The Weekly Widget

Dremel Tool Winner!

2010-10-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

And the winner is...

Lisa Thomas

Congratulations Lisa! We will be sending you a private message shortly to get some shipping details.

Stay tuned for more giveaways and product tests.

the prize

LAST CHANCE!

2010-10-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today is your last chance to win the Dremel pumpkin carving kit. You have just hours left to submit your photo. As of the publishing of this post, we have only one valid entry with 2 votes (amazing... people must hate free stuff). Don't be left out! Click here or go to our giveaways page if you need a reminder on how to enter.

Emerson Fabric Steamer Creative Use

2010-10-15T08:00:00.103-04:00

Steam...

Date of Purchase: August 23, 2010
Price: $22.95
Topics:

Normal use
Breaking the rules
Bang for your buck

Bang for your buck:

After testing this product for a few weeks, it occurred to us that there are many more products that are very similar to this one (in that they create steam for a specific purpuse). With this in mind, we wondered if this clothing steamer could be used for other various steaming tasks. Of the several possibilities that immediately came to mind (steam bath, humidifier, vegetable steamer, etc.), one of them seemed like it would rate slightly higher on the fun scale.

Intrigued by the vegetable steamer idea, we decided to test our theory. Why would you buy a vegetable steamer if you could just as easily convert your clothing steamer to do the same job? The core component of both of these is a heating element - the only difference is where/how the steam is delivered.

As long as you can come up with a way to deliver the steam to the vegetables, then the clothing steamer will become an effective vegetable steamer. Utilizing a pot and a steam tray, we were able to come up with the following rig to steam our vegetables.

With the steam tray resting nicely on the steamer head and the handle of a pot (which was, conveniently, the exact height needed), our vegetable steam test could commence. For this test, we chose frozen corn as our gourmet clothing steamer cuisine.

With everything in place and the steamer in the "on" position, the corn appeared to be cooking.

How did this test end? Approximately 1 hour and 3 refills later, the corn was finally cooked. Although this technique actually did steam the vegetables, you could probably find several more efficient methods. You might be tempted to ask: this method could be useful in an emergency, right? Yes... that is if your emergencies usually involve the loss of virtually all heat sources except for your Emerson Steamer... which happens to be powered by some form of electricity that is always available during emergencies.

Summarize:

Although this steamer may not be the best solution for your dinner, it is definitely a decent choice for your laundry. It gets a good score for being versatile, portable, and convenient. The one area where it falls short is that it can't compete with the crispness that you might be used to with an iron. Depending on your preference, the convenience factor may be enough to convince you even if it does fall short of an iron. Based on the varying utility of both appliances, we're convinced that any household would make good use of this appliance while still using the old iron from time to time.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED
but... don't toss your iron... or your vegetable steamer

Emerson Fabric Steamer

MP3 Player Winner!

2010-10-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

And the winner is...

Becky Searle

Congratulations Becky! We will be sending you a private message shortly to get some shipping details.

Thank you to everyone else for entering to win. Stay tuned for more giveaways and product tests. If you want another chance to win something, our pumpkin carving giveaway is ongoing until Monday so hurry up and get your entries submitted!

Emerson Fabric Steamer (Rule Violations)

2010-10-13T08:00:00.149-04:00

Steam...

Date of Purchase: August 23, 2010
Price: $22.95
Topics:

Normal use
Breaking the rules
Bang for your buck

Breaking the rules:

Sometimes it's more fun to live outside of the law, especially when the consequences are relatively moderate. This week's widget seemed to be placing an unreasonable amount of restrictions on us. In an attempt to rebel against the civilized world, we decided to break some of the rules.

Our rule breaking spree actually started while we were testing a claim (this is sort of our favorite thing). The "claim" is actually less of a claim and more of a marking or two on the side of the included re-filling container....

Could these measurements possibly represent the amount of water that one would need to operate the steamer for that amount of time? With that question comes a simple and easily verifiable answer. The results are as follows.

Water to the 5min level: Steam time of 5:05
Water to the 10min level: Steam time of 9:57

The results have spoken: the times on the side of the cup are fairly accurate. Naturally, the next thing that we decided to to was to fill the steamer to the "max fill" line and conduct a similar test.

Max Fill: Steam time of 19:13

Because the max fill line seems to be considerably lower than the top of the reservoir, our next step was to conduct the same test with the reservoir completely full. This is clearly against the wishes of the manufactuer... what do they know, anyway?

Over full

Although the steamer lasted over 30 minutes on a full tank, we would not recommend this for normal use. This is the part where the author of the user manual can sit back, sigh, and say "told you so." As you may have expected, there is definitely a good reason for the extra space in the reservoir and it might have something to do with boiling water. Have you ever boiled a pot of water after filling to its rim? It's kind of like that. With no other place for it to go, the boiling water violently spews out of the steam spout. Certainly not recommended.

Over heat

After getting a little taste of rebellion, we wanted more. For the next test, we wanted to know what would happen if you left the steamer on long after the water was boiled off. You may recall some sort of urban legend where a coffee pot could burn your house down if left on after the coffee is gone. With a similar heating element, this steamer ought to present a similar risk.

It seems, though, that the only thing you will end up burning through is your power bill. After roughly 8 hours of leaving this steamer in the "on" position, no significant event had occurred. Although we do not suggest trying this in your home, we're fairly sure that it won't start a fire unless, of course, it is strategically placed beside something extremely flammable (we wanted to try this, but there are some laws that we feel we shouldn't break).

One theory, of which we have no data to support, is that doing this on a regular basis will probably reduce the life of the product. Common sense, right?

Over tip

What happens if you tip the steamer on its side? Don't do this. For reference, see the "over full" section above and expect similar results.

Steam bath

In the spirit of violating rules and possibly the most dangerous of the tests we conducted on this steamer, we attempted to steam some clothes... fully clothed. If that didn't make sense to you, let us re-phrase... Imagine you are in a hurry and you realize that the clothes that you just put on are desperately in need of being de-wrinkled. With no time left to change, you only have one option - steam your clothes in place. Again, we feel the legal need to say the following: don't try this.

We did try this and the results were surprising. The steam, while very wet, was not nearly as painful as you might imagine. Although it may be an effective way to steam your clothes, the trade-off is your own personal comfort. If you can get over the extreme heat, you probably won't get over the fact that you feel as if you've just stepped out of a steam shower by the time you're finished steaming your clothes. We're guessing that you may want to feel a little drier before rushing off to work, but this is simply a matter of preference.

Emerson Fabric Steamer

Emerson Fabric Steamer Normal Use Reveiw

2010-10-11T08:00:00.157-04:00

Steam...

