Lenovo Duet Chromebook

I've been eyeing this for a while now.  Most (practically all) of the reviews (including YouTube reviews) have been favorable.  But first I wanted to get some stuff out of the way (like trimming my tree in the back).

This is a 10" Chromebook that can double both as a computer and a tablet.  I would say it's more of a tablet because it's 10", but it can act as a computer and comes with a keyboard/cover included.  And since I was looking for a replacement for my old iPad Mini (which can no longer run some of the apps I use -- like YouTube TV), I thought this might fit the bill.  Plus I've never had a Chromebook, so it be something new to experience.

The regular price is $299.00 which most people say is a bargain.  But I saw Best Buy had it down to $249.00 -- which was the first time I had seen it on sale.  I had seen it even lower as an Open Box item, but this was for a brand new one.  And I took the bait and ordered it on Monday (10/25/20) morning and picked it up in the afternoon.  (I was surprised that the Best Buy parking was pretty full, but the store didn't look like that it had that many people inside.)

In the meantime, I had picked up a Fire HD 8 (which had been also on sale at Best Buy) which actually looks to be the more-direct replacement for iPad Mini.  But this was something I could stuff into my bag and haul out when I wanted something more substantial to work on.

I might not have been so keen to buy this if my HP Pavilion x360 is flakey (the cursor just starts acting up sporadically).  So we'll see if this can be a replacement for that as well.

So now I'll be armed across the board.  From this Acer 15+" laptop I'm typing on, to the 10" Lenovo Duet, to the 8" Fire HD, to the Google Pixel 3a XL (which is 6" -- it doesn't look that big to me, but I guess it is).

Stay tuned for the unboxing.

*** 10/29/20 ***

The unboxing begins!

After opening the box, the first I see is the tablet on the top.

Then inside the long rectangular box on the right is the USB-C to USB cable, the power brick, and an adapter for a headphone jack.

Lifting up the boxes reveals the back cover and the detachable keyboard.  All wrapped in translucent plastic bags.

And there's a little Quick Start Guide in the bottom of the box.

OK, let's see if this thing has any charge in it.

Press the power button.  It's on the right, below the volume buttons.

Press and hold the power button until the screen lights up.

Chrome OS is missing or damaged.

Please remove all connected devices and start recovery.

[Not a good start.]

I must say the screen is nice and bright.

What do I do now?

For help visit https://google.com/chromeos/recovery

It says I need another Chromebook, or a Windows or Mac computer with Chrome installed

Turn it off, then turn it back on.

This time I got the "chrome" on the screen.

Then it got to the Welcome! screen  [whew]

Let's go.

Connect to network

To restore your data, connect to the internet

Google Chrome OS Terms

Accept and continue

Checking for updates (very quickly)

Sign in to your Chromebook

[using my Google account]

Please wait...

You're signed in!

Chrome sync

Your bookmarks, history, passwords, and other settings will be synched to your Google Account so you can use them on all your devices.

Personalize Google services

Google may use your browsing history to personalize Search, ads, and other Google services.  You can change this anytime at myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/search

[x] Review sync options following setup

Accept and Continue

Choose your PIN [hmm...  6 digits... Let me think]

[Hey what happened to the PIN screen?]

Google Play apps and services

[] back up to Google Drive (I'll uncheck this)

More

[x] Use location

[x] Review Google Play options following setup

Accept

Install apps from your other devices

We found 11 apps from your account that can be used on this device

Speedtest  Tunein                      Roku

Netflix      Amazon Prime Vid  Pluto TV

Instagram  Peacock                   Google Home

Smule        Messenger

Skip

Meet Your Google Assistant

Turn on

Google partners work with your Assistant to help you

Continue

Access your Assistant with Voice Match

Voice match lets you access your Assistant directly by using your voice.

No thanks [what if somebody wants to use it?]

Your Assistant is ready

When your Chromebook is set up, press the Assistant button or say "Ok Google" to get help anytime.  Go to Assistant settings to make changes.

Done

Connect to your phone

Your Chromebook and Android phone work better together.  Connect them so you can text from your computer, share your internect connect, and unlock your Chromebook with your phone.

Select a device

Google Pixel 3a XL

When you connect your devices, you agree that your Chromebook can:

Send you notifications and default to remember this computer for Messages.

Automatically install apps

Offer new features as they become available

Accept & continue

Then it went to the Settings screen

Smart Lock is turned on

Next time, your phone will unlock your Chromebook.  You can turn off Smart Lock in Settings.

[I think I'll turn this off.]

Change Settings

Settings / Connected devices / Google Pixel 3a XL / Smart Lock (toggle to off) [I might try turning it on later]

I guess it's set up.

Swipe up and select Chrome

Gmail is disabled

To re-enable it, accept the new perrmissions

Display notificatons

Accept permissions

Swiping up I see seven icons.  Chrome, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Play, Messages, Settings.

How do I go to the desktop?  Or is there one?

Then someone I got into YouTube

There you go.  Tap on the left arrow to get to the desktop.

At the top there a searchbar: "Search your device, apps, web...

Then five small icons in a row: YouTube Docs Play Store Messages Chrome

Then twenty icons on the main screen

Chrome Play Store Files Gmail Gmail  [the first Gmail is through the Chrome browser]

Docs  Slides Sheets Google Drive Google Keep...

Calendar  YouTube  YouTube Play Movies Play Music [the first YouTube is through the browser]

Play Games Play Books Camera Photos Duo

Then I can swipe up to the next screen which has only one icon

Entanglemen  [I guess that's a game]

Then swipe up to the third screen

Maps Settings Get Help Calculator Chrome Canv [a paint program?]

Text [which looks like a Text editor]  Web Store Messages [text on your computer with Message for web]

Let me try put on the cover and keyboard now

The back cover has a fabric feel, but I think it's hard plastic underneath.

It's magnetized and pops right on.

Now for the keyboard.

It's magnetized and pops right on the bottom.  It positions itself, no need to adjust it.

There's a little plastic sheet taped over the track pad.  I guess you can leave it on because the track pad works with it there.

There's a little play with the keyboard cover moving around.  The excuse is that's it's cheap.

Now where'd the desktop go?  Now it's blank.

Press the little dot on the lower left.

A pane pops up with the upper part of the desktop (with the row of five icons) and an up arrow at the top of the pane.  Swipe up to see the desktop.  Actually just touch the arrow.

OK I'm getting used to this.

I wonder if I should install YouTube TV?  Well it probably works with the browser.  So let's go with that.

Looks like it has the url history ported over from my account.

Go to tv.youtube.com

https://tv.youtube.com/ wants your device's identify to be verified, but Google, to determine eligibility for enhanced playback of protected content.

It's working, but the sound is disappointingly tinny.  Even my Fire HD 8 sounds a lot better.

It's now 9:00 AM.  Let me see how long the battery lasts.

I guess no need to install a lot of apps since I can use the Chrome browser.

....

After using it for a little while, got a notification that Chrome OS update available.  Restart to Update.

OK, let's do that.  [tap it]

screen blanks out

Your system is applying a critical update.  Please do not turn off

Screen blanks

chrome logo

get to the log in screen

tells me to enter password.  is it my google password?

I guess so

I think I want to add a PIN

How do that?

Settings. Personalization.  People.  Security and sign-in.

enter password

show lock screen when waking from sleep

lock screen from sleep mode

password only

or PIN or password

let's switch it to PIN or password

Set up PIN

Hmm.  The PIN I chose is actually longer than my password.  But at least it's all numbers.  I can change it later I guess.

How do I shut down the Chromebook.  Unlike Windows, where you click to shut down, you press the power button.  Well, actually there's several options.  You can also click on the time on the bottom right and the power button.

But first, another update..

Entered the PIN.  Apparently with the keyboard attached, you have to do it with the keyboard rather than tapping the numbers on the screen.

OK, turned it off by tapping the clock on the lower right, then the power button.  It shut off fast.

Turn it back on by pressing the power button.  Apparently you have to hold down the power button, not just press and release.

This time I could tap my PIN on the screen.  The keyboard also worked.

Got a bunch of notifications from gmail.  I think I'll turn those off.

Went to notifications.  Went to the gmail app.  Got an option to turn on notifications for only important email.  I guess it's a setting in gmail?  Not sure where it it though.

