internet growth is now flat

Growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat, and smartphone growth is slowing, too. Those sobering insights were among the hundreds packed into the much-awaited Internet Trends report, an annual tech industry ritual led by Mary Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Developing countries have proven harder to capture than expected because internet access remains inaccessible or unaffordable for many, the report said. Here are some other highlights from the report:

Developing countries have proven harder to capture than expected because internet access remains inaccessible or unaffordable for many, the report said. Here are some other highlights from the report:

• India is the one country where internet usage is growing, up 40 percent compared with 33 percent a year ago. India passed the U.S. to become the No. 2 global market behind China in 2015.
• The Asia Pacific region represented 52 percent of smartphone users globally in 2015. The rapid growth in recent years has begun to slow, dropping to 23 percent in 2015 from 35 percent in 2014.
• North America, Europe, and Japan represented 63 percent of global GDP in 1985. By 2015, their contribution dropped to 29 percent. China and emerging markets in Asia represented 63 percent of global GDP last year.
• Online advertising is still not very effective. Advertisers are spending an outsize amount on legacy media.
• Global birth rates are down 39 percent since 1960. So where will technology growth come from? Who knows, but at least there's this: Global life expectancy is up 36 percent since 1960. 

-- via neb2000us [chucks_angels]

to GMO or not GMO?

More than 100 Nobel laureates have a message for Greenpeace: Quit the G.M.O.-bashing.

Genetically modified organisms and foods are a safe way to meet the demands of a ballooning global population, the 109 laureates wrote in a letter posted online and officially unveiled at a news conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Opponents, they say, are standing in the way of getting nutritious food to those who need it.

“Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia,” the laureates wrote in the letter.

Proponents of genetically modified foods such as Golden Rice, which contains genes from corn and a bacterium, argue that they are efficient vehicles for needed nutrients. Opponents fear that foods whose genes are manipulated in ways that do not naturally occur might contaminate existing crops. And, they say, the debate distracts from the only guaranteed solution to malnutrition: promoting diverse, healthy diets.

“Corporations are overhyping ‘Golden’ rice to pave the way for global approval of other more profitable genetically engineered crops,” Wilhelmina Pelegrina, a campaigner with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in a statement. “This costly experiment has failed to produce results for the last 20 years and diverted attention from methods that already work.”

Richard J. Roberts, one of two winners of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, spearheaded the letter-writing effort to set the record straight.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of misinformation being put out by Greenpeace,” he said. Some plant scientists have been “attacked so fiercely” over their views that they’ve gone silent, Dr. Roberts said.

In the letter, the laureates — all but 10 of whom earned their prizes in the fields of physics, chemistry or medicine — contend that G.M.O.s have consistently been found to be safe. The Washington Post covered the group’s efforts on Wednesday.

“Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than those derived from any other method of production,” the group of laureates wrote. “There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment, and a boon to global biodiversity.”

In a report released in May, the influential National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that genetically engineered crops appear to be generally safe to eat and safe for the environment. It resisted broad proclamations, however, calling such sweeping statements “problematic” because of a variety of factors that affect such an analysis.

Consumers Union, a policy division of the nonprofit Consumer Reports, has approached the issue with caution, calling for labeling and federal scrutiny to better understand foods that contain genetically modified components.

In 2014, the Pew Research Center found an enormous gap between the public and scientists on the issue. Just 37 percent of adults in the United States said genetically modified foods were safe to eat, while 88 percent of scientists connected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science said the same.

not a lizard

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted his first-ever Facebook Live Q&A On Tuesday. The Q&A went quite well, revealing quite a few things, but one key tidbit that came out from the event was the most memorable: Zuckerberg is not a lizard person (or so he says).

For a long time, there have been conspiracy theorists who believe that most of the world’s powerful personalities are actually lizards posing in human form. British conspiracy theorist David Icke is among the most popular person to believe that almost all powerful figures are, in reality, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids.

But Facebook’s CEO has made it clear that he is not one of them. Clearing up any doubts, the CEO said, “Mark, are the allegations true that you’re secretly a lizard? Um… I’m gonna, I’m gonna have to go with ‘no’ on that. I am not a lizard.”

7000 floppy disks

Nimbus Hosting, a web hosting company, have found out that although we are storing colossal amounts of data, thousands or even millions of times more than ten or twenty years ago, but the cost of storing it has dropped enormously.

For example, to store amount of data equaling one episode of Game of Thrones, it would have cost you £27,200. The same amount of data can be stored for free on services like DropBox or Google Drive.

To store one episode of Game of Thrones, we would need:

• 6,666,667 punch cards
• 348 magnetic tapes
• 7273 8″ floppy disks
• 556 3.5″ floppy disks
• 0.4 of a DDS-1 Tape
• 5.71 mini discs

You can see the shift, the evolution of data storage, visualised in this infographic:
https://www.nimbushosting.co.uk/evolution-data-storage/

Roku 3

[6/15/16] got my hands on a Roku 3 from Sue via Howard and tried it out.  Here's the play-by-play.

Got a picture but no response from the remote
Check batteries.  Felt a little "wet".
Wiped with napkin.
OK now it works

Connect to network
change from 1080p to 720p

System
model 4200X - Roku 3
software version 6.2 - build 3332
system update
last check June 15 2:37 a.m. (it just got checked)
last updated Apr 7 2:47am

Home Screen
Netflix          Amazon Instant Video  Hulu Plus
Vudu            Amazon Music             Angry Birds Space
Blockbuster  Target                          CBS News
Pandora        Weather Underground GLF (gofightlive.tv)
ESPN           Quello Concerts           Sportsfishing with Dan Hernandez
UFC TV

try out Netflix - error
Amazon -error
Hulu - no account; try login, exit
now only the above three channels are on the home screen / lots now missing on the menu options on left
system restart

still same screen - I think it wants me to log on with my Roku account
try sign into Amazon
Hulu doesn't run now

ok, let's log into my account
Stream channels - get started
roku.com/link on computer
channel update (on Roku) * of 94

ok now everything's updated with the regular menu on the left + 89 channels

check system info
software version 7.1.0 build 4062-04

Netflix error
reset Netflix to its original state
(now it works)

Howdini doesn't run (later I check on the Roku TV and it didn't run there either, so apparently it's the app)

Roku 3 has the same problem as the Roku TV
sometimes the back button doesn't go back (sometimes up works to do that)
have to press the home exit to exit certain applications

try the other roku remote
didn't work at first, but then it paired by pressing the button in the battery compartment
that was the Roku stick remote
so the Roku stick remote works with the Roku 3 (not mentioned on the Roku website)
haven't tested whether the Roku 3 remote works with the Roku stick

the Philips remote and generic remote work without pairing, but they are IR so you need line of sight.  The Roku Stick and Roku 3 remotes are RF so don't need line of sight.

Wikipedia says the remote uses wi-fi direct.  So is wifi direct the same as RF?  Looking here, wifi uses the 2.4 GHz UHF and 5 GHz SHF ISM radio bands.  So apparently it's using the RF band to communicate.

I kind of like the Roku 3.  It seems a lot faster than the Roku HD and Roku 2.  The Roku 3 runs at 900 MHz.  The Roku 2 (model 2720) runs at 600 MHz.  The Roku HD (model 2500) runs at 405 MHz.  And it actually feels about as responsive as the Roku Stick (3600) which is Quad Core.

The remote is solid and more hefty than the other models.  It supports motion control (which is why Angry Birds Space defaults to the menu).   The remote also has a headphone jack which I haven't tried yet.  But on the Roku 2, it seems to drain the battery and doesn't always work.

As far as captions, I still prefer the Netflix captions on the old Roku HD, but I prefer the Hulu caption on the Roku 3 vs. the Roku HD (after your adjust the caption size to small in the system menu).  But I still prefer the Netflix and Hulu captions on the Apple TV, followed by the Fire TV.  For other apps, I generally prefer the Roku captions over the Apple TV.

All-in-all, I give the Roku 3 a thumbs up.  However if you want to save a little money and aren't interested in the headphone jack and motion control, you might want to go for the current Roku 2 (model 4210) which is the same speed as the Roku 3.  The Roku 3 is currently $99.99 compared to $69.99 for the Roku 2.  The Roku Stick is an even better bargain at $49.99.  ( Actually these three models are all currently discounted $10 for Father's Day.)  So I would recommend the Roku Stick over the Roku 2.  The drawback for me is that you can't use an IR remote with the Stick (so I can't use my universal remote).  The Roku 3 works with both IR and Wifi Direct.

The current Roku 2 (4210) is IR whereas the old Roku 2 (2720) was both IR and wifi direct.

Looking further at Wikipedia, the current Roku 3 is model 4230 which came out in April 2015.  The only difference I see in the specs between the 4230 and the 4200 is that the newer model comes with a remote that supports voice search.  Maybe the only thing they changed was the remote?

What about the Roku 4?  Well it's the only one that supports 4K, so you have 4K that's the way to go.  It looks like the Roku 4 uses the same remote as the Roku 3.

*** 6/19/16

Hooked back my Roku Stick.  Booted up really fast but didn't recognize any remotes.  Good thing I had the Roku app on my iPad.  So I went to the remote control section in settings and pressed the button in the battery compartment to pair it.  (Come to think of it, it might have paired even if I wasn't in the remote control section.  Or not.)

