SG:1969

[sg1969]

THE PATRIOT by Ruze Vapor E-liquid Review

THE PATRIOT by Ruze Vapor - Lynwood, WA, USA http://www.ruzevapor.com/#!the-patriot/fbc62 * Cinnamon Apple Pie * 3 mg * 70% VG * 15 mL * $12 * Manufacturer's description: "An all American favorite. Fresh baked Cinnamon Apple Pie!"

Gear: Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ around 38 W Bottle: Amber, child resistant glass dropper bottle with glass pipette.The label goes all the way around the bottle, only leaving a small gap, and since the bottle is amber, it can be a little difficult to see the amount of liquid left. The label shows the logo, nicotine level, VG/PG ratio, safety warnings, and ingredients. Does not have a batch number. Smell: Very strong on the pie/cake smell at first, then I get the apples, followed by *maybe* a hint of cinnamon, but it's not very strong. I would have preferred the other way around (stronger apple and cinnamon), but let's see how it vapes. Taste: Overall, I'd say it's a good balance between the three flavours. A nice blend of apple and cinnamon, with the pie overtone, though it tastes more like biscuits I'd say. I personally would have preferred a bit more apple (what can i say, I love the fruity flavours) or maybe a bit sweeter, but it is nice. I wouldn't use it as an all day vape myself, but might come back to it occasionally. I did need to lower the wattage in order to get more of the apple taste, and it was also a little harsh. Still gives me a good throat hit, and since it's a high VG mix, good clouds as well.

[sg1969]

CANDY CANE by Hot Vapes E-liquid Review

CANDY CANE by Hot Vapes - Chicago, IL, USA http://www.hotvapes.com/candy-cane.html * Peppermint Candy * 3 mg * 80% VG * 17 mL * $10 * Manufacturer's Description: "Minty and sweet, it's everything you want a Candy Cane to be."

Gear: Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ 47 W Bottle: Clear plastic Boston Round bottle with a fine tip. It is child resistant, has a label going all the way around the bottle with logo, VG/PG content, nicotine level, ingredients, batch number, and a short safety warning. The label does not go all the way around, leaving a gap wide enough to see how much liquid is left. Smell: Smells just like candy cane or your average minty candy, or toothpaste (not in a bad way). The mint is strong, with an overtone of sweetness. Taste: This is actually the first time I try a mint/menthol juice, so i was a bit overwhelmed at first by how "minty" it felt. But once I got used to it, it did not bother me at all. In fact, I  kinda like it! It's fresh, but also has enough sweetness to really give it that candy cane or mint gum taste. I wouldn't use it as an all day vape, but definitely a nice choice if you want a break from the more fruity or dessert flavoured liquids.

[sg1969]

HONOR by The Neighborhood E-liquid Review

HONOR by The Neighborhood - Santa Ana, CA, USA http://the-neighborhood-juice.myshopify.com/products/honor * Strawberry Poprocks * 3 mg * 70% VG * 15 mL * $12 * Manufacturer's Description: No description is available on the manufacturer's website, here's what Zamplebox has to say. "Honor from The Neighborhood is a sweet strawberry flavour e-liquid with a pink pop rock candy and sour punch on the exhale."

Gear: - Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ 35 W - Kangertech Subtank, Kanger Clapton Coil @0.5 Ω with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ 24 W Bottle: Glass dropper bottle with glass pipette. The bottle is coated in white, so you cannot see how much liquid is left. It is child resistant and has a label going most of the way around the bottle with logo, nicotine level, prop 65 warning as well as additional safety logos and emergency "Poison help" number, which is a nice addition. However, it does not mention VG/PG ratio or batch number. Smell: Smells just like strawberry candy, though it seems closer to real strawberry compared to other similar liquids I've tried. Pleasant smell, not too strong but defined. Taste: First impression on the dripper was not very good. The taste was a little muddled and I found that it left a weird aftertaste. It kind of tasted like a bad strawberry candy, which was disappointing. However, once I lowered the wattage a little bit, it started to taste more like it should. More pronounced strawberry flavour and sweetness, still getting a decent throat hit and producing enough vapor for those who care about that kind of stuff. Much better than my first attempt at 45 W, though that is what I normally use for all my other liquids. It did still leave a weird aftertaste, a kind of tanginess that I do not normally expect from strawberry flavours. I then decided to try this in a tank, and the result was much, much better. The flavour was more defined, and getting a lot more of the strawberry as well as sweetness, as well as that sour punch on the exhale just like the description says. It is much more enjoyable and I might actually finish the bottle. So there you go, for me this juice definitely vaped better in a tank at a lower power.

