Product Review Archives - Justin T. Farrell

Product Review: PodPocket

Since receiving and reviewing my Apple AirPods a couple months ago, I have had the opportunity to play around with accessories specifically for the AirPods. Shortly after getting my AirPods, I was contacted by PodPocket asking if I wanted to try out their product. Of course!

And they arrived just in time. My summer was filled with a lot of travel, and these turned out to come in handy.

The PodPocket is a holder that can attach to any loop as a handy little carrier for your AirPods case. As you can see in the picture, I connected my PodPocket to my backpack for easy transportation and access this summer.

At first, I was a little skeptical. The AirPods are expensive, and I did not want to lose them by the case slipping out of a carrier that is dangling around on my backpack.

However, I was quickly impressed. The PodPocket is a rubber case that tightly grips the AirPod case. It takes some energy to slide the case into the PodPocket, reassuring the safety of the AirPods.

The rubber PodPocket is built for easy opening of the AirPods case, allowing smooth access to the AirPods inside. The bottom of the PodPocket has a large enough hole to charge the AirPod case without having to unclip the PodPocket from my backpack.

Overall, I would highly recommend these PodPockets. For only $19.95, how can you not try them out? Check out their website, Twitter, and Instagram. I am sure you will be highly impressed as well!

Have an accessory for your AirPods that you like? Let me know!

Product Review: Apple AirPods

It has been just over a week since I got the Apple AirPods in hand – after enduring a 6-week wait process for them to arrive.

When Apple first announced the AirPods, I was immediately in love with the look and idea behind them, but withdrawn by the associated price tag on them of $159.00. As my birthday gift, though, I got a pair ordered and proceeded to the waiting period.

After pretty much forgetting about them, they arrived at the doorstep last week, and I was enamored the second I opened the case.

I have now used them daily for a week. Through that, I have experienced both pros and cons.

PROS:

They are beautiful. Just like all Apple products.
They easily and quickly connect to my Apple devices. Popping the case open the first time, the screen on my iPhone immediately responded with the battery levels of both the ear pieces and the portable case.
Both the ear pieces and the portable case have batteries – extending the overall battery life of the units. Once the ear pieces begin to get low, I just pop them back into the case, while still out and about, and the ear pieces return to a full charge within minutes.
The earbuds do not turn on until they make contact with my ear, introducing a great way to save battery.
They have incredible range. I can wear these while my phone is in the back corner of the house and easily navigate to any point of our house or yard without interruption.

CONS:

The batteries on the earbuds themselves don’t last incredibly long. I can get about two hours out of the earbuds, at most, before I need to plug them back into the case.
I jump between my laptop and my iPhone a lot. They don’t like that, and it is not a quick/easy jump to change the connection over.
It is not quick or easy to connect to my AirPods before accepting a call if the connection did not exist prior to the call coming in. This results in fumbling around while trying to entertain a conversation to get my AirPods connected to my phone, to continue the call wirelessly.
There is no way of seeing the battery level of the portable case without my laptop or phone nearby. There is no indicator on the case.
From my laptop, I can only see the battery level of the earbuds themselves, not the portable case (that I have found, at least).

All that said, I still love these AirPods, and would recommend them to anyone! They are great for people who move around a lot. For me, I am self-employed and work from coffee shops and my home office, jumping around multiple times every day. I also take them running throughout the week – and they hold up great!

You can always grab a pay of these over at Apple, but I recently found them here as well.