[tech] It's Tech Spring Cleaning Week now. Clean your....tech....stuff.

T4CT · June 2015

mightyjongyo wrote: »

Cilla Black · June 2015

These klipsh earbuds I got are not impressing me

Very clear

But max volume is so weak compared to the 3 year old shitty 30 dollar skullcandys

jgeis · June 2015

Cilla Black wrote: »

These klipsh earbuds I got are not impressing me

Very clear

But max volume is so weak compared to the 3 year old shitty 30 dollar skullcandys

Sounds like the perfect excuse to add a portable DAC/amp!

Cilla Black · June 2015

I have an amp

Using it defeats the portability of earbuds

If I'm.home, I may as well use my sennheiser 550s.

Darmak · June 2015

Anyone have recommendations for a case for a Note 3? My wife recently dropped her phone and shattered the screen so it got me to thinking about protecting mine. I don't want some fuckhuge case since my phone is already big as it is, and pretty colors or designs are nice but not required. I've never owned a case though and I don't know what is good or bad so I come to you, tech thread.

T4CT · June 2015

Darmak wrote: »

Anyone have recommendations for a case for a Note 3? My wife recently dropped her phone and shattered the screen so it got me to thinking about protecting mine. I don't want some fuckhuge case since my phone is already big as it is, and pretty colors or designs are nice but not required. I've never owned a case though and I don't know what is good or bad so I come to you, tech thread.

get a tempered glass screen protector if you want to protect the screen without making it fuckhuge

Darmak · June 2015

T4CT wrote: »

Darmak wrote: »

Anyone have recommendations for a case for a Note 3? My wife recently dropped her phone and shattered the screen so it got me to thinking about protecting mine. I don't want some fuckhuge case since my phone is already big as it is, and pretty colors or designs are nice but not required. I've never owned a case though and I don't know what is good or bad so I come to you, tech thread.

get a tempered glass screen protector if you want to protect the screen without making it fuckhuge

Any particular brands you might recommend or are they all pretty good?

jgeis · June 2015

I dropped my S6 from about waist high a couple of weeks back. Dropped it in a parking lot, I was real dumb and didn't put it into my pocket while fiddling with the door and a bag. I'm kind of surprised the screen didn't shatter, the only damage is some putting on the aluminum around the edge.

T4CT · June 2015

Darmak wrote: »

T4CT wrote: »

Darmak wrote: »

Anyone have recommendations for a case for a Note 3? My wife recently dropped her phone and shattered the screen so it got me to thinking about protecting mine. I don't want some fuckhuge case since my phone is already big as it is, and pretty colors or designs are nice but not required. I've never owned a case though and I don't know what is good or bad so I come to you, tech thread.

get a tempered glass screen protector if you want to protect the screen without making it fuckhuge

Any particular brands you might recommend or are they all pretty good?

Amazon reviews are usually the way I go, most will cost you around 10 bucks without shipping from there. Shoot for something around 0.3mm thick

Uriel · June 2015

I was cleaning my room earlier and must have thrown out my ear buds by accident. I'm so pissed at myself. But I don't want to dig them out of the garbage can.

Who makes decent earbuds for less than say 30 bucks?

Curly_Brace · June 2015

Uriel wrote: »

I was cleaning my room earlier and must have thrown out my ear buds by accident. I'm so pissed at myself. But I don't want to dig them out of the garbage can.

Who makes decent earbuds for less than say 30 bucks?

I've found this model from Sony to be fairly reliable.

turtleant · June 2015

So should I upgrade to Windows 10?

I'm kind of worried it'll lower my performance or break some of my older/more esoteric programs that I use.

T4CT · June 2015

Darmak wrote: »

T4CT wrote: »

Darmak wrote: »

Anyone have recommendations for a case for a Note 3? My wife recently dropped her phone and shattered the screen so it got me to thinking about protecting mine. I don't want some fuckhuge case since my phone is already big as it is, and pretty colors or designs are nice but not required. I've never owned a case though and I don't know what is good or bad so I come to you, tech thread.

get a tempered glass screen protector if you want to protect the screen without making it fuckhuge

Any particular brands you might recommend or are they all pretty good?

Amazon reviews are usually the way I go, most will cost you around 10 bucks without shipping from there. Shoot for something around 0.3mm thick

T4CT · June 2015

Why was that still there

Anyways

Galaxy S6 seems dope so far. Camera is unreasonably good.

