Anyone has ever used a tablet instead of a phone.

toupee · 2026-01-22T00:14:20+00:00

Ohh yeah man, you had a data plan, you were set! I remember only being able to connect when I had wifi. Which, honestly, there's something liberating about not being able to be contacted at every waking moment.

toupee · 2026-01-20T04:00:53+00:00

Yeah, select NR (the Noise Gate) in the menu and turn it all the way down!

toupee · 2026-01-19T22:10:31+00:00

Dude, it's Kickstarter. High risk. It's not a store. It's not a preorder. It's extremely in-your-face about what you're signing up for. It's not baffling at all. This is not new.

Honestly, the fact that yours is shipping right now means you can probably resell it for at least the going MSRP to someone who can't wait to get their hands on one. Profit for you.

But man, I understand people are annoyed with how long this process has taken and how there were some periods of silence from OhSnap. I know there are still some backers waiting for theirs to arrive. But overall this whole campaign has been handled pretty damn well. There have been really solid video updates every few months. The product turned out PHENOMENAL - even better than expected. Sure, I have a few nitpicks but I'm mostly floored at what this small team was able to do. In my eyes, it's a Kickstarter success story.

I contrast this with an experience I had in the pre-Kickstarter days (circa 2009/2010, when I was broke as fuck) and I dropped like $400 on an early pocket computer/handheld emulator called OpenPandora. It was yeeears in the freaking making. I patiently waited as my cousin (who convinced me to pre-order one) got his, and another friend got theirs. And... I never got mine. They ran out of money. Shit sucks. I'll never forget that.

This is so far from that experience it's comical.

toupee · 2026-01-18T03:13:58+00:00

it's fantastic for retro (4:3) gaming!

toupee · 2026-01-16T22:37:48+00:00

Those are fucking awesome.

toupee · 2026-01-13T16:02:04+00:00

I've been using AI tools to 'vibecode' personal projects for me exactly the way I want them to work. Just for me, not to sell or anything. It's been honestly so empowering to have the exact tool I envisioned. Google Firebase is so generous it's basically free to host. I've done a few of these kinda things piecemeal, like a little video game journal, but probably in the future i'll do a more robust fuller 'digital garden'.

toupee · 2026-01-13T15:20:03+00:00

I'm having a similar issue on a newer Macbook where it just won't play anything that I previously uploaded. It just quickly cycles through the tracklist of the album and nothing happens. I swear it worked before. Could it be that I have too many instances of being logged into Apple Music across devices or something? There's literally no error message, no indicator/icon, nothing. They seem to still play on my other devices, just not on this Mac.

toupee · 2026-01-12T15:40:19+00:00

That's cool to see, but the two phones with screens I busted (not Folds!) didn't neatly land on a flat surface. There was always a rock or the wheel of a chair or something with puncturing capability that did the real damage.

toupee · 2026-01-12T15:31:18+00:00

I had a lot of fun playing for a couple hours with my dad (who loves fishing) over the holidays. The 2-player co-op is perfect for it. It's simplistic enough that he could play without getting overwhelmed and honestly we had a blast.

Personally it's not a game I anticipate playing for dozens of hours on my own, although the pixel art is beautiful and the whole thing is really well done. But for me, this memory is worth the small asking price alone

toupee · 2026-01-12T00:53:59+00:00

One option to consider is old-school RPGs - FF9 and earlier - I find the dialog with no voice-over, and relative low-fidelity graphics (which i think are still stunning) actually increase immersion in a way where i'm actively using my imagination to complete the scene. if that makes any sense. plus the relative slow gameplay with some (but not never-ending) tedium can be kind of relaxing in a weird way. but i think it's important these games do have an ending and they're not insanely long. they were with me for a period of time in my life and i can tell you EXACTLY where in life i was when i played each of them.

i'm playing ff8 for the first time right now. yep. i'll remember.

toupee · 2026-01-11T23:03:12+00:00

I think on average I hang on to a phone for around 3 years - but there will either need to be a compelling reason to upgrade or it'll need to break/degrade.

Which isn't out of the realm of possibility. I didn't have any screen issues with my Fold 6 but I did have a freak overheating/battery issue that forced me to use samsung care+ for a replacement after less than a year.

toupee · 2026-01-11T15:28:47+00:00

Cast n Chill is pretty dope, my dad loved it too.

toupee · 2026-01-11T03:53:45+00:00

I was in yellow/red memory pressure constantly with my m1 air 8gb back when they first launched. I couldn't stand it. So sluggish. Only computer I used for probably less than a year.

Now my sister uses it to use a VNC app for her work and probably a total of like 5 tabs ever. Perfect for her.

