one of these then just follow the steps below.

  1. Select the contact you’d like to send a View Once message to
  2. Tap on the paperclip or camera icon to send a photo or video.
  3. After taking or selecting an image or video to send, tap on the “1” icon in the caption field and then press the send button like you normally would.

Unlike the traditional way of sending an image using WhatsApp, a “View Once” image or video will only show an icon instead of a preview.

After you’ve viewed a self-destructing WhatsApp image it will be marked opened, and you can leave it on your screen for as long as you want before returning back to the chat. However, once you do return, you won’t be able to open it again.

As WhatsApp warns, it is still possible for someone to take a screenshot of your picture. After testing it out, I’ve noticed there is no notification that goes back to the sender when someone does take a screenshot of a self-destructing WhatsApp message. So, even though the image or video can only be seen once, you will still need to be cautious about what you’re sending.

If the photo or video is very sensitive in nature, you may want to opt for using a different app. Snapchat, for instance, has ways of notifying you when someone takes a screenshot or a message you sent.

Either way, rest assured knowing that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that no one will be able to see what you’ve sent except for the intended recipient.

Hip Hook review

Every so often we get the chance to review products that fall outside of our standard scope of coverage. And while we’d love to cover everything that is offered up, we cannot keep up with the demand. With that said, we’ll occasionally check out something that seems a little “off the grid” just for a change of pace. Such is the case today with our review of the Hip Hook from Aletha.

Designed by a physical therapist, the Hip Hook is one of those products that speaks to the self-help type of user. That is to say if you experience knee pain, back pain, or hip pain, you may want to put it on your radar.

Given that we spend upwards of seven hours (or more) at a desk each day, we could all do better to take care of our bodies. And based on some of the potential remedies from using the Hip Hook, we felt a lot of readers might be interested in learning about it.

Upon taking the Hip Hook out of the box it can be a little confusing as to how one might use it. The unit is unlike anything else you might have in your home gym. Fortunately, there’s a decent bit of documentation included to help get you started. Moreover, there are some helpful videos to show how to use it and how it can be of value.


My wife is a licensed massage therapist and yoga instructor so she knows plenty about stretching and muscles. Furthermore, she understands how truly inter-connected the body can be. I gave her the hip hook to use on herself and consider for her clients. She and I both came to a similar conclusion as to how the Hip Hook is positioned.

Specifically, we feel the Hip Hook is a great tool to have on hand for therapists and sports professionals. It’s a little daunting and confusing for the average person, especially if you’re not accustomed to stretching and pre/post workout activities. Simply putting it on the floor or pressing up against it on the wall could be painful and awkward. Knowing how much pressure to apply, and where to apply it, is something that’s learned over time.

Should you have someone who fully understand where muscles and ligaments are, where they go, and how they’re connected, you might ask them for assistance. That’s where we see the Hip Hook working best – as part of a well-rounded kit for therapy.

Don’t get us wrong, this isn’t solely designed for people with advanced flexibility or active lifestyles. Work at a desk for hours on end? Find yourself with random pains in your knees, hips, or back? Chances are good that you can remedy some of that yourself with just a few minutes of the right pressure and release.

Parting Thoughts

The Hip Hook normally retails for $150 (or more) which might price itself out of consideration for a casual person or someone new to self-help and self-care. But a marathon runner, long-term yoga student, or someone who contends with chronic pain will likely consider it a valuable investment. And really, it’s priced in line with one or two sessions with a professional.

As far as build quality goes, we had zero issue with the way in which the Hip Hook is designed. Stronger than a simple plastic, it withstands considerable pressure without feeling as if you’re close to breaking it. Once familiar with it, the angles feel right and the curves and ends make sense.

Where to Buy

Learn more about the Hip Hook at Aletha’s website where you can also purchase one. According to the manufacturer there are no other official outlets that offer the product.

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How to add Google’s weather frog to your smart display

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I’ve been an avid fan of Google Assistant smart displays over the past few years, dating all the way back to the JBL Link View. Since that time, I’ve been treated to a rotating home screen gallery of images that changes every few minutes and can be pulled from a variety of sources.

