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Zoom gloom? Improve your virtual meetings with these cool accessories
We seem to spend more and more time logged in to back-to-back online videoconference meetings.
They seem to go on all day, without any respite, or breaks.
To make the long day online more bearable, add these gadgets to your office and makes those meetings as comfortable as possible so that your Zoom calls whizz past.
The HumanCentric screen light mounts onto the back of your laptop or monitor. It is powered from your laptop using a USB cable. You can increase the brightness or the colour temperature so you have a warm glow, and use the diffuser to give a soft light to illuminate your face. A must to make the best of your home office.
Quiet and unobtrusive the Proscenic A8 removes dust, pollen and smoke and will circulate the air into a decent sized room (up to 430 square feet) up to three times an hour. Likes its big brother the Proscenic A9, the A8 is whisper quiet in auto use with a boost feature to increase the fan speed.
It detects the quality of the air, and, in automatic mode, can adjust the speed of the fan to increase the purification levels. Works with the Proscenic app to schedule when to send the purifier into sleep mode, and when to dim the lights.
If you do not have a real library of classics books in your office, you can cheat a little with this screen backcloth. This vintage bookcase backdrop can also be used as a wall hanging or even a tablecloth.
Get crystal clear sound with the M2 conference speaker and get rid of your headset during calls. This speaker lasts for a long time, and has indicators to show battery level. It also has a mute button which displays a red ring around the speaker to indicate that you can not be heard by the other parties. This is a great compact conference speaker as is its companion the eMeet Luna.
Have a constant supply of cold and hot water on hand all day with this dispenser that sits on a counter top and will give you enough hot water to make two cups of tea or coffee almost instantly. It will also dispense chilled water from its standard sized water bottle.
If you run as many devices in your home office as I do, you will need one of these power strip towers to keep power to your devices all day. This 14-plug tower also has 4 USB slots and surge protection. The buttons have LED lights so you can turn on individual banks of four sockets to cope with the number of plugged in items.
An alternative source of power is a must to make sure that your business continuity is guaranteed. I reviewed the Bluetti AC50S in January 2020, and it quickly became indespensible during winter power cuts, keeping my broadband router, laptops, monitor, and mobile devices charged for the entire working day. Use this Bluetti power station to make certain that your all day videoconference does not fail.
This thermal carafe will keep your coffee warm for up to 24 hours after making it. It will hold up to 68 ounces too – so there is more than enough coffee for a refill. Its stainless steel design means that it will not shatter if you inadvertently bump it.
Create any office background you desire with a portable green screen for your conference. The screen is green on one side and blue on the other, and will stop your conference colleagues staring behind you and at your office background