Keep Your Cuppa Warm with Ember

There's nothing quite like starting your morning with a steaming cup of chai, rich with spices and robust English breakfast tea. Picture this: you're on your backyard porch, savoring each sip, surrounded by birdsong. But then, reality hits, and you have to dive into your morning emails and messages. After 45 minutes of intense digital correspondence, you reach for your cup, only to find it cold and unpalatable. Ugh.

For years, my daily routine included reheating my forgotten cup of chai in the microwave—a hassle, to say the least. That was until I discovered the game-changing Ember mug, a sleek solution designed to keep your drink perfectly warm for hours.

Ember: The Mug That Redefines Warmth

Ember isn’t just any mug; it’s the epitome of smart drinkware. With a built-in heating element, it keeps your beverage warm for up to 4-5 hours. This means my chai stays hot and enjoyable until lunchtime, transforming my mornings.

Ember Mug v1

The Ember mug stands out with its superior build quality. Made from a special ceramic material with an aquaphobic coating, it’s incredibly easy to clean—just a quick rinse, and it’s spotless. No residue, no fuss. Plus, it comes with a sleek charging base, ensuring your mug is always ready for action.

Smart Temperature Control

One of Ember's coolest features is its temperature control via a mobile app. Pair the app to your mug using Bluetooth, and you can monitor and adjust your drink’s temperature to your preference. It’s an effortless way to ensure your drink is always at the perfect warmth.

Worth the Investment?

You might wonder if all this technology is necessary for a mug. Isn’t it easier to just reheat your drink in the microwave? Sure, that's practical. But once you experience the consistent warmth Ember offers, you’ll see the difference. It’s a significant quality-of-life improvement, turning each sip into a small pleasure. After a few days, using any other mug feels like a step backward.

More Than Just a Mug

Ember’s lineup includes a smaller cup, a tall tumbler, and a travel mug. I personally use the 10 oz regular mug and the 12 oz travel mug. Both have revolutionized my hot drink routine. The regular mug, after five years of daily use, still looks brand new. The travel mug, a Christmas gift from last year, keeps my green tea perfectly warm throughout the day. These mugs are built to last and truly enhance your drinking experience.

Ember Travel Mug

Final Thoughts

Whether for yourself or as a thoughtful gift, an Ember mug is a fantastic addition to any hot beverage lover’s life. Once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Get yours today, or add it to your next gift list—you won’t be disappointed, and soon, your whole family will want one too.

Remarkable — a tablet that lives up to its name

You would think that naming a product "Remarkable" is almost setting it up for ridicule. But it's not very often that a gadget so perfectly fits the job it's meant to do that it lives up to its name.  Indeed, having used the Remarkable writing and reading tablet for over three years now, I can assure you that it is one of those gadgets.

I bought the Remarkable tablet when it launched back in Oct 2017. I have been using it daily since then. It has completely transformed my note-taking and book-reading — to the point that I have donated all my beautiful paper notebooks, Field Notes, Bullet Journals, and assorted swag conference diaries to my kid's school. I am paper-free.

A tablet that reads and writes

The Remarkable tablet is a simple computer with an A4 paper sized e-Ink display. With just this description, it sounds like a large Kindle. Yes, you can also read books on it. But what makes it stand apart from the Kindle is that you can write on it. 

And when I mean write, it feels like writing on paper. This fantastic experience is due to the rough paper-like texture of the display cover and the passive stylus with a plastic nib that wears down like a pencil. The tablet thoughtfully comes with five spare stylus nibs.

The paper-like experience is so real that it makes a scratching sound when you write on it, just like paper. The feel is very textured and rough, akin to a graphite pencil on sketch paper.

This feature alone would have sold me on the benefits of the tablet. But there's more.

The tablet runs a custom version of Linux called Codex on an ARM chip. It has 8GB of internal storage that's equivalent to about storing 100,000 pages of text. Trust me, if you can write 100,000 pages of notes, plans, stories, etc., you are in the wrong career. You should be a full-time writer.

