I finally decided to splurge and upgrade my home network. (I had a single Cisco managed switch which does most of the stuff in tandem with a single DD-WRT router, and still falls short). With my...
I finally decided to splurge and upgrade my home network. (I had a single Cisco managed switch which does most of the stuff in tandem with a single DD-WRT router, and still falls short). With my WiFi router getting old, I decided to not just upgrade that with a new Wifi Router. I ended up going the Ubiquiti route!
I installed them all, day before yesterday and had to run a lot of cable (upgraded to gig ethernet) across the house.
So far I am really happy with it! (I may also be looking at these with rose-colored glasses still). I really like that they all fit in my server rack closet much more neatly now. The WiFi performance is also leaps and bounds better than what is was earlier (along with a separate VLANed WiFi network for all my smart internet devices)
I also plan on replacing the nest cameras with the unifi cameras, but that's a project for next month (probably).
Cause I like to play with these kind of electronics; I have a electronics/gadgets budget and I like to spend them on these kind of stuff! :) On a more serious note. I have quite a few servers...
Cause I like to play with these kind of electronics; I have a electronics/gadgets budget and I like to spend them on these kind of stuff! :)
On a more serious note. I have quite a few servers running at home, a few of them are routed out to the internet over a VPS. I also have a personal VPN setup; to get to my build server running at home (instead of buying expensive laptops, every few years, I switched to buying cheap laptops that can run linux/i3wm/emacs/firefox, which is pretty much all laptops out there, and when I am on the road, I can still work on my dev VPNed to my home network).
I also have a bunch of VLANs which separates different devices onto their own island (mainly all my smart devices are on a separate VLAN, the guest WiFI network is on a separate VLAN, etc) The routing rules for all these VLANs and the VPN gets a little hard for DD-WRT routers (at least for mine)
I also have approx 2500sq.ft home and my single WiFi routers is finding it hard to serve my entire house. I could upgrade to a out-of-the-box mesh system, but what's the fun in that :)
Also, moving the WiFi AP into a separate device makes it easier for me to upgrade them when needed.
(I also get WiFi in most of my backyard and my woodshop finally!)
I am also tired of having to flash DD-WRT on commercial routers and going through that whole dance, I have been using DD-WRT for almost 10 years now, and I am a little tired of it. I could've bought a pfSense device which I strongly considered, but I have quite a bit of experience with it already, and I wanted to try something new!
Also, IDS/IPS on the UDM-Pro out of the box is something I am excited to test out as well!
Finally, As I mentioned above, I want to move away from Nest cameras and would like to manage all camera storage locally (and handle external backups myself), and the UniFi cameras along with their App for those cameras was a easy sell to get my SO to move away from Nest as well! The fact that the UDM-Pro supports this out of the box was another point to it.
(This was the reason I got the PoE switch as well, to be able to run the cameras off PoE, which I could've skipped for now)
So, all of that is to say, Yes, I could've mostly gotten away with just getting a new router; put DD-WRT on it or just buy a out-of-the-box mesh service (or even use the new router and my current one in a mesh setup using DD-WRT) and continue pushing my 8-port Cisco managed router to its limit.
But, I have been meaning to upgrade my home network for quite a while now with hardware that was more powerful than what I was putting up with and the Unifi products were definitely appealing for what I was looking to achieve.
Edit: for most home networks, the above hardware is definitely way overkill.
However I feel that replacing a single Wifi Router with a UDM-Pro and a AC-Lite access point (which will cost around $440) is still going to be a better option than buying a single top of the line WiFi Router, which could run around $350-$400.
I say this because, the APs can be upgraded for much cheaper down the line! Which would still minimize the overall cost of subsequent upgrades.
Also having the ability to tack on more APs as needed in a home based on how big it is is a huge advantage (not having to fork up $300-$400 for most mesh systems out there as well)
I guess this all makes sense! I spend an inordinate amount of time tinkering as well—I just stick to the software side rather than the hardware (living in an NYC apartment means trying not to...
I guess this all makes sense! I spend an inordinate amount of time tinkering as well—I just stick to the software side rather than the hardware (living in an NYC apartment means trying not to accumulate too many possessions). I certainly understand the joy of trying to get a set-up just right. I just don't think I know enough about networking to appreciate what I'm missing.
I can't speak for the parent commenter, but I think a lot of people are just interested in this type of hardware from a curiosity and maybe professional development standpoint. There's a whole lot...
I can't speak for the parent commenter, but I think a lot of people are just interested in this type of hardware from a curiosity and maybe professional development standpoint. There's a whole lot of people on r/homelab on reddit with similar or significantly more advanced setups who are just doing it for fun.
When I finally settle down into a longer term living arrangement, I'm planning to set up something similar to play with and maybe host any projects that I've got going on.
Oh wow, I'd never seen r/homelab before but I think I could get into this (the content, not necessarily the hobby). This from their wiki sums it up pretty well:
Oh wow, I'd never seen r/homelab before but I think I could get into this (the content, not necessarily the hobby). This from their wiki sums it up pretty well:
What the hell is going on here//What are you guys doing with all this stuff?
Homelab is a place to mess around with enterprise equipment and software in the home, and sometimes extending past this. Many of us do it to keep us at the top of our game in our jobs, some people do it on here because they want to get into IT, and others simply because it interests them.
We went in exactly the opposite direction - the former well-tweaked DD-WRT router, switches, VLANs, VPN, PiHole, VMWare boxen, etc. are all (temporarily, at least) being supplanted with two eero...
We went in exactly the opposite direction - the former well-tweaked DD-WRT router, switches, VLANs, VPN, PiHole, VMWare boxen, etc. are all (temporarily, at least) being supplanted with two eero WiFi devices in the new house.
The current installation is mainly so that we and contractors have Internet access prior to proper move-in. Counting outdoor spaces, we're getting excellent signal and speed (confirmed that we're maxing out the tested cable speed) throughout about 5,000 sq. ft. without running cabling. It's a sprawling footprint split on two levels built into a hill, with one device on each level. As things stand, I've got another three older eero APs (previously used for a guest-only VLAN) that might not be needed. So far, it's been a completely brainless setup, though I'm not thrilled to have Amazon lurking in my network.
That's not to say we've tested with all dozen or so devices in our household and multiple concurrent media streams or backups yet.
Eeros (and most of the out-of-the-box Mesh systems like Google, Nest, Orbi, Tenda, etc) are pretty good! Easy setup, and (most of them) work out of the box without too much of a fuss :) (I have...
Eeros (and most of the out-of-the-box Mesh systems like Google, Nest, Orbi, Tenda, etc) are pretty good!
Easy setup, and (most of them) work out of the box without too much of a fuss :)
(I have setup a few for family and friends)
However, they are limited with how you can configure your network and they aren't cheap either! And they definitely wouldn't have worked for me (I posted about it here)
And I talked about the cost a bit in my other post, since you said you have 2 eero WiFi devices, I am assuming you are using the eero Pros; which could run from $450 to $500.
For that price you could have gotten 2 or 3 Unifi AC-Lites APs and a CloudKey Gen controller and have way more control on your network. Also subsequent upgrading would be cheaper and expanding your network to add more APs would be cheaper :)
(Even if you dont want to be in the ubiquiti ecosystem, alternatives like a pfSense controller with aruba APs would still be around the same cost)
But at the end of the day, it boils down to what your use-cases are and what you are comfortable with!
PS: Also, why did you get rid of the piHole, you could still use it with your eero!
I haven't gotten rid of any of the old devices (piHole FTW!) - I just needed quick-and-dirty coverage at the new place so we could work in both old and new locations pending our move. As you...
I haven't gotten rid of any of the old devices (piHole FTW!) - I just needed quick-and-dirty coverage at the new place so we could work in both old and new locations pending our move.
As you indicated, it's a very specific use case. The new homestead has an awkward footprint for WiFi coverage. Half the house could have dead spots due to concrete, extensive copper piping for a steam-heat system, and earth-adjoining walls. We also wanted to be able to use our devices outdoors. I'm not up to running my own cabling these days, not to mention that hardwiring is an expense we'd rather defer until we're living there and have a better idea of A-V and home automation plans. A mesh system seemed like the easiest bridge solution.
Rather than spending hours to get reliable signal with multiple cheaper APs and our venerable Linksys WRT54G spare router, I pounced on an eero Pro deal ($279 for the Pro and one Beacon), figuring I could return them if they didn't work out. The signal has been great thoughout two floors and within 250' of the house (one of the advantages of the new place is that there are no detectable competing signals!), and I can still incorporate the new eeros when I have time to fiddle with things again. Contractors were also happy that they had a guest network for access to their data.
Spouse isn't a network geek, and needs a VLAN without my paranoid, obsessive tweaking so that he can reliably test work-related websites with a consumer-grade experience. The new eeros will probably be dedicated for his use, plus low-risk devices and guest net.
I love Ubiquiti UniFi APs - they play very nicely in crowded WiFi environments (much better than Cisco, IMHO), and I've had better luck combining them with other manufacturers' PoE switches and firewalls than I've had with Aruba devices. Their advantages just weren't specifically relevant to my current situation.
Also, we're now rural. The locale has rough weather, and frequent widespread outages as a result. No single ISP or 4G vendor has great speed and reliability for our work-from-home needs (it seems like cable and cellular services share some backbone routes), but there's a decent fiber co-op. One of my ultimate networking goals is to ensure we've got failover and ideally, bonding between two carriers. That's not something my setup will handle gracefully now, so I'll probably be looking at a new router eventually - any experience with the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter?