***

Let me change my wallpaper.  Settings.  Personalization.  Wallpaper.  Open the wallpaper app.  Right now, it's kind of a purplish lava lamp like display.  For some reason, that's what's in My images.  Let's see what else they got.

I think I'll try Landscapes, Daily Refresh.

I don't like the one it chose.  I'll choose another one.  OK, the one with the stream.

***

Waiting for the Chromebook battery to die...  1% remaining, 2 minutes left at 6:29 PM.  Running YouTube TV on Chrome browser.  So it's been about 9-1/2 hours.

OK, it died at 6:36.  Then a red battery icon showed up in the middle of the black screen and disappeared.

Let me plug in the USB-C to USB-C cable going from my laptop.  It's now 6:37 PM.

closed the cover and opened it

A dim login screen appeared.

The screen is dim.  Putting the mouse cursor over the battery.  It says1% 3:17 until full.  So maybe it'll be charged by 10:00 PM?

Had to manually turn up the brightness.  It's now about at 50% brightness.

Fire HD 8

[10/22/20] I couldn't resist.  With my iPad Mini no longer able to run YouTube TV (because it doesn't support the latest iOS) and with my Fire Tablet 7" never being able to run YouTube TV, I was entertaining a replacement on which to watch YTTV.

I'm currently using my Google Pixel 3a XL which is a bit small (but not that bad) and my HP Pavilion x360 which is flakey but works for stretches at a time.

So anyway, I saw this discussion on Facebook about cheap tablets that can run YTTV and a lot of the respondents say they use the Fire Tablet.

Then I saw that Best Buy was having a sale on Fire Tablet that looked even cheaper than Prime Day for the Fire HD 8 for only $54.99 (was $89.99).  I had been considering the Fire HD 10 as well, but I'm still considering getting a Lenovo Duet which has a 10" screen, so this would fill gap between the Google Pixel and the Lenovo.

Anyway I ordered it today and I was surprised that they said it would be delivered by tomorrow.  I just got notice that it was shipped, so we'll see if it arrives tomorrow.

*** 10/24/20

Sure enough the Fire HD 8 arrived in the mail yesterday.

I opened it up and it was packed neatly in the cardboard box.

The first thing I noticed is that it's exactly (or almost exactly) the same size as my iPad Mini.  In fact, I'm wondering if the iPad Mini case would fit.  But even if it does fit, I notice that the power and button volume buttons are placed differently.  So the iPad case would cover up the volume buttons.  Better to spend the $12 for the cheapie Fire HD case.

...

This Plum is Amazon's choice (designed by Amazon).  It has a fabric texture and supports vertical in addition to horizontal standing.  But it's $29.99.  4.6 stars (5290 ratings)

This Famavala looks promising.  $11.99 (list $19.99).  4.5 stars (730 ratings).

This Moko is $12.99.  Looks like a leather-like texture with elaborate stitching and a handstrap.  4.6 stars (1084 ratings).  This Dadanism looks similar at $13.95.

This Moko is $10.99 (list $29.99).  Soft TPU translucent frosted back cover.  Soft shell/shock absorption.  The Rose Gold is $10.99.  The Black is $11.99.  4.7 stars (454 ratings).

This TiMOVO looks exactly like the Moko and is $10.95.  The black is $13.95.  The picture shows that tablet seems upside down (as a comment for Moko explained).  The camera hole is at the bottom when using the stand, whereas you would think it would be at the top (like on my laptops).  4.7 stars (154 ratings).

The JEtech is $11.98.  The camera hole is at the top when standing it.   [Checking Famavale, the camera hole is on the bottom.  Maybe bottom is better?]  4.6 stars (442 ratings).  JEtech sounds familiar.  I think I ordered a case from them before.  Let me check.  Yeah, I bought it for my iPad Mini four years ago.  It's still holding up OK (if that's the same case).  In the meantime, the Infiland case for my Fire 7 is kind of peeling off.  Then again, it was only $6.95.  The JeTech was $9.99.     

Android Central reviewed some cases.  This Dadanism looks similar to the Famavala.  But it also has a flexible TPU translucent back shell, so maybe it's more like the MOKO.  It also has the camera hole on the bottom.  $10.99 for Rose Gold.  $13.99 for black.  4.7 stars (602 ratings).

The Fintie Folio Case (black) is $14.99 and also has the camera hole at the bottom.  So maybe that's the thing now.  4.7 stars (536 ratings).  Save a dollar with the Z-Love Tree design.

I'm leaning toward the Moko black case.  I like the idea of having a TPU case.  I think that's what I have for my Google Pixel 3a XL.  Yeah, it says combination of TPU and polycarbonate.

OK, tried putting the Fire HD 8 into the case for my iPad Mini.  Doesn't quite fit.  The Fire HD 8 is just a bit bigger.

Another thing I noticed is that the speakers for the HD 8 are on the same side as the camera hole.  So if the case has the hole at the bottom, the speakers will be muffled by the bottom of the case.

But looking at the photo, I can see the speakers at the bottom.  So the speakers aren't covered and there's space for the sound to bounce off the table (or where ever).

....

Pressing the power button.  Sure enough it turned on.

Asked what language.  I chose English (U.S.)

Then it needed to connect to my wireless network to set up.

now at Christie's house

log on to the router

updated software (didn't take long)

log in with Amazon account

Restoring your Fire? (it would restore from my old tablet)

Do Not Restore

Enable location services

auto-save photos and videos

save wi-fi passwords to Amazon (no)

goes to an intro video

demos what Alexa can do

Enable Alexa [OK]

Make this Fire kid-friendly

Not now

Get More out of your Fire tablet with Goodreads

Not now

Audible

Start you 30-day Audible Plus free trial

No Thanks

Kindle Unlimited

Start your 30-day free tiral

No, Thanks

Enjoy videos already included in your Prime membership!

Add recommended TV to your Wathlist

Add recommended movies to your Watchlist

Not Now

Get apps and games for free

Not Now

Finally got to the Home screen

doesn't have my apps

Here are the default apps in the Home section

Shop Amazon   Silk Browser Appstore     Prime Video FreeTime

Utilities     Books        Music        Audible     News

Amazon Photos Games        Amazon Alexa Goodreads   Email

Camera        Settings     Newsstand    Files       Wash Post

Books has my books

Video has my videos that (my watchlist plus what I bought)

Games & Apps has suggested apps

Shop has previously viewed items and based on my browsing history

Music has my selections from my Prime Music

Audible has my one audible book that I borrowed or bought

Newstand has the Washington Post and the one magazine that I borrowed

Battery says 65% -- About 1 day, 7 hr left

...

Installed some apps.  Facebook.  Facebook Messenger.  Pluto TV.  YouTube.  Netflix.  Disney+.

I wanted to install YouTube TV but it's not in Amazon's app store.  Nor can you run it from the Silk browser (it asks you to install it from the Google Play Store).

Thus I now want to install the Google Play Store.

I found these instructions which have been updated to include the 2020 edition (10th generation) of the Fire HD 8 (which is what I have).

Enable installation from unknown sources.

Settings.  Security & Privacy.  Apps from Unknown Sources.

It said install unknown apps.  And listed Facebook and Silk Browser.  

If tapping 'Apps from Unknown Sources' brings up a list of apps, then you don't need to do anything. You may receive a popup when installing APKs, but you'll just have to tap the 'Allow' button when prompted.  [So I'm good.]

Now you're ready to download and install the APKs needed to get the Google Play Store running.

First find what model I have.

Settings.  Device Options.  About Fire Tablet.  Device Model.

I have the Fire HD 8 (10th generation).

Then I need to find out my Fire OS version.

Settings.  Device Options.  System Updates.

Your device is running Fire OS 7.3.1.3.  [But 7.3.1.6 is ready to install]

Now I need to Download APK

Go to http://andp.lc/firetabletplay on the Silk browser of the tablet.

For some reason I don't see the mobile data connection now

Settings/Internet only shows Wi-Fi / Data usage / airplane mode

That's because it's not my phone (dummy)

OK, let me connect to my wi-fi.