Then I tried pairing the Roku 3 remote and that worked too!  Even the headphone jack worked :)  So yes, the Roku 3 remote works on the Roku Stick.  Looking at the remote section in the settings, my Roku Stick remote model is RC80.  The Roku 3 remote model is RC03.

Amazon Fire TV audition (vs. Apple TV vs. Roku) / caption battle

[5/16/16] Now that CBS All Access is working on the Fire TV, I have started to use my Fire TV as my main streaming box over my Apple TV and Roku.

Each box has its pluses and minuses.  I still would be using the Apple TV, but it lacks Amazon video (except via AirPlay) and doesn't have Starz.  (I have generation 3 of the Apple TV, Starz is now available on the fourth generation.)

Here's a quick rundown:

Fire TV pros: supports Amazon Video (of course), has Starz support.  Their Hulu app seems most up to date as it indicates which shows have been watched with a status bar.  That feature doesn't seem to consistently work on the Apple TV and Roku, better on the Apple TV (they use a status circle) than the Roku (the feature works on some shows, but not on others).  Oddly on the Roku TV (Insignia model that I bought for my mother's place), that feature doesn't work at all.

Fire TV cons: PBS captions don't work.  Bloomberg Live TV doesn't work (kicks out to the main screen), though other Bloomberg videos work.  No CNBC app.  No NatGeo TV.  No SyFy app.  No Vudu.  CBS captions are a little bigger than I like (even after adjusting them).  The remote is not RF, so I can't use my cheapie Philips learning remote to control it.  With the current remote, I'm having problems with the cursor pad, in that pressing right doesn't always work the first time (in which case I have to press harder).  I think this is my third Fire TV remote, so I'd have to say the quality of their remotes is lacking.  It's a bluetooth remote and sometimes I have trouble connecting to the unit after putting away the remote for a while (on the other hand, with the bluetooth remote, you can hide your Fire TV behind the TV if you like).

Apple TV pros:  Overall I like the captions better on the Apple TV.  I prefer the Netflix captions on the Apple TV and Roku.  I prefer the Hulu captions on the Apple TV and Fire TV.  They're too fat on the Roku.  I prefer Youtube on the Apple TV and Fire TV.  It's too slow on my Roku.  They have the best CNBC app with live streaming and full shows on demand.  The CNBC app on the Roku shows only clips.  The Fire TV has no CNBC app.  Can use my Philips remote.

Apple TV cons: they lack such apps as Amazon Video, Starz, HGTV, Travel, Syfy, Vudu, Disney Channel Everywhere.

Roku pros:  they have the most apps (Roku calls them channels), some of which aren't on the other boxes.  For example SyFy (hey catch Troy: Street Magic), NewsOn (local news), Vudu, and Channel Pear.  Can use my Philips remote.  I like their Netflix captions and their old Netflix app (which is only on the old Roku's).

Roku cons: Hulu captions are too fat, no matter how I try to adjust them in the Roku settings.  (But on the Roku TV, they're better after adjusting them).  Youtube channel is really slow.  CNBC app is skimpy compared to Apple TV.

[4/27/15] Fire TV still working, but noticed it sometimes pauses to buffer.  It was doing that with both ESPN and PBS.  Perhaps it's not optimized to adjust to marginal bandwidth.  (I have like 4 mbps DSL.)

And I notice the picture in Netflix and Hulu Plus isn't all that great, especially at the beginning.  Probably plays before the picture fully buffers.  It generally gets better after playing a couple of minutes.

I think the Roku is the best at handling "low" bandwidth.  While I think the Apple TV has the best picture, though the Roku is pretty good too.  I'd go with the Fire TV if you have Amazon Prime, as it seems to be built for that in mind.  The speech recognition is pretty nifty, pretty accurate and much faster than typing.

But the Roku has recently come out with their own voice search which has a broader search base.  And the new Apple TV will likely support speech too (and already supports it in its app).

[4/24/15] Getting errors again with ESPN.  And Fox Sports Go isn't finding my TV provider.  They were both working earlier.  I'm becoming more disenchanted with the Fire TV.

Disconnect the Fire TV.  Hook up my old Roku HD.  Yeah, seems a bit sluggish compared to the FireTV, but ESPN plays without problem.

[4/24/15] OK got the replacement remote for the FireTV.  Testing everything out.  ESPN worked, then stopped working.  It wouldn't get into the app, the wheel would spin and spin.  Removed it then reinstalled it.  When I ran it again, it got an error saying the app wouldn't load.  Then I tried again.  And again.  And on the third time it took.

[4/22/15] Noticed youtube doesn't auto-play on the Fire TV.  It auto-plays on the Apple TV and Roku.  Sometime you might not want it to auto-play.  Funny, this post indicates that youtube does auto-play on the Fire TV.  This one too.  (Ah, I see you can turn on/off Netflix autoplay for all devices from the settings on the computer.  I'll check on this later.)

Hmm.  Now it's auto-playing NatGeoWild videos.  Maybe it just got stuck earlier.  Or maybe it's where you play the videos from?

[4/8/15] Hey, now I see there's an option to turn off/on autoplay for Hulu Plus on the Roku.  Cool.  Now I'm wondering if there's a way to turn on Hulu autoplay on the Apple TV?  [Apparently not, but you can turn it off on the computer.]

[4/6/15] Hooked up the Fire TV, but the remote didn't work again.  The IOS app still works, but notice there's not "back" button.  But discovered it's actually there, but not visible.  Whose bright idea was that?

Hmm.  I think the button is supposed to be there according to the screen shot.  Dunno where mine went.  And apparently it's supposed to say Tap anywhere to select in the main screen.  But mine is completely blank.  Maybe my colors are off.

Anyway I think I'll take back the Fire TV to Best Buy and see what they say.

[3/26/15] Hey, now I see I can customize the Hulu Plus captions from the Hulu Plus settings.  Font, color, transparency.  I can also turn on/off auto-play.  Things are looking up.  Now if they would do the same for Netflix.

[3/25/15] OK, before putting away the Fire TV, decided to hook it up.  Once again the the remote didn't work.  And it was asking for a system update.  It did it automatically since I couldn't turn it off in time.  Then after the update, I went to the Roku app and checked the remote.  It said it was offline.  Fiddling with the battery.  Trying to clean the contact.  And after a while, it connnected.

WTH, let's test youtube.  Hey the captions now appear.  And they display fine (not off the edge of the screen like before).  I like these captions as you can change the font, font size, font color, background color, background opacity, text opacity.  I kind of wish there was a background opacity of 50% as 25% seems too light and 75% seems a little too dark.  Don't know why it jumps from 25% to 75%.

So now debating whether to return the Fire TV or not.  Well, maybe I'll take out the batteries again and try again later.

*** [start 5/22/14]

Still looking for that replacement streamer for my Roku.  But now I'm thinking there is no one streamer that is the best of all worlds.  Right now, I'm thinking the best combination would be the Apple TV with my old Roku HD or a Roku 2.

Why Apple TV?  Because it has excellent captions for Netflix and Hulu Plus.   Why not just Roku 2?  Actually it's not a bad chose, but  I like the Apple TV captions on Hulu Plus better than the Roku.

Captions for HBO Go are kind of odd on both systems.  On the Roku, they appear too small if the font size is left on default.  The lines overlap if the font size is medium.  They don't overlap when they set on small, but it's a little too small.  On the Apple TV, the words appear too thick on the default font.  Seems better on a different font.  Have to experiment more.

The Roku 2 advantage is that it support captions for youtube.  As described elsewhere, the captions for certain videos (specifically the NatGeoWild videos of Dog Whisperer and Cesar 911)  display off the screen.  To solve this, you need to connect via composite connection and set the display to 16x9.

The other advantage of the Roku 2 is that it supports Amazon Instant Video which the Apple TV does not.  And also other apps, like Nowhere TV, NBC News, CBS News.

A disadvantage of the Roku 2 are that youtube runs pretty sluggishly on it, as well as Hulu Plus.

[4/6/15 - I should note that I bought a Roku 3 from Costco (returned it later).  Then a Roku 2 and a Fire TV from Best Buy.  Kept both.  Now begins my Amazon Fire TV unboxing...]

Well, the Amazon Fire TV should solve the sluggish problem.  Ideally I'd like to see it display nicer captions on Hulu Plus than the Roku 2 and nicer captions for youtube than the Apple TV (actually the Apple TV youtube app doesn't support captions).  Browsing through the Apple Fire TV user guide mentions closed captions on page 20.

It says in order to turn on captions on Amazon Instant Video, you press the menu button after the video starts playing.  And that you can also manage closed captions settings at www.amazon.com/cc.

It also mentions you can update how closed caption text appears for Netflix by going to www.netflix.com/youraccount.

So that tells me that the Fire TV does not have system captions and it's up to the app to provide the captions.

We'll see.

Open the box.

It comes nicely packed with a separate smaller black box to hold the batteries and power supply.  The unit is much heavier than the Roku HD and probably heavier than the Roku 3.

The power supply is a small block that plugs in to the outlet.  Much like most power supplies.  The Apple TV is much neater as it's just a cord that plugs into the Apple TV.  So I'm assuming the power supply is built into the Apple TV box.

The box is wrapped in plastic as is the remote control.  Hope I can stuff them back in, if I decide to return it.

