Useful pet tech you and your furbaby will love

While owning a pet brings a different kind of joy into our lives, it also adds certain responsibilities. From cleaning up to playing with them, our pets require special care. And as pet parents, we are more than willing to give them what they need to have a good life and a comfy home.

But modern times mean there are modern solutions to everyday pet-related tasks. And some of them are even smart. Here are our pet tech picks that will not only make your life easier but also make your furbaby happier and healthier.

Automatic feeder

If you haven’t switched to an automatic feeder yet, you’re missing out.

Not only does it automate a daily task, but some feeders also make sure to dispense just the right amount of food to keep your pets healthy.

Our top pick would have to be the Petlibro feeder, which offers enough features plus it looks pretty good, too. Apart from its primary function of dispensing dry food, this feeder also offers a personalized meal call function where you can record your voice to call out to your pet.

READ: The benefits of dry food

Another notable option is the Xiaomi Smart Pet Feeder. What’s great about this one is that you can control and monitor the contents of the feeder through your phone.

Water fountain

Ever catch your cat or dog drinking water from the toilet? That’s because it’s been proven that both dogs and cats prefer drinking moving water.

If you want something smart and connected like the Xiaomi Pet Feeder, you can take a look at the Catit Pixi smart fountain. 

It’s a quiet, continuously running fountain that offers UV-C cleaning to keep the water clean and free from bacteria. It also purifies water through a triple-action filtration system.

This wireless fountain is also worth picking up if you value convenience. It comes with a base that you plug in while the tank and pump itself are wireless so changing out the water or cleaning the fountain is a breeze.

For locally shipped options, you can check out this one that comes with a motion sensor that triggers the fountain when your pet is near, or this one which is also smart and wireless.

GPS-enabled collar

Our pets become part of our family. And it would be heartbreaking if they get lost or go missing.

Getting a feature-filled GPS-enabled collar would be a great way to give yourself a little peace of mind. The Tractive GPS tracker for dogs and cats is ideal if you want features like live tracking location history, monitoring, and even virtual fencing.

Though this particular product does require a monthly subscription to access all the features. If you want something a little more basic and less fussy, you can opt for this Smart ID pet collar which also lets you track and monitor your pet’s location.

Fitness tracker

Yes, even your pet can have a fitness tracker. Keep your little buddy in shape with the PetKit Smart Pet Collar. Unlike the GPS-enabled collar, this doesn’t track location but, instead, monitors your pet’s sleep patterns, calories consumed, and activity within the day.

It also has additional features such as a virtual bell that you can activate through your phone. This can be used either to locate your pet or for training.

Ball Blaster

If your pet does need some activity, this Ball Blaster is a great way to get that. Fun for both you and your pet, this handheld gun can launch balls up to 60 feet away.

It’s exercise for you and your pet!

But if you’re not really up to the task of running around, maybe an automatic ball launcher would be better.

Automatic cat laser toy

Let your kitty cat entertain him/herself when you’re busy. This cute cat-shaped laser will keep your cat up and running while you finish the tasks you need to do.

It can project on walls or floors and offers 360-degree rotation. Once you’re done with your tasks, you can also use it handheld and clock in some playtime.

A DNA test

Is a DNA test for your pet really necessary? Probably not. But by doing so you’ll get to know your pet on a more scientific level. A DNA test will not only show the family tree or breed history but possibly reveal reasons for your pet’s behavior, temperament, or attitude.

A DNA test can also predict how big or small your pet can be, its future or present health risks, and more. In short, this kind of test can help you take better care of your pet in the long run.

You will have to shell out a little extra to ship your pet’s sample back to the lab if you’re not in the US but results are emailed within a few weeks wherever you are.

Embark is a popular provider of these kinds of tests and you can check out their products here. 

Pet odor eliminator

We love our pets even if they leave unpleasant smells around the house. But with this Smart Pet Odor Eliminator from CrabTek, you can breathe a little easier.

Just place it near the source of the odor, say a litter box or a crate, and the device deodorizes the surrounding air. It’s battery-powered so you can place it almost anywhere and it can supposedly last up to three days before needing a recharge.