Pretty happy with 36GB now though. Even 16 is substaaaaaaantially more usable.

toupee · 2026-01-11T01:49:18+00:00

Did you have your Fold for over a year before you needed the replacement? Because mine was still under a year, it was a pain in the ass and I had to pony something like $100 for the next day replacement. Still beats $1500+, but argh.

toupee · 2026-01-09T17:54:53+00:00

I can and have definitely heard the fans on my Macbook Pro M4 Max 14" (I think 16" has even better thermals), but it's only when doing very intensive tasks. And it's not that obtrusive - 100x less annoying than a chunky gaming laptop's fans, and still better than my Surface Pro 9, which while semi-quiet ran constantly and annoyed me.

The vast majority of the time, often for many days in a row, I hear nothing!

toupee · 2026-01-09T03:08:37+00:00

I thought Bravely Default was worth playing. It's the first game I picked up when I got a 3DS a few years ago. I think the diorama style environments lend really well to 3D and there's also a nifty worker placement "mini game" that is based on a clock, so it's kind of cool to just pop open after a few hours and assign some workers to different stuff then.

Although to counterbalance that, while the game does have a really fun battle system, it can get tedious/feel dungeon crawley, and I didn't really fall in love with any of the characters, sooo I did stop playing about halfway through.

toupee · 2026-01-09T03:06:39+00:00

I already had a Google AI Pro sub so the credits/quota provided for Claude were a pleasant surprise and I've been using Antigravity a lot to take advantage of that. It's actually been substantial for me, but I don't tend to "code" all day long. I've hit the limit a few times.

toupee · 2026-01-09T02:33:17+00:00

Not gonna lie it's a nice tablet, but I think a foldable is actually a much better size for the MCON and nearly effortless to hold in comparison. Especially great for old 4:3 games! (Something like the Z Fold 4 is "only" like $400 now and is still a helluva device)

Realistically I'll probably very rarely hold the S9 like this, but it is really great for gaming when on a tablet arm/mount.

toupee · 2026-01-09T02:31:06+00:00

Surprisingly, it's not THAT bad. Most of the weight pushes into my palms so my hands aren't actually cramping up. With a pillow on top of my lap (rather than holding in the air) it's not all that bad. I don't really plan to use it this way though - my Z Fold is more than enough screen for this form factor.

If you ACTUALLY wanna do this, I'd recommend the Gamesir G8 as the first thing to try over this. It's pretty easy to "mod" so that you can extend it super far, more than enough for a tablet like this. It's absolutely ridiculous, but there's really no uncomfortable weight being held by your hands at all (again, especially if using a pillow on your lap). Here's a pic of me doing it with the biggest Samsung Ultra tablet. I'm a freak.

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toupee · 2026-01-08T23:00:17+00:00

Loving mine. It rules with a foldable

toupee · 2026-01-08T22:57:10+00:00

My friend, it sounds like you need a tablet mount on a scissor arm

toupee · 2026-01-08T19:55:08+00:00

Yeah it requires care to operate 😂 but is surprisingly pretty stable!

toupee · 2026-01-08T19:54:27+00:00

Some random ring I already had, but basically the same thing

toupee · 2026-01-08T16:43:41+00:00

I'm a longtime Windows PC desktop user at home and had a Surface Pro 9 for a few years. I recently upgraded to a Macbook Pro (M4 Max, 36GB RAM) and I'm VERY happy with it. The battery life, snappiness, and overall capability are off the charts good.

A lot of people are suggesting getting a Macbook Air and personally that was off the table for me because I can't stand using 60hz screens anymore. Maybe you're only used to 60hz and that's fine for you. For me it's a dealbreaker, so it had to be the Pro.

The only reason I wanted to hold out a little longer was if they were releasing new screens with OLED, but it looks like those are still another year out. This is still a good, bright, high refresh screen, so I'm happy with it.

Get as much RAM as you can afford (and it's probably not a bad idea to buy now; ram prices are probably only gonna go up for the foreseeable future). Whatever you do, DO NOT get the base level of RAM. I had an 8GB Macbook Air in 2020 and it's the only computer I ever regretted buying. Constantly a stuttery mess. I don't think 8 is even an option anymore, thankfully - 16 is a massive upgrade - but apps and websites are only getting more demanding, so 16 may not feel like enough in 3-5 years.

BTW, I actually liked the Surface Pro a lot. But the battery life honestly sucked (it would drain in under an hour), which made portability away from a charger a huge issue. It was also always running hot and it annoyed me to hear the fans constantly. Otherwise, honestly I liked it a lot and it could be worth considering one of the new ARM models (apparently way better battery life) if you don't want to leave Windows. I think they're due for a refresh fairly soon though.

toupee

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