Depending on how long you’ve owned a smart display, or your personalized settings, the default pool of images can seems small. Over time it can become rather boring to see the same photos pop up again and again.

Google recently added a new “Experimental” feature in the settings on the Nest Hub. I happened across it as I was recently digging through the Google Home app. Once enabled, I realized it was the best decision I would make all week. I am talking, of course, about enabling the Google Weather Frog and setting him as the default background or home screen.

If you’ve ever searched “weather” before in the Google app on your phone, you’re probably already familiar with this little fella. Enabling this setting on your smart display puts him front and center in your home or office. Once he’s set up, you can watch him come to life and carry out his daily activities.

After enabling the weather frog, I had a blast checking my smart display throughout the day to see what he was up to. Sometimes I’d see him on a picnic, while other times he’d be reading a book or using a telescope to check the stars at night.

As your day progresses, so does his, with your time of day and current weather conditions reflected in the scene. On days when it was cloudy outside for me, it was also cloudy for him. Likewise, when the forecast called for rain, it was also raining in his world.

Working from home can feel a little lonesome sometimes, but with this little guy on my screen, I feel like I have a companion throughout my day. It’s not unlike having a virtual pet or a fish tank.

If you would like to enable the Google Weather Frog on your smart display, it’s a pretty simple process. Follow the steps below and you’ll soon be on your way to observing his daily adventures.

How to enable the Google Weather Frog

  1. Open the Google Home app on your phone.
  2. Browse for your smart display in the list of devices and select it.
  3. Tap on the settings cog.
  4. Choose Photo Frame from the list.
  5. Open up the Experimental menu and toggle on Google Weather Frog.

Enjoy your new froggy friend and join him for all of his daily exploits!

Govee Aura Smart Lamp review

Years ago I bought a smart table lamp and found it amusing that I could control it using my phone’s Bluetooth connection. And while the lamp wasn’t as bright as I would have liked, I made do with it.

As my smart home grew to include Google Assistant, I was disappointed that I couldn’t better integrate the lamp with my other lights.

I’ve wanted to replace it for a while now with something that would work better with my smart home and integrate with Assistant. Thankfully, Govee have what looks to be the perfect replacement with its new Aura Smart Table Lamp. We were provided a sample for review from our friends at the company and have a this review to share.

Design

The Govee Aura Smart Table Lamp uses a compact circular design coming in at 7.9 inches tall and 4.1 inches wide. There is a rubberized base to keep it from sliding around and on top are five buttons to control it.

Furthermore, the power cable is around 8ft. long which should give you more freedom when finding a placement. A complaint I had with my last smart lamp was the cable barely stretched from the outlet to where I wanted to place it. I was pleasantly surprised the Aura Smart Table Lamp had some slack left after positioning it.

User experience

The Govee Aura Smart Table Lamp features controls on the top to power it on/off, switch different lighting modes, and change the intensity of the light. While it’s great to have an easy tactile way to manage the lamp, you’ll most likely use the app because of all the options Govee includes, or a voice assistant such as Alexa or Google Assistant to control it.

Beyond powering it on and off with your voice, the Aura Smart Table Lamp also supports changing the color and brightness. The only things I couldn’t seem to control with Google Assistant were changing the scene modes making it react to music.

For those options you’ll have to open up the app. Before diving deeper let me just say, I was blown away by what Govee offers up.

App

The Govee app is the singular most valuable thing about the Aura Smart Table Lamp. Without the app, the lamp would be little more than a simple light that displays different colors.

However, with the Govee app, the Aura turns into a lava lamp on steroids. Sure, the app does all the normal things you’d expect such as turning the light on/off or changing the brightness and color, but that’s only scratching the surface.

When you open the “Scenes” section of the app, the Aura Smart Table Lamp comes to life. There are a ton of different presets divided up by categories to choose from, and while a few simply show a pretty gradient, some are full motion. It’s impossible to do these justice in photos, especially the scenes that include motion.

A couple of my favorites were “Snow flake” and “Cherry Blossom Festival,” which imitate snow or flower petals falling down. The “Fish tank” and “Ocean” scenes were also very cool and I had a blast going through all of the scenes while showing them off to my friends.

