2004 (et al) VW Passat/Jetta/Beetle Stereo Removal Keys

All I needed to do was replace the 10 amp fuse in my wife’s car stereo.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Volkswagon decided to require four keys to remove the double DIN car stereo (head unit) from the dash.

The keys are “readily” available from eBay, Amazon, Crutchfield, etc. (priced anywhere from $4 to $25), so it’s not like a thief can’t get the tool to steal your radio (though people have reported dealerships not having them), so the ONLY purpose to these keys as far as I can tell is creating a major inconvenience to the person who has purchased their product.  Thanks, VW.

Anyway, rather than purchasing these “keys,” which means buying them online and having to wait for them to arrive (since your dealer may not have them, or better yet, may not want to sell/lend them to you… because they want to charge you $50 to replace a fuse), you can easily make them out of a hanging file folder, as shown in the photo below.

Take the two metal hanging “rods” (they’re flat, so they’re not really rods) out of a hanging file folder.  They are “L” shaped at each end, but before the “L” the metal tapers.  Simply snip off the “L” with a tin snips so you have an angle at the end of the metal piece.  Cut the two metal pieces in half so you have four pointy pieces.  Stick the pieces into the slots on your HU with the pointy part away from the center of the stereo.  You may need to wriggle your “keys” around, but you are just trying to push the metal clip/tab out, as seen in the photo below.

Once you have the keys in and you think the tabs are pushed out, stick your fingers in the tape deck and pull the unit straight out.

If you’re changing the 10 amp mini fuse, it’s located behind the main connector plug.  Lift the “gate” that holds that plug in, pull out the plug, and you’ll see a red mini fuse.

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MyBackup Pro: Review

I recently (finally) upgraded my phone.  I’ve had my beloved Droid Incredible since it launched (and that’s saying something), but lack of 4G and being tethered to Android 2.x finally took it’s toll, so I made the leap to a new phone (Samsung S5) and glorious Kit Kat.

Part of the process was migrating data, and I can’t say enough good things about MyBackup Pro (Android/iOS) from RerWare for this process.  I can’t imagine it being easier.  Sure you have to spend $4.99, but it was WELL WORTH IT (and I had actually already purchased the program years ago to take care of the Droid Incredible’s constant low-memory notification problem).

After installing MyBackup Pro on my new device (I did it via my computer browser and Google Play), it was literally a matter of clicking two buttons on my S5, and then two buttons on my Droid.  Awesome.

I had an older version of an application who’s features had not changed significantly in updated versions.  Furthermore the upgrades made the app ad supported (and for some odd reason there is no ad-free paid version).  Thus, I wanted to keep the older version of the app, but obviously the Play store (et al) were only offering the newest version (ad-supported and annoying).  Utilizing MyBackup Pro and the Migration feature allowed me to move the app from my old phone to my new over wifi in about 10 seconds with no issues whatsoever.  After MyBackup Pro told me the app had been moved, I opened it on my new device and it worked perfectly.  Fantastic.

You can migrate apps, media (photos, music, videos), contacts, call log, bookmarks, sms, mms, system settings, android home alarms, dictionary, calendar, music playlists, apn’s, etc.  A lot of this isn’t necessary if you’re using something like Google to sync accounts, but there are certain things that Google doesn’t address, or specialty situations (like the one mentioned above) where Google can’t help.

I’ve been using MyBackup Pro for years to archive my SMS, MMS, and call logs.  Every once in a while I’d also run a back up of my apps, especially the paid apps, just in case.

Believe it or not, there have been a couple of times where I needed to go back in time several years to check a text.  MyBackup Pro has a feature to let you load a back up without actually “restoring” it to your phone.  So I simply found the date range I was looking for, used the “view” mode to open the archive, and scrolled through until I found the text.

There is also some free cloud space with the app (if you choose to back up online instead of to an SD card or locally), and you can of course pay to upgrade the free amount of cloud space.  They also offer 100MB of additional space for for sharing and/or reviewing on Google Play, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I don’t feel as secure with all my past SMS and MMS on yet another server “out in space,” so all my backups are local.  RerWare’s cloud service does allow you to “look into” (open up) your archives without using your phone though, so that’s cool.  If you aren’t backing up to the cloud but you want to use the web to view your archives, you can just upload a particular archive and open it that way (instead of on your phone).  I wish there were an emulator for your computer that would allow you to do the same (open archives without using your phone or the web).

