Showing 1 - 10 of 29
Size counts in the world of IT
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/05/2016
» When it comes to implementing systems, it is all about scale. If you have ever been a system tester you will know that what works one at a time may not work well if a whole bunch of them are processed all at once. Those who have ever used an old fashioned typewriter will understand this. Volume testing and scalability of system is one of the biggest problems a development testing team faces.
Always check your sources
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/09/2021
» At the dawning of the internet age the aim was to provide a platform to share information, initially between higher education facilities. It was a golden age of what was essentially a library of information shared across the United States and later the world. The early fact checkers were academics interested in facts, data and a robust discussion.
A tablet of note
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/11/2020
» I have used my new Onyx Boox Note Air for a couple of weeks now and I like it. Having a user manual in English would be very useful but I finally found the setting to enable the auto rotate feature.
Change is nigh?
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/10/2020
» A long-awaited US congressional report into Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google has been published. The surprise for some is that this report from the Democrat-run House Judiciary Committee concludes that the online giants are monopolists that need to be broken up.
China foundering in IT advances
Life, James Hein, Published on 17/06/2020
» - As I write this it has been a strange two weeks in the world and this has kept most news on the technology front well in the background.
Apple sours as rivals rise
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/12/2019
» Apple can't seem to win a trick these days. Overall phone sales in Europe picked up during the last quarter but iPhone sales did not follow the upswing and ended up 4% down on the same quarter last year. The problem is that the latest models are not giving many users a reason to upgrade. Their battery replacement programme and bad sales in China have not helped either. Overall market share worldwide has dropped from 20.8% to 18.6%. By comparison, Samsung has increased their share to over 35% in the same market. Huawei, in second place, sits about the same on 22.2%. Xiaomi is still in fourth place but well behind the others at 10.5%. The biggest impacts predicted going forward are 5G and Brexit though in reality I don't think the latter will have any real impact other than short term. The most popular Samsung models were the Galaxy A10, A20e, A40 and A50.
Will fold-out phones start a new revolution?
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/02/2019
» Lower cost Google phones will be arriving this year. There will be mid-range offerings somewhere in the 4,700-22,000 baht range and another below that as a low-range product. The target is emerging markets that are fairly well saturated with other brands, both Korean and Chinese. The Google Pixel is the high-end product and is supposed to have the best camera, for now, but they are not cheap. The new range will round out the lower end of the market.
Google Android refreshes itself
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/06/2017
» Android 8 -- or O -- will be coming out soon, with the beta already available for lucky Nexus and Pixel users. Google is introducing "Fluid Experiences" that include picture in picture, Notification Dots, autofill and smart-text selection. The first will allow you to have an app open but with also, say, a small window running a YouTube video, just like TVs can do. Notification dots show that you have an app notification. A long press will bring up the item, which is useful. You have all seen autofill on forms and for passwords; this is finally appearing in Android. As has been the case for the last few versions, Google is also focusing on maximising security, optimising boot times and app performance, and intelligently limiting background activity for apps to save battery life. These are all welcome enhancements.
Samsung looks to rebound
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/04/2017
» The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be in stores towards the end of April. Samsung had to get this one right after the Note 7 but they have ended up mostly doing an Apple. One obvious conclusion for the release of a 5.8 and 6.2-inch models so close together in screen size is because of the iPhone regular and S versions; it looks like Samsung thought they needed two models as well. There has been no upgrade in battery size nor camera capabilities between the S7 and S8. Then there are the prices, the most expensive Samsungs ever. Add all of this up and it detracts from what is still a rather nice phone.
Microsoft ditches Windows Pro 7, 8.1
Life, James Hein, Published on 09/11/2016
» Microsoft no longer provides the Windows Pro 7 or Windows 8.1 operating systems. This is no surprise as Microsoft flagged the end of October as the time that would happen, meaning every new PC will only have Windows 10. This is all part of the Redmond master plan to move everyone to an operating system as a service platform in the near future. This would mean that you won't own any of the MS software on your PC but simply renting it.