2024/11/11

Nank get real with OE mix True Wireless Earphones

Nank (previously known as Naenka) has been big in the bone conduction earphone space, now there's a move to open ear and the first True Wireless earphones the OE Mix.

Nank OE Mix box

The box contains the earphones in their case, a USB A to USB C cable and an instruction manual.

Open Box

The earphones are light, weighing in a 6.7g each (i.e. left and right) and are coated with a non-skin irritable silicon.

Open case

Bluetooth is now at version 5.4 and supports 60mS latency for gaming. Battery life is 24 hours (but each earphone will hold charge for 6 hours and then has to be put in the case to recharge). Whilst charging the LED on the case flashes red and turns green when fully charged.

Earphones

The drivers have a 0.0096mm diaphragm and support Super Base 2.0 (Nank's terminology).

Earphones

There aren't any physical buttons on the earphone, but they are touch sensitive and touching the left and right top of the earphone perform the following: -

Double touch L/R - switch between music and call.

Single touch L - volume down

Single touch R - volume up

Long touch L - rewind

Long touch R - fast forward

Long touch L/R (1.5s) - call hangup

Triple touch L/R - microphone

The first thing you notice (well don't notice) is how light they are. It can feel a bit awkward placing them over the ear in the correct position, but when they are there, they are very comfortable. Though they stay in place, they can easily be knocked off by say brushing your hand against them while doing something else.

When removed from the case, the earphones turn on and will automatically connect to the device they're paired with (the first time they turn on they will automatically go into pairing mode). When put back into the case they will start charging and the case green light will flash. The earphone turn themselves off - though they can be turned off by touching them for a longer time i.e. over 1.5 seconds - they tell you they're turning off. Though as soon as they are removed from the charger they turn themselves on again.

The earphones are IP55 rated and survive getting wet from sweat etc. As they don't completely cover the ear, you can still hear your environment, so these are good for activities like cycling or running. They can't be fully immersed in water so aren't suitable for swimming.

The sound quality is very good and there are decent highs and lows (notes) as the earphone speakers are placed just outside the ear canal projecting the sound inwards and unlike other Nank bone conducting earphones don't suffer the issues of some of bass being lost or tickling against the skin.

These are a nice addition to the Nank line and at the website price of £43.32 they aren't going to break the bank.





2024/05/16

ConceptDraw Office v10: Taking the "Office" Out of Office Work (In a Good Way)

ConceptDraw OFFICE from CSOdessa has released its 10th version, pretty amazing since Ukraine's been illegally invaded by Russia.

ConceptDraw Office v10 has arrived, and it's shaping up to be a game-changer for visual thinkers across all industries. This productivity suite bundles three powerhouse applications: ConceptDraw MINDMAP, PROJECT, and DIAGRAM (formerly PRO). Let's dive into what makes v10 such a compelling upgrade (or just a compelling purchase).

ConceptDraw has always been known for its intuitive diagramming capabilities, and v10 takes it a step further.  DIAGRAM boasts a sleek interface and an extensive library of pre-built templates and symbols, allowing you to create stunning flowcharts, network diagrams, mind maps, and more –  all with just a few clicks.

One of the biggest strengths of v10 is the seamless integration between the three applications. Brainstorming ideas in MINDMAP? Effortlessly convert them into actionable tasks in PROJECT. Need to present your project plan? Export your data directly into a polished DIAGRAM for maximum impact. This streamlined workflow eliminates the need for juggling multiple programs, saving you valuable time and frustration.

New features are: -

Apple Silicon support and macOS Sonoma so the programs run natively on M series Macs.

Rapid Draw - Сreate diagrams faster than ever with expanded Rapid Draw functionality. You can personalise RapidDraw for creating flowcharts using your customised objects.

Grouped Objects in a Diagram - Editing objects in a group individually is easy. You can use a special command to change one object in a group without affecting the others.

Multi-page Mind Maps - Easily create and design multi-page mind maps. Apply the first page style to the entire multi-page map with one click.

Outline View - View and edit your mind map as a diagram with an updated interface and new editing capabilities.

Micro Reports - A new line of micro-reports to remind your team on project deadlines. Create manually or set up automatic creation of ready-to-send deadline reminder emails.

