iPhone transfer experience

I transferred data from an iPhone SE 2020 to SE 2022 last week.

I read https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210216 and followed prompts on the new phone. The whole process took less than 30 minutes. The iOS version was 17.2. I enabled iCloud on the old phone.

What was transferred,

• All files, photos, videos, message, call history.
• Apple app's (e.g. voice memo, alarm clocks, notes) data and settings.
  
• System settings, e.g. screen time, privacy, keyboard, control center.
  
• Per app settings, e.g. notifications, permissions.
  
• Some third-party Apps' data, e.g. Garmin connect, mullvad vpn.
• Paired Airpods and apple watches.
• Find my devices.
  

What was not transferred,

• Login sessions of most third party apps. e.g. Venmo, Chase, Amtrak, Southwest, Signal.
• Paired third-party Bluetooth devices, e.g. cars, speakers.

Caveats,

• All apps were installed to the latest version on the new phone.
• Signal app has its own transfer tool. It worked well for me.
  
• Apple pay cards were transferred but required SMS verification.

2023 Mazda CX-30 review

Good,

• It has these nice features,
• Key-less entry and start.
• Rain sensing wiper.
  
• Powered rear gate.
• Adaptive cruise control.
• Automatic two zone HVAC.
• Brake hold.
• Sun-glass storage on roof.
• Powered and memory seats.
  
• Engine is powerful enough for daily commute.
• The interior feels luxurious.
  
• Backup camera has clear images and a wide angle.
• Infotainment screen is crispy and large.
• The knobs on the center console for infotainment control feel high quality.
  

Meh,

• A lot of black body cladding.
• The organ type accelerator pedal does not fit the upright seating position.
• Steering wheel has little feedback.
• Steering wheel is too large.
• Rear and side visibility is average.
• 6AT is jerky at times.
• Cornering handling is better than CR-V but worse than sedans.
• Infotainment screen does not support touch.
• The base 2.5L NA engine is powerless.
  

Bad,

• The steering wheel toggles look fancy but are harder to use than buttons.
• The seats are too warm for me.
• The car key is bulky but buttons are small.
• The interior room is not much more spacious than Mazda 3.

 My verdict: CX-30 has a luxurious interior and is fun to drive. But it is not as practical as competitors.

2023 Nissan Versa SV review

I drove a 2023 Nissan Versa SV for two days. Here is my impression,

Good,

• Interior is better than I expected. It has soft touch materials on the dashboard.
• It has rear parking sensors and automatic braking. 
• It has front auto emergency braking.
  
• Seats are comfortable.
• Driving dynamic is fine.
• The infotainment screen is bright, clear, and responsive.
• The steering wheel controls are easy to use.
• It has auto headlight and high-beam.
• Engine is quiet at idle.
• It has blind spot monitoring.
• It has a USB-C charging port for passengers in the second row.
  

Meh,

• Manual HVAC controls.
• Headlight is not LED.
• The shifter has a L gear at the bottom. 
• No wireless mobile phone projection.
• Fuel economy is not the best. 
• All seats are manual. 
• No lights on sun visor mirrors.
• No air vents for the second row.
  

Bad,

• No adaptive cruise control.
• No lane tracing.
• The cabin is very noisy on highway.
• Very slow acceleration.
• Engine becomes very noisy on hard accelerations. 
• No brake hold. 
• The backup camera produces too much noise at night.
• Low headroom for passengers in the rear.
  

 My verdict: It is an affordable and practical car for a single person or couple.

Lenovo IP Flex 5 14IAU7 Chromebook review

The good,

• Affordable. I bought a refurbished one for ~300 USD.
• 16:10 ratio 1920x1200 screen is good for office work and web browsing.
  
• It has a USB-A port.
• It has a USB-C on each side. Both supports video output and charging.
  
• The camera has a privacy shutter.
• The screen's hinge can rotate 360 degrees.
  

The bad,

• It is 2cm thick and weighs 1.5kg.
  
