Archive for April 27, 2018

Microsoft Avoids Embarrassment By Announcing That Windows 10 April 2018 Update Will Ship April 30th.

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 27, 2018 by itnerd

I guess that ether the reports of the Windows 10 April 2018 update shipping on May 8th were wrong, or Microsoft decided to move it up to April 30th to avoid the embarrassment of shipping the April 2018 update in May. Either way, the April 30th date for the shipping of the April 2018 update was announced today.

Here is a quick rundown of the new features you can expect in the April 2018 Update:

  • Timeline: Search through all the activities you performed up to 30 days ago to find what you were working on, including apps, files, and websites. You can also pick up what you were doing on your Android or iOS device, as long as you were signed into your Microsoft account while using Edge or Office 365.
  • Focus Assist: Turn this on whenever you want to get things done without distractions, like social media, email, or other notifications — you can even set it to turn on automatically at certain times during the day, or make exceptions for people that you’re waiting to hear from. When you’ve finished, you’ll receive a summary of what came through.
  • Edge: Microsoft’s browser has also received some features for helping you focus. There’s now an audio icon for muting and unmuting tabs (but no autoplay blocking), a full-screen reading experience (for books, PDFs, and Reading View pages), autofill on web payment forms, a clutter-free printing option, and a Grammar Tools button to enable comprehension aids.
  • Dictation: You can now take a note, or write a paper, with just your voice. Place your cursor in any text field, hit Win+H, and start talking.
  • Cortana: Manage your smart home right from your PC using just your voice. Supported devices include Ecobee, Honeywell, and the Nest Learning thermostat.

Besides all of that, there’s simplified IT management tools for enterprise customers, improvements to Photos and Windows Mixed Reality, better security, and PC gaming enhancements. None of which most of you will care about. Well, maybe you might care about the better security part. But details weren’t given so who knows.

Tune in on Monday just after 1PM EST for the rollout of the now on-time Windows 10 April 2018 update.

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Nonda’s Smart Tire Safety Monitor Troubles Aren’t Going Away

Posted in Commentary on April 27, 2018 by itnerd

I had sort of checked out of the troubles that Nonda was having with their Smart Tire Safety Monitor System where the external sensors were getting stuck due to galvanic corrosion. I’ve written several stories on this topic since I came across the issue, but now I’m adding one more to the mix thanks to a tip from a reader who directed me to one of the threads on the Nonda Community Forum that documents this issue where I saw this (click to enlarge):

new nonda

I can only assume that there are two possibilities. Either this guy didn’t apply enough grease or use the right grease. Specifically dielectric grease. Or the dielectric grease doesn’t stop the galvanic corrosion from happening. The former is user error, but still problematic from a Nonda perspective because the blame will be directed at Nonda regardless of what the facts are. The latter is a huge problem for Nonda if that’s true. It’s not clear which side of the fence this falls under and I don’t believe that a definitive answer will ever come on that front. But it does merit observation to see if there are any other reports of this. And hopefully if there are, Nonda takes action to mitigate it for their entire customer base.

Another reader pointed me to Amazon where Nonda has an average of 3.6 stars for the Smart Tire Safety Monitor. But when you dig deeper, you’ll see this (click to enlarge):

amazon

So 37% of the reviews are 5 stars. And 18% are 4 stars. But they have about 37% 1 and 2 star reviews. If you look at that through the lens of customer sentiment using a “top box” methodology, and make the assumption that 4 and 5 star reviews are your “top box” which are people who are positive or very positive about your product, 3 stars are your “middle box” who are people who are neutral about your product (which means that they can swing towards the “top box” or “bottom box”), and 1 and 2 stars are your “bottom box” which are people who hate or really hate your product, you see that you have a significant camp of people who are not favorable about this product. And another camp who could go in either direction. That’s not good if you’re Nonda. Also of note, you’ll see that people on Amazon are reporting issues with the product beyond galvanic corrosion. That too is not good for Nonda.

This whole situation is really heading to a place that may not end well with Nonda. I suspect that even if they come up with something that remedies these issues, it may not be enough to save this product from going into the dustbin of history. I hope for their sake that I am wrong about this, but at the moment, this isn’t looking too good.

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Review: 2018 Hyundai Accent GLS Sedan – Part 5

Posted in Products with tags on April 27, 2018 by itnerd

So I’ve come to the end of my week long review of the 2018 Hyundai Accent GLS sedan and I walk away from this review very, very impressed. It drives, looks and feels for the most part like a vehicle that is way above the sub-compact class at a price point that’s in line the that class. It’s main competitors are going to be the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Kia Rio, and Ford Fiesta. But the Accent is likely going to rise above those vehicles.

My final fuel economy was 8.1 L/100KM’s which is pretty impressive considering that I made liberal use of the 1.6L engine’s torque while driving in a mix of city roads and highways, not to mention rush hour traffic, and it had winter tires which is usually Kryptonite to fuel economy.

