Erin Lawrence from https://techgadgetscanada.com is back with us again as we look at a handful of many of the great reviews she does on her site. Samsung Note 20, the latest Pixel phones from Google and some comparisons to the new iPhone 12. We talk about Coffee, toothbrushes and the latest Amazon Echo devices. Jim even buys the Echo flex on the show to put in his garage. We wrap the show with some quick discussions around a holiday buying guide that Erin posted as well as few of Jim’s favorite picks.  All that and more!

Full show notes, transcriptions, audio and video at http://theAverageGuy.tv/hgg467

Join Jim Collison / @jcollison and Mike Wieger / @WiegerTech for show #467 of Home Gadget Geeks brought to you by the Average Guy Network.

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Podcast, Home Gadget Geeks, Erin Lawrence, Iphone, Android, Galaxy Note 20, Pixel 4, Pixel 5, iPhone 12, LatteGo, Tech Gadgets Canada

Find Us!

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Save $40 on your first Box of HelloFresh

[3:08] Support Home Gadget Geeks and use https://theAverageGuy.tv/hover and get $2 off your first domain

[5:05] The Hunter Oktoberfest – From Lost Forty Brewing – https://untappd.com/b/lost-forty-brewing-the-hunter-oktoberfest/1204198

[9:57]} Galaxy Note 20 – https://techgadgetscanada.com/samsung-note-20-ultra-5g-smartphone-review/

[22:14]  Google Pixel 4a (5G) & Pixel 5 – https://techgadgetscanada.com/review-new-pixel-4a-5g-pixel-5/

[26:12] How does it compare to the iPhone 12?

[38:43] Amiluo Life Garage Light – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZHRD6P

[40:36] Amazon Echo Flex – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MLY3JKV (Check out Erin’s Echo reviews at https://techgadgetscanada.com/review-new-4th-gen-amazon-echo-echo-dot-with-clock/)

[56:28] Philips 3200 LatteGo automatic espresso machine – https://techgadgetscanada.com/review-philips-3200-lattego-automatic-espresso-machine/

[1:04:14] Oral B iO Series 7 smart electric toothbrush review – https://techgadgetscanada.com/oral-b-io-series-7-smart-electric-toothbrush-review/

[1:08]::32] TechGadgetsCanada’s Black Friday Gift Guide – https://techgadgetscanada.com/techgadgetscanadas-black-friday-gift-guide/

[1:11:27] Dyson V11 Absolute vs V11 Outsize – https://techgadgetscanada.com/dyson-v11-absolute-vs-v11-outsize-which-to-choose/

[1:14:55] Beer Review

[1:18:07] LG UltraFine Display Ergo Monitor review – https://techgadgetscanada.com/lg-ultrafine-display-ergo-monitor-review/

Jim Collison  [0:00] 
This is The Average Guy Network and you have found Home Gadget Geeks show number 467. recorded on November 5, 2020.

Here on Home Gadget Geeks we cover all your favorite tech gadgets that find their way into your home news reviews, product updates and conversation. A lot of conversation tonight. All for the average tech guy. I’m your host, Jim Collison broadcasting live from http://theAverageGuy.TV Studios here in my cup back and forth of Bellevue Nebraska, weather wise, really hot, really cold. We’re in that weird spot, right?

Mike Wieger  [0:42] 
We can decide we want to do I’ve been trying to I’m trying to wash the appropriate hunting attire, because dear season is in November, and I can’t decide if I need the cold snow like we had two weeks ago. Do I need the 70 degree that we had in the last week? What do I need? Oh, what’s been crazy?

Jim Collison  [0:57] 
It’s been 70 degrees that’s

Mike Wieger  [0:58] 
I worked out on the patio the last two days been gorgeous.

Jim Collison  [1:01] 
Like, I think that’s 70 degrees like negative 37 Celsius. I don’t know. I don’t have to do the math. But neither Erin Erin, what’s like the the nicest day is 75 Fahrenheit. What would that be Celsius for you guys? I think a really

Erin Lawrence  [1:15] 
I want to say that’s about like 20 or 25C

Jim Collison  [1:18] 
we’ll just say 25? Yeah, because that’s easy to remember. It’s been that day this week. Oh, things good for you guys are your days have already have like eight feet of snow and your we had

Erin Lawrence  [1:28] 
We had beautiful September. And then like the first week of October, we got about a foot of snow. And it went down to about minus 10 Celsius. So it was really cold. And then it jumped up to like 15 again, which would be like in the 50s or the 60s I think. And everything melted. And now it’s supposed to get cold and snow again this week.

Jim Collison  [1:52] 
Ok. well, you’re a week. You’re like a week ahead of us. So I should just watch your weather. And then because it comes it literally comes straight down from you guys. So yeah, if the winds are blowing in the right direction. And so yeah, of course, what’s blown in the right direction is the show notes. And so if you want to head out this show, in particular is gonna have a lot of show notes. A lot of links to Erin’s blog. You know, Erin Lawrence is with us tonight. She’s been on before she holds the record. Now for the most, you know, most times on Home Gadget Geeks. Erin, welcome.

Erin Lawrence  [2:20] 
I do.

Jim Collison  [2:22] 
I think you have to I told that to. I told that to Nathaniel Lindley a couple weeks ago just to make them feel nice, but I’m pretty sure that it’s you.

Pretty sure

Erin Lawrence  [2:32] 
Hey, I feel like I should have some kind of trophy or I need a Trophy to the to the Academy to thank you.

Jim Collison  [2:40] 
I’d send you something but it did COVID blocked. I’m not sure that a T shirt or mug or something. And so Erin’s with us tonight, we’re going to talk, we got a bunch of review stuff to talk about a bunch of gadget stuff. We’ll get to that here in just a second. Just a second.

Erin for your when you know you’re you do a lot on the internet, like you got a blog and you’re writing. Who do you use for your domain register? When you’re thinking about when you have to buy a domain? Who do you use?

Erin Lawrence  [3:08] 
Good question. I’ve been using hover, http://hover.com. Because I think they at one point used to be Canadian. I’m not sure if they still are or were acquired. I think they used to be called Tucows. Yes. Back in the day. They did. So I use them I was using Bluehost for although we’re actually switching hosting providers to Oh, I’m not gonna be able to remember it. We only just did it the other site ground.

Jim Collison  [3:32] 
Oh, they don’t advertise for them. Because we use we offer partners. No, you’re fine. Your action fine. But if you ever need a website, like if you ever do, you know, like, it’s almost like I paid you to say hover because they’re kind of supporting us at this point. Right? So if you go to http://theAverageGuy.TV/hover, that’s the affiliate link for that get $2 off your first your first domain and that’s I’ve been using hover probably as long as you have forever. And just like it’s kind of no nonsense registry, you know, domain registry, right? It’s just they don’t try to trick you with a bunch of stuff. I’m not saying the other day. It’s so

Erin Lawrence  [4:09] 
easy.

Jim Collison  [4:10] 
GoDaddy,

Erin Lawrence  [4:10] 
so easy

Jim Collison  [4:11] 
Yeah, hoo hoo. Make that like the checkout is awful. This is a terrible experience. And so head out to the average guy, he got http://theAverageGuy.TV/hover, get $2 off your first domain and then head over to Maple Grove Partners and get your website started http://MapleGrovePartners.com. And of course, you know, that’s Christian.

Mike Wieger  [4:28] 
And I don’t know if they heard it if the audience heard you reference that. Other people’s checkout is awful hovers is great. You kind of get out there for a second. So hover is fantastic. Great easy. Other people try to offer you all this extra stuff you just don’t need and hovers just so easy. I think I I should have checked I think I host like 20 domains over at hover. I only use one but I just have more still because you know, you can’t you can never let go of a domain once you have it

Jim Collison  [4:55] 
now, although I have if you if I think they’ll even help you move stuff over. So Give it a try http://theAverageGuy.TV/hover, and then pair it with http://MapleGrovePartners.com.

Speaking of pairing, Mike Joe sent us for this week. It’s called Hunter. It’s an Oktoberfest. I know it’s in. We’re two months late. It’s like celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada,

Mike Wieger  [5:16] 
but it’s called hunter and my hunting season is November. So I think of this as the great hunter beer for all of November when I’m out there in the stand trying to grab myself a deer.

Jim Collison  [5:27] 
Erin why can’t we line up between Canada and the United States? Why can’t we line up Thanksgiving? Why can’t we get that on the same day? You guys do this in October? Is that right?

Erin Lawrence  [5:37] 
We do it in October? Yeah. It’s always kind of mid Second. Second weekend. I think of October. Yeah. I don’t know. Like there’s we could we could even meet in the middle. Although I guess Halloween is kind of stuck in the middle. This guy might ruin things. But

Jim Collison  [5:51] 
it does. It does get in like what do you

Mike Wieger  [5:52] 
guys do Halloween on the same weekend? Right? Last weekend? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Erin Lawrence  [5:55] 
October 31.

Jim Collison  [5:57] 
for Thanksgiving, like, why can’t you just wait?

Erin Lawrence  [6:01] 
We got Christmas. Okay, Easter Hill worked out Memorial Day and like Veterans Day and Remembrance Day tend to be also different between us but

Jim Collison  [6:13] 
Jim Shoemaker says hunting plus beer What could possibly go wrong? He’s probably right. Nice. amber Erin, what

Mike Wieger  [6:20] 
do you think nation after the hunt?

Erin Lawrence  [6:24] 
I have a bubbly I thought it was rather celebratory because I knew I was getting to podcast with you guys. So I picked up a little bubbly so I could have something festive.

Jim Collison  [6:34] 
Nice. Well, we’ll check in at the end of the show on some flavor stuff. So cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers

Mike Wieger  [6:39] 
to everyone. Yeah. Huh? are nice Alabama beer. Sorry, Arkansas. Yeah, Joe, thanks for he’s gonna jump on me for saying Alabama. And then.

