Amcrest reached out to me to test and review their AWC201-B Webcam.
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Arrived in a super small package, and inside was the camera and a security cover.
TESTING
Plugged the device into a Dell Latitude E7470 running Windows 10 and it was immediately recognized and the drivers were installed.
Tested the webcam on several different platforms to see how the device would work with each one.
Microsoft Teams
Slack
GoToMeeting
Zoom
Picture
Overall picture quality is good, there is a fishbowl look at the outer edge of the frame and image looks a little distorted. Color is a little dull looking as well, but if you have good lighting that can be compensated some. Below is how the edge is distorted on the image when shown, it is not super bad and depending on the actual background it is not always visible in the video.
Sound
Microphone on the camera is as expected and anyone who would expect good sound quality from something sitting that far away from you and that small has to be crazy. The sound quality is about what you would expect from something directly sitting on your laptop. It was a little better then what I have in laptop but overall it made me sound as if I was talking into a tin can and sitting super far away from the microphone.
PROS:
The price is very good compared to several other brands and the overall quality is good for most business meetings and personal usage to make video calls.
CONS:
Camera needs to have a swivel to allow for adjusting the angle of the camera left to right when sitting on top of a laptop. There are some video quality issues but not a show stopper depending on your need.
Outcome
Overall it is a good product for the price, and compared to some well know brands it works decent enough. Plus as of this writing (2020 Pandemic) they have product in stock as companies like Logitech it is near impossible to find any of their products in stock. If you are looking for a decent low priced camera and are not super worried about the overall picture quality this is the webcam for you.
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I reached out to Amcrest to participate in a product review for some of their products. Actually it was on one of my social media platforms, and I decided to check it out to see what it was all about.
Amcrest reached out to me to test their GPS Tracker (AM-GL300W-4G) and they will reimburse me for the product purchase.
Amazon Listing Information:
COMPACT 4G GPS TRACKER
Perfect for tracking vehicles, loved ones (teens, spouses, children, elderly) or assets. With its sleek and compact design, it easily slips into cars, backpacks, strollers, luggage and is highly concealable. With 2G coverage slowly coming to an end, now is the time to upgrade to 4G.
Monthly subscription required.
No contracts or activation/cancellation fees.
$19.99 – 60 second updates
$24.99 – 30 second updates
$29.99 – 15 second updates
$34.99 – 5 second updates
REAL-TIME SMARTPHONE & PC TRACKING
With lighting fast 4G LTE this GPS tracker offers real-time tracking with up to 5-second updates through Windows and MAC desktop web-access (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) or through the Amcrest GPS smartphone app (iOS/Android). The intuitive user interface allows you to easily monitor activity, manage alerts and generate custom reports. Create links and share them with your friends, family and co-workers to keep track of cars, children, seniors and assets.
GEO-FENCING, SMART ALERTS & REPORTS
Create custom geo-fencing zones that alert you anytime the GPS tracker enters or exits a zone. Speed limit, harsh breaking, start/stop and proximity alerts allow you to easily track your vehicles and loved ones. Receive text, push and email notifications directly to your smartphone or PC with the Amcrest GPS app and desktop web-access client. Access your data with intelligent reporting directly from your iPhone, Android, Mac or PC.
BUILT TO LAST – EXTENDED BATTERY
This Amcrest 4G GPS Tracker is built to last with heavy-duty materials including an IPX5 water resistant housing as well as extended 2600mah battery which lasts up to 10-14+ days on a full charge with 60sec updates (7-8 days with 30sec updates, 4-5 days with 15sec updates, and 2-3 days with 5sec updates). Utilizes Google Maps for tracking and mapping.
LIFETIME WARRANTY & SUPPORT – IMPORTANT
This device is configured to work in the US, Canada, and Mexico only. Does Not work in Australia. We stand by our products and offer a lifetime warranty and unlimited support. In the event that your device produces undesirable results, we’ll gladly refund 100% of your hardware and subscription charges.
Additional Cases can be purchased from ASIN’s: B07R8WFTG5 & B081TK15YB (GPS Pouch). GPS Pouch included with the purchase of a 4G GPS Tracker.
There were no actual instruction in the box just a Quick start guide that gave you links to look at on the Amcrest website. This made things a little hard to know what to do the first time, and required me to go get my computer to actually read the instructions as they were nearly impossible to see on my mobile phone.
Setting up the account was fairly easy and straight forward.
Ease of Use
Over all it is fairly easy to use once you know what the blinking lights mean on the front of the device and get the account setup on the Amcrest website. Setting up the alerts and Geo Fencing zones took a little bit of time, but was fairly straight forward.
