Two New Home Gadgets
My wife has been back in Michigan to visit her parents for the past few days and the buddy who was supposed to come visit me wasn’t able to make it, so I’ve had a little extra time on my hands. You know what that means: catching up on home chores! I’ve cleaned out the fridge, put up lights and switched out bulbs, configured the last couple of Apple Home remotes that I’ve been meaning to get to, and more. But the most exciting thing I did was set up a couple of neat gadgets that have been waiting for my attention.
Oasis Mini
This little guy was an Indiegogo project that I backed over a year ago. To be honest, despite their periodic updates about development and productions, I was never quite sure if I’d been scammed or not. I thought it just as likely that I’d never get the product in my hands. But much to my delight, the box finally showed up on my doorstep about a week ago.
It’s an automated sand art device that uses a magnet to move around a small metal ball that pushes fine-grained sand into abstract designs. You’ve certainly seen the type before. The Oasis Mini is about 12-inches in diameter — perfect for a side table — and has many RGB lights around its interior circumference. Between the rotating lights and little waves of sand, it’s pretty trippy to look at!
The whole thing is controlled and automated through an app. You can load up “playlists” of designs for the thing to cycle through creating, adjust the lighting, speed up or down the ball, and more. I find it mesmerizing to watch, and I’m fascinated by how the lines for each design are sequenced so that the early ones aren’t ruined by the later ones. They all work together to create the intended picture. I’ve already spent a couple meals watching it rather than the TV or my phone.
I just might have to dial down the RGB lights — the overall effect almost makes me a little dizzy!
Safevant Smart Bird Feeder
This thing I should have installed months ago. It was a Christmas gift that I got on a killer deal (like 75% off on Amazon!) for my wife. It’d been sitting in our dining room since December, waiting for the birds to return… and then I forgot about it. But all is well, I spotted it when cleaning things up and added it to my Power Puttering (™ Merlin Mann) list.
The “smarts” of this bird feeder is the camera that sits at its center. When birds (or other hungry critters) perch to eat, you get a front-row view of the action with a live feed to your phone. And when you opt in to its (pretty reasonably priced at around $50/year) subscription plan, they’ll use “AI” to try to identify the bird and give you some fun facts about which kinds are coming to feast. Even more, you can use the thing as a security camera with person, vehicle, and package identification, trigger an audible alarm and flash a light, and intercom through it’s built-in microphone and speaker. The camera has infrared for at night, and the whole rig is powered by a solar panel and integrated battery.
It remains to be seen how it holds up over time, or even how well the bird identification works since I only just put it up tonight. But the quality seems good, the app is well-made, and all-in-all it’s quite the package for the $81 I paid for it.
At the moment, I’ve got it rigged up in the backyard near our other (dumb) bird feeders, but maybe we’ll try it in the front where we could use it as that dual-purpose security camera. I’m excited to learn more about the birds we visiting every day and hope my wife gets as much joy from it as I expect I will!
This is post #9/31 for Blaugust 2024.