Jim Collison  [6:48] 
Yeah, you can’t you’ll never be forgiven for that one. Mike, if you want to send us your beers to drink on the show. And we’ll gladly do that. Send me an email. Jim@theaverageguy.tv. And we’d love to do that. Okay. I know, I’m seven minutes in and we haven’t talked about tech. We kind of did.

Erin, you have been on it. Tear. Like, I’m not sure what What’s gotten into you. But if you go to http://techgadgetscanada.com. I mean, is like is your doorbell ringing like every day with stuff.

Erin Lawrence  [7:20] 
I am now officially on a first name basis with the UPS guy, the FedEx guy and the purolator guy. Yeah, he knows the name. They all know the names of my dogs. You know, I greet them by their first name. It’s Yeah, the bell rings every day, if not a couple of times a day, especially this year later. Oh, you don’t have purolator in the state to another shipping company.

Mike Wieger  [7:44] 
Got it. Okay. No, yeah, we don’t have that one.

Jim Collison  [7:46] 
There’s another one. Oh,

Erin Lawrence  [7:47] 
interesting.

Mike Wieger  [7:47] 
Yeah, no, we just have FedEx, UPS and USPS.

Jim Collison  [7:51] 
That’s a typical American thing to say.

Mike Wieger  [7:53] 
Why? I’ve asked because I was like, does that sound like a like a water delivery company? like pure water? I thought it was maybe like, because we like the collagen man. Right? The collagen man will come and give you water. Right? I thought that was maybe your local collagen man.

Erin Lawrence  [8:06] 
Oh, that’s so funny. It never occurred to me The purolator was a Canadian company.

Jim Collison  [8:10] 
And what Erin, what what do you what do you think has led to the the pickup in? In your reviews? I mean, did you just catch a seam of something? Or? Or like, Why all of a sudden, you told me I’m pretty sure you know you’re doing a couple of months. And now it seems like you’re doing that many a week.

Erin Lawrence  [8:31] 
I think I guess it’s probably a couple things. I mean, I try to say yes, whenever I can. If somebody offers me the opportunity to review something, I kind of look at that as a privilege. So I like to take advantage of it if I can. And I think the other thing is that, you know, when I started out, I was, you know, I was sort of begging people to borrow their products for you know, just a few days to try it out. And, you know, now I’m a little more fortunate. I’ve got a bit of a bigger audience. And I think some people are seeing that. And I think the offers are coming a little more frequently now than maybe they did three or four years ago.

Jim Collison  [9:11] 
Yeah, well, I think it speaks to the quality of your reviews. That’s one of the things I’ve always appreciated. love watching them on YouTube, you just do a fabulous job. Not Not Not gimmicky in your reviews, they’re really just a solid covering of it. Going through it what it is you don’t try to cover it exhaustively at you know, at every angle. The reviews are seven to eight minutes. Usually I can get through them pretty quick. so so good. Congratulations on working through that. Sometimes you got to prime the pump, right? But yeah, by your by yourself. I have often tried to be the review guy. I just hate doing reviews. It’s like

Erin Lawrence  [9:52] 
Well, that’s not a good idea for you know,

Jim Collison  [9:54] 
I’m not a big fan. This is what I love to do. So let’s do some of this.

You have, you’ve had both pixels. And you’ve had the Samsung Galaxy S 20. Are we already up to 20? Is that how that the

Erin Lawrence  [10:05] 
The Note 20

Jim Collison  [10:07] 
So let’s talk about the 20 first. And let’s just talk about kind of your phone experience. You’ve had both those there on Android give us a little overview of of the phones.

Erin Lawrence  [10:18] 
Yeah. So Note 20. I mean, that’s the big features of this Samsung Note phones are that I think Samsung calls it the S Pen. It’s a stylus. But they’re great little devices, they’re super large screens, they’re really light. I really like the Samsung experience. By and large, the best thing about it is the camera. Now with that said, Sorry, Samsung, I’m going to complain for a second here, they put this really wicked camera array on their new note 20. And it’s huge. I think there’s actually four or five lenses in the back. But they stacked so much in here that I’m going to try and show those who are watching on the YouTube channel. Oh, camera array actually protrudes out by probably four or five millimeters out of the back of the camera out of the back of the phone. So I mean, you can’t sit flat. You know, I guess you could get a case that wraps around it. But it’s really it’s kind of clunky. I mean, I love what the camera does. I don’t like how it feels. I don’t like that configuration. I don’t know. I appreciate what they’re trying to do making the cameras better. But the form factor leaves a little to be desired in my opinion.

Mike Wieger  [11:35] 
Yeah, I was just gonna ask that without a case that would almost make it level right, because a case could have a cutout then kind of made a level. I would be worried I would scratch that area. If I was laying it on the ground. I mean, is it when you set on table? Is that hitting first? It seems like it would?

Erin Lawrence  [11:49] 
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yep. And it won’t. Like I said it won’t look flat. Because it’s kind of laying up on this one corner. So. Right. Yeah, I mean, they’re putting it face down. And then maybe you’re scratching the the screen of it. So

Mike Wieger  [12:03] 
I you know, I think that’s that might be something you know, so the iPhone has had that too. And here’s the iPhone 12 was the newest iPhone. But you could see so I have a case on it. But that little tiny lens bump is really all you have. But that does mean that the same exact problem happens on the iPhone, is that when you lay that desert, okay, it so I have a case, obviously, which makes a level which is I’m talking about because the case kind of juts out just enough and this is the apple case. So I think that was kind of their intention, right, is that you’re going to least have a case that goes out that far. But I kind of went naked for a little bit which I say the phone’s beautiful. And yeah, you have the same problem. I don’t know. I don’t I haven’t seen many phone manufacturers not have a phone bump in the past few years. And and maybe Samsung is like you know what, if we’re gonna have one, let’s just go all out. Right? Let’s let’s have it be Yeah, big and massive. But what I like about Samsung, when you showed it is that it looks like there’s almost like a square or a square. So it’s not directly maybe resting on those camera lenses. Whereas on the iPhone, if I were to lay this out, there’s no other bump. There’s no other. Yes, exactly. So maybe you’re hitting a little bit of the support around it. And you’re not actually resting that rain. Yeah. Whereas the iPhone, you’re if I set this down, it’s resting right on those lenses. There’s no other bezel to the camera bump. So that might actually help. I don’t know, I guess if you’re gonna do it, maybe do it big. I don’t know.

Erin Lawrence  [13:25] 
Yeah, or the or the only other way probably to get around it would be to make your smartphone thicker or fatter? And I don’t know like, would that really be a problem for some people if the phone were three or four eater sticker?

Mike Wieger  [13:40] 
I’ve heard that question. I don’t know why it’s a race to be so thin. Like is that what we’re asking for? I don’t know. I don’t know if the common users asking for it to be super light and then maybe we are but I wouldn’t mind a little bit thicker having better battery life. I mean, we’re all maybe the young generation this is these are the phones they know but for those of us who grew up with you know flip phones and the brick phones in our parents had car phones bag phones, like you know what give us a little bit thicker. It could be sturdier and a little more battery life and no camera bump. I wouldn’t be opposed that either. And I think a lot of people wouldn’t my phone could last two days three days if and I don’t know how to be double as thick that’s fine for me.

Erin Lawrence  [14:19] 
Agree.

Jim Collison  [14:21] 
Erin. Okay, so we immediately go to the cameras for this right I mean, that’s the very Suzhou The only part they’re upgrading notice. Yeah, I was gonna say are we are we down to is that pretty much on Android, and maybe even on the iPhone, are we pretty much just down to cameras at this point or that are there other features on that note that are attractive to you?

Erin Lawrence  [14:41] 
Well, I like the, the note in particular has a feature that I really like which is called screen off memo. So when this the screen is off, when you pop out the S Pen, you can write on the I think the phone is dead here. I would actually demo it for you but you can basically pop the pen out and you can write notes on this. screen, and it’ll save them for you. So I mean, that’s super handy for me, I’m always carrying a notebook around or some post it notes and a pen or a pencil.

So for me that ability to just take out a pen and quickly jot notes I really like and the fact that it will save them for you into the phone, so you can refer to them later is huge. You know, that’s, as far as I’m aware, that’s the only phone that does that somebody might be able to correct me and please do in the chat window, if you know of another one, or if you guys do, but I really like that feature. And then I mean, you know what else we use our phones for their for phone calls, for emails, you know that that kind of stuff is almost standard, you can quibble about the different email clients. You can talk about, you know, if WhatsApp is better than the native text app or the apple Messages app, but by and large, they all do, essentially the same stuff.

Mike Wieger  [15:57] 
That’s been the interesting part to me is that really on the software side, you know, Apple used to always be criticized for not allowing a lot of third party ad ends and things like that. And you know, all that all that is almost pretty much become level playing field. And now, like you talked about, we’re talking about, you know, little features here and there, right, the pen being a big part, which I’m kind of surprised Apple maybe hasn’t, you know, their Apple Pencil has been like the thing they love to write about. I’m surprised they haven’t done an Apple Pencil mini and has as an attachment, especially with magsafe. This year on the Apple iPhone, I thought, okay, you can have a little holster back there for an Apple Pencil Mini. But that’s, that’s really cool. I think you’re now just playing on cameras, you’re playing on the ecosystem, and other little kind of cool little features that kind of keep people in on that phone.

Jim Collison  [16:45] 
Mm hmm. there and there’s the there’s the shot of There we go. Yep.

Mike Wieger  [16:49] 
Writing so okay. Okay, so I didn’t understand that the screen actually looks like it stays off.

Erin Lawrence  [16:54] 
Yes, absolutely. And the great thing about using it in this way is, I don’t know how many of you out there have used a stylus on a tablet or on a phone, and it feels like it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard, like metal and glass just is not a great experience. It’s two, that’s a good word to slit. But with this, it feels more like you’re writing with pencil on paper, it’s it feels a lot more natural and a lot less grading

Mike Wieger  [17:22] 
so that they change the material and the pencil. Is that what they did to make that feel different?