• Screen is glossy.
• Screen brightness is 300 nits.
• 8GB RAM can be a problem if too many tabs are open.
• The USB-C ports does not support Thunderbolt/USB4.
• No dedicated HDMI/DisplayPort.
  

Specs

• Intel Core i3-1215U CPU
• 8 GB LPD4X-4266 RAM
• 256 GB SSD

My conclusion: It is an affordable entry level laptop.

ThinkPad X1 carbon gen 10 review

I bought a refurbished ThinkPad X1 carbon gen 10 on Lenovo outlet. The model number is 21CB000HUS. It is as configured below,

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-1240P
Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5 5200MHz (Soldered)
Storage: 512 GB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal
Display: 14" WUXGA (1920 x 1200), IPS, Anti-Glare, Touch, 100% sRGB, 400 nits, 60Hz

the good,

• The 16:10 display allows more content than 16:9 ones.
• The display has a matte finish and is bright enough outdoors.
• 12th gen Intel CPU runs much faster than the 8th gen in my X1 carbon gen 7.
• Speakers are loud and clear.
• Good Linux support (ArchWiki).
  

the bad,

• The keyboard travel is shorter than X1 carbon gen 7.
• The keyboard cannot be replaceable independently.
• Windows 11 is garbage. I tried it for an evening and then replace it with Linux.
• The only two USB-C ports are both on the left side. I wish to have a third USB-C port on the right side like the M3 Macbook pro.

秦晖讲西方福利制度（2016年）笔记

讲座视频：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAYFYhDjM0

国家有两个维度：权力和责任。有四种组合：

大权力大责任：现代福利国家属于这种情况

大权力小责任：例如秦国

小权力大责任：不可持续的福利国家。例如希腊。

小权力小责任：古典政府

国家福利的对立面是传统小政府，所谓的“自由放任”。我的引申：政府权力可以间接从税收占GDP比例得出。但是这个比例高的国家未必就是福利国家：）

福利国家政府提供福利是义务，是公民对政府的要求。公民获得了福利无需感恩政府。政府受公民的监督。政府没有提供服务要被追责。要民众感谢政府提供福利的不是福利国家。

再小的政府也要提供灾害救援。台湾和中国应对同一场台风的案例。台湾死了2人。但是官员因为睡午觉被追责。中国死了几十人，宣传部发指令要突出政府功绩。

福利国家的二次分配会降低基尼系数。秦晖将这种定义为“正福利”。现代西方国家福利有大有小，但是都是正福利。中国没有公布二次分配前后的基尼系数。

有些国家是“负福利”。二次分配反而提升不平等。比如中国古代王朝。中国现在官员可以免费享受高级医疗，有分配住房。城市户口可以享受比农村更好的医保。中国现在“负福利”在减少，但是还没进入“正福利”。

福利国家的政府有义务提供福利。公民有权利获得福利。这个关系不能搞反了。秦晖举例欧美流浪汉。政府不能把他们抓起来。但是他们可以自愿进入shelter。政府提供职业培训是义务。但是政府不能强制征召公民做“徭役”。

2023 Honda CR-V review

I rented a 2023 Honda CR-V EX AWD for three days.

The good,

• Driver's seat is fully powered with lumbar support.
• Heated front seats.
• Honda Sensing features are the same with upper trims.
• Spacious interior.
• Large side mirrors with blind spot indicators.
• Adaptive cruise control.
• Key-less entry and start.
• Remote start button on key fob.
  
• The brake hold function can persist across reboots.
  

The meh,

• No heated steering wheel.
  
• Passenger's seat is not powered.
• No wireless cellphone projection.
• All the above are available in higher trims.
  

The bad,

• Vehicle dynamics does not give me confidence when cornering.
• Infotainment UI is sluggish.
• Back up camera's image quality is below my expectation.
• The small moon roof is useless.
• The honeycomb strip around air vents are hard to clean.
  

