Announcement Welcome to the Tom's Guide Community!

[AugieTN]

Greetings,

I never knew Tom's Guide had a forum. Lots of stuff to read and learn from here.

I started out with Palm phones and was a moderator for one of the Palm Forums. When Palm phones ended I switched to Nokia phones. When Windows bought Nokia I switched to Windows phones. When Window phones ended I switched to Google phones and have been using Google phones for a while. I currently have a Pixel 8 Pro.

I live in Illinois, but I have land and a trailer in Tennessee. I have a French wife which kind of forced me back to college to learn French.

Wife has two Siamese cats and a Pixel 7

 

[toxicfire]

Cant believe its june 2024 and i just found theres a forum here. I guess i was under a rock.
Im into all electronis and love phones, currently rocking a s24U and fold 4. Had a 5 for a few weeks and sold it because the upgrade wasnt there. Found this forum as ive got stumped on my laptop so hoping you fine people can shed some light on what i can do haha.

 

[Broccoli.tea]

I have been a reader as a tech enthusiast for going on twenty years, with the past ten allowing me to toy with plenty of products. Not a professional (psychologist, actually) but a fan of photography and a huge nerd with any consumer tech. Currently I use a multitude of devices, some for many purposes and others for a single purpose (such as my ReMarkable 2 and taking notes with my patients). Something tells me I'll be active here since this community appears pretty kind, helpful, and informative...
I promise to try my best to not break any rules!

 

[Rosie Brocklehurst]

I am not at all interesting and am here because I am becoming increasingly terrified of technology as I age. The more I learn the less I know. This is true of my laptop use, my Dell laptop which has been a nightmare from the word go and started with a hinge problem that screwed up the wires and the whole system ahd to be replaced but took months to get fixed and constant no shows by technicians despite the warranty, theworst support ever, the impossibility of getting any sense out of anyone. Then there are the later iterations of Microsoft Office, handling PDFs in adobe which keep on being automatically changed into word documents making them skewed and unreadable, the constant errors I make on my old i phone in texts because of goodness knows what - the lack of commonsense predictive text (I think) and fudgy fingers. It took me months to find out how to back up my laptop after a crash (it is only three years old) on a 1 Terabyte Samsung SSD. I paid a techno to show me how and he left me feeling confident saying it will take only an hour and it took 19hours to back up! Help. I don't understand and I am beginning not to want to understand.

 

[rwrider]

Hello,
I have followed Tomsguide for a long time. I am a professional Electronics Technician, having worked as a RADAR tech at the Memphis FAA Enroute Air Traffic Control Center for 20 years. Then joined FedEx as a Technical Advisor for IT systems, revenue mainframe, UNIX systems for package tracking, and others. I retired in 2000 and formed a Broadcast Engineering company to consult with technical issues on AM and FM transmission facilities. All these tasks and heavily automated these days, based on Windows workstations and servers. Plus, I am a hobbyist who "plays" with Linux, Windows and networking.

 

[COLGeek]

Hello,
I have followed Tomsguide for a long time. I am a professional Electronics Technician, having worked as a RADAR tech at the Memphis FAA Enroute Air Traffic Control Center for 20 years. Then joined FedEx as a Technical Advisor for IT systems, revenue mainframe, UNIX systems for package tracking, and others. I retired in 2000 and formed a Broadcast Engineering company to consult with technical issues on AM and FM transmission facilities. All these tasks and heavily automated these days, based on Windows workstations and servers. Plus, I am a hobbyist who "plays" with Linux, Windows and networking.

Welcome. You should also check out our sibling site:

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Join the discussion about the latest in computer hardware, software, and gadgets in the Tom's Hardware Community! Catch everything from expert opinion to casual buzz in our community of millions.

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Thobeka Masiza]

Hello my people

 

[LouisianaJoe]

I am a retired software designer. I started programming in 1966 so I have been here for the evolution of computing. My experiences include database systems, security systems and CAD/CAM systems. Other interests include woodworking, knife making and muzzleloader making. Current interests include Target shooting. In the past, I was a math mentor at the local schools and I worked part time as a deputy.

 

[CyberDoc777]

It used to be only Hardware Guide

 

[COLGeek]

It used to be only Hardware Guide

You may be thinking of Tom's Hardware. It is still in place.

Tom's Hardware: For The Hardcore PC Enthusiast

Tom's Hardware helps you buy the best hardware and build the best PC to play, create and work..

www.tomshardware.com

Tom's Hardware Forum

Join the discussion about the latest in computer hardware, software, and gadgets in the Tom's Hardware Community! Catch everything from expert opinion to casual buzz in our community of millions.

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[imekon]

Hi folks, I'm Pete, I'm a software engineer of some years. I started as an electronics engineer but switched to writing software. I started in assembly language, now I work in C++/C# on games.

I'm an Android phone user, plus a gamer on a high spec gaming laptop. I also use an older laptop with Linux Mint. I play around with Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico and other similat gadgets.

Oh, I love cats! Don't have one right now, sadly.

 

[manofkp33]

I'm an opinionated 40-Something father of 1 that loves and reviews tech, apps, food and any thing that I form an opinion on.

