Reactual

The Best Shower Filter Of 2013

Justin Thomas — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:45:59 +0000

I’ve been reviewing shower filters on MetaEfficient for about six years. It appears that there are no other independent reviewers of shower filters posting online. The only review sites I’ve seen are those like WaterFilterComparisons.Com which is run by an Aquasana filter supplier (as mentioned on their About Us page).

In A Nutshell

If you want to remove both chloramines and chlorine from your water, I recommend getting a VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter. If you want to remove free chlorine and other impurities from your water, I recommend getting a Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter, which is NSF Certified to standard #177 for shower filtration. You can also use both filters in tandem on one shower head (I do this myself).

Why Filter Your Shower?

Because your skin absorbs things while showering. Typically, 60% of the chlorine that most people absorb daily comes from showering in chlorinated water. Chlorine damages your hair and skin – you can read about the hazards of showering in chlorinated water here. Shower water also contains things like heavy metals and VOCs (volitive organic compounds). Ideally, all these things should all be filtered out. Unfortunately, filtering water at the shower head is problematic, because the water is typically hot and under high pressure, making filtration difficult.

Here are the details on my recommended shower filters:

Sonaki VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter

Vitamin C shower filters remove 99% of free chlorine and 99% of chloramines from shower water. Chloramine or NH₂Cl (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) is now commonly being used in place of chlorine for disinfection, but chloramine is not easily removed from water. Carbon filters are virtually useless in showers, because they do not work when the water is warm, and they also get clogged fairly quickly. KDF filters also don’t perform well in hot water, and they don’t remove chloramines. However, Vitamin C filters can remove 99% of the chloramines from water. To back this up, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission now states on their website that only Vitamin C can be used to remove chlormaines from municipal water. Here is the quote from the Commission:

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has recently been included in AWWA Standard (AWWA, 2005b) as one of the methods for dechlorination of disinfected water mains. SFPUC and other utilities have used Vitamin C for dechlorination prior to environmental discharges of chlorinated and chloraminated water. Since ascorbic acid is weakly acidic, the pH of water may decrease slightly (Tikkanen et al., 2001). Ascorbic acid has been used for a long time as one of the dechlorinating agents for preservation of chlorinated or chloraminated water samples for laboratory analysis.

The full document can be found here.

Vitamin C filters are simple in design — they contain a solid block of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and water runs through the filter and comes into contact with the Vitamin C. The Vitamin C neutralizes about 99% of the chlorine and chloramines in the water, and their effectiveness does not diminish until the Vitamin C is completely used up.

Here’s my set-up — it’s a Culligan shower filter, followed by a Vitamin C In-Line Filter, followed by a Niagara EarthMassage low-flow showerhead:

You can buy the Sonaki VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter at Amazon or Sonaki for around $50. You can also find a handheld version of the shower filter, which comes with a low-flow shower head, and two replacement Vitamin C cartridges.

The filters last about two months before they need replacing, depending on how many showers you take. The filter is transparent, so you can see when the Vitamin C has run out. Refills are priced at $50 for 5 filters. You can buy them at Amazon or directly from Sonaki.

Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter

If you are just interested in removing free chlorine and sediment from your water, my recommendation is to use a Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter. This filter is NSF Certified to standard #177 for shower filtration. It removes most free chlorine and some combined chlorine, sediment, hydrogen sulfide, iron oxide. Besides the fact that it does not remove chloramines, this is a quality filter, and it is constructed with brass instead of the usual plastic.

The filter comes with a one year warranty, it is rated to filter 20,000 gallons or last 12 months, which ever comes first. It should be flipped half-way through the year. If the O-ring on the filter breaks, Sprite will replace it for free.

Buy the Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter on Amazon for around $51.

See also my review of low-flow shower heads – these shower heads can be used in conjunction with these filters.

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Comments

Will do.. my culligan and sprite combo are great..no more ... by Marty
Marty, Thanks, let me know if you find a different source, ... by master
Thanks, i tried your link with two different cards they didn't ... by Marty
I was waiting for the redesign, but then a year passed and no ... by master
For eczema, you probably want the maximum amount of filtration. ... by master
Plus 5 more...