The remote takes two AAA batteries which are included.  I'll just use a couple of my own.

OK, plug in the power supply.  Put batteries in the remote.  Plug in HDMI cable.  Switch to HDMI on TV (was watching my Roku HD on composite).

Amazon Fire TV log comes up.  Then says searching for your remote.

Press (picture of play/pause button) to start.  Press it.

Connect to your network

Choose my network.  Press the big button.

Enter password.  Don't know if the voice works, but just entered it with the remote.  Even here, I can tell it's very responsive.  Little or no signs of lag.  Connect.

Connection successful.

Downloading the latest software.  Taking a while...  ... a long while ...

Installing the latest software.

amazon logo comes up

amazon fire tv logo

installing the latest software (again)

checking for updates

Registration

Register or create an account

Register (since I already have an amazon account)

Enter your Amazon account email / Next
Enter Your Amazon Account Password / Sign In

Registering your Amazon Fire TV
Registration successful

a video tutorial automatically plays

amazon Prime (start your 30 day free trial or no thanks) / no thanks

Enable Parental Controls or No Parental Controls (allows purchasing and video playback without pin) / enable (just to see how it works)

enter your existing PIN (let me look it up) ***** / Next

Parental Controls are now on

and finally the home screen comes on

Let's get right to it shall we?

The Home screen consists of several rows of videos

Recent: which has the Get Started video, Top prime movies & TV (a lot of the movies I notice are also on Netflix, the top two are GI Joe Retaliation and The Avengers which are also on Netflix.  Plus others like Kill Bill, Jewel of the Nile, Hunger Games, Skyfall), Top Apps & Games

The next line is HBO on Prime Instant Video

Then featured apps and games:  Netflix is here, also Hulu Plus

Then featured Movies & TV.  House of Cards, season 2 is here.  When I go to it, it tells me to download the Netflix app.  There's also Baseba(the ll is cut off) which actually the Watch ESPN app.  It also tell you to download the app.

Then there's recommended drama.

Shop New Release Movies

Recommended Movies & TV / Monk is no. 2 on the list here after arrow.  You can buy HD episodes for $2.99.  SD for $.99 (only season 1, other seasons are $1.99 for SD), or buy the whole season for $24.99.  Checking Arrow, they don't tell you that's it's available at Netflix.

Shop Latest TV

Top Free Games.  Free?  OK, this sounds attractive.  There's 65 of them.

Recommended Apps & Games.  The first game is Virtua Tennis Challenge which costs $4.99 or 499 coins.  Don't know if it's multi-player.

The other categories below Home (which apparently are all sourced from Amazon.com) are

Movies
TV
Watchlist
Video Library (here's where my purchased shows from Hitbliss are)
Games
Apps
Photos (get the Cloud Drive app for IOS or Android)
Settings

OK, let's try MAOS from my Video Library.  Enter PIN (OK, maybe I'll turn this off later).

The button with the three horizonal lines is the closed caption button.  It has options for language (usually english), font size (five of them), and Presets (four of them).  The picture and subtitles look OK here, even in SD.

Let's get to Netflix.  Have to download the app.  Going to Settings, System, About, I see that there's 4.73 GB available (5.49 GB total).  Download... Queued (briefly).  Downloading...

Now have 4.66 GB available.

Open.
Member Sign in
tried voice search, good try, press the button and it brings up a qwerty keyboard
enter email address, enter, enter password, Continue

Select your Netflix experience (Netflix or Kids), Netflix
I guess it's OK, but the video doesn't jump out at me.  Put on Ted Talks: Life Hack.  The captions are a little small.  But varies, putting on House of Cards, it's seems actually a little big.  These have to be adjust at the Netflix website, which would be a bit of a hassle.  Put on Num3ers.  Captions are a little small again.  And don't see a More Like This option.  This is kind of like the Roku 3 app.

OK, let's try Hulu Plus.

Checking space available, now it's down to 4.63 GB.  Maybe it's caching.

Downloaded pretty fast.  Check space available.  4.61 GB.

Log in.  Play Cesar 911.  Turn on captions (press up to access menu).  Caption are yellow on grey background.  Apparently not customizable.  But not bad.  I guess I would get used to it, like you get used to your closed caption on your TV.  Don't notice the blank box when there's no captions to display.  Which is a plus.  Notice the captions are lagging.  Don't know if this is from Hulu or from the Fire TV.  This might be a deal-breaker.

[checking my computer with the same show, the captions don't lag.]

Don't see the youtube app.  I thought there was one?  Looking here, youtube is listed.

Now down to 4.60 GB.

Looking around.  There it is.  Go to Apps, Categories, Entertainment.

Where it said download for Netflix and Hulu Plus, it says Free.  Then on the bottom row, you can sign in, pair device, search.  Actually you can't, those are just screen shots.  Let's go to Free.  Enter PIN.  Processing.  Downloading...  4.53GB.

Looks the same as the Roku app.

Search for NatGeoWild.  Tried voice search, it found what I was saying, but couldn't apply the search to youtube.  Pull up Project Runway.  Sure enough, the captions are cut off at the top (and bottom) of the screen.  So it's definitely not a Roku problem.

Down to 4.4 GB.

Let's try Crackle.  It's in my Apps Library.  Download queued.  4.42 GB

The far left edge of the screen is slightly cut off.  Funny.  Seinfeld isn't featured.  But there it is in all shows.

Pressing the captions button brings up a bunch of options.  But the default captions are really tiny.  But then you can adjust the font size.  So this seems (more than) acceptable.

That's about it for now.

I think I might go with the Apple TV as a companion to my Roku.  I think I'll bring it home and try it out for a while.

Playing MAOS on hulu plus.  Funny no caption lag now.  Let's go back to End Game.  Lagging again.

***

Explore more youtube videos.  Some of them display OK on the Fire TV.  The ones that don't I notice display the captions at the very top or very bottom of the screen on the PC (so far I've only seen this on videos uploaded by natgeo wild).  But the picture on the TV actually slightly cuts off the edges the screen, thus the subtitles are cut off too.  So that's what it looks like to me.

Down to 4.32 GB.

Let's add Bloomberg TV.

Pull up a full episode of Bloomberg West which is supposed to be closed captioned.  Pressing the caption button brings up a nice menu with lots of options, but I don't see the option to turn on closed captions.

Down to 4.25 GB.

Checking the video on the computer, I see that it does support captions.  Ah there it is, you turn it on in the Language Section.  That makes sense.  Oddly the captions display on the top on the PC, but on the bottom on the Fire TV.

Captions still lagging on Hulu Plus (End Game).

Let's try the Apple TV.

Found my network (it remembered).  Hulu Plus takes a little while to load.  Let's try End Game, episode 2.  Unlike the Fire TV, there's the option to resume playing or Start from beginning.  Again takes a while to load, then got the message "an error occurred loading this content".  OK, plays on the second attempt.

Not lagging, but the blank empty caption box is somewhat annoying.  Though not as annoying as the lagging captions.

Checking Bloomberg, I kind of don't like the captions as they're too thick and big.  Let me make them smaller.  (Sorry Al Franken, I'm going to settings.  Change to default.)  Al Franken still talking.  Still don't like them that well.  I like the Roku captions better.  (Roku doesn't have an official Bloomberg Channel, but you can watch it via Nowhere TV.)

[5/23/14] continuing using Apple TV at home.  Notice youtube is really slow buffering.  It's taking a while to load the youtube videos before playing.  Noticing it on cordkillers (the wheel has been spinning for minutes and minutes).  This is unacceptably slow.  VideoBuzz on my Roku is much faster.  It plays immediately on my computer.  The screensaver has kicked in on the AppleTV (lol).

[5/23/14] playing hulu plus (End Game for one) on Apple TV.  Occasional buffering.  And the signal strength on the network is down to three bars.  Somewhat annoying.

[5/24/14] Plug back in Apple TV.  Signal strength four bars.  Playing Back To School on Hulu Plus.  No buffering and no commercials (nobody seems to mention that Hulu Plus doesn't show ads during movies).  OK, one brief buffer :(

Try a movie on Netflix.  Played OK for a while, then errored out.  "An error occurred loading this content.  Try again later."

OK, switch back to the Fire.

[5/24/14] Despite the oddball lagging of some captions on Hulu Plus, I'm beginning to get used to it.  Though it doesn't use system captions, the captions are quite readable on Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle.  Though they all use different captioning systems (sort of like when you play a DVD, each DVD has their own style of captions.  As opposed to a TV closed caption which uses the TV captions for everything.  The latter is how the Apple TV is set.

Anyway, I figured maybe I'll use the Roku 3 at my mom's place.  However, it wouldn't connect.  There are two different networks I can connect to there.  On the first one, it would connect to the router, then to the local network, but couldn't connect to the internet.  On the second one, it would connect to the router, but wouldn't connect to the local network.  And since I don't have access to the routers there, I'm out of luck.  OK, so that makes one less option to me.

[5/26/14 - I'm wondering now if the first network was down, because I couldn't connect to it yesterday 5/25/14]

My Roku HD connects OK to the first network, but not to the second one.  The Apple TV connects to both, even though it doesn't appear to connect to either at first and seemingly locks.  But when you go back to the menu, it connects.

For completeness, I guess I'll have to try the Roku 2 and the Fire at my mom's place.

