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Everyone should be able to take a rapid home COVID test for an affordable price (IMHO, that would be $5 or less in the USA) as often as needed at this point in a pandemic. In reality, the cheapest tests available to Americans cost at least $10 per swab, and supplies are so limited that even those who can afford tests don’t have access to them.

For those of us fortunate enough to have a little more disposable income, however, there is an option available and in stock for shipping as of January 5, 2021, though at a higher price: the Cue Health Monitoring System.

Cue’s Health Monitoring system is composed of a device called the Reader, COVID-19 test cartridges sold separately, and the Cue Health App which runs on your smartphone.

The company is located in San Diego, California. Cue manufactures its test cartridges and produces its biochemistry components domestically, in house, to avoid supply chain disruptions such as we’ve all suffered this year.

Cue Reader at home molecular COVID-19 test

My family bought a Cue Reader home molecular test device ($249) at the end of 2021. Test cartridges are sold separately direct from Cue. They’re currently available in packs of three ($225) or ten ($712.50) or bundled with membership services in even more expensive packages.

We used a Cue COVID-19 test for the first time on January 1, 2022 to test our vaccinated but un-boosted teen after a cross-country flight. This was before he spent an hour—still masked, just in case!—visiting his vaccinated, boosted, but vulnerable grandfather.

A Cue COVID-19 test is a molecular test. This is more like a laboratory-based PCR test in quality than the typical home antigen test purchased at a drugstore, but the technical process isn’t identical to the hospital version.

The COVID-19 test is an FDA approved test under Emergency Use Authorization EUA210180, the same level of approval as most other COVID-19 tests and treatments.

Cue’s COVID-19 detection cartridge is a test you perform yourself, at home, with the Reader automatically processing your swab right in your living room or kitchen, bathroom, etc.

There are no samples to ship; no run to the post office or a FedEx drop box is required.

To use the Cue Reader, you swab your nostrils, stick the swab into the otherwise sealed test cartridge you’ve placed in your machine, and initiate processing via your cell phone. You’ll have a result displayed on your phone in about 20 minutes without leaving your house for about $75 per test.

Cue COVID-19 tests are accurate enough to be used for international travel, but to do so requires an expensive, upgraded subscription option that covers medical supervision via video for a certified result. I’ll talk about access to certified tests via “Cue+” membership later in this post, but it’s not required for personal virus screening. Continue reading →

If I hadn’t purchased a Bluetooth keyboard, this blog would have about 30% of its current content. My preferred portable input device is a Logitech K780 model.

I bought mine from Amazon about a year ago when I began writing regularly for my blog. I quickly realized that hand discomfort was my limiting factor for writing long form content away from my desk with an iPad. I paid $75 then; today’s price is several dollars less.

My Logitech K780 keyboard in use on a lap desk

The dedicated keys for switching almost instantaneously between three devices are a major factor in my enjoyment of this particular keyboard. Those are the three white keys at the upper left of the K780 in the photo above.

Because I experience arthritis pain and stiffness in my fingers and wrists, tapping on a touchscreen while holding a device can be difficult, excruciating, or even impossible.

If I have my keyboard out, I use it to enter even short, simple text messages into my Android Blu R1 phone. Using the Logitech K780 is that much more comfortable for me.

Slim, but for the hump

Number pad: a nerd necessity

Model K780

Two other functions made the K780 the best keyboard for me:

I prefer a keyboard with a numeric keypad for efficient data entry, and
the indented slot simultaneously holds phones and tablets in place while I work.

That first one won’t matter to many users. If you don’t use the number pad on your current keyboard often or ever!, then by all means choose a smaller, lighter Bluetooth keyboard for your use on the go.*

Logitech offers the K380 model which has one touch device switching, like my K780, but without the built-in stand, or the K480, with stand, but using a fussy-looking dial instead of a keystroke to change devices. I haven’t tried either of those.

The little ledge that holds a device, however, will likely appeal to many users. Imagine a small, parallelogram-shaped valley parallel to your top row of keyboard keys, and you’ll have the form of this feature on the Logitech K780. It works well, supporting even a full sized iPad without a wobble on flat surfaces.

What makes this work exceedingly well for me is the full width keyboard (remember that numeric pad!) that leaves room for an iPad Pro—inside its thin, folio style case—as well as two cell phones. Not only can I swap which device I desire to control in an instant with the press of a physical button, but I also have that same device in view without juggling electronics.

Because we’ve talked about how well I juggle these days, right? My arthritis makes me drop things frequently as well as causing pain.

Continue reading →

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Bluetooth keyboard: Logitech K780 liberates a writer on the move