Lumia 640 XL Qi Wireless Charging

The Lumia 640 XL has contacts for a wireless charging case back.  However, due to reasons unknown, one has never been sold.

I wish Microsoft wasn't a publicly traded company so they could share more information without risking that precious, precious stock price.

So, I took matters into my own hands and followed the details posted by Yang Hu on Windows Central.

I used a charging pad from a Lumia 920 case back.  The charging didn't work very well with my nexus wireless charger, but it does work with this one.  I went back in and shortened up the wires so they're neater than shown in the picture.  That was a test to see if it actually worked.

The standard case backs fit after you take off the little rubber stickers

Cheaper and more fun than a 950 XL.

Windows Mobile 10

I like messing with stuff, it's fun. So lately I've been messing with Windows Mobile 10.

I've had a couple Windows Phones in the past. Going way back, I had a hand-me-down HTC Shadow running Windows Mobile 6.0. Then more recently I got a Lumia 630 when I switched phone carriers. It was passable. I did a craigslist switcheroo and got a 635 instead so I could have LTE. Then I sold that as it clearly wasn't going to be my telephonic future.

I stayed windowless for a bit and snagged a Lumia 640 for $30 on black friday. Now that's a bargain! I liked it well enough to get a 640 XL on www.swappa.com. It's also pretty decent. Though I think my 640 is a bit snappier.

Anyway, long story short, I'm trying to park my trusty Nexus 5 and try out Windows for a bit, again.

Problem is, Windows likes to play by the rules and I don't. I like connecting to non-enterprise VPNs, using chrome remote desktop, accessing files on my home network while I'm on the road, tethering! and other such nonsense.

Windows mobile... not so much. My PPTP VPN worked for a bit, then stopped. Chrome remote desktop will never happen and tethering is blocked. No fun. Also, Edge chokes on half my localhost IPs. Lame.

So the jury is out. Can I adapt? Maybe. Will I? Ehhh.

I can't geofence my wifi to turn on and off like I could in 8.1. I'm pretty sure there were some other gripes I had.  The OS is getting better with each build, but I just don't like the restrictions. My Nexus 5 lets me run free and I definitely miss that... 4 hours in.

Conclusion: Windows Mobile 10 is cute. It's fun. It's personable and personal. I want to like it. But it's killing me with the superuser lockdown bs.

Windows 10 and AMD laptop display drivers

So far Windows 10 is pretty cool.  There are some privacy concerns, but aside from that, it works pretty well.

That is except for the display drivers on my AMD A10 laptop.  But here's how to fix it:

I recommend downloading the most current Catalyst Control Center / drivers from AMD first.

Settings - System - Display - Advanced Display Settings - Display Adapter Properties - Adapter - Properties - Driver - Update Driver

This took a couple minutes to run and install, despite having the latest Catalyst Control Center installed.

Then, back in normal Windows control panel, go to the Device Manager.  My Monitor was called out as being a DISABLED Generic PnP Monitor.  So enable it on the driver page and bingo!  Brightness controls are back!!

Whew, so much for simplified settings controls for Windows 10.  I find that any heavy lifting still has to be done through the older style control panel.