The author is more of a technical guy, so I trust his opinions more than some of the other writers there. He focuses on the higher priced books in that article, but he does make mention of lower priced options.
I believe that Woot.com has refurb/low cost Chromebooks fairly regularly.
I haven't played with any Chromebooks lately, but my understanding is that you can lock them down about as much as an Android tablet. I also don't know how much "non-stock" UIs are prevalent in Chromebooks.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Meh.com also has refurbed ones on a semi-regular basis. New item at Midnight Eastern.
I've been happy with my Acer 13" Windows machine with touchscreen.
Well, thing went south at last. I dropped my iPhone in the toilet Don't ask how, I won't tell, but it happened. I placed it in a ziplock with rice but I am not sure if it will work.
Phones are pretty expensive where I live, so I am looking into getting a used Nexus 5x. Anything I should know? Thanks.
i live in a country with a batshit crazy president and no, english is not my first language
You may have to rebuild/re-setup profiles for your most-used apps, but the more popular ones are fairly ubiquitous across both platforms now.
====
Also (and this is general for the whole thread), I downloaded Muzei a few weeks back and setup the Reddit plugin for it (earthporn, exposureporn, and verticalwallpaper subreddits); and it's been magnificent! I have the refresh set to 2 hours.
For those that don't know, it's an app that changes your wallpaper periodically. You can set it up with your own sources or with preset sources. The Reddit plugin is a separate "app" you have to download (you can set it to link to ANY subreddit, so consider this a warning).
I've been using Tapet recently to get auto-generated wallpapers. I'm liking it, but sometimes the patterns are a little hit and miss for me...
I just started using Tapet as well. You can adjust the frequency of different styles. There are plenty that I didn't look so I just turned them off. I'm digging it.
Did anyone else get Account Action Required notifications today? I got them on both of my phones (different Gmail accounts) and apparently my grandmother got it too. Wanted to check it's legit before entering my password and stuff.
Here's the screen that shows up with i click the notification:
that list is good but probably less necessary than it was a year ago. I think as long as you're buying a "brand name" cable (and I consider Anker and Aukey as Brand names for this purpose) you should be fine now.
As someone who follows Benson and Nathan, it's still necessary. For instance, one of the Anker C-C cables that they had to recall had some issues regarding the replacement:
tl;dr: What the hell, Anker? Why are the serial numbers on all cables identical? If so, how can you claim to have properly done a recall?
The "post-recall" v2 cable is identical to the "pre-recall" v1 from the barcodes on the box, to the data in the eMarker, down to the "unique" serial number printed on the side. With exception that the one I received doesn't have that fatal flaw, it is the same... this is a big problem!
This means Anker has to individually test cables to find the bad ones. If so, why did they not at least put a "green dot" sticker on the box showing they've been tested as safe?
Furthermore, how can Anker claim to have done statistical analysis,, identified the bad batches, or segregated stock if everything is absolutely the same? How do they expect end users to know the safe cables from the bad ones? This is highly questionable quality control practice. (PELIGRO! DANGER! level bad.) Especially when there's been a safety recall involved.
That was from last November. Chargers are still something to be wary of, including Anker and Aukey. See this post about one of Anker's battery packs from just a week ago (Anker support said not to use with a Google Pixel) and this Aukey charger from January.
There's more out there, but you have to be wary even with well known brands. The Belkin car charger (F7U004) was pulled due to some issues. The short version of that one was:
tl;dr: The Belkin is highly noncompliant. To be objective, per my very own rules -- I must rate it at least "- 2: Bad hardware", but far more likely "- 3: Will cause hardware damage." (To your car, Pixel, or other devices on your car's cigarette lighter circuit. There are already reports of it repeatedly blowing car fuses upon insertion, which is a literal - 3 right there. Draining the Pixel battery to zero accidentally is a subtle - 3.)
IIRC Belkin is the manufacturer for the Pixel chargers and that same charger was on the Google store.
So yeah...I, for one, will remain cautious until manufacturers get their shit together.
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
Did anyone else get Account Action Required notifications today? I got them on both of my phones (different Gmail accounts) and apparently my grandmother got it too. Wanted to check it's legit before entering my password and stuff.
Here's the screen that shows up with i click the notification:
I got one on my phone and my wife's phone (which also has my account on it too). I put in the password and it seemed to be fine but I'm not sure what it was. I'm not sure if my wife also got one on her account.
