Electronic toys

beppi wrote:

mas fred wrote:

My kid has stolen the pad to play games on - I think I've lost it.

My girl had an iPad since she was 1.5 year old. Now she's 4 and saving all coins she can get in her piggy bank to buy a new one, because her favourite Disney "Snow Queen" App does not work on the old thing ...

Bright kid.

I'm looking for a mobile phone with a rotary dial.
Does anyone know where you can get them online?

I don't think so it can be available in Congo but i will try..................

I've just bought an Acer One 10 laptop/tablet combo.
The 10 inch screen means it's easy to carry around, and the quad core processor is reasonably fast, doing all I ask of it.
With 2gb of ram, an internal 32gb drive in the screen section, and a 500gb hard in the detachable keyboard, along with the ability to slide a micro SD in the screen gives it plenty of memory.
It has one full size USB in the keyboard, and a HDMI output in the screen part.
The charging is a standard micro USN, the same sort used on most mobile phones.
The bit I like best, it charges from USB, meaning I can charge from the car or even use a power bank.



EDIT - I was unimpressed after a while because the hard drive/keyboard connection was very poor. I sold it, as did everyone else I knew who bought one.

@El_Jost

Try this one Nokia 3605 made some years ago howardforums.com

stumpy wrote:

@El_Jost

Try this one Nokia 3605 made some years ago howardforums.com

I tried looking it up on the site you suggested but didn't come up with anything. 
Of well, I think I'm condemned to be classed as a technical illiterate dinosaur. 

Fred wrote:

starting with my camera (A wonderful Fujifilm HS 50) or the new Android pad. I bought it for the monster, but am pleased with it so I might keep it for myself.

Fred, Old Boy, I just came across this unusual thread, found this in the original post, and am trying to get up to speed.

Which thread do I read to discover the identity of "the monster" for whom you buy electronics gear?

cccmedia in Ecuador

mal wrote:

Some husbands may come at a washing machine, or cooker at a request.
otherwise washing-machine, cooker, oven these are just electrical toys of the house-wife.
Before getting married many guys asks girls.. "will you cook tasty for me??"

One other thing, Fred, Old Chum.  What percentage of this thread* is inadvertent humor?

cccmedia in Ecuador


*Not including Beppi's banana (Report #32).

cccmedia wrote:

Fred wrote:

starting with my camera (A wonderful Fujifilm HS 50) or the new Android pad. I bought it for the monster, but am pleased with it so I might keep it for myself.

Fred, Old Boy, I just came across this unusual thread, found this in the original post, and am trying to get up to speed.

Which thread do I read to discover the identity of "the monster" for whom you buy electronics gear?

cccmedia in Ecuador

The monster is my first child, a 7 year old devil girl with claws, cloven hooves and a snake's tongue. The tablet is now being used for my other monster, a little boy of six months old. He hasn't developed any evil powers yet, but he likes nursery rhymes.

My latest toy was bought today.
I often miss calls and stuff on my smartphone so I went wild (Nothing unusual there) and bought a Sony smartband talk.
I took it with me this even, and was alerted to many calls and other stuff.
A couple of emails, a whatsapp, and various other stuff.
That was in a shopping centre, Living world at Alam Sutera, where I also ate an excellent beef sandwich in Raffles.
I really like their food, the beef and cheese sandwich being one of my favourites.
I also made a phone call using it (The watch, not the beef sandwich), being pleased at the audio quality.
The Sony shop has them priced at well over 2 million, but you should pay about Rp1.4 juta for it.

Fred wrote:

I also made a phone call using it (The watch, not the beef sandwich), being pleased at the audio quality.
The Sony shop has them priced at well over 2 million, but you should pay about Rp1.4 juta for it.

Fred, Old Lad, I suppose it's relatively easy to throw millions around the electronics stores when a million rupiah equals $77 U.S.

But you're expecting too much of my math skills when you start tossing off "cifras" such as "Rp1.4 juta."

