Lazy Man and Money

You Should Consider Buying an Amazon Fire HD 10

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I had tried to get this article out earlier, but the kids have a weird, invented school “short-day” to give families an excuse to run off early for the three day weekend. We have no plans to go anywhere, it just means a day of minimal productivity. Fortunately, I had most of the article written last week. Let’s move onto the article.

Readers may (and should) be skeptical about my view in this article. Amazon has a commission program and content producers (i.e. me) make some extra cash by reviewing their products if people decide to buy them. Even if I try my best not to be biased, there’s an element of human nature that it isn’t easy to suppress.

With that disclaimer aside, I genuinely like Amazon’s products and services. However, I think the Amazon Fire HD 10 is in another class of value and I wanted to explain why.

Let’s rewind a few weeks.

I sheepishly said to my wife, “There’s a deal on the Amazon Fire, and I think we should get one.” I received the dagger eyes as expected. “How many tablets do you need? You don’t even use them. What are you going to do with the other three we have?”

The truth stings. It stings real bad.

We have a Nexus 7 from 2014. I also bought an Amazon Fire 7″ tablet back in 2014. I also bought a NuVision Windows tablet for $60 on a deal.

These were all great deals at the time, but every tablet was a compromise:

  • That Nexus 7 is still our best Android tablet… and we are in the Android ecosystem. I’d love to find a quality 10″ one for a similar price. You’d think in 4 years the technology would advance to that level.
  • The NuVision Windows tablet is like walking your pet sloth throw a pile of sludge in the wintertime. It’s terrible. I think the only redeeming value is that I was able to grab some free music off MicroSoft’s Music service before they shut down. I need to have a Windows 10 device and that’s the only thing that worked.
  • Our old Amazon Fire is good for watching videos, but non-expandable 8GB isn’t a lot of media and doesn’t have the best resolution. It’s old technology and it was a bargain at the time. I looked to see what I could sell it for now and could maybe get $25-30. That gives you an idea of the quality of this tablet.

Enter the Amazon Fire HD 10… Amazon’s best tablet. It came out last year, so there is that aspect of it being old technology, too. However, a 10-inch, full HD (1920 x 1080) tablet is very different from the tablets above. In any case, a flagship 2017 tablet is going to be better than a 2014 bargain tablet. Maybe Amazon’s top tablet can’t be considered a true flagship, but maybe it is just a notch below.

My secret reason for wanting the Amazon Fire HD 10 is the Scratch Jr. application for our kids. It doesn’t run on a PC and I think it is the best way to get started with it. I tried to introduce the kids to it on our old Fire tablet, but it didn’t go well. They slogged through it with a very cramped display. They got quickly bored of fighting with it. I’m hoping this will work better.

The biggest problem is that the Amazon Fire tablet is locked into Amazon’s world. There are pluses and minuses with that. For example, this “unlocked” all the old books I’ve had over saved or bought really cheaply over the years. I always had access to them, but I was never going to seriously read them on my phone or my PC. I realize that I’m explaining why a bazillion people read eBooks, but this is a new-ish discovery for me.

The other big thing is free new books and media. I was able to set up my library’s Hoopla and Overdrive applications to borrow easily. There’s next-level cool about borrowing a book for free without leaving your couch.

It’s also the perfect device for watching Netflix or Amazon Prime. Those work extremely easily, but I was thinking about adding more complex stuff like Plex to access my DVR media. It’s almost like having an extra television around.

The downside is that it is also stuck in Amazon world. Not all of the Android applications are immediately available (though there are hacks to get them). I haven’t even set up a way to check my email on it. I want to learn to make it more of a family device with different accounts. I want to figure out how to get rid of the lock screen as well. I want the kids to be able to use it and not have me needing to unlock it for them. I could teach them the unlock code, which might be easier in the long run.

There are two more reasons why I jumped on the Amazon Fire HD 10. The most important one was price. It was on sale at $99. Due to an Amex promotion, it was possible to score another $30 off the price.

Final price: $70.

Last November, I had already declared the Amazon Fire HD 10 an exceptional value at $100. Getting it for $70, is probably not something that is going to happen again… until the new version comes out and people upgrade.

However, I can saw that I’ve gotten over $100 worth of value.

