Ok, should be 4 TB3/USB ports 
2 Likes
While visiting a local video game store, I was surprised at all the retro consoles they had like Vectrex, Odyssey 2, the Emerson Arcadia 2001 and not one but TWO View-master Interactive Vision systems.
What’s that? You never heard of that last one?
The View-master Interactive Vision was released in 1988 by the View-master company as an educational toy; it also required VHS tapes and a VCR. You would interact with the characters using the controller and could affect their actions. The videos had two different soundtracks recorded, and graphic overlays that are superimposed over the video. As the game is played different audio and graphics appear in response to the player’s decisions.
Six videos were released: one with Disney characters, four with Sesame Street and two with the Muppet Show cast. The video below shows more about the system.
I do admit it was a neat idea.
2 Likes
I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S10e. It’s 5 years old. I like it. It’s got a good camera, a headphone jack, and an SD card slot. It’s small and light enough to hold comfortably in my hand. It’s served me well and it’s set up just how I want. I don’t want to create unnecessary e-waste.
But the battery doesn’t hold a charge as well as it used to, it doesn’t get software updates anymore, and they barely bother with security updates. Furthermore, my insulin pump app has a useful feature that’s disabled on older phones.
I wish I could get a Fairphone, but they don’t work in the US.
Verizon is offering to let me trade in my phone for an S24+ for free. It comes with “AI” built in (I hate everything about that) but you can turn it off. I definitely want to stick with Android.
I’m on the fence. Anyone have thoughts on the matter?
2 Likes
Ifixit sells kits with a new battery and all the tools needed to do the job, and pretty good videos on how to do it. You’ll find other kits on Amazon but usually only save a few bucks over Ifixit, avoid the super cheap kits because they will probably have a battery that has much lower capacity than listed.
When I do a battery replacement I also buy a new back cover and glass for the camera because I usually break the glass when removing the back cover.
So watch some of the videos on replacing the battery to see if it’s something you would want to try. I usually do 2 or 3 replacements and use my phones until I absolutely have to replace, I used my Galaxy 7 until ATT shut down the 3G network (was upset about that because the 7 can do 4G but they wouldn’t unlock that feature on it).
I know there are shops that will do it for you but have always done battery replacements myself. Might not be worth it if they charge a lot, usually costs less than $25 to do it yourself.
3 Likes
You are going to have to update the hardware soon, if for no other reason than because of the lack of security updates. Phones are far more vulnerable to malware and hacking than computers these days. You do not want your phone naked to the world so to speak. You are also already seeing that apps are not supported by your current phone.
Bite the bullet and update to the newer device.
4 Likes
Yes, you should absolutely get a phone that will have security updates. With that Verizon deal you’ll probably be locked in to a term of service to compensate for the free phone, but I assume you know that,
I read that the Pixel phones are promising 7 years of security updates, so that might be a consideration if you can swing one of those. I don’t know the current longevity of updates for Samsung.
2 Likes
Yes. I’m on a family plan with my parents. We’ve been using Verizon for over a decade. Dad keeps looking at alternatives but ultimately deciding against it. The deal is I agree to pay for the phone over the course of the next 3 years (it used to be 2…) but they’ll basically waive the payments. I don’t mind.
The S24 also comes with 7 years of updates. The S10e stopped getting OS updates a couple of years ago, but does still get security updates once or twice a year. I suspect that will be ending soon. Officially they discontinued support last year, but I got a security update this past June.
2 Likes
Damnedest thing. So this “renewed: Excellent” ThinkPad T480 (it’s a model from 2018, but it has the much-vaunted hot-swappable external battery, and various sellers on the Zon sell it w 16 GB RAM [that’s all I’ll ever need], and a basic quad-core Intel i5 processor that’s fine for me…plus that lucious Thinkpad keyboard).
WTH? Some flashing to the latest UEFI (BIOS, if you prefer) from LeNovo’s site borked the down, left, right arrow keys (somewhat essential when changing the UEFI settings!) as well as the /? key and the | keys…kind of important especially those latter two.
I don’t know what happened. No spills, no cheeto dust in the keyboard.
I’ve flashed the bios all the way back to the very earliest Lenovo has for this motherboard/baseboard. Tried damned near all of the UEFI flashes for this mobo.
No joy.
Since I already bought an extended battery (that’s was also a cheat: I paid for a 72 W-hour battery and received the 56.6 W-hour one…).
So I bought a “new” “renewed/refurbed Excellent” T480 early this morning and am “approved” to send the faulty product back (and, yes, any battery with less than 80% from full capacity is not considered “Excellent” or even “Good” under Zon’s terms, which is the case with this).
I’ll still keep it until the time I have to send it back to Comp Deal USA, whom I guess it the arbiter of when they make their refunds. For sure last thing before shipping is boot into a live distro, remove all partitions and then just dd zeroes over the hard drive. And wipe the housing for fingerprints! 
/* ETA what the hell could have gone wrong that the UEFI (BIOS if you like) fails to recognize these four keys.
I don’t trust Lenovo’s hardware mgmt console…and, yes, the problem persists after full “system recover” (fresh install of Win10 Pro, brand new EFI partition, etc.) – which shouldn’t matter to the UEFI (BIOS).
I suppose it’s possible I nicked something or introduced some stray current while swapping SDDs…multiple times…but that doesn’t match the symptoms, especially for four keys in geographically diverse areas of the keyboard.
*/
1 Like
The battery on my nearly 20 year old Harmony 880 universal remote finally stopped holding a charge, but there are loads of replacements available on amazon so went with a mid priced $9 one. We’ll see how many years I get out of this one.
Been looking for a replacement for that thing for a decade and no one has ever made one that is as good. Touch screens for a home theater remote are stupid, I want to be able to feel a button in the dark, not wake up a screen and look for where to press… But all the remotes I’ve seen that can control 5 different components in various configurations have stupid touch screens.
3 Likes
One of my customers upgraded to the last years top of the line Samsung and was happy with it? She probably would have updated to this latest one by the end of the year… she loved her Samsung TVs, phones, tablets…
Frak cancer…
Beyond that? Sorry. Got nothing… Sorry.
1 Like
If it was getting sw updates and worked with the insulin pump app, yeah, I’d have said the same thing?
iFixit has great stuff…
But, with the sw issues, getting to the point of diminishing returns?
1 Like
Still waiting on the damn A-to-C dongles.
The Mac store wanted $19 for a single one!! 
Best Buy doesn’t stock that shirt anymore. I guess they don’t feel like they can make money off the rubes, unlike Apple.
Have to resort to MR_Potroast’s ebay, where every supplier is on the opposite coast, but at least the prices are reasonable.
I’ve had the upgraded computer for about 45 days now but sure I’ll wait another 7-14 days for it be fully operable. Yippee.
1 Like