In many ways this thing is excellent, but also has some significant issues
598980
I've had this system for about a year now, and I use it to monitor a vacation house.  Overall, I am generally happy with it, but it is far from perfect, at least out of the box.

Upsides - false alarm rate is very low. I had a moth land on one, and a spider crawl over one, but that is about it.  I like that it has built in illumination so it turns on a light that allows you to see even a fully darkened room, and that the system reports temperature as well as tracking movement.  Video quality is decent.  It gets the job done.  Installation is pretty easy and clips are stored on the cloud for free.  The batteries do last a while.  The iPhone app is fine.

Downsides - This was designed by people who live in the city and have both rock-solid internet connections and rock-solid electrical power.  My vacation house, like a lot of vacation houses, is in a rural area where I go to escape from the city.  The power is a little flaky sometimes and the internet is very flaky.  That creates significant issues.  Because if the internet drops out, even if it later comes back on, chances are your Blink system is not coming back up until you power cycle it.  When you are 300 miles away, that is not happening.  So basically for a vacation house or anywhere you aren't regularly present, it is tough to recommend this product out of the box - it is just not reliable enough to stay up all the time.

Eventually, I set two timers to power cycle both my crappy DSL router, and the Blink hub one after the other, once a day.  That has fixed the problem and it now runs pretty well flawlessly.  Note that just cycling the router once a day didn't do it.  The hub does not take kindly to losing its internet connection and will not reliably recover from that, it has to be power cycled to reliably reconnect.

The other thing I really wish it could do is this:  automatically save clips to a connected USB drive if there is no internet connection, then upload the locally stored clips to the cloud once service comes back on line.  There is a USB port on the hub and talk that this feature is coming, but so far it has not materialized.  This is truly huge flaw in the design, because if somebody is determined to break into your house, they are probably going to cut your phone/internet line before they break in to try and keep the alarm system from calling the police.  So the fact that this thing is utterly dependent on an internet connection and has zero local storage ability is a major limitation.

That is what happens when you have 25 year old tech guys who live in SF and have never owned a single family house, much less a rural cabin in the woods, design the stuff you use.  They miss obvious things that those of us out in the "real world" would notice right away.

So this is not so much a security system as a remote monitoring system with a little bit of added security built into it.
1552334
The idea's great -- I use my phone's GPS to keep tabs on how far and fast I bike (as well as to make sure I don't get irrevocably lost) so having my phone in front of my face while I bike sounds awesome.

It is pretty awesome, honestly -- but there are two major problems with this sucker that keep me from giving it a glowing review.

1) The release button on the back, which opens the arms (releasing the phone) *sticks*. And it's pretty hard to get that button dislodged. Thus, if you have to remove the phone in the middle of the ride, it's sometimes impossible to get it back in the holster without going at the stuck button with a screwdriver.

2) As others have said, the strap that's used to secure this to the bike handlebars is about an inch too short to get good leverage when you're pulling it taut. Once it *is* locked in, it usually stays put -- but getting it there can be tricky.

Other than these two things -- one of which is due to shoddy construction, and the other to poor engineering -- I do like this, and the price is good, too. Just be prepared to lever out the button, and be prepared to maneuver the strap onto your bike!
1402422
First, the sound and video quality are incredible.  They are unmatched by anything I've used in this price range.  That being said, there are a few very annoying aspects of this all in one system.

First, the load time takes an eternity, even more so than most first generation blu-ray players.  Second, the input selector is located next to (and is shaped the same as) the volume on the remote, meaning that you will, at least once every few days switch the system to FM radio while just trying to adjust the volume, especially when watching a movie in the dark.  This normally isn't that big of a deal, unless the system re-loads every time you switch to blu ray mode, which it does.  Thus, accidentally pressing this button means the player resets and you have to go through the few minutes of load time again.  Exacerbating this problem is that the player doesn't remember where the disc left off!  Last night watching Dark Knight I tried to turn down the volume during that explosive chase scene, only to switch to FM radio.  The player reset and not only did I have to wait for the disc to load again, I then had to select the scene and fast forward to where I left off.  Annoying to say the least.

