I recently reviewed a HiHHY corded stick vacuum. Much of my impression of that stick vacuum are repeated in this handheld cordless model: it looks and feels a bit cheap but despite appearances, it performs as well as my Dyson whilst being much quieter and costing hundreds less.
The overall design of this handvac is conventional. It features a cone-like clear collection canister with accessory brush and crevice nozzle attachments. Unlike the stick model is cordless, with an internal rechargeable battery. What makes this model particularly appealing and innovative is that it is recharged via a ubiquitous USB-C port.
The HiHHY comes with a USB-C cable but does not ship with an AC power adapter. Regardless, USB-C is now the standard with all new phones, one simply needs to borrow a phone charger and Bob’s your uncle, you can recharge this little handvac anywhere.
Moreover, this USB-C compatibility makes the HiHHY the perfect vacuum for a car. It is small enough to keep in a trunk or under a seat. When you need to, you can simply recharge it using your car’s phone USB-C cable.
Sunwayfoto offered me a new carbon fiber tripod to test out. I’ve tested their T3240CS hunting tripod and their TC2340CE travel tripod, so I was eager to try their Hermes which is heavy duty enough to handle heavy cameras and video gear, but nearly as light as a travel tripod at 3lbs (without a tripod head).
What arrived was on point. The entire package looks top notch and well made. The Hermes TL2340 CC tripod has solidly built carbon fibre legs with lever segment locks. The feet were broad rubberized pads that could be swapped with the included set of metal spikes.
The locking lugs for the legs offered 4 locking positions with one nearly 90º offer very low shooting positions. The central carbon fiber pillar is reversible allowing added flexibility for camera mounting the positions. Sunwayfoto cleverly added additional 1/4″ photo gear sockets to the hinge points of the legs allowing a multitude of mounting options for lights, monitors, or ball-head arms.
Fully extended the tripod stands at nearly 60″ tall. More than tall enough for most photo and video projects. The entire tripod stores in Sunwayfoto’s well padded nylon case (included).
All in all I’m well pleased with this medium-weight tripod that weighs like a light-weight. It’s going to be my go-to tripod for my future video reviews.
I needed a new tire gauge when my car was ransacked and my emergency tool bag was stolen from my car in front of our home in San Francisco. While surfing through Amazon, the Norshire caught my eye. This digital tire gauge is as thin as a pen.
When I got it, the package was scarcely larger than the product itself. The instructions were printed in minuscule lettering outside of the box obscured by a stuck-on UPC inventory label. Fortunately it proved easy to figure out.
The Norshire looks a 2000’s minimalist modern, black-on-black, squared plastic tube, reminiscent of a fancy fountain-pen or draftsman ruling-pen. It has a circular black button next to a black LCD screen. Pressing the button activates the system and tapping cycles through metric, Bar, and PSI settings. The unit also displays ambient temperature and air pressure.
It has powered by a single AAA NiMH battery which can be recharged through a USB-C port. One end of the gauge has black raised nub to use as a tire deflater. The other end, with a red rubber washer, pushes into a tires Schrader valve to measure the pressure.
The Norshire proved to be accurate. Comparing it against my car’s onboard tire sensors and to the analogue gauge of my tire inflator, the Norshire returned consistent readings which aligned with my other sources. And unlike any other pressure gauge I’ve ever used, the Norshire had such a good seal that I scarcely heard the hiss of any leaking air while pressing onto the tire’s valve.
The Norshire hovers around $15-19 on Amazon and I plan to purchase a few more when the price dips, as a backup and they would make great holiday stocking stuffers.
When I was asked to review a Hihhy vacuum I said, “Hihhy, who?” When I found out I was being sent a $35-$40 plug-in stick vacuum, I didn’t have high hopes. When I first opened the box, my first impression didn’t impress.
The vacuum looked and felt cheap. To be more accurate, it looked like a $40 vacuum. The body and accessories were a bit too light weight, flexing and bending in ways that a plastic bodied Dyson does not.
The vacuum is conventional looking hand-vac with a handle that screws into the rear of the motor body. Assembly was easy and straight-forward. The box included a packet of replacement internal dust filters and 3 vacuum heads: a rolling floor sweeper, brush nozzle, and a crevice funnel nozzle.
To test it’s performance, I emptied the contest of the waste canister of my Dyson stick-vac onto the floor. If my first impression was disappointment, my impression after testing was surprise. The Hihhy was able to suck up all of the debris and dust in under a minute.
The floor was as clean as if I had used my Dyson. This despite the fact that my Dyson has a motorized brush head to sweep up debris and costs a couple hundred more than this Hihhy. And it was quiter; much quieter. The Dyson is notoriously loud (an intentional design feature of the Dyson to make it appear more powerful than other hand-vacs)
It remains to be seen if this Hihhy is as durable as my Dyson or any other brand name vacuum. If I went by appearances, I doubt it. But if we go by performance, I may be surprised again.
