Weekly Sponsorship Suggestion Thread - Feb 22, 2022

[JonoT]

Hey everyone! It's the weekly sponsorship suggestion thread.

 

If you have seen any companies that you think we should work with, don't hesitate to suggest it in the thread! These can be companies you may have seen sponsor other creators, digital ads, or just products you are interested in buying. 

 

It doesn't have to be in the technology space too!

[wall03]

Just got a Spigen case for my S21 and so far, it has survived many drops. It also has a kickstand which is useful. It's also only $20 and is a very good value case.

 

Edit: Also, ProtonVPN has been useful until I realized I could not afford a VPN.

 

Edit 2: Boxed is an awesome Amazon competitor. Low prices, no Bezos.

[GhostRoadieBL]

Love iFixit, everything they do for the industry and hobby electronic nerds like myself has been great

SmartDeploy has been really solid, super convenient for driver installs and free was a wtf moment for me

 

Suggestions;

Limbic Media - basically light show installations and huge supporters of the arts in Canada

 

Open Ocean Robotics - the everything ocean tech company. They make automated and remote control ocean faring boats for research and specialized tasks

 

Shadow cloud gaming pc - one of the only ways to get a decent gpu. Would be interesting to see a price vs gaming fps comparison, how long could you play with a cheaper system until the service costs more than a new pc?

 

[seboutloud]

*Repost from OG Sponsorship thread since this seemed more a more appropriate place. Won't post it again though.*

 

So I don’t know if this has been discussed already, sorry if it has, but my experience with Corsair has been absolutely abysmal. So much so that I went from being a semi tech literate guy looking to build his first PC a few years agi, decided I wanted some cohesive RGB in my build, so after a lot of research thought Corsair was a good one to go with. I went with a bunch of their stuff, Fans, AIO, Mouse, keyboard, Ram and at first loved it. But man does ICUE ruin the experience to no freaking end.
 

Physical quality of products I cannot fault apart from my LLRGB fans all having some dead LED’s so none of them can do a full solid colour any more… but more so than that the experience with iCue has by far been the most infuriating thing about my PC experience. Not only is it a resource hog for background tasks but having it be the controller for mouse or keyboard settings is just a no go because as soon as the software conks out or crashes, which it will, you lose all bindings or sensitivity settings. Because of this I’ve just given up on my G macro keys being a thing on my keyboard. I’ve replaced my Corsair mouse with a steel series one so the sensitivity wouldn’t keep randomly changing all the time. I’ve taken my Aio and fans off of software control from iCue and instead control then from all direct from my mobo because I found that when iCue wasn’t working properly my temperatures suffered. My Ram I don’t have a workaround for but that thankfully doesn’t seem to suffer performance wise. 
And all my RGB is just set to off because it doesn’t stay consistent otherwise. Random components will just crash and go to rainbow vomit. 
 

Anyway I’m not sure whether this is a totally unique thing to me. I promise I’m not an idiot and have spent plenty of hours trolling forums trying to find fixes but to no avail. I’m just giving up on Corsair and moving to a completely blacked out stripped down build next time around. 
 

Would be good if this was a common issue in the community though for you guys to put some fire under their butts to sort out their buggy software. Which is absolutely a sentiment that I know is shared in the community. Whether my problems are unique or not. 

[AbydosOne]

16 hours ago, seboutloud said:

Anyway I’m not sure whether this is a totally unique thing to me. I promise I’m not an idiot and have spent plenty of hours trolling forums trying to find fixes but to no avail. I’m just giving up on Corsair and moving to a completely blacked out stripped down build next time around. 
 

Would be good if this was a common issue in the community though for you guys to put some fire under their butts to sort out their buggy software. Which is absolutely a sentiment that I know is shared in the community. Whether my problems are unique or not. 

When Corsair updated iCue to v4 (or whatever the newest is), they dropped support for a bunch of popular (not that old, like ~3 years at the time) AIOs (including my H80i V2) for seemingly no reason. Furthermore, pretty much any version before it would periodically lock up and stop updating fan speeds until I reset the service, so it's not like going back was much of an option.

