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KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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2 product FAILs

Posted: 28 Mar 2022 10:07 AM PDT https://www.kb6nu.com/2-product-fails/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


I recently purchased two items that Ive been disappointed with. They not amateur radio products, fortunately, but they are radio-related, so I
thought Id blog about them.
These Amazon Echo Buds amazingly DO NOT WORK with Amazon Fire tablets.

The first product to disappoint are the Amazon Echo Buds, 2nd Generation. I purchased these when they went on sale for $80. That sounded like a great
deal, especially considering they offered automatic noise cancellation. I planned to use them when watching videos or listening to podcasts on my
Amazon Fire tablet while Im on my rowing machine or lifting weights. The
rowing machine is quite noisy, so I thought that the noise cancellation
feature would come in handy.

Unfortunately, as amazing as it sounds, the Amazon Echo Buds WILL NOT WORK
with my Amazon tablet! I spent more than an hour goofing around with this before I gave up. The tablet pairs up quite nicely with all of the other Bluetooth speakers that I have, but for some dumb reason, I cant pair the
ear buds with it.

I tweeted about this:

Im very disappointed that my @amazon Echo Buds arent supported by my two-year-old @amazon Fire tablet. I just find that incredible.

and I actually got an email from an Amazon customer service rep. I
explained the problem and got the following reply:

Im sorry to hear about the issue/s experienced with your Echo Buds and Fire Tablet 8 (7th Gen), which prompted you to leave a review.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile?ref_=ya_d_l_profile

From the developers : Fire 7 (all generations), Fire HD 8 (9th gen or
older), and Fire HD 10 are not compatible with Echo Buds.

The Echo Buds are going to be returned.
Clock needs a software upgrade

I had an Emerson atomic clock for years that bit the dust last summer
during a power outage. Im guessing that the power surge when the power came back on somehow caused the clocks power supply to fail. Its been on my pile
of things to be repaired since then, but I wasnt able to find a schematic
for it online, and that made fixing it more difficult. Last week, I decided
to just buy another one.

So, I searched through Amazon and found the Ambient Weather RC-8465
Projection Alarm Clock. It not only syncs to WWVB, but also projects the
time on a wall or the ceiling. It also has a built-in temperature sensor to
let you know how hot or cold it is in the room. And, it cost only $20.

I like the clock, but one of its quirks is that while it does show the
indoors temperature on the projected image, every once in a while it would display .- F OUT. Guessing that that was the outdoor temperature, I looked
for a way to turn that off, since I dont have the outdoor sensor. I didnt
find out how to do so in the instructions, so I sent an email to the
address in the instruction sheet. They replied:

Thank you for contacting support. unfortunately, this model is designed to
show outdoor and indoor temperature there is no way to turn off this base function.

OK, I thought, maybe Ill get the outdoor temperature sensor. Well, as it
turns out, the outdoor sensor costs $30! I emailed them back saying that I guess Ill just have to live with the funky temperature display. I emailed
them back, noting that they should really update the clocks firmware



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