Technology – Donnerama

Review of My (Almost) New Google Pixel XL 2

My previous phone an LG G4 took a bit of a tumble and it cracked the corner of the screen. Although it was still usable it did seem to heat up a lot more and the battery life appeared to be affected. The phone would not last through an entire day often having to be charged towards the end of the day in order to last through the evening. Over the Christmas holiday, my provider Koodo, offered a number of phones including the Pixel XL at a discounted price with a Large Tab which I took advantage of.

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Cutting the Cable – IPTV

Many people are getting tired of the $200+ per month bills from the cable companies and are looking to try to reduce that cost. Using Kodi and its streaming services is great for catching up on TV episodes or movies but it is often spotty when trying to stream sporting events, news or things like award shows. This is where IPTV services can help! For $170 per YEAR you can subscribe to hundreds of channels through a service like IPTVonline.ca. For a single fee you can enjoy all the network channels, specialty channels like History or A&E and many, many others. Pretty much any channel you can think of is available. And many you won’t. How about Willow TV for watching cricket? Then there are channels dedicate to specific shows or movies. All day Seinfeld. All day James Bond. IPTV could be the item that helps people finally cut the cord to Cable TV.

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Six Port USB Charger

We have started to get a good number of devices lately that need to be charged using a USB connector. Two phones, a tablet, two fitbits, a portable clock, portable bluetooth speaker, a battery backup and a few others that I am sure am forgetting. With not enough outlets and in some cases, proprietary connectors I needed a solution to help me charge a number of devices at the same time. The AUKEY 60W USB Charger with 6-Port USB Charging Station seemed to fit the bill nicely. And at the price I paid of $34.99 Cdn it was, what I considered, a good deal. It has two quick charge 3.0 ports for the devices that support it and an additional four ports. It can charge all 6 devices at full speed. It also has built-in safeguards protect your devices against excessive current, overheating, and overcharging. I have used all ports simultaneously and am very pleased with how it performs.

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Magnetic USB Charging Cable

My son Warren gave a very cool and useful present this year for Christmas. A set of USB charging cables with a magnetic micro USB connector. The connector stays in your device and I just have to put the magnetic end of the cable near the connector in the device and it jumps into position and starts the charge cycle. No more funbling to find the right orientation without my glasses. Since the charging port on the device is always occupied by the connector you never have to clean out the dust or lint tat often accumulates in those areas. A nice addition to our charging station.