Why the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Is the Vlogging Camera to Pack | Vol. 33

It’s 2023, and if you’re not capturing life’s flashy moments, are you even living? Enter the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Standard Combo—your new best friend for all things vlogging. This pint-sized powerhouse promises to turn your questionable filming skills into cinematic wonders, all with a hip, compact flair that’ll fit snugly in your pocket or purse.

Imagine you’re on a picturesque hike, the sun is shining, and you whip out this gadget to capture breathtaking landscapes. With high-quality 4K video and 3-axis stabilization, your footage will look stunning even if you don’t have a tripod. The built-in microphone is a cherry on top for those spontaneous interviews or travel vlogs. Just imagine uploading a video that doesn’t look like it was filmed during an earthquake.

So, whether you’re trying to impress your Instagram followers or just hoping to remember that one wild night out with your pals, this little gimbal camera ticks all the boxes. The only real question is, can you handle the fame? Because with footage this good, you might just be the next viral sensation.

Yet, before you declare this your new go-to gadget, be ready for a mild reality check. Yes, it does have limitations—like its less-than-stellar battery life that can put a damper on your filming spree. But let’s be honest, who isn’t used to recharging their devices at the most inconvenient times?

Reading devices have spent years behaving as though books only arrived in polite shades of black, white and beige. Then along comes the Kobo Libra Colour, a 7-inch colour E Ink eReader for the person whose library includes illustrated cookbooks, comics, marked-up PDFs, and book covers they would quite like to recognize without squinting at a tiny thumbnail.

We think it makes a convincing case as the more expressive branch of a sensible eReader setup. Its Kaleido 3 display renders black-and-white content at 300 PPI and colour at 150 PPI, so this is not a tiny art tablet pretending to be literature. It is still a reading device first; colour is the useful extra, not an excuse to spend the evening doomscrolling in pastel.

The Kobo Libra Colour also brings physical page-turn buttons, left- or right-handed screen rotation, and landscape orientation. Those are straightforward facts, but they matter when a novel has taken over the sofa and the only free hand is holding tea, a child’s stray sock, or the emotional debris of Tuesday.

There is a more practical streak underneath the colourful cover art. It has 32 GB of storage, USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, adjustable ComfortLight PRO illumination and IPX8 waterproofing. Kobo also identifies model N428 as repairable with replaceable key components, while using recycled and ocean-bound plastic in the exterior. That is a pleasingly grown-up detail in a category that often treats sealed plastic rectangles as destiny.

A house key has endured for centuries because it is brutally simple: carry a small metal thing, lose a small metal thing, stand outside muttering at a small metal thing. The SwitchBot Smart Lock Ultra with Keypad Vision has a more ambitious plan. It brings app remote control, fingerprint unlocking and 3D face recognition to the front door, because apparently the handle was not collecting enough personal data already.

We think its appeal is less about replacing every key-related annoyance and more about reducing the daily pile-up of them. Someone leaves without keys. A visitor arrives while nobody is downstairs. You remember the lock only once you are already halfway through the commute. A smart lock can make those moments less theatrical, provided the door is compatible and everyone in the home agrees on which clever entry method they will actually use.

The particularly useful detail here is the stated fit with an existing Euro profile cylinder. That positions this SwitchBot as an upgrade-minded option for the right door, rather than a vague promise that every lock in every old building will politely cooperate. Matter support also gives it a place in a broader smart-home arrangement instead of leaving it stranded as an app-shaped island.

There is a faintly comic excess to having a keypad, fingerprints and face recognition guarding the place where you keep expired coupons and a drawer full of mystery cables. Yet redundancy is oddly sensible at a front door. Phones run out of battery, keys disappear into coat pockets, and households are rarely at their most organized during a soggy Canadian morning. This is the sort of elaborate convenience we are pleased exists, with compatibility checked before anyone gets emotionally attached.

A sleep mask sounds like modest bedroom kit until daylight, a hotel curtain gap, or a neighbour’s outdoor security light turns bedtime into a low-budget interrogation. The Manta PRO Sleep Mask takes that irritation unusually seriously: Manta states its eye cups block 100% of light, including in broad daylight. We respect the commitment, even if it suggests ordinary curtains have badly let us down.

The clever bit is the C-shaped eye-cup arrangement. These cups are tapered at the edges for side sleeping and can be moved anywhere along the fully adjustable strap, rather than insisting every face was designed by the same mildly distracted committee. Their air-bubble construction is designed to expand to block light as the wearer changes position, then compress flat when side sleeping.

This is a sensible complementary pick for sleep situations that don’t obey a polite nighttime schedule: travel, daytime naps, and shift work all appear in the selected listing. The strap combines perforated foam and mesh, while the interior uses Tactel® fabric; ventilation holes and breathable logo cutouts add to the airflow-focused design.

There is, naturally, a small domestic chore attached. The Manta PRO is machine washable, but Manta instructs owners to put the eye cups in the included mesh laundry bag, use cold water, then air-dry the mask flat. That is not a scandal. It is simply proof that even darkness now comes with care instructions.

Do you ever feel the urge to capture those delightfully mundane moments, but your bulky camera just isn’t cooperating? Enter the KODAK CHARMERA Keychain Digital Camera: a nine-dollar hero disguised as a keychain. That’s right, this pint-sized piece of tech ensures that whether you’re at a kid’s birthday party or trying to document your lunch at the newest café, nostalgia is a click away—they’ll be asking what *that* is instead of *did you capture the moment?* when your friends are scrolling through Instagram later.

Just think about it for a second: you pull out your keys, and alongside that trusty housekey, there’s a compact camera. A camera so small, it’s literally attached to the chain of your life. With each snap, you are channeling your inner hipster without the added baggage of a full-blown DSLR. It’s the ultimate statement piece, but also a conversation starter—perfect at those awkward social gatherings where no one knows what to talk about until you pull out the KODAK CHARMERA and get a laugh.

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that its charm is coupled with some, shall we say, limitations. But that’s part of the game here, right? You get quirky convenience and creativity with an image resolution that won’t quite cut it for your professional portfolio, but it might just make the cut for your *most adorable* folder on the cloud—kudos if you can find someone who still uses that!