Date of Purchase: August 23, 2010
Price: $22.95
Topics:

Normal use
Breaking the rules
Bang for your buck

Normal Use:

Although our first thought was to put this steamer through some sort of terrible series of tests in an attempt to bring it to a quick and terrible demise, we fought the urge and proceeded to test it in a few "normal" situations...

Shirts
Pants
Dresses
Curtains

The main goal here was to answer the following question: Is this a reasonable replacement for your loyal and trustworthy iron? In order to answer this question, we simply used this steamer instead of an iron for one month. Our conclusion comes in 3 parts: quality, convenience, and versatility.

For this test, our "quality" score is the quality (a.k.a. wrinkle-free-ness) of the garments after being steamed. Sadly, the steamer falls just short of the old standby iron. Steaming clothes and ironing clothes simply produce differing levels of flatness. If flatness is important to you (obsessive, anyone?), then you will certainly notice the difference. To be absolutely clear, the steamer does remove the wrinkles - it does not, however, produce the crispness that you may achieve with an iron.

before... wrinkles, many

after... wrinkles, less, still not perfect

Where it may falter in quality, this steamer makes up in convenience. If you're constantly annoyed by the ritual that is inherent in ironing clothes, particularly finding a good place to set up your ironing operation, then this steamer may be your answer. In the convenience category, this steamer gets high marks for it's ability to do it's job quickly and with very little space. The issue of space is especially relevant if you happen to live in a small house or apartment and don't have a designated "ironing station" where you can leave your ironing board out and ready. A steamer needs virtually zero extra space - you can simply leave the garment on the hanger and get right to steaming, which is convenient if you're one of those who think about this sort of thing 10 minutes before you leave for work in the morning (you know who you are).

Versatility is our way of saying that this steamer can actually do some things that an iron could never do. Most notably, it can steam curtains... while they are still on the curtain rod. Have you ever tried this with an iron? Don't. Curtains, dresses, and other delicate and/or hard-to-reach wrinkles are now within reach. If you've ever taken an article of clothing to the dry cleaners simply because it was wrinkled and you didn't know what to do, this steamer may actually save you some money.

steam these in place

We're not going to make any claims about the cleaning power of steam, but we're aware that people are making such claims. If you choose to believe them, then consider that to be another benefit of owning a steamer. Don't stop washing your clothes though - society is depending on you.

If the above ratings were our only results, the Emerson Fabric Steamer would succeed in winning our recommendation, but we've got more to throw at this week's widget. We want to know how it handles some abuse, neglect, and maybe even some disaster situations. Check back soon for more on this widget.

Emerson Fabric Steamer

Pumpkin Carving Photo Contest - Win It!

2010-10-08T08:00:00.004-04:00

Win this pumpkin carving kit!

Date of Purchase: September 22, 2010
Price: $19.99
Topics:

Level 3 Pumpkin Sorcerer

Do you think you have what it takes to be the next pumpkin carving rock star? We want to know. Post a picture of your best piece of pumpkin artwork (from this October or any previous year) on our facebook wall. Please, no hijacked images from of the internet - we want pictures of your pumpkins (we're using the honor system here, folks).

Once you've uploaded your photo, tell your friends to 'like' it on facebook. We'll be giving away the Dremel tool to the person who gets the most 'likes' on their photo. Voting will end on Monday, October 18th to give you time to carve your masterpiece before Halloween.

Did you catch that? Let's review...

Post your pumpkin picture on our wall.
Tell your friends to 'like' it.
Get the most 'likes' by Monday, October 18th.
Win this Dremel tool and (more importantly) become a Level 3 Pumpkin Sorcerer.

And remember, we're still taking submissions for our mp3 player giveaway. That's right, we're currently giving away two of our most recent items! Aren't we generous?

Good Luck!

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit (Thursday)

2010-10-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

Let there be light in this pumpkin!

Date of Purchase: September 22, 2010
Price: $19.99
Topics:

First Attempt
Dremel Tool or Marketing Tool?
Practice makes...
Light Source Issues
Level 3 Pumpkin Sorcerer

Light Source Issues

A particularly frustrating thing about this method of carving pumpkins is the task of creating light inside the pumpkin. Our first attempt was a candle, which failed. Our second attempt was 12 candles, which also failed. Our final attempt included a trip to our local home improvement warehouse for some more serious supplies.

Why did the candles fail? Two possible reasons come to mind:

They were simply not bright enough.
-or-
We didn't scrape enough material from our pumpkin.

After filling our pumpkin with multiple candles, we were convinced that it was #2. After spending several hours to produce our pumpkin creation (and a cramped hand), we abandoned the thought of spending any more time cutting on this poor gourd-like squash.

At this point, we opted for a more powerful (and more electric) light source. A stroll through several aisles of electrical supplies and hardware, we settled on two options:

A strand of rope lights
A single bulb work light

The advantage with the rope lights is that they will fit easily inside the pumpkin without modification whereas the work light is brighter but requires some extra cutting, depending on the size of your pumpkin.

ropelight

work light

If you're going for the more dramatic effect of the work light, we suggest that you use a fairly large pumpkin. Otherwise, you may have to improvise by making a few extra cuts. Here's how we made our smaller pumpkin work with the over-sized work light...

a small notch in the back gives us room to fit the light

with the switch facing outward, it can easily be turned on/off

the cord is hidden away in the back of the pumpkin

Warning: Use extreme caution whenever you mix electricity and pumpkins, especially if you plan on placing them outdoors.

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit (Wednesday)

2010-10-06T08:00:00.007-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Date of Purchase: September 22, 2010
Price: $19.99
Topics:

First Attempt
Dremel Tool or Marketing Tool?
Practice makes...
Light Source Issues
Level 3 Pumpkin Sorcerer

Dremel Tool or Marketing Tool?

So what is this thing anyway? What is it that makes it so much more special than any other Dremel tool? Three things make it unique:

A very handy (though lacking) set of pumpkin carving instructions.
Pumpkin Carving Templates
A sticker of a jack-o-lantern on the side of the tool

Other than those simple items, this tool is simply a low-cost Dremel tool with two speeds (LOW and HIGH). If you have any other Dremel tool lying around at home (and begging to be used), this is your chance. You likely also have the correct grinding bit as well. It looks a little like these...

If you happen to have a set of bits like the one pictured, you will actually have the advantage of variety. You may be able to use the smaller bits on some tiny details and the wider bits to grind out the larger areas.

If you are currently Dremel-less and have been thinking about making a purchase, then don't make the mistake of thinking that this tool is for pumpkin carving only. As long as you can ignore the pumpkin sticker on the side of the tool, it should be quite useful for a wide variety of low-demand Dremel jobs.