 

[oldtimer114]

I'm new to the forum but have been a Tomsguide reader for quite some time.
I am new to smartphones. But I've been doing computers and networking since WAY before the Internet. Back when most computer terminals were teletype machines. And I am a major digital security freak. Almost all of my online work (and about 90% of all my computer work) is done on PC's with Linux Mint. Linux is not safe. But it is "safer" than either Windows, Android, or Apple OS.
Forums like this are about as close to social media as I get.
Since my phone service provider won't allow me to use E O/S, I'm stuck with Android. But I trying to figure out, A: How to navigate around this thing (Moto G Power 5G w/Android 14), and B: How to remove as much of the Google and T-Mobile preinstalled apps (spyware) and replace them with safer, more privacy oriented apps.
I don't do games, social media, chat, make videos, do any financial transactions on my phone, or upload to the cloud. And I don't store any personal info on my phone. I keep all my passwords in a book.

Hey! I'm Allen. Retired. former employee of one of those 3 letter government agencies (yeah. That one!) Been working with the Internet since it was a Darpa project. Been using Linux as my OS for the past 8 years on all my equipment. And have been a flip phone user since 2005. My last one was a Sunbeam Orchid with Consumer Cellular. But my veteran's group demanded I get a smartphone so I got a Moto G 5 Power with Android 14. Because of my past, I'm major security & privacy freak. I don't trust any of these large tech companies. Giigle, Microsmarty, and Faceplant least of all. I really want either a Librem5 phone or anything that will run EO/S. But no carrier will let me. I don't do gaming or social media.
I keep my passwords in a book and I don't do financial anything on my phone.
My biggest issue is how do I get rid of all this bloatware on my new phone? I just want a phone with a browser. Not a whole lot of apps. It's a communications device. Not an entertainment system. What apps I do want, I want to sideload them from somewhere other than the Giigle Playstore.
And I have an antenna on my roof for my TV.

 

[Tomnige]

Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you.

 

[49rover]

Hi all: I'm happy to find a site with so much knowledge being tossed about. I started into electronics in 1956 and met my first computer in 1960 when I opened the door of an IBM machine - the door held cross wires with a small doughnut at each intersection. I built my own computers and programmed them. Soldering memory chips onto an 8" x 10" 16K circuit board. I'm now completely out of date and I'm hoping I can learn from seeing the discussions on this site. I came here and posted a comment to see if I could get rid of the AI that has taken over my Pixle 8 Pro. Fingers crossed.

 

[rokuku]

Greetings,
I have been getting tech news from this website for a very long time.
nice to meet you all.

 

[launchx431]

Thank you for the invite, hopefully I will be able to answer most of the questions asked on this forum

 

[abdulrehmank]

Hello,
Rehman here. Wanted to become a professional gamer and ended up with a 9-5 in digital marketing. So in case you have any questions related to digital marketing or my preferred CS:GO, Dota 2, COD then I would be happy to answer
Thanks

 

[Laura-Ann C.]

Hi gang - I'm located in California, and am a retired engineering tech/land surveyor. My first four computers (a TI-99-4A, a Commodore 64, an XT clone, and a Northgate 286 AT) were store-bought, but starting in 1990, with my first 386, I've built all of my own PC's from parts - at least 20 PC's for myself or friends. Sitting on a shelf behind me right now are two boxes - big ones - of parts that I know I'll never be able to use again but somehow can't seem to part with. Anyone need a 57Kbaud, ISA dial up modem? I think I have two of them. How about a Diamond Speedstar AGP graphics card? I must have 3 dozen IDE ribbon cables in those boxes, plus six or seven 3-1/2" floppy drives. There may even be a 486 mobo in one of those boxes. Hard drives? If I piled all of the old, obsolete HDD's that are lurking in my parts boxes and desk drawers, they might outweigh a medium sized Labrador Retriever. One of those drives is only 750 mB, as I recall - it was the HDD in my first 386. I used to have a 65 mB HDD - that was in the Northgate 286 - but it got heaved into a dumpster in 1992 with the rest of that machine. Today, you can buy an 18 tB drive on Amazon for about the same price as I paid for that 65 mB drive in 1987. That's 276,923 times the storage for actually a lot less money when you consider that $300 today is a lot less money than $300 was in 1987.

I'm getting ready to build (sort of) my first laptop: a Framework 16. I'll get the basic chassis from them, with the screen and mainboard already installed, then add my own DRAM and storage. It's going to replace the ancient Dell Vostro 1700 that I bought in 2008, that has become so slow, compared to modern laptops, that I can't stand to use it anymore. Plus, it weighs 13 pounds, thanks to having dual HDD's, and one of these days I'm gonna end up with a hernia just lifting it. So, I picked out the Framework because I really hate the idea that most laptops today use soldered DRAM and SDD's, meaning that if there is a failure in any of those chips, after the warranty, the laptop goes in the recycle and I have to shell out another $1,000 for a new one. Laptops, tablets, and phones should be repairable, not disposable. We're not talking about $39 toaster ovens here, that you replace when they fail without a second thought. A top tier gaming laptop can run in excess of $4,000 - considerably more than I paid for my first 8 or 9 cars back when I was young. Using soldered in components for SSD storage is really stupid IMO - SSD's are almost guaranteed to wear out in just a couple years in a laptop used for gaming. Anyway, happy computing everyone!