Save $25 when you rent a Tesla
So I rented a Tesla Model 3 on Turo and had it for 24 hours. These are my first impressions and thoughts on the car. Can’t wait to get mine!
Author: Andy Slye (Page 29 of 40)
Quick Look
One of the simplest tricks on Mac is press Spacebar to preview files. It works on a surprisingly large variety of file formats: office docs, PDFs, audio files, video files, fonts, etc. Saves a lot of time.
Spotlight
Cmd + Spacebar is the shortcut to Spotlight search which you can use to quickly open apps or files. This is a very simple and well-known feature and one of my most used keyboard shortcuts on the Mac. Spotlight can also perform calculations and look up other useful info like current conversion rates for currencies, the weather and flight statuses.
Digitally Sign PDFs with Preview
Preview app can automatically create a digital signature to allow you to digitally sign PDFs. Go to Preview, Tools, Annotate, Signature, Manage Signatures. Then hold up a signed piece of paper to the webcam and it will automatically create and save that digital signature for you so you can use anytime you need to digitally sign a PDF in the future.
Emoji Keyboard
To bring up the emoji keyboard in Mac OS simply press ctrl+Cmd+space
Quickly hide or close apps
Hold Cmd while pressing tab to scroll through your open apps. When you reach the app you want to close or hide, press either Q to quit or H to hide the app.
Dictation
MacOS has a built-in speech to text feature called Dictation. Instead of typing, just press the fn key twice and a microphone icon will pop up and then you can start speaking into your microphone and it will type out what you’re talking and when you’re done you just click Done.
Screenshots
Cmd + shift + 4 = Capture dragged area & save to desktop
Cmd + shift + 3 = Capture entire screen & save to desktop
Cmd + ctrl + shift + 3 = Capture entire screen & copy to clipboard
Cmd + ctrl + shift + 4 = Capture dragged area & copy to clipboard
Cmd + shift + 4 + Space = Capture a window & save to desktop
Cmd + ctrl + shift + 4 + Space = Capture a window & copy to clipboard
Quickly create file from selected text
Select text then drag and drop to desktop or folder and it will automatically create a file with the selected text in it
Precise Volume/Brightness Control
Hold Shift + Option and change your brightness or volume to adjust in smaller increments for more precise control.
Summarize Text
Mac OS allows you to quickly summarize long pieces of text in just a few seconds. To summarize a text first select it, right click on the selection and click on “Summarize”. To enable the summary feature, click on the app name in the status bar, click Services, Services Preferences, scroll down and check “Summarize”.
More Space
If you own a Mac with a Retina display you can scale the screen to create more screen space. This feature also works if you have a second monitor connected to your main Retina device. Go to System preferences, Display, Click Scale, and choose More Space.
Quick Dictionary
If you have a Trackpad you can select a word and do a 3-finger tap to quickly bring up the definition of the selected word.
Tesla has made it a point to strongly emphasize that the Model S is their most premium flagship sedan. In most ways the Model S is obviously better than Tesla’s smaller, simpler and more affordable sedan, the Model 3. However, there are a few key advantages that the Model 3 has over the Model S.
This video was inspired by this Reddit post.
Cost
The base Model 3, which should start delivering later this year, is $36,000 at its cheapest which includes the unavoidable delivery fee. On the other hand, the cheapest Model S is $75,000. So technically you could get two base Model 3’s for the same price as one base Model S (kind of a two for one deal there). We still don’t know how much a loaded AWD Performance version of the Model 3 will cost, but right now it’s safe to say that a Model 3 is half the price of Model S even when they have the same add-ons and options. The Model 3 is also more efficient than the Model S (we’ll get into the reasons why later in this video) but that means charging a Model 3 at home should cost less than charging a Model S because a Model 3 uses less energy than a Model S when traveling the same distance. Given the drastic price difference it’s also safe to assume for most people the car insurance should cost less for the Model 3 compared to Model S. So if saving money is a priority, choosing a Model 3 will definitely give you that advantage.