The second reason I jumped on the pricing is that I figured, in the worst case, it is a decent digital photo frame. I’m still looking for the perfect app for that, but it is something that I appreciated out of my old HP Touchpad. I’ve been obsessed with Kallax “cubbie” shelving from Ikea lately, and I think a digital photo frame in there would be great when the tablet isn’t actively being used.

I think it’s not bad for being part book reader, library, television, digital photo frame, and a kids’ supplemental education device. I’m sure that people paying much more than $300 for an iPad can say the same thing and a lot more. I personally like spending less money whenever possible and this works for me.

For latest pricing click here.

It wasn’t Facebook or Cambridge Analytica. It was Regulators (and Us.)

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By now the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook story is a little old. I was aiming to write about it as it was evolving, but I couldn’t get there.

Internet Privacy

When I first heard that Cambridge Analytica had information on 50 million Americans from Facebook, it was the least surprising news I could think of. Some were saying it was a data breech, but that to me, means that the information was stolen through some kind of illegal hacking. It is my understanding that this is just how advertising has worked at Facebook.

So while I think you can (and should) get angry at Cambridge Analytica, it’s not going to the solve the problem. People naturally went up the food chain and got angry at Facebook. Some people have even deleted their accounts. Finally, they can breath easy knowing that their privacy is protected, right?

Wrong. A lot of other places already have their data.

What’s surprising to me is that people seem to be surprised by Facebook having and using information about them. How didn’t they think Facebook, which sells no physical product to people, was worth more than 3 times Disney?

Weren’t we all aware this was the trade off we were making. If not we should have been. We were told about it so many different ways that it was even made into very comedy.

Check it out:



That video does great job of covering Facebook and Google. However, it doesn’t mention having Googe Android phones, which I do. I chose Android because it was more “open” than the other choice, Apple.

Google and Facebook know more about you that may think. People might freak out when they see everything they know about you.

The video doesn’t mention anything about Amazon, which I’m sure knows almost as much. Even smaller companies pose a problem. Netflix was testing ways to get kids more addicted to Netflix. However, Netflix saves children from watching a lot of advertising as well.

All of this data collection is going on and there really isn’t much you can do about. You’d have to be extremely vigilant, probably change your lifestyle (goodbye smartphone, goodbye credit cards), and even then some stuff would probably slip through the cracks.

And while we can all “vote” how we feel by deleting Facebook, it’s unlikely to cause a dent in the 2 billion people who aren’t going to vote with you. If I delete my LinkedIn account, I’m only hurting my own chances at career networking.

There’s a lot talk out there that we choose for this to happen. I’m not sure everyone wanted to give up their privacy. However, as the video above explained, we didn’t want to pay for websites, so giving up identities to advertisers was the bargain we made. On the other hand, it would have been impossible to charge people real money for every website they wanted to visit. We’re seeing how those costs add up with just streaming media accounts nowadays.

Privacy Isn’t Just these Big Internet Companies

So far I’ve only covered all the internet stuff that you should be old news to you. There’s a lot more out there.

Morgan Spurlock covered “Privacy” in May of 2014 on the CNN show, Inside Man. You can watch the episode here. Some of the episode does cover the big internet websites. However, it covers so much more than Google or Facebook. If this topic is interesting to you, you should spend 42 minutes and watch it.

There are many mysterious companies (ever hear of Epsilon?) that have all our information aggregated. Spurlock goes on a quest to try to get his information from those companies. I won’t spoil the show, but I think it ends how you think it does.

It’s Time for Regulators to Help Consumers

I think we’ve established that most consumers can’t do much to protect themselves. Much of the time we don’t who has our data or who is selling it. After huge Equifax attack, we all said, “Wait, this is crazy. We didn’t even choose to let them have our data in the first place.”

Individually it seems we can’t hold companies accountable. If Morgan Spurlock can’t get his data after traveling across the country, the rest of us don’t have much of a shot. Have you ever tried to get Google on the phone?

The only people with the power to hold the companies accountable is regulators. Most of the time they aren’t interested. They only get interested when the media makes repeated national stories about Equifax or Facebook. Have you ever seen a group of regulators go after Epsilon like Spurlock?

My idea here for a solution isn’t unique. In fact this excellent Bloomberg article goes deeper into it than I do. The time to create a Digital Protection Agency is long overdue.

