The official tablet (and other useless electronics) thread!

[JustinG]

My hate with Macs lie in the $$$.

90% of people use their MacBooks to surf the internets and post their instafacesnaps, and pay 3x that of a PC just for that .

Blows my mind.

Are Macs still that much better for photo/video/graphic design over a PC anymore? Legit asking cause I don't dabble in that.

It's also pretty crazy that so much stuff is still strictly PC like that AIM software.

[.RJ]

My hate with Macs lie in the $$$.

90% of people use their MacBooks to surf the internets and post their instafacesnaps, and pay 3x that of a PC just for that .

Blows my mind.

I've had my current 15" macbook for 3 years and it has caused me 0 minutes of headache the entire time I've owned it and browsing ebay, its worth about half of what I paid for it if I sold it today.  Neither of those things are true with PC's and meanwhile my parents have gone through 2 Dells with endless tech support calls for failed hardware.  

And, bonus, the macbook integrates so cleanly with the other jesus-Devices and its really nice to have that.  I can airplay stuff to my apple TV, airdrop files, and so on.  Yes, I know I could get a $30 chromecast to do similar things, but its nice that all of this stuff works out of the box.  

These things are worth it to me to spend more money up front.  Diff'rent strokes.

[Jake]

It depends on the experience you want and Apple does make it nice and easy if you stick within their ecosystem. Resale on old Apple products is pretty great, too.

Since RJ mentioned Chromecast, I think it's pretty lousy. What is the point of a "connected TV thingy" that requires using your phone for controls? Never ever saw the point of it, especially when things like a Fire Stick are so cheap and far more useful.

And speaking of other lousy software, good god the AIM software sucks. It's what happens when you have kind of a stranglehold on that relatively small market.

[Apoc]

The "install file" was a disk image which must be ejected like any other form of media, you can do this by dragging to the trash or pressing Command-E. Files can be deleted by dragging to the trash or pressing Command-Delete. 

You don't use the "delete key" because that is akin to "backspace" on a Windows box and that key also does not delete a file. Windows lets you use the forward delete key, which doesn't exist on Apple laptops and didn't exist on various Mac desktop keyboards over the years. I think they went for a standard experience instead of a "oh if you have this key, use it."

All of you who grump about how hard and difficult Apple products are to use, but are in the technology world, really mystify me. If you're a professional, shouldn't you be adept at both OS's and be able to use either without complaint? I'm just as fast/keyboard-shortcut-y on a Mac as I am on a Windows box. Neither is hard to use at this point.

I understand the concept, but the fact you have to explain it is the problem. Things should be intuitive and users expect a delete key to delete things.

Technology isn't the same thing as IT. Why would I need to be familiar with both OS when I've lived in the analytics and ops worlds? It's not like I'm doing tech support. Like Lee, all of the Data Scientists, Economists, and Analysts that reported to me used Windows. The reason is because Mac just doesn't work as well with the Enterprise tools they need to do their job. 

Outlook for Mac fucking sucks. I know this is MSFT's fault, but there are so many things (with Outlook and other programs) that people assume I have the ability to do that I simply don't. The reason I chose a Mac at work years ago is because the battery life, SSD, and our windows machines at the time had max resolution of 1024 vs. the Retina I have. If I was still doing analysis for my job, like I was my first few years at Amazon, I would most definitely NOT have moved to Mac. Unfortunately, most Windows laptop hardware these days are junk so Dell and Lenovo are non-starters for me. I get why people like the Apple hardware and curated ecosystem... it's just not for me in my personal life - I use an Alienware that has been trouble free for years and works seamlessly with all my shit, regardless of who manufactured it.

FWIW, Google uses Chromebooks as their standard issue enterprise laptop.

[Senor_Taylor]

My company issues Macs to all engineers... But they come with a Windows VM on them.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[rherold9]

I have zero issues with my normal Pixel 3...?

