Might be worth seeking out

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
06/02/2020 at 02:12 • Filed to: None

For those of you that use Google home automation and have lots of Walmart stores nearby this device might be worth seeking out. Apparently they’re on clearance, down to $20 from $200. It’s made by Lenovo and has an 8" screen. Brickseek actually shows lots of locations in my area with lots in stock, which is better than when they say stock is limited, so I may have a shot at finding some of these.

I haven’t had the best of luck tracking down clearance items via Brickseek , but that’s usually because only one or two stores in my area show limited stock, like the 2TB drives I tried to track down over the weekend; I still managed to find a charger for my watch for $7 so the trip wasn’t a total waste . This appears to be a different story, and I’ve got at least 5 locations in my immediate area that appear to have plenty of them. Of course, I won’t be surprised if I can’t find a single one, but I’ll give it a try anyway and report back.

DISCUSSION (7)

facw > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2020 at 06:27

I kind of expect with things like this that it’s a sign that the device will soon be unsupported. I don’t know if these things rely on Lenovo’s servers at all, or if Google can keep them afloat on their own (not that Google can be trusted to support things). Is it possible to run Android/Linux on these directly?

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > facw
06/02/2020 at 08:11

Possibly, I’ve seen custom OS installs on Lenovo tablets, so the hardware isn’t as locked down as, say, Samsung’s.

His Stigness > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2020 at 23:48

The fuck? Twenty dollars. Much want. But not sure it’s worth dying for.

Walmart.com has the 8" listed for $80 right now.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > His Stigness
06/03/2020 at 00:08

As expected, there wasn’t one to be found anywhere. I’ve got lots of time to kill these days so I went to half a dozen Walmart locations in my area just to see if I could find one, and not surprisingly, I couldn’t.

Back in the ‘80s, when I worked at Radio Shack whilst in HS and college, we would get a list of discontinued items in our inventory to mark down and clear out. Of course, the employees would seek out the best deals and buy the stuff before the general population even knew about them , and I suspect that this is what happened with these smart screens and the various other deals I found ($20 for a 2TB hard drive, $40 for a 720p projector with Roku, $15 for an RCA 7" android tablet).

Despite not finding those killer deals I did score a number of other inexpensive items , albeit not as spectacular. Apple watch chargers for $7, 128GB USB 2.0 flash drives for $5, Bluetooth speakers for $2.50, 64GB USB 2.0 flash drives for $1, $5 for a 4K HDMI switch with remote. Yeah, it’s Walmart quality, but chances are that that is perhaps a little better than the cheap Chinese stuff you find on FleaBay. And while I was at it I picked up a few Matchbox cars. Overall it wasn’t a bad day.

His Stigness > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/03/2020 at 13:10

Ah now I have somewhere to display my anger. I hate when I hear about these great deals and they’re always gone. It happened with the Google Home on sale at Target a few weeks ago. I went into my local store that said limited stock but they LIED. But I didn’t need it, it was just an insane deal (I think $29).

But if you do find the Lenovo you should be very happy with it. I’ve had the 10" version I got for Costco for years, and it’s fantastic. I don’t remember what I paid for it, but I think it was around $100.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > His Stigness
06/03/2020 at 13:19

I do have a Nest Hub, which appears to be a similar device; I got it at Target late last year for $85, and it incuded two Nest minis. I haven’t installed it yet having not decided which room it should go in. Put it the bedroom to replace the alarm clock? In the kitchen in place of the Fire tablet? On my desk? I figured that if I could find the Lenovo units I wouldn't have to decide, and could probably sell a few more to cover the cost of the ones I kept.

His Stigness > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/04/2020 at 13:12

I finally opened my Nest Hub as I had the same problem as you. I ended up putting it on my new shoe cabinet as you walk into the house. But my mom wants one in her room to act as an alarm clock/clock, which is great because apparently I get a free once since I upgraded my Nest Aware subscription (bastards made me if I wanted to keep 24/7 recording).

But I would recommend against it anywhere you actually want to watch it, I find the screen too small for that. 10" is kind of the minimum for me in the kitchen, hence the bigger Lenovo. I have the Nest Hub Max in the kitchen now, and while it’s great, I do not think it’s worth $229. It’s maybe worth $129/150. But I think that says more about the Lenovo 10" than it does the Hub Max.

And one last recommendation: the Home Max. I got two when they were down to $200, and holy shit they’re worth every penny.