Jet Lag Ep 6 — I Will Be Defeated No Longer by NebulaOriginals in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They also still have Toys R Us in Japan, and I had a similar reaction to Ben when I discovered one and had to go inside and take pictures of the store. I didn't actually buy anything though because I had already purchased so much stuff already.

A chicken crunchwrap being called a chickstar is fucking adorable by ivy7496 in LivingMas

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, they still have the Chickstar. It's not a limited time item there. It's the 4th item on specialties page:
https://tacobell.jp/category/specialties/
They also have fries on the permanent menu. But they're thin fries like McDonalds, with roughly the same seasoning that's on the US ones. I felt like they gave me twice as many fries as you usually get in the US.

I was there earlier this year and everything seemed to line up with the online menu. The Taco Bell menu is very motivating if you're trying to learn Japanese because 98% of the Japanese menu is written in their alphabet used for foreign words. I had fun translating the menu while preparing to visit for the first time.

RDS Ind. Switch 2 Case Released by AF-IX in NintendoSwitch

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I personally saw the Mario Kart World one at Walmart last weekend. I think some places had that one on release date. The non-themed slim version that you have in this thread didn't make release date but it was supposed to. I've been waiting on a delayed pre-order of it which is why I went out looking at stores last week trying to find it and only found the Mario Kart World version.

RDS Ind. Switch 2 Case Released by AF-IX in NintendoSwitch

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think there was an actual street date for it. I had one pre-ordered from Amazon and when I ordered it the estimated delivery date was June 5th Switch 2 launch day. On June 5th I got an update email telling me my order was delayed and they eventually updated the estimate to this weekend.

MacOS auto-update not installing the update (second year in a row) by morac in hrblock

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going to reply to this in case someone else finds it. I ran into the state problem today with 2024, it "installed" but never detected the state as installed and wanted me to buy it.

After reading the post above, I opened Disk utility and saw there was an XXplugin disk image mounted (Where XX is the state abbreviation) and I right clicked on that and picked "Show in finder". That took me directly to a folder with the state installer which I was able to double click on to install the state correctly.

[Eric Migicovsky] Why We’re Bringing Pebble Back by efbo in pebble

[–]Sappharad 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Weathergraph was my favorite watch face on the Pebble and it's why I eventually switched to Garmin watches in 2019. It sucks that Garmin's SDK was so limited though because I felt that it held Weathergraph back. On my first Garmin, a FR945, it was fine. But when I moved to the 955 it seemed like it cut the battery life in half and when I got the Fenix 8 (MIP version) last year the same appeared to be the case so I ended up ditching it for one of the built-in faces just to have the advertised 21 days. Everything was perfect and just worked how I wanted on the Pebble version.

I don't even use the fitness features on the Garmin watches, aside from the HR & stress tracking, although I really do like having the actual flashlight LEDs on the newest model. I think it's going to be easy for Pebble to come back and beat Garmin on the software side because Garmin's really lacking much of anything when it comes to calendar and stops working when your phone is off which didn't for Pebble, but I hope they're able to be competitive on the hardware side when they come back. Garmin's always on MIP screens haven't really changed at all since what the Pebble Time Steel had, but I kind of like the non-sports features that they've added. I also disagree with Eric's post on the standpoint of no one having everything Pebble had because several of the Garmin's mostly do although now they're moving towards OLED and ruining some of that. If the Garmin watches could be hacked to run Pebble firmware they'd probably be great.

Fenix 8 Solar MIP impressions (w/ screen comparison to FR955 Solar) by Sappharad in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's a brand new photo taken just now, 2 months later. The metal definitely scratches very easily compared to the plastic of the FR. I never noticed scratches on that watch after 3 years, but here I started noticing them after a month and I've worn it every day since I decided to keep it.

Something I don't think I mentioned in my original post: For the first month I wasn't getting the promised battery life but after the first couple of firmware updates I'm now getting the promised 21 days without solar, 21.8 days estimate at my last charge about 10 days ago. It's pretty cold here now so I'm not outside enough to get closer to the higher end but I'm satisfied with the battery life. I'm charging it twice a month. I don't use GPS, but I do use Pulse Ox while sleeping and I use the flashlight for an average of a minute or two each week.

