Articles by Chris Wedel

Amazfit’s T-Rex Pro roars in the face of adversity and the elements to keep on going.

When the T-Rex was released last year, it quickly became one of the best Amazfit Smartwatches available and made me really excited for an Amazfit T-Rex Pro. The smartwatch maker is known for its responsive software and long battery life, and with the T-Rex series, you get that at a lot more.

At first glance, it’s clear to see that the T-Rex Pro is made to handle a rough and tumble adventure. This isn’t a dainty watch that is designed for the boardroom. No, this smartwatch is certified MIL-STD-810G, boasting 15 levels of durability to go along with 10ATM water resistance. Combine all of that with a battery that’s advertised to last up to 18 days, a slew of sensors, and the ability to recognize over 100 different exercises, and it all looks great on paper.

As we all know, what is shown on paper and what happens in real day-to-day wear can be very different. So, in the last couple of weeks, I wore t…

In the past year, Chromebooks became super popular, and maybe you picked up our favorite family option — the ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 — or any of the other excellent student Chromebooks for your child — it’s still the family computer. So that your child can keep up with their school work, you’ll need to know how to add your child’s school account on a shared Chromebook and how to switch users on a Chromebook. Doing these things ensures that school assignments can be worked on seamlessly from the classroom to the home, and the family can still access their own accounts.

Here’s how to set up your child’s school account on a shared Chromebook

The process for adding a school account onto a shared Chromebook is a relatively easy one. Still, you do need to have set up a Google account through Family Link first and have downloaded Google Classroom from the Play Store. If you’ve gotten that done already, we can start adding the school account to the Chromebook.

Sign in to your chi…

Even free cell service can’t save the terrible app experience with this watch.

If you were to do an online search for kids smartwatches, you would find a lot of options. However, only the best kids smartwatches offer some form of connectivity and parental safety controls, and that’s why I was interested in doing an Omate O6L Pro review. This watch has one big selling point to it, and that’s it has three years of cellular service included with it via what Omate calls a virtual SIM, or vSIM.

Smartwatches aren’t cheap for kids or adults, and when you factor in the cost for a data plan, it gets even more expensive. So the prospect of a device for my child that allows us to stay in contact if needed, set up safe zones, and let him track activity, all without the additional cost of cell service, interested me a lot. However, there’s more to these kinds of devices than just connectivity and safety features. Everything has to mesh together into a good experience — which the Omate O6L Pro…

Do you remember when you were chatting with a friend, and they promised to buy you some tacos the next time you saw them, but you couldn’t find the message in your chat to remind them? Thankfully, since you use Telegram, one of the best Android messaging apps, we can show you how to pin messages in Telegram chats, so you’ll know where the message is. Pinning messages in a chat keeps that important, funny, or outrageous message at the top of the thread so you can always find it quickly — and maybe get tacos.

Keep messages accessible by pinning at the top of Telegram chats

Open the Telegram app on your phone.
Choose the chat with the message you want to pin.
Tap on the message you’d like to pin.
In the pop-up, to pin only for yourself, tap OK.
For the message to be pinned for you and the rest of the chat members, select the checkbox by the members and then tap OK.

Now, whenever you have a message you want to make sure you don’t lose in the thread, you know how to pin it at the…

Samsung has been making some of the best Android smartwatches for a while, and the 42mm Galaxy Watch is an excellent companion for your Android smartphone, so of course, you want to personalize it with the best Samsung Galaxy Watch replacement band. You can choose your watch face and swap the watch band out for any 20mm strap. There are a ton of great-looking options at very affordable prices. While this watch is getting up there in age and has been replaced with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, it’s still are a great watch. Here are the best replacement bands for the 42mm Samsung Galaxy Watch!

Comfortable canvas

Beafiry Canvas Quick Release

Staff Pick

A good canvas watchband is tough to beat. Beafiry makes a solid, durable band that complements your watch while being super comfortable.

