Framework Chromebook Review

Framework is known for their fully modular laptop designs, differentiating themselves as the makers of user repairable and upgradeable computers. We looked at their Windows laptop last year and this week we took their Chromebook out for a spin.

The guts of this are functionally identical to the version that runs Windows and Linux. But like other Chromebooks Framework has locked this one down from running other operating systems in order to earn the Chromebook badge.

Framework does say their Chromebook is compatible with the open source Coreboot firmware but they don’t directly support it. So for those who want to choose their operating system the regular Framework laptop is the better choice. Those looking for ChromeOS on the other Framework can run ChromeOS Flex.

But as Chromebooks go the Framework is by far the most upgradeable and repairable by the user. Loosening a few screws on the bottom of the case is all that’s needed to pop the hood and get inside. Every part is labeled with a barcode that will drop users off at the Framework Marketplace where they can purchase replacements and upgrades.

In my review I was able to bring its base 8GB of RAM up to a whopping 64 GB – the most memory I’ve ever experienced in a Chromebook. Framework’s Chromebook is also one of the handful of machines that works with the natively installed Steam client that’s currently in beta.

Thanks to its i5-1240P processor we were able to download and run the Windows PC versions of Red Dead Redemption 2 and No Man’s Sky at playable frame rates. Steam on ChromeOS uses the same Proton compatibility layer the Steam Deck uses for running Windows games on Linux. It’s a great containerized experience that keeps all of the gaming completely isolated from other parts of the system.

At $1,000 this is a pricey Chromebook. But that said there’s a growing market for higher end Chromebooks and people are buying them. I suspect the experiment here is for Framework to see if this is something they can get in the door of institutions largely running ChromeOS (like schools).

Many educators I know scavenge parts from dead Chromebooks to repair damaged ones. I suspect there would be a lot of interest in a lower priced Chromebook with modular components that could keep fleets intact. In the meantime I can see this Chromebook being issued to teachers and administrators in place of pricier Macs and Windows PCs.

Lenovo Z16 Gen 1 Review

Lenovo’s 16″ Z16 laptop is the subject of my latest review. Although the Gen 2 edition was just announced (with availability later this year) this one is available at a lower price. Find the latest deals here (compensated affiliate link).

The Z16 is a larger version of the Z13 we looked at a few months ago. In many ways I consider both of these laptops as Lenovo’s attempt to figure out how much change ThinkPad fans are willing to let happen to the platform.

This unit has a more consumer-focused design with polished curved aluminum edges, shallower key travel and a haptic track pad without any physical buttons for for the trackpoint.

So while this ThinkPad will take some getting used to, the performance is impressive thanks to its 6000 series Ryzen processor. The Ryzen delivers exceptional performance even for graphically intensive tasks along with good battery life for a large laptop like this.

Its USB-C ports run with 40 gigabit USB4 allowing for many Thunderbolt devices to work with it like external GPUs.

All in it’s a solid performer and worth considering for those wanting a larger screen with good performance.

Auditing Mom’s Cable Bill

I’m continuing my saga this week in trying to save my Mom some money on her cable bill. This week’s video digs into the rest of her bill to see what other charges Comcast is hitting us with.

In an update to last week’s video about rental fees, I found that her bill was even worse than I initially thought. A $10 “Premium DVR” charge was not immediately reversible because Comcast oversold my mother on two DVR boxes. Because she had two DVR boxes the second box triggered the charge. It wasn’t enough that they were already charging her $10 for each box. So this one box alone was costing her $20 monthly and she never even used it!

What’s even crazier is that although Comcast did not swap out any of her equipment, they steadily increased the cost year over year as equipment fees sit outside the contract rate.

What a world they live in where old equipment appreciates in value!

But they did finally send us some boxes to send their boxes back. Very inefficiently, mind you, as everything could have fit into a single box. But they make so much money shipping costs are not a concern.

Comcast’s boxes on their way back to where they came from

Unfortunately it looks like the boxes were the low hanging fruit in this effort to bring cost down. The rest of Comcast’s bill is a rat’s nest of interlocking services. Pull one out and the cost goes up!

In addition to cable box fees Mom was being hit with the “Broadcast TV Fee” and the “Regional Sports Fee” which also sit outside her contracted rate. The Broadcast TV fee is largely unavoidable and comes as a result of local broadcasters charging Comcast to carry their networks. This makes broadcasters more money than advertising these days. I may eventually put an antenna up on her roof as over the air TV signals remain free.

