Travel sites, Opera VPN

The Baja season is slowing now and now it’s time to start planning our vacation trips. Here are some web sites/Apps to help. Uber/Lyft is an alternative to calling an expensive cab. No money is exchanged except via the app (tips are included). Waze is my favorite app for navigation. Waze will give you realtime traffic and speed info. Don’t forget to turn off the app when you are at your destination. Google Maps can give you everything from bike maps to directions to Chapitos in LB! With Google Translate you can speak to your phone in English and it will translate into Spanish or any other language orally as well as written text. Google Translate will also translate everything from street signs to Chinese text using the cell phone app and your built-in camera. Rome2rio is both an app and web site that will get you from practically anywhere to a destination via all available transportation. It just told me how to get from the Paris Airport to an obscure destination in the south of France for our barge trip in the fall. Airhelp is an app that will help you determine if you are due compensation for airline delays enroute. Finally, the “Exchange Rate” app gives the most current currency valuations up to the minute. Don’t forget your best money exchange rate is at the ATM. Remember stand-alone ATM’s at convenience stores can be hacked. Use the Banks ATM. Thanks to my wife for translating this from Geek to English.

This just in: The Opera Browser now offers a free built-in VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN can change where the internet thinks you are located. This comes in handy for a lot of web sites that block international access. I have not yet tried it, so be careful out there. Sorry my wife was unavailable for translations. Link: http://www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/04/free-vpn-integrated-opera-for-windows-mac/

Virtual Private Network – VPN

What’s a VPN? Excellent question and I’m glad you asked. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. To back up for just a moment, every site you visit knows where you are by your IP address. So, when you sign-in to Netflix for instance, they know you are in Mexico. You will still get a great selection of media but from the Latin American Server. There is some content there that is not available in the US and some that is excluded since you are outside the US. The VPN solves this issue by re-locating your computer to a site in the US thereby making the Netflix server think you are in the US. That opens the door to a wider variety of media from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Pandora, etc. The cost is around $6 per month more or less depending on the provider. An additional benefit to the VPN is security. If you are on a public network, there are programs that will allow people to watch the data going in and out of your computer. Not to worry, as long as the web address contains the prefix https, you are secure. Banks, financial institutions and most large email providers use https. The downside, it will slow your internet speed since it must go through additional servers. I use a free “relocator” from hola.org. It works with Chrome and Firefox browsers as an add-on feature. Best part, it’s free! Works really well with a variety of media providers.

Here are some VPNs to look at: https://www.proxpn.com/index.php#pricing, https://www.witopia.net/products/, or https://www.hidemyass.com/

Henscopi media player, Google’s Cell Phones

I recently purchased and installed a new TV box from Henscoqi – K1 PLUS Amlogic S905, available from Amazon for $46. Once installed via an HDMI cable to the TV, it acts similar to other TV boxes with some major exceptions. Content including TV, movies and sports is available free of charge and the content is fairly recent again with no charge. Music is availabe as well. It has USB ports that allow you to show your own content with installed players. The only draw back is the remote. The remote can be used in a “Tab” mode or if you read the brief manual, there is a pointer mode. Oddly it uses a cell phone based android operating system. Relatively easy to use. The SAF (Spousal Acceptance Factor) would give it a 75% because of the remote. There is a small keyboard and touchpad available that may raise the SAF. The unit does require an internet connection for streaming content but not for content that you have.

We have had our new Google Project FI phones for most of the season. Our combined bills for the two phones are well under the $80 ATT plan. The call quality is excellent. Google uses WiFi for voice, data and text when available. Calls over WiFi are the best I’ve heard. Roaming is 20 cents per minute. We use our phones 95% of the time at home. Roaming data is $10 per Gig and you pay only for what you use. Our bills are usually under $60 for the two phones in Mexico. In the US we have unlimited calls, text and the same data charge. Again, the phones use WiFi or the strongest of Tmobile or Sprint. Again, the max charges will be under $60 for two phones.

Note: Since I have had my phone, I have not received one junk call. My voice mail greeting says: “You have reached the FBI surveillance center. Please leave your name and number which we already have and an agent will return your call.” No wonder!