I have a couple of questions from the more knowledgable folks regarding Google FI.

• are there any mobile hotspots available that are FI compatible?
• if not, can a FI phone be used to tether other devices? if so - does it bridge WiFi to Cell and not use the FI WiFi connection for data access?
• 
  

Can a "REPORT" button be added to forum posts so we can identify SPAM and other postings for review by admins? seems a number of spams have once again popped up and it is a PITA to manually report each instance.

looking at the podcasts page - I see in each media window the following

500 Internal Server Error

Sorry, something went wrong.

A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.

If you see them, send them this information as text (screenshots frighten them):

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I am thinking of replacing my aged FIOS Actiontec and Asus Wireless access points and wanted some views of Mesh networking versus Single access point.

I am trying to improve reliability and reduce noise. In addition the devices above I have a wifi extender - so it is a noisy environment that is not great to manage. I am thinking that the mesh would be the better way to go but many here may have useful experiences.

I am leaning towards the Netgear Orbi which seems on sale @ WalMart now.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/NETGEAR-Orbi-RBK50-Home-WiFi-System-AC3000-Tri-Band-WiFi/54445769?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1458&adid=22222222227048805279&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=146907747337&wl4=aud-450464696613:pla-257483591220&wl5=9007725&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113137501&wl11=online&wl12=54445769&wl13=&veh=sem

HP has business and consumer lines of their offerings. Each line has different levels. According to https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/which-hp-for-you, the Spectre line is above the Envy line. It would seem that the Qualcomm based Envy X2 should be in the Spectre line - or are they reserving a space for a Spectre based on the Qualcomm processors? I think that there already is a Spectre X2 (the Surface Pro knockoff) so it would have to be named differently. What other features would one expect from a Qualcomm Spectre laptop (the answer Intel Inside is not permitted)!

Don

I have long ago moved all my personal documents to OneDrive and my views on back-ups have changed. What do others do for backups of their computers? Rebuilding one is much easier than it used to be and reconnecting to onedrive makes my files available. Are Backups a thing of the past?

I have had a Spectre sent back to HP for poor battery performance - I was getting only 3 hours on battery. They "supposedly" replaced the battery after confirming the problem but I am still not seeing what I expect - it is up to 4 hours.

battery report (powercfg /batteryreport) before the service showed:

PERIOD FULL CHARGE CAPACITY DESIGN CAPACITY

2018-01-16 54,701 mWh 54,701 mWh

2018-01-17 54,701 mWh 54,701 mWh

2018-01-18 54,701 mWh 54,701 mWh

it now shows:

PERIOD FULL CHARGE CAPACITY  DESIGN CAPACITY

2018-01-27 58,848 mWh 58,848 mWh

2018-01-28 58,397 mWh 58,397 mWh

2018-01-29 58,397 mWh 58,397 mWh

better - but from reviews I expected over 6 hours life.

before I contact HP again - I wonder if any other Spectre 360 owner can check their battery capacity and post results here!

thank you

What experience have others had with HP support?

Reason I ask is I purchased a Spectre 360 in August due to many positive reviews. I was looking forward to a nice laptop with exceptional battery life. I haven't been getting good battery life (only about 3 hours) so I contacted HP. The updated the BIOS and a driver and checked back in a couple of days - no improvement. Now I have to ship it to their repair facility (on their dime at least) and will be without a laptop until it returns in up to 5-7 business days (so 2 weeks with shipping).

when I had issues with my Surface, Microsoft just swapped it and I wasn't out of having a computer.

what are other's experience with getting HP repairs - do they get the job done or will I have a lifetime of issues?

I read reviews - read about battery life of newer laptops but my experience is not meeting expectations.

I have an HP Spectre 360 and am not experiencing what I read

what are others getting for use time on battery?

When I had a Windows Phone, I could call Cortana over the Bluetooth in my truck by calling 555-555-9876. Does Android support the same capability? Can I call Ok Google or Cortana (if installed) over the auto bluetooth connection?

I clicked through to find responses to messages I posted but the notifications show responses 5 days old -- not current ones. Are they broken?

I am trying to link my Moto Z2 to my Windows 10 laptop. I have Launcher, Edge & Cortana already installed on the phone, I selected the Phone setting on the PC and went through the link phone path. I clicked the link sent in text message on phone. Every App in the Phone settings remains grayed out. Is there something else I am supposed to do to activate the sync between my phone and PC?