The “Regional Sports Fee” is a similar fee that regional sports networks charge Comcast to carry their networks. Mom has this on her bill even though she doesn’t watch sports. Why? It’s because of the cable package that she signed up for requires her to subscribe to these sports channels to get the other ones she wants. In the video you’ll see that we can’t get her news channels without sports which brings that fee along.

The best price I could get her requires another yearlong commitment from Comcast. While the service fee is locked in for that year, they have zero risk in this relationship because most of their costs are put into those other fees outside of the contracted rate.

But Comcast is not the only game in town any longer. Frontier’s fiber optic service recently came to her neighborhood and another ISP may soon follow. Replicating her current Comcast services with a Frontier and YouTube TV combo will save her at least $550 a year.

It’s shameful how Comcast abuses their monopolistic position and swindles senior citizens selling them services they don’t need or use. Comcast will need to pivot quickly as consumers now have choices. If traffic on my YouTube channel is any indication those consumers are eager to exercise their market power.

Unifi Access Point U6 Enterprise Review

I finally broke through the WiFi gigabit barrier with the Unifi U6 Enterprise Access Point. You can watch my full review of it here. I integrated it with the other Unifi equipment that I have looked at in my previous videos about my home network.

My other Unifi access points in the house are the smaller and lighter Lite units that feel a lot like a small frisbee. The U6 Enterprise is significantly larger and heavier, weighing in at more than 2 pounds! So if you’re mounting other access points on a ceiling tile you’ll need to have a different strategy for this one.

The big difference the U6 Enterprise brings over their U6 lite access point is that the U6 supports the 6E standard that operates over the 6ghz. Additionally it can support 160mhz wide channels for data transfers over one gigabit per second on both the 5ghz and 6ghz frequencies for clients that support that. In order to exceed those transfer rates the U6 Enterprise has a 2.5 gigabit ethernet port for faster backhaul data transfer rates.

In my testing with a clear line of sight to the AP we saw speeds of around 1.5 gigabits per second in both directions using a 6ghz Wifi 6E client. Those speeds drop off with distance and obstructions. But I did find throughout my testing that transfer rates were much better as compared to the AC lite access point I was using previously.

Like other Unifi products the access point uses Power Over Ethernet (POE) to power the device. They do not include a power injector in the box and unfortunately do not offer an affordable POE switch that delivers 2.5 gigabit speeds. What I did was purchase an Engenius EPA5006HAT injector (affiliate link) that did the trick. Any POE+ compatible injector or switch should work as well.

This unit costs significantly more than the lite model (affiliate link) so if you’re on a budget it might be best to use the Enterprise units in high traffic locations and the Lites in the lower traffic ones. In my testing I saw no difference in performance on an 80mhz Wifi 6 connection between the two.

All in this works well and integrates just as easily and seamlessly as my other Unifi gear. But for cost I will be purchasing an additional lower cost Lite model to complete my household conversion to Wifi 6.

All About Plex Subtitles

This month’s sponsored Plex tutorial dives into a frequently requested topic: subtitles.

I will confess that I am not a frequent subtitle user but I know that many of you out there use them quite frequently. One of the challenges of subtitles is getting them to work in a way that won’t trigger a transcode.

Many of us use Plex as a way to store our Blu Ray movie library on our server for convenience. And typically Blu Rays use the PGS subtitle format which are essentially image files that Blu Ray players overlay on top of the video being played. So if you are ripping Blu Ray files and including subtitles in that rip you’ll have those PGS files embedded inside the MKV file you’re using.

The problem with the PGS format is that very few streaming players support them natively. In my testing I’ve found only the Nvidia Shield TV and Apple TV support that. All of the other players I tested triggered transcoding to bake in the captions before sending the video to the client.

The most compatible solution I’ve found are SRT formatted files. These are essentially ASCII text files with time stamps that most players support natively without the need for an additional transcode. Plex Pass users can search for and add SRT files in the Plex interface using the OpenSubtitles.org database right on the content playback page. If you don’t have a Plex pass you’ll have to hunt down those files yourself.

Finding subtitles can be tricky as lengths vary from one version of a film to the next. As studios re-release old films on different formats sometimes things don’t line up or like in the case of Star Wars they change a few things here and there that ultimately impact the timing of dialog. Plex does have a subtitle offset feature that we’ll cover in a future video to better align dialog.

