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My Movies 4 Pro

Read More DVD I usually put on one of my DVDs (see picture) and sleep mode on my television, the noise it makes gentle puts me to sleep. ...

As many of you guys know, I’m an avid collector of DVDs since 1997. I even bought my first DVD of Reservoir Dogs before I had a DVD player! I love this format, because coming from VHS and Laserdiscs, this new DVD format was smaller and more versatile and collectible.

I had a very large collection of DVD, so it made sense, at least for me, to keep track of them using an application on my computer. And since 2000, I was using DVD Profiler. When they released their software for iOS in 2010, I was one of the first people to buy it. It was great for a while… but unfortunately, the software has not been updated since 2018. There are some bugs in the iOS software that drove me nuts. For example, you couldn’t create a brand new DVD entry - it would only add DVD that exists in their catalog.

Then recently, when I bought my Lenovo Legion Gaming PC, I tried to sync my DVD Profiler on my phone to my computer and my DVD was destroyed through bad syncing. I didn’t have a DVD Profiler backup (my only backup was on my old Fallout Gaming PC). No problem, I guess I can start over. Unfortunately, scanning in the UPC of DVDs and Blurays was not great on DVD Profiler. It took forever for the camera to focus on the UPC, it would be impossible to scan in my entire collection.

The final straw happened on Friday, when nothing worked on DVD Profiler, because their servers was offline. It was time for me to move on.

Looking online for alternatives, I came across My Movies 4 Pro for $15. There is a ‘demo’ version for you try out, if you aren’t convinced. The demo only lets you add 50 entries.

So far, it’s a massive improvement over DVD Profiler. The UPC scanner is amazingly fast, and if you have a lot of films, like I do, this will save you a lot of time.

My Movies 4 is also available for the PC, but it actually works a little differently on the PC. It’s more of a movie streaming application that uses Windows Media Server… so I recommend just using the My Movies 4 app as a standalone app.

My only complaint is that My Movies 4 may take forever to “synchronize” with their servers. It takes a long time sometimes because the app takes a moment to download the high resolution front and back cover of the DVD or Bluray. Since I set my app to the highest resolution, it takes a moment for everything to sync. When it syncs, the app won’t allow you to add anything, so you’ll just have to wait until it is all downloaded.

The beautiful thing about the syncing process is that any DVD/Bluray that you add on your phone will magically appear on your iPad. This works much better than the old DVD Profiler, which requires you to manually sync to your PC (since the database is stored on your local computer).

For the most part, My Movies 4 catalog works well. Sometime I do run into a film that is not on their database. You can manually add in the UPC and photos of the cover artwork, so it works as you would expect (you couldn’t do that on DVD Profiler if you have a new iPhone).

Pro Tip: If you own a lot of discs, set the scanner to Multi-Scan and also set the Country to “All”. This is especially useful if you own a lot of movies from other countries. I wish I had known this when I started rescanning my collection!

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Humble Bundle

Read More Humble Bundle Game On: Humble Bundle I already own at least five of these games (on discs and digital), but I couldn't resist paying the average price to get these games again. When I donated, they gave me a breakdown of how ....

I’m currently a Humble Bundle subscriber since September 2022 when I got my Steam Deck. I previously joined for one year, starting April 2019 to April 2020, because it was a great way to building up your Steam library without paying too much. The only downside is that you don’t actually know what you’re going to get.

It’s a good deal, but unfortunately, because you don’t know what games you’re going to get - you may end up getting duplicate copies (if you previously own these games).

Anyway, there are some great charity Humble Bundle going on this month.

The Essential Content Creator Bundle

First, I wanted to spotlight the The Essential Content Creator Bundle, from Magix. You get six software (one of the software ProDAD mercalli v5 is only good for two years), but the clear stand-out product is the video editor VEGAS Pro 18 Edit. This is a $250 software that you can get for $25. For $25, it’s worth it just for Vegas alone.

Just a little background, but I used to use Vegas when it was own by Sony, it was one of the best video editor that rivals Adobe’s Premiere. Sometime in 2016, Sony sold it to Magix.

