A few weeks ago I embarked on a project to record my first (hopefully of many) YouTube videos. The first video was planned to be test but still to be useful content. You can judge for yourself how useful it is.
Continue reading “My cringe-worthy first YouTube video… oh, and modifying a monitor bracket!”Category: Gadgets/Toys
Pixel Buds 2: The Good, The Bad and the Beautiful
I am one of the (unfortunate?) early adopters of Pixel Buds 2. There has been a lot of press about them and equal amounts of complaints about their stability.
This brief review will list some of my likes and dislikes and link to my community post at Google Support…
https://support.google.com/googlepixelbuds/thread/66091545?hl=en&msgid=67141415#
UPDATE: 17-11-2020
Since the release of firmware version 552 back in September the buds are now mostly reliable. The periodic cut-outs/balance-shift issue appears to be resolved and the other issues do not occur frequently enough to cause frustration.
Continue reading “Pixel Buds 2: The Good, The Bad and the Beautiful”Fossil Sport – One Year Later
With social isolation locking me down – here in Victoria, Australia – I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit my first ever smartwatch.
As I posted earlier, for my 40th last year I treated myself to my first ever smartwatch. I wanted a wearOS device because I prefer Google to Apple but I was forewarned that wearOS did not have a very good reputation.
I spent a few months playing with the settings, found a setup that I liked and I haven’t had too many complaints. Even better, there have been some updates pushed out that seem to have reduced some of the lag I noticed early on.
What follows in this article are some “quality-of-life” tips that I have learned over the past year:
Continue reading “Fossil Sport – One Year Later”Fossil Sport: Double Battery Life with One Setting
Continue reading “Fossil Sport: Double Battery Life with One Setting”TLDR: With one setting change from factory default you can dramatically increase battery life. Switch off “Tilt to wake screen” and you can expect an extra day worth of battery life.
‘Tis the Season for Santa Photos
It is that time of the year again, the time for Santa photos… and posting those photos to Facebook. Sometimes you will see a perfect digital print and other times you will see a photo of the photo. In the latter case they have probably visited a Santa that won’t let you have a digital … Continue reading “‘Tis the Season for Santa Photos”
It is that time of the year again, the time for Santa photos… and posting those photos to Facebook. Sometimes you will see a perfect digital print and other times you will see a photo of the photo. In the latter case they have probably visited a Santa that won’t let you have a digital copy without purchasing the “Ultra-Mega-Super-Value-Pack” and the quickest way to get the photo onto Facebook is to snap it with your phone. I’d like to show you a method that takes a few more seconds and gives you a much better result.
Hotel Wifi MacGyver
…Or how I bodged together an improvised wifi network with internet (edit: secure internet) access from our hotel room.
…Or how I bodged together an improvised wifi network with internet (edit: secure internet) access from our hotel room. Continue reading “Hotel Wifi MacGyver”
Solar Panel for Kinder
The kindergarten that my daughter attended was doing some sustainability activities and also some electric circuit activities. I offered to put the two activities together and build them a solar circuit. It ended up being a lot more involved than I thought.
The kindergarten that my daughter attended was doing some sustainability activities and also some electric circuit activities. I offered to put the two activities together and build them a solar circuit. It ended up being a lot more involved than I thought.
Automatically Silence your Mobile Phone in your Car
If you have an Android smart-phone and a bluetooth car kit you can make your phone automatically less distracting while driving and not miss any calls.
If you have an Android smart-phone and a bluetooth car kit you can make your phone automatically less distracting while driving and not miss any calls.
Continue reading “Automatically Silence your Mobile Phone in your Car”
My Favourite Android Apps: Llama – Location Profiles
One of my favourite Android Apps at the moment is Llama – Location Profiles. This app utilises the mobile phone towers to identify locations or “Areas”. I have tried similar profile switching programs that use locations determined via the internet or GPS but they either lack the precision or use too much battery. With one … Continue reading “My Favourite Android Apps: Llama – Location Profiles”
One of my favourite Android Apps at the moment is Llama – Location Profiles. This app utilises the mobile phone towers to identify locations or “Areas”. I have tried similar profile switching programs that use locations determined via the internet or GPS but they either lack the precision or use too much battery. With one such app I could be up at the local shops and my phone thought it was still at “Home”.
Continue reading “My Favourite Android Apps: Llama – Location Profiles”
Android and e-ink
Last Mother’s Day I… er… my daughter bought her mum a Kindle. I had not been interested in eReaders for myself. I had always assumed that I would end up buying a tablet rather than an eReader. After playing with my wife’s Kindle (does that sound dirty?) I found that I really like e-ink screens … Continue reading “Android and e-ink”
Last Mother’s Day I… er… my daughter bought her mum a Kindle. I had not been interested in eReaders for myself. I had always assumed that I would end up buying a tablet rather than an eReader. After playing with my wife’s Kindle (does that sound dirty?) I found that I really like e-ink screens for readability and battery life. I wondered if there were any eReaders based on Android that I could hack to create an e-ink tablet.