Export to MS Excel - Export project data to MS Excel spreadsheets "as is", including project schedule, resource allocation, cost data, etc.

Interface improvements - 
New captions on the buttons during apps and solutions installation process.

Built-in Help including instructions on activation, proxy set up, and keyboard shortcuts.


Office now comes 222 solution packs of which 163 are free and 59 are paid for, they are: -

Business Infographics
Economy Infographics $25
Education Infographics $25
Energy Industry Infographics $25
Financial Infographics $25
Green Energy $25
Management Infographics $25
Marketing Infographics $25
Mass Media Infographics $25
Oil and Gas $25
Politics Infographics $25
Travel Infographics $25

Business Processes
Business Process Diagrams FREE
Business Process Mapping FREE
Classic Business Process Modeling FREE
Cross-Functional Flowcharts FREE
Event-driven Process Chain Diagrams FREE
IDEF Business Process Diagrams FREE
Logistics Flow Charts FREE
Workflow Diagrams FREE
Business Intelligence Dashboard $99
Business Process Workflow Diagrams $49
Healthcare Management Workflow Diagrams $49
Logistic Dashboard $49

Business Productivity
Presentation Exchange FREE
Word Exchange FREE
Collaboration FREE
ConceptDraw Dashboard for Facebook FREE
Mind Map Exchange FREE
MindTweet FREE
Note Exchange FREE
Project Exchange FREE
Social Media Response FREE

Computer and Networks
Active Directory Diagrams FREE
AWS Architecture Diagrams FREE
Azure Architecture FREE
Cisco Network Diagrams FREE
Cisco Networking FREE
Cloud Computing Diagrams FREE
Computer Network Diagrams FREE
Google Cloud Platform FREE
Interactive Voice Response Diagrams FREE
Network Layout Floor Plans FREE
Network Security Diagrams FREE
Rack Diagrams FREE
Telecommunication Network Diagrams FREE
Vehicular Networking FREE
Wireless Networks FREE
Internet of Things $30

Dashboards
Comparison Dashboard FREE
Composition Dashboard FREE
Correlation Dashboard FREE
Frequency Distribution Dashboard FREE
Meter Dashboard FREE
Spatial Dashboard FREE
Status Dashboard FREE
Time Series Dashboard FREE

Diagrams
Basic Circle-Spoke Diagrams FREE
Basic Circular Arrows Diagrams FREE
Basic Venn Diagrams FREE
Block Diagrams FREE
Concept Maps FREE
Family Tree FREE
Flowcharts FREE

Finance and Accounting
Accounting Flowcharts FREE
Audit Flowcharts FREE
Food and Beverage
Food Court FREE
Cooking Recipes $25
Health Food $25

Graphs and Charts
Basic Area Charts FREE
Basic Bar Graphs FREE
Basic Divided Bar Diagrams FREE
Basic Histograms FREE
Basic Line Graphs FREE
Basic Picture Graphs FREE
Basic Pie Charts FREE
Basic Scatter Diagrams FREE

Health
Health Informatics FREE
Allergology $49
Biomedicine $49 Genogram $25
Health Sciences $25
Human Anatomy $25
Immunology $49
Medical Illustrations $25
Medical Mycology $49
Medical Virology $49
Pharmacy Illustrations $25

Illustration
Aerospace and Transport FREE
Artwork FREE
Audio, Video, Media FREE
Business and Finance FREE
Computers and Communications FREE
Holiday FREE
Manufacturing and Maintenance FREE
Nature FREE
People FREE
Presentation Clipart FREE
Safety and Security FREE

Industrial Engineering
Analog Electronics FREE
Audio and Video Connectors FREE
Basic Circuit Diagrams FREE
Chemical and Process Engineering FREE
Digital Electronics FREE
Electrical Engineering FREE
Electron Tube Circuits FREE
Electronic Block Diagrams FREE
Fault Tree Analysis Diagrams FREE
GHS Hazard Pictograms FREE
Home Automation and Wiring FREE
Mechanical Engineering FREE
One-line Diagrams FREE
Power Сircuits FREE
Specification and Description Language (SDL) FREE
Telecom and AV Circuits FREE
Transport Hazard Pictograms FREE