Battery Life
Battery life is not the greatest, and at the highest setting for polling (1 minute) you can get 10 to 14 days of use before needing a recharge. If you use the highest polling (5 seconds) option the device will last about 2 to 3 days. There are plans to have less polling options, and one that is every 24hrs, I was not able to look at those options for some reason.
For me the device should have a longer lasting batter life, closer to like 30 days for general usage, and maybe a full week for the highest usage.
The charging cable is a USB mini, which is strange and makes me believe they went on the cheap for that. The power adapter is an odd size and does not work well on some power outlets especially if space is limited and stacked side by side. The device does not seem to charge by plugging into a computer USB port which is a bummer, and did not seem to get it to work in a vehicle USB charger as well.
Geo Fencing
This is a nice feature, and will allow you to set up to 12 Geo Fence areas to alert on. I have a couple set up to test the device. It will alert me upon leaving my neighborhood and entering back into my neighborhood.
It uses Google Maps, and allows you to drawl an area to create a Zone.
Zone From One City Park to another City Park
Have noticed that if the cell service is not that great you might get an alert as the device thinks it is out side of the zone. I had to adjust the zone area a little wider to accommodate for that to not get bogus alerts.
Alerts
You can setup alerts based on zone exit or entry as well as speed, power, SOS, and Trip
Device Setting to configure main alerts for the device:
You can adjust the speed alert, if the device is on or off, and the low battery level
Recommendation
PROS:
The device is small and portable and is easily stashed in a glove box or in a small pocket.
The alerts and notifications are decent and you can see trip detail information on an actual map.
Speeding alert notifications, it will show you where the speeding was first detected on a map.
The Geo Fencing features is nice to allow for alerting on specific areas for entry and exit of that area.
CONS:
Battery life is not that great (10 – 14 days)
Charging cable is a very old standard, would have been better with a USB micro which has been a standard cable for many products for years. Maybe look into a USB C connector which is becoming the latest standard cable options.
DECISION:
I would recommend this device to people who want to track things, like a kid using a car, or a worker using a company vehicle. It is a decent price for what your getting, and the $20 monthly fee for the monitoring is comparable to a cellular plan.
I have been watching many YouTube videos during the 2020 lock down. Learning how to pick stocks and buy the Dip, how to do Drop Shipping, how to do Print of Demand (POD), as well as how to start utilizing YouTube for a side hustle. While it is interesting to listen to many of these videos telling you how you can make tons of money by doing what they have done. Most of them want you to buy into some membership or program that gives you exclusive access to their content on how to do what they are pushing. I for one am not willing to pay for their expertise on how to do something as that would defeat the purpose I came to watch the videos. I want to learn how to do these things without paying for it, I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn what is needed and not pay some “Guru” on how to do it. First off if they were that successful in a specific area they would spend more time doing the one thing that is making them the most money, and since it takes a lot of time and effort to make videos, my guess is that is where they make the most money.
Andrei Jikh
While I do like most of the people I watch as far as content value goes. Some have a great video presence, like Andrei Jikh, who uses his cardistry and magic to add more to the videos besides just the information they are providing. I also watch Ask Sebby, Wallers Wallet, Brian Jung, JJ Buckner, Jake Broe and The Credit Shifu as I like their content of their videos and I do get great value from them. If I like you content I will give you the Thumbs Up and smash the like button.
There are many others who are decent with the content they provide but are always pushing the other paid features they offer, and never provide the full details to what they are discussing. That drives me crazy, they talk all around what they want you to know, and then try to get you to go to their paid course to get the full details. I for one am not wanting to pay for some extra course to further my possibility to become rich in one area. While I have told people in the past you have to spend money to make money, I do not see the need to pay for specific knowledge when I can learn that by other means. I would prefer to learn with out paying for the knowledge, especially when the information is freely available and I can learn it if I take the time and not just pay someone to give me the cliff notes version.
It seems that everyone is trying to get some kind of side hustle going on theses days, for one reason or another, they want the extra income. Mostly they see people telling them how great it is to have a side hustle and how much money they make from it. I have heard some people say that a side hustle is just a second job, and I started thinking, that is not completely the same things in my opinion. While it is a second job of sorts, it does not have the constraints that a normal second job would have. First you get to set the hours you will work and how long and often you want to work. I guess I would consider it more of a free lancer with no hard commitments.
Side Hustle Ideas:
Uber / Lyft driver
YouTube content creator
Print on Demand products
Drop Shipping products
Real estate investor
Take your hobby and make a business
Have multiple income streams is the new normal for many people, and the side hustle is the way to build that income streams.