So... Dremel Tool? Yes. Marketing Tool? Yes. This tool happens to be part of a series of variations that Dremel has cleverly marketed to specific user groups. For example, if you want the same tool (with a different name), you could order:

the Dremel tool for golfers

or the Dremel tool for pet grooming

We're not sure if these are all the same model and we're not entirely certain what accessories are included with these other variations. The only point that we will attempt to make is that you could potentially purchase any of these to fulfill one need and easily take advantage of it's many uses. Compared to other Dremel tools, these specialty models are definitely at the low end of the price scale.

Practice Makes...

Perfect? Let's go with something closer to: Practice Makes Significantly Speedier While Only Marginally Making More Perfect. Our second attempt at another fairly simple template took a total of 1.5 hours from start to finish. While not the fastest jack-o-lantern on the block, fifty percent speed-up must count for something. Here's our quicker (and slightly friendlier) creation...

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit

2010-10-04T08:00:00.115-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Date of Purchase: September 22, 2010
Price: $19.99
Topics:

First Attempt
Dremel Tool or Marketing Tool?
Practice makes...
Light Source Issues
Level 3 Pumpkin Sorcerer

Monday: First Attempt

This week's widget is a Dremel tool that happens to be a pumpkin carving tool - or a pumpkin carving tool that happens to be a Dremel tool (more on this concept in a later post). The basic concept here is that you can purchase this tool and use it to "carve" a pumpkin (more on this later as well). Today, we'll walk through every step in the pumpkin carving process, as outlined by the included instructions. Along the way, we'll also add several steps to the process that the Dremel folks may have overlooked.

The Dremel tool comes with a grinding tip and some patterns.

Before getting started, you'll need a few more supplies. Here's a shopping list:

Pumpkin (do we really need to list this?)
AA Batteries (the tool needs 4, not included)
Spray-on adhesive
Adhesive remover (buy it now and save yourself a trip back to the store)
Scissors
Knife
Spoon/Scoop
Copies of templates (if you plan on reusing them)
Light Source:

~~Candles~~ (more on this later)
Work Light
-or-
Rope Lights

Extension Cord

Once you've gathered your supplies, you'll be ready to get started. The following are the Dremel instructions (directly copied from the included instruction sheet) and our corresponding commentary (in orange).

Use a knife to cut a lid for your pumpkin. Angle the knife towards the center of the pumpkin as you cut so that the lid will rest on top of the pumpkin after the cut has been made.
Use a large spoon to clean out the entire inside of the pumpkin. It is best if the walls of your pumpkin are approximately 1/4"-1/2" thick.
Based on the size of your pumpkin, you can enlarge or reduce the size of your template using a copy machine if needed.

We're assuming that steps 1-3 are tasks that most humans can accomplish on their own. Good luck. Now let's get to the more interesting steps.
Using spray-on adhesive, apply your template to the pumpkin.

Is it just us, or does this step seem to be lacking some detail? We have the adhesive, the pattern, and the pumpkin - is there something more to this?

Lacking further guidance, we have no choice but to dive right in and give it a try. First, we spray the adhesive on the pumpkin....
...and slap on the template. Is this right? Are those wrinkles supposed to be there? Why is this glue so incredibly sticky?

We're not sure if there's a better method to this step, but ours seemed to work out. If you don't happen to have spray adhesive in your glue drawer (and/or if you've never heard of it), be careful - using it is very un-fun.

As we learned during the next step, you'll want to make sure that every inch of the actual pattern is firmly stuck on the surface of the pumpkin and no air pockets are left. It's hard to describe what happens if you neglect this detail, but now you can't say we didn't warn you.

Insert additional step here. It should read: Grab your pumpkin and the tool and find a comfortable place to sit, as you will be grinding away for some time.
Turn the tool on LOW and begin tracing the areas to be removed.

Yes, you will be grinding straight through the paper and into the pumpkin. At first, you'll probably be nervous about grinding a pumpkin with a power-tool, but once you get used to the tool, it will become more natural. After using extreme caution with our first tedious part (the eye of our jack-o-lantern), we wondered how long this whole process would take. Don't worry, you will become faster with practice.
Additional step should read: Perform these steps over a drop-cloth, as you will be carving pieces of a pumpkin with a tiny spinning blade - which happens to make pumpkin paste (isn't that what they use to make pumpkin pie?) out of any piece of pumpkin that it touches.
You can use the HIGH setting for large area material removal.
This should also read: You can use the HIGH setting once you have practiced on low setting and desire to carve a pumpkin in less than 3 hours.
The key is to remove approximately the same amount of material on your whole pumpkin to achieve a uniform depth.
You may think that you've done a good job of this at first, but you haven't. Once you've cleaned off all of the pumpkin paste (we suggest that you do this over a sink), you'll see that you weren't quite as consistent as you may have figured. Don't worry though - you can go back to it with the tool and clean up the pattern later as long as you were able to color inside the lines the first time around.
Once you've finished, remove the paper template, place a light source, such as a candle, in the pumpkin, dim the lights, and see how well the light shines through your carving.
Once you've finished, you will have spent two hours of your life to get something that looks like this...

Then, you'll attempt to remove the paper template. It's interesting that the instructions mention this as if it's a simple task - it isn't. Remember that extremely sticky spray adhesive? As it turns out, it's still extremely sticky when you try to remove it. Who would have guessed? After your first attempt at removing the template, your pumpkin will look something like this....

If you were wondering why adhesive remover was on your shopping list, this is your justification. You'll need to do some major scrubbing with this stuff before your pumpkin starts to look like a pumpkin again and not a high school abstract art project. When you're finished with this "small" step, you will finally see the results of your work. This is when you may need to hit the pattern again with the tool to clean up the depth of your carving.
The next part of this multi-step step is to place a light source, such as a candle. Rather than using a candle, which doesn't give nearly enough light, we opted for a work-light (stay tuned, exploring this topic requires a separate post).
If you want more light to shine through, turn the lights back on, remove the candle, and remove additional material from your pumpkin.
This step leaves out one important detail: it is much easier to remove material from the inside of the pumpkin than it is to carve extra material from the pattern. As long as your pattern is uniformly carved, you can simply scrape the inside of the pumpkin to thin it out. If your desired light source is a candle, you'll have a lot more scraping to do.

Once you've finished all 9 (or 10 or 15?) steps, you should end up with something that looks like the frightening figure below. As mentioned, we used a work light with a 60 watt bulb, which seemed to create a fairly dramatic effect (just don't leave it out in the rain). Our total time to complete the project (not including several shopping trips) was approximately 3 hours. Our guess is that more practice will yield faster times.