Battery & Range
Based on EPA documents, all Model 3’s come with newer 2170 battery cells which have 18.5% higher energy density than the older 18650 cells in the Model S. Tesla claims that the 50 kWh standard Model 3 has an estimated range of 220 miles, and the 75 kWh Long Range Model 3 has an estimated range of 310 miles. However, Tesla was found to be under-selling the actual range of the Model 3. According to tests, the Long Range Model 3 has a 78.3 kWh usable battery capacity compared to 72.6 kWh usable battery capacity in the Model S 75D. So even though they’re both equipped with 75 kWh batteries, the Long Range Model 3 actually has more usable capacity compared to the Model S 75D. And what’s even more interesting, according to the EPA, the $45,000 Long Range Model 3 actually has 334 miles of range compared to the $94,000 Model S 100D which has 335 miles of range. That’s a difference of $50,000 in price with a difference of 1 mile in range. That’s pretty crazy and it means Tesla is choosing to under-advertise the Model 3 range capability. Not only that, but a Tesla executive said the 18” Aero wheels that come standard on the Model 3 can potentially add up to 10% range. Some tests have shown it’s more likely to be around 5%, but even then that’s still something that the Model S currently does not have as an option. According to FuelEconomy.gov, the Long Range Model 3 has 130 MPGe which is much better than 103 MPGe on Model S 75. On average, Long Range Model 3 only requires 26 kWh to travel 100 miles compared to 33 kWh per 100 miles on the Model S.
Motor
The Model 3 has a different motor technology. It uses permanent magnet motors for high efficiency instead of induction motors that are used on the Model S. Some people think permanent magnet motors are the cheaper inferior option. However, permanent magnet motors used to be more expensive but have recently come down in price and still hold many advantages. The Model 3’s permanent magnet motors are lighter and have better track performance. They also reduce weight and improve handling. The induction motor on the Model S is larger, heavier, and less efficient resulting in more draw on the battery pack, when compared to a permanent magnet motor. Permanent magnet motors are also more efficient than induction motors over a wide range of RPMs and more efficient at capturing regenerative energy at low speeds. So even though the motor is not a newer tech per say, it does have its advantages compared to whats in the Model S.
Interior Features
The Model 3 has one of the most minimalist interiors in a car right now. It lacks a lot of the physical buttons and knobs that were typical in cars up to this point in time, and it replaced most of those functionalities with one big center-mounted 15” touchscreen display. However, The Model 3 does have some things that the Model S does not. For starters, the Model 3 has a small interior-facing camera built into the rear view mirror, and while Tesla has not yet said what this camera will be officially used for, it’s most likely there to provide some type of facial recognition features for Autopilot or driver profiles, and it’s also very well meant to monitor the inside of the car when it’s used in Tesla’s future ride sharing network. I did an entire video about this if you want to check it out here. The Model 3 center console has more storage space than the S, and with the Model 3 Premium Upgrade Package it also has charging docks for two smartphones. The Model 3 has coat hooks, lighted vanity mirrors, folding rear seat armrest with cup holders, and door pockets, all of which are lacking in the Model S. The Model 3 infotainment computer has a liquid cooled & faster processor which results in a more responsive touchscreen. The Media Control Unit is now powered by an Intel SoC instead of the Nvidia Tegra chip in Model S. The Autopilot ECU is still powered by Nvidia. But it’s worth mentioning the Model 3 needs a lot more processing power because it has to do everything on one processor. The Model S runs the navigation routing and voice recognition on the Instrument Cluster computer which divides the workload. The Model 3’s minimalist interior also provides a better field of vision out of the windshield because it’s completely flat all the way across the dashboard since there is no instrument cluster and the front hood doesn’t stick out as much as it does on the Model S.
