While Mint is promising price locks and such, they’re now fully a T-Mobile company and will probably begin to operate like the Magenta one with new offerings only for new plans and regularly losing all your billing data to the dark web. Oh well…
I feel like there should be a Minty Mobile logo but I’m out of time today..
January 2019 I purchased two Nest Cam IQs, and other than a bad cable that fried two cameras in a row it’s been a pretty unremarkable experience. Both of them however decided to stop working at night five years and 3 months into service.
It started with one of my front cameras. It went to night vision all the time at first meaning daytime was unrecognizable and nighttime was just normally bad video. The camera out back started looking like I was looking at a completely destroyed piece of reddish cellophane at night.
Both cases I suspect are due to the IR filter that gets moved into place at night. The damaged one for the rear camera looks a bit like water intrusion turned to ice and expanded on a gel filter, and my guess for the front yard camera is that the mechanism that moves the filter into place is no longer functioning. Either way I have no night vision on two cameras, and suspect it probably had something to do with them being extremely cold earlier this year.
The other functions of the camera work fine, so for daylight they’re great and for me, with a whole lot of cameras to test, it’s not a huge issue but is kind of annoying when you’re no longer able to purchase the same cameras and functionality with Nest Aware, and the current Google offerings are not something I would consider (I got one, the Home App still an incomplete mess. Enough of that.)
This will be a running review of the NARWAL Freo X Plus until it’s complete at which point this line won’t be here. I will update it as anything new occurs.
TL;DR – running review, good hardware, software needs work.
The NARWAL Freo X Plus is a sub $400 vacuum with a lift/drag mop and a 7-week onboard storage dust bin that can be either reused or tossed (separate bins included) and on paper it’s on par with my current favorite vacuum minus Google Home/Assistant support and a vibrating mop. This hasn’t replaced Rhonda, people who managed to turn these reviews around in under a month of use concern me for their attention to detail as I’m planning to run this like I run a long haired dog grooming shop.
The Freo X Plus features a tangle-free brush, 7800Pa suction, Tri-laser navigation and obstacle avoidance, LiDAR SLAM 4.0, and claims it will not be bumping into things. It also does mopping and vacuuming in one pass with a slightly retractable mop.
The ultra quiet dust emptying solution is that you empty it when you feel like it. This unit does not have a docking station that empties. They reused a different unit’s format on Amazon listing it appears.
Narwal Freo X Plus specs
all specs lifted from press sheet / formatted like I receive them
A total of three buttons (reset/start/recall) for user-robot interaction
Intelligent carpet cleaning
Intelligent carpet cleaning The robot can automatically recognize hard floors and carpets of high pile and low pile, and take different cleaning strategies accordingly
Voice assistant
Siri
Others
Cleaning report after a cleaning task is completed
NARWAL Freo X Plus unboxing and initial impressions
Due to a microphone issue the unboxing video I shot is going to be edited to be a silent film reminiscent of the 1920s inspired by the film Hundreds of Beavers and will be coming later. This was like every puck vacuum I’ve ever opened with the exception of the two disposable dust bins they include. The disposable bin’s bag, and the bags that surround items to protect them are the same thickness and I almost ripped through one as I thought it was stuck on a filter. Don’t rip anything. It’s not required.
There’s a nice thick manual you’ll never use, and pulling off the foam protector and two taped on shipping tabs you’re ready to go. My Freo X Pro was not initially. I could not get it to power on until after I plugged it into the dock. This may be in the instruction manual. I will look and edit this if it is, but it is something to note that I needed to put it on a charger the first time.
Registration requires an email address and that appeared to be it. A code is emailed, it shows up a minute or two later, enter that and you’re ready to go. The software warned me it only worked in 2.4ghz mode, but worked fine on my AP that handles both.
I was informed my firmware needed updated and then informed that the update failed almost instantly. A few attempts get it to download and update, but the app never registered that the vacuum had updated and I eventually exited the app and came back in.
I chose a room at my work that in theory was vacuumed recently but people keep going in there to scream (no, I really have no idea why.) Figured it would be a good first test. as the room looked fairly clean with one little piece of paper no bigger than a pinky fingernail sitting near a corner.
Now, the software looks a whole lot like the software I’ve used on Roborock so there’s a chance I just blew through something important but after a nice and short room mapping session I thought I was ready to go. I chose vacuum and mop, as I expected that maybe it would pick up the plastic chair protectors on the floor as a mopable surface, and said go.
Should there be any question – standard office carpet
The very first thing the NARWAL Freo X Plus did was make a quick hard turn, grab the power cord, and proceed to spend about a minute and a half fighting, knocking the base around, and completely destroying the setup. It finally escaped and I repositioned the station directly underneath the power outlet and hung the cable up carefully so it could not do that again.
I wandered out, came back a few minutes later and it had docked and I got that the cleaning was complete. The little piece of paper was still where it laid.
I started the unit up again to clean, it came out about two feet, turned, went to the wall, turned, came back, turned and went to the docking station telling me it was done. I tried pressing the button up top, same results. I told it to mop only. Same results. Told it to vacuum only. Same results.
I decided to delete the map and try again. After my second quick mapping, on the first run I decided to stay for the entire thing. It drove to three locations in the room, turned around at each, and went directly back to the base unit.
Everything discovered was listed as don’t go there. I had to edit the map
I went to edit the map and evidently everything it had mapped was listed as don’t vacuum/mop. Changing this to ignore resulted in the vacuum actually working although it does concern me why it would discover and then default to don’t clean here.
