Tiny portable things

Just a few notes about some gadgets I found to pair with my MiniBook X:

• JLab JBuds Mini True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds ($30). Not the greatest but tiny. Fits on the “tablet Cocoon.”
  
• Ultra Small Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, Dual Mode - $25 for this generic piece of kit. It works. Hold the middle mouse button (wheel) and the right mouse button for a couple of seconds until the buried LEDs flash blue and Bluetooth pair it. Charges with USB C (comes with a small USB A to C cable). It definitely takes a bit of getting used to; it's tiny! Literally about the size of my thumb:
  
  

  

  Size comparison, BT Mouse181 and Verbatim 70744 travel mouse
  

But it works well enough, once you get used to it, for the sort of "whip out the Chuwi (or a tablet) and get something done real quick" use case I envision for it. For anything more substantial I'll probably have a laptop and at least a Pebble mouse with me, but for the MiniBook X or tablets, this thing is a welcome alternative to contorting to use a track pad or reaching up to do everything on a touch screen.

People have complained about the battery life (one Amazon review claimed ~2 hours), but I've been using it about 40 minutes and it's still at 98% charge:

Bluetooth device battery states

Honorable Mentions:

• Verbatim Wired Optical USB-C Mini Mouse – Plug & Play Corded Small Travel Mouse – Black 70744 - this $10 little mini-mouse joins the USB A model I've had for ... 15 years?! - that I used to use with netbooks. No muss no fuss, plug it in and it works. Even with my larger than average hands. (It's basically a three-finger device.) (This ended up getting displaced by the generic wireless mouse above, as it fit better on my Cocoon organizer and works with, e.g., my Lightning port equipped iPads, etc.)
  
• EarFun Air Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds - $50 on sale. These came recommended (CNN: "the best sub-$80 earbuds..."; TechRader: "the best cheap noise-cancelling earbuds you can get" and "[t]he best wireless earbuds if you want noise-blocking on a budget"), and, just playing with them for a little bit so far, holy heck, I can see why. The "ambient sound" ANC setting is a bit exaggerated and harsh (but they kind of all are), but when I turned the regular ANC on, the two fans running in my living room during this heat wave just disappeared into almost complete silence. I ran some Tool through them and wasn't disappointed. Currently bumping some Cypress Hill on a 192 kbps Dutch streaming station, Kink - No Alternative (Wikipedia) and even that sounds pretty good. Haven't had a chance to try out the microphones yet, I'll do that tomorrow. The EarFun buds negotiated AAC codec with Linux on the MiniBook X, and I can tell. They ended up being just a bit too large to fit comfortably on the “tablet Cocoon” so they’ve been moved to the “laptop” organizer.
  

The streaming station

A2DP, AAC codec

• Finally, this isn't related to the MiniBook X, but a shout out I feel like I have to give: The LC-dolida Sleep Headphones, 3D Sleep Mask - $22 and amazingly effective. Probably the first sleep mask I've tried that actually cuts out all external light. I waved a bright 325 lumen Streamlight right in front of my face, beam pointed at my eyes, and couldn't see it. Astounding. The speakers are ... Well, they're there. They sound okay. For some sleep music layered over some ambient sounds, they'll probably be just about perfect, without infuriating the upstairs neighbors to stomp around in protest. (Sigh.)