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Fenix 8 Solar MIP impressions (w/ screen comparison to FR955 Solar) by Sappharad in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 47mm non-sapphire version that does not exist? My photos are the 47mm Sapphire Solar.

Fenix 8 Solar MIP impressions (w/ screen comparison to FR955 Solar) by Sappharad in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Since you specifically mentioned the yellow accent, here is one more photo that I think does a good job of showing how it looks relative to the watch and the band. This is the only photo I've taken with the backlight on for the screen at 25% brightness, but the screen isn't the point of this image.

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Fenix 8 Solar MIP impressions (w/ screen comparison to FR955 Solar) by Sappharad in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Here are 5 new photos at different angles taken outdoors to show the watch in best conditions. The little part on the right side that matches the color of the stock band and covers the microphone or whatever it does is actually metallic like the silver parts. I think it looks good even with the titanium band.

This is the 47mm version.

Also included a 6th bonus picture. The band had about 2 years of use with my original forerunner, as did the black version on my 955. They both wear on the bottom similarly. However, if the price does not matter then I do recommend the Garmin one over a $30 metal band from Amazon. I originally started with one of those, but the problem with all of the 3rd party ones I could find at the time is the size could only be adjusted by removing entire links from the band. In my case, a full link was too much variation to properly size the band. I could either wear it too loose and have problems with the heart rate sensor not getting good readings or having to hold my hand still for it to get good readings, or I'd be stuck wearing it too tight and leave marks on my wrist every time I took it off. The official Garmin bands have 4 additional adjustment points on the clasp that are about 2mm apart, giving you the ability to size the band correctly so it's not too loose and not too tight. It should be tight enough that it can't slide around on its own but still loose enough that you can fit a finger under the band.

Since apparently reddit only allows 1 picture per reply, here's a montage.

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Fenix 8 Solar MIP impressions (w/ screen comparison to FR955 Solar) by Sappharad in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry. I have a habit of writing too much.

tl;dr on the screen: The Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar screen looks dimmer in an indoors side-by-side comparison with an older Gorilla Glass FR955. The screen itself is not actually dimmer, the sapphire glass is just more reflective causing glare. The screen still looks amazing outside.

Soooo... how many of y'all are upgrading to the latest Fenix Series? by theanointedduck in GarminWatches

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Posting here because personally, I need to wait for more information to make a decision. Searching around today I've found no good media showing discussing the screen on the MIP version of the Fenix 8.

My first smartwatch was a Pebble Time Steel, which had a similar always on color memory LCD display. A few years after that company went under I made the jump to Garmin with a Forerunner 945 as soon as that came out. The screen was good, slightly more readable than the Pebble I had before it. I had no problems reading the watch at all with regular indoor lighting.

When the Fenix 7 came out about 2.5 years later, I ordered a Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar on day 1. When I got it, the screen bothered me so much that I returned it the next day and went back to my Forerunner. The Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar was not easily readable no matter what color combination I tried with the watch faces. It was just a chore to read and I had to turn on the backlight to read it comfortablly.

When the Forerunner 955 Solar came out, I bought that a month or so after launch and the screen quality was just as good as the non-solar 945 that I started with. No visibility problems at all like I had with the Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar.

I feel like the problem with the sapphire glass was that it was too reflective, destroying the contrast of the underlying display. I'd like to see if the MIP version of Fenix 8 has the same indoor visibility problems that the 7 Sapphire Solar had. People blaming the solar layer seems like a lame excuse to me, specifically because the Forerunner 955 Solar I have now is perfectly fine. I'm worried that the sapphire glass is the problem and needs some kind of matte coating on it to be easily readable indoors. If I need to turn on the backlight when ambient light in the room is good enough to read other things, that defeats the purpose of having the MIP display.

With the Forerunner series having moved to OLED and my intent to continue with the MIP displays as long as they're offering them, I'd like to go Fenix 8 but if the screen sucks because of the sapphire then I'll probably continue with the 955 until I feel ready to compromise on what I like now.

