Traveling soon?
These are some of the coolest tech accessories I’ve found to make my life easier on the
go.
This video isn’t sponsored but all of these products were sent in for review unless noted
otherwise, however none of these companies gets to see this video before it premieres
and all my opinions are my own.
This first one is a Kickstarter by one of my good friends who’s been designing and
manufacturing products for many years and also has a vendor booth at DEF CON, Garrett
from Hacker Warehouse.
This is the prototype of the Paragon Gear Field Case, and a full set of Paragon straps.
Garrett made this because he wanted something that was super easy to customize to fit your
needs.
Our electronics come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and having something that fits all
the things whether its for hacker gear or camera gear or your maker kit or your makeup
kit or whatever is way more convenient than buying a bag that is messy and doesn’t keep
your products secure.
The interior includes hook and loop industrial strength material, and there’s velcro all
on the outside so you can stick all your hacker patches on it of your can put Paragon straps
on the outside as well.
These fabric straps are sewn really nicely so they won’t come loose, so if I needed
to, I could add expansions.
These straps come in 4 sizes.
And Divider loops let you adjust them to fit your needs.
I like the zipper, it doesn’t snag, it’s industrial.
You can also lock it with these loops that will lock in together.
It’s smooth to pull.
These straps can be removed so you could hook this to your suitcase or your computer bag
or whatever.
It’s got a thick binder like feel to it, so your products inside won’t get all squished.
On the inside, I love that the entire thing again is velcro and it’s sewn right into
the siding, SO none of your electronics are gonna slip between the cracks and get lost
in the binding because there’s no where for them to go.
You’ve got all the modular options you could ever want.
These velcro straps can be stuck literally anywhere on the inside or outside of the case.
The bottom of the strap hooks right onto the case and they can be stacked.
The dividers let you tighten the straps too, in case the size doesn’t fit your electronic
appropriately or you wanna use one strap for
multiple things.
So here are the ways that I’ve used mine for makeup… for hacker gear… and for camera
gear…
So if you have different bags for different things, you could totally get a few of these
and just have them ready to go anytime you’re traveling.
Like I’m leaving my camera gear in mine since those are the items that need to be
safe and secure when I’m traveling.
This is a prototype, so the end result will have a black or gray logo, not the white logo.
The zipper cord will be longer.
The button snaps will be better quality.
This is totally unique.
Snag one while it’s a kickstarter to get a really sweet deal and back a trusted creator!
Next are a few cases that I love.
My Google Pixel 6 case started looking a little sad… so I bought these Pela Cases to replace
it.
Pela makes a compostable and biodegradable cell phone case.
Which is great since I change phones often, so whenever I retire my Pixel 6 Pro, these
cases won’t go into the trash.
You can throw the case into your compost bin and it’ll biodegrade.
And if you think they’re greenwashing, I’m actually going to link to test results showing
the performance standards are testing for March of 2022.
The cases are soft to the touch.
Some of ‘em have cute prints on the back.
There’s different colors to choose from.
Unfortunately pixel devices don’t get as many choices as the iphone and samsung cases
do, but they’re still cute.
I do hope that Pela considers bringing some of that aesthetic factor to their pixel case
line, because I always feel like pixel owners get totally shafted when it comes to cute
cases.
It’s cool to own something designed for electronics but made from plants tho.
The cases are a little pricey at $60 a pop but they often have promos and discounts,
and they do indeed protect my phone very well and they haven’t deformed over the past
half a year.
These are Samsung cases by velvet caviar, also purchased.
They only make cases for iphone and samsung, not pixel.
Not as pricey at around $35 and these also often have discounts.
I did a full unsponsored Velvet Caviar review way back when that I’ll link below, but
generally - great cases.
Very firm.
Sometimes can be a little too firm on the buttons so you gotta work em out.
A very full coverage option but not too bulky, tons of cool designs to choose from.
My only gripe with the S22 Ultra is the bigger lips make it harder to use gestures in Android
12.
But, it keeps my phone safe.
