Showing 1-10 of 10 results
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A down vote for MS Skype
Life, James Hein, Published on 20/06/2018
» It has been a while since I've used Skype, and I had no idea just how much Microsoft has stuffed it up. Skype for the multi-device user is all but useless. I tried to find a way to allow someone to call into my PC's Skype but to no avail. I shut down Skype on my phone and was able to call out but not receive anything. This removed the possibility of using a good sound card and microphone for the mix, and all I could use in the end was my phone. BM -- or Before Microsoft -- Skype was usable and useful. PM -- Post-Microsoft -- you should look for any other alternative. Line seems to be most popular with those I know. This is not the first time Microsoft has taken over a product, and its usage has dropped dramatically. Of course that could have been the plan all along.
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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.
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7, 8, skip 9, and it's 10!
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/10/2014
» Forget Windows 9, Microsoft is so certain the next version of Windows is so good they are jumping right to 10. Yes, Windows 10. Its reasoning is something about this not being an incremental update, which is what I thought was the point of a decimal numbering system (8.1).
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Passing the hacker hat
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/04/2014
» A “black hat” is a skilled hacker who tends to lurk in the background, rarely gets caught and is a master at breaking into systems, programs and data. These people have been represented in movies and are usually considered shady characters. There are, of course, rewards in being skilled in this field — both monetarily and in terms of underground notoriety — but there are also risks, such as retaliation from those that have been hacked and the continual threat of government agencies tracking them down. Lesser known but becoming more so are those called “grey hats”, who often straddle the line of legality. And as a recent conference showed, you can be rewarded for finding vulnerabilities in operating systems and application codes. There is a growing market for skilled grey hats, who are used to find holes in social media platforms and all manner of other products, ranging from smartphones to major systems. Government departments will even hire ex-black hats to secure their systems against attack. Major corporations do the same thing. So if you are a budding young hacker, you can potentially make up to $250,000 (8 million baht) if you find a zero-day problem in iOS or around half that for a Windows problem. The zero-day issue was recently represented in an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.
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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.
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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.
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News in the mobile world
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/11/2013
» Apple has outperformed the financial projections of Wall Street moneymen but income is still down. Earlier in the year, things were not looking so good but Apple had a strong finish on the back of the sale of their latest products and claimed that 340 million iPhones were sold. They also sold 14.1 million iPads last quarter and more than 4.6 million iMacs.
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Tablet nears saturation point
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/08/2013
» Is the PC dying? I don't believe so. I look at how people are using tablets and, for the most part, they have mostly put bigger screens on a phone so that the children can play games and save the battery life of the parent's smartphone. Yes, I have seen some very specific instances of a tablet being used in government departments, specialist offices and medical facilities. But as far as general business use goes, there hasn't been so much. For commuters, the tablet is an alternative to a book, chessboard, Sudoku pad or movie player. People look a bit silly using it as a camera, however, and typing without a keyboard is not all that good. Bottom line: I think that we are close to market saturation with the tablet and close alternatives; and the notebook is still the most viable option for business people. (I forgot to mention browsing, that works fairly well if you have a decent wireless connection and don't have to type too much.)
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It's time for an overhaul
Life, James Hein, Published on 24/04/2013
» So the question of the next big thing seems to be, why would you need to have a watch and a phone? I have noticed that most of the younger generation, the ones with a smartphone, don't have a watch because the time is prominently displayed on the phone. One simple answer might be that a watch is still useful for when your hands are full, or swimming underwater, or when you are doing something that doesn't include pockets.
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Smartphone patent battle is pretty dumb
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/08/2012
» This week it's time to take a look at the ongoing phone wars. Nokia and RIM, makers of the Blackberry, are essentially out of the market leaving Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and a number of Asian providers.
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