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Wow! Tesla outsells BMW, Audi and Mercedes' flagships in their home market There is bound to be a whole cadre of salty German executives after Tesla smokes them at their own game. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-outsells-bmw-audi-mercedes-flagships/ And these pictures of a Model 3 after a 60 mph deceleration directly into a stopped vehicle are amazing, as are the comments in the article of the first responders who never saw anyone survive that severe a wreck: https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-crash-insight-60mph-collision/?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=c6e3a6c00bab4efe90be452ad1e679b1&fl=4&uid=948743011822964736&nid=244+276893704

Mac, If you are reading this thanks for everything and your time years ago when I started fulltiming. I still have your foam refillable in my workshop. I doubt anyone will take over since the demos are what gave him his illnesses. Mac saved a lot of lives I'm sure. I hope he can recover. Maybe Mac can direct a video and present it on YouTube for profit and to keep his expertise available.

Rich, I agree completely on making sure retirement is taken care of first. We do have a steady income aside from investments. That being our SS which (is better than I thought when I looked in 2010,) and our military retirement/medical, then we can talk about stocks and funds we hold. I would risk nothing I could not afford to lose either way. I agree Smitty, a diversity of opinion I learn from, more than others may be aware. Good to see you here again too.

We have the tech now to provide power and storage to any home in the event of a natural disaster like the hurricane and fire destruction we are seeing now. This assumes it is near enough to cause power and supply issues. Click here for the page on the Tesla PowerWall: https://www.tesla.com/powerwall?redirect=no&utm_medium=email&utm_source=communication&utm_campaign=NA-US-171218-December-Newsletter&utm_term=3&utm_content=L&mkt_id=2521&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWmpWbU1XSmpaRGxrWWpZMSIsInQiOiJcLzJYMElBa01mMGUwdlE5cWVcL0F6UndRTGU3Mm1TUzVCSUJXdUduWVFPZVZ1UEZvQ2U3TVwvSG1Nczk1ZW13azd3R3dQeEE4VWloV0ZJVHRtUGswTmFuY3h0OHRtdG5wQXk0ajlSZlpWY0dIVXo0c0gzQVdwS2haaE4zVDVxSzU5ZWkxXC9oM2sxQlhkejFFd0tYXC9cL1Vla2c9PSJ9 I keep hearing that folks won't see a return on investment on solar/BEV/battery investments, when that is not the concept at all. When you find yourself with no outside power or water or gasoline available for long periods of time, there investment ROI becomes priceless. I have the discretionary funds needed for our next home to be connected but only as a last resort. I would like to have fully independent power and storage via solar and passive systems. I am looking in Colorado for the next week to see what we can fins that is close enough to civilization to make shopping and social/cultural interactions easy. Yet be self sustaining with woods nearby or abutting it so that we could forage/hunt food as well as have a water supply. Let's remember that a self contained solar battery system can power a well pump, septic pump, as well as charge an all electric car. A garden, some pressure cooker and mason jars, a few deer and or other game, and a decent supply of .22 and 7mm magnum shells in addition to a few thousand rounds of .40 cal and 500 rounds of shotgun shells/slugs could put anyone completely independent of any need for outside food supplies, energy, or automobile fuel. We are almost at a point where we will have a lot more money than we will need for our remaining years. What better investment than never worrying about power, heat, cooling, fuels or food in a national crisis. Of course with an EMP attack we would be as bad off as the rest. No worse, just the same. I invest a large amount annually in food and clothing, as well as fuel and no ROI is considered. Going energy independent saves day to day money, assuming I pay cash for my dwelling and energy systems and car/s, as I always do, and continue with only Internet, utilities, gas, water, electric, and garbage monthly bills. With an energy independent system the ability to shut down outside connections, or survive long periods with no outside utilities or water become real. In that way I am more like a prepper, as I value energy and carbon fuel independence, in much the same way as they do their investment on defensive weapons and tight security. I do not need a mansion, nor a yacht or any boat, certainly no private aircraft, or any other thing the very rich value as conspicuous consumption. So my discretionary funds will provide that independence I really want. Then my investment is secure, and no cash to worry about or stock market crashes. Unlike the political narratives this website, Clean Technika, provides today's actual and factual state of renewables for both large scale and personal power and energy. If free energy after installation is just too left for some then please skip it. If you want to know what is going on in energy read it. https://cleantechnica.com/ Renewables are not only about clean environments, but also about making/saving money in emerging vertical markets. Read the renewables page there and find what has already been built and now under construction. I am a techie, politics, other than voting as my citizen duty, has no place in my daily life. I now have a very nice Scamp 2014 19' fifth wheel with the wood interior and bathroom, stove, microwave, septic and fresh water tanks, fantastic fan and A/C from Arizona which was used only three or four times. I have not decided if we are going to keep it yet. I foresee a lot of folks coming to some of the same conclusions. For us it is not either/or in having energy independence and having our retirement money coming in. So I do understand the folks that look at it as only a utility money saver. It is but for RVrs it may be easier to comprehend than others. Doing what I want to do, and where is the same thing as an RV boon-docking with solar and a generator. I want my home to have power when there are regional or local blackouts. With the right sized system I can supply all my BEV car electrical power as well as the house's septic, water, A/C, heat, cooking and lighting needs. I want my house to be even more self-contained than an RV which can't hold the Solar system or septic fields and well a house can. I just need a well and a wastewater treatment plant. The house we inherited and just sold had a 3kw older grid connected solar and we had to drill a new well and service the wastewater treatment plant so these things, like our wastewater holding tank and macerator pump to our odor free oxidation pond here, are very familiar and easy for us to do and maintain. I strongly urge investors read the above Clean tech regularly to keep up with maturing technologies and startups that can, like Tesla, make a lot of money for those seeking to diversify from only old fossil energy only portfolios.