I recently moved from AT&T to T-Mobile for a variety of reasons. This was for four lines. We purchased 2 new phones and intended to transfer phones we already had but had to wait to have the AT&T phones unlocked (that turned out to be more a hassle than it should have.)

Any way, during the transition and while waiting for my wife's Samsung Galaxy S7 (originally about $750) to be unlocked, she used an LG Stylus 3 Plus ($250 or 1/3 price of S7) for a couple of weeks. When the Samsung was finally unlocked she returned to using it and made a comment she was glad to have her phone back. I asked her if she felt if the Samsung was $500 better than the LG, she rattled off a few reasons she preferred the Galaxy. Most of her reasons are due to being more familiar with the Samsung UI - which may explain the reason OEMs do not stick with the standard Android UI, a gentle form of lock-in. Then she listed some things she did like about the LG.

So this experience got me wondering - is the Galaxy $500 better than the LG. The LG has a larger screen, it comes with a stylus (if that matters), same or similar SOC and memory options. both have nice fingerprint scanners, ... so what else should matter?

• camera
• support
• reputation/name recognition?
• form factor

curious what others think. What factors go into your decision and how do you make a value decision. I am not a shutterbug so I do not give the camera as much weight as others. I mostly use camera with Office Lens and the occasional picture.

PS - I moved from Lumia 950 to a Motorola Z2 and somewhat "Redmondized" it. I find I do miss the smart tiles but I do appreciate the improved App situation somewhat. I do wonder if it is worth $250 more than the LG. It feels to me that the Delta between the worst phone on the market and the best is not worth the delta in cost -- so what is the sweet spot?

I have had two recurring problems since upgrading to 1709

1 - at times (enuf to annoy) Edge is in a mode where it remains the top window. I have to minimize it to access other programs even when edge launched them. Is there a way to fix this so I don't have to restart?

2 - Windows Hello (camera) is not activating. Hello does but the camera doesnt turn on to recognize. I have to pin in instead. It is as if the camera is being used by another app and preventing Hello from accessing it. any thoughts how to fix it ?

I noticed that the storage in my XBox 1 S is getting full (it is the 1TB model. This is my first XBox so I wonder what the options are when I hit the max

• does the XBox manage the games loaded and replace ones that are not used automatically or do I have to remove games
• Does the XBox or Store maintain a list of games I own but are not stored on the drive so I can download them should I wish to?
• Do I need external storage? I sure hope not!
• 
  

I do not have media for the games - they are all through the store.

any response is appreciated

wonder how widely they use it - video looks like a promo

http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/business/2017/09/21/ford-experiments-with-microsoft-hololens-mixed-reality.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

I had a weird thing happen and thought I would post to help others with the solution.

I have Office installed but I do not use Outlook as my mail program, I use Mail and Calendars which is set as the default Mail program.

When I selected Share as an attachment, it kept bringing up Outlook. I asked on the Microsoft support site and received the following:

____

It could be that the Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar option is turned on in your Outlook application. Here's how to check if the option is enabled:

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the File tab, choose Options > General.
3. Under Start up options, select the Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar check box.
4. Click OK.

After turning off the option, attempt if you are able to send an attachment using Mail via an Office application.

If you need further assistance, feel free to ask us.

___

so to fix this problem, it meant I had to install and configure outlook in order to uncheck the Start-up options. This meant configuring for my MSA, searching for how to do an application password which I need to do once per app and never again.

This is crazy - Office applications should honor the default mail app selection. I rue the day I might have to remotely talk my 90 something parents through these procedures.

I noticed that dates are formatted dd/mm/yy in Web version of my Outlook Calendar. Can I choose the US mm/dd/yy format instead?

my new Spectre X360 will arrive today. I recall Paul recommending setting it up with a local account so you can change the computer name to something sensible in the MSA once you attach it because the name in the cloud cannot be changed. I think this has been addressed now, so is it still recommended to set up using a local account?

I am considered locking it to Windows Store Apps and wonder if the MS Office apps have yet to be made available through the store for Office 365 subscribers?

thanks for any responses - always exciting starting fresh with a new computer

Don

PS - this was an unplanned purchase to replace my Surface Pro 3 that one day decided to not charge anymore. It fell off a cliff with no indications that it was about to fail.

While on business trip last week, while I was using my SP3 right after waking up and packing for a return flight. After a little while, I noticed that the light on the power cord was not lit – it WAS lit when I picked it up. I figured that something went wrong with the power brick.