An Introduction To Online Privacy Tools: Part 2

Justin Thomas — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:08:56 +0000

This the second article in our series “An Introduction To Online Privacy Tools” (see the first part here).

Install a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Using a VPN or “virtual private network” is the best way to make your internet activities private. Until recently, VPNs were mostly used by companies to secure their employee’s network connections. There are now VPN services designed for personal use.

When you are connected to a VPN, all the data leaving your computer is encrypted. This makes it very difficult for hackers and eavesdroppers to monitor your internet connections.

This is particularly important if you use WiFi hotspots (in the local coffee shop or at a university for example). When you use a public WiFi you are broadcasting all of your data “in the clear” with typically no security whatsoever. This can include your emails, IM messages, web searches, and any other data sent or received over the wireless network.

Note that a VPN is different from a web proxy, which only redirects your browser connections. A VPN encrypts and redirects all your internet connections.

VPNs are also useful for keeping your online identity private. The web sites you visit and your online activities become reasonably anonymous, because your online connections are being routed through an anonymous computer. In fact, many people use VPNs to help them bypass censorship and limits imposed on them by their government.

If your work or school may also impose restrictions of your internet usage, a VPN can provide a secure tunnel to an unrestricted internet. Similarly, VPNs allow you to internationalize your online presence. Many websites (like Hulu) restrict content to specific countries, which can be frustrating if you are traveling away from your home country. Many people also use VPNs to help them bypass censorship and limits imposed on them by their government.

Which VPNs To Use?

There are many VPN services out there, here the VPN some recommendations:

VPNs that focus privacy, and do not log your IP address and connections: Private Internet Access and IPVanish
VPNs with servers in many countries: HMA and Astrill

Encrypt Your Email and Instant Messages

Encrypt emails you’d like to remain private. You can use Thunderbird + Enigmail to send encrypted email (using PGP). Use a secure Instant Message client or a plugin that supports OTR (Off-The-Record messaging). You can use Ekiga, a free video, phone and instant message application, or you can use the free instant message client Audium that supports OTR (Off-The-Record messaging).

Secure Your Computers

Set up your computer’s firewall. Only login in as an admin user when necessary. Use a strong passwords for your user accounts. Set your computer to log you out after 15 minutes. Encrypt your hard drives where possible. Some Mac and Linux installations have drive encryption built into the operating system — you can turn on this encryption quite easily. You can also use Truecrypt, a piece of free software that can create encrypted drive disks that appear on your system as a regular files.

Secure Your Home Network

When setting up a wireless network use WPA2 encryption, use MAC address identification, set you network to not announce itself.

Set up you your router’s firewall — only open necessary ports.

Secure Your Mobile Devices

Secure your mobile devices with passwords, set them to log out after 5-15 minutes of inactivity. You can use a VPN on these phones and tablets. The process is a bit more tedious (mobile devices tend to disconnect VPNs quite often) but it does work.

Other Security Tools and Tips

Install a virus detector and malware (trojan horses, spyware, adware) detector. See our previous articles for recommended products: “The Top Rated Anti-Spyware Utilities For Macs” or “The Top Rated Anti-Virus Software For PCs“.

If you are interested in monitoring the internet connections by made by your computer, you can install a network monitor. This is another good way to discover malware on your system, but it requires you to do manual monitoring and researching. You can use the free Net Monitor for Windows or the Little Snitch ($30) for Macs.

Internet browsers and the plugins like Flash leave traces of your online activities on your computer. This files are not cleared away, even if you tell you browser to reset or if you clear your browser cookies and caches. You can install a computer “cleanser” to delete these additional logs and caches. A good example of a cleanser for Mac is Onyx (free).

Considering setting your computers to use OpenDNS for your DNS (domain name service). OpenDNS features phishing protection and misspelling correction, and optional content filtering.

You can back-up or store files securely in the “Cloud” using a paid service like Crashplan. This service can encrypt you files with 448 bit Blowfish encryption (very strong), and store them encrypted on Crashplan’s servers. You keep the encryption key — Crashplan never sees or stores the key.

Don’t open emails from questionable sources, and don’t install applications from questionable sources, especially those found on file sharing services (they tend to have malware, viruses or trojans). If you use a torrent client, set the client to use secure connections where possible, and set it to change to random ports if possible.