Infographics
Data-driven Infographics FREE
Pictorial Infographics FREE
Spatial Infographics FREE
Typography Infographics FREE

Management
Calendars FREE
Decision Making FREE
Enterprise Architecture Diagrams FREE
Fishbone Diagrams FREE
Organizational Charts FREE
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) FREE
Seven Management and Planning Tools FREE
SWOT and TOWS Matrix Diagrams FREE
Timeline Diagrams FREE
25 Typical Orgcharts $25
Business Diagrams $49
CRM Center Dashboard $49
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance $25
HR Dashboard $49
HR Flowcharts $25
Public Utilities $25
Stakeholder Onion Diagrams $49
Sustainable Development $25

Maps
Australia Map FREE
Continent Maps FREE
Directional Maps FREE
Germany Map FREE
Metro Map FREE
UK Map FREE
USA Maps FREE

Marketing
Customer Journey Mapping FREE
Marketing Diagrams FREE
Matrices FREE
Pyramid Diagrams FREE
Sales Dashboard FREE
Sales Flowcharts FREE
Target and Circular Diagrams FREE
Funnel Diagrams $25

Packages
Building Design Package $180
Business Diagrams Package $230
Business Infographics Package $130
Business Management Package $367
Education Package $160
Health Package $180
Project Management Package $158

Project Management
Cash Flow Reports FREE
Current Activities Reports FREE
Custom Excel Report FREE
Knowledge Reports FREE
MINDMAP Reports FREE
Overview Reports FREE
PM Agile FREE
PM Dashboards FREE
PM Docs FREE
PM Easy FREE
PM Meetings FREE
PM Personal Time Management FREE
PM Planning FREE
PM Presentations FREE
PM Response FREE
Resource Usage Reports FREE
Visual Reports FREE
Kanban Board $25
MindMap Diagrams $99
PM Mind Maps and Tables $25
Project Diagrams $49
Scrum Workflow $49

Quality Management
House of Quality FREE
Quality Mind Map FREE
Total Quality Management TQM Diagrams FREE
Value Stream Mapping FREE
Seven Basic Tools of Quality $25
Science and Education
Astronomy FREE
Biology FREE
Chemistry FREE
Language Learning FREE
Mathematics FREE
Physics FREE
Piano Sheet Music FREE

Software Development
Android User Interface FREE
Class Hierarchy Tree FREE
Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) FREE
DOM Tree FREE
Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) FREE
EXPRESS-G data Modeling Diagram FREE
IDEF0 Diagrams FREE
iPhone User Interface FREE
Jackson Structured Programming (JSP) Diagrams FREE
macOS User Interface FREE
Object-Role Modeling (ORM) Diagrams FREE
Rapid UML FREE
SYSML FREE
Website Wireframe FREE
Windows 10 User Interface FREE
ATM UML Diagrams $25

Sport
Baseball FREE
Basketball FREE
Chess FREE
Football FREE
Ice Hockey FREE
Soccer FREE
Winter Sports FREE
Summer Sports $25

Statistical Charts
Area Charts $25
Bar Graphs $35
Divided Bar Diagrams $25
Histograms $30 Line Graphs $25
Picture Graphs $40
Pie Charts $20
Scatter Diagrams $25

Some of the paid solutions are actually complete packages where some free and paid solutions are bundled.

All the programs are easy to use and offer a sensible alternative to incumbent application from the dominant players and they work well together (though Mindmap, Project and Diagram can be purchased separately).

The current price for ConceptDraw OFFICE 10 £239 (usually £399) May 2024.

Individually ConceptDraw DIAGRAM 17 is £159, ConceptDraw PROJECT 14 is £239 and ConceptDraw MINDMAP 15 is £159 and there is a ConceptDraw MINDMAP 15 & PROJECT 14 which is £319 (which make no sense when the whole suite is £90 cheaper). There are also upgrade options if you own a previous version.


2024/03/19

See Clearly, Clean Safely: The TOFARO Visual Ear Cleaner


Another day, another Kickstarter. Who doesn't want an in-ear camera system?

Ever felt like you're flying blind when cleaning your ears? Traditional cotton swabs can be ineffective and even push wax further into the ear canal. TOFARO, a new visual ear cleaner on the scene, promises a safer, more precise clean with the help of a high-definition camera.