Why a Side Hustle:
Salaries are not growing that much
Cost of living is going up faster than wages
Single point of failure in your income
Allow for more savings for retirement
I am probably not going to start a YouTube channel, not something that really interests me and I would not want to keep up with it. I have started a Red Bubble shop, added a few things up there to see how that goes. Working on a few designs and trying to determine a niche that I want to focus on long term. I like traveling so that is my primary focus on the designs, but need to get a little more fine tuned to designs. I kind of like the shop aspect as I am actually learning to use tools I have wanted to learn for a while. Have been learning Inkscape and Gimp by watching videos from another Youtuber Logos by Nick. He has some cool designs and I have been working to incorporate them into my designs, and learning how to use the applications. Do I expect to make a ton of money from this, probably not, but if it takes off that would be nice. In the long run I have learned a few things and that might help me down the road in something.
If the thought of making some extra money then take the leap, I do not believe that it should cost you a bunch of money to start. Start small and work your way up from there, nothing in life is free, you have to work for it, put in the effort and don’t quite. In the long run you might be able to end up leaving your current full time job to make your side hustle into your full time business. As I have always said, if you enjoy your job you will never work again. If you hate your job, then your trading your time for a paycheck. I am in that current situation, I am trading time for a paycheck. I enjoy the work but it is not what I would do if I had a choice, it just allows me to pay the bills, pay for my kids college and save a bunch for my retirement.
Well we have a full blown pandemic across the world due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), which the first cases of this virus started in December of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. The World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
People are being forced to self quarantine as employers are going to a work from home model due to pressures to distance people from each other. Many people are happy that they actually get to work from home, while others are not overly ready or prepared to do work from home. It is funny to see all the twitter posts on how to work from home, and what you need to do. Some make sense and other s are just someones personal preferences. Figure out what works best for you, and try different things at first until it works best for you.
My Work From home:
Set a schedule (Wake up the same time every day)
Get ready for the day (Get out of your PJ’s and take a shower)
Have a separate place to work (My Desk is in my bedroom at the current time)
Dedicated work area (My standup desk in a corner of my bedroom)
Quite area for conference calls (No pets, kids, or TV’s)
Take breaks (Get away from things – walk outside, step away for 10 to 15 minutes)
Plan lunch breaks (Meet people, just get out of the house, actually take a break)
Have an end of the day (when does the work day end for you?)
Working from home is not for everyone, no matter what I hear on Twitter. Yes it sounds great for many people to be allowed to work from their house and not to have to drive into an office. While it sounds great to just roll out of bed and be at work, that is not always the case. For those that have kids at home and no real office to separate your self away from everyone else, it is hard to not get distracted. if you do not have a headset with noise canceling microphone, the background noise will be heard by everyone and very distracting. Telling yourself you can multi-task, just stop lying to your self. You are just doing more than one thing half paying attention to one or both of them most of the time.
If it was not for me traveling frequently, working form home would get really boring and monotonous. I like to interact with people, not that I do not like to talk to my wife and kids, but they do not know anything about what I do for work or any of my hobbies. For some people who like to be alone and only want to see their family, that is good if you can work from home, but this is not for everyone.
So, if your getting to work from home or looking to get a job that allows you to work from home. Make sure it will work for you, it is not for everyone all the time.
Some see perceived benefits:
No longer have a commute
Save on gas not commuting (maybe)
Save time not commuting (maybe)
Get to stay home with spouse/pets/kids
More quality time with family
Kids will not have to go to daycare/babysitter
Have more time (not sure on this one)
Able to take care of person things
Dr appointments when I want to go
Go to the store when I want
If you get the opportunity to work from home get a plan to continue to show your value to your manager, otherwise you may have to go back to the office. This is the reason why many people do not get the opportunity to get to work from home is due to some slacker who could not handle it. Yes, your manager will believe you are not doing anything as they never see you. This could also impact promotions, as your not seen you tend to become invisible to people. Keep in contact with co-workers, your manager and show you can be productive no matter where you are.
I started to remove all most Google products from my day to day life.
Why you may ask, first off they have way to much information about me and my daily routines. Second they have not always been good stewards of personal information they collect.
To start off I removed Google Chrome browser from my devices, and switched over to DuckDuckGo search engine and on occasion will use Microsoft Bing Search engine. This did take sometime to get used to using something other then Google, as their search functions work differently.
I have migrated my email from a Gmail account to a personal hosted email account. This took a lot longer then I originally expected, as some businesses rely solely on email as a primary ID, and their systems do not have the functionality to change this. Some required an email, to get this changed through a manual process, while others just said sorry no can do. The ones who could not change my account I just dropped them and will use something else as they were not really important to me.
