As most of you know I am huge Jabra fan and I have been waiting on these ones since they got announced and now they are finally here. The 85h is set to take on the likes of Sony and Bose QCs which I have tried out for a bit but they never arrived,still waiting on the Sony MX3 but on initial testing these are certainly giving them a run for their money but I will test for a while longer for a more conclusive review later on but let’s just say for now..WOW..
Any questions in the interim hit me up and check out the unboxing below.
Key features of the Jabra Elite 85h:
SmartSound: Audio that automatically adapts to your surroundings
One-click access: Voice Assistant access at the push of a button
Four colour variations: Black, Titanium Black, Gold Beige and Navy
Battery: Up to 36-hour battery with ANC activated and 41 hours without ANC
Microphones: 8 microphones in total. 6 dedicated for calls, 4 for ANC and 2 hybrid mics for both calls and ANC.
Speakers: 40 mm custom-engineered speakers
Durability: Unique IP52 dust and rain resistance, backed by a 2-year warranty against water and dust
Personalise: Jabra Sound+ app for SmartSound features, including customised settings
The Jabra Elite Active 45e have arrived alongside the 85h which you can see HERE, The 45e are aimed at the sports minded folk and offer a secure fit which is vital for fitness activities which is popular and hard to find earbuds that stay put, We will be testing these out over the coming weeks and tell you what we think so stay tuned and any questions hit us up below or on our social.
Jabra Elite Active 45e key features:
Comfortable and secure fit with Earwings and Earhooks that hold firm when you move
Voice assistant-enabled with one-touch access to Amazon Alexa, Siri® or Google Assistant™
IP67-rated waterproof durability with 2-year sweat and dust warranty**
Run safely with an earbud designed to keep you aware of the surroundings
Make calls on the move with 2-microphone call technology for superior call experience
Choose your favourite colour from Mint, Navy or Black
Boost your day with 9 hours battery on a single charge
Just like earbuds and headphones there is no shortage of bluetooth speakers here and today we are going to check out the Jam “Hang Around” bluetooth speaker. The main question is as always how good does it sound well you can find out that below in the video review.
The speaker is trendy looking and on the bright side which is nice, I prefer this stand outish look over the industrial design which has become all to common with such and this one will certainly stand out.
On the base there is 4 rubber stoppers to keep it still although when full max the speaker began to move this though shows how powerful it is when at max volume and it will certainly fill a room.
This compact speaker has up to 20 hours of playtime with its 30-metre Bluetooth range. Rugged and waterproof, the Hang Around is perfect to kick back, relax and listen to your favourite tunes, even in the bathroom. The amazing dual drivers and bespoke dual passive bass radiators pack an awesome punch for its size. Better still, pair it with another Hang Around for a fuller stereo sound.
With easy to use controls and ease of use this is a must have for your picnic or trip to the beach,Build quality here is also excellent and this will take a few knocks too.. Check out the video review below for more..
The Jam Audio “Live True” Wireless earbuds are a set of earbuds that are on the cheap and look trendy given they have a different take on the current trend with fabric coated buds housed in plastic rather that the total plastic or metal housed in ears. They also offer some more than some other offerings at this price range which is now 50 euros at the time of press but fall short on some aspects but overall they are quite good and can be easily considered if it is your first pair or true wireless earbuds.
These look different as mentioned and are not the type that look silly in your ears but stick out a small bit but this is not an issue for me. They come in a really cool carry case and not only that you can charge your mobile phone up on the go should you run low on juice which is an excellent idea and the case is not that big either compared to many others out there and this I like.
These are also IPX3 rated which is sufficient for many average users yet some come with no rating at all so there are on the mark there giving these a rating You can expect 3 hours of play from a single charge and get an extra 10 charges from the case which is ideal for those on long commutes and as mentioned you also get the benefit to charge your smartphone on the go which lets be honest is still a thing these days.
