Friday, October 14, 2016

Grr. My brain cannot bend like that.

I have no idea how my cat did it, but he managed to change the settings in Windows 10 on the computer at home so that one monitor's video was oriented 90 degrees CCW and the other monitor was a full 180 degrees out.  On top of that, I think he managed to get the CTRL keys stuck "on" in some exceedingly sticky and silent way.

I'm assuming it was the cat, anyway.  I do have two toddlers.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

That's a little steep, Google.

One of the things that I always appreciated about "Google Phones" (Nexus 5, 5x, 6, 6p, etc) was that they tended to be marketed as an incredibly good value proposition - near-flagship specs for a very mid-range price.

Looks like Google's giving up on that idea.

Google's new phone, the "Pixel" has a starting price of $649. 

Nope.

Optioned up, it tops out at $860.

Double-nope.

...and they're marketing it as a Verizon exclusive*.

Triple-nope.  

...and they took away the headphone jack.

Triple-nope with a scoop of vanilla on top.  This is not a phone that I'm interested in cross-shopping at those prices.  The 32GB on the stock phone isn't sufficient for a decent music collection (no, I don't stream) and a decent set of apps at the same time.  The 128GB upgrade jumps right to "overkill" and costs another $120 (which just ain't gonna fly).

Sorry, Google.  I think you lost your touch on this one.  I'm sure the hardware is wonderful, but I'm not dumb enough to drop that kind of dough on a phone.


*Yes, you can buy them unlocked online through Google, but marketing it as being tied to VZW is a major turnoff to anybody with a lick of sense in them.