I ran the unit again, the piece of paper on the ground was removed, and things looked pretty good. It vacuumed up a fair amount of dirt, about what I would expect our cleaner’s vacuum to have left. It also vacuumed up a spider that is alive and I can now never touch the thing again.
I decided to run the unit again and choose extreme power… whoo hoo. a while later (24 minutes if I remember correctly,) I got the notification that it was done and successful. I opened the app and noticed the puck indicating the vacuum was not at the base station. I went into the office and yeah, it stopped. No reason given. No error message saying something prevented it from returning to the dock. Just stopped. Appears to have done a good job, but it stopped. Worked once, then done. Screw it boss I’m taking a nap right here.
Exactly where I found it.
I have attempted to wipe and restart and there is no evident option to do this from the software.
Evidently I chose vacuum and mop assuming it would not mop my carpet. With however my map is set up however that was not the case. Maybe the carpet sensors are not detecting my carpet as carpet. I have now manually set it to carpet.
2d view shows cleaning progress3d view doesn’t
Thus far
Keeping in mind this review isn’t done
Software needs some work
Vacuum is fairly quiet compared to other less powerful vacuums
Doesn’t detect plastic floor coverings as a different surface – no mopping for them
Obstacle avoidance doesn’t appear to avoid low hanging wires
You have to remove the entire top to access dust and water containers. Attempting to access water container knocks it out of the charging dock.
Chairs, tables, etc do not appear to be recognized. They are avoided but this makes defining no go zones a bit difficult.
3D view doesn’t show cleaning progress, no detected furniture or obstacles listed (maybe after more than 5 runs?)
No hair tangled on brush, but too early to go “whoo hoo!”
No recall / return to home from the app? (button works)
Wrapping up for the moment
I can not manufacture time and enough dirt and hair to complete the testing this needs at this point but at the moment I speculate that a software and firmware update are going to make this an extremely good little vacuum, but at the moment due to the experience the NARWAL Freo X Plus is a bit frustrating and I consider just ok. We’ll see tomorrow when I throw it in a room it needs to mop and vacuum.
Robosen Robotics Teams Up with Hasbro to Debut the World’s First Auto-Converting Decepticon – Megatron!
By Combining Robosen’s Industry Leading Robotic Expertise and Proprietary Servo Motor Technology, Along with One of the Most Beloved Franchises, Megatron Ushers in Next-Gen Robotics Which Will Provide Fans Hours of Endless Entertainment in an Immersive App & Voiced Activated Experience
(Los Angeles, CA and Shenzhen, China)—April 25, 2024—Robosen Robotics Innovation, Inc – a leading innovator in the field of consumer entertainment robotics, today announced during a Hasbro Pulse Fan Stream, the World’s First Auto-Converting Decepticon leader – Megatron! Joining the growing line of TRANSFORMERS robots created by Robosen and licensed by leading toy and game company Hasbro, the Flagship Megatron enters the battle against the Autobots with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Grimlock already available and on the market for order. The Flagship Megatron, first Decepticon collectible in the range, is now available for pre-order at Robosen.com and will retail on pre-sale for $899 USD for a 30-day window before moving to its standard price of $1,199.
After over 3 years of rigorous R&D, the talented team at Robosen has successfully produced a new, awe-inspiring conversion process with Megatron changing from robot to tank instantly, via app or voice! Coupled with a comprehensive set of functions, including automatic convertible movements from tank to robot, a new and more fluid bipedal walking algorithm, integration of 112 ultra-bright LEDs, an arsenal of incredible included weapons, and a brilliant silver-metallic finish that embodies the true essence of the ominous leader. The Flagship Megatron is poised to dominate any Autobot that stands in his way at a staggering 21” tall and is equipped with 36 servo motors along with 118 microchips powering it from the inside.
Robosen continues to develop a truly interactive experience for the millions of TRANSFORMERS fans worldwide, with its ever growing cast of TRANSFORMERS robots, which can now stage engaging scenes through Mini-Theater (a feature within the app), bringing these beloved characters to life right before your eyes! With all this astonishing technology and capabilities built into the Flagship Megatron, Robosen completes the savage leader in the most authentic way possible – building in the treasured talents of Frank Welker, the original voice of the 1984 G1 Megatron himself! Going into the studio specifically for this launch, Frank Welker recorded over 270+ unique lines and beloved phrases, which allow users to experience Megatron like never before, and in the most genuine way.
“We have been eagerly waiting to launch the most incredible, high-end TRANSFORMERS robot available on the market,” said Hansen Su, Founder and CEO of Robosen. “Our engineers have brought Megatron to life! Through the 50 engaging actions built in – the original voice of Frank Welker – to the most amazing converting process we have been able to achieve. Megatron in either tank or robot mode will bring any fan pure joy when they see it for the first time! It’s a beautiful product – we can’t wait for customers to get theirs!”
“Released in time for the TRANSFORMERS franchise’s 40th anniversary this year, the Flagship Megatron offers an exciting expansion to our existing line with Robosen as we introduce the first Decepticon to the mix. Now, fans can play out the battle between good and evil with stunning, state-of-the-art bots as we honor the franchise’s legacy and embark on the next four decades of action and adventure,” said Casey Collins, President, Licensed Consumer Products, Hasbro.
All Robosen products and collectibles are meticulously designed and crafted with state-of-the-art, high-grade metal alloy parts, combining a classic industrial design with the most cutting-edge robotic technology, while providing an ultimate entertaining experience filled with programming, and pure fun!