OK, now go to andp.lc/firetabletplay

cick on the link for Google Account Manager v7.1.2

then tap the Download APK button

Silk needs storage access to download files

Continue

Allow Silk Browser to access photos, media, and files on your device?

ALLOW

This type of file can harm your device.  Do you want to keep com.google.android.gsf.login_7.1.2-25_minAPI23(nodpi)_apkmirror.apk anyway?

OK

Your download will start immediately.  If not, please click here.

then pretty much instantaneously a window saying com.google.android.gsf.login_6.1.2-25_minAPI23(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk.

Open

Don't open it.

X the window instead

Next is the Google Services Framework

click on Google Services Framework v9-4832352

DOWNLOAD APK

This type of file can harm your device.  Do you want to keep com.google.android.gsf_9-4832352-28_minAPI23(nodpi)_apkmirror.apk anyway?

OK

then a window appeared saying com.google.android.gsf_9-4832352-28_minAPI28(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apk

Don't open it.

Back to the first tab with tab with the guide to installing the Google Play Store.

Next is section Google Play Services

click on Google Play Services (64-bit ARM, nodpi, Android 9.0+)

look for the first version that doesn't say beta

That would be Google Play services 20.39.15 October 3, 2020

tap on the download link (the down arrow I presume)

an Ad came up, x it out

scroll down to DOWNLOAD APK and tap that

got the message that this type of file can harm your device.  Do you want to keep [the long file name]

OK

Your download is starting

Window below says Downloading file (114.52 MB)

waiting for the download to finish (took a little while)

don't open it

back to the web page on the first tab

Now for the Google Play Store

tap on Google Play Store (universal, nodpi)

There are different versions for different versions of Android.

I'll just choose the top one which is for Google Play Store 22.4.28-21 [0] for Android 5.0+

tap the down arrow

scroll down and tap DOWNLOAD.APK

Your download is starting

This type of file can harm your device (etc.)

tap OK

Your download is starting

Downloading file (32.68 MB)

took several seconds (much faster than the previous file)

again don't click on Open

Back to the first tab.  Actually back to my computer with the same page as on the first tab with the instructions.

Now it's time to install the apps.

Find the files app on your tablet (it might also be called Docs or Documents) and open it.

Press the home circle to get back to the Home screen.

I see a brown folder called Files.  Tap that.

I see seven files.

Open the apps in the below order.  Installing the apps out of order will cause the Play Store to not work.

1. com.google.gsf.login

I can't see the entire file name.  Tap on the list icon in the top right between the magnifying glass and the three vertical dots.  OK, now I can see the file names.

Tap on com.google.gsf.login_7.1.2-25_minAPI23(nodpi)_apkmirror.com

You table and personal data are more vulnerable to attack by unknown apps.  By installing this app, you agree that you are responsible for any damage to your tablet or loss of data that may result from its use.

Continue

do you want to install this application?  It does not require any special access

Install

App installed

Done (not Open)

Next is com.google.android.gsf

OK its the one called com.android.gsf_9-4832352-28_minAPI128(nodpi)_apkimirror.co

Tap

Continue

Install

Done

Next is com.google.android.gms

The file name is com.google.android.gms_20.39.15_(100400-335085812)-203915028...

Tap

Continue

Install (taking a several seconds)

App installed

Done

Finally is com.android.vending

The file name is com.android.vending_22.4.28-21_0_PR_338099147-82242810_minAPI...

Tap

Continue

Install

Installing...

Done

Once you have installed all four apps, hold down the power button, and tap Restart to restart your tablet.

Let me close all the background windows first.

Restart

OK, there's is now a Play Store icon on the bottom of the home screen

Tap

Sign in

Checking info...

took a little while, then got to the Sign in screen

enter email or phone

entered my email

enter your password

enter password

Hi Mike [followed by the legalese)

I agree

getting account info

Back up to Google Drive

turn off

Accept

And now I'm into the Google Play Store

Now for the point of all this.  See if I can install YouTube TV.

Search for it

Install

Installing...

Open

Already A Member?

Accounts with my name on it appeared

I guess I tap on my name? [yep]

And I'm in

Let's see if it plays.

Yep, it's working :)

I see a reason why I might want to get a stand that orients the camera hole on the top.  I'm used to putting the table on the left side of the computer.  With the camera hole on the top, the USB-C port is on the right side which is the side facing the computer.  So the cable from the computer wouldn't have to go across the table face to reach the port.

But I think the speakers actually sound better facing down vs. facing up.  The sound seems to bounce off to the table and toward my ears vs. being dissipated at the top.

*** 10/25/20

Now that I was able to do it.  I want to see if these 2019 instructions from How-To-Geek work my 2020 Fire HD 8 tablet.

First of all let me check what version of the Play Store was installed.

Settings.  Apps & Notifications.  Under recently opened apps, tap See all 49 (in my case) apps .   Scroll down to Google Play Store.  Tap.  At the bottom of the screen it says version 22.4.28-21 [0] [PR] 338099147.

OK now to reset the tablet and start from scratch.

Settings.  Device Options.  Reset to Factory Defaults.

Reset

Now my Fire HD 8 went blank.  Waited a few minutes, then pressed the power button.

OK.  Got to Welcome screen.

Choose English

Connect to my Wi-Fi

Updating Your Fire...

Downloading  the latest Fire software

Installing Your Updates

It remembered my account as it asked me to enter my Amazon password.

It also gives the option to switch accounts.

Enter my password

Sign In

Just a sec...

Restoring your Fire?

Do Not Restore

Enable Location Services yes

Auto-Save Photos and Videos yes

Save Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon no

Continue

Meet Your Fire Table

hit the play button to play the welcome video

1:49 video / don't see a way to bypass this video / so let it play

I guess I could manually move the progress circle 

try asking Alexa, "just say Alexa to get your tablet's attention" (but what if you have more than one Alexa device around?)

OK, here's how to disable/enable Show mode

Make this Fire kid-friendly?

Not now

Goodreads

not now

Audible

No thanks

Kindle Unlimited

No Thanks

Enjoy videos already included in your Prime membership!

Not Now

Get apps and games for free

Not Now

Welcome!

Continue (to see the tutorial)

Finish

Alexa is Hands-Free

but when I tried speaking to it, nothing happens

Continue

Get Started with Alexa Hands-Free

Enable Alexa

Try it now.  Just ask.

Alexa, what's the weather?

that worked

You can also press and hold the home button and ask

that worked too

Continue

Customize Hands-Free in Settings

Hands-Free allows access to Alexa even if your tablet is passcode-locked.  You can changed this in Settings.

The wake word is set to "Alexa" by default.  You can change it in settings.

Turn Hands-Free off in Quick Actions or in Settings.  You can still press and hold the Home button to speak to Alexa.

Finish

OK, everything looks set back to how it was the first time I set up the Fire TV.  None of the apps I installed last time are there.

OK, let's go to the Howtogeek guide.  It's much simpler than the Android Police guide since it doesn't mention all the different Fire table models.  My worry is that it was written in 2019, whereas my Fire HD 8 (10th generation) was released in 2020.  Apparently it was released in June or July since this review from Tom's guide is dated 6/26/20.  According to this CNBC article, they were announced on 5/13/20 and were to be launched on June 3.

The first thing is to go to Settings, Security & Privacy, Apps from Unknown Sources.

The article says to enable.  But it just had Silk Browser listed.  The Android Police article said if an application is listed there, then it's OK (and apparently the option is always enable on the new tablets).

The tablet keeps going to sleep too soon and the screen blanks out forcing me to press the power button.  Settings.  Display.  Sleep.  Change it from 1 minute to 5 minutes.

Next, there are four .APK files you'll need to download.  The easiest way is to open up this tutorial in the Silk browser and click on the links below, which will take you to the download pages.

OK, go to the Silk Browser.  Type in Install Google Play on Fire HD 8.

The first article that came up was the Android Police article.  The second article was from tiliputing dated 6/5/20.  This article is also less complicated than the Android Police article since it was written specifically for the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020) model.

The third article is the How To Geek article written in 2019.  I'll go back to this one because I'm curious to see if it works.

Google Account Manager APK.

scroll down and tap Download APK

Silk needs storage access to download files

Continue

Allow Silk browser to access photos, media, and files on your device?