Tor is free software that routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers. Like a VPN it can create private internet connections. Tor isn’t as comprehensive as a VPN because it only works with the applications set to use Tor as a proxy. Tor tend to create slower internet connections than a VPN, but it is a free service, and it is can be run in tandem with a VPN for an extra layer of privacy.

If you need a high level of online privacy, use a secure, read-only Debian GNU/Linux installation like Tails. Tails is free operating-system designed to be used from a DVD or a USB stick independently of the computer’s original operating system. Tails can be run in “read-only” installation, meaning it does not write any files to disk. This provides a high level of privacy because the operating system leave no traces of the user’s activities, and there’s little chance of the user being monitored by key-loggers and other tracking software.

Other References

If you are interested in securing a Mac computer, I highly recommend The Mac Security Superguide by The Editors at Macworld. It’s a easy-to-read guide that cover all aspects of security on your Mac. For Windows users, a good reference is Essential Computer Security by T. Bradley. See also the Complete Guide to Internet Privacy, Anonymity & Security.

Reddit has good a Security FAQ with numerous tips for enhancing online privacy.

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An Introduction To Online Privacy Tools: Part 1

Justin Thomas — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:33:17 +0000

There are many reasons to seek privacy on the internet. These days, we have ISPs monitoring our connections, corporations tracking and consolidating our information across multiple websites. We have governments and other institutions routinely monitoring our internet activities. We have hackers, identity thieves and criminals attempting to access our computers and steal our personal information.

Basically, internet privacy should be of interest to everyone. Even if you feel you have “nothing to hide” you probably still value having curtains on your windows, or not having your credit card statements available for anyone to read. Likewise, most people are not comfortable with having every email they write and every web site they visit being broadcasted to the public.

Overview

In this series of articles I’ll be covering the following topics:

Making your web browsing private
Installing a VPN or “Virtual Private Network”
Securing your computers and wireless network
Encrypting your email and instant messages

These are basic secure measures — something everyone should have in place before they go online.

Install The “HTTPs Everywhere” Browser Extension

Why you’d want to do this:

To stop eavesdroppers tracking the sites you visit
To stop eavesdroppers monitoring the information your send via HTTP

The HTTPs Everywhere is an extension for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, made by the Electronic Frontiers Foundation. It encrypts your communications with many major websites, giving you a basic level of web browsing privacy. For example, if you are reading email in Gmail or Hotmail, your email messages will be encrypted before they are sent to your web browser. Similarly, an eavesdropper won’t be able to detect what Wikipedia articles you are reading, or what items you are purchasing at an online store. However, this is true only for the websites that HTTPs Everywhere supports, and only for the parts of those websites that support HTTPs connections. Here’s a raw list of the sites they support.

Note that HTTPS Everywhere does not conceal the identities of the sites you access, or the amount of time you spend using them. For example, an eavesdropper can tell you accessed Wikipedia for an hour, but they won’t be able to see which particular articles you read on Wikipedia.

Install The “Ghostery” Browser Extension

Ghostery is a browser extension that blocks the “invisible” web. It detects trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and over 1,000 other ad networks, behavioral data providers and web publishers.

I like Ghostery because it’s a “set and forget” add-on — Ghostery will continue to work silently in the background as you browse, removing all those undesirable tracking elements in web pages. I prefer to turn off the notification the blocked elements (you can find this option in the Ghostery preferences).

Use A Search Engine That Doesn’t Log Your Searches

Why you’d want to do this:

To stop search engines logging and storing your searches
To stop web sites and other corporations from collecting and selling your personal information

Many popular search engines like Google and Bing, save your search history. Typically, your searches are saved along with some information about your computer (e.g. your IP address, User agent and often a unique identifier stored in a browser cookie), and if you are logged in, your account information (e.g. name and email address).

With this information, your searches can be tied together. This means someone can see everything you’ve been searching, not just one isolated search. You can usually find out a lot about a person from their search history.

They also put cookies on your browser to uniquely identify you. For example, when you search for something private, you are sharing that private search not only with your search engine, but also with all the sites that you clicked on (for that search). See this page for more info.

