Be Excellent To Each Other

Power efficiency, long term reliability (of a machine I can't easily get into to swap parts around), and the fact that people occasionally sleep in that room are all reasons I don't want to do that.

Just stream straight from Grim...'s house. Problem solved

Until he deletes the show you're watching while you watch it.

Yeah, I did that. I got it back for you, though.

TOO LATE

At the risk of sounding ignorant, is there a reason you have the NAS plugged into your iMac as opposed to a router?

If it's anything like me, the NAS is connected to a router, but the plex server software is on the iMac.

I wasn't clear, the NAS is on the router. It's actually:

Living room: router -> everything under the telly via ethernet, including the NAS (except for Nexus Player which is on wifi because it doesn't have an ethernet port.)

Bedroom: iMac, on wireless; printer, on an old/slow powerline ethernet adapter.

I'm constrained by the flat layout. In my old house, I had a utility room where the NAS and router lived.

Reading around, with a tiny bit of work (and a visit to http://www.apkmirror.com/) you can get the tablet versions of the Amazon Apps.

It's shipped already

10
20 goto 10

Agreed, but Caroline is now at least not a waste of screen space.

It came. That was quick. Small box, too.

( )

Name of your sex tape.

I bet it won't have all the functionality of a media centre PC, which you can get for free.

I'm genuinely impressed. Within 10 minutes or opening the box, I was connected to the Work WiFi (which is miracle in itself) and logged into my 2-step verified google account. I've installed and configured Plex and even managed to get a web browser and Google Drive on there with minimal faff. Later, I will plug in my USB hub and see if I can use the Harmony Remote.

Happy.

Now, I'd better get some work done...

Also...



I love you, man.

FTFY

I love it. Can't get the Harmony working though. Sleep on it.

The latest S5 update brings back the Mute function. Huzzah!
And it has also stopped mine running like a 1 legged dog through treacle. Double Huzzah!

Just need to see what the battery usage is like but so far so good.

Free PCs where?

Nexus Player update! It's quite good.

Plex works as well as Plex ever does. Netflix is flawless (and works with unblock.us). I have SNES and Mega Drive Emulators installed and a wired 360 controller attached. Best emulator experience I've ever had.

Oh shit - I'd not considered emulation.

I reckon a Bluetooth controller would make it even better. I think the ps3 controller syncs up pretty easily

You know there's a dedicated controller available for it yeah?

Yes, but for many the PS3 controller will be 'free'. Just like my 360 controller being 'free'.

Yeah, course, I was just mentioning it in case you weren't aware. It's worth being aware though that using a PS3/4 controller wirelessly with Android requires that your device is rooted and it looks to be quite the faf to do.

I think Android supports it now, and has done for a while.

Ah, some do, some don't. There's an app to find out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... cker&hl=en

And that app disagrees. Well, I don't know now.

But root is always required.

Did anyone tried the Asus Zenfone 5?

I need a new phone but 200€ is my absolute maximum.

..........................................

I am now the proud owner of a Hudl2. Cost me £45 once I had used my ClubCard boost.

It's a bit chunky compared to the Mrs' iPad Mini but the screen is sharp and the interface (I use Nova Launcher) at least as responsive as my S5.

Battery seems to be a bit demanding but so far for £45 it's an absolute steal.

I bet that'd run Hearthstone very nicely.

Yeah, the battery is the weak point, but even at full price it's a good little tablet for the money.

Bug report for the Doc. Instead of being in my mate's car today getting a lift to Heathrow, Google Maps was convinced we were actually driving the Saatchi Gallery up the M3.

Heh. You should have Shaken To Send Feedback; that generates a much better bug report than I can after the fact.

Brilliant!

This isn't something I want fixed, I'm hoping to drive a variety of buildings around over the next while. ;-)

All: But is it art?

Whatever update that has landed on my s5 is terrible. Switching between tabs in chrome takes ages now as you have to press the key button, wait for it to load then scroll through all the apps to find the page you want.