A PGS Encoded Forced Subtitle

Another topic we covered are “forced” subtitles that only appear when another language is spoken. A great example of this is when Jabba the Hutt is speaking at the beginning of a Return of the Jedi. Force subtitles need to be enabled for playback like other types of subtitles and the same rules for transcoding apply here too – if you have a PGS encoded forced subtitle it’s going to force a transcode even if those subtitles are used for a very small portion of the film. These are the types of subtitles I use most often.

There is much more to cover on this topic but I have found SRT encoded subtitles to be the most compatible but also the least attractive. How they look will largely depend on how the client renders them. The good news is that because they are just straight ASCII text they are very easy to edit.

Subtitle Edit for Windows

I found a great open source (free) utility called SubtitleEdit that is extremely powerful for editing SRT files. It can even convert PGS to SRT. It only runs on Windows but there is a version that runs in a web browser on their site.

There is much more to cover on this topic. Definitely check out the video and leave a comment about what you’d like to see next!

Xfinity / Comcast Rips off My Mom!

Check your cable bills! I checked my Mom’s bill the other day and what I found is the subject of my latest video.

The worst part is that the cable boxes she’s paying for are old digital to analog adapters that she’s had for the better part of the decade. Techs even came out at some point and hooked these things up, with RF connections, to her HD televisions!

Initially these adapters were around $3 a piece but Comcast has slowly increased the monthly cost on them over the years. When she changed her plan a few years ago they sent her an additional HD box for one of her televisions but never suggested or offered to take the older boxes off the plan.

A Comcast Digital adapter my mother was being charged $10 a month for

Comcast’s customer service was not very helpful. They work extremely hard to direct everyone to the website first – in fact this weekend I couldn’t even talk to an agent unless I went back to their website to request a call. When I did they sent me back to the website and use their equipment return page to initiate things. The problem is that only the two HD boxes showed up – not the other three adapters!

To rectify things I ended up using their Twitter support and got the ball rolling there. They sent us some return boxes and labels and I’ll be getting those back to Comcast this week. My hope is that they’ll take everything off the bill as those three adapters are still not showing up on her online account.

Thankfully Comcast offers customers a simple option for avoiding box rental fees by using a “partner device.” The best and most affordable option at the moment are Roku devices. Apple TVs also work pretty well too. I set up Mom up with a few Rokus are on her TVs this weekend.

I was able to save my mother $720 a year by removing the boxes and another DVR service add-on they slipped in that she didn’t need or use. All of this stuff sits outside of the contract she was on for service so Comcast can raise those rates whenever they want.

If you have loved ones that are a little challenged when it comes to technology definitely give their bill a close look. My video also provides a checklist of what you need to have ready to help.

It’s so frustrating that monopolies behave in this way. It’s especially unfortunate that because I’ve found Comcast’s network to be reliable and consistent in its performance. If they focused on making customers happy vs. ripping them off perhaps they’d be better positioned now that their business is getting significantly more competitive.

All The Things You Can Do with a Roku Express

Roku remains the market leader for streaming TV devices. They got there by being largely the first to market way back in 2008 in collaboration with Netflix when they began their streaming business.

These days Roku’s are cheap and functional with support for nearly all streaming providers. Their latest entry level model, the Roku Express, is the subject of my latest review.

The Express is a no frills device – it lacks some of the universal remote capabilities of other Roku’s in the product line and only outputs at a 1080p resolution. But for an old dumb television they work quite well. Just note that Roku dropped support for older standard definition sets – you’ll need an HDMI port to use it.

Roku ladders their product line in such a way that an additional $10 or so gets you to the next level. So if you’re looking for universal remote capabilities the Express 4k+ will deliver that for only $10 more and will work on 1080p and 720p televisions.

But for an entry level streamer the product is quite functional. It performs adequately enough for navigating between apps and streaming media. And when paired with their excellent mobile app you pick up the ability to do private listening via headphones and stream your personal media to the television.

Roku’s interface remains fairly clean and although it has advertising it’s not as intrusive as what you’ll experience on a Fire TV or Google TV these days.

And for Apple users Rokus work exceptionally well as Airplay destinations. You can mirror your iPhone, iPad or Mac’s screen to the Roku with just a click or two. It works just as well as it does on Apple’s much more expensive Apple TV devices. I demo all of that in the video.

All in Roku remains a great choice for people looking for simple streamers. They support all of the major subscription services (at the moment anyway) and offer a ton of great free advertiser supported content options.

