Last week Apple announced the new iPhone 11, Pro and Pro Max, and reduced prices on the older iPhone 8 and iPhone XR. Like many people this time of year, you might be planning to get or have already upgraded to a new iPhone. Your new iPhone will need new accessories to go with it, and that can get downright expensive.
When I got my iPhone 6s in 2015, I spent $80 USD on a clear case and screen protectors. When I got my iPhone XR last week, I could have spent another $80 USD on the exact same accessories. This time I went shopping on Amazon to find some great deals. While several of the accessories that I mention are specific to the iPhone XR, you can find similar accessories for other iPhone models at the same price or a few dollars more.
On the same day that Apple announced the new iPhone 11, Pro and Pro Max, I went to my local Apple Store to trade in my four-year-old iPhone 6s for last year’s iPhone XR. You may recall that I posted a video last October that I wasn’t pre-ordering the iPhone XR to upgrade my iPhone 6s. Sprint wasn’t offering any great deals. Not then, not now. My choices were pre-ordering the iPhone XR for $750 USD or keeping my iPhone 6s for another year. Fast forward a year later… Why did I trade in my iPhone 6s for the iPhone XR and not the newer iPhone 11?
Last month I posted a video on how I installed the AMD Athlon 200GE processor into the AM4 socket of the Asrock B450M Pro4 MATX mainboard with a little bit of pressure. Despite the clicking sound from the socket, the processor worked fine after extensive tests at stock and overclock speeds. Should you keep a brand new AM4 mainboard with a “damaged” socket?
While switching out heatsinks to lower overclocking temperatures, I made an attempt to remove the processor from the socket. I lifted up the lever and heard a clicking sound when the socket was fully opened. I was able to pull out and drop in the processor without any pressure, and press down on the lever to close the socket without a clicking sound. After repeating that a half dozen times, the clicking sound went away and the processor still works fine.
The AM4 socket is a Zero Insertion Force, or ZIF, socket, which does not make clicking sounds or require pressure to insert a processor. Something funky about the socket on the mainboard that now works fine.
If you are a new or less experienced PC builder, you might find it safer to return the mainboard for another one with a working socket.
If you are an experienced PC builder, the risk of something going wrong might be less than the hassle of returning the mainboard to the store during the return period.
Let me know in the comments below if you would have kept a mainboard with a “damaged” socket.
You have often heard stories or seen videos of Amazon packages being stolen from a porch by a random package thief walking off the street. That is nothing compared to what goes on inside an apartment complex. The porch is the doorstep to your apartment, the street is your building hallway, and that random package thief is most likely your next door neighbor. And packages disappear all the time.
If your leasing office does accept packages on your behalf, their business hours are often the same as your working hours and you will have to wait until the weekend to pick up your package. Beyond using Amazon Locker for Amazon packages, sending packages to a FedEx or UPS store, and renting a post office box for everything else, there are few alternative solutions for apartment residents.
My apartment complex ringed in the New Year with an Hub by Amazon at the mailbox courtyard. Hub by Amazon operates the same way as an Amazon Locker that you see at retail locations. When your Amazon package arrives at the Amazon Locker, you get an email notification and you can pick up your package at your convenience within three days. Unlike the Amazon Locker, the Hub by Amazon is available in neutral colors like blue, gray or white, accepts Amazon and non-Amazon packages from all carriers, and is accessible only by apartment residents.
The outdoor Hub by Amazon at my apartment complex is huge, being approximately 18 feet long, two feet deep and seven feet tall. That includes a Starter Hub with touch screen panel and 42 compartments, and four expander hubs with 23 compartments each. With 134 compartments of various sizes for 300 apartments, Hub by Amazon replaced the eight package lockers from the post office at the same location. The smallest package that is a thick catalog envelope and the largest package is a 22 x 17 x 10 box.
You will need to have or sign up for an Amazon account to register with the Hub by Amazon website, verifying both your email address and apartment address.You don’t need to be an Amazon Prime member and there are no additional fees for using the Hub by Amazon.
The upfront costs of Hub by Amazon are paid for by the leasing office, making it a win-win situation for everyone involved. Residents are no longer frustrated by stolen packages. The leasing office can get out of the package management business. Amazon can save a ton of money by not having to ship out replacement packages.
If you live in a medium to large apartment complex, a Hub by Amazon might be in your future.