If you want to avoid this tracking, you can make use of search engine that take privacy seriously, like StartPage or DuckDuckGo.

I like StartPage by Ixquick because they incorporate search results from Google. Startpage removes all identifying information from your query and submits it anonymously to Google. They get the results and return them to you privately. StartPage also includes a free web proxy, which can open sites anonymously for you.

Ixquick’s Privacy Policy is routinely being confirmed by two independent organizations — Europrise and Certified Secure.

DuckDuckGo is another good search engine with a focus on privacy. Like StartPage, DuckDuckGo and does not record user information — see their privacy policy for the details.

Configure Your Web Browser For Privacy

You can easily adjust your web browser to enhance your privacy. You can turn off third-party cookies — these are cookies that are sent to advertising firms. Turning off these cookies just means you’ll be tracked less — it won’t affect your browsing ability. I prefer to turn off cookies completely, and use the Cookie Whitelist add-on to only accept cookies from specific sites that I log into.

You can install a extension like Adblock Plus (Firefox, Chrome) to block ads, thereby reducing the amount of information collected by advertisers.

You can turn off Java and Flash in your browser (both can be a security risk — see an explanation here).

You can install an extension like No Script (Firefox only), which stops web pages loading and running Javascript, Java and Flash. Using No Script can be tedious but it protects against attacks like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Clickjacking (a trick that causes you to click and run a malicious program).

Use A Password Manager

It makes sense to use password manager like LastPass, KeePass or 1Password. Password managers allow you create strong, unique passwords for each website you log into. Also, Password Managers can automatically log into websites for you, which prevents key-logging (attempts to capture your keystrokes and hence your passwords). LastPass and KeePass are free and are both good programs. 1Password is the most polished and is frequently updated, but costs $50.

Continued… Read Part 2 of this article series.

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The Best Flash Drives Of 2012

Justin Thomas — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:33:48 +0000

Best Overall: The Patriot Xporter XT Rage Flash Drive

Rating: Average of 4.4 out of 5 stars from 176+ reviewers on Amazon

The Patriot Xporter XT Rage Flash Drive is one of the fastest USB 2.0 flash drives available (and you’d hope so with a name like that). Specifically, the writing speed of this flash drive is about 11 MB/sec and the reading speed is about 35 MB/sec.

The Patriot Xporter is also one of the best deals in terms of dollars for gigabytes. The 16 GB version sells for around $22, and the 64GB version sells for around $90.

The drive has a retractable connector, and a rubber coated housing for water damage protection. It comes with a lifetime warranty.

The 64GB Patriot Xporter XT Rage Flash Drive is available from Amazon for about $90.

Best Speed and Capacity: Kingston Digital DataTraveler HyperX 3.0

Rating: Average of 4.5 out of 5 stars from 10+ reviewers on Amazon

If 64 GB just isn’t enough space for you, the Kingston Digital DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is a flash drive that comes in 128 GB and 256 GB versions. This drive supports the new USB 3.0 standard, which is being introduced on new computers. This is a solid choice if you have USB 3.0 and will be transferring very large files. The drive’s speeds with USB 3.0 are 225MB/s read and 135MB/s write.

The DataTraveler is compatible with USB 2.0, but this drive is an expensive option if you won’t be using USB 3.0 — you’d probably be better served by buying several 64GB drives instead.

The build quality of this drive is good — the it has a durable metal and rubber casing.

The 128GB Kingston Digital DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 is available from Amazon for around $240

Secure and Multifunctional: The Victorinox Swiss Army Presentation Master

Rating: Average of 4.2 out of 5 stars from 39+ reviewers on Amazon

The Presentation Master is a 32 GB flash drive produced by Victorinox, maker of Swiss Army knives. It features strong encryption on the drive, and a fingerprint reader to protect your data. It also incorporates a bluetooth radio, which means you transfer files wireless to the drive.

The knife itself is fully-functional and compact (only 2 inches long). It has good build quality and features a laser pointer.

The Victorinox Presentation Master is available from Amazon for about $250.

