GAS Latest Shiny Things (non camera related)

I hope the set is actually as lovely as your photograph of it. Though i would drink coffee out of an old corn tin if necessary, I do enjoy coffee or tea in a nice cup.

I went for utility recently with a stainless steel Yeti mug. It lacks in elegance, but keeps coffee piping hot and is very ergonomic.
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My wife works at a daycare and for her we got the large Yeti thermos to use with cold water all day; she loves that thing and refuses to use anything else now.

Yeah, that double-walled stainless steel is sweet. Keeps hot hot and cold cold with no sweating. Seems kind of expensive at first, but well worth it imo.
 
I went for utility recently with a stainless steel Yeti mug. It lacks in elegance, but keeps coffee piping hot and is very ergonomic.

Good brand. I got one as a tsotke for working a project. I particularly like the magnetic sip cover on mine (which I didn't discover until about the 4th time I washed it). Dropped it once on a hard pavement too, it's working just fine.
 
I just got the Yeti 1 gallon cooler to go with my half gallon growler for cold water at work and takeaway beer on Brewery visits...
 
I really must stop going into Costco and going "Ooooooh, shiny!" all the time. I didn't need one but the local Costco had the Samsung Tab 8" 16gb 2017 model down to $129 to clear them out. They're still at $164 on Amazon.

Even though I also recently picked up a replacement Amazon Fire HD 8" I found myself not happy with the screen display on it. OK, to clarify that, I had an Amazon Fire before that I was using basically as a Kindle reader and for occasional browsing but really didn't use it as often as I could have. A family member recently killed the USB connector port on their own Fire HD 8 so I offered them mine and used it as an excuse to pick up a current generation model to replace as my Kindle reader. But... going back to it again after not using for it a bit I found myself wishing the screen was even just a tiny bit crisper compared to my Galaxy S7 Edge phone. Well, lo & behold, Costco was clearing out some stuff. They also had an old version of the Tab 10" for just $119 :eek: but as a Kindle reader I find 8" tablets to be best for me. I have an S2 for work and while it's great for Chrome doing stuff for work (like Google Docs and testing our web sites) I dislike holding it with just one hand and that's how I usually use Kindle.


TLDR: Kevin likes shiny things, found an excuse to buy another shiny thing. 🤣
 
I bought a tablet year or two ago because it was cheap and I tried using it for a week. I don't understand HOW people use those things. I must be old.

I guess you're never too young to turn into an old curmudgeon.
I've used then for reading and surfing the web. But you still can't beat the utility of a laptop. Laptops may not be sexy, but they're not likely to be beat in design. Placement of the keyboard and a screen that you can set up opposite yourself is far better than a touch keyboard on a screen that you have to hold at the angle you want.
 
I've used then for reading and surfing the web. But you still can't beat the utility of a laptop. Laptops may not be sexy, but they're not likely to be beat in design. Placement of the keyboard and a screen that you can set up opposite yourself is far better than a touch keyboard on a screen that you have to hold at the angle you want.

Some of us buy external keyboards because we like the tablet but hate software keyboards :)

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I picked up another pair of headphones, Sony WI-C600N "neck-band" style. As much as a I love my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones I've really wanted something better suited for physical activities such as cutting the grass.


I knew I didn't want to spend the money on 'ear buds' like the new Google Pixel Buds or Apple AirPods (or the Sony version) because I know I would end up losing at least one of them when working on the backyard so that would've been an expensive mistake. I was also considering going really cheap by getting something like a pair of over-the-ear Taotronics but finding a pair active noise cancelling headphones in the price range is nearly impossible. The Sony WI-C600N seemed to hit all the goals I was after - sweat resistant, bluetooth wireless, noise cancelling, supports Google Assistant, and around $100 - so they were the winners. I'll be finding out tomorrow how they actually work out.

On a different but related note, apparently Best Buy is an "essential" business and is still open doing business. You can't wander the store but you can do online purchases for 'curbside' pickup. Faced with ordering from Amazon and having my order maybe or maybe not show up sometime in the next few weeks versus paying the same price for pickup from Best Buy I actually did something I haven't done in a few years and bought electronics from a retail store. 🤯
 
I attempted to go to Best Buy today to buy some "Music CD-R" discs. After about 5 minutes of searching on my phone for CD-R media for a CD Recorder....not standard old CD-Rs that care used for data or music in a computer, I threw in the towel and left defeated. I went online and searched and within 10 seconds had ordered what I needed. They should be at my front door in a few days.

If Best Buy is going to count on the search functionality of their website to complete "IN-STORE purchases.....it needs work.

And @Kevin, we will be waiting for your review of those Sony headphones.
 
And @Kevin, we will be waiting for your review of those Sony headphones.
I can't say I'm a fan of the Sony WI-C600N headphones. :( The "noise cancelling" on them is pretty much non-existent. I know some bud style head phones are purposely designed with an air gap to not totally suppress all incoming sounds but with these things I literally can't tell a difference with the noise cancelling turned on or off. But that is not my major gripe with them; it's the length of the cord. I purposely went with a corded set so that I wouldn't lose an ear bud in the middle of cutting my grass but the cord length on these things between the buds is so short that just turning my head side-to-side ends up pulling at least one of the buds out of my ear. I found that wearing the cord in front of my neck helps versus wearing them on the back of the neck but it is still too short. Either these things were meant for kids to wear or tiny, tiny adults. Then there's the controls. On one side of the cord is a small inline block that holds the battery and has the button controls. Unfortunately it is also heavy enough that it constantly pulls down on one side not to mention that the buttons are so tiny that I have no idea what button is what while wearing them. Then there's kicker of charging them. I couldn't get them to charge at all until I finally found a combination of USB cord & charger that would actually charge them.

But I'm trying again for a cheap solution for cutting the grass, this time a pair of ANC headphones from TaoTronics. I'm not familiar with the brand but at the beginning of the year I bought one of their phone headsets to use while working from home and that seems decent enough so I'm trying a pair of their headphones.


Regular price is $49.99, Amazon currently has a 5% coupon and the limited time promo code "KINJABH47" knocks off $28 off bringing the price down to $19.99. With free Prime shipping and then tax added the price comes out $20.66 USD for a cheap pair over-the-hear noise cancelling headphones. I'm not expecting them to be anywhere near as good as the Sony WH-1000XM3 but for $20 if it'd be worth it to find it if they're good enough. For $20 I figure even if they fall apart at the end of the Summer it'd still be worth it. 🤯
 
I finally updated my desktop computer. I had been using a 2009 Mac Pro (bought in refurb in 2009) for all my photography/music and personal files. So slow that I would turn it on and go take a shower before using...
The last upgrade was El Capitan and it got to the point where the Photos version would not play well with the iPhone 11 live photos!
So I upgraded? to a iMac from the Apple refurb store. The new Mac Pro and iMac Pro are ridiculously expensive so I ended up getting an refurb iMac I9 8 core 32g with 1T SSD. Almost the same specs as the iMac Pro...at about half the cost. This new computer is awesome! The 27" screen is beautiful. But I will miss the 30" Cinema display that the Mac Pro ran. I could adapt it for the laptop (MacBook Pro I use primarily for work) but it is really too big to keep around.
 
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