WorldCAD Access

My New MP3 Player

Opinion Apple used to dominate the MP3 player market with its iPod line, both in product sales and mindshare. People who don’t use Apple products still refer to iPods and podcasts in everyday speech. Apple no longer makes an iPod, having moved the name to its line of headphones: AirPods. If you want to listen to music on the go in the Apple ecosphere, then you have to buy one of their expensive cellphones. There are alternatives, of course. Used iPods in excellent condition remain available from sellers on eBay. (That’s where, in the past, I got mine.) Other companies... Read more →

Does Apple Despise Seniors?

Opinion As a computer-aware kind-of-guy for 42 years (longer, if you include my mainframe days at the University of British Columbia), I help out neighbors and family who don’t really get them. Elderly people, even me, grew up in a world of stable technology. We had two ways of communicating, by letter or by telephone. The only irritant to ever occur with letter technology was the price of postage stamps going up; for telephones, the only technological change was the interface changing from rotary dials to push buttons -- which I never liked, because telephone push buttons (with 1, 2,... Read more →

Best Takedowns of Macs with Touchscreens

Steve Jobs called them ergonomically terrible The rumour mill this week announced that Apple will ship laptops with touchscreens -- two years from now. The twitterati had their say. (For the record, I do not buy laptops that lack touch screens. I find that some onscreen actions are better with the precision of a mouse, and some better with the speed of the finger. With a touch screen, you have the choice.) - - - Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken): If this happens, it will set some sort of record for how long it took for a shoe to drop. Mike Murphy... Read more →

PD Power On the Go

Some successes, some failures Portable chargers for things like cell phones have been available for quite a few years now. What's newer is the PD charger; well, not so new: the spec is ten years old, but only in recent years has it become widespread. PD is short for "power delivery," and these portable chargers are powerful enough to recharge laptop computers through a USB-C port -- a port that my friends who reside on the other side of the Great Wall of Apple are beginning to learn about. I was interested in PD batteries, because I now have two... Read more →

Rethinking Power Supplies

From one to many I began with personal computers back when they still were called "micro-computers" and cost $6,000 for a bottom-of-the-line model; triple that amount for 2022 dollars. The parallel cable alone cost $100 in 1983 dollars, required to connect my Victor 9000 desktop to the Epson MX-80 dot-matrix printer ($800). Parallel connector (left) and USB-A connector Living in North America meant that 110V-only computers weren't a problem. A good friend, moving to Israel for his higher education, had in 1985 bought a portable Compaq computer in anticipation of the move. Portable, as in "portable sewing machine size and... Read more →

The State of the Smartphone

Peaked and plateaued I was thinking the other day that I should get a spare smartphone, just in case mine gets crushed, disabled, or lost. I’d want to be back in business the same day. Looking around for a spare, I came to the realization that smartphones had peaked back in 2019. That year, CPU speed plateaued at just under 3GHz. Since then the emphasis has been on non-phone functions like cameras, software that processes photographs, and screens that fold. I got the idea for a modern spare from reading about the low launch price for the newest phone from... Read more →

Life of Pei

Encore Carl Pei is the antithesis of Steve Jobs. Both are/were brilliant at marketing, but whereas Jobs told his customers what they would get from Apple, Pei asked them, nicely. He did such a good job at guerrilla marketing that to this day there still are tech journalists who think of OnePlus as a plucky indie smartphone shop. It's not. OnePlus is a brand of Chinese giant BKK Electronics, which sells smartphones and other electronics under brand names like Oppo, Vivo, Realme, Imoo, and iQOO. Combined, it is the second largest seller of phones in the world, after Samsung. (As... Read more →

Solving Eudora's June 2022 problem with GMail

Double authentication Google in June 2022 increased the security level needed to access its Gmail service, and as a result some Eudora email users can no longer access their accounts that run through Gmail, such as the Telus and Shaw ISPs in Canada. The error message may read similar to this one: ERR [AUTH] Username and password not accepted. The error message tells us that Eudora has a problem with authenticating who you are to Gmail, and that the username and password are unacceptable to Google. Google had been warning that this would be occurring, but it is not always... Read more →

