The official tablet (and other useless electronics) thread!

[Jake]

Got my parents all set up at their new house last week. We went with Simplisafe for the security system, and added their doorbell as well. Really, really slick setup and was impressed by the unboxing experience as well. Hopefully it performs as well as it looks.

[HAULN-SS]

I have recently started using a Macbook pro at work. Two gripes: Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to make the escape key a virtual button in the touchbar? It is also not quite in the right place for that. And if it is going to be there, why does it not have haptic feedback? I could almost get used to that, but as a software developer, I bet I hit the escape key 200 times a day.

2nd gripe - I am actually on my 2nd macbook pro because two weeks in, it slid out of my bag and dented the corner. I thought I had gotten away with one until the next day when I realized that the Touch bar was not lighting up. To be clear - the touchbar is literally a glass covered touch screen. This made the escape key not work, and so the laptop is trashed. I may try to replace it, but almost everything has to come out to get to it, so who knows if it is worth my time.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

[BLINGMW]

The last good macbooks were made in 2015. After that you get the touchbar, butterfly shit keys, and loss of the magsafe power adapter. I guess the laptops were lasting too long and they want to ensure the replacement cycle is more like a phone.

[HAULN-SS]

Oh yeah..I forgot. USB C charging. I don't mind USB C in general, but magsafe was definitely awesome. I am typing this from my Mid-2014 Macbook pro that is still going strong, and I literally have no reason to upgrade.

[.RJ]

I'm holding on to my 2015, 15" Pro as long as I can.

When it came time to replace my wife's old Air this year, I bought one without the touchbar and put a silicon keyboard cover on it so she doesnt ruin the keyboard. I can see the appeal of the touchbar if the integration is really, really good.... but from what I've seen its just not.

[Apoc]

My personal phone, personal Chromebook, work phone, and work MacBook pro all charge via USB-C.

[BLINGMW]

My personal phone, personal Chromebook, work phone, and work MacBook pro all charge via USB-C.

Oh don't get me wrong, my chromebook will even (slowly) charge off my tiny phone charger, I love it. But for what's supposed to be a premium product, the magsafe adapter is/was a great idea and they could have kept it AND allowed charging on USB-C. I cannot say I'm surprised exactly, 10 years is a long run for a proprietary connector, and with just yet another dongle, there are 3rd party solutions!

[Apoc]

I really liked the light on the magsafe, but never felt the need for the magnetic part. Interesting point about allowing both... but that's never really been the Apple way. I'm just really happy Apple is playing nice.

The problem I'm having now is a lot of investment went into putting USB-A everywhere and cords are USB-C on both ends. This means I'm forced to use the A/C plug or an adapter. Double whammy if I'm on a plane that doesn't support streaming video to my own device and I have a Bluetooth headset.

[Jake]

I have a year-old 15" MacBook Pro with touch bar for work. Definitely miss the Magsafe connection for power but do appreciate USB-C for the sake of charging both this and my personal Lenovo from whichever charger is nearby. The butterfly keyboard is obnoxious and loud and I sort of hate it but have learned to adapt.

My parents both have brand new MacBook Airs and I believe the keyboards on those have been modified for slightly more travel and less propensity to break if a dust speck gets in the way.

[.RJ]

I tried both of the newer butterfly keyboards in the store and couldnt discern a difference between them. I also didnt have much of a preference between what I have now and my wife's new one with the butterfly - the non-touch didnt get the updated keyboard, hence the keyboard cover... supposedly the newer keyboards are better but still plenty of reports of failures out there and the original ones have a 4 year warranty built in on them.

[Apoc]

Why do you need warranties on Macs??

[Jake]

Why do you need warranties on Macs??

When I worked at the Apple Store in college, it seemed like we sold them so that college kids could spill beer on their MacBooks and then cry when we told them that wasn't covered.

[Senor_Taylor]

Why do you need warranties on Macs??

When I worked at the Apple Store in college, it seemed like we sold them so that college kids could spill beer on their MacBooks and then cry when we told them that wasn't covered.

I spilled a ton of Miller lite in my work MacBook

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Jake]

Why do you need warranties on Macs??

When I worked at the Apple Store in college, it seemed like we sold them so that college kids could spill beer on their MacBooks and then cry when we told them that wasn't covered.

I spilled a ton of Miller lite in my work MacBook

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Did you cry after?

[Senor_Taylor]

Why do you need warranties on Macs??

When I worked at the Apple Store in college, it seemed like we sold them so that college kids could spill beer on their MacBooks and then cry when we told them that wasn't covered.

I spilled a ton of Miller lite in my work MacBook

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Did you cry after?

I'm always in various states of crying/sobbing.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Sully]

Only cause he was out of Miller. By his work posts, I'd say he did it on purpose.

Maybe a stupid question but if I have an old new router, is there anyway to make it like a mesh Network with my FiOS router? I'm not sure if just one particular home is messed up or if the nest hello and new home mini weed l added too much strain on the network. The Verizon tech said I could connect out l literally 100 things on to the router and not have an issue with the gig internet but I don't believe that. They have to be fighting for access at some point much lower than 100 connections.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[Jake]

Only cause he was out of Miller. By his work posts, I'd say he did it on purpose.

Maybe a stupid question but if I have an old new router, is there anyway to make it like a mesh Network with my FiOS router? I'm not sure if just one particular home is messed up or if the nest hello and new home mini weed l added too much strain on the network. The Verizon tech said I could connect out l literally 100 things on to the router and not have an issue with the gig internet but I don't believe that. They have to be fighting for access at some point much lower than 100 connections.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Smart home gear won't use a lot of bandwidth, for the most part. You're limited to 255 devices in one subnet of a network so in theory, that's how many the FiOS router can support. In practice, a lot of routers supplied by internet companies are pretty garbage. My parents had FiOS at their Ashburn home and we ended up just using the FiOS router for its modem capabilities (i.e. talk to Verizon) and an Apple AirPort Extreme for actual router/wireless duties. Worked far better.

I have a Netgear something or other. Nighthawk, maybe? Get something like that and disable the wireless capabilities of the Verizon unit.

[JPolen01]

Are any of you Alexa or Google Home users worried about privacy with these devices constantly listening? I don't have one a) because I really don't think it will be that useful and b) it sketches me out about what they are listening to and/or storing. 

From this Bloomberg report it looks like it may be fairly easy for an Amazon Alexa team employee to pinpoint your home from the data they are storing.

[.RJ]

Assume everything is listening and nothing is secure. Feel better?

[Ken]

Are any of you Alexa or Google Home users worried about privacy with these devices constantly listening? I don't have one a) because I really don't think it will be that useful and b) it sketches me out about what they are listening to and/or storing. 

From this Bloomberg report it looks like it may be fairly easy for an Amazon Alexa team employee to pinpoint your home from the data they are storing.

You mean, Amazon could have my home address? oh my. 

I have the Sonos with Alexa built in and i love it. No i don't care about it listening because i have nothing to hide. Enjoy my terrible sing along to some embarrassing music i guess.