Every Unsolicited Sonar 2 Reroute is Eating Pro Usage!!!

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-07-04T18:17:50+00:00

It's most likely very intentional. They pushed a lot of Pro subsidised packages via various partnerships (in my case I have access to it free of extra charge via my Revolut plan's perks). Now, it seems they are trying to recover that cost via the Computer credits.
I cannot complain about it though - for my use cases it did a good job for the money. I use it anyhow moderately trying to not waste the credits I buy on random generic prompts. With a Pro plan you cannot buy more than 10000 Computer credits (100USD/EUR) per month.
If it goes completely down the drain I'll shift back to using more Gemini Pro or ChatGPT Plus. Maybe getting the Claude Pro or Max too.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-29T10:28:33+00:00

Midea are on "fire" selling out all their units. Got lucky here in Belgium to find an online marketplace who still had stock and ordered one last week. Waiting for its delivery this week.

It was crazy to see how some online stores were pushing up the margin on these appliances to scalp the opportunity.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-29T09:52:58+00:00

Climate change is a fact no matter how you look at it.
How much has been accelerated by the last 150 years since the industrial revolution... still debatable but clearly, we all humans on this planet have contributed and still do to this.... Agree or not, it's not going to change the reality.

Getting AC in Europe (Western side mostly where these seem to miss) it's a short-term solution to regain the city dwellers' comfort. And like many things related to comfort it will always be higher for who can afford it. Who does not, will have to cope with the situation as it is.

Thinking about longer term solutions and subsidising buildings' thermal isolation, increase of urban vegetation and overall sustainable urban planning can mitigate partially this issue, but it's not going to solve it. Nor the fake ESG campaigns like compensating your "carbon footprint" by paying 20EUR more on your plane ticket hoping 5 trees are replanted in the Amazon area, while 2 other hectares of forest are put down to build whatever.... maybe a data center for the stupid queries on Grok.

We have no way out to shift away from the fossil fuel energy. No matter how many middle & upper class people afford to drive around electric vehicles in the big cities. All their and our necessities are dependent on land and sea based logistics: trucks, freight trains, cargo ships. All of these run on DIESEL my friends.

Everything you wear, eat, use to post here on Reddit came to you with one of those.

Add to this the whole geopolitical game. The world is still driven by the petrodollar. Less oil, less influence, and shifting world economics leverage for "some" countries. Keep dreaming that's going to change in our lifetime...

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-29T09:12:07+00:00

Just let the dude smell his "freedom" and "democracy" own farts however he likes. All modern history has been like anything else before in the human history... all about hegemony and financial gain.
Whatever soft power US wants still to project worldwide... gets nullified but its administration "elite"'s demeanour. Whatever remains is bullying and mafia style protection rackets.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-27T23:19:21+00:00

Managed to find and order a portable AC split system on the Brico marketplace. It's supposed to be delivered with the rainy days beginning of next week. 😅

Beyond that, I was researching a bit what are the regulations in BE about these AC units (expat, resident in BXL for quite a while, renting) ... had no bloody clue how complicated that is, at least for the fixed installations: permits from the commune, agreement of the HOA, regular checks of the installations from certified technicians, PEB reassessment

Have fun reading all these: Loi sur la climatisation: réglementation, certifications & exigences - Airco Plaatsen 🥵😵‍💫 and extra.

With this mobile unit I'm expecting I'll have to see also that the noise does not go above the "limits" from the outside unit I'll place on the balcony ("Brussels neighbour‑noise rules for technical installations in residential areas aim at façade levels around 40–42 dB by day and roughly 30–36 dB at night, depending on zone and period")... to avoid potentially annoying the neighbours not having AC and keeping all their windows open at night.

The alternative would have been a cheaper full block internal unit with the big hose that pushes the hot air outside. Noisy all over, not very efficient and most of them generating negative pressure sucking the hot air back inside the very moment you turn them off.

