One of my ongoing quests is to build an Android ecosystem that allows for easy or even seamless transition between devices. Those devices will include a phone (well, duh), tablet, watch, and laptop. This is a fairly common combination of devices but like others, I have my own unique wants and needs. To build the mobile ecosystem, its best to start with the core device: the phone. How do I choose though? This is when those wants and needs should be defined. What am I looking for? What will I use it for? Camera: I have kids so I require a camera with a fast shutter and wide aperture. Telephoto helps too for soccer games. A strong macro would help especially since I take lots of nature pictures. Strong signal: my classroom is an interior room in a concrete cinder block dystopian hole. I need a phone that'll fry an egg with radiation to get service. Flat display Heat management Google Pixel 8 Pro Pros Google is the primary f...
Black Friday (read: Month) brought about all kinds of ridiculously cheap MacBook deals. These were the Arm Apple Silicon models with the formidable M1 and M2 chips. $600 for the M1 at Walmart was tempting. So very tempting. Let's back up. I'm a long time Android user. After Palm's failed attempt to enter a renewed smartphone market, I switched to a Moto Droid 2 Global (Walmart still sells a dummy version for unknown reasons). Looking back, that phone was terrible yet it started a nearly 15 year stretch of Android phones. I had one brief encounter with iPhone. My ex-wife was a big fan while I stayed on Android. I ended up with an iPhone 7 in rose gold. What a color. I gave Apple a real shot. I swapped the SIM from the OG Pixel Really Blue into the iPhone 7 for a month. A very long month. There were a few things I enjoyed on it. Apple had more apps at the time. Most ap...