About Robosen
Robosen Robotics Innovation Inc (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd, is a leading innovator in the field of robotics, leading the way in digital drive technology, artificial joint driving algorithms, force feedback technology, artificial intelligence, and programming. For more information, please visit https://www.robosen.com
About Hasbro
Hasbro is a leading toy and game company whose mission is to entertain and connect generations of fans through the wonder of storytelling and exhilaration of play. Hasbro delivers play experiences for fans of all ages around the world, through toys, games, licensed consumer products, digital games and services, location-based entertainment, film, TV, and more. With a portfolio of over 1,800 iconic brands including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, Hasbro Gaming, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH and PEPPA PIG, as well as premier partner brands, Hasbro brings fans together wherever they are, from tabletop to screen.
Hasbro is guided by our Purpose to create joy and community for all people around the world, one game, one toy, one story at a time. For more than a decade, Hasbro has been consistently recognized for its corporate citizenship, including being named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by 3BL Media, one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute and one of the 50 Most Community-Minded Companies in the U.S. by the Civic 50. For more information, visit https://corporate.hasbro.com or @Hasbro on LinkedIn.
The TRANSFORMERS brand is a global powerhouse franchise with millions of fans around the world. Since 1984, the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons has come to life in movies, TV shows, comic books, innovative toys, and digital media, bringing incredible “MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE” experiences to fans of all ages. The brand’s enduring connection is made possible by its rich storytelling and characters: the heroic Autobots who seek to protect all life, and the evil Decepticons who seek to conquer the universe. The TRANSFORMERS brand is a Hasbro franchise.
💥 "I'm Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons!" 💥🤖 Introducing the World's First Auto-Converting Decepticon - Megatron Flagship Edition by #Robosen. A Tribut...
After surgery I had a couple of months of recovery that involved me watching a whole lot of YouTube. One of the things I really focused in on was lockpicking. It’s like solving a puzzle to me and I have thus far enjoyed doing it.
TL;DR – more on Paul’s hobby, nobody is forcing you to read this. Want more Android content / submit some.
It’s taught me a new way of thinking of security. I mean, not that the average criminal isn’t just going to bash in your door with a sledgehammer, or cut your lock off the shed, or just take your bike because over half the bike locks out there are garbage.
I bought a few locks the past couple of weeks. I’m not locking anything up, I just wanted a variety to practice with.
The lock above I managed to open using shims, picking, and I used a comb (yes, I know it’s the wrong style lock to use it on now,) and using said comb evidently managed to hit something behind the keyway and open it. Only managed the comb open once. This was my first shimming and easier than expected.
I bought another lock that I can’t pick without a disc detainer tool. Eh, my bad. I did however discover that they’re using only one key for the entire lock run because my key and the product key are the same, and other reviewers of the lock have mentioned they have the exact same key pictured on the Amazon page. So if you ever see a “top security” branded lock and want to open it evidently that’ll cost you $8.99 if it’s the one I have.
I also picked up two combo locks to try out my decoder tool and yeah, nothing. I feel nothing. I can sort of slow the wheels down but there’s no difference in feel. The time I spent attempting to decode the wheels I could have easily sawed through the locks. May be shielded, may be I am no good at it. Who knows.
Fun times. I have a training lock I need to assemble and practice on, and a couple of doors to attack, but that’s for another day. I’ve got to plow through working on some reviews now.
I get about 200 emails a day in my Pocketables email pitching me various gadgets, books, Turtle Rescues for some reason, telco updates, etc. I have subscribed to a total of 1 of these emails and the rest are the result of various companies putting me into a list they sell to various buyers who are told I am interested in their verticals.
TL;DR – short blog on fake research used for SEO
And for the most part they’ve been pretty on brand…
Recently I started getting expert commentary from, I’m going to say, not experts. At least not experts in their fields currently.
The format is the same – some interesting piece of commentary on how your air purifier is going to kill you or that charging your phone overnight will burn your house down and about a page and a half of text that could be generated by ChatGPT and contains the wisdom of 2006 without any of the collective learnings of the past 18 years.
I caught my local news station using one of them the other day, a fairly innocuous tidbit I’d passed on because it wasn’t phones, gadgets, or anything to catch my attention. A shout out to the source was mentioned and amused me they hadn’t checked it, or were ok sourcing an online casino ranking website as a researcher.
But the format is the same, research, some text, claiming someone’s an expert and if you use their research link to them. The researchers tend to be casinos and gambling sites, web developers looking to increase their SEO, personal injury lawyers, and other people known for their researching capabilities.
The findings presented are generally in the format of the articles that ruined the internet in 2012 with the methodology maybe mentioned but no table data given or links to where the data was pulled, and that would be all right if everything were correct… but it’s not usually.
It’s never done by firms that specialize in research… never…
So yeah, if you see “a new study has revealed…” or “a cell phone expert on why you should/shouldn’t” maybe bear in mind a lot of these are now the result of asking ChatGPT to study something and then comment on it, and they were not checked for validity because the expert producing them is not an expert in that field.
Unknown Tracker Alerts is a feature in Android that will look for Bluetooth trackers and report if any that are separated from their owner are in operation around you. This should tell you when someone has planted a tracker on your car, but should not tell you when Dave walks in with his keychain Tile finder (since it’s not separated from him for any length of time).
Here’s my story – A friend of mine dropped off her car for a couple of weeks and asked me and my wife to drive it occasionally to keep the battery juiced and the wheels not dry rotting. She’s in another state, will be back in two to three weeks, no big whoop. I mention this because she is currently separated from her AirTag on her keychain (in my possession,) and a Tile tracker sitting in her car.
