The Gadgetry Thread

[Petey]

Anybody got recommendations on HDMI switchers or an HDMI to component converter? I re-subbed to DirecTV today and now have four HDMI devices to hook up to a TV that has only three inputs. What I'd really like:

- something that doesn't need to be plugged in

- something that can auto-detect which input is active so I don't have to switch it

or

- a simple HDMI to component converter so I can just plug an HDMI device into my component inputs

Whatcha got?

I wouldn't go for an HDMI to component converter. I've looked into them and most people say it greatly decreases the video quality. Anyway, this might be what you need: http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=8150&seq=1&format=2 I've bought from Monoprice a bunch of times and have never had any issues with their stuff. Always great quality and value.

 

On a totally other note, I'm kinda in love with the Nexus 6P based off all the articles I've read and all the videos I've watched. I do wish the bottom bezel wasn't so huge because that'd make the height a little smaller. I don't love that there's less screen real estate than my Nexus 6 even though both phones are the same height. But everything else looks fantastic. I really can't justify picking one up since my Nexus 6 still works every bit as well as it did when I first got it back in March, but man I really want a 6P right now.

[NikoBaltimore]

Petey, I know you were responding to Tabe, but that is exactly what I needed.  Only one I found was at Best Buy and for some unknown reason it was $80.  For $12 I can quite easily getting one for each TV so I don't have to keep on switching out the Chromecast and Roku sticks.  Thank you, sir!

[Tabe]

Petey, that's exactly what I need. Thanks.

[Petey]

No problem. Hope it works as advertised.

[Bix]

Does anyone know anything about Project Fi and have any experience with it?

I haven't used it, buy to add to what Brian said:

Unlike most MVNOs, the advertised price doesn't include taxes and regulatory fees. Which takes it from a middling real to being more meh. Not sure if it's pre or post paid, though.

It's an interesting option for certain use cases if you have one of the compatible phones, but it's hard to find a compelling reason to use it over an AT&T based MVNO unless, again, you have a very specific need for it.

[Tabe]

I hate iPads. So many things that should be easy just... aren't. My wife tried to install some app on here tonight and it refused, saying she was out of space. "But I deleted all the photos and videos!" she says. A review of the storage usage says she's got 21 gigs of photos and videos in her "photo library". I look online and apparently you can only delete that stuff through iTunes on your computer. So I load that up and it says she has 8 gigs of photos - but no way to delete them. They were never synced there in the first place.

So... she's got no storage space and no way to get more. So f'ing stupid. Quit hiding the f'ing files from me and let me delete them for crying out loud. Stuff that is TRIVIALLY easy on every other device ever created since the dawn of time is difficult - in this case impossible - on the iPad.

I hate iPads.

[Tabe]

Oh yeah, more hilarity - one suggestion online said to try doing a backup and restore to reclaim space. So I initiated a backup to my laptop from inside iTunes. It failed because there's not enough storage - on the iPad. That's so stupid I don't even know where to begin.

[piranesi]

The absurd things that happen whenever you try to "sync" an iphone or ipad are ridiculous.  "This device is not compatible with that version of iTuens"  so go get the new iTunes..."This version of itunes is not compatible with that version of OSX"...okay, so I'll upgrade the stupid OS...I JUST WANT TO MAKE A FUCKING BACKUP!!!!

 

Apple has been somehow avoiding paying a real price for increasingly shitty software for awhile.  It's amazing the  year they've had.  The two most important apps for most average people on their computer are going to be the photos and music apps.

 

This year, they rolled out a whole new photos app that promptly devoured and deleted some people's entire library (mine included though I had an old backup of most of it).

 

and then a new music app that promptly swallowed and garbled people's carefully created music libraries.

 

That's some Microsoft-in-2006-level fucking up.  But no one seems to really care.

[Tabe]

I am always shocked when I use my wife's iPad how unintuitive and difficult to use that a lot of it is. Some aspects are really easy but...

[piranesi]

So here's some fun bullshit.  My wife just upgraded her iPhone and when we got it at Verizon we were told her old phone was worth $200 to trade in.  Easy as pie.  We just needed to go through the website to get that little envelope.

 

Go to the website and it tells us that it's worth...$81.00

 

Yeah.  Fucking straight up con artists.

[Craig H]

So, sprint had a similar deal with the Note 5,but you had to enter a code to get a $200 credit. Not sure if there's a field to enter a code in for you, but that's what happened to me with Sprint.

[Craig H]

Oh, and i always heard Sprint's LTE was slow, but I never did a Speedtest.

3 MBPS?! Are you shitting me? And I live right near a tower.

[Brian Fowler]

Interesting. So I just checked. 13.77 down, 3.22 up. Not unbelievably great, but definitely good enough.

Smaller population area, maybe?

[John Austin]

I was actually considering saving up the pennies to get the iPhone 6s plus, but then Microsoft introduced their new flagship Lumias the 950 and 950 XL. Big screen, video shoots in 4k, supports micro SD up to a theoretical 2 TB? I'm in. Lack of apps never bothered me, I had my social media apps, eBay, and for everything else I had the browser.