Functionality here is great and they are easy to use, Once removed from the box these sync together unlike others that require a seperate sync for each side which is annoying and here is where some folk run into problems but this will not be one here. Once you turn on your bluetooth on your device just find the Live True and pair and you are good to go you will also hear a tone when connected and when you power off…
You can connect one at a time if you wish for a mono experience if you will this is ideal for people that want to hear their surroundings whilst listening to tunes or the radio and for those who perhaps might be out walking or cycling where you do need your wits about you.
Where they fall short is you cant skip a track you can just play and pause and when you take a call they only work on one side being the left this might be a caveat for some but the price point here is what you look at, You can listen to music on either side alone and you can only hear calls on one side being the left so it does not take calls with both plugged in. To activate your voice assistants be it Alexa or Google for example you just double tap either side. Calls on these where fine and clear both ends for my time of use so this is another good point to considering it was just one side that takes them.
Overall they are not a bad pair of true wireless for the money with their different look and they sound quite good with all music genres and it was a pleasant experince and even a bit louder than some I have tested which I like they however are not bass deep but if you have an EQ on your device you can modify the sound, There is no app here either which many others have not implemented and perhaps should look into going forward but at this price point I would not be too concerned there is third party apps out there if your phone does not come equipped with one.
Card holders are a thing now with mobile phone cases and they are widely available for any device, Despite my anti card holder opinion due to safety some cases come with key holders too and you often see people sporting both and its their life in their hands for opportunists or you could lose or misplace your device at any time but that’s just my take them. However they do make life simple and some look good and trendy and there is a wide variety on offer.
You can also purchase just the card slot alone which is what we have here today and these are an easy add-on accessory for your phone should you wish not to carry a wallet but you are limited to two cards but as we turn digital now we can use NFC capabilities to keep the card count low on your person. The Ringke card slot is one idea you can check out if you are in need of such an accessory for your smartphone, Check it out below.
It is hard to get cases for the Blackberry Key 2 however like many of their devices you can go without especially if it has that rubberised back which is great but as I always say its best to case up just in case even if you are just going out for the day or night.
This case is simple to install and clear which means you can see the device in all its glory given there is now a red version available it would look really well on the red one more so than the Black in my opinion.
The case has a hard shell on the rear and has military grade drop protection and TPU throughout the rest of the case. The keys are raised perfectly and ideal to use and very tactile with no issues at all to report. The four corners have slight raised edges which keeps it safe and the corners have nice little bumpers there to give additional protection in one of the most vulnerable parts of any smartphone.
There is a lip going around the front of the device which is also a great addition to the case as the screen is also another vulnerable piece and the most expensive in most instances and when it comes to the camera that is well protected too below the surface level and all ports are easily accessible too. Check out the video below for a more detailed look.
What is undisputed, though, is the intelligence of artificial intelligence. The very basic of AI – artificial narrow intelligence, or weak AI – is known to be better than humans at one particular thing at any one time. Take it one level up, and artificial general intelligence may combine near-human-like thinking with impressive computational prowess. A feat that humans likely won’t be able to accomplish.
Incredibly, while AI seemingly has infinite possibilities, there is one arena in which humans can outsmart it (and no, we don’t mean emotional intelligence). As we’ll explain below, we haven’t yet come across an artificial intelligence that can decipher optical illusions as cleverly as humans can. Take this optical illusions quiz to test your mettle, and read on for reasons why humans are better at optical illusions than AI.
Optical illusions improve our visual literacy, but AI can’t compute
Visual literacy refers to the brain’s ability to interpret and derive meaning from visual information. When we look at an image, the brain picks up on visual cues – light, shadow, height, etc. – to provide context to what it’s seeing.