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The Brightest Flashlight Powered By AA Batteries

Justin Thomas — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:14:10 +0000

Prompted by a reader’s request, I went searching for the brightest flashlight powered by two AA batteries. The brightest I found is the 4Sevens Quark “X” AA² Tactical Flashlight which produces a remarkable 280 lumens on it’s max setting, and it measures just 5.8 inches in length.

The exact runtime specifications: 24 lumens for 20 hours, 115 lumens for 2.5 hours, and 280 lumens for 1.6 hours.

4Seven flashlights are constructed very well, and they come with a 10 year warranty.

Of course, I recommend powering this flashlight with low-discharge rechargeable AA batteries.

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The Best Bath Filters

Justin Thomas — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:42:50 +0000

In A Nutshell

For filtering your bathwater these are the best bath filters:

For filter impurities — use a two-step bath filter like the Crystal Quest Bath Filter
For neutralizing chlorine and chloramines – add Vitamin C tablets or Vitamin C powder directly to your bathwater

The Details

Typically, 60% of the chlorine that most people absorb daily comes from showering or bathing in chlorinated water. Chlorine damages your hair and skin – you can read about the hazards of showering in chlorinated water here. Bath water also contains things like heavy metals and VOCs (volitive organic compounds). Ideally, all these things should all be filtered out.

Filtering bathwater is a similar process to filtering shower water, If you have a shower head incorporated in your bath you can use my recommend shower filters (a VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter together with a Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter), and use your shower to fill your bath. This means you only need one set of filter for both shower and bath.

Otherwise, I recommend using a dedicated bath filter like the Crystal Quest Bath Filter. This bath filter has a 2-step filtration process — it features both KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion) filtration (good for removing heavy metals) and Granular Activated Carbon filtration (good for removing sediment, chlorine and radon).

The Crystal Quest Bath Filter available from Amazon for around $50.

Vitamin C Tablets or Powder

Vitamin C tablets or Vitamin C powder will remove 99% of free chlorine and 99% of chloramines from shower water. Chloramine or NH₂Cl (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) is now commonly being used in place of chlorine for disinfection, but chloramine is not easily removed from water. However, Vitamin C can neutralize 99% of the chloramines from water. To back this up, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission now states on their website that only Vitamin C can be used to remove chlormaines from municipal water. Here is the quote from the Commission:

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has recently been included in AWWA Standard (AWWA, 2005b) as one of the methods for dechlorination of disinfected water mains. SFPUC and other utilities have used Vitamin C for dechlorination prior to environmental discharges of chlorinated and chloraminated water. Since ascorbic acid is weakly acidic, the pH of water may decrease slightly (Tikkanen et al., 2001). Ascorbic acid has been used for a long time as one of the dechlorinating agents for preservation of chlorinated or chloraminated water samples for laboratory analysis.

The full document can be found here.

Vitamin C tablets are slight more convenient since the some in measured amounts (tablets) and they also “fizz” to release the Vitamin C. However, Vitamin C powder is quite a bit less expensive overall.

One More Option

If you have a showerhead incorporated in your bath, you can make use of my recommend shower filters (a VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter together with a Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter), and use your shower to fill your bath. However, it does take longer to fill your bath, and you’ll lose some heat from the water and it falls from the showerhead.

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Used & Refurbished iPads For Under $300

Justin Thomas — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:11:33 +0000

Buying a used or refurbished iPad makes a lot of sense. iPads are relatively sturdy devices and have few moving parts. If you can deal with a few scuffs on the case, you expect to save about $200-$300 when buying a used iPad. However, we recommend purchasing your iPad from a seller that has a good track record, and offers a money back guarantee. We also recommend buying your used or refurbished iPad from a store like Amazon, because they have efficient customer service, so there’s a lot less hassles when dealing with returns.