I didn’t think much about it as the battery was @ 100% and I was packing to catch a flight. I used the SP3 on the plane to connect to Southwest Wifi to watch TV and ran battery down. When I got home, I plugged the SP3 into another power adapter (I have two, one in my travel bag) and sadly the light didn’t light. I tried the various things that were recommended online such as making sure the slot is clear and trying the adapter in both directions.

The SP3 has operated flawlessly for 3 1/2 years and showed no symptoms of imminent death!

I have since ran to the MS store to see what the options are! my extended MS warranty expired in January 2017 and the SP3 IS 3 1/2 years old. I was hoping that they would say battery replacement would be $200 but they only offered a replacement for $595. While that is cheaper than the new Specter X360 I was configuring, it is also 2 generations old and not what I was looking for.

so – I thought I would throw out a few questions here to see if there are better options than a landfill:

Are ideas on how to resurrect the dead SP3?

are there diagnosis and repair options I should consider?

I would like to restore it to working order to have a backup when I do upgrade.

Thanks for any insights!

Don

PS - weird. I edited this thread and had bullets that disappeared...

I find the navigation support for this site to fall short of being convenient. A main annoyance is while reading comments to articles. As a Premium Member, I scroll down reading each comment in the premium tab and to continue reading those in the non-premium tab, I have to scroll to the beginning of the comments section to do so. Can that navigation choice be added to the end of any comment thread - click to jump to the top of the other section? It would help.

Also for ThurrottNow when I click the comment link, I expect to be brought to the comment section of that posting - but it opens the posting, requiring me to scroll down and open the comments -- why the hassle?

I am wondering if the WannaCry scare will result in more upgrades to Windows 10?

Would MS consider extending free upgrades of even pirated versions to Windows 10 S? Might be a boost to adoption and address a cyber weakness as well - something of a win/win situation.

I have been having a problem with Windows Mail (The built in app) that I was hoping the CU update would fix. It didn’t. The problem is the names of subfolders have been replaces with IpmSubFolder. I have tried deleting the account and reinstalling it without success. Seem there is some residual cached info that deleting doesnt remove. Where does Windows Mail store the messages locally

Trying to attach a screenshot

I was chatting with a friend and I was discussing when I might wish to upgrade my SP3. It is three years old and working fine. No breaks, no blemishes.

so this got me thinking what would compell me to upgrade. The SP3 has few moving parts. The obvious being the stand, the fan and speakers. If any of those fail, I will have to upgrade as a repaire wouldn't be worth the cost. I suppose if the battery fails to hold a charge, that would be another reason.

the perfomance boost of the newer processors is not compelling.

new feature may be. Hello didn't cause me upgrade the SP3 but I did get the type cover with the fingerprint reader.

what reasons to others value to cause them to replace a well working computer?

I woke up with a pending update. I am on the Preview Ring and it was the CU 1703

timing is everthing. Is this an April Fools joke?

The forum navigation needs some improvements.

One thing I find aggravating is when finishing reading the comments, I have to scroll up again to the where the comments started to choose the Premium Tab... a small annoyance but one that annoys often.

moving from comment to comment (next - previous) shouldn't require going back to the comments root to select the thread.

related - clicking on comments in the Thurrott Now sidebar should open the comments, not just the thread.

others...?

Where is the right place to post suggestions? is this monitored by the dev team for suggestions?

When clicking the COMMENT link, I would expect to navigate to the comments. Instead, I must scroll down and click comments again. the COMMENT link is should take me to comments.

Something I would like to see covered on WHW is how to survive with small storage Windows 10 tablets. what is a strategy for maximizing storage and have smooth Windows Updates? I have heard/read about:

• System Disk Cleanup to remove Windows.old backup
• Compress Drive
• CompactOS
• Unlink OneDrive

are there other strategies that should be considered?

I have three accounts in my Windows Mail program - a Hotmail, Gmail and FIOS account. I recently noticed that instead of the account names, I see lpmSubTree for the Gmail and Verizon accounts. it has even started to replicate folders in the lpmSubtree...

wtf - this sucks. I deleted all accounts and reinstalled them but I see the same thing. I tried to rename the Account and it didn't stick... I may punt and go back to Outlook but before then, Any ideas how to fix this?

For video chat? I have to use Chrome (I may just cave and switch to Chrome) whenever I wish to use Messenger for video calls

I have mostly converted from Outlook to the new Windows 10 Mail app. I just noticed today that when I Send from Excel, it uses Outlook… Help, I prefer to stay in one mail ecosystem. How can I make Excel use Mail instead of Outlook. I do have Mail as the default Mail app, not Outlook! Where does Excel find the mail app to use?

