2018 ends - what did you buy - 2019 - what do you want?

I’m still waiting on Apple putting USB-C in iPhones, then my life will be complete. If not, I’m afraid I’m going to start considering switching to Android.

Still looking to see what watch to buy. Any recommendations?

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Once I put them on it was obvious they have to be custom fit. The basic way glasses stay on your head is the curve behind the ear, resisting the weight to fall off your nose. To then have the speakers press against cheekbones needs them to be precise width and length.

I think I now know why these two approaches are vying, the custom fit bone conduction, and the projecting into your ears. Anker approach of in ear is more universal.

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As someone who has to wear bone conduction headphones about once a year for twenty minutes, I can tell you, they’re bloody uncomfortable.

During my very brief moment in the T.A. (army reserve), we wore a set up of a mic that strapped around your throat (in the same way ventriloquists do) and a large pad over one ear. You only had to mumble/whisper and everyone heard you clearly.

Bone conduction has to be in a precise location on the head to work, and to make sure they work, they’re very very tightly pressed against your head.

That tallies with my one and only experience yesterday.

It makes sense now these two:

Where they fit them to you

and where its not bone conducting at all but projecting sound into the canal without being inside the canal:

If Anker were to do the latter type I’m sure the $20 or so cost added to a pair of sunglasses would be appealing. The above are $1000 and $200 respectively. Ouch.

Typed with Soundcore Life in my ears. Sigh.

Got my latest toy.

It’s a Huawei Mediapad M5 10.8" with keyboard. Why this one? Well it comes down to the weirdness of the way the cellular network companies charge for phone lines vs data lines. A phone line often has more bundled data and it lower cost than a data line. This model is using a phone chipset, it shows up as a phone. Yes a 10.8" phone :scream:

I put my T-mobile phone SIM into the tablet and works, can make/receive calls. I got T-mobile line for “free” due to the weird way they priced family plans, 4 lines same price as 3 lines and it’s been a 2nd SIM in my phone for over a year not doing much for me. Now it’s in this “laptop”. T-mobile gives “binge on” media streaming unlimited not part of your data, on phone lines, hence in this “laptop”.

Fast CPU, high res screen, detachable keyboard so I have 3 modes, laptop, portrait tablet or landscape tablet, and has SD slot, quad stereo speakers.

I am not recommending this, it is not perfect. It has a known issue the WiFi and BT antenna is the same so if you BT you cannot WiFi 2.5Ghz so make use of 5Ghz. It is USB-C but 2.0 not 3.0 so cannot do for example HDMI via the Anker dongle I own.

There will be some kind of Anker Powerport and which works well it. I don’t intend to get a Powercore for this, as I probably can use my old cheap method of proactively use the stock 2A output from regular Powercore.

Ryan, relative to your Asus 302 Chromebook it’s better/worse in areas. I gain basically cellular, accidentally for free, but I lose USB 3 so cannot HDMI, I lose USB-PD but I can get around that with 2A Powercore (I have the 26800 non-PD), I gain better speakers, the keyboard is worse (attachable wiggle so it’s more desk than lap). I can work around the lack of HDMI via a Chromecast which I cast to over WiFi using the tablet’s Wifi, so I have a portable projector like capability just need a HDMI port on a screen. Works so-so.

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WOW! that’s one of the most resourceful setups I have ever seen. Nicely done. I’m impressed with it showing up as a cellular phone instead of a laptop. Did the T Mobile have anything to say about that? I imagine their reps would be mostly bewildered by your requests and explanations :joy:

Truthfully, I use my USBC to HDMI mostly for presentations, videoconferences, and other applications where the wireless is already bearing an overload and has additional restrictions. I like the peace of mind of a wired connection in those times :cold_sweat:

I love the tablet / laptop conversion though. That’s some tdd hing about the c302 I dont like - it keeps its keyboard on and makes tablet mode unbearably heavy for longer periods of use.

All in all, that’s a sweet setup. Nice work!

No, and not required. I moved an existing Sim from my made in China OnePlus phone to my made in China Huawei phone which is inside a 10.8" form factor. No involvement of anyone.

I checked all the specs, due to battery and heating concerns primarily, tablets are not actually more pixels or faster hardware than phones, they just have lower pixel density per inch and a bigger battery. There is no inherently underlying reason a tablet now pulls more data than a phone. If anything the opposite as you would still use the phone more due to being pocketable.

Personally I prefer Chromebooks, the multitasking in ChromeOS is better, the keyboard is better. But in 2019 it’s weird. Chromebooks now there is only 1 model with LTE and it needs a data SIM which over time makes it double or more in cost.

I just plugged in Anker 2A output to this and the steepness of the recharge is about the same as steepness of the discharge, implying stock 2A 5V is plenty enough to keep charged and to recharge.

The irony here is my “laptop” was cheaper than my phone, this tablet is using prior generation phone chipsets, it’s just a bigger physical screen so lower pixel density in a device which can house a much bigger battery, that size can then make a laptop keyboard a viable size (typing on it now).

I suspect the later 2019 into 2020 version will be the newer Snapdragon chipsets. So faster and better LTE / 5G.
.

I have 3 “phones”

  • an LTE smart watch for incoming calls when not expecting to be contacted
  • 6" phone
  • 10.8" laptop

So we are beginning to see the hint of the 2020/21 version of tech. Everything is connected, it is form factor size differences

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So I got a Huawei Mediapad M5 which “fast charge” and I was searching for what charging protocol. Guess what, it is
similar to USB PD.

I let the device go sufficiently battery drained it would want to pull the maximum charge, I put a USB-C meter on it and it was recharging at 9V 2A so 18W from the supplied charger. So I figured that is actually one of the options of a USB PD charger, so I plugged in the USB-C 5 port I got as a gift from Anker last year and it worked. I was getting 9V 2A from that.

So I have now a pretty good 2019 setup, I have a “laptop” with 10.8" screen, keyboard, with a good battery life, with LTE which works globally, it does recharge off my existing Powercore, like a 26800 or 10000 I have, and a charger which can recharge them all overnight.

Now I just need Anker to make USB-C buds :sunglasses:

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