Size & Space
You may be saying “Andy, how can this be an advantage when everyone knows the Model S is bigger and more spacious?” Yes that’s true, the Model S is supposed to be the bigger, better car. But the smaller, more compact Model 3 has its advantages too. The Model 3 is 184.8” long and 82.2” wide. The Model S is 196” long and 86.2” wide. So the Model S is about 11” longer and 4” wider. However, with the mirrors folded, the Model 3 is only 76.1” wide and the Model S is 77.3” wide, which only makes up a difference of about 1” in width. With the Model 3 being smaller, it’s most likely easier to park and maneuver in tight spaces. The Model 3 has been reported to have better handling because of it weighing less than the Model S. The Model S 75 curb weight is 4,469 lbs, and the standard range Model 3 curb weight is 3,549 lbs, which is a difference of 920 lbs. The weight difference is also similar when comparing the Model S 100D to the Long Range Model 3 which is a difference of 841 lbs. The lighter weight of the Model 3 also results in better range when compared to a Model S of the same battery capacity. And what’s the most surprising to me is that based on certain tests, the Model 3 has 1.5″ more headroom in the front and 2.4″ more headroom in the back compared to the Model S. Also, the Model 3 has the same amount of front legroom as the Model S, and only 0.2” less legroom in the back. So even though it’s smaller, it might not even be noticed.
Those are the top 5 advantages that the Tesla Model 3 has over the Model S. Does that mean the Model 3 is a better car than the Model S? Absolutely not. There are a ton of advantages that the Model S has over the Model 3 and I’m betting that Tesla releases a new refresh of the Model S very soon with a lot of the advances that the Model 3 has over the current S lineup, but since I’m a Model 3 reservation holder I am just more enthusiastic about the Model 3 for the time being so that’s why I wanted to do this video, to show the Model 3 some love as if I haven’t fanboy’d over it enough already. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Do you prefer the Model 3 over the Model S? Why or why not? Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for watching, if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel if you haven’t already. My name is Andy and I’ll talk to you in the next one.
My Christmas gift to myself this year was a Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Gen (Amazon) in my continuous effort to transition my home to a full blown smart house, and in this video I’ll explain how to install the Nest Learning Thermostat, and I’ll go over the features along with the pros/cons from my experience so far.
After tons of research, I found that the Nest Learning Thermostat was by far the most popular choice as the best smart thermostat. The main reason I wanted a smart thermostat was to save money on my electric bill because not only is it auto-programmable but it’s controllable from anywhere using your smartphone.
In the box there is the Nest learning thermostat itself, the installation and welcome guides, a Nest screwdriver with screws, and a trim kit.
Even though this thermostat works with most 24V systems you should first visit the Nest compatibility checker to see if it’s compatible with your home before purchasing. I’ll leave that link in the description as well. https://nest.com/widget/compatibility
The installation is actually pretty simple. Here’s a quick overview of how to install it.
First, switch off power to your current system by turning off the switch on the breaker box or turning off your system’s dedicated switch if it has one. Remove the cover off your old thermostat and verify that your old thermostat does not say 120V or 240V. If it does, that means its high voltage and Nest is not compatible with high voltage wires. Once you’ve verified Nest is compatible, take a picture of the current wire setup in case you need to reference it later on. Remove any jumper wires which are not needed for the Nest thermostat.
Next, peel off the included sticky labels in the installation guide and attach them to the matching wires. After you’re finished labeling the wires, disconnect the wires from the old thermostat. You can use the included Nest screwdriver to loosen the screws if needed. Remove the old plate while making sure none of the wires fall back into the wall. To install the Nest thermostat, first mark where your screws will go. If your old thermostat was larger than the Nest and there are visible screw holes you can use the optional trim plate to cover up the holes which is what I had to do with mine. Pull the wires through the center of the Nest base and attach it to your wall with the screws, using the built-in level to make sure it’s straight.
Insert each wire into its matching connector by holding down the button and inserting the wire all the way in. After all your labeled wires are connected, make sure the excess wire length in the center are flush with the wall. Attach the Nest display by pressing it onto the base until it clicks then turn your system’s power back on. You should see the Nest turn on automatically and it will walk you through a quick setup. To navigate it, just rotate the outer ring left or right and press on the display to select. During setup it’ll ask your location and language, you’ll connect it to your WiFi network, set your temperature settings, and answer some basic questions about your heating/cooling system.