I don't like Bluetooth earbuds but this Soundcore model I do like

Life A2 NC My ears are not suited to earbuds. The internal shape of them causes earbuds to slowly slide out. So I look for models with earwings to fit behind my ears' antitargus, which keeps earbuds in place. But this style of headphone is rare. I don't like Bluetooth headphones. The BT spec requires added compression to the music being wirelessly transmitted over the relatively slow data link. And it's always more annoying to connect a Bluetooth headphone than just plugging in a wired one, whether to the audio or USB-C connectors. Nevertheless, going wireless is convenient in some... Read more →

How to Decode Android WiFi Password QR Codes

Plain as day I was faced with the problem of my Windows laptop not connecting to a relative's WiFi. He had given me the password to my Android phone through QR code, and that worked. But when I typed in the password he gave me into my Windows laptop, the router refused to allow it. Andorid normally hides WiFi passwords with texts that reads "(unchanged)". I wondered if I could get the password from the QR code, translating the array of small squares into English. I could. Here's how. This method uses a second Android phone: On the Android phone... Read more →

How to make a smartwatch last a week

Don't buy Apple. Or Google. My first smartwatch was the first smartwatch to look like today's, the LiveView put out by Sony in 2010 (battery life 4 days). It was appalling, and I soon gave up on it. Next was the Nike Fuelband in 2012 (battery life also 4 days), one of the first fitness trackers -- handed out by Autodesk marketing to us members of the press for free -- whose rubberized (and unswitchable) band irritated my skin. Then came the winner, the Pebble Steel. Its claim to fame was to use digital paper for its display, so that... Read more →

Using your iPad as a portable second monitor for Windows

Luna does it The folks at AstroPad figured out how to make an iPad a second monitor for Macs, wirelessly, with the Luna dongle. Then Apple did a nasty by integrating the tech into MacOS, leaving AstroPad scrambling. What Apple taketh away, Microsoft giveth. Luna still works with Macs and iPads (such as a display for a Mac Mini), and now works with Windows computers and iPads. I bought one of the magenta-colored dongles at the launch sale price of $100 -- the USB-C model. Probably expensive, but I figured I was supporting a scrappy developer done bad by Apple.... Read more →

Best tweet reactions to new BSOD

Black screen of death As most of the tech media are Apple-maniacs, they don't really don't care about Windows 11's hottest new feature -- running Android apps -- and tend to be really, really clueless about the technique of side-loading. A fact none of the tech media mentioned is that running Android apps on Windows is not new: it's been possible for many years (going back to 2009), as there are Intel CPU-versions of Android. See pcmag.com/how-to/3-free-ways-to-run-android-apps-on-your-pc for some examples. As a result of Apple Devotion, we were fed a lot of misinformed Android Development articles. - - - What... Read more →

Best (and funniest) headlines from Android Police

www.androidpolice.com Android 12 Beta 1 has colorful new charging animations: I'm too tired now to come up with a funny subtitle. Please laugh. The overpriced Pixel Stand is 50% off its retail price, today only: Maybe even cheap enough to justify buying it! Android 12 Beta 1 changes the way you'll set your alarms for the next day: All 30 of them, to make sure you get out of bed on time. App hibernation is live in Android 12 Beta 1: You can try it out now, and by 'now', we mean in a few months. Android 12's dynamic theming... Read more →

People tracking is so insidious

Enuff already It was bad enough to see how many corporations track us by doing something as innocuous reading just the headlines at a government-funded Web site like Deutsche Welle (the German international broadcaster). The list I show below (found at dw.com/en/european-union-general-data-protection-regulationgdpr-valid-may-25-2018/a-18265246) is about 2/3 of the data skimmers DW employs. It got worse when at a trial last week we learned that Google still tracks us when we run its browser in incognito mode -- never mind what it states: It's what Google doesn't say in its incognito statement that's alarming. - - - It is the nice things... Read more →

CAD for ChromeOS is Possible in 2021

More popular than MacOS There are no native CAD applications for ChromeOS. This need not be the case, as proven by Krita, a native Android program meant for tablets that runs as well as a native program on Chromebooks. Here's the point I want to make: Krita for Android is not a reduced-function version of the one that runs on Windows and MacOS. It is full-function. CAD software written for Android, iOS, and Web browsers are all reduced-function versions, even from leaders in this field like Graebert and Autodesk. ChromeOS was originally envisioned as a browser-based operating system, and I... Read more →

