u/TheAlmightyDeity

The current version of Android is version 17.

However, the vast majority of Android TV Sticks/Boxes seem to cap out at around Android 13/14, some even run Android 11 or older.

Just wondering - Are there any TV Sticks/Boxes running Android 15-17? And if not, why?

I've heard older versions of Android are a security risk to still run now - is that true with these TV boxes?

Or is version 13/14 still new enough for now & the future?

Thanks

TL;DR - Feel free to share which couriers you're using currently, how you go about getting the parcels to them, and what you think of the experience?

Background;

Currently using Royal Mail to ship parcels to customers, and I'm noticing an issue, particularly as you scale in size;

- Micro-sellers - e.g. <1 sale/week - can easily pop to the Post Office to dispatch items

However I've noticed Post Offices are quite busy, and really aren't set up for posting multiple items in 1 go.

- Mega-sellers - e.g. many items per day, every day - can schedule Royal Mail to pick up from them daily, and can afford it.

I got quoted prices "from" ≈£1,000/year, for a Royal Mail pick up 1 day per week, at my address. (And the postage charge is still charged on top of that).

But in the modern world of fast delivery, you'd want at least 1 pick up per day, so that's minimum £5k extra you'd need to spend.

Though going from an extra £0 to £5k of overheads overnight is a massive jump, so I'm just wondering how are all the other small to medium sellers managing?

Is there some other option with Royal Mail that I'm missing?

Are there other couriers which provide better options?

Thanks

Bonus - I did try & schedule a pickup with Evri once (believe it was around the same price as drop off), but the courier turned up 2 WEEKS LATE from what I had arranged, so I had to go and drop the parcel off myself anyway.

So I recently bought an arthritis hand brace - the type that's like a stretchy compressive fabric, that goes from your lower forearm, up to your knuckles (don't think I can attach photos here?).

Now I bought the correct size of brace for my wrist circumference (if anything, my wrists were slightly too small for this size).

I feel a good amount of support & compression on the wrist & rest of my hand.

However on my thumb, the skin is slightly more purple when I wear the brace, and I also get a bit of a tingly pins & needles type feeling (I think it's due to blood pooling slightly, due to compression of the brace)

The rest of my fingers are fine, though the compression brace ends at my knuckles for the fingers, yet the thumb piece is deviated from the main brace, and goes up to the middle join of the thumb.

This is my first time wearing a brace like this, so I don't know whether this is normal, or should I get a bigger size?

Thanks

So I was reading up on penalty points, and the situation is a little complicated;

- 3 years = The time most penalty points become "spent" (e.g. for speeding fines etc)

- 4 years = The time when penalty points expire (always found it weird there is an extra year for this?)

- 5 years = The amount of time a lot of insurers seem to ask you to declare any driving infractions.

Now here's my question;

If an offence has already expired after 4 years, does it disappear from the system, and there is no way for insurers to check this?

Is this a similar situation to a few years back, when a lot of insurers got into trouble for asking people to declare speeding awareness courses, even though they weren't allowed to do this?

Thanks

I'm English, we learn a few languages in schools here (e.g. - French, German, Spanish, etc).

However, I've noticed even if you can understand the written language quite well, it becomes really difficult to understand a native person in conversation.

I've been on holiday to each of those countries, and even if I start a conversation in their native language, I have to almost immediately switch to English, as I can't understand what they're saying, or they pronounce words or use words quite different to what we learned in school.

I'm sure if I moved to these countries for a few years, I'd be able to speak the language pretty well, but it seems so tough to speak a language well before you've moved to a country.

However, I noticed a lot of natives over there speak really good English, even if they've never visited England, nor are they working in tourism etc.

Just makes me wonder - what is the key to speaking & understanding a foreign language so well, if you've never visited that country?

(TL)

I feel opinions are a bit mixed online, as to whether you can do this or not.

It's tough as portable ACs tend to have such short hoses & power cords, that it's hard to place them in the ideal spot in your room.

So I was just curious;

1. If you have used an extension cord for your portable AC long term, how was it? Any problem/faults experienced?

2. If so, which type of extension cord did you use? Specs?

3. Bonus question - any electrical experts here can shed any light on whether it's safe to run an AC through an extension cord?

Thanks

So I like to leave some drinks & snacks in my car, stored in a box, in the boot of my car, which has a luggage rack on top of it (I.e. has zero direct exposure to sunlight).

The food & drink is manufacturer sealed, e.g. cereal/snack bars, and bottled water from the supermarket.

Normally I leave it in there for many weeks/months, until it's expiry date, in case of an emergency, then I have stuff there with me I can consume.

However, it's currently summer here, and we've had relentless heatwaves of 35-40⁰C (95-104⁰F), and my guess is the in car temperature might be >10⁰C more than that?

I went to grab the stuff from my boot, and the water felt really quite warm in my hand, and the cereal bar was really squishy & flat.

Is it still safe to eat food & drink that's been exposed to fairly high heat for weeks/months, or could these temperatures cause bacteria growth/break down the food etc?

Thanks

So I like to leave some drinks & snacks in my car, stored in box, in the boot of my car, which has a luggage rack on top of it (I.e. has zero direct exposure to sunlight).

