Taking the Acer Spin 714 Chromebook for a spin (ouch)

 For nearly a decade now I've been a Chromebook convert.  I don't try to use a Chromebook as a complete desktop replacement, but for laptops I've used Chromebooks exclusively since about 2014.  Recently I began looking for an upgrade - my trusty six-year-old Samsung Chromebook Pro had started showing signs of age, running a little slower, and Google started sending me notices that we were rapidly approaching the date when no further updates for that model would be made.

I'd looked at the Acer Spin 714 for a pretty good while, holding off most due to price and a few reported issues that I just couldn't properly put into context from reading.  But when I got an opportunity to buy a "new - open box" unit at a drastically reduced price, I jumped - and after my first week or so, I'm glad I did.

The Acer Spin 714 sports a 14-inch screen with a top resolution of 1920x1200 and in a 16:10 aspect ratio.  Some users of the previous 713 have criticized the screen on the 714 because they don't like the 16:10 aspect ratio; for me it's perfect.  The resolution is also not an issue, as I actually have to run at a lower resolution in order for fonts and widgets not to be too tiny for my aging eyes.  If I had any complaint about the screen it would simply be that it doesn't get very bright.  I am using it at about 80% brightness all the time.  I don't intend to use this outdoors but it's a good thing as I doubt the brightness could overcome the glare of the sun.

The processor is a 12th-generation i5, and it is a scorcher.  I expect to be able to throw nothing at this for the next 6 or 7 years that it won't handle.  RAM is a respectable 8 gigs, although I'd have liked 16.  At this time 8 is more than plenty so maybe that will hold up.  The 256 gigs of SSD storage is fantastic, and based on my usage patterns won't get anywhere near used.  Some have complained about the lack of a card reader; for me this is a non-issue.

The keyboard is spacious, the keys have nice response, they are backlit (yay), and comfortable to use.  The trackpad is ... a trackpad.  I have heard some people say it's nice and some say they don't like it.  I've never been a trackpad sort - I use a mouse all the time except in unusual circumstances.  The trackpad works, and I've got no beef with it.

The Spin 714 has a nice set of ports - two USB4 Thunderbolt ports (think USB-C), a USB-A port, a full size HDMI port, and an audio port.  It's a decent setup.

This brings me to the final hardware item, the speakers.  So - these are not great.  They produce very little volume, pretty much no bass.  I could tell you this is unusually bad, but honestly the speakers in *most* Chromebooks are crap.  It's for this reason that I nearly always keep a headset attached for times when I want to watch a video or listen to music.   But the speakers on the Spin 714 have come under fire from users who hear strange crackling or popping sound emanating from the speakers even when they have the volume turned down.  I have heard ONE pop - when I had my headset unplugged and was running a Chromebook stress test.  For me the short of it is that I haven't heard enough to be bothered, and if I keep my headset plugged in, I might never get there.  

My overall impression is that the Acer Spin 714 is a well-made (serious) Chromebook, with a lot of power that should handle anything I might throw at it.  I'll miss my Samsung but this new Acer will take the sting out of saying goodbye.

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Update for August 2023: I've been using the Acer Spin 714 Chromebook for almost 4 months, including on a three-week trip to Mexico and Belize.  In short, it has been fantastic.  Screen size is perfect, brightness hasn't been an issue.  The keyboard is comfortable and responsive.  The Spin 714 is blazing fast, hasn't slowed down under any kind of load.  It has a nice selection of ports for peripherals.  Battery life has been good enough - not amazing, but adequate.  The USI pen has worked well, and I like the dock/charger.  I continue to use headphones with this Chromebook, not because of the reported speaker issues but simply because I have always done so with laptops.  As a result I have not experienced the widely reported "speaker pop".  

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Update for Fall 2024: I took one of our usual trips to Belize in August of this year, and used it a number of times on battery power.  I didn't have any issue with that, except that when I did plug it into power, it didn't seem to be charging.  If I kept it plugged in, the chargin symbol showed and the battery didn't deplete any further, but it also wouldn't charge up.  Upon returning from the trip I bought a battery replacement and put it in, and the new battery seems to be working fine, charging normally.  However I do find this to be a bit of bother I've not had this Chromebook a super long time and for the battery to go bad this soon is not a good sign.  I'll leave another note here if things change.

Radio Listening As A Hobby - Meandering Thoughts

I was born in 1964, growing up in the 1960's, 70's and 80's.  It was a time before the internet as we know it, and most of that was before cable TV was even widely available.  Radios - and analog TVs with antennas outside the house - were the magic boxes that brought us news and entertainment.  I loved listening to radios in particular.  Sorry to use the word "magic" here again so quickly, but that is how it felt turning the dial on my little transistor pocket radio, or on my bedside clock radio, listening to the voices and the music.  Somehow those signals were just out there in the air - no wires or fiber bringing them to the house, just signals in the ether.

I especially liked to tune around the AM band at night - what radio folks call the Medium Wave (MW) band, when my radio would come alive with signals from far away.  Here in southeast Georgia, there were only one or two local stations, plus a few I could pick up from Brunswick, GA to the north or Jacksonville, FL to the south, that I could reliably hear during the day.  But at night I'd get stations from Atlanta, Cincinnati, New Orleans and other places.  

In the late 1980's - when I was in my mid 20's - I "discovered" shortwave radio.  I bought a Realistic DX-440 from Radio Shack, a fairly nice radio at the time, and quickly became hooked on shortwave.  The DX-440 was actually manufactured by Sangean and sold under their own brand name as the ATS-803A.  A reasonably advanced and full-featured model, the DX-440 could tune the entire shortwave band continuously, featured digital tuning, single-sideband reception with an analog beat frequency oscillator (BFO) knob, had a huge telescoping whip for decent reception, and an external antenna jack.  I spent many, many hours with that radio, often sitting outside at night listening to whatever I could pull in.

And what an incredible number of stations and types of programming one could hear in those days!  Nearly every nation ran some kind of shortwave broadcasting station, many of them intentionally beaming signals towards North America and in English.  Every year I bought the new edition of a book called Passport To World Band Radio, a book that listed nearly all the listenable stations along with a lot of information about specific programs.  Each night I could tune in Deutsche Welle from Germany, Radio France Internationale, Radio Denmark, the Voice of America, and of course the gold-standard British Broadcasting Corporation.  I could hear news from just about any corner of the globe - with different national and regional slants - as well as music, radio plays and dramas, sports, science and education programs, just about anything imaginable.

In the late 1990s I bought a new shortwave radio, a Sony ICF-SW77.  This was a huge upgrade from my old Realistic DX-440, although I have to admit it didn't bring in a LOT more stations.  I had yet to really learn - and understand - the importance of a proper external antenna, and the telescoping whips on portable shortwaves are a pretty serious compromise.  In addition to their relatively short length, using such a radio on the whip indoors picks up all kinds of noise from household electronics.   Still, I enjoyed using the SW77 and had a blast fiddling with its features.

For a time I drifted away from the hobby; life intervened, there were other things to do.  It was around 2007 that my interest was rekindled, and I was rather disappointed to learn that shortwave listening simply wasn't what it used to be.  

Radios were not the problem.  Although some of the older, venerable manufacturers were exiting the market, others were staying in and making some fine equipment.  There was also quite a market for used radios, and through EBay I have acquired a number of radios I had long coveted since my youth.  There have even been exciting new models from several manufacturers just in the last 5 years!

The problem was that shortwave broadcasters themselves were largely abandoning the field.  In some cases national governments just stopped broadcasting entirely, while others greatly curtailed their activities and in particular stopped broadcasting towards North America.  The "why" was never a big mystery - there were just easier, cheaper, more effective ways to reach more listeners using other means.  The internet is of course the biggest contributor here.  Once the internet was built out to the point it could reliably carry audio streams, it was pretty much the death knell for shortwave. There were other factors - the advent of satellite radio from Sirius and XM brought another method for reaching our population.