You may be thinking you can partially fix this by getting a universal remote, right? Wrong. Because the mode selector is set up to scroll, there's no quick button to go to any given mode.  Thus you basically have to memorize the order of TV/DVD/AM/FM/iPod etc inputs even with a universal remote.

I have not had too much of a problem with interference on the wireless-only surround speakers; however, remember that the satellite unit must be plugged in for power and the two rear speakers are wired to each other.  Even more annoying is that the connecting wire isn't standard speaker wire so it's not easily replaced with a longer wire.  If you want to wall mount you'll have a problem, or if you want them end-table level they can't be further apart than a standard 7' couch, and the wire will be streched.

Finally, you can't adjust to various equalizer settings should you so choose, as has been standard in even the most basic stereos since 1985.  Also, note that this system is only 7.1 ready.  It's actually a 5.1 and you have buy the extra speakers, which I'd guess also come with an absurdly short wire.

...that being said, the quality is amazing and the system is pretty sleek looking.
1321775
Pros:
Functionally it is awesome and exceeded my expectations, especially considering the price.  It was easy to pick up and learn.  The output videos are excellent and I've had no issues with playback or audio sync.  It's great for splicing clips together, with minor video editing and adding a few professional-looking additions, like text animations, etc.

Cons:
I seem to be having an issue where the titlebar still says "Trial" even though I purchased it.  could be my fault but trying to work it out with support who so far has been slow to respond (almost unresponsive).  Also, there are many spots in the interface where it looks like the UI didn't consider high rez or wide screens and so some of the little mini-windows are scrunched and can't be expanded (which really sucks).
3624886
This is one of those really cool products that's so close to being perfect that its flaws are particularly frustrating.

The software can be finicky, and I had a really difficult time adding new bulbs to an existing set up. The app would try to scan for bulbs repeatedly and not find them, and only after a few attempts would it give me the opportunity to manually add bulbs by serial number. This also didn't work on the first try for me.

It got worse when I ordered another set for the apartment. This means I ended up with one bridge at home, and one bridge at work. The iPhone app now has a really hard time dealing with two separate bridges, and seems like it's often trying to change bulbs at the wrong location. It could just be my set up, and I'm sure that Phillips will release improved software eventually, but it has been pretty frustrating. Particularly for something that is cool enough that I'd like to be using it all the time, those frustrations really add up. It's not quite in the "it just works" category.

Overall, I still like and recommend this; once you get it up and running, it's great and can drastically change your room, mood or even your whole routine.

Additionally, I think people with small businesses stand to benefit from this technology as well; we went from harsh fluorescents to a Hue set-up that we adjust throughout the day, and it's been a great change. I have found little bit of ambiance and character goes a long way toward making everyone feel more at home during meetings or while working on projects.

And hey, it's a great discussion piece, everyone wants to try it out!
413984
This is as good as it gets in many respects - however - there are a few things to bear in mind. First, this case is designed so that the holster holds the phone facing inside only. If you want to place it face out in the holster so you can see who is calling you be prepared to have a less than secure set up. As crazy as that sounds, it's the truth. The other problem is the pin holding the clamp onto the holster gets loose easily and is very hard to put back into its place with the clamp in the right position with enough stress to hold it tightly on you belt or pocket. I wish the company would offer all of us a fix to these things. This is an expensive case, but it is still the best out there now that Speck stopped making the Tough Skin.
4808420
It is a very good case that works well, except for a couple things, and looks really good too. The ventilation in it is awesome, and it is super easy to put all the parts in. I would know, because this was my first ever PC build, and I had absolutely no trouble.
However, the two audio jacks on the front don't work at all, and one of the stock fans only spins if I give it a little push, causing me to have to open up the case (which, did i mention, Corsair makes very easy with their screwdriver-less screws), and poke the fan blades every time I restart my computer. Also, the USB 3.0 on the front of the case often will not work at all until I mess with it by plugging and unplugging. Unfortunately, the return window is about a month, and it took me longer to realize the problem. Would not really recommend.
294739
I do use this thing, often and in the way that I intended. At the gym. It works very well in that capacity, much lighter and freer than having to be attached to my phone. Always connects instantly, sound is excellent.