Allow

This type of file and harm your device

OK

back to the web page

Google Services Framework APK

scroll down, Download APK

harm?

OK

back to the web page

Google Play Services APK

Scroll down.  Download APK

harm?  OK

downloading file 36.42 MB (wait a while until the bottom window appears with the name of the file.  don't tap Open)

back to the web page

Google Play Store APK

this is version 7.0.25.H-all [0] (80702500)

uploaded October 11, 2016

Download APK

wait I see there's a more recent version available below!

the latest version I see is the Google Play Store 22.4.28 dated October 22, 2020

I'll just download the old one and see if it works

Harm?  OK

Downloading file (16.34 MB)

file name appears.  Don't Open

Back to the web page

close out the silk browser

The instructions say to go to Docs, but from the Android Police article I know it's Files

tap list icon at the top right so I can see the file name

You need to install the APKs in order.  You can tell by the time they downloaded which one was downloaded first.  The order is:

com.google.android.gsf.login

com.google.android.gsf

com.google.android.gms

com.android.vending

Your tablet and personal data are more vulnerable to attack by unknown apps.

Continue

Do you want to install install this application?

Install

Done

do this for all for APKs

Go to Home Screen and see if it's there.  It is.

"It may not appear to work normally after you sign in, but just give it some time.  The Google Play Store and Google Play services will automatically update themselves in the background.  This may take as much as ten minutes.

Let me check the version number of the Play Store.

Settings.  Apps & Notifications.  See all xx apps.  Google Play Store.  Version 7.0.25.H-all [0]

Let me see if it opens.

Checking info...

Sign in

I agree

Back up to Google Drive [disable]

Agree

Get Started

OK, looks like I'm in

type in YouTube TV

the first result says YouTube TV - Watch & Google LLC

I assume that's the one

Install

23.28 MB

Installing...

Open

Update Google Play services

YouTube TV won't run unless you update Google Play services

Update

notice went away then the notice came back

Update

Went to Google Play services in the Google Play store

Update

32,31 MB

tap the arrow at the top left to go back to Google Play

search for YouTube TV again

Open

Already A Member?

tap on my account

tap on a video

asks to verify your home area

play another video

checking the version for Google Play Store, it's now 22.3.15-21.  So it updated, but not quite as new as the first install.

So I'd say the How-to-Geek article works even though it was downloading old files.  However there are a few things to note.

Applications from unknown sources is apparently the default on the Fire HD 8.  There is no option to disable or enable it.

After the APKs are downloaded, go to Files instead of Docs.  And tap on the List view icon at the top right, so you can see the file names.

The final difference is that it'll ask you to Update Google Play services (twice).

After that it worked.  The Android Police and Liliputing articles say to reboot after installing the APKs.  But it worked without having to reboot.

***

OK, let me try the Liliputing article now.

Settings.  Device Options.  Reset to Factory Defaults.

Erasing...

that went pretty fast

then the Amazon logo

then the fire logo

[waiting...]

Got to the Welcome screen

English (United States)

connect to Wi-fi

Just a sec

Updating your Fire...

Installing Your Updates

Just a sec

Register Your Fire

interesting, it didn't ask last time

enter my email and password

Registration error

the password, email address, or mobile number entered is incorrect.  Please try again.

OK

yeah typed in my email address wrong, correct it

Continue

Registering your fire

Just a sec...

Restoring your Fire?

Do Not Restore

don't save wi-fi passwords

Meet Your Fire Tablet

slide the video forward

kid-friendly?

Not now

goodreads

not not

audible

no thanks

kindleunlimited

no, thanks

Enjoy videos already included

not now

Get apps and games for free

not now

Welcome

Exit

Alexa is Hands-Free

Continue

Enable Alexa

Continue

Customize Hands-Free in Settings

Finish

OK back to square one

I no longer see Washington Post on the home screen

change sleep to 5 minutes

Silk

Google Play Fire HD 8

let's try the liliputing article this time

again no option to install unknown apps

go to the Liliputing article on Silk

Google Account Manager (use the latest version which is 7.1.2)

tap the download icon

the arrow changed color

I guess it downloaded

let me check on Files to see if it did

nope

OK, had to tap it again to get to Google Account Manager 7.1.2

scroll down to All Releases

Google Account Manager 7.1.2

tap the down arrow

and it goes back to the same page

scrolling to the comments, Maria NoGames says "This puts you in an infinite loop and never downloads a thing"

Freshtek replies You gotta click "see available apk's" then scroll down to the download box & click the file # on the left & that will then take you to the real DL page

OK, tap on Available APK's.

Scroll to Download

I see 25 in red under the column Variant

tap that

that opened another window

scroll down and tap Download APK

Silk needs storage access to download files

Continue

Allow Silk Browser to access

Allow

This type of file can harm your device

OK

Then instructions say "After you download each file, you should see a pop-up alert asking if you want to install the app. Tap the OK button, choose Install, and then Done at the end and then proceed to the next app."

I don't see any pop-up alert asking if you want to install the app.  I just see the file name with the options to Open or to X out.

Let's try Open (I can always reset to default if this doeesn't work)

For your security, your table is not allowed to install unknown apps from this source.

OK, I see

From Settings, Security & Privacy, Install on unknown apps

tap on Silk Browser

then Allow from this source

try again

tap on the 25

Download APK

Download

Open

Install

App installed

Done

Back to the article (keep hitting the back arrow at the bottom)

Google Services Framework 9

tap on the download button

See Available APKs

tap on the red 28

Download APK

Harm?  OK

Open

Install

Done

Back to the article

Google Play Services

Not sure which one to pick

I'll just choose the one at the top which is the latest one

See Available APKs

I'll choose the second one listed since it says Android 6.0+ whereas the first one listed says Android 5.0+.  Probably both will work.

Tap on the red 62844.

Download APK

Harm?  OK

Open

Install

App Installed

done

Back to the article

Google Play Store

tap the download arrow on the first one on the list

See Available APKs

scroll to the Download section

tap on the red 82232908

Download APK

Harm?

Your download is starting...

don't see an option to click

X out

Your download will start immediately.  If not, please click here

Harm?

OK

Downloading file (30.35 MB)

Open

Install

App installed

Done

OK, supposedly they are all installed

Go to the Home Screen

Now I see Wash Post and Play Store on the Home screen

let me restart anyway, just in case

Play Store

This version of the app isn't compatible with your device.  To fix this problem, go to Settings and uninstall updates for the Google Play Store app.

Forget it.

I think reset to default and go back to the HowtoGeek article.

I notice the tablet didn't ask for confirmation after I hit reset.  I would have thought it would say something like Are You SURE you want to reset?  But it didn't.

Asks to Register Your Fire

Buffering on the Welcome video

No Washington Post on the home screen yet

OK, let's go back to the How-To Geek article

Settings, Security & Privacy, Apps from Unknown Sources

tap on Silk Browser

then turn on Allow from this source

Now go to the How-To Geek article on Silk

Google Account Manager APK

Download APK

Silk needs storage access to download files

Allow Silk Browser to access photos

[so apparently the Allow earlier for the Silk Browser didn't do anything]

Harm?  OK

Don't open when the file name windows open

Back to the article (in the first tab)

Google Services Framework APK

Download APK

Harm?  OK

Back to the article

Google Play Services APK

Download APK

Harm? OK

Downloading file (36.42 MB) [takes a while on my slow internet]

window with the file name finally appears

Back to the article

Google Play Store APK

Download APK

Harm? OK

Downloading file (16.34 MB)

window with the file name appears

Close the Silk browser

Go back to the Home screen

Go to Files (the article says Docs)

change to List view so you can see the file name

tap on com.google.android.gsf.login

Your tablet and personal data are more vulnerable to attack by unknown apps

Continue

Google Account Manager

Install

Done

Back to Files

tap on com.google.android.gsf

Continue

Google Services Framework

Install

Done

tap on com.google.android.gms

Continue

Google Play services

Install

Done

tap on com.android.vending

Continue

Google Play Store

Install

Done

Go to Home Screen

Play Store appears at the bottom

This article doesn't say to restart your Fire HD 8, but the other two do.  So I restarted anyway.

Go to the Play Store.

Checking info...