Dremel 7000-PK 6-Volt Pumpkin Carving Kit

Mister Steamy Alternative Uses

2010-10-01T08:00:00.073-04:00

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Date of Purchase: 10 September, 2010
Price: $19.99/set of two

Today, we're exploring alternative uses of the Mister Steamy. Because this product has probably been sold in the millions, we can't help but think that there are many who have a set of two Mister Steamy dryer balls and no obvious use for them. Because we are advocates of the "reuse" concept (along with the other two R words), we're hoping that people will choose to find other uses for their failed products rather than placing them in a landfill.

Alternative use #1: Dog Toy. What made us think that this could possibly be used as a dog toy? We didn't. It was the dog's idea. In most cases, when this pup begs for something, she is tragically denied. In this case, her wish was granted.

In typical dog fashion, she quickly got to work with her task of tearing it to pieces. Unfortunately, she found success much more quickly than we had planned. Within minutes, the inferior dog-bite-durability of the Mister Steamy was obvious. Bad dog!

Alternative use #2: Antenna Ornament. Because the Mister Steamy has a foam core, it could easily be attached to the top of a car antenna, reminiscent of your favorite smiley face or 8-ball from your "younger" years (you know who you are... you're likely keeping these in a box somewhere with your furry dice mirror ornaments and clever vanity license plates). Unfortunately, our family sedan doesn't have a traditional radio antenna, so we were unable to test this innovative use of the Mister Steamy dryer ball. Try it out for yourself and let us know if you get any honks!

Alternative use #3: Golf Tee Marker. In the rare case that someone reading this post happens to own/operate a golf course, you may benefit from this. Rather than spend a fortune on more expensive tee markers, you could simply place a set of Mister Steamy dryer balls on each tee. The minor disadvantage of this is that you most likely only purchased one set and you'll have to purchase several more sets in order for this to be an effective tee marker solution. On a typical golf course, there are usually three sets of tees on each hole and 18 holes on the course. This means that you would need to buy 54 sets to cover the entire golf course, coming to a grand total of $1079.46. Unless you happen to get a volume discount, maybe this option isn't as economical as we first thought.

A little creativity can help give terrible products new life and hopefully keep garbage out of our landfills. Maybe someday people will stop producing (and creatively selling) these absurd products. Until then, we'll just have to find new and inventive uses for our junk. We encourage you to find practical uses for this and other items that you may have purchased off of the television. Not only is this a fun (and free) activity/hobby, it may even help you to overcome that tremendous buyer's remorse that you will undoubtedly have after buying the Mister Steamy.

P.S. Dear Mister Steamy lawyers: all comments and topics are strictly the opinions of the author and not based on anything factual or scientific in any way.

Mister Steamy Towel Fluff Test

2010-09-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Fluff!
Date of Purchase: 10 September, 2010
Price: $19.99/set of two

Although we have already settled on the “failure” designation for this week’s widget, it may still be useful to highlight some test results. As you might recall from Monday’s post, we came to the conclusion that the Mister Steamy dryer ball may be useful for socks, towels, and sheets. For those of you who might have a strong desire to have fluffy towels in your life (apparently this is a big deal?), this post is for you.

One of the claims made by the Mister Steamy camp is that it will make your towels oh-so-fluffy. They illustrate this claim by showing us a picture of 3 beautiful, fluffy towels beside 3 flat, boring towels – flat towels = dryer alone, fluffed towels = Mister Steamy. Let’s see if we can reproduce such results.

We start with 4 standard brand-new-never-used towels....

4 flat towels, fresh from a store

Then, we throw two of them in the dryer, without the thundering dryer ball. After a 30 minute high-heat cycle, we carefully re-fold them and place them next to our un-dryered* towels.

first two towels on left, dryer only

The results of the dryer-only cycle are clear: more fluff.

The next step is to see if the Mister Steamy produces even more fluff. We place the un-dryered* towels in the dryer with the Mister Steamy (as per instructions, filled with of water) for the same 30 minute high-heat cycle. After 30 minutes of dryer-drumming torment, we place these towels beside the other set for comparison.

left: dryer only... right:dryer with Mister Steamy

The results are in… Mister Steamy produces virtually zero additional fluff.

One question remains: how did the marketing team for the Mister Steamy achieve their results? Rather than tossing around accusations, we’ll just assume that our test must have been flawed in some way. Unfortunately, the Mister Steamy doesn’t come with a “fluffy towel comparison test – the Mister Steamy way” instruction sheet. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let us know.

*un-dryered is a word. We made it up. Don't use it, though. We'll probably get a patent soon. And maybe a copyright/trademark/registration/digital rights management/activation code/treasure map.

Mister Steamy

2010-09-27T08:00:00.003-04:00

Hot Air!
Date of Purchase: 10 September, 2010
Price: $19.99/set of two

Flop

What is it about TV infomercials that makes us feel as if all of our troubles will melt away as soon as we buy this new and wonderful product? Whether it be the true usefulness of "innovative" products or simply the clever pitches and gimmicks offered by the advertisers, a good many millions of us find ourselves picking up the phone to find out. Before you pick up the phone for this nonsense, there are a few things that you should know...

The Mister Steamy needs high heat dryer cycle to work properly.
The Mister Steamy is made of hard plastic and produces thundering noise in your dryer.

After hearing these two facts, many would decide that it probably isn't worth the $19.99 for the pack of two (don't try to buy just one, they give you one "free" when you buy the first). If you're one of those in this group, we're with you.

Perhaps the first fact by itself would be enough for the Mister Steamy to receive a failing grade. The fact that this dryer ball requires a high heat cycle is a huge problem. For most of us, the types of clothing most in need of de-wrinkling also happen to be the types of clothing that are the most sensitive to high heat wash/dry cycles. Once we toss all of our most delicate clothing from the high heat cycle, (depending on our level of laundry strictness) we're left with basically three articles: socks, towels, and sheets. This might explain why the Mister Steamy marketing team chose to feature something like the picture below (more on this little demonstration later in the week).

The second unfortunate fact will mostly have a negative effect on your sanity and may cause some sort of harm to your dryer. We're not sure if placing a hard plastic ball in your dryer will void the warranty, but it certainly feels like some form of abuse that may not be covered. Even if your dryer can take the abuse, the thundering sound will drive you mad. If you're having trouble imagining the sound of this widget tumbling around in your dryer, just toss some steel-toe work boots into your dryer and try to have a conversation.

Although we have two more posts dedicated to this failure, we'll give you the pleasure of a verdict now. Rather than lead you on and let you think that we might be recommending this product, we would like to make it perfectly clear that we are not. Our next two posts will be a brief exploration of towel fluffing techniques followed by a short brainstorm on alternative uses (just in case you're one of the millions who have already spent your money on this gimmick). For now, though, here's the verdict...

FAIL!

MP3 Player Giveaway

2010-09-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

Updated Rules!

