Every now and again, Facebook shows me an ad that I feel compelled to click, simply because I can’t believe what I’m seeing and need to know more. The latest of these ads is for the product pictured above: the AutoExec AECRATE-15, which retails at Home Depot for…
$300.
More precisely, it retails for $296.93, which rounds up to $300, but to my mind, that seems pretty exorbitant for a milk crate with a power inverter and stands for a tablet and smartphone. The manufacturer doesn’t even attempt to hide this fact: it’s listed as “Milk Crate Vehicle and Mobile Office Work Station with Phone Mount, Tablet Mount and Power Inverter”.
I’ve designed and developed mobile apps who primary users are people that work in their cars and trucks, so I understand the usefulness of the AECRATE-15, with its ability to support and charge your electronic office equipment and store your paperwork.
Surely this is something that you could put together for considerably less than three “Benjamins”.
Component
Price
Bestek 300W Power Inverter (Plugs into your car’s “cigarette lighter” outlet and provides two household-style electrical outlets and 2 USB electrical outlets)
Juggernaut storage milk crate (Assuming you don’t simply grab one from behind a convenience store, just like every university student building makeshift furnishings or any self-respecting DJ)
The quick summary: If you’re in the Tampa Bay area and need your Mac repaired, Steve Bush of Screwbox will come to where you are, pick it up, repair it, and bring it back to you. I needed repairs done on my 2014-era MacBook Pros, and Steve did a fantastic job fixing them — and I didn’t even have to leave my house!
My old MacBook Pros are still solid development machines
The last time my MacBook Pro was in an office: March 2020, adding features to the Lilypad app.
Even though the new M1 Max-powered MacBooks are singing their siren songs to me, I’m still doing my independent work on my personal MacBook Pros:
A refurbished mid-2014 15″ MacBook Pro that I bought in early 2015 for a nice discount, back when I was working for a company that expected you to provide your own laptop, and
A mid-2014 13″ MacBook Pro that a client gave to me in 2016 for building an iPad app in lieu of cash. Ah, the joys of freelancing when the company you work for cuts its workforce…
They’ve served me well…
I used them to write every app that I’ve ever put into the App Store, as either the sole author or as part of my job.
It’s what I used to teach the online Python and JavaScript/React courses I taught on behalf of Computer Coach when my job disappeared in 2020 due to COVID.
I’m currently using it to make a new series of YouTube videos on all sorts of aspects of software development. I’m also using it for music production for these videos.
I’m still doing all my “side hustle” work on these machines, doing iOS, Android, and Python development, along with video and music production. They do the job just fine, which includes composing this post and the images that go with it.
That being said, we’re at the point where the current version of macOS — version 12, a.k.a. “Monterey” — won’t run on them (version 11, a.k.a. “Big Sur”, is the latest version that runs on my MacBooks). Between that and Apple’s move from Intel processors to their own amazingly fast silicon, I expect to buy an M1 MacBook as a birthday present to myself in November and put my old MacBooks to work as home servers.
I needed repairs
My 15″ MacBook Pro was still processing just fine, but its trackpad was no longer responding to touch or presses, and in fact, it was becoming quite difficult to “click”.
The 13″ had a different problem: sound, especially once the volume was past the 50% mark, was distorting, which meant the speakers were damaged.
There were free workarounds for both issues, but I decided that I wanted repairs done, if available for a reasonable price. I asked around, and got a couple of enthusiastic recommendations for Screwbox.
My experience: Great!
I filled out the contact form at the bottom of Screwbox’s home page, and Steve Bush got in touch with me via text shortly afterward. The description of my MacBooks’ issues was enough for him to diagnose their problems:
With the 15″, the trackpad didn’t work because the battery was bulging, and the battery is located beneath the trackpad. His recommendation: Replace the battery. After watching this video to see what the procedure was, I opted to have Steve do it.
The solution for the 13″ was obvious: replace the speakers. I thought that I might want to try this myself, so I watched this video. The process is less complex than battery replacement, but in the end, enlightened laziness (one of the great programming virtues) won out, and let Steve do it.
As promised on the site, Steve gave me a flat rate quote for the work: $199 plus tax for each repair, for a grand total of $431.83, payable in advance via Zelle. He would order the parts, pick up the MacBooks from my place when the parts arrived, perform the repair at his shop, and drop them off at my place once repaired. Once you factor in the cost of labor, parts, and travel, it’s quite clear that he’s offering a deal.
I Zelled him the money, and he picked up my MacBooks a couple days later when the parts arrived. He returned my fully-functioning MacBooks a day later, and I didn’t even have to leave the house!
Steve’s service was helpful and fast, and I wouldn’t hesitate to contact him again for Mac repair. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area and need a Mac fixed, you’ll want to reach out to Screwbox and Steve Bush.