[sg1969]

INDULGENCE by Binges vapors E-liquid Review

INDULGENCE by Binge Vapors - Tacoma, WA, USA http://www.bingevapors.com/flavors/indulgence-by-binge-vapors/ * Strawberry Starburst * 3 mg * 70% VG * 15 mL * $13 * Manufacturer's Description: "This is a fantastically flavored Premium E-Liquid. Just imagine a perfect Pink Starburst and you have figured out Indulgence."

Gear:

Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ 45 W Bottle: Child resistant clear glass dropper bottle with glass pipette. Label goes around the entire bottle but leaving a gap wide enough to easily see the amount of liquid remaining. Label has: logo, nicotine level, warning messages and ingredients. However, the print quality is very bad and it is pretty much impossible to read what is in the warning messages or ingredients list, making them absolutely useless. It does not show the VG/PG ratio, and does not have a batch number. Smell: Smells like strawberry sweets, bit more candy-like than the fruit, but not completely artificial either. Promising. Taste: Well, what can I say, they really nailed the flavour. It really does remind me of the "strawberry" flavoured pink Starbursts (these (http://www.starburst.com/#/products/fruit-chews/original) are Starbursts, in case you are not familiar). It is very sweet, has a strawberry flavour, with a little bit of creaminess on the exhale, just like the sweets. Vapes well in a dripper, good throat hit but not harsh, and big clouds. It's probably one of my favourite strawberry flavoured e-liquids I've tried so far, and it makes me want to try their other liquids. Well done Binge Vapors!

[sg1969]

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE by e-Pure E-liquid Review

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE by e-Pure - Kansas City, KS, USA http://www.epure-liquid.com/product/strawberryshortcake/ * Strawberries & cream shortcake * 3 mg * 70% VG * 15 mL * $10 Manufacturer's description: "Crisp, succulent strawberries blended with rich cream, gently laid atop a bed of a feathery shortcake.  This Bakery blend makes for the perfect dessert; any time of day."

Gear: Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ around 40 W

Bottle: Clear, child resistant glass dropper bottle with glass pipette. Label goes covers about 3/4 of the bottle, so you can easily see the amount of remaining liquid.The label shows the logo, nicotine level, capacity, ingredients, safety warnings, and batch number. It does not show the VG/PG ratio. Smell: Basically smells of strawberries, not getting much cream or cake smells. Does not smell too sweet, just a standard strawberry smell, nothing special. Taste: Just like the smell, I'm mostly getting a strawberry flavour, a little bit of creaminess but it doesn't stand out that much. I had to lower the wattage a bit as I found it was quite harsh at the 45 W I usually use (around 38 - 40 was ideal for me). The flavour itself is not very strong, and although it's not bad per se, I probably wouldn't choose this one over the many, many strawberry flavoured liquids that are out there.

[sg1969]

Ska Doosh E-liquid Review

SKA DOOSH by Kingdom Elixir - Laguna Hills, CA, USA https://kingdomelixir.com/product/ska-doosh/ * Southern Peach tea * 3 mg * 65% VG * 20 mL

Manufacturer’s description: “The sun is beating down your neck. The sand is roasting beneath your toes. Why not cool off with Ska Doosh, a refreshing vape of our southern peach tea? Sorry, can’t help you out with your sunburn. Try sun screen.”

Gear: Advken Mad Hatter v2 RDA, dual clapton coils @ 0.27 Ω, Japanese organic cotton with Volcano Lavabox DNA200 mod @ 45 W

Bottle: The bottle is made of purple tinted glass and is square in shape, with a glass pipette dropper. It is child resistant, has labels with brand logo, ingredients, and safety warnings, but does not mention the PG/VG.

Smell: This liquid smells like sweet peach, and a faint hint of tea. I’d say it’s quite a pleasant smell.

Taste: I found this to be a very subtle flavour. You get hints of peach and tea, with a slightly stronger sweetness on top of it. Tastes a bit like a Lipton peach iced tea. The flavours are well balanced, and none of them are too overwhelming. I often find that in a lot of liquids the tea flavour is a bit too intense, but this isn’t the case here and is overall a very pleasant vape.

Vapour and throat hit: It has a decent throat hit, not too harsh, and very good vapour production for a 65% VG mix. Can’t imagine what it would be like with a higher VG mix.

[sg1969]

Ok I guess it's funny that he thinks he's clever....