Over the last two decades, things have grown steadily worse, with good news being pretty rare.  There are at present only a dozen or so nations left broadcasting anything to North America on shortwave.  There are some privately owned stations here in the US - about 90% of their content consisting of religious programming, and the remaining 10% being split between rather extreme, hard-right conspiracy talkers and a few music programs.  On a really good night - if the capricious laws of physics allow - I can get some backspatter radiation from the BBC and faintly hear one of their few remaining broadcasts, usually intended for somewhere in Africa or Asia.

And I really struggled with all this.  I don't think I knew I was struggling, not consciously - but I wanted to bring back the days when I could hear more.  I continued to invest in radios, some new and some old.  I purchased and installed a longwire antenna with a balun and coax feedline to get strong, clear signals into my radios (it really does wonders with what there is left on the airwaves).  I bought books - not that many are still published, but each year I buy the World Radio Television Handbook, and when new editions are released The Wordwide Listening Guide, and the Pirate Radio Annual. I have paid for subscriptions to downloadable frequency lists.

As my ability to hear "more" on shortwave has reached its limit, I have branched out from listening to broadcasts, into listening to "utility" signals, like the air traffic control stations that work the planes out over the Atlantic ocean.  And I've gone back to listening more to MW AM, checking around at night to see what distant stations I can hear.

Just this year I have bought two radios, several little connectors and wires for things, and today I found myself ordering the latest edition of the Worldwide Listening Guide, and I guess that is when it really struck me: shortwave broadcasting is dead.  You can argue with me about how you heard Greece last night and it won't make a bit of difference.  The many hours I spent tuning around the bands, pulling in dozens of stations every night, those times are lost now to the past and to fading memory.

My latest radio is the Tecsun PL-990x, a real gem.  It tunes the shortwave broadcast bands as well as any radio I've owned in 30 years in the hobby, it's performance on single-sideband is remarkable.  It has the ability to use an external antenna for MW AM, so my outdoor longwire can be used on that band and works a little of the old magic.  The radio is a fine FM receiver.  It also is a Bluetooth speaker so I can stream to it from my phone or tablet.  

I also think it very likely that the PL-990x will be the last of my radio purchases.  There is just no sense in continuing to spend money on radios for shortwave - we have hit the state of the art at a time when there is just not much worth hearing.  I will continue to listen, to what little there is.  I'll delve into the utility stuff when the mood strikes.  I will try to rekindle my love of radio with MW AM.  But no more new radios, antennas, or books - because none of them will bring the stations back on the air, and without them, the rest is just stuff.

Pixel 5 is here - the journey from my OG Pixel XL and first impressions

 In October of 2016 I bought a Pixel XL (first generation, larger model) phone.  I reviewed that phone here. Today I received my Pixel 5.  This post is first impressions but I have a feeling I won't have a huge amount more to say about it later, as it's a pretty basic phone, and I have pretty basic expectations.  

Interestingly, I went back to re-read that old Pixel XL review and the section at the beginning where I talk about myself and my expectations has changed almost not at all in 4 years.  I have reasonable expectations, but I want a new phone to be fast, and I want a very good camera.  If we're at the point where we are quibbling over minor differences between the top 3 or 4 phone cameras available I think I'm going to be satisfied, and that's where we are right now.

I used my Pixel XL longer than Google intended me to - late last year they announced the end of software updates, although they did provide a full upgrade to Android 10 (the phone was originally on Android 7) as well as a final set of security and bug fixes.  That was part of what prompted me to begin thinking about updates, because frankly that Pixel XL was still a rock-solid phone going on three years.  It was fast, reliable, took great photos, everything I ever wanted in a phone.  Plus it had ZERO bloatware, which is one of the things I LOVE about the Pixels.  

Then another thing happened - the battery started to fail, rapidly getting to the point where it would barely hold a charge for maybe 6 hours.  The Pixel 4 was just coming out at that time and it would have been my natural progression - stay in the Pixel line for the no-bloatware-pure-Android-frequent-updates-great-camera experience.  But there were a few things that didn't bode well.  The Pixel 4 had ditched the fingerprint sensor which I think is the best of the biometric options I've found on any phone, and to make matters worse the battery in the Pixel 4 was so undersized the phone couldn't last a normal day's use.  Given that I was already dealing with battery issues I was not keen to buy a NEW phone with poor battery life.  Also, I was not interested at all in the new face-unlock features.  

So instead of upgrading, I took my trusty old Pixel XL to a phone repair store and bought a new battery.  Problem solved.  Sort of.  Of course I still wasn't getting updates, but at least the phone itself was still solid and worked well.  However as fall 2020 approached, I started looking hard at the Pixel 5.  The biggest driver was the fact that I had saved up about $80 of bonus "device dollars" with Verizon - but the bonus dollars were about to start aging out and disappearing, so I needed to use them.  Since the Pixel 5 was already a little lower-priced that the flagships from other companies, this got the price down pretty well for me.  Plus, the battery was reported to be much better, and the fingerprint sensor was back.

So here I am, having just transferred my contacts, data and apps.  What can I tell you so far?

• The new phone is physically smaller than the Pixel XL in every dimension but the screen is larger, as it totally lacks the top and bottom "chin".  
• It is fast - buttery smooth, apps start fast, etc.  
• The screen is bright and colorful and supposedly refreshes faster than my old phone, but  I can't really tell.  
• The fingerprint sensor works fine.  
• I have snapped a few photos with the phone - can't tell if they are  much better than the original Pixel but that was a pretty high bar (then again my eyesight is not good).  I haven't tried out the wide angle lens yet but I suspect it's fine.  
• This phone supports 5G, but I'm on Verizon and there is no 5G where I live.  Interestingly if I jumped to Google Fi I could have 5G here (I guess it's from T-Mobile).  My cell signal here is faint but it always has been with all my phones.  
• I have made a couple phone calls - not sure if they were running over cellular or Wi-Fi but they sounded good.
• I hooked up my Bluetooth headset and that works fine.
• As with all Pixel phones, there's no bloat.  A couple Verizon apps are included but they're not required (I can completely delete them).  
• The Pixel 5 is running Android 11 out of the box.  
• I have fully charged the battery but I have no clue how long it will last.  Supposed to be more than a day.

Complaints?  Only one - I wish these phones still came with headphone jacks.  I'll probably never understand the rationale for removing it, especially as it is included on Google's less expensive "A" phones like the 3A and 4A.  I still have an awesome set of Bose earbuds that don't require charging.  Oh well...

My Pixel 5 is the "sorta sage" green model.  I have it in a Spigen Ultra Hybrid Clear case, with a glass screen protector added on the front.

Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet - Hitting The Sweet Spot

This is a review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet.  I hereby announce I am just going to call this thing "Duet" for the remainder of this review.  I will briefly describe the product for those that might have missed the large number of announcements and reviews - and I urge you to check those out, as this has been a highly anticipated and sought-after device.

The Duet is an early example of what might become a popular device category - the Chrome tablet.   The Chrome OS is a slimmed down Linux operating system tuned to run the full desktop version of the Chrome browser (with plugin extensions and apps), which generally will require a keyboard and either a trackpad or mouse to operate comfortably.  It therefore may seem like an odd thing to want to run this on a tablet, but a couple years ago Google began altering Chrome OS to enable it to also run Android apps, to add capabilities beyond what could be done in the browser.  Android apps are tuned to run on a mobile device with a touchscreen.  

This melding of Android apps with Chrome OS led to nearly all modern Chromebooks having touchscreens and some form of convertability, usually with a keyboard that rotates into a position behind the screen.  This does not necessarily make a standard Chromebook into a good tablet.  For example, I have a Samsung Chromebook Pro with a 12 inch screen - the keyboard rotates all the way around flat behind the screen, but the device is too big and too heavy for comfortable use as a tablet.  