 

Garmin Vivoactive 5 smart watch review

I had the watch for one month.

The good,

• bright and crispy touch screen
• not too heavy
  
• snappy UI response
  
• fast GPS fixing
• long battery life (up to 5 days if I do not use GPS)
  

The bad,

• The Garmin Connect app is worse than Apple watch app.
  
• The app cannot work offline. It needs Internet access for syncing even if the watch is connected over bluetooth.
• GPS drift happens at times.
• No wireless charging
   

Ricoh GRIII camera review

I borrow a Ricoh GRIII camera for a week. Here is my take.

The good,

• USB-C port
• Touch screen
• Boots up very quickly
• Sharp lens
• large APS-C sensor has decent dynamic range
  
• Dedicated knob for exposure compensation.
• supports geo tagging
• small form factor. fits in a pocket.
• The lens has a marco mode.
  

The bad,

• The UI is too "simplistic".
• Records video at a maximum resolution of 1080p.
• The screen is fixed. It cannot be tilted.
• No viewfinder.
• The 28mm lens is not wide enough for landscape.
• Auto focusing is slower than SONY RX100 mark 5a.
  

Verdict: GRIII is a very good fixed lens camera for still shoots.

Xiegu X6100 HF transceiver review

The X6100 is a HF and 50MHz transceiver. It is a budget alternative to IC-705 if you do not need VHF/UHF bands.

I tried FT8 on it for a few days.

Good

• Relatively low price
• Bright LCD screen
• The firmware is not locked down.
  
• Internal battery
• Built-in USB interface
• Built-in antenna tuner
• A large community, many hams have the transceiver.
• alternative R1CBU firmware.
  
• The manufacture is still adding new features like wfserver to the firmware.

Bad

• Changing receiver options is tedious due to the untouchable screen.
  
• hamlib's CAT control can be buggy at times.
• Built-in USB interface lacks isolation. Noise from computers would get into the receiver.
• Only 5W output on internal battery.
• It supports WiFi but I never succeeded in connecting to one.
• The CW decoder never worked for me.
• Some birdies exist.
  

Update in Nov 2023,

I sold the transceiver because I lost interest in QRP HF.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Nano Gen 2 Review

The good,

• sturdy build
  
• 16:10 matte screen
• weights less than 1kg
• good Linux support
  

The bad,

• The keyboard area gets warm when charging.
• Key travel is even shorter than X1 carbon.
• Keyboard is fused with the palm rest. It cannot be replaced easily.
  
• The internal SSD is from Union Memory, a little-known company in China.
  
• No USB-A or HDMI ports.
• The only two USB-C ports are on the left side.
• Everything except for SSD is soldered on the system board.
  

Conclusion: It is a good ultra lightweight laptop. But compromises were made for the weight. X1 carbon is a much better choice if you need more ports.

Block Internet access for IoT devices on Mikrotik RouterOS v7

I have some IoT stuff at home. They are connected to the 2.4GHz band access point on a MikroTik hAP AX3 router. I want to block them from the Internet while keeping them on the same bridge so that things like Airplay would still work.

One solution is to gather all the MAC addresses of the devices and then add firewall rules to reject packets from them destined to the WAN interface list. This is tedious because I need to keep adding MAC addresses for new devices.

Another solution is to create a dedicated WiFi access point for IoT devices, bridge the WiFi interface with LAN, and then configure the firewall to reject packets from this WiFi interface.

However, simply adding a firewall rule that rejects packets from the new WiFi internet does not work because it is L3 firewall only sees the bridge. We need to use the bridge level (L2) firewall as shown below.

