Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Windows facelift is on the cards
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/08/2021
» Today we start by looking at Windows 11. Microsoft is getting closer to its new major Windows version, expected at the end of the year. According to the marketing blurb it is focused on "simplified design and user experience" along with a few new key features, including Android support.
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.
The eternal debate between privacy and security
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/03/2017
» What is the line dividing privacy from national security? If you are a privacy advocate, the line is closer to "everything is private". If you are a nation state wanting to protect its interests, that line falls somewhere nearer to your preschool diary. Homeland in the US is working on a policy requiring selected non-citizens entering the US to provide the passwords to their social media accounts to gain entry. This has triggered feedback from human rights groups, civil liberties groups and a bunch of professors. Given that every nation has a right to protect its borders and a customs official can search everything else you bring in, why not information in the digital realm?
Buyer's market for smartphones
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/11/2014
» With the Western markets saturated, the pattern for smartphone sales is starting to change. It is a very good time to be the buyer as competition is fierce for those upgrading and for the tiny minority who don't yet have a model from the upper end of the market. Last month, LG was the only major retailer who had a positive number in their earnings statement. By comparison Samsung, HTC and Sony did not do so well. Elsewhere, like in China and India, the markets are expanding and people are starting to update from a regular phone to the smarter variety, but in the lower price range.
Tablet sales a bitter pill for top firms
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/05/2014
» According to International Data Corporation analysts, tablet sales are starting to flatten and are not making the latest estimated quarterly shipments. There is still some growth, but nothing like the previous steep rise. Hit hardest was Apple, dropping from 40% to under 33% of the total market share. Second was Samsung, which went from 18% to a bit over 22%. Lenovo also jumped, but was still fourth behind Asus that saw a drop of almost 3%. As predicted, the boom time for tablets is almost over. Let’s see where they are at the end of the year.
Hackers getting younger
Life, James Hein, Published on 16/04/2014
» As a parent here is a headline you don’t want to see every day "A five-year-old boy has found and exploited a password flaw in his Xbox to hack into his father's Xbox Live account". Special irony points for this story comes via the father who is a computer security specialist. Kristoffer, yes you guessed it, from California, broke in by entering the wrong password, navigating to the verification screen and entering spaces before hitting submit. This allowed him entry and exposed a password bug. Microsoft has since fixed the problem and rewarded Kristoffer. As a one-year-old he held down the home key on Dad’s phone to defeat a lockout so it looks like this kid is going places.
A return to form
Life, James Hein, Published on 31/07/2012
» It is good to be back on the pages of the Bangkok Post. For those diehards who kept reading my Currents blog during the interim, you can now relax with the expanded Life section and catch up here. The new Currents will be the same as the old Currents but with less technical and programming bits in the shorter format.
Make your machine quicker and smoother
Database, James Hein, Published on 20/10/2010
» OK, be honest, when was the last time you performed any preventative maintenance on your home Windows machine? I'm guessing quite a while. It's time to grab a couple of utilities and look at speeding your machine up a little.
The cloud has been around for a while
Database, James Hein, Published on 13/10/2010
» If you are a business, then at the very least you need some way to communicate with your customers and your suppliers, and them with you. For some this means a phone call, an order entry system, emails and even messaging systems. If you are dealing with people outside the country, then a VoIP system will save you a lot of money.