I own Vegas Pro 14 and I recently tried to install it on my new Lenovo Legion PC and it wouldn’t register unless I de-activate previous installations. Keep that in mind if you intend on installing the software on various computers.

When I installed it on the new computer, last month, I contemplated on actually paying $150 to upgrade to Vegas 18… but I decided against it because it’s just too expensive. I’m glad I waited, because now I can upgrade to Vegas 18 for $25.

The other amazing deal is the Black Friday Encore: Lone Wolf & Cub and More by Koike from Dark Horse. If you missed the Black Friday deal (like I did!), here’s your second chance. For $18.00 you are getting over 7,000 pages of Lone Wolf and Cub. That, by itself, is an amazing deal. You also get Kazuo Koike’s other works like Crying Freeman and Samurai Executioner. I’ve own most of Koike’s works, so was happy to see they’ve included some books I’ve never read before.

I started reading Color of Rage, and it’s a hoot. It’s about two prisoners who escaped from a slave ship. One of them is a ronin and the other is a black man. The two travel throughout Japan helping people and trying to survive. It’s about racism, it’s about a stranger in a strange land... it would make for a great television show.

I’ve been reading the manga on my iPad Pro 12.8, and although it looks fine… the battery life is terrible and reading for an extended period time on a glossy LED screen is not recommended. I’ve been giving a lot of thought on buying the new Kindle Scribe (10.2 inch) or the Boox Nova Air Color (7.8 inches) to read comic books. They’re both e-ink, but the Boox having the ability to display in e-ink color (which is what I need if I want to read digital color comics).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

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Black Friday 2022

Read More Black Friday Sure, I didn’t need all those extra things in my life, but I couldn’t pass up these deals. The prices are Black Friday level (even better in many cases). …

With Black Friday coming up this Friday (November 25), we are already starting to see some really good deals on Bluray/UHD discs. Some of my favorite A24 films are on sale, including X, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and The Green Knight. I bought a ton of discs this week. Most UHD discs are $10 and Bluray are either $5 or $8. It’s really the only time that I make mass Bluray purchases.

Over at Target, the best deal I’ve seen is $200 for the Xbox Series S. That’s $50 off and a $50 Target Gift card (which is as good as cash). I’m very tempted to try and buy it, even though I already own the Xbox Series X (the superior version). But the price is so good that I’m really thinking about it. If you are going to buy an Xbox this year, you might as well get Elden Ring for $40. This is the lowest price I’ve seen for this amazing game. Honestly, Elden Ring is my Game of the Year.

Walmart has the best deals on 4K TV. They have a 50 inch ONN 4K LED for $150. Onn is Walmart’s brand, and for that low bottom prices, I’m not sure if it’ll have the quality. On the bright side, the TV has Roku built into the television. If you want to upgrade, Walmart also sells a TCL 65” 4k TV for $228 (also with Roku).

If you’re looking for a Macbook, Best Buy is selling the M1 MacBook Air 13.3” for $800 (a $200 savings). If you want this year’s MacBook Air, with the M2 chip, you can get it for $1,050… but from what I’ve read, it’s not worth the upgrade.

LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570

Also, the best OLED TV prices I’ve ever seen is for the LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570. This is a $730 savings, and I’m definitely looking at this very closely. I think the biggest problem is that I rarely watch TV. I spend all my time sitting at my computer and watch YouTube videos or movies I’ve ripped from my Bluray…

So maybe the better money might go to another 4k monitor? My current favorite monitor is on sale for $230. I bought the monitor for $320 in Apr 2022 and absolutely love the “Picture in Picture” feature: “There is another feature that they highlight, and I found it really useful. The monitor has the ability to do Picture in Picture (or as Samsung lists it PBP). What this means is that the monitor can display two simultaneous sources on the monitor at the same time. You have some options, side-by-side or a small popup screen (which you can position in four areas and with varying sizes). The P-i-P is the best thing about this monitor.”

If you’re looking for a new PC or laptop, I would recommend looking at MicroCenter’s Black Friday sale. They have my Lenovo Legion PC for the same amazing price of $850. I’ve said it before, the video card (3060) costs $400 by itself(!), so to have it come with your computer, it’s a steal.