Enter the Duet, not the first device in this category but certainly newest and most interesting.  This device is designed to be used as a tablet, with the capability of "going into laptop mode", rather than being a laptop that goes into tablet mode.  This means it works really well as a tablet - but it leads to design decisions that some may not care for.  The body of the device itself is thin, light, with a bright 10 inch screen.  It is easily held in one hand leaving the other hand free for touchscreen operation.  The Duet will make an excellent couch surfer, airplane companion, etc.  As with any modern tablet you have front and rear cameras and built-in microphones, power and volume buttons, and a single USB-C port.  That last is going to be a struggle for some folks when we talk about using this as a laptop, but remember - this is a tablet first, laptop second.

The Duet comes with 4 gigs of RAM.  Some in the Chromebook crowd are complaining about this, but for average people in real-world Chromebook use it's generally enough and can run multiple Android apps handily.  On the other hand the device has 128 gigs of storage, which is important if you plan to install a bunch of Android apps.  Notably, in one of those "tablet first" compromises there is no card reader for an SD card.  I'll address that a little later on, but combined with the single USB port, the design choices here seem to push one towards needing a USB-C hub.  Honestly it's not an absolute necessity and it will depend on how you intend to use the device.  

One great thing about the Duet is the promise of eight years of software updates.  Unlike your average Android device or even most Chromebooks, there is a serious commitment to making this device useful for the long haul.

So how do we turn this tablet into a laptop?  It's done with the connection of two addon devices which I should point out are supplied with the tablet, rather than being extra purchases.  First there is a magnetic back "cover" that snaps to the back of the tablet and which has a fold-out stand.  The fold-out stand has a very wide range of positions so you can get the angle just right, and it can be useful to hold the tablet up even as a tablet.  On the down side it adds considerable weight.  This won't matter when the Duet is sitting on a desk but when toting it around with you, it will be noticeable.  Second there is a keyboard which is also magnetically attached.  There are a number of connection points on the edge of the tablet and the keyboard that have to line up, but they pop together so easily it almost feels like magic.

The keyboard itself is...nice?  Not nice?  This is such a subjective measure.  First it's not real big and it can't be, given that it "fits" the 10-inch screen.  You can certainly pair up a full size keyboard over Bluetooth or with a USB connection but we're talking portability here, something that is designed specifically for this tablet.  In order to keep most of the keys decent size and maintain some spacing, some of the keys (mainly for punctuation) have been reduced to about half-width.  So you will read some reviews where people complain that the combination of the small keyboard size and the tiny punctuation keys makes it hard to type.  For the record I'm typing this blog post on the Duet keyboard.  My hands aren't huge but they're by no means small either and my fingers are long.  It's a tad cramped, and I do make some mistakes here.  I am adjusting.  I think it's fair to say that I would not want to use this keyboard as my primary / only keyboard for the rest of my life - but I would also say it is WAY better than typing with an onscreen keyboard.  I am going on a trip in a couple months out of the country for 3 weeks, I'll be using this device to remotely connect to work on occasion, and for basic use it's going to be just fine.  Note:  my 3 week trip was cancelled due to COVID considerations but I did a 9 day road trip and used the Duet with its tiny keyboard daily.  It worked and I didn't die.  I didn't mention the trackpad yet - it works.  It's not spectacular.  Personally I usually carry a small Logitech mouse and plug in a USB wireless thingy.  I'll probably keep doing that.  But just to be clear, I have used the trackpad and it does work.  It's fine.

So where are we?   We got ourselves a nice tablet - 10-inch, bright screen, light weight.  I didn't mention the performance before but it's smooth - I've run big Android games and apps, not a single hiccup or stutter.  I don't open 100 tabs or anything but every site I use displays flawlessly and I don't notice any issues.  We got a nice back-cover / stand that holds the screen up at any angle, and a detachable keyboard which, if not spectacular, is perfectly usable.  What's left to talk about?

Well first there is that single USB-C port.  This may be a tablet-first-laptop-second, but it is a Chromebook, and being able to connect peripherals is part of the game.  You're going to likely want a USB-C hub.   There are a ton out there and I'm not going to describe them all but I just got a new one I like a lot - I bought this VAVA 9-1 USB-C Hub at Amazon.  It passes the USB-C power through to the latop / tablet while giving me 2 USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, a Ethernet network port, an audio jack, a full-size SD card reader and a TF (microSD) card reader.   This was a bit pricey, and honestly I will not use it often, but I will not want to be without it.  In particular when I go on a longer trip like the one I have planned, I'm going to want the USB 2.0 port for my mouse dongle.  

Second, the Duet does not come with a stylus but supposedly it is designed to work with any stylus that meets the new USI standards - Universal Stylus Initiative, that is.  USI styli are powered devices with electronics inside that let them communicate to the device on which they're being used - stuff like angle and pressure, etc.  Lenovo will have one coming out eventually but right now options are few.  It will be a little while before we know how this will shake out.  

The final thing to note is the price, and this is the part that has so many in the Chromebook community so excited - the full package as described above, with the back stand and keyboard, and with 128 gigs of storage, costs $300 (ok, it's $299). In the U.S. this is only available through Best Buy but there will be other resellers eventually, as well as a 64-gig version for $279 (honestly, $20 to double the storage on a device that will be running Android apps is not much).  $300 for a nice tablet with the stand and keyboard seems like a steal.  Now ... I already said I spent more money on a USB-C hub, and I am thinking I'll buy the Lenovo USI pen when it comes out so my total spend will probably push me over $400, but those are choices I'm making.

I think the Duet works really well, feels great as a tablet, works well enough as a Chrombook to use for extended periods (but probably not full time forever), and with the included accessories makes for a fantastic value.  It's a keeper.

Shortwave, Tecsun & Ergonomics

It's a weird time to be "into" shortwave listening as a hobby.  The number of broadcasters (especially the big powerhouse international ones) is dwindling year over year.  On the other hand, we seem to be in almost a golden age for receivers, especially portables.  For those of us who can remember the situation from a few decades ago, today's receivers represent amazing value - great band coverage and performance, tons of features, reasonable (sometimes downright cheap) prices.

In fact, in a lot of ways receiver performance and features seem to be converging.  There have always been similarities - tuning knobs, keypads and the like - but the reliance on DSP chips in a lot of newer radios not only gives us similar capabilities but similar feature sets.  For example there are a whole bunch of little radios out there that all cover the same set of bands, give you the same number of memories, use the same sequence of button presses to enter frequencies, etc.

Still, I have my favorites.  I got spoiled.  I bought a Tecsun PL680 (nearly identical to the popular PL660) as well as a PL-880.  Later I picked up the smaller PL-310ET as a travel radio.  And along the way I learned a bit about what I will call "the Tecsun way".  Much of this has to do with how the keypad and other tuning features are used for entering frequencies, accessing memories, etc.  Let me run through some of the things I like.  In later posts as I review radios I'm going to refer back to this stuff.

Tecsun radios have lot of memories - LOTS.  

Thousands of presets on the PL-660 & PL-680, even more on the PL-880.  Maybe that seems crazy, especially if you have one of the common "500 memory" radios floating around these days.  But those little 500-memory buggers actually give you 100 for longwave (wasted for most of us), 100 for mediumwave (maybe useful), 100 for FM (almost certainly mostly wasted), 100 for AIR band (who know if this is too much or not enough?), and the biggest insult is only 100 for shortwave.  That's the entire 28 MHz or so of spectrum, all SW bands, including SSB modes.  To put it another way, if you think 100 is enough, you probably don't use memories at all.

To make matters worse within each band those radios separate the memories into 10 per "page" - basically they want you to be able to do single button presses to recall memories, but you have to switch pages every 10 memories.  And there is no other way to recall them.

Tecsuns - by contrast - give you vast amounts of memories, MOST of which are "all mode" memories that can be used for any frequency, any band, and they are usually in pages of 100 memories.  That means you can actually put a ton of MWARA frequencies on one page, for example.  Or if you're trying to learn Spanish, put a ton on a page. 