Why Apple is taking on Facebook

Paid vs. free Apple and Facebook are in battle with each other. As Techmeme editorialized a Wall Street Journal headline this morning: Sources shed light on the increasingly personal battle between Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg, who in private reportedly said “we need to inflict pain” on Apple. There are the overt reasons: Apple is increasing the privacy of its customers, blocking Facebook from harvesting data And so conversely Facebook is increasingly being blocked from profiting from Apple customer data There are the covert reasons: Apple doesn't need advertising revenues, as its BMW-priced products and service bring in more revenue... Read more →

Google is a virus

It's not evil if we don't consider it evil Google becoming more aggressive about inserting itself into my world. Here are couple of recent examples. It has begun demanding that I use my Google credentials to log into Web sites, ones where I already have independent passwords. In the screen grab below, after I am logged into eBay, Google interferes, and in virus-like fashion tried to hijack my login credentials. Google hijacking a login One morning, I had an interview with a developer. When he sent a Zoom invite from his Gmail account, Google inserted its own Meet link, as... Read more →

It's Hard Buying a Chromebox

A rare beast For nearly ten years, I've had a Gigabyte microPC in my home's entertainment room, whose job is basic: view movies from Acorn, Britbox, and so on. It runs a Web browser that does all the work streaming us movies. Initially, I had used an Internet-enabled DVD player, which showed Netflix and other services, as well as played DVDs. But these so-called "smart devices" have short lifespans when it comes to staying up to date and still being able to access Netflix and its ilk. This is something the salesman will never tell you. Anyhoo, I figured getting... Read more →

How USB-C Headphones Differ

Digital clarity In I Come to Praise USB-C I explored how the now-ubiquitous USB-C connector single-handedly handles nearly everything for which computers and phones formerly needed multiple ports -- memory cards, regular USB ports (for printers, external hard drives, camera, etc), ethernet, displays, and so on. Bulky, but doable. See figure below. All ports for the price of one The bonus for phone and laptop makers is that USB-C lets them cut costs by providing fewer ports, even as they raise the prices on us. The other peripheral that the USB-C port on your phone might handle is a set... Read more →

Firing up my iPod Touch, ten years later

Model MC011C As the Palm Pilot era was beginning to wane, I began to look for a replacement. I had bought my first Palm Pilot, the original, in 1996, and then bought nearly every successive generation after I found it to be the most productive tool for me -- ever. Its simplicity meant it was efficient, and I demand efficiency. The iPad Touch from Apple was enticing, and so in early 2010 I bought one of the third-gen models. I knew from experience that it was best to buy a device with the most available storage RAM, and so I... Read more →

Google, Stalker

Cyborgs vs. humans When someone, who you don't want, follows you around, it's called stalking. The sole reason Google does anything these days is to stalk us. From killing software, to merging software, to offering new services, all have just one theme: to wrench more data out of us. The reason behind killing useful products like Picasa? Google couldn't use Picasa to collect data on us, so it had to be replaced by online Google Photos, where Google could stalk us in real-time. Google reads the metadata of each photo we store with it online. Metadata is information stored in... Read more →

Three, no Four! OSes for Chromebooks

Is Chromebook becoming the ultimate computing device? The question become relevant as Apple switches it Macs from Intel CPUs to its platform of the future, ARM, and so no more Boot Camp, no more Windows booting natively on Mac desktop computers and laptops. Until now, this was possible, because Windows and MacOS are both coded for Intel CPUs. The death knell for Windows on new Macs is about two years away. Apple has shown Linux working on ARM CPUs through virtualization; MacOS is based on Unix. It could be the same for Windows, but running an operating system on a... Read more →

I Come to Praise USB-C

You can't do all this with an iPhone We know USB-C mostly for no longer needing to think about which way to stick a USB plug when inserting a charging or data cable. That's convenient, especially in an era when trying to figure out which side is up on a microUSB plug is a challenge. Male and female ends of USB-C cable But USB-C does more than charge or transfer data. It is the all-encompassing port on which we have been waiting. It handles: Power Data Memory card read/write Ethernet cable networking External peripherals like keyboards, mice, and portable hard... Read more →

Installing Linux on ChromeOS

It ain't easy I was excited about running a tri-OS laptop. The latest ChromeOS computers run most Android apps really well (contrary to the nay-sayers) but Linux support is still rudimentary and in beta. Linux makes sense, because it's free and, more significantly, ChromeOS and Android are built on Linux. Once you turn on Linux in ChromeOS, all you get is the command prompt of Terminal. I tried a few times to get a GUI running, such as a Linux desktop or a word processor. I failed, partly because the instructions I found online were old (tutorials from August are... Read more →