Did anyone else get Account Action Required notifications today? I got them on both of my phones (different Gmail accounts) and apparently my grandmother got it too. Wanted to check it's legit before entering my password and stuff.
Here's the screen that shows up with i click the notification:
I got one on my phone and my wife's phone (which also has my account on it too). I put in the password and it seemed to be fine but I'm not sure what it was. I'm not sure if my wife also got one on her account.
Apparently it also caused a bunch of Google WiFis to reset so people had top redo their wireless setup.
Does Google have anywhere they push notifications like that? When my phone got signed out I was digging through my account pages on my computer and saw a banner about it on some obscure page, but it was only on that page. I didn't see it on their security or main Twitter either.
Apparently it also caused a bunch of Google WiFis to reset so people had top redo their wireless setup.
Does Google have anywhere they push notifications like that? When my phone got signed out I was digging through my account pages on my computer and saw a banner about it on some obscure page, but it was only on that page. I didn't see it on their security or main Twitter either.
The notifications I got were definitely pushed to my phone. Very clearly visible from the pulldown menu. Its less obvious on Chrome though, where I just had a red ! next to my name in the top right corner of the browser.
Sorry, I was being unclear. I was referencing a banner notification from Google that said something to the effect of "we are aware of accounts being logged out but do not believe it to be part of a fishing operation". It was the only spot I saw Google acknowledge the issues.
I have an old crappyish Android tablet that is still in decent working order and I'm kind of toying with the idea of turning it into a kid-specific laptop. Does anyone here have any experience with that kind of thing?
As much as I liked Android Auto it was having a significant impact on my battery life. So much so that I was struggling to make my phone last past 10pm. Somehow in my roughly half hour commute Android Auto would use around 25% of my battery with the screen off the entire time. I really only used it for it's integration with Pocket Casts, but it's now disabled for my daily commute. It will be nice to have when I'm on a long drive that necessitates GPS, my dash mount, and 12-volt charger.
The texting app that came with my G5 is crapping out on me. Err well I think it came with it... I don't remember no more. It's by Google and it's their generic messenger with a yellow app icon. I've been having trouble with it trying to send texts.
So I shopped around the play store and now I see that Google has a new texting app? Now with a blue app icon. What's with google and making new apps instead of supporting the ones they already have?
I don't think my problem is related or at least I hope it isn't. I think I'll try this new app and see what the deal is.
The texting app that came with my G5 is crapping out on me. Err well I think it came with it... I don't remember no more. It's by Google and it's their generic messenger with a yellow app icon. I've been having trouble with it trying to send texts.
So I shopped around the play store and now I see that Google has a new texting app? Now with a blue app icon. What's with google and making new apps instead of supporting the ones they already have?
I don't think my problem is related or at least I hope it isn't. I think I'll try this new app and see what the deal is.
So the one that came with your G5 would have been one made by LG and put on the system. It isn't a google app.
the "new" one you are talking about is just a renamed version of the Google made SMS app. Used to be called "google messenger", now called "Android messages" that app has been around for a couple years now.
The texting app that came with my G5 is crapping out on me. Err well I think it came with it... I don't remember no more. It's by Google and it's their generic messenger with a yellow app icon. I've been having trouble with it trying to send texts.
So I shopped around the play store and now I see that Google has a new texting app? Now with a blue app icon. What's with google and making new apps instead of supporting the ones they already have?
I don't think my problem is related or at least I hope it isn't. I think I'll try this new app and see what the deal is.
So the one that came with your G5 would have been one made by LG and put on the system. It isn't a google app.
the "new" one you are talking about is just a renamed version of the Google made SMS app. Used to be called "google messenger", now called "Android messages" that app has been around for a couple years now.
I believe your right, but I had the same app on my G4 downloaded from the play store and I was surprised to find it preinstalled on the G5. It even has a faint Google "watermark" logo in the background of my messages.
Anyways, I downloaded the new Android messages app and it's completely the same set up... Now just blue instead of yellow. So I'll just go with that because I'm sure it gets more frequent updates. The only drawback is that it has less options to play with on the attachment side of things.
ok, so i'm kinda fed up trying to figure this out.
i just got a OnePlus 3T and love the shit out of it. but in moving over stuff from my old phone, i'm bringing up an old problem of how to sync music between my phone and PC in a user-friendly way.
iTunes did do one thing right: allow you to set up playlists and tag music on a PC and seamlessly sync both music and playlists to a mobile device.