To sum up this part - most radios force you to think about what's worth saving in memories, whereas a Tecsun gives you freedom to store and organize how YOU want.

Tecsun radios don't punish you for wanting to enter frequencies

Most of these little modern radios default to using the numeric keypad to recall memories.  You want to tune in 5000 kHz? Press the "5" and you'll actually recall memory location 5 on whatever page you're on.  To enter a frequency you have to hit a frequency button, THEN enter your frequency...and then hit the frequency button AGAIN.  If you have found a list of frequencies in an old book or on the web and you want to enter them one by one, that's a lot of extra button pressing.  

On a Tecsun, you can toggle the keypad AND tuning knob AND up/down slewing buttons to be used for memories or for frequency entry.  In Frequency mode, you want to tune 5000, you just press 5-0-0-0.  Done and done.  Or spin the turning knob, or use the up/down buttons.  If you want to work with memorized stations, a single press of that toggle button puts you in Memory mode - now the keypad recalls memories, but SO DOES THE TUNING KNOB!  As you turn the knob it goes from one memory to the next - and so do the slewing buttons.  On many modern portables if you had, say 50 memories to go through, you gotta press 0...then 1...then 2...then 3...and when you get up to 9, then you have to press "page" and 1 to go to the next page and then 0...then 1...then 2...then 3...and up through 9 on that page, then change pages again, and on and on.  On a Tecsun?  Put 'em all on one page and turn the knob.  

Tecsun radios don't mute (and the nicer ones don't "detent")

On most modern portables, as you turn the tuning knob it sort of bumps.  That is, it resists being turned, then your force overcomes the resistance and it clicks into the next position.  This is called "detent" and it's a pain in the rear.  Further, on these radios, as you are in between "clicks" or "bumps", the radio mutes itself. 

The combination of these two characteristics makes "band scanning" a MISERABLE process.  Band scanning is pretty much what it sounds like - pick a band, and start turning the knob to move up or down the frequencies.  Do it a a slow clip and listen hard and your ear can pick out faint signals that might be worth chasing.  But on a radio where the knob has a detent and the radio mutes?  Not happening.

Note, it's the nicer Tecsuns that do better here - the PL-660, PL-680, and PL-880.  The small units like the PL-310ET and PL-380 have pretty bad detents.

So is there a problem, officer?

It depends.  Newer radios do have some pretty nice features.  A bunch of them have AIR band, which Tecsun used to care about but which they seem to have abandoned in newer models.  Other radios have RDS, a nice feature that shows digital information with FM stations.  These little DSP models have lots of selectable bandwidths which can be nice.  The Tecsun PL-880 was designed around a DSP chip and has SOME of these features but it didn't implement them all, and in some respects it even stepped backwards from the PL-660 and PL-680.

Still, from an ergonomic (usability) standpoint, I consider Tecsuns to be the gold standard.  Models from XHData, Digitech, C. Crane and others need to take some lessons here.

Anytone DMR - Resolving Type Mismatch Errors

Note, the following post references the Anytone AT-D868UV handheld radio, but I imagine the information applies to the AT-D878UV and other similar models from Anytone.

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tl;dr - The virtual com ports created by the com0com software package are incompatible with Anytone QXCodePro and D868UV (used for updating and configuring Anytone DMR radios), causing those programs to crash when they try to start up and enumerate the com ports in the system.  The error presented to the user is "Run-time error '13': Type mismatch".  The fix is to (temporarily) uninstall com0com prior to using the Anytone programs.

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I have an Anytone DMR handheld radio, model AT-D868UV.  Anytone makes several models of handheld and mobile radios and their DMR radios have become quite popular in the ham radio community, due to a combination of low price and extensive feature set.  As with all DMR radios, the Anytone radios have to be connected to a computer for programming, both for updating the firmware to fix bugs and enable features, and for configuring the radio itself including features and frequencies.

There are two software packages for Anytone radios that must be installed to do these tasks - a firmware update tool called QXCodePro, and a program for creating and maintaining the "codeplug" (just a fancy name for "the configuration file for the radio") called D868UV.  The Anytone radio connects to a PC using a custom USB cable.  Special driver software allows this to be seen by the computer as a "com" port, like an old-fashioned serial port.  Both the QXCodePro and D868UV programs connect to the radio through this serial com port to read and write firmware and configurations.

The software is updated on a somewhat irregular basis - downloaded either direct from Anytone or from a radio vendor.

Recently after not using my DMR radio for some time I decided to pick it back up and work with it.  My first goal was to download the newest software package which would include new versions of QXCodePro, D868UV, and a firmware file.  After installing the new program executables, I tried firing up QXCodePro and ran into this error - "Run-time error '13': Type mismatch".

Trying to load the D868UV software which manages codeplugs gave the same error.  I tried uninstalling the software and reinstalling, no luck.  I tried installing an older version, didn't work.  I did some Googling around for the error message - it is real common with some Visual Basic stuff plugged into Excel spreadsheets, none of which helped me.  After trying everything under the sun that I could think up, I gave in and posted questions all over a variety of Reddit and Facebook groups.

As sometimes happens, after I posted all those queries, I found my answer buried deep in the comments on a Facebook post.  I'm sharing it here for others who may have the same issue.

In addition to my Anytone radio I have a Software Defined Radio (SDR) - an RSP1A from SDRPlay.  I use a piece of software called CSV User Browser to import shortwave schedule and frequency lists, and one of the things CSVUB can do is control the SDR.  It works by sending commands to the SDRUno control software that comes with the radio. That communication is accomplished through... wait for it... com ports.  I have installed a program called "com0com" which creates two virtual com ports which are connected to one another.  I program CSVUB to grab one of the com ports, and SDRUno to grab the other, and the virtual com port pair pass messages between the two pieces of software.

The issue seems to be some characteristic of these virtual com ports created by com0com.  Remember that BOTH the QXCodePro and D868UV programs start by enumerating the com ports in the system upon startup.  Apparently there's something about these virtual com ports created by com0com that the Anytone programs can't handle - thus the "type mismatch" error.

The only solution I have found is to uninstall com0com temporarily when I need to use the Anytone programs, then reinstall it when I'm done messing with the DMR firmware or configuration changes.  It's sort of a pain in the butt, but it doesn't take terribly long.  There may be a way to configure the com0com ports so they don't trigger the type-mismatch in the Anytone programs, but I haven't found one.  I am toying with opening a bug report to Anytone, but they're a Chinese company and I don't think they are going to be very responsive.

73 -
James

Comparing C. Crane Skywave SSB & Digitech AR-1780

I have a collection of portable shortwave radios - it's grown pretty rapidly in recent years as I've finally reached a stage in my career where I can indulge a little.  This of course proves the universe has a perverse sense of humor since there's less and less to be heard on "shortwave", especially the broadcast bands, but I digress.  All of these little radios are broad coverage communications receivers that cover longwave, mediumwave (AM), shortwave (usually with SSB), FM broadcast, and some of them have VHF air band which I actually enjoy using.

Two of my favorite small, travel-size portables are the C. Crane Skywave SSB, and the Digitech AR-1780.  Note, the AR-1780 is nearly identical to the XHData D-808, and I have other posts on this site about it.  What prompted me to write today is my Skywave SSB was recently broken (maybe a post for another time) and I shall not be able to buy a new one for a few weeks.  This has led me to use the AR-1780 a good bit more, and to think hard about what I like, and dislike, about both radios.

Now there are a lot of similarities between these radios.  The general consensus on the interwebs seems to be that the Chinese manufacturer of the AR-1780 cribbed much of the design from the Skywave SSB.  I am not sure if there's proof of that, but you'll see it repeated on multiple web sites.  The radios almost certainly use some of the same DSP components.  Among the similarities:

1. Both radios cover LW, MW, SW (with SSB), FM, and VHF AIR band.
2. Both radios have unusually good AIR band performance.
3. Both radios offer 500 memories, and the memory allocations, page functions, etc. all work identically on both radios.
4. Button operation and even location are very similar (though not identical).