Sign in

I agree

Back up to Google Drive [disable]

Get Started

search for YouTube TV

YouTube TV - Watch & Google LLC [the first result]

Install

there was a delay before it started downloading

Downloading [taking a while]

Installing...

Open

Update Google Play services

Update

Update

Downloading 47.78 MB

There it is.  YouTube TV on my home screen

Already a member?

Finds my account somehow, probably because I'm signed into the Play Store.

Tap on my account

And I'm in.

Tapped on a local channel.

Asks to verify your home area

Next

Allow YouTube TV to access this device's location?  Allow

Next

Finding your current area...  Flashing

I guess I didn't turn on location services on the Fire?

exit out of the app

Settings, Security & Privacy, Location-Based Services'

it's on?

Go back to YouTube TV

turn into Youtube TV

Finding your current area...

Keeps flashing

Let me look at this article

Exit out of YTTV.  There's a lock icon on my local channels.  

Settings.  Location settings.  Current playback area looks correct, but update anyway.

You've successfully updated your current playback area.

Click my profile icon and tap on my account again.  The lock icon disappeared.  Let's see if I can watch a local station.  Yep, it works.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase of the Fire HD 8.  Yes, the splash screen at the beginning is annoying and I'm sure it's not as good as an iPad Mini.  But it's much more responsive than my original iPad Mini and my old Fire 7.  And the screen display seems fine to me.

And it was only $55 (plus tax) at Best Buy.  It's back up up to the regular price of $89.99.  I would imagine it might get back down to that price on Black Friday.  (Oddly camelcamelcamel doesn't show this price on Prime Day.) At this price, this has to be a loss leader for Amazon.

*** [10/25/20]

OK let's write this up for posting on Facebook.

OK, I couldn't resist.  With my original iPad Mini no longer being able play YTTV, I was resorting to playing YTTV on my phone when using my computer (the TV is in the other room).  Then with Best Buy having a post-Prime Day sale on Amazon devices, and after looking at some reviews, I took the bait and bought a Fire HD 8.

I received the tablet in the mail the next day.

I believe I had read earlier that YTTV works on the Fire HD Silk browser.  So I tried that and it didn't work.  It asked to install it from the Google Play Store.  Which of course isn't on the Fire tablets.

Searching for "Google Play on Fire HD 8" brings up three main articles.  The articles are from Android Police, Liliputing, and How-to Geek.  I tried all three.

I first tried the Android Police article.  This is the latest article, dated Oct 3, 2020.  This is the most comprehensive article as it touches on all the different models of the Fire tablet.  It was slow-going because I was careful to follow the instructions and write down what I was doing.  But I finally got it working.

Next was the How-To Geek article.  I was a little worried because it was dated Mar 4, 2019 and the Fire HD 8 came out in 2020.  But I went ahead and tried it and got it working.

I also tried the Liliputing article which was written on 6/5/20, not long after the Fire HD 8 was released.  This was the hardest to do and it directed to confusing web pages which didn't exactly follow what the article was describing.  I had to sometimes guess on what to do, and at the end it didn't work.  It probably would have worked if I had done it differently, and I think I know what to do now.  But I still recommend skipping this one.

Though both articles worked, I would probably recommend the How-To Geek article since it was simpler to follow, especially if you have done it before.  The main functional difference is that it directs you to download older files, whereas the Android Police article has you downloading the latest files.  But it still worked.

A couple things I noted while I did the installs.  You don't need to change the settings for Install unknown apps.  Silk will later ask for access to download files anyway.

After downloading the APKs, go to Files, not Docs as the How-To Geek article says.  Then I would change the view from icon mode to list mode in order to see the complete file names (click on the List View icon at the top right).

After I installed YouTube TV, it asked to update Google Play Services.  I didn't get this request when using the Android Police article.

I also had a problem accessing my local channels at first.  I had to update my Current playback Area, then go to my profile picture, then go back into my account.  But everything seems to be working OK now.

If you don't want to worry about the little quirks of the How-to Geek article, you might want to go with the Android Police article instead as it's more up-to-date and complete.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase of the Fire HD 8.  Yes, the splash screen at the beginning is annoying and I'm sure it's not nearly as good as a current iPad Mini (for example).  It's not super fast, but it's noticeably more responsive than my original iPad Mini and my old Fire 7" tablet.  It's almost exactly the same size as my iPad Mini (the actual viewing area is slightly wider and less high than the iPad Mini) and of course a little bigger than my Fire 7".  The screen display looks fine to me, though more reflective than my iPad Mini.

It was only $55 (plus tax) at Best Buy.  It's now back up to the regular price of $89.99.  I would think it might get back down to that price on Black Friday.

et tu, live streaming service?

Cable TV has been steadily losing subscribers to streaming services for some time now, and it’s not expected to slow down. Newly revised projections show that 1 in 4 households plan to drop their pay-TV subscription in 2020, and nearly 40% of subscribers will drop service by 2025 That means 14 million U.S. broadband households are expected to drop traditional pay-TV packages.

These numbers come from The Diffusion Group, a syndicated research company. TDG analysts had previously forecasted US households with pay-TV subscriptions to fall in the 83.5 million to 87 million range by 2020, but the actual numbers are lower than that with pay-TV households falling to 81 million at the end of 2019.

And it’s not just cable subscriptions that are falling short of TDG’s projections. Live streaming options like Fubo, Sling, YouTube TV, Philo, and others are also unexpectedly dwindling. It seems like consumers are less concerned with watching TV live as it happens and leaning more toward video-on-demand options.

FAA certifies Amazon drone delivery testing

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over the weekend gave Amazon the green light to begin testing customer drone deliveries in the US. With an FAA Part 135 certification in hand, Amazon's drones will be able to fly out of an operator's line of sight. Earning the certification is a key milestone for Amazon's years-long effort to launch commercial drone deliveries.

Amazon's ultimate goal is to deploy drones to make deliveries in 30 minutes or less.

"This certification is an important step forward for Prime Air and indicates the FAA's confidence in Amazon's operating and safety procedures for an autonomous drone delivery service that will one day deliver packages to our customers around the world," David Carbon, VP of Prime Air, said in a statement. "We will continue to develop and refine our technology to fully integrate delivery drones into the airspace, and work closely with the FAA and other regulators around the world to realize our vision of 30 minute delivery."

Other companies that have been awarded Part 135 certification for drone deliveries include the Alphabet-owned Wing and UPS.

To achieve the certification, Amazon logged thousands of flight hours. The company says it has been refining its fully-electric drone, which is shrouded for safety and features a sense-and-avoid system.

Amazon made its first trial drone delivery in Cambridge, England in 2016. The company launched its autonomous drone efforts as part of its larger ambitions to build an expansive logistics network. Building its own shipping and delivery network can help Amazon cut down on costs as it manages its growing customer base.

In addition to building delivery drones, Amazon in the past few years has launched it own fleet of cargo aircraft, along with a network of ocean freighters, trucks and local delivery vehicles. It's also explored shipping options like robots.

Why Age?

The oldest-known living person is Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who is a mind-boggling 116 years old. But if you ask David Sinclair, he’d argue that 116 is just middle age. At least, he thinks it should be. Sinclair is one of the leading scientists in the field of aging, and he believes that growing old isn’t a natural part of life—it’s a disease that needs a cure.

Sounds crazy, right? Sinclair, a Harvard professor who made Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014, will acquiesce that everyone has to die at some point, but he argues that we can double our life expectancy and live healthy, active lives right up until the end.

His 2019 book, Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To ($28, Atria Books), out this fall, details the cutting-edge science that’s taking place in the field of longevity right now. The quick takeaway from this not-so-quick read: scientists are tossing out previous assumptions about aging, and they’ve discovered several tools that you can employ right now to slow down, and in some cases, reverse the clock.

In the nineties, as a postdoc in an MIT lab, Sinclair caused a stir in the field when he discovered the mechanism that leads to aging in yeast, which offered some insight into why humans age. Using his work with yeast as a launching point, Sinclair and his lab colleagues have focused on identifying the mechanism for aging in humans and published a study in 2013 asserting that the malfunction of a family of proteins called sirtuins is the single cause of aging. Sirtuins are responsible for repairing DNA damage and controlling overall cellular health by keeping cells on task. In other words, sirtuins tell kidney cells to act like kidney cells. If they get overwhelmed, cells start to misbehave, and we see the symptoms of aging, like organ failure or wrinkles. All of the genetic info in our cells is still there as we get older, but our body loses the ability to interpret it. This is because our body starts to run low on NAD, a molecule that activates the sirtuins: we have half as much NAD in our body when we’re 50 as we do at 20. Without it, the sirtuins can’t do their job, and the cells in our body forget what they’re supposed to be doing.

