Final Thoughts
After two solid weeks of putting this through as many use scenarios as possible, I’m walking away very impressed. As an Autism family, life is chaotic on the best of days. Devices like the Link View and Google Home, in general, can be enormously helpful. Being able to view valuable information at a glance or set timers, alarms, reminders and ever add events to your calendar is crazy helpful.
The Link View improves upon the already amazing Google Home experience in just about every way. If you’re looking to streamline your life, make information easily accessible, control your smart devices, watch videos, listen to music, display your pictures, manage your appointments, make video calls, spice up a dorm room or help your kids with homework, you can’t go wrong with the Link View.
Here are my final review scores.
Sound Quality: 5/5
Display: 4.5/5
Build Quality: 5/5
Overall Value: 4.5/5
If you’re interested in purchasing the Link View for yourself, you can do so at JBL.com. It retails for $249 and in my opinion, it’s a good value for all you get.
I want to thank JBL for sending out the Link View and in the process, helping me raise Autism Awareness along the way. ☺
Hey Rob, question for you- I saw the crapfest on Twitter a few weeks ago about your reviews (or lack thereof, according to whoever that was who decided to be a dick that day) and I’m curious what you do with the items after you review them? I’m sure you keep some of them but do you donate or sell the things that you don’t need? I know you got donations in last year for the end of the school year but never heard what the outcome was with what you and Emmett put together with the principal. I feel like you could do a decent amount of business on eBay with some of the things you get for review (which would be awesome). Follow-up, why not start an eBay store? I have friends who buy things from thrift stores and sell them and do pretty well. One who does it mostly full time made $9000 last December, which is just crazy to me but that’s something that both you and Lizze could do from home.
The school silent auction went well. I’m unsure of exact amounts of profit but the kids had great last day of school events in the parking lot. Sorry I never updated, not sure what happened.
As for selling review items, I’ve never done that. There are times when I donate the item but never for profit. It’s something to think about but in most cases, what I review is something that sticks around because of its usefulness. It’s doesn’t bring money in but not having to buy the item in question saves us money.
I would probably host a giveaway before selling items but it’s definitely something to think about.
The reviews tend to drive traffic that attracts advertisers and increases overall ad revenue.
I missed the first part of your comment about the Twitter incident.. Lol
I have no idea who that person is but they absolutely have it out for me. They made statements that were simply untrue. They were trying to say that I was collecting items for review and not reviewing them but instead selling them for profit.
I’ve met or exceeded every obligation in regards to reviews or unboxing videos and have never sold a single item. As I said, I’ve donated many items, especially things that could directly benefit Autism families. Things like weighted blankets, weighted vests, balance bikes and health or wellness products. I don’t advertise that because I feel that cheapens the guesture and I’m not looking for attention but I suppose I should say something in order to be more transparent. I just don’t want to come across as patting myself on the back because it’s not at all what I’m doing. Sometimes I host giveaways of either the review device itself or the company sponsors a giveaway for my readers.
There are times that I receive a product for review but the review never publishes. This is done because something came up during the process that changed things and based on agreements with the company in question, the review was canceled. I don’t usually say anything about this as well.
It’s easy enough to disprove the accusations by simply browsing my review page to see that the reviews were done and published long ago.
This person is the definition of troll..
So what would make a product unable to be reviewed? I feel like everything about the product from manufacture to shipping to customer service (if necessary) should be up for review so I’m curious why you and the company would decide not to publish.
It’s just how they work. Sometimes a product is defective and it’s clear based on other reviews that this isn’t a common occurrence. I’m not going to publish a bad review because of that. Sometimes replacements can be sent and other times they aren’t available.
An honest review does not mean that every product review gets published. It means every product review that is published, it’s honest, unbiased and fair.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at a product and not going through with the review because either you don’t like it or there are complications. That’s all behind the scenes stuff.
You have to be fair to the company and honest with your readers. That means that not all reviews can be finished and or published.
As an example, I’ve had products that have come in and for whatever reason, I couldn’t get them to work. That doesn’t mean the product is bad, it simply means I got a defective product. There are times where I can’t get it replaced because they have no available review units to send out. Rather than bash the company a say the product doesn’t work, I don’t write a review at all. That’s just how it works.
A good review will talk about the good things about a product but also not be afraid to criticize its failing either. Sometimes circumstances arise and that simply doesn’t work out.
I can’t image you could find someone who does reviews in large numbers who has published a review for every product they’ve received. It’s a judgment call sometimes and it goes on behind the scenes. There’s nothing wrong or dishonest about that.