Juta!?

cccmedia in Ecuador

Sorry, gone native.
A "Juta" is a million in Indonesian.
You get used to using it after a while here - Oops.

I should also mention, the smaller of my monsters was born on all hallows' eve.

To the watch.
After a few days of playing, I'm very happy with it.
I like to buy kit that'll do the job, not get it because it does fancy things I'll never use, but looks great when showing off to other tech nerds.
This fits the bill, giving me an easy to notice vibrate on the wrist if a call or notification comes in.
The call quality is pretty reasonable as well, but isn't great in a noisy environment.
The SMS/watsapp/BBM/email and other notifications show as a line with the sender's name, but a tap on the watch gives you a little more.
Not the whole thing, and you can't scroll, but enough to see if it's worth getting your phone out or not.
The caller ID function is handy as well, and you can answer the call from the watch.

All in all, I'm very happy and would recommend it to anyone wanting these functions, but without the fancy rubbish you never use anyway.
I turned off the health functions because:
I don't care
I'm a fat slob likely to die soon, and I don't want to learn of my impending death from Sony.

Back to the watch.
I turned off all the fitness functions because, as a lazy fat slob, they just confirmed what I knew anyway - I'll be dead in about  six months.

The Sony phone software has a slight glitch, the 'add' button on the new notifications being black text on a black button but, once I'd realised it should be there, I added a few notifications.
It does the lot now.
The battery lasts around a week because I only use it when I'm out or the phone is on silent because Charles is asleep.

Summery - I bought this just so I got notifications, and it's doing a fine job.
I'm very pleased with it.

I've just bought of of these



Allowing me to carry my camera like this



Of course, being above 30 degrees means I don't own a big coat, but having the camera on my rucksack means I can carry it easily, but get to it quickly.

This version



is for the Gopro, but I made my own out of the mount from the camera's packaging, so that didn't cost anything.
I'm from Yorkshire, a place where we learn not to waste money.

However, that gets defenestrated (even if the window is closed) when it comes to electronics I really want, such as the Gopro LED screen I bought yesterday.



Floating handle soon, but there's no way I'm paying what they want for that, so I'll make my own.

Now, where can I get this?

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/turn … wer#/story




.

I went to Jakarta to have a chat with a chap today. The journey is absolute murder because the usual jams are far worse at the moment due to the new mass transit system being built.
I dropped into Poin square, a place known for electronic goodies, on the way home.
I noticed a lovely little micro computer, but decided to wait until I can get hold of the Intel compute stick.
However, I did see a micro bluetooth/wireless keyboard trackpad combo at a very reasonable price, so that came home with me.
It even has a laser pointer.

I have a Gopro
I have a video light (but I still want the waterproof one)

I don't have a handle so I can use the camera as a handheld, and I'm far too tight with my money to buy a Gopro one at the prices they want. That and theirs won't hold the camera and a light without using adaptors.

I made my own. The Gopro version is about $50 in shops here, but a cheap security camera bracket cost less than two.
I removed the mounting base of the bracket, and stuffed it into a short bit of scrap plastic water pipe that cost me nothing.
I have to add a nice handle cover and a wrist strap (I have one from an old camera, so that'll cost zero), and I have a camera thread to Gopro mount adaptor I use with a selfie stick. It's easily moved from one to the other.
I now have my hand grip, one that'll take the camera and the video light, but was made for almost nothing.

Say hello to my new baby.
This is a full windows 8 machine with wifi and bluetooth.
Cheap at Rp1.25 million, and it has a 4 metre wide screen when I use my projector.
I'm using the keyboard im the post above, and have a 64gb micro SD for it

Fred wrote:

Say hello to my new baby.
This is a full windows 8 machine with wifi and bluetooth.
Cheap at Rp1.25 million, and it has a 4 metre wide screen when I use my projector.
I'm using the keyboard im the post above, and have a 64gb micro SD for it

Trying to understand all this I found this short YouTube video.
Maybe it helps a bit?
youtube.com/watch?v=6EHrCcSeUP0

El_Jost wrote:

Trying to understand all this I found this short YouTube video.
Maybe it helps a bit?