Erin Lawrence  [17:28] 
I don’t know. It’s been like that, I would say for a couple of the iterations. I mean, maybe the nib on the pencil I can’t quite tell it might be like rubberized plastic or plus does it

Jim Collison  [17:38] 
replaceable rubber? Or is that is a tip related question.

Erin Lawrence  [17:43] 
That’s a good question.

Jim Collison  [17:44] 
I don’t know Windows Phone for a while I think had some or no the the the pen you would use with a surface had tips, you could get different kinds of tips because eventually you’d wear out the that’s how they get around it. They put a kind of a soft tip on the pen. So it would drag because you actually want a little drag on your on your screen. Right?

Erin Lawrence  [18:05] 
Well remember when we could all go out and get those third party styluses for everything with the little rubber eraser heads on them kind of thing, right?

Jim Collison  [18:13] 
Yeah, that lasted like a year. That was just random for like a year at every trade show. I went to all the Yes, career fairs. I went to everybody who’s giving away this plane. You know, it’s

Mike Wieger  [18:23] 
funny, I still I just bought one of those two weeks ago, my wife because she uses my iPad for class. So she is Associate Professor. So she goes in there and she they’re all iPad based. And she was like, hey, these school iPads are super slow. Can I use your this? Yeah, of course. So she takes my iPad usually could be great. If I had a stylus Mike, we can get to the Apple Pencil.

No, we’re not spending that much money on a stylus. And so I got her like a $10 sales of Amazon and she loves it. She’s like, I don’t know, I can’t, too. I think we need to get the Apple Pencil for her and have her test out and see the difference. Because I think she’s just putting up with a lot of bad, you know, input and stuff like that she just doesn’t know could be different. But for her. It’s funny because I would be like, oh, Apple Pencil for sure. I thought that was gonna be like a guarantee for her. And she’s like, No, no, no, give me that $10 one on Amazon. That’ll be fine, because all class she is what’s showing up on the screen is her she’s circling things. She teaches occupational therapy. So she’s totally like highlighting, you know, parts of the body.

They need to talk about him. So she’s using it 24 seven in class, I thought she’d be like the ideal Apple Pencil user and maybe we should just get it for and see. But she has been all about that $10 it’s not rubber though this one is you have to turn it on, but it doesn’t connect via Bluetooth. So I don’t know what turning it on does, but it maybe has a little more connectivity to the finger. And it has the same tip as like a galaxy stylus, an Apple Pencil, but it just doesn’t connect to the tablet at all. I don’t know what it’s doing, but it’s kind of cool that this thing was $10 and, and it works pretty well enough for her to not complain and she hasn’t complained yet.

Jim Collison  [19:58] 
Tony in the chat room says you can Replace he has a 20 he has a Note 20. Okay, and you can replace the tips Good to know. No, Erin, I’m showing on screen, you know, it’s got this 8k video display seriously. It’s a that sounds like 5G like, Is it real? You know the difference on

Erin Lawrence  [20:16] 
that, you know, this is the thing about this and I said this in one of my reviews that on a smartphone screen on a screen this small. You can’t tell the difference between 4k and 8k video. It’s just too small. The whole thing about the difference between 4k and 8k is the pixels and you know, there’s obviously more pixels in k square Were you really notice that is on a huge TV. So something like an 85 inch TV, 4k to 8k, you’re gonna see a bit of difference there on a phone. No, you won’t. But, you know, if you’re taking home videos to take them home and share them on your new 8k TV. That’s someplace where you’re going to see that difference. I haven’t embraced a cavity. I haven’t even embraced 4k video for most of my reviews yet. And that’s mainly because just the storage for those larger video files just kills me. So I’m gonna have to move to it. At some point, I’m going to need like a whole different storage system and have to figure that out. But you know, 8k is great, but I don’t know that it’s super practical for a lot of people right now.

Mike Wieger  [21:29] 
I think 4k is even sometimes your tough sell. Right? Like, yeah, okay, I have zero, like, I’m the tech guy and I have zero 4k displays in my entire house. My computer is still at my TVs are 1080 I have zero 4k. My phone is actually the highest resolution device I have with the iPhone 12. But it’s funny to me talking about being able to notice a difference. I actually just tonight, Hannah had a problem with her phone and I went to go fix it. And I looked at her iPhone 11 which was newer than my iPhone 10 that I just had two weeks ago. And I was like, oh, man, this thing is blurry.

Because it is not that much of a difference. The iPhone 12 I actually had to look it up to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. The iPhone 12 is a 2532 by 1170 resolution with force 160 pixels per inch. So that’s my iPhone 12. The 11 is 71792 by 828 with 326 pixels per inch. I did notice the difference even in the Settings menu. It does it’s so funny how you don’t like it’s one of those things where I don’t want to upgrade to 4k because once I do, I’m never gonna be able to go back. Since I haven’t experienced it yet. My 10 Ep stuff looks great to me. I think it’s totally fine. But now that I have my iPhone, I looked at my wife’s like, oh, man, you peasant. What are you looking at? This is such a, like an old phone. Is this an Android? Like? Is this a Samsung phone?

No, I’m joking. But it’s so funny how you as soon as you see it, and you get used to one resolution looking back is like, oh, wow, I really do. Whereas most people who haven’t experienced you have like no, I would never notice the difference.

Jim Collison  [22:59] 
Yeah. Yeah. Erin compare and contrast because you’ve also gotten your hands on some pixel the four a and the five. I’m excited to hear about these Tell me just things compare and contrast a little bit what’s different on these or what was your experience with these.

Erin Lawrence  [23:14] 
When we were talking about the form factor and sort of the the feel and the shape and everything I really like the pixel phones, the design, I love the new colors, they’ve got the softer edges, things just seem to be designed a little more seamlessly, maybe, again, the cameras on the pixel phones. I mean, I carried a I think it was the first and the second pixel phones with me. I’m an iPhone user, we’ve talked about that before. But I always had a Pixel phone with me for the camera because the cameras were for many years leaps and bounds better than than almost anything out there including Apple for a long time. So I love the cameras and they can do so much. I mean they’ve got you can do Astro photography with a pixel now, which I haven’t had a chance to try out for myself, but I am dying to better night mode. So many more options and you can customize so much stuff and go in after the fact and we’re talking photos again, you can fix up the photos afterwards. So I really like the pixels I’ve said for a long time that if I was ever going to switch off an iPhone, it would definitely be to a pixel because I just think they’re great phones. They’re fast. They’re beautiful. And and they’re super versatile.

Mike Wieger  [24:33] 
How What does that texture feel like on the back because I keep seeing all these pictures and it almost looks like like a plasticky but almost like textured plastic. But how does it feel in the hand?

Erin Lawrence  [24:43] 
It almost feels like paper. Like it’s almost like if you found a way to put like a really nice like, durable paper wrap on it. That’s what it feels like. It’s very textural, very natural, almost like

Mike Wieger  [24:57] 
a D scale that you would put on your phone but it is Comes with that.

Erin Lawrence  [25:01] 
Yeah, yeah, I guess. So. It’s really nice. Like, it feels good. And I had for my test period. I mean, I got some cases for them. But I couldn’t bring myself to put the cases on because the phones, like you were saying about the iPhone, the phones were so pretty. And the texture was so nice, and they just look so good. I thought like, why cover this up? It’s fantastic.

Mike Wieger  [25:21] 
Because that was one thing I really liked about it. Because I think a lot of these phone manufacturer are going towards like premium means glass and metal, and the look of glass and metal. But obviously that cracks The first time you drop it. Whereas when I saw this, I’m like, that still looks premium to me. But it looks like it might be more durable aluminum is what they’re using. Is that what it is? Okay, I was wondering what that what the actual thing, okay, it because it looks premium. And then I was wondering what the feel like does it feel good in your hands? Because at that point, I was not able to put a case on it, because it’s such a gorgeous phone. And if it held up a little bit better than glass? Did I for sure wouldn’t put a case on it.

Erin Lawrence  [25:56] 
Yeah, no, they’re great phones. I really, really love the pixel phones. I’m a huge fan and the 5g I didn’t get a chance. Like I said, we don’t have 5g in Calgary yet with the carrier that I’m with. So I wasn’t able to try it out. But you know, as soon as it comes here, I’ve got a phone that’s ready to take advantage of it. And I’m definitely going to try it out.

Jim Collison  [26:16] 
Well, if you could just just get on a plane and come to the United States. That’s super easy. You know,

Mike Wieger  [26:23] 
nowadays, right?

Jim Collison  [26:23] 
It’s Top of Mind, right? When you don’t want to come here when I’m when so when I got the iPhone 12. And then I started looking at it compared to my wife’s pixel. And I think she has the original four I think could be or maybe even three. They’re very this the the new iPhone looks more like a pixel. Then I think the older iPhones looked more like maybe the maybe the Galaxy phones. I don’t know, I just now I find myself looking at her phone and thinking it’s mine. And I’m like, Oh, no, that’s her phone. So I think they’re they’re very similar. Mike,

Erin Lawrence  [26:56] 
how are the edges on the iPhone? 12? Because they look really boxy to me. Yeah, no, there.

Jim Collison  [27:01] 
Hold on here. Well, let’s, Mike, what do you have your phone on the other?

Mike Wieger  [27:05] 
I do? Well, let’s

Jim Collison  [27:06] 
let Mike show what does it feel

Erin Lawrence  [27:09] 
like? I mean, I guess with a case, it’s probably less noticeable with the rubber case.

Mike Wieger  [27:13] 
I love the feel this better than the 10. So I had the iPhone 10, which has the rounded corners. And these are more square. You can see my wife and kid on our hands. Yeah, but um, so these are a lot. It’s all flat. You right? And I love it like so even if I take this case off, which I’ll do real quick. Just to show you guys,

Erin Lawrence  [27:31] 
it’s probably not gonna slip out of your hand. Yeah, is flat.