I haven’t used the schedule feature, but you can schedule your phone to run automatic back ups as well.

All in all, probably the best $5 I’ve ever spent on an app.

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Samsung S5: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, impatience got the best of me and I took the leap with a new phone on Friday.

I didn’t jump on the Samsung Galaxy S5 when it was first released, because I wanted to see what kind of problems popped up (sure enough, some people’s cameras weren’t working, etc.), and I also figured the price would drop after a little while.

Amazon has been offering the phone for $99 from the get-go, and sure enough, Verizon just started letting it go online for $99 (with an automatic manufacturer’s rebate) and for $149 with a $50 mail-in rebate if you purchase it in-store.  Since I wanted mine immediately, I went with the in store purchase.  Hopefully my rebate doesn’t get “lost in the mail.”  I think mail-in rebates are shady.

As an added bonus, I didn’t realize there was a promotion going on that netted me a free LG G Pad 8.3 with a free-for-life additional 1GB/month of data with the “update” of my plan.  I was grandfathered in on an unlimited data plan, but truth be told, the only good it was doing me was “bragging rights.”  Not to mention, I’m sure the time is not far off when Verizon will simply say: eff all y’all and end all unlimited plans anyway.

So, I’ll be receiving a new tablet at the end of the month when they’re back in stock.  I asked the salesperson (who was surprisingly knowledgeable and tech savvy –I even heard him make suggestions to a couple of customers, to their benefit, that I’m sure Verizon would have frowned upon) several times if I got the free extra GB/month regardless of whether or not I added an extra line to my plan for the tablet (an extra $10 a month), and he assured me the data became part of my plan regardless of whether or not the tablet was activated.  There was a $35 “upgrade fee” for the device, but he told me I don’t have to pay the $10/month, so basically it was a one time fee of $35 to get the extra GB/month for life (plus a free tablet).  So I plan on using the tablet wifi only and just enjoying the extra GB/month (which had better be there, because it was a big part of my decision making regarding which plan we’d go with: the 3GB my wife and I share for data is a bit precarious, where 4GB seems “safe”).

So after two days with my S5, here are some of my thoughts…

YouTube freeze/hang.

This one is a big deal.  I can’t watch a YouTube video (via the app, or inline on a webpage) without it hanging around 30 seconds in.  The audio continues to play, but the video hangs (still frame, not black).  I can move the timeline position cursor and the video will start to play again, but after another 30 seconds it will freeze back up.  I can’t find anyone else experiencing this.  I’m hoping a factory reset will take care of the issue, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet.  If that doesn’t work, I will HAVE to return this phone.  Hopefully it’s just this particular unit (and I can just swap for another S5), because obviously you CAN’T have a phone that doesn’t play YouTube video these days.  The only thing I’ve read that might make sense as to a reason why is that Android stopped licensing Adobe Flash and YouTube still uses Flash for video.

UPDATE: Don’t know what was causing the YouTube problem, but it disappeared about a week later.  Perhaps a YouTube issue?

Camera Lag, Problems in Lower Light, Photo Review Function

Camera lag is insane when “picture stabilization” is on.  Thankfully I realized this was just a result of using the stabilizer, because I was getting REALLY annoyed every time I tried to take a photo and it took literally 2 seconds or more before the picture would snap.  Once the Image Stabilizer is disabled, the camera really does achieve the advertised “almost immediate” (.3 seconds) shutter speed.

The camera is almost as great as they said it would be.  I’ve seen a lot of reviews complaining about less-than-bright-light situations, and I ignored them until I actually started using the camera and found out they were right.  Shooting in-doors leaves the camera struggling to focus, and most photos, even with sunlight streaming from a window, aren’t as crisp as they should be.  Ticking “Photo Stabilization” will have the camera automatically use the feature if the camera senses there is not enough light, but this means you will need to wait AT LEAST 2 seconds for the camera to figure out what is going on and actually snap the shot (which is absolutely not feasible unless you’re shooting ONLY still life or turtles).