Box

TOFARO boasts a 1080p HD camera that transmits a live feed to your smartphone or tablet via a dedicated app. This allows you to magnify and examine the inner ear, ensuring you only clean what needs cleaning. Blurry images are a thing of the past, thanks to TOFARO's advanced lens technology.

Inside box

Safety is paramount when it comes to ear care. TOFARO features a detachable cleaning head with a built-in storage compartment. This not only keeps the head clean and hygienic but also prevents accidental loss. The 360-degree angle detection and a smart gyroscope ensure you have complete control and can maneuver the cleaning rod precisely within the ear canal.

Silicon scraper

TOFARO is designed to be compact and portable. It can be carried around easily (though would you want to?). It has a WiFi hotspot that you connect your phone/tablet to and then the app simply connects via this.


Camera with cap
Though not a medical device, it's always important to ensure the device is used safely and shouldn't be used if previous problems with any parts of the ear.


Cap removed

Looking inside your ear may show unexpected things and if these are serious seek medical advice rather than poking around and damaging yourself.

Unit twisted, exposing tube and light that is inserted

The silicon scrapers are relatively soft and if placed behind any wax and gently pulled forward, the wax usually comes with it.

USB-C charging

Again, if wax lodged in the ear and doesn't want to move, don't try forcing it, you can do damage to the surrounding area.


In Ear

The above is a view from the camera of a real ear.

It's a novel device with a decent camera (and gyroscopic stabilisation if required).


2024/02/20

Nank(was Naenka) Runner Neo: Bone Conduction for the (Active) Soul music

Bone conduction headphones have risen in popularity with runners, cyclists and other sports enthusiasts as listening to music doesn't mean you can't engage with your surroundings and you're aware of what's going on around you.

Product Box

The Nank(was Naenka) Runner Neo's come in three colours, red, grey and green (though the red is quite orangey and the green quite light). A great improvement to other Nank and competitor products is the wireless charging, The charger connects via USB A and has a white LED to showing it's powered. The right control section magnetically sits on the charger and the white LED in the arm will flash (along with the LED in the charger) when it's charging, both light are steady white when fully charged.

Tech Features: -

  • IP66 water resistant
  • Bluetooth 5.2
  • Skin-friendly silicone
  • 10-hour Playtime (2 hours charge time)
  • Dual-mic Noise Reduction, Clear Sound Quality
  • QCC chips from Qualcomm (High Performance with Low Power Consumption)

Also included with the headphones are 2 Earplugs, 6 sound quality enhancers and a user manual.

Headphone in box

The Runner Neo boasts a sleek, minimalist design with a one-piece, fully-silicone frame. This not only contributes to a cool, futuristic aesthetic but also enhances durability and sweat resistance – ideal for workouts. The headphones are lightweight, weighing just 28 grams, and sit comfortably on your skin without causing pressure or irritation.

Sound quality enhancers

The core of any bone conduction headphone is its audio delivery. The Runner Neo utilises advanced bone conduction technology to transmit sound vibrations through your cheekbones. This approach keeps your ears open, allowing for ambient noise awareness, which is crucial for safety during outdoor activities.

The sound quality is surprisingly good for bone conduction headphones. While it won't match the bass punch of over-ear options and some in-ear options, the Runner Neo delivers crisp highs, clear mids, and a decent amount of low-end rumble. Podcasts and audiobooks come across clearly, and music playback is enjoyable, especially for genres like pop, rock, and electronica.

The sound is enhanced when the "sound quality enhancers" are placed in the ear, but that sort of removes the ability to hear what's going around you, which is the main point of bone conducting earphones.

Charging cable

The wireless charging is a great feature, as it removes the need to plug anything in or have contacts exposed, which makes the whole system waterproof and little chance of sweat or rain getting into the internals.

Charger on earphones

Call quality is decent, with the dual microphones effectively picking up your voice well.

Controls are simple and intuitive, with three buttons located on the right earpiece. These buttons handle power, volume, playback, and call functionality.

Showing charger attached


The headphones can do multipoint pairing and connect to two devices simultaneously.

Though they are comfortable, if the volume is too loud they can vibrate on the skin which gives a tickling sensation which can be annoying.