Ah! That makes sense :) That is in my list too :) One of the things that pushed me to the UDM-Pro was the dual-WAN support with inbuilt fail-over, I just need to set up 4G failover. Yup, I have...
Ah! That makes sense :)
One of my ultimate networking goals is to ensure we've got failover and ideally, bonding between two carriers.
That is in my list too :)
One of the things that pushed me to the UDM-Pro was the dual-WAN support with inbuilt fail-over, I just need to set up 4G failover.
any experience with the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter?
Yup, I have used a few EdgeRouters and they are pretty good.
For the good part, the EdgeRouterX is a pretty great device at the price point. They support bonding, vlans, gig routing (if using hardware offloading), etc. You could even tack on QoS if you don't have gigabit internet!
However, Ubiquiti has kinda relegated their EdgeMax devices to the back. They also don't really integrate well with any of the other newer Unifi devices. Given how Ubiquiti announces EOL for their devices, I wouldn't be surprised if they announced they are actually discontinuing the EdgeMax line soon and stop support in a few months after.
Given that I cannot really suggest anyone get the EdgeRouter.
I would def suggest a pfSense device any day over a EdgeMax device :)
The eero (non pro, cupcake) can be had for around $70 on sale. It is the exact same device as the pro, but without the second 5ghz radio. For me, it completely replaced a unifi stack (usg 3p,...
The eero (non pro, cupcake) can be had for around $70 on sale. It is the exact same device as the pro, but without the second 5ghz radio. For me, it completely replaced a unifi stack (usg 3p, usw-8-60w, uap-ac-pro, cloud key 1). So far it has been better in every way than my unifi stack, except configurability. A $70 product replaced a $500 setup, and was better. It would take a lot of cheap access points to recoup this price difference. The eero product is pretty sweet.
I agree the eero line of products are great! The caveat being what level of configurability and customization you need in your setup (as you pointed out :) The unifi products (or similar stacks)...
I agree the eero line of products are great!
The caveat being what level of configurability and customization you need in your setup (as you pointed out :)
The unifi products (or similar stacks) are definitely not needed for most home networks!
I just want to point out that comparing the cupcake against the UAP-AC-Pro is a little unfair (would be unfair even comparing the cupcake against the UAP AC-Lite), in terms of bandwidths, supported bands and number of devices [1].
One of the things I like about the UAPs are the ability to broadcast multiple APs (in my setup I have 3 APs: my main WiFi network, one for IoT/Smart devices devices and a guest network), even the AC-Lite APs support this at half the cost of AC-Pro.
Also, the Cupcake would only have been replacing your cloud key 1 and UAP-AC-Pro (which would be approx $100 + $150 = $250)
[1] A quick comparison shows that the
Eero cupcake supports 240Mbps at 2.4 GHz
UAP-AC-Pro supports 450 Mbps at 2.4GHz and 1300 Mbps at 5GHz
UAP-AC-Lite supports 300 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 867 Mbps at 5GHz
New in the last year. I updated my phone to a Pixel 4. Its the first flagship name brand smart phone I have owned since the iPhone 4 came out (my last 3 phones have just been cheap generics). I...
New in the last year.
I updated my phone to a Pixel 4. Its the first flagship name brand smart phone I have owned since the iPhone 4 came out (my last 3 phones have just been cheap generics). I love it, hands down the best camera I have seen on a phone so much so I have stop taking my DSLR on trips.
I also very recently picked up a dash cam, I have always wanted one and Garmin was having a sale so I picked up their Mini version. I have not had a lot of time to play around with it but just at my first impressions its an impressive little piece of tech.
I have a three month old ebook workflow! As part of my attempt to excise Amazon from my life, I left the Kindle platform. Yes, I know Rakuten isn't exactly the pinnacle of ethics either, but...
I have a brand new three month old ebook workflow!
As part of my attempt to excise Amazon from my life, I left the Kindle platform. Yes, I know Rakuten isn't exactly the pinnacle of ethics either, but almost any company looks good when compared with Amazon, so I picked up a Kobo Forma and entered the Kobo ecosystem. The impetus for me to make the jump was actually the possibility of an impending quarantine/lockdown back in late February/early March. I figured if I was going to be stuck inside, I was going to get a lot of reading done, so it was a perfect time to get a new ereader!
The main draw for switching wasn't just to get away from Amazon: Rakuten owns Overdrive, which handles library checkouts for ebooks. Sure, getting library books on Kindle is easy, but you still have to hop through some minor extra steps. For Kobo, the process is absolutely frictionless. I can check out books right from my device if I want to, but really I just use the Libby phone app to check out and put holds on things, and they automatically show up on my Kobo. I also happen to have five different library cards (all legitimate -- I pay my out-of-state membership fees!). I pair these with the library extension to easily see which branches have the books I want.
All told, getting free and legal ebooks on my ereader has never been easier! It's so good it honestly kind of feels like piracy, but better because I don't have to sideload anything. Granted, there is the occasional wait for more popular books because publishers still license ebooks like physical books, but hopefully that system will come out in the wash in the coming decade. Furthermore, I have so much to read that even if I do have to wait a month or two for a book I want, it's not a huge deal, as I have plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime. I just put it on hold, forget about it, and then get a notification when it's finally waiting for me on my Forma.
I'll also say that I genuinely prefer the software and reading experience of Kobo over Amazon. For whatever reason, Amazon's syncing was always hit-or-miss for me, so if I read on my phone and returned to my device, it often wouldn't pick up where I left off. Kobo, meanwhile, has yet to miss a beat with device handoff. It also, and this is huge, displays your current book cover on its sleep screen. How Kindle has continued to miss the mark with that, I'll never understand.
I've already "paid for" the cost of the Forma through the number of library books I've read on it, and the device itself is wonderful. It has physical buttons for page turning, which I prefer greatly to screen-touching, and it holds wonderfully in one hand. It's not uncommon for me to sit down and read with the Forma in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, or the other hand petting my dog as he chills in my lap. It's exactly the kind of cozy reading experience I love to have.
Could you talk more about the process and benefits of this? I never thought to do it, but my local library system is pretty iffy and I'd love to pay a bit to get access to others. How do you get...
I also happen to have five different library cards (all legitimate -- I pay my out-of-state membership fees!).
Could you talk more about the process and benefits of this? I never thought to do it, but my local library system is pretty iffy and I'd love to pay a bit to get access to others. How do you get them from distant places? Do they support shipping physicals / is there any use outside of digital reading? Any things you miss out on by being out of state?
Definitely! Some libraries offer what are usually called "non-resident" cards, and a handful of libraries will let you sign up for them online without showing up in person (I would imagine this...
Definitely! Some libraries offer what are usually called "non-resident" cards, and a handful of libraries will let you sign up for them online without showing up in person (I would imagine this has increased recently due to quarantining, but I'm not sure). Each library's rules are slightly different so what you get varies per library, but for most of them you get a fully functional library card that gives you access to all of their resources. I don't think most/any of them do physical checkouts via mail, so really the main purpose of getting them is for their digital resources.
There are a bunch of different digital platforms that libraries use for various media types (e.g. Hoopla, Kanopy, etc.) which you can also access with non-resident cards (as well as stuff like databases, newspapers, subscriptions, etc.) but the main one is Overdrive which has ebooks and audiobooks. Each library's Overdrive catalog is managed by them, so the main reason I have so many library cards is because each library offers me a different selection through Overdrive. If it's a popular book, it's probably in all of them. If it's something more niche or older, however, it may only be in one or two. If it's not in any, then I'll just buy the book outright.
Of my five cards, two are local cards for my specific area, and three are non-resident cards, all of which I signed up for online and paid a fee for. They will likely ask for identification, so you'll have to provide name and address, and I think some of them asked for a driver's license number or some other form of government ID, though I can't remember the specifics. You can find a good list of available ones here (archive link, as the site was down when I tried to go to it). You can visit each individual site to see what the requirements are and what they have to offer. Of the ones listed on that site, I have the cards from Brooklyn, Houston, and Fairfax, and their selection size follows in that order (Brooklyn has the biggest selection, and Fairfax the smallest).
Honestly, if it were just for ebooks it wouldn't be that great, but I forgot to mention in my original comment that they're worth their weight in gold for audiobooks specifically. I ditched Audible and use Overdrive for audiobooks, and I churn through 1-2 of those each week. With Audible I'd be paying through the nose for that, but with Overdrive it's free as can be (outside of the low annual fees, which I don't mind paying because not only are they well worth it, but I'm funding the library -- the most worthy of all public institutions!).
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that the library extension I linked also makes finding books across libraries really easy, which is essential if you have multiple cards (it's no fun to search each one individually). You plug in the libraries you want it to search, and then whenever you're on a book site (e.g. Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing) it pulls up a sidebar and tells you which catalogs, if any, the book you want is in. Super simple.
I got a new laptop, and I'm super happy with it. My old one was a refurbished HP Zbook Studio G3 I bought off ebay for a thousand bucks nearly three years ago. That was a $4000 laptop, but these...
I got a new laptop, and I'm super happy with it. My old one was a refurbished HP Zbook Studio G3 I bought off ebay for a thousand bucks nearly three years ago. That was a $4000 laptop, but these business machines never hold their value. Engineering firms and such will buy one for a single project, then chuck it when it's over. That means there's a lot of really good condition, really expensive laptops out there for relatively cheap.
Anyway, that laptop came with a 3 year warranty, and when I bought it there was still 30+ months left. HP's business class warranty department is really top notch. My warranty had global next-day on-site service, with accidental damage protection, so if I dropped my laptop or something, the next day a HP guy will come to me to repair it or give me a new one.