Want to KIS?

No, that isn't an offer, it's an acronym. Keep It Simple.
Imagine this as a desktop PC, but one that only has a HDMI to plug into a TV.
It's easy to understand now.

I've had a good play with my new toy.
Out of the box, it was set with Chinese as default, so it took a lot of guessing to get it to English.
I managed that one, then started setting up the machine to suit me.
I ran it with the projector, giving me a large picture, then tried it on the 32 inch TV, both worked great.
The stick is quite wide, so it wouldn't go directly into the projector, seeing me having to use a standard HDMI lead with a barrel adaptor. It did go straight into the TV.
I then tried it with an HDMI to RGB converter (allowing it to be plugged into any computer monitor), the test being successful.
You need a mouse to set up, so I just used a wired one I had hanging about, but moved onto the bluetooth mini combo after that.

The machine didn't run hot, and performed exactly as any win 8 computer would.
It has two USB II sockets, but both are low powered, leaving hard drives and other external high power devices unusable. I cured this with a powered USB hub.

I added a bit of software, including powerpoint, the presentation I tested involved audio, still pictures and video. The computer performed without a glitch.
I found a very cheap class 10, 64gb micro SD card a few days ago, so that'll be living in the stick as an internal drive.

First impression - pretty good.

I've been shopping again.
Indonesia's roads are notable for being terrible, and the standard of driving only envied by India, so I decided to buy an in car DVR.

As it'll be left in the glove box when I park, I wanted something I'd be less upset at loosing than the messing around replacing the glass they smashed to get it, so I bought cheap and cheerful.
This will do HD, but I've set it on VGA, enough to prove who was at fault in the event of a crash, and probably get an interesting clip of two for my videos. If the quality proves to be poor, I'll go to HD again.

The thing cost about US$15, so hardly a worry if it dies after two long. It has an internal Nokia battery, and is supplied with a pretty long cigar lighter lead for power.

The thing has a very strong suction cup mount so it'll sit on the windscreen without a problem.
First time out this morning, but the results are fine.
It doesn't come with an SD card, so you have to pop your own in. I tried it with a 4gb and a 32gb, both worked fine.

I've been wanting one for months.
I bought a cheap Chinese one to be going on with.
The cheap one isn't bad, but it isn't that great either.
Whilst she who must be obeyed was in the play area with the kids, I finally saw one and got it.

8.1, bluetooth, wifi and all the stuff you'd expect from a full sized computer, but tiny.



I'm using it right now.
Watch this space for updates.

I bought a HP stream 8 windows tab.
I alread had a tab and a tab/laptop, but I wanted something small, neat, with a SIM card, and USB charging.
I have one now.



I really must sell some of the old stuff.

New, just arrived at about 5pm.

I wanted a cheap multi use action camera for a variety of lower quality video shooting scenarios.
The Kogan camera looks like it will do the trick, so I bought one from Matahari mall.

They delivered within the time they claimed, but they didn't send the confirmation email they promised to let me know it had been dispatched.



It has an LCD on the back so you can see what you're shooting, and has looping video and will power from the car so you can use it as a dashcam.
It also comes with a fat bag of accessories, many usable with my Gopro.

I ended up paying Rp299,000, a reasonable price for the quality.

I wanted a projector to take on holiday, and I saw this baby.



I ask you, what is a red blooded geek supposed to do when he sees a sexy beast like that in Ratu Plaza, south Jakarta?

It links to me phone or tablet by WiFi, and it'll take a HDMI input, or play a film from any standard flashdisk,

It's lovely, and I can have a cinema when I'm out and about.

And again ....

I wanted a smaller camera, but still with loads of zoom and better low light performance.
This came up at a very reasonable price, so I couldn't resist.
Please forgive any poor quality photos as I haven't learnt to drive it yet.