But there are many cons. Touch volume controls are a pain in the ass, rarely work the way I want them to. The buttons on it in general are too easy to push when clipping and unclipping, such that I often suddenly activate the phone by mistake. And the included headphones are unusably terrible.
1885849
Here's a few gripes, most of which are nitpicking cosmetic issues.  The aluminum and white plastic case are a near perfect match for the Mini.  If you look really hard, the aluminum is just the slightest shade darker and the bottom edge of the aluminum band is slightly rounded, unlike the crisp hard edges of the Mini.  But these are minor quibbles hardly worth mentioning.  Much more annoying is having this big honk'n ugly logo on the front.  Another cosmetic annoyance is the power indicator.  It is in the same location as on the Mini, maintaining the overall symmetry, but it is noticeably larger in diameter, is not the same shade of white (bluish not neutral), and light from the indicaor leaks out the bottom of the case onto the table through the cooling vents on the bottom.  One surprise, however.  I expected not to like the looks of the intentional gap formed between the LaCie and the Mini.  None of the other Mini-look-alike external drives have this feature but instead fit flush to the Mini's case.  But the cooling slot nicely mirrors the CD slot on the front of the Mini so it actually looks like a natural extension.  And I have no doubt that having the extra cooling provided by this gap is a good idea.

A few things to be aware of regarding the hub itself.  Having a set of FireWire and USB ports on the sides of the unit make for convenient temporary connection of devices.  But I, for one, would not be inclined to use these side facing ports for devices routinely left connected.  Instead I'd want to connect 'permanent' peripherals in the back to control the wire clutter.  The good news is that when you add this hub to your system, you will still have a net of 4 rear facing USB ports and you'll gain 3 more on the side of the LaCie for quick access for thumb drives, cameras, and the like.  But you'll be *trading* your one rear FireWire port on the back of your Mini for two FireWire ports on the side of the LaCie.  Bad news if you want to keep a dedicated FireWire device connected to your Mini *and* plug in transient FireWire peripherals.

A set of really short USB and FireWire cables are included for connecting up the LaCie to the Mini.  Bravo!  Too bad the cables have to cross each other to reach their respective ports on the LaCie, making it just a little more difficult to manage all the wires on the back of both devices.  And the one free USB port on the back of the LaCie gets stuck inbetween these two inbound cables making it just a little harder to get to.

The hard drive in the LaCie is indeed very quiet although not virtually silent as the Mini's own internal drive.  But the LaCie will automatically go to sleep after a few minutes so what little noise it makes happens only when it is actively being used.

I know, pick, pick, pick.  But 5 stars should only be given to products that are perfect or very near perfect.  In retrospect I might have been a little happier with just the plain hard drive (300998U) and a seperate dedicated port replicator, placed away from the Mini.
2803059
EDIT: I'm raising this to five stars. Long story short, the WiFi problems were not the fault of the tablet. It is a fantastic piece, and I recommend it highly. There are a couple of things you should know: DO buy the keyboard; you'll need it if you ever need to do a USB/CD rescue disk bootup. DO upgrade your router (if you haven't already) to a dual-band 11AC router. The Surface doesn't work as well with 11N single-band (2.4) routers. So you will have a few extra costs, but they are worth it.

Original review:

I wanted to give this 5 stars, but am tempted to give it one star. I'm giving it 3, because so much of it is good, but the bad part is so bad as to make this piece almost useless. If I weren't buying it for my wife, who is just learning on it as her first computer, I would return it. Fortunately, I have better real PCs.

Main problem: the WiFi. Much noted on many forums and on the reviews here on Amazon. I mean, really bad WiFi. I don't have a/c, I'm still on n, but just the same -- our Windows phones register 24 Mpbs on the upload meter. My Y500 laptop, on a hard-wired connection, registers 52 Mbps. Router is a Netgear WNR2000v4. (It just had a firmware upgrade, but that did not help.) With the SP3, WiFi speed varies depending on whether the unit is on battery or plugged in, which by itself creates a problem. How many people are always going to have the unit plugged in? The download speed varies between 0.19 Mbps (yes, that's a number zero before the decimal point), to 5.49 Mbps. On battery, the speed is always below 1 . Mbps. This is really unacceptable. I would send it back if I hadn't bought it for my wife, who is not going to be streaming video and is unlikely to be a power user. We can do that on the Gaming PC if we need to. But come on! $1500 for a portable machine that depends on WiFi, and has the worst WiFi performance of anything on the market? I tried installing my Netgear WiFi dongle, but it won't work on Windows 8. There is also a converter available, so you can hook an ethernet cable to the USB port, but then the rig is no longer portable. This really stinks. I'm only giving it 3 stars because it is the only true Windows hybrid out there, and the only one I can use in Desktop mode for maintenance, and my wife can use like her phone, in swipe-screen mode.