I’ve dropped this thing on tile uh… a lot of times… and my phone is totally fine.
These are definitely showing signs of wear like some scratches on the back but that hasn’t
affected the quality of the overall case.
Moving onto an iphone case - this one by Pitaka is really nice.
It’s the MagEZ Case Pro 2.
It is It’s MagSafe compatible, has a nice reinforced frame along the edges.
It gives you a satisfying click when you place it on your phone and it’s not going anywhere.
It fits even with a Whitestone Dome camera protector.
The front is slightly raised to protect your screen, ports and buttons are easily accessible,
though the silent switch on the side is pretty deep in there.
Mine is showing some smudges from oils or lotion but the case still looks and feels
great.
This one costs around $50.
Popping over to the next accessory, but if you like my vibe, hit subscribe.
That rhymed.
I’m also on the instagrams if you’re into that kind of thing.
I post a lot of travel photos and just random weird things I do in my daily life there.
My screenname is Snubs.
Easy.
Moving on!
That brings me to this new charger for iphone called the Pitaka 3-in-1 wireless charging
stand that can also be used as a magnetic power bank which they call their MagEZ Slider.
It’s made for MagSafe series phones and qi enabled airpods.
You can find this as a 4-in-1 charger as well with an adapter for your apple watch that
plugs into the USB C port on the side.
You can actually use this Apple Watch charger with any product with a USB C Port and it’s
MFi Certified.
It’s $179 with the Apple Watch dongle, or $129 without it.
You slap this thing onto a table - it’s got a gel pad on the bottom that’s supposed
to be reusable but dang this thing is sticky as heck and hard to remove.
Plug this thing into the USB-C to wall charger via the USB C port on the rotating base and
you’re good to go.
Oooo when you rotate it, it’s clicky.
That makes my brain happy.
It’s fully rotatable, even when plugged in.
Cool!
The charger on the back works for any qi enabled earbuds, not just apple air pods.
It has to height settings which you can access by flipping the little base upside down.
On the front is this MagEZ Slider battery bank, which is 4000mAh battery on it’s own,
if you wanna take it with you, but can also slide right into this USB C port on the front
to give you a magnetic charger for your MagSafe products.
Do you have to use this with the Pitaka case?
No, dude, you can use this with any MagSafe cases or just a naked iphone.
If you have an android case with magnets, it can also be used with those - Pitaka sells
an S22 case that’s compatible with this power station and battery.
The bank itself has a low battery vibration indicator built in, plus low light LEDs to
indicate it’s current power level and a power button.
The power adapter is 20 watts, the passthrough USB C port is 5W.
The wireless output is low at 5W.
I would love to see an upgraded version of this with faster charging speeds, but if charging
overnight, that 5W is totally reasonable.
Next is this pretty shiny piece of tech.
This is Kingston’s new Ironkey Vault Privacy 80ES.
It’s a hardware encrypted solid state drive, perfect for taking with me on the go and storing
all my video files for editing.
This is a 1tb model - technically 960GB.
It has a touch screen on the front, is totally operating system independent so you can use
this with any OS, including Linux.
It’s also multi password compatible and 256 AES XTS encrypted.
It comes with this travel case, a 3.2 gen 1 USB C to C cable, and a C to A cable for
your computers.
This thing is highly configurable so I’ll do a separate review, but TLDR, you can create
very secure admin rules for unlocking the SSD, it comes in a few different storage sizes,
and of course speeds are important for my 4k video files, so we’re looking at Up to
250MB/s read, 250MB/s write speeds on here.
Prices are: 480GB, $435; 960GB, $535; and 1920GB, $765.
I love that this thing is user friendly but it also protects against brute force attacks
as well as USB attacks, such as ones that work with the USB Rubber Ducky.
Love it.
I’m taking this with me to all the cons.
I’ve got links down below for all of these, make sure to check out my friends Kickstarter,
because this is so useful, definitely a must have.
What accessories are you bringing with you this summer on your travels?
I have more recommendations here, so watch that next and I’ll see y’all next time.
Bye y’all!