Here are three of the phones that are currently on sale that I think would be good for someone who wants to get started with Android development. Yes, you can always use an emulator, but there’s no substitute for developing and testing on an actual device.
All of these devices are fully unlocked, which means they’ll work on any carrier. Motorola don’t include much junkware on their phones — it’s as close to stock Android as you’re going to get without buying a Pixel. All were released this year.
Motorola’s G line has always been a reliable way to get mid-level features at a starter phone price. If you want to get a device that performs at the level of the typical Android phone for users who live outside the G7 bubble (and let’s face it, that’s most of the world), or need to provide a workforce with a mobile computing device, you want this one.
At the current discount price of $250, the Moto G Stylus is the phone on this list that provides the best bang for the buck. As its name implies, it has a stylus, and if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to the Galaxy Note line (and a much better choice than the LG Stylo), give this one a look.
I’m including this phone in this list just to make this list of $500-and-lower phones complete. My personal recommendation is to pay $50 less and get the RedMagic 6R, which gives you Samsung Galaxy S21-level power.
At its normal price of $700, I’d say “no”, but at a $200 discount, I’d say “think about it”. You’re getting near-flagship level features at mid-level prices. This phone boasts a 144Hz screen refresh rate (good for gaming), a solid chipset, and cameras with great specs.
But still, I’d say that if you’re looking for maximum computing bang for the buck at this price point, you want the RedMagic 6R, which currently starts at $450.
An actual item seen in Facebook Marketplace for Tampa. Even shrunk down, you can see that “like new” is a stretch. Tap to view at full size.
If you say that the (purportedly) little-used thing you’re selling is “like new”, you might want to give it a little cleaning before taking its picture.
The top of the RedMagic 6R box. Tap to view at full size.
This article is part of the Android August series, in which I’m writing an Android development-related article every day during the month of August 2021.
I write apps for both iOS and Android devices, so I make it a point to own both an iPhone and an Android phone. Since I’m giving my current Android device, a Motorola One Hyper, to my father-in-law so that he has a mobile phone from the current millennium, I needed a replacement. This set of photos is of that replacement: the RedMagic 6R.
The bottom of the RedMagic 6R box. Tap to view at full size.
The side of the RedMagic 6R box. Tap to view at full size.
RedMagic, a sub-brand of Nubia, which was originally a sub-brand of higher-end phones from Shenzhen-based phone and telco equipment company ZTE, specializes in gaming phones. In addition to using the better CPU and GPU chipsets required for gaming, RedMagic also does a better job of packaging than you’d expect from many other Chinese phone companies who are competing solely on price.
Case in point: Compare the sleek RedMagic packaging you’ve seen so far to the box that my 3rd-generation Motorola G came in:
Tap to read the original article.
I peeled off the shrink wrap and opened the box to see this:
The top layer inside the RedMagic 6R box. Tap to view at full size.
The RedMagic 6R packaging is layered in a manner similar to the iPhone’s. The top layer is a box, which I flipped over to open, as shown below:
Opening the top layer box. Tap to view at full size.
In addition to the SIM tray ejection pin, the top layer box contained the following:
The contents of the top layer box. Tap to view at full size.
Its contents were the Quick Start Guide, a warranty card…
The Quick Start Guide and warranty card. Tap to view at full size.
…as well as a basic case, contained within a protective envelope:
The included case, still inside its envelope. Tap to view at full size.
The case itself is one of those clear, pliable, “soft gel” ones:
The case. Tap to view at full size.
The next layer contained the phone itself:
The phone layer. Tap to view at full size.
The phone’s thin protective plastic sleeve has a little tab that makes it easy to lift out of the box, which was a nice little high-end touch:
The phone, now out of its box. Tap to view at full size.
Here’s the front of the phone, which is still inside its protective plastic sleeve…
The front of the phone, still in its sleeve. Tap to view at full size.
…and here’s the back:
The back of the phone, still in its sleeve. Tap to view at full size.
Finally, I hit the bottom layer, which contained the AC adapter, a USB-C to USB-A charging/data cable, and a USB-C to 3.5 mm headphone adapter:
The bottom layer of the box. Tap to view at full size.
I knew that the RedMagic 6R came with a basic soft gel case, I decided to spend an extra 15 bucks for the hard case, which came in this box:
The box for the RedMagic 6R hard case. Tap to view at full size.
Here’s the case:
The RedMagic 6R hard case. Tap to view at full size.
This may be my favorite Android unboxing experience of all time. It’s certainly a good deal more photogenic than the 3rd-gen Moto G unboxing experience:
I’ll admit it. I’ve been watching my new phone — a RedMagic 6R Android gaming phone, which I wrote about in this article — travel from the factory in Hong Kong all the way to my house in Tampa.
As I write this, it landed in FedEx’s Memphis facility two hours ago.