Sinclair splits his time between the U.S. and Australia, running labs at Harvard Medical School and at the University of New South Wales. All of his research seeks to prove that aging is a problem we can solve—and figure out how to stop. He argues that we can slow down the aging process, and in some cases even reverse it, by putting our body through “healthy stressors” that increase NAD levels and promote sirtuin activity. The role of sirtuins in aging is now fairly well accepted, but the idea that we can reactivate them (and how best to do so) is still being worked out.

Getting cold, working out hard, and going hungry every once in a while all engage what Sinclair calls our body’s survival circuit, wherein sirtuins tell cells to boost their defenses in order to keep the organism (you) alive. While Sinclair’s survival-circuit theory has yet to be proven in a trial setting, there’s plenty of research to suggest that exercise, cold exposure, and calorie reduction all help slow down the side effects of aging and stave off diseases associated with getting older. Fasting, in particular, has been well supported by other research: in various studies, both mice and yeast that were fed restricted diets live much longer than their well-fed cohorts. A two-year-long human experiment in the 1990s found that participants who had a restricted diet that left them hungry often had decreased blood pressure, blood-sugar levels, and cholesterol levels. Subsequent human studies found that decreasing calories by 12 percent slowed down biological aging based on changes in blood biomarkers.

Longevity science is a bit like the Wild West: the rules aren’t quite established. The research is exciting, but human clinical trials haven’t found anything definitive just yet. Throughout the field, there’s an uncomfortable relationship between privately owned companies, researchers, and even research institutes like Harvard: Sinclair points to a biomarker test by a company called InsideTracker as proof of his own reduced “biological age,” but he is also an investor in that company. He is listed as an inventor on a patent held by a NAD booster that’s on the market right now, too.

While the dust settles, the best advice for the curious to take from Lifespan is to experiment with habits that are easy, free, and harmless—like taking a brisk, cold walk and eating a lighter diet. With cold exposure, Sinclair explains, moderation is the key. He believes that you can reap benefits by simply taking a walk in the winter without a jacket. He doesn’t prescribe an exact fasting regimen that works best, but he doesn’t recommend anything extreme—simply missing a meal here and there, like skipping breakfast and having a late lunch.

Lifespan is a timely book, but it’s not necessarily an easy read. The science is dense, and even listening to Sinclair explain it on podcasts and during presentations doesn’t help cut through all of the nerd speak. But if you’re even mildly hopeful about dunking a basketball at the age of 50, or hiking the Appalachian Trail at 70, or blowing 100 candles out on your birthday cake someday, you might consider making room for Lifespan on your bookshelf. There’s enough useful information to make it worth your time.

This post originally appeared on Outside and was published November 9, 2019.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

PARIS — A hugely ambitious project to replicate the energy of the sun is entering a critical phase, as scientists and technicians in southern France begin assembling giant parts of a nuclear fusion device, an international experiment aimed to develop the ultimate clean energy source.

World leaders involved in the project, or their representatives, on Tuesday appeared virtually at a ceremony for the start of the new stage of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, noting that work has proceeded despite the COVID-19 pandemic in many of the 35 contributing countries.

“Clearly, the pandemic impacted the initial schedule,” said ITER’s director-general, Bernard Bigot, who led the ceremony at Saint-Paul-les-Durance, northeast of Marseille. He said none of the on-the-ground staff has contracted COVID-19.

Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there’s no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste.

The project “seeks to create an artificial sun,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “An artificial sun is an energy source of dreams."

Among other elements, Korea is manufacturing four sectors of a vacuum vessel, a hermetically sealed chamber in which plasma particles, derived from heated hydrogen gas, spiral without touching walls. European countries are building five other sectors.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed ITER as a “promise of peace” because it brings together countries that decided to forego differences for the “common good.” China, the U.S., India, Russia, South Korea and nations of the European Union are taking part in the project.

There was no sign of the acute discord currently roiling ties between the U.S. and China, and India and China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a statement read by the Indian ambassador to France, called international collaboration “a perfect symbol of the age-old Indian belief ... (that) the world is one family.”

Bigot compared the milestone phase getting under way to assembling a giant, three dimensional puzzle that “must (have) the precision of a Swiss watch.”

Billed as the world’s largest science project, ITER is gigantic. The circular device, called a tokamak, has a 30-meter circumference, stands 30 meters (100 feet) high, and is made up of more than a million parts constructed in numerous countries.

Some pieces transported to France weigh several hundred tons. Tools to put the reactor together match that size, with giant lifts that must transfer components over the walls and down into “the pit.” A key component being built by the U.S., the Central Solenoid, is the most powerful of ITER’s numerous magnets. Together, they will be strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

The project begun in 2006 is far from over. The experimental reactor is to head for another landmark moment in five years, described as a “trial run” when scientists launch what is called “First Plasma” showing that the machine functions, including magnetic fields and other operations.

Bigot, the ITER’s director-general, called fusion energy a “miracle for our planet.”

He said that smaller experiments are complementary to ITER. Bigot predicts a bright future for his international baby, saying he foresees a scaled-up ITER, perhaps twice as large, to provide power to the grid. But its viability and economic competitiveness must first be demonstrated, he said.

The project's estimated cost just for the EU was about 20 billion euros ($23.5 billion), Bigot told reporters. He said a full price tag was difficult to estimate because participating countries make their own contributions.

Eyesafe Display Certification

Display maker TCL says it’s earned Eyesafe Display Certification for Low Blue Light and Color Performance, which means its screens could be a bit easier on our eyes when it comes to eye strain.

There’s been growing interest in the effects of extended exposure to blue light, especially as TV makers continue to produce bigger and brighter displays. Earlier this year, Samsung announced it had earned “eye safety” certification from Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker (VDE) in Germany. Eyesafe says its standard helps guard against the harshest regions of blue light while ensuring high picture quality is maintained.

“Announcing that our devices and panels will now meet the best-in-class Eyesafe Display Certification sends an important message to our supply chain partners. This is a very momentous day for our company, and it marks a major achievement by our engineering and products teams,” TCL founder and Chairman Li Dongsheng said in a press release.

Super computers tackling COVID-19

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, the haughty supercomputer Deep Thought is asked whether he can find the answer to the ultimate question concerning life, the universe, and everything. He replies that, yes, he can do it, but it’s tricky and he’ll have to think about it. When asked how long it will take him he replies, “Seven-and-a-half million years. I told you I’d have to think about it.”

Real-life supercomputers are being asked somewhat less expansive questions but tricky ones nonetheless: how to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re being used in many facets of responding to the disease, including to predict the spread of the virus, to optimize contact tracing, to allocate resources and provide decisions for physicians, to design vaccines and rapid testing tools, and to understand sneezes. And the answers are needed in a rather shorter time frame than Deep Thought was proposing.

The largest number of COVID-19 supercomputing projects involves designing drugs. It’s likely to take several effective drugs to treat the disease. Supercomputers allow researchers to take a rational approach and aim to selectively muzzle proteins that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, needs for its life cycle.

slow internet?

Restricted to our homes for months now, many of us have been putting up with a persistent annoyance: a lousy internet connection.

When we are working, a video call with colleagues becomes pixelated, with delayed audio. When we are relaxing, movies and video games take ages to download. In the worst cases, the connection drops altogether.

As people have hunkered down to contain the spread of the coronavirus, average internet speeds all over the world have slowed. Some broadband providers are feeling crushed by the heavy traffic. And dated internet equipment can create a bottleneck for our speeds.

Even the most tech savvy are affected. Keerti Melkote, the founder of Aruba Networks, a division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise that offers Wi-Fi products for businesses, said that in recent weeks, his DSL service from AT&T had dropped periodically. He waited several days for a technician to arrive and is now contemplating subscribing to Comcast for a second internet connection.

