You might want to buy this (product tips thread)

[Aimless]

You've come across something online that you'd like to buy for yourself or as a gift, or that you think someone else might be interested in. Well, someone is interested and here's the place to share your find

I found Priority on kickstarter and unfortunately they don't ship outside the US but, if you live in the US, Canada or Puerto Rico, and are in the market for a beautiful low-maintenance bike for $389 USD (and can wait a couple of months), check them out:

http://www.prioritybicycles.com/#everything

Great materials, belt drive, internal gear-hub etc:

http://www.prioritybicycles.com/about-the-bike/

Check it out and then show us what you've found

[earthJoker]

Well, I quickly watched the video and want to add my 2c:

- 3 gears are not enough for me, maybe it's enough if you live in the flats, but I need a very easy gear to get uphill in the morning to work without sweating.
There are actually hub gears with way more gears, unfortunately they are quite expensive.
- There is only one brake at the back wheel non on the front. That increases the brake distance a lot especially downhill. I would check if bikes with only one brake are allowed in your country.
- The makers claim it to be an all weather bike, yet it doesn't have mudguards.
- No lights. Means you need to buy extra lights with batteries.
- No carrier (I just love to drop by the supermarket or bakery on my way home).

Maybe some pro's:
+ I like the design, looks almost like my new bike
+ Belt drive. Nothing new, but good to see that they are used more often.

Am I supposed to find something for you now?

[Aimless]

This is a bike for poor people who don't have the luxury of living where there are hills and who either don't have a job or have ones where being sweaty is mandatory to fit in

[earthJoker]

For $389 USD? You can get a bike with all my points included for that price. And how is it a luxury to live where there are hills?

[Aimless]

You could also get a good second-hand bike for half that price, but I think they're trying to balance price and goodness in a way that'll appeal to a particular group of people. For example, the cheapest belt-drive bike I've been able to find in Sweden costs about $1400. For many (most?) urban cyclists who only use their bike to get about, 3 speeds is enough. You'll have to pay a little extra for a carrier basket, mudguard etc (buy or scavenge your own and attach), but perhaps the expectation is that that extra cost will be paid off over the course of the bike's lifetime through spending less time, energy and money on maintenance.

I hate his hipster face, but I think it'll be viewed as a compelling product by many people.

[Aimless]

And as for the brake...



I foot brakes

[Aimless]

Back on the topic of tips:

http://tapeworks.com/stripeitall.html

[Flixy]

I hate foot brakes, really annoying.

For the rest, what earthjoker said, plus a new bike that is just as good except for the belt drive is way cheaper, and TBH I don't really see the need for that. Only lubricating it every now and then, I guess, but that's not needed often and even if you don't it will probably last longer than you will keep your bike before it's stolen The link mentions clean clothes, but almost all 3-speed bikes have their chain in a gear case so that's no issue. And theft proof bolts? I don't know anyone whose bike was taken apart, either your bike gets stolen altogether, or not at all (at least here). And I often had bikes with quick-release bolts on my wheels. So if it's as you say for poor people, I wouldn't recommend it

[Aimless]

http://theexknife.com/collections/al...ith-holder-red

[Dreadnaught]

ON MY AMAZON WISHLIST

[earthJoker]

I foot brakes

I don't, I had one bike who had them, but I don't think I will ever get one again.

So back to tips:

The glass water bottle really sets this apart from all the other soda machines.

[Khendraja'aro]

That one doesn't work in the US with their tendency to chlorinate everything due to shoddy plumbing.

[Ominous Gamer]

soda stream? they're everywhere. even walmart sells them.

still cheaper to buy bulk/generic bottled or even canned soda, but they're getting there.

[earthJoker]

That one doesn't work in the US with their tendency to chlorinate everything due to shoddy plumbing.

I know, their tap water tastes awful.

soda stream? they're everywhere. even walmart sells them.

SodaStream and SodaClub are old, I use them at least for 15 years now. I just wanted to point out that you need to buy the one that has a glass bottle and not the plastic one.

still cheaper to buy bulk/generic bottled or even canned soda, but they're getting there.

The point is, you don't have to carry loads of water home. Especially nice if you use your bike to go to the supermarket.

[Ominous Gamer]

SodaStream and SodaClub are old, I use them at least for 15 years now. I just wanted to point out that you need to buy the one that has a glass bottle and not the plastic one.

I was replying to khen's ridiculous claim that they won't work over here.

[littlelolligagged]

I think the point was that chlorinated water is worse for them.