I don’t even know if this will work, but at least it would be a step in the right direction. Like a lot of things these days, it seems like it’s going to be a long journey.

How I Made My Computer Much Faster

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Last week, my wife was working long hours combined with a long commute. Fortunately, there are only a handful of weeks like that a year. Unfortunately those weeks really stretch me thin with the two kids.

Fast Computer

We had a leisurely Cinco de Mayo dinner on Friday at the local Navy base to recharge. When Saturday morning came around, everything around the house needed to be done. And we did everything. I don’t think I’ve ever rushed to be so productive.

By the evening, the productivity was contagious. My laptop had been very slow for a long time and arguably, it should be reasonably fast. It isn’t quite 2-years old. Admittedly, I cut a couple of corners for something thin-and-light and in-stock when I needed it. One of those corners was choosing a computer with 4GB of RAM. To get 8GB in the same Dell XPS form-factor, I’d have to spend at least 50% more and wait a few days longer.

That may have been a bad decision.

Problem 1: Trying To Do Too Much

I knew in the back of my mind that it wasn’t enough RAM to keep open 150 browser tabs… even with my browser speed-hacking tricks.

Obviously, keeping 150 browser tabs is a huge problem. I had been using my browser tabs to hold interesting articles that I might want to write about later. That’s just living up to my Lazy Man moniker.

The result? Trying to get anything done was a bear.

I’m now working in a comfortable 20 tabs. However, there’s still a lot of fat to trim. I can probably get it down to a 4 or 5 tabs that I use most often.

That alone made a big difference. No longer was my browser eating up nearly all my computer’s memory.

Problem 2: Low Disk Space

There was another problem slowing down my computer… I didn’t have enough hard drive space. I have a 128GB SSD, which I figured was enough because I could always off-load big media files to another source. Why spend another $400 to upgrade to 256GB when I can put this awesome low-profile thumb-drive in my USB slot for only $35? It gives me the same amount of space and I don’t even notice it is there.

So how did I use up 128GB of space on my main hard drive? I didn’t know, but I knew I needed to free some space.

This guide freeing up space on HowToGeek was helpful, but the best advice was to get WinDirStat. (I’ll let you Google it and trust that Google get you to a trusted source. Sometimes, I link to a place and a year later, that website leads to a bunch malware.)

WinDirStat gives you a map of your hard drive and you visually see what’s taking up all the space. Big blocks are big files and small blocks are small files.

I found a couple of clusters of big files. Bingo!

Ironically, these big files were archived FinCon videos and another online courses designed to make me more productive. Each folder had about about 12GB of files. There were a bunch of other one-off files that were huge as well.

It was easy enough to move these files to the aforementioned thumb drive. I was no longer struggling to free up 4GB of space, but I suddenly had 32GB.

There seems to be some debate that low disk space doesn’t slow down your computer. However, when I checked out my computer’s performance in the Task Manager, the disk process was at 99%. I suspect that my computer couldn’t use the paging file very efficiently and it was just fighting back and forth. Now, with plenty of space, I see it at 0% or 1%.

The combination of the two fixes has made my computer perform as if it is brand new again. The whole thing only took a couple of hours. (It could have been less if I hadn’t wasted time on a couple of dead-ends.)

I’m one of those people who will usually pay a little more for a computer than they need to. When my computer is zippy, I can work zippy. When my computer takes 30 seconds to load a web page, I’m going to drift off and get distracted easily.

I don’t know if these tips will work for you. I kind of hope that you aren’t in a situation where they’d be useful in the first place. However, it’s definitely worth looking into.

I Bought a New Cell Phone… Guess Which One and Why

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A few months ago, I started an article titled, “Cell Phones are Dirt Cheap!” The inspiration was ummm… a lot of dirt cheap cell phones that I happened to notice in the news.

It sat in the hopper with nearly 200 other articles I have in the works at any given time… until last night.

Save Money,Cheap Android Cell Phones

In series of probably my most intelligent thinking, I convinced my wife that going out for dinner would be good for the sickness I felt coming on. We picked up the kids at daycare and when out. Soon after we got to the restaurant, I realized that I wasn’t the only sick person, our youngest was sick as well. Except that, just barely 3, he can’t really tell us he’s sick. He exhibits some symptoms (red checks), but it is more his temperament that becomes obvious. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good scene. We ate as quickly as possible and in rushing out, my phone fell out of my coat pocket hitting the floor. The Nexus 5 that I’ve had for 3 years had a cracked screen. The case and screen protector that had served me well for years had finally failed.