The Codex OS on the tablet is a beautiful example of a user interface done right. It is intuitive, fast, and reliable. The tablet has never crashed or misbehaved in my three years of use.

Due to the low power e-Ink display, the battery easily lasts a week or more. Charging is quick through a micro-USB connector so you can use the same one that charges your multiple devices at home.

Notebooks and eBooks

The tablet supports three core formats: Notebooks, PDFs and eBooks in the DRM free ePub format.

Notebooks are for things you create yourself. Sketches, bullet journals, daily diaries, ToDo lists, lecture notes — you can create all these in one notebook or have individual ones for each writing type.

The Notebook feature comes with over 50 templates of different types of page formats: pages with small, large dots for bullet journals, Day Planner format, Week plan format, ruled lines of various widths and sizes, squared pages for sketching or Math – the Remarkable team has pretty much thought of everything.

You can have a different page format for every page in your single notebook. Or you can create notebooks with different formats. And you can easily move pages within a notebook or to different notebooks. This feature is useful when you start taking notes quickly and later on want to categorize them.

You can transfer your eBooks and PDFs to the tablet using the companion app. Reading books on this tablet is a joy as you have a larger size than the Kindle, and you can annotate any page of any ebook or PDF with your stylus. These annotations will persist and sync across your devices through the app. Friendly page-turning swipe gestures on the screen, and hard buttons to advance or go back pages make it easy to navigate a book.

Writing done right

The writing features also has a few neat functions. The most basic one is UNDO. You have infinite Undo capability, so if you want to fix any squiggle, you can undo one stroke at a time. If you're going to erase many strokes or a large portion of the page or the entire page itself, you are better off using the Erase feature. The Erase feature allows you to erase like a pencil eraser, or draw a shape around the strokes/writing you want to delete, and it will erase everything within that closed shape.

You can duplicate anything you write or sketch - which is handy for quickly creating patterns or bullet points or templates. Again, circle the writing or drawing you want to duplicate, tap on the '+' icon on the selection rectangle, and drag the duplicated material to another spot on the page.

If you are like me and can't sometimes recognize your handwriting due to a lack of practice since we all type on our devices now, Remarkable also has handwriting-recognition built into the tablet. You can choose a page or entire notebook and convert the text and symbols into digital text and symbols. The accuracy is over 95% and very reliable across a range of handwriting. You get the converted notes as a text file sent to your email. Very convenient and easy to use.

Sketchy stuff...

Besides these basic writing features, if you are an artist, this tablet will replace your daily sketchbook. It has Pencils, Pens, Brushes with varying thicknesses of nibs & strokes. You can create layers (like PhotoShop) and have a rich canvas that allows you to create some spectacular art, like these from the @remarkable Instagram account.

@dragana.draws on Instagram

@remarkable on Instagram

@arnullfoventura on Instagram

@richardfxr on Instagram

WiFi without the distraction

The tablet connects to WiFi. But don't think you will be able to browse the internet on this. The WiFi is strictly for syncing the content from the tablet to your mobile or desktop devices through an extremely functional companion app available on macOS/Windows and iOS/Android. The app allows you to sync content across your tablet and your mobile & desktop devices. You transfer PDFs and eBooks to the tablet by loading them first in the app and then automatically sync to the tablet.

The ability to not get distracted by notifications, browsing, email, or other apps makes this tablet spectacular to focus on the task at hand — be it writing, taking notes, sketching or reading books. This non-feature alone is worth the price of admission.

Scandinavian beauty

I want to highlight the beautiful visual experiences that the Remarkable team has created on every customer-facing aspect of the tablet, the user interface, their website, and their app. The design is typically Scandinavian, as the Remarkable team is in Oslo, Norway. You can very clearly see the Scandinavian design influence of pure, clean, functional design that delights. It's what I would expect the evolution of the current Apple design aesthetic. This product straight up seems like an Apple product from the future.