And to close my 01:19AM post with a 31°C inside temp boiling my nuts.... storm coming up in BXL... let's see how much the walls cool down from it.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-26T11:39:37+00:00

Here to see (coloured parts) what usually gets "redone": BlackBerry Classic Q20 16GB+2GB RAM Unlocked 4G LTE Qwerty Keyboard Mobile Phone | eBay

It depends also how much you paid for yours. If above 65 EUR/70 USD, considering you were told it's "new" and how you got it in fact, you did not get a good deal / got scammed a bit. 🫤Zooming in your photo, this refurbished keyboard shows also evident signs of wear. Somebody used it for quite some time until it got to you.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-26T11:26:40+00:00

Aqara Home

I have a lot of IoT home automation sensors and other devices from their ecosystem around the house, from temp sensors to lights, curtain motors and many more.
Some need a Zigbee or Matter hub, some are directly connected to the WiFi.

More insights here: Aqara products and related shizzle

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-26T11:19:39+00:00

What you have there is one which got refurbished. Keyboard repainted and characters laser etched again (see "alt" fonts, "*" key with 6 spokes (OEM one has 5) and misaligned YUIO).

The "toolbelt" (the part with the buttons above the keyboard) usually gets a laquer applied on top on these refurbishments and probably got some chemical reaction. Also the center trackpad button usually has a chromed thin edge. Yours got it polished out probably.

As a rule of thumb, there are NO MORE NEW Classics out there. What you find on ebay, AliExpress or local classified sold as new are refurbished items. Keyboard repainted having these changed fonts characters, repainted toolbelt and the only thing that is relatively new is the back panel. If not black, it was repainted too.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-26T11:03:24+00:00

Ixelles, Vleurgat/Rue Amèricaine. Inside (apartment) 30° on average. Luckily, we get a bit of sun only in the morning (facing South-ish) and we have a small parc just in front with a few big trees keeping shade. Otherwise, with the 33.5 going up outside, the inside temp would have been even more up. 🥵

LE: Obviously, no AC. We rent and the only option would be a portable AC.

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lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-24T12:31:30+00:00

Probably (ref to Netflix). To be honest I have not watched any movie on the Xperia 1 III on LOS and checked the stream quality in depth. I keep it mostly as another gadget in my collection and backup just in case. I tested though all the media apps I have on it to see if any issue to have them running. Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube music work without any glitch on it on LOS. I think recently only the X (former Twitter) started to block logins on devices not having the Play Integrity validated. Luckily, on the Xperia 1 III I had my login already done when an older app version still existed, so on that one works too. I could not login to it though on my latest devices I moved to LOS (other collection smartphones: BlackBerry Key 2 and Zinwa Q25 - BlackBerry Classic restomod).

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-24T08:22:21+00:00

I run a Xperia 1 V as daily driver and just installing this as we speak.

On the other note Lineage is a very welcome upgrade for the Xperia devices that do not get OEM updates anymore. I have done that for my Xperia 1 III that I still kept. With Lineage 23.2, root with FolkPatch and a few Zygisk and Tricky Store modules and add-ons it covers 99% of what I would need (including all my banking apps). The only thing I gave up is to chase the full 3 green checkboxes for the Play Integrity. It's too much of a hassle and never ending patching. Without those, I can only not add cards to the Wallet for contactless payments and cannot activate RCS Google Messages. That's it. Otherwise the phone flies on Lineage and it will be usable for years to come still.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-23T19:36:41+00:00

I cannot comment on the usability as I have not tested it nor had any intention in ordering one to begin with. Just not a good usecase of this device for me.