***

OK, take the Roku 3 home and hook it up and I can now compare it to the Fire TV.

I had reset it, but apparently it remembers my account, so after I connected to my network, I activated it on my computer and it's now updating my channels.  I didn't have to set up my account again.  Which actually could be bad in case I want to return it or link it to a new account.  Then again, when I linked it from the computer, I was logged on to my roku account, so it might have taken the information from there.

OK, took a look.  Captions don't lag on Hulu Plus.  But captions are smaller on Netflix and seem to stand out better on the Amazon Fire TV.  Also I see the empty block caption on Hulu Plus on the Roku 3.

Man, they don't make it easy.  There's some pluses and minuses for both units. I prefer the captions on the Fire TV, if they don't lag.

[5/25/14]  Let's try out the Roku 2 at mom's place.  Darn, no batteries for the remote.  OK, let's try the Fire.  Hey it connects to CCOH network (network 2), but not the Tsunami network (which is the one my Roku HD connects to).  It says it connects, but with problems.  But I suspect something is wrong with the Tsunami network as my ipad is having problems accessing the internet on it.

Try out Hulu Plus.  Captions still lagging on End Game, but not too bad on Dog Whisperer.  It kind of looks like it lags, then catches up.  Got that odd 4:3 display problem on Netflix again.  On a 4:3 show (e.g. Dog Whisperer and X-Files), it looks like it stretches the 4:3 picture to fill the screen horizontally, then chops the sides to refit it to 4:3.  But then when you restart the show, it looks like it resets the picture properly.  So it appears the Fire is somewhat buggy.

The other thing I notice is that the captions are inconsistent from show-to-show on Netflix.  On some, it's all caps (e.g. Leverage).  On some shows, the captions are large (X-Files).  On other shows, they're smaller.

Home.  Hook up the Roku 2 via composite and the Roku 3 via HDMI.  Comparing the Hulu Plus captions.  Oddly the captions are larger on the Roku 3 than on the Roku 2.  Hook up the Roku 2 via HDMI.  Change display type from 16:9 to 720p (to match the Roku 3).  Check the captions. Now they look the same.  Interesting that the 720p captions are larger than the 16:9 captions.  Neither of them lag.

Let's try Netflix.  I definitely like the Roku 2's captions here batter as it uses the Roku captions vs. the Netflix captions.  So I think the Roku 2 wins here, especially since the Roku 3 cannot connect to mom's network.  I'm suspecting the Roku 2 will connect to the Tsunami network, but I'll have to check it when it's up and running again.

OK, let's hook up the Fire TV.  Netflix.  X-Files picture stretched out of shape again.  Restart show and it seems OK.  Nice big subtitles.  My Name is Earl.  Subtitles now kind of small.  Back to X-Files, yep picture stretched again.  So it seems after accessing a 16:9 picture and then you go back to a 4:3 picture, the picture is stretched out of shape.  And you have to go back to the beginning of the show to reset it.  That's another bug.

Comparing to the Roku 3 Netflix captions, the Fire TV captions are bigger and more readable on the X-Files.  Turning to My Name is Earl.  Here I actually like the Roku 3 captions a little better on the Roku 3 than on the Fire TV.  They're both kind of small, but on the Roku 3, there's a drop shadow that makes it stand out a little more.  Leverage.  The captions are pretty huge on the Fire TV.  And look a little smaller and thicker on the Roku 3.  I'd give the advantage here to the Fire TV.

I like the Netflix interface a little better on the Fire TV better.  On the Roku 3, there's no option to restart the episode from the beginning and you have to turn on/off the captions after the video starts.  On the Fire TV, there is a play from the beginning option and the Audio and subtitles option appears on the menu before you play the video.

Now comparing the Hulu Plus captions, they're actually the same size on the Roku 2 as on the Fire TV.  But without the lag.  The major disadvantage of the Roku 2 is that it's clearly slower and less responsive than the Fire TV and Roku 3.

I notice the Hulu Plus interface is slightly different on the Fire TV and Roku 3 vs. the Roku 2.  When going to a show, the options are Resume Show, Episodes, Clips, Add to Favorites, More Details, You May Also Like.  On a show that's never been played, it's Play Episode, Add to Queue, More Details, Series Page, You May Also Like.  On the Roku 2, it's Resume Episode, Restart Episode, Add to Queue, More Details, Series Page,You May Also Like.  On a show that's never been played, it's Play Episode instead of the first two options (same as on the Fire TV).

So though I had been leaning toward the Fire TV, the Roku 2 is actually the machine that solves my problems with my Roku HD.  None of the systems display the NatGeoWild youtube captions properly on HDMI.  The Roku 2 and Roku HD both display it on 16:9, but the Roku 2 is less sluggish than the HD (though still sluggish).  The second problem was that on my Roku HD, Hulu Plus videos tend to lock up when turning on captions.  The Roku 3, Roku 2, and Fire TV all seems to display Hulu Plus captions similarly but the Fire TV lags on some shows.

Summing up.

Netflix.  I like the captions on the Apple TV, Roku HD and Roku 2 the best.  The Amazon Fire TV seems mostly OK, but has that odd problem of showing 4:3 out of proportion upon resuming.  Plus the captions seem inconsistent.  The Roku 3 captions sometimes seems a bit small to me.  The captions on the Fire TV and Roku are inconsistent across shows on Netflix.  Actually they're inconsistent on the other boxes too, but don't seem to vary as wildly as on the Fire TV and the Roku 3.

Hulu Plus.  This was one of the main reasons that I explored getting a new streaming box.  Because my Roku HD would lockup (the video would be play but the system would be unresponsive with the symptoms that the captions would stop updating) when playing Hulu Plus videos.

So the Roku HD is the worst.  The Roku 2 is better because it's faster than the Roku HD, but still sluggish.  The Roku 3 is responsive.  The Fire TV is also responsive, but has that odd lagging problem on some videos.

The Roku 2, Roku 3, Fire TV all use the Hulu Plus captions and look OK.  Yellow letters on a dark barkground.  On the Roku 2, the captions are actually a bit smaller when sent to 16:9 vs. 720p.

I like the Apple TV captions here the best, as it uses the customizable Apple TV captions.  I did notice some buffering when I was testing it, but that was probably due to my network.

Youtube.  The other reason why I was looking into a new streaming box was the Youtube plays really slowly on the Roku HD.  The Roku 2 is faster but still sluggish.  The Roku 3 and Fire TV have acceptable speed.  The problem on all of these systems is that the captions from NatGeoWild are cut off at the top or bottom.  But oddly they're OK if the Roku HD and Roku 2 are set to 16:9 instead of 720p.  The Roku 3 and Fire TV don't have the option of 16:9.  The Apple TV app doesn't support captions.

Crackle.  Captions are all pretty good here on all the systems.  The system captions are used on the Roku's and the Apple TV.  The Fire TV app has their own customizable captions.

Amazon Instant Video.  The Roku uses the system captions here.  But they look too small if set to default.  Have to change the default size to medium.  As one might expect, they look fine on the Fire TV.  Not supported on Apple TV.

HBO Go.  Roku uses the system captions, but if there are multi-line captions, the lines overlap.  You can solve this by making the system font smaller, but then the captions look a little too small for me.  The Apple TV also uses the system captions, but they look kind of too fat here for me.  Adjusting the font makes it a little better.  Not supported on the Fire TV (yet).  So none of these systems have entirely satisfactory captions here to me.

System by System

Roku HD.  Netflix is fine.  Hulu Plus with captions on locks up.  Youtube really slow, but captions display OK.  Crackle is fine.  Amazon Instant Video is fine (after adjusting the default captions).  HBO Go captions overlap (unless you make the font smaller)

Apple TV.  Netflix is fine.  Hulu Plus captions are the best here as the other systems use the app captions.  Youtube implementation is poor with no captions.  Crackle is fine.  Amazon Instant Video not supported.  HBO Go captions look too fat to me.  Amazon Instant Video not supported.

Roku 3.  Netflix is fine, captions maybe a little small on some shows.  Hulu Plus with captions are OK.  Youtube responds fairly well, but NatGeoWild captions are cut off.  Amazon Instant Video is fine.  HBO Go captions overlap.

Roku 2.  Netflix is fine.  Hulu Plus with captions play OK, but response a little sluggish.  Youtube sluggish but faster than Roku HD.  Captions display OK on 16:9.  Amazon Instant Video is fine.  HBO Go captions overlap.

Apple Fire TV.  Netflix is OK, though I like the Apple TV and Roku system captions a little better.  And there is that odd problem with 4:3 videos.  Hulu Plus captions are OK when they're not lagging.  Youtube is responsive, but still has that cutoff caption problem.  Crackle has their own customizable captions and are OK (after you customize it, the default is too small).  Amazon Instant Video plays well.  No support for HBO Go.

So what system should you get?  If want the most app support, get a Roku.  If you don't care about captions, get a Roku 3.  If you like games, get a Fire TV and live with the 4:3 problem on Netflix.  If you want the nicest captions, get an Apple TV, but you won't get Amazon Instant Video.  If you want your NatGeo Wild captions not cut off on YouTube, get a Roku 2.  If you want to listen on headphones, get a Roku 2 or Roku 3.