Every time I take my tablet out for reading or taking notes in a company meeting or with friends, the first thing people exclaim is "What's that ?". Then, I give them a run-through of all the features and then invite them to pick up the stylus and write on it themselves. Within the first few seconds of writing or drawing on it, their face cracks open into a wide smile as they realize how close it is to writing on paper. It's something you have to experience for yourself. Many of my friends and colleagues have subsequently purchased one for themselves and are enjoying the benefits of going paper-free.

Going green... remarkably easy...

This tablet could revolutionize the school and college experience for students. They won't have to spend on expensive paper notebooks and textbooks. If the schools and colleges invest in these tablets and provide all the textbooks in eBook form on the tablet, the productivity and cost benefits will surpass the cost of the tablet in no time. Remember, no internet distractions on this device so it can be safely used inside a classroom.

Many industries and markets could benefit from this: healthcare professionals, law enforcement, lawyers, government officials, and workplaces with a lot of paperwork required for reading, writing, and sharing. This tablet is as green as it gets.

Remarkable 2.0

And now, after three years, Remarkable has announced version 2 of their beautiful tablet. This new version looks fantastic and has an elegant polished look and feel. With an aluminum casing, it is thinner than the first version, with longer battery life and a stylus with an eraser at the opposite end - just like a regular pencil. And they also upgraded the connector to a USB-C, so it works universally with all your latest devices.

Remarkable 2.0 - Photo by remarkable.com

The benefit of introducing the new version of the tablet extends to the old version. You can now buy version 1 for 20% off for a new one and 27% off for a refurbished one. These are some great deals for a device that will pay itself over many times.

I have already ordered the version 2, being delivered sometime in July this year. Expect a followup to this review focused on version 2 of the tablet in August.

They weren't kidding when they named their device Remarkable. It truly is...

Stop your family from complaining about poor WiFi coverage

It's 4 pm and you hear that dreaded cry from your kid's bedroom. "Daaaaaad... the WiFi is not working...".

For any parent these are now the most feared words, as we hunker down together through this period of being grounded by an infinitesimally small virus.

In happier times (any date before March 13, 2020 😂) we would have ignored the cry or asked our kids to "Come out here in the study where the router has a better signal..".

Saying that now, will only cause you parental shame.

But there is a better solution. It's called "mesh networking" and has been around for a few years now. Mesh networking allows you to blanket your house with strong wifi signals using wifi transceivers at targeted areas around the house. 

These are not "WiFi Extenders" or "WiFi Access Points". The new mesh network devices are a sophisticated version of these extenders where they offer various key benefits like transparently handing over connection to the nearest mesh network device and beam-forming to individual devices as well.

This results in a strong WiFi connection between your phone, tablet or laptop to the mesh device nearest you as you move from room to room in your house.

The pioneer in this field has been a company called "Eero". They  were founded in 2015 and launched the first user friendly mesh network router set. The entire product experience was like an Apple product, including the pristine white color of the devices.

Being an exceptionally early adopter (to my wife’s eternal chagrin), I immediately bought them and have been using them for almost 4 years now. Never again have we had any wifi coverage issues in our house or even in our backyard/frontyard.

My first generation Eero next to my AirPods Pro and Magic Mouse for comparison.

Eero were very successful and soon were scooped up by Amazon in 2019.

They are now in their third version of their hardware and now offer consumer and small business configurations.

I would highly recommend their beautiful 3 piece consumer set.

You plug one into your cable or DSL modem and then set it up with their really cool mobile app. You can then setup the other two devices at strategic locations throughout your house. The app will guide you to where the signal strength is best. If you have a large area to cover you can buy more of these devices.

Once these are setup they provide strong wifi coverage through out your house. But wait, there's more.

The Eero app also provides simple features to monitor and restrict access to the internet for all devices that connect to the wifi. That means you can target your kid's devices, set them up in a profile and then collectively turn them on or off with a single tap from anywhere in the world.

