Pylon Sounds

Does this actually seem logical?  I’m not sure, but it’s cool as hell.  This rear view mirror first and foremost features a 5 inch screen, because your factory mirror doesn’t allow for good enough field of vision.   It also has a front dash cam, and a rearview camera in case you are a victim of police brutality, a stalker, or if you just want to do a better job parking.   It even records as you drive in case some yokel tries to say the accident was your fault. It’s got GPS, because why wouldn’t it?  You’re in a car for Christ’s sake.

What’s that?  More you say?  Sure, why not?  It’s also bluetooth compatible so you can make hands-free calls so you can literally talk to the man in the mirror.  Not enough?  It can detect radar detectors so you can slow your erratic arse down before the State Trooper takes your license away and books you for driving like a psychopath.  And the specs?  It’s nuts.  Just click here to read all about it, or buy it here for $230.  And if enough of your friends want one as well, you can get a better deal by buying in bulk. Check out the video below.

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While I have all of the stuff in the iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit in one place or another, I find myself slightly envious of the folks who have it all in one place in a neat little roll bag. What I love about this kit is that they have pared it down to the essentials, the tools that you need for most electronics repair jobs – but none of the stuff that you are unlikely to need. That keeps things nice, light and more importantly mobile. Don’t get me wrong, I like my full screwdriver sets – but if I am going to someone’s house to look under the hood a malfunctioning laptop, I’d like a kit that I can just throw into a bag.

Kit Contents:

• 54 Bit Driver Kit – all the bits needed for repairs on small electronics
• 2x Plastic Opening Tools- soft plastic prying tools
• Precision Tweezers Set – assortment of ESD safe precision tweezers
• Metal Grabber – metal tool for holding tight to small components
• Anti-Static Wrist Strap – protection for circuits against static electricity
• Small Suction Cup – suction cup for holding onto things lacking handles
• Spudger – handy tool for poking, prying, flipping, and opening
• Metal Spudger Set – assortment of metal poking and prying tools
• iFixit 6 Inch Metal Ruler – steel ruler for easily measuring parts
• iFixit Pro Tech Tool Roll – cloth roll designed to hold the Pro Tech Toolkit

The iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit has been around for a while now, but now that it is $60 instead of $85.50 it is a much better buy.

Price: $59.95

I get quite a lot of email – not as much as someone like Bill Gates, but enough to make Gmail inbox management a painful, time-consuming chore. In the old days, I filtered. I still do, but things are much less work thanks to a new tools and applications.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few things that anybody out there who is not actively managing their inbox can do to live a less stressed, more comfortable life. Note that while some of these suggestions will work for other email providers, for now the majority are Gmail only. Mailbox, for example, currently only supports Gmail. This may change in the future, but for now Gmail stands apart from other email providers because of the level of integration that it allows and the ease with which a bulging inbox can be whipped into shape.

Play the Email Game

Whenever things get out of control, I set aside 5-10 minutes to play the Email Game. It presents your inbox to you one message at a time with a nice minimalistic action panel that allows you to delete, archive, boomerang (see our previous review) or skip. Clearing a mail takes mere seconds. I also love that it gives a time limit for responses (it can be paused for important stuff).

Install Mailbox

Mailbox was already my favorite mobile email client before they introduced multi-finger swiping. Now, they stand way out in front of the rest of the pack. Swiping right to the edge of the screen deletes, swiping to around the half-way point archives… and you can shake to undo. Swiping your way out of trouble saves a lot of time.

If you are embarrassed about the high number of unread mails in your inbox, they have a trick for that too – in the settings, go to “App badge count” and select “Show ’1′ for new messages’ – alternatively you can not show the count at all, but it is nice to have a visual reminder that you have new mail waiting for you.

Get an Unroll.me subscription

Unroll.me is fast becoming one of my favorite filtering services. It takes all of the mailing list emails out of your inbox and rolls them into one big email – with a nice, clean layout. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of those mails are going to be things that you don’t read on a regular basis anyway. I like my daily currency reports from Lloyds Bank, but I only open them when I am going to send money somewhere. Unroll.me is a great catch-all for that kind of thing. Just be careful to monitor the settings and check it each day – it is automated, so it occasionally catches things that you don’t want it to pick up.

Interestingly, the filtering system on Unroll.me kicks in a second or two after my Mailbox notifications – so it is not a substitute for managing the notifications in your social networks.

Filter straight to archive (or trash)

You will probably still find that the odd bit of spam or semi-spam beats the Unroll.me. If it becomes too repetitive, the best way to deal with it is to create a custom filter. Word to the wise: I prefer not to filter based on address because that can change and sometimes you will find that a marketer hits you with mail from multiple addresses. I filter based on elements in the subject heading and/or the name of the business. Adding a tag to the filter is handy for taking bulk action on multiple mails of a similar type.

If it is something I might read later, I make sure that it goes to archive. If not, I send it straight to trash.

Adjust the settings on your social network accounts

In the old pre-smartphone days, it was somewhat handy to get email notifications from social networks. These days it is unnecessary and annoying. If you have push notifications and badges on your phone, then you have all you need. You only need your updates from one source – so turn off email notifications… unless you do a lot of traveling without your phone.

When in doubt, archive

I am surprised that more people have not embraced the archive feature on Gmail. I remember the first time I used it, it caused a little bit of panic. I could not see something in my inbox. Was it still there? Would I be able to find it again? Rest assured it is there and everything can be easily found. If you archive religiously, it will be the first place that you look.