Roku Express Setup Guide

Roku currently has five different streaming players on the market with about a $10 ladder between each model. Every couple of years I like to take a look at the entry level model (the Roku Express) to see how much value can be squeezed out of it.

We’ll have a full review up on my main channel soon but in the meantime I thought I would make a “how-to” video on setting up one of these Roku Express devices. You can check it out here on the Extra’s channel.

In the video I step through the setup process and also recommend that you install the Roku mobile app that adds some helpful functionality like a keyboard for passwords, private listening via headphones, and a few other things.

The Roku Express sells for $29 right now (affiliate link) and is their least expensive option.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga Gen 2 Review

I am finally beginning to get caught up on my backlog of laptop reviews! My latest one is of another Lenovo Thinkbook – the 14s Yoga Gen 2. You can watch it here.

This one is a middle of the road 2-in-1 with an i7-1255U processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. This is the kind of laptop that goes on sale frequently on Lenovo’s website so definitely keep an eye on their product page (affiliate link) if you’re looking for a deal. It’s currently starts at $840 and the one we’re looking at is around $1000.

Performance and battery life are pretty good on this one. It scored well on benchmark tests and in line with other laptops running with this generation of Intel processors. Cooling is efficient and quiet with very little throttling happening under sustained processor loads.

Like other Yoga’s we’ve looked at they have a small pen that “garages” itself on the side of the case. I noticed the pen feels a little more natural than prior iterations, with the screen introducing a little more resistance to make writing feel less slippery.

For upgradeability the Yoga 14s Gen 2 has a second NVME SSD slot that allows for the installation of a second drive. This might be a fun way to dual boot a linux operating system. There is a single RAM slot on the motherboard for memory upgrades, however half the RAM (8GB) is soldered on the main board. So the best you’ll do with this one is 16GB max by adding an 8GB module.

I recommend either purchasing a 16GB configuration or upgrading to 16GB yourself to ensure the system runs in dual channel memory mode – without that RAM slot occupied you won’t get the max performance out of this machine.

My only complaint on this machine is its display. It’s dim at 300 nits, only 1080p, and runs with a narrow 16:9 aspect ratio (most laptops these days have a taller 16:10 ratio).

Will Moonlight & Sunshine Work as a Gamestream Alternative?

A few weeks ago I posted a video about Nvidia sunsetting their “Gamestream” feature on the Nvidia Shield TV that allows for personal streaming of games from a PC. It worked exceptionally well especially as it would automatically adjust settings for supported games to best fit the display the Shield was connected to.

While the Shield TV was the only officially supported device for Gamestream an open source project called Moonlight brought the feature to many other devices including tablets and smartphones. Many were concerned that the demise of Gamestream would also spell the end of Moonlight.

But a companion project called Sunshine was launched to provide an open source replacement to the streaming server provided by Nvidia. In my latest video I took Sunshine out for a spin to see how it compares to the soon-to-be-dead Nvidia option.

The bottom line is that Sunshine delivers a high quality image with very little latency. But it lacks all of the creature comforts that made Nvidia Gamestream work as seamlessly as it did. Among the challenges I encountered were adding Xbox Gamepass games that I downloaded along with having to manually set the resolution for each game I was playing off of a 16:10 gaming laptop.

But I see a lot of potential here – not only for gaming but also for just general high performance desktop screen sharing. Sunshine is completely free and open source and can sit safely behind a firewall. Most of the other solutions that offer its level of performance are wrapped around a subscription service that allows outside access.

I am sure we’ll be revisiting it in the future so stay tuned!

Meta / Facebook Has Just Given Up..

Facebook has long had a huge bot and spam problem. It’s a haven for scammers of all types and Meta seems unable to do much of anything about it. On my Facebook page I frequently get spammers and scammers trying to lure my viewers into their schemes. Take this most recent one for example spamming my group with an illegal IPTV service:

While I remove comments like this when I can it’s hard to keep up with them all – especially as Facebook brings in exactly $0 in revenue to my overall operation. I also report the comments but more often than not Facebook takes no action. Facebook said the post above did not “go against any of our community standards” and took no action against this user spamming pages and groups.

While this illegal IPTV service will likely not result in my account getting hacked , the next set of comments I reported surely will. What do you think happened when I reported a set of comments directing users to a fake account recovery service?

You guessed it : nothing. I will give credit to Facebook though – at least they tell you they’re doing nothing versus the black hole that is YouTube’s spam reporting feature.