Android doesn't seem to have that. there's Google Play Music, which uploads stuff to the cloud (weird). there's MediaMonkey which has a really janky syncing system. there's DoubleTwist, which requires that you install iTunes first. and then there's just manually copying music via MTP, which is fine but dumb.
come on, there's got to be a better solution here!
I thought the only reason you had to install itunes for doubletwist was if you wanted to sync your itunes-specific playlists. I could have sworn I used doubletwist in the past without itunes at all.
I thought the only reason you had to install itunes for doubletwist was if you wanted to sync your itunes-specific playlists. I could have sworn I used doubletwist in the past without itunes at all.
i just installed DoubleTwist out of curiosity. you need to use either iTunes or Windows Media Player to set up playlists - doubletwist then syncs from there. i'm still unclear on how you control what does and does not sync though...
Man, I don't think I've synced music to a phone in..... 4 or 5 years.
as for why it uses MTP, that's how both Google and Apple handle wired connectivity from a Windows computer to those types of mobile devices. Always has been.
Man, I don't think I've synced music to a phone in..... 4 or 5 years.
as for why it uses MTP, that's how both Google and Apple handle wired connectivity from a Windows computer to those types of mobile devices. Always has been.
i'm fine with the MTP part. it's the syncing of MP3s and playlists that i'm griping about.
think i'm gonna try again with MediaMonkey. my main issue was that MediaMonkey copied MP3 files but stuck them all in one folder. i'm seeing some ways to keep the original file path instead, going to try that.
Google Play sorta works, but if your mobile data connection is slow, it freaks out a little when trying to play music.
doubleTwist just refuses to see the library i've set up in Windows Media Player, and i can't figure out why. i am not installing iTunes just to get this to work.
yea I used google play music with my own music library for a couple years before the streaming service launched in Canada. Right now I have about 8GB of music downloaded to my phone so it's always available.
Funny thing: I recently bought a new pair of bluetooth earbuds to replace the wired pair I recently lost (and, as always happens, the day the bluetooth buds got delivered, I found the wired buds under the hallway table).
Anyway, I was walking the dog with the bluetooth buds, and had my phone in my back pocket. The audio feed would skip and crackle periodically. If I moved the phone to my jacket pocket, so that -- presumably -- it didn't jiggle around so much, the interference/skipping stopped. I have no idea what's going on here because there are no moving parts involved.
I had forgotten how annoying learning a new phone/android version can be.
What were you upgrading from? I went from a Note 4 to a Pixel XL and there wasn't a huge difference UI wise (Marshmallow -> Nougat) aside from the settings.
I did switch to Nova Launcher from TouchWiz, and I replaced most of the apps on the Note 4 with the Google versions (Google Keyboard/GBoard, Calendar, Clock, etc.) or were using it already (Google Docs/Sheets/etc. instead of the Hancom stuff). I decided to stick with Nova on the Pixel.
In case you didn't know double tapping the overview button switches between your most recently used apps, basically like an Alt+Tab. It's the best little Nougat feature.
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
Funny thing: I recently bought a new pair of bluetooth earbuds to replace the wired pair I recently lost (and, as always happens, the day the bluetooth buds got delivered, I found the wired buds under the hallway table).
Anyway, I was walking the dog with the bluetooth buds, and had my phone in my back pocket. The audio feed would skip and crackle periodically. If I moved the phone to my jacket pocket, so that -- presumably -- it didn't jiggle around so much, the interference/skipping stopped. I have no idea what's going on here because there are no moving parts involved.
It's 100% signal. Think about it. Where is the bluetooth receiver for the headphones, probably in the inline controlls on the headset, which are sitting in front of one of your shoulders. With your phone in your back pocket, the signal is trying to go through your body, which is mostly water, which does a great job at breaking wireless signals. When you move it to your jacket pocket, which is on the front side of your body, you have a more direct line from phone to receiver on the headset.
I love bluetooth earbuds, I'm actually listening to a jaybird X2 set right now, but because wireless earbuds generally have pretty tiny batteries, they make compromises on the strength of the bluetooth receiver. While that helps battery life, that makes them more prone to poor signal range. Larger bluetooth headphoens like on ear or over ear sets have much bigger battieries, so they can afford to crank up the bluetooth receiver power.