Long story short, I was living on a boat, and laptops apparently don't like salt water. They couldn't repair the damage, and they didn't have my model in stock, so in the end they sent me a brand new model, as close to mine as they could get. It only has 16gb of ram whereas my last one had 32, but other than that it's an upgrade in every way.
This is what they sent me. It's got a 6 core, 12 thread Intel Xeon processor, dedicated NVidia Quadro GPU, and for some reason it turns into a tablet and includes a wacom stylus. Every component is better than what I had before. The battery lasts 12 hours instead of 3. The keyboard and touchpad are nicer. It has a 120Hz IPS LCD panel. The speakers are louder and clearer. And the crazy part? It comes with a brand new 3yr warranty.
I've only had this a few days, but still find myself grinning ear-to-ear when using it. I'm ridiculously happy with this machine. It's so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
Edit: two-month post-honeymoon update:
I've now owned this laptop some two months or so, and now that the new laptop smell has worn off, I have a few more criticisms about it. I'm going to say in the ways that matter to me it's still fantastic, but there are some definite shortcomings.
At the time, the model of Zbook closest to my old one in specs, available on the HP Canada site, happened to be the model 4NL44UT#ABA. Here are the issues I have with that model:
The screen
The screen is an FHD 120Hz IPS display with something like 600 nits of brightness, which should be great in sunlight. On my model it's not.
Mine includes this high-tech privacy filter you can enable with a keyboard shortcut. It's kinda impressive how well it works, but it's not something I'd ever ask for. It really restricts the viewing angles, even when not using it, which is the opposite of what I want when I'm buying an IPS display.
SECONDLY: I'm not sure but I think this is specific to this privacy screen (I've read a lot of reviews praising the other displays, especially the 4k dreamcolour ones), the screen brightness is really uneven. Looking at a black screen you've got very large lit areas vs unlit ones and that's a big deal for pro graphics people, for whom this laptop workstation tablet abomination was ostensibly made for.
Windows issues
I've had some weird issues out of the box with audio latency. Out of the box I could not play movies without sound stuttering, in any program. Browser streaming YouTube, VLC playing a normal x264 video or even an MP3 will stutter occasionally.
I blame it on the Bang and Olufsen software, but a I'm not sure if I ever disabled it enough to actually play an album without skipping. This is again something you'd think might be an area to focus on if you're marketing your laptop to professionals. Audio latency has historically been one of the big reasons audio pros buy MacBooks.
Everything Else
Pretty Great. Keyboard is fantastic. Touchpad is good on Windows, perfect in Linux. Fancy things like gyroscopes and accelerometers seem to work in Linux, as well as the Wacom stylus. Apparently the brightness FN keycodes turning into mic mute keycodes under Gnome has been identified as a HP problem, and HP is working on a fix. So that's annoying but apparently going to be fixed.
Summary
Do not buy my exact model, or any one that has the built-in privacy protection in the screen. That's really annoying. Otherwise I think the HP Zbook x360 G5 is a really decent machine if you can afford it, or can find it refurbished for cheap.
I got a kindle paperwhite and I had before a kobo glo hd from 2014. The screen is noticeable better, the rest is more or less the same thing. The only thing that I don't like is that you can only...
I got a kindle paperwhite and I had before a kobo glo hd from 2014. The screen is noticeable better, the rest is more or less the same thing. The only thing that I don't like is that you can only set one language for the device and have that dictionary plus English. I wanted to have it in english with spanish and italian dictionary because are the languages I use but apparently it is impossible.
Other interesting thing is that you have an special email for the kindle and you can send the ebook straight to the kindle sending them there.
I have multiple dictionaries on my kindle. I can choose: Oxford dictionary of English, Oxford English-German, the German DUDEN, Collins Spanish English, some Spanish dictionary, etc. is that what...
only thing that I don't like is that you can only set one language for the device and have that dictionary plus English
I have multiple dictionaries on my kindle. I can choose:
Oxford dictionary of English, Oxford English-German, the German DUDEN, Collins Spanish English, some Spanish dictionary, etc. is that what you meant? When you hold a word you can choose the dictionary on the bottom right
I have a Kobo that's probably 5 years old at this point, I love it. I sometimes think of getting a new one, but then I think, why? The only thing I feel like I'm missing is a slightly larger...
I have a Kobo that's probably 5 years old at this point, I love it. I sometimes think of getting a new one, but then I think, why? The only thing I feel like I'm missing is a slightly larger screen but even that doesn't bother me too much.
This is one of those things that I deliberately don't go looking at newer models for, because I'm not unhappy with what I have and looking at newer things only feeds the FOMO.
Ereaders were pretty much perfected a long time ago, so there isn't really a huge incentive to upgrade to the newer models. I used a Kindle Keyboard (released in 2010) for nearly a decade and...
Ereaders were pretty much perfected a long time ago, so there isn't really a huge incentive to upgrade to the newer models. I used a Kindle Keyboard (released in 2010) for nearly a decade and never felt like I needed to upgrade it.
For Kobo, the only things I could think of that might make it worth switching for you are if your model doesn't have native Overdrive integration (if you check out ebooks from the library), and if it doesn't have the backlight that shifts away from blue light during evening reading. If your model already has those, or you don't need them, then there's really no reason to upgrade at all.
Overdrive integration might be a really worthwhile to upgrade for. The model I have is a passive display, so that I wouldn't have bluelight late at night, and also so it's more visible in the sun....
Overdrive integration might be a really worthwhile to upgrade for. The model I have is a passive display, so that I wouldn't have bluelight late at night, and also so it's more visible in the sun. Though I have been considering lately that I should get a light to mount on it when I'm reading in bed so I don't keep the nightstand light on.
I have the same kobo and my favourite feature is the support for pocket which lets you send articles from your browser straight to the device with one button.
I have the same kobo and my favourite feature is the support for pocket which lets you send articles from your browser straight to the device with one button.
I got a pair of wireless headphones, first ones I've found that I thought really had a value-add over wired ones. Just some $15 off-brand ones, but they have a 3.5mm jack that doesn't require the...
I got a pair of wireless headphones, first ones I've found that I thought really had a value-add over wired ones. Just some $15 off-brand ones, but they have a 3.5mm jack that doesn't require the headphones be powered to use, an FM radio that is surprisingly good (lacking only stations worth listening to), and my personal favorite, an integrated MP3 player and microSD card slot. Such an odd feature, but it seems like every other piece of off-brand chinese audio stuff I've got has it, and I've used it a lot, just wish it had shuffle. I just got them to watch TV on the couch without having the volume up, but they've pretty quickly become my main headphones, though more often as wired than wireless.
I've picked up more tech than I'd like to admit in the last year, but the two that have been most interesting to me have been Apple's AirPods and a Vortex Pok3r mechanical keyboard. I was like a...
I've picked up more tech than I'd like to admit in the last year, but the two that have been most interesting to me have been Apple's AirPods and a Vortex Pok3r mechanical keyboard.
I was like a lot of people when AirPods first came out, making fun of them for being expensive and rather silly, but over time a number of my good friends grew to love theirs. I could never justify the price for myself, but a family member was kind enough to get a pair for me as a gift a few months ago. I was amazed by how quickly they replaced pretty much every other pair of headphones or earbuds I own, with the exception of my headset I use when gaming. Apple has done an amazing job of creating a seamless experience and packing it into a convenient little package.
Unlike the AirPods, the keyboard was a spur of the moment purchase a few weeks ago. It's only my second mechanical keyboard, and my first keyboard ever that isn't full size (except my laptop, but that's slightly different in my opinion). So far, I'm really liking the small size, and the heft it's aluminum case gives it feels very nice. Still trying to get used to having function layers for keys that I used to be able to just reach for, but I think I'll come around eventually. At some point I really want to try using an ergodox or some other ergonomic keyboard to see how I like it, as I've been having more and more issues with wrist pain now that I'm working from home and sitting at my keyboard even more of the time than I did before.
Just got a Ducky One 2 Mini v2! I didn't really need a new keyboard but I wanted something quieter so I got Cherry MX Brown switches (compared to my old blues they're so quiet!). I also wanted to...
Just got a Ducky One 2 Mini v2! I didn't really need a new keyboard but I wanted something quieter so I got Cherry MX Brown switches (compared to my old blues they're so quiet!). I also wanted to try out a 60% keyboard and I'm really liking it! The only thing that I've had to get used to is not having arrow keys which I use a lot in terminals, but it's been pretty easy adapting to hitting Fn+i/j/k/l. I also really like that it plugs in with USB-C instead of the micro-USB that my old keyboard used.
I am such a huge fan of 60% boards now. I bought a used POK3R on ebay about a year ago. Full size keyboards just seem so unwieldy for me. There is something about that smaller aesthetic that just...
I am such a huge fan of 60% boards now. I bought a used POK3R on ebay about a year ago. Full size keyboards just seem so unwieldy for me. There is something about that smaller aesthetic that just makes me really happy too :)
Do they do that to their unlocked phones as well? I thought Apple was big enough that they didn't have to offer concessions. And beyond that, this practice should have been made illegal decades ago.
Do they do that to their unlocked phones as well?
I thought Apple was big enough that they didn't have to offer concessions.
And beyond that, this practice should have been made illegal decades ago.
I got a new screen for my GBA SP. There was dust between the screen cover and the LCD, and I had been planning a case replacement as a reason to pull the screen apart and clean it. Then, I saw an...