On top of using the preset scenes, the Govee app also allows you to create your own custom scenes with different colors and movement. This is ideal for getting festive around the holidays.

Now, if you’re not into all the fancy scenes and want just a simple lamp, then the Aura is perfectly suited for that as well. You can even control which shade of white you’d like to use, such as a cooler whiter tone during the day and a deeper amber color for later in the evening.

Speaking of, the Govee app also features a sleep timer, wake-up light, and a way to schedule the lamp to turn on or off based on your needs.

Brightness

Of course, we can’t leave out one of the most important functions in a lamp review. The Govee Aura Smart Table Lamp is rated for 350 lumens, and what that means in the real world, is that it gets quite bright.

With the Aura lamp set at maximum brightness, I was able to light up a small bedroom with ease. My previous lamp barely got bright enough to read next to, making the Aura a big improvement.

Now, don’t expect it to compare to a floor-standing lamp or ceiling-mounted fixture, but it should be enough to view your surroundings in the evenings or to do some reading.

Final thoughts

When I first started browsing I was only hoping to get a nice looking lamp that I could turn on or off using Google Assistant. With the Govee Aura Smart Table Lamp–I got way more than that–and between all the different modes, scenes, and customizations I can see why it retails for $60.

The Aura is much more than just a lamp, paired with the Govee app it becomes a customizable light show of colors dancing in your home. You can pick up the Aura Smart Table Lamp right now from the Govee website for $55 or on Amazon for $48 after applying the 20% off coupon.

Buy from Amazon Buy from Govee

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Bowers & Wilkins PI7 True Wireless ANC Earbuds review

Bowers & Wilkins is a premium audio brand renowned for high-quality sound and style, so when they entered the true wireless earbud market with the PI7, my interest was piqued. Thankfully, the brand sent us out a pair for review, and now I can share my impressions after living with them for the past few weeks.

Design

Due to the minuscule size of true wireless buds, there isn’t much you can do with this form factor. Regardless, Bowers & Wilkins has come up with a design that is uniquely its own.

The two-tone buds come in white or charcoal and look great whether they are in the case or out of it. When it comes to controlling the PI7, B&W has incorporated touch-sensitive buttons which are easy to use without accidentally triggering them.

The charging case is a little large when compared to the recent competition, but it’s still pretty compact and lightweight. Basically, you won’t have any trouble fitting these into your pocket and they won’t weigh you down.

Comfort

The B&W PI7 comes with a set of three silicone tips and for what they cost, I wish they also included Comply foam tips like other luxury earbuds. As I’ve noted in previous reviews, I have smaller than average ear canals. I was still able to find a comfortable fit with the included tips, although, I wouldn’t have complained had they included some smaller ear tips.

That would have made it easier for me to wear them for hours on end. Instead, I experienced feeling some ear fatigue after about an hour or so of listening.

User experience

Controlling music playback with the PI7 was easy thanks to the touch-sensitive controls. With a series of taps you can play, pause, or skip forwards or backward when listening to music. Long-pressing the touch-sensitive buttons will also activate a voice assistant or enable active noise cancellation.

Another way the PI7 makes controlling your music easy is with a sensor that pauses playback when you remove a bud from your ear and resumes once you place it back in.

These are not Google Assistant-enabled headphones, meaning you won’t be able to hear the response from Assistant or your notifications.

Despite the controls working well, I found transparency mode was missing. This is one of the most valuable features of many newer headphones that allows you to have a quick conversation without removing the buds from your ears.

Many other brands include a way to activate this from the headphones themselves, but not so with the PI7. Instead, the manual directs you to use the app when you need transparency mode. It may seem like a minor complaint, but it does become very tedious when you just want to have a quick word with someone.

Media Streaming

One last feature the B&W PI7 boasts is the ability for the case to act as a Bluetooth transmitter. This is one of the most unique features I’ve ever come across on a pair of true wireless earbuds, and it allows you to add a Bluetooth connection to analog devices.

For this, I reached for the closest device I had on hand without Bluetooth, which in this case, is the Nintendo Switch. Getting the Bluetooth retransmission to function was a frustrating half-hour, but somehow I finally got the buds to connect.