[sg1969]

i enjoyed reading your post(from softwar,king of trolls).

Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed it :)

[sg1969]

FromSoftware, King of Trolls

FromSoftware is a Japanese video game company, best known for the Armored Core, King’s Field, and most recently the Souls series (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls 1 and its sequel). The Souls series is especially famous for being difficult, unforgiving, frustrating, yet it is also very satisfying, rewarding, and addictive. No matter how many times the game kills you, you keep going back for more.

These games use death as a lesson. If you die, it’s your fault. It’s because you didn’t block fast enough, or rolled the wrong way, or chose the wrong weapon. If you want to live, you need to learn from your mistakes, adapt to the enemy and the environment. In other words, it’s entirely up to player skill, and you could even complete the entire game using no weapons or without levelling up at all if you’re a real masochist.

Having said that, there are times when you are tricked into dying. Many games have traps or other mechanics to kill the player, but FromSoftware is rather famous for having a bit of fun with you, and you could even say that they are trolling you.

Here is a list of some of the best trolling by FromSoftware. I will be focusing just on Dark Souls 2 for now. These dirty tricks could also be taken as a sort of extra tutorial to give you and idea and get you ready for the main game, as they are mostly in The starting area or towards the beginning of the game.

Kobolds in Things Betwixt

These are the first enemies you will encounter in the game, and most likely responsible for your very first death. They are small monkey-like creatures running around in the grass. Some people might not even notice them at first. They aren’t really “enemies” though, in that they are not actually hostile towards the player unless you attack them first. However, most players will attack them anyway, thinking they would be easy to dispatch. And these kobolds can be a real pain in the ass, as they are small and therefore hard to hit, they run around a lot, hide in the tall grass, and worst of all, the moment you hit one they all gang up on you and within a few seconds you will be rewarded with your first trophy/achievement to celebrate your first death. The fact that you don’t have a weapon or shield doesn’t help either.

Tutorial Stones

After you create your character, you will go through an optional tutorial area. Here you will find a number of tutorial stones, with helpful messages that teach you the basic mechanics of the game such as how to fight, block, parry, etc. The problem is, as you can see in the screenshot above, some of the enemies are very close to these stones, making it very easy for you to accidentally break the stones before you have a chance to read them. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this was intentional, otherwise they would have made these stones indestructible, like most other non-wooden objects in the game.

Braziers in Tutorial Area

You will notice braziers all over the tutorial area (and throughout the rest of the game). These can be lit with a torch. There are even messages encouraging you to do so. You’ll find a bunch of these braziers along the main path leading to Majula (the next area), as well as in each tutorial section. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought that something would happen if you light up all the braziers. A treasure, a hidden path, an event… Something, anything! But alas, all it does it make the area a little brighter, waste the timer on your torch, and… that’s pretty much it. It’s possible that they did in fact have something planned, but had to scrap it for whatever reason. But I personally prefer to think that it’s another attempt at trolling the players.

Sex Change Coffin

This is a good one… First I need to explain how death works in this game: each time you die, your maximum health will go down a little (until it’s down to about 50%), as well as making you more and more hollow each time. After a few deaths, you will look like a zombie. In one of the tutorial sections, you will find a sort of coffin/boat by a lake, guarded by an ogre. At this point, FromSoftware is expecting you to have died a few times. But just to be on the safe side, they decided to add a second ogre that will ambush you as you approach the coffin. it’s hard enough taking on one ogre this early in the game, fighting two at once will be too much for most players, resulting in death. If your HP is low, it will probably one shot you.

A wise player would give up and come back later. But what's in the coffin? What does it do? Maybe it's important. Maybe you can just ignore the ogres and run up to it, and see if it does something… And that’s pretty much what a lot of new players do. What you don’t know is that this coffin is used to swap the gender of your character from male to female and vice versa. The thing is, because you look like a zombie, you might not notice it right away, at least until you become human again, and even then you still might not notice the sex change until you happen to take your armour off. In theory, you could end up playing the whole game without realising that you had your gender swapped.

Majula Enslaved Pigs

There are three little piggies next to the mansion in Majula. They are similar to the kobolds, except they are hostile but don’t move as fast. Don’t be fooled, these pigs can easily kill you! Although they are not very strong, three of them hitting you at once will add up. They are also extremely difficult to hit as they are tiny, and they have very high defence so take a long time to kill. And you better watch out while you back away from them, because there is a massive hole in the ground and you will die if you fall in it. Thing is, I don’t really see any point in these pigs other than causing an unnecessary death (or two, or three…) and you probably won’t ever fight them again, at least not willingly.