The forums are replete with posts about the WiFi problem. Microsoft has issued multiple hardware and firmware updates (most recently today), but still to no effect. They should recall the machines and replace the lousy Marvell chips that they are using for WiFi.

I'm attaching a photo of the string of speed tests I've done over the last couple of days. Higher speeds are on AC power. Lower speeds are on battery.
531234
Sound fidelity, user interface, and rechargeable battery over micro-usb are all outstanding.

My only issues are that the unit is quite heavy, especially considering its other tiny dimensions, and my smartphone seems to lose their Bluetooth connection with the speaker after about an hour of continuous playback, requiring me to power-cycle the speaker and the Bluetooth radio on my other device.

Finicky Bluetooth and heft aside, this is an excellent product.
4132517
I've used this controller in several games now, including first-person shooters, real-time strategy, and third-person MMOGs, and while it offers some excellent features for each, it's not without its drawbacks.

The first thing you'll likely notice is the key actions; they're much stiffer than on most keyboards, and require a bit more effort to trigger than you might be used to.  Unless you're on a rock steady surface (i.e. not your lap), this can lead to the pad registering a 'double tap', often problematic.  Even with the handrest adjustment, there's limited access to multiple keys at once.  The thumb bar, in particular, makes you move your hand in such a way that the other keys are difficult to get to.  It definitely takes getting used to; it'll probably take you an hour or so of tweaking to find a key setup you like, and another few hours to get used to it such that its as second nature as your keyboard is.

So that's the bad.  Here's the good.  Once you have a good key setup and get used to the stiffness of the keys, it's definitely a large step above a normal keyboard, both in speed and ergonomic.  You have everything right at your fingertips, and never have to glance away from the screen to see where that key you need is.  The setup program for defining bindings is extremely user-friendly and intuitive, and makes swapping between different sets of bindings very quick and painless.

And then there's the macros.  Oh yes.  This is where the gamepad really has a leg up on everything else.  Using the same quick and easy binding editor, you can set up a huge list of commands to be fired off with a single button press.  Timings can be established (i.e. press C, wait 2.2 seconds, press D, wait 0.05 seconds, press E), and I have yet to hit a functional limit to the length of a macro you can record.  Plus, while the macro is firing, you can be doing something else.  It's insanely handy, especially for RTS and MMO games, and becomes more and more useful the more you play with it.  If you're a competetive player, you might not want to use it for the simple reason that it's easy to become dependent on it.  It's a hardware advantage, not a skill one, so ethically maybe a little fuzzy also.

Bottom line: a bit of setup time required to define keybindings, and a bit of a learning curve for basic use, but once you get past that, it's an excellent controller.
2161858
Works really well, fast and well-built, but it's really expensive.
3423354
I've been using this grinder since it first came out. The quality of the grind is excellent, but unfortunately it's prone to frequent jamming and clogging, particularly (in my experience) if you change the grind coarseness settings often. This infuriating event requires a fairly technical process of disassembling the burr assembly to remedy. I live in fear of changing my grind settings.

I often change the grind when switching between aeropress, Chemex, french press, espresso, etc. Aside from tempting fate with jams, this grinder does NOT easily support this use case. You should look elsewhere if you frequently brew coffee with different ground courseness requirements.

You'll have to waste 10-25g of coffee each time you alter the courseness settings due to the grounds inside of the machine between the hopper and the burrs (see page 7 of the manual-- they call this a "purge"). This is irritating for my use case, where I make a lot of different kinds of coffee-- I have to waste a lot of pricey beans. Aside from this, the courseness controls are a bit hard to access (they're in tiny numbers and obfuscated from view at a standing height, so this process requires awkwardly hunching over to operate). Meanwhile, since you're supposed to have the motor active while making adjustments, you have to do this during a cacophony of noise.