I got a new screen for my GBA SP. There was dust between the screen cover and the LCD, and I had been planning a case replacement as a reason to pull the screen apart and clean it. Then, I saw an IPS kit on sale, and purchased it, soldered two points (the scariest bit), and it's a better system. I also bought a Chinese-modded game boy color on Ebay. All that is old is new again, apparently.
I built up a dual-monitor setup for my computer. If I have to use applications and follow a Zoom session, I'm giving myself the screen real estate to do it comfortably. It was a trick getting my bottom (main) monitor to be in the first DisplayPort on my graphics card, but it's all done, and has proven to be immensely useful.
I got a bunch of stuff over the last six months or so. The laptop was the first thing I bought with my first paycheck, back in January: a refurbished T450 with an i7-5600U, which I opened to...
I got a bunch of stuff over the last six months or so.
The laptop was the first thing I bought with my first paycheck, back in January: a refurbished T450 with an i7-5600U, which I opened to upgrade its RAM to 16 GiB and to swap the HDD for a 500 GiB SSD. It was an huge upgrade over the Travelmate I had before, as I went up three generations (i3-2350M to i7-5600U) and quadrupled my memory.
I have installed Debian on it, setting up a rather minimal desktop environment, and I will need to crack it open again soon to install an internal battery (Thinkpads up to the T450 came with dual batteries, but the one I got only had some plastic spacer inside).
Then, in May, I got both a printer - most stores were closed, libraries were closed, and I had to print some things - and an e-reader.
The printer is a Brother multi-function laser printer, which is actually pretty damn nice: it can scan up to 50 sheets of paper automatically, print duplex, and it can do so over WiFi.
The e-reader is a Kobo Libra H2O. The form factor is slightly weird coming from other e-readers/from reading on the phone, but the screen is 7", it has physical keys, it should be water-resistant and it has a very good backlight, which can go from blue-ish to amber.
I didn't like how it wanted to force me to log-in to some account before I could start to use it, but bypassing that was easy: I just connected it to my laptop, opened up ~.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite~ and inserted an empty row in some table in there. Had to disable sync - not that I could have used it without an account - because the first time I did that I found a bunch of weird books in my library.
I'm running KOReader on it right now, and while I like it, it could definitely be better. It doesn't cope well with very large ePubs - as opposed to Nickel - and as I like to read web serials offline that is a problem. It also doesn't deal well with changing orientation, fonts, or font size - I think it's somehow redrawing the whole book when that happens - and it feels like it's using more energy than it should (or maybe I'm just a bit too liberal with the backlight).
Bought a Nintendo 3DS XL (used, and not the "new" version). It is hacked/unblocked. Waiting for it to arrive and go deep into JRPGs. I don't care so much about modern videogames and AAA games....
Bought a Nintendo 3DS XL (used, and not the "new" version). It is hacked/unblocked.
Waiting for it to arrive and go deep into JRPGs.
I don't care so much about modern videogames and AAA games. Checked the 3DS library and it's a dream.
Shin Megami Tensei, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, all the Marios and old style platformers and puzzle games.
Another person just announced a 2 year old used hacked Switch today. Now i'm questioning my choice, but the switch is 4x the price i paid for the 3DS XL. Anyway, it will arive today if the...
Another person just announced a 2 year old used hacked Switch today. Now i'm questioning my choice, but the switch is 4x the price i paid for the 3DS XL.
Anyway, it will arive today if the tracking is correct.
What is this Friendcode? To play online? Doesn't Nintendo block the hacked 3DS?
Yeah, i was reading about unblocked Switchs and it seems too much work. I'll get familiar with the console for some days and shoot some questions to you about going online. But just a quickie....
Yeah, i was reading about unblocked Switchs and it seems too much work.
I'll get familiar with the console for some days and shoot some questions to you about going online.
But just a quickie. This means we both can play online directly and the only thing i shouldn't do is connect to Nintendo servers and online shop?
Me neither. A revelation! I have a bad ear wax problem and have tried using an ear wax removal syringe with varying degrees of success... Maybe these devices will prove more useful. Now...to...
Me neither. A revelation! I have a bad ear wax problem and have tried using an ear wax removal syringe with varying degrees of success...
Maybe these devices will prove more useful. Now...to research and find one that isn't made out of pure cancer and won't phone-home to some nation state to add to some ear wax database somewhere.
I've been improving my life! I recently got invisalign and a fitbit. Reminds me every hour to get up and move around. I'm on my second week of invisialign and my teeth mildly hurt but I'm finally...
I've been improving my life! I recently got invisalign and a fitbit. Reminds me every hour to get up and move around. I'm on my second week of invisialign and my teeth mildly hurt but I'm finally bettering my life after being depressed for so long
In the last year i got the following electronics: Bose QC35 - noise cancelling headphones. I figured I would use them on train rides but due to corona that hasn’t really happened recently. I still...
In the last year i got the following electronics:
Bose QC35 - noise cancelling headphones. I figured I would use them on train rides but due to corona that hasn’t really happened recently. I still love the fit and use them for gaming.
iPhone 11 - the first time I bought a phone that was not at least from the previous year. My brothers old used SE had terrible battery life and a bad camera, so I am very happy with this phone (I just wish I’d use it less)
Apple Watch 5 - I got this mostly to warn me of loud environments, track sports, and get me to stand up regularily. I use it pretty often to answer calls now too, and to control my lights etc. This week it came in super useful when test driving a car, because I could later see how loud it really was in there. It also tells you how long you can stay in loud environments before you get serious issues. I now also use the hourly standing up reminders to do some stretches ( I have some RSI sometimes when I work too much)
I also recently went to the doctor for my RSI and he told me to get some other mice to not always have the same position, so I got the Logitech MX Vertical and the Logitech MX Ergo. I really like the Vertical. The Ergo is something I need to get used to, though
In the last year a friend also gave me his OnePlus (I think 5?) - it came in super handy when I had to develop for iOS and Android this year. But I barely use it otherwise, except for playing stuff to fall asleep
I also got a Teenage Engineering PO-33 but I barely use it
Bit expensive, but I recommend investing in an ergonomic keyboard. Main high-quality offerings are kinesis and maltron. There's also the dactyl, which might be cheaper if you have a 3d printer and...
RSI
Bit expensive, but I recommend investing in an ergonomic keyboard. Main high-quality offerings are kinesis and maltron. There's also the dactyl, which might be cheaper if you have a 3d printer and are up for an electronics project. (You can also order a prebuilt one, but for the price you might as well just get a kinesis).
(If you get a kinesis, make sure you get the advantage; without split+ortholinear+bowl-shape, an ergonomic keyboard isn't that helpful.)
I do have access to a 3D printer. Thanks for your advice. The kinesis looks interesting... the Maltron has too much of an old school look for me though haha
I do have access to a 3D printer. Thanks for your advice. The kinesis looks interesting...
the Maltron has too much of an old school look for me though haha
So...what? You don’t like the form factor of Kinesis? I see that as the only option in the link you posted. Do you mean the freestyle pro split keyboard? I used a contour keyboard for a long time...
Bit expensive, but I recommend investing in an ergonomic keyboard.
..
(If you get a kinesis, make sure you get the advantage; without split+ortholinear+bowl-shape, an ergonomic keyboard isn't that helpful.)
So...what? You don’t like the form factor of Kinesis? I see that as the only option in the link you posted.
Do you mean the freestyle pro split keyboard?
I used a contour keyboard for a long time and liked it. The vertical mouse has my interest but I’ve been looking around for another keyboard.
I'm not sure what you mean. Kinesis sells several keyboards, but they're generally riffs on two themes: the 'freestyle', which is flat, and the 'advantage', which is bowl-shaped. I think a flat...
I'm not sure what you mean. Kinesis sells several keyboards, but they're generally riffs on two themes: the 'freestyle', which is flat, and the 'advantage', which is bowl-shaped. I think a flat keyboard is mostly useless for ergonomics. So I recommend, if you get a kinesis, to get one of the bowl-shaped advantage-based keyboards, and not to get one of the flat, freestyle-based keyboards. Advantage, freestyle.
I just got a new laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus G14. It's in a product category that has surprisingly few competitors: 14" or smaller laptops capable of gaming. Despite that, I think this laptop is...
I just got a new laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus G14. It's in a product category that has surprisingly few competitors: 14" or smaller laptops capable of gaming. Despite that, I think this laptop is great. It has very good battery life (as long as you're just browsing the web), great gaming performance when plugged in, and an above average keyboard and touchpad. The screen is nice too, FHD 120hz, though a lot of reviews mention ghosting or high latency, but I can't really tell.
Also, some people managed to get Arch working pretty well, which I might try out later.
The most recent electronic I picked up is the Pixel 3, a smartphone. To be honest, it's by no means a perfect phone, and it's hard to call it a premium phone (beyond the price and SoC). That being...
The most recent electronic I picked up is the Pixel 3, a smartphone. To be honest, it's by no means a perfect phone, and it's hard to call it a premium phone (beyond the price and SoC). That being said, I love the smartphone for the quirks it has. It has great cameras. It's no replacement for my DSLR, but a very handy point-and-shoot.
Besides that, I picked up a Garmin Vivosport. It's like the Fitbit Charge 2, but capable of handling submersion, has built in GPS, and some other tidbits. Nice fitness wristband, though I wish my skin wouldn't break out from it so often.
I got a refurbished 7th gen (10.2 in) iPad last week! I've been anti-tablet for a long time but this has certainly swayed my opinion. Originally I had planned to use it as an e-reader, score...