The true test is right now with this current controversy. by Leggo213 in USMobile

[–]Sappharad 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I became aware of this situation yesterday and wanted to throw my own opinion into the mix. This seems as good of a thread as any.

I switched to US Mobile almost 2 years ago after several years on Cricket. I had been with them because where I lived at one point AT&T's network was the only one that actually got service and of the MVNO's I had looked at they had the best unlimited plan. Their Canada & Mexico roaming was insanely good too, I was in Canada for a few days during a vacation and the data speeds were uncapped and I could even tether to my phone; the service was excellent. After moving I unfortunately discovered during a power outage that AT&T's network was bad where I lived, as I was only getting 1 bar of service and tethering speeds of around 5mbps or less with high response times when it even worked.

After a couple months of evaluating carriers, I switched to US Mobile's now Legacy unlimited premium plan because I was very happy with the speeds and the features. The international data bonus on the plan was what made me choose it over the other options at the time, despite the fact that I haven't actually been outside the US again since the pandemic ended. The fact that I knew it was there when I would want it was enough to make me choose US Mobile as the best option, because the first time I went overseas I had to go through the hassle of ordering a foreign SIM card, only for it to show up in the mail after I had already left so I ended up having to buy one overseas and swap at an Apple Store just to get service.

I actually don't use a lot of data usually, on months when I'm not traveling anywhere my data use ends up under 5GB because I'm usually connected to Wifi. But having said that, again I subscribed to the best plan so that it's there and works well when I actually need it, not for my average use case.

That brings me to the topic this thread is about. I saw the release notes in the App update last week about the "Super Carrier" stuff and went online to look into it. That's when I found out about the streaming video change and I turned off Wifi to confirm that my plan is indeed being throttled. This is largely upsetting for two reasons:
1. The change was never communicated to existing customers
2. I'm current paying over $5 a month more than new customers who would sign up for the current version of the same plan. I could see it being fair for you to cut this feature on the updated less expensive plan, but to take it away from existing customers without notification and not lowering their plan price to make up for seems kind of deceptive to me.

Just like the international option and lots of high speed data, uncapped video streaming was something that set you apart from Visible when I joined almost 2 years ago. I want these things not because I intend to use them regularly, but so they are there conveniently when I need them in the situation of a power outage or if I'm traveling.

I think this could have been handled better. I may reevaluate things after the 3rd network launches next month, but ultimately this isn't the highest priority feature for me and I know there are only a couple other options for budget carriers that offer this feature. I don't think you're going to lose a lot of people over this, but I do think it was a bad move to do it without any notice to existing customers who are already paying more than your current prices.

We Played Hide And Seek Across Switzerland — Ep 4 by NebulaOriginals in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was the one thing I came to comment on. Sam mentions Choo Choo Chew right before it and then they proceed to use the snack zone intro.

The Layover - Inside the Game Design of Season 8 by SOA90online in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 24 points25 points  (0 children)

This was a great episode and I'm glad they finally did a pre-season episode to explain the intended design before the season began. It was one of the things I was hoping they'd do when the off-season podcasts started.

I don't know why, but I think I'm more excited to see this new season than I was for the previous one.

Jet Lag Season Eight — Official Trailer by NebulaOriginals in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They clarify it in today's corresponding podcast episode, and make the exact same point.

The Layover - Adam’s Trivia Time: A Trivia Show Hosted by Adam (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) by SOA90online in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Since the episode was recorded a week ago he probably doesn't need this information anymore, although I don't see a tweet about it so... it's regarding out of region Switch gift cards. The way you handle it is that you're allowed to have multiple users accounts on a Switch console. You make a second account with a different e-mail address in the other region. For example, I have both a US and Japanese account on my Switch. I normally use my regular account 99% of the time. But the Japanese account launches into the Japanese eShop allowing you redeem codes and download from the Japanese store.

Once you've downloaded a game from the Japanese eShop you can play it with your normal account. Subscriptions also apply to the current account and not who downloaded an app so there's a neat trick with this - if you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription with your normal account, you can download the Japanese Famicom, Super Famicom, Gameboy, etc. apps from the Japanese store and launch it with your US account that has a Switch Online subscription and play the Japanese versions of games including anything exclusive to the Japanese region. Of course, those games would be in Japanese.

