Why The Insta360 GO 3S Is The Camera You Take, Not Carry | Vol. 22

The Insta360 GO 3S is for the particular modern urge to document a bike ride, a city walk, a cooking attempt, or a pet’s suspiciously eventful afternoon without carrying something that announces itself as Serious Camera Equipment. The camera measures 25.6 × 54.4 × 24.8 mm and weighs about 39.1 g. That is a remarkably compact starting point for a camera that records 4K video.

We picked the 64GB Arctic White version because the GO 3S makes a clear argument for footage that happens alongside life rather than requiring a production meeting. Its Action Pod brings a screen, extra battery capacity, and remote live preview when the camera is removed. At distances of up to about 5 m, the Pod can control the camera and show a reduced-quality preview while recorded footage is unaffected.

There is enough technical substance here to keep this from being merely a cute gadget. Standard video reaches 3840 × 2160 at up to 30 fps, with 2.7K and 1080p options up to 50 fps; files are MP4 using H.264 encoding, with a maximum bitrate of 120 Mbps. The 2.2-inch touchscreen has a 640 × 320 resolution, which is a practical control surface, not an invitation to edit a documentary at a crosswalk.

The fine print is delightfully unglamorous. The standalone camera is rated to 10 m underwater with its Lens Guard installed, but the Action Pod is only IPX4 splash-resistant. Battery claims also depend on the setup: Insta360 states about 38 minutes for the camera by itself, or about 140 minutes with the Pod under its specified lab conditions. Tiny cameras remain tiny cameras; physics has not been acquired by subscription.

The ordinary computer mouse has survived for decades largely because nobody wanted to schedule a meeting about it. Then the desk gets crowded, the laptop becomes an office, and suddenly the little plastic puck beside the keyboard starts looking less like a tool and more like an administrative oversight.

The Logitech Lift Vertical Ergonomic Mouse is a wireless vertical ergonomic mouse for that moment. Its listing gives it Bluetooth or Logi Bolt USB Receiver connectivity, quiet clicks, four buttons, and compatibility with Windows, macOS, and iPadOS. Those are not glamorous specifications, but glamorous is how people end up with a glowing gadget that needs three adapters and a support group.

We picked it because it makes a sensible case for changing the shape of a very familiar desk object while keeping the connection choices straightforward. Bluetooth suits a receiver-free setup; Logi Bolt USB Receiver support gives another listed route for a laptop or PC. The graphite version also avoids turning a serious work setup into a toy-store aisle.

There is a refreshing lack of fantasy here. The Lift has four buttons, not an entire cockpit of programmable-looking hardware. That makes it a tidy proposition for someone who wants a vertical mouse with the stated platform compatibility and quieter clicking, rather than an excuse to spend Sunday configuring shortcuts nobody else in the household is allowed to touch.

A lost wallet is rarely lost in an adventurous way. It is usually wedged under a car seat, hiding in a laptop sleeve, or sitting in the one tote bag nobody thought to inspect. The Life360 Tile Slim exists for that particularly unglamorous modern ritual: retracing an entire morning because a rectangle of cards has gone freelance.

We think the flat format is the point. At 2.5 mm thick, the 2024 Tile Slim is designed for wallets, laptop sleeves, and passport holders—places where a chunky tracker would be an invitation to carry an even worse wallet. It weighs 14 g and measures 53.9 mm × 85.4 mm, keeping the proposition focused on flat essentials rather than keys.

The tracker works through the Life360 app on iOS and Android. It can play a sound for nearby finding, show its last location in the app, and has Bluetooth range of up to 350 ft. That covers the classic domestic search radius: apartment, porch, driveway, and the part of the parking lot where dignity starts to expire.

Life360 also builds SOS into the Tile Slim, allowing an alert to be sent to the user’s Circle with one button press. We would treat that as an app-ecosystem extra, not the reason to buy a wallet tracker. The central case is much simpler: keep tabs on the thin, important objects that somehow become hardest to find when a cab is outside.

Bathroom lighting has long operated as a tiny domestic betrayal. It can make makeup look settled in the mirror, then send you outside looking like you applied it during a power outage. The simplehuman Sensor Mirror Trio is built for people who are tired of conducting this daily experiment with a compact mirror, a window, and increasingly poor judgment.

This US-market model is an 8-inch rechargeable mirror that flips manually between 1x, 5x, and 10x magnification. That makes it less of a single-purpose “inspect one pore until morale collapses” device and more of a proper grooming station: broad view for the overall job, then closer views when precision matters.

Lighting is the point of the whole affair. It offers continuous touch-controlled brightness from 100 to 800 lux, two settings called full sunlight and true-to-life candlelight, and a 95 CRI specification. The mirror also uses patterned micro-reflectors and surgical-grade LEDs intended to disperse full-spectrum light evenly. We like that this is solving an actual routine problem, not inventing a Bluetooth crisis for the vanity.

Our verdict is that the Sensor Mirror Trio earns its countertop footprint for someone who genuinely switches between makeup, grooming, and detail work. It is a more considered answer than a basic illuminated mirror, though it remains a mirror with a manual flip and a charging cable—not a tiny oracle that can rescue a rushed morning.

The Shashibo Shape Shifting Box addresses a very modern need: having something to do with your hands that is neither a phone nor a snack. This Original Series cube is 2.4 inches in its starting form, then uses 36 magnets to become more than 100 geometric shapes. A tiny box, apparently, was not content with being a tiny box.

We picked it because it refuses tidy classification. It is sold as a STEM fidget toy and sensory gift, but the useful truth is simpler: it is a magnetic geometric puzzle object for people who enjoy rearranging things. That could mean an eight-year-old with a curiosity for shapes, a teenager seeking a distraction from screens, or an adult who wants their desk to contain one fewer soulless promotional pen.

The appeal is in the repeatable transformation rather than a single prescribed outcome. One Shashibo can take on many forms, while several cubes can combine into larger magnetic structures. That makes it a charmingly expandable rabbit hole, though the supplied evidence does not promise that every owner will become a kitchen-table geometry visionary.

There is real fine print behind the fun. This is an ages-8-and-up product, younger children need adult supervision, and its magnets may affect electronic devices. It is also not recommended for people with pacemakers. The cube may be small, but it has the safety notices of a much more complicated lifestyle choice.