However, if you want to catch the smell at the source, you could invest in an automatic litter box for cats.

Stationary pet vacuum

As much as we love our furbabies, we can’t deny that owning a pet warrants additional cleaning duties. Not as much for your pet as it is for us pet parents, the EyeVac stationary vacuum is a great help for everyday cleaning.

You can think of it as a modern-day trash can and vacuum in one. With its infrared sensor, the EyeVac can sense nearby dust and debris and suck it up into a bagless container. It’s powerful enough to handle kibble and should also be able to catch loose fur that may be roaming about your floor.

Final thoughts

Whether it’s a fancy new litterbox or as simple as a new bouncy ball, we aim to give our pets as much as we can to make them happy. But with modern-day solutions and technology, taking care of our pets can be both fun and easy.

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NBA 2K21 review: Still the best basketball game, but…

09/14/2020

2K Games has always given us some, if not the best basketball simulation games throughout the years. Ever since I first tried NBA 2K3 when it was released back in 2002, the game really stood out and was the best basketball game at the time.

Since then, 2K Games has been consistently updating the game and has come close to perfecting its formula to the point that it’s easily one of the most popular games every year. 18 years later, we now have NBA 2K21 and after playing all its game modes, here are my thoughts.

On-Court Experience

Playing on the court, NBA 2K21 offers the best experience and is close to the real NBA basketball games. From its presentation to the commentators, even down to the players’ signature animation and their movements, it’s so realistic that if you’re seated far from your TV, you could be mistaken and think you’re watching a real NBA game.

When you size up your opponent, the dribbling animations and signature moves of the players really look like the real thing. During a rebound, the ball looks better and the action feels realistic compared to NBA 2K20. These are good additions to an already solid game.

However, most of the upgrades they added were pretty much small touches that are hard to notice when you initially play. There is also a new shot meter that I am not a big fan of. Comparing it to the last, it just looks a bit off and distracting and, in my opinion, doesn’t blend with the other indicators of the game.

Mastering this new indicator is also not easy since each player has a different ‘sweet spot’ on releasing the ball the new shot meter is just too small for me to see to exactly know when to release.

Although when it comes to controls, I like it that you can now use the controller’s right stick exclusively for dribbling until you decide to shoot or layup the ball.

This remapping of dribbling and shooting is what I have been looking for in previous NBA 2K games.  Since before, I found it frustrating to size up and trying to get past your opponent with a crossover and accidentally trigger a shot on your right stick. This new control configuration fixes that problem.

It feels great doing an isolation play using Kobe Bryant and being able to do his flawless crossover and pulling his last-second signature fadeaway jumper. It’s just satisfying.

But aside from those small changes, the game looks really similar to NBA 2K20. From the commentators, the halftime show of Shaq, Ernie, and Kenny, to the presentation of the 2K Broadcast, it feels like they simply ported the assets over to this game.

They didn’t make many improvements to the game’s graphics either. If you compare the quality and detail of last year’s game side-by-side against the new one, we think you wouldn’t see the difference, either. Although to be fair with 2K Games, NBA 2K20 was regarded as the best graphics in the series by fans during its time. Also, commentators, interviews, and the overall presentation of the game are close to the real thing.

Though we recognize the fact that it’s hard to improve a game that’s already great, there still are a few issues present in the game. For example, when you pass the ball to the open player in the corner and make a three-pointer and score, it’s been a common experience to just get two points counted because the player somehow defaults to position himself while stepping on the line.

Another example is when you’re closing out and would like extra pressure on the other team, the AI’s defense is still too easy and loose. Plus, matchmaking or playing online with friends on Quick Play is still one of NBA 2K21’s weaknesses. It still takes quite a long time before you’re matched with an opponent to play with.

Also, playing online still has latency problems on the players’ general movements as well as their shot releases. There were a few lags when you play online, too.

On some occasions, though, there were stable connections during my matches with minor latency on both the shot release or movement.