“I had three or four days of calls, and I had to go find a particular spot in my house where I had better coverage,” Mr. Melkote said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, my internet also became unbearably slow and suffered several outages. So I asked experts to explain what’s causing our internet problems — and the different remedies.

First, diagnose the problem.

What’s causing your slow speeds — your internet provider or your equipment at home? Here’s a method to figuring that out.

• Download an internet speed test app on your phone, like Speedtest by Ookla (free for iPhones and Android phones).
• Stand near your router and use the app to run a speed test.
• Move to a room farther away from the router and run the speed test again.
• Compare the results.

Less than 15 megabits a second is pretty slow. Speeds of about 25 megabits a second are sufficient for streaming high-definition video; more than 40 megabits a second is ideal for streaming lots of video and playing video games.

If the speed test results were fast near your Wi-Fi router but slow farther away, the problem is probably your router, said Sanjay Noronha, the product lead of Google’s Nest Wifi internet router. If speeds were slow in both test locations, the issue is probably your internet provider.

If it’s your router, here’s what to do.

If you have pinpointed that the problem is your router, the bad news is that you may have to buy new equipment. The good news is that there are many approaches to improving your Wi-Fi connection.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

How old is my router? If it’s more than five years old, you should definitely replace it. In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission removed restrictions that had limited the wireless transmission power of Wi-Fi routers, allowing new routers to be 20 times more powerful than they were before. Upgrading to a newer router will probably be one of your most life-changing tech purchases.

Where is my router placed? Ideally, your router should be in a central location in your home so that the signal covers as many rooms as possible. In addition, your router should be out in the open, like on top of a shelf, not hidden inside cabinets or under a desk, to beam a clear signal. You should also avoid placing the router near objects and materials that cause interference, like large fish tanks and metal.

How big is my home? If you have a home with multiple stories and lots of rooms, and your Wi-Fi is weak in some areas, the best solution is to buy a so-called mesh network system. It’s a system of multiple Wi-Fi access points, including a main router and satellite hubs, that lets you connect multiple wireless access points together to blanket your home with a strong internet connection.

My favorite mesh systems are Google Wifi and Amazon’s Eero, which start at $99 for a single router and can be bundled with additional access points. In general, I recommend mesh systems even for smaller homes, because they are fast and very easy to install.

Are my other devices slowing down my connection? Gadgets with slower internet technology can slow down speeds for all your other devices.

For example, the iPhone 5 from 2012 uses an older-generation Wi-Fi standard. Newer iPhones, from 2014 and later, use a faster wireless standard.

Let’s say you own a new iPhone and your teenager owns the iPhone 5. If your teenager begins downloading a video on the iPhone 5 and then you start downloading something on your iPhone, the older phone will take longer to finish before the signal frees up for your phone to download at maximum speed.

As a remedy, many modern Wi-Fi routers offer settings that can give specific devices a priority for faster speeds. Consult your router’s instruction manual for the steps. In this hypothetical example, you would want to give your new iPhone top priority and move your teenager’s old iPhone to the bottom.

Are my neighbors slowing down my connection? In apartment buildings crowded with gadgets, the devices’ signals are fighting for room on the same radio channels. You can see what radio channels your neighbors’ devices are using with scanning apps like WiFi Analyzer. Then consult your router’s instruction manual for steps on picking a clearer radio channel.

This step is tedious, and many modern routers automatically choose the clearest radio channel for you. In general, replacing an outdated router is the most practical solution.

If it’s your service provider, there’s not much to do.

If you have determined that your internet provider’s service is the root of the issue, your only option is to call your internet service provider and ask for help.

When you call, ask a support agent these questions:

Why are my speeds slow? Occasionally a support agent can analyze your internet performance and make changes to speed up your connection. This rarely happens, and more often a technician will need to pay a visit.

Does my modem need to be replaced? The modem, which is the box that connects your home to the internet provider’s service, also can become outdated and occasionally needs to be replaced. If the support agent confirms the modem is old, you can schedule an appointment for a technician to install a new one.

Or you can buy your own modem and call the internet provider to activate it. Wirecutter, our sister publication that tests products, recommends modems from Motorola and Netgear, which cost about $80 to $90.

Can I buy faster speeds? Your provider may offer packages with more bandwidth meant for higher-quality video streaming and faster downloads. Ask about your options.

As a last resort, you can turn to backups. Many modern phones come with a hot spot feature, which turns the device’s cellular connection into a miniature Wi-Fi network. (Apple and Google list steps on their websites on how to use the hot spot feature on iPhones and Androids.)

Whatever you do, be patient. In these trying times, everything takes longer.

As for me, I confirmed my slow speeds were related to my internet provider, Monkeybrains. I called to report the issue, and after more than a month, a technician replaced the antenna on our roof. Now my speeds are even faster than before the pandemic, so it was well worth the wait.

ncov2019.live / worldometer

[3/28/20] Last week, as cities across the country shut down in an effort to slow the spread of covid-19, President Trump said, “We have a problem that, a month ago, nobody thought about.” Well, somebody did. On December 29th, as Trump vacationed with his family at Mar-a-Lago, Avi Schiffmann, a seventeen-year-old from Washington State, launched a homemade Web site to track the movement of the coronavirus. Since then, the site, ncov2019.live, has had more than a hundred million visitors. “I wanted to just make the data easily accessible, but I never thought it would end up being this big,” the high-school junior said last week over FaceTime. Schiffmann, gap-toothed and bespectacled, was sitting on his bed wearing a blue T-shirt and baggy pajama bottoms. It was late morning. He was at his mother’s house, on Mercer Island, outside Seattle. Somewhere in the room his cat, Louie, mewed. Behind him hung a Ferrari poster.

Using a coding tactic known as “web-scraping,” Schiffmann’s site collates data from different sources around the globe—the W.H.O., the C.D.C., Yonhap News Agency in South Korea—and displays the latest number of covid-19 cases. It features simple graphics and easy-to-read tables divided by nation, continent, and state. Data automatically updates every minute. In a politicized pandemic, where rumor and panic run amok, the site has become a reputable, if unlikely, watchdog.

Schiffmann goes to Mercer Island High School. (Its mascot: Herbert the Snail.) He began teaching himself to code when he was seven, mainly by watching YouTube videos, and has made more than thirty Web sites. “Programming is a great creative medium,” he said. “Instead of using a paintbrush or something, you can just type a bunch of funky words and make a coronavirus site.” One of his first projects, in elementary school, was what he calls “a stick-figure animation hub.” Later sites collated the scores for his county’s high-school sports games, aggregated news of global protests, and displayed the weather forecast on Mars. “His brain is constantly going from one thing to another, which is good, but I also try to focus him in,” his mother, Nathalie Acher, said. “I’m not techy at all myself. I see it as just really boring. He sees it as an art form.”

Schiffmann created the virus project during a family ski weekend in Snoqualmie Pass. Acher, who is a primary-care doctor, said that, when he had finished building it (he’d skipped a ski day), “he was beaming as though he’d discovered the cure for cancer.” Flattening the curve has been an isolating experience for many, but Schiffmann has never had so much attention. “I’m getting e-mail after e-mail,” he said. “Every couple of seconds it’s a new one.” Some people suggest changes to the site. “They’re, like, ‘Great Web site!’ ” he said. “And then they send a massive list of demands, and I’m just, like, ‘O.K., later.’ ”

While his twelfth-grade friends worry about whether the prom will be cancelled, Schiffmann is navigating global fame.“I literally see myself on, like, African news Web sites, Thailand, Taiwan—like, everywhere,” he said. He had two podcast interviews scheduled for that day. Then he was off to a photo shoot. “I want more professional photos, because I don’t like the ones that the news places use.” (“I look weird,” he said.) A few days earlier, his school had shut down. But he had already skipped the last week of classes to focus on the site, he said, “when it kind of blew up.” His mother, whose medical colleagues use the site, had given up coaxing him to return. “Maybe learning algebra can come later,” she said. (Her son is a C student.)