What about the Roku HD?  The only possible advantage I see so far over the Roku 2 and 3 is that Plex had a notice that it was good for only 30 days before you have to pay.  I think the Plex app on the HD might be grandfathered so you don't have to pay a fee.  I also noticed that the HD app displayed captions on the ABC app, but doesn't on the Roku 3.  Haven't tried the Fire TV implementation yet.

Another advantage.  I think the Roku HD uses less electricity than the Roku 2 and Roku 3.  After being plugged in, the HD doesn't get as warm as the other two.  The Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV also don't get too warm, so they're probably energy efficient as well.

***

[5/26/14] Here's an idea.  Since I see the Hulu Plus captions are different on the Roku 2 when playing it 16:9 vs. 720p, I wonder what would happen if I put my Roku HD on 720p?  Does it still lock up on Hulu Plus?  Let's try.  Trying episode 3 of End Game.

It played OK until hitting the commerical.  Then commercial progress disc at the top left stayed on the screen and said there was connection problems.

Try again.  The captions froze.  Then started again but was lagging.  Then after a while, Playback Error.  We're sorry, but there was an issue playing this video.  Please check your computer and try again.  OK or Retry.

OK, now let's try the Roku 2 and see if it can get through the same video (episode 3 of End Game).  Yep.  I think I'll keep the Roku 2.

***

I think I'll be keeping the Roku 2 as a replacement for the Roku HD.  I think I'll return the Roku 3 to Costco.  The question is whether to keep the Amazon Fire TV.  One potential plus is that it plays games.  Another potential plus is that it connects to the second network at mom's place.  The question is whether I'll actually use it.  I guess I'll try out some games to convince myself.  Then again, I have these other game machines that I rarely use.

[5/29/14]  Before I returned the Roku 3, I tried it out again at my mom's place.  This time it connected to the Tsunami network (but failed again on CCOH).  Trying Netflix.  Nice big titles on Clean House, but smallish titles on TedTalks: Life Hacks.  Magnum P.I.?  Maybe a little small but readable.  Columbo.  Also a little small.  I think I like the Fire TV a bit better here.

Now watching Green Lantern: The Animated Series.  With headphones.  Pretty cool.  Made subtitles bigger.  There's only three size options on Netflix.  Captions now too big.  Let's try the small.  Exit and enter.  Tiny.  OK, I guess medium is best.

...  Evening... I tried Everybody Loves Raymond.  Captions a little small.  Adjust.  Too big.  Ah, leave it.  Easy to read :)

[5/30/14]  Hooked back the Amazon Fire TV at my mom's place.  Now it connects to Tsunami.  So this is one advantage over the Roku.  It can connect to both Tsunami and CCOH, whereas the Roku connects only to Tsunami.  Here's another advantage.  A nice scenic screen saver.  It's from "Amazon Collection" which is the only option and apparently has 194 photos (because there's the number 194 next to it).

Let's try Everybody Loves Raymond.  Huge Captions.  And looks stretched.  Already annoying.  Play from beginning.  Picture back in proportion.  Captions acceptable, though maybe a little small.  Cesar 911.  Captions lag a bit, then catches up.  Then the picture freezes.  The captions keep going though.  After about a minute, the picture comes back.

Played Clean House (which was enjoyable, the one with the guy with the pigeons).  Exited and came back, picture was out of proportion.  Rewind a bit, now picture OK.  Then back to ELR.  Out of proportion.  Pause and resume.  Hey, the picture is OK now.  OK, so not a big problem.  I'd still like the captions a bit bigger.

I really don't like the Netflix captions of the Roku 3 and Fire TV.  I think I might bring the Roku 2 to my mom's place and hook up the Apple TV at home in tandem with my Roku HD.

[5/30/14] OK, hook up the Apple TV at home.  Playing Hercules and Xena on Netflix.  That seemed fine.  Then Cesar 911 on Hulu Plus.  That went OK.  But now I'm playing Bob Newhart and it's buffering often enough to be unplayable.  Let's try some Dog Whisperer.  More buffering.

[5/31/14] More Apple TV testing.  I see I only get three bars now on my network. Run the connection test.  It passed.  OK, let's try Dog Whisperer.  Seems OK.  Switch to Bob Newhart.  Made it through this time.  Exit Hulu Plus, go back in.  Dog Whisperer.  buffering during the first ad.  Hmm..  But made it all the way through.  OK, I think I'll keep the Apple TV at home, take the Roku 2 to mom's place, and return the Roku 3 and Fire TV since I probably wouldn't use it much. I can put the $200 to better use, I suppose.

[5/31/14] more playing with the Fire TV.  Noticed there's a couple noticeable apps missing.  Namely The History Channel and PBS.  Both are on the Roku and the Apple TV.

[5/31/14] Hooked up the Roku 2 at mom's place.  Connects to Tsunami, but not CCOH.  Yep definitely like the Roku 2 captions on Netflix better than all the new boxes.  One odd thing on the Dick Van Dyke captions.  When the captions go to one-line, there's a blank background box above the line.  Like it's displaying two lines, but the first line is a blank space.  Don't see on the other captions on Netflix.

[6/1/14] Watching The Net 2.0 on Crackle.  Was playing fine, but then the sound went out and the remote went unresponsive.  Jiggled the batteries, was OK for a while, then sound went dead again.  OK, try fresh batteries.  Maybe using the headphones drains the batteries.

Netflix seems fine.  Switch back to Crackle and resume The Net 2.0.  No sound.  Odd.  Switch to Three Stooges, sound is working.  Switch back to The Net 2.0.  Resume.  Commercial has sound, but no sound when show resumes.  Try play from beginning.  OK, sound is back.

Wait, sound is cutting in and out.  Rewind and pull out the headphones.  Same deal.  Maybe it's a problem with the Roku2 and Crackle.  Play Seinfeld.  Seems OK.

[6/2/14] I was packing up the Amazon Fire TV, putting back the plastic wrap, getting ready to return it to Best Buy, but then I remembered that I should reset it to default before I return it.  So I unwrapped again and plugged it in.  WTH, let's try some games.  Had to be free of course.  And playable with the remote control.  That narrowed down the choices.

The first game was Bowling.  The graphics were pretty good.  The play was pretty decent.  Just two players though.  Tried a game which was like Flappy Bird.  Too hard.  Pinball.  Graphics were decent, but pretty mindless.

OK, let's try You Don't Know Jack Party.  There's a You Don't Know Jack for the Roku 3, but I think it doesn't support multi-player.  And I remember playing You Don't Know Jack on the computer network at the clubhouse.  (I think it ran in DOS and we had to set up IPX.) That was pretty fun.  Anyway, I tried the Roku 3 and the questions were pretty hard (to me).

YDKJP came out first for IOS, and if you have an Apple TV you can use AirPlay to make the TV your primary screen.  Not sure how it would work withouth Airplay.  The Amazon Fire TV version doesn't need Airplay as it can runs as an app.

The Amazon Fire TV version is supposed to support up to four players with the other players using their phones or tables at controllers.  Apparently you download an app to turn your device into a controller.  Didn't try it.  Just tried the questions.  They were fairly difficult.  But I started to get the hang of it as I went along.  Shows some promise.  Still not quite enough to keep the Fire TV.

Then I looked for games similar to You Don't Know Jack and came across a game called Fibbage by the same developer of YDKJ (Jackbox Games).  The Fire TV presents a question with a blank and the players fill in the blank.  It supports up to 8 players.  Participants can use a computer, a tablet, or smartphone to participate.  To join, you go to the Fibbage website and enter the room name.  And almost magically you see you're connected to the screen.

It's kind of a simplified version of Balderdash, but much easier to play and implement.  Here's the press release and it gets enthusiastic reviews on Amazon.com.  Wired liked it too. Not sure how much it is to unlock more episodes though.

Anyway, for Fibbage alone, I'm going to keep the Fire TV.

[6/3/14] Tried out Fibbage with three people.  One was on an iphone, one was on the ipad, one on a computer.  The ipad had trouble keeping connection with the server constantly asking to log on.  Noticed it was running on chrome, switched to safari.  worked fine after that.  OK, it's a keeper.

Was looking for a news app.  Tried Now This News.  Which was kind of odd as were the news items which were generally short snippets.  Then noticed AOL On was available.  So I'll switch to that.

Frequency looks good too.  Has lots of videos from lots of sources all over the place.  Even KITV news.  They even have full episodes for NatGeoWild.  No captions though.  Definitely a keeper.

After playing a whole episode of Cesar 911, I'm noticing a lot of buffering on this whale video.  I'll blame it on my internet speed.  But maybe it's the frequency app.

[10/4/14]  Checking for new apps for the Fire TV.  I see PBS is now available.  OK install that.  3.22 GB available.  Need to activate.  pbs.org/activate.

[10/5/14] Adding History Channel.   2.97 GB available.  Remove Vimeo.  2.98 GB available.

[1/3/15] HBO Go finally comes to Amazon Fire TV.  Actually it arrived on December 15.  Which shows you how long since I last used it.  2.80 GB available.  Captions are small though and I can't figure out how to change the size (or even if that's possible).

[3/22/15] Took my Amazon Fire TV home to check out the captions for youtube (and Netflix and hulu).  It couldn't connect to my network.  Which made sense since I had changed back to my old router in the meantime.  But when I tried to connect to my current network, I got no response.  Looks like the remote isn't working now.  Changed the batteries.  Still not working.  Test if remote is working by seeing if my One For All remote could learn any buttons from the Amazon Fire TV remote.  Apparently not.  Ugh.

