Showing 1 - 8 of 8
A techie Xmas to one and all
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/12/2017
» Another year has passed, and it is time to take a look back.
New camera is weighing on my mind
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/09/2014
» I've had it for a while now so I finally decided to upgrade my SLR camera. After some research I decided on a Nikon D5300. Nikon, because that's the brand of the lenses and other camera accessories I already own; and the D5300 because it's lightweight and has all the latest features found in mid-range models. If I was going to match my old D200 I probably would've gone for the D7100 which has more knobs that I will ever need and is also a lot heavier.
Protect your photographs from spies
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/05/2014
» Beware the Cloud, or at least Google+. I took a picture with my phone recently, something I don’t do all that often, and happened to visit Google+ soon after. The first thing I saw was the photo I’d just taken. This was the first time I discovered that any photos I take are by default sent immediately to my Google+ area. You would think this was a setting in the Android G+ app but it is instead in the Photos apps. Google’s default push is to fully open up everything you do to Google, so be careful what setting you have and how you use your camera. To be fair the photo was in a “protected” area but we all know how well that kind of protection remains in the open-to-the-world-plus-their-dog environment we live in.
Happy birthday, Gmail
Life, James Hein, Published on 30/04/2014
» This month Gmail turned 10. According to legend, it was created in the free time of Google engineers, who were allocated 20% of their time for personal projects. In those days there was Microsoft (who managed to lose all of my Hotmail emails one year; I’ve never touched it since), Yahoo! and AOL, making Gmail’s rise from nothing quite an achievement. Gmail introduced threaded mail, more data storage and allowed users to send larger emails. They also introduced an “undo send” option, long-term storage of emails, better searching and didn’t delete your account if you remained inactive for a while. It handled spam decently and worked on almost every browser. Microsoft responded by charging for extra space. No wonder it is now the top free email service, at least according to some measures.
Goodies galore unveiled at Nevada show
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/01/2014
» As I write this, CES _ the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas _ is under way with its displays of awesome gadgets. Nvidia announced a 192-core mobile processor that comes in 32-bit ARM format, or a 64-bit version. Yes, you read that correctly: 192-core. There's lots more from all the usual suspects, but so far the release of the Galaxy S5 hasn't been announced. That's expected next month.
Predictions for 2014
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/01/2014
» Happy New Year! Like the start of last year I am not sure how the coming one will go in terms of IT and technological development. The current downward economic trends in places such as China will have an effect on manufacturing, so perhaps the focus will be on the low and middle sections of the marketplace.
Myforecasts and how they fared in the end
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/12/2013
» It's that time of year again where we look back and review what the past 12 months brought us _ and check how well I did with my predictions from this time last year. While I forecast that the Galaxy S4 would do well against the iPhone, I didn't expect Apple to fall as far as it did this past year, compared to other firms, in terms of overall market position and sales. The 5S was indeed a catch-up for Apple and had no wow factors at all, causing some users to move away from the Apple line. The 5C was a sales failure and the iPad mini didn't do very well at all against the less expensive equivalents. As expected, Apple is still actively involved in litigation and trying to secure as many ridiculous patents for itself as possible instead of focusing on true innovation.
The shape, and size, of things to come
Life, James Hein, Published on 09/10/2013
» When someone uses the word smartphone, most people these days probably automatically think of Apple or Samsung. This makes sense because between them they account for over half the world's devices in this category. Apple started the trend and in recent times Samsung has taken over and been leading ever since. Beyond the United States, Australia and Europe, the fastest growing markets are China, India and Brazil, all of which have their own increasingly popular brands. In China, for example, Samsung is the current leader, but numbers two and three are Lenovo and Yulong Coolpad _ I've never heard of the latter either although they released 48 models last year. Apple isn't even fourth with ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi coming next on the list.