Mike Wieger  [27:35] 
And yeah, it doesn’t have the curve piece. This feels so much better in my hand. Because I honestly like the iPhone was at four or five series, where it had this almost same exact style. And I like how boxy it is, I don’t mind that doesn’t roll off. Because honestly, with a case you never got to benefit from that kind of nice roll off the edge. So this feels so much more solid in my hands. And I love how boxy that bottom is. And when you drop it, it’s also a lot more I think that honestly when they’re doing their calculation on their this new ceramic glass, right, which is their new terminology for their glass, I think one of the benefits and they were able to say hey, it breaks 25% less was that when this falls, it’s not having those rounded corners to crack. Because when I sent my iPhone in for actually to trade in, the only place it was cracked was right on one of those rounded corners, right where it wouldn’t have cracked normally.

But since it had a little bit of a round to it, just that rounded corner to crack just a little bit. So I love the boxy nature of this phone. It’s actually one of my favorite. The reason I upgraded number one is because and you know we were talking about some pre show, why did I upgrade I had an iPhone 10 not a real big need except for my speaker was going bad. Number one was the carriers in United States are offering massive discounts right now, like more than we’ve ever seen on any iPhone. I mean, long story short, if you watch the post show with Gemini two weeks ago, when he worked his phone, he got his phone on sprint for $7 a month. And that’s to own that. So $7 a month he got $90

Jim Collison  [29:03] 
Canadian, by the way.

Mike Wieger  [29:05] 
Yeah,

Erin Lawrence  [29:06] 
I was just doing the math on that. Yeah,

Mike Wieger  [29:08] 
bargain. Still a bargain, whatever it is. And you know, even for Verizon for me this phone was $13 a month. So I mean, just the deals they were doing number one, but number two, I love the form factor. And I thought it was just a fantastic form factor. And Jim and I were also talking one of the last years both of us, especially him he was on the iPhone eight, one of the last years we were going to get any trade in value because that was part of the carrier deals right was trading your current phone. One of the last years our phones were going to hold any value for for trading.

Erin Lawrence  [29:39] 
Well, whoa, okay, I was all set to just not have much interest in the iPhone 12 and maybe skip it and wait for the 13 but now it’s now you got me thinking Mike. Well, it depends if

Mike Wieger  [29:51] 
I don’t know if the carriers up in Canada are doing the same thing. But down here, it was almost one of those things like okay, you’re gonna give me how much for my trading on a phone that I don’t think is worth that much. Then you’re going to Tell me though, your rebates and all that stuff on your current phone are so low. It was just kind of a no brainer at that point for for Gemini at least.

Jim Collison  [30:07] 
Erin what what iPhone Are you on right now?

Erin Lawrence  [30:10] 
I have the 11

Jim Collison  [30:12] 
Okay.

Mike Wieger  [30:12] 
Yeah, it may not be as big of a deal from 11 Yeah, you’re right now because my

My wife has the 11

Jim Collison  [30:19] 
Mike even from eight to 12 like I’m having like a there’s there’s definite improvements right cameras better screens better. But it’s not like it’s it’s a little faster, right and those things, but I could do everything I needed to do on the plus like, it worked for me. It was a good phone. The one thing I didn’t like is it didn’t fit my camera holder. You know I wanted to turn it landscape and put it in I’ve got a me photo I think it’s called a me photo or Motu something one of those candleholders, it screws into into the you know, to a tripod and then you can do you know you can take pictures with it anyways, it didn’t fit the iPhone eight plus wouldn’t fit in it. It was just a little too small, though it was. Now I’m back it works again. So, you know, it’s like, oh, this is kind of cool. Because these are skinnier. Yeah. than the a plus. Right. But But Erin going from an 11 to 12. Like, if you I think it only makes sense if it makes financial sense. Like that’s the only reason like, if you’re going to get a really good deal, and it’s going to cost you almost nothing, then you make the jump. But otherwise, I mean unless it Are there things do you think currently on your that your 11? Can’t do that a 12? Could?

Erin Lawrence  [31:36] 
By the sounds of it? No. But I mean, like having that maybe nicer screen.

Jim Collison  [31:43] 
It’s nice. Cool.

Erin Lawrence  [31:45] 
I’m really curious about the form factor and the edges and stuff. I really didn’t think I’d like that. But now I’m starting to rethink it. Yeah, it’s said, there might only be one way to resolve this for sure. And get them both and figure it out.

Jim Collison  [32:01] 
You go by score, put your mask on, go by the store, see if you can, yeah, you know, if they even let you they probably don’t even let you touch them anymore, do they?

Erin Lawrence  [32:09] 
Yeah, I wonder I haven’t been to an apple store and so long.

Mike Wieger  [32:13] 
Yeah, for you. I mean, they’re the only difference. So minimal is like on the on the camera, you’re talking about a 1.8 aperture on the iPhone 11. Compared to 1.6, you get a little bit wider on that aperture. But everything else is really I mean, besides the form factor is gonna be pretty much the exact same, the display is a little bit different. We talked about the resolution difference earlier. The only other difference there is a 2 million to one contrast ratio on the iPhone 12 compared to a 1400 to one contrast ratio. But again, are you editing like, that’s a huge deal if you’re talking about a big 24 inch display you’re editing your video on. But if you’re if you’re not, you know, I like to joke against the difference on my wife’s phone. But I think that might just be me seeing things because I have the new fancy iPhone 12. But I feel like I can but I don’t think there’s really much incentive there between 1112 Yeah,

Jim Collison  [33:05] 
yeah, no, I agree. It kinda needs to be a financial I think for you. It’s a financial decision.

Mike Wieger  [33:09] 
Well, and it cracks me up, Jim, that you said you didn’t see a difference because you you didn’t have face ID at that point. You still had the the bumps in the bottom and top you had the home button. Still, it was a pretty big upgrade for you.

Jim Collison  [33:19] 
Well, it’s taken a little bit of getting used to for me going from home. Fortunately, you prepped me for that. And so I kind of know going in, okay, I got some different swipe things. And yeah, it wasn’t hard. Like it was not a hard switch. I’m all in now on it in. And I use that. I mean, I just realized how much I use my phone. It’s a great phone, I’m glad I upgraded. It’s a great fun. It’s just I don’t think it’s the monumental lift that we used to get when we go to the phones. So

Erin Lawrence  [33:47] 
what what is that next big lift though, Jim, like I think about that a lot with phones. And we sort of touched on it earlier, where, what’s what are the big iterations that are happening right now. And they tend to be the software within the cameras. So what, you know what, what’s the thing like, I remember when I had a Palm Pilot, and then I had my flip phone? And I was like, wow, wouldn’t it be great if one day they could find a way to put all the good things about the Palm Pilot into the flip phone? And then boom, the Apple phone was like a couple of years later? And, you know, magic but like I can’t even think of what that next iteration would be. Yeah,

Jim Collison  [34:27] 
yeah. No, I can’t. I can’t either. I think one of that point like PCs are there where you Yeah, okay. You know, we’ve gone through some rank kershner who who’s overthink computers.org he they’re doing a big AMD GPU release conversations, all these you know, and there’s been some enhancements in that and faster GPUs but they’re all kind of incremental and not really that exciting, too. Exciting for some people. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure Ryan’s having a blast right now as we’re talking about it. But I haven’t seen the monumental lift in the PC World forever, like I PCs are Yeah, okay. Faster Corrie seven or nine or whatever? I think phones have reached that. That place, Mike, where? It’s just not that interesting. I mean, it’s great. Don’t get me wrong.

Erin Lawrence  [35:19] 
They do a lot. But they’re not. They’re not like life changing anymore. They’re incremental. Yeah,

Jim Collison  [35:24] 
it’s kind of it’s kind of a snooze fest. And the

Mike Wieger  [35:26] 
people who are into the upgrades are the really top end users, right. The guys who try to use their iPhone for video production are really excited about iPhone 12 Pro, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, right when you can shoot and Dolby Vision, a lot of stuff that’s big for them. So they like that. And that’s like gamers on PCs, right? Like, the only people who are super pumped with the top end specs are gamers because the same PC has worked for the rest of us for the last five to six years. But the gamers are like who try to maximize FPS those are the guys who are really pushing PC and they love.

You know, AMD is new announcement just this last week of their new graphics cards like that. That’s a big deal to them. So you have those same users in both scenarios. But you’re right, I think for the most part, iPhones because I think even on the iPhone side, it’s way smaller. There are way fewer photography experts were excited about iPhone 12 max compared to PC gamers by doing less of those. Nathaniel asked a good question. How is the transition from Touch ID to face ID and then Erin you said,

Jim Collison  [36:24] 
You love face ID By the way, stay on the show, though. The chat room were the important. Don’t be cheating on us with the chat room. I think, to your point, you say so easy when you’re not masked. I think that’s important right now, like, I can’t tell you how many times I was in the doctor’s office. I have a physical on Monday. So I was getting blood drawn today for that. And I was sitting in the waiting room with the mask on. It doesn’t want to do that sneaky

Erin Lawrence  [36:53] 
little it doesn’t.

Jim Collison  [36:54] 
Yeah, doesn’t work. Right. It doesn’t work. I’ve

Erin Lawrence  [36:56] 
had to do that. Or you know, you hit it enough times. And you’ll get the password option, which is great. But I do miss Touch ID for that. And I would have liked it if well, and maybe that next iteration, maybe the the 13 would have both because I think like when you’re at home, it’s so much easier because you by the time you’ve picked up your phone and looked at it online, it’s done. Yeah. Doesn’t work in our new math world. And you’re out. But again, look, I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I’m not owed as much as I was, you know, once before

Mike Wieger  [37:29] 
true. And it also doesn’t work in the business environment. When you’re trying to check your phone in a meeting on the table, right? I just real quick was that message and you go to look at it, and I gotta awkwardly pick it up. And everyone knows, face my face. That’s the other portion where I really missed touch it. So I think you’re totally right, because I think the next iteration is Touch ID in the screen built in. And once they can do that and have a little bit of both, or you know, knowing Apple, they’ll probably go one way or the other, they’ll probably eliminate one to go with the other. But I agree that that can be really big. So I noticed that number one the business setting, but I mean, right now I’m not in business meetings very often work from home. The other one is when I’m using Apple Pay, I’ve noticed kind of a little bit it’s a weird dynamic when you go to like face ID unlock and then set it down where I was so used to just phone out of pocket laid on the reader and lay my thumb on the whole home button while they were there. And they would unlock it do Apple Pay where now it’s this kind of weird pull out of your pocket, double click the side button look at it so it unlocks and then later on it’s a few more extra things I’m not used to yet and I’m a huge Apple Pay user I love to and actually the easiest way is just me to use my watch now I rarely use my phone I just use my watch because it’s just it’s easier Don’t you have to think about it on my watch I need to use my watch for more for more of those things

Jim Collison  [38:41] 
ya know for sure.

