MiFine Bluetooth Earbuds

Y’all just thought I was kidding when I said I liked Bluetooth headphones.

This is an earbud, not a headphone, so it’s not my favorite style, but this one has a couple features that I really liked so I thought I’d give them a whirl. I wasn’t disappointed with the features, but they’re still an earbud, so for me, it’s not an “all day every day” wearable, but still very nice for the occasional wear.

MiFine Bluetooth Earbuds

PROS for the Mifine Bluetooth Earbuds

• Excellent packaging. It comes in a really nice reusable acrylic box. It’s a little too big to use to store the headphones alone in, but it’s great for keeping other things. I love packaging that you can reuse rather than discard.
• All the controls are on the earbud itself. Many of the bluetooth earbuds put the controls along the wire, which causes the wire to become heavier on one side and can cause the earbuds to fall off easier when they are just laying on your neck.
• Simplified controls are easy to learn, easy to find when you’re wearing them. On/Off and volume controls.
• Good quality sound for phone called and music. I listen to audio books most of the time, and this was great for them. Music sounded good too, I’m not an audiophile but I can tell you the sounds were clear and the microphone worked well during phone calls.
• Flat wire connecting the earbuds. I’ve heard the flat wires are better than round because it makes the wires less likely to break. I’ve had flat wires break and round wires break, I’m not sure if one is better than the other for longevity. I do know I like the look of the flat wires better than the round wires.
• Plastic “screen” between the earbud and the ear. My camera isn’t good enough to capture this, but lots of earbuds have a metal screen preventing ear gunk from getting into the mechanisms of the ear bud. I’ve had this come out on a few pairs and I’m always worried it’s going to come out in my ear and I’ll never find it. This one has a built in plastic screen that can’t come out.

CONS for the Mifine Bluetooth Earbuds

• It only has an on/off/play/stop button and volume controls, but since I rarely use my skip forward buttons on other headphones, this isn’t a bad thing for me.
• Really bright bluetooth light. I usually end up having to put a piece of tape on the light just because I hate blinding people with the light and this is going to be one of those headphones I’m going to need to do that.

TL;DR

Really nice set of earbuds. Has good sound quality and easy to operate. Love the box they come in. Battery life is good and they charge quickly. I like the “phone” shape of the bluetooth light, even though it’s pretty bright. They come in a green and black version as well as a solid black.

Purchase Information:

I received these earbuds at a discount for testing purposes. I do not accept products for review unless I have a legitimate need or desire to test them out. I always strive to give an honest review. The product links in my review are potentially “affiliate” links in which I might receive a small payment based off your purchase that will in no way affect your purchase price.

Tenergy Bluetooth Beanie

I am a Bluetooth headphone junkie. I wear them 24/7.  I sleep in them, work in them, in fact I think the only time I take them off is in the shower. I used to read all the time, now I listen to audio books all the time so I can keep my hands free and actually get things done around the farm and house.

I am currently testing the Tenergy Bluetooth Beanie. There are a couple reasons why you’d want a beanie headphone instead of just your regular in-ear headphones.  My best reason is I usually just hate in-ear headphones. They cut off ambient noises more than over the ear and they end up hurting your ear canals so because of that, for me they have a limited length of wearability.

The beanie headphone also has a limited length of wear simply because it’s a warm cap that you’re only going to want to wear when it’s cold. They do make different thicknesses of beanies so if you’re looking for a summer weight or winter weight, you should be able to find one.

PROS specific to the Tenergy Bluetooth Beanie:

• Fleece lined, so extra warmth – I wore mine for several hours in an A/C’d house and didn’t get sweaty but I’m not sure I’d want to wear it out in the summer heat.
• Minimal wires – Some beanies have obvious wires that connect the two headphones, while this is good for cleaning the hat, it’s terrible when it comes to wear. You’re always afraid you’re going to pull a wire and the earphones can move around more. That didn’t happen with this beanie.
• Small charging hole – Since there’s no wires, there’s also just a small hole near the main headphone that allows you to charge. Again, this keeps the earphones in a stable position and makes the beanie look like a nicer
• Movable puck – One of my biggest peeves on Bluetooth headphones is the super bright blinking blue light. It’s blinding when you’re in the dark. This one does still have a fairly bright light but you can shift it so that the leather patch covers the light and minimizes it.