But there are some differences, and some of them are kind of important in real world usage:

1. The Skywave SSB operates on only two AA batteries, whereas the AR-1780 uses four.  This could be important if you are traveling.
2. The Skywave has a relatively short telescoping whip which limits sensitivity, especially on shortwave.  The whip on the AR-1780 is longer and you can tell from the performance. See next note.
3. The Skywave lacks an external antenna jack.  Given that the whip is so short, this really hampers the ability to improve reception with an external antenna.  You can, of course, clip a length of wire to the whip.  The AR-1780 has an antenna jack, and plugging in an external antenna helps with MW, SW, and AIR band.  I have read some suggestions it doesn't help on anything but shortwave, but I can tell you in real-world usage that it helps with the other bands.
4. The AR-1780 outperforms the Skywave on MW AM pretty handily.
5. The Skywave SSB has the ability to scan one bank of up to 10 AIR band memories, which is a major plus for monitoring multiple frequencies.   The AR-1780 does not do this and I am sorely missing it right now.
6. The Skywave SSB can tune all of the NOAA weather radio frequencies.  The AR-1780 doesn't have them.  And not only does the Skywave have them, it is one of the best performing weather radios I have ever owned.
7. The AR-1780 has RDS display on FM, which is a "nice to have".  The Skywave SSB does not.
8. The Skywave SSB is significantly more expensive than the AR-1780, running about $170 (not including shipping - if you have Amazon Prime the shipping is no charge), while the AR-1780 runs about $120 including shipping from wherever you have to get it (mostly available either from Jaycar's US site, or various Ebay dealers).

I am not sure this list gets anyone to "the" answer, if you were looking for a clear choice between the two radios.  I think the AR-1780 is probably the better value, but if NOAA weather is important, and if you like the AIR band scanning on the Skywave, the premium you pay for it may be worth it.  I like both radios; the AR-1780 is a little better for me indoors where the ability to plug in my external antennas helps a lot, while the Skywave is super nice for sitting outside on the patio and letting the scanner run through my AIR band frequencies.

XHDATA D-808 Radio - Some Observations On Usability

I recently purchased a XHDATA D-808 World Band radio.  It's generating a fair amount of "buzz" in the shortwave listening community due to its low cost (less than $70 US) and an impressive feature list:

• Frequency coverage - longwave, mediumwave AM, shortwave WITH SSB and covering the "full" shortwave range, FM, and air band.  
• Small size (just about pocket-size)
• 500 memories (100 for each of the bands)
• FM RDS capability
• Helpful tuning features including direct frequency entry, a variable "speed" tuning knob, a separate fine-tuning "wheel", up/down slewing buttons
• External antenna jack

Also of note, unlike the nearly identical Digitech AR-1780, the D-808 ships with a soft faux-leather pouch, external wire antenna, rechargeable battery, and USB cable for charging, and at half the price of the AR-1780.

Further, the radio performs fairly well for a set of such a low price.  While I don't find performance on any band to be stellar, the D-808 certainly is capable of pulling in stations, especially with a suitable external antenna for SW and SW/SSB use.

This is not intended to be a full review of the radio; rather I wanted to share some observations on the usability factors, in particular those which I find to be lacking.  For some reason, very few radio reviewers seem to spend any time on ergonomics, or on the actual implementation of the controls that have to be used to operate the device.  Personally I find these things to be key to my long-term enjoyment of a radio, and strongly impact the likelihood that I will want to use a radio on a day-to-day basis.  I am more likely to USE and ENJOY a radio that is easy to tune, has decent auto-scanning capabilities, a sane memory preset scheme, etc. even if the radio isn't quite as strong a performer on every band.

The first thing I want to note is that the D-808 was implemented with buttons that are flush with the front of the case, and which require very firm presses to engage.  Combined with their small size and cramped arrangement, pressing them is simply uncomfortable.  My radio usually sits on a plastic picnic-style table and the radio slides around all over the table when I try to press buttons unless I hold onto it with the other hand.  This is a poor design decision that negatively impacts using this radio, especially as other design issues pretty much require a LOT of button pressing - and I'll come back to it again and again.

A nice feature of this radio is that is actually has a tuning knob, often absent from cheaper shortwave portables.  But this one has strong "stops" so it doesn't turning smoothly - each turn requires you to apply enough force to overcome the friction.  And the radio mutes with every turn, so it's pretty miserable for a casual session of "tuning around" a band.

As is the case with nearly all portable digital radios, the numeric keypad does double duty allowing entry of frequencies or access to memories.  On the D-808, the radio is always in a mode where the default action of pressing a number button is to call up a memory location.  Several negative (to my way of thinking) consequences arise as a result:

• Because every keypress instantly pulls up a memory, the memory "pages" or banks must be limited to 10 memories apiece.  So if you wanted to program in all the MWARA frequencies, you would have to split these over many memory pages.  Then to tune through them you have to do extra keypresses to get from page to page.
• In order to directly enter a frequency you have to first press a "freq" button since otherwise pressing the button would tune a preset station.  As with most shortwave radios you also have to press the freq button AGAIN at the end of any entry that doesn't use up all the available digits (basically any SW frequency under 10000). These extra button presses, combined with the poor button design (see above) makes frequency entry a laborious process.

There are of course other ways to tune; one helpful feature allows the D-808 to auto-tune-and-store frequencies in a band.  Here again, there are implementation issues - 

• The radio seems to have a high threshold for recognizing a signal, so it "finds" far fewer frequencies than it can actually tune. To be really clear on that point, I can tune frequencies manually that are perfectly listenable but the D-808 doesn't find them when auto-tuning.  I have compared this function with a number of other portables and ALL of them find more frequencies than the D-808.  Note, the same inability to recognize a listenable frequency while scanning also affects scanning with the slewing buttons.
• If you do happen to find a bunch of frequencies, they will be stored across multiple pages (see above issues with the small page size).
• The auto-tuned frequencies are always stored starting in page 0 preset 0 for the chosen band and work up from there, so if you want to manually program memories, you need to put them on a high page.  There is no option to have found frequencies added to the existing list, it always overwrites. 

One final note on frequency memories - there is no way to access (tune) a preset other than pressing the associated key on the number pad (possibly AFTER doing additional keypresses to pull up the correct page).  You can't scan through a bank of stored frequencies.  You can't move from one to the next with the slewing buttons, nor with the tuning knob.  As with everything else requiring the use of button presses on this radio, this is a pain.

As for performance, despite many reviews giving the D-808 high marks, I find it to be only average, but it's also hard to gauge due to the usability impediments I've been describing.  For example, how do you measure shortwave performance?  Unless you have bench test equipment, you mainly test it by seeing how many stations you can pick up under various conditions (on the whip, with some kind of external antenna, indoors vs. outdoors, different times of day, etc.) and listening to them.  But consider:

• Manual band-scanning sucks on this radio - the tuning knob is not comfortable for a long session moving through a band and the muting is bad
• Using either the slewing/scanning buttons or the auto-tuning, the radio seems to require such strong signals that it finds very few stations - even when you KNOW the signal is there and you KNOW the D-808 is capable of tuning it
• Auto-tuning stations and having them stored results in the frustrating experience of pressing buttons to step through them and having to switch pages

In short, in order to see what I can pick up with this radio I'm mostly spending time looking at EIBI schedules or the like, trying to figure out what ought to be tunable, and manually entering frequency after frequency.  It's very hard to compare how well this radio performs next to a radio that is much easier to use, like various models from Tecsun and Eton/Grundig.  

The end result of all these observations is that I'm again looking for a radio that hits closer to my sweet spot for features, performance and usability.  The D-808 will likely be the next radio I list on E-bay.

