What have you bought today - VOL 4

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post The UE MEGAboom is down from £250 to £150 today. so asked the wife to get me one for xmas. I wanted the MEGABLAST, as it has built in alexa. but its £290. So for £150 i can just use amazon music on my phone!

And you've the option of an Echo Dot for £35 if you do want Alexa a bit more integrated, I like the naming scheme for the speakers.

John

[scarbunny]

Source of the post Just got the Dyson AM09 hot and cool fan for £229 on the Dyson website. looking at the camelcamelcamel website its the cheapest its ever been.

Same, only thing I got this Black Friday, not massively keen on giving that Brexit prick money but it's the best price for something I've wanted since early summer. Who needs principles anyway.

Just back from holiday so loads of souvenirs and tat, and a bottle of Kraken Black for about £6 from the local supermarket, so cheap I couldn't say no.

[EviL Ras]

It's lovely and warm as a heater! Not as quiet as I thought, but certainly not as loud as the old fan. and at least this heats!

Mostly i've bought xmas pressies at the mo! Almost finished!

[Replicant]

Traded in FIFA 18 for the Switch for £33. This was great as it only cost me £10 in the first place.
Used the cash to buy Super Mario Odyssey which I have hardly played as I have been playing Rocket League all weekend instead.

[EviL Ras]

Galaxy note 8. And the women of NASA Lego. Oh, and a new water jug.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Galaxy note 8. And the women of NASA Lego. Oh, and a new water jug.

Ooh nice, what prompted that? I've been quite surprised how much I've liked the Note 8 as I thought it wouldn't be much of an upgrade and I'd miss the Note 4 but I've never regretted it. My main concern was the bluetooth was some people reported issues with it particularly the car stereo and watches but it's actually been better with the watch than my Note 4 and no issues working with the car. I was also pleased to find that it doesn't just support custom DPI scaling, unlike the Note 4 it doesn't need ADB on a PC and it doesn't break any apps on the phone. The massive screen is lovely anyway and even better with the smaller interface. I thought the Vodafone network in the area was a bit flaky but it looks like the Note 4 was to blame (or possibly its sim card) as the Note 8 has been much better so far, easily holding onto a 4G signal where the note 4 didn't and offering better speeds in general.

[EviL Ras]

Finally got the OK from Mrs Ras to upgrade from s6 edge to note 8. Decided I couldn't wait for the s9 as we'll be on holiday when it's released. And going on holiday with an old s6 that kept freezing was not and option!

[scarbunny]

Assuming that just before Christmas still counts as “today” I recently bought a 55” LG OLED C7 TV. It’s rather lovely, still fiddling with some settings but pretty much set up now.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Assuming that just before Christmas still counts as “today” I recently bought a 55” LG OLED C7 TV. It’s rather lovely, still fiddling with some settings but pretty much set up now.

No I'm afraid it doesn't count if you post about the purchase outwith the limited window, I'm afraid for failing to comply with this rule you are going to be subject to severe punishment...brace yourself...



Now that's out the way, how are you getting on with the TV? You've obviously spent a while thinking about it but I don't think I've seen much on it since you received it, just hoping it's living up to its reputation for you.

I made a big tech purchase today with a new electric toothbrush as the batterylife of my existing one is down to about a day and a half which is getting annoying. Shopping for these devices is a bit of a nightmare as there's just so many of them and I'm attracted to getting those with features that I blatantly won't use or need so when I spotted one reduced in Tescos I just went for that.

On a less important note I've also bought a Dell Latitude 13 7370 laptop, it's sort of a Core-m version of the XPS 13. I've been thinking of one for a while as there's very few Core-m laptops out there but don't really need it however Dell have now released its successor and they're switching back to ULV processors and in general the market seems to be moving to ULV processors for both tablets and ultralight laptops so this seemed the only chance to get a decent Core-m machine.

[Johnmcl7]

The laptop has arrived and seems pretty good so far, it's pretty much a silent, fan less version of the XPS 13 that's less flashy and with touchpad buttons but that's pretty much what I wanted and it keeps the excellent minimal bezel design which makes the screen seem oddly large at first.

I bought a couple of Hue bulbs for the lounge as my Dad struggles to reach the side lights, it's just the most basic lights (dimmable but not colour changing) and I'm quite impressed with them as a functional improvement rather than a bit of a toy like I use mine. The lights come on and off automatically during the day on their schedule and my Mum is quite amused at being able to control the lights from her phone.