I want to switch gears a little bit on this Ed Sullivan talk to this week. So I have a I have a go v light in my garage that’s motion you know it’s got a little motion sensor on the bottom hasn’t worked very well. And so it’s all event there was a deal because there’s always deals on Amazon right now. Now Erin plug your ears because you’re gonna get mad This is like $1,000 in Canada but ed ed talked me into picking up I don’t know if you guys have seen these but these these

Erin Lawrence  [39:10] 
oh I have seen these

Jim Collison  [39:12] 
these lights that you can then you can kind of shape the the the you know the the wings on there to kind of go where you want them to go to put the light where you

Erin Lawrence  [39:21] 
so these gym these deformable lamps. I haven’t seen them called that before but they basically like doesn’t there’s the base screw into a light socket like a light bulb socket. Yeah. And then the wings. You can sort of bend in shape. Yeah, I’m doing I think I’m doing sign language.

Jim Collison  [39:40] 
You can Are you stuck in a box?

Are you stuck in an visible box?

Yeah, all that in this was like 20 bucks, which was kind of cool. It was there’s a cloud on Amazon. Yeah, it was super cool. One of the things I wanted to do with it though, is I wanted to pair it with all we had listeners send me these non neutral switch Smart switches for the garage so I don’t use my houses old and I don’t have the old wiring. So this is doesn’t require a neutral switch for it. I’ve been wanting to put these into the garage, and then I can put it on the A lady, right, I can then start saying, and then I thought, Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have an echo in the garage. Erin, you spent time looking at some of the new echo devices. like okay, what you looked at, obviously designed for the home. But let me ask you this question, would you put an echo in your garage 100%

Erin Lawrence  [40:36] 
I, I have them everywhere. I mean, they’re so convenient. And especially like Amazon has just done, they’ve done smart home, right, because they have everything from the huge echo studio, which is a really large kind of premium sounding audio speaker, all the way down to the very compact like package of nuts sighs echo flex, the flex is like meant to be this just sort of a lady connected device, not free to listen to music, or podcasts or things on because the speaker quality is not good. But you know, in your garage gym, that would be perfect, because all you need to do is be able to walk out and ask your friend to turn the lights on. And she’s just going to respond. So it’s perfect for a space like that.

And also where you don’t want cords and cables hanging because the flex will just plug right directly into an AC socket. So you don’t have to worry about the the wires trailing or finding a place to put the echo device. The new ones are fantastic. I love the design, there’s not really a lot new, we’re kind of gonna circle back to that conversation we just had about smartphones, not a ton of new things with this, they’ve done some improvements. With the new fourth generation echo and Echo Dot. The speakers are a little better sounding. And I did notice they’re a little better sounding I like them, they’ve got sort of this new spherical design, which is is really cool. It’s actually really attractive, and it looks a lot less techie, it blends into your home, I would say a lot more. But in terms of a game, you know, massive iterations and things that it’ll do that nothing else will do. Yeah, no, we’re not there yet.

Jim Collison  [42:28] 
Didn’t we just have this conversation with the phones? It sounds like what would you this this new one with the clock? Does it have the temperature sensor sensor in it? In weekdays? Yeah. So it’d be handy for your garage?

Erin Lawrence  [42:43] 
Well, this is okay, here, I’ll give you my spiel about the temperature sensor. So the temperature sensor, you can ask the lady what the temperature is in your house or garage or whatever. What the temperature sensor is meant to do is work with something called routines that are temperature specific. So you can say you know, when the temperature in, you know, or on the dot with clock reaches a certain threshold, you can set up the following actions. But the actions are not helpful. So I was like, Oh, this is going to be perfect. So if I’m traveling, and I want to make sure that like because I’ve had this happen where my furnace kicked off the batteries and the thermostat didn’t kick the furnace off. So the temperature you know is basically just hovering above freezing. I thought this is perfect. I’ll set this up so that the echo will email me when the temperature gets below a certain threshold. Can’t do that you can have some of the actions are that you can have the lady I like calling her the lady now. You can have her talk to you by the speaker, which is not going to help if you’re not home.

Because and I mean if you are home, you’re gonna know it’s freaking cold. You can set up a couple of other things like she can read you the newscast if the temperature goes below a certain threshold then like these are not helpful. There are some IFTTT connections which do allow you to customize some of those actions a little bit more. I haven’t had time to explore all of those yet. So knowing IFTTT which is, gosh, how to explain IFTTT. It’s essentially lets you customize any internet interaction it’s If This Then That. So you can set up any type of technology if if my phone rings turn on the bathroom light, for example. And there’s all kinds of what they call recipes I think are applets now where you can create all these actions out of all these things that don’t ordinarily work together. So I’m sure IFTTT has something to fix this, but I haven’t I haven’t found it yet. So yeah, back back to the the new fourth generation echo devices. I think they look great. I think They sound a little bit better. If you’ve already got one, if you’ve got a third Gen probably don’t need to upgrade if you’re still sitting on an original echo.go for it.

Mike Wieger  [45:10] 
Well, okay, so my ears really perked up when you said they have a temperature sensor. Now does this integrate with eco B, with because it was eco B thermostats have Alexa built in, which is the thermostat I have. And their sensors are so expensive and so ugly, that if I could replace it, and I already have Alexis in every single room, actually more than I only have three eagleby sensors. And I have Alexa dots all over the house. I mean, I have way too many an account. Now that would be a huge, I would instantly go by five of those to replace, I think I have five dots around the house, not counting my big echoes. So I would instantly go out and buy five of those today, if those integrated with eco B and I’m wondering if if it’s not today, I’m wondering if that’s a future play for them say hey, yeah, by the way, these are also temperature sensors for eco B.

Erin Lawrence  [45:59] 
That is a good question. And I have yet to ever get my hands on an eco B. Okay. I do I did get the brand new nest learning thermostat, fourth generation, which I’m looking forward to trying out.

Mike Wieger  [46:11] 
Yeah.

Erin Lawrence  [46:13] 
So I don’t know I would love to try an eco be I’ve heard. I’ve heard good things about them. I’ve also heard kind of mixed reviews. So I’d be interested in hands on with that.

Mike Wieger  [46:23] 
I’d like to be there is I think it’s been even my way to get my wife on board or something like that is very hard. And she loves it too. And it’s learning has gotten a lot better. And yeah, but my biggest complaint is that the centers are so expensive, and you have to play find a place to either put this little white thing around that does nothing else besides read the temperature and humidity. That’s all it does, right. But the fact that you have a thermostat that pulls from the right rooms and the time of day, right at night, we don’t care about the living room. And we don’t care about the basement.

We only care about these two rooms. So make sure the average of these two is a suitable temperature. So that’s what we love buddy goby. And so if those fit in, and I’m guessing that, I would assume that’s where they’re going with that right with the temperature sensor in there. They’re already built in the Ico be out, they might own Ico B, I’m not sure if they own them, or they’re just deeply integrated. Because I can talk to my ego B itself is an Alexa device. So if I’m in my hallway, I can ask Alexa and it’s an It’s its own speaker and microphone. Don’t use the name or sorry, a lady. I’ve had a lady. Mine doesn’t go off. I get it because you’ll see a ring right? My thumb is there’s no there’s a dot right there.

Jim Collison  [47:30] 
People are so pissed at us, right?

Mike Wieger  [47:32] 
I know. I’m sorry. Yeah,

Erin Lawrence  [47:34] 
I catch flack for that on YouTube all the time. Because I forget, I just start talking. And it’s like, well, that’s that’s what the name is.

Mike Wieger  [47:41] 
Do you think they’re like smarts? For the commercials? I’ve been wondering do I think they must write because I have that blast. And then they always do commercials and none of my devices ever activate. They must have found a

Erin Lawrence  [47:53] 
way to mask it because it used to work. You’re right. Wasn’t there some commercial that ran during the Superbowl a year or two ago that yes, set off everybody’s devices and like cause them to order things off Amazon or something. So Hmm,

Mike Wieger  [48:06] 
the selling point for me, and those

are much nicer. Those look, because I don’t know what Jen. My dots are. I think they’re one or two. They’re the other the ugly puck, right. And they don’t look very nice shape. Right? Yeah. And so I upgrade there. And the flex actually is really interesting to me too, for those spaces that I would love to replace a dot with a flex because the dot does stand out so much that I would love something well neater. Well, I can’t throw off the counter.