Victor’s Stone

There are many covenants you can join in the game. One of them is the Company of Champions, which you can join by interacting with the Victor’s Stone in Majula. Although there are vague hints as to what joining this covenant does, it’s not very clear, whether on purpose or not. Either way, joining this covenant will increase the game’s difficulty by making enemies notice you from a greater distance, increasing their health, and making them deal more damage. It will also disable coop play, both online and offline, meaning that you won’t be able to summon other players or NPCs for help. It’s meant for more hardcore players who want a greater challenge, or those on NG+ and beyond who want to increase difficulty even more.

Illusory Walls

The Souls series has always had secret doors and passages. These are hidden behind illusory walls, which you need to attack in order to reveal the hidden passage. Or at least, this is what you had to do in the two previous games. In Dark Souls 2, instead of hitting the wall, you need to press a button on the controller. There are many valid reasons why they did this, such as conserving weapon durability, differentiating between hidden passages and blocked passages (the latter can be accessed by breaking a crate or wooden door, or walking through foliage), and perhaps to prevent people from discovering these secrets by accidentally hitting the wall while fighting an enemy. The thing is, this is never explained anywhere, and is very confusing to veterans of the Souls series who are used to hitting suspicious walls with their weapon. Some of these walls are so obvious, like being able to see a faint outline, or the texture is clearly different from the rest of the wall, which makes it even more frustrating.

Wooden Treasure Chests

There are a number of treasure chests in the game. Some are made of metal, others of wood. The metallic ones are indestructible and contain important or valuable items, whereas the wooden ones contain less important items. Some of these chests can also be Mimics - chests that turn into horrible monsters when you try to open them. Because of this, it’s become second nature for a lot of players to hit a chest a couple times before opening it, to make sure it’s not going to come to life and rip your head off. This is fine for the metallic chests, but if you hit the wooden ones too many times, they break, and all you will get is rubbish. An extra layer of trolling for those who played the previous game: there was actually an item called “Rubbish” which could be traded for a fairly valuable item. But as far as I know, there is no use for this in Dark Souls 2, so it might take a few broken chests (and lost items) before someone realises something’s not quite right…

Shaded Woods Forest Guardians

This is FromSoftware's way of getting back at us. In the first Dark Souls game, there was an area where you encounter two “invisible” enemies. Before the game was patched/nerfed, it was impossible to lock onto the enemy, making it extremely difficult to fight them. After the patch I think they became slightly easier to see, and you could also lock onto them, making the fight a lot easier. A lot of people actually complained about it, saying it made the area too easy and less fun. So in the sequel, FromSoftware was more than happy to accommodate those players: the Shaded Woods has an area that is entirely shrouded in a thick fog, making it very difficult to see what’s around you or where you need to go. There is a cliff on one side and falling off will kill you. Then of course there are the dozen or so invisible, non-targetable enemies. They are extremely difficult to see, and will often try to circle behind you in an attempt to backstab you.The only thing you can do is swing your weapon blindly and hope that you'll hit something - but you better avoid hitting some of those groaning trees that attract even more of the invisible enemies!

So there you have it, I'm sure there's a lot more so let me know if I missed anything else!

[sg1969]

Virgin Vapor Organic Juicy Watermelon (Absolute) E-Liquid Review

Here is my review of Virgin Vapor’s Organic Juicy Watermelon e-liquid from their Absolute line.

Website: http://www.virginvapor.com/collections/absolute-virgin/products/organic-juicy-watermelon-e-liquid E-liquid used: 100% VG, 6mg/0.6% nicotine Vaped using: Kangertech EVOD VV with Kangertech Protank II, 2.5 ohm Additional information: comes in a dark brown glass dropper bottle, labeled with e-liquid description, ingredients, and batch number.

I received this a few days ago and it smelled so nice, I actually emptied my half-full tank of Singing the Blues so I could try it straight away. It smelled fresh, juicy, and perfect for the summer.

As with most Virgin Vapor products, the smell is spot on, though some may find it a bit too pungent. However, this is not noticeable when actually vaping it. It's very smooth, even at higher voltages.

The flavour is not as strong as the smell, which is actually a good thing. It's subtle, sweet, juicy, and brings back some childhood memories (minus the annoying seeds!) although it probably tastes more like watermelon candy than the actual fruit.