This context helps the brain understand the image it’s seeing and anticipate what that image logically means (for example, in the famous Kanizsa Triangle illusion, our brain can see a complete triangle despite no such shape actually being present). This logic is based on connecting the image we see to images we’ve seen in the past and predicting what the ‘probable’ image might be. Optical illusions deliberately mislead the brain by manipulating the all-important ‘context’ of the image. Thus, regularly viewing optical illusions can help improve our visual literacy as well as make it harder for us to be ‘caught out’ by the deception that illusions try to create.
In an effort to learn more about how optical illusions impact the human brain, researchers Robert Williams and Roman Yampolskiy from the University of Louisville (UofL) turned to AI. They wanted to task AI with creating new optical illusions they could test on humans. They pumped their AI’s neural network with over 6,000 optical illusions, hoping it could in turn create some new illusions. Alas, the AI simply couldn’t figure out how to create new illusions from the data given to it.
Our brains are better at understanding optical illusions than AI
Unfortunately for the UofL researchers, neural networks – or the same machine-learning systems that can identify faces and create realistic new ones – simply can’t recognise optical illusions. According to the researchers, there are only a few thousand static optical illusions in existence. This meant their neutral network didn’t have enough information to work with. Currently, we don’t have an advanced enough machine-learning system that can learn from such a small dataset.
The key, it seemed, was that humans can actually see the illusions whereas machine-learning systems can’t do the same. They can’t understand the principles behind the illusions – i.e. the context that human brains can quickly pick up on – and lack the same complex structure of the human visual system that optical illusions aim to play upon and manipulate.
For the moment, at least, AI is not advanced enough to be able to interpret and decipher optical illusions. Humans, on the other hand, can not only decipher illusions and understand how they work, they can also overcome them, learning – through practice – to become immune to the manipulation that illusions rely so heavily on. So, at least where optical illusions are concerned, humans outsmart AI.
This is the second pair of true wireless earphones from Urbanista and after their first pair which I still use today and highly recommend especially if you like loud earbuds I look forward to seeing how they fair out.
These have what most call the pencil design similar to the overrated iPods which for me don’t cut it with audio or volume and the price you pay so it will be interesting to see how these compare and if they are as good as the Tokyo wireless. Any questions hit me up while I test these out over the next few days. On first use I like what I see and they feel solid in the ears, won’t fall out and sound pretty good.
Features
Total Playtime: 14 hours
3.5 hours per charge
Slim charging case with 3 charges
Dual microphones on the right earbud
which cancels the surrounding noise
Stereo phone calls
Bluetooth 5.0
Touch control
Volume and music controls
Voice control (Siri, Google Now)
Compatible with Android and iOS
The Irish Wind Energy Association, Ireland’s largest renewable energy organisation, this morning published the first of what will be regular quarterly reports on the performance of the industry and revealed that wind provided 37 per cent of Ireland’s electricity in the first quarter of 2019.
Dr David Connolly, CEO of the Irish Wind Energy Association, said: “This is our best Quarter One performance ever. We had a very strong start to the year for wind energy, particularly in February when energy produced the most electricity, even surpassing natural gas, so we hope to build on this in the coming months.
“Wind energy is an Irish success story, driving down electricity costs for consumers, cutting millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions every year and securing a homegrown energy future that doesn’t depend on importing fossil fuels.”
The 37 per cent share of electricity demand amounted to more than 2.8 million MWh of electricity, compared to 2.7 million in the first quarter of 2018. The average Irish household uses approximately 4.5 MWh of electricity every year.
The total installed capacity of Ireland’s wind farms has now risen to 3,700 MW, approximately enough to power 2.2 million Irish homes annually.
Key statistics
Wind energy’s share of electricity demand: 37% – up from 35% in Q1 2018
Total amount of electricity generated by wind in Q1 2019: 2,827,067 MWh – up from 2,731,000 MWh in Q1 2018.
Total installed wind energy capacity at end of Q1 2019: 3,700 MW.
Number of new wind farms built: 2
Total new capacity installed: 33 MW.
Amount of wind energy dispatched down in Q1 2019: 207,839 MWh
