Category Archives: Reviews

Almost perfect – Jonsbo A4 case review

Sometimes there’s a product that you want to be good so bad that you’re willing to overlook some of the more glaring mistakes. That’s how I felt about the Jonsbo A4 ITX case. It’s a SFF (small form factor) m-ITX case that brings Jonsbo’s unique design aesthetics to user’s wanting a smaller foot print computer. Unfortunately, it’s not all tiny roses and sunshine.

Based on the design, the case it truly intended to be use with either a 120mm or 240mm AIO (all-in-one) liquid cooler. While AIO’s are fairly common in the current day, enthusiast are more often turning to creating custom loops in their build to maximize space efficiency. The “dream” CPU block from Barrow, that combines the pump, CPU plate, reservoir, is just 2mm too tall to fint into this case, which is a shame.

The biggest offender though, is the cable management. Or lack there of. With the case being so small, planning and routing cables is a the only way to be successful and that takes a lot of time. This is definitely not a case for the unitiated or faint of heart. It can be made into a beautiful build, but you’ll need to bring your A-game.

What are you’re thoughts? Is this your next ITX case or are the issues a deal breaker for you? Sound off in the comments here or in the YouTube comments section.

Check out the other Jonsbo case I’ve looked at, the late Jonsbo VR1

M1 Mac Mini – Apple’s gateway to the future

When Apple first announced its Apple Silicon a month ago, there were many questions and lots of apprehension. Like many of you, I was skeptical. To summarize the event, Apple highlighted a few key workflows running on the M1 chip. Then Apple showed us a bunch of unlabeled graphs touting superior performance over its intel counterparts. None of the presentation helped dispel my skepticism. Currently we are limited to either 8 or 16 GBs of memory that can only be upgraded at the time of purchase. There is no user upgradable memory, one of the downsides of having a SoC (System On a Chip). With that said, after a month of usage I can confidently say Apple is building toward the future and it’s looking bright!

Continue reading M1 Mac Mini – Apple’s gateway to the future

Incredible tiny typing – anne pro 2 review

Unless you’ve been living under a tech rock or in a Luddite fortress, chances are that you’ve seen or heard or mechanical keyboards. And if you’ve had any interest in getting a mechanical keyboard in the past year or so, you’ve seen the explosion of popularity in keyboards that are smaller than your average 104-key clacker. One of the more popular choices in smaller keyboards is the Anne Pro 2.

This little clicker is what’s known as a 60-percent layout. As in, it has 60% of the keys found on a more traditional 104-key device. Even though it’s missing more than 40 keys, this little “keeb” as mechanical keyboards are affectionately called, has nearly all of the functionality you could want from a keyboard and then some.

To see my full thoughts on the Anne Pro 2, check the video below

Using the heat to keep cool – GoSun Chill Solar powered cooler

Now that summer is nearly upon us here in the northern hemisphere, it’s time to shift our thoughts to beaches, BBQs, picnics. It’s a tradition that as soon as the sun starts feeling like it’s a bit too close that we all congregate outside to enjoy the non-cold weather as much as possible before Old-Man Winter comes back.

But all this outdoor recreation poses a time-honored problem – how does one keep all of the snacks and drinks cold when we are among the great outdoors? Normally it means a stop at either a grocery or convenience store to purchase a multi-pound bag of ice, or telling someone else to bring the ice on their way. GoSun believes that there’s a better and drier way to keep picnic and BBQ items cool. Enter, the GoSun Chill.

Continue reading Using the heat to keep cool – GoSun Chill Solar powered cooler

Miniature movement – snoppa Atom mobile gimbal

When it comes to filmmaking, the most reliable way to get smooth footage is to use a gimbal. While they come in all sorts of flavors and sizes, the most commonly purchased among the general consumer population are certainly the ones that are on the smaller end of the scale that is compatible with mobile phones. One of the newest gimbals comes from a Chinese company Snoppa in the form of the Atom. Which the company is claiming to be the world’s smallest gimbal.

Continue reading Miniature movement – snoppa Atom mobile gimbal