Well, I believe it may have one-year warranty.  I think I'll take it back to Best Buy and see what they say.

[3/23/15] OK, I see that the Amazon Fire TV remote is bluetooth.  So the One For All remote wouldn't be able to learn it since it's IR.  Here's more things to try.

If your remote isn’t discovered, press the Home button for 5 - 10 seconds.

Still having trouble?

Disconnect the power cord from your Amazon Fire TV devuce for three seconds, and then plug the power cord back in. Or, on your remote press and hold the Select button and the Play button at the same time until the device restarts (about five seconds).

Shucks, didn't work.  At least it's still displaying some nice background pictures...

Before taking it back to Best Buy, I think I'll take it back to CCOH which has the network which the Fire TV is currently set up with.  Then I'll see what happens.  Maybe I'll try out the IOS app too.

***

OK, took it to CCOH.  It connected to the network, but the remote still wouldn't work.  Installed the Amazon Fire TV app for the iPad, connected to the same network and got it to work.

Navigated to system, pair remote, nothing.  Said battery was missing or dead or something.  Was fiddling around with the batteries and all of a sudden the batteries were found and the controller was working.

What I noticed before is that if I shook the controller I could feel rattling like the batteries were loose.  But now when I shook it, there was no rattling.  Took out the batteries, put it back.  Remote not working.  Fiddle around, no rattling.  Remote working.  Quite odd.  And I'd say this is a design issue.  Or maybe I got oddball batteries?  And now the app isn't working (can't find the Fire TV).  Dunno.  Maybe it's the network? I had it on Tsunami and switched to CCOH.  Oh well.  I guess I'll fool around some more with the batteries (probably leading to more frustration.)

Trying out Hulu Plus.  Yeah, captions are yellow on black.  I prefer the Apple TV captions which are white on light grey (customizable), followed by the Roku HD and Roku 2.  The Roku system are also customizable, but I think they font looks too fat compared to the Apple TV.  I assume the Roku 3 still uses the yellow on black captions.  On the hand, I think I like their captions for Amazon Instant video the best.

Home.  Trying out youtube.  WTH, the captions don't show up.  You enable it similarly to how you enable the captions on hulu.  Click up, scroll to the right until you get to the cc option, click it and set the options you want.  It's odd that there are several options you can choose (such as text color, background color, opacity), but the thing doesn't even work.  At least on the NatGeoWild videos that I tried (and work on other devices), such as It's Raining Hen.

[3/24/15] So a big thumbs down for the Amazon Fire TV as far as captions are concerned.  For Netflix, I prefer the Apple TV and Roku 2 (and Roku HD) tied for first.  Don't have a Roku 3 now, but when I tried it, it used the Netflix fonts which I didn't really like.  So in that respect, the Roku 3 is like the Amazon Fire TV.  For Hulu Plus, Apple TV is the choice with Roku behind and Amazon Fire TV third.  For youtube, I prefer Apple TV as it's more responsive than the Roku.  Non-working captions a big minus for Amazon Fire TV.  However for Amazon Instant Video, the Amazon Fire TV has excellent captions with the Roku not too far behind.  Of course, AppleTV doesn't support Amazon Instant Video.

Also looked again at the HBO captions on the Fire TV.  Still too small.  Apple TV and Roku are better here, but still not quite to my liking.

So who would I recommend the Amazon Fire TV to?  Probably those who subscribe to Amazon Prime and/or want to play Fibbage.

And, OK, I think I might now know what the problem is with the battery.  The contact "platform button" where the bottom battery contacts on the bottom has some spring action which portrudes it up from the bottom.  It seems it was a little stuck and wasn't protruding all the way up.  And now (I think) I notice it's sticking up more.  Spray some silicone to prevent it from getting stuck (don't know if that helped or hurt).  Hopefully that was the problem.

freecell on Windows 10 (and 8)

Having played Microsoft freecell since Windows 95 (I thought it might have been Windows 3.1 but I guess not), I really didn't like it not being included with Windows except as a part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection (which played really sluggishly on my laptop).

Eventually I started playing on netsolitaire.com instead, which is actually rather good.

But now (via frwr-news), comes Windows 7 games for Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which fixes the old Microsoft game pack to work with Windows 10 (and 8).  I was worried about spyware, but after carefully clicking the "Download Windows 7 games for Windows 10" (not the googleads box with the big green button to Start Download), it apparently installed cleanly.

So now I have a choice to go back to the familiar freecell on Windows 10 or continue using netsolitaire.  Probably both for now.

Fire Tablet unboxing

I always wanted an Android device, mainly so I can play around and learn it (plus gain access to the free Kindle library).  So with the Amazon Fire tablet discounted to $40, I couldn't resist.  So I cashed in my Bing Rewards and ordered it.

And now for the unboxing...

It comes in a smallish pyramid-like box rather than the normal rectangular box.  I guess they save a few pennies doing that.  To open it, you have to rip open the strip near the top of the box.  It feels like when you do it, you're beyond the point of no return because you can no longer pristinely re-seal the box.

There's not much in the box.  There's the tablet, the usb cable, and the power adapter.  Plus a little black card indicating what each of the ports are.  No words, just icons.  Headphones.  Volume.  Microphone.  USB connector.  Power.  Camera hole.  Another camera hole (in the back).  And a video out (?)

It's virtually the same width as my iPad mini, maybe 3/8" less.  And maybe 1/2" shorter in height.  The width of the video display is just slightly less than the iPad mini, maybe 1/8" inch.  And probably an inch shorter in height.

No instructions.

Well, the tablet is in one of those plastic envelope/wraps.  So I'll take it out of that.

I don't know if it's charged, so let me press the power button.

Hold it down a little while and the amazon logo comes on, followed by the word fire.  Installing the latest software.

Got to the Welcome screen

Please select your language.  English (United States).  You can choose one of three font sizes.  It starts on small.  I guess the target audience are younger people who have good eyesight.  I'll choose the medium size for now.  Then press Continue.

Connect to Wi-Fi.  An internet connection is required to set up your device.

Choose my network and enter the password.  Connect.

Sofware Update.  The latest Fire software is being downloaded. Once complete, it will only take a few minutes to restart your device and install the latest features.

Please connect your Fire to a charger to ensure you have sufficient battery charge to complete the progress.

OK, connect it to charger.  The cable is pretty short (looks like a standard cable, like the one used to charge my bluetooth headset).  I imagine it would work with the Apple plug, but I used the one it came with.

Installing updates.  Please wait.
Installing system update...

While waiting, I checked my email using the iPad and I see I got a message that "You have successfully registered your device".  "You have successfully registered your Amazon device and it is ready for use.  We hope you enjoy your device.

The screen blanked out and the tablet restarted.  fire appears on the screen.  for a while.  I guess it's updating.

Optimizing system storage and applications.  This will take approximately 10 minutes to complete

Confirm Your Account - MY NAME

Your Fire is registered to MY NAME and your timezone has been set using your Wi-Fi Network.

I guess there's an option to change the account, by tapping Not MY NAME (which is right below the above text, but I tap CONTINUE (meaning that I agree to "all of the terms found here. Your music will be saved to the Cloud to protect your purchases.  The voice features process and retain audio in the Cloud to improve our services.)

CONTINUE

Family Setup

You can set up the device to use and share with your family or set it up just for you.  Each member of your family has a personalized experience, just for them, including a custom home screen, collections, and preferences

Adult Profiles
You can have two adult profiles.  Add the second adult in Profiles and Family Library settings.
Share management of Parental controls, share content with Family Library and share Prime benefits.

Set up Child Profiles?
You can have up to four child profiles

Yes.  Set up child profiles and choose to add over 10,000 kid-friendly titles with Amazon FreeTime Unlimited.  You can also share books, videos, and apps you've purchased.

Not now.  You can always add child profiles later in the FreeTime app.

Select Not now.

CONTINUE

Enable Location Services

Allow Maps, other apps and Amazon to use location and related information.

NO THANKS  ENABLE

ENABLE

Backup & Auto-Save

Backup and Restore
Back up your Fire settings, bookmarks, search history, email and wireless configurations, and more to the cloud so that you can restore a Fire device later.

Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon
Wi-Fi passwords, including those previously entered, will be save to Amazon to help you connect your other devices.  To change this later, go to Settings > Device Options > Backup & Restore > Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon

Auto-Save Photos and Videos
Automatically upload your photos and videos from this device to Amazon Cloud Drive.  Anything saved in the Cloud Drive will be safe and accessible from almost any device.

The default for all of the above is on.

NO THANKS  CONTINUE

CONTINUE

Connect Social Networks

Connect your social networks to share your reading progress, game achievements, photos, and more.  You can also sync your contacts and calendar.

Connect Your Twitter Account
Connect Your Facebook Account
Connect or Create Goodreads Account

CONTINUE (without connecting)

Try Audible with 2 Free Audiobooks  (in the fine print: After 30 days, your membership renews at $14.95 per month)

START YOUR FREE TRIAL  No thanks (in comparatively small print)

No thanks

Welcome!

This tutorial will guide you through some of the major features and functionality of your new Fire tablet.

