Dropbox alternative is working fine for me

Recently I got a new phone and found out and tried to install Dropbox on it. New limitation imposed is that I have unlink other devices so that I have max of only 3 devices on the account or pay $10 per month for whopping 1TB of cloud storage and have more devices on the account.

Most working people these days have one office computer, a personal computer, a personal phone or phone provided by the office (sometimes 2 phones) and some have a tablet.

I already have a Google One shared account with my wife sharing 200GB and we really use 100GB with head room. Dropbox would cost us $240 per year if we switched to the Dropbox plus 1TB plan.

I found 2 alternatives. Phones and Tablet (Android and IOS) can connect to Google Drive App anyway. Google Sync works on PC and Mac and you have replacement for Dropbox. If you use Linux such as easy to use ubuntu with much less concern about virus (I had zero virus attack issued with Ubuntu since 2006) and more stable than Mac, Google Sync is not available on Ubuntu or any linux. However, there is a one time paid product called inSync for $29 which can be installed on multiple machines using the same google account to sync. It makes your Google storage work like Dropbox.

There is an alternative to Dropbox if you need no more than 10GB. It is called pCloud from a small Swiss company and it has App for Android, IOS and works on Windows, Mac and Linux. I tried that it works fine.

I will provide some links here to help you migrate from Dropbox. Be aware that these links may change.

Google Free storage: 15GB https://www.google.com/drive/using-drive/
Google One storage: $20 per yr individual 100GB or $30 per yr shared 200GB https://one.google.com/

Google Backup and Sync: https://www.google.com/drive/download/backup-and-sync/

insync for Linux to sync to Google storage: https://www.insynchq.com/pricing

pCloud: https://www.pcloud.com/

A spreadsheet I created to optimize the charge of electrical car.

Spreadsheet to calculate lifetime miles before battery degrades to 70% of capacity.

I simply used the data I saw at a published link. Based on this, for most users 80% to 20% is probably the sweet spot compared to 100% to 20 or 30% most users may now be doing.

I would like comments on your own experience with your car to help others.

Is Tesla Model 3 actually cheaper than a Toyota Camry?

I am responding to this article. I do not agree with the author.
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/10/28/toyota-camry-honda-accord-buyers-dont-assume-tesla-model-3-is-beyond-your-budget/

I have owned Toyota camry for 14 years and Lexus for 20 years, Toyota Sienna for 11yrs.

I only financed the first car which was camry and paid off the loan in 2yrs. I kept it for 14yrs and sold it for $1000. My cost per yr in 1984 dollars was $1000. I always did oil change ever 7.5k miles and rotated tires and did the recommended 30k mile service. Really had no repairs because it was a reliable car. My average maintenance cost per yr including oil changes was about $500 over 14yrs.

I paid cash for a Lexus LS and disposed it for $10 after an accident. After 14yrs of that car my cosr per yr in 1998 dollars was $3200.  Avg maintenance cost over time was about $600 because I had a reasonable and reliable mechanic. Did not got to dealer after warranty.

I paid cash for another Lexus LS 2006 model Lexus certified 40k miles for $30000. It will last 250 to 300K miles.  It now has only 75k miles.

I know someone with Tesla Model S who paid $70k after rebate. It is no more luxurious than Lexus LS. I saved $40k and even if I drove 100k miles at 18mpg and $4 per gallon it would have cost me $22k. Even with zero fuel cost of Tesla LS that is $8k less. Used Tesla with 40k miles was about $45k when I bought Lexus. That would have be $7k cheaper? Not really. I would now have to replace the battery and it costs way more than $7k. Want to talk about the hassle of charging and range anxiety? Can an electric car be my only car?

My opinion is that plugin hybrid makes more sense.

Thoughts on generation gap

Let us look at household where 3 generations live under one roof.

Gen 1 Age 60+ retired
Gen 2 Age 35+ working
Gen 3 Age 10+ in school

G1 developed a life style when they were G2 and want to maintain it even though it may be a different time and place.

G2 has a newer lifestyle than G1 and financial responsibility for themselves as well as G1 and G3. They feel sandwiched between G1 and G3.

G1 is very much in what is current because that is all they know. Very hard for them to understand G2. Forget G3. G1 depended a lot on G3 when they were too young to go to school. After going to school they have to learn to be independent.