I tried following the manual’s instructions without success and eventually, in between unplugging and plugging cables back in and double-clicking the button on the case, it finally made a connection. Once I got this working though, the PI7 buds did a great job of connecting between my phone and the case when I had it plugged in.

In the end, I don’t have a lot of use for this feature, and even though it was frustrating to set up, I was really impressed and thought it was a cool trick that sets the PI7 apart from other buds on the market.

App

This brings us to the B&W app, and, unfortunately, I found it lacking in comparison to its competitors such as Sony. First off, there is no equalizer and that’s something I’ve come to expect at this price point. Regardless of how good a pair of headphones sounds, I always like tweaking it to my personal taste and I was unable to do that with the PI7.

Furthermore, there was no way to customize the touch-sensitive buttons. It would have been great to replace the voice assistant shortcut with transparency mode, seeing how I’d definitely use that more considering you can’t get spoken replies from Google Assistant on these buds.

Besides these complaints, the app worked fine. It was great to be able to see the battery level of the buds as well as the case on the main page. It also allows you to turn ANC to auto or disable it entirely, and of course, it’s the only way to enable transparency mode.

Sound quality

Audio quality is one area where the PI7 excels as it uses the aptX codec for 24-bit streaming from your device with dual hybrid drivers with individual amplifiers. All of this added up to audio that sounded extremely clear with a crisp sound signature including a punch of bass.

While listening to music I was constantly impressed by the clarity of the tracks and how wonderfully balanced the sound was. The PI7 buds were able to make every song sound clear while still providing a nice thump in the low end. However, if you’re a bass head the PI7 will disappoint — and that’s where a custom equalizer would have really helped in the app.

ANC

Active noise cancellation on the PI7 wasn’t the best I’ve heard, but it was still quite impressive. While it doesn’t quite match some of the most popular ANC earbuds, the PI7 were able to block out the vast majority of repetitive noise while still retaining high-quality sound.

Microphone

The Bowers & Wilkins PI7 uses a series of six microphones for stellar call quality. The sound of my voice was so clear and natural that people I spoke with on the phone were shocked I was using a pair of Bluetooth buds. The PI7 might just have the best set of mics on any pair of wireless headphones that I’ve used.

Additionally, while you’re on a call the PI7 will enable transparency mode allowing you to hear yourself so you’ll know what you sound like and also won’t get too loud.

Battery life

Bowers & Wilkins rates the PI7 for four hours of continuous listening time with up to an additional 22.5 hours when used with the charging case. I only ever used the PI7 for around two hours at a time and I found that the PI7 had no issue living up to its claims, and the case easily kept me charged up for a couple of weeks at a time.

Although, with the competition offering better battery life at a more affordable price, I could see this affecting your decision when deciding which buds to pick up.

Final thoughts

Bowers & Wilkins delivers on sound quality with the PI7 but comes up short with the app, smart features, and battery life. That might be more acceptable if they didn’t retail for $400 and/or if Sony’s fantastic WF-1000XM4 earbuds didn’t exist at a more affordable price.

However, if you’re a huge B&W fan, and don’t care about the missing smart features, then you’ll be perfectly happy with the sound quality, even though your wallet might not be with the price.

Buy from Amazon Buy from Bowers & Wilkins

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Nest introduces new Google Nest-branded security products

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Nest on Thursday announced it has four new Google Nest-branded products for consumers. Priced as low as $100, the devices will be offered in an assortment of indoor and outdoor options as well as wired and battery-powered.

The new units include an indoor-only camera, an indoor/outdoor camera, a video doorbell, and a floodlight. Moreover, they essentially replace older Nest IQ cameras and the Nest Hello doorbell.

If you own, or have seen, any of the recent Nest products over the last few years, the designs will be familiar. Nest has been intentional in its choices, opting for muted colors and soft edges. That is to say they work with any environment or setting and blend in instead of calling attention to themselves. Indeed, the IP54 rating means that they’ll be alright in rain and the anti-theft mount ensures they don’t walk away.

Google Nest Cam (Battery)

Rather than send you notifications for every little activity (snow falling, leaves blowing), the cameras and app let you know about the more important things, like when a package was delivered.