Here are the best deals on iPads we’ve found for March:

First-Generation iPad, 16 GB

Currently, you can buy a new a first-generation 16GB iPad on Amazon for $469. Here are the best deals for used 16GB iPads from reliable sellers:

$259.99 for iPad (first-generation) 16 GB, Used (Good Condition), sold by ExpressMedia
$279 for iPad (first-generation) 16 GB, Used (Good Condition), sold by 3duk8

First-Generation iPad, 32 GB

Currently, you cam buy a new a first-generation 32GB iPad on Amazon for $469. Here are the best deals for used first-generation 32 GB iPads from reliable sellers:

$261 for iPad (first-generation) 32 GB, Used (Like New), sold by Gazelle
$289 for iPad (first-generation) 32 GB, Used (Like New), sold by Neweli Tech Store

Second-Generation iPad, 16 GB

Currently, you cam buy a new a second-generation 16GB iPad on Amazon for $460. Here are the best deals for used second-generation 16 GB iPads from reliable sellers:

$332.29 for iPad (second-generation) 16 GB, Used (Like New), sold by Gazelle
$368 for iPad (second-generation) 16 GB, Refurbished, sold by jTrade

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The Best Ultraviolet LED Flashlights Of 2012

Justin Thomas — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:09:54 +0000

Ultraviolet light is a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nanometers to 400 nanometers. LEDs that emit ultraviolet light were introduced in 2006, and there are now ultraviolet LED flashlights available. These flashlights are most often used to detect fraudulent documents, see watermarks, read invisible ink or investigate crime scenes. They can also be used to “fluoresce” scorpions and certain types of minerals, and charge “glow-in-the-dark” object like fishing lures.

Here are the best rated, most reliable UV flashlights available:

Gallium Indium Nitride UV Flashlight

This Gallium Indium Nitride UV flashlight gets great ratings from Amazon buyers, so we thought we’d include it here. Reviewers were impressed by the toughness of flashlight, and the fact that it emits 365 nm UV light, which is at the very edge of our visible range. The light from this flashlight appears as a dim purple-blue to the eye, but when it shines on items that fluoresce they light up brightly.
It uses three AAA batteries — we recommend using low self-discharge AAA rechargeable batteries like Eneloop Pros in this flashlight.

The Gallium Indium Nitride UV flashlight is available from Amazon for about $31.

Streamlight 51018 Twin-Task UV Flashlight

Streamlight is one of the few companies that still make flashlights in the U.S., and their products get consistently high ratings.

If you need reliable flashlight that provides both an ultraviolet mode and white light mode, the Streamlight Twin-Task UV Light is a great choice. It has six 390nm UV LEDs for ultraviolet light, and an ultra-bright xenon bulb for white light. It’s fully waterproof, and one meter impact resistance tested.

The Twin Task is powered by three C-size batteries — we recommend using the latest rechargeable Imedion batteries (see our full review here).

The Streamlight Twin-Task UV Light is available from Amazon for about $37.

Streamlight Multi Ops Flashlight

This Streamlight Multi Ops flashlight incorporates three separate light modes. The first mode is the Ultraviolet Mode, where it uses five 390nm UV LEDs . The second mode is a red laser pointer, with a useable laser range of 100+ feet. The third mode is White LED Mode, which uses a C4 LED, producing 50 lumens of white light.

The Streamlight Multi Ops flashlight is available from Amazon for around $38.

The Streamlight Multi Ops is powered by three AAA batteries (again, we recommend Eneloop Pros).

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The Best Flashlights For Retaining Night Vision

Justin Thomas — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:41:00 +0000

Aviators, astronomers, truck drivers, campers and anyone wanting to retain their night vision can benefit from LED flashlights with red or green light options.

Which is best, green or red light? Well, it’s the total brightness of the light that has the most significant effect on night vision retention, so you’ll want a light that allows you to easily adjust brightness. Our eyes are more sensitive to green light, which means you need much less green light than red light to see something, giving green light an edge. See a detailed discussion of this topic here or here.

Here are a couple of top rated flashlights optimized for night vision:

Streamlight 14003 Sidewinder LED Flashlight

The Streamlight Sidewinder incorporates four LEDs: white, red, green and blue. Each LED lamp features four levels of brightness: Low (5%), Medium (20%), Medium-High (50%), High (100%) plus a Strobe function (100%). So, this flashlight can light an entire room, or it can be dimmed to a task light level.

The Streamlight Sidewinder is available at Amazon for about $59.

See also the Streamlight Clipmate, this has three green LEDs.

Smith & Wesson Galaxy 12-LED Flashlight

The Smith & Wesson Galaxy 12 is a versatile LED flashlight, featuring eight white, two red, and two blue LEDs. The ultra bright white LEDs offer general lighting and visibility within 20 feet, and red and blue LEDs for low-light viewing. The battery life is 30-hours using three AAA batteries.