Jim Collison  [48:35] 
Erin, thanks for mentioning this, I had kind of forgotten about the flax. And that would make a perfect garage. It was now I would be a little hesitant about having a a lady enabled garage door opener that also had a listening device in the garage that somebody could shout through the door and maybe be heard, like that kind of would be something I probably wouldn’t enable. But I’m thinking in this scenario, they also make one and here’s the deal, like right now How can I not do this? It’s $9.99 right now, right? How can I not? I mean, I know it’s $100. But it’s $9.99. Why would I not? So here’s here’s the thinking, right? So this goes on the ceiling and a plug. Or it’s just up and out of the way. They make a motion sensor one but I’m I’m replacing it. The motion sensor because I don’t that’s

Erin Lawrence  [49:26] 
for the nightlight though I think,

Jim Collison  [49:27] 
Oh, is it? Okay,

Erin Lawrence  [49:29] 
good. It’s like a nightlight attachment? I think so if you go by it’ll turn on the little nightlight thing that you know, I don’t think that actually triggers it

Jim Collison  [49:36] 
that you don’t think it does, I’ll have to look at it because that could be the Govee light that I have up there doesn’t stay on long enough. Like it comes on. First of all, you got to jump around like a monkey to get the thing to actually go off. And then it doesn’t stay on long enough. Where is if I if I were if I do you know the elite enablement and say hey, turn this on, and when I’m going in, turn it off and oh by By the way, if I forgot to turn it off, I can check from right here and say, Hey, is the lights still on right type deal. And even set some routines hate automatically shuts off at midnight, it automatically comes on at six follows sun, you know, sunrise sunset, we have all those on hubitat and some of those kinds of things. So I think, man at 10 bucks, how can I not do this? How can you not do that? What show is gonna cost? And

Erin Lawrence  [50:26] 
apparently there’s other deals where you can get a smart plug to the pairs with it, and they bundle it for like 15 bucks. Oh, I

Jim Collison  [50:33] 
know. Now it’s the time so I’m not

Erin Lawrence  [50:35] 
saying anybody in the chat room said that. But

Jim Collison  [50:38] 
just Are you cheating on us again? Dang it, Brian? Oh, no. Okay, somebody else? Oh, that’s okay, then as long as so? Um, yeah. So I think that’s going to probably be my weekend project is to replace that and get that put in from your work with the Amazon devices? What’s your favorite of those? You’ve done them all? You’ve kind of tested them all? What? And I know it’s kind of conditional based on how you’re using it. But which one? Do you like the best?

Erin Lawrence  [51:05] 
Do you mean of the echo devices? Or? The smart? No, the

Jim Collison  [51:09] 
echo devices?

Erin Lawrence  [51:10] 
Yeah, probably. Probably the studio. And I’ve got it set up like in my living room kind of as a really nice, high quality listening speaker that is also very smart. So and I mean, the sound quality is is outstanding. You know, it doesn’t look too out of place, I have the black one. So it kind of blends in to where we have it right now. And I love the speaker quality. Now with that said, I think the new fourth generation echoes are pretty nice, like the the sphere shape. And the design is really attractive. I really do like the design a lot. My biggest complaint about that design is I kind of nudged it accidentally the other day, and it did like kind of tip and roll over. And I had to like, catch it and snag it. So I was a little concerned that, you know, maybe, maybe it’s not the best design, but you know, how many people are reaching around their echo device all the time? I don’t know. So

Mike Wieger  [52:20] 
yeah, it’s interesting that you pick that device, because I’ve kind of found the same thing, I actually would really prefer high quality audio, as compared to you know, the show, or we got for free through Verizon, we got like, I think that’s how we got it, we got one of the Google devices that has a screen on it, I like this is gonna be great. We’re gonna put in the kitchen, we’re gonna go, Hey, watch a YouTube video on how to cook something. And what it is, honestly, is the best picture frame ever. Because it just scrolls through our Google Photos, which actually is great, little overpriced for what it does, I can get one of those for cheaper.

But we’ve never really used it for that. And I’m like, I wish this thing in a really high quality speaker because we listen to Jim, it’s actually that first generation amazon echo that you and I both got way back in the day, that has still a pretty good audio to it. The big tube? No, I have that in my kitchen. And I want one of those. But higher quality everywhere. Because those dots are great too, because it allows you to do the control. But man, just some high quality speakers in those. I don’t care about a screen, I thought I would. So it’s good to know we have $200 I mean, they’re not cheap. But that’s still if it’s a great speaker, that could be reasonably cool.

Erin Lawrence  [53:31] 
I will say the show is great. I like the bigger one. I think it’s the 1010 inch size. But it’s great if you’ve got nest video cameras, because when somebody comes to your door and rings the bell, it actually automatically will pop it up on that screen for you, which is very convenient. I had one of my office for quite some time. I replaced it with a Google virgin recently just to do some other testing and stuff. But those are great as well.

Jim Collison  [53:57] 
How do you keep it all straight? You’re doing both Google nest stuff you’re doing kind of the Amazon Echo stuff. That’s

Erin Lawrence  [54:04] 
I have both all over the house. So don’t forget to turn them off some things I asked some things I asked Google for some things I asked a lady for. And yeah, yeah.

Jim Collison  [54:17] 
It’s it’s a problem. It’s a problem. We start I find I find these devices unplugged. And recently, my lights went wonky. And I could they’ve stopped working. And so I got to go back in and go to the app. This is the problem with testing and keeping some of this stuff is that you know, get some Philips Hue. I’ve got some covi I’ve got some casa. Max. Yeah. And you’re like, Okay, which crap which app was that? Oh, then I attached them to hubitat. So if I change the name of them, then I got to go to hubitat reattach them and I got to remember Okay, how do you do that and what drivers did I have installed to get that done like it’s just kind of a nightmare. So then it

Erin Lawrence  [54:59] 
went The reasons it pays to pick a system and stay with it. Yeah,

Jim Collison  [55:03] 
well, but but even that, like you think about the various generations of echo devices, do different things. So you kind of need to put them in certain places where like, okay, no, I need this one to do that. And so I’ve caught myself moving them around the house as well, like, Oh, no, no, when we got a show we wanted to show in the kitchen. So the first gen two got, like, downgraded to the bed doubt. It was like, Oh, you’re now in the bedroom. And it just sat there. Sadly, like, nobody uses me anymore. Right? I felt bad for it for a while. We’ve put the little pucks the second gen little pucks for things like setting in the bedrooms, things like setting alarms, things like, you know, I whisper in the morning,

Erin Lawrence  [55:49] 
doing the intercom with them.

Jim Collison  [55:51] 
Yes. Yeah, that’s another another great way. I’ve gotten into the habit of whispering what time it is. So instead of when I wake up, because I wake up super early before anybody else does just on my own because it’s stupid. And then I say, you know, say hey, put say her name. What time is it? And she’ll whisper which is super considerate. The show whisper Have you tried that yet? She’ll whisper the time back. No. Yeah, it’s creepy. It’s super creepy. I

Erin Lawrence  [56:19] 
will try that with my Echo Dot with clock tonight. Yeah. Tomorrow morning.

Jim Collison  [56:23] 
Yeah, just just whisper in the show. Whisper back.

Erin Lawrence  [56:27] 
Interesting. Okay.

Jim Collison  [56:28] 
Okay. Probably the reason I’m having trouble sleeping is because I’m drinking too much of this stuff called espresso. And I know like, like, I you know, I make a latte for myself first thing in the morning and then I drink three grand a size of my own brewed coffee that I’m making during the day. You know, I I grind the beans. I perk it. It’s super great coffee, but um, this you got to look at this Phillips 3200 latte go automatic espresso. I’m jealous. Tell me how good it was to say it was great.

Erin Lawrence  [57:03] 
It was great. It Coles notes version. It was really great. And Coles notes might only be a Canadian thing to Mike. I’m sorry.

Jim Collison  [57:13] 
Tim Hortons or

Erin Lawrence  [57:14] 
Cliff Notes. Yeah,

Mike Wieger  [57:16] 
exactly. Cliff Notes. Yes.

Erin Lawrence  [57:18] 
Okay, that Coles notes is definitely the Canadian version of that. Yeah, this machine. So fully automatic espresso machines are. They’re kind of a different beast. So you’ve got sort of your pod machines, which are sort of, you know, you need different kinds of pods or K cups or whatever to make the coffee. Fully Automatic espresso machines will make espresso shots and will often steam milk or heat milk or whatever. And they use your own coffee beans. So they grind the beans every time you make a drink. They tamp the coffee in the machinery inside, and then they extract the espresso shot. So I have owned a really fancy automatic espresso machine called a Jura for many years, I bought it off. They have a huge resale value. I bought it off somebody on Kijiji, which might also be another Canadian resale,

Jim Collison  [58:14] 
I think so. Yep.

Erin Lawrence  [58:16] 
Craigslist. Okay, there we go. The Canadian Craigslist, because we’re learning a lot about Canada. I like it.

Jim Collison  [58:23] 
I like it so friendly.

Erin Lawrence  [58:25] 
So I bought this machine used and it was still like I think brand new. They sell for about $2000 or $2500 bucks. They’re very pricey. But I love it. I use it at least a couple of times every day to make espresso shots. I’m not a huge latte drinker, I’ll have the occasional cappuccino. So it’s mainly for espresso for me. So I’ve had this sort of premium level machine for years that I’ve used. And then I read about this Philips 3200 latte go automatic espresso machine. And I thought you know, it’s probably not going to be very good. You know, it’s it’s about $900 Canadian.

Jim Collison  [59:01] 
I’m $30 American.

Erin Lawrence  [59:04] 
There you go. It’s free in America.

Jim Collison  [59:07] 
They pay us

Erin Lawrence  [59:09] 
I pay you to take them home. And I thought you know what, it’s it’s not going to be very good. And so I was able to get my hands on one for a couple of weeks. And I was absolutely blown away by the quality of it. The espresso is outstanding. It’s a lot more versatile than the Jura machine. It has a removable brew group is what the mechanics inside the machine are called with my Jura. I have to actually and I did this once take the whole machine apart, which you’re really not supposed to do I think it voids the warranty to clean it out. And you know if you have a problem with this one, it just pops out the side of the door. you rinse it under running water and pop it back in in your gallery.

Jim Collison  [59:50] 
That is so great. Oh, it’s so great. Yeah,

Erin Lawrence  [59:53] 
well and the the milk thing. So Jim, I think there’s a photo on there, but it’s got this sort of middle cup with a spout and you just fill it up to the line for how much milk you would need for your drink based on lattes or cappuccinos and clip it into the side of the machine, it’ll heat the milk up and then extract the milk into the coffee with different levels of foam actually found the foaming wasn’t super great on it. I like cappuccinos which are definitely supposed to be you know, a little bit of milk and a ton of foam. And it didn’t really deliver on those for me. But I mean, everything else was just outstanding.