MyCAREER

2K21’s MyCAREER is still basically the same as last year’s. You start your career in high school soon after getting offered a basketball scholarship for college and eventually getting your player in the NBA. It did have a new story and the addition of great Hollywood actors this year like Jesse Williams, Djimon Hounsou, Mireille Enos, and Michael K. Williams.

The story is decent enough but in all honesty, I’d rather skip the whole prelude and just go straight to the NBA so I can start grinding my attributes to compete in the Neighborhood since that’s really where the fun is. And I believe most 2K players share my sentiments in this aspect.

In terms of your player’s attributes, the option to test your build by being able to temporarily add attributes and abilities is still present. It’s good that 2K Games retained this option as it is very useful to check what your player abilities and attributes will feel like at its max rating.

As mentioned earlier, the Neighborhood is still here with a new location that looks like California’s Venice Beach. The area is basically like last year’s Neighborhood but with a fresh coat of paint making it better-looking. Although, there’s been a number of server issues that limit joining courts to play.

There were also times that I waited for more than 15 minutes just to try and get into the court and play with other people online. Eventually, it felt like my character is just stuck at the courtside so I usually end up restarting the game. And during times that I do manage to get in a match, the latency of my player while moving or shooting sometimes came to a point that it is already unplayable.

2K Games did warn us on Twitter that there is high traffic of players on their servers due to the game being freshly released.

Creating your character and playing with friends online is pretty fun, but I feel the hours you have to put in grinding just to upgrade your character’s attributes takes a lot of time just for your player to compete with other high-rated players online.

I don’t mind grinding at all since it’s rewarding seeing your player progress. It just doesn’t motivate me as much since I know the player that I’m working hard on to increase its rating will be temporary. The fact that you have to do this all over again next year when the new game releases is just tiring in my opinion. And although there is an option to skip the grind for building up your player, it will cost you real money to get the VC’s needed to buy your player’s attributes.

MyTEAM

Unfortunately, MyTEAM still relies heavily on microtransactions to purchase good player card packs. Just like last year, it’s basically a way for you to skip grinding mundane tasks and challenges to get better packs.

But what I do like about MyTEAM is that they added customization for the evolution cards. When I was evolving my Dwyane Wade card, I could now choose different skill paths for his evolution to focus more either on shooting or athleticism. It is a good game mechanic that you can experiment on based on your play style. There are also countless ways to customize your team which I simply love.

2K21 comes with MyTEAM Seasons which has events and challenges at the start of every new season, each with its own unique rewards. Another addition to the game modes is MyTEAM Unlimited. These are weekly modes that require certain parameters to play like having a team filled with players from the current playoffs. It offers even rare rewards and the parameters differ every week.

MyLEAGUE

During my time playing on this mode, I noticed that there are little if not zero updates on this game mode. It’s true that it already has good features but it just seems a waste that they didn’t take the chance to further polish it.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of this mode but I’m sure there are a lot of basketball fans out there who love to immerse themselves in building their own franchises.

Final Thoughts

All things considered, NBA 2K21 is still the best basketball simulation game in the market right now. So much so that fans really continue to buy the game every year. It’s understandable since it really is a solid basketball game that you and your friends could play hours of.

Although for me, paying a full price every year yet seeing subtle updates in the game isn’t well worth the US$ 59.99. Plus, with its new price at US$ 69.99 for the new generation version, that’s a US$ 10 price increase for slightly tweaked in-game features on top of optional microtransactions.

If you plan to get the standard edition of the game for current consoles, I recommend just waiting for the next-gen version of NBA 2K21 since, as of the time of writing, there is still no confirmation from 2K Games that it will upgrade your game for free for the next-gen console.

They only confirmed that it’s only the Mamba Edition that will have an upgrade, which is disappointing for its fans since EA Sports announced that all their sports titles will have a free next-gen upgrade just so you won’t have to buy the game twice.

But if you couldn’t wait to test this game out and money isn’t really an issue, by all means, go ahead. It’s still an enjoyable game in its entirety with immersive graphics and life-like physics. Just have some patience when waiting to play with your friends online.

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