Maybe not as high fidelity as some competing bone conduction headphones, but for the price they perform pretty well. They are currently £60.31 from Nank's site.

2023/11/06

Dualit EcoPress™ Duo Max Pod Recycler, finally, a Way to Feel Good About Your Coffee Habit

Dualit, famous for their high end kitchen equipment, make Nespresso compatible coffee machines, coffee pods and recyclers.

EcoPress™ Duo Max Pod Recycler,

Recently the EcoPress™ Duo Max Pod Recycler was released. It's slightly more complex than the original EcoPress™ Aluminium Capsule Recycler in that it empties two pods at once and also has a container to hold the emptied pods for washing.

Showing pod recycler left and emptied pod holder right

The pod emptier has a base that can be removed and it sits in a slight depression in the main base that holds the second section.

pods

Pods are placed silver side down on to the recycling section (the thinner end pointing up), the lid is pressed down and the pod will empty into the container. It can hold about 12 pods worth of coffee before it needs emptying. The other section holds maybe 40 to 50 emptied pods.

pods on recycler

When lifting the lid off the emptier, it's easy to move the container, so it's no longer sitting in the depression and as quite a lot of force is required to push down, then container can slip.

Lid on top of pods

Emptying the container is easiest by just inverting and shaking the grounds out of the holes, though sometimes a pod will be pushed in and then the base has to be removed. Removing the base for normal emptying isn't recommended as it's fiddly and the holes have to stay on top (or the grounds will fall out).

Emptied pods in recycler

Though most of the grounds stay in the containers, there will be some spillage on to whatever the recycler is placed. It also must be quite sturdy as a fair bit of steady effort is required pushing down the recycler lid.

If there's a lot of pods to recycle, it's definitely quicker than using the original, but probably not worth an upgrade.

It retails for £19.99

2023/10/25

Nank(Naenka) Runner Diver2 Bone Conduction Swimming Headphones that Will Make You Sing Underwater

Nank(Naenka) formally known as Naenka are a Chinese manufacturer specialising in bone conduction headphones.

The Runner Diver 2 are its latest product. As well as Bluetooth (v5.3) support, there's 32GB of memory allowing for music files to be stored on the device itself.

The come in a box (that is remarkably similar dimensions to a competitor) which is mainly cardboard with some plastic inserts to hold various items such as the ear plugs, sound quality enhancers and the headphones themselves. They're also a USB-A charging cable and instruction manual.

Headphone box

If the USB cable is plugged into a PC (macOS or Windows), the headphones appear as a USB disk and music files which are MP3/M4A/WAV/APE/FLAC can be transferred. The headphones support multipoint paring (i.e. multiple devices).

Diver is probably not the best description for the headphones as they are only IP68 certified which is 1 metre depth in water for up to 30 minutes - so maybe Runner Swimmer would be more appropriate. While swimming it's necessary to use the MP3 mode as a Bluetooth connection may cut out when the headphones are submersed and will then try and reconnect as they come out of the water.

Looking under headphones

Bone conduction works by transferring the audio vibrations through the cheekbones so how the headphones fit is quite important. They comes with some silicon inserts called sound enhancers that fit into the ear itself, sitting on the indented bit before the ear canal (so not in the ear canal like in-ear earphones). The sound enhancers come in small, medium and large. The headphones then are placed over the ears.

Sound enhancers

The sound enhancers made a huge difference in sound quality and fit, however head shape has a lot to do with it and they may not make a huge difference for everyone. An obvious issue is that they sit in-front of the ear canal so do block some of the sounds from the environment which is why some people are using bone conduction headphones in the first place. There's good bass, midrange and treble supported by the 16 mm speaker. There's also built-in noise cancelling for the microphones.

looking form back

Battery life is 10 hours (at 60% volume) and 150 hours standby and a full charge takes 1.5 hours and 15 hours talk time. The magnetic connector is polarised so it will only fit one way, but the pins do protrude and can easily short onto any flat metallic material especially if it's ferrous as the magnets will be attracted to it.

Side view

The headphones are reasonably light weight at 32g and are covered in silicone that is skin friendly being soft, hypoallergenic and breathable. The design is meant to resemble a seahorse (well the bone conducting part).