MicroCenter also sells really cheap Wyze cameras. Their v3 camera with color night vision is $30. I currently own two Wyze cameras that I use for my security cameras.

This year, I’ve already started my Black Friday shopping last week. Most retailers already started their sale last week. I’ll be looking at bigger purchases sometime this week, since some retailers won’t unveil their biggest deals until closer to Friday.

Read more Black Friday, Movies and Television.

Vu’s Early Black Friday Bluray/UHD purchases

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TP-Link Deco W6000

Read More Tracfone The other day, I ran into an endcap display of Straight Talk Home Internet. I was interested, because two months ago (in September 2022), I got rid of my DSL home internet service and was basically using my phone’s internet as a hotspot. …

In the latest Straight Talk Home Internet saga… I had to upgrade my Wireless access.

So here’s the recap. The Straight Talk router is upstairs to get the best 5G signal. My main desktop/gaming PC is downstairs in my bedroom. My old Fallout iBuyPower PC struggles to connect to Straight Talk router, and when it does connect, speed was slower than my cellphone’s 4mbps.

I bought a new Lenovo Legion computer with the latest WiFi 6, hoping it will fix my slow speed internet. While it did fix the problem, the speed was not great (20mpbs) and there’s barely a one-bar WiFi connection. This tells me the connection is weak or too far away.

Basically, what I needed is to have more access point for my home network. The solution is to get a some sort of home mesh network. After looking at Google Wifi (now called Nest) and TP-Link Deco, I decided to go with the latter, based on features and pricing. I bought the Deco W6000 (aka AX3000 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System) two-pack for $150 (so about $75 for each Deco).

Between the two Decos, it promised to cover up to 5,000 square feet, so this should fit my needs. In addition, TP-Link’s app would monitor congested network and also parental controls, if you need it.

Setting up the device was easy. You need to hook up one base via an ethernet cable to your modem. This Deco is now the primary base station. Other Decos that you install in the house will be satellite station, passing on the internet. The system is smart enough to see if your PC can use the 5Ghz band and will automatically connect you to the fastest lane.

Download Speed

After some firmware updates and rebooting and re-adjusting the location, it would seem that I’m now rocking with fast internet on my Lenovo Legion computer.

Everything is working. I’m fully satisfied now.

I’ll give it a few days to see how the new Deco network holds up. If it’s rock solid, I will probably be buying another one to cover the garage area (which is a deadzone).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Technology.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 free on Steam

Read More Warhammer 40,000 I got the free promotional game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition when I bought the Lenovo Legion. At first, I thought the game code is inside the box, but that is not the case ....

Weekend Gamer here. Just a reminder that the Warhammer 40,000: Vermintide 2 is free until November 7th. The giveaway is due to Fatshark’s next game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, released seven years ago.

In addition to the free game, Steam is also giving away a free DLC Trail of Treachery, starting November 8th (mark your calendar!)

This is exciting, considering that if you bought a NVIDIA 3060, 3070, 3080, or 3090, you were also given a free copy of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition (which I happily redeemed Nov 2).

There’s never been a better time to be a Warhammer 40k fan.

Additional details:

November 30th marks the release of Fatshark’s next game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, an intensely brutal cooperative game set in the Warhammer 40,000 world. This release will be the 3rd installment of “Tide” releases over the past 7 years and adds to the already critically acclaimed Vermintide series.

Throughout November and leading up to the release of Darktide, there'll be activities and updates from Fatshark for all "Tide" players to celebrate its launch. This includes a free copy of Vermintide 2*, a free update to Vermintide 2 (Trail of Treachery DLC), access to play Darktide early for pre-order players, and a free download of the Devoted Rejects DLCfor all Vermintide 1 or 2 players who jump in and play Darktide.

For a limited time only, you can download Vermintide 2 for free and keep it in your library forever

Read more Weekend Gamer.

