As with all of our videos, we first pick an item under a certain amount to do a surprise review. The budget of choice was under $20. Having lost your keys or cell phone can make us very panicky as those two specific items are part of our everyday lives. We solved that problem by trying out a keyfinder. There was no special branding to the product as it had the name key finder. The plastic is somewhat sturdy but feels very cheap. Batteries come with the product for each of the

Here at Ravv we started a new youtube series where we review tech products but the host doesn't know what the item is. It is more of a surprise when they review the product. We choose each product based under a certain budget limit such as $10, $20 or even $40. For this review our product of choice was under $10 and we choose to try out the copper chef crumby mini vacuum. The vacuum is good for cleaning up small objects such as crumbs, eraser shavings, glitter or shredded pie

After stuffing your bellies full with a nice warm thanksgiving meal its then time to head out to the stores as black Friday starts from Thursday. Here is a guide to some of the best deals on tech and where to get them. $19.99 Alexa at Best Buy or Target Amazon Alexa has made her way into many homes. She not only keeps track of your latest amazon orders but she is paired with other devices to voice control your lights and thermal stats. She can answer a range of question, play

In the market of stabilizers Zhiyun has been the top contender taking lead for a while until others companies started pushing their way in to get a pieces of the action. With dji releasing its new ronin-s gimbal, zhiyun became 2nd place. But, as of recent Zhiyun may have just stole back the title with it's newly released gimbal called the weebill lab. It is a completely different design from it's previous gimbals, making it stand out that much more. The Zhiyun weebill lab is

With the holidays nearing and you're starting to think up ideas on what to get your family, friends and coworkers. If they are a tech bunch get them some cool backpack that will keep their electronics charged and their brain powered snacks handy. Solar Powered Backpack Photo by Amazon This backpack is solar powered so you can charge your devices using the sun. It can store a 15 inch laptop along with a tablet and some books. A great gift for those who spend a lot of time out

Released early this year was the OnePlus 6 but as of recent the OnePlus 6T is now ready to be owned. With the smart phone market already saturated with newly released devices, how does the OnePlus 6T stack up to the other top brands? Find out below. Price Affordable? You bet. The OnePlus 6T is at a low of $549. It is the cheapest compared to the new iPhone XR and the google pixel 3. Tiny Notch Design The notch design is one that is unique and really small, shaped similar to t

The iPhone XR is out now for pre-order at a mind blowing low price of $749. Compared to the iPhone Xs at $999 or the iPhone Xs Max at $1099, that is quite a deal. You can choose six different colors, black, white, blue, red, yellow and coral. Even with its price difference the iPhone XR has similar features to that of its more expensive siblings. The iPhone XR has a display of 6.1" with liquid retina. It has a splash and water resistant up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. It has wi

Facebook has just released their new devices called Portal and Portal+. With these they make online video chatting much easier and more interactive. Both Portal and Portal+ come with built in smart cameras that will follow you around the room as if you had your own personal camera operator. The panning and zooming motion is extremely smooth thanks to the ai software in the cameras. The cameras will focus on whoever is in front of it so when that person moves to the right or l

The University of California Santa Cruz hosted the annual ACM Hackathon on Saturday, March 3, crowning three winners for innovative startup ideas. Amazon Alexa, UCSC and RAVV hosted the 12 hour event. Over 100 students participated in the hackathon, creating 12 teams to compete for prizes. The teams had 12 hours to create a startup and present their pitch to the judges. Creations included, Slug Loop, a helpful AI, using Amazon Alexa to find the best bus routes and times for s

Announced via blog post, Instagram introduced “type” mode which lets you post your thoughts on your story without having to capture any footage. “Type” mode comes with fun fonts, colored backgrounds, and stickers. You can also add the new fonts and stickers to your footage, so you can combine the best of both modes. It is also really easy to use. Simply log onto your Instagram account, open the camera, and locate the “type” option under the record button. Instagram let users

Planning a vacation can be stressful, but oh so exciting. Flying is just as stressful. You spend so much time and effort packing everything, getting to the airport on time and stuffing everything else that couldn't fit in your luggage somehow into you carry-on. But the real cherry on top is when you're waiting in the terminal and all of a sudden you get a notification that your flight has been delayed. Well now Google can predict when a flight is going to be delayed even befo

The popular company behind your favorite social media app just announced the launch of Bitmoji Deluxe. Snapchat posted an announcement to reveal the new and improved Bitmoji app. Bitmoji Deluxe comes with a new style that allows you to customize your Bitmoji in hundreds of new ways. The new style, compared to the Classic and “Bitstrip” style, is Snapchat’s response to user feedback about the customization of Bitmojis. Bitmoji Deluxe is intended to give you endless opportuniti

Paypal has finally granted everyone’s wish to add an instant transfer feature to Venmo. Instead of waiting a few days for your cash to transfer into your bank account, you can now choose the direct transfer option for a small fee of $0.25. I know, there’s still a fee. But hey, $0.25 isn’t too bad of an expense, right? And you’ll never have to worry about your bank being closed on Sundays or Holidays again. Pay the $0.25 fee to get your paper right away. Paypal states that dir

STRIVR, a VR company, announced in a blog post that they have been working with U.S. Olympiansto train for the 2018 Winter Olympics using virtual reality. The U.S. ski and snowboarding team has been using STRIVR’s VR training program to hit the virtual slopes before shredding the actual slopes in South Korea. The virtual reality program gives athletes the perfect opportunity to perform on the same race route as many times as they want. They can take a look at their performanc

Apple has finally announced a release date for their HomePod. The Apple Homepod is available for purchase on February 9th and its available for pre-order on January 26th. Originally Apple planned for the spreaker to be ready for purchase by  last Christmas, but they encountered a few delays. Apple faces competition from Amazon's Alexa, Google Home, and more. But the HomePod is not meant to compete with Amazon and Google just yet. The main focus of this speaker is just that; i

Why do people feel the need to know when others are active on social media or not? Major creep vibes, but sure if you need to know where your teenager is, I get it. If you wanna keep tabs on your significant other, do what’s best for you, but seriously, Instagram? Instagram now shows when people are active, or when they were last active. There isn’t a green dot next to a profile picture to notify you when someone's online. Instead, you'll have access to information about anot

If you’ve been on social media within the last 24 hours, then you’ve probably seen one of your friends post about Google Arts and Culture. It’s an app that’s trending all over the place and here’s why. The app, which is free and downloadable from your mobile app store, is made for art lovers all over the world. You can swipe through Google’s entire catalog of art and explore through Google’s selection of videos, collections, and other educational resources. You can even open

Augmented reality will be a big topic at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV. We couldn’t stop hearing about augmented and virtual reality in most recent years. From the release of VR headsets, like the Oculus Rift, to the release of Apple’s ARkit software, augmented and virtual reality is slowly beginning to take over. It’s only a matter of time until we start seeing our everyday reality transform with the capabilities of AR and VR software. You’ve already

James O'Brien is a renowned professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. Today, O'Brien serves as a consultant to RAVV where he provides input for our various projects. We had the chance to sit down with him for a brief interview. In 2015, James O'Brien was recognized for his work and given an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. O'Brien's research has been published in many prestigious publications, an