You can turn that off (if its what i think it is) in chrome settings > merge tabs and apps >off.

Yeah, it's a Lollipop feature and a fucking terrible idea but easily switched back to normal behaviour.

Super, thank youm

I agree.

Ever since smartphones arrived I've only used iOS. For a time I felt I'd never be able to leave iOS because I was too wedded to the huge app library I'd accrued.

But lately, I've realised I don't use many apps. Swipes, Spotify, Evernote, Maps, Camera, City Mapper, Bus timetable. None seem to be apple only.

So, if I was to jump ship to Android, all I'd be missing is Apple's admittedly lovely hardware and the OS.

Anyone who's made the switch, for whatever reason (cost, a change, the choice) do you actually prefer the Android OS? Or is it something you don't like but grow to tolerate?

I'm torn between the iPhone 6 and the Sony Z3 Compact (love the size, long battery life, and PS4 compatibility, though worried about the dodgy sounding camera).

Anyone who's been through OS reassignment, what are your thoughts?

I made the switch to Android when I retired my iPhone 3GS, the money Apple were after for the iPhone 4 was just eye-watering. (I can't honestly remember how I ended up with the 3GS, must have bought it second hand or something, but in typical Apple fashion they'd released a version of iOS that ran on the 3GS but turned the whole phone into a juddery lump of shit.)

My initial thoughts with Android at the time were that it was a bit rough around the edges (obviously you're going back a few years), but I saved a decent chunk of cash moving to an Android phone that had all the functionality (and more!) of my old 3GS, and ran a lot better too. (Think it was a HTC Desire, as memory serves it got me a WiFi hotspot which iOS didn't have at the time.)

Since then Android has got better and better, and if you stick to a vanilla Android phone you get the 'unblemished' Lollipop which is a great UI and every bit as lovely as iOS IMO. Your mileage may vary with the various manufacturer customisations (personally speaking I abhor what Samsung does to their phones, but I think Sony's UI is actually pretty good - for example).

IMO they've lost the plot a bit with the Nexus 6 though, which is stupidly big and stupidly expensive, but there is talk of a 'Nexus 5 2015' model on the way which would be very interesting. (I'm currently on a Nexus 5 which on balance I'd say is the best phone I've ever owned and very reasonably priced.)

All that said I wouldn't necessarily rule out moving back to an iPhone at some point, but every time my contract comes up for renewal I look at the prices for iPhones, and then I look at the prices for good Android phones, and I'm just like, 'Yeah, fuck that'. (IIRC when I got the Nexus 5 I could get it 'free' on a £35 per month contract, whereas the cheapest iPhone was something like £240 cash upfront on top of the £35 per month. PLEASE NOTE - we pay crazy prices for mobile phones on the Isle of Man.)

If you're not particularly tied to the 'Apple Ecosystem' (loads of apps, big iTunes library etc, and by all accounts you're not), then the switch should be very painless.

Android does seem to make stuff that SHOULD be simple, nice and simple, for example Mrs Hearthly wanted a basic and easy to use media player on her Moto G 2, so I just installed VLC (free) from the Play Store and she can drag and drop stuff from folders on her PC to it. The last time I tussled with a simple task like that on an iPod I ended up in a murderous killrage. (Seriously fuck iTunes.)

I suppose the thing to do is just an Android phone a try, end of the day if you really don't like it you can move back to Apple at your next switch. But your use of your phone sounds very similar to mine TBH (not much in the way of apps, want decent camera functionality, etc), so I think you'd be fine.

Having had a quick look at prices the Z3 Compact costs a fair whack less than the iPhone6 too, so you've got a decent wedge of cash to spend on something else straight out of the gate.

I switched my personal phone from an iPhone 6 to a Nexus 6 a few months ago as an experiment, and I don't know if I'm going to go back. Is there anything specific you want to know?