Android

Life360 Nearing End of Life (For Me)

I’ve been using Life360 for close to ten years. I don’t remember how long exactly but started using it when my second child was a teenager, and she just turned 26. It’s been extremely helpful in past years not to snoop (although that’s what we were doing with our kids) but to keep tabs on…Read more

Telnet Page Fixed

I took a little time and fixed it so that the BBS telnet page is working again and can be logged into from the web page. Not sure why it wasn’t working but it is now… Some of the fonts I am using don’t seem to display properly, I may consider going back to the…Read more

How Not to Tech Support – A Lesson from Life360

An example of what NOT to do in tech support. I tend to update my phone at least once a year, sometimes more. I’ve gone through all the Pixels except the 4, the Oneplus 7 and 8, Note 3 and 10, all the Google Nexus family, a couple of different HTC ones, the Droid Incredible…Read more

How to Root the Pixel 7 Pro

FYI, if you buy a Google Pixel 7 from the Google store enter “Z1M77NMTD8MEMZWQI7SNT87” at checkout and both of us will get $100 in Google Store credit The Google Pixel 7 Pro is fairly easy to unlock, root and pass SafetyNet provided you have a little bit of knowledge on how to use the command…Read more

Enable System Wide Immersive Mode on Android Without Root

Several game and apps in Android the last couple of years implement what is called Immersive Mode. Basically your navigation and system bars disappear so that you can enjoy full screen mode. Google made this possible starting back in version 4.4 I used to use an app called GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode to force…Read more

Project Fi Testing Voice over LTE support

Apparently some Project Fi customers have noticed improved voice call quality over the last few weeks. That’s because Google has been testing Voice over LTE for some users. It was announced four days ago over at the Project Fi Help Forum. Hi everyone, Some of you have noticed this already, but over the past few…Read more

Google Home Review

So I set up Google Home a couple of weeks ago and figured it had been up and running long enough for me to give a preliminary review. So far the WAF factor (as well as children) has been meh… Don’t get me wrong. I love gadgets. I love Google stuff. I was a big…Read more

Google Assistant on the Pixel Gets Home Control

Looks like Google Assistant on the Pixel is finally getting proper home functionality, without having to have Google Home. Up until now you could issue commands to the Nest, for instance, from your phone if you had already set it up on the Home. For instance, I already have a few Hue lights and a…Read more

Google Pixel XL, Three Months In

For the last few months I’ve been using the Google Pixel XL. In the past few years I have used quite a few smart phones. In reverse order my daily drivers were the Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Galaxy Note3, HTC One M8, Galaxy Nexus, HTC Droid Incredible & the Incredible 2, Blackberry Storm, Samsung SCH-i730 and…Read more

Goodbye AT&T

Since 2005 or so I have always paid full price for my phone, but normally I purchased them from my provider. In the long run it’s much cheaper because you aren’t paying finance charges. From ’99 until maybe three years ago I was with Verizon and grandfathered in the unlimited data plan as long as…Read more