Comparing the Digitech AR1780 to the XHDATA D-808

12/06/18 - this post has been updated to include more current information about pricing and availability - which affect the value proposition - and to correct a couple of factual errors.

Shortwave enthusiasts learn this lesson very early - all shortwave radios are the culmination of a combination of compromises.  Price, size/portability, reliability, frequency coverage, features, and vendor support all vary from one make and model to the next.  Further, putting a value on a number of these items is a subjective process - a radio's count of memories is a fixed number, but how important that number is varies from person to person.

Not surprisingly, we tend to group radios with similar sets of features, sizes, and prices into groups and compare them to one another.  But on occasion the shortwave industry presents us with virtually identical models from different brands or companies.  Sometimes these are manufactured in the same place by the same people and just branded differently.  And you'd expect those devices to really and truly be "the same".

Recently it was noted that the new XHDATA D-808 radio appeared to be identical to the Digitech AR-1780.  Both radios are of interest due to the following items on the set of scales mentioned above:

• Frequency coverage is good - broad coverage of the shortwave band, longwave, mediumwave AM, FM broadcast band, and AIR band (a small range of VHF frequencies used by airports and airlines)
• Single Sideband (SSB) capability - important for listening to Hams and some utility broadcasts
• Small form factor
• Built-in whip antenna and external antenna jack
• Built-in battery charger
• Relatively low prices (see below)

There are also a couple of items that are not so hot - one is from a company (Digitech) that has a decidedly low reputation, the other from a company most of us here in the states never heard of (XHDATA).  And speaking of "here in the states", both radios have to be ordered from overseas suppliers and shipped to the US.

It isn't my intention to do a full review of either set here, though - but rather to list the similarities and differences.  And the similarities are STRONG:

• Nearly identical size, shape and weight (the weight WITH BATTERIES is identical, while the D-808 is slightly larger in a couple of dimensions)
• Identical placement and labeling of buttons, knobs, and jacks on the radios with only a couple of exceptions, explained below
• The built-in whips are the same size, same length and number of elements
• The radios seem to use identical circuitry / DSP chips and have identical functions (indeed the manuals, both really slim and not too informative, are word-for-word the same)
• As you would expect the display readouts are identical save for the backlight color

But there ARE differences:

• The AR-1780 runs about $125 US plus shipping (I got mine on sale so that was about what I paid including shipping).  The D-808 runs about $69 US, including shipping (I got mine on sale at $49 including shipping).  This difference alone is driving a LOT of interest in the D-808 Over time the price of the D-808 has gone up considerably since the original post.  It is no longer possible to purchase direct from China.  You can only get it through a few E-bay sellers who are routing it through Israel.  With shipping it runs anywhere from $120 to $140.  The E-bay sellers of the AR-1780 have taken to jacking up shipping prices so that radio is even more expensive.  However if you purchase the AR-1780 through the US web site of Jaycar, you can get it for a decent price and shipping only adds about $15.
• Aside from the radio itself, the AR-1780 ships with the manual, and...nothing else.  No batteries, no charging cables or devices, no earbuds, no external antenna, and no carrying case.  I'll come back to the lack of any power supply of any kind shortly.  By contrast, the D-808 ships with a soft faux-leather carrying pouch, a rechargeable battery, a USB charging cable, and a wire antenna that can be plugged into the available jack on the radio.  Given that the radio is already half the price of the AR-1780, these extras create an even stronger  a slight advantage for the D-808.
• The AR-1780 uses 4 AA cells, and does have circuitry to charge Ni-MH batteries inside the unit.  It does not come with any batteries - I have plenty of Sanyo Eneloops so that's not such a big issue - but the radio also does not include a charger and/or charging cable.  This is a pain since the AR-1780 uses an odd 7V charger.  Again, I use an external charger for my Eneloops.  In short, the fact that the unit can theoretically be run by an external power source and charge batteries inside is pretty much moot for the average buyer.  Compare this to the D-808, which uses a larger 18650 Li-Ion cell, and uses a standard micro-USB port to to charge.  The radio even ships with a micro-USB cable - not that you probably don't already have a bunch of them laying around, but it's nice to have it included.  You can charge this off an available computer port or wall-wart or whatever you have that can charge USB.   The different charger options for these radios results in one of the only real physical differences between the radios which is the power jack.
• The power button itself is located in a different spot on each radio - just to the left of the display on the AR-1780, just to the right on the D-808
• The buttons used on these radios are different, and this is the first downside for the D-808.  On the AR-1780 they are raised and very tactile.  On the D-808 they are flush with the case making them somewhat more of a pain to press (and impossible to to use the radio by feel - these are simple enough radios you could probably learn to operate the AR-1780 in the dark, but with flush buttons on the D-808 that would be a non-starter).
• The black case used on the AR-1780 shows the silk-screened labels (some of which uses a dark orange ink in places) on the buttons and the case itself clearly.  The D-808 uses identical colors but on a grey case and the reddish orange labeling is super hard to read unless you hold the radio at an odd angle.  Advantage here goes to the AR-1780.
• The screens used different color back-lighting - amber on the AR-1780, blueish-white on the D-808.  

So - weighing pros and cons, the radios are pretty much identical in terms of form and function and features with a slight usability edge to the AR-1780 based on easier to feel and press buttons and easier to read silk-screened labeling.  

The D-808 is a MUCH somewhat better VALUE proposition based on having identical features and performance and including the battery, charging cable, external wire antenna, and carrying pouch, for HALF the same price of the AR-1780.  

What else?  Here are some TOTALLY SUBJECTIVE observations....

• I prefer the black case of the AR-1780 to the grey used by the D-808.
• I prefer the raised buttons on the AR-1780 to the flush ones on the D-808.
• For some reason the AR-1780 *feels* like it weighs more (and mentally this equates to feeling more solidly built) than the D-808, even though I have weighed them both at 11.5 ounces including their batteries.  I think this is because the AR-1780 is very slightly smaller in a couple of dimensions so having the same weight in a little smaller packages makes it denser.
• The first few hours of playing with the D-808 I was sure it was defective - it seemed to struggle to pick up the same stations as the AR-1780, the signal strength displays were reading way lower, and I was thinking about boxing it up and contacting the seller to return it.  But I removed the battery for a while, put it back in, and it has been perfect (compared to the AR-1780) ever since. 
• Likewise the audio quality of the D-808 seemed much worse at first, but I think I may have had different bandwidth settings chosen.  At any rate I no longer notice any difference.

Recommendation - I find ergonomics make a huge difference to my enjoyment of SWLing.  If a radio is a pin in the rear to use, I just won't  use it, no matter how it performs.  I think the AR-1780 has the edge here and it's the one I kept out of the two radios.  

Final note - neither of these radios would get a strong recommendation from me regardless of price.  They are both decent performers but the memories are a pain in the rear to program and to access, entering frequencies is also a pain, and there are just better choices out there (especially for the price point).  See the TECSUN PL-660/680 to understand what I mean.

Thoughts on the Harry's Shave Plan and Products

This seems important to get out of the way at the beginning - this is an unpaid and unsolicited review / commentary on the Harry's Shave Plan and products.  I have not been given any free product  beyond the trial set that everyone can order.

Harry's Shave Plan

Shave plans offer the ability to receive regular shipments of razor blades, shaving cream or gel, and related products on a monthly or semi-monthly basis.  The company offering the plan gets a guaranteed sale; the customer never runs out of blades and shaving cream, and saves money (potentially quite a lot) on products.  Assuming the blades are of decent quality, it's a win-win situation.  

Harry's seems to be the most heavily advertised shave plan, at least on the web sites I frequent.  I read a number of reviews, many of which were fairly obvious shills for Harry's, and a few which seemed (more-or-less) independent.  I also read a number of forums where people talked about their experiences.  