After setup is complete, you can press down on the display to bring up the menu. From here you can change the mode from heating to cooling, view how much energy you’ve used in the last ten days, view or change the schedule, set it to Away if you’re leaving the house and want to save energy, and adjust some basic settings.
The Nest home screen turns blue when cooling and orange when heating. It not only shows you what temperature the thermostat is set to but it also shows you the current temperature inside and will give you an estimate of how long it will take for the current temperature to reach your set temperature. It also has a motion sensor built into it so when you walk by the thermostat it will light up so you can quickly see the thermostat temperature, and you can also choose to change the setting for it to show the weather or time.
One of its most compelling features is the way it “learns” your heating/cooling habits. After a few days, it will set an automatic schedule based on how/when you adjust the temperature. This is useful if your weekly routine doesn’t change much because with the auto schedule you seemingly don’t need to adjust the thermostat each time you leave and come home. However, if your routine is very different week to week then the auto schedule won’t be as helpful. Luckily you can customize the schedule to however you want it or turn off the schedule completely.
To take full advantage the features you’ll want to download the free Nest smartphone app. It does require an account but the account is completely free to set up.
From the app you can manually change from Home to Away mode. However, the Nest Thermostat uses sensors, algorithms, and even your phones location if you choose to allow that, to automatically determine when you’re home and when you’re away to set the thermostat accordingly so you can save as much energy as possible which is nice.
If you tap on the temperature in the app, you can quickly adjust the thermostat temperature and you also get access to the same settings that are accessible from the thermostat itself: Mode, Eco, Fan, Schedule, and History. There’s also a gear icon in the top right which gives you even more customization options for your thermostat.
Eco temperatures are automatic temperatures that are set when your thermostat is in Away mode and it’s indicated by the green leaf. The default Eco temperatures are good for most people. However if you have a pet you may want to customize the Eco temperatures based on your pet’s needs.
What’s neat about scheduling is you can turn on the Early-On feature which will start the heating or cooling early in order to reach the set temperature at the time specified in your schedule, instead of having it start the heating or cooling at that set time.
You can also create a 4-digit PIN to lock your thermostat to avoid people changing it without the code which may be useful in certain situations.
The only downside I’ve seen so far is how to adjust the schedule using the app. It’s definitely not intuitive when you first start using it. It took me a bit to figure it out and even now I think Nest could make it a little easier to adjust the schedule. Hopefully that will come in a future update. That’s what’s great about smart thermostats is that they are WiFi connected so not only can you control them from anywhere, they also download software updates as Nest releases them so it can technically improve over time.
Overall I’m extremely happy with my Nest Learning Thermostat. It’s only been a few weeks but I’ve already seen the energy saving benefits from having a smart thermostat which was my main goal. I also love the ability to control the thermostat from anywhere with my smartphone.
I hope you enjoyed this setup and review of the Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd generation. The Amazon link to this is in the description below. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment and hit that thumbs-up button if this helped you out. Subscribe to see more tech reviews in the future. My name is Andy, thank you for watching and I will talk to you in the next one.
Which MacBook to Buy in 2018? Apple Laptop Guide!
So you’re interested in buying an Apple laptop. Congratulations, a laptop is a big purchase so it’s very important to choose the right one. In this video I’ll explain which MacBook model is best for you in 2018.