Given these are Google products at their core, they get smarter with each generation. Such is the case here as on-device machine learning can help to detect people, vehicles, animals, and packages, offering notifications without relying on cloud services.

Google Nest Cam (Wired)

The Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) in the new line lets the cameras process twice as many pixels at twice the frame rate when compared to previous models. And instead of focusing on 4K images or resolution, these cameras work harder on HDR and overall quality. This is not too unlike what we expect in the Google Pixel 6 phones as they’ll also feature a Tensor processor.

The new cameras include three hours of event history and local storage for up to an hour of events in the case that Wi-Fi goes down at home or the office. Nest indicates that this would equate to roughly one week’s worth of coming and going events. Once Wi-Fi is reestablished, things are automatically synced to the cloud.

Google Nest Camera Line At-a-Glance

These new devices are now fully integrated into the Google Home app and work with the current generation of Nest smart displays. In other words, you can stay within the same app for managing your Google Assistant tasks, routines, and settings as well as viewing the new Nest cameras.

A Nest Aware subscription, offered in two paid tiers, unlocks more potential, including extending your event video history from three hours to 30 or 60 days. Also included is Familiar Face, a facial recognition technology that further smartens your alerts and notifications. Lastly, Nest Aware Plus allows for continuous 24/7 video history on wired Nest Cams.

Availability

The new battery-powered Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam, available for preorder immediately and go on sale August 24. The Doorbell is offered in four colors (white, beige, green, or gray)ย whiles the Nest Cam is available in white.

The other two products are listed as “coming soon.”

Marsback Zephyr Pro Mouse review: A mouse that keeps you cool

I’m not really the most intense PC gamer in the world, so I didn’t really assign much importance to the quality of my mouse. In fact, the mouse I most recently bought for myself cost $7. This changed, however, when I met the Marsback Zephyr Pro mouse, an RGB gaming mouse with quite a cool addition.

Specs

Zephyr Pro Spec Sheet

What’s In The Box?

Zephyr Pro Box
The Zephyr Pro comes in a cool vertical box

In the Zephyr Pro box, you’ll get your mouse, an instruction manual, and some cool stickers.

Setup

There’s not much to be said here, honestly. The Zephyr Pro Mouse can be used like any other mouse, simply plug and play on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Design

The Zephyr Pro mouse is an RGB mouse with a honeycomb design. There are a total of six buttons: the scroll wheel, left and right click, the DPI button, and the two buttons on the left side of the mouse. These two buttons navigate back and forth by default.

There’s one more trick under the Zephyr Pro’s sleeve, though. Under the honeycomb design is a fan that cools your palm and keeps your hands sweat-free. This might be good if you’re at your computer using your mouse for long periods of time.

I’m not the biggest fan of the honeycomb design as I prefer a more uniform looking design, but I see where it is needed for the fan and beneficial for heat dissipation. After all, this is marketed towards PC gamers that might spend hours at a time holding their mouse.

The Zephyr Pro is also lightweight and packable thanks to a flexible, soft cable.

One thing I like about the mouse is the fact that it feels comfortable in both hands. Compared to my other mouse, the side buttons are smaller and more centrally placed on the mouse. This makes it easy to hold the mouse however you wish without worrying about accidental button clicking.

Software

To reprogram the buttons, modify the colors in a certain mode, or program macros, you’re going to need to download the Zephyr Pro software. You can find it on Marsback’s support page, simply download the zip and click the application file inside. There’s one catch, though, and that is the fact that it is only available on Windows devices, so you’re out of luck if you have any other devices.

That being said, the software is amazing. You can change anything and everything about the mouse.

Zephyr Pro mouse key configuration options
Every button on the zephyr pro mouse can be configured for a large list of purposes.

The Zephyr Pro can be anything you want it to be. You can even create profiles to switch between different settings for different use cases quickly and easily.

Price

The Marsback Zephyr Pro comes in at a base price of $69. This seems expensive to me but this price is about standard for comparable mice from other brands, and it boasts the unique fan. If that’s a bit much to swallow, you have two opportunities to save: first, Marsback is offering a summer sale until September 10th, which knocks $10 off the price. Not only that, but Marsback is offering a deal to AG readers if you use the code AGONLY, combining for a total price of just $49.