I found that it worked best around 3.6. - 4.0 volts (can't stress enough the importance of a variable voltage battery if you're serious about vaping), producing a satisfying cloud of vapor. I don't recommend going any higher. I tend to stick between 3.6 and 3.8 as going to 4 or above started to give me a more sugary, caramel-like taste and less actual flavour. This is probably my only negative about this juice for now. I did use a brand new coil/wick so I don't think that's affecting the taste, though I will try swapping it to see if it's the same.

I also noticed that this e-liquid is particularly thin, even by Virgin Vapor standards. I haven't run into any issues yet (other than  having to be really careful when filling), but might cause some leakage when used with certain tanks.

Overall I really like this juice, and will happily vape on it all day. I still prefer Peach Perfect though, that one's going to be hard to beat!

Next up: Organic Hawaiian White Guava, probably some time next week.

[sg1969]

Pink Floyd - Marooned

Official video for the release of the 20th Anniversary Delux Box of The Division Bell

[sg1969]

Sony SmartBand SWR10 And Lifelog Review

I recently got the Sony SmartBand SWR10 and have been using it for a few weeks. Here's what I think. I am reviewing a retail unit running accessory version 04.05.00 and host application version 1.2.0.326.

Information The Hardware The Software What I like / Don't Like Technical Specs

Information

Product website: http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/smartband-swr10/

Sony describes the SWR10 as a "Life-logging accessory with notification alert and music remote". It's basically Sony's take on a wearable fitness tracker and life logger, similar to the Fitbit Flex or Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit.

It consists of two separate components: the wrist band which is replaceable, and a removable core unit that holds all the sensors and does all the processing. The SmartBand syncs data with your phone via Bluetooth using Sony's Lifelog app. From within the app you can check stats such as the amount of calories burnt, number of steps taken and so on, but it also logs other activities on your phone, like how much time you spent listening to music, or how much time you wasted playing Candy Crush Saga.

The Hardware

As I mentioned above, the SmartBand consists of a soft rubber wrist band, and a hard plastic removable core unit. The wrist band is adjustable and is available in several colours (sold separately) and two sizes (small and large, no medium size as far as I know at the time of writing). There is a slot to insert the core inside the band roughly where a watch face would be, and a shiny plastic clasp is used to close the band.

The wrist band feels soft and smooth against the skin. It is very light (26 grams including the core), making it quite comfortable to wear. In fact, after a couple days I hardly even notice it's there. I'm not sure how well the clasp will hold after some wear, but in the few weeks I've been using it, it has only come off accidentally once, when I caught the loose end of the band on something I was carrying.

The core is a white hard plastic unit that is approximately 4 cm long. It has a micro USB charging port on one end, a button on one side, and three small white LEDs on the other side. It has built in NFC, Bluetooth and vibrator. Once paired with your phone it will send notifications (you can select which ones you want to receive) in the form of vibrations and blinking LED.

There is no display/screen, heartbeat/temperature sensors, or GPS on the SWR10. Whether Sony wanted to keep costs down or had other reasons for omitting these components, I personally think they made the right decision. Perhaps they wanted to focus more on the "life logging" aspects rather than full on fitness/health tracker. If you would like to compare the features with other fitness trackers, you can use the chart here.

The power button has multiple functions. It is used to turn the core on/off, toggle between day and night modes, to check which mode you are in, and to control certain apps on your phone. It also serves as a charging indicator when connected to a power source.

The SWR10 has a IP58 rating, which means protection from dust, and water up to a depth of 1.5 m for a maximum of 30 minutes. It looks like the wrist band provides a decent seal but I'm just really worried about the open USB port. I'm not sure why Sony didn't put a flap there to seal the port, like they have on the latest Xperia smartphones.

It took about 30 minutes to fully charge the core on my first use, and this gave me about 4 days of use. Sony claims a < 1 hour charge for a 5 day battery life, and this sounds about right. This device is designed to be work 24/7, so the short charging time is quite convenient. I just charge it while I'm in the shower, and it's full by the time I'm done and ready to leave for work.

Pairing was very easy using NFC, and the SWR10 software on my phone immediately started downloading a firmware update. Pairing and setting up the device is all done via Sony's Smart Connect app using the SmartBand SWR10 module, which I'll talk about in the next section.