$15 at Amazon

Linking up

Sinaike Brush Matte Metal Bracelet

A watchband with some heft to it can elevate the feelings that you have toward your watch. This band from Sinaike comes with tools to…

When on the road, keeping your phone powered is essential, and having one of the best car chargers for the Pixel 5 is step number one for being prepared for what may come on the journey. If you already have a good phone mount for your car, then you’ll want a properly wired charger. However, if going completely wire-free sounds good, then you’ll want to be sure you get one of the best wireless car chargers and mounts to keep your Pixel 5 charged and in view for directions. Just be sure to keep your eyes on the road as best you can for safety.

Quick and reliable

Anker 48W PowerDrive+ III Duo Car Charger

Staff Pick

With up to 48W of power available for your devices across its two USB-C ports and smart charging capability, this is one of the best car chargers for the Pixel 5. One port offers 18W PD, which is perfect for your Pixel 5, while the other port has up to 30W PD for larger devices that can better utilize that power.

$40 at Amazon $79 at Walmart

Smart power

RAVPo…

Best answer: No, the OnePlus Watch doesn’t run Wear OS. Instead, the watch is running a custom operating system based on RTOS.

If the OnePlus Watch isn’t using Wear OS, what does it use?

OnePlus has been making some of the best Android phones for a long time, so when the company announced it was making a smartwatch, it raised the question of if the OnePlus Watch used Wear OS. By doing so, there would be a good chance that in following what it has done for its smartphones, the OnePlus Watch could become one of the best Wear OS watches, too.

Well, for better or worse, the new smartwatch will not be running Google’s smartwatch operating system. OnePlus has decided to go with its own operating system to reduce some of the pain points found in other smartwatches. According to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau:

We chose to go with a smart wear operating system developed based on RTOS because we believe it provides you a smooth and reliable experience while offering a great battery life, covering…

Best answer: Yes. If you purchased the OnePlus 9 Pro or OnePlus 9 from T-Mobile directly, your phone comes with a certified IP68 rating. However, if you bought an unlocked OnePlus 9, it won’t have an official water-resistance badge even though it’s the same hardware as the carrier variant.

Can the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro handle getting wet?

Since its first phone, OnePlus devices have always had a bit of mystery surrounding water resistance. So, it makes sense that we ask if the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro waterproof? If you don’t recall, nearly every major phone released by OnePlus has always had the same asterisk attached to it. That being, the phones are tested and manufactured to be water-resistant, but they weren’t officially certified. This changed with the OnePlus 8 and continued with the OnePlus 9 series, well sort of — again a mystery.

Like the OnePlus 8 series, the OnePlus 9 Pro is fully certified IP68 regardless of where you buy it from. However, if you go for the less expensive O…

For those with limited broadband options, this is an excellent internet source with a lot of if’s.

After spending over a decade living in rural Kansas with little to no decent internet, I was ecstatic to try and, after four months, give a T-Mobile Home Internet review. As I discussed in my look towards 5G in 2021 to help rural internet, one of the most considerable sacrifices that people who want to live the country life face is a complete lack of legitimate broadband access.

It’s been a couple of years since T-Mobile announced its Home Internet service, and when the slow rollout made it to me, I jumped on it. The mobile carrier has been my cell provider for about seven years and has been pretty good. Admittedly, where my home is, no carrier is great — no matter what the coverage maps say.

Did I believe that T-Mobile’s Home Internet offering could be the fast and reliable internet savior I was looking for — no. However, the carrier’s been making speedy upgrades to the towers i…

Gestures on Android phones are widely used and have been around for quite a while. You can find them on everything from expensive options like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra to the best cheap Android phones, but gestures may be lesser-known and used on smartwatches. Because of this, you may not know how to use gestures on Wear OS smartwatches. Using them on a watch is a bit different than the gestures you’re familiar with on a phone, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be useful. Let’s get you set up to navigate your Wear OS watch with more than just a touch.

How to use gestures on Wear OS to wake the display

One of the most basic and possibly most useful gestures is tilt-to-wake. This feature will turn on your display entirely when you lift your watch or tilt it to view the screen.

Go to your watch Settings by swiping down from the top and pressing the gear icon or pressing the side button to find settings in your app drawer.
Tap on Gestures in the settings menu.
Turn on Tilt-to-wake…