 

There were entire threads on their support page, but they never went beyond saying they were working on it before they release v4 and never looked back (as far as I know).

 

Their previous software (Link) worked okay, but doesn't recognize CPU temps from processors newer than the software release date (it worked with my old 1600X, not with my 3800XT), so now I'm stuck controlling my AIO fans via motherboard headers.

 

Going forward, I don't think I'd buy a Corsair device that requires iCue because it's a) buggy and/or  b) liable to drop support when your product is "too old".

 

nvm they added back support... guess I'm gonna have to go try it: https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/168741-icue-4-unsupported-products/

 

My point still kinda stands that they still might drop support for old products at some point, but at least the did a small right thing here.

[Thibaultmol]

While I don't think they financially can justify it atm. I do want to mention SimpleLogin. It's an email relay service, fully open source, but offers a reasonably priced hosted option.

So for example I have linustechtips.[6-8 random letters/numbers]@thibaultmol.link

If I decide to never want to have anything to do with ltt ever again, OR somehow the forum gets hacked and emails get leaked;

I can just disable or remove that alias and create a new one. My actual email is never exposed.

I receive that email then as coming from Simplelogin: (I'm still in the process of moving all my accounts online over to simplelogin aliases, except for my really important sites)

 

from:    Linus Tech Tips - do.not.reply at linustechtips.com <wxzfuhaaydz[more random charachters]@simplelogin.co>
to:    linustechtips.[random chars]@thibaultmol.link

 

And replying to that would appear like coming from the alias. (also means that you can use it to have a custom domain when using Gmail (not Gsuite))

 

They have browsers plugins and mobile apps to easily create them on the fly and the software is fully open source (but tbf, for the low price it is, i wouldn't bother hosting it myself).

 

I wanted to mention them, but i don't think they have a lot of $$$ to spend atm. I know they did an Appsumo deal for like a couple days, where people could get the service for a very cheap or lifetime plan. But that's all

https://simplelogin.io

[SansVarnic]

On 2/22/2022 at 4:51 PM, wall03 said:

Just got a Spigen case for my S21 and so far, it has survived many drops. It also has a kickstand which is useful. It's also only $20 and is a very good value case.

Ill second this suggestion, I have used Spigen cases on my last 2 phones, definitely worth the price and effort in buying.

[yolosnail]

11 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Ill second this suggestion, I have used Spigen cases on my last 2 phones, definitely worth the price and effort in buying.

100%. I used to buy the cheapest phone case I could get next day on Amazon, but I've had Spigen Tough Armour cases for my last few phones and I don't think I'd go with anything else.

 

The one I had for my LG G7 lasted 2 years of fairly rough use and only has a few scuffs on it. I don't go out of my way to throw my phone about, but I don't keep it wrapped up in cotton wool! I live on what is essentially a building site, so it's not the best environment to keep phones safe.

 

I also just really like the feel of them, you get the flat sides that make it easy to hold, but it's also smoothed out so it doesn't dig into your hand, plus the built in kickstand is more useful than I ever thought it would be. And there's no stupid ribs on the side that make the phone look 'cool', but in reality make it uncomfortable to hold.

 

One thing I hate about modern phones is how thin they are, a chunky case is actually a positive for me as it means I can hold onto the bugger! I find the Tough Armour is a good balance of thiccness. It seems to add about 3-4mm to the back of my OnePlus Nord 5G (shite phone, would not recommend) and another 2 or so mm to the front. So even with a tempered glass screen protector there's still a bit of a lip to protect it.

 

Now, that's not to say I've had 100% success rate with them, the first case I got for my Oneplus Nord (once again, don't but one!) started to 'squeak' after a week or so. I'm guessing the fit between the soft and hard parts of the case weren't perfect, so when I squeezed the phone it would make the a slight noise. I probably would have just dealt with it, but Amazon replaced it. And, unfortunately it was only available in black, I really liked the gunmetal grey I had with my LG G7

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

On 2/22/2022 at 2:51 PM, wall03 said:

Just got a Spigen case for my S21 and so far, it has survived many drops. It also has a kickstand which is useful. It's also only $20 and is a very good value case.