I got a refurbished 7th gen (10.2 in) iPad last week! I've been anti-tablet for a long time but this has certainly swayed my opinion. Originally I had planned to use it as an e-reader, score reader, and occasional gaming platform, but I'm surprised at how much more utility I'm getting out of this than I would have expected. Since I don't have a laptop this is kind of my equivalent, and it's nice to have something to work on while laying in bed or on the couch that isn't my small-screen iPhone 8 (not actually a small screen, just in comparison), while also not having to sit at my desktop to get any work done. The lack of ports and full fledged programs means that it won't replace a "true" laptop for me any time soon, but I didn't really buy it for those features in the first place so I can't complain.
Also, I've been anti-Apple for a long time but....fuck their ecosystem is just too good to ignore. I still won't buy new for several reasons, but buying refurb/used Apple stuff isn't a bad deal if you know where to look. It retains its value really well and their products (generally) age gracefully.
My last major gadget purchase was a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4. I migrated all my docker containers from my old Dell computer to it which should hopefully save me some power but it's also MUCH quieter in...
My last major gadget purchase was a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4. I migrated all my docker containers from my old Dell computer to it which should hopefully save me some power but it's also MUCH quieter in my living room now!
Does an electric guitar count as an electronic device? It doesn't power on...but the pickups do generate a voltage that gets amplified. Hm... Well, I got a new electric guitar. Got it custom built...
Does an electric guitar count as an electronic device? It doesn't power on...but the pickups do generate a voltage that gets amplified. Hm...
Well, I got a new electric guitar. Got it custom built to my specs (just a single spec, really. But it is custom!) by a builder in Illinois for a very reasonable sum. Came in a few days ago. It's actually quite a bit lighter than that picture shows. I think it came strung with 0.09s and I usually play 0.11s, so that's the only thing I'll change.
Oh, yea, I got a new amp, too...which is definitely an electronic device. A ZT Amplifiers Lunchbox Reverb. Very small solid-state combo with a pretty big sound. Diggin' it, so far.
Finally replaced my ZTE Axon 7 with a Samsung Galaxy S10 which I picked up as an open box return for $400. Has been a massive upgrade, much larger than I thought it would be. Hopefully this phone...
Finally replaced my ZTE Axon 7 with a Samsung Galaxy S10 which I picked up as an open box return for $400. Has been a massive upgrade, much larger than I thought it would be. Hopefully this phone can last me another 3+ years.
Also grabbed a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds, wanted to get some wireless earbuds for work. So I can listen to music in one, but still hear and answer the phone as needed but not get tangled up in the cord. Been working well thus far, but have noticed the touchpad on the back will just stop working and I need to put them back in the case than pull them out to get it to function again.
Upgraded from my Logitech G500 to a G Pro Wireless. My mouse movement is extremely smooth now and makes it easier to play Valorant. Should have done it a while ago
Upgraded from my Logitech G500 to a G Pro Wireless. My mouse movement is extremely smooth now and makes it easier to play Valorant. Should have done it a while ago
I got a pair of Pixel Buds, I normally use my Philips SHP9500s, but they're not great out-and-about and while working around the house. These things are so much better than I expected, not that I...
I got a pair of Pixel Buds, I normally use my Philips SHP9500s, but they're not great out-and-about and while working around the house. These things are so much better than I expected, not that I expected them to be bad, but I've not had the best experience with earbuds in the past. The sound quality is good (not quite as good as my Philips), and the battery lasts me a week with the case.
I also got a USB Type-C Hub for my Pixel Slate. It has been a wonder for productivity being able to plug in my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and charge it at the same time. I've been playing around with Unity and a mouse is a must.
Finally, not technically electronic, but my Flair Classic espresso maker came in today, and I have a Lido E-T coffee grinder arriving next week. I'm beyond excited to finally be able to play around with espresso drinks after over a year of eyeing these.
I finally decided to splurge and upgrade my home network. (I had a single Cisco managed switch which does most of the stuff in tandem with a single DD-WRT router, and still falls short). With my WiFi router getting old, I decided to not just upgrade that with a new Wifi Router. I ended up going the Ubiquiti route!
I got the Unifi Dream Machine Pro, 2 AP AC Pros, 24 PoE Gen2 Switch and a few Flex Mini Switches.
I installed them all, day before yesterday and had to run a lot of cable (upgraded to gig ethernet) across the house.
So far I am really happy with it! (I may also be looking at these with rose-colored glasses still). I really like that they all fit in my server rack closet much more neatly now. The WiFi performance is also leaps and bounds better than what is was earlier (along with a separate VLANed WiFi network for all my smart internet devices)
I also plan on replacing the nest cameras with the unifi cameras, but that's a project for next month (probably).
Call me naive, but what about your use-case necessitates all this hardware over—say—just a router w/ dd-wrt?
Cause I like to play with these kind of electronics; I have a electronics/gadgets budget and I like to spend them on these kind of stuff! :)
On a more serious note. I have quite a few servers running at home, a few of them are routed out to the internet over a VPS. I also have a personal VPN setup; to get to my build server running at home (instead of buying expensive laptops, every few years, I switched to buying cheap laptops that can run linux/i3wm/emacs/firefox, which is pretty much all laptops out there, and when I am on the road, I can still work on my dev VPNed to my home network).
I also have a bunch of VLANs which separates different devices onto their own island (mainly all my smart devices are on a separate VLAN, the guest WiFI network is on a separate VLAN, etc) The routing rules for all these VLANs and the VPN gets a little hard for DD-WRT routers (at least for mine)
I also have approx 2500sq.ft home and my single WiFi routers is finding it hard to serve my entire house. I could upgrade to a out-of-the-box mesh system, but what's the fun in that :)
Also, moving the WiFi AP into a separate device makes it easier for me to upgrade them when needed.
(I also get WiFi in most of my backyard and my woodshop finally!)
I am also tired of having to flash DD-WRT on commercial routers and going through that whole dance, I have been using DD-WRT for almost 10 years now, and I am a little tired of it. I could've bought a pfSense device which I strongly considered, but I have quite a bit of experience with it already, and I wanted to try something new!
Also, IDS/IPS on the UDM-Pro out of the box is something I am excited to test out as well!
Finally, As I mentioned above, I want to move away from Nest cameras and would like to manage all camera storage locally (and handle external backups myself), and the UniFi cameras along with their App for those cameras was a easy sell to get my SO to move away from Nest as well! The fact that the UDM-Pro supports this out of the box was another point to it.
(This was the reason I got the PoE switch as well, to be able to run the cameras off PoE, which I could've skipped for now)
So, all of that is to say, Yes, I could've mostly gotten away with just getting a new router; put DD-WRT on it or just buy a out-of-the-box mesh service (or even use the new router and my current one in a mesh setup using DD-WRT) and continue pushing my 8-port Cisco managed router to its limit.
But, I have been meaning to upgrade my home network for quite a while now with hardware that was more powerful than what I was putting up with and the Unifi products were definitely appealing for what I was looking to achieve.
Edit: for most home networks, the above hardware is definitely way overkill.
However I feel that replacing a single Wifi Router with a UDM-Pro and a AC-Lite access point (which will cost around $440) is still going to be a better option than buying a single top of the line WiFi Router, which could run around $350-$400.
I say this because, the APs can be upgraded for much cheaper down the line! Which would still minimize the overall cost of subsequent upgrades.
Also having the ability to tack on more APs as needed in a home based on how big it is is a huge advantage (not having to fork up $300-$400 for most mesh systems out there as well)
edit2: sp/grammar
I guess this all makes sense! I spend an inordinate amount of time tinkering as well—I just stick to the software side rather than the hardware (living in an NYC apartment means trying not to accumulate too many possessions). I certainly understand the joy of trying to get a set-up just right. I just don't think I know enough about networking to appreciate what I'm missing.
I can't speak for the parent commenter, but I think a lot of people are just interested in this type of hardware from a curiosity and maybe professional development standpoint. There's a whole lot of people on r/homelab on reddit with similar or significantly more advanced setups who are just doing it for fun.
When I finally settle down into a longer term living arrangement, I'm planning to set up something similar to play with and maybe host any projects that I've got going on.
Oh wow, I'd never seen r/homelab before but I think I could get into this (the content, not necessarily the hobby). This from their wiki sums it up pretty well:
We went in exactly the opposite direction - the former well-tweaked DD-WRT router, switches, VLANs, VPN, PiHole, VMWare boxen, etc. are all (temporarily, at least) being supplanted with two eero WiFi devices in the new house.
The current installation is mainly so that we and contractors have Internet access prior to proper move-in. Counting outdoor spaces, we're getting excellent signal and speed (confirmed that we're maxing out the tested cable speed) throughout about 5,000 sq. ft. without running cabling. It's a sprawling footprint split on two levels built into a hill, with one device on each level. As things stand, I've got another three older eero APs (previously used for a guest-only VLAN) that might not be needed. So far, it's been a completely brainless setup, though I'm not thrilled to have Amazon lurking in my network.
That's not to say we've tested with all dozen or so devices in our household and multiple concurrent media streams or backups yet.
Eeros (and most of the out-of-the-box Mesh systems like Google, Nest, Orbi, Tenda, etc) are pretty good!
Easy setup, and (most of them) work out of the box without too much of a fuss :)
(I have setup a few for family and friends)
However, they are limited with how you can configure your network and they aren't cheap either! And they definitely wouldn't have worked for me (I posted about it here)
And I talked about the cost a bit in my other post, since you said you have 2 eero WiFi devices, I am assuming you are using the eero Pros; which could run from $450 to $500.