Rich, Market timing is an elusive goal. Even with Tesla, which I have ridden for 7 years like bucking bronco, does not always go down enough, or back up fast enough for me to sell then buy back when it dips again. I can only recommend being very careful about banks and bail-ins. Check your bank's policies on hard times like 2008/9. The securities regulations that kept the market safe from the same speculation by large banks are being repealed now and it is just a matter of time. Since scientists worldwide agree on what needs to be done for climate, the rest of the world is doing it. London for example will ban all Internal combustion vehicles within 5 years and BEVs are fine there. India and China have already committed to 100% bans within 20-30 years. However it appears that rather than push them back or deny good science, and despite most Americans not understanding the change to any company that makes only ICE engines starting now, well they are going to really suffer. IMHO oil is a dead man walking, along with natural gas which also produces CO2 and CO as any carbon based fuel will do. There is no such thing as clean burning carbon fuels, only reduced compared to smoggier burning versions with visible smoke. Bearing that in mind, I just called USAA and he suggested that Cash, Money Market savings, and straight savings accounts are the only things that will preserve the capital unless the world gets nuked and EMP sends us back to the early 1800s. Read the book "One Second After" for a likely, but frightening story showing how that would actually happen. Scary. The folks who are preppers, and have a boogie bag with weapons and ammo and a fall back place in the boonies for if the proverbial excrement hits the rotating surfaces are welcome to that as a hobby. But the more I thought about hard currencies, the more I realized that once you spend a piece of gold/silver, everyone in your region will know you likely have more. Banks paying a half percent and up to .80 percent for safe harbor make it less attractive than just burying actual cash in the yard, or, like my Grandfather in Law did, fill up all the hollow core doors in the house with paper currency. Takes today's article from Seeking Alpha by a very astute contributor there: Summary Peabody Energy, key supporter of Trump administration, attempts to force coal use to continue. Huge changes towards digital flexible power delivery (no inflexible base load coal, nuclear): cheaper and in tune with digital transformation across all industries. Peabody continues to promote “clean” coal, with little evidence that it is clean or provides reliable and cheap power. Investors who have made money from investing in coal but don't follow closely the energy space might be interested in the recent steady share price increases for Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU). There have been a number of positive articles in Seeking Alpha, and analyst coverage involves many buy recommendations for BTU. However, there are signs of trouble ahead, not the least from BHP (BHP), another huge mining company that sells a lot of coal. It plans to withdraw from the World Coal Association, and it is reviewing its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia and the US Chamber of Commerce over their stance toward climate change. This is a huge statement (see the detail) about the lobbying stance of these organisations and must impact Peabody Energy as the chief lobbying company. Here, I argue that all is not what it seems, and the positive reports about BTU are based on a rosy view that ignores hard reality for not only Peabody Energy but the whole coal industry. Briian65 recently commented on one of my earlier articles Fun And Games At Peabody Energy: What Is Stabilizing The Share Price? (June of this year) on Peabody Energy. He made the point that the BTU share price has risen from $23.50 in June to $36.40 today. I don't do day-trading (except for some fun with cryptocurrencies!), and Briian65 has a valid short-term perspective. However, I make the point that examination of Peabody Energy's performance since exit from bankruptcy is pretty much in line with the S&P 500 and VanEck Vectors Coal ETF (NYSEARCA:KOL). True, it is better than other coal companies Cloud Peak Energy (NYSE:CLD) and Westmoreland Resource Partners (WMLP), but the confronting thing for coal investors is a comparison with solar outperformer First Solar (FSLR) which has more than doubled since BTU emerged from bankruptcy, and even somewhat troubled SunPower (SPWR) is up more than 150%." The rest of the article is much more in depth with charts and more data to think about here: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4133038-peabody-energy-rising-coal-industry-decline-going?uprof=82&isDirectRoadblock=false There ain't no guarantees the old coot told me, ya just makes yer bet, and takes yer chances.