/interface wifiwave2
add configuration.mode=ap .ssid="put_ssid_here" master-interface=wifi-ap-2g name=wifi-no-internet security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .encryption=ccmp security.passphrase="put_wifi_password_here"

/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge interface=wifi-no-internet

/interface bridge filter
add action=mark-packet chain=input in-interface=wifi-no-internet new-packet-mark=block-wan

/ip firewall filter

add action=reject chain=forward comment=\
    "reject wan access for packets marked block-wan" out-interface-list=WAN \
    packet-mark=block-wan reject-with=icmp-network-unreachable

/ipv6 firewall filter

add action=reject chain=forward comment=\
    "reject packets marked with block-wan" out-interface-list=WAN \
    packet-mark=block-wan reject-with=icmp-admin-prohibited

The config above still allows packets from WAN to reach the devices. But they won't be able to send any packets back.

Belkin RT3200 wireless router review

The Belkin RT3200 is a very cheap ($50 on Walmart) WiFi 6 router based on MediaTek's MT7915 + MT7622 solution. It is extremely similar to Linksys E8450. (Foxconn owns Linksys and Belkin.)

Hardware highlights (source):
 - CPU: MT7622BV (2x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1350 MHz)
 - RAM: 512MB DDR3
 - Flash: 128MB SPI-NAND
 - Ethernet: MT7531BE switch with 5 1000Base-T ports
 - WiFi 2.4 GHz: 802.11bgn 4T4R built-in antennas
                 MT7622VB built-in
 - WiFi   5 GHz: 802.11ac/ax 4T4R built-in antennas
                 MT7915AN chip on-board via PCIe
                 MT7975AN front-end

The router's stock firmware was okay but sluggish. I followed this to install OpenWrt. Just be sure to 1) backup the factory bootrom; 2) use UBI images ending in itb.

Then I enabled beam forming and BSS coloring and ran iperf3. It achieved ~450 Mbps in both direction between my wireless laptop with Intel AX201 and a wired NAS. The laptop was about 8 meters away from the router.

I then switched the bandwidth from 80MHz to 160MHz. But iperf3 did not show improvements. So I reverted the change.

I also connected EA7500 to RT3200. They negotiated a PHY rate of 1733 Mbps. But the iperf3 test was only ~480 Mbps.

I did not enable WED or HW offloading as I configured the router to be an access point.

Conclusion

If you have a decent 802.11ac wave 2 router, replacing it with RT3200 will not increase the throughput much. But it is a good cheap router if you do not have one yet.

MikroTik hAP ax3 WiFi router review

Update in Dec 2023: The router experienced IPv6 connectivity issues. Rebooting would fix for a few hours. I did not find useful logs. I had to backup, reset, restore.

Update in Nov 2023: Mikrotik added station-bridge mode support in v7.12 wifiwave2 package. And the 11ax compatibility issue seems gone.

Update: I do not recommend hAP ax3 until MikroTik fixes the 11ax compatibility issue.

I bought MikroTik hAP ax³ router last week. Here is my review.

the good

• It has a 2.5GbE port.
• It supports WiFi 6 on both bands. Many cheap wireless routers only support WiFi 4 (802.11n) on 2.4GHz.
  
• It has detachable antennas.
  
• It runs the "RouterOS", which supports OSPF, WireGuard, IPSec, etc.

the so-so

• It only supports 2T2R MIMO and 80MHz bandwidth on the 5GHz band.
  
• I ran iperf3 between an iPad Air 5 and a wired NAS via the hAP ax3 and an old Linksys EA7500. I did not notice any increase in throughput on the ax3.
  
• The RouterOS quick setup did not config IPv6. I had to do IPv6 manually.
• The 2.5GbE port defaults to WAN. I changed it to LAN so that the NAS could use it.

the bad

• I encountered several bugs in the RouterOS.
• One of them is this.
• My Linux devices (two laptops and one router) have problem connecting to the 5GHz band AP if it is in 11ax mode. The error is "Unhandled alg: 0xc0400707". I have to set the AP to 11ac mode.
  
• The MikroTik forum does not show attached files (including screenshots) to guests.
• The new wifiwav2 package does not support four address mode or 802.11s. So you cannot deploy a WiFi mesh without tunneling. 
• The wifi interface's MTU cannot be changed.
  

conclusion

hAP ax3 is okay for people who want the RouterOS + 2.5GbE + WiFi 6. You may also consider the $40 cheaper hAP ax2 if you do not need 2.5GbE or external antennas.