I didn’t think anything much about this yesterday as I drove her car around, but then realized today that either both of her trackers have died in one week in my possession, or the tracker finder simply is not working on the current version of Android on my Pixel 8 Pro (yes, it’s turned on). Alternately she left some device in her car which is telling the trackers they’re still connected to the owner.
Checking the documentation on Android’s Unknown Tracker Alerts it lists Apple AirTags by name, and Find My Device network compatible trackers, where Tile is listed as one such.
Initiating a manual scan similarly nets no unknown trackers. Both of these are separated from the owner for over a week, and device they were set up on (presumably her phone) by several hundred miles for a week now. I would suspect I should be getting alerts.
Have you ever gotten an alert? Know any reason why I’m not? Would be interested to know why it’s not working as I drove for at least 50 miles yesterday in that car.
Not attempting to manufacture outrage, really just wondering if anyone has ever seen a warning when traveling with someone else’s trackers separate from the phone they were paired to.
The next day (I don’t write these all at once)
I checked with the owner of the tags who said it’s possible the batteries were shot, and I just so happened to have a pack of CR2032s laying around so I replaced the AirTag battery (which was listing as weak but not dead according to my battery tester,) heard the beep from the AirTag (have not investigated the tile yet) and I drove around yesterday with a functioning AirTag that is not mine sitting in my car waiting for an alert.
It never came.
I manually scanned for unknown trackers, no trackers detected. This was odd as I was right next to it. Went and manually scanned again and Android finally found the AirTag tracker.
I now have the AirTag found from a manual scan, but this does not seem to have ever alerted me that a tracker was around. I drove in with the AirTag today, no alerts… not sure if there will be any due to finding it in a manual scan.
Pixel 8 Pro, current Android revision (April 2024)
Updates
At 19 hours of having the new battery in I was informed a device was traveling with me. Now, whether this is 19 hours or several days (since the last battery did have a charge,) I’d really rather cut that down to a few minutes personally as if someone plants this on my car I don’t really want it sitting broadcasting my location.
The alert (first picture up there) was what I received this morning. The first detected time is probably when the manual scan caught it. That tracker was within 50 feet of me most of the day. Second picture is several miles away from my house where it had pinpointed the tracker. Yeah I’m not doxxing myself.
It feels a bit like someone could slip this on your car at the bar, use it, come and rob you/whatever, and be gone before the tracker alert ever kicked in.
I was able to make the tracker beep and locate it (knowing exactly where it was anyway) but yikes.
The Narwal Freo X Plus is a new puck robo vac from Narwal that brings something new to the table: “Guaranteed 0% tangle rate with pet fur and long hair up to 16 inches.”
Right now I am in the process of testing and reviewing the Narwal Freo X Plus. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of hair or filthy floors to really give it a good short turnaround review (it was received last week). A real review is going to come later when it’s been used and exposed to a real environment. Consider this marketing for the review rather than an endorsement.
If like me most of your interactions with your robot vacuum involve taking a knife and removing hair from a large lump that used to be the brush, you’ll know what a difference this could make.
The Narwal Freo X Plus appears to be a more self-contained version of the Freo X Ultra with a minimalist docking station and slightly less suction, however having not reviewed that one I can’t go line by line comparing them.
7800pa suction tops the charts in terms of tiny but mighty suction, although as we’ve discussed previously that it’s airflow that counts more than suction power. Both really, but we’ll see.
It packs nearly two months of onboard dust and waste storage, a removable disposable storage bag, and claims to be able to avoid bumping into things utilizing multiple LiDAR systems to do so.
Like my beloved Rhonda, it has an intelligent lifting mop that will lift a third of an inch so that it doesn’t drag smelly mop water across your rug.
The software looks cool… at least in the previews. Reminds me a bit of the Xaomi/Roborock software and I wonder if they aren’t the same thing (this is how early I am in testing this).
Anyway, I will have a review when I have it tested. The Narwal Freo X Plus looks like a pet-lover’s dream, but so have many other vacuums I’ve tested before that made this claim. We’ll see how it fairs against two shorthaired cats and three longhaired humans.
There is / was an early bird discount using code NARWALNEW001. I am assuming this was on their website.
Reviews from Vine (Amazon’s free review program) tend to indicate it’s currently well loved, however these are first week reviews of free product and I highly doubt anyone can give this a thorough review until they’ve lived with it a bit.
Narwal Freo X Plus specs
all specs lifted from press sheet / formatted like I receive them
A total of three buttons (reset/start/recall) for user-robot interaction
Intelligent carpet cleaning
Intelligent carpet cleaning The robot can automatically recognize hard floors and carpets of high pile and low pile, and take different cleaning strategies accordingly
Voice assistant
Siri
Others
Cleaning report after a cleaning task is completed
Anyhow, I expect to have a rundown of how it fares against a whole lot of hair shortly.
Meta has thrown their version of Ai into the fray against ChatGPT and Gemini with a no-account-required Ai that is accessible at meta.ai. Signing in using Facebook allows you to see previous chats and presumably remember other interactions.
Meta’s image generation is surprising as it generates images while you’re typing. It generates slightly faster than I can type so there’s something at every word.
It also has the ability to create a video of quite a few of the changes it made during creating your final image. Just from this it missed a chunk, but I’m not sure how much AI bandwidth actually needs to be devoted to my attempts at creating a bar scene with a guinea pig and a cockatiel looking at an HTC EVO 4G and checking social media while a kung fu fight is breaking out behind them.