I also bit the bullet and upgraded the ram in my PC which has been a decision I've been toying with for a long time as I'm kicking myself for not upgrading a couple of years ago when the PC had its upgrade for VR and the ram was a lot cheaper. My PC is very picky over the ram it works with and also the PC can be a bit flaky when it has the power removed. I spotted a reasonable deal for 4x8GB sticks at the right speed, popped it into the PC and it started up but no display and didn't appear to be booting. That's not unusual on the first boot after the power is out and on the second boot the louvres moved as normal, the fans spun down, phew I thought but no still no boot or video output. I tried a few more boots but despite the boot sequence sounding normal and no beeps.

I removed two of the sticks of ram and this time I did get a beep code indicating no ram which was well progress, I took that ram out and swapped the other sticks in which brought the machine back to its normal boot sequence but still not starting. I moved those sticks over to the other two slots but noticed they didn't seem to be sitting in properly, I clicked them in again, booted again and was delighted to finally get a blue light on the monitor followed by the AW logo followed by a warning about the memory being changed. It didn't make it into Windows but on a reboot it did and showed all 16GB of memory, I shut it down and popped the other two sticks in making sure they were pressed in firmly and again blue light on the display, AW logo and made it into Windows. It's managed a few reboots now and although it still needs a memtest, it's looking good:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Genera ... 2GBRAM.png

What I'm hoping the non-booting problem is caused by is the one-sided ram sockets in that unlike most other ram sockets I've seen, there is only one latch at one side rather than one at both sides which seems a bad design. I'd noticed when moving the ram at one point that although I'd levered it in on the non-latched side, when the ram clicked in the other side appeared to be rising so I think it was sitting half in the slot which was enough for the PC to detect there was something there and try a boot rather than stop and give a no ram error.

Of course now it seems a bit ridiculous to put the whole 32GB in there but at the same time after all the hassle, it's good to know that it's done and won't need to be touched again plus DDR3 prices are only going to go up in price.

[EviL Ras]

Bought a new fjallraven Greenland top bag to travel with. BA allow a laptop bag 40 X 30 X 15 and this is 43 X 25 X 15. So I'll happily argue the toss about those 3cm's!

Also bought a new TV as the brother in law is moving out with his 49 inch TV in a month! Looked at 65 inch but the wife said no! So bought the 55 inch Samsung 55mu7000 with the ms650 sound bar. Gets good reviews and will be more than we need just for sky HD! And it's £200 off together. Then £200 cash back, free England football shirt, 6 months free popcorn, and 6 months free Deezer.

[Replicant]

Not exactly today but two weeks ago I bought myself an Apple Watch3 as well as a Boardman CX Team bike.

Loving both of these so far. It is strange being on a road (cx) bike as I have not owned one since I was 14. Pretty much every bike I have owned for the last 20 years has been a full suspension MTB with at least 4" of travel. It is taking a little getting used too. The SRAM 1x gearing is fantastic too.

[scarbunny]

Source of the post Not exactly today but two weeks ago I bought myself an Apple Watch3

I also bought one of these a few weeks back to replace the missus Series 2 she broke, she seems happy with it, got her the cellular one despite it not being available here it was the same price and maybe one day the EE exclusivity that covers the Island even though they cant offer service here might end.

[Johnmcl7]

Source of the post Not exactly today but two weeks ago I bought myself an Apple Watch3 as well as a Boardman CX Team bike.

Loving both of these so far. It is strange being on a road (cx) bike as I have not owned one since I was 14. Pretty much every bike I have owned for the last 20 years has been a full suspension MTB with at least 4" of travel. It is taking a little getting used too. The SRAM 1x gearing is fantastic too.

Have you bought the bike with anything in mind? There were a few times last year when I had to quickly change between the road and mountain bike which feels very weird as the road bike is so rigid and twitchy while the mountain bikes are very slack and feel like the tyres are flat. As much as I like the mountain bike I like riding the road bikes as well as the constant pedalling is good for fitness and it's feels rewarding being able to munch up the miles compared to the mountain bike.

I've got the Loch Ness race at the weekend which I'm not bothered about being able to do the distance but concerned about the speed as I made a big mistake erring on the side of caution and choosing a slower time thinking that gave me more time to do it but they run the order the other way round so I will actually get the least time to complete the race starting just ahead of the sweeper vehicle. I don't think I'll be signing up for any other road races as I don't like that pressure.

[Replicant]

Source of the post

Source of the post Not exactly today but two weeks ago I bought myself an Apple Watch3

I also bought one of these a few weeks back to replace the missus Series 2 she broke, she seems happy with it, got her the cellular one despite it not being available here it was the same price and maybe one day the EE exclusivity that covers the Island even though they cant offer service here might end.

I thought about that but was not interested in the Cellular version in the end.

I am used to using a Fitbit Blaze and have to say that the build quality of the Watch3 is vastly superior. The Blaze is really plasticky and the strap is nowhere near as comfortable. I love the way the Watch3 integrates well with the iPhone and many of the apps are genuinely useful.