Having lights and saying they work because there are no rats or mice in your rig sounds like elephant repellent. A good ol boy know it all told me about the best investment he ever made, a bottle of elephant repellent. I told him there weren't any elephants in the US in the wild. He said that proved it worked! Rodents carry plague in the US, especially in the SW. THe infection is carried from one to another by fleas who have bitten an infected rodent. Fleas jump off a dead host pretty quick in search of a living replacement host. This is why we caution about handling pest rodents shot or run over. Thus I prefer not to use the old fashioned messy "snap traps." Once it kills one, any fleas will soon begin to abandon ship and search for another host. Not in my home!! I like the idea that the Zapper could kill them too. I don't care how many mice or rats go under or around my rig when full time. I only care about any that get in. The rat zapper is great in barns and Ag usage but in homes and RVs for me I want to Zap any that get in. Lots more things attract them than a Zapper with bait inside. Lights may or may not work, I doubt the efficacy of sonic repellent devices too. For prevention I got under the rig, and inside every cabinet and closet with pipe pass through openings, and sealed them each up. I stuffed steel wool down or up inside them tightly packed. I could have used some RockHard filler made up thin to go down between pipes. RockHard mixes like plaster but does indeed dry rock hard. The steel wool is a must. They won't chew it if they can't pull it out. A mouse/rat/hamster/gerbil can squeeze through amazingly small spaces. Here is an article with a video of a fat hamster trying to get under a crack that is obviously impossible for such a fat rodent to squeeze through, at least one would think. https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-a-mouse-can-fit-through-a-hole-the-size-of-a-ballpoint-pen All the repellents in the world won't take the place of sealing possible entry ways. Those loosely stapled plastic escutcheon rings on every rig I've had left more gap than any mouse would need. I didn't bother replacing the collars when the hole is under something so it could not be seen. (remember I do the collars after I seal the holes with steel wool and rockhard) The rest I installed loosely for looks only. Just remember that our RVs travel and vibrate down the road and a metal collar could rub a hole in our PEX plumbing pipes over time. We traveled with our dog and the dog food is likely the attractant so we keep it stored in a mouse-proof container. We also replaced our coiled inside power cable that was pulled out and had that flimsy plastic door a mouse could certainly get through. Ours was more like the 50 amp twist on system, and we carried a box in the pickup bed just for the cable. similar to these: http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/30-amp-non-metallic-inlet-with-white-cover-assembly/95377 or cheaper like this: https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Wiring/Epicord/277-000138.html There are lots of ways to defeat the little cusses. For outside I like the "walk the plank" using a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket filled third of the way with water under the rig: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/142548829626 Some folks prefer a live trap but not me. I can empty the bucket into any dumpster, pouring the water out next to it on grass. I like them better than the conventional traps that force us to handle them. Seal it up with steel wool because they won't chew tightly packed steel wool done as I outlined above. Hope that helps.