Without going over the "plus" side of the balance sheet just yet, the main negative thing people mentioned was that the individual blades in a Harry's cartridge are a bit closer together than on a typical Gillette (like a Fusion cartridge).  This means the Harry's blades can get "clogged" faster and require more frequent rinsing, and might also necessitate some changes in shaving technique - shorter strokes for example.

I can't count how many times I browsed to the Harry's site and almost signed up - mostly holding back because I had enough Fusion cartridges to last a while (I bought a bulk pack at Costco).  But eventually I got down to my last couple and signed up for the free trial and a shave plan.  Based on my habits, I ended up with a plan that gives me 8 blades every 3 months and a can of shaving gel.  I got my trial kit quickly and just got my first 3-month installment of new cartridges today.  I've been shaving on that first cartridge for a couple of weeks.

First Impressions

Harry's products are nicely packaged - kind of like buying an iPhone or a Kindle, you get the feeling you're unpacking something serious when you open the box.  The standard plastic handle (the Truman model) has a nice heft to it, apparently weighted within, and has a faintly rubbery surface for a solid grip.

The cartridge for the blade is easily detached and reattached, and comes with a nice plastic cover to keep "things" from knocking into the blades between uses or when packed for travel.  The cartridges have 5 blades, and even just visually they're obviously more tightly spaced than the Gillette Fusion ones.  

Shaving With Harry's Products

The gel provided by Harry's is ... gel.  It comes out looking like gel and turns into something like a thick foam on the skin.  The gel has a great "manly" scent, not strong at all yet definitely there, that will make you think about a good-old-fashioned barber shop.  As described above, the Truman handle has a little weight to it and a slightly rubberized grip, making it very comfortable to hold.  The cartridge slips on easily and is almost as easily removed, by gently squeezing a ring around the tip of the handle and sliding it outward.

As for the experience of shaving itself - if you're familiar with the Gillette Fusion, it's pretty different.  The closely spaced blades really do shave differently.  And I can understand where the complaints come in - with my Fusion cartridge I can do full, long strokes with the razor, maybe even a couple of those before having to rinse the blades, while with the Harry's it's much more likely I'll have to rinse more often - shorter strokes and very rarely more than one stroke.  And it's not just how often I have to rinse - the tighter blade spacing means that each rinse takes a bit more time and water to get the hair and gel to come out.  

So far that probably doesn't sound very good, but hang in there.

My first time shaving with the Harry's razor, I noted the above with a small amount of concern - I had read other reviews and forum posts indicating I might have the experience I've described so I was not too surprised, just uncertain if I would want to continue past the trial period.  However I decided to use the razor long enough to get the full use of the cartridge, somewhere around 4 to 5 shaves, and I began to notice some things.  

The second shave "felt" better.  I do not know why.  It just did.  I think part of working with any razor system, no matter the type, is getting to know the feel of the handle, the exact shape and dimensions of the blade, how it rocks on the handle, etc.  In short, any time you change razor systems there is going to be a brief period of adjustment.    By the end of my second shave with the Harry's cartridge and Truman handle, I was through that phase.

And on the third shave I noticed something else, totally unexpected - I liked the closer spacing on the blades.  Even though I was still taking shorter strokes and rinsing more, the blades felt better going over my skin.  

Unsure why, or whether I was just fooling myself, I did my next shave back on the trusty Gillette Fusion, and then switched back to the Harry's razor, and that's when I figured it out:  the wider spacing on the Fusion blades did indeed allow me to "shave faster" (for lack of a better phrase) but that contributed to a couple of issues that I just don't have any more with the Harry's.  Basically the Fusion tends to "slip" across my face faster, which is fine when you're on the flat plane of my cheek, but which has always been problematic on my chin, around my nose and upper lip, along my jaw line and neck around the Adam's apple.  Or to put it another way, on most of my face, I was constantly having to shave extra carefully with the Gillette Fusion to keep from scraping and cutting myself due to how fast it wants to glide around. 

By contrast, the Harry's doesn't "slip" along my face as fast, it has just a tiny bit more "grip" on my beard - not so much that I am conscious of having to tug or scrape, just more of a sure glide.  I don't worry about slipping and cutting myself with Harry's cartridges - they just move around my nose and jaw and chin and neck a a confident way.  The benefits to me are two-fold - I get fewer nicks and scrapes - no more dabbing my chin with a tissue - and I feel more relaxed about the entire process.  I will not go so far as to say I enjoy shaving, but it just seems like less of a hassle now.

Once I determined to stick with the Harry's Shave Plan, I went online and added an extra handle and pack of blades to my first order so I could keep spares in my travel kit.  I'm a Harry's convert, and I'll be quite happy paying less, having my supplies shipped to my door, and shaving with confidence.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Blades are 30% to 50% less expensive than premium 5-blade cartridges from well-known brands
• Handles are well made and comfortable
• Gel is good quality and smells great
• Shave plan delivers products on a regular basis - and you determine the frequency of shipments and amount of product you receive (and you can alter the specifics of each shipment before it goes out)
• Blades are quality steel and well-designed to glide smoothly but confidently (i.e. no slippage) across the face

Cons

• Changing shaving products always takes some getting used to
• Blades are more closely spaced which definitely changes some things, in particular practically guaranteeing a need for shorter strokes and more frequent rinses

SHAMELESS PLEA:

If you're planning to sign up for the Harry's trial, please consider using this link: TRY HARRYS.  If you sign up using that link, I get $5 off on my next box of stuff from Harry's, and assuming you continue past the trial, you also will get $5 off on your first box.  

Samsung Chromebook Pro - Early Review

This is a review of the Samsung Chromebook Pro.  I'm not a professional reviewer - I'm a user.  I do have a pretty extensive background in IT - computing, programming and networking.  This is not my first Chromebook.  Some factors about me and about my purchase of this device that will no doubt color my review:

• I already had a Chromebook.  I have a positive view of Chromebooks in general and what they do, how they're meant to be used, etc.  
• My old Chromebook worked great as a Chromebook, doing all the stuff Chromebooks do...with one or two minor caveats - a couple of web sites in particular were pretty poor performers (oddly enough Google sites like G+ and Inbox, and the CNN site is horrible)
• A few things I never expected a Chromebook to do all that well, including rendering 3D in the browser, were sub-par on the old Chromebook.
• From strictly a nerdist point of view, I was interested in the idea of running Android apps on a Chromebook.  Understand, I didn't need to run them but I thought it would be cool to try out.  Originally it could only be done using an emulator; now Google is slowly rolling out the capability for select Chromebooks, but my old one can't run them yet and probably won't run them well when and if it is supported
• The old Chromebook was the late 2014 model Toshiba Chromebook 2 with the BayTrail Celeron processor. 

I began hearing about the Samsung Chromebook Pro late last year.  It was one of a pair of new Chromebooks from Samsung (the other being the Chromebook Plus) designed in partnership with Google to run Android apps alongside the main Chrome browser and browser-based apps.  The two models are virtually identical except for the color (silver for the Plus and black for the Pro), the processor (an ARM processor in the Plus and an Intel core m3 in the Pro) and the price - about $450 for the Plus and $550 for the Pro.  For a variety of reasons, the Plus went on sale about 5 months earlier than the Pro - there were persistent rumors of problems with the Pro, everything from heat-related issues to reported difficulties getting the Intel processor to run Android apps acceptably.  Note that in theory, the Pro is supposed to be the faster device - as fast or faster than the Plus for Android, and a LOT faster doing the browser-based work Chromebooks are known for.  That's why it cost $100 more.  

The Samsung Chromebook Pro hit the market a couple weeks ago, and I got mine within a few days of the first units hitting the street.  Having had a few weeks with it, how does it stack up.  That's what I'm going to write about here, but let me give you a hint - I just sold my Toshiba Chromebook 2 on Ebay.