For that price you could have gotten 2 or 3 Unifi AC-Lites APs and a CloudKey Gen controller and have way more control on your network. Also subsequent upgrading would be cheaper and expanding your network to add more APs would be cheaper :)
(Even if you dont want to be in the ubiquiti ecosystem, alternatives like a pfSense controller with aruba APs would still be around the same cost)
But at the end of the day, it boils down to what your use-cases are and what you are comfortable with!
PS: Also, why did you get rid of the piHole, you could still use it with your eero!
I haven't gotten rid of any of the old devices (piHole FTW!) - I just needed quick-and-dirty coverage at the new place so we could work in both old and new locations pending our move.
As you indicated, it's a very specific use case. The new homestead has an awkward footprint for WiFi coverage. Half the house could have dead spots due to concrete, extensive copper piping for a steam-heat system, and earth-adjoining walls. We also wanted to be able to use our devices outdoors. I'm not up to running my own cabling these days, not to mention that hardwiring is an expense we'd rather defer until we're living there and have a better idea of A-V and home automation plans. A mesh system seemed like the easiest bridge solution.
Rather than spending hours to get reliable signal with multiple cheaper APs and our venerable Linksys WRT54G spare router, I pounced on an eero Pro deal ($279 for the Pro and one Beacon), figuring I could return them if they didn't work out. The signal has been great thoughout two floors and within 250' of the house (one of the advantages of the new place is that there are no detectable competing signals!), and I can still incorporate the new eeros when I have time to fiddle with things again. Contractors were also happy that they had a guest network for access to their data.
Spouse isn't a network geek, and needs a VLAN without my paranoid, obsessive tweaking so that he can reliably test work-related websites with a consumer-grade experience. The new eeros will probably be dedicated for his use, plus low-risk devices and guest net.
I love Ubiquiti UniFi APs - they play very nicely in crowded WiFi environments (much better than Cisco, IMHO), and I've had better luck combining them with other manufacturers' PoE switches and firewalls than I've had with Aruba devices. Their advantages just weren't specifically relevant to my current situation.
Also, we're now rural. The locale has rough weather, and frequent widespread outages as a result. No single ISP or 4G vendor has great speed and reliability for our work-from-home needs (it seems like cable and cellular services share some backbone routes), but there's a decent fiber co-op. One of my ultimate networking goals is to ensure we've got failover and ideally, bonding between two carriers. That's not something my setup will handle gracefully now, so I'll probably be looking at a new router eventually - any experience with the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter?
Ah! That makes sense :)
That is in my list too :)
One of the things that pushed me to the UDM-Pro was the dual-WAN support with inbuilt fail-over, I just need to set up 4G failover.
Yup, I have used a few EdgeRouters and they are pretty good.
For the good part, the EdgeRouterX is a pretty great device at the price point. They support bonding, vlans, gig routing (if using hardware offloading), etc. You could even tack on QoS if you don't have gigabit internet!
However, Ubiquiti has kinda relegated their EdgeMax devices to the back. They also don't really integrate well with any of the other newer Unifi devices. Given how Ubiquiti announces EOL for their devices, I wouldn't be surprised if they announced they are actually discontinuing the EdgeMax line soon and stop support in a few months after.
Given that I cannot really suggest anyone get the EdgeRouter.
I would def suggest a pfSense device any day over a EdgeMax device :)
PS: Congrats on the new home!
The eero (non pro, cupcake) can be had for around $70 on sale. It is the exact same device as the pro, but without the second 5ghz radio. For me, it completely replaced a unifi stack (usg 3p, usw-8-60w, uap-ac-pro, cloud key 1). So far it has been better in every way than my unifi stack, except configurability. A $70 product replaced a $500 setup, and was better. It would take a lot of cheap access points to recoup this price difference. The eero product is pretty sweet.
I agree the eero line of products are great!
The caveat being what level of configurability and customization you need in your setup (as you pointed out :)
The unifi products (or similar stacks) are definitely not needed for most home networks!
I just want to point out that comparing the cupcake against the UAP-AC-Pro is a little unfair (would be unfair even comparing the cupcake against the UAP AC-Lite), in terms of bandwidths, supported bands and number of devices [1].
One of the things I like about the UAPs are the ability to broadcast multiple APs (in my setup I have 3 APs: my main WiFi network, one for IoT/Smart devices devices and a guest network), even the AC-Lite APs support this at half the cost of AC-Pro.
Also, the Cupcake would only have been replacing your cloud key 1 and UAP-AC-Pro (which would be approx $100 + $150 = $250)
[1] A quick comparison shows that the
New in the last year.
I updated my phone to a Pixel 4. Its the first flagship name brand smart phone I have owned since the iPhone 4 came out (my last 3 phones have just been cheap generics). I love it, hands down the best camera I have seen on a phone so much so I have stop taking my DSLR on trips.
I also very recently picked up a dash cam, I have always wanted one and Garmin was having a sale so I picked up their Mini version. I have not had a lot of time to play around with it but just at my first impressions its an impressive little piece of tech.
Love my Pixel 4. If I ever go on a trip and forget my camera I don't worry about it. Plus battery life is great.
I have a
brand newthree month old ebook workflow!As part of my attempt to excise Amazon from my life, I left the Kindle platform. Yes, I know Rakuten isn't exactly the pinnacle of ethics either, but almost any company looks good when compared with Amazon, so I picked up a Kobo Forma and entered the Kobo ecosystem. The impetus for me to make the jump was actually the possibility of an impending quarantine/lockdown back in late February/early March. I figured if I was going to be stuck inside, I was going to get a lot of reading done, so it was a perfect time to get a new ereader!
The main draw for switching wasn't just to get away from Amazon: Rakuten owns Overdrive, which handles library checkouts for ebooks. Sure, getting library books on Kindle is easy, but you still have to hop through some minor extra steps. For Kobo, the process is absolutely frictionless. I can check out books right from my device if I want to, but really I just use the Libby phone app to check out and put holds on things, and they automatically show up on my Kobo. I also happen to have five different library cards (all legitimate -- I pay my out-of-state membership fees!). I pair these with the library extension to easily see which branches have the books I want.
All told, getting free and legal ebooks on my ereader has never been easier! It's so good it honestly kind of feels like piracy, but better because I don't have to sideload anything. Granted, there is the occasional wait for more popular books because publishers still license ebooks like physical books, but hopefully that system will come out in the wash in the coming decade. Furthermore, I have so much to read that even if I do have to wait a month or two for a book I want, it's not a huge deal, as I have plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime. I just put it on hold, forget about it, and then get a notification when it's finally waiting for me on my Forma.
I'll also say that I genuinely prefer the software and reading experience of Kobo over Amazon. For whatever reason, Amazon's syncing was always hit-or-miss for me, so if I read on my phone and returned to my device, it often wouldn't pick up where I left off. Kobo, meanwhile, has yet to miss a beat with device handoff. It also, and this is huge, displays your current book cover on its sleep screen. How Kindle has continued to miss the mark with that, I'll never understand.
I've already "paid for" the cost of the Forma through the number of library books I've read on it, and the device itself is wonderful. It has physical buttons for page turning, which I prefer greatly to screen-touching, and it holds wonderfully in one hand. It's not uncommon for me to sit down and read with the Forma in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, or the other hand petting my dog as he chills in my lap. It's exactly the kind of cozy reading experience I love to have.
Could you talk more about the process and benefits of this? I never thought to do it, but my local library system is pretty iffy and I'd love to pay a bit to get access to others. How do you get them from distant places? Do they support shipping physicals / is there any use outside of digital reading? Any things you miss out on by being out of state?
Definitely! Some libraries offer what are usually called "non-resident" cards, and a handful of libraries will let you sign up for them online without showing up in person (I would imagine this has increased recently due to quarantining, but I'm not sure). Each library's rules are slightly different so what you get varies per library, but for most of them you get a fully functional library card that gives you access to all of their resources. I don't think most/any of them do physical checkouts via mail, so really the main purpose of getting them is for their digital resources.
There are a bunch of different digital platforms that libraries use for various media types (e.g. Hoopla, Kanopy, etc.) which you can also access with non-resident cards (as well as stuff like databases, newspapers, subscriptions, etc.) but the main one is Overdrive which has ebooks and audiobooks. Each library's Overdrive catalog is managed by them, so the main reason I have so many library cards is because each library offers me a different selection through Overdrive. If it's a popular book, it's probably in all of them. If it's something more niche or older, however, it may only be in one or two. If it's not in any, then I'll just buy the book outright.
Of my five cards, two are local cards for my specific area, and three are non-resident cards, all of which I signed up for online and paid a fee for. They will likely ask for identification, so you'll have to provide name and address, and I think some of them asked for a driver's license number or some other form of government ID, though I can't remember the specifics. You can find a good list of available ones here (archive link, as the site was down when I tried to go to it). You can visit each individual site to see what the requirements are and what they have to offer. Of the ones listed on that site, I have the cards from Brooklyn, Houston, and Fairfax, and their selection size follows in that order (Brooklyn has the biggest selection, and Fairfax the smallest).
Honestly, if it were just for ebooks it wouldn't be that great, but I forgot to mention in my original comment that they're worth their weight in gold for audiobooks specifically. I ditched Audible and use Overdrive for audiobooks, and I churn through 1-2 of those each week. With Audible I'd be paying through the nose for that, but with Overdrive it's free as can be (outside of the low annual fees, which I don't mind paying because not only are they well worth it, but I'm funding the library -- the most worthy of all public institutions!).
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that the library extension I linked also makes finding books across libraries really easy, which is essential if you have multiple cards (it's no fun to search each one individually). You plug in the libraries you want it to search, and then whenever you're on a book site (e.g. Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing) it pulls up a sidebar and tells you which catalogs, if any, the book you want is in. Super simple.