Surprisingly the thing I hate most is the “review” feature.  Reviewing a photo is off by default, and when you turn it on, it’s pretty annoying.  You cannot set a photo review time limit like you can with ALL OTHER CAMERAS.  For instance, normally when you take a photo (on EVERY other device), you are presented with the recently snapped photo for two seconds, and then your camera/phone goes back to the live view.  With this phone, if you set “review” to on, once you snap a photo and are presented with the photo, you actually HAVE to click the back button to get back to the camera.  Pretty stupid.

The burst mode is amazing (and is considerably faster than the iPhone’s burst mode).  I guess it makes sense, since this thing can also shoot 30fps 4K video (holla!).

The Fingerprint Reader

The fingerprint reader is great.  I know it’s horrible practice, but previously I’ve only locked my phone while I’m traveling.  With the fingerprint reader, it’s convenient to have it locked all the time.  I’ve heard a lot of people bitch about it only working on the third or fourth try, and even if that were true, I think that would still be more convenient than entering a password, perhaps still more convenient than inputting a pattern.  However, I think the problem lies within the way people scan in their fingerprint when setting it up.  Think about how you’ll be holding the phone.  Each time you scan your fingerprint, hold the phone a different way, and/or hold your finger a different way.  This way the phone will be memorizing all kinds of options for that particular fingerprint.  It’s pretty rare that I have to swipe my finger (I actually use my thumb –and sideways) more than twice.

I realize “hackers have cracked it!!!” but it takes a good deal of effort, and it’s better than nothing at all (which is what I had been doing previously).

Form Factor

I hate the size of this phone.  Which is to say I hate the size of ALL “flagship” phones these days (other than the iPhone, which is the most perfect form factor, including materials, ever built, but I definitely don’t want an iPhone).  I still have my Droid Incredible as a bedside clock, e-mail checker, and baby monitor (set up with a Foscam), and every time I set my S5 down and pick up that Droid, I long for better days gone by.

While the phone is ridiculously large, it is pretty amazingly thin and light, so that’s cool.

I’m also not wild about the bezel (the silver triple-band around the edge); it’s not a big deal to me though, as I knew I would be ordering a case immediately.  So the “look” of my phone will be solely based on the case, not how it arrived from the factory.

Bloatware

Something that I love Android for… you can kill the bloatware!  You can’t actually remove bundled apps from your device, but you can disable any app including the ones you are forced by Verizon to endure.  This means I can turn off VZNavigator and never have my phone ask me about it again!  YAY! Just go to “manage apps,” click the “all” tab, press the app you hate, and click “turn off.”  Excellent.  All “turned off” apps will be available in a new tab called, you guessed it, “turned off.”  I also just realized that you can long-press an app’s icon from within the main “apps” application, and if the app is a bundled (non-removable) app, you can drag the icon to “disable” from there.

My Magazine

Speaking of bloatware… long press any blank spot on one of your home screens.  Select “Home Screen Settings.”  Untick “My Magazine.”  Your welcome.  By the way, while you’re there, either select “none” for “transition effect” (especially if you’re experiencing UI lag) or switch to 3D rotation, which looks much cooler than “stack.”

Sync Photos with Gallery

Google used to be great when Picasa was their only photo solution.  Then they started pushing Google+, and it SUCKS in regard to photos.  I still use Picasa, but it’s hard to keep Google from screwing things up (they try REALLY hard to force you into Google+ for photos, and it’s left a lot of users who’ve lost years of photos in the process REALLY mad).  HANDS OFF MY STUFF, GOOGLE! To make sure your gallery isn’t doing things you don’t want, go to “Settings” and select “Accounts.”  Click on “Google” and then click on your name/e-mail address.  From here you can select what things will actually be syncing from Google to your Phone.  Calendar? Contacts? Yes. Google+ Photos? Picasa Web albums? NO.