CONS specific to the Tenergy Bluetooth Beanie:

• Minimal wires – While it does say the beanie is hand washable, I’m not sure how you’d manage it since it says to remove the electronics first and the electronics are sewn into the hat. It makes for excellent positioning, but you might be SOL if you get some serious dirt on it. To be fair I think the faux fur pom pom wouldn’t survive a wash either. Note: Please see the update below for information on removing the speakers.
• Small charging hole – While it’s great to have a small charging hole when you’re not charging, it’s kind of a pain to hunt for it when you do need to charge. You end up stretching the sweater to find the hole and I’m afraid long term it might look odd.
• “Invisible” buttons – Clearly they aren’t truly invisible, however when it’s on your head there’s really no way to tell if you have a button selected or if you have the right button selected. Obviously all headphones have a learning curve and eventually you’ll just know where all the buttons are, but initially it’s kind of a pain.
• Echo during calls – This only happened with my mother and it happens with all headphones, not just these, but I feel like I need to at least mention it.

 

TL;DR

Overall it’s a nice, comfortable beanie with good reception and sound at a really good price. It’s 6 hour playtime life is pretty good, but less than my “gold standard” set of headphones that lasts 10. Still a very comfortable way of listening to your favorite music or audiobook. Definitely worth looking into and purchasing.

Purchase Information:

I received this beanie at a discount for testing purposes. I do not accept products for review unless I have a legitimate need or desire to test them out. I always strive to give an honest review. The product links in my review are potentially “affiliate” links in which I might receive a small payment based off your purchase that will in no way affect your purchase price.

 UPDATE:  There is a way to remove the speakers, the hole is located inside the hat brim. Excellent place to put it as it is completely out of the way yet very easy to remove. I completely over looked it because the brim was tacked down in a couple places so I didn’t even check there.

 

Wireless Doorbells

Before we moved out here, I swore I’d never have a gate. I hate gates. I hate having to get out of my car to open the gate. I hate having to get back in my car to drive through the gate. I hate having to get out of my car to close the gate. I hate that I don’t trust anyone but my immediate family to correctly open and latch the gate properly so my animals don’t escape. I hate that people have no problem sitting at the end of my driveway and get annoyed that I haven’t noticed they’re there yet.

Fortunately I may have that last one figured out. Enter the Wireless Doorbell. Now usually you’ll get one of these if your house isn’t already wired for a doorbell, but I have no need for a doorbell. I need people to be able to get my attention from the gate that is over 160 feet away from the house.

Enter the Plusinno Physen Series wireless doorbell. It’s got a 500 ft range, an excessive amount of ringtones and it looks pretty sharp to boot. Honestly there’s only about 3 ringtones you’d ever use, but the devil in me likes to think I’ll set it to one of the really long ringtones and go outside and ring it constantly. I don’t.. but the thought is always there.

Here’s all the items you get when you order it. The doorbell transmitter, the receiver, a sign for those people that need directions regarding the use of doorbells and the hardware to attach the transmitter to whatever you’re attaching it to.

It’s very easy to set up. You’ve got your receiver that just plugs into a standard outlet and the doorbell that you can attach with double sided foam tape or with screws. Both types of hardware are included (a real bonus because I never seem to have the pieces I need laying around.) The doorbell comes with the batteries installed so you just pull out the plastic tag and it starts right up.

The receiver has a volume button so you can choose between 3 levels and 1 button for choosing the ringtone. It defaults to a generic ding-dong ding-dong but there are 52 melodies to choose from. There are several Christmas ones, some classical ones, some kid friendly nursery rhyme chants and even a Coo-coo clock and dog barking. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that makes you happy. My only real complaint on the melodies is that they run a little long. For instance, one of the songs is “Oh Suzanna” and it does the music for the chorus and one verse.

I added a solar light to the top of the doorbell

You can change/select your ringtone by selecting the ringtone then hold down doorbell and push the two buttons on the receiver at the same time. It’s very quick and easy, the only difficult part is if you go too fast through the ringtones and have to cycle back through them all to get back. 🙂

The doorbell / light combination at night.

We created a quick little wooden panel that is attached to the fence so people can just ring the doorbell if they need us. Not sure if it’s a bad thing or a good thing, but the only people that have used it so far is the family when they are trying to annoy the people inside the house.

As of the time of this post the doorbell is around $15. You almost can’t eat dinner for that much so it’s a very small investment with a very large return.