Had a knockoff Spigen rugged for my 6s since I couldn't find any legit ones at the time and got a legit one when I got my Phone 12 Mini. Fits well, feels nice, and I like that they have colour options to match and contrast the colour of the phone rather well. Most of the other cases I looked at only came in shades of gray or fully masked the phone so you couldn't even tell which colour it originally was. The only gripe I have with the one I'm using is that they added extra raised lips around the corners on the back which is fine... except they left out the corner where the camera is as you can see in the photo below. So when you have your phone on the table, it doesn't sit completely flat. Also wish they had one that had more rugged corners like the one on my 6s but retains the clear back. 

Spoiler

As for VPN sponsors... I'm sort of tired of those if I'm honest... It seems like every one and their dogs has a VPN sponsor these days.

[milkywaytech]

Hi, 

I was directed here to share some thoughts on the Grammarly sponsor spots. I originally posted it on r/LinusTechTips here: https://old.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/t25hlg/i_think_ltt_should_reconsider_grammarly_as_a/

[swabfu]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:32 PM, Thibaultmol said:

While I don't think they financially can justify it atm. I do want to mention SimpleLogin. It's an email relay service, fully open source, but offers a reasonably priced hosted option.

So for example I have linustechtips.[6-8 random letters/numbers]@thibaultmol.link

If I decide to never want to have anything to do with ltt ever again, OR somehow the forum gets hacked and emails get leaked;

I can just disable or remove that alias and create a new one. My actual email is never exposed.

I receive that email then as coming from Simplelogin: (I'm still in the process of moving all my accounts online over to simplelogin aliases, except for my really important sites)

 

from:    Linus Tech Tips - do.not.reply at linustechtips.com <wxzfuhaaydz[more random charachters]@simplelogin.co>
to:    linustechtips.[random chars]@thibaultmol.link

 

And replying to that would appear like coming from the alias. (also means that you can use it to have a custom domain when using Gmail (not Gsuite))

 

They have browsers plugins and mobile apps to easily create them on the fly and the software is fully open source (but tbf, for the low price it is, i wouldn't bother hosting it myself).

 

I wanted to mention them, but i don't think they have a lot of $$$ to spend atm. I know they did an Appsumo deal for like a couple days, where people could get the service for a very cheap or lifetime plan. But that's all

https://simplelogin.io

Agreed. SimpleLogin is a real lifesaver, I can just make a new relay for a different type of account (ie one relay for social media, one for online shopping) and I always have a few for spammy websites which I can block at any time. No idea if they are doing sponsorships atm but they are definitely a great choice. Spigen (which I saw on this thread, too) is also a really good case manufacturer, love their products.

[BiotechBen]

Had a Spigen case for my iPhone 4, did it's job well(lasted longer than the OtterBox I had). Another on my Samsung J7 prime for a while, was awesome, did eventually wear out and break, but was not it's fault. Then had one for my Moto G7 for a while and that was great, only reason I didn't get one for my new G100 was that they didn't have a case for it. 

[BiotechBen]

On 2/26/2022 at 4:31 PM, milkywaytech said:

Hi, 

I was directed here to share some thoughts on the Grammarly sponsor spots. I originally posted it on r/LinusTechTips here: https://old.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/t25hlg/i_think_ltt_should_reconsider_grammarly_as_a/

My thoughts on grammarly:

Can't turn a bad writer into a good one. Has very little style and sounds very terse and robotic in my experience. If you suck at writing and spelling/basic grammar, it works great. But if you are not that, I found it made my writing dull and lifeless.

[BellLMG]

On 2/26/2022 at 1:31 PM, milkywaytech said:

Hi, 

I was directed here to share some thoughts on the Grammarly sponsor spots. I originally posted it on r/LinusTechTips here: https://old.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/t25hlg/i_think_ltt_should_reconsider_grammarly_as_a/

Thanks for letting us know about this! We're reaching out to our contacts to get more information on this before we make a final decision.

[JonoT]

Hey guys! 

We're going to close this thread now, but we'll remake a new one for this week. Keeping it fresh.