Money – The Fragrance of Success

If you watch The Shark Tank on ABC, you probably saw Money – The Fragrance of Success on the episode that aired Friday, February 3rd. Well, I do and I did and I had to have it! I won't lie, I LOVE money! Whoever said "money doesn't buy happiness" was 99% wrong. Does it directly buy happiness? No - but it buys security which leads to happiness - but I digress. I also love (and have a mild addiction to) cologne. My all-time hands down favorite is Essential by Lacoste. It's delicious. When I saw this product, I had to have it. I don't know if I'd want to actually smell like money. Does money smell good? I'd say that it doesn't really smell good per se, but it does have a distinct smell that most people enjoy. So I immediately purchased Money.

My bottle of Money arrived on Wednesday. My first impression was the packaging. The plastic wrap used to protect the box is very odd. When I tried it unwrap it, the plastic wrap broke off in pieces rather than unwrapping. Think of an old tortilla shell rather than Saran wrap. Not a great first impression. Upon opening the box, I found the shredded real US currency. I love that bit! Once I removed the shredded money, my impression went negative again. Talk about a roller coaster: Shitty plastic, then "Oh! Cool!", then "Really?". The box makes the cologne look like a similar size to my Lacoste Essential bottle (big enough to last a while, but small enough to throw in a messenger bag or car storage counsel), but it's pretty damn tiny. At 1.7oz (does anyone really bother to read that before ordering?), it's less than 1/2 the size of my Lacoste and almost the same price. I wasn't impressed.

Even though it was almost 7pm by the time I opened the box, I had to put the cologne on. It doesn't smell anything like money. At all. With that said, however, it does smell good. It's a familiar fragrance, but I haven't taken the time (and won't be doing so) to figure out what other cologne it reminds me of. I like it. I'm used to having strangers stop me to say how good I smell and ask what I'm wearing, which probably means I'm wearing way too much cologne, but I like to smell it! Strangely, no one at the office has ever mentioned my cologne so they either dislike it or just don't notice/care. I wear Essential pretty much every single work day so I thought that wearing Money on Thursday would make people notice. They didn't. So overall, I like Money, but I'm not blown away. They'll need to improve upon the packaging and double the bottle size to make me a repeat customer.

Money - The Fragrance of Success passes The Trav Test with a B-/C+. 


• Category: Products
• Location: Online
• Cost: $42.50
• Ease of use:
 Easy
• The Trav Test grade: B-/C+. I couldn't decide. It's not an F and it's not an A.

Kensington

Ok, folks, this is a slightly different post than you're used to. It's about a product that I love and a company that I love even more! Ever since I purchased my first iPhone back in 2007, I've searched for the best way to store it and use it in the car. When I got my current car in 2008, I drove directly from the dealership to Best Buy to have a touchscreen and Bluetooth-enabled system installed. That solved the problem about using my iPhone in the car since I can play my iTunes library and take calls over Bluetooth, plus the radio display shows my battery level, signal strength, and connection status. What about storing it, though?

A few years ago I found the Kensington Windshield/Vent Car Mount for Smartphones at the Apple store. It is fantastic! I've always used the windshield mount rather than the vent mount simply because I don't want to block the airflow in my car, but I was nervous at first about using the windshield mount. It's just a small suction cup that holds the 12" flexible arm which holds the phone holder which holds my expensive iPhone, but it's perfect. The mount has adjustable side clamps that hold the phone steady and a button on its back that releases the grip. I loved this feature until one day, the button got stuck and the clamps no longer worked. I emailed Kensington immediately and they responded the next day offering to send me a new one. Since this issue occurred within a year of purchase, I thought this was great customer service - exactly how it should be. Somehow, the button became unstuck so I never had Kensington send me a new one.

A few weeks ago, my Kensington broke again. This time, the suction cup completely detached from the arm. Since it's at least 2-3 years old now, I didn't think this was a big problem. I just grabbed some super glue and reattached the suction cup. That didn't work. The rest of the mount is perfect fine, so I thought perhaps I could email Kensington again and see if I could buy a new arm only rather than paying for a whole new unit that I didn't need. They again responded within a day and offered to send me a brand new mount. I was happily shocked. My warranty has long expired and I didn't expect much help because of that and the fact that a brand new one is under $30. 6 days since they emailed me back, a brand new mount was at my doorstep. Kensington really knows how to make good products and have really happy customers. Needless to say, I highly recommend both the Kensington Windshield/Vent Car Mount for Smartphones and Kensington itself. I will be a loyal customer for the foreseeable future! And, if anyone at Kensington happens to see this, THANK YOU!

Broken :(

Brand new!

Kensington Windshield/Vent Car Mount for Smartphones & Kensington both pass The Trav Test with an A+.





• Category: Products, Accessories
 

• Location: Online and in many stores.
 

• Cost: $29.99
 

• Ease of use: Easy
 

• The Trav Test grade: A+

Agloves

If you use a touchscreen device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Droid, Evo, etc) and live someplace with winter, Agloves are for you.  They are a revolutionary new way to use winter gloves and a touchscreen device at the same time.  Other companies have made other products that tried to solve this problem.  They all failed.  Dots Gloves, for example, have some nickel or brass on the fingertips.  The problem with this is that if the gloves don't fit perfectly (actually, they need to be on the tight side), they don't do a damn thing.  They also don't work if you use the pad of your finger to scroll since the nickel or brass is only on the tips.

Agloves, however, work because they have silver nylon throughout.  Silver is the most electrically conductive element so your capacitive touchscreens LOVE silver.  Or, rather, they (g)love it.  You know, I'm typing this thinking I need to find something else to say because 2 relatively short paragraphs doesn't do Agloves justice, but they're simply so great there's nothing more to say.  If you have a touchscreen device, do yourself a favor and order Agloves.  You won't regret it.  Plus, for a limited time, you can enter "Free Shipping" in the coupon code and save the $3 shipping fee!  Actually, if I had to come up with 1 complaint to be my usual cynical self, I'd complain that I paid $3 for shipping when the shipping label clearly says they only paid a little over $1!  That's kind of annoying, but the gloves are still damn good!  Since the CEO, Jennifer Spencer, personally wrote "Thank you" and signed the packaging insert, I'll even give Agloves a few extra brownie points!

Agloves.  Conduct yourself.™

Agloves passes The Trav Test with an A+.

• Category: Winter Accessory

• Location: Agloves

• Cost: $17.99 + $3 shipping when the Free Shipping code expires

• Ease of use: Beyond Easy!

• The Trav Test grade: A+(++++++++++++++)

Elago's Apple iPhone 4 Premium Privacy filter-Protect Screen

I may sound like a paranoid schizophrenic here, but I always think people are looking at my iPhone.  Whether I'm texting in line at the grocery store or playing a game at my desk, only I need to know what is on my screen.  On my iPhone 3Gs, I used 3M's iPhone Privacy Screen and it was fantastic.  3M has not made an iPhone 4 version so I'm unfortunately stuck looking at other manufacturers. 

My first (and only) attempt was using Elago's Apple iPhone 4 Premium Privacy filter-Protect Screen.  Elago claimed, when I purchased mine, that this filter screen would be absolutely bubble-free.  This claim has since been removed as you can see in the picture below that bubble-free it is not!  

Save your money and wait for 3M to make one - none will be as good!

Elago's Apple iPhone 4 Premium Privacy filter-Protect Screen fails The Trav Test with an F.

• Category: iPhone Accessory

• Location: Amazon

• Cost: $19.99

• Ease of use: Mildly easy to apply, but bubbles make it useless.

• The Trav Test grade: F