The Galaxy 12 received an average of 4.4 of out 5 stars from 17+ Amazon reviewers.

The Smith & Wesson Galaxy 12 LED Flashlight is available at Amazon for about $23.

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By: Best Flashlights for 2012 « Truffles Magazine by Best Flashlights for 2012 « Truffles Magazine

How To Find Apple Laptops Under $500

Justin Thomas — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:36:14 +0000

It is possible to find an Apple Laptop for under $500 — you can get a used iBook, MacBook or Powerbook in this price range.

Note that you won’t find a new Apple laptop for under $500. If you want a new Mac laptop — the least expensive option is to purchase a Apple MacBook Air MC506LL/A, which was released in 2010, and currently sells for $849 at Amazon.

The Best Apple Laptops Under $500

Let’s take a look at the used Apple laptops you can get for under $500.

When buying a used or refurbished laptop, pay attention to the seller’s rating and return policy. In most cases you’ll want to avoid “newly launched” sellers, or sellers with ratings under 90%. When your used laptop arrives, you’ll know pretty soon if it works as advertised. If it doesn’t, you’ll want to be able to return the machine within 30 days. I’d also try to find a buyer who mentions that the laptop has a battery that “still holds a charge”. Many laptop batteries need to be replaced after 4-5 years. If you do find the battery unacceptable, it’s possible to buy a replacement Macbook batteries separately for about $40.

Apple MacBook MB403LL/A ($470-$500)

For just under $500, the best Macbook you can buy is an Apple MacBook MB403LL/A. This Macbook came out in Late 2008, and it has 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 13.3 inch screen. Although it was released 4 years ago, this is a perfectly acceptable laptop for 2012. It can run Apple’s latest operating system, OS X 10.7 “Lion”. I’d advise you to try to get this Macbook with 2 GB of memory installed — there’s not much price difference between a 1GB and 2GB machine, but the extra memory makes a difference.

The Apple MacBook MB403LL/A is available on Amazon for about $500.

Apple G4 iBook M9627LL/A ($250-$300)

If you really looking to save some money, you can get an Apple G4 iBook for under $300. These machines came out between 2003 and 2004. They have 1.33 gHZ processors and can run the OS X 10.5 “Leopard” operating system. While they are not speedy by today’s standards, these laptops work fine for web browsing and running other applications, though watching videos online can be frustrating. But overall, a quality computer from Apple.

The Apple G4 iBook is available from Amazon for $250-$300.

Apple G4 Powerbook M9110LL ($470-$500)

If you’re looking for laptop with a 17″ screen, you can get a used Powerbook G4 M9110LL for under $500. Note, however that this machine was released in 2003, and only has an 1.33-GHz PowerPC G4 processor. The MacBook mention above is an faster Intel processor and more memory for the same price.

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Comments

1.42mhz G4 IBooks can be had all day long for less than $250 ... by snoebay

Reactual

The Best Shower Filter Of 2013

In A Nutshell

Why Filter Your Shower?

Sonaki VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter

Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter

Comments

An Introduction To Online Privacy Tools: Part 2

Install a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Which VPNs To Use?

Encrypt Your Email and Instant Messages

Secure Your Computers

Secure Your Home Network

Secure Your Mobile Devices

Other Security Tools and Tips

Other References

Related Stories

An Introduction To Online Privacy Tools: Part 1

Overview

Install The “HTTPs Everywhere” Browser Extension

Install The “Ghostery” Browser Extension

Use A Search Engine That Doesn’t Log Your Searches

Configure Your Web Browser For Privacy

Use A Password Manager

Related Stories

The Best Flash Drives Of 2012

Best Overall: The Patriot Xporter XT Rage Flash Drive

Rating: Average of 4.4 out of 5 stars from 176+ reviewers on Amazon

Best Speed and Capacity: Kingston Digital DataTraveler HyperX 3.0

Rating: Average of 4.5 out of 5 stars from 10+ reviewers on Amazon

Secure and Multifunctional: The Victorinox Swiss Army Presentation Master

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