I got home and started to research replacement phones. The most important thing to me was that the phone support wireless Qi charging, because I had them all over the house (there was a deal). If you don’t have wireless charging on your phones, you are truly missing out.

In an effort to save a billionth of an millimeter, most recent phones don’t have Qi charging. I suppose the theory is that you can quick-charge your phone in 30 minutes with a cord, so people just do that. Also, I’m sure that many people don’t have 4 Qi chargers around their house.

I fired up my draft on cheap phones and this article on Qi-enabled phones in 2017. While the later looks like a lot of choices, many don’t have Qi integrated and many of them are years old. Some of them only work on Verizon (not a carrier I have). Some of them like the Samsung’s are fairly expensive and don’t have the pure Android experience that I’m used to.

The Search Through Cheap Cellphones

I went back and forth from my cheap cellphones to the Qi phone list. My brain was essentially mush from the sickness and the despair of losing my beloved cellphone (a little over-dramatic on purpose). For now, let’s look at the cheap cellphones out there.

First on my list were the Amazon Prime Exclusive phones. These phones are typically around 25% off the regular price in exchange for viewing some ads. For example, this 4th Generation Moto G 16 GB for $150 is very good bargain and perfect for most people. For me the 16GB was a little small. I didn’t realize there was a 32GB version for $180, but if I had, I might have ended up with that phone.

Give the spec sheet a look which has these other Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones. I had almost thought about picking up a Blu RD 1 to have around as a spare for $59. Hindsight is 20/20.

I also had noted that LeEco Pro3 sometimes has flash sales for $299. While that might not sound cheap, it is almost a flagship-level phone with lots of premium features. Sometimes those phones go for $600 or more. Unfortunately, I’ve read some bad reviews with the software and the regular $399 price was out of what I wanted to spend.

Next up is the Huawei Honor 6X which checks in at $249. The Guardian’s review says that it’s “a lot of phone for the money.” I probably should have given it more consideration, but the software is a little old and unlike my Nexus 5, I can’t be sure I can upgrade it. The processor isn’t one of the Qualcomm Snapdragon ones that I know. The screen’s DPI (dots per inch) is a little less than my Nexus. Typically, that’s not a big deal, but it might come into play with new VR apps that I want to explore. (Unfortunately the Google Pixel which is ideal for this is way out of the range of what I want to pay for a phone.)

I gave strong consideration to the BLU LIFE ONE X2 which comes in at $199 (32GB version). I know I’ve said that lots of phones were finalists, but this was really the one I was going to pull the trigger on… until I read this review about a mediocre camera. That’s really the only “knock” I can give it and the $199 price is even below what I expected to pay.

And Then There Were Two

The final two phones that I remember (if my brain was mush before imagine it now) were “The Perfect Phone” and “The Phone I Bought.”

The “Perfect Phone” was the LG G4. It had everything I wanted. Even Qi charging through a special case. It had extras like a removable battery. (It’s great to give a device a new battery life as it goes down over time.) Did I mention the Qi charging? The screen has 538 DPI (which is elite territory). The cameras are great. It has a speedy Qualcomm SnapDragon 800 series processor. It even has Qi charging.

Here LG, please take my money!

Wait, you are telling me there’s a special offer on your home page here! So you are going to through in a fancy case and a micro-SD card? Okay, but I’m already giving you my money, so the jokes on you LG.

Add to Cart (*Click*)

LG’s response: “We’re sorry but LG G4™ Unlocked in Genuine Leather Black is currently out of stock and cannot be added to your cart. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Turns out that the LG G4 has a boot loader hardware issue that they acknowledge is a hardware defect. I read a story that they’d fix it, but you’d have find a place to get one (it’s hard to find it for sale anywhere) and then probably send it back into them. That’s simply not a workable solution for my primary phone.

Finally… the Phone I Bought

I ended up buying a Moto X Pure Edition (64GB) for $300. (Actually $307 for next day shipping so I didn’t have to wait the weekend.) It has no Qi charging and I’m sad.

However, it does have a lot of other things.