The 2018 Hyundai Accent starts at $14,599. The GLS trim level that I drove this week goes for $21,099. I should also note that there’s a hatchback version available that looks equally as good as the sedan version.

Quite simply Hyundai has nailed it with the Accent GLS. If you’re in the market for a sub-compact vehicle, head to your nearest Hyundai dealer and test drive one. I guarantee you that you will likely be driving away with an Accent.

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How To Move Your E-Mail And Contacts Off The Rogers Yahoo/Oath E-Mail Platform

Posted in Commentary with tags , on April 27, 2018 by itnerd

Because of the change of the terms of service of the Yahoo/Oath e-mail platform that Rogers uses, I have been asked how can users move off that platform because of the privacy issues that have been uncovered. I can tell you that it does take some work, but it is possible for the average person to move off that platform by downloading e-mails and contacts.

Let’s start with the contacts as that’s easy:

  • In Rogers Yahoo Mail, click the Contacts icon .
  • Click Actions | select Export.
  • Select a format to export (if you’re unsure, I recommend Yahoo CSV).
  • Click Export now.

This will download your contacts to a file that you could use to import into an e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook or some e-mail service like Gmail. Next you want to delete your contacts by doing the following:

  • Go to contacts and check the select all check box. Yahoo displays the number of contacts selected in the right side panel.
  • “Delete Contacts”

Now to the hard part which is to download the e-mail. You’ll need an e-mail client to pull this off and I recommend Mozilla Thunderbird as that will download and save your emails in MBOX format. You then have to set it up to download all your email. General instructions on setting up Mozilla can be found here with options for setting things up manually and automatically. You may need the server settings for Rogers which are:

Incoming Server imap.broadband.rogers.com or imap.nl.rogers.com
Incoming Port 993
SSL Yes
POP Authentication Email address: Enter your full Rogers Yahoo! email address
Username: Enter your full Rogers Yahoo! email address
Password: You’ll need to create an app password in the Rogers Member Centre.
Outgoing Server smtp.broadband.rogers.com or smtp.nl.rogers.com
Outgoing Port 465
SSL Yes
SMTP Authentication Email address: Enter your full Rogers Yahoo! email address
Username: Enter your full Rogers Yahoo! email address
Password: You’ll need to create an app password in the Rogers Member Centre.

You will have to likely create an app password to make this work. Here’s how you do it.

  1. Go to the Rogers Member Centre sign-in page.
  2. Enter the Rogers Yahoo! email address and password for the account you’d like to create an app password for, then select Next.
  3. Mobile: Select the menu icon ( Menu icon ) in the top-left corner, then select Account Information.
    Desktop: Select Account Information in the top-right of your browser window.
  4. Select Authorized Applications.
  5. In the Name your password field, label your app password with the name of the email program it’s for, then select Generate. A pop-up containing a randomly generated app password will appear.
  6. Write down the password or copy it to your clipboard.
  7. Enter this password during your email set-up when prompted. When finished, select Done in the pop-up.

You can download all the mail once everything is set up. It snags everything in your inbox and outbox along with any other folders that you might have in your e-mail account. From there to export your mail, I would suggest that you use this Mozilla Thunderbird add on to make it easy to export your mails in MBOX format. That way you can import it into another e-mail program.

Once you export your e-mail, you can use Thunderbird to delete it all from the Yahoo/Oath servers. Because as I said here, you want to delete your e-mail and contacts to keep Yahoo/Oath from reading your e-mail.

Give this a shot and leave a comment to let me know how it goes.

 

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It’s Official… Apple Is Out Of The Wireless Networking Business

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 27, 2018 by itnerd

A while back, as in November 2016, I wrote about word that Apple was planning to stop its AirPort line of wireless networking gear by disbanding the group who built them. Fast forward to today and it’s no official according to 9to5Mac:

Apple is officially exiting the wireless router business and selling off its remaining inventory of AirPort products. This includes the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and both models of AirPort Time Capsule.

I have to say that it’s disappointing, but not a shock. The writing was on the wall since November 2016 when I wrote that original article. But I have to admit that while their wireless networking gear was expensive, it was good. I don’t think that anyone that’s making wireless gear now could touch the quality and simplicity that Apple put into their wireless gear. As an aside, Apple could port that quality over to their other products as that’s clearly lacking at the moment. But I digress. If you own Apple’s wireless networking gear, there’s no need to rush out and by replacement hardware today unless the gear your gear is on this list as being vintage or obsolete as I expect firmware updates to fix bugs and security issues to still be available. But perhaps you might want to start thinking about what your next networking gear purchase is going to be so that you’re not in a panic if it dies or support gets pulled by Apple.

UPDATE: Apple has just posted this support document on their website that speaks to how to choose a wireless router for your Apple gear.

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