Due to the lack of interest on our first attempt to give away the Raven MP3 player (by lack of interest, we mean absolutely zero entries), we're changing the rules. The giveaway will now be by a random drawing.

The Prize:

The Mach Speed 2GB MP3 Player, recently featured here.

Here's what you have to do to enter:

'Like' us on facebook
-and-
Do at least one of the following:

Comment on one of our product blog posts and tell us if you would buy the featured product and why or why not.
Suggest a product for us to test by writing it on our wall (and why we should test it). BONUS: if we decide to use your idea, we'll enter your name twice.

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Good Luck!

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak (Friday)

2010-09-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Unsinkable!

Date of Purchase: 31 August, 2010
Price: $89.62
Tests/Topics:

Paddle Power:

One disappointing aspect of this kayak is the strength (or weakness) of the included paddles. Although they held up during our 100M sprint time trials, at times it seemed as though they would snap on each aggressive paddle stroke. Our advice: plan on buying new paddles if you ever decide to head to the races with this kayak.

Summarize:

This kayak is a good choice for those of us who want a fun and relaxing recreational activity at a reasonable cost. Due to it's relatively low cost and excellent stability on the water, we're convinced that this would be a good option for almost anyone who has the desire to launch themselves into the kayaking scene. If you've been hesitant to try kayaking in the past, this comfy vessel just might change your mind.

Speaking of cost, it is probably important to note that the cost of the kayak alone won't quite get you out on the water. You'll need several key items before you set sail (rather, set paddle). Here's a shopping list to get you started...

Kayak: around $100 (look for it on sale to get our price)
Pump: anywhere from $12 to $30, depending on your needs
Life Jackets: around $15 X 2 (check your local regulations on this)
Replacement Paddles: optional - from $20 to $400 (we know, absurd)
Total Cost to get you in the water: between $142 and $200

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak, 2-Person

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak (Thursday)

2010-09-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Unsinkable!

Date of Purchase: 31 August, 2010
Price: $89.62
Tests/Topics:

K2 200M
Panic in the Water
Inflate/Deflate
Tracking
Paddle Power

Thursday: Tracking

Tracking: the ease with which a canoe/kayak can be paddled along a straight line.

As you may recall from Monday's post, our race times with this kayak weren't quite competition-ready. One possible explanation for this may have been our inability to travel in a straight line (if you've forgotten why this is important, dust off that old geometry book and give yourself a refresher). The ideal path from point A to point B is the following...

Had our path of travel looked similar the depiction above, our times may have improved slightly. Although it is impossible to guess what our path truly looked like, a rough estimate/memory puts it somewhere in this range...

Not terrible, but not perfect either. The shape of this line is based on several factors: our experience level (low), our utter lack of coordination between paddlers (honestly, wow), and the fact that we were paddling rigorously in an attempt to improve our times.

While paddling at a more reasonable pace, we were able to come closer to the first image. Although this kayak was clearly made for stability and not tracking, it performed better than expected in a typical recreational situation. Just don't expect it to track like your great-grandpappy's Old Town.

there are two skegs (fins) on the bottom of the kayak that aid in tracking

Bonus Test: Overweight and Out of Control

As clearly stated on the box, the maximum capacity of this kayak is 595 pounds. In order to test the weight limitations of this vessel, we decided to take it for a spin with 3 people, totaling 525 pounds. With 70 pounds to spare, it should do fine, right? The following is a rough depiction of our 3-person, overloaded path...

Unfortunately, handling and control was seriously reduced when a 3rd person was added to the load. In defense of the manufacturer, it does state that the maximum load is "595 pounds or two people." Is this to say that if two people have a combined weight of 595 pounds, they shouldn't encounter the same problems that we did? Our lack of control may have simply been due to a lack of balanced weight and not necessarily due to us being overweight, but it is hard to believe that the total weight of the load didn't partially contribute to the failure of our pathetic test run.

Taking a different perspective on the matter, we could have simply found one person who weighs 295 pounds and another who weighs 300 pounds to conduct our test for us. Because we don't know two people that fit this description (or don't feel like conducting a "what is your weight?" poll among our friends and family), the world may never know the results of such test. One can only imagine.

An irritating side effect of our overweight excursion is illustrated in the photo below. Look closely and you'll notice that the leg-rests are filled with water. Apparently, 525 pounds is enough to bring the kayak one step closer to sinking.

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak, 2-Person

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak (Wednesday)

2010-09-22T08:00:00.004-04:00

Unsinkable!

Date of Purchase: 31 August, 2010
Price: $89.62
Tests/Topics:

K2 200M
Panic in the Water
Inflate/Deflate
Tracking
Paddle Power

Wednesday: Inflate/Deflate

This kayak has 8 chambers: 6 for the seats/leg-rests and 2 for the main hull. This is beneficial for safety reasons, but presents an extra challenge when you’re involved in “inflating for time” competitions. They don’t have these? Somewhere, this sort of thing has to be happening, right? If you're not convinced, just picture yourself on an airplane that just ran out of gas and you have no parachutes - the next best thing is to grab your rubber raft/kayak and take the plunge. Just in case you find yourself in either these situations, here’s how it did on a timed inflate...

    Inflation: 4:13
    Paddles Assembly: 4:08
    Total: 8:21

Below you will find some photos of the entire process. To accomplish the times above, we used a Coleman 120V Electric Quick Pump, readily available... almost anywhere that you might buy stuff.

For those of you who really get into your “time trials for ordinary tasks” competitions, here are some good numbers for deflation…

    Deflation: 6:03
    Paddle disassembly: 1:56
    Total: 7:59

To judge the true utility of this kayak, these times should probably be compared to the overall set-up/take-down times of other kayak models – specifically, those with hard shells.

What is there to set up with a hard-shell kayak? Assuming that you only wish to spend your money on the kayak itself and not on a high-tech rack system (which could cost you more than the inflatable kayak) for your car, you’ll probably spend some time figuring out how to strap a kayak on the top of your car. You may even spend a little more time getting to your destination to minimize the possibility of a tragic highway boating accident. The point here is that you will have to spend some time both before and after you hit the water, either inflating/deflating an inflatable or strapping/securing a more traditional model.

This inflatable kayak easily fits in a standard car trunk (with room to spare for some luggage) and sets up quickly enough to be a convenient option. For portability and ease of inflation/deflation, it gets a passing grade and we'll even throw in some flying colors.

On a related note, it gets a sub-par grade for minimalistic packaging techniques (or should we say, redundant packaging techniques). That's right, it shipped to us... in a bag... in a box... in a box... in a box.

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak, 2-Person

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak (Tuesday)

2010-09-21T08:00:00.064-04:00

Unsinkable!