As LLMs go it’s really fast, which I enjoy after watching Copilot (chatgpt) slowly type out the answers.
I threw some questions at Meta Ai, most were “help me remember this” but it seems like there’s a popular culture filter it’s seeing the world through (in other words, a couple of old novellas I was attempting to figure out the names of it did not have much of a clue on.)
Side note – if you happen to have read a short story about a person being introduced to an Ai that generates historical figures that teach us that our pronunciation of Latin is incorrect and that AI Napoleon must be banned from internet access, drop me a line. I couldn’t get any of the 3 major AIs to look into old Sci-Fi.
The instant image generation makes this amazing, the lack of internet and ability to research sort of puts it into my “check back later” category because I need current, not late 2022. My needs, however are not yours. This does some terrific image generation, text generation, but can’t do my research for me. This may be incorrect, it does appear to have some 2024 info I’m just not seeing much of it in my queries.
There’s an AI generated stamp in the bottom right that I did not intentionally blur, just something about getting this into WordPress via screenshot = blur. I suspect you’ll be looking for that blur on Facebook soon enough.
The hands are, as AI goes these days, terrible. The above image sort of got it right but most have hallucinating hands, elbows, etc. The dirty picture filtering algorithm is in full effect and somewhat laughable. Try and put a semi-transparent hat on someone doing yoga, it blurs things out because obviously transparent hats on women already doing yoga mean I’m going for nudity. But imaging a transparent hats with a woman under them doing yoga is fine.
Meta AI claims to have video generation via /video… however when I use it it just looks up videos that are on Facebook or Instagram… which it does appear to be connected to. Attempts to search for videos that I produced that are on Instagram or Facebook failed however… not really sure how this video searching is going.
Pretty awesome, needs some work, but all of them do. For now, as much as I dislike it, copilot is what’s working for current news, Meta appears to be seeing information from a couple of months back (at least on my site,) Copilot sees info from us a week ago. That said, Meta does not appear to have hallucinated anything other than hands.
This is from April 19th, and is not the image that I ended up with, but it's an interesting video showcasing what the Meta image generator spewed out as I ty...
A long time ago we started a cutover to Google Fiber. Our turn up date was to be February 1, 2020 and instead it ended up being April 4th, 2024 after literally years of not being able to get it working someone decided to actually take charge and get it done.
On April 4th they turned up the connection and that in itself was quite unexpected… this was the third time I’d signed up for a Google Fiber / GFiber account (when they can’t install for months they make you reschedule and eventually delete you if you don’t reschedule an install,) and I had no expectations it would install this time. Third time’s the charm (or 37th depending on if you count all the contractors who showed up over the past 4 years.)
April 4th post install they showed me a speed test, I conducted one of my own, things seemed fine and I went ahead and ordered the equipment I needed to use this as a secondary connection.
I actually had ordered it before, back in 2020, but that router ended up replacing a fried one in 2022 and I never really expected Google to come through so I did not have a router waiting on deck.
For the next few days I waited on my router to show, got it configured (correctly I will mention, I initially thought the router was to blame for this next part,) and hooked up and huh… suddenly GFiber is doing 5mbit down and about 500 up. I remove the router and plug in my phone and it’s high 600s both ways (this is due to the limitations of the USB to ethernet and Android, the connection I’m sure is going around 900)
Plug in my laptop and it’s 5mb down, 500 up (yes, I have down and up in the correct order, this is strange.) Try speedtest.net, google speed test, etc. Odd.
Desktop connected directly to the line that goes to the modem returns similar results. 5 down, 500 up. Phone returning 600/600. Huh… strange isn’t it? (hint: desktop has ipv6 disabled)
I finally figured out that IPv4 was the culprit. If you were only on IPv4 the download speed was limited to 5mb. I suspect the upload speed was only limited to 500 or so due to the download speed being throttled.
When on ip4 speedtests kept popping me out in Cupertino, CA… that’s a long way from Nashville, TN. Switching to or enabling IPv6 on the desktop suddenly resulted in 800/800 range. Same with the laptop. It felt like I was on the world’s slowest fiber VPN.
I contacted everyone who had worked to get this working in the past two months, no avail… one out and two not responding. Called tech support and told the person what I had done and was asked to do it again. Rrrrr… they are dispatching a tech on Monday because that is the only time that worked.
Said tech will show up, and if the problem is still there will say it’s a provisioning problem.
Sometime last night the IPv4 download speed problem went away. I came into a mostly functioning GFiber unit that is no longer limited to 5mb downloads on IP4. However the unit is still not functioning correctly as I have multiple devices plugged into the thing and the app can’t find my router or any device connected.
Screenshot from a minute ago. I’m literally writing this via this connection and 0 devices listed.
The web version of the GFiber modem can see devices with no issues.
The MikroTik also shows as a router in other pages on the board… going to guess my account isn’t provisioned in correctly there as well.
There do not appear to be any user facing controls to link the GFiber app to this modem. There is no way to tell the modem that I am using a router (which appears to be a feature of the app, which doesn’t see devices.) I can’t forward all traffic, restrict traffic, block mac addresses, or do pretty much anything I need to do to get this usable.
Fun times. I suspect at this point that it has never functioned properly, but is limping along and probably unnoticeable if you’re not looking.
And as of 10:40am it’s back to being 4.7mbit download / 489.62 upload
Like far too many good things that come out of Google, it is going away. There will be a Pixel VPN variant spun off, at least until they finish digging the grave for it over in the Google Graveyard.