[earthJoker]

It makes us want to throw up, honestly.

[Khendraja'aro]

Yeah, that.

[Aimless]

Quick update on the Kaby Lake edition of the Spectre x360: I love it. I was very skeptical at first, esp. because the store tried to (or succeeded in ) screwing me over, but this machine is nearly impossible not to love.

I got the I7 version with 8GB RAM and ~500GB SSD. Performance is excellent. Stays cool and the fan almost never kicks in. The one thing that feels slow is the IR-cam--windows Hello is awesome, but sometimes the cam takes a very long time to wake up and do its thing. The most significant problem is a somewhat annoying battery-drain bug that sometimes drains the battery at about 1% or so per hour when the laptop is in sleep mode. There is an unofficial fix that seems to have something to do with the SSD but I haven't applied it yet. I usually get over 8 hours of real-world usage even though I use Chrome and typically have about a hundred tabs open.

HP made all the right decisions wrt ports, balancing specs etc but the single most enjoyable aspect of the Spectre x360 experience is probably the keyboard. It's better than any ultrabook keyboard has a right to be. I even prefer it to some Thinkpad keyboards I've tried over the past couple of years. I picked the x360 over both the XPS 13 and the Yoga 910 almost entirely because of the layout, which includes a column on the right hand side with dedicated home/end/pg keys, and was afraid I'd compromised on quality. But the keyboard is a pure joy to use. I don't know what kind of fairy-dust they've sprinkled onto the key switches but the travel and keystrokes feel extremely good, to the point where I now prefer this keyboard to my desktop keyboard.

The touch-screen has been a lot more useful than I'd expected but tablet-mode has been kinda rubbish. As a tablet it's heavy and malformed, and because you have to hold it in such a way that your fingers press into the keyboard the whole experience feels kinda icky. Tent-mode is all right.

Anyway, while this money would undoubtedly have been better spent on stocks and ETF:s I can't say I regret the purchase one bit. Just hope they roll out an official fix for the battery drain glitch soon.

[Dreadnaught]

I seriously thought you were mis-describing a Sodastream for a moment

[Aimless]

Today I bought the refreshed version of the Nvidia Shield TV and I'm hella pleased with it. It's much, much smaller than I'd expected, and looks gorgeous. Both the Shield and the peripherals--remote, game controller--are thoughtfully designed, striking a good balance between understated elegance and attractive flash. Remote and controller are both extremely comfortable. Setup was a breeze (even the radio-based wireless keyboard with built in mousepad) and performance is super snappy. Interface is fairly intuitive and very appealing. The apps are great and it has no problems accessing files on my NAS. In almost every way this is better than the Samsung "smart" TV experience.

A minor disadvantage is that I now have two remotes, a game controller and a keyboard to keep track of. A more serious problem is that the image isn't quite as nice out of the box as it is on the TV's built-in apps. I've managed to improve it greatly by messing about with the settings on both the TV and the box (mostly the former) but this is an important drawback to keep in mind: the Shield doesn't send all the necessary information to the TV, via the HDMI signal, which gets in the way of some of the actually pretty useful calibration features.

In spite of these problems I'm very happy with the purchase so far




I'm also still very satisfied with the x360. The only issue I have with it is an astonishingly and worryingly loud electric whine from the adapter. It appears I'm not the only one with this issue.

[Aimless]

This is revolutionary:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...tegory_popular

[Aimless]

My Christmas present woes are sorted:

[Ominous Gamer]

same price as a entry wrench set with multiple points of failure.

But there is a rather interesting story behind this wrench, its inventor, and Sears being assholes.

[Aimless]

Nevertheless brilliant design

[Aimless]

Got a Lenovo Chromebook duet today... Ridiculously good value, but ChromeOS takes some time to get used to. Would've preferred a device with a more square aspect ratio, but I think this will do just fine. Comes with a magnetic kickstand cover as well as a magnetic Bluetooth keyboard cover, all in all less than half the thickness of an old-school netbook (and the tablet itself is almost too slim). Will be using it for reading, watching lectures, prepping for a mock exam, and for video meetings in the sun.

[Aimless]

Update: overall very satisfied, even though it's definitely a niche product and ChromeOS is still not quite tablet-ready. The hardware keyboard is surprisingly good! But every single keyboard app I've ever enjoyed using on Android is buggy a f, while the built-in google keyboard is impractical and frustrating. As a result, I can write much faster and with less effort on my phone than on this Chromebook. Still haven't tried any games, might be fun