Showing 91 - 100 of 168
Smartphone slowdown is inevitable
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/02/2016
» The big duo of mobile phones Apple and Samsung are wondering how 2016 will be in terms of sales and they are not super confident. Apple did have a great year posting US$18.4 billion (654 billion baht) in profit, the most of any company ever. They did this by selling a tiny number more devices than last year, over 74 million of them. What they didn’t do was sell a lot more than the same time last year and shareholders are asking why. The latest versions are similar to the previous ones at least in design but Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that global economic conditions are not good, currencies are dropping in key markets so that less can afford the newest top end units. I think that the top end of the smartphone market is saturated and a slowdown is inevitable.
There are two sides to malware
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/01/2016
» Why do people write malware? Some people do it for fun and these people typically do so only on their own computers to see how this kind of thing works. I admit that when I was younger I tried the same thing but never let anything loose into the wild. Since then the software has become far more sophisticated. Others are just nasty and want to cause as much mayhem and damage as possible. Some do it for a cause or to highlight a perceived injustice. The group Anonymous for example are considered to be in this category. In another category are those groups paid by a Nation State to spy on other counties or disrupt a specific activity, as was revealed by the Stuxnet malware.
New year, new iPhone rumours
Life, James Hein, Published on 13/01/2016
» What would the week be without more rumours about an upcoming iPhone? Even though a new Apple phone isn't due out until September, speculation is already flowing rapidly. It will of course be called the iPhone 7, no surprises there. It will come in two sizes, just like the 6 range, allowing those users afraid of the larger screens to remain calm. It will have a better CPU and be a tiny bit thinner. It probably won't have an AMOLED screen but will have a better battery. The most interesting rumour is the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack to be replaced with a wireless lightening port. This will instantly disconnect a plethora of current devices from the phone and increase revenues for Apple iPhone-only peripheral products, including headphones. So far not even the predictions are encouraging, but it is very early days yet.
2015 tech scene, with Hein-sight
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/12/2015
» So how did the tech sector fare in 2015?? As far as the Chinese phone manufacturers, they made a lot of ground.
Who's really sending me these emails?
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/10/2015
» A while back I wrote to Samsung outlining my concerns, validated by low sales and a move to iPhones, about the latest S6 and Note 5 devices moving closer to Apple in functionality. In particular they removed waterproofing, included a fixed battery and stopped support for a microSD memory expansion. It has been some weeks and so far no response.
Operating without support
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/10/2015
» For most customers, Windows Server 2003 ran out of even extended support back in July but there are still plenty of people using it, including the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) where half of their servers are still running on the old but very good at the time operating system. For some, running an old operating system has no downside. What software and functionality that is running on it has probably happily been doing so for a decade or more and also in all likelihood without any problems. If the device is not connected to a public network of any kind then the risk of security breaches is also very low so missing out on any security updates is likely to have no impact. There is also no need to upgrade hardware to support a later and more demanding operating system. For some users this is a win-win.
The Office 360 downgrade
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/10/2015
» As I write this article I am in New York. New York has excellent Internet connectivity if you have the right connection. Like anywhere, however, Wi-Fi access can vary considerably. When I travel I also use Team Viewer to connect to my home computer and as I found out you are relying on someone at the other end to restart the computer if there is a problem like a power failure. If you do travel I recommend leaving some instructions on what to start after the computer is turned on or set things up to auto load. The other option of course is to forget about technology altogether and just have fun. These days it is all about the selfie shot. I must admit that while I do not typically indulge in the practice I did take a couple in front of some iconic places and put them on Facebook. It is amusing to see someone use a selfie stick to take a normal picture, it looks very awkward.
If you're appy and you know it
Life, James Hein, Published on 09/09/2015
» A common phrase these days is "there is an app for that". I have had the need for some fairly specific apps lately and I have also had one or two recommended to me that have worked out well.
Samsung: Wannabe Apple Corp
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/08/2015
» I recently spent a week roughly south of Buri Ram in the Northeast. I was far enough away that my AIS SIM could not reliably pick up data and it was an interesting feeling to be disconnected for such a time. There are now apparently psychological conditions being defined for those who feel a lack of continuous connectivity but for my part at least it was a short enough time to be a novel experience. It did highlight just how much those who are part of the modern world rely on connectivity for news and contact. When I was younger we thought nothing of waiting a few weeks for a reply to a written letter. These days some feel put out if they don’t get a reply within a few seconds.
In the right domain
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/07/2015
» How important is picking the right website name or URL? I have been involved in the website selection process a number of times and it is an interesting exercise. If, for example, you have a company name like Dritzz then you are probably not going to have many problems finding a domain like www.dritzz.com, which incidentally currently does not exist.