EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Rowan Vale

264 guides on Pickstead

Travel / Research review

Osprey Daylite Review: Thirteen Liters Is the Feature, Not the Shortfall

Osprey lists the plain Daylite at $70 with a 13-liter main compartment, a 1.23-pound empty weight and a removable webbing hipbelt. Read against the 20-liter Daylite Plus at $80, the smaller pack is the one that stays light enough to clip onto a bigger bag and forget about.

Home / Research review

Kasa KL125 Smart Bulb Review: Ten Dollars a Bulb, Cloud Required, No Matter

An 800-lumen A19 color bulb that dims, tunes and changes color only through the app and cloud, sold in packs that work out to $6.39 to $10.00 per bulb. Its two-year US warranty is longer than most bulbs at this price, and its lifespan figure takes some arithmetic to read.

Tech / Research review

Roku Streaming Stick 4K Review: Twenty Dollars Buys Dolby Vision and a Wall Plug

Roku sells three sticks between $39.99 and $79.99, and the top one adds Dolby Vision, an 802.11ac MIMO radio, and a receiver-in-the-cable that needs its own power adapter. Whether the extra $20 over the Streaming Stick Plus is money well spent comes down to your TV's HDR support and how far it sits from the router.

Tech / Research review

Logitech Brio 100 Review: Fixed Focus Is the Line Between $30 and $60

Logitech's cheapest current webcam lists 1080p at 30 fps, a 58 degree field of view, one omnidirectional microphone, and a sliding shutter for $29.99. The fixed-focus plastic lens is what separates it from the $59.99 C920s, and it is the one line on the spec list you cannot fix later.

Kitchen / Buying guide

Why We Do Not Run Taste Tests, and What to Read Instead

A taste test reports one palate on one day with variables nobody wrote down. Three coffee tools publish the variables themselves: a chamber size, a temperature range and a weighing interval a buyer can hold constant at home.

Tech / Buying guide

Before a Projector, the Room Has to Answer Three Questions

A projector is bought for the size of the picture and lived with through the room around it: how dark it gets, what carries the sound, and where the film actually comes from. A smart plug, a small speaker and a memory card each answer one of those before the projector is chosen.

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