Your phone will also contribute to this as well. If your specific phone has a weaker bluetooth antenna, it could cause issues. Same idea, if the antenna isn't very good, or underpowered, etc, you can get the same issue.
I guess I just approached Bluetooth purely from a range standpoint and figured it wouldn't matter much making the connection if it's within 6 feet. I mean, I get it (I've dealt with enough of these issues with WiFi), I just found it interesting.
Thinking about forgoing the Pixel XL and waiting until the Pixel 2 comes out. My S6 Edge works just fine so I have no need to upgrade at this point, and I figure why not just wait for the 2 to come out.
Any reason why that would be a bad idea (other than having to wait until the end of the year)?
I guess I just approached Bluetooth purely from a range standpoint and figured it wouldn't matter much making the connection if it's within 6 feet. I mean, I get it (I've dealt with enough of these issues with WiFi), I just found it interesting.
FWIW, I get worse issues with my 6P. Like I can't even use BT headphones if the phone is in my front pocket, but they work fine with my iPad if it's in the next room.
Posts
http://www.androidcentral.com/power-users-now-have-two-new-chromebook-options
The author is more of a technical guy, so I trust his opinions more than some of the other writers there. He focuses on the higher priced books in that article, but he does make mention of lower priced options.
I believe that Woot.com has refurb/low cost Chromebooks fairly regularly.
I haven't played with any Chromebooks lately, but my understanding is that you can lock them down about as much as an Android tablet. I also don't know how much "non-stock" UIs are prevalent in Chromebooks.
I've been happy with my Acer 13" Windows machine with touchscreen.
Well, thing went south at last. I dropped my iPhone in the toilet
Phones are pretty expensive where I live, so I am looking into getting a used Nexus 5x. Anything I should know? Thanks.
====
Also (and this is general for the whole thread), I downloaded Muzei a few weeks back and setup the Reddit plugin for it (earthporn, exposureporn, and verticalwallpaper subreddits); and it's been magnificent! I have the refresh set to 2 hours.
For those that don't know, it's an app that changes your wallpaper periodically. You can set it up with your own sources or with preset sources. The Reddit plugin is a separate "app" you have to download (you can set it to link to ANY subreddit, so consider this a warning).
I've been using Tapet recently to get auto-generated wallpapers. I'm liking it, but sometimes the patterns are a little hit and miss for me...
I just started using Tapet as well. You can adjust the frequency of different styles. There are plenty that I didn't look so I just turned them off. I'm digging it.
Here's the screen that shows up with i click the notification:
That was from last November. Chargers are still something to be wary of, including Anker and Aukey. See this post about one of Anker's battery packs from just a week ago (Anker support said not to use with a Google Pixel) and this Aukey charger from January.
There's more out there, but you have to be wary even with well known brands. The Belkin car charger (F7U004) was pulled due to some issues. The short version of that one was:
IIRC Belkin is the manufacturer for the Pixel chargers and that same charger was on the Google store.
So yeah...I, for one, will remain cautious until manufacturers get their shit together.
I got one on my phone and my wife's phone (which also has my account on it too). I put in the password and it seemed to be fine but I'm not sure what it was. I'm not sure if my wife also got one on her account.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
http://www.androidcentral.com/google-accounts-are-fritz-nobody-getting-hacked
It looks like some kind of weird random glitch today. My mother called me about the same thing.
Does Google have anywhere they push notifications like that? When my phone got signed out I was digging through my account pages on my computer and saw a banner about it on some obscure page, but it was only on that page. I didn't see it on their security or main Twitter either.
The notifications I got were definitely pushed to my phone. Very clearly visible from the pulldown menu. Its less obvious on Chrome though, where I just had a red ! next to my name in the top right corner of the browser.
Also. Nokia. I am disappoint. All you had to do was offer a separate SKU of the 3310 that doesn't have a camera.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
Me: Why didn't you before?
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
So I shopped around the play store and now I see that Google has a new texting app? Now with a blue app icon. What's with google and making new apps instead of supporting the ones they already have?
I don't think my problem is related or at least I hope it isn't. I think I'll try this new app and see what the deal is.
So the one that came with your G5 would have been one made by LG and put on the system. It isn't a google app.
the "new" one you are talking about is just a renamed version of the Google made SMS app. Used to be called "google messenger", now called "Android messages" that app has been around for a couple years now.