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Lenovo Legion Gaming PC

Specs Intel Core i5 11th Gen 11500 2.7GHz Processor NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM 512GB SSD+1TB HDD Microsoft Windows 11 Home 10/100/1000 Network 2x2 802.11ax WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 400 Watt Power Supply Free game: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition (must be redeemed by 11/10/2022) Read More Lenovo With Lenovo Smart Display, it’s pretty much free. If you want music, you can upload all your MP3s to Google Music and access them via the Smart Display. Of course, if you prefer, you can subscribe to Google Music, YouTube Music … iBuyPower Since owning the new iBuyPower’s Fallout computer, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the computer. I’ve been really into RGB lighting for my computer and recently purchased …

Since I got the the Straight Talk Home Internet, which promises 10-100mbps 5G speed, I’ve been enjoying fast downloads of games for my Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. I average about 30-50mbps. Unfortunately, my aging Fallout iBuyPower Computer could not enjoy the same download speed. This is because the Wi-Fi chip in the system is old (2017) and uses old protocol. Plus the computer was downstairs, far from the router. Whatever the reasons is, it has trouble connecting to the network and the speed it was getting was often under 1-4mps. I suspected it was the Wi-Fi card because the Xbox, sitting right next to my computer, was doing 80mps!

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve been looking around for a new gaming computer, and this was just the final straw. There are numerous problems with the Fallout computer, first the fan is starting to rattle and prevents me from doing audio recording because it was so noisy. Next, in order to upgrade the video card, I would have to replace the power supply. Also, the old computer would just not upgrade to Windows 11. Plus, it was just getting slow.

So, it was time. I bought the Lenovo Legion T5i 26IOB6 Gaming PC for $850 today from MicroCenter. This is a great price, it’s about 40% off the original asking price. Most of that money probably goes to the Nvidia 3060 video card. Just a quick Amazon search, shows that the average 3060 card is $400-$500. The 3060 card will be a massive improvement over my old 1660 card.

Download Speed

The key thing for me is the WiFi 6 card, which is the latest protocol. Of course, the first thing I did when I started up the computer was doing a speed test… and yes, it’s now fast and on par with what my Xbox was getting, in terms of download speeds.

With the fast internet connection, I’m able to re-download all the software that I need. All my movies and music are on external hard drives, so physically moving them to the new computer was effortless. I’m just afraid that with so many hard drives (6 in total), that the 400 Watt power supply might not be powerful enough. The first game I’ve re-downloaded is Elden Ring, which I am enjoying on the Steam Deck.

The new computer does have one USB-C, which is great. I’m going to have to get a USB hub to take advantage of it.

This is my first Windows 11 machine, so, at first, I’m not used to it. At first I wish it was Windows 10, as it’s what I’m familiar with… but I suppose over time, I will learn to understand and get used to Win 11.

Otherwise, I’ve zero complaints about the new computer. It’s fast, and it runs whisper quiet, which I absolutely love.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

PS I got the free promotional game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition when I bought the Lenovo Legion. At first, I thought the game code is inside the box, but that is not the case. If you buy it, look for the game code on your receipt. The promotion ends 11/10/2022, which is in about a week. The game official comes out November 30. You’ll need both an Nvidia and Steam account… but if you’re into PC gaming… you’ll already have one.

Read more Technology.

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Lenovo Smart Frame coming soon

Read More Lenovo With Lenovo Smart Display, it’s pretty much free. If you want music, you can upload all your MP3s to Google Music and access them via the Smart Display. Of course, if you prefer, you can subscribe to Google Music, YouTube Music …

Shortly after being disappointed at the Google Nest Hub Max in last week (particularly the low resolution of the screen and inability to use Nest’s camera because I had a G Suite Account), I decided to see what their competitor, Lenovo was up to - and was very excited to see that they will be releasing the Lenovo Smart Frame!

I’ll explain why I’m so excited, but first let me do a quick round up of my ownership of digital photo frames. What I own so far:

Lenovo Smart Display 10”

Lenovo Smart Display 8” (I own two of these)

Google Nest Hub Max

Lenovo Smart Tab M10 (with Amazon Echo Show).