The food & drink is manufacturer sealed, e.g. cereal/snack bars, and bottled water from the supermarket.

Normally I leave it in there for many weeks/months, until it's expiry date, in case of an emergency, then I have stuff there with me I can consume.

However, it's currently summer here, and we've had relentless heatwaves of 35-40⁰C (95-104⁰F), and my guess is the in car temperature might be +10⁰C more than that?

I went to grab the stuff from my boot, and the water felt really quite warm in my hand, and the cereal bar was really squishy & flat.

Is it still safe to eat food & drink that's been exposed to fairly high heat for weeks/months, or could these temperatures cause bacteria growth/break down the food etc?

Thanks

I'm British, and growing up, definitely the vast majority of animated & cartoon TV shows you'd get would be American (this was in the early/mid 2000s).

With live action stuff, I would say it was more mixed, probably slightly more British shows.

Then if you had paid-for TV packages, you could get channels like Disney or Nickelodeon, which I presume were virtually all American content?

Just curious if you get much of that the other way - and you get any British shows, or at least hear any British accents, on kids channels over there?

Such as ones with EU plugs, or American, Chinese, etc

Are there any risks with permanently running an AC with a plug adaptor?

Should you rewire it to UK Plug?

Reason I ask is - many other countries still have AC stock, even though the UK has run dry since June.

And other conventionally hot countries have a much better variety of AC types, and often for cheaper than the made for UK versions.

Thanks

I live in England, I managed to pick up a Single Hose Portable AC, just before we had the June heatwave.

I noticed that pretty much all the portable ACs were single hose, many different brands, different power levels, but pretty much all of them were single hose.

The market is a bit crazy right here now, with everything being either out of stock, or heavily price gouged.

But even now I've been actively searching for Dual Hose, I keep seeing only ONE manufacturer that keeps popping up.

Is there any specific reason Dual Hose isn't more popular?

Is there some hidden drawback to it?

Surely insulation should be equally good at keeping cold in, as well as heat?

I've been observing the temperature around my house, using thermometers, and I've noticed something.

Heat is really slow to leave the house, even late at night, when outside temperatures might be <10⁰C colder, than indoors temperature.

Even opening all the windows, curtains, patio doors, using fans, it's almost like the cold air outside "refuses" to come in.

Currently, I've noticed it's difficult to get my in house temperature to drop below 24⁰C, even at 1-2 am, when it might be 17⁰C outside.

During the peak heatwaves, don't think I ever saw internal temperature drop below 30⁰C.

However, heat is really quick to enter the house, even taking appropriate steps to shut doors & windows, pull curtains, put draught excluders across doors.

I did an experiment today, used a portable AC to reduce the room temperature to 23⁰C, and within 15 mins of it being turned off, temperature was already 24⁰C and rising, even when totally sealing off that room (outside temperature was around 28⁰C, for reference).

Though late at night, it can take hours to reduce the inside temperature by 1-2⁰C, even when doing everything to reduce insulation & encourage the cold in.

Just wondering if anyone knows why this is?

Thanks

So I've added a bunch of MP3 Ringtones to my phone, that are in the specific "Ringtones" folder, in my phone's storage.

I want to select a ringtone from these, to use as my phone's ringtone.

Problem is, when I go the usual way of setting a ringtone, and picking the "Audio files" option, it just lists ALL the audio files on my device, not just what's in the Ringtones folder, and I have many 1,000s of MP3 files on my phone...

What's worse, is there's no search option within this, to locate your specific file, and the songs aren't even in alphabetical order either!

Any help with this?

PS - My phone is a Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro, Android Version 16, Xiaomi Hyper OS 3, Global (UK) Version

So I've added a bunch of MP3 Ringtones to my phone, that are in the specific "Ringtones" folder, in my phone's storage.

I want to select a ringtone from these, to use as my phone's ringtone.

Problem is, when I go the usual way of setting a ringtone, and picking the "Audio files" option, it just lists ALL the audio files on my device, not just what's in the Ringtones folder, and I have many 1,000s of MP3 files on my phone.

What's worse, is there's no search option within this, to locate your specific file, and the songs aren't even in alphabetical order either!

Any help with this?

PS - My phone is a Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro, Android Version 16, Xiaomi Hyper OS 3

I'm amazed how much some people spend on this game - just wondering what the motivation & how people decide how much they want to spend on it?

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Do you ever have regrets on how much you've spent?

Do you wish you spent more, on things you held back from?

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The top spender in my kingdom admitted to spending $100+K USD (well over 1.5 billion power), and there's a whole host of other players who've spent $1,000s to over $10k.

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We even had one early whale that spent ≈$10k/month, though quit after just a few months lol.

Currently looking at buying a MicroSD card, to expand my phone's storage, though I've heard the prices are currently gouged, to the AI race that's currently going on?

Just curious if I should bite the bullet & buy anyway, or wait maybe 1-2+ years for the AI bubble bursts & hope they're cheaper then?

Additional questions;

1. Is it ALL SD Card variants that are getting price gouged?

Or just the higher capacity/higher spec cards? (E.g. Extreme Pro variants etc)

2. What price were SD Cards, at their cheapest?

(In particular I'm curious about MicroSD 256 GB & 512 GB prices)

Thanks