Fred wrote:

I've been wanting one for months.
I bought a cheap Chinese one to be going on with.
The cheap one isn't bad, but it isn't that great either.
Whilst she who must be obeyed was in the play area with the kids, I finally saw one and got it.

8.1, bluetooth, wifi and all the stuff you'd expect from a full sized computer, but tiny.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/imag … _DsxAL2kag

I'm using it right now.
Watch this space for updates.

Intel; Vs. the cheap Chinese version .. and Intel isn't doing all that well.



The Intel compute stick is more stable in general, but the Chinese thing has two USB sockets, a far better wifi adaptor and the USBs don't have the same issues with hubs the Intel version does.
The Chinese version has better compatibility with both the TV and projectors, meaning you can get a full screen with that when the Intel leaves blank edges to the picture.

Sorry Intel, you've been beaten by a cheap Chinese rip off that sells for less than half the price.

HP Pavilion x2

After the disappointing Acer laptop/tablet combination I was one the lookout for a small laptop with at least one full sized USB, but no hard drive and so one.
The HP tablet I mentioned above is still running very nicely, so seeing a suitable HP unit gave me a warm feeling.[/img]

That warm feeling has turned into warm wee wee HP are squirting up my back with this bag of crap.
The battery died a death but that was really a nothing matter when you consider this lump of dog poop won't do the job it was sold to do, that being to work with windows 10.
It runs it perfectly well but it won;t update as there is insufficient memory to store the upgrade and if you try to turn it on with a micro SD in the slot the damned thing takes for ever to boot up.

I'd like to thank HP Indonesia for their prompt replies to my questions regarding how to make this crappy pup of a computer work properly but they have never replied to a single communication, thus proving what a crap job they make of customer relations.

I can be strongly advise no one ever buy a HP computer because their customer service is absolutely rubbish.

If anyone from HP reads this and actually gives a flying crap, feel free to send me a PM with contact details because your published details don't work.

Basically, you've been crap.

I decided it was time for a new camera as I hadn't bought on in ages.
I've found I'm going to places where it's difficult to carry a big camera, so I decided to buy a compact with long zoom, finding an idea unit from Canon.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/ … e_quality/



It's small, turns on in a second, has a 40X optical zoom and the photo quality is easily good enough for the purposes I have in mind. A GPS would have been a bonus, but not desperate and I can geotag via my phone if I'm that way inclined.
I did have one issue, that being finding a spare battery was hard work because a lot of shops were selling fakes as real. These batteries have a  Canon logo and hologram, but the camera rejects them as fake. Try before you buy as I did, rejecting the fake stuff immediately.

I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I'm lovin' it.

I changed my home internet to Bolt's new (ish) unlimited package and it's working nicely but, and there's always a big but, the old portable wifi thing was getting more than a bit warm running 24 hour per day.
Popped out yesterday and bought their home router thing, and that's working a treat.
I added the external aerials so I get a signal as far as the end of the road - sweet ... but I must remember to keep the wifi password secret.

great stuff

I bought a portable LED projector a couple of years ago and it's proven to be really handy. I have four units raging from small pocket portable to this 500 lumen LG unit.
They're all used for different things, but this one is easily the best and I'll be using it when I travel so presentations are easy without the technical issues so common when you use other people's less than well looked after stuff.

This little baby will produce a very reasonable quality 1.5 metre wide picture in a slightly dimmed out room, but folds down to nothing. Add a small speaker and it's easily enough to run a presentation for 20 or so people in a conference room.



and it folds to nothing



If you're after a projector for general portable use, the LG units are pretty good.

I decided it was time for a new camera as I hadn't bought on in ages.
I've found I'm going to places where it's difficult to carry a big camera, so I decided to buy a compact with long zoom, finding an idea unit from Canon.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/ … e_quality/



I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I'm lovin' it.