 

Eve Energy "Smart" Plug (North American) Review

Update: Eve was acquired by ABB in June 2023.  I am uncertain if eve will keep its privacy commitment.

I bought a Eve Energy "Smart" Plug (model #10027863) recently for $40. I bought it to schedule an oil filled radiator to reduce my electricity bill.

Here is my review, going from positive sides to negatives.

The manufacture claims that the plug does need any registration and does not send any usage data to the "cloud". This was why I chose it over cheaper alternatives like TP-Link Kasa.

The device was made in Taiwan with decent quality components. The FCC internal photos show that it contains an Nordic Semi SoC and a PL7211 energy metering IC.

The plug supports Bluetooth and Thread. The manufacture claimed it would support Matter soon. However, the latency on Bluetooth is human noticeable.

A Thread "border router", e.g. Apple HomePod, is required for remote control due to the lack of WiFi.

The plug works with Apple HomeKit exclusively. It requires an iOS device and the home app. However, not all features are available on the iOS home app.

The plug has a energy metering feature. However, the Eve iOS app is required to view the current power and history. In addition, the manufacture did not specify the accuracy of the metering. So the metering feature has little value to me.

The plug also has an independent scheduling feature. This is why I bought it. Initially, I confused it with the HomeKit automation feature. The latter requires a "home hub". Eventually I found the scheduling UI deep in the Eve iOS app.

The plug has an internal clock but no battery backup. So the schedule stops working silently after a power loss (even a few seconds). The fix is to open the Eve app nearby and let the plug sync the time from the phone. This is very annoying. The manufacture could have put a capacitor inside to keep the clock running for a few hours after a power loss.

It does not have a timer feature. For example, I cannot set it to turn off in 2 hours. Maybe the feature was intentionally left out to avoid more confusion?

The manual control button (integrated with the indicator) is too small for everyday use.

Probably due to the metering circuit, the plug generates some amount of heat. When supplying an 1 kW oil radiator, the plug feels warm (at around 40 degC) in a room at 20 degC.

The plug will eagerly trip whenever it senses a tiny overload. This is good for safety. But I doubt if the energy metering IC is calibrated.

Thoughts on EU USB-C mandates

EU and some other countries will mandate USB-C on cellphones, tablets, and even laptops in a couple of years. I am ambivalent towards such mandates.

Firstly, USB-C is a physical connector specification. It does not guarantee charging interoperability. I encountered several devices with USB-C connectors but only charge with USB-A power adapters. However, I expect that manufactures will learn to implement USB-C correctly eventually.

Secondly, the mandates seem to target Apple only because other phone manufactures have converged USB-C. Apple debuted the reversible lightning connector in 2012. Two years before USB-C came into being. However, Apple holds patents on the connector and tightly controls who may use it. Apple even embeds a small chip into the connector so that phones can refuse to work with unauthorized cables. As a result, lightning connector accessories are more expensive than USB-C counterparts. It seems that complaints to Apple's money grab caught attention from EU legislators and they passed a law to essentially "ban" the lightning connector. However, I don't think such a ban is necessary to force Apple to embrace USB-C. Apple already use USB-C on iPads, probably due to lightning's speed and current limitations. I expect Apple to encounter the same problems on iPhones and thus switch to USB-C voluntarily. In addition, Apple's main patent on lightning will expire in 2032.

Thirdly, I don't think governments should regulate low voltage charging ports. However, governments are justified to mandate certain mains sockets and fuel pumps because they could cause safety issues.

The biggest concern I have on USB-C mandates is the suppression on innovations. Mandating USB-C would disincentive innovators to work on better technologies. The EU lawmakers seem to be aware of this problem. Since the mandate 1)  applies to devices with physical charging ports only and 2) allows manufactures to include other ports in addition to USB-C.