So far I have only encountered one problem that could be hardware related (though I really hope it can be fixed by a firmware update), and that's the core getting disconnected from the phone. It seems to happen at random times, it can be minutes apart, or it might not disconnect at all for a couple days (as far as I can tell - maybe it does disconnect then reconnect before I can notice). Most of the time, it seems to reconnect on its own but I sometimes have to use NFC to reconnect. Other people online seem to be having similar problems so I don't think I got a faulty unit. The data is synchronized as soon as you reconnect the core, so it's not a huge problem, but still a little annoying seeing the "SmartBand Disconnected" notification pop up on my phone.

The Software

Download (Play Store links): Lifelog | Smart Connect | SmartBand SWR10

The most amazing fitness tracker would be useless without a good a way of displaying the information in a meaningful manner, and Sony's Lifelog app is a decent one as far as I can tell. They have already promised updates that will add more functionality "before the summer". You will also need Sony Smart Connect app and the SWR10 software for it in order to pair and configure your device.

Smart Connect is an app that is used to create certain actions when connecting an accessory, such as automatically starting your music player when connecting headphones, or setting an alarm when connecting to a charger for example.

The SmartBand SWR10 module is what you'll actually use to configure your device. This lets you check the remaining battery level, edit your SmartBand's settings, and access the Lifelog app.

You can enable auto night mode which will block notifications during the specified time period, disable the pedometer, and activate the sleep tracking feature (sorry sleep walkers!). Or if you prefer you can just switch modes using the button on the core unit. I have it disabled as I don't necessarily go to bed or wake up at the same time every day - I just need to be careful and remember to switch to night mode when going to bed.

Enabling notifications will make your SmartBand vibrate whenever you receive a notification on your phone - tapping on the "Notifications" section will load a list of all your apps. From there you can toggle notifications on a per app basis. You might be tempted to enable notification for apps such as Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger, but if you frequently get messages I would advise against it. It can be VERY annoying to have the wristband vibrate every time you get a message.

Smart wake up monitors your activity during sleep, and will try to wake you up during your light sleep period. It lets you specify a wake up interval (10, 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes) and on which days to repeat, and set the latest alarm time. The vibration is quite strong and you'd have to be a really deep sleeper to miss the alarm (but it's a good idea to also have a backup traditional alarm or use your phone).

You can control certain applications on your phone by pressing the button and then tapping on the SmartBand. There doesn't seem to be many supported apps yet but you can control your music, or the camera shutter for example. I wonder if Sony has some kind of API or SDK that third parties can use in order to create more compatible apps for it.

So far I've only used it to control music (it seems to work with any music player, not just the Walkman app) and it works well, although there is a noticeable delay - less than a second, but you still notice it, especially when skipping through tracks quickly. I don't have this problem with my wireless headphones for example. It could just be the way low energy Bluetooth devices work though, and to be honest it doesn't really bother me.

The only annoyance so far are the two persistent notifications which you can't get rid of. On the one hand it's nice to have a way to quickly access SmartBand settings and Lifelog, but it takes up valuable notification space (both in the status bar and the pull-down) which I don't like.

Lifelog is where you can check all your stats, set your goals, create life bookmarks, and adjust additional settings. It's very bright and colourful as you can see, and runs quite well on my Xperia Z1. The app is free to download from the play store, and is compatible with non-Xperia devices as well. You can even use it without a SmartBand, it just won't track things like the number of steps, or sleep.

You will need to sign in using a Sony account on an Xperia device. On non-Xperia devices you can also use your Google account (not sure if they also have Facebook or other sign in providers). I'm hoping they will add the ability to use Google on Xperia devices as well, as I would prefer using that to my Sony account.

This in turn generates another annoyance: the need to be constantly online. I find it very odd that the Lifelog stats can only be updated/refreshed when you have an active data connection, since the whole point of a tracker such as this is that it is directly connected to your phone via Bluetooth. And to be honest, I find it weird that they require a sign in at all, but I suspect it's so that they can collect stats (I have not bothered reading the agreements or how data privacy is handled, because honestly I don't care...). Does this mean I will not be able to sync my stats when travelling abroad? Or when in Airplane mode? How often does it sync data, and what happens when the memory gets full? I couldn't find any official information regarding this.

The main application interface is split in half. The top portion displays a timeline of your activities, and the bottom part can be toggled between your stats, and a map view that tracks your location. In landscape mode it just displays the timeline.

I found the motion tracker to be fairly accurate, though I haven't actually tried counting my exact number of steps. To be honest, I don't really care how accurate it is, as long as the results are consistent. It is supposed to be able to differentiate between walking, running, cycling, driving and even when riding a train, though in the current version it only works for walking and running as you can see in the screenshot. Sony have said they will add these features in "before the summer".