About that ASUS Flip Camera

ASUS Zenfone 6 (2019) Here are some specs you’d expect from a desktop computer: 2.8GHz eight-core CPU 8GB RAM 512GB solid-state storage Except these describe my latest smartphone, the ASUS Zenfone 6 (2019). The ‘2019’ is important, as the Taiwanese company is reusing the name from another model a half-decade or so ago. I got the silver-blue model with 256GB storage RAM, and then added a 256GB microSD card. ASUS Zenfone 6 (2019) showing fingerprint sensor and flip camera Other features important to me: 5000MHhr battery that lasts up to 3 days, and acts as a charger for other devices... Read more →

ChromeOS Grows Up

Now with Android & Linux support A number of years ago, I bought one of the very first Chromebooks out of curiosity. It was pretty lame. About the only thing I found myself doing with it was periodically booting it up to update ChromeOS. Chromebooks run Google's Chrome Web browser as the operating system. This means that the only thing a Chromebook can do is run Google's Chrome Web browser, and any extensions supported by ChromeOS. Very limiting. I was limited to using apps like Google Docs and lame photo editors, which held no interest to me. Further, the Chromebook... Read more →

I Bought a $275 Lossless Music Player, then Returned It

F.AUDIO FA1 I've looked for years for a huge capacity music player, one that could hold my entire music collection, which is about 122GB. I got a 64GB iTouch (which one of my daughters took over), and then a 120GB iPod, but Apple's big, big failing is it doesn't allow playback by folders. I suspect the failing is due to how it sets up its protection system. (So create playlists, Apple-hugging friends tell me. Why, I ask, when I already have all my music sorted into folders. No need to take the extra step of creating dozens of playlists.) My... Read more →

The Snake in the Garden

Free, as in not-free I find Apple and its products painful to use, but their closed system has a better handle on security, potentially. If there is a problem of data leakage, it is at the Apple side, such as allowing Google to access data from iPhone, iPad, and Mac users through its search engine. "Google will reportedly pay Apple $9 billion in 2018 and $12 billion in 2019 to remain as Safari’s default search engine," says Business Insider. These are not amounts that anyone pays for mere market share; Google is paying for data collection with a search engine... Read more →

The First Exciting New Phone in Years, from ASUS

Zenfone 6 recycles its name I have the three-year-old Zenfone 3 Zoom with its 2.3x optical zoom and amazing 5000mAHr battery that lasts 2-3 days, but I am thinking of a 10x zoom phone next. I already have the old Samsung K Zoom, with its 10x optical zoom, but its primary flaw is that the power button is so sensititve that I often find the battery dead. (I use it to snap photos at conferences and transfer them quickly to my laptop through Dropbox.) Nevertheless, I was interested to see what ASUS plans for this year's phone, the Zenfone 6.... Read more →

Google Music is a disaster

Hidden From You I had been using iTunes for many years, as it is the only good way in Canada to purchase music. There were other services, but some of them have gone under. Amazon.ca doesn't let us download tracks or albums, and eMusic.com has a limited selection. Further bonuses for Apple's service are that Apple made its AAC proprietary music format open, so just about any music player handles it; no need to convert to MP3 format. Also, hidden in iTunes is the ability to burn albums to CDs. Also, BestBuy sells four-packs of $15 iTunes gift cards with... Read more →

How to resurrect your old Pebble smartwatch

Users arise For 19 years, I appreciated my titanium Citizen Eco-drive with its perpetual calendar (see figure 1). Titanium, because I don't want the weight. Eco-drive, because it never needs a battery (a solar panel on the face recharges a capacitor). Perpetual calendar, because I never need to set the date, even in leap years. Figure 1: Kind of like this, but in titanium I tried a few other watches, and even some smartwatches, but always went back to the Citizen as it was reliable. Until it wasn't. One morning I noticed that its hands weren't moving. Now, this could... Read more →

In our brave new world, our cell phone number is the new SIN

Our IMEI is your SSN When governments rolled out social security numbers in the 1960s, privacy activists warned it would allow bureaucrats to learn everything about us. (SSN in USA, SIN in Canada.) End-times enthusiasts warned that this was the 666-like "mark of the beast," without which, the Book of Revelations apparently predicted, no one would be able to buy and sell -- buy, like food, and sell, like hold a job. With sufficient government oversight, SIN numbers are now required only for financial transactions, such as holding a bank account and doing our taxes. Laws prohibit unnecessary use, such... Read more →

I already have a great phone, why'd I get another one?