My camera app opens quickly and nothing is laggy *shrugs*

Wireless charging is great. Takes 1.5 hours to do a 5%-100% battery charge

[Beej]

Finally moved up from a 10 year old 40" LED TV to a 65" LG OLED C8 model.  The TV itself is incredible - between 4k and the true blacks, it's just a joy to watch.  65" is borderline too big for the space, but I'll find a way to cope.  Of course, going to 4k meant the receiver had to be upgraded, I'll have to get a new Apple TV, etc, which is sorta annoying.

However, it's 2018 and connecting/configuring all this stuff is wayyyy more complicated than it needs to be; each system tries to be so smart that it ends up being dumb...and after messing around with it for a few hours, HDMI-CEC seems like a great idea that's just implemented/supported terribly.  The TV wants to be the hub, but so does the receiver, and the "Magic" remote claims it can do everything, but doesn't have a configuration that works for the receiver and thus is useless.  I want the receiver to be the hub, because I'd rather have all the cables going to it with only one to the TV.  However, all sorts of wacky shit happens.  Turning on a device (Apple TV, Switch) turns on the actual TV too (great) but not the receiver - except that one time it changed the HDMI input to one that wasn't even being used on the TV.  HDMI ARC works, but only after I simply open Setup (without changing anything, just opening it) on the receiver because I guess it needs to be reminded.  And if one device takes a second to boot up (like, TV doing an update), then the correct input won't be specified.  And for some reason the TV's input menu seems to only list one "child" of the HDMI2 input even though there are multiple that even support CEC, thus making it a confusing multiple step process to simply switch inputs.  There may be a way (probably with HDMI cables straight to the TV instead of the receiver? or a CEC-delete cord?) to get it to work but I'm tired of fighting a bunch of devices that all seem to want to play God.

In the end, everyone must know how shitty CEC is because they thankfully all have an option to turn it off, even if they all call it something different like a bunch of assholes.  After doing that and just reprogramming my Harmony remote to handle the heavy lifting, it's mostly hunky dory.  Only downside is I don't have HDMI ARC for the TV's built-in apps - which I guess I could run an optical cord for but that's what I'm trying to avoid in the first place.

One last yell for the clouds: I'm more often disappointed by new/smart tech than impressed by it.

[.RJ]

So... what you doing with that old 40" TV?

[Apoc]

My XBox controls everything via infrared. All I had to do was set my smart TV's audio out to external. I fear the day MSFT inevitably takes away this feature.

[Beej]

So... what you doing with that old 40" TV?

It's just holding up a wall in the garage.  I chucked the stand at some point but it's a Samsung LN-T4066F (and correction on a typo, it's LCD not LED) if you want to try to find one or wall mount it.  Free.99.

Edit I guess my non-4k Yamaha receiver which was also destined for Goodwill is up for grabs for those not hooked on soundbars.

[JustinG]

Roku stick and wall mount that bad boy in the garage.

[.RJ]

So... what you doing with that old 40" TV?

It's just holding up a wall in the garage.  I chucked the stand at some point but it's a Samsung LN-T4066F (and correction on a typo, it's LCD not LED) if you want to try to find one or wall mount it.  Free.99.

Edit I guess my non-4k Yamaha receiver which was also destined for Goodwill is up for grabs for those not hooked on soundbars.

I'll give you a 6 pack for it and pick it up in 3 weeks when I'm down there to visit the inlaws

[Beej]

Roku stick and wall mount that bad boy in the garage.

Not a bad idea, I actually leave the door open and tilt the TV to watch soccer games in there pretty frequently - I just don't have a place I super love that fits a 40" TV.  RJ, it's all yours, I'll PM you later to coordinate.

[Ken]

Finally moved up from a 10 year old 40" LED TV to a 65" LG OLED C8 model.  The TV itself is incredible - between 4k and the true blacks, it's just a joy to watch.  65" is borderline too big for the space, but I'll find a way to cope.  Of course, going to 4k meant the receiver had to be upgraded, I'll have to get a new Apple TV, etc, which is sorta annoying.