So for instance if your kid, Katie, has a phone and tablet, you can link those two devices to a profile, say "Katie". Then you can set access times for Katie. So she gets to user the internet from 8 am - 10 pm every weekday and 7 am - 11 am on weekends. Or if she is not doing their chores then you can "ground" them from the internet with a single tap.

In addition, Eero also has a monthly subscription called "Eero Secure" to monitor and block ads and harmful sites from your entire network ! 

So everyone in the house connected to the WiFi running on Eero with Eero Secure turned on will not see most ads on websites or apps. This alone is worth the price of admission..

So what are you waiting for ? Get a Eero mesh network and stop those dreaded cries bemoaning the poor wifi signal and be the cool parent who forever solved the wifi problem…

Power when you need it, where you need it...

Sometimes I am on my patio working on a simple enough project, say fixing the InstaPot lid that my wife inadvertently left too close near the stovetop burner and it melted part of the plastic lining. So now the lid won't close. My expert analysis lead me to believe that all it required was a bit of sanding and buffing with my trusty Dremel.

So I setup the InstaPot lid and Dremel kit on my patio table and then looked around for a power socket. The nearest one was too far for the Dremel wire and I didn't want to lug out an extension cord.

Luckily I have this amazing portable power source powered by a humungous lithium-ion battery. My friends, meet Jackery - the 240Wh battery pack that provides 110V/200W of pure since wave AC power. You can plug in one 110v appliance and it has 2 USB ports along with a 12v car port.

It's too good to be true. You can use it for all sorts of low power appliances (less than 200W) around the house and it's a fantastic power source for going camping and hiking. No messy gasoline generators to worry about.

This power pack can also be charged by a solar panel sold separately. Now you are truly free and off the grid.

So I plugged in my Dremel and few minutes later had sanded the melted lining of the InstaPot lid. Voila! The lid closes safely. I have used my Jackery for various tasks around the house and in my backyard.

We also take it to the beach where it can charge everyone's iPhones, iPads and keep a small drinks cooler running through the day keeping our beers cold.

It looks beautiful and is extremely well made. A solid piece of equipment that will last you for a long time.

Get one today and enjoy the freedom it provides. 


Highly recommend: 5/5

Quarantine Hacks: Watch TV together but at your own individual volume

Now that we are in the second decade of the 2020 Quarantine Lockdown, there have been many moments when the family has come to blows. Over things like chores, work spaces and the perennial question of what should we all watch on TV together ?

If by some miracle the family decides on a common movie to watch, then begins the struggle for the remote. Having deadened my ears in my teenage years through aggressively loud listening of heavy metal music and many rock shows that exceeded even Disaster Area levels, I tend to turn up the TV volume as high as I can. This tends to aggravate my family beyond belief. 🤷🏽‍♂️

But technology to the rescue. A few years ago I got this amazing set of over the ear headphones that connect wirelessly over RF to your TV via a receiver. You can then pair up to 4 headphones with one receiver. Voila! Instant personal volume control.

You can get the first set of headphones with the transceiver and then buy individual headphones as required. One transceiver supports up to 4 headphones. Since the connection is over Radio Frequency (RF) and not Infra-Red, these will work throughout your house. So as you get up for a snack or go to the bathroom, you can still hear the TV audio where ever you go. The range is quite exceptional.

This has solved many issues at our house. When our kids were younger and slept early, my wife and I could watch the TV without disturbing the little ones since we both had individual headphones. We also convinced our older parents to get these and now they are enjoying the benefits of individual volume control without waking up the neighborhood.

Another great benefit is that you can actually hear all the background audio, the whispers and the soundtrack of the program you are watching. This adds an immersive layer of aural experience to your TV watching. We watched the entire run of Game Of Thrones with these headphones and immensely enjoyed the aural scapes.

Highly recommend: 5/5