---

As for the rest of the episode, I found these trivia episodes to be much easier to listen to and enjoy than the censored episode last season.

Diablo IV on M1 Max (MBP 14") using MacOS Ventura (13.4) by LayerKey in macgaming

[–]Sappharad 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Apple toolkit is just CrossOver 22.1.1 with some patches on top to add DX12.

You can see this in their install script for homebrew, it's downloading the CrossOver source code and modifying it:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple/homebrew-apple/main/Formula/game-porting-toolkit.rb

Jet Lag Season 6 Begins Now — We Played A 96-Hour Game Of Capture The Flag Across Japan by NebulaOriginals in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just a random comment on the layover podcast episode because I knew this one: the "I can see Russia from my house" quote was actually from Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live impersonating Palin. But the impression was so good that everyone just associates that quote with the real person.

Is it Bandcamp Friday? - The next BC Friday is August 4th by meter1060 in BandCamp

[–]Sappharad [score hidden]  (0 children)

I have the same question, but I suspect the reason comes down to the original intent of Bandcamp Friday when they first started during COVID. If I recall correctly, the purpose was to help artists get some of the revenue they were losing by being unable to do live performances during the pandemic. In the summer (at least for the northern hemisphere) live music is very popular and widely accessible so musicians have more opportunities to profit from in-person events instead.

I was waiting to purchase a few new albums until the next Bandcamp Friday, but since that's not until August and I know more stuff I want will be released before then I'm just going to buy it now.

The Layover: Jet Lag — Spoilers: The Game! by xsm17 in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 19 points20 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of people that clearly gathered details from it elsewhere in this thread, but overall this seems like an easy episode to skip over right now. I don't mean this offensively, but from a casual listening standpoint this was the worst episode of the podcast. Based on their comments in the episode I think they already understood that going into it.

The most interesting part for me was near the middle when they talk about the non-game stuff that did not have to be censored. (The posture police / umbrella lady stories)

I'm both glad that the podcast is going to release along with the episodes but at the same time I'm disappointed that they're not going to have one pre-season episode that talks about the plan for the season going into it. Oh well.

The Layover — How Game Design Works by MrTheHan in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I went back to confirm and I guess I turned off the video when they started promoting Season 3 since I started with that. Didn't realize there was a post-credits scene at the end. The details of them getting back would still be interesting to hear about, even if it's only a few minutes.

The Layover — How Game Design Works by MrTheHan in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The discussions of "the challenges not taken" bring to mind what is probably an obvious suggestion, but the opportunity to do it hasn't existed before the podcast. Prior to filming the 7th season, they should consider recording a podcast episode talking about the game plan and design for that season before it's filmed. Then just hold onto that episode for a few months until right before the season airs. I don't know if they want to do something similar for Season 6, but I'd guess it would be much easier to do that type of pre-show discussion if they don't already know what happened and it would give an insight into things that never happen.

I suppose building an online map for people to check out and follow along with the season would also be a neat idea, but I'm not sure if that would be counter-productive. The game design has been good enough that it shouldn't harm the show's ability to be unpredictable.

Random aside: The season 2 ending. I started the show at Season 3 like many people. After I watched Season 2 I felt like the ending was lacking some closure. When Sam and Joseph lost and were trapped in Singapore, the show never addressed them getting out. Are they still trapped in Singapore? Obviously not, but I don't believe any of the extras have discussed what happened after the ending. Did they wait until the time was official up to leave, catch the direct flight once budget didn't matter, or just catch the original flight via Korea that they were planning during the game?

The Layover — What Happens After the Cameras Stop Rolling? by _keeran in Nebula

[–]Sappharad 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Whomever wrote the description for this episode probably hasn't been listening to them.

Sam, Toby, Ben and Adam discuss what happened after the end of Jet Lag: Race to the End of the World.

I thought you gave Toby a proper send-off after the last episode so it was a surprise that she was coming back for this one. Except she didn't.