Enter the KEYone I am so thrilled with my ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom that I cannot image a better phone on the market today. It has these functions that I love about it: a huge battery (it lasts 2-3 days) in a slim case two-lens camera, with the second lens having an optical 2.3x zoom intelligent screen grab utility, important in my work as tech writer relatively frequent security and bug-fix updates for a phone nearly two years old ASUS written apps are good, especially their phone book app oh, and a headphone jack It has its faults. The camera... Read more →

Nine months later: ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom cell phone

Unsung midprice hero It's been nearly nine months since I bought my latest cell phone, an ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom. I am happy to report that if I needed to get a new one, I would get the same one. It's that good. It's also unsung. I am amazed at the tech media fawning over small vendors like OnePlus, Essential, or even Mezui -- never mind the obsession over Samsung and Apple. ASUS is a significant manufacturer of computers, and so I am surprised at how its phones are ignored, largely. Even to the point of misinformation, when one tech... Read more →

What apps are on my Android this year

More than incremental improvements I am a strong advocate of not upgrading software, unless it has to do with security patches or significant improvements that benefit me. In the Google store app on my Android, I have auto-update turned off, and so I have 48 apps waiting with updates. They can continue to wait. A decade after the iPhone launched the full-screen touch-with-finger paradigm, the app market is mature. Most apps do what we need them to do. There rarely are breakthrough apps anymore. I am more likely to get a new phone than a new app. But once in... Read more →

What it's like to have a cell phone with 5000mAh battery

ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom Cell phones used to have great battery life, lasting weeks. Credit the low-res, monochrome screen for that. Then a decade ago Apple came up with a power-sucking full-screen phone where most of the innards consisted of a battery that might power the phone for most of a day. It is sad that technology crucial to our daily lives can't make it through a single one of our daily lives. Recall the post-iPhone launch scenes at airports of desperate-looking business people squatting next to precious power outlets -- assuming that the airport made any available to the... Read more →

Why I gave up on the UMI Super smartphone

Three strikes and you're out I was pretty enthusiastic about the Umi (since renamed Umidigi) Super smartphone, with its big battery, high-end smartphone specs, and an under-$200 pricetag. I've written about it three other times on this blog. It's a beautiful-looking phone (see figure below; image source: gearbest.com), runs stock Android 7, and, while it worked, I loved it. The last time I reported on it here, the glass had smashed after falling on an uneven ceramic tile floor. No worries! Due to circumstances, I had a second one. Half-a-day and I had replicated the apps and widgets on the... Read more →

How I access the Internet internationally

Global data roaming One of the headaches of traveling internationally is how to communicate using our cell phones in country to country. Roaming access (as it is known) can be expensive, whether to make phone calls, send text messages, or connect to the Internet. In the early days of the Internet, we would visit Internet cafes, or borrow the use of an Internet-connected computer from family and friends. With the advent of WiFi, we could tap our laptops into their home or office network systems, assuming they knew the password (some did not!). Today with our phones, we can access... Read more →

Recovering from a smashed smartphone

Set Up Nearby Device The worst thing in life is being punished for doing a good deed. I spent most of four days last week stripping wallpaper and painting my mother-in-law's bathroom. Listening to Radio Paradise on my smartphone, it fell by itself five feet from the window ledge onto the ceramic tile floor below, smashing its Gorilla 3 glass spectacularly. I found that the UMI Super phone and its display still worked; only the touch aspect was gone -- plus the glass featuring dozens of cracks. Why did the glass smash -- even though it had an extra protective... Read more →

There are Four Androids

And this is one of them There is one Android name for the operating system that runs on smartphones, tablets, and even a few laptops. But there are four versions of it, something iOS users are unaware of. Google releases two versions, and then smartphone makers sell hardware with four different kinds. There is the official Android operating system from Google that includes Google's own software for downloading apps (Play store), search, and so on. Then there is the AOSP version, the Android open source project at https://source.android.com, which Google makes available for anyone to use, tweak, and reuse for... Read more →