I've got two words: Rat Zapper : https://www.bing.com/search?q=rat+zapper+amazon&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR Bait with peanut butter and oatmeal.

Duke, I caught the reference to the tulip bubble of 1637. The SEC stepped in today and stopped trading on one of the bitcoin like coin companies because it was rising out of control: https://www.bing.com/search?q=coin+trading+stoppe+by+SEC&pc=MOZI&form=MOZTSB ryno, Sorry, I had just finished reading a treatise answering a prediction of imminent bubble bursting and should have explained that. The author said that he doubted anything would turn before later in 2018. And now I can't find it again. We Tesla longs get a lot of razzing about Tulip Mania and very conceivable doom and gloom is thrown out with no real basis in anything except that a segment of the population despise the good fortune of others, and those others enjoying it. So folks try to rain on it. They're called limited resource thinkers, and they will never get out of their own way. I wrote about it and how it relates directly to the RV lifestyle here: http://home.earthlink.net/~derekgore/rvroadiervfulltimingwhatisitreallylike/id66.html So sorry I didn't validate that others are always dooming and glooming around anyone who did the work to follow a company closely for years so we are ready to buy when it IPOs. So read the piece on my website and don't take anything I say as advice. I do like discussin not cussin, and I learn. I'm not at risk because depite it being big money to some, it is still the $25-30 k I could afford to lose despite it being worth ten times that now. See, early on, when Tesla went over $100, and remember I bought on IPO at between $17 and $22.50. So I could sell 20% of my shares and take a 20% profit and still have most of my shares to ride and see what happens to it. So I've already made much better than a measly 6% on selling a piece, and took back my entire investment to boot. So lots of folks would be about this investment, like they erroneously reacted to selling my 911 Targa. I learned then, and never tried to live up to or down to the expectations of others. And the bullies who are arrogant and use insults on a grade school level are boring. Musk is boring too, but he is making money at it.

Ryno, I think that the folks who liquidate their investments in favor of cash in a bank may be surprised to know that our government and the FDIC have decided that we would use bail ins instead of bailouts for any future recessions/depressions. Look up bail ins. As far as a correction goes, I don't see it coming this coming year at least until the fall of 2018. And we will see indicators before hand that others may look back on in hindsight thinking they should have seen it coming. Rich, We know mother nature has EMP, you don't have to go that far back in history, just talk to any Ham Radio Operator who shoots skip since 1970. We are talking about tuned nuclear devices to do maximum damage to electronics. Don't forget they would affect satellites on the side of the world that the detonations took place in. You really should read the book. Aside from it being a great what if read, it is accurate to boot. That is the scary part. Rich I don't understand it either but some of the smartest folks I know are in it. But it is always true that to get the big ones you need to understand it like I did Tesla since 2003 and finally they went public in 2010 after two years earlier putting their Roadsters on the road sold out, two years and the year before they IPO'd. Duke, Think PayPal. Ronbo, " The value is only in what people are willing to pay for it. " Isn't that the same as any publicly traded stock? Or gold? Or currencies?

Has anyone bought bitcoins? My ophthalmologist/eye surgeon who did my cataract surgeries tried to talk me into buying them before it went above $1200. They have since gone through the roof. I am trying to comprehend the mechanics of block chain security and how easy/difficult they would be to use. We all know that no nation needs to destroy people in a nuclear war, they only need to explode about three upper atmosphere clean bombs designed to maximize the EMP or ElectroMagentic Pulse. These would destroy all electronic circuits not shielded by hundreds of feet of earth and/or concrete and EMP shielding. If you are unfamiliar with it read this: http://www.onesecondafter.com/ So failing the apocalypse, did anyone here get in on the ground floor and what are your thoughts?

