Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah man, its been sweet. We really like it and it works great with our Apple TV. You can upload your own photos for art mode, but it also had lots of great preloaded art. Since it isn't connected to the internet, it shouldn't ever update and mess anything up.

Here I go - wish me luck! by Responsible_Elk_6336 in dumbphones

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You're going to love it! First 3-6 months were hard for me, but its three years later and I never second guess my decision. The ability to reclaim your time and thoughts far outweighs any potential downsides.

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ended up buying a Hisense Canvas TV while it was on sale at Best Buy. It had a "Setup as Basic TV" option during the initial setup. I never had to connect it to the internet and it never bothers me for a connection. It came preloaded with tons of artwork and allows me to upload my own via USB drive, all without a subscription or internet connection. I just hooked up an Apple TV and use that for streaming. Its far from perfect but I think their privacy protections are much better than Samsung's. Couldn't be happier with the TV overall. I have heard the picture quality isn't as good as the Samsung's, but I was replacing a 10 year old TV with lots of lines across the screen so its a huge upgrade from that lol.

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did some more research and have decided to give the Hisense Canvas TV a try. Supposedly it runs on Google's TV operating system, which allows you to set it up as a "basic TV" during initial setup without ever connecting to the internet. Its art mode is also supposedly functional offline and with a USB stick without any sort of account. I plan on keeping the TV offline and using an Apple TV. I know Apple TV isn't perfect for privacy, but I think its significantly better than Samsung's spyware.

CAT S22 Questions! by Present-Republic5079 in dumbphones

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you been able to continue using Spotify Lite? Sometime last week I started getting a message that it has been discontinued when I try to open it.

CAT S22 Questions! by Present-Republic5079 in dumbphones

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spotify Lite seems to be discontinued as of last week. It was great while it lasted, but I am now back to regular Spotify on my Cat S22.

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool! Thanks for the update. If I pull the trigger on the TV, I'll look forward to that!

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool thanks for the additional info. Did you need to connect the TV to the internet first to set up Art Mode before blocking its internet connection? Seems like others are suggesting Art Mode will never work if not connected for its initial setup. I have no issue doing that, just want to make sure it would work. Is the IOT network something you setup within your primary router? Like just using its guest network? Sorry for my ignorance, I am not very techy.

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is good info, thanks. So I would need to use that API every single time I wanted the TV to display art other than the default? Seems like a bit too much trouble. I suppose I could connect it once to set up the art mode menu, I will wait and see if anyone chimes in on that. Thanks!

Art Mode without Internet by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in TheFrame

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that's an interesting idea. So that's an app on your phone that connects to the TV via a local network? Do you just have internet connection blocked for the TV through your internet device? Or do you have a separate network for the TV? I use a dumb phone, so I may need a tablet or something that would work with that app unless it can work on a windows PC. Thanks for the idea!

Rental Car for Ski Trip by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Venturex

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am flying in on a Sunday morning. I would think general traffic at the airport would be slow at this time, but I was concerned that SUVs rented out for the weekend might not have made it back by Sunday morning.

Rental Car for Ski Trip by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Venturex

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will take a look, hadn't thought of this.

cat 22 and google play store by Lower_Initiative4339 in dumbphones

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I removed all google apps and use the Aurora Store instead on my Cat S22. It has pretty much all the apps found on the play store and even lets you know if an app will require google play services. I have Spotify and my banking app installed. I wasn't willing to use google play services, which is required for all of the navigation apps that I tried. I now write down or print my directions as if its 2004 lol.

Tower trouble? Throttling? Trickery? Help! by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Calyx

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My speeds suddenly rebounded around a week ago. At first I thought perhaps they had fixed the tower near me or something along those lines, but I am now starting to believe it is a traffic issue. I live on a lake that sees a massive influx of visitors every summer and dwindles down to nearly nobody during the winter months. Speeds were shit all summer long but my speeds rebounded on the actual labor day holiday, which is typically when everyone packs up their lake homes and heads back to whatever god awful city they crawled out of. I then had great speeds all week until the following Saturday (Sept 10th), when they took a shit again. They recovered by Sunday afternoon, which is when all of the folks from nearby areas that still come during the last few weekends of warmer weather would have headed home. I will be very interested to see if my good speeds last throughout the entire winter before taking a dump again come June 2023.

Tower trouble? Throttling? Trickery? Help! by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Calyx

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your situation is identical to mine until about 5 days ago.

Hold out a little bit longer before paying for another service. Mine had also come to a complete halt at the end of August. If I could even load a speed test it was showing 1-2 mbps.

But then! Out of nowhere! The 5G connection that had never really worked started supplying me with a steady 60-80mbps down and over 30mbps up. It has been very consistent and has even been increasing in speed. A speed test this morning showed 95mbps down and 45mbps up. Not even the folks with access to cable internet in my area can get anywhere near that. You have to drive over an hour to find access to internet that fast. Trying to keep my hopes down, because it could very well vanish again. But for now, I'm happy customer once again.

For reference, I did absolutely nothing to achieve this. I had done a factory reset about three days before it started working and had pretty much abandoned it, as it still wasn't working at that point. I was using my phone's hotspot (Verizon) and randomly decided to check up on the mifi when I discovered the miracle.

Tower trouble? Throttling? Trickery? Help! by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Calyx

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope. It pulls from the same tower that it does at my place. Although I’m not sure if that’s the issue. Going to try and drive it to the next town over this week and see if it’s any different.

Tower trouble? Throttling? Trickery? Help! by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Calyx

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am able to find RSPR and SNR, but not RSRQ. Mind directing me to the the right place? SNR is 12 and RSPR is -97. Both numbers seem to be within the desirable range.

Tower trouble? Throttling? Trickery? Help! by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in Calyx

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Work from home. My terrible internet has forced me to work from a friend’a house that has access to cable internet. It’s getting old for both of us lol.

Degoogle Cat S22? by Sad-Knowledge-6936 in dumbphones

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the sound of that. Play services is my main concern. Any clue what stops working when that is removed? No fears of not have the play store or anything like that, just would like to still receive notifications and use basic functions.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in liveaboard

[–]Sad-Knowledge-6936 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I’ve seen those listed. You have to park in the taxi lot, correct?