I wouldn't mind getting a Nokia 6 at that price point for the pure Android experience. It kind of replaces the Nexus series?
I believe your right, but I had the same app on my G4 downloaded from the play store and I was surprised to find it preinstalled on the G5. It even has a faint Google "watermark" logo in the background of my messages.
Anyways, I downloaded the new Android messages app and it's completely the same set up... Now just blue instead of yellow. So I'll just go with that because I'm sure it gets more frequent updates. The only drawback is that it has less options to play with on the attachment side of things.
i just got a OnePlus 3T and love the shit out of it. but in moving over stuff from my old phone, i'm bringing up an old problem of how to sync music between my phone and PC in a user-friendly way.
iTunes did do one thing right: allow you to set up playlists and tag music on a PC and seamlessly sync both music and playlists to a mobile device.
Android doesn't seem to have that. there's Google Play Music, which uploads stuff to the cloud (weird). there's MediaMonkey which has a really janky syncing system. there's DoubleTwist, which requires that you install iTunes first. and then there's just manually copying music via MTP, which is fine but dumb.
come on, there's got to be a better solution here!
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
dunno, not a fan of uploading my mp3 files to the cloud i suppose.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
i just installed DoubleTwist out of curiosity. you need to use either iTunes or Windows Media Player to set up playlists - doubletwist then syncs from there. i'm still unclear on how you control what does and does not sync though...
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
as for why it uses MTP, that's how both Google and Apple handle wired connectivity from a Windows computer to those types of mobile devices. Always has been.
i'm fine with the MTP part. it's the syncing of MP3s and playlists that i'm griping about.
think i'm gonna try again with MediaMonkey. my main issue was that MediaMonkey copied MP3 files but stuck them all in one folder. i'm seeing some ways to keep the original file path instead, going to try that.
Google Play sorta works, but if your mobile data connection is slow, it freaks out a little when trying to play music.
doubleTwist just refuses to see the library i've set up in Windows Media Player, and i can't figure out why. i am not installing iTunes just to get this to work.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
I had forgotten how annoying learning a new phone/android version can be.
I'm sure I'll get over it quite soon.
You will. The Pixel is amazeballs.
Anyway, I was walking the dog with the bluetooth buds, and had my phone in my back pocket. The audio feed would skip and crackle periodically. If I moved the phone to my jacket pocket, so that -- presumably -- it didn't jiggle around so much, the interference/skipping stopped. I have no idea what's going on here because there are no moving parts involved.
I did switch to Nova Launcher from TouchWiz, and I replaced most of the apps on the Note 4 with the Google versions (Google Keyboard/GBoard, Calendar, Clock, etc.) or were using it already (Google Docs/Sheets/etc. instead of the Hancom stuff). I decided to stick with Nova on the Pixel.
In case you didn't know double tapping the overview button switches between your most recently used apps, basically like an Alt+Tab. It's the best little Nougat feature.
It's 100% signal. Think about it. Where is the bluetooth receiver for the headphones, probably in the inline controlls on the headset, which are sitting in front of one of your shoulders. With your phone in your back pocket, the signal is trying to go through your body, which is mostly water, which does a great job at breaking wireless signals. When you move it to your jacket pocket, which is on the front side of your body, you have a more direct line from phone to receiver on the headset.
I love bluetooth earbuds, I'm actually listening to a jaybird X2 set right now, but because wireless earbuds generally have pretty tiny batteries, they make compromises on the strength of the bluetooth receiver. While that helps battery life, that makes them more prone to poor signal range. Larger bluetooth headphoens like on ear or over ear sets have much bigger battieries, so they can afford to crank up the bluetooth receiver power.
Your phone will also contribute to this as well. If your specific phone has a weaker bluetooth antenna, it could cause issues. Same idea, if the antenna isn't very good, or underpowered, etc, you can get the same issue.
I guess I just approached Bluetooth purely from a range standpoint and figured it wouldn't matter much making the connection if it's within 6 feet. I mean, I get it (I've dealt with enough of these issues with WiFi), I just found it interesting.
Any reason why that would be a bad idea (other than having to wait until the end of the year)?
FWIW, I get worse issues with my 6P. Like I can't even use BT headphones if the phone is in my front pocket, but they work fine with my iPad if it's in the next room.