The other day Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta’s plans to offer a paid verification tier to make their users pay for something Meta should have been doing all along to protect their users. This is an effort to crack down on account impersonations that also plague the service.

I have no doubt this will be a successful product offering because it’s essentially a protection racket. Individuals and businesses who depend on Meta’s services to reach people will have no choice but to pay in order to protect their accounts and followers. Meta will have even less incentive now to rid the platform of fake accounts and spammers.

Gulikit Nintendo Switch Joycon Hall Effect Stick Replacement Review

My latest video is a review of a set of replacement joycon sticks from a company called Gulikit. What makes these sticks unique is that they make use of the “Hall Effect” to track their position.

Hall-based joysticks use magnets for better accuracy and don’t tend to develop drifting issues over time. But they are usually more expensive. The Gaming Setup has a good explanation of how they work.

Nintendo Joycon sticks suffer from drifting issues where the stick reports movement even when it’s not moving. Nintendo has likely resolved the issue in more recent versions of their hardware but there are likely millions of faulty sticks out in the wild.

Nintendo eventually acknowledged how wide spread the problem is and have set up a free repair program for customers impacted by it. But if you’re a “do it yourselfer” these sticks are a good alternative to the originals.

Installation was not too difficult but does require some patience and caution as there are small delicate parts inside the Joycon that have to be manipulated. You can see my livestream of the installation process here. I suggest checking out iFixit’s helpful guide for a great step-by-step guide.

I found the Gulikit sticks feel smoother and track more accurately versus the original sticks. The only issue I encountered is that the tops of the Gulikits are a little more slippery vs. the stock Nintendo sticks and might require some extra grip to be applied. Gulikit says the stick tops are replaceable so you might be able to find something a little grippier.

Unihertz Tank Phone Review

Unihertz is known for making really tiny phones like their Jelly series of smartphones. For their latest devices they went in another direction and built what is likely the biggest and heaviest smartphone on the market. They call it the Tank phone and it’s the subject of my latest review.

The tank integrates an enormous 22,000 mAh battery into an Android 12 powered smartphone. The phone can run for at least a week on standby but can also do double duty as a powerbank and charge other devices.

On the back it has a large “camping lantern” LED light that can output up to 1200 lumens. It’s super bright and even warns the user not to stare into it when turning it on.

On the back it has a night vision camera with infrared illuminator, a 108 megapixel “AI Camera” and a 2 megapixel macro lens. Like other Unihertz phones the camera system here disappoints.

The high resolution camera spits out large 20+ megabyte image files but they lack the detail I expected to see from a camera supposedly north of 100 megapixels. I suspect they’re using a much lower resolution sensor and interpolating up to a higher pixel count. Video quality out of the cameras is equally disappointing as you’ll see in the video.

Performance of the phone is on par with a low to mid-range smartphone. It’s adequate for nearly every android app and game you’ll find on the Google Play store. Along with its Mediatek Helio G99 processor it has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. It does not have an SD card option.

The Tank phone is unlocked. Here in the USA it works on TMobile and Verizon but not AT&T. Verizon customers need to activate their sim card on another device first and then move it over to the Unihertz.

All in this is another crazy phone from Unihertz. Like their other phones it’s well constructed and fills a very small niche in the marketplace. They are masters at finding these little slivers of need in the huge smartphone market!

Razer Edge Review

Android gaming devices are getting the attention of major manufacturers again. We recently looked at the Logitech G which I liked quite a bit. It wasn’t very powerful but it was powerful enough for a good amount of retro emulation, casual Android gaming, and game streaming.

In my latest video we look at another Android gaming handheld from Razer called the Edge. It’s more expensive than the Logitech G but also more powerful. Unlike the G the Edge’s controller detaches from the small tablet portion. Razer picked their existing controller, the Kishi V2, as opposed to building something new for this platform. The Kishi is available for smartphones too.

The Edge incorporates a Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 processor – a definite step up from the Logitech G and many other Android tablets for that matter. Razer is actively cooling the chip with a fan to keep its performance consistent. All of this would be great if there was a better game library on the Google Play store. But its emulation performance is outstanding, running PS2 and Gamecube emulation in my testing flawlessly.

They also went with a great display, a 2000×1080 AMOLED running at 144hz. Few games will push the limits of what this display has to offer but it does have some potential with the GEForce Now streaming service which supports 120hz framerates. The display is super wide though – so most games you’ll be streaming will have large black bars on the left and right hand side. It’s even more pronounced when playing a 4:3 retro game.