Exit  Start

At the top I see MICHAEL's Fire (identifying the device).   The wi-fi signal indicator.  The battery indicator (currently 60%).  And the time (currently 4:42)

At the bottom is an arrowhead facing left, a circle, and a square.  I don't know what those mean.  Ah, it's the navigation bar.

Let me plug in my earbuds and see if there's audio

Start

Home
The Home page displays a list of your installed apps.  Quickly find your recently opened content by swiping to the Recent page to the left of Home

Next

Content Pages
There are dedicated pages for Books, Video, Games, and more.  Each page allows you to easily access recently opened or purchased items, or discover new, personalized content.

Next

Switching Content Pages
You can navigate to different pages by swiping right or left or by tapping a page name.  (I now see in the background a book I had purchased previously.  Actually the book, because I think I think that's the only e-book I've ever purchased.)

Next

Scrolling Content Pages
To see more content and recommendations on a page, simply swipe up

Next

Accessing Library and the Store
Access the items you've bought or downloaded by tapping the Library icon on a page.  To shop for more content, tap the shopping cart to go to the store.

Next

Navigation Bar
At the bottom of the screen, tap [arrowhead] to go back to the previous screen, [circle] to navigate home (why don't they use a house icon?), and [square] to quickly switch between recently opened apps and content.  [OK, they got to it eventually.]

Next

Quick Settings
Access notifications and frequently used settings by swiping down from the top of the screen (as opposed to the bottom of the screen for the iPad).  From here you can tap Help for more info.

Replay  Finish

[The power is down to 56% and the time is 4:55.]

Finish

The home screen is now displayed.

At the top is NEW ITEMS.  The current new item is The Washington Post with a picture of Hillary facing left, Trump facing right and the words "What they were like in their 30s".

Then three rows of icons five across.
First row: Shop amazon, Silk..., Appstore, Amazon Video, FreeTime
Second row: Kindle Books, Amazon Music, Kindle Newsstand, Amazon Photos
Third Row: Amazon Games, Goodreads, Amazon Offers, Email, Calendar

OK I see a slight bias here on the home page.

[Wait there's more.  If you turn the table horizontally you get three rows of icons but now seven across.  The additional icons are camera, docs, contacts, clock, weather, help.  And if you scroll up to the next page, you get settings, my videos, photos, calculator (the calculator was up on a previous row but I moved it).  Hmm.  Now holding the tablet vertically I get five rows of five icons each.  The Washington Post icon is gone.  Maybe because I deleted it.]

Scrolling to the next screen is books

Featuring the book I bought (Miss Minimalist).  I think I bought it for 99 cents, but now it's $2.99.  But free to read on Kindleunlimited.  [Actually Kindleunlimited is a subscription service.  If you want to borrow books for free, you need to find those in the Kindle Owners Lending Library.  It's not necessarily easy to find which books are in there.  But here's some help.  Go to books.  Then click on Kindle edition.  Then check the box to the left of Amazon Prime.]

Scroll to the next screen.  Video.
At the top is Watch Next with the videos I've recently watched on Amazon

At the bottom half of the screen is Prime Originals & Exclusives

Scroll to the next screen.  Games.
Your games library is empty.

Below are games recommended for you in Amazon Underground.

Scroll to the next screen.  Shop

Looks like you can actually purchase items from Amazon here.  Kind of cool.  Top of the list.  SanDisk 32 GB micro SD Memory Card.  Sneaky (and smart).

Scroll to the next screen.

APPS

Here's where you download apps like Youtbue, Netflix, Facebook.  I guess I'll be returning here soon enough.

Scroll to the next screen.

Music

Top of the page is Elvis Presley.  Also Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, The Isley... Marty... Roy Orbison

I assume if I press Library at the top right, I'll get to see what I had added to my library.  I'll come back later.

Scroll to the next page.  AUDIOBOOKS

Audiobook you purchase from Audible or the Amazon Audiobooks Store will appear here.

Scroll to the next page.  NEWSSTAND

The Washington Post is featured here.

Then below are Best Sellers such as Shape, US, The Atlantic, etc.

Scroll to the next page.  I can't that's the end.

OK, let's check out the Library.

It goes to the content I have purchase from the Newsstand, which is namely nothing.

OK, scroll back to Music and access the Library.

Don't see anything.

Press the arrowhead to back (this is more like a computer in this sense vs. the iPad where you just keep going).

Scroll to APPS, then access Library.

I see all the apps that I had previously downloaded on my Fire TV.  OK, that's kind of neat.  Well not all. I don't see Netflix and Hulu for example.  For some reason, the Washington Post showed up.  Delete from cloud.

***

My first impression is that this is a neat enough device to entice and make it easy for consumers to access and purchase stuff from Amazon.  I'm guessing this might even be a loss leader to get people to come to their store.  (Not so, says this guy.)

***

Exploring the Video section.  Oddly I don't see my Watch List.

Well let's go the Home Screen and select the Amazon video app.  OK this looks more familiar.

At first use, I don't like the shorter screen as compared to the iPad.  Seems like there's something missing.  I guess I'll get used to it.  (I guess it's more like the iPad adds stuff rather than it's "missing".)

Let's go the Appstore and install Netflix.

The first screen takes me to underground apps & games.  Where apps, games, and even in-app purchases are actually free.  Underground means that you not only get the app for free, but all in-app purchases cost you absolutely nothing.

CONTINUE

Let's scroll down toe Your Top Categories.  Movies and TV.

Top Free in Movies & TV

YouTube, Netflix, HBO GO

OK choose Netflix.

GET
DOWNLOAD
OPEN
Sign In

Ah here's the difference.  I tried to close the screen by using the close gesture with my fingers.  But it doesn't work.  You have to press the back arrow.  I guess that's OK.

Now where's the Netflix app?  It's on the Home screen, but you have to scroll up to see the second screen.

Let's try the Silk browser.  I wonder if I can watch free hulu.  Let's see try Cesar 911.  Nope.  It was smart enough to say that I can watch 7 full episodes for free on your computer at Hulu.com

OK, back to the App Store and install the Hulu app.

One thing I notice when downloading apps is that it doesn't ask you for your password.  Maybe there's a setting where you can change that.

OK that's enough for now.  More later I guess.

For now, I guess it's OK.  Especially when you can buy 6 of these for the price of one iPad Mini.

*** [5/13/16]

Here's something odd.  I installed the CBS app.  It works, but for some reason there's no Live TV (like on the iPad, Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV).   Apparently that feature works on Android but not on the Fire tablet.  Odd.

why Tesla owners love their car

$14 billion in less than a week.

That’s the backlog of pre-orders that Tesla Motors tallied up in the days after announcing its latest car, the Tesla Model 3.

The vehicle is the electric car maker’s third major model and its most affordable to date. With a base price of $35,000 it is comparable if not less than what many mid-sized sedans sell for today.

None, of course, boast the unique conveniences or distinct powertrain that the Tesla does, which is why the car is expected to have a transformative impact on the industry. If early results are any indication, Tesla is likely to exceed the predictions of many car experts.

In the first seven days after the Model 3 was unveiled in April 2016, Tesla received orders for an astounding 325,000 cars. (That’s more cars than Ferrari has sold in its 77-year history.) Half of the orders for the new Model 3 poured in in the first 24 hours after the car was announced.

The $14 billion backlog that the orders produced? That’s bigger than the annual revenues of Marriott, Visa or Facebook.

While some car companies obsess over the time it takes for their vehicles to zoom from 0 to 60, Tesla’s Model 3 went from 0 to Fortune 250 in less than a week. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the Model 3’s performance, rest assured its equally fast: It zooms from 0-60 in less than 6 seconds.

“[The Tesla Model 3] hits the target of Style, Performance, Price and ‘Feel good about myself,’” says The Tech Caucus, an influential Silicon Valley Newsletter produced by book author Ben Parr. “There is not another car that has three of these, let alone all four!”

All that is indeed true. Unquestionably, the Tesla is the best electric car on the planet. But would you be surprised if I told you that wasn’t what makes the car special? To its owners and inventors, the Tesla is remarkable not because it is electric, but because it is digital.

While that may not sound like a big distinction, it’s literally the difference between 20th-century ingenuity and 21st-century innovation. Here’s why.

Virtually everything in the car that can be measured has an active sensor on it connected to the car’s digital network. What does that mean? Your Tesla can park itself neatly into your garage. It also means that you remotely check the cabin temperature on a hot day and tell the vehicle to power up the AC so it will be at a desired temperature when you hop in for a ride.

The car has dozens of other cool features that leverage digital innovation. But there’s one feature that sets it apart from virtually any other vehicle on the road. Aside from a handful of parts that need routine replacement—think tires and wiper blades—the bulk of the vehicle’s components and functions were designed to be upgraded, not by mechanics wielding wrenches, but by software engineers working in Tesla’s Silicon Valley research and development labs.

In other words, the Tesla is more like your iPhone than it is like your other car.

Like an iPhone, the Tesla S gets better every time the company releases a new software update over the Internet. These updates make the car safer, more reliable, and even more pleasurable.

Take driving in San Francisco, which is something my friend Robert Bigler, an engineer and entrepreneur who invented the SmartMotor and Hoverboard, does quite frequently. Like a lot of successful people who work in Silicon Valley, Robert was drawn to the Tesla Model S the moment that it was introduced. He bought one not long after it became available.