Al, It is all automatic, including your address being released to every medical supplement insurance company in this galaxy, and as a retiree we need none, just Part B and TFL as the secondary payer. I missed this and was embarrassed as a result. We live right next to, relatively, Barksdale AFB LA. So we get all our prescriptions filled there. We were Tricare standard so we use our civilian docs as our primary caregivers. NO one told me that my ID card would expire on the day I turned 65. IT was there, and since originally they issued permanent ID cards to retirees with indeterminate or some such as expiration. Well I never noticed my new ID card I got to eliminate my Social Security number had my 65th birthday, years ahead, for an expiration date. So one day I was going to get a haircut at the BX and the guard said I could not enter because my ID was expired. I told them I would just go get anbother and he directed me to the visitor center beside the gate because I would need a guest pass to get on base. And they confiscated my ID card! Well by the time we sorted it out the ID section was closed. So the next day I tried to get a pass and found I had forgotten to put my proof of insurance in my car! It was again afternoon. I always replace my Insurance proof from USAA every time I get them but somehow got sidetracked or something four months earlier. On the third day I finally had all my paperwork in order, then went in early, and got my ID card. I felt like the idiot I was. Amazing how my careful dotting my is's and crossing my T's can backfire because I don't double check. I just double checked it and it is again INDEF expiration. The collage is my career starting from top left clockwise is me as a Buck Sergeant Medic, me as a combat arms instructor re-barreling an M-16, me on top of a Hummer as the shooter firing the Mk19 automatic grenade launcher at a Dutch heavy weapons range firing 300 rounds a minute out to 2000 meters, then me shooting the MK19 again, and then firing the MK19 from the ground on a tripod. then my basic graduation picture, and last me now a MSgt (E7) teaching pistol on my 25 meter outdoor range on Spangdahlem AB, Germany. Imagine getting great pay and an excellent retirement from playing wit heavy and small arms daily, making loud noises, blowing things up, and getting paid for it. The collage is just missing my three years as a lab tech as a TSgt (E6) but that was in whites too.

Duplicate please delete admins

Ryno, After making more than a ten bagger with Tesla since thy IPO'd in 2010, we are in the position where we could do one of those silos. But I prefer to be near a military base with Pharmacy and medical. That leaves me with Denver and more likely Colorado Springs. Boy I wish I had bought a five acre lot in Black Forest along the East side of I-25 from the main gate on up to the North gate and Woodmoor. I taught at the Academy from 1978-1981, it was expensive for then but really would have been cheap in hindsight today. It's funny but this thread was started the year after I made a $20k and later added another $10k investment in an individual stock, Tesla, rather than my usual USAA funds and real properties. The title, "Are You Still In," seems especially apropo to me because I am still in with Tesla However, there may be some underground or Earth Sheltered homes and I would definitely consider them. I will post whatever we get.

Well if the entire market drops and makes a major correction downward fair enough. If not then you run the risk of missing the profits like the folks that had 2008 investing PTSD. However aside from perhaps missing out on some profit taking, predicting the top too soon and then it not happening makes it such that the folks still in are glad of the increases and less prone to being angry. There are a lot of folks that sat out the entire last 9 years of record breaking market gains, and the longest running bull market ever. Some have predicted the correction coming very soon in the next few months, every week for the last 9 years.

That's about where I am at Jim.

Kand Jbm, Your link was to a good article. Part of it said: "Where we’re headed Clearly, the Fed would like to return to more normal monetary policy conditions and has taken pains to lay out how it expects to get there. Phase Two is part of that plan. Most believe that the well-telegraphed tapering of the balance sheet will be a “nonevent.” Many economists, including those at the Fed, see Phase Three—resuming the course of rate hikes—occurring as early as December 2017. Our view is different. For some time, we have felt that Phase Two would be followed by an “extended pause” in rate hikes, leaving short-term rates near 1.25% through the middle of 2018, if not longer. Whether our long-held view proves correct will depend on a range of factors, including the pace of future inflation, how quickly the unemployment rate declines below 4%, and how supportive financial conditions are to the economic recovery." Now let's see if they resume the course of rate hikes this month, or not.