Currently there are 3 MacBook models: MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro
(All MacBook models come standard with an SSD and at least 8GB RAM)
MacBook
- Apple’s 12″ screen laptop; Base model starts at $1299
- Only MacBook available in 4 different colors: rose gold, space gray, gold, and silver
- Base model has 7th-Gen 1.2GHz Intel Core m3 mobile processor; configurable to dual-core i5 or i7
- 8GB RAM (up to 16GB) and 256GB SSD (up to 512GB)
Get MacBook if you
- Care about looks more than performance (sexy; IPS Retina display with 226 ppi; colors)
- Want something ultra portable and mobile; Apple’s thinnest lightest laptop (2 lbs and up to 10 hours battery life)
- Want the smallest screen of any Apple laptop (12″ diagonal)
- Mainly run basic applications, nothing too CPU dependent (base model has mobile processor)
- Don’t need a lot of ports (only 1 USB-C port for charging/input/output)
- Don’t mind having a crappy webcam (only 480p)
MacBook Air
- Base model starts at $999
- 13.3″ screen; 8GB RAM; 128GB SSD (configurable to 256GB or 512GB)
- 5th-Gen Intel dual-core i5 processor (can be upgraded to 2.2GHz Core i7)
Get MacBook Air if you
- Have the lowest budget (Apple’s most affordable laptop)
- Care about battery life more than anything (up to 12 hours; longest battery life of any Apple laptop)
- Want a small lightweight laptop like the MacBook but with more ports (great for students and travelers)
- Don’t mind having a mediocre display (it’s not an IPS Retina display; 1440×900 not even Full HD)
- Don’t mind having silver bezels (has fairly large bezels relative to its size)
- Run the same basic applications that the MacBook is good for and if you know you don’t need more than 8GB RAM (this is Apple’s only laptop that is limited to 8GB)
- Need an HD webcam (720p)
- Don’t need a lot of storage space on the laptop and you utilize Cloud storage or external drives (base model only has 128GB storage)
MacBook Pro
- Comes in silver or space gray and 2 screen sizes: 13.3″ starting at $1299 (non-TouchBar) & $1799 w/ TouchBar. 15.4″ starts at $1999 (2015 non-TouchBar model) & $2399 w/ TouchBar
- All MacBook Pro models have IPS Retina displays (13″ has 227ppi; 15″ has 220ppi) and all MBP models can expect 9-10 hours battery life
- 13″ comes with 8GB RAM (configurable to 16GB); 15″ comes with 16GB RAM
- 13″ starts at 128GB SSD (configurable up to 1TB); 15″ starts at 256GB SSD (configurable to 2TB)
- 13″ starts with Intel 7th-Gen Kaby Lake dual-core i5 (configurable to dual-core i7)
- 15″ 2015 non-TouchBar comes with 4th-gen quad-core; 15″ TouchBar comes with 7th-Gen Kaby Lake quad-core i7
Get 2015 15″ MacBook Pro if you
- Want an awesome laptop for under $2,000 (some say it’s the best laptop ever made)
- Want Mag-Safe
- Want all the other ports besides USB-C (HDMI, SD slot, USB-A, Thunderbolt 2)
- Don’t mind having an older processor (4th-gen)
- Want 15″ size but no Touch Bar
Get newest MacBook Pro if you
- Want the best performance and fastest speed of all the Apple laptops (for professional work; 15″ Touch Bar has the best specs out of all MBPs)
- Need the most internal storage (only Apple laptop to be configured for 1-2TB of storage)
- Want the best/brightest display out of all Apple laptops (The newest 13″ and 15″ MBPs have 25% more colors than sRGB and 500 nits of brightness; 2015 MBP has sRGB and 300 nits; 13″ has the most ppi)
- Run CPU-intensive or graphics-intensive applications like gaming, HD video editing, 3D modeling, CAD, virtual machines, hardcore Photoshop (For best graphics performance get 15″ which has dedicated Radeon Pro GPU with up to 4GB memory)
- Don’t mind having a slightly bigger laptop compared to the other MacBook models (having said that, the 13″ is a very compact and portable laptop)
- Absolutely want TouchBar/TouchID (even though 13″ MBP doesn’t have it)
- Are okay with having USB-C ports (USB-C to USB-A adapters are a must-have)
- Have a large budget (expensive; can go over $4,000 for certain configurations)