Amazon Echo Show (1st Generation)

Kodak EasyShare 7” Digital Photo Frame

I’m only using the Lenovo and Google displays at the moment. The ones I’m not using, I’ll further explain why they aren’t very good. The Kodak frame simply sucked - the display is terrible and it’s not internet connected. I bought it under clearance for $17, and still regret paying that much for this none-useful device. The Amazon devices, at first, I was excited. However, soon after using them, I realized every little thing I wanted, Amazon wanted me to pay money to use (including the ability to display my personal photos)… which I refuse to pay a reoccurring fee just to view my photos.

Why I am so excited about the Lenovo Smart Frame is that I’m really interested in a larger photo frame, and this 21” display would eclipse my 10” screens. It’s internet-connected and will work with my existing Google Photos, so I don’t have to do any work in setting up images for the frame. They also stressed that the display will automatically adjust the brightness and colors of your photos / art to match the ambient light in your room. This is the key, since you don’t want a bright display when you turn off the lights. My existing Lenovo smart displays already does this, and I think it’s wonderful (when you turn off the lights the screen is very dim).

There’s speakers and ability to use touchless controls - so I am thinking they might incorporate music or video control playback… which is interesting, but I’m not sure if I would be interested in those features (but obviously would still be nice if they included it out of the box). The other feature I would just like to see is the local temperature and clock, even though you don’t see them on the website. Maybe just include an option for that, for those that wants it.

The retail price for the Smart Frame will be $299, however, if you support or pre-order through IndieGoGo, you can get it for $150… which I think is a much fairer and more attractive price. They took down the date, but the pending date I saw was August 2020.

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Google Nest Hub Max

Read More Lenovo With Lenovo Smart Display, it’s pretty much free. If you want music, you can upload all your MP3s to Google Music and access them via the Smart Display. Of course, if you prefer, you can subscribe to Google Music, YouTube Music …

When I first experimented with the “Smart Display” market, I started with Amazon Echo Show… mostly because it was first to market and the pricing was attractive with flash sales.

At first, it was great… but as I used it more and more, I started to see its limitation. I soon realized that Amazon just basically wanted me to pay for all of its services. For example, if I wanted to listen music, I would have to pay its Amazon Music subscription. If I wanted to display my photos (to use the Echo Show as a photo frame), I would have to pay for Amazon Drive (which comes with a Photo service). Want to watch movies? Amazon Prime, etc. It’s that classic razer blade strategy - get them in with a cheap product, but sell them reoccurring blades or services.

When the Lenovo Smart Display was announced, I quickly jumped ship. Switching over to Lenovo meant that we had to become a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free.

Using Google Music, I can stream all my music on the Smart Display. Using Google Photos, I can setup my display as a digital photo frame. It is awesome… and for the most part, they are all free services.

I love the Lenovo Smart Displays, I currently own three of them (one 10” and two 8”). I was eagerly looking forward to buying larger displays or a better redesign… but unfortunately the new redesigned is a smaller version: a 7” display.

As stores like Best Buy are phasing out the Lenovo Smart Displays in favor of Google Nest Hub (7”) and the Google Nest Hub Max (10”), I decided to get a Hub Max on sale. The Nest Hub is a re-branding from Google Home Hub.

The key differences (and improvements) in the Nest Hub 10” vs Lenovo Smart Display 10” is that the audio is a million times better thanks to its 3” subwoofer. The Nest Hub also features a better microphone to hear over distance and has an “ultrasound sensing” technology (to recognize the tiniest “hey google”).

If you have a Nest account, you can use the Nest Hub to spy, I mean view your room, as a security camera. Unfortunately, it does not work if you have a G Suite Account. You need a raw Gmail account… so this feature is useless to me.

There’s also face recognition, to display your personal calendar, but because I’m the only user in the household, this feature is somewhat useless to me.

Now, for the main reason why I am going to not recommend the Google Nest Hub Max: the screen is simply terrible. It is only 1280 x 800 pixels. You might think, oh that’s not so bad. But when you were going from an HD display from the Lenovo 10” at 1920 x 1200 pixels, you can clearly see the differences. The Lenovo displays are amazingly better, thanks to the high resolution, but also deeper blacks.