Deselect Syncing Gmail

From the above instructions, I also DEFINITELY de-select syncing of Gmail.  I want to see my e-mail on my phone, but I don’t want it deleted forever if I delete from my phone.  I like to be able to read an e-mail and delete it, but know it will still be in my inbox when I check again on my computer.  I can’t seem to find a way to have Gmail automatically download on my device without selecting “sync” though.  This is very annoying, as I am only able to manually check e-mail from the S5.  Perhaps the answer lies in using the Samsung Mail app (linked to Gmail) instead of using the dedicated Gmail App.  This might make a few other things work better anyway (the device often wants to use just “mail” instead of Gmail to do things). [update: I am now using Samsung’s “e-mail” instead of Gmail from my device]

Lag/UI

I am a little disappointed by the lag I am experiencing.  It’s not so much with the UI, but most often in app (and mostly in Chrome). I heard others mention this, but when I tested the phone out in the store, I didn’t experience anything that bothered me.  But as I really start to use the phone in “real life,” sure enough, there are some pretty significant lag issues every once in a while.  How can this be the case?  This phone has the most powerful, fastest processor currently on the market.  Samsung, you are REALLY screwing things up by not harnessing the full potential of this phone’s processor (or by bogging it down with useless nonsense).  If it continues to be bad, I will likely return the phone and go with the older Moto X, which my wife has and seems smooth as butter (even with a much slower processor).  Some suggestions I’ve found include cutting the animation times in half or removing them altogether, and loading a different UI (though that seems counterintuitive).

The one thing I’ve definitely done, as suggested here (http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/galaxy-s5-problems):

You can go further in Settings > About device by tapping the Build number seven times to turn Developer mode on. Now go to Settings > Developer options > Windows animation scale and set it to Animation is off. You can do the same thing in Settings > Developer options > Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale.

 

Hopefully I don’t regret not waiting for the LG G3 when it’s announced on May 27.  I have a feeling the S5 camera and fingerprint reader will remain good reasons to have chose the S5, but I guess we’ll see!

UPDATE: I don’t regret not waiting.  The Samsung S5 is clearly superior for my usage needs, and the more I use it the more I love it.  I have even did a 4K Film Shoot UNDERWATER (down to 13ft.)!!!  The camera is amazing.  It’s not great for “fine art” (the in-camera processing shows over-sharpening glitches/pixel issues when blown way up), but for a camera that’s always with me (and able to do HDR), it’s pretty fantastic.  The one thing I still can’t get over is the size, and any time I’m using the GS5 and then pick up my old Droid (still using it for a bedside device) it feels like I’m picking up a matchbook.

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Biding Time Waiting for a Phone

Believe it or not, I’m still using a Droid Incredible purchased the day they came out.  I'm on my fifth cracked screen and third speaker (all replaced DIY via eBay or Amazon), and the back cover is just about to fall off (so many little pieces have broken off that it can barely cling to the phone body on it's own).  I’m thinking about using some duct tape.  The Millennium Falcon only looked cooler with all that blaster carbonizing, right?  Same deal.

If it weren’t for the fact that a lot of new apps won’t run on anything that doesn’t have Kit Kat, I’d probably just keep the Droid Inc.  The form factor/size is just SO much better than all the giant “dinner-plates-posing-as-phones” that have come to rule the market.

But since I can’t hold back the tides of change, I have conceded to the fact that I will need to purchase a huge phone.

At least manufacturers are starting to swing back on their decisions regarding replaceable batteries and SD cards (my main reasons for not upgrading before now).

I've got a Samsung S5 in my Amazon cart.  It's been there for weeks.  The only reason I haven't completed my purchase is because until yesterday it was out of stock and Amazon was claiming "*should* ship within 2 to 3 weeks."  Their fulfillment claims are not good enough for me.  I've been burned too many times before, waiting weeks beyond when they’ve said things “should” ship.

But Amazon is selling for $99, as opposed to $200 everywhere else, so that's where I would (will?) be buying from.

The whispers of the new LG flagship started a couple weeks ago (soon after I put the S5 in my cart).

Supposedly it will release on May 27 (with it's own wearable, at an additional cost, but cheaper than Samsung's).

Not much is known about the LG G3 yet.  Probably an octacore processor.  Maybe a 16MP camera, but most likely a 13MP.  The G3 will almost certainly have greater pixel density than the S5, but after using the S5, I can hardly believe that it will matter (the Samsung’s screen is stellar).

The S5 is hampered by Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, but the camera on the Samsung is just SO kick-ass (not to mention the S5 shoots 4K 30fps video, which I will actually use).  And even though the Samsung’s fingerprint reader has it's issues, it's still a great feature.

So now I wait for the G3 specs to surface.  At the very least, I'm hoping the S5 price will drop when the G3 rears its head and I can purchase from somewhere I can walk out with a phone (vs. waiting for it to ship and then going through the hassle of activating with Verizon over the phone).