It has a Quad HD display (520 ppi vs. Nexus 5’s 441), 64GB (twice what I had on my Nexus 5), 3000 MaH battery (vs. the Nexus’ 2300 mAh), turbo-charging, a great 21MP camera (generations better than my Nexus’ 8MP one), SD expansion (not available on my Nexus), and 3GB of RAM (vs. 2GB on my Nexus).

In fairness, a lot of the above phones had more than a few of features. That’s just what $300 buys you now vs. what $399 bought me in October of 2013. It is unfair to compare technology more than 3 years apart, but it helps me feel a little better about breaking my phone.

There are a few extra that the Moto brings such as some hands-free use and gestures to activate the camera and flashlight. There’s some water repellent. The Moto X Pure Edition was $399 when it was released in September of 2015. However, that was for the 16GB version. The 64GB version would set you back $525 back then. The reviews back then said it was a great value.

A short 15 months later, it feels like more than 40% discount is also a great value.

How can you find the right Android Phone for you? I found this smartphone comparison tool to be extremely helpful

Save Nearly 50% on the Most Revolutionary Product in Years

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I usually try to stay away from clickbait titles. They always seem disappointing. However, I don’t know how you can be disappointed with this.

Yesterday, Amazon announced that it is releasing the 2nd Generation Echo Dot. The big news is that the price went from $90 to a penny shy of $50. And if you buy 5, you’ll get one free. (Hat tip to sister site Alexa/Echo.

That explains the 50% off part… but what about the “revolutionary” part.

Let me start by explaining what the Amazon Echo is… and then I’ll explain why the Echo Dot is better.

Amazon has a digital personal assistant like Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Amazon calls her Alexa. That’s not very unique, but digital personal assistants are arguably revolutionary. Amazon Echo is a microphone/speaker that is sitting and waiting for you to activate it by simply saying, “Alexa.” The difference is that you don’t have to find a phone, navigate an app, press a button, or anything. I can continue typing this sentence while I ask Alexa to play music Jack Johnson. It works from across the room (unless there’s a television on, or other significant outside noise).

The Echo is probably best at playing music, but it is also very good at home automation stuff. I can control my Nest thermostat upstairs while I’m downstairs, without a computer, tablet, or phone. You can order a pizza from Domino’s with it. You can have Uber send you a car. You can play Choose Your Own Adventure games. I even use Amazon Echo to teach my kids spelling and math.

The Echo is so popular that it’s become Amazon’s next billion dollar business. And as I hinted at above, I even started contact me.)

I feel that’s enough about Amazon Echo, but you want to know more you can read my original Amazon Echo review and my revisited Amazon Echo review.

Now, to tie all this together, I have to explain what an Echo Dot is and why that’s even better than an Amazon Echo. An Echo Dot is a very small Amazon Echo… about the size of a hockey puck, but thicker. It has a very small speaker that isn’t great, but it has Bluetooth and an audio out port. This makes it ideal for hooking up to a set of speakers or your stereo. This way you aren’t tied to the Echo’s speaker (though I think it’s great, some audiophiles may disagree).

Perhaps the best part is the price. An Amazon Echo will set you back $180, and it very rarely goes on sale. The Echo Dot is less than $50. So you can pair with speakers you already have. I paid the original $90 price for the Echo Dot and paired them with a deal I found on these bookshelf speakers. However, I could have paired it with my Oontz Angle Bluetooth Speaker. If you bought those two, it would be less than $80… less than half price of the regular Echo.

So why did Amazon drop the price nearly in half just five months after releasing it? My guess is that it is afraid of Google Home, which Google’s upcoming version of the Echo. Apple is rumored to be getting into the game as well. I think Amazon’s plan is to get Alexa everywhere first.

Imagine if Amazon invented $50 tablets before anyone else had released a tablet. Would people pay $400 or $500 for an Samsung Galaxy Tab or an Apple iPad? Maybe, but it might also be difficult to market it at that price.

I think it’s a great plan. I’m honestly considering getting the 6-pack, adding a couple more to the house, giving them as Christmas gifts, or using them as giveaways on the site. I’m tempted to go full-out Oprah: “You get an Echo Dot. You get an Echo Dot.”

What do you think? I realize that I’m more enthusiastic than most people about Amazon’s Alexa products (hence the other blog). Do “normal” people find this as amazing a deal as I do? Let me know in the comments.

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