Top view

There are 3 buttons, Power, "+" and "-".

Power button

Long Press 3 secs - Power On / Power Off

Double click - Wake up Voice assistant / exit voice assistant

Click Once - Play/Pause / Answer/Hangup

Double Click - Ignore call

Triple Click - Bluetooth/MP3 mode

Quad (4) clicks - Sequential/Random play in MP3 mode


+ Button

Click once - Volume Up

Long Press 2 seconds - Next song

- Button

Click once - Volume Down

Long Press 2 seconds - Last song


They retail for around £140.00 but a 15% discount is available using the code "Steve" (no quotes required).

As stated without the sound enhancers, the sound quality and fit wasn't brilliant and they vibrated against the skin annoyingly, with the sound enhanced things improved dramatically but that relates to head shape so things might be completely different for other users. With the sound enhancers sound quality was pretty good (as least as good as the competition). Not a bad headphone.

2023/09/14

Feel the Beat of a Different Drum: Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction Headphones

Shokz (previously known as Aftershokz) have been producing bone conducting headphones for a while, their latest headphone is the OpenRun Pro. This has two sides connected by a titanium band that goes behind the head and over the ears, while each side has a "speaker" that sits in front of the ear connected to  a solid bit that connects to the loop (the right hand side has the charging connection and the on/off/volume buttons). This bit has been redesigned so the charging connection is on the angled back, which makes it impossible to even try to force the magnetic connector on the wrong way round. The left speaker has the multifunction button.

OpenRun Pro headphones

Bone conduction works by vibrating the bones which then transmit the sound to the inner ear, this does mean that if the volume is too loud, then you can feel a vibration against the skin (like being tickled) which can be annoying, but assuming the volume is at a sensible level, this doesn't happen. Being "open ear" means you still hear what's going on around you, which may not be what you want if immersing yourself into a movie or travelling on the tube, but for runners, cyclists and even working out in a gym when you want to be aware of your surroundings these definitely work well.

Though similar in design to the older Aeropex, the OpenRun Pro is slimmed down in size for a more lightweight feel and only weighs 29g.


Bottom view

Audio quality has improved markedly in the OpenRun Pro and sounds more balanced with better depth in the lower frequencies (TurboPitch). Higher frequencies have always worked better and are crisp and clear. The volume can be adjusted sufficiently to overcome wind noise without distorting. Unfortunately fidelity is unlikely ever going to match traditional headphones, the OpenRun Pro delivers pretty good sound quality (Shokz claim 20Hz - 20KHz frequency response).


Top view

On the base of the right hand there are only two buttons, volume up and down, the volume up button is also the power button, if the OpenRun Pros are off, long pressing it will turn them on (and the blue LED will turn on too), holding it down when on, will turn them off. If turning on and continuing to hold, then the LED will flash red and blue, indicating it is in pairing mode.


There's also a multifunction button on the left speaker that pressing will pause/play music, answer a call etc.


Power connection

There are dual microphones which pick up speech which means calls and video conferencing work well.


The OpenRun Pros are also IP55 allowing them to be used in sweaty environments. There is a built-in moisture detector.


Bluetooth is now version 5.1 (though 5.3 is the latest version), but that should allow more stable Bluetooth connections and supporting multipoint pairing (i.e. multiple devices). The SBC codec is supported as well as A2DP, AVRCP, HSP and HFP Bluetooth profiles.


Battery life is now 10 hours on a full charge (which takes 1 hour). A 5 minute charge will give 1.5 hours of usage. Standby is up to 10 days.


Shokz now provide an app (IOS and Android) that allows for 2 levels of EQ (equalisation) optimising for music or voice. The app also supports pairing, multipoint pairing, listening customisation, and user tips.


In the box there's also a hard shell carry case that holds the headphones and a USB-A charging cable (that can fit into the carry case under a strap).


Hard shell carry case

As an artefact of bone conduction technology, if you have slight hearing loss that is caused by something say in the ear canal or similar, sound can actually sound better (or louder) as it's directly stimulating the inner ear [NOTE this is NOT any advice re hearing loss].


Not the most expensive headphones on the market they can be directly purchased from the Shokz site or other retailers for £159 (purchasing from Shokz gives a 2 year guarantee in certain territories).