More Internet Speed Tests

Several years ago, I stumbled across Google's Internet speed test. That prompted me to look at several other Internet speed testing tools. The post is here.

This article on CNET prompted me to look again. CNET had a couple of tools I hadn't heard of before so I ran them against my previous set of tools.

At my house I have a 200Mbps Xfinity connection. I was using my ThinkPad X390 with an Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz Wi-Fi adapter. Intel says that adapter can deliver 1.73Gbps so that probably wasn't a limiting factor.

Test	Download
*Ookla	196Mbps
*fast.com	200Mbps
*Google Fiber	205Mbps
*Google	181Mbps
speedof.me	215Mbps
testmy.net	186Mbps
* were in my earlier test

Conclusion: Mox nix!

The results were much more sensitive to other traffic than the accuracy of the various tests. In my initial tests of speedof.me and testmy.net, they were both around 125Mbps. I retested them and they both came in over 155Mbps. A third test gave the above results.

A more extreme demonstration of interference was at my daughter's house who has a 1Gbps Xfinity connection.

Test	Download
Ookla	330Mbps
fast.com	150Mbps
Google Fiber	91Mbps
Google	50Mbps
speedof.me	54Mbps
testmy.net	83Mbps

I didn't have the opportunity to rerun the tests at this location. In hindsight, there were streaming applications running outside of my control during the testing.

FastStone Image Viewer

My previous post covered how to restore Windows Photo Viewer. While that worked, I kinda got frustrated that I kept having to do that.

I fell back to my trusty Google search and came up with some alternatives to Windows Photo Viewer.

The article that seemed most on point to me was on Skylum.

#4 on their list was FastStone Image Viewer but it was #1 for me.

I always like portable applications and FastStone has one for their Image Viewer.

I put the portable version in my OneDrive/Software folder so it's available on all my PCs.

Oh, it's free.

Windows Photo Viewer

I've been accused of being a Luddite and maybe I am.

But maybe I just like simple applications that just work.

Windows 7 and 8 had a really nice application, Windows Photo Viewer. It had useful and intuitive keyboard and cursor commands.

Windows 10 displaced (not REplaced) Windows Photo Viewer with Photos. To me, it's not as intuitive as Windows Photo Viewer.

The good news is that Windows Photo Viewer is still there. And if you got to Windows 10 by an upgrade in place from Windows 7 or 8, getting Windows Photo Viewer back is easy.

CNET has a good article on how to do this but it's easy.

[S]imply open up Settings and go to System > Default apps. Under "Photo viewer," you should see your current default photo viewer (probably the new Photos app). Click this to see a list of options for a new default photo viewer. Assuming you upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous version of Windows, you should see Windows Photo Viewer as an option.

Choose Windows Photo Viewer and exit the Settings menu, and you're done -- photos will now open up in Windows Photo Viewer.

If you got to Windows 10 with a clean install, it's a little trickier.

But this article in TenForums will walk you through it.

The tl;dr of this is to download this .reg file. Run it. Follow the procedure above to reset the default app.

Chillin' With an iPhone - Part 6

So I'm a year into using an iPhone X coming from an Essential PH-1. I've posted several times about my experiences - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I still have a few items to close the loop on.

Battery Life - My iPhone's battery life is really incredible. I tend to check the battery at 10PM. Most days the % of battery remaining is around 60%. If I've taken a lot of video or listened to a lot of podcasts, it will dip down into the 50% range. I checked the battery capacity recently and it is still 86%.

Face ID - I mentioned that the face unlock of my Lenovo Tab M8 inspired me to look at the iPhone X's Face ID. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic drove facemask usage. Now I miss the Touch ID of the iPhone 6.

Gboard - I am a huge user of Google services. Consequently, I tend to use the Gboard keyboard. But Apple has crippled Gboard. I like to use handsfree voice to text while I'm driving. When using Gboard's voice to text, Gboard has to launch what looks like a separate app. The delay is unacceptable. And the Apple keyboard's voice to text is really good.

Wireless Charging - I've had a couple of Android phones that used wireless charging but the Essential PH-1 didn't. It was nice to return to wireless charging. This is the wireless charger I use. I use this for my wife's iPhone SE (2020).

Old Stuff - I still wish iOS would give me more control over sounds, e.g. Google Hangouts ringtone and texttone, the camera shutter sound, the iMessage sent sound, etc. I do really like the intensity of the vibration. The Essential PH-1 struggled with being too subtle.

But I do still have an Essential PH-1 completely up to speed on Lineage OS.