The calories burnt is a combination of the average amount burnt while idle, and the number of steps as well as whether you were walking or running. All this is based on your age, gender, height, weight, and stride length that you specify in your profile. You should not use this as an accurate representation, it's just an estimate based on statistics.

The activities are logged in the form of icons on your timeline, and you can tap on them or the corresponding panel to view detailed statistics and charts about each of them, such as your number of steps throughout a specific day, week or month, or which applications you are using the most. You can also set certain goals for yourself. The camera log displays thumbnails of your photos, and the music log keeps track of all the songs you've listened to with their corresponding album art.

One thing to note is that it only tracks the time spent in apps that are running in the foreground. So if you have a music player (other than Walkman) running in the background, it will not be tracked correctly.

Finally, there is the Life Bookmarks. You can bookmark moments in your life, and this will create an icon on your timeline. I am not entirely sure what Sony wanted us to use this for, as it's pretty basic at the time of writing. You can just add some text, and it will automatically log your current location, as well as any music track that is playing on your phone. Sony says "everything going on at that moment is caught and remembered", but I'm not exactly sure what else can be automatically logged. I would find it a lot more useful if you could add photos at least, this way you could actually keep track of what you eat, for example, or who you were with at the time.

There are a few little bugs, but nothing major that I will get into here. I expect Sony to fix these with future updates.

What I Like / Don't Like

+ Easy to set up and use + Movement tracking seems consistent and fairly accurate + Lifelog is fun to use and tracks a lot of your activities

- Random disconnections - Requires network connection to sync data - Lack of a webapp and/or cross-platform compatibility, though they have an iOS version planned - Not all features have been implemented yet

Technical Specs

Website: http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smartwear/smartband-swr10/

Full specs here: http://www-support-downloads.sonymobile.com/swr10/whitepaper_swr10_smartbandswr10.pdf

Compatible

SmartBand SWR10 and Lifelog Android app support devices running Android 4.4 and later. Devices must support Bluetooth® 4 Low Energy.

Requirements

Android 4.4

Bluetooth® 4.0 Low Energy (BLE)

Lifelog app

Smart Connect app

SmartBand host app

Indicators

3 LED

Optional accessories

Wrist straps in 9 colours (sold separately)

Colours

Black

Waterproof

IP58 rated

Controls

Life Bookmark key

Media remote (tap function)

Connectors

Bluetooth® 4.0 Low Energy (BLE)

NFC pairing/connecting

Micro USB (charging) only, no data transfer

Compatibility – Xperia

Xperia™ Z1

Xperia™ Z1 Compact

Xperia™ Z Ultra

Xperia™ Z2

Compatibility – other brands

LG Nexus 5, LG Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy Note III, Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, HTC One M8.

[sg1969]

Virgin Vapor Organic Singing The Blues (Absolute) E-Liquid Review

Here is my review of Virgin Vapor’s Organic Singing The Blues e-liquid from their Absolute line.

Website: http://www.virginvapor.com/collections/absolute-virgin/products/organic-singing-the-blues-e-liquid E-liquid used: 100% VG, 8mg/0.8% nicotine Vaped using: Kangertech EVOD VV with Kangertech Protank II, 2.5 ohm Additional information: comes in a dark brown glass dropper bottle, labeled with e-liquid description, ingredients, and batch number.

Here's another one from their Absolute line, this one is supposed to be blueberry flavour. And this is an odd one...

First, I don't think it smells anything like blueberries. The first impression I got from sniffing the bottle was that of floral, mouldy feet. That is the best description I can give, but basically it's not a very pleasant smell.

When I first tried this liquid, I didn't like it at all. It didn't  taste like blueberry, it smelled like crap, and after five minutes I went back to the amazing Peach Perfect. It then sat in my drawer for a few weeks, untouched, forgotten. But then I thought I'd give it one more chance.

Perhaps leaving it in my drawer for so long affected the taste (Virgin Vapor claims they steep all their liquid for 2 weeks prior to shipping), but I found it much more bearable.

Having said that, it still feels a bit too floral for my taste. This juice feels very "earthy". I wouldn't immediately describe it as blueberry, but you do get a slightly sweet, fruity flavour. I'd say it's closer to blueberry muffins than actual blueberries, but once you get used to it, it's not really that bad.

I was personally vaping this at around 4.0 ohm, anything lower than 3.6 did not give me much flavour. Vapour production is pretty good at higher voltages, and there is not much of a throat hit.