So how do we close this generation gap?

Here is a thought. As we get older we know that physical and mental capabilities tend to slow down and so we have to learn to adapt. Also in day to day living we see changes in kitchen appliances, transportation, media, technology and accept the change. In fact we often see people refusing to change struggle and work harder while those who accept change know how to make life easier for themselves.

So here is a thought. It is much easier if G2 connects with G1 when they finish education and start working. The moment G3 decides to live with G2 they very quickly connect with G2 or live in a retirement community with like minded G3s. When G1 get married and have children G0 then G1 will surely understand how their parents raised them from babies and start to connect with G2.

Tennis scoring is so unfair compared to other sports. Player can win most points or most games and still lose.

In most other sports, it is limited time and who ever scores the most wins. It is test of skill.

Examples of unfair match in Tennis.
6-1 6-7 6-7. Player A who wins 18 games vs 15 loses.

Even within a set.
Game 1. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0
   Score 1-0
Game 2. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 7 points vs 5
   Score 1-1
Game 3. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0 Net 11 points vs 5
   Score 2-1
Game 4. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 14 points vs 10
   Score 2-2
Game 5. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0  Net 18 points vs 10
   Score 3-2
Game 6. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 21 points vs 15
   Score 3-3
Game 7. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0 Net 25 points vs 15
   Score 4-3
Game 8. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 28 points vs 20
   Score 4-4
Game 9. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0  Net 32 points vs 20
   Score 5-4
Game 10. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 35 points vs 25
   Score 5-5
Game 11. 40-0 plus 1 by Player A. Player A wins Total 4 points vs 0 Net 38 points vs 30
   Score 6-5
Game 12. 40-40 Plus 2 by Player B. Player B wins. Total 3 points vs 5 Net 41 points vs 35
   Score 6-6
Game 12. Tie breaker 7-5 Player B wins. Total 5 points vs 7 Net 46 points vs 42
   Score 6-7

Player who won 46 points vs 42 loses.

Why is this?

Before and After Comcast TV and Internet.

I had Comcast Cable TV with Tivo and Internet for 10yrs or so. In May 2018 I checked my Comcast account and found out that the previous contract was expiring on Jun 22. So, I called Comcast and asked what I can get. I was told that without contract I would pay $185 which is $60 more for 150Mbps down, 6 Mbps up internet and cable TV with 3 cable cards for my Tivo. I was asked to call 1 week before contract expires to see what I can get and of course they want to add land line or mobile phone or home security bundle and 2yr contract and so on.

I decided to look for alternatives and tried Youtube TV for 1 week. It had pretty much all the channels we were watching and couple of channels like Comedy central and PBS available for streaming. What I found out was 3hrs of streaming Youtube TV per day uses about 16GB. If there are 2 users, the 1TB limit of Comcast would be reached.  I canceled Cable TV and subscribed to Youtube  TV for $40 per month unlimited DVR 3 simultaneous streams with 6 users on the account. No garbage taxes like Franchise fee, Broadcast fee, sports fee etc adding up to $17 by Comcast.

I asked Comcast what they would charge for 100MBps down 5 Mbps up no data limit and the answer was $90 1st yr, $105 2nd yr with 2yrs contract and then $125. I signed with ATT Fiber internet 1000MBps down 1000MBps up no data limit $80 1 yr contract $90 after that and no taxes. I even got

I completely canceled Comcast. No looking back. I am not signing any more contracts. It is about time Comcast and ATT realize that all they are are internet service providers and if they want to provide TV, it has to compete with Youtube TV or others like Sling TV no contract, cloud DVR.

How I connected ATT Fiber Router BGW210-700 to Google Wifi

You could do the same with any router I suppose.

The technician only knows how to hook up the equipment. He called a specialist and I myself had to work with that specialist to figure it how to do it.

If you do nothing, what ATT will do is give you their wireless router with 4 network ports. It is fine if you have a small house or just use wired ports in far away rooms.

When you get internet to your home, the ISP gives the modem what is called WAN IP address which is seen by the world outside your home. You want your router to get the WAN IP address in case you have cameras in your house for security you want visible when you are not home. Also, you want a better router which provides local IP addresses to your devices and it knows the WAN IP address to send or receive requests from outside.

To do that, there are some steps involved.