I got a new laptop, and I'm super happy with it. My old one was a refurbished HP Zbook Studio G3 I bought off ebay for a thousand bucks nearly three years ago. That was a $4000 laptop, but these business machines never hold their value. Engineering firms and such will buy one for a single project, then chuck it when it's over. That means there's a lot of really good condition, really expensive laptops out there for relatively cheap.
Anyway, that laptop came with a 3 year warranty, and when I bought it there was still 30+ months left. HP's business class warranty department is really top notch. My warranty had global next-day on-site service, with accidental damage protection, so if I dropped my laptop or something, the next day a HP guy will come to me to repair it or give me a new one.
Long story short, I was living on a boat, and laptops apparently don't like salt water. They couldn't repair the damage, and they didn't have my model in stock, so in the end they sent me a brand new model, as close to mine as they could get. It only has 16gb of ram whereas my last one had 32, but other than that it's an upgrade in every way.
This is what they sent me. It's got a 6 core, 12 thread Intel Xeon processor, dedicated NVidia Quadro GPU, and for some reason it turns into a tablet and includes a wacom stylus. Every component is better than what I had before. The battery lasts 12 hours instead of 3. The keyboard and touchpad are nicer. It has a 120Hz IPS LCD panel. The speakers are louder and clearer. And the crazy part? It comes with a brand new 3yr warranty.
I've only had this a few days, but still find myself grinning ear-to-ear when using it. I'm ridiculously happy with this machine. It's so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
Edit: two-month post-honeymoon update:
I've now owned this laptop some two months or so, and now that the new laptop smell has worn off, I have a few more criticisms about it. I'm going to say in the ways that matter to me it's still fantastic, but there are some definite shortcomings.
At the time, the model of Zbook closest to my old one in specs, available on the HP Canada site, happened to be the model
4NL44UT#ABA. Here are the issues I have with that model:The screen
The screen is an FHD 120Hz IPS display with something like 600 nits of brightness, which should be great in sunlight. On my model it's not.
Mine includes this high-tech privacy filter you can enable with a keyboard shortcut. It's kinda impressive how well it works, but it's not something I'd ever ask for. It really restricts the viewing angles, even when not using it, which is the opposite of what I want when I'm buying an IPS display.
SECONDLY: I'm not sure but I think this is specific to this privacy screen (I've read a lot of reviews praising the other displays, especially the 4k dreamcolour ones), the screen brightness is really uneven. Looking at a black screen you've got very large lit areas vs unlit ones and that's a big deal for pro graphics people, for whom this
laptopworkstation tablet abomination was ostensibly made for.Windows issues
I've had some weird issues out of the box with audio latency. Out of the box I could not play movies without sound stuttering, in any program. Browser streaming YouTube, VLC playing a normal x264 video or even an MP3 will stutter occasionally.
I blame it on the Bang and Olufsen software, but a I'm not sure if I ever disabled it enough to actually play an album without skipping. This is again something you'd think might be an area to focus on if you're marketing your laptop to professionals. Audio latency has historically been one of the big reasons audio pros buy MacBooks.
Everything Else
Pretty Great. Keyboard is fantastic. Touchpad is good on Windows, perfect in Linux. Fancy things like gyroscopes and accelerometers seem to work in Linux, as well as the Wacom stylus. Apparently the brightness FN keycodes turning into mic mute keycodes under Gnome has been identified as a HP problem, and HP is working on a fix. So that's annoying but apparently going to be fixed.
Summary
Do not buy my exact model, or any one that has the built-in privacy protection in the screen. That's really annoying. Otherwise I think the HP Zbook x360 G5 is a really decent machine if you can afford it, or can find it refurbished for cheap.
I got a kindle paperwhite and I had before a kobo glo hd from 2014. The screen is noticeable better, the rest is more or less the same thing. The only thing that I don't like is that you can only set one language for the device and have that dictionary plus English. I wanted to have it in english with spanish and italian dictionary because are the languages I use but apparently it is impossible.
Other interesting thing is that you have an special email for the kindle and you can send the ebook straight to the kindle sending them there.
I have multiple dictionaries on my kindle. I can choose:
Oxford dictionary of English, Oxford English-German, the German DUDEN, Collins Spanish English, some Spanish dictionary, etc. is that what you meant? When you hold a word you can choose the dictionary on the bottom right
Wow maybe I made a mistake and there is a way to have dictionaries in more than 2 languages, I will check it.
Thanks
I have a Kobo that's probably 5 years old at this point, I love it. I sometimes think of getting a new one, but then I think, why? The only thing I feel like I'm missing is a slightly larger screen but even that doesn't bother me too much.
This is one of those things that I deliberately don't go looking at newer models for, because I'm not unhappy with what I have and looking at newer things only feeds the FOMO.
Yes, I think the same, there is literally no real improvements. Sadly mine got broken and fixing it was almost the same price as a new one.
Ereaders were pretty much perfected a long time ago, so there isn't really a huge incentive to upgrade to the newer models. I used a Kindle Keyboard (released in 2010) for nearly a decade and never felt like I needed to upgrade it.
For Kobo, the only things I could think of that might make it worth switching for you are if your model doesn't have native Overdrive integration (if you check out ebooks from the library), and if it doesn't have the backlight that shifts away from blue light during evening reading. If your model already has those, or you don't need them, then there's really no reason to upgrade at all.
Depends on your use case but I can see waterproofing being a nice feature for some
Overdrive integration might be a really worthwhile to upgrade for. The model I have is a passive display, so that I wouldn't have bluelight late at night, and also so it's more visible in the sun. Though I have been considering lately that I should get a light to mount on it when I'm reading in bed so I don't keep the nightstand light on.
I have the same kobo and my favourite feature is the support for pocket which lets you send articles from your browser straight to the device with one button.
I got a pair of wireless headphones, first ones I've found that I thought really had a value-add over wired ones. Just some $15 off-brand ones, but they have a 3.5mm jack that doesn't require the headphones be powered to use, an FM radio that is surprisingly good (lacking only stations worth listening to), and my personal favorite, an integrated MP3 player and microSD card slot. Such an odd feature, but it seems like every other piece of off-brand chinese audio stuff I've got has it, and I've used it a lot, just wish it had shuffle. I just got them to watch TV on the couch without having the volume up, but they've pretty quickly become my main headphones, though more often as wired than wireless.
Any chance you can name / link to the ones you've got?
Sure. Link.
I've picked up more tech than I'd like to admit in the last year, but the two that have been most interesting to me have been Apple's AirPods and a Vortex Pok3r mechanical keyboard.
I was like a lot of people when AirPods first came out, making fun of them for being expensive and rather silly, but over time a number of my good friends grew to love theirs. I could never justify the price for myself, but a family member was kind enough to get a pair for me as a gift a few months ago. I was amazed by how quickly they replaced pretty much every other pair of headphones or earbuds I own, with the exception of my headset I use when gaming. Apple has done an amazing job of creating a seamless experience and packing it into a convenient little package.
Unlike the AirPods, the keyboard was a spur of the moment purchase a few weeks ago. It's only my second mechanical keyboard, and my first keyboard ever that isn't full size (except my laptop, but that's slightly different in my opinion). So far, I'm really liking the small size, and the heft it's aluminum case gives it feels very nice. Still trying to get used to having function layers for keys that I used to be able to just reach for, but I think I'll come around eventually. At some point I really want to try using an ergodox or some other ergonomic keyboard to see how I like it, as I've been having more and more issues with wrist pain now that I'm working from home and sitting at my keyboard even more of the time than I did before.
Just got a Ducky One 2 Mini v2! I didn't really need a new keyboard but I wanted something quieter so I got Cherry MX Brown switches (compared to my old blues they're so quiet!). I also wanted to try out a 60% keyboard and I'm really liking it! The only thing that I've had to get used to is not having arrow keys which I use a lot in terminals, but it's been pretty easy adapting to hitting Fn+i/j/k/l. I also really like that it plugs in with USB-C instead of the micro-USB that my old keyboard used.
I am such a huge fan of 60% boards now. I bought a used POK3R on ebay about a year ago. Full size keyboards just seem so unwieldy for me. There is something about that smaller aesthetic that just makes me really happy too :)
Amen to that. I switched from a full-size to my last TKL because I wanted the smaller size and now that I have this it's even nicer
Do they do that to their unlocked phones as well?
I thought Apple was big enough that they didn't have to offer concessions.
And beyond that, this practice should have been made illegal decades ago.
I got a new screen for my GBA SP. There was dust between the screen cover and the LCD, and I had been planning a case replacement as a reason to pull the screen apart and clean it. Then, I saw an IPS kit on sale, and purchased it, soldered two points (the scariest bit), and it's a better system. I also bought a Chinese-modded game boy color on Ebay. All that is old is new again, apparently.
I built up a dual-monitor setup for my computer. If I have to use applications and follow a Zoom session, I'm giving myself the screen real estate to do it comfortably. It was a trick getting my bottom (main) monitor to be in the first DisplayPort on my graphics card, but it's all done, and has proven to be immensely useful.
I got a bunch of stuff over the last six months or so.
The laptop was the first thing I bought with my first paycheck, back in January: a refurbished T450 with an i7-5600U, which I opened to upgrade its RAM to 16 GiB and to swap the HDD for a 500 GiB SSD. It was an huge upgrade over the Travelmate I had before, as I went up three generations (i3-2350M to i7-5600U) and quadrupled my memory.
I have installed Debian on it, setting up a rather minimal desktop environment, and I will need to crack it open again soon to install an internal battery (Thinkpads up to the T450 came with dual batteries, but the one I got only had some plastic spacer inside).