Until then, I slice my fingers on Gorilla glass and wait.

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Keyboard Shortcut to Reset Photo Settings in Adobe Camera Raw

It took me longer than I would’ve like to find this answer, so I’m posting it.

I just downloaded some Free ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) pre-sets/settings from OnOne Software.  If you click through the presets in ACR, you will find that things get “additive” (pre-sets combine), so it’s important to reset your photo before checking out the next pre-set.  Having to select “reset everything” from the pre-set collection, or even selecting “reset camera raw defaults” from the tiny menu (upper right) drop down in the preset pane becomes a major inconvenience.  Obviously a keyboard shortcut would help, but like with so many things, Adobe doesn’t give you a keyboard shortcut hint in the drop down, so you have to figure it out on your own.

With ACR, it’s even more tricky (using a key to toggle button functionality).  The answer is: click your “alt” key on a PC (“option” on a MAC) and the “cancel” button at the bottom right corner of the ACR window will toggle to “reset.”

Important and useful functionality –hidden by Adobe as usual.

EXTRA TIP: You can actually apply ACR presets from Adobe Bridge without even opening ACR… just right click the thumbnail in Bridge, then select “Develop Settings” and you have all your ACR presets (plus some other basic ACR functionality) in the popup menu.  The major bummer I’ve found with this method is that only the pre-sets that will fit on your screen can be selected (there is no ability to scroll to the bottom of the list to use the pre-sets that might be “off the bottom of your screen”).

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Colorado “Roads and Bridges” Fee

I recently received a renewal notice for my trailer in Adams County Colorado.  The trailer cost $300, but my license renewal is $44 (that’s 15% of the value of the entire vehicle –and I have to pay it EVERY year!).

I called the Title and Registration office to see if this was a mistake, and the nice lady told me this is one of the cheapest renewals she’s seen in quite some time. (!!!)

Evidently several years ago the legislators put a tax in place called the Roads and Bridges Fee.  It’s a straight $30 fee for all trailers.

What the what?

I have a very small trailer that I use every once in a while to pick up something from Lowe’s that doesn’t fit in my car.  Most of the time the trailer is folded up (yes FOLDED UP) and stored behind my garage.

I can understand charging someone with a good size trailer for the extra damage/wear/tear that is happening to roads and bridges, but a blanket fee to everyone with any kind of trailer, even people who use their tiny, tiny trailer three or four times a year?  That’s crazy.  There should be weight/size categories for different levels of fees.

I’m all for pulling my weight (check out THAT pun), and I have no problem paying a little extra if I’m using something more than others (like extra wear/tear to the roadways), but this is absolute nonsense.

Vimeo “Hide this video from Vimeo.com” Problems

Sometimes you need to share a video with people without making it available to the entire internet community, and password protection is not the preferred method.  I recently had this issue come up when I needed to post a music video that was being shopped around to various online outlets (blogs, new agencies, etc.), but the client’s PR firm didn’t want the people to have to use a password.

Anonymity is your friend in these situations; a link that is published nowhere is often as “secure”  (at least as inaccessible) as a published link that is password protected.  If people don’t know where to look, they can’t find/see the video.

Vimeo has recently added this functionality to their Pro accounts (YouTube has had it for a long time), but I was having a heck of a time getting it to work.

When I ticked “Hide this video from Vimeo.com” in the privacy settings of my video, the video was marked with a “private” sash/label in my video listings.  When I sent the link to people to view, accessing the page simply returned a message stating:

Permission Denied

Sorry, there is no video here.

Either it was deleted or it never existed in the first place. Such are the mysteries of the Internet.

Very frustrating.  The whole point of an unlisted link is to be able to send it to people so they can access the video.

Turns out Vimeo’s unpublished functionality ONLY works with embed.  So a video that returns the above message when you send the link IS visible to others, but ONLY when embedded.

The work around (to send a link), is simply to place the word “player” at the beginning of the link and to make sure “video” is in the path.  So, “http://Vimeo.com/hiddenlink” can be accessed as “http://player.vimeo.com/video/hiddenlink”

Why Vimeo has it set up this way is beyond me, and they need to fix it so you can share your hidden video with links more easily (without having to figure out this workaround on your own since it is posted NOWHERE on their site).

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