GMYLE Wireless Charger

Some of you may have noticed this cute little thing on my nightstand. No, it's not a coaster - it's my new Qi wireless charging pad for my iPhone! (DISCOUNT CODE: REF-KarenLao for 20% off!)

GMYLE Wireless Charger Aluminium Mini Qi (Marble Pattern)

If you're not familiar with Qi, it's a wireless charging standard that has been adopted by many companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, Motorola, and Google - so a lot of new phones coming out have Qi wireless charging capabilities built in... But not Apple! I'll talk more about that below.

The charging pad comes with a USB cable but no wall charger. I used my iPhone cube, but it started getting super hot, so I switched to a bigger wall charger, and it's working fine now. 

As I mentioned before, a lot of newer Android phones have Qi wireless charging capabilities and can use this pad without any additional products... but for my iPhone, I had to also get the receiver to attach to my phone for this gadget to work. Make sure to get the bigger receiver for the 6 Plus!

Charging pad + receiver

The receiver plugs into your phone like this:

Then you can put your phone case over it. The website says that it works well with most cases "excluding case thicker than 7mm or with metal layer." I've been using it with my hard cover snap-on cases, and they work just fine! The only thing that bugs me is that it makes my case bend a little:

Bendgate, anyone?

It also took a few tries to get the hang of what exact part of your phone you have to place down in order for the pad to detect the receiver. For the 6 Plus, the sweet spot is slightly below the center of the phone. I blame the size of the phone (also, it looks a little funny how big the phone is on this mini charging pad!). If your phone is slightly misplaced, the pad either stays red... or goes red-green-red-green until you correct it.

My reflection says hi

One distracting thing is that the indicator light is VERY bright! Almost like a nightlight next to me when I sleep. I have to put something in front of it at night. 

Probably shouldn't let it hang off like that, but I like to live life on the edge

So all in all, there are pros and cons to this cute little charger. But I'm loving how convenient a charging pad is! I can just grab my phone and go instead of messing with a lightning cable! Now I can avoid scenarios like 1) forgetting my phone is plugged in and having the phone pulled out of my hand as I walk away, 2) pulling my phone way too hard when I'm trying to turn off my alarm in the morning, and 3) being too lazy to reach for the charger at night and waking up with my phone at 10%.

Head to GMYLE to see more products! You can use the discount code REF-KarenLao for 20% off!

SXSW 2016

I recently teamed up with Mazda to cover the last 3 days of their SXSW events on my Instagram. I wish I could have done it for the entire week, but I only have so much PTO! It was such a great, event-filled weekend. I definitely needed coffee 3x a day, and I think I exclusively refueled at Wright Bros. Brew & Brew, which is conveniently located across Hype Hotel.

They booked me at the Westin downtown, which was amazingly convenient. I could not have been happier! 10 minute walk from Hype Hotel, with a Mazda Express shuttle stop to wherever you want within 3 miles of SXSW. They had these shuttle stops all over SXSW, so it was really convenient to get around. All you had to do was sign up online or the Mazda Lounge and pick up a Mazda Express wristband there.

I covered Hype Hotel my first day there, but of course had to come back that night for more amazing shows like SBTRKT. The VIP section was great, but getting on the floor with the crowd is always fun too!

Louis the Child

Gallant

Poliça

Louis the Child was super fun to listen to. Gallant was ahmaaaazing - cannot say enough good things about him. Poliça was also great! I didn't realize Channy was so cute.

Afterward, I stopped by Spotify House with Chris, and then we met up Dusel who pedicabbed us to Yellow Jacket Social Club for a quick beer.

It sucked that the weather turned really cold/windy the rest of the weekend, but at least there were no major storms. The next morning, I went to the Outdoor Stage for some more music/photos. 

By the time I got back to the convention center to meet some friends, it seemed like SXSW was already shutting down! Maybe I just didn't know where to look this year, but 6th street didn't have much left to see. We stayed on 6th that night, and as Drake says, "you know how that shit goes." 

5 hours later on Sunday morning, I was meeting up Jane and Hans at Elizabeth Street Cafe. We talked about social media woes LOL. Thanks for listening to us, Hans. I'm so glad this breakfast happened because I'd been wanting to meet Jane for the longest time since we started following each other on Instagram :) She's the sweetest and the cutest food blogger I know. 

I'm so glad I got to do what I love while having fun and meeting up most of the people that I wanted to see. Such an amazing opportunity. Until next time!! 

PicsArt Review

If you know anything about PicsArt, you know how powerful of an app it is, from simple color/contrast/curves edits to actual photo manipulation (think: double exposures, blended photos, etc.). And if you DON'T know about PicsArt, I'm happy to tell you a little bit about it!

I've edited my photos with PicsArt before, so I gladly obliged when they approached me about working together to show how I use their app!

My most recent Instagram post was a photo from my Ireland trip last August. Here is the original:

A little bland. I never wanted to post it on my feed because of that. But a lot of times, I'll look through old photos to see if I can make it pretty enough to be "Instagrammable." :P 

The rocks are a little distracting, so I cropped them out with the original 4:3 ratio.

Next, I adjusted the photos with the following:
Brightness +12
Contrast +7
Shadows -6
Highlights + 13

That's about my usual formula for my photos... looking more like how I want it to now! I love that the PicsArt sliders are easier to control than most apps. Not too sensitive, and not too clunky.

Now what I really hate is the clouds... but that's what PicsArt is for, right? My favorite part of PicsArt: blending photos together! To do this, I chose the "Add Photo" option and imported another photo that had a sky in it. The photo is a little gloomy, so I chose another overcast sky. I used one of my photos from Hong Kong.

To blend the photos together, I adjusted the opacity so I could see what I was erasing.

Erase Hong Kong, adjust the photo a bit more, and there we have it! A prettier sky!

Overall, it was super easy to learn how the app worked, and there are SO many functions I didn't even touch. The curves filter can be a lifesaver (although I found it way less easy to slide than the other adjustments). It's like having a desktop version of Photoshop on my phone. 

Thanks for making my life a little prettier, PicsArt! 

Download PicsArt photo editor here!