Login to the ATT router by connecting your computer directly to one of the 4 local ports on it and open your browser and type 192.168.1.254.

1. Firewall/IP Passthrough
2. Allocation Mode: Passthrough
3. Passthrough Mode: DHCPS Fixed
4. Choose from list: MAC address of the Google Wifi Router
5. Go to Home Network and Disable DHCP
Now save settings before you disconnect the wire to the router.

Power off the router BGW-210-700

Disconnect LAN port of Google Wifi router
Power up BGW-210-700 Router
Power up the Google Wifi router and using the app on IOS or Android
change LAN IP Address on Google Wifi  router to 192.168.1.1

All works. Only thing is if you have to change the setting of BGW-210-700
you have to factory reset it.

You can factory reset your Arris BGW210-700 in the following way(s)
1. When the router is on, press the button reset and hold for 30 seconds.
2. While holding down the button reset, turn off the power of the router and hold down the button reset for 30 seconds
3. While holding down the button reset, turn on the power to the unit again and hold for another 30 seconds

If you any other local router, follow instruction on how to change local IP address on your router to what your local cameras and printers are looking for. Mine is 192.168.1.x. So, unless I disable the DHCP server in ATT router, it will conflict with my router because it also uses 192.168.1.x. In any case you want DHCP sever to run only on your router and put the ATT router in Passthrough mode with its DHCP server disabled.

Yes. I know all this is complicated. Hope you know what you are doing or hire an expert....

How much bandwidth and data do you need to watch TV over internet?

Youtube TV in 1 week consumed about 4GB per hr for 1080p based on watching MSNBC, CNN, Tennis Channel and CNBC mostly. So, the 1TB limit on typical Internet packages give you about 250hrs a month or about 8hrs a day. Also, the peak bandwidth was about 8 to 10MBps. So, you need at least 20MBps down to watch reliably if you are the only person on your internet and you also have computer and cell phone using internet at the same time.

If you are single and working 8hrs a day on the average, 1TB is probably enough. If you have a roommate sharing internet and viewing internet video, you may run over 1TB limit. Also you need min 50MBps down to support 2 users. You will end up having to pay $30 extra to make the data unlimited currently on both Comcast and ATT.

On top of this you pay for TV over internet which can vary from as little as $20 to as much as $65 if you choose premium options such as Sling TV orange + Blue + packages + DVR.

If you have more than 3 users streaming Video you may still be OK as long as only 3 streams plus other no other video use on internet with 50Mbps down.

Hope this helps you decide what works for you.

Are you tired of phone scams and fraud? You can filter out all such calls (mostly)

Most of the unsolicited calls these days have a caller ID very close to your number or a 5 or 6 digit caller ID. Either you do not answer or set your phone to ring only when callers on your contact list call. That takes care of 99% of the junk calls. Needless to say that you should not give out any numbers on the phone unless you initiated the call to your bank, brokerage or IRS using the number posted on their website. You can verify who they are if they ask you questions to identify yourself and you too can ask them questions such as what was the exact amount of a transaction you made on a particular day that you know.

Scammers and Telemarketers can put out any caller ID and it is surely possible that they can put out the caller ID of someone in your list. That is a different issue and if that happens, ask your friends to send you a text message which identifies them with something only you told them and you call them back. Luckily, I did not yet have to resort to that but that is what we need to do these days.

Other thing to be aware of:

When on vacation be aware that your posts or photos or reviews if seen by public can clearly let the public know that you are not home. Not a good idea to post ANYTHING to public when out of town. Good to inform 2 or 3 neighbors and your major credit card companies of your travel plans to help prevent fraud. Better to avoid using credit card abroad. Debit card is safer. Better to use Debit cards with low or zero foreign transaction and ATM and take cash on a need basis at a very public ATM during the day.

What is the best bang for the buck 4k TV for the best picture in Nov Dec 2017 in the US?

Short summary:

Vizio E series 75" for those want biggest picture TV 4K $1500
Vizio M Series 70" for those who want a bigger TV than 65 but better contrast than E series 4K $1300
Vizio P series 65" for those who want higher contrast 4K $1400
LG OLED 55" for those who want best picture 4K $1650

Detailed opinion.