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 21, 2023 through May 27, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 27, 2023.
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followedand email it to me
3. Email me with the Subject:May 28 Contest • Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot • Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
2. Sponsors and Platforms
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
3. Agreement to Rules
By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
4. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 21 May 2023 and 12:00pm EST 27 May 2023
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
Winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.
SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel or terminate in the event that non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the them.
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 15, 2023 through May 20, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 20, 2023.
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followedand email it to me
3. Email me with the Subject:May 21 Contest • Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot • Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
2. Sponsors and Platforms
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
3. Agreement to Rules
By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
4. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 15 May 2023 and 12:00pm EST 20 May 2023
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
Winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.
SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel or terminate in the event that non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the them.
I love USB-C for so many reasons like the higher charging speeds, the higher data rates, and especially because you can’t insert it upside down. Can I get an Amen?! But what I don’t like is that all the newest phones with USB-C have gotten rid of their 3.5mm audio ports.
I get it, they want to save money. They figure we’re all going to BlueTooth earbuds (and I do love wireless connections to listening to audio). But for those of us who vlog or take video with an external mic are kind of screwed.
I bought a Samsung USB-C DAC (Digital Audio Converter) dongle which adds a 3.5mm audio port to your phone. Unfortunately this takes up my one and only USB-C port on the phone, which means I can’t charge while I’ve plugged in a mic. Worse, the quality of the recorded audio sounds digitized in low-fi with audio artifacts and drop-off.
I looked on Amazon for a DAC with a power port and found this Stouchi. While I didn’t like the dongle format (preferring a design that docks to the bottom of the phone), this adapter had a better rating that did claim to have a retain a full data rate.
In the video you can hear the different audio from the phone’s built-in mic, the Samsung DAC, and the Stouchi DAC. The Stouchi had the best audio quality in terms of overall sound level and quality. It also allowed me to charge the phone with an external battery power bank while recording. I’m looking forward to using this to record much better audio at next years Shot Show.
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 7, 2023 through May 13, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 13, 2023.
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followedand email it to me
3. Email me with the Subject:May 14 Contest • Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot • Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
2. Sponsors and Platforms
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
3. Agreement to Rules
By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
4. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 30 April 2023 and 12:00pm EST 13 May 2023
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
Winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.
SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel or terminate in the event that non-authorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of the them.
At SHOT Show 2023 I visited the Monstrum Tactical booth where they introduced me to a green prototype of their new Tracer EDC EDC flashlight. Monstrum told that this new rechargeable flashlight and laster had a max output of 1000 lumens and included a green laser pointer. A few weeks later the Tracer was released and Monstrum sent me a sample to test and evaluate.
The Tracer is an all metal, flat rectangular box that weighs slightly less than 3oz and is 4.5″ long, 1″ wide, and a half-inch thick. The far end from the LED emitter (base) has embedded Neodymium magnets which allow the light to self-mount on metal surfaces. The unit includes a pre-installed clasping clip.
The controls are two flat rubber pads which control the flashlight and laser respectively. A small silicone rubber flap on the side of the unit protects a USB-C charging port. The Tracer is IPX6 rated and it survived a high-pressure water hose spray.
Testing the unit in my DIY Lumen Testing Rig, I recorded an approximate value of 1300 lumens at its highest output mode, higher than the 1000 lumen max number Monstrum advertises. In a battery Runtime tests, the unit lasted the 30 minutes (± 0.75 minutes) at maximum brightness; at which time the unit was uncomfortably too hot to hold.
In many ways the Tracer exceeded expectations. But where it falls short is in its lack of a brightness-output mode-memory. The Tracer always activates at max brightness (1000LM) which is potentially blinding if you turn it on while looking in a small dark space; such as under a car seat.
Furthermore, the green laser and the flashlight can not be activated at the same time; activating one turns off the other. While this is not an issue when using the Tracer as a business presentation pointer, but if you’re in a out in the woods walking a fence and want to use the laser to use the laser to identify one tree from among a forest, you’re out of luck.
One question comes to mind: is the Tracer a copy of the Arkfeld. My first impression of the Tracer was that it looked suspiciously like an OLight Arkfeld, which is also a 1000LM rechargeable light. Is this a copy of the OLight or an EOM factory custom variant? It doesn’t really matter, the Tracer feels and performs like a solid EDC light. The primary difference is that the controls of the Tracer are digital pressure pads and the USB-C charging port which I find more practical than the custom magnetic cables used by OLight.
Athlon is the name of a Greek city which is one of the oldest cities in Europe. But no that’s not what the company was named for. So what’s the deal? I asked the staff at the Athlon booth this question and got their answer.
The answer was more straight forward and aspirational. The engineers who left Bushnell to found a new company named it after the Greek word for a “prize or sporting competition”; where we get the root of many Olympic sports like Decathlon and Biathlon. They wanted a name that sounded like they were a contender in a competitive market. And in the world of sporting optics they are.