So what do I think of this? I probably wouldn't make this one of my regulars, but I may come back to it from time to time whenever I want something different. It has grown on me over time, and I can see what they were trying to achieve when creating this juice. Perhaps they will improve it in the future. 

[sg1969]

Virgin Vapor Organic Kona Velvet Milkshake E-Liquid Review

Here is my review of Virgin Vapor's Organic Kona Velvet Milkshake e-liquid.

Website: http://www.virginvapor.com/collections/organic-e-liquid/products/organic-kona-velvet-milkshake E-liquid used: 100% VG, 8mg/0.8% nicotine Vaped using: Kangertech EVOD VV with Kangertech Protank II, 2.5 ohm Additional information: comes in a dark brown glass dropper bottle, labeled with e-liquid description.

I've been vaping this for a few days and I'm having a hard time deciding if I like it or not. Part of it is the taste itself, and the other part is that the taste is not consistent. I seem to get different flavours each time I take a hit, sometimes good, other times not so great.

I'll start with the smell. Sniffing straight from the bottle, I can smell coffee, a hint of chocolate, and alcohol (a bit like rum, which is what it says on the product description). I wish the coffee was a little stronger, and less alcohol, but I guess it's not an unpleasant smell if you're into this kind of stuff.

The taste is slightly more complex. It has a creamy, buttery texture, and I can see why they call this "velvet milkshake". But most of the time it tastes more like chocolate than coffee, and the alcohol can be a bit off putting.

Like I mentioned above, I seem to get different flavours each time: sometimes I do get a strong sweet coffee taste, which I really like. But most of the time it's kind of a weird mixture of everything, hard to pinpoint each distinctive flavour, and ends up being a muddy, unsatisfying experience overall. It can also become a bit sickening if you vape too much of it.

So overall it's not a bad flavour, but not one of my favourites. It might be nice to vape a bit of this after a meal, or maybe even with some real coffee, but I wouldn't make it one of my regular juices.

Due to its smooth texture, I'm not getting much a throat hit, but the vapour production makes up for it. I recommend running this at around 3.6 or 3.8 ohm if you have a VV battery.

[sg1969]

Virgin Vapor Organic Peach Perfect (Absolute) E-Liquid Review

Here is my review of Virgin Vapor's Organic Peach Perfect e-liquid from their Absolute line.

Website: http://www.virginvapor.com/collections/absolute-virgin/products/organic-peach-perfect-e-liquid E-liquid used: 100% VG, 8mg/0.8% nicotine Vaped using: Kangertech EVOD VV with Kangertech Protank II, 2.5 ohm Additional information: comes in a dark brown glass dropper bottle, labeled with e-liquid description, ingredients, and batch number.

I decided to try this juice due to the good reviews on the website, and because I wanted to try their Absolute line of e-juice. The difference between the regular Virgin Vapor juices and the Absolute line is that there is no ethyl alcohol present in the latter.

First thing I noticed was how pungent it smelled - in a good way - even before I opened the parcel. I had ordered two other flavours but all I could smell was the peach. It really did smell like someone was holding a peach right under my nose. Very sweet, but not as artificial as I thought it would be.

And it tastes even better! The first drag was like biting into a ripe, juicy peach. There is no acidity, and no hint of alcohol due to this being the Absolute line. All you get is a very authentic peach flavour, full of sweetness. I could almost feel the juice running down my chin! You even get that slightly bitter aftertaste that you do when eating a real white peach, I was really impressed. I've tried a few other juices from Virgin Vapor, and this is the one that tasted the most authentic (will review the other flavours too!)

With regards to throat hit and vapour production, although it's hard to judge because this is partly affected by the equipment used, I think it's pretty standard. It has enough of a hit but never harsh, and a satisfying amount of vapour. While using a variable voltage battery, I found that 3.6 V was the sweet spot, giving the most taste and vapour. Anything lower didn't feel strong enough, while going above 3.8 V makes it harsh and loses  some of the sweetness.

Overall I'm very happy with this juice, and will be ordering more from them when I run out.

P.S. for my Japanese followers: This juice tastes like Mini Peach (but not as sweet)!

[sg1969]

The Correct Way To Ski Jump

Apparently we've been doing this the wrong way all this time. Thankfully, the Japanese are here to show us the correct way to ski jump.

[sg1969]

鉄拳「振り子」 / Tekken [Pendulum]

I know this video is old, but still wanted to share it. If you don't cry, you have no soul.