I had an Android phone a long time ago (2008), I stopped using it as it was more of a hassle to work with then other phones I had used in the past. I know many people will say Android is the best phone OS and there is no comparison. My issue was there was no standards across the environment, and there were so many malicious apps in the stores then I wanted to deal with.
I actually found out that I had not been using many of Google Services as they came after something else I had been using and it was not any better then what I used.
Primarily I used Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, Domains, Drive, Voice and Maps.
Google Service
NOTES / ISSUES
WHAT I USE
Gmail
Took a while to move accounts over for different services.
BlueHost Hosted Service
Google Contacts
Have not really relied on this in sometime as my Phone always was current with contacts
Apple / iPhone
Google Calendar
Automatic add of items to calendar is fully working in others
Apple / iPhone
Google Search
Have to learn how to do searches again
DuckDuckGo Bing
Google Maps
Google MyMaps – Not found a suitable option OpenStreetMaps – is basic
Bing Maps Apple Maps Still doing a search for alternatives
Google Analytics
Stopped using this a while back after one of their changes made it a pain
Not using anything currently
Google Drive
Moved to OneDrive as I get 1TB of storage already with my Office suite
OneDrive for documents and photos iCloud for other Apple items
Google Photos
Moved to OneDrive
OneDrive
Google Docs
Moved to OneDrive
OneDrive
Google Play Music
Have been using Spotify for some time
Spotify
Google Play Movies/TV
Think I had like one movie I purchased on Google
MoviesAnywhere Disney+ Amazon Prime Netflix Hulu
Google YouTube
Did not save anything to YouTube, only used it for researching
Yeah not sure what to use for this one
Google Play Audiobooks/Books
Do not really use Audiobooks , but already had a bunch of books in Kindle and Nook
Amazon Kindle Nook Apple Books
Google Play Store (apps)
I use Apple products
Apple Store
Google Android
I use Apple products
Apple IOS
Google’s Android Apps
I use Apple products
Apple Store
Google Chrome
Moved to Firefox as it was a resource hog, worse then other browsers
Firefox
Google Domains
Used it when I was moving away from 1 and 1 hosting as the price was cheap.
Blue Host
Google Hangouts
Limited use to friends who had Gmail accounts
Slack WhatsApp
Google Allo
Did not have any friends using this
WhatsApp Signal Telegram
Google Podcasts
I use Apple already
Apple
Google Newsstand
Never liked Newsstand
The Old Reader
Google Wallet
Only used it a couple of times, due to not as many places taking it
ScannerTranslate App on phone Will figure this out next time I need it
Google Duo
Tried to use this, but did not know anyone using it
WebEx – For Work iPhone FaceTime
Google Earth
Was cool at first, but never really had that much of a need for it.
Not Using Anything as a replacement
Blogger
Platform was not that great, moved to it from an older hosted WordPress, then moved it back to another Hosted WordPress
Hosted WordPress
Waze
Loved this service until Google purchased it, after they acquired it I started having a bunch of issues of it not working or just giving error servers unavailable error. So stopped using it about a year ago.
Apple Maps Not The Best Maps
I started using Google Gmail sometime back in early 2005, when I got an invite from a friend. Had moved away from Hotmail after using it for many years.
I am sure some will mention that I am moving away from Google to another company that may not manage my data all that well. Yes, I have Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple as vendors for my data, but I am not utilizing just one company anymore which was one of my concerns. Albeit that many companies rely on Google for their back-end and have Google Analytics so I will still see some tracking of my searching. I do use Firefox on my devices usually in “Private Window” mode to limit some data collection.
Time will tell if I move back to some of the Google applications, as I am still looking for alternatives. The biggest I seem to have an issue with is the “My Maps” which I like to design travel maps for vacations. I have not found an alternative that does anywhere close to what the Google app does. it relies on Drive and Maps to function so I will need to keep my Google account for the short term. I also do not know what to do with my Google Voice number as I have had it since it was Grand Central and have used it for years as an alternate number to some contacts. Plus I still have five other Gmail accounts I used for various things over the years that I need to keep for the short term until I get them cleared out and all access I used them for moved to my primary or an alternate email account under my control.
Moved away from 1and1/IONOS hosting to Blogger, and now moved again to another hosting option. Have been slowly moving away from all things Google over the past several months. Which has not been very easy I have found out. Seems that some sites I have accounts with do not have an easy way to change your email address, which has made me concerned with using them going forward. One big issue I have found is Maps, there is not a real good replacement yet. Apple and Bing maps are OK, but just not as good as Google Maps.