Basic Description

The Samsung Chromebook Pro (I'm going to use the abbreviation SCP after this) is a laptop with a Intel core m3 processor (a "mobile" processor which nevertheless is a good bit more powerful than some of Intel's previous mobile CPUs), a 12.3 inch IPS display with a top resolution of 2400x1600, 4 gigs of RAM, and 32 gigs of SSD storage.  It has a micro-SD slot and two USB-C ports.  As this device is intended to run Android apps, it has a touch-screen, the screen folds all the way back around so the device can be used as a tablet, and it has a pen similar to what Samsung provides with their Galaxy Note smartphones and tablets.

As a piece of hardware, this is a really nice laptop.  It is an all-metal housing, and the black looks sweet.  The screen is gorgeous - bright and sharp.  One of my only "complaints" is that at 12.3 inches it's really not big enough to run at the top resolution (2400x1600) because none of the UI elements scale, and even though you can scale up the content of web pages, you typically don't have that kind of control for Android apps yet.  In other words unless you have super vision, you're probably going to run this at a slightly lower resolution.

If you haven't noticed, this thing isn't using the widescreen aspect ratio that has become so common in recent years - it has gone back to the sort of 3x2 shape we used to have on most monitors.  This works better for web browsing and running web apps - and since this is (after all) a Chromebook that works very well, giving you more vertical screen space.  

However in order to keep the size down, Samsung has a very narrow margin on either side of the keyboard and has shrunk and rearrange a couple of keys.  The one everyone notices - and which I am still getting used to - is the backspace key, which is now smaller than any normal key on the keyboard.  It is super easy to hit the "=" key by mistake.  Otherwise the keyboard works well enough and feels pretty good.

The USB situation is not ideal although I presume this is where things are headed - two USB-C ports.  No regular USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports.  By the way, you have to charge the device through one of those two ports as well.  I bought a hub that passes power through a USB-C connector into the laptop, gives me HDMI and VGA outputs, a wired gigabit ethernet port, and 3 USB 3.0 ports.  That helps.

Back to the screen - the touch screen is responsive.  The device goes into tablet mode when you flip the screen around past a certain point.  The pen works on the screen at any time as a pointer/selector, but can also be used for input in writing and drawing apps, and can also be used as a magnifier for a portion of the screen.  When not in use the pen tucks away in a spring-loaded slot on the device.

What I Like

I like the size, and the form factor.  The extra vertical space on screen gives a bit more content room for web pages, and web-work is still the #1 use for a Chromebook.  The web on this device is really snappy - including some things that used to bog down my old Chromebook, like the Google Inbox email site, Google Plus (G+), etc.  CNN is still kind of sucky - I tend to go to the main page and open a whole bunch of article links in new tabs, and there's so much multi-media crap, Flash, and other junk on CNN that it gets nasty fast.  But everything else has been very smooth, including things that render in 3D in the browser, like the 3D imagery on Google Maps.

The keyboard feels nice.  I listed my one complaint already and I'll mention it again later but overall the keys have a nice feel, and I can type on here for long periods.  The trackpad is awesome, too - I loved the one on my Toshiba but this one blows it away, it's like butter.

I like that the micro-SD is recessed behind a little cover. 

I love the screen, it's beautiful.  The touch aspect is unexpectedly nice - being able to pinch zoom any time, even on regular web pages, is awesome.  The hinges on the screen are stiff enough that I can rotate the screen pretty much any angle all the way until it's flat against the back of the keyboard, and it stays where I put it.  

I like the pen - although I am not, at present, using it much as intended.  Handwriting and drawing on screen is something I have not really "taken to" - I had a Samsung Galaxy Note phone for a long time and almost never used the pen there either.  But this pen can be used like an onscreen finger for anything, which is neat for precision pointing or just flicking around; and it can be put in magnifying glass mode which is sometimes neat for a person with poor eyes like mine.  I do have several drawing and note-taking programs I'm playing with to see if I will use it much for writing.  I've been a long-time user of Google Keep but so far using the pen in Keep doesn't feel very natural.

One of the biggest pleasant surprises has been running Android apps.  I had heard so much FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about how an Intel processor would handle apps that I guess I had very low expectations.  Let me just say, so far I'm very impressed with what Google and Samsung have done here.  I can access the Play Store, pick an app, and install it, and run it - and apps are smooth and work well.  I have games, including some that do a lot of 3D like Vainglory; I have the full Android version of Instagram which is superior to looking at the Instagram web interface; I have got Snapseed on here which is fun for doing certain kinds of image edits.  I found a nice diagramming tool (for basic network diagrams).  There is just SO much available now that this becomes a much more full-featured device.  

In fact, for those of us that have enjoyed Chromebooks for what they are, adding Android apps feels like it's taking things in the wrong direction...but they're cool to have.

What I Don't Like

To beat the dead horse, I don't like the tiny backspace key.  For someone that does a lot of typing, it's damned inconvenient to reach for backspace and end up typing ====== all over the place.

No USB 3.0 ports is a pain in the butt, having to buy a dongle to turn one of my USB-C ports into USB 3.0 ports is bad, having to use a USB-C port to charge...you get my drift here.

Right now Android apps either operate by default in phone size/orientation, or they open full screen if you have the Chromebook Pro screen rotated back in tablet mode.  There's not much in between.  And the phone size/orientation can leave the app running in a tiny window if you're using a higher resolution.  There is a dev-mode option you can enable to run an app maximized by default and in portrait mode, and that works better for me.  With the dev mode options you can even turn on resizing for some apps.  However until Android O (and new versions of the apps) appears, we will not the capability very widespread.

A little worse is that Android app content doesn't scale (most of the time) - text is super small and controls can be as well.  It's usually better in full screen games which tend to scale as you would expect.

Battery life is rated at about 10 hours.  I have no idea who came up with that number, but I can tell you that if you turn on Bluetooth, or attach a wireless mouse dongle, and especially if you do streaming video, the battery life is heavily and quickly impacted.  I keep this plugged into the charger at all times unless I'm going to be out and about, and then I leave the mouse home.  I used to use Bluetooth so my phone could auto-unlock my screen, but I have disabled this for the time being.

Two Widely Discussed Issues

Almost since Google and Samsung announced a pair of new Chromebooks, one with an ARM processor and one with an Intel x86, there has been a lot written about how the Intel device might struggle with running Android apps.  Some have suggested they should be just fine, since Android apps are (theoretically) pure Java.  Others have rightly pointed out that many Android apps are written with custom, ARM-specific optimizations (since most phones and tablets use those kinds of CPUs).  Of course, Intel-based Chromebooks have had the advantage running Chrome OS and the full version of the Chrome browser.  It seemed that there was a basic tradeoff being offered - buy the Plus with the ARM processor if you mostly wanted Android apps and not so much Chrome, and buy the Pro with the Intel processor to maximize Chrome capability and expect some issues (poor, buggy performance) with Android apps.

I've already addressed this but to be perfectly clear - the Pro runs Android apps like a champ.  I have run fairly complex ones, too - they work, and work really well (given the caveats above about resizing and such, which affect the ARM-based Chromebook Plus equally).  There is a guy who runs a pro-ARM web site and appears writing all kinds of nasty comments about Intel and Intel-based devices who has been spreading a lot of unfounded crap around the comment sections of Chrome and IT web sites, and simply put, he's just wrong.  

The second issue has to do with "The Verge" tech web site.  It seems the Chromebook Pro may have a bit of a bug, probably in software, that causes the device to occasionally freeze.  I've seen it myself.  Not often mind you, and only when performing certain kinds of activities, but it does happen.  It seems to me almost certain that this will be fixed quickly - it doesn't look like it will be hard to nail down.  But The Verge is recommending people "do not buy" the device.  And I think that stinks - it's a really good device which pushes a bunch of new boundaries, and works remarkably well.  I do not believe the "do not buy" recommendation to be warranted.

Update: I have not had a freeze episode for several weeks.  I have no idea why; ChromeOS has not been updated since the initial release.