The more he drove the car, the more Robert became a fan. But one thing bugged him about the vehicle, especially when he drove it around the streets of San Francisco, where street grades can exceed 30 percent. When he drove his car over the famed hills of the city, he noticed it would roll back unnervingly when he stopped uphill at intersections for stop signs and street lights.

“It reminded me of driving an old manual transmission VW Beetle. Without a mechanical clutch, the Tesla wants to roll back on steep hills,” Robert told me. Concerned about his safety, not to mention that of fellow Tesla drivers, he turned to Tesla for more information and discovered that other Tesla drivers had already alerted Tesla of the problem.

A few days later, a message appeared on the touchscreen console when he started his car. A fix, the message informed him, was automatically downloaded to Robert’s car (and every other Tesla) overnight while it charged in his garage.

Sure enough, when he next found himself stopped on an upward slope in San Francisco, the problem was gone. Tesla engineers had written some code that programmed the car to automatically engage the safety brake whenever it was stopped on a hill. When the vehicle begins to move forward now, the brake stays engaged for a few seconds until the motor can put sufficient torque on the wheels to give it the forward momentum it needs to prevent the vehicle from rolling backwards.

In addition to convenience, software upgrades have also improved safety. When one battery caught fire after being pierced by a piece of road debris, Tesla engineers made several changes. One reset the default height setting on the vehicle and raised it by a few inches with a simple software patch delivered wirelessly. No recall was required, and no fires have been reported since.

A recent software upgrade gave owners Blind Spot Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking. It also provided guidance for locating charging stations on road trips and improved the range monitoring while providing owners more options for safeguarding their cars, including speed restrictions when handing them over to parking valets.

With its front-mounted camera, rear-mounted radar, and a phalanx of ultrasonic sensors, the car can start, stop, steer, drive, navigate, park, and avoid obstacles. With the AutoPilot software downloaded to the car recently, the Tesla can also operate like one of Google’s much ballyhooed semi-autonomous driverless cars, leading Steven Colbert, host of The Late Show, to exclaim, “Tesla owners woke up to find that their cars could drive themselves.” If and when the law allows for driverless cars, Tesla will be ready, much to the delight of its owners, who realize that the car they purchased is unlike any other.

“With my Tesla, I feel like I get a new car every time there’s an upgrade. There are new features and new capabilities, and as a result the car just gets better and better,” says Bigler.

A car that improves with age? That hasn’t happened since mechanical cars were invented more than 100 years ago. But in the new world of digital transportation, this will become commonplace.

And this is happening not just in transportation but virtually every industry, as I write in my latest book “The Digital Revolution: How Connected Digital Innovations Are Transforming Your Industry, Company and Career.”

-- Inder Sidhu

Video Game Hall of Fame - 2016

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A video game that had players zapping space aliens with lasers and another that put players in covered wagons have been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

The class of 2016 was honored at The Strong museum in Rochester on Thursday. Inductees are: "Space Invaders" and "The Oregon Trail," along with "Grand Theft Auto III," ''Sonic the Hedgehog," ''The Legend of Zelda" and "The Sims."

The winners were chosen from among 15 finalists culled from thousands of nominations.

The Strong established the hall last year to recognize electronic games that had longevity and influenced the gaming industry or society.

Contenders that missed the final cut were: "John Madden Football," ''Elite," ''Final Fantasy," ''Minecraft," ''Nurburgring," ''Pokemon Red and Green," ''Sid Meier's Civilization," ''Street Fighter II" and "Tomb Raider."

***

The inaugural class.

Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV stick update

Since my cousin's family was coming over to visit, I thought they might want to play Fibbage (or I wanted to play Fibbage with them), so I hauled out my Fire TV which I hadn't touched for months.

To my horror, I had left the batteries in the remote.  Luckily I didn't see any leakage, but I took them out and cleaned them and put it back.  For both remotes.

It was a pleasant surprise to see that the Fire TV boot up fine and recognize the remote.

All was well until I noticed the remote behaving sluggishly at times.  It's having trouble with the cursor right key.  Sometimes it responds, sometimes it doesn't respond.  Usually if I press it down hard for a brief amount of time it responds.  So this seems like a hardware issue with the remote.  Or maybe there's a piece of dirt in there messing up the connection.

I was going to call tech support to see if I could get (another) replacement.  This is a replacement already.  Or is it the second replacement?  But it seemed to be getting better as it started responding with less pressure.

I decided to try to open up the remote.  There are four screws you can access which I manged to unscrew with a small screwdriver.  But after I removed the screws, I couldn't figure out how to pry open the case.  Maybe there's a hidden screw or two somewhere.  Never mind.  I didn't want to make it worse anyway.

In the meantime, I had paired the Fire Stick remote to it.  I must have paired it earlier, but I guess it forgot.  Or maybe the unit had been sitting so long that it lost all the settings.  It seemed to work fine with the Fire Stick remote, though of course no voice.  (I had a little fun asking Alexa with the voice remote.)

So other than that it works pretty well.  I especially like the captions on hulu which are customizable.  I prefer the Netflix captions on the Apple TV and the Roku, but it's mostly tolerable.  ESPN seems to buffer more often and die more quickly than on the other devices.

Fibbage worked mostly OK, but had trouble on my cousin's daughters phone connecting to my router.  When she connected to her own wi-fi, it was better.

Another plus for the Fire TV, is that it now supports CBS All Access even though it was supposed to work only on the new Fire TV, so apparently the system software got updated.  CBS All Access seemed to work mostly OK, though the captions were a little larger than I like.  Or too small, since the size is customizable.  The other noticeable new app was Playstation Vue but I think my internet service is too slow to run it properly.  I don't know, I never tried.  And I see Disney Movies Anywhere, but since I have only one movie on it so far, I never installed it.

The next day I got invited to their place, so I was thinking to bring the Fire TV stick.  So let's hook that up.  Unlike the Fire TV, it didn't find the remote automatically.  After a restart, I tried pressing down the home button and it finally got recognized.  Then I had to connect the network.

I noticed PlayStation Vue was on the app list, but no CBS All Access.  That's a major minus.

And I noticed Hulu was behaving oddly.  I had noticed some strange non-responsive behavior for Hulu on the Fire TV also, but I uninstalled it and removed it from Cloud and installed it again, and it worked OK after that.  I tried that on the Fire TV stick, but it's still behaving oddly.

It seems to be lagging one key press behind.  So I had a heck of a time logging in.  Once in, the screen went blank and when I managed to get something on the screen I didn't know what was going on due to the keypress lag.  Apparently other people were having problems with the Hulu app, but these reviews were months and years ago, so you would think they would have fixed these issues.  I don't remember having these problems running the first time I used the Fire Stick.  Since I use Hulu and CBS as two of my main apps, I guess I won't be using the Fire TV stick any more.  $25 down the drain.  Well not totally, as I can use the remote instead of the (already replaced twice) Fire TV voice remote.  This doesn't say much for the quality of Amazon's products.

Let's try this to try to get Hulu working correctly.  Clear data, clear cache.  Try again.  Nope still a keypress behind.  Clear data, clear cache, uninstall, unplug Fire TV.  Plug back in.  Reinstall Hulu.  Nope, same problem.

OK let's check for system update.  There's one available.  Uninstall Hulu again and remove from cloud.  Update system.  It says it'll take about 10 minutes.  Wait.  Optimizing system and applications.

OK got a new screen saying there's a new section called My Videos and Alexa is available on the Fire TV.  Checking the system it says it's Fire OS 5.0.5.  But going to system update, it says an update (5.0.5.1) is available.  Shall I update.  Well, let me see how Hulu is now.

Hey, let's try to pair the voice remote.  It didn't work the first time.  But after a couple tries it worked.  And the voice feature works on the Fire TV.  And CBS All Access appears!  OK, things are looking up a bit.

Hulu?  Yay it works now!  Change caption text color to white, change font to monospace sans serif.  I'm all set.  OK, I guess I just needed to update the system software.  I'll leave the 5.0.5.1 for later since it's working now.

*** 5/18/16

finally decided to call Amazon support about my remote control problem (click on Help, Device Support, then the Contact Us button on the left, sign in with your password, What Can We Help You with: Fire and Kindle, select my Fire TV, issue details: I'm having trouble with my remote or game controller, additional details: my remote is not responding, then scroll down and click on phone, right after that my phone rang).

A nice woman with an Indian accent talked me through the normal troubleshooting procedures.  Did you change the battery?  Did you try holding the home button down?  Etc.  So clearly she didn't understand the problem.  After answering that I had tried all of the above, I got put on hold while she tried to look up my account.  My "problem" is that I didn't buy the Fire TV online but rather from the local Best Buy, so they couldn't find my purchase online.  I think she further discussed my problem with her supervisor and they might have seen all my recent purchases from Amazon.  After more waiting, they finally decided to give me a courtesy credit of $29.95 so I could buy a new remote.  So I wouldn't even have to return the old one.

Good deal!  But since my voice remote still mostly works (it's just annoying that I have to press hard on the right cursor sometimes) I might wind up using the courtesy credit for something else.  Or I could just buy a non voice remote for $14.99 and have $15 left over.  I don't really use the voice that often, though it's kind of cool I guess.  I guess that's how Amazon keeps their customers.  So thumbs up to Amazon.com for their customer service.