Yearly (LOL) update!

OK,  I've neglected this page, I'll admit, but there are some new toys I've received.

But first, my last post mentioned that I got an LG V60.  

How is it?  It's a great phone!  I also love the dual screen (I got that via the promotional offer).  It's camera is awesome.  I was able to capture some pictures of Neowize with it (the pictures were without a tripod, so there's some motion that was captured).  My wife also bought me a Bamboo pen for it.  Oh, and we now have 5G (we're on the edge of range)...when it works, it works well.

The bad?  The dual screen sometimes glitches out.  Since the dual screen isn't under warranty, I'm SOL with that.  Another con is that the dual screen's back is made of glass...WTF were they thinking?  There are many folks who have cracked or shattered their dual screen, and apparently, it doesn't take much effort to damage the glass.  The phone itself has a nagging issue of the screen not always staying dark when I have it between my shoulder and head.  What ends up happening is my ear ends the call or dials someone else, or puts the phone on speaker mode...whatever icon my ear touches will activate that feature.

I still love the phone, though.

For Christmas 2020, I got a monocular (Gosky 12x55 HD) that I plan to use for star gazing.  It has a tripod mount as well as a part that will mate my smartphone to it, so that I can take pictures with the phone.

Another Christmas present was another head-tracking system, the Delanclip Fusion with the LED clip.  For now, I'm just going to use the LED clip with my TrackIR setup (it appears to track more accurately than the passive hat clip I have).

For working from home during the Coronavirus pandemic, I bought a Samsung 34" UltraWQHD monitor that's 21:9!  I also bought a Skull Candy Venue headset, for work.  Work actually paid for that equipment (I bought and they reimbursed).

Also, this week, I found that my mouse was dying.  I've heavily used it the past 4-5 years as a gaming mouse.  It is the Logitech G700 (the original one, not the S model).  The primary left button works intermittently, which is sad because I love the G700 so much.  It's been acting up awhile now, and I bought an G700S two years ago in case the G700 died on me, so I've been using both.  

Now that the G700 died, I bought a new mouse to replace it, although I'll admit right now that I'm not liking this mouse.  

The replacement mouse is the Logitech G502 Hero.  There's a variant of the G502 that is $140!!  I wanted it but did not want to pay $140 for a freaking mouse, so I compromised and bought the Hero version.  

There are some things I had to compromise on (even compared to the G700):  

• My G502 is not a wireless mouse. Since I rarely used the wireless feature on the G700, I was OK with having a wired mouse.  
• The G502 has 11 programmable buttons, which I think is similar to the G700.  
• What's cool is that I can add weight or lessen the weight of the mouse, as it comes with metal ballast pieces.  
• This mouse also mated fully with G HUB, which the G700 would not do.  

What do I not like about the new mouse?  The scroll button.  I like the option of a notched scroll button (the G700 has this).  This mouse also has the option of a notch-less scroll button (the G700 has that, too).  The notched feature feels like a caveman designed it....it's lumpy as gravel lot (and noisy when it's used, too).

I'll continue to use the mouse, though, as I think it's an OK compromise in price and design.

A good comparison of these two mice is here.

I'd love a metal mouse, though...I'm tired of all the plastic, cheesy, and cheap mice.  That's why I didn't want to spend $140 on a mouse...that's some expensive plastic.  Metal is also recyclable...plastic is eco-friendly nor is it recyclable.  And, with a metal mouse, there's be less of a need for adding additional weight.

I'll try to be better at updating this page.

Fathers Day - LG V60

My wife asked me what I wanted for Fathers Day.  I told her I wanted another handgun.  She didn't bite.  Instead, she suggested a new phone.  I'd been using an LG V30 the past 3 years.  It's been working fine.  Before then, I'd used an LG V20.

What'd I get this time?  An LG V60.  Verizon is my carrier.

I'd wondered if the V60 would come with the dual screen case.  It does not (although you can purchase it separately if your carrier is AT&T.  I'd read that you could get a promotional offer of the dual screen case but no literature came with the phone that stated it.  I had to hunt it down on the internet.  Even then, the URLs were bad...it took me a while to find a functional URL that would let me submit for the dual screen case.  I submitted for it the same day I bought it (3 days ago).  It will take 4-6 weeks for me to receive it.

The phone is definitely an upgrade for me.  Everything about it is better (not that I had any major complaints on the V30).  The speakers are far better than the one on the V30.  The camera is better.  The V30's screen is better (but smaller).

I bought a cheap clear gel case for the V60.  I'll use it when I'm not using the dual screen case.

One thing about the dual screen case that I see people complaining about is the fragile front of the case (when closed).  It's made of glass.  While it will protect the phone, it destroys itself in the process.  I hear that LG will replace broken glass for you for $35.  That's not bad.  It would be better if they refined the case by making the front cover plastic instead, though.

I also have an active stylus coming (a Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus).

It also syncs well with my Samsung Galaxy watch (I didn't have an issue with the V30 connecting to it, either).

The V60 is a 5G phone and I don't live anywhere near a location that has 5G (closest area is Pentagon City and DC area).

The phone also is using Android 10, which is new to me.

One thing I have to get used to is using gestures instead of the home row keys that are usually at the bottom of the screen (home key, back key).  I can disable gestures to regain access to the home row keys but I thought I'd try to use the gestures for a bit to see if I can learn something new.  If I don't like it, I can always go back to what I'm used to.

I'll probably give the V30 to my son.  I've to remove the 256 GB microSD card first (he doesn't need that) and then ensure that my Google Authenticator entries have been migrated to my new phone.