My statement at the end of the article will sure look disingenuous if Ezoic’s context sensitive advertising kicks in and starts promoting VPN brands.
I didn’t use Google One VPN much, and I suspect anyone seriously wanting a real VPN didn’t because it didn’t encrypt traffic while using phone data, only on Wi-Fi. A good VPN is tasked with more than just protecting you from the leaky Wi-Fi, it’s for protecting you from crappy website tracking (and your phone’s carrier,) and if I left a tab open and walked out of Wi-Fi range, well there you go. WebsiteX could now piece together who you are from advertising networks.
That said, it was a useful little took to protect while joining sus networks. Just not a service I would remotely rely on if I were doing anything that could get me tracked and killed by state-sponsored actors. I wonder if this is why it wasn’t used much.
The VPN was included as part of signing up for Google One, which I had to do when I exceeded my free Google account storage limit.
If you’re looking for a replacement for Google’s VPN please be aware that websites recommending VPN services typically make 50% commission rates referring you to a VPN service and have a $30 reason quite often to say “VPNX IS THE BEZZZT!” I did some VPN reviews a while back and realized that I could not actually test whether they worked as stated or not without committing a number of crimes for YEARS, a felony or two, or pissing off the head of some country that sanctions state-sponsored remote executions.
None of those tests did I have interest in finding out that the VPN actually kept logs or backdoors or some way to identify me.
With that in mind, I’ve used PIA as a VPN. It has sufficed. Do your research, pick your own, realize when you get a “free” one that you are paying for it one way or the other. Also support blogs that bring you things you like without them having to resort to becoming 90% advertising and VPN of the week pushers. Really, ask what commission rates are now. I had *great* financial incentive to sell out.
I mentioned before I decided to take up lockpicking as something I could do following surgery while I recovered and was awake for 8 minutes at a stretch. The videos on each lock are usually short (depending on who you’re watching,) it involves puzzle solving, and it’s a relatively low cost hobby that teaches you magician tricks and can get your 1970’s filing cabinet you lost the key to open.
I have no idea how many McNally Official, Lockpicking Noob, or Lockpicking Lawyer videos I watched, nor how many I slept through post hospital, but it was a fair chunk of them.
My trying to figure out how to take a cool lockpicking picture using one hand and failing miserably
I picked up these little beasts at Amazon. Priced at $12 for two I figured it was probably a fun starting lock as it looked like it could be picked with an errant glance, and I was at that point beyond noob. By real lock I need you to understand it’s not a trainer lock, I’m not saying anything beyond that. The manufacturer claims they’re real and offers protection.
The hardest part I had was the little rivets all around the key area which blocked my turning tool in the position I’d practiced using the practice locks.
Raking opened it in a few seconds, single pin picking opened in under 30. I repeated over and over again and the times were about the same on either lock (both are keyed the same, and I am slow).
I hit it a few times and was unable to pop the lock that way but I’m also sans hammer. Plans are to shim it, take it home and break out the hammer (you would think I’d have one at work, but no,) but I’m stuck until I build some shims or go home for the day, or buy a hammer for work.
Eh, fun times.
Quarter million dollar surgery, now I have skills to break into school lockers given enough time.
Lessons I learned on my first real locks picked
If you watched on a 60+ inch tv screen you will find that it feels like you’re working with miniatures
The turning tools I purchased in a set were too large to fit in and not block the keyway. Luckily I had very tiny tools from a freebie pack I was sent for a software demo / lockpicking intro.
Oddly I had no issues identifying what pin I was on on a real lock where I used my imagination, I did have issues on a transparent lock
Being able to defeat $6 worth of lock somehow does not make me king of the world
Magic Editor, Photo Unblur, Magic Eraser and more enhanced editing features are coming to all Google Photos users — no subscription required.
What was launched as a Pixel exclusive, then extended into paid Google One territory, will soon be free for every Google Photos user starting May 15th.
You can now unblur photos, relight, move objects, magic erase an ex or a photo bomber, add portrait lighting, and probably a host of other features not listed.
Additionally non-Pixel owners get 10 saves a month from the Magic Editor (more if you have a Pixel or Google One subscription). Here you can reposition people, change the environment, and otherwise do neat stuff.
While I’m quite happy all of this is free now, it does go to show that all that Tensor-AI chip marketing was probably for show as this appears to be entirely server side editing (I’ve often wondered if the Tensor chip has done anything other than made Google Keyboard astonishingly quick at mishearing what I say).
Glad to see Google doing this, but now wonder what they’re going to Pixel exclusive for their next phone.
45 days or so from now… kind of a long time for an announcement from Google for a freebie.
I got word today that one of the 19 domains on my Google Domains account had migrated. I’m not really sure how they’re moving them because this one was registered / created at the exact same time as another one (it’s an .expert domain) which is also the same extension. My others I would see trickling in but I’ve got to believe that this and the other one had record numbers pretty darn close. EH, whatever.
The email when clicked on my phone threw up a warning about a suspicious site. I checked it from a computer and saw no evidence to support that, and when I checked again a couple of hours later that warning seemed to have been gone from my phone.
So far all I’ve had moved is a non-functioning domain I own. I am a tad nervous about what happens when Pocketables and theITbaby get moved, but here’s to hoping I don’t have a nightmare attempting to contact Squarespace along with 150,000 other webmasters.
Google Domains being sunset it still one of the weirdest shutdowns I’ve seen them pull… second only to building internet to my building and then not turning it on for 3 years.