Jim Collison  [1:00:34] 
Mm hmm. Okay, we’re quitting the show right now. Thanks for coming out. I

Erin Lawrence  [1:00:39] 
know you’re ordering a Phillips 3200 lots

Jim Collison  [1:00:42] 
that I’m going in. Well, and you know, I’m, I’m an Nespresso guy. So I you know, I bought an espresso machine. They’re super cheap. I buy the cups. They’re a buck each. It’s really really easy. I bought a cheap frother that I froth I have a routine, so I’m good. But are you

Mike Wieger  [1:00:58] 
finding dollar Nespresso pods? Because I have an espresso too. And they’re all super expensive?

Jim Collison  [1:01:01] 
No, no, just go to nespresso.com store. Man, I’m thinking the wrong ones. Apparently. Yeah, apparently, we can talk

Mike Wieger  [1:01:08] 
you and I will talk about this later. Okay.

Jim Collison  [1:01:10] 
Which is, which is terribly addicting because you know, you order 40 free shipping, so you just order them 40 at a time and Yeah. Um, but I’ve been, I’ve always kind of thought like I would really, really, really, really, really like to get a espresso maker. Again, I had one for a while. At the at the price point here. Now this is probably twice or three times as much as I paid for my last one. But it’s not, it’s probably half or a third of what you pay for the really expensive ones. Right? I mean, those are probably two or three grand. Well, this is 900. Canadian, so we’re probably at the 707 750 us probably for Something Wicked. We can look that up a little bit later. But just one

Erin Lawrence  [1:01:56] 
the best thing is that you can use your own coffee, I was just gonna say that’s gonna

Mike Wieger  [1:01:59] 
save you a ton of money right there. Just be able to put in any beans you want. And good, right? It looked like from the top you just dumping any beans and it’s gonna do it does the grinding and everything for you.

Erin Lawrence  [1:02:09] 
That’s gonna save your butt. And you can adjust that that’s all fully adjustable. So if you want the finer grind to get sort of the darker, more caffeinated richer I’m not quite sure right espresso you can do that. It’s Yeah.

Jim Collison  [1:02:23] 
The when I was at a Christians place two weeks ago, three weeks ago now and I was out in DC they actually have one that’s a drip but it will grind it for you. So it’s got a hopper it grinds it just the way you can set the strength what you like what kind of grind what kind of beans every set all that up. Then set a timer and in the morning, it’ll just automatically grind it up it and I’m not a big drip fan for coffee. I just never thought drip did very well. I’m a perk guy. I’ve got perk machines that do that I think make the best coffee in the world. And they’re not terribly expensive. In fact, my mom’s 50 year old stove top percolator. best coffee in the world. It’s unbelievable. How good it is. But when I saw this I thought this is this is super cool. Maybe I need to take a look again and and because I just kind of missed those. I make my own fake lattes using espresso. Pretty cool. You had to give it back. How sad Was it the day that it led left?

Erin Lawrence  [1:03:24] 
It was a really sad I was I would I’m still considering the Jura that I have is actually substantially bigger than that machine than the Philips machine. So I’m considering kind of downsizing in size anyway just to make a bit more room on the counter. And this one would fit the bill so I can I can find out if the used and reused Jura machine still has held its value on the Craigslist of Canada and see if I can get rid of that and then get the Phillips 3200 latte go.

Jim Collison  [1:03:58] 
I just like how you cater to us all the time. Appreciate that.

Erin Lawrence  [1:04:01] 
Hey, would translate right

Jim Collison  [1:04:03] 
there wouldn’t be hit stretcher wouldn’t be a show. We’re going to do a speed round in just a second here. But it wouldn’t be a show to talk about toothbrushes. You’re still

Erin Lawrence  [1:04:10] 
doing your favorite? Yeah, totally. Totally.

Jim Collison  [1:04:14] 
You looked at the Oral B iO Series 7 smart electric are they getting? Are they getting better? Have we have they reached a point where they’re like iPhones where they’re kind of okay kind of deal? Where Where are we at with smart toothbrushes this?

Erin Lawrence  [1:04:30] 
To some extent? Yes. So and that the smart toothbrushes keep on coming. And we’ve had this conversation before where I thought you know, there’s there’s one or two smart toothbrushes and then I started reviewing smart toothbrushes. And everybody sent me their smart toothbrush. So I’ve probably reviewed more toothbrushes more smart toothbrushes than most people in history. But with that said, Yeah, the technology. I would say in the last couple of years it doesn’t seem like it’s advanced a ton. One of the key Innovation is on the screen for those who can see it right now. But it’s got a digital display. So like a pictograph thick display, I guess. So it’ll show you the different cleaning modes, it’ll show you the battery life on this little screen. I mean, there are those who might say, Do I really need a digital screen on my toothbrush handle? And the answer is no. But you know, it’s handy and convenient.

It’s got this magnetic charging base, which keeps it charged up. One of the really cool features is it’s got this light ring, sort of around the collar or the neck of the toothbrush. And you can, you know, you can set it to be whatever color you want. But if you’re brushing too hard, it turns red. And if you’re brushing just right, it kind of stays the color that it should be. So I brush hard, my dentist is constantly giving me crap for that. So I actually found that was really helpful with this toothbrush. And then there’s some app connectivity. So this brush knows once you connected with the app, it actually knows which part of your mouth you’re brushing. So it tracks you and follows to make sure that you’re getting a thorough clean all the way around, which is kind of disturbing. But also helpful. The only thing is I didn’t

Jim Collison  [1:06:22] 
mean it bad.

Erin Lawrence  [1:06:22] 
Well, but here’s the thing, this is the thing. I liked a lot of things about it. I hate the brush heads. I hate the brush heads on the oral bi Oh, I’m sorry, or I’ll be I do. They’re, they’re kind of L shaped. So if you think about your toothbrush, it’s kind of a flat handle. And the little bristles sort of stick up out the end. With this one, it’s almost like the brush head is a lot smaller and rounder. So it covers a lot less real estate for starters. And it means you have to more deliberately, it feels any late anyway like you do, you have to more deliberately brush each individual tooth. And then the way the handle or the brush rather is configured. It’s really hard and I’m gonna have to make sure I don’t get overdubbed here for an adult film, but you’ve really got to insert it in just the right way. Yes, yes. And it gets caught kind of in your cheek when you’re moving it around if you’re not, you know, sure. And it just it wasn’t it wasn’t comfortable and my big complaint was I can’t just mindlessly brush my teeth with it. I can’t just you know as we do we’re doing other things we’re getting ready for bed getting ready for work, things are going on your teeth get brushed and then you move on with your day. I think that’s part of the point with this is that you need to be a lot more mindful when you’re brushing your teeth. And that’s the point but I did I didn’t like the brush heads on this I liked a lot of other things about it I didn’t care for the brush heads

Jim Collison  [1:07:55] 
Okay, I think enough said everybody like Collison get away from the toothbrushes change everything time you have Erin I just I’m always amazed like that these these they’ve spent a lot of money on these things right I mean, somebody for somebody must be buying them from to keep martyrs to thing

Mike Wieger  [1:08:14] 
Jim loves hellofresh and toothbrushes.

Erin Lawrence  [1:08:18] 
You haven’t subscribed to toothbrushes now to write like the burst brushes. We’ll just keep it coming every month you get new brush heads or every three months I guess it probably is but

Jim Collison  [1:08:28] 
well it is it’s the must be the must be selling Erin.

As we kind of wrap this before we get to our kind of talk about the beers the the Oktoberfest beers that we did is you come up on Black Friday, you’ve got you’ve kind of done a black friday a post, so to speak in kind of quickly as you look at it some of the things you’ve put out there what what are you most excited about? Or what do you kind of lean towards when we talked about so Gosh, but But what do you like it? Yeah.

Erin Lawrence  [1:08:56] 
I’m really loving the Philips smartsleep connected sleep wake light, which is a it gives you a simulated sunrise to wake up to and a simulated sunset if you need some help falling asleep. It’s it’s a really cool alarm clock, the newest version of this one since the last time I tried this product. The last time it was you had to program it on the device. And it was a very complicated sequence of buttons and this weird tapping sequence to get it to work. The new version is so much better. There’s an app that works on your smartphone, you take care of everything on the phone. It’s all instant it carries through Love it. Love waking up with that simulated late and the sound of birds in the forest waking me up. It’s so gentle. So that’s a definitely

Jim Collison  [1:09:43] 
I think you gotta brush your teeth and it ruins the whole thing and

Erin Lawrence  [1:09:47] 
then you have the espresso and just wonder wonderful day is in my house right now. So I think that’s a really great gift, especially if you’ve got someone who you know has trouble waking up or it’s a bit of an insult The ACC I think it’s a really a great product. I’ve been trying out some skincare gadgets, I tried out something called a microcurrent facial device, which is the foreo. Or for radio bear device, a microcurrent facial device delivers tiny electric shocks gentlemen into your face while you rub it around on your skin. And it’s kind of designed to tighten your pores to give you I guess, a more youthful appearance. So I used that for a few weeks and really felt like I got some cool results with it. So I’ve been continuing to use that. Gosh, there’s I mean, technology’s never been cheaper. And it’s never been better. I mean, there, there was definitely a couple year period of time where I think I was testing out gadgets, and I was having to constantly call companies out for poor setup sequences, things that just didn’t work features that were supposed to be part of it that just didn’t function properly. And anymore. I mean, gadgets are great nowadays. I mean, pretty much everything works as it should. Any problem you have in your house, there’s a way to solve it with technology, so and everything continues to get cheaper and go on sale with things like Black Friday in the holidays. So there’s never been a better time to tackifier like,

Jim Collison  [1:11:17] 
unless you’re buying an iPhone, let’s just be really, really mad at Achiever.

Erin Lawrence  [1:11:22] 
There are a lot of the smartphones are still very expensive with the exception of those pixel phones.

Jim Collison  [1:11:27] 
Before we wrap it let me do a little PSA. Gentlemen do not buy these for you for your significant other at Christmas time. These are not this isn’t the kind of tech Mike. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Erin, so what I’m showing are vacuum Dyson, the 11 cordless stick vacuums that you got to review. Erin the picture I’m showing, Okay, it looks like it looks pretty ham, you know, like oh, okay, that’s kind of manageable. And then I see it in the picture with you that thinks.