Yeah like the links on page one. Go to the source.

Ronbo, Your current doctor likely has other patients on Tricare and can answer some, but just call Tricare. They changed from Prime, Standard, and Extra, to only two types, Prime and the new category: "Starting Jan. 1, Tricare's Extra and Standard plans will be rolled into one system known as Tricare Select, thanks to legislation passed by Congress last year." Source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/10/06/heres-how-2018-tricare-changes-impact-retirees.html Tricare phone help has always been helpful for us: https://tricare.mil/ContactUs

Dennis, I was told by a guy on the phone with the SS that it was 65 but it appears my birthday is 66. I got a snail mail today telling me about how there is a 2% COLA raise starting in January, 2018. It made it sound like the change was just made. But you're right. Reagan both raised the FRA age, and made SS taxable for the first time. Dennis, it isn't about the money for me. It's about honest brokerage, honorable transparency. I've been fortunate to be "gifted" and able to research and take calculated risks my whole life. Along with several windfalls I'm set. But some of our brothers and sisters in arms weren't as fortunate financially. Many are scarred and physically in need. Some struggle daily and some give up. They invented bone spurs to evade the draft that I and others were honest and 1A. I was a draft dodger and ran to the USAF before the draft took me with no choice in guaranteed jobs like enlistment offered. Those of us who are fortunate can fight for those struggling. We are, when all is said and done, military family.

I was promised cost to me free health care for life for me and my spousal unit if I served 20 years or more, as I did. That still chaps my ass. Then the $134.00 a month was a slap in the face, I agree. Wait until the new tax laws kick in. They moved the full age for Social Security from 65 to 66, so the position I was offered last year, and was holding off on until I hit 65, when no matter how much I earned there would be no deductions from my SS, is off now until next year. I get a bit fed up with us being treated like takers, when we paid into SS, and earned our retirements the hard way - in military service. Oh well, we get what we voted for.

Are you already receiving Social Security? I elected to start receiving SS at age 62 as did my wife who is 2 years my junior. I turned 65 this past May and was as confused as you likely are. I am 30% disabled paid and retired after 27 years active and reserve time during a break in service. I was already receiving SS and I was automatically enrolled in TFL and Medicare Part A and B. I had no paperwork to do. I also got on mailing lists for every insurance company in our Galaxy as a signal to begin deforestation on new sections to cover the paper they were going to begin mailing to me to buy my supplemental insurance from them. Tricare is your 100% supplemental insurance as long as the item claimed is one covered by Tricare. There are some medical expenses approved by Medicare but not Tricare I guess. I have not run into that yet so I can't tell you what to avoid. You already know if Tricare covers your past bills and that will remain the same. Since my Significant Harassment of 45 years is two years younger she remains on Tricare until she turns 65 in 2019, at which time she will be under the same system I am. Relax and if you have a fireplace but no paper shredder get a shredder now so you can turn all that unwanted snail mail into fire starter. https://tricare.mil/Plans/HealthPlans/TFL https://www.medicare.gov/supplement-other-insurance/how-medicare-works-with-other-insurance/who-pays-first/which-insurance-pays.html#collapse-2474 So just wait and all your paperwork will come in automatically showing for what you are enrolled.