My policy on archival is as follows. If something requires short-term action, i.e. an editing assignment that is due in a few days, then I keep it in my inbox. Once I do what needs to be done, it goes in the archive. It gives me a permanent record of all of the work that I do, prices that were agreed upon, that kind of thing.

Suggestions

These are by no means the only means of keeping things under control and we are always open to new ideas. If you have something for us, please feel free to leave a comment or send us a Tweet.

The video that you see below is the work of one coccosnowball (YouTube) who went to the trouble of putting together this action-packed stop-motion animation of Casino Royale… in delicious black and white. It looks fantastic and the attention to detail is outstanding – but you can save yourself the trouble of me telling you how good it is by spending the three minutes it takes to watch it from start to finish.

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Onnit Labs has released these delightful Primal Bells, which feature a chimpanzee head instead of a cannonball. They look awesome, but with kettlebells, looks are less important than functionality, so you will be pleased to know that they have been properly balanced and the surfaces are smooth enough that the chimp faces should not cause too much additional discomfort.

On a side note, a bunch of people seem to be equating kettlebells with Cross Fit. While kettlebells are used for Cross Fit, it is worth pointing out that they are more than capable of providing a fantastic workout all by themselves – and there is a wealth of free information floating around on the Interweb ether to get you started. Onnit’s Primal Bells look great, but 36lbs is a commitment that might be best undertaken after having a little practice. If you haven’t done much working out in the past and want to harden up your soft nerd body, you would find that there is a lot more that you can do with a 25lb. That being said, it never hurts to have a 36lb bell lying around, because it is totally possible to work your way up to it within a few months.

Onnit is presently working on 18lb, 54lb, and 72lb Primal Bells, which I have heard may feature different primates so stay tuned.

Price: $86 [Oh Gizmo]

Once upon a time, I actually went to the beach quite a lot. When I did, the inevitable valuables-related debate arose. What to do with the wallet, where to put the keys… that kind of thing – capsules and surf don’t mix.

The Stash shorts use a Camelbak-like reservoir pocket to keep things safe and dry – an awesome idea if ever there was one. The project is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where it is struggling to gain traction. I really hope that things work out – part of the problem might be the $50 shipping surcharge for international orders.

Price: From $69

Ok, where do I start?  Buying cards are annoying; they’re expensive; by the time you think to do it there are never any good ones left; they never sound like something you’d actually say….or feel; should I keep going?  I’ll spare you, but if you’re a person, especially a dude, buying cards is annoying in every sense of the word.  And as if you actually ever wanted to here “There’s an app for that!” ever again, Felt gives you a reason to beat the proverbial dead horse.

That’s right, kids, there’s a new, FREE app for the iPad that allows you to create your own card, personalize it, and even have it sent out for you!  Using the pen type and color of your choice, you can write your own personal message on the inside of the card, as well as the recipient’s address on the envelope.    The card will be printed on fancy card stock and sent, without you ever having to lift your fat tuchus up off of the couch.  And all it will cost you is a measly $4!   You can download it here for $Free-99.  Or, you can probably get it from where you always get apps from.

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Every single Occulus Rift demo that I see makes me want to get one even more. In this video, the Rift owner is kind enough to give his friend a taste of riding a roller coaster. Said friend stumbles around a lot, and crashes into the monitor.

The friend should have sat down, but I like what this says for the level of realism. [Source]

Us Mac people wear our pride on our sleeves (read: snobbery), and now you can wear it on your walls.  The Mac Shortcuts Royal Poster is a beautiful and simplistic piece of wall art that immortalizes your most favorite of all of your not-so-worthless knowledge.  The Macsterpiece measures 8.5 X 11, and is perfect for any room in your office, home, or parent’s home.   Get yours here. for $20.

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Devon has has just released a sequel to its interesting-looking Tread timepiece – so named because it uses rubber belts and an interesting mix of analog and digital technology to tell time.

From Watchismo:

The belts are only 2/1000th’s of an inch thick and are a technology appropriated directly out of the cockpits of airliners like the Boeing 747 where they indicated vital measurements such as air speed and fluid levels. the belts are mounted on a central chassis and driven by two extremely compact microstep motors. These motors and all other watch functions are controlled by a microcontroller, essentially an extremely compact computer inside the heart of the watch. Loaded with DEVON’s proprietary software, this computer manages all of the timepiece’s functions and ensure precision time-keeping, the preliminary testing of which indicates an unusually accurate tolerance of only one half-second per day.

Personally, I love pretty much everything about this watch: I love the integration of aviation technology, I love that it uses a tiny computer to power its display, and I love its overall look. I am a little disappointed that it costs as much as a good used car… but for those who can afford it, its probably a good thing.

The names for the different colorways are almost as awesome as the watches themselves: ghost (ceramic white), shining (silver), nightmare (black) and murder (red).

If you want one, you can head over to Watchismo and place a pre-order.

Price: $9,950 for everything except the Ghost, which will cost you a cool $10,950

Thanks Mitch!

If you have a tip for us here at UberReview, feel free to send us an email or hit up @csmagor on Twitter.

If you absolutely, positively have to get your kids to soccer faster than your neighbors, then you might want to take a look at this minivan race in which Mazda’s Premacy and MPV face off against Honda’s Stream and Odyssey.

Spoiler: The Mazdas edge out the Hondas but the result is close enough that it might have been down to driver skill.

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