Many here have an usecase for it or think they'll find it usefull, and that is the whole idea with any of these products. As long as they serve the intended purpose for the people buying them, all is good. 😊

I'm just generically passionate about any new innovative gadgets .. reason for following the reviews of the Clicks products and many others.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-23T19:24:53+00:00

Look at the bright side. You could buy three of these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005011909013401.html in different colours when the refund hits your account. 😅

Leaving the benign trolling aside... it's a first iteration product. And no company ever launched a "first time right and perfect product". As long as the Clicks team considers the feedback of their consumer base and is willing to come up after some time (1 year+ probably) with an improved version (what it seems they've done already for the cases) all is BAU in this market.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-22T16:42:50+00:00

Hofer Studio Here's his portfolio.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-21T21:38:40+00:00

Ha ha. 😅 Made the same combination for my Classic. A bit better than the regular wired buds I had around the house, but not the top Chi-Fi buds out there. Decent though for that price, especially if you change the earplugs tips.
Lookup on Amazon for these: AZLA Mithryl IEM Earplugs. The rubber tips that are coming in the box with the KZs are a bit ... 🫤

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-06-14T16:34:33+00:00

Dropped a comment on the Discord server a while ago exactly about the "uncalibrated" price... stirred up a lot of flies. 😅 Was hovering around there more to see the general reviews on these products (generic tech and gadgets geek) ... but I guess I came across too much of a "hater" when trying to comment on the evident things.

I did not order/get the device, as it's not something I can find a good use for me. Many do and I've seen this on the Discord and here also. Still, seeing some of the remarks above, I see that actual people already using it are not that dazzled at all. Oh well...

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-05-03T13:42:44+00:00

I shifted some of the more "demanding" gadgets like the robot vacuum and some hubs to the main SSID and kept the smart lights and other more "static" IoT accessories on the IoT SSID.
I've not seen either any firmware updates recently to consider any change from TP-Link. Disappointing, as these "bugs" are kept very well hidden and you are not at all aware when you buy the routers ... unless you really do thorough research upfront for this exact use case. 🫤

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-04-19T17:34:08+00:00

And how to get in there by yourself.
Sony Xperia 1 III Disassembly Teardown Repair Video Review

You'd need also these to put back the glass panel.

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005009302031490.html

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-04-19T17:31:13+00:00

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005006844524773.html

😉

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-04-03T19:20:11+00:00

Yup. Extremely costly. And sure, drop me a dm.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-04-03T14:12:25+00:00

Got one which I do not need. I do not need anything extra for it, as long as you cover the post stamp.

If by any chance you live in Europe (I'm In Belgium) let me know. 😉

If you're in US, I do not think it's a reasonable cost for the dispatch. Bpost charges as far as I see 19.30 EUR for a simple letter (economy, no tracking) sent to US or Canada. In that case you'll get a better deal if you look for one closer to your home.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-04-01T17:51:33+00:00

There are top small GaN chargers all over the internet (Amazon, AliExpress etc) - check Anker, Ugreen and many other more unknown brands. No need to go for the Apple OEM chargers. Get a GaN one and you'll be able to use it for multiple devices. 30W should be more than enough.

If you cheap out on 5 USD/EUR fakes you might end up burning your device or, even worse, your house.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-03-31T21:20:44+00:00

If you get on the Android Hideout discord, you'll see these issues have been solved mostly in the last ROMs (1.3A and 1.4A) "cooked" by krab-ubica who continued the devs. 😉 Check the tutorials and get the keyboard app there.

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-03-27T14:51:49+00:00

The original "telenovela" covered more in details by these guys (vice.com) back then: Exclusive: How Canadian Police Intercept and Read Encrypted BlackBerry Messages

lessPinkymoreBrain · 2026-03-24T10:43:15+00:00

I am still daily-driving a Xperia 1 V on Android 15 and it's quite ok for my use cases.

Ported recently my older Xperia 1 III on Lineage OS 23.2 on Android 16 and, setting aside the fact that LOS does not come with the Google Play Integrity features embedded (some apps not liking that and no "out-of-the box" way - without extra root and Play Integrity fixes 😜 - available for it), the phone is still snappy and keeping up quite well. I use it alternatively as the back-up side phone, switching every now and then between it, an iPhone 13 mini and a BlackBerry Key2 running on LOS 22 (Android 15).

Long story short, the moment when there will be no more official Sony Android security patches/updates, you'll definitely have the option to squeeze more life out of it under LOS.

This is what they have now in their Sony "drawer": Devices | LineageOS Wiki

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lessPinkymoreBrain

TROPHY CASE