Jack, If all you are looking for is can it be seen on a larger TV it can by using second screen with a Fire TV or Fire TV stick. See this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201829510

Jan did you order one? Chirakawa these are the heat for $99!!! If you upgrade you won't regret it. I cannot tell the difference between it's picture and my 4th gen Fire HDX 8.9" It is also lighter or the same weight but lighter considering the screen is 10" These are also more durable than the Apple iPads from drop/tumble testing both. These guys with the program I mentioned for office like apps can work just fine off line. If you have a fire subscription or Netflix you can download movies to watch offline too. I know RVrs don't have near enough bandwidth to use Alexa and Prime on the road, But for those with a home or true unlimited fast cable Internet the tablet, for 99 bucks, gives you a full HD tablet, with micro SD storage up to an additional 200GB, and all the same hands free Alexa functions as the Amazon Echodots of which we have three. I also have a wireless smart home hub with controlled outlets and other device capability like smart lights and thermostats. Jan, Jack was asking about an HDMI input. All my Windows tablets and my wife's All in one Lenovo touch screen desktop have HDMI outs. But not HDMI ins like you have on a TV to connect a Blu-Ray disk player up to the tablet for an example. My Dell 2720 has two HDMI ports one for out to another screen or recording device, and an HDMI in where I connect my Amazon Fire full size device. We have the last version 4k capable Fire TVs and one is hooked up to my HDMI in on the 2720 I am on now. Since I have Netflix apps and Sling TV apps on here too I am going to sell it and instead hookup a Blue-ray player up to this all in one. I can hook it up to both output and input HDMIs, as I also have a portable burner I will need to test first however.

Wow! These work great with external keyboards and mice using one full size USB to micro USB adapter cable like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Rankie-3-Pack-Female-Converter-Adapter/dp/B00YOX4JU6/ref=sr_1_4?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1511220445&sr=1-4&keywords=USB+to+MIcro+USB+adapter+cable It works with the built in mail apps and any browser you want. I use the Silk browser in my Fire tablet because I rarely use it for surfing. I use the default email client and I use WPS Office, a free app from the Amazon App store which has a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation app all built in and easy to use. It saves in several text and Word formats or as a PDF making it a free pdf creation app too. We love ours, but we use them only as Kindles and portable Alexa devices. We use our Windows Surface 3 and 4 tablets at home when watching TV and our all in one Windows desktops for anything we need a keyboard for like now. Just remember these don't use the Android Play store, instead the Amazon apps store which for us is just fine. I can use the Amazon office like apps just fine with a Bluetooth or other USB connected wired or wireless keyboard like this one I did before: What you are seeing in the photo above is a 7" tablet connected to a wireless regular windows desktop set where both the mouse and keyboard you see are connected via a Full size USB to micro USB adapter cable. Rather than say it works because it always did with my Galaxy tab tablets years ago, as well as all my windows tablets, I just hooked up my Logitech K400 keyboard with built in touchpad to my Amazon new model Fire 10" HD tablet, with an adapter cable like above and it works perfectly for typing in the EMail and the office apps. I Use the free office suite WPS Office + PDF just fine and print wirelessly using the Brother app as my Laser printer is a Brother. If you want to use this tablet as your only computer for emails and documents etc. WPS office can do them and save them as a PDF or docx word file and several other .txt type formats. I can use my tablets with a stand to bring it to eye level and use it with my several Bluetooth keyboards but prefer the Windows wireless combo mice and keyboards or like the Logitech K400 I have, one with the touch pad built in and to the right so I don't set it off with my palm. Like any other Windows wireless keyboard there is no pairing you just plug in the USB receiver and use it. Yes even when not windows. Go here to my old Photobucket page: http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/RV_Roadie/library/Tablet Stands?sort=3&page=1 and you can see the several types of tablet stands I have and can use when traveling away from my desktop. I really like the tablet and for $99.99 it can't be beaten. I am asking more then that for my 8.9" Amazon fire HDX with Otterbox and two additional cases. Bottom line, that Fire tablet will work with any Bluetooth or wireless Windows keyboard and mouse (As long as they both use the same USB receiver) or combo keyboard and touchpad like the K400 I have. Here is the case I bought for mine: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075T4MXR9/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Perfect fit and the magnets wake and put it to sleep automatically. I prefer these types as they hold it up to type or read from in bed like me just fine. And the magnets hold it closed a bit, just enough that it should protect it fine for just $10.95. When I bought the case it was $8.99???? Great Buy folks.