I could uninstall Outlook but there are occasions where I have to use it to move mail between accounts and folders. For some reason Mail won’t let me move email from my Verizon account to a folder in my Hotmail account – I can do this in Outlook.

are you guys coming to DC for the Inspire?

will there be a Thurrott/Foley gathering to sample Beer be scheduled?

With all the new laptops and 2-1 choices being offered by OEMs, which provide the 3:2 display found in the Surface line?

I hope that some OEMs start offering the 3:2 display when my SP3 needs replacing. it is now 3 years old - and still running well. I like the 2-1's that hinge over with a real keyboard for my next machine but seems that Dell, HP and Lenovo are still providing 16:9 displays - I hope other can point out other options that are out there

I have a NuVision tablet. for some reason, it won't log me into Thurrott.com Premium account. I tried to clear cookies - still now luck. Clicking the log in button just fails to do anything.

ideas?

I am wondering about the value of having the Display Dock for connecting devices other than the phone to a monitor and keyboard through a single cable. Thinks like 2-in-1s or tablets.

I believe that the Surface family are NOT compatible since they do not support USB-C but the future is clear that this is where things are heading. I expect SP5 and SB2 to support USB-C an hopefully Thunderbolt.

is the Lumia Display Dock a good value @ the $60 price ATT is charging or are there better choices — or just wait till I need one?

found this article http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/windows-phone-loving-shareholders-question-microsofts-mobile-strategy/

that I thought others would appreciate.

Can the surface 4 pen magnetically attach to a Surface 3?

Are the magnets in the tablet or the pen or both?

this will be interesting to watch play out

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/21/technology/apple-iphone-6s-battery-fix-china/index.html

Samsung handled battery problem about as badly as a company can

Microsoft has had their battery battles for the SP line

now it is Apple's turn?

found this interesting http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/02/technology/fitbit-stock-tanks/index.html?iid=SF_LN

The yikes moment from the article

Yet, the overall market for wearable devices is experiencing turbulence. Worldwide sales for smartwatches plunged 52% in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a recent report by IDC.

Surely this is not a saturation moment - too early for that. Are fitness bands losing their appeal?

Don

Perhaps this is common knowledge but I thought I would post here in case it is unknown to others

I recently read that Cortana can be activated over in-car bluetooth by dialing (555) 555-9876. I added that number to my Tundra and it worked. a Little clunky “Dial by name”, “Cortana”, but much safer than fumbling with the phone.

I have wanted something like this for a long time – only accidently stumbled across it while reading other articles. Nice feature

FINALLY received the transition to Outlook.com to Outlook Mail for my personal hotmail.com account. It looks nice. I added my FIOS and Gmail accounts to it and that seems to work well.

I wanted to add another outlook.com but that didnt work - it asked me to manually setup so I followed the instructions at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-your-Outlook-com-account-to-another-mail-app-73f3b178-0009-41ae-aab1-87b80fa94970 under "Apps that support POP and IMAP" to set up an imap account, but that too failed. How can I add a second microsoft cloud email account to an outlook.com instance?

I have 4 email accounts that I used to access through Outlook. I have managed to move over to Windows 10 Mail but I am having some challenges that I hope others may be able to chime in on

While in Outlook I could move messages from one account inbox or folder to another account and folder. I do not see how to do this in Mail... Is it possible? Seems when I highlight messages and choose to Move, the only locations are withing that account and I do not see how to choose another accounts folder.

All Mail accounts are using IMAP

I posted a forum message and inadvertently didnt put in a Subject title. The message cannot be selected or navigated to because there is no clickable subject.

Will "Next message/Previous Message" buttons be added to forum navigation?

is there a way for me to delete one of my postings or edit it to fix things I notice such as the no subject line.

repost with subject:

I purchased the 8" NuVision tablet in the Windows store and I was surprised that the power settings only suported the Balanced option and there does not seem to be support for Sleep or Hibernate. I am continually finding the battery dead in the morning - seems to be continually draining the battery overnight. All that is open is Edge with tabs opened to a few websites (Facebook, CNN, ESPN, Thurrott, Windows Central).

why would Suspend and Hibernate NOT be supported? Is there something I can do to change the Power setting options? I would like to change the behavior of the power button to hibernate the tablet.

any expert advice would be appreciated!