Date of Purchase: 31 August, 2010
Price: $89.62
Tests/Topics:

K2 200M
Panic in the Water
Inflate/Deflate
Tracking
Paddle Power

Tuesday: Panic in the Water

photo credit: http://www.inflatablekayakworld.com/

Stability is a major concern of anyone interested in a kayak in this price range. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere – if that somewhere happens to be in the water instead of on the water, you may never return. A valid fear for any beginner is to end up in a situation like the one pictured above.

How might we eliminate this fear? By attempting to sink/capsize/swamp/flood our inflatable kayak, of course. Lacking the availability Class 6 whitewater rapids, the alternative is to simulate the most extreme kayaking conditions in a calm and serene mountain lake (while imagining ourselves engulfed in the last gripping scenes of The River Wild).

In several “panic” tests, we tried a variety of sudden movements in all directions in an attempt to cause the kayak to tip completely. After all other attempts failed, we were finally successful when both of us leaned in the same direction until the kayak dumped us.

As this photo illustrates, even during a full lean to the right, the kayak remained generally level on the water. Shortly after this point in the lean, we were able to push our weight far enough to one side to cause the kayak to tip completely on its side, leaving us treading water and gasping for air.

After coming to grips with our dire situation and reciting several quotes from Titanic and Jaws, we formulated a plan to re-board our stable craft. For this event, we decided to use the stopwatch in an attempt to put some sort of metric on our efforts. Our time: approximately 10 seconds (from kayak overturned to back on and paddling again). Although this time is hardly a good metric of anything, especially when compared to all of the other kayak re-boarding data readily available in the public domain (none), it should be an indication of how relatively easy it is to get going again after falling out of this flat-bottom inflatable kayak.

The good news here is that this kayak is extremely sturdy and very panic-proof. Once you’re seated in this surprisingly comfortable vessel, it’s going to take the force of some fairly large waves or one extremely panicked paddle-partner to cause capsization (this word may or may not be in any dictionary).

Stay tuned! More paddling adventures to come.

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak, 2-Person

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak (Monday)

2010-09-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

Unsinkable!

Date of Purchase: 31 August, 2010
Price: $89.62
Tests/Topics:

K2 200M
Panic in the Water
Inflate/Deflate
Tracking
Paddle Power

Monday: K2 200M

For those who may not be canoe and kayak competition super-fans, the K2 200M looks a little bit like this…

What does this have to do with a ninety-dollar inflatable kayak, you ask? Well, if you want to someday rise to kayaking fame and fortune, you have to start somewhere. Racecar drivers don’t start by racing $150,000 ultra-performance race-cars. Tour de France bikers may not have access to a $10,000 Trek to start their careers. Before they reached fame in their respective sports, Jeff Gordon probably raced a go-cart and Lance Armstrong probably cruised a Huffy. The point is this: believe in yourself throughout your trials and challenges, and someday you may be a world class paddler, complete with your highly sophisticated Super Kayak, reasonably priced around $3100.

For comparison purposes, a recent national championship had the following results (in seconds)…

K2 200M Men’s	1^st: 32.229
	2^nd: 32.231
	3^rd: 32.653

K2 200M Women’s	1^st: 37.508
	2^nd: 37.682
	3^rd: 37.774

With our goal being to come somewhere close to these times with the Sevylor inflatable, we headed to the water. Knowing that the combination of a flat-bottom boat and absolutely zero kayaking skills would probably have an adverse effect on our times, we decided that we would reduce the distance by 50%. That seems fair enough, right? Here are the times for our 3 time trials…

Run 1: 0:58
Run 2: 0:54
Run 3: 1:00

As evident in this photo, our times may partially be a reflection of our overall kayaking skill level. The experts in the video (above) seem to be paddling in unison whereas we seem to be fighting against one another.

In order to avoid leading you to conclusions, we will simply state the facts: championship kayaking 200M time (experts in a fancy boat): roughly 30 seconds; beginner kayaking 100M time (clueless in a $90 inflatable): roughly 1 minute.

After returning from the lake (in a state of utter defeat), a quick search produced another set of competition-grade times worthy of comparison. In another national kayaking championship, the 250M race resulted in a first place of 2:10 and second place of 2:19. Based on our 100M times, this is something we could certainly compete with. Of course, we would have to be in the appropriate age group. These times happened to be listed under the 5-7 juniors division. Sorry kids, but we could totally beat those lousy times of yours - we'll see you out on the lake.

Do these results tell us that you can't use this kayak to launch your lucrative career into professional kayaking stardom? We'll just have to let you know after several years of dedicated training (that is, if you haven't already seen us on ESPN8 by then). The one conclusion that can be made here is that you certainly could race this kayak and you would probably lose, depending on the age group of your competitors.

Stay tuned! More to come throughout the week.

Sevylor Inflatable Sit-On-Top Kayak, 2-Person

Eon Ice Everlasting LED Card Flashlight

2010-09-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

Go Anywhere
Date of Purchase: 18 August, 2010

Price: $14.99
Tests/Topics:

Costanza Wallet
Family Sedan
3 Story Drop
Family Sedan, take 2.
DIY Electrician
Trout Pond Float Test
Heat Wave

Claim: "FITS IN WALLET OR PURSE"

Test: Costanza Wallet Lite or Costanza Lighted Wallet?

This widget is an LED flashlight that is packaged in a credit-card-like body. The obvious benefit of a credit card flashlight is that it is small enough to store almost anywhere. The keyword here is almost. Although this flashlight is the shape of a credit card, it is not quite the thickness of a credit card. When it comes to putting this thing in your wallet and carrying it everywhere you go (while desperately waiting for that moment of ultimate heroism), it depends greatly in the style of wallet that you carry.

If you've modeled your life after George Costanza and think of your wallet as "...an organizer, a secretary, and a friend," then you may not even notice a little extra bulk in that over-plump billfold.

On the other hand, squeezing this flashlight into a typical male wallet without being irritated by the extra girth would be a challenge (especially if you plan leaving it in your back pocket for long periods of time).

Does this mean that the claim is false? Not necessarily. A generously-sized ladies wallet/clutch would probably be the best bet for storing a credit card flashlight. So maybe the claim should read, "Fits in large non-pants-pocket-style ladies wallet..."

Claim: "CRUSH PROOF -WILL NOT GET DAMAGED"
Test: Family Sedan

Imagine that you are using your ultra-portable, incredibly hip, credit card flashlight to shuffle through your purse in pursuit of your lost car keys. You're so excited when you finally locate that ridiculously over-embellished key chain, you overlook the fact that you've tragically dropped your light source on the pavement under your car. Let's also imagine that at some point you remember exactly where you were when you lost this invaluable device (you won't). Will it survive the extreme weight of cars, trucks, mopeds, and roller skates that will inevitably roll over it until you have the chance to come to its rescue?