I am only talking picture quality here. If you care about audio, consider a sound bar for bedroom and a AV receiver with sub woofer, center, left and right
for better audio and add 2 more rear speakers to receive the 5.1 audio available on many TV and DVDs, Bluray as well. 7.1 audio is for audiophiles and there is very little 7.1 content available. And yes, there is 9.1 too.

If you are looking for a budget TV under 500, see my other blog.

If you want to spend under $2000 and like to watch your own or YouTube 4k video and photos in highest resolution and best picture quality, you surely want good color spectrum and high contrast.

First of all what is the difference between LCD, LED and OLED TV?

LCD and LED are both back light Liquid crystal displays which require back lighting to brighten the picture where there is brightness and no back lighting where there is darkness. LCD was backlit with compact fluoroscent (CF)  light. LED was backlit with LEDs. Now there is hardly any CFL backlit just CFL bulbs are gone and LED bulbs replaced them.

The very first generation LCD TV had a single backlight and later they started adding multiple zones to better control the contrast.

The E series mentioned here has 14 Active LED Zones.

The M series mentioned here has  32 Zones.

The P series mentioned here has 128 zones and true 120Hz refresh rate for less motion blur.

The OLED has no backlight requirement. Each pixel is either lit or not light.
Effectively 8.3 Million "zones".

So, the contrast is the best. Note that the picture may not be as bright though but this will change as technology improves just as the LED bulbs got brighter with improvement in technology.

There is another aspect to picture quality which scales 480p, 720p, 1080p to to 4K. If money is no object Sony is known to have the best video scaling and video image processing engines. Go do some home work!

What is the best bang for the buck budget TV in Nov Dec 2017 in the US?

Short summary:

43" 4K LED TV for $300 to 350 at Walmart or Bestbuy.

Detailed opinion:

43" TV can be seen from as close at 6 feet without seeing any graininess.
So it is good for just about any use other than as a computer monitor.

At Costco, 48 of the 56 models are 4k or 2160p. 7 are 1080p. 1 720p.

The cheapest and acceptable 43" 1080p TV is TCL for about 20 bucks less
at Costco.

4K (2160p)  has 4 times the
resolution of 3840 pixels × 2160 lines (8.3 megapixels, aspect ratio 16:9)

1080p  1920 x 1080 2 megapixels.

 Most photos we shoot with even a cheap smart phone are 8Mega pixel. So, they
look much better on 4K screen.

If you are planning a vacation, look at youtube videos in 4K.

So, splurge the extra 20 bucks!

Open letter to US Wired and Sat TV providers. Innovate or perish.

You lost the Millennials already.  Gen X and the younger baby boomers like myself are next in line.

Dish network had no internet service. DirecTV was bought by ATT. Verizion FIOS is too small and too costly to expand. Dish network fired the fist salvo with Sling TV and ATT and now Youtube got it to complement Hulu and Netflix. Do not fight them. Join them. Perhaps you need to partner with cellular data service providers.

I have cable and internet and I pay $110 on the average for a 2yr contract. If my contract were to expire today, I would just get internet service even if it means I pay $65 instead of $45 and pay $50 to get Sling TV so called Orange plus Blue plus 4 extras and even a cloud DVR which is coming.

Embrace the new wave and dump your set top boxes completely. Use your ISP backbone using open standards to prioritize video. You know that all it takes is 2Mbps with the high efficiency codec to deliver 1080p and so 8MBps x 3 will support 3 4k TVs per house which is just 25% of my downstream bandwidth. Lot of room to expand into IOT, home security video etc. Your costs will come down because many users who are savvy enough to install their router can do it by themselves and you can contract out with the likes of GeekSquad at Bestbuy for the others. You will not need as many truck rolls. All the hardware other than wire to home is at your end. You can go after any customer in the world connected to Internet including mobile who wants your programming.

Collect social security at 62 and invest vs wait till 67?

I did a simple calculation. Collect at age 62 and invest all of it. What is collected in year 1 is invested for 5yrs, year 2 collection is invested for 4yrs and so on and accumulates till age 67.

Compare it collecting 34% higher amount at age 67.

What I found is all you need is 2.75% return on money you collect at age 62 to match 34% more collected at age 67 and investing at the same return of 2.75%.

You may not get guaranteed return for 1yr investment unless it is 10yr treasury but if you have down payment money to buy real estate, current interest rate on mortgage is 4.75%. Even after tax deduction of 33% 3.2% is better than 2.75%.