So while the specs are decent I couldn’t help but thinking what the purpose is here. Razer markets this as the ultimate gaming handheld but doesn’t suggest any games that would take advantage of its hardware. And it sells for the same price as the entry level Steam Deck which is considerably more powerful and has an extensive library of AAA PC games.

If it cost less it might have some appeal. But I’d have a hard time recommending somebody drop $399 on this vs. a Steam Deck or Switch.

High Altitude Balloons Have Little Regulation

Small balloons (similar to what have been shot down recently) have few regulations regarding their use. In fact there are more rules on drones than there are on balloons carrying less than four pounds of payload!

While some balloons are designed to pop when they reach a certain altitude, others can float for months, even years at a time. Take for example the amateur radio W5KUB balloons.

The W5KUB-112 balloon has floated around the world 10 times in less than a year aloft! It is currently in the Pacific Ocean south of Alaska and will be re-entering US airspace shortly. Its altimeter reports its position at 47,734 feet – slightly above commercial air traffic but not by much.

This balloon would almost certainly now be on NORAD’s target list given that similar small objects were shot down by US jets at similar altitudes. And while W5KUB is operating these balloons in accordance with US law, they don’t have to register the balloon with authorities so NORAD would likely not know this is a benign payload.

There are likely hundreds of balloons like this floating around the globe carried by the wind. Their payloads could be dead but the balloons themselves may very well still be floating. Adversaries can take advantage of this information gap by floating small payload balloons that look like all of the other stuff floating around in the wind.

Electronics don’t have to be large to be useful spying tools. A small radio like the ones on W5KUB’s balloons could be equipped to dump data to passing satellites via VHF or UHF bands and smaller messages can be sent over the HF bands without a satellite at all.

W5KUB’s high frequency WSPR radio. Source: W5KUB

A few months ago I demonstrated sending data packets up to the space station using a small 7 watt radio.

W5KUB’s small payload transmits APRS positioning packets on VHF frequencies and weak WSPR signals on HF. Those WSPR signals can be picked up even when the balloon is in the middle of the ocean.

Clearly up until now NORAD was looking for planes and missiles. For its part the FAA doesn’t seem to care much about small payload balloons and hasn’t been tracking their movements.

What’s next? I expect to see the FAA clamp down on domestic balloon activity similar to what they did with drones. Further there may be some discussion with other governments to develop some standards around registration and tracking for balloons that have the capability to float beyond borders.

Why I Stopped Doing YouTube Shorts

You’ll recall I was enthusiastic about the new format a few weeks ago when they rolled out the new monetization program. I felt it was something that would fairly compensate creators similar to how the YouTube partnership program has worked for many years. Unfortunately that’s not the case. I take a deep dive into my experiences with YouTube Shorts in my latest video.

Shorts monetization is very different from YouTube’s partnership program for longform content. Revenue is pooled and creators receive 45% of that pool based on what looks to be on a rate per thousand basis (RPM).

Unlike the Partner program where YouTube is transparent about how much they are collecting from advertisers on a per video basis, the actual amount of the pool is not disclosed. And because it looks like whatever revenue they decide to share with the pool is shared equally, there’s no active marketplace like there is for long form where certain topics drive higher RPMs based on the topic.

The result is that creators can expect pennies on the dollar when comparing Shorts revenue vs. long form. Currently creators are reporting about 3 cents per thousand views on Shorts. Comparatively I generally see RPMs in the $5-6 range on my long form content.

With YouTube pushing Shorts as heavily as they are I’m concerned that they are trying to drive viewers and creators away from a much more fair model of revenue sharing. What’s even more concerning is that YouTube’s Creator Liason, Rene Richie, says that Creators shouldn’t even be thinking about YouTube revenue opportunities when planning content.

My fear in hearing this from a YouTube employee is that the company is trying to pivot away from their partnership model and into something more in line with Instagram and TikTok where there’s very little content that’s not bought and paid for. How I’m able to do what I do with very few sponsorships is because of revenue I receive from YouTube and affiliate marketing links.

With Shorts, there’s very little revenue shared and Shorts make it very difficult for users to visit outside links. Richie says that this is one of the opportunities of Shorts but in my own analysis very few people clicked outside links embedded in one of my Shorts and those who did were largely on computers – not mobile devices that make up a bulk of Shorts viewers.