They did make it pretty easy to log in and get a squarespace account and see existing domains… literally just logged in with my Google account. Now I am maintaining 19 domains on two different registrars… yay me.
Here are some live streams of coverage of the eclipse. They may work, they may not, they may end up becoming a fake Elon Musk promoting a crypto scam like one I saw yesterday.
You should never directly look at a video of an eclipse. Sure there are plenty of others but here are a few.
On Monday, April 8, at least 32 million people across the United States will find themselves in the path of a totality, where the moon will completely block ...
It’s April 4th, and the long running wind-down of yet another great Google service has completed. The grave is being dug over at the Google Graveyard, and Google now no longer does Podcasts remotely right. You can still move your data for another couple of months though.
A quick obituary from Gemini (it’s all AI from here, but it amused me so credit goes to Google)
Google Podcasts: A Pioneering Platform Falls Silent (2015-2024)
Google Podcasts, a once-prominent figure in the digital audio landscape, passed away on April 4, 2024. The cause of death is attributed to a long battle with fierce competition and an inability to adapt to the ever-evolving podcasting ecosystem.
Born in 2015, Google Podcasts entered the world with a bang, offering a clean and convenient way for Android users to discover and listen to their favorite shows. It quickly amassed a loyal following, lauded for its seamless integration with Google Assistant and other Google products.
In its prime, Google Podcasts boasted a vast library of content, encompassing everything from niche hobbyist shows to chart-topping true crime sagas. Its user-friendly interface made it a popular choice for casual listeners, while features like custom playlists and offline playback catered to the on-the-go crowd.
However, Google Podcasts’ reign was not without its challenges. Apple Podcasts, a pre-installed app on iPhones, maintained a dominant market share, making it difficult for Google to gain traction on iOS devices. Additionally, the platform struggled to keep pace with the rise of subscription services like Spotify and Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, which offered exclusive content and ad-free listening experiences.
While Google Podcasts attempted to innovate with features like curated recommendations and podcast chapters, these efforts proved insufficient. Critics pointed to a lack of discoverability for smaller podcasts and a clunky user experience compared to competitors.
The platform’s decline became increasingly apparent. Updates slowed, features became buggy, and the once-vibrant community of podcast creators dwindled. Google’s silence on the platform’s future only fueled speculation, ultimately leading to its quiet demise on April 4, 2024.
Despite its shortcomings, Google Podcasts leaves behind a legacy of accessibility. It democratized podcast listening, making it readily available to a vast audience, particularly on Android devices. Additionally, its integration with Google Search helped listeners discover new shows and voices they might not have encountered otherwise.
Google Podcasts is survived by its younger sibling, YouTube Podcasts, which recently entered the fray. Whether YouTube Podcasts can learn from its predecessor’s missteps and carve its own successful path in the ever-competitive world of audio entertainment remains to be seen.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to your favorite independent podcast or podcasting organization, ensuring a vibrant future for this dynamic medium.
If you haven’t opened the Sound+ app by Jabra recently and you own an Elite 8 Active or Elite 10, pop it open and give the new firmware update a try.
This latest update aims to improve audio quality and functionality for both earbuds and includes:
Elite 10 earbuds will get more enhanced call quality with new AI-based distractor suppression algorithms that specifically improves the noise reduction in the human voice frequency range.
Addition of ANC to the Elite 10 providing 2X better background voice blocking, optimizing call clarity for bustling environments like offices, restaurants, and busy streets.
Improvement on the Adaptive ANC on the Elite 8 Active. Due to upgraded wind noise detection technology, HearThrough will be even more effective in windy conditions.
Due to weather conditions here, I have left my bag with my Elite 10s I usually carry at home and am not playing with the new upgrade before I promote it. The Elite 8 Active are in the process of being recovered from my wife’s suitcase from a 3 day trip so I’m not seeing those back for a month, but will chime in if I notice anything post upgrade.
I doubt this is a very serious threat, but with the introduction recently (for me, last few months have been rough, December is recent when you’ve had major surgery), of the Pixel Watch 2 being able to keep your phone unlocked via Watch Unlock, it seemed like as good a time as any to try attacking it for vulnerabilities. As a note, I may be absurdly late to the game, this is just something I discovered playing around.
The watch was removed from my wrist and still unlocked as long as I keep some flesh on the back of it.
Basically with the Watch Unlock as long as the watch is on your wrist and you’ve enabled it, your phone can be unlocked by your watch. If your watch is removed from your wrist you will have to enter the code again.
But what if someone could take your watch and phone and keep it unlocked?
Trim your nails before trying this. Don’t ask me why. Defeating the on-body sensor portion of the Pixel Watch 2 and transferring it to another person without the lock triggering is as easy as sticking a finger or two under the watch body, so there’s skin contact and a pulse, and snapping the band off. As long as you’re holding the watch you can now take the phone and do whatever you want with it until the unlock expires.
I was able to successfully take the watch off of myself and place it on another arm with no problem as long as I kept my fingers on the back of the watch until it was perfectly in position.
The only people who would be particularly impacted by this I would suspect are the ones who don’t have reasonable security enabled on their payment platforms (Venmo, PayPal, etc…) and this requires an attacker to notice your Watch Unlock is active and work to exploit it by physically removing your watch and obtaining your phone.
Or the police deciding they wanted to claim the phone was unlocked and permission given. Either way it’s a security vulnerability you should be aware of, although I would say it’s a fairly unlikely one.