Schiffmann took the virus threat seriously before many others did. “I’ve been kind of concerned for a while, because I watched it spread very fast, and around the entire world. I mean, it just kind of went everywhere.” He took his own precautions. “I got masks a while ago. I got, like, fifteen for seventeen dollars. Now you can’t even buy a single mask for, like, less than forty.” His mother chimed in. “I wish I had listened to him,” she said. “But, in his teen-ager way, he’d come down the stairs with his eyes huge and be, like, ‘There are fifty thousand more cases!’ and I’d be, like, ‘Yeah, but they’re over there, not here.’ ”

Now that the grownups of the world are finally, and appropriately, freaking out, it is hard for Schiffmann not to feel righteous vindication. “If you told someone three months ago that we should spend, like, ten billion dollars in upgrading the United States’ health care, they would have been, like, ‘Nah,’ ” he said. “Now, everyone’s, like, ‘Oh, my God, yes.’ But this is the kind of stuff we should have done a long time ago.”

***

[6/1/20] Have started to use worldometer in addition to nov2019.live.  Some of the data on ncov2019.live (e.g. New York) hasn't been updating recently.  The main worldometer page is also interesting.

There's also a discrepancy with Spain between the two.  ncov2019.live has them at 239,638 cases, while worldometer has them at 286,718.  Johns Hopkins has Spain at 263.638.  So I'll go with ncov2019.live in this case.

a new era in space travel

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel and putting the United States back in the business of launching astronauts into orbit from home soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode skyward aboard a white-and-black, bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off at 3:22 p.m. from the same launch pad used to send Apollo crews to the moon a half-century ago. Minutes later, they slipped safely into orbit.

“Let's light this candle,” Hurley said just before ignition, borrowing the historic words used by Alan Shepard on America's first human spaceflight, in 1961.

The two men are scheduled to arrive Sunday at the International Space Station, 250 miles above Earth, for a stay of up to four months, after which they will come home with a Right Stuff-style splashdown at sea, something the world hasn't witnessed since the 1970s.

The mission unfolded amid the gloom of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 100,000 Americans, and racial unrest across the U.S. over the case of George Floyd, the handcuffed black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police.

NASA officials and others expressed hope the flight would lift American spirits and show the world what the U.S. can do.

“We are back in the game. It’s very satisfying,” said Doug Marshburn, of Deltona, Florida, who shouted, “USA! USA!" as he watched the 260-foot rocket climb skyward.

SpaceX becomes the first private company to launch people into orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the U.S., Russia and China.

“This is something that should really get people right in the heart of anyone who has any spirit of exploration,” Musk, the visionary also behind the Tesla electric car company, said after liftoff, pounding his chest with his fist.

The flight also ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA. Ever since it retired the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take U.S. astronauts to and from the space station.

Over the past few years, NASA outsourced the job of designing and building its next generation of spaceships to SpaceX and Boeing, awarding them $7 billion in contracts in a public-private partnership aimed at driving down costs and spurring innovation. Boeing’s spaceship, the Starliner capsule, is not expected to fly astronauts until early 2021.

NASA plans to rely in part on commercial partners as it pursues it next goals: sending astronauts back to the moon within a few years, and on to Mars in the 2030s.

At a post-liftoff rally held at NASA's massive 525-foot-high Vehicle Assembly Building, President Donald Trump commended Musk and proclaimed: “Today we once again proudly launch American astronauts on American rockets, the best in the world, from right here on American soil.”

He vowed the U.S. will be the first to land on Mars, promising a “future of American dominance in space.”

Vice President Mike Pence, who also witnessed the launch, said that as the nation deals with the coronavirus and racial strife, "I believe with all my heart that millions of Americans today will find the same inspiration and unity of purpose that we found in those days in the 1960s” during Apollo.

The first attempt to launch the rocket, on Wednesday, was called off with less than 17 minutes to go in the countdown because of lightning. On Saturday, stormy weather threatened another postponement for most of the day, but the skies began to clear just in the time.

free books on Amazon

Besides Prime Reading, Amazon also offers free kindle books available for purchase (can you purchase something that's free?).

Here's one way to do it.

From the left of the search bar (on Amazon's web page), select "Books" from the drop-down box.

Click on the search icon (the magnifying glass).

Select the category you're interested in (in the horizontal band titled "Shop by Category").  (You could also select the category under Books in the left column.  There's more categories that way.)

Select Kindle Edition under Refine by ... Format in the left column.

Then choose Sort by: Price: Low to High in the drop-down box at the top right.

Scroll down and look.

Some books are free with a Kindle Unlimited membership.  But others are free unconditionally.

***

How about finding Prime Reading on the website?

Select Books.  Click on the search icon.

Select Prime Reading under Kindle & Audible in the left column.

It'll present a number of recommended books.

For more, click on Browse the catalog link.  Then you can choose further from a number of categories in the left column, though there's not as many choices as with the Kindle Edition books.  (But after clicking on category, you're presented with a number of sub-categories.)

CVS delivers

Nuro, the autonomous robotics startup that has raised more than $1 billion from Softbank Vision Fund, Greylock and other investors, said Thursday it will test prescription delivery in Houston through a partnership with CVS Pharmacy. The pilot, which will use a fleet of the startup's autonomous Toyota Prius vehicles and transition to using its custom-built R2 delivery bots, is slated to begin in June.

The partnership marks Nuro's expansion beyond groceries and into healthcare. Last month, the startup dipped its autonomous toe in the healthcare field through a program to delivery food and medical supplies at temporary field hospitals in California set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pilot program centers on one CVS Pharmacy in Bellaire, Texas and will serve customers across three zip codes. Customers who place prescription orders via CVS' website or pharmacy app will be given the option to choose an autonomous delivery option. These pharmacy customers will also be able add other non-prescription items to their order.

Once the autonomous vehicle arrives, customers will need to confirm their identification to unlock their delivery. Deliveries will be free of charge for CVS Pharmacy customers.

Planet of the Humans

A new documentary produced by Michael Moore, Planet of the Humans, was pulled from YouTube overnight – a decision writer-director Jeff Gibbs called a “blatant act of censorship.”

The film was released on YouTube on April 21, and has seen 8.3 million views since its launch.

Climate scientists and environmentalists urged for the removal of the film, calling it “dangerous, misleading and destructive”.

In a letter written by Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox and signed by scientists and activists, the way the film “trades in debunked fossil fuel industry talking points” is criticised.

Following the removal of the film, Gibbs said in a statement yesterday (May 25):  “It is a misuse of copyright law to shutdown a film that has opened a serious conversation about how parts of the environmental movement have gotten into bed with Wall Street and so-called ‘green capitalists’.

“There is absolutely no copyright violation in my film. This is just another attempt by the film’s opponents to subvert the right to free speech.”

Planet of the Humans suggests electric cars and solar energy are unreliable, relying on fossil fuels. The film also criticises Al Gore for helping corporations to test “ineffective technologies over real solutions”.

Gibbs added: “Opponents of Planet of the Humans, who do not like its critique of the failures of the environmental movement, have worked for weeks to have the film taken down and to block us from appearing on TV and on livestream.

“Their efforts to subvert free speech have failed, with nearly eight and a half million people already viewing the film on YouTube. These Trumpian tactics are shameful, and their aim to stifle free speech and prevent people from grappling with the uncomfortable truths exposed in this film is deeply disturbing.”

The producers subsequently announced that Planet of the Humans will now stream for free on Vimeo.

***

The controversial film Planet of the Humans, produced by Michael Moore, was taken down from YouTube on Monday because of a copyright infringement claim. The complaint was filed by photographer Toby Smith, who was alarmed that his work was used in a film that he doesn’t support, The Guardian reports.

“I don’t agree with its message and I don’t like the misleading use of facts in its narrative,” Smith said to The Guardian. A few seconds of Smith’s video, Rare Earthenware, were used in Moore’s film, which criticizes renewable energy.

A firestorm of criticism from influential environmental advocates followed the release of Planet of the Humans in April. Among other things, the film makes the dubious claim that solar and wind power are potentially as harmful to the environment as fossil fuels and that environmentalists are essentially in the pockets of renewable energy corporations. Those claims have been torn apart by environmentalists and scientists who say that the film’s assertions are misleading.

“There is no perfect solution to our energy challenges. But this film does not grapple with these thorny questions; it peddles falsehoods,” Leah Stokes, UC Santa Barbara assistant professor and author of the book on clean energy Short Circuiting Policy, wrote for Vox.