The bottom line is that if I were to invest more time and effort into Shorts it would come at the expense of my revenue. It just doesn’t make good business sense for me especially as even just a few hundred long form views will generate far more revenue vs. thousands of views on Shorts.

What’s Plugged Into My TV?

We review a lot of TV boxes on the channel.. In fact TV boxes are about the only thing that performs well on my YouTube channel these days. So I thought it might be fun to show you what I have plugged into my TV! See it all here.

The TLDR is that I’ve really embraced the Apple TV 4k over the last couple of months primarily because it does a few things that I’m looking for quite well. On my bedroom TV it works pretty seamlessly with my Airpods for private listening, and on my home theater TV it can switch into 24p mode better than anything else out there.

For a long time I was relying on the TV’s built in apps, but my aging LG C7 is running rather slowly and doesn’t have all of the apps we’re using these days. The television from a viewing perspective is still perfectly fine (it’s the best TV I’ve ever owned) but it definitely needs to be supplemented by a device these days.

The Nvidia Shield is still my go to for Plex Pro home media serving but the Apple TV is doing everything else. See more in the video!

Automating with NFC Tags!

I hinted at a home automation project I was doing the other day involving NFC tags and Wednesday I posted up a video that detailing what I’ve accomplished so far.

For the uninitiated NFC tags have RFID chips that can store data and spit it back out. The tags are powered by the radio waves coming from the scanning device. When it’s powered up by the phone scanning it the tag emits a low powered radio signal that contains the tag’s unique ID and whatever data is contained on board.

They come in many shapes and sizes and are very affordable. You can see a few that I found on Amazon here.

In the video I initially demonstrated how you might turn a light bulb on and off via Apple Homekit. I created an Apple Shortcuts script that checks the state of the bulb and then executes a command to turn it on if the bulb is off, or or off is the bulb is on. The tag acts as a trigger which then fires off the script. The best part is that no data is stored on the tag, so if somebody else scans it nothing will happen.

I’m currently using a tag in my studio that will turn on and off my studio lights and noisy air handler in the room. One tap when I sit down to record is all I need to do to get started! Next I’m going to set up an additional action that will turn on my production PC when the script fires off.

As you’ll see in the video I was able to get my Wyze devices integrated with Homekit thanks to the Homebridge open source project. Homebridge allows devices normally not compatible with Homekit to work on Apple’s platform. I have it running in a Docker container on my Synology NAS.

How Are YouTube Shorts Doing for Me So Far?

Not great. I earned 26 cents on 5,000 YouTube Shorts views since monetization began – a $0.05 CPM. This is WAY below the typical YouTube CPM (cost per thousand views) on long-form content both for ad & Premium viewers.

My Shorts did pick up 83 new subscribers since I started posting shorts so there is some value there, but certainly not on the monetization side of things.

New Shorts don’t take much time to create but I don’t think there’s any value in spending time repurposing older longer-form content as Shorts. The same number of views from long form videos generated significantly higher CPMs even in saturated content verticals like gaming.

Kensington Slimblade Pro Trackball Review

My latest review is of the Kensington Slimblade Pro Trackball.

I’ve been a Kensington customer for over 30 years. You’ll see my Apple IIgs trackball in the video from 1988 or so! This new one has a similar footprint but of course is much more modern.

The trackball uses an optical tracking system vs. rollers to gauge the position of the ball. It’s also wireless and can be used via Bluetooth or its included 2.4ghz dongle that garages itself on the bottom of the unit. It can also operate directly connected to a device via its USB-C port although those who are looking for a direct connection may want to look at the slightly less expensive non-pro version that retains most of the feature set here. The Pro edition also has a DPI setting that can adjust the sensitivity of the tracking on the fly.

What I found most innovative about its design is its nifty “twist to scroll” feature. Twisting the ball will scroll the active screen up and down. When twisting the mouse makes a clicking sound to differentiate it from its regular tracking mode. It very seamlessly switches from pointing to scrolling in use.

On the Mac and Windows there is a configuration software called “Kensington Works” that allows for some customization features with its four buttons. One of the neat ones is an option to lock in the x or y axis of the mouse to help draw straight lines up and down.

All in this feels like another solid Kensington mouse which is no surprise given they’ve been at this now for decades.

Disclosure: The Slimblade Pro was provided free of charge from Kensington for this review. I also produce informational videos for Kensington as a compensated consultant on occasion.