What do you think?

I suggest we rename Internet of Things IoT to MoT.

I have always said that it is not about internet when it comes to things we use every single day.

Can you think of one thing every person in the world sees and probably uses every single day?

I think it is the light bulb.

I did a dumb search and found that 2.5Billion light bulbs are sold each year worldwide at average cost of 92 cents. In the US we have switched mostly to CFL bulbs and now switching to LED bulbs but 82% of the bulbs in the world are incandescent.

The retail price of a 60W equivalent LED bulb is when bought in a pack of dozen is less than $3. The retail price of the cheapest connected bulb is $10. The cost of making a bulb connected vs dumb is probably less than a dollar. That means in high volumes it is possible to bring down the retail price of connected bulb to less than $5. That is 5x that of incandescent. Now wonder that 82% of the bulbs sold are still incandescent.

There in lies the challenge and opportunity. With enough volumes LED bulbs could come to the price of incandescent. and for a bit more it could be smart connected bulb.

However, the title of this article suggests MoT instead of IoT. I believe it is all about Mesh of Things MoT. No need to flood the internet with more things connected which do not really need to connect most of the time. However the cell phone is seen all over the world where there is electricity available to charge it and hence a light bulb. A cell phone knows the time and it knows when it is sunset. It has alarm. Most smart phones have bluetooth and wifi. Bluetooth is lower energy and lower range than wifi and more secure because the range is less.

Bluetooth mesh networking is coming. So, connect the dots. Bluetooth mesh enabled led bulbs controlled by phones can lower the global emissions and energy costs. This is the challenge to inventors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and governments all over the world....

Build it and they will come.

Experience installing Pioneer 4200NEX in 2006 Lexus LS430 without Nav.

The original AV system had Radio, tape deck and CD in a double din plus CD changer under it. JBL amplifier was behind.

It was replaced with Pioneer 4200NEX Android Auto/Apple Car Play system, Pioneer's rear view camera with the ability to calibrate the back up camera guidance lines. Added HDMI, USB Android charging port in place of the center cigarette lighter and 3.5MM jack inside the storage compartment between the front seats, bluetooth mic behind the rear view mirror.

Tested it with Android and iPhone.

Paid $250 for labor and about $800 for parts.

This is significantly better than Lexus built Nav system and backup camera available in the 2006 LS430 because the backup camera adds guidance lines as in all the newer systems, bluetooth, HDMI, 3.5MM and DVD playback. Had bypass installed to be able to play video over HDMI when the car is moving because a passenger should be able to do that which is no different from a passenger being allowed to sit next to driver with a connected phone or tablet.

Pioneer will not force the driver to push a button to accept the legal message every single time unlike Lexus and Toyota.

Google maps work offline too and way more current than the maps on the Lexus Nav DVD as well as easier to use.

Here is what I noted. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lollipop was not compatible with Android Auto. LG G4 H811 Marsmallow, Nexus 6P Nougat 7.1.1 worked fine. Samsung Galaxy S7 Marsmallow worked fine.Interestingly Google Pixel XL Nougat 7.1.1 did not work. Important to check compatibility before the installation.

Car battery draining? Check your electronics add-ons.

I came back from vacation to find that the battery was totally dead. I used a 10A charger and it charged to 66% and then the display said "Bat Bad". Car started though and I revved the engine to about 5 min at 3500rpm. Stopped and re-started the car. Next morning it did not start.

I looked at youtube videos which suggested that I connect a meter to monitor current and remove one fuse at a time if the current drain is more than 50mA. That gave me an idea. I removed the OBD2 bluetooth reader. In 5 min the battery trickle charged to 68% from 66%. In 8 hrs, it went to 90% and after over night trickle charge, it is 100% charged.

So, I ordered OBD2 switch to disconnect power when I do not want to use the device. Moral of the story is to go easy on devices we connect in the car. Hope this helps someone prevent a dead battery.

Good to pay more for devices which are smart enough to auto power off or go to sleep mode when ignition is off. Solar trickle charger may help but not if the car is in the garage overnight.

Got bumped down Business to Premium Economy by British Airways but that is not all...

Hope there is a lesson in this which helps someone.

1. Even business class gets overbooked by British Airways and that too on long haul flights. They told me that I would get the refund but when I called BA, they told me that I should call the travel agent.

