Christmas/Boxing day presents?

Jason · December 27, 2020, 01:46:14 PM

Anybody get any new gadgets for Christmas either purchased by someone else or self-purchased?

fox · December 27, 2020, 04:11:02 PM

This is a real non-tech holiday for me. No techie gifts at all and nothing I really need. Sad state of affairs!

The one thing on my near-future list is an rPi4, but I can't really justify it when I've hardly used my rPi3B.

ssfc72 · December 27, 2020, 08:47:16 PM

The only Tech thing I bought myself was those $6 wireless bluetooth earbud headphones from the Dollar store. :-)

I normally would have bought a number of small inexpensive Tech items from Banggood or Alibaba, but I have made a pledge to myself to try and not buy anything from China/Hong Kong, until the China government releases the 2 Canadians that they jailed, 2 years ago, in retaliation for the arrest in the Meng case.

Jason · December 28, 2020, 03:12:23 AM

Quote from: fox on December 27, 2020, 04:11:02 PM
This is a real non-tech holiday for me. No techie gifts at all and nothing I really need. Sad state of affairs!

The one thing on my near-future list is an rPi4, but I can't really justify it when I've hardly used my rPi3B.

Since when does getting a new gadget have to be justified?

Jason · December 28, 2020, 03:14:31 AM

Quote from: ssfc72 on December 27, 2020, 08:47:16 PM
The only Tech thing I bought myself was those $6 wireless bluetooth earbud headphones from the Dollar store. :-)

And you bought me a pair for Christmas! They still work pretty well although I keep forgetting to turn them off when I'm not using them and since the battery life isn't super long when I'm out I sometimes run out of juice. The sound on them is awesome. I use them when I make phone calls and listening to music.

gmiller1977 · January 01, 2021, 12:38:23 PM

I picked up a Huawei smart band/watch. It's surprisingly well made for the price ($64), and offers many of the features that my wife's much more expensive Apple Watch has.

It was a pain in the arse to get set up, but I'm pleased with it so far.

ssfc72 · January 01, 2021, 03:32:09 PM

Very good to hear from you. The smart watch sounds like a great buy, what model did you purchase?

gmiller1977 · January 01, 2021, 05:25:42 PM

Thanks! I got a Band 4 Pro. It does some pretty neat tricks - heart rate monitor, oxygen sensor, pedometer... it can also control music, and give notifications (emails, texts, etc).

The software is a pain because of the issues with the US Government and Huawei right now... the latest version of the app on the Google Play store doesn't support the band, and won't allow you to update the supported devices through the app (they're blocking it in some way). I just side loaded the APK, and everything works great.

ssfc72 · January 01, 2021, 05:44:36 PM

Thanks very much for posting your info and how to get around the restrictions, by side loading the APK. :-)

gmiller1977 · January 01, 2021, 07:59:27 PM

I just bought a Pi 400. It reminds me of my old Amiga 500 and 1200 - did anyone else here have one of those?

I'll be sure to share my thoughts on it when it arrives.

buster · January 01, 2021, 08:24:52 PM

"This is a real non-tech holiday for me. No techie gifts at all and nothing I really need. Sad state of affairs!"

Mr Fox: The true spirit of Christmas is the giving, not the receiving, as shown by the gold, frankincense, and myrrh given to the baby Jesus by the three Magi. A man of your advanced years should have absorbed this lesson long ago, or at least maybe have learned it by watching reruns of Alistair Sims' A Christmas Carol year after year after year.

ssfc72 · January 01, 2021, 11:29:35 PM

You can throw a few gifts my way, Buster. :-)

ssfc72 · January 01, 2021, 11:34:22 PM

Back in the day, an astronomy club friend of mine, had an Amiga 500. He really was impressed with it, back then.

Jason · January 02, 2021, 06:57:01 AM

Quote from: gmiller1977 on January 01, 2021, 12:38:23 PM
I picked up a Huawei smart band/watch. It's surprisingly well made for the price ($64), and offers many of the features that my wife's much more expensive Apple Watch has.

It was a pain in the arse to get set up, but I'm pleased with it so far.

That's a great price! I've been looking for something that would help me with fitness, mainly just walking but once the pandemic has abated, I plan on hitting the gym again.

Will there be updates to the app even if you have to sideload the new versions?

The Pi 400 looks fascinating. I wonder if it's faster than the 1.4 Ghz i3 laptop I'm using right now. Although I'd need support for Netflix and was unable to get this working on the Pi 3 I have.

gmiller1977 · January 02, 2021, 09:46:46 AM

Yeah, I've got a couple of COVID lbs I'd like to shed too LOL - the pedometer is a nice feature on it too.

Yes, you can continue to side load updates as you need/want them once you find an APK mirror. I even tried loading the software on my Amazon Fire 8 tablet, and it worked.

I'm looking forward to the Pi 400. I have an older Pi (B - I think), which got turned into a print server for my HP printer. I'm interested in seeing what the performance is like as well. Apparently, it's fast enough for daily use. I'll be sure to let everyone know when it arrives. Maybe we can all come up with some ideas to find out what it can do. Ultimately, I'd love to get videos (YouTube and Netflix), and my remote support tool Teamviewer (x86) running on it.