There's a simple test for that, assuming that one has access to a modern family sedan. (By the way, the author of this blog lives in the U.S. Doesn't everyone have a car? ) Credit card flashlight family sedan crush test, take one...

Before

After

This is the part where the reader sits back and says, "how boring." Not only is this a valid response to the photos above, it would have been a likely response from anyone passing by during this uneventful test. The short and simple result: roll over this flashlight as many times as you want- nothing will happen. However boring this test may have been, here was one unexpected outcome - we'll get to that later.

Test: 3-story drop

To further test the durability of this weeks product, it only seems natural to toss it from a 3-story window. You can probably use your imagination for a real-world situation where this might occur (for the unimaginative types, here's some help: reflect on of some of your finest sibling feuds). Although slightly more fun than rolling over a flashlight in a car, this proved to have mostly the same effect on the flashlight: no significant damage.

After several drops, the only noticeable damages were cosmetic. When the point of impact happened to be on a corner of the flashlight, it received a new battle scar. Take that, little sister.

Claim: "CANNOT GO OFF ACCIDENTALLY"
Test: Car-crush, take 2

How do you prove whether or not a flashlight can go off accidentally? Technically, you only need to make it go off accidentally one time to prove that it can in fact go off accidentally. Rather than formulate some sort of test (something involving a group of people with various body-types and several folding chairs?) for this, why not just wait and see if it ever goes off unexpectedly?

Initially, the family sedan crush test was meant to prove the durability of the Eon Ice flashlight. Then it became apparent that it was also a test to dispute the accidental discharge claim. As the car rolled backward and forward, a small flash of light revealed a flaw: if you roll over this flashlight with a car and expect it to stay off the entire time, you will be disappointed.

One possible argument could explain this unfortunate flaw. If your flashlight is under your tire, then it is probably lost and needs to be found. If it needs to be found, then it probably needs to call for help in some way. Was the flashlight simply screaming "find me!" via tiny flashes of light? If that is the case, it is the most intelligent flashlight in the world and it may have been in the news lately. Did you miss that report as well?

Claim: "TWIN LIGHTS... MORE RELIABLE AND BRIGHTER"
Test: DIY Electrician

Installing a light fixture can be a pain...

"If I have to turn off the power, then how will I see."

"With your Eon Ice Everlasting flashlight, of course."

No two people ever actually had this extremely cheesy conversation, but you get the idea. If you're going to be working in the dark, you will need a light source. Unfortunately, the Eon Ice failed this simple test - not because it wasn't bright enough, though. It failed because it only stays on when you keep the button pressed. If you've already dedicated your right hand to a light fixture and your left to a screwdriver, you'll probably lack the coordination and flexibility required to somehow press a flashlight button with your forehead and point the light in the right direction with your elbow. Although that sounds like a decent game-show-style stunt, a typical do-it-yourself-er may not be interested in participating. Therefore, the Eon Ice may be better utilized as an emergency light than a work light.

Claim: "WATERPROOF"
Test: Trout Pond Float Test

Yes, this flashlight is waterproof. Any questions? Yes. How do you test such a claim? 1. Dunk in water 2. Dry 3. Does it still work? Yes. That was easy. Any more questions? Yes. Does it float? That's a different story...

Because this claim is actually not that interesting or challenging, we'll just have to make it interesting. The float test seems fair - what good is a waterproof flashlight if it ends up at the bottom of the lake? This test involves transforming this small credit card light into a small credit card light/raft, complete with center console and Lego®-man captain....

With the console securely fastened (using extra-strength glue, of course), the vessel is ready for its maiden voyage on the high ~~seas~~ pond.

The captain prepares for launch...

...and takes the plunge.

All the way to the bottom.

Luckily, he survives the tragic maritime disaster and washes ashore with the wreckage.

The trout pond test results are as follows... Waterproof: YES. Sinkproof: NO. And our brave young captain scores a 9 out of 10 for maintaining his positive attitude (and that ridiculous grin) throughout the course of his ordeal.

Bonus Test: Heat Wave

One potential use of this flashlight could be to have a convenient light source in your car at all times. For this plan to work, it would have to withstand the extreme heat that typically occurs in vehicles during the summer months. Although some informal studies have been done on this topic, it is hard to predict how hot a car will get while it roasts in the sun. Most test results seem to put the upper limit somewhere around 150 F. With this in mind, we baked the Eon Ice in a household oven for 30 minutes at 200 F (just to be on the safe side). The result: with no cosmetic or functional effects, the Eon Ice posts a clear victory in this area.

Summarize:

This convenient and portable flashlight performed quite well under various forms of abuse and stress. Although it can take all the hits and keep on shining, it didn't perform as well when faced with practical, regular use. It's small size and slim shape are simply trade-offs for usability. This is definitely an item that you can toss in your purse and forget - it can just roam around at the bottom along with your pepper-spray, lost lipstick, and month-old granola bar until that one moment when you might need it. It would also fit nicely in a glove compartment for emergency use.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

Eon Ice Everlasting LED Card Flashlight, Black

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10MP Digital Camera

2010-09-06T11:38:00.000-04:00

Extended Use Review

Date of Purchase: September 29th, 2009
Price: $312.10
Tests performed: regular use (sorry, no over-ambitious stress-tests)

Since last September, this camera has performed well in a variety of situations - even in awkward social situations. It sustained several life-threatening falls and lived to tell about them (in the form of clear and vibrant pictures of nearby scenery, of course). During a hiking excursion, it took a hard tumble over several rocks and escaped with only cosmetic injuries (battle scars build character, a wise man says).

With the help of the "intelligent" auto mode, the picture quality and light metering seems to be flawless in most situations. Below, you will find several of this cameras finer moments under various modes*...

Catch a squirrel stealing birdseed Mode: get a shot off quick, catch a crook.

Macro Mode: (directions: go to middle of desert, take left, spot wildflower after spring rain...)

Stunning Vista Mode: (...continue on foot, go up hill, stop, gaze)

Danger of being eaten Mode: how close is too close? 12X zoom close?

Pinhole Mode: this is really a mode, honest. no touch-ups either

*camera does not necessarily support all modes listed.

