Techy odds and ends

I don't mean power banks in general, they're useful devices and I use a few myself. What I'm referring to specifically here is the type of power bank that includes a small solar panel on it to "charge" the power bank using nothing but light. These devices are actually quite dangerous, which explains why the only companies manufacturing them are brands, usually Chinese, with a brand name that looks like a Scrabble hand, who use the cheapest components possible. There's a reason why more reputable brands don't make these bombs waiting to explode. The capacity of the batteries is significant. OK, you can't always trust the published specifications of these things from less reputable brands, but even so, you're going to end up with a battery pack with a capacity of several thousand milliampere-hours. Let's assume we're working with a 20,000 mAh pack here. Let's also assume that the capacity that the manufacturer is boasting is actually hone

Cheap and Cheerful and gets the job done. If you're looking for a smart appliance with all the bells and whistles then this is not it, but it doesn't pretend to be it anyway. This is an entry-level vacuum cleaner robot that fumbles around more or less randomly, cleaning up whatever is in its path. The reason I bought this is because I wanted to see how well the technology coped with a small home on one floor that really is quite cluttered to be honest. If it doesn't cope well, then no great loss. If it does, then I know I can invest a bit more when this one comes to the end of its life. The robot comes with an infra-red remote control allowing you to access its basic features: auto clean, room clean, edge clean, spot clean and return to dock. It also allows you to set up the Wi-Fi link and to program the timer to get it to start cleaning automatically at a set time every day. Then there's an app (there are both Android and iPhone versions) that provides a bit mo