Another design complaint here: the numbers that indicate grind coarseness don't provide any hints as to their values. There are 31 macro steps and 9 micro steps, clearly one side is espresso and the other is as close as you're getting to french press. You may need to create a cheat sheet to remember anything in between, because no hints are offered like I've seen on many other grinders.

The weight dosing functionality is admittedly excellent, and the grinder is very aesthetically pleasing. The grind quality is very good. I haven't really found much use for the Bluetooth functionality despite having some pair-able devices like Fellow kettles.

I hesitate to recommend the grinder just due to how often the device jams, and how much of a day ruiner it is when it happens. When morning coffee is on the line, and the grinder just sits there blinking sadly at you, I'd almost rather it self-destruct so long as I still get my coffee.
3655713
This is a powerful scanner with decent reception and digital decoding.

However, there are two fatal flaws that are impacting usability within 1 year of purchase:

The first is irritating, but manageable:  clock reset.  The internal battery or whatever is supposed to hold the real time clock settings runs out and it will force you to reset the clock each time you turn it on. And to those who point to the need for an initial 50 hour charge--yes I did that.  It was working fine, but now requires reset EVERY TIME it is turn on.

Second is a more catastrophic failure:  the display slowly dims over time.  It has now reached a point where the display is almost unreadable.

The manufacturer has not announced how they will deal with these two issues and until they do I would urge caution in purchasing this item.  You can read more details of the experiences others are having on Radioreference and other sites.
1141401
This could end up being a 5-star product IF I can get some of the idiosyncrasies ironed out.

First off: it installed and fired up beautifully, no problems at all. The wires are all ISO color-coded, and I made no mistakes connecting everything (Huzzah!). All of the applications worked right first time - - radio, GPS, Bluetooth hands-free, etc. Oh and BTW, the GPS is amazing at signal acquisition. I'm used to Garmin taking a while to get a position, especially after sitting un-powered for some days. But this unit found satellites and got a position after only a minute or so, even after being shipped across 10 time zones!! And it picks up a good GPS constellation even under my carport.

My current complaints are few and minor: the audio has a hiss in it, and I see that Pumpkin has a power filter (free) to solve this issue. The GPS does not seem to have a "north up" setting, which I much prefer over "track up". Also, the existing GPS software has map colors that are very poorly chosen. It's almost impossible to see secondary roads, and I may have to change that software before all is said and done.

The physical unit is fairly large, around 4" vertical dimension, and it was a very snug squeeze in my Ford Ranger console -- but it worked.

The Android system is fairly conventional, but with all the apps and configurations, it's sometimes puzzling as to where to find a particular setting. Time will iron this out. Nice to have "home" buttons both on the touch screen and the push-buttons.

I'm overall quite pleased, ESPECIALLY for the price. I expect to have a lot of fun with this.

UPDATE 2017 March
After almost two years of almost constant "fixing", I'm about to give up. Support has been great, very responsive -- but there's a lot they just can't do. As of today:
-Bluetooth hands-free won't auto-connect
-Hands-free audio is garbled and unintelligible to my callers
-Sound system has background hiss
-Google Play has quit entirely, will not allow login -- no download of apps or updates is possible
-Some apps cannot recognize external SD
-Some apps can't work with GPS
-Some apps simply won't activate after loading
All I'm trying to do is use hands-free calling, GPS mapping apps, and play music. As of right now, it won't do any of those properly or at all. I have another unit that I bought after my initial liking this one, and it's just as bad.

So sad, it had such promise. The only time it ever worked right was in the first few months. After Android and Google changed their software, this poor product never caught up with them again.
1556249
This is a very powerful machine which produces great results. That said, it has several issues: It is incredibly loud! Like operating a jack hammer in your kitchen ... It is expensive!  It produces a smell at high speed like electricity shorting ... It's not easy scooping the resulting food from the container (therefore producing a lot of waste) ... I wish I had looked for an alternative.