Umi Super phone: 3 months later

$200 It's been three months since I got my latest smartphone, a $200 Umi Super that has the specs of phones 3x the price, and so I thought I'd update you on my experience. Was it worth buying a phone direct from China to save $400 or so? As a reminder, this is a 5.5" Android 7.0 phone running at 2.0GHz, with 4GB operating RAM and 32GB storage RAM (24GB free) with room for two microSIM cards, and a 4000mAhr battery. Umi has since renamed itself Umidigi. Was it worth it? It is now. The first two months were a... Read more →

Converting from miniUSB to USB-C

Lots of new cables The supremacy of miniUSB was wonderful while it lasted. One connector to rule all of our portable devices. A USB cable and charger everywhere -- car, bedroom, kitchen, office, airplanes... Then it was improved, and made incompatible to our singular system. The new one, dubbed USB-C, was reversible and powerful. We no longer need to squint to figure out which side is the fatter one. And the new standard is power-full enough that it can be used to charge even computers. The 'C' in USB-C can be thought of as third generation USB, or as charging... Read more →

How 32GB is 3x More than 16GB

Available Space Most Android smartphones need 8GB of storage to handle the operating system, the cache, data storage, and so on. When you buy an 8GB model, there isn't much storage space available! A 16GB model has 8GB free. A 32GB model has 24GB free -- three times as much. And that's how a 32GB can be 3x more than 16GB. Read more →

How much power does a USB outlet give your phone?

It depends The more power a USB outlet provides, the faster it charges your phone. A new Android app named 'Ampere' answers the question. I installed it on my new UMI Super cell phone, and then went around plugging it into a variety of USB outlets. This phone uses the new USB-C port, and supports fast charging. With stories of mini-chargers bursting into flame, I've been on a quest to replace all stand-alone chargers in our home. I now use UPSes [uninterruptible powe r supplies] that include USB ports, power bars from reputable makers that include USB ports, and replaced... Read more →

Update on UMI Super phone

Audio A-OK After using my new UMI Super smartphone a few more days, I can report on more experiences. Audio Quality. The vendor, UMI, had promised the audio would be fabulous. And it is -- whether listening by corded headphones, Bluetooth ones, or plugged directly into a fine stereo. As I noted in my earlier review, this $200 phone still boasts a 3.5mm headphone jack, unlike $800 models from other cellphone companies, such as that one in California. For even better sound, I recommend the Neutron app, which uses advanced processing to improve the sound even more. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mp&hl=en Battery Life.... Read more →

My first two days with my new $200 superphone

UMI Super As this is the weekend in Barcelona where the world's biggest cell phone makers unveil their new $800 superphone models for 2017 -- with the exception of Apple and Google, who always skip MWC -- I thought it is fitting to write about my new $200 superphone. Every so often, a product line reaches a peak, and then begins to fade. First time I experienced this was with a cassette tape deck in the mid-1970s. I bought a Hitachi D-850, which for me was as perfect a design there could ever be -- even down to the light-yellow... Read more →

My new laptop is $1000 cheaper than my old one

Chuwi Hi12 My dual-boot tablet stopped working. Dead. None of my revival techniques worked on it, and so it was time for a new tablet that boots into Android and Windows 10. As I perused the possibilities, I came across the 12" tablet made by Chuwi. There are very few 12" (or larger) tablets around, as mass production to keep prices down dictates that 7", 8", or 10" screens be employed, whether by a generic brand or by Apple. Hi12 tablet from Chuwi with detachable keyboard (image source XiaomiToday) The Chuwi Hi12 is a dual-boot tablet (Android 5.1 and Windows... Read more →

Why aren't tablet keyboards sporting a second battery?

Makes too much sense I've always thought that the best form factor for a tablet is the one that Asus pioneered with its TF-100 line -- a tablet with a detachable keyboard, the keyboard housing additional ports and a second battery. The TF is short for transformer. I own(ed) one, but it is now so old that it is too painful to use anymore. To my great puzzlement, this format never came to dominate the world. It just makes sense: a proper keyboard, full-size USB, SD, and other ports, and a second battery that not only doubles the tablet's run... Read more →

A USB cable more useful than most

We no longer have to pay $10 or $15 for USB cables from Staples or BestBuy. In fairness to them, they need to charge a lot for optional extras to make up for low profits in big-ticket items. But as consumers, we have a right to the best prices, and so we can get USB cables from dollar stores for $1 or $2. There is a catch to those dollar cables. Phones used to be content to charge at a rate of 1 amp/hour, but today's phones have big batteries and tablets have even bigger ones, and so they need... Read more →