[glfpunk]

Let me know how it goes, I've always liked the interface on those phones.

[Tabe]

They just ran speed tests in China for 5g. Speeds came out like 3 or 5 gig download. That'd work.

[Tabe]

No problem. Hope it works as advertised.

Hooked up the switcher to my DirecTV and my AppleTV and it failed to sense things properly, forcing me to manually change inputs. Was considering returning it when I noticed the packaging had the ps3 as an example device on it. Hooked my two PlayStations to it and it worked with those perfectly.

[Petey]

Sucks that it doesn't work for every device though. Have you tried researching to see if there's a fix or if anyone else is having problems with those particular devices?

[Tabe]

The fix is to plug it in - except it doesn't come with a cord. Some devices apparently just don't pump much power through their HDMI ports.

[Petey]

So I got an iPhone 6s Plus. I'm coming from a Nexus 6 and I do like it. Some random thoughts:

 

The camera is great. My Android phone history is this: Original Motorola Droid on Verizon from 2009, Galaxy Nexus, 2013 Moto X and the Nexus 6. None of those phones had a great camera. The N6 was capable of producing good photos, but it had to be in good lighting and preferably of a non-moving object. The shutter speed was very long on it which made taking quality shots of a lot of stuff quite difficult. I thought it was overall a good camera until I started using this. From what I've read, the current iPhone 6s+ camera is slightly behind the Galaxy S6/Note 5 phones, but I'm OK with that.

 

iMessage is also great. I work in a building where cell phone service is a disaster, so being able to use iMessage to send texts to other iMessage users over WiFi helps negate that aspect.

 

The battery is really strong, better than my N6 which I thought had pretty good battery life. I would imagine this is probably the best battery you'll find on a smartphone except for the Droid Maxx/Turbo phones.

 

The screen is great. I didn't expect it to be so sharp considering my N6 had a QHD screen, but wow.

 

The build quality is really nice and the thing feels great in-hand, not to mention very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

 

The operating system is very pretty. Android has come a LONG way from making their OS seem more user friendly and appealing, but Apple just gets it. That said, I notice some stuttering/judder/whatever you wanna call it on transitions, so it's not perfect and any Apple user who calls out Android for being laggy is either lying or living in 2010.

 

I hate Apple's homescreen/lack of app drawer. Creating folders is far more difficult on iOS than on Android. Also, Android's app drawer is way more convenient to use than scrolling through all the homescreens looking for a particular app.

 

I don't like that I can't set a vibrate-only alarm on iOS. I have to either buy a $1.99 silent ringtone or go through a process of creating one on my own. I can set a silent alarm but that's not what I need. I also don't like that with 3rd party alarm clocks, you have to leave them running in the background in order for them to work 100% because Apple is Apple.

 

I miss having a front facing speaker. I feel like the quality of the speaker on the bottom is nice, but it's really not loud at all.

 

So why'd I make the switch to my first iPhone after having an Android for nearly 6 years? Part boredom with using the same OS for such a long time, partly because everyone raves about iMessage, large part because I wanted a good camera but didn't want to sacrifice stock software (sorry, Samsung. I know TouchWiz is better but it's either Nexus or bust for me). I like the iPhone, I really do. I could see myself stick with it for a while but could also see myself going back to Android down the road.

 

Don't kill me, guys.

[Brian Fowler]

The ironical part?

The Nexus 6P might have the better camera. Might not.

[Petey]

Haha I know. The 6P looks good but I don't know. Might also have been a "grass is greener on the other side" situation. I'm content for now. I almost still can't believe a Nexus phone might have a quality camera, but I hope it does.

 

I should also note that rooting and flashing was a big thing I loved about Android. Now that I'm older and working all the time (and value sleep way more than I did when I was in my early 20's), I just don't have the time or energy to keep up with that stuff, not to mention it seems like the dev community isn't as big as it was during the Galaxy Nexus days. I think the latter is because Android has matured so much that there's less of a need to overclock phones and modify the UI's.

[glfpunk]

If you're into phones and tech, it's a good thing to try a lot of different stuff. I've had runs with iphones and windows phones as well. They all have their strong and weak points.

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah, I think the xda community these days is now mostly about getting basically stock Android onto non-stock phones.

[Vincey Greene]

Haha I know. The 6P looks good but I don't know. Might also have been a "grass is greener on the other side" situation. I'm content for now. I almost still can't believe a Nexus phone might have a quality camera, but I hope it does.

I should also note that rooting and flashing was a big thing I loved about Android. Now that I'm older and working all the time (and value sleep way more than I did when I was in my early 20's), I just don't have the time or energy to keep up with that stuff, not to mention it seems like the dev community isn't as big as it was during the Galaxy Nexus days. I think the latter is because Android has matured so much that there's less of a need to overclock phones and modify the UI's.

I agree. I think for me the necessity officially died with the Moto X. That was the first Android phone I never had any interest in rooting. I replaced that beloved phone with the Sony Z3 and its not as perfect as the Moto but it's quite good enough stock.