Showing 11 - 20 of 74
Upgrading to the Samsung S8
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/07/2017
» So, I finally went for the smartphone upgrade and ordered a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. The Chinese phones are not quite there in terms of feature set, and the prices on them keep rising. The next article will cover some of the issues I faced moving from my current S5, and the wonders of the new phone as I discover them. After that, the next question will be "Do I get the docking station and VR kit or not?".
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.
Mind your passwords
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/01/2017
» Google, Facebook and Apple are the names of a few companies working on artificial intelligence (AI). I don't mean the kind of AI that simply teaches machines to be useful to humans, though that is also being done everywhere. I mean the self-aware kind. After so long at it I think the bigger organisations are locked in a series of dead end paths. Instead, I predict the first breakthroughs will come from small, even one-man operations thinking outside the cube. As an aside, when it comes to the search giants like Google or Yahoo and social media sites like Facebook, they all have their biases so the results you see may not be all that comprehensive, balanced or accurate.
Praying to false idols
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/01/2017
» The "Apple didn't invent the iPhone" story you may have seen in the media recently, originating from the BBC, has been found to have a number flaws. Using the tried and true tactic -- if you repeat a lie enough times it becomes the truth -- they managed to convince media people everywhere that Apple didn't create the concept of the iPhone. Besides showing just how low and lazy many media people have sunk, the story is far from true.
Money trumps morals in the online world
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/12/2016
» In a world where making everything smaller and lighter is the trend, a half-tonne CPU is certainly an anomaly. The 42,300 transistors, 10,548 LED CPU machine was built by hand from regular components and can be seen at the Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, England. The builder is James Newman, who wanted to learn about transistors and then got busy. The result is a CPU that shows how it is working in real time by following the flashing LEDS. At 15m² it roughly equates to the old 33m² Intel 8086. OK not quite that powerful as it only has 256 bytes of ROM and RAM and runs at an estimated 20kHz. I'm putting this in for the people with way too much time on their hands category. You can find out more here megaprocessor.com/programming.html.
Samsung's woes continue
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/10/2016
» Where to start this week? Samsung's woes just keep on going. The latest versions caused fires within a day in a couple of cases, including a fire on a plane when the unit was off. The Korean giant has now recommended that all Note 7 users turn their phones off and not use them. This will mean a whole new replacement program of some kind. Not sure where this leaves Samsung though their S7 and S7 Edge units all seem to be fine and going well with customers. It will now be interesting to see what happens to the Note range and what the next version will look like. It has cost Samsung around US$2.3 billion, so far.
Android finally matures with sweet new Nougat update
Life, James Hein, Published on 12/10/2016
» Unless you are a Google Nexus owner you may not be aware that Android Version 7 aka Nougat is out. This is an even more stable version than the last one and it finally feels like Android is getting to the place where it has matured as an operating system. Performance is better, multitasking is smoother and the look and feel is familiar. It is essentially the same interface as Marshmallow but there are a few changes like the new Settings menu, though many of the upgrades have occurred behind the scenes.
Xiaomi sale nets B11bn
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/04/2015
» In a recent Asian sale the Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi sold more than 2 million phones and a range of other electronic devices including over 200,000 MI Bands (like a FitBit). Leveraging off new deals in India they did all of this and more in a 12 hour period. Xiaomi was also smart enough to apply localisation features and add software relevant to the local markets to their phones, something others have often failed to do well. The total received for the sale over the period was around 11 billion baht across India, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Arguing over social media
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/04/2015
» This week's article is a little different. The modern world is now largely based around social media. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Secret, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Taptalk, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and many others are linking people all around the planet, 24/7, 365 days of the year. Some countries like China have banned some of these sites and replaced them with local variants, but for the most part, no matter where you are, you can let people know what you are doing.
SSD can be a fragging pain also
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/03/2015
» A solid state drive (SSD) has no moving parts and for the most part is — or at least should be — faster than a regular platter based hard drive. Over the years I have had a 128, 240 and more recently a 512GB SSD that I use as my system drive. After the installation of the last one, things started to slow down until it took less time to copy to a regular hard drive than to my new SSD. As you should when you want to check on something, I Googled (any other search engine will also work) for anything to do with my SSD model having problems. Unfortunately, while it is a Samsung 840 series, it is not the one that has had all the problems, so no useful suggestions. Finally, I decided to see if it was slow because it was fragmented.