Showing 1-10 of 13 results
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EU demands Apple play fair
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/06/2022
» It looks like the Apple-specific charging cable may be a thing of the past with the European Union demanding that all smartphone makers use a universal USB-C port for wired charging by 2024. The same rule will be applied to many other electronic devices like tablets, cameras, headphones, handheld video game consoles and e-readers. In the future, laptops will need to follow the same rule.
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Alternative social platforms can be expensive
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/11/2021
» The alternative social media platform Rumble recently bought out another platform for creators called Locals. Rumble is a YouTube-like platform and Locals is aimed more at the alternative blogging community, including names like Scott Adams and Dan Bongino. I don't think this will be a long-term successful merger for a simple reason, and that is money. To be fair Locals is an alternative to Patreon, a platform that will nuke your account if it doesn't like your politics as evidenced by a long list of conservative commentators being axed without warning.
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The dangers of Chinese expansion
Life, James Hein, Published on 13/10/2021
» From a purely technology standpoint, why do you care if China invades Taiwan? Taiwan is a major supplier and producer of chips for technology devices. Companies from across the planet have their goods made there including giants like Samsung. There is a massive amount of intellectual property (IP) tied up in this production and the rest of the world has a high dependence on Taiwan to provide their notebooks, PCs, modems, smartphones and myriad other electronic devices.
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Diminishing returns
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/06/2019
» The first three months of 2019 saw Apple and Samsung collectively selling 17.5 million fewer smartphones globally compared to last year. As I've previously noted, we have market saturation and a lack of yearly upgrades for many users. I upgrade with roughly every third model, for example. The premium end of the market also continues to move out of the reach of many, meaning fewer people can upgrade as often. The innovation jump in successive models is also diminishing, so they lack the wow factor that drove earlier upgrades. These figures do not include the impact of the latest Samsung S10 range which shipped at the end of the quarter. The top three remain Samsung, Huawei and Apple. This may change with the recent US Huawei bans, or at least reduce any growth. Even after price cuts, Apple's sales fell 17.6% in the quarter leaving Samsung as the one least likely to lose their position in the next few months. Oppo and Viva rounded out the top five in sales with Xiaomi nibbling at their heels.
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Burning issues and great expectations
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/12/2018
» Another year almost gone, another year of IT improvements, advancements and lower prices. It was a year of missing graphics cards, where Bitcoin data miners snapped up the market for a while.
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Apple versus Samsung: It's a battle of the 8s
Life, James Hein, Published on 27/09/2017
» The big news from the usual sources is the new iPhone 8. After reading some of the specs and comparisons with the Samsung S8 and Note 8, I am a bit confused. Reviewers crow about facial recognition for the new iPhone, but the S8 range already has it. They go on about the edge-to-edge screen, but Samsung has had that for a few models now. In fact, almost point by point the Samsung range already has all the features of the iPhone 8 but at a lower price point, and that's before the Note 8 comes out.
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A very taxing problem for all
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/03/2017
» Every government wants taxes. It is, after all, how the salaries get paid, and how funds are raised for re-election and looking after the country, often in that order. Consider the UK as an example. Starting in April, there will be a new set of tax regulations based on the IR35 guidelines. With the uncertainty surrounding this change there has been a rush of IT contractors leaving government positions, in many cases over half, halting a wide range of projects. This has been happening for over a year now with, as an example, the Ministry of Defence losing 30 out of 32 contractors last year. When the process of government is stopped because of taxes imposed, you're probably doing something wrong.
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Microsoft and the Europeans
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/12/2016
» For those upset by Brexit and the election of Trump, Microsoft has an answer -- LinkedIn. In a statement to the EU after the recent acquisition, Microsoft indicated as much after the EU expressed concern that Microsoft would do its usual trick of integrating LinkedIn into Office and combine the databases. There were also concerns that only MS CRM users would have access but, given the take-up of the MS CRM system, that was soon dismissed as a concern