If you want to practice it – set watch unlock on, loosen the strap a bit unless you are doing this on someone else (where you can use your other hand to loosen the strap,) stick two fingers between the wrist and the watch face, pop the strap and you can hold it in your hand or attach to your arm / the other arm. The re-attachment I managed to lose watch unlock a couple of times and kept it a couple of others so if you’re really working on stealing someone’s phone I’d keep it on someone’s fingers.
If you’re wanting the convenience of Watch Unlock without the very slight risk of this happening, disable it when you’re out.
Once again, extremely unlikely attack scenario, but fun to practice.
Just a short video showing that you can take a watch off of someone without triggering the watch to disable watch unlock. Not much of a security threat but i...
If you’re recovering from fairly major surgery you might find out like I did that 1) you have no brain, 2) you can’t pay attention to things longer than about 3-5 minutes because of issue 1. This is what I found following my chest-splitting tumor removal at least. A combination of being exhausted, sick, and not really wanting to interact with people much lead me down an interesting path that evidently tickled the puzzle solving part of my brain.
TL;DR – took up opening locks using mostly tools I got from a cool presentation. Had fun. You might as well.
I learned to open locks, bump open locks, pick locks, bypass padlocks, rake, shim, and otherwise destroy any confidence I had in my doors holding off a devoted attacker for more than about six minutes (not that that’s how they’re going to enter.) or any padlock I possessed from locking up anything important for more than 10 seconds. I need new padlocks.
I’d probably first gotten the bug for opening stuff a year or two back when I was asked if I thought I could get a safe open for my inlaws. Grand-inlaws had passed and the note given to open it was, in retrospect, 1 number off of each position, the directions were reversed, and the number of rotations were all incorrect by one. I guess if you’re going to put it on paper mask it, but whatever.
YouTubing that model safe showed me that the directions and numbers of rotations were wrong, and when I got that the other I learned by listening. Cool beans, I had defeated a safe (although I had close enough to the numbers to defeat it by ear.) Its contents were greater than those of Al Capone’s vault but only for sentimental reasons.
I bought a lockpick training kit a couple of years back thinking that it amused me to be able to get into things, and beats me how it disappeared, but it was gone and I moved on. It was on my desk, it is no longer on my desk, things worth 80x more are on my desk. It wandered out never to be seen again… goodbye $29.
So we had a confluence of events happen these past couple of months. I had major surgery in February, I had an offer to attend a small presentation virtually called School of Lock (which I believe was held by these guys and sponsored by Egnyte, which has nothing to do with physical locks,) in which we were given a small sales pitch on a non-lock related software product by the sponsor company, and then had 5 lock cores and a lockpicking kit which had been mailed to us a week earlier… useful since mine disappeared. I did this, and while still drugged up on pain killers and pain, had a grand old time picking some pretty easy lock cores.
I completely forgot what Egnyte was presenting… I blame the medication… I remember saying I was going to check out something of their and yup, slept three days straight pretty much after.
Woo hoo… blew through 5 lock cores with no spool pins, serrated pins, or much… just enough to get the picking basics and enough to then subsequently learn my outer door has 3 security pins and that there had been no need to learn binding order on the initial practice set… oh well, it was a very basics course for IT people to play around with intro to locksport/opening.
I devoured everything that McNally Official had put out (amusing stuff, mostly YouTube Shorts shorter than my medicated attention span,) and then started looking at a few things from the Lock Picking Lawyer, and then a few things became roughly a third of his videos. I purchased a couple of Lishi tools with spacers (from Red Team Tools,) so I could practice with visual feedback and finished out some lockpicking channels on YouTube that were abandoned years ago.
I have probably watched every nondestructive method of entry for most things I encounter (other than cars, straight up not interested at the moment,) learned that a magnet can open a lot of smart locks that claim to be unpickable, and learned to open some old junk left at my work and determine what cut we would need for a new key.
I have no interest in going door to door shopping houses for drugs or easily accessible firearms, but if a friend gets locked out of their house I might be a quicker and much less expensive call than a locksmith, if they’re willing to wait for 10+ minutes for me to pick the door while complaining about my knees.
While I might ace a written test I’m still struggling with binding order on spool pins and how much tension to apply, especially when it’s 40 degrees out and raining sideways and I’ve almost mastered sitting in a comfy chair with a lock in my hands with next to no security.
For the most part while healing I was able to do this in a comfy chair, with some cores or a padlock. It was fun, gives you an entirely new view of what people do to feel secure and shatters that illusion. It’s solving one little clicky puzzle after the next.
I will note, I am indeed terrible still. I have the skills of a two month old. But it’s really fun. If I’m at your door going at the lock it’s like a zombie slowly shuffling toward you. You would have time to re-turn the deadbolt until the police arrived.
I will also note where I live it’s perfectly legal to purchase and pick a lock if you’re given permission. I read that some places it’s not so yeah… don’t there. If you’re young, wouldn’t advise carrying because as I learned well when I was driving garbage in Franklin, TN, police will decide anything is suspicious and a reason to detain you for 40 minutes.
Also, am I trying to sell you anything? Nope… just something fun to learn and as you can learn in many videos if you’ve got a couple of paperclips you’ve got a pick and turner. I have not paperclipped open anything other than a 2 pin lock so don’t take my word on it.
GFiber (formerly Google Fiber) dropped by unannounced today to continue their attempts at getting my building up and running. Today is day 1156 after our promised initial turn up date. (this number has been edited as I was off by 365 at initial posting)
As usual they just showed, no call, and left without it working, on the way out telling the receptionist that whoever was here for five hours was just collecting information.
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