Root took two seconds and was super easy, with Greenify I'm getting decent battery life

Diarmuid · June 2015

turtleant wrote: »

So should I upgrade to Windows 10?

I'm kind of worried it'll lower my performance or break some of my older/more esoteric programs that I use.

I've been running the preview on an old dual core machine and it's been fine.

Some audio glitches from Chrome is the worst problem I've had and it's run everything I've tried to on it so far.

Wait and see if you're not sure, but it seems pretty solid already.

T4CT · June 2015

Ok, I let the phone run down to 4% from 100% with no charge today

Just under 14 hours, with just over 4 hours SoT

If that stays consistent that's pretty fine as far as battery goes, this phone doesn't have a huge one

jgeis · June 2015

T4CT wrote: »

Ok, I let the phone run down to 4% from 100% with no charge today

Just under 14 hours, with just over 4 hours SoT

If that stays consistent that's pretty fine as far as battery goes, this phone doesn't have a huge one

I generally leave mine in regular Power Saving mode and can get around 22 hours with ~3 hours of SoT. I haven't bothered to root or install Greenify yet.

The GS6 has definitely shown me that flagship phones are probably "overpowered" in some ways. Leaving it in Power Saving mode doesn't produce much noticeable lag.

timspork's ghost · June 2015

Got my Pebble Time.

Why yes. I would like an app that will show the the exact price of Bitcoins at all times.

I need something to laugh at constantly.

Naphtali · June 2015

so I've found a temporary workaround for the battery problems on the nexus 9 (5.1.1)

they apparently went to great lengths to hide the battery saver mode toggle (even removing/not placing it on the notifications drop down) but it is still in there. Settings->Battery->Options (Ellipses button)->Battery Saver. Only lost 2% while idle overnight vs the usual 15-20%, so I'll take it.

QuestionMarkMan · June 2015

Is there any point in complaining to Time Warner about internet speed? I got upgraded for free from 25 Mbs to 100, but apart from the first day I don't think we've ever gone about 25.

LuvTheMonkey · June 2015

212 Windows Updates to go.......

schuss · June 2015

Any guidance on a new unlocked phone to buy that isn't too bad in cost? My Moto X is really beaten up at this point, so I'm looking to replace it. Looking for pure android, some level of burly phone as I'm abusive, and decent battery life.

Diarmuid · June 2015

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/samsung-promises-to-stop-disabling-windows-update/

Uh, what the Hell, Samsung?

schuss wrote: »

Any guidance on a new unlocked phone to buy that isn't too bad in cost? My Moto X is really beaten up at this point, so I'm looking to replace it. Looking for pure android, some level of burly phone as I'm abusive, and decent battery life.

A Moto G maybe? Not as powerful as the X obviously, but it'll give you most of what the X does.

miscellaneousinsanity · June 2015

welp my S4 has fallen victim to the 'doesn't charge, displays a grey battery and constantly vibrates' issue

time to do some googlin

LuvTheMonkey · July 2015

So I suddenly find myself in need of a messenger bag or backpack that can reliably hold at 17" class laptop, preferrably TSA friendly. Has anyone had to solve this need recently and may have a suggestion?

schuss · July 2015

Looks like the Timbuk2 Commute or Command in Large may be the ticket. I've had a Commute for about a decade and beaten the hell out of it, and only in the past year has it become minorly frayed in one spot.

Naphtali · July 2015

If you're gonna lug around a 17" laptop I'd rather use a backpack than a messenger bag. swiss gear is what I have and its durable and has tons of pockets for storage. I'm actually able to travel with two laptops in it if I had to

Curly_Brace · July 2015

I'm loving my TSA-friendly Swissgear backpack. It has nice broad straps and fits my big, heavy laptop well.

LuvTheMonkey · July 2015

I had seen some Swissgear in searching. Looking at The North Face's Recon 2 right now, but I will check out Swissgear too!

EDIT: I actually own and use a Timbuk2 messenger bag from like 8 years ago (still in amazing condition too), just that this Asus X750J is a fucking boat anchor.

Naphtali · July 2015

You might consider looking at wheeled laptop bags as well, I was given one when I got a 17'' from a customer to use a few years back and it made the frequent airport trips on that job pretty easy (since I had to truck along my 15'' laptop as well)

TankHammer · July 2015

QuestionMarkMan wrote: »

Is there any point in complaining to Time Warner about internet speed? I got upgraded for free from 25 Mbs to 100, but apart from the first day I don't think we've ever gone about 25.