However, it's 2018 and connecting/configuring all this stuff is wayyyy more complicated than it needs to be; each system tries to be so smart that it ends up being dumb...and after messing around with it for a few hours, HDMI-CEC seems like a great idea that's just implemented/supported terribly.  The TV wants to be the hub, but so does the receiver, and the "Magic" remote claims it can do everything, but doesn't have a configuration that works for the receiver and thus is useless.  I want the receiver to be the hub, because I'd rather have all the cables going to it with only one to the TV.  However, all sorts of wacky shit happens.  Turning on a device (Apple TV, Switch) turns on the actual TV too (great) but not the receiver - except that one time it changed the HDMI input to one that wasn't even being used on the TV.  HDMI ARC works, but only after I simply open Setup (without changing anything, just opening it) on the receiver because I guess it needs to be reminded.  And if one device takes a second to boot up (like, TV doing an update), then the correct input won't be specified.  And for some reason the TV's input menu seems to only list one "child" of the HDMI2 input even though there are multiple that even support CEC, thus making it a confusing multiple step process to simply switch inputs.  There may be a way (probably with HDMI cables straight to the TV instead of the receiver? or a CEC-delete cord?) to get it to work but I'm tired of fighting a bunch of devices that all seem to want to play God.

In the end, everyone must know how shitty CEC is because they thankfully all have an option to turn it off, even if they all call it something different like a bunch of assholes.  After doing that and just reprogramming my Harmony remote to handle the heavy lifting, it's mostly hunky dory.  Only downside is I don't have HDMI ARC for the TV's built-in apps - which I guess I could run an optical cord for but that's what I'm trying to avoid in the first place.

One last yell for the clouds: I'm more often disappointed by new/smart tech than impressed by it.

I would go to RTINGS.com and check their configuration guide, made my OLED look even more impressive.

As for the HDMI stuff, mine works flawlessly with FireTV, Cable, receiver. I just connect receiver to through the ARC HDMI input (ARC on receiver as well.) To your point thought, all my devices connect to the TV - if you don't have that much stuff though, it's really not so bad on cabling. The new FireTV stick also allows you to control everything with one remote, even cable. I simply just hit power on my little FireTV remote and the receiver, cable and TV all come up.

EDIT: also, part of my reasoning for connecting all to the TV is because my receiver only had one HDMI 2.2 compatible input. Which is so stupid. Whereas all inputs on the OLEDs are 2.2 (for 4K, HDR, etc.)

[Apoc]

Oh, yeah, when we got our current OLED I also stopped sending video through the AV receiver. Now it's TV optical audio to receiver. This way I can plug something into my TV, like my 4k Fire TV, to test it out (and still get audio).

[Jake]

All of this just reaffirms my 10+ year love of Harmony remotes. I just replaced my ancient model with a Harmony Companion and it's pretty sweet. The tie-ins with Alexa are even better.

For what it's worth, I have zero idea why anyone wants a "smart TV." They're all garbage, software-wise. I want a plain TV that is a screen, with ports so I can plug my entertainment of choice into it. Managed to find that for my current 50" LED Panasonic but now will have to find the same dealio for my parents when they move and get a bigger TV.

[.RJ]

For what it's worth, I have zero idea why anyone wants a "smart TV." They're all garbage, software-wise.

100%

[Apoc]

For what it's worth, I have zero idea why anyone wants a "smart TV." They're all garbage, software-wise.

100%

My LG is actually really impressive.... but I never use it because I have no need. If I didn't have an XBox, I'd probably be using a Fire TV. So, yeah, even when they're good they're still useless.

[JustinG]

Roku just has it figured out. The Android TV on my Sony isn't horrible, but the Roku is so easy the kid could get to Netflix and Disney on her own when she was 4.

[JPolen01]

We have both a Samsung smart TV (LED) and regular plasma. Never use the smart TV functions because Fire Stick and Xbox as the hub on the plasma. The smart TV interface and apps are trash.