A
Guru has long suspected
that his dog Teeth is, in fact,
part racoon, but was unable
to prove it until the recent explosion
of dog DNA tests. This sounds like
a preposterous idea, much like
human DNA tests, although it could
offer some of the same benefits.
You may be able to determine just
how fat your dog should be, the
diseases you might like to look out
for, or if you’ve been sold a false bill
of goods by the chap in the pub
who swears a Dalmatian’s spots are
supposed to be pink.
Wisdom Panel’s 2.0 Canine DNA
Test (around £60) seems to be the
best out there, with over 350
breeds and variants in the
company’s database, but there’s a
catch: it’s a US-based company, so
you’ll need to hope both that the
cheek swab doesn’t deteriorate on
the journey over the pond and that
the results bear any resemblance to
your dog whatsoever. Most buyers
seem happy, but some Amazon
customers have had particularly
bizarre breed suggestions.GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX
A
The world is going wired,
and GaGu can see why.
Wireless cams are all fancy
and aesthetically pleasing, sure,
but they have a number of
fundamental flaws baked into
them. One, it is a monumental pain
in the unmentionables to have to
whip out the ladder every couple
of months for a battery change, not
to mention trusting one of the
junior members of the household to
hold it without wandering off while
muttering about Pokémon and
YouTubers or something. Two, they
place a heavy reliance on the
integrity either of your Wi-Fi
network or their own wireless
protocols. Three, wireless cams can
be (but aren’t always) a little
punishing on the wallet.
Some cameras mitigate at least
a subset of these concerns with
clever design. The Blink Outdoor,
now rolling out to replace the XT2,
is a penny under £100, takes two
AA batteries, and lasts up to two
years without needing to be
rejuiced. The new Sync Module 2,
which deals with its wireless
communication, can store
captured footage locally,
improving on the online-only
storage of the previous generation.
Some cameras can also work with
solar panels, like the Ring Spotlight
Cam Battery, or Reolink’s rather
nifty little line of cams.
But with a wired camera and the
willingness to drill holes in your
walls, you get reliability and often
far finer features at a lower price.
Guru has been testing, for example,
the Ezviz C3N (£80), which is a
really rather good little camera
with spotlights, strong night vision,
and AI person detection. The
company’s new C3X (£150)
upgrades the ‘colour’ night vision of
the lesser model (which really just
switches on a spotlight at night) to
actual dual-lens colour night vision,
again at a more affordable price
than many wireless alternatives.Wired security cam or
wireless, Guru?
JAY HUNTER, CORK
Can you help
me identify my
dog’s breed?
TOM CAMPBELL,
DURHAMDECEMBER 2020 T3 27Gadget guru
ABOVE
There’s nothing
sadder than a
dachshund with
an identity crisisBecause Mrs Guru is now working from
home, GaGu’s mind is being forcibly turned
once again to renovations. There’s a whole
trickle-down list of jobs to be done, the first
of which was for Guru to board the loft.
Given the ample insulation of Guru Towers
(GaGu will still not have turned the heating
on by the time you read this) simply
screwing boards onto the joists is a bad
idea in terms of both damp and crushing
the ceilings below. Cue a kit from LoftZone,
with steel crossbeams and recycled plastic
legs, which allows even DIY incompetents
like Guru to install a raised floor above that
lung-scouring fibreglass. It’s not too pricey,
either. Time will tell if GaGu’s installation
causes a massive collapse.
One thing his trip to the rafters proved
beyond all doubt is that Guru’s
poor back is not
well suited to
spending its
days bent in
two. In
general that
spine is treated
rather well –
ergonomic
chair from
Noblechairs and
a standing desk
riser from Yo -Yo
Desk, if you
must know – but it needed a little extra
therapy. Cue the JaxJox Foam Roller
Connect (£100), a vibrating torture device
that helps loosen those tight muscles using
an app which doesn’t let you just sack off
the unnatural-feeling back bends after 30
seconds. It does ask what workout you’ve
just performed before bossing you around;
annoyingly, ‘contorting yourself into the loft’
is not one of these.
Not that the family hasn’t been having
any fun. Guru invested in some Lego: the
epic Lego Technic Liebherr R 9800
Excavator, which is a massive build with
some serious post-construction play. It’s
motorised, app-controllable, and the cats
despise it, much like they do Guru himself.