Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Samsung again pushing foldables
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/08/2021
» Samsung is betting on foldables. The new Galaxy Z Fold 3 will come with IPX8 water resistance, support for the S-pen and an under-display selfie camera. It will be interesting to see how they solved the clarity issue Apple faced with that last one. The front screen will be an adaptive 7.6-inch 120Hz.
Next-gen Wi-Fi technologies on the way
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/11/2018
» The fixed line versus Wi-Fi debate continues to be a popular one. And with technologies like Wi-Gig and Wi-Fi 6 in the pipeline, the debate will only intensify. Current Wi-Fi technologies work inside the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands; they also have user-friendly version numbers now. Wi-Fi 4 came out in 2009 under the name 802.11n, Wi-Fi 5 arrived in 2014 as 802.11ac and Wi-Fi 6 is due in 2019 as 802.11.ax. In the near future, you'll see these numbers start to appear on your devices, but not every manufacturer will bother to use the new designations. Wi-Fi numbers 1-3 represent even older, now mostly unused versions.
Looking into IT's crystal ball
Life, James Hein, Published on 03/01/2018
» So it is that time again when I try and gaze into the crystal ball and guess what 2018 will bring the IT world.
Thank the NSA for latest global ransomware
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/05/2017
» Everyone is talking about WannaCry(pt), the latest ransomware worm that attacked over 150 countries across the globe. It hit hospitals, universities, businesses, a telco, train stations and more. Microsoft responded by releasing emergency security patches for Windows versions as far back as XP. To Microsoft's credit they had released a patch for the issue in February, well before this exploit hit, so those that did not update were the ones hit. The lesson here is to install your security patches when they are available.
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.
Reverting to classic Windows
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/09/2015
» By now a number of readers will have applied the Windows 10 upgrade to their machines. Based on the feedback the first thing you should consider doing is going to www.classicshell.net and downloading the latest version of the free software Classic Shell. I have put this on a number of Windows 8.x machines over the past couple of years without any issues. This utility gives Windows 8 and 10 users back the classic Start menu and associated items. As of writing the latest version is 4.2.4 and I recommend it for all long-term Windows users.
Making Microsoft your personal assistant
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/08/2015
» Last week we looked at some of the new features of Windows 10. You may have noticed I referred to Cortana. If you cast your mind back to Clippy the paperclip that would give advice and Siri the iPhone application that you can ask questions of, then along similar lines Cortana is a digital personal assistant that first appeared on Microsoft phones and now on your new desktop.
Producers don't give a 4K about Ultra HD
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/02/2015
» Will Ultra HD, sometimes called 4K, technology take off? As someone who likes new technology that provides a sharper picture, I hope so, but the industry pundits are lukewarm on the subject for the simple reason that there are very few ways to get any content with movie studios and TV producers slow out of the gate.
Watch out, Google and pirates of Oz
Life, James Hein, Published on 17/09/2014
» The iHeart Apple lovers, pundits and columnists were out in force after the recent announcements of the latest iPhone and Apple Watch versions.
Yahoo update fails to bring much change
Life, James Hein, Published on 23/10/2013
» I'm not a fan of the latest update to Yahoo! Mail. I keep needing to refresh the inbox to make the emails appear, even after upgrading to the Yahoo-friendly version of Firefox. They have also done a Microsoft by rearranging everything so that regular users now have to retrain where they look for different options. Intrusive ads seem to have no problems displaying at any time. The update I have most eagerly been awaiting is support for sub-folders, so that I can organise my messages, but there's been nothing on that front as yet. The recent alterations have been more about the look and feel and allowing for themes rather than any substantive changes. At the time of writing this, a forum called "Tell us what you think about Yahoo! Mail" had received requests from over 31,000 users asking for tabs to be brought back (the reason many people decided to stick with Yahoo rather than migrate to Gmail). Other visitors to that forum had complaints about useability, some describing the latest update as a big step backwards.