Then, in May, I got both a printer - most stores were closed, libraries were closed, and I had to print some things - and an e-reader.
The printer is a Brother multi-function laser printer, which is actually pretty damn nice: it can scan up to 50 sheets of paper automatically, print duplex, and it can do so over WiFi.
The e-reader is a Kobo Libra H2O. The form factor is slightly weird coming from other e-readers/from reading on the phone, but the screen is 7", it has physical keys, it should be water-resistant and it has a very good backlight, which can go from blue-ish to amber.
I didn't like how it wanted to force me to log-in to some account before I could start to use it, but bypassing that was easy: I just connected it to my laptop, opened up ~.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite~ and inserted an empty row in some table in there. Had to disable sync - not that I could have used it without an account - because the first time I did that I found a bunch of weird books in my library.
I'm running KOReader on it right now, and while I like it, it could definitely be better. It doesn't cope well with very large ePubs - as opposed to Nickel - and as I like to read web serials offline that is a problem. It also doesn't deal well with changing orientation, fonts, or font size - I think it's somehow redrawing the whole book when that happens - and it feels like it's using more energy than it should (or maybe I'm just a bit too liberal with the backlight).
What model is the Brother printer?
MFCL2710DW. Paid €165 for it, and it worked out of the box with CUPS once I set it up to connect to my wifi.
Great! I'm also using Linux and heard that brother has good support.
Bought a Nintendo 3DS XL (used, and not the "new" version). It is hacked/unblocked.
Waiting for it to arrive and go deep into JRPGs.
I don't care so much about modern videogames and AAA games. Checked the 3DS library and it's a dream.
Shin Megami Tensei, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, all the Marios and old style platformers and puzzle games.
Another person just announced a 2 year old used hacked Switch today. Now i'm questioning my choice, but the switch is 4x the price i paid for the 3DS XL.
Anyway, it will arive today if the tracking is correct.
What is this Friendcode? To play online? Doesn't Nintendo block the hacked 3DS?
Yeah, i was reading about unblocked Switchs and it seems too much work.
I'll get familiar with the console for some days and shoot some questions to you about going online.
But just a quickie. This means we both can play online directly and the only thing i shouldn't do is connect to Nintendo servers and online shop?
I think i sent you a friend request.
Here it is: 3669-4450-4351
I bought an ear canals cleaner with fiber cam. The price is about $2.5 USD. Can be mounted on Android or PC with USB.
I didn't know these exist. That's awesome.
Me neither. A revelation! I have a bad ear wax problem and have tried using an ear wax removal syringe with varying degrees of success...
Maybe these devices will prove more useful. Now...to research and find one that isn't made out of pure cancer and won't phone-home to some nation state to add to some ear wax database somewhere.
I've been improving my life! I recently got invisalign and a fitbit. Reminds me every hour to get up and move around. I'm on my second week of invisialign and my teeth mildly hurt but I'm finally bettering my life after being depressed for so long
In the last year i got the following electronics:
Bose QC35 - noise cancelling headphones. I figured I would use them on train rides but due to corona that hasn’t really happened recently. I still love the fit and use them for gaming.
iPhone 11 - the first time I bought a phone that was not at least from the previous year. My brothers old used SE had terrible battery life and a bad camera, so I am very happy with this phone (I just wish I’d use it less)
Apple Watch 5 - I got this mostly to warn me of loud environments, track sports, and get me to stand up regularily. I use it pretty often to answer calls now too, and to control my lights etc. This week it came in super useful when test driving a car, because I could later see how loud it really was in there. It also tells you how long you can stay in loud environments before you get serious issues. I now also use the hourly standing up reminders to do some stretches ( I have some RSI sometimes when I work too much)
I also recently went to the doctor for my RSI and he told me to get some other mice to not always have the same position, so I got the Logitech MX Vertical and the Logitech MX Ergo. I really like the Vertical. The Ergo is something I need to get used to, though
In the last year a friend also gave me his OnePlus (I think 5?) - it came in super handy when I had to develop for iOS and Android this year. But I barely use it otherwise, except for playing stuff to fall asleep
I also got a Teenage Engineering PO-33 but I barely use it
Bit expensive, but I recommend investing in an ergonomic keyboard. Main high-quality offerings are kinesis and maltron. There's also the dactyl, which might be cheaper if you have a 3d printer and are up for an electronics project. (You can also order a prebuilt one, but for the price you might as well just get a kinesis).
(If you get a kinesis, make sure you get the advantage; without split+ortholinear+bowl-shape, an ergonomic keyboard isn't that helpful.)
I do have access to a 3D printer. Thanks for your advice. The kinesis looks interesting...
the Maltron has too much of an old school look for me though haha
So...what? You don’t like the form factor of Kinesis? I see that as the only option in the link you posted.
Do you mean the freestyle pro split keyboard?
I used a contour keyboard for a long time and liked it. The vertical mouse has my interest but I’ve been looking around for another keyboard.
I'm not sure what you mean. Kinesis sells several keyboards, but they're generally riffs on two themes: the 'freestyle', which is flat, and the 'advantage', which is bowl-shaped. I think a flat keyboard is mostly useless for ergonomics. So I recommend, if you get a kinesis, to get one of the bowl-shaped advantage-based keyboards, and not to get one of the flat, freestyle-based keyboards. Advantage, freestyle.
LoL. I think your formatting and my tiredness got me. Thanks for clearing it up.
I just got a new laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus G14. It's in a product category that has surprisingly few competitors: 14" or smaller laptops capable of gaming. Despite that, I think this laptop is great. It has very good battery life (as long as you're just browsing the web), great gaming performance when plugged in, and an above average keyboard and touchpad. The screen is nice too, FHD 120hz, though a lot of reviews mention ghosting or high latency, but I can't really tell.
Also, some people managed to get Arch working pretty well, which I might try out later.
The most recent electronic I picked up is the Pixel 3, a smartphone. To be honest, it's by no means a perfect phone, and it's hard to call it a premium phone (beyond the price and SoC). That being said, I love the smartphone for the quirks it has. It has great cameras. It's no replacement for my DSLR, but a very handy point-and-shoot.
Besides that, I picked up a Garmin Vivosport. It's like the Fitbit Charge 2, but capable of handling submersion, has built in GPS, and some other tidbits. Nice fitness wristband, though I wish my skin wouldn't break out from it so often.
I got a refurbished 7th gen (10.2 in) iPad last week! I've been anti-tablet for a long time but this has certainly swayed my opinion. Originally I had planned to use it as an e-reader, score reader, and occasional gaming platform, but I'm surprised at how much more utility I'm getting out of this than I would have expected. Since I don't have a laptop this is kind of my equivalent, and it's nice to have something to work on while laying in bed or on the couch that isn't my small-screen iPhone 8 (not actually a small screen, just in comparison), while also not having to sit at my desktop to get any work done. The lack of ports and full fledged programs means that it won't replace a "true" laptop for me any time soon, but I didn't really buy it for those features in the first place so I can't complain.
Also, I've been anti-Apple for a long time but....fuck their ecosystem is just too good to ignore. I still won't buy new for several reasons, but buying refurb/used Apple stuff isn't a bad deal if you know where to look. It retains its value really well and their products (generally) age gracefully.
I've been donated a new testing device for my high-compatibility web project. It is a lovely MacBook G4.
My last major gadget purchase was a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4. I migrated all my docker containers from my old Dell computer to it which should hopefully save me some power but it's also MUCH quieter in my living room now!
Does an electric guitar count as an electronic device? It doesn't power on...but the pickups do generate a voltage that gets amplified. Hm...
Well, I got a new electric guitar. Got it custom built to my specs (just a single spec, really. But it is custom!) by a builder in Illinois for a very reasonable sum. Came in a few days ago. It's actually quite a bit lighter than that picture shows. I think it came strung with 0.09s and I usually play 0.11s, so that's the only thing I'll change.
Oh, yea, I got a new amp, too...which is definitely an electronic device. A ZT Amplifiers Lunchbox Reverb. Very small solid-state combo with a pretty big sound. Diggin' it, so far.
Finally replaced my ZTE Axon 7 with a Samsung Galaxy S10 which I picked up as an open box return for $400. Has been a massive upgrade, much larger than I thought it would be. Hopefully this phone can last me another 3+ years.
Also grabbed a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds, wanted to get some wireless earbuds for work. So I can listen to music in one, but still hear and answer the phone as needed but not get tangled up in the cord. Been working well thus far, but have noticed the touchpad on the back will just stop working and I need to put them back in the case than pull them out to get it to function again.
Upgraded from my Logitech G500 to a G Pro Wireless. My mouse movement is extremely smooth now and makes it easier to play Valorant. Should have done it a while ago
I got a pair of Pixel Buds, I normally use my Philips SHP9500s, but they're not great out-and-about and while working around the house. These things are so much better than I expected, not that I expected them to be bad, but I've not had the best experience with earbuds in the past. The sound quality is good (not quite as good as my Philips), and the battery lasts me a week with the case.
I also got a USB Type-C Hub for my Pixel Slate. It has been a wonder for productivity being able to plug in my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and charge it at the same time. I've been playing around with Unity and a mouse is a must.
Finally, not technically electronic, but my Flair Classic espresso maker came in today, and I have a Lido E-T coffee grinder arriving next week. I'm beyond excited to finally be able to play around with espresso drinks after over a year of eyeing these.
Sorry I will erase it.
Steelseries Apex 7 TKL. This thing is pretty cool, the OLED screen is definitely a gimmick worth buying for.