GADGETS by Gregg Ellman :: January 20, 2021
This week: UV sterilizers for smart devices & a great bluetooth speaker.
Air fryers were the hot and hip appliance the past few years and still are. But it’s not the most important. The Coral UV sterilizer and dryer the single can easily be the most important tabletop appliance in every home.
We are all painfully aware of the need to sanitize, wear a mask, and be socially distant. But what about germs on items like keys, cell phones, wallets, baby bottles, kitchenware, and small toys.
If it can fit inside the Coral UV with a 10-by-8-by-7.5-inch interior, then the two built-in ultraviolet light lamps (Philips TUV 4W FAM G5 Cap, 4 watts each, with a wavelength 253.7 nm) will produce enough intensity to eliminate 99.9 percent of harmful germs in 10 minutes according to Coral UV. Items made with plastics, glass, or silicone are listed as safe.
Does it work to eliminate the harmful germs? That’s not for me to decide by after reading up on the effects of UV light on germs, a device like this does give me the peace of mind that I’m doing all I can.
In addition to the sterilization, the built-in dryer dries the contents in warm temperatures in 40-70 minutes. The times for sterilizing and drying will vary depending on the contents, ranging from just 10 minutes for some items to be sterilized up to 70 minutes for sterilization and drying.
Using the Coral UV sterilizer is as simple as opening up the lop cover, loading in your items, closing the cover, and pressing a button. The UV light bulbs need to be changed every 12 months and the filter every 3 months. Since my review unit is new and doesn’t need anything replaced, I did look at where the bulbs and filters are, and both are easy to locate and change out when needed.
Touch-sensitive buttons are responsive for whatever choice you make to be sanitized and or dried, which is then displayed on a timer that lights up the remaining time. When the lid is closed and the UV lamps are on, an indicator light glows blue. A safety feature shuts off the UV lamps when the cover is open, and any remaining time will continue when it’s closed.
According to the Coral site, the UV sterilizer is FDA and EPA registered and ETL certified. The Coral website has third party lab testing reports posted and full explanations about UV light and its effects on eliminating germs.
The exterior of the Coral UV measures 10.5-by-10.5-by-10-inches, weighing 5.7 pounds, which almost mirrors the size of my air fryer. A stainless steel basket, 3 extra replacement HEPA filters, 1 UV lamp replacement tool, and 1 screwdriver are included.
http://coraluv.com $149.99
Bluesound’s Pulse Mini 2i Bluetooth 5.0 speaker is great to turn on, pair your smartphone or tablet, and play music. Then, the fun begins because there’s more to this story.
The attractive yet compact multi-room streaming speaker produces great and solid sound and lets users create a music scene perfect for specific environments.
Before you power the speaker on, it’s important to know the features of the Pulse Mini 2i, that shows how you can use it to take control of your music.
Features include dual-band Wi-Fi as well as support for 2-way Bluetooth aptX HD, ensuring interruption free music. Don’t get just one Pulse Mini 2i, two are better since a pair of the speakers can be grouped for one big sound spread out in a house.
Music can be controlled directly from the music app within your smartphone, iPad, or wherever it dreams from but another option includes the BluOS Controller app for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows & Mac OS X desktops.
And if that is not enough, there’s also the RC1 remote control, which operates all the Bluesound Players. The wireless remote is well designed with a user friendly and ergonomic design and layout. Program up to 10 presets with a single touch so a phone or tablet doesn’t have to be touched.
When I review high-end speakers such as the Pulse Mini 2i, I always come back to a trick a friend of mine told me years ago. Despite any personal sound preference, he told me to crank up the sound in all directions; bass up, treble down and reverse it with the bass down and treble up. While doing this test with the volume up is the sound clear and distortion-free?
The Pulse Mini 2i passed the sound extreme settings test and provided sound that was clear. Once done I adjusted everything more towards my liking with just a little extra bass.
Specifically, the sound comes from a pair of 4-inch woofers and a pair of 0.75-inch tweeters.
Backlit touch controls for volume, music selections, play, and pause on top along with a well designed and unobtrusive caring handle. The back has ports for the power adapter, Ethernet, type A USB for memory sticks, mini USB for product servicing, optical/analog in and a headphone out port. The Wi-Fi and Ethernet are ideal for connecting to a home speaker system/network.
The speaker measures 13.2-by-6.8-by-6.1-inches with a 7.9-pound weight. The bottom has a pair of 1/4” – 20 threads, which are great for attacking the speaker to a variety of types of hardware equipment (not included) with the matching thread.
Other features all the Pulse Mini 2i to work with Apple AirPlay 2, and integrates with voice assistants Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, and most cloud and music services. An AC power adapter, Ethernet cable, and mini-jack to Toslink adapter are included.
www.bluesound.com $499 available in white or black matte
~ Gregg Ellman (@greggellman)
