Category: Tech

Praise for the Bose Wave

It’s been almost 13 years since I bought my Series II Bose Wave Music System, after I had the porch remodeled for year-round use. As I wrote at the time the CD player in the first unit had a problem. At least the problem appeared right away, unlike one of you out there, whose Bose Wave CD player failed after years of use.

Fortunately, my CD player continues to behave, and the older I get the more I appreciate the Wave. It’s what I’d keep if forced into extreme downsizing, because I was moving into — AIEE! — a retirement home.

That’s Lockjaw, from the Fantastic Four, sitting on Half-Face, from Iron Man.

From its introduction, the Bose Wave has been called overpriced, but the $500 price hasn’t budged for many years. The fact is nothing else does what the Wave does for its size, regardless of price.

The product name was taken from a speaker design term, quarter-wave, referring to using a cabinet baffle to extend the bass output of a speaker. Typically a full-range driver with no woofer/tweeter combination, and no crossover circuit. The waveguide design, combined with an active loudness control and a heavy-duty power supply, make the Wave’s bass response very satisfying.

The notorious CD player problems aside, Bose is confronting the reality that few people in their teens to 40 are listening to FM or CD’s. Rather than squeeze a Bluetooth receiver into the Wave, Bose offers a more expensive wireless edition with a base that attaches to its proprietary expansion port. The good news is the regular Wave is currently on sale for only $300, and for another $20 a Bluetooth receiver can be plugged into the auxiliary jack.

VAXfinder

The Massachusetts vaxfinder site crashed as soon as it opened this morning for ages 65+. Baby Boomers continue to stress everything as we progress in age. With diligent effort I still managed to find a VAX!

When the site came back online, the only two locations that actually have vaccine on hand are 60 and 90 miles away. If I search without caring about current availability, I see this: “We’re sorry, there are no more appointments at the moment. Please check back as additional appointments will be made available.”

As Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five would say, “So it goes.”

Phone-y Text

To anyone with the same SMS texting problem I had with my new Verizon phone, who finds my post in the Verizon community forum, you’re welcome.

THE PROBLEM: Verizon delivered a Pixel 4a. When the phone is powered off, the default Android messaging app (with blue icon) fails to retrieve stored SMS messages. When the phone is powered on, back-and-forth texting works fine. SMS store-and-forward is broken only when the phone is off.

THE FIX: The Verizon Message+ application (with red icon) does not have the problem. Stored messages are retrieved when the phone is powered up and the app is opened.

RECOMMENDATION: Verizon should make its own MSG+ app the default for SMS texting.

NOTE: My son’s Moto G Stylus was purchased unlocked and configured with a SIM at an authorized Verizon store. [Rather than a Verizon contractor store.] His default Android messaging app does not have the problem with lost messages when the phone is off

Follow-up: The answer is that the LTE (4G) network needs to be enabled at all times. Wifi alone is not enough for all of the apps. Without LTE, some things work and some things don’t with the default Google Android phone and texting apps. In addition to the problem described above, voice message notifications come in, but you can’t access the messages without resorting to the old method of dialing *86.

Technical Whiplash

Another computer resuscitation project with Q4OS Linux is my 11-year-old Acer Aspire One netbook. I carried this little thing with me everywhere, until Windows XP went end-of-life. I’m sufficiently pleased with the results running Linux that I’ve ordered a new battery for $15, giving my long-idle netbook a new lease on useful life.

That picture of the Acer was taken with another piece of old tech, my LG flip phone. But soon there will be a significant improvement in the quality of my photos, because I’m about to leap into the technological present.

My first cellphone was 25 years ago, on the Cingular analog network, but until now I’ve never had a smartphone. That changed today when I added data to my Verizon plan and ordered a Google Pixel 4a.

Ex-XP PC

This post brought to you via Q4OS, a lightweight Linux distribution, running on the first laptop I ever bought. This Compaq Presario 2200 came from CompUSA more than 15 years ago. The last time I used it was probably ten years ago.

I could have installed Linux alongside Windows XP SP3, but I wiped the drive for a clean start. I first tried Lubuntu, but performance was terrible. Lubuntu failed to find the WiFi hardware, but I’m on WiFi now with Q4OS. Typing reminds me how good the action on laptop keyboards used to be. A fun little project.

Correction: I should have said “the first Windows laptop I ever bought.” My first home PC was a Panasonic DOS dual-floppy laptop with monochrome screen and CGA composite video output that could display on a regular TV.

Follow-up: I installed VLC Media Player and a region-free DVD plays fine, but other DVD’s cannot be opened. It seems a command line utility is needed to set region 1 for the DVD player.