I'm still using this little toy and I still love it. It's proven itself to be everything the manufacturers claim, and a little more.
This was a very good buy.

Mobile phones vary in quality, some claiming they're the best thing since sliced bread (or sliced apple), but not being even close to as good as other, far cheaper phones.
I decided upon a Samsung C9 Pro, and it's proven to be a good choice.
The phone is big so handy for things like mapping apps and other  things that require detail and where a large screen is a bonus. It's also very nice for watching films.
The GPS is like lighting, finding my location in no time at all.
The camera isn't as good as the newer S9 model, but it's pretty good.
It takes 2 SIMS, SIM 1 being 4G capable. I've just got around to popping a 4G card in, and it's pretty fast.
At the end of the day, I think I got good value for money and, most importantly, I like the thing.

Both stick computers are having problems now but I think I can sort out the Intel unit with a new CMOS battery, if I can find one anywhere.
I picked up a cheap windows 10 tablet as a stopgap and that's doing fine for the moment but I won't be letting it anywhere near the internet in order to avoid the Windows 10 update plague.
I'm hanging on to the windows 8 Intel stick as a backup.

I get rid of my Sony smartwatch as it was Sony (I have no idea why I bought Sony but I'll never do that again), and picked up a Samsung unit to replace it.
The really cool feature on that little toy is a powerpoint controller built in as an app.
Tried it, and it's as cool as a cucumber direct from the freezer - I'll bet the audience at my next presentation take a while to work that one out.

I'm now looking for a wireless adaptor so I can send my phone or computer direct to the projector without messing around with cables - that or buy a new projector with wireless built in.
If I go for an adaptor, it'll have to be reasonable quality as the cheap and nasty jobs pixelate like crazy, the slide changes are snail pace, and visdes are a joke.
My two projectors with wireless have none of these problems so I know there is decent kit out there somewhere.

We bought a Nikon P900 two months ago for my husband to use.  Although not pocket size, it's not as large as my DSLR and very, very light, about half the weight of my camera.  The best thing is its lens:  35mm equivalent focal length of 24-2000mm, tons better than my best and heavy 70-300mm lens.

Its 83X Optical zoom is what we've been using to shoot the moon from our balcony with incredible result, but that's not all.  There are also the 166x Dynamic Fine Zoom, and 332x Digital zoom, but we haven't been able to figure out how to use those features yet. 

We bought it in Australia, and with the strength of the US$ against the AUS$, plus the GST refund, we paid US$250 less than what we would have, had we bought it in the States.

It also costs a fraction of what I've spent over the years on my camera and multiple lenses.  Man, I should've gone for that instead of investing in my stuff.

Ciambella wrote:

We bought a Nikon P900 two months ago for my husband to use.  .

I almost bought one of them because they're amazing, that 2000mm being a serious killer of a zoom.
Weight was the deal breaker as I wanted it for walking around and weight is a massive issue when you're walking for miles. My little compact goes to 40X optical and that's usually enough to sort out shots I would otherwise miss.

My snaps are here.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 573#527221

Perhaps because I'm used to carry my heavier camera and lenses, I don't feel the weight of this camera at all.  I always carry every camera across my body, and several times, I've had to touch the P900 to make sure it's still there above my hip, that's how light it was (especially on my small framed body).

Not a compact camera though, the lens itself is almost as wide as my wide angle lens.

Agree

I bought a UPS - it blew up after 24 hours - I returned it and got the cash back.
I need to buy a UPS.

Fred wrote:

I bought a UPS - it blew up after 24 hours - I returned it and got the cash back.
I need to buy a UPS.

Oh. I have a new-in-box UPS that I don't want. It's a good brand (APC) but it's here in Singapore, so no use to you. And the power never fails here, so it's no use to me, either. XD

Of course, I say that, but I just bought a new laptop, and the spare, 3rd-party power adapter I bought for it blew up and tripped the circuit breaker, shutting off everything in my flat, including my desktop, which wasn't plugged into a UPS.