2. Ticket was bought through Orbitz but British Airways wants passenger to call Orbitz to get refund. After 30min on hold Orbitz confirmed the downgrade and says that British Airways will take 4 to 6 weeks to process the refund. Next time I will try other airlines. If they are so quick to downgrade, they should be quick to refund. No real excuse in the current day of electronic transfer of funds or credit back to credit cards. I guess I gave a free loan to British Airways for 4 to 6 weeks. The $250 compensation does not compensate for the sleepless 10hr flight at all. More equitable would have been a free upgrade next time I fly. What was interesting was British Airways did the right thing and promised to bank to bank transfer of the $250 compensation but will not speed up the refund.

My take away from this:

Look or Orbitz but do not buy on Orbitz. Deal directly with the airline. I was on the plane with my elderly mother who is disabled but got separated from her just because she got her ticket and then I got my ticket on the same flight. Even though I called British Airways and they told me that they linked our booking references, it was just a note and no one looked at it before deciding that I was a single traveler and OK to downgrade me. Moral here is if you travel with someone, book the flights together.

How I moved TD Ameritrade thinkorswim to new machine.

On the new machine, I opened thinkorswim (ubuntu linux but may be similar for other platforms).

in $HOME/thinkorswim directory

I saw a single file workspace.*.xml

On the old machine I saw 4 files. Copied all of them to the new machine.
Opened thinkorswim on the new machine and bingo. All done.

Hope this helps someone else because google search did not find me anything and if you call them, you really need to get lucky and talk to the right person.

Acer C720P 11.6" Chromebook 4GB RAM not so great.

Specs looked good. Dual core x86 CPU, 4GB RAM 16GB SSD.

I already had an account on Google Chrome on a Linux machine.  There was no recovery SD card. So, I thought of creating a recovery before I did anything. Google search and Youtube videos suggested chrome://imageburner

That did nothing at all. I struggled and found that there is an App that does it and it did. All this took 1hour.

Then I turned on the machine knowing that if something goes wrong, the machine can be restored because I did test the restore.

All good? No.

When I turned on the chrome book and opened the browser, It picked up all the Addons as if they work on all platforms including ChromeOS. That immediately caused chromecast not to work properly. I had to delete the cast app, re-start the machine, re-install the cast app and then it worked as expected. My wife wanted to be able to read Microsoft documents when offline. Found no way to do that except to install ubuntu linux using what is called crouton. 

The video said that you put the machine in developer mode and then it is easy. It was very tricky to put the machine in developer mode. I did it after google search and experimenting for an hour because I have the comfort of a recovery SD. I have used Ubuntu for 10yrs on X86 PCs. Installation took 30min and customization took 30min for a fresh install on X86 PC. Crouton took well over 2hrs to install and 3 hrs just to get firefox, libreoffice, java and silverlight to work. After all this, the machine was very slow. Either the internal memory is slow or 4GB RAM was just not enough. 11.6" screen was adequate compared to 13.3" I used for over 4yrs. The shine on the screen caused lot of glare. There was no DEL key! It is ctrl Backspace. It was very convoluted to start using ubuntu do begin with. So, packed up the machine and returned it and in the market for a Windows laptop to run ubuntu as in the past.

At least I tried...

Replaced $100 Automatic Car adopter + App with $20 bluetooth obd 2 reader and free App.

I used Automatic gen 1 adopter for 2yrs and gen 2 for 1yr. I liked the idea of looking at mileage and the status of check engine light and email or SMS when a trip is completed or if air bag is deployed. Usually the lower mileage is an indicator that something is not OK. Could be tire pressure, air filter, engine problem....

What I never liked about Automatic was that it is says is driving and gives no other info like engine coolant temp, battery voltage level, real time MPG which older cars before 2010 or so may not have.

What I did not like at all with Automatic was that it was taking to long to recognize that car was started and pair to the phone. The newer gen 2 unit has GPS. So, it can record the trip using that GPS. What I found is that we do not want to replace a unit like this too often. You connect to OBD 2 once and then it is software upates. All the intelligence is in the App. We replace the phones more often.

So, I bought bluetooth obd 2 reader for $20 and a free App called Dash and the result is fantastic.

For Iphone there are other solutions like Carista. Just have to look.

Only thing which is constant in technology is change. Accept change or become obsolete!