Erin Lawrence  [1:12:00] 
Right, it is massive. There’s Dyson has two versions of the V 11. There is the V 11 absolute, which is kind of a smaller and more compact version. And then they came out several months, maybe a year later with the outsize and the differences meant to be that I think they’re trying to get at people that want to get rid of their full size vacuums. But sort of need something to still bridge the gap between you know, the small compact size. So the V 11 out size has a much bigger bin. It’s got a much bigger cleaning head. It comes with two batteries. So you get twice the battery power instead of the one battery. So it’s designed they say for you know, North American homes that have a lot more carpet. Um, yeah, so I mean, it’s it’s pretty cool. Yeah, probably not a good idea to buy it for someone unless they’re really asking for

Jim Collison  [1:12:53] 
one. Why do you need one you need? That’s when you buy Are you

Erin Lawrence  [1:12:56] 
are you really need one? Yeah.

Jim Collison  [1:12:59] 
No, super good. Well, how? How excited? Are you for Christmas? No. Erin, are you the kind like in the United States? We started celebrating Christmas. The first like it the right November 1 kicks in. Same thing for you guys up there in Canada. more reasonable and wait till December?

Erin Lawrence  [1:13:19] 
No. Well, I mean, the stores like you know, as often as soon as the Halloween candy is gone like that the Christmas stuff comes out. But I find for the most part in Canada. We wait until December 1, though, I will say I noticed just the other day that a lot of people in our neighborhood are putting up the Christmas lights and turning them on. We’ve seen a lot more Christmas trees in the front windows right now. A full month before most people will do it. And I think that’s because you know, we’re all homebound. we’re bored and we need something to look forward to. So people are like, why not? Double the Christmas season? Let’s make it two months instead of one. We have nothing else to do.

Jim Collison  [1:13:56] 
Yeah. Oh, Mike, your we can’t hear you. Hold on. Yeah, I

Mike Wieger  [1:14:00] 
was gonna say, I would think you guys would even have Thanksgiving because like, our argument here is like, Hey, give Thanksgiving it’s due right? Like don’t start November because we still have Thanksgiving. You guys might as well still start celebrating right after Halloween there. Absolutely.

Erin Lawrence  [1:14:15] 
Yeah. And we’re probably gonna do it this year.

Jim Collison  [1:14:18] 
There you go. I my daughter sent a calendar and it had all of November except the four days of Thanksgiving. Those were circled in a box. And then from November 1 to December 31. It was all Christmas. So it’s like Christmas, Christmas. Thanksgiving Christmas. Yeah. in there. So we got a lot of things coming up. By the way. I bought that $9 echo device that’s gonna go up in the garage. So that’ll be it. Come

Erin Lawrence  [1:14:44] 
on. You are cheating on us.

Jim Collison  [1:14:46] 
I did I yeah, your

Erin Lawrence  [1:14:47] 
online shopping while we’re doing the podcast.

Jim Collison  [1:14:50] 
I did. your writing. It’ll

Erin Lawrence  [1:14:53] 
be in the chat room.

Jim Collison  [1:14:55] 
You caught me. I just I felt so betrayed when you were in the chat. room. I thought we were on a break. We’re on a break. Oh, there’s a good friend’s reference. Mike, we got the chance to, to drink the last 40 Hunter. That’s what we’ve been doing during the show. It’s an Oktoberfest. What do you think is really good?

Mike Wieger  [1:15:18] 
That was really good. That was actually something. Yeah, you know, and I didn’t. I thought about color Oktoberfest. Would you? Like that, to me tasted almost more like an I don’t know the way to describe it. It’s two really good beer, I guess is the way I would describe it. But I wouldn’t call it to Oktoberfest maybe a little bit. Maybe that’s what I liked about it. Because Oktoberfest I’m a fan of generally, but not like, Oh, it’s my favorite time of season. You guys all know and we’ve talked about it too. Joseph Gaffey told me already shiner holiday Cheers. My favorite beer. And that’s what I usually drink. And so no, this was really good, though.

Jim Collison  [1:15:56] 
Yeah, well, that’s shiner holiday cheer is kind of almost peachy like yeah,

Mike Wieger  [1:16:00] 
fruity. Really smooth apricot, right.

Jim Collison  [1:16:03] 
Yeah, I kind of found this to be like usually Oktoberfests tastes like medicine sometimes to me Are they tastes like metal. And you’re like Sam Adams. Not not that great. Right Oktoberfest same way. This was actually just really smooth and delicious. I mean,

Mike Wieger  [1:16:19] 
I mean, I wouldn’t call it an Oktoberfest.

Jim Collison  [1:16:22] 
This is my fifth or sixth Oktoberfest for the year. And up until this point, I was kind of like, you know, maybe I’m not gonna drink Oktoberfest anymore. Because I just couldn’t find a really good one line. And Google’s maybe would be the closest that I found the that that. That but even that’s a little bite here. This you had some really smooth, but this would be a good sit out on the patio around a fire on a cold all night. Right. So yeah, Joe, thanks for sending those to you. Again. That’s a lost 40 Hunter is what the it’s I think it’s called the hunter. And it’s actually a really good pero they say bratwurst on the on the label and what would be delicious with a bratwurst. How’s the band of speaking of that? How’s the van life gone? You guys get out just get out quite a bit this summer? Probably not right. COVID

Erin Lawrence  [1:17:13] 
not a ton. I mean, we didn’t have a ton of opportunity with the pandemic and stuff. But our new van is, let’s see, it’s about 80%. Done. We were waiting for a bunch of parts. I mean, it was a terrible year to get any kind of parts or electronics or mechanical stuff. So we were delayed pretty hugely through the spring and part of the summer. We’ve got most of the things in the new van and the new van build in place and just really have some finishing work to do. So we’re kind of hoping we can take it on a bit of a winter trip because this one has a heater in it, which we’re super excited about. But yeah, I’m holding out for next year was a bit of a bust this year, like probably a lot of other people experienced but there’s always next year.

Jim Collison  [1:18:00] 
Did you end up putting this monitor in the in the van is that so you guys

Erin Lawrence  [1:18:07] 
know the 32 inch 4k ultra fine LG or go display on her? No, it was awesome on my desk. And I was like, Damn Do I have to send this one back, really. But it’s got this cool kind of mounting bracket that will clip to the base of your desk. And so it gets your monitor like right up and off your desk. And with the widescreen and the 4k, I mean for video editing and all the content production that I do. It was a dream. But it is pricey. I think it’s around today. look this up for you guys. It’s around six or 700 bucks. So it’s not

Jim Collison  [1:18:43] 
too bad for a monitor. Although monitors and TVs have gotten cheap you’ve done. I think for folks, if they haven’t checked you out on YouTube for your TV reviews, you’ve done a ton of TVs, right?

Erin Lawrence  [1:18:54] 
Yes, most recently an 85 inch Sony 4k TV, which I did not actually have furniture big enough for this TV. So I and I said I had to say this in my review. I had to put it on the floor. And I’m like, I know, I know. I know. This is not ideal, but I can’t go out and buy furniture just for the two weeks while I’m borrowing this TV to review it. So that’s huge. You have that up that you have that review up. Yeah, I did that for Best Buy Canada so it’s up on the blog.bestbuy.ca if anybody does want to check it out, it was really nice TV. Really, really cool.

Jim Collison  [1:19:29] 
Generally they want to go out to tech gadgets with an S right tech.

Erin Lawrence  [1:19:33] 
Canada. Yes. Yes, please, please do.

Jim Collison  [1:19:36] 
Erin hang around for a little bit of post show. Without a remind folk we have a meet up. Meet MEAT meetup coming this weekend. Get back into this mode here. Why I’m showing you the shownotes we got to meetup comm again and of course it starts at Saturday 8am Central, so if you want to join us, there’s still spaces to be able to get that done. You kind of need to be listening live because I doubt I’m gonna have this show. Go out by Saturday morning, when we start to do this.

But if you’re listening live and love to join us for the meetup, send me an email Jim at the average guy.tv. And I will get you in there as well. A reminder that the average guy TV powered by Maple Grove Partners get secure, reliable, high speed hosting from people that you know and trust. In course, you know, that’s Christian, he’s doing some fabulous work. If you need any hosting plans start as little as $10. Erin, that’s a secret to By the way, he’d love to help everything that you’re doing. So when it’s convenient, whatever, let us know. We can take care of you there as well. But you can if you if you’re not using hover, you can go out to http://theaverageguy.tv/hover, get $2 off your first domain, and then get some of the best service in the world. So I have been using them for the last, I think 10 or 12 years. It’s been a long time and you can to http://theaverageguy.tv/hover and then Andrew Morris is coming back for the 10 year anniversary. Mike, you don’t even know that name because he was on the show originally. back then. We started 10 years ago. So the December 3 show. Thursday, December 3 10 year anniversary of Home Gadget Geeks Anders coming back. Christians coming back, working on John Zadler to come back. Wieger will be here. I’ll be here we’ll all reminisce about 10 years of Home Gadget Geeks or Hometech is what I originally called it when we first when we first did it. Yeah, but celebrate that December 3. So we’re excited to do that. We would love for you to join us live even if you never do it. Yeah. Cheers. let’s let’s let’s Yeah, Cheers to that was

Erin Lawrence  [1:21:27] 
something very

Jim Collison  [1:21:28] 
well done. And we’d love to have you come out and join that live show. I don’t ask for you. I mean, tell you what it is but don’t ask that often. Join us live Thursday, December 3 8pm central.tv slash live we’d love to have you on the chat room. We got one of the best chat rooms in the world. So which apparently Erin found out about tonight. Cheese. We were on a break. We are live every Thursday 8pm Central nine Eastern under http://TheAverageGuy.TV/live if you’re listening live we’ll do a little bit of a post show. With that. We’ll say goodbye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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