Well they promised you "up to 100mbps" so as long as you're getting less than 100 they are fulfilling their obligation to you, the customer!

That's how it always works.

Comcast/Xfinity has my speed cap at 50mbps but I'm always locked to a consistent 29. Now when a company starts giving you a minimum expected speed you'll have something to complain about.

Jasconius · July 2015

The closeness of Windows 10 is beginning to excite me

TankHammer · July 2015

I'm ready!

Future so bright!

Tox · July 2015

Diarmuid wrote: »

schuss wrote: »

Any guidance on a new unlocked phone to buy that isn't too bad in cost? My Moto X is really beaten up at this point, so I'm looking to replace it. Looking for pure android, some level of burly phone as I'm abusive, and decent battery life.

A Moto G maybe? Not as powerful as the X obviously, but it'll give you most of what the X does.

I have a Moto G (1st gen, even). It had an issue with randomly powering off for a while there, but a reset fixed it. Otherwise it's been a solid phone! Nothing crazy, and since it's Motorola it's pretty "pure" Android.

I think the 3rd gen comes out in a few months, although the Moto E 2nd gen is already out and is more or less right between the G and X in terms of performance and quality.

I'd definitely recommend the Moto series to anybody, it's a solid phone, and the G is absolutely a very good, economy class phone.

schuss · July 2015

Tox wrote: »

Diarmuid wrote: »

schuss wrote: »

Any guidance on a new unlocked phone to buy that isn't too bad in cost? My Moto X is really beaten up at this point, so I'm looking to replace it. Looking for pure android, some level of burly phone as I'm abusive, and decent battery life.

A Moto G maybe? Not as powerful as the X obviously, but it'll give you most of what the X does.

I have a Moto G (1st gen, even). It had an issue with randomly powering off for a while there, but a reset fixed it. Otherwise it's been a solid phone! Nothing crazy, and since it's Motorola it's pretty "pure" Android.

I think the 3rd gen comes out in a few months, although the Moto E 2nd gen is already out and is more or less right between the G and X in terms of performance and quality.

I'd definitely recommend the Moto series to anybody, it's a solid phone, and the G is absolutely a very good, economy class phone.

Yeah, I've loved my X, so I'll probably just get the new G when it comes out, just hope my charge port doesn't die before then.

Tox · July 2015

Yeah I'm gonna try real hard to grab a Moto X when the 3rd gen comes out. Only thing is right now we have Verizon and their prepaid plan is hellsa cheaper than their 2-year contract plan and depending on the full retail cost of the X I might just say fuck it and buy it outright, but we'll see how that's looking ~end of the year.

Uriel · July 2015

Tech thread I need suggestions

A friend of mine had a really old PC of mine and it finally broke down on her.

I fear most of it won't be salvageable and want to help her out on building new innards for the same case.

So I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to play videogames on it but also they hook it to a TV so HDMI output would be ideal.

But also the budget will end up probably being real tight since they weren't planning on building a new computer until this one broke.

mightyjongyo · July 2015

I haven't done a build myself in a few years, but I think most of this still applies...

- If budget is a big concern then going with AMD instead of intel is a good idea.
- Since it sounds like it's just going to be for browsing and netflix or whatever then there's no need for a GPU.
- Definitely don't need a full-size ATX motherboard, so mATX or ITX will help save costs too.
- Depending on what broke and what you upgrade to, you can most likely still reuse the power supply and case. Should save around 50-100 that way.

Uriel · July 2015

It occurs to me I have that old motherboard and phenom 2 x64 plus psu laying in the other room. Depending on what's salvageable from her computer I might be able to just put that stuff in her case (it is a nice case I had gotten years ago. Full tower all aluminum) and get it all running again. Though I have a feeling she needs a new hard drive mostly since her husband has her run some automatic scan program from iolo to keep that old disc (more than 5 years old at this point) working and I think it was really just stressing the drive more. At least hard drives are cheap. Might need to get some ddr2 as well.

webguy20 · July 2015

Hey folks, any recommendations for a mid range point and shoot camera? The one i have is a 7 year old Nikkon with 8.1 MP and 3x zoom and no other features.

I mostly use my camera for outdoor shots during the day. I mostly want a good zoom, decent battery life and image stabilization.

I'd prefer price if under $300

Penny Arcade

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[tech] It's Tech Spring Cleaning Week now. Clean your....tech....stuff.

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