The final nail against Google is its price. The Nest Hub Max retails for $229, while you can get the Lenovo Smart Display 10” for around $149. Personally speaking, based on my own needs (since many of Nest’s features doesn’t work for me), I would just go with the cheaper (and better) Lenovo Smart Display 10”.

The Lenovo Smart Display does almost everything that the Google Nest Hub Max does, and despite a worst speaker system, I can live with that over a better screen.

P.S. I tried to use the Google Nest Hub Max as my main display on my desk for a few hours, but staring at that awful screen, I simply had to swap it back to my original Lenovo Smart Display.

Breakdown below:

Product:	Echo Show (New)	Lenovo Smart Display	Google Nest Hub Max
Price:	$229.99	$149 (10”)	$229
Release:	October 11, 2018	July 2018	September 2019
Size/Resolution:	10”/1280 x 800	10”/1920 x 1200	10”/1280 x 800
Speakers:	2 x 10W and Dolby processing for room-filling sound	2" 10W Full Range Speaker, 2 x Passive Tweeters	Stereo speaker system (2x 18mm 10W tweeters, 1x 75mm 30W woofer)
Camera:	5MP	5 MP Wide Angle	6.5-megapixel camera with 127-degree wide field of view
Processor:	Intel Atom x5-Z8350	Qualcomm® Home Hub Platform (Snapdragon™ 624, Octa-Core A53 1.8 GHz, 14 nm)	Amlogic T931 chip
Software:	Amazon Products (Amazon Music, Videos, Photos) ($) Hulu CNN NBC Spotify Ring	Google Products (Google Music, Videos, Photos) (free) Google Podcast Google Duo YouTube Chromecast HBO Now Spotify Pandora	Google Products (Google Music, Videos, Photos) (free) Nest Camera Google Podcast Google Duo YouTube Chromecast HBO Now Spotify Pandora

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Amazon Music News: Metric and Big Data's "Risk" (Amazon Original Remix)

Metric - “Risk (Big Data Remix)” Read More Amazon Over the weekend, Amazon ran a promotional price drop for their Echo Show, selling for $149 instead of its normal retail price of $229, as part of the Super Bowl commercial. I thought it was such a good deal … Google With Lenovo Smart Display, it’s pretty much free. If you want music, you can upload all your MP3s to Google Music and access them via the Smart Display. Of course, if you prefer, you can subscribe to Google Music, YouTube Music … Metric I've seen Metric twice (four times if you count Emily Haines solo or Broken Social Scene), so you know I love this little Canadian band. Their Rock the Garden's set was very similar to their … Big Data New York's Big Data was up next. The band was previously in town at the Fine Line Music Café earlier in March 2015. This music project is lead by Alan Wilkis, who teamed up with a variety of artists for their 2.0 album …

There are some big news coming from major online retailer giant Amazon.

The first is that Google and Amazon have made up and play nice… so YouTube will once again be available on Amazon’s devices, such as The Echo and Fire Stick.

Second is that Amazon will start making their Amazon Music streaming service available to non-Prime users, but with advertisements, according to Engadget. This would make sense, considering that you can already stream Spotify (with ads) on Amazon’s speakers.

Of course, the free service will be limited, as Amazon still wants you to pay for their full Music service, with access to more than 50 million songs.

Also, speaking of Amazon Music, it was announced yesterday that Metric and Big Data (artist/producer Alan Wilkis) have teamed up to release an Amazon Original Remix of “Risk.” You can only listen (or purchase) only on Amazon Music.

You can catch Metric on their upcoming April/May Canadian tour:

April 17 - Victoria, BC - Save on Foods Memorial
April 18 - Vancouver, BC - Pacific Coliseum
April 20 - Calgary, AB - Stampede Corral
April 21 - Edmonton, AB - Shaw Conference Centre
April 22 - Saskatoon, SK - SaskTel Centre
April 23 - Winnipeg, MB - Bell MTS Place
April 26 - Toronto, ON - Scotiabank Arena
April 27 - Ottawa, ON - TD Place Arena
April 28 - London, ON - Budweiser Gardens
May 2 - Halifax, NS - Halifax Scotiabank Centre
May 3 - Moncton, NB - Avenir Centre
May 5 - Montreal, QC - Mtelus

Personally speaking, the free Amazon Music is a little too late, as I’ve actually gone all-in with Google’s devices (such as the Lenovo’s Smart Display) as they offer the ability to upload music you own via Google Play. What is better about this, is that you may own a lot of music that is simply not available on any streaming platform - such as live recordings or bootlegs or obscure singles and B-Sides.