Summarize:
This is a super camera that has all the features that you would want in a compact, take-anywhere camera and some of the features you might find in a digital SLR.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Note: the following camera is the one mentioned here. If you follow the link, you will see that there is an updated model since last years version, which is probably the better deal. So get yourself one and save our birdseed.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Black)

Mach Speed Raven 2GB MP3 Player

2010-08-30T17:23:00.006-04:00

Cheap Tunes

Date of Purchase: August 18th, 2010
Price: $18.62
Tests/Topics:

Zero-to-Rice
Stereo Output
Battery Life
Corrupted Files
Circular Motion
Music for the Blind
Washer/Dryer

Zero-to-Rice:
Achieved in approximately 8 minutes
Series of events:

attempt to tear open package (realize that it's adult proof)
locate scissors (conveniently stored in the a room on opposite side of house)
cut through space-approved super strength plastic
locate mp3 player and plug into usb port of computer
click on "view folder contents" (when windows gives a helping hand)
locate some music (Damien Rice, in this case)
copy-paste music to mp3 player (7.6 seconds with USB 2.0 for an album)
remove mp3 player from computer (safely, or dangerously? more on this below)
plug in headphones (included)
press and hold play button
press play button again
Rice!

Stereo Output:

Opinions, opinions. What can one hope for with a 20-dollar mp3 player? To run a set of high-output audiophile-grade speakers? A concert with thousands in attendance? A dance party? Audio quality is a matter of great concern to some and more of a foreign concept to others. Connect this player to an amplified stereo system, and it is simply an audio output with standard performance. Use your own headphones, and chances are high that you will be satisfied with the quality (and amplification) that it provides. If you've been hard-rocking with your walky-phones since 1979, maybe this player won't quite pump the tunes loud enough for your sound-scarred ears, but fortunately you won't be bothered by any sound quality issues.
The bottom line on sound quality is this: the largest factor will always be the bitrate of the song that is tested. A song with a high bitrate (larger file size) will always sound better than a low-quality one. If you want studio quality sound, you probably won't be using mp3 files and probably have an ego that is bigger than an mp3 player that will put you out the cost of an entree at Generic Faux-Fancy Restuarant.

Battery Life:
As advertised, one AAA battery holds out for approximately 6 hours (likely longer if you keep the volume at sub-concert levels). The fact that the Raven is powered by a AAA battery instead of an internal rechargeable can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that when the power runs out, the tunes don't have to stop - simply pop in a new battery and you can keep on keepin' on. Assuming you are nearby a store when you are in need of a battery, you will always have a quick solution to your power needs. The disadvantage that this brings is the fact that you may end up with a plump battery budget (in the case that you constantly have your ear-buds fixed in your lobes in order to avoid socializing with fellow humans). If you are one of those, I suggest buying in bulk... Do they sell AAA's by the gross?

Corrupted Files:
For those who have a problem with authority and prefer to live dangerously, the term "safely remove hardware" probably sends the wrong signal. How does the Raven survive an unprotected ejection? Two simple tests may reveal the Raven's resilience to this sort of rebellious behavior:

Unplug, no file transfers: without moving any files, quickly remove the raven from the USB port of the computer.
Result: all files are intact and nothing exploded. Super.
Unplug mid-transfer: while a file is being moved to the player, pull the plug.
Result: after taking some abuse from windows (in the form of rude warning messages), the player is revived. At first it seems as though nothing went wrong. The file in question is on the player and seems to be working. Then, it simply stops playing roughly half-way through the song. No other unfortunate side-effects are apparent.

Rebels rejoice. It seems that you can unplug the Raven whenever you choose. Just be ready for a slightly different ending to that favorite hair-band song of yours.

Circular Motion:

photo credit: www.tutorvista.com

What happens when a physics-minded child or equally curious adult decides to spin this small device through the air with only the headphone jack to keep it from sailing to its demise?
Although the headphone jack on the Raven is considerably strong, there is a specific point at which it will fail. That point is reached by simply grasping the headphones and playing "helicopter" over one's head with a certain level of deliberate force. As a probability, the likelihood of encountering a speeding mp3 player projectile rates as "not likely" for children and "only if you're trying" for adults. In other words, it comes down to speed and at normal, playful "helicopter" speeds, a catastrophic event is less likely.
The good news: even after this catastrophic breaking-point was discovered during a quick test, the Raven managed to walk away with only minimal scratches. A quick functions test proved that it could still rock the house even after a short flight and a hard landing. This does not, however, say anything about the effects of this event on innocent bystanders (think vase or shadow box).

Music for the Blind:
One notable attribute of the Raven is that it does not have a display. The only visual indicator on the device is a blinking blue light. While some of us are visual learners, not everyone feels the need to stare at abstract album art while they listen to their favorite Ska-Punk-Christian-Blues band. For some reason, it shouldn't seem strange to sell an audio device without some sort of visual element - but it does.
Regardless of what kind of learner you are, using the Raven with its three multi-function buttons will take a small amount of training. Once you get used to it, the only frustration that you may face is knowing which song you are listening to and which song will play next. The solution to this is knowing how the Raven goes about playing files and using that information when putting files onto the device.
After some testing (probably not enough), it seems as though the Raven operates in the following way:

It first looks for folders.
It cycles through the folders in alphabetical order. (ex. folder "a" comes before folder "b")
Within a folder, it plays songs in alphabetical order (by filename, not song title).
After it plays all folders, it moves onto songs in the root folder, and plays them alphabetically.

Using that knowledge, any desired song ordering can be achieved with the use of creative file names and a well-planned structure of folders.

Washer/Dryer:
One of the most common traumas that a portable electronic device can see in its short (pre-obsolete) lifetime is a trip through the wash. How would the Raven fare? There's only one way to find out...

pants pocket: a likely place to forget...

It's not too late. Check those pockets!

oops

and into the dryer

post-dry (in pieces, as found in the bottom of the dryer)

further examination reveals that it almost came out in more pieces

The most important tip for the recovery of any device that has been dunked is to let it dry completely before attempting to power it on again. If any of the circuitry on the inside is still wet when it is powered on again, the chances of survival are diminished. In most cases, the only thing that you can do is wait.
After approximately 24 hours of drying time, the Raven refuses to wake up. A quick test of its music-playing abilities yields nothing. It seems as though it is fried. The second test is to plug it into the computer. This seems to be working just fine. The files are still there and intact. If anything, we still have a 2gb memory drive. The last chance effort to revive the Raven is to reformat the drive and start over. After loading some new music and "safely" removing the Raven from the computer, another functions test is in order. The result: Success! For some inexplicable reason, the Raven is alive and well after a quick re-format. The world may never know. And the cheap tunes roll on.

Summarize:
For the price, this is an excellent choice for a basic mp3 player that does what everyone expects an mp3 player to do: play music. It is also a decent alternative to a standard 2gb memory drive. Because its only slightly larger in size than other memory drives, it could easily replace the one you may carry on a daily basis. It also fared well when faced with various forms of abuse, which you might not expect from something at this price. Compared to other models that might retail for $35-50, it is definitely a cost-effective way to get your tunes on the go.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

Buy it...

Mach Speed Raven 2GB MP3 Player( Black)