UPDATE: Not to be outdone by Amazon, Google also allowed a free version of their YouTube Music service available on their speakers and Smart Display. Go here for the instructions to turn on the feature.

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Lenovo Smart Display

Lenovo Smart Display Read More Amazon Over the weekend, Amazon ran a promotional price drop for their Echo Show, selling for $149 instead of its normal retail price of $229, as part of the Super Bowl commercial. I thought it was such a good deal …

After living with the Amazon’s Echo Show for seven months, and realizing its limitation (the fact that Amazon wants to sell you every service that should be free - like displaying your photos or playing your music), it was time I moved away from Alexa and to Google Assistant via Lenovo Smart Display (10” version).

So, why would you buy one over the other? Despite being much cheaper to buy, you end up paying more if you decide to go the Amazon route. If you own an Echo Show, you might end up buying a subscription to Amazon Music ($8 a month), a subscription to Amazon Drive (for your photos at $11.99 a year), a subscription to Amazon Prime (for watching some videos at $99 or more a year). As you can see, it can add up.

With Lenovo Smart Display, it’s pretty much free. If you want music, you can upload all your MP3s to Google Music and access them via the Smart Display. Of course, if you prefer, you can subscribe to Google Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, Deezer, or Spotify. You can access your movies via YouTube (which is not available on Amazon). You can access all your photos via the free Google Photos service.

To me, it’s really hard to argue free over paying for subscriptions, however, I can understand why some users won’t mind paying for ease of use.

Setting up the Smart Display was really hard. You have to download Google Home and sign in using a Google account. If you have a custom G-Suite Account, it won’t work unless you tweak the privacy settings (they should all work except for Google Calendar). If you sign in using different Google accounts on Google Home, it won’t work.

To get Google’s Duo to work, you must associate the app with your phone number and sign in using the same account that you use for Google Home (again, multiple accounts may cause problems).

If you have problems, you can’t simply delete and re-add in the software - you basically have to factory reset and start over from the beginning. Don’t feel bad, but I had to factory reset the display three or four times, to get everything to work. It definitely didn’t feel like the product was ready for primetime. It’s understandable, as the Smart Display is the very first of its kind.

Once you get it up and running, it’s very similar to the Echo Show. Everything the Echo can do, the Smart Display can do a little better.

With a bigger, beautiful HD screen, a beautiful bamboo-back design, and audio, it blows away the Echo Show. Fear not, Amazon will be coming back with a second generation Echo Show that promises to better compete with the Smart Display.

Breakdown below:

Product:	Echo Show	Echo Show (New)	Lenovo Smart Display
Price:	$149.99	$225.99	$249 (10”)
Release:	June 28, 2017	October 11, 2018	July 2018
Size/Resolution:	7”/1024 x 600	10”/1280 x 800	10”/1920 x 1200
Speakers:	Dual 2” stereo speakers.	2 x 10W and Dolby processing for room-filling sound	2" 10W Full Range Speaker, 2 x Passive Tweeters
Camera:	5MP	5MP	5 MP Wide Angle
Processor:	Intel SR2KT Atom x5-Z8350 Processor (2M Cache, up to 1.92 GHz)	Intel Atom x5-Z8350	Qualcomm® Home Hub Platform (Snapdragon™ 624, Octa-Core A53 1.8 GHz, 14 nm)
Software:	Amazon Products (Amazon Music, Videos, Photos) ($) Hulu CNN NBC Spotify Ring	Amazon Products (Amazon Music, Videos, Photos) ($) Hulu CNN NBC Spotify Ring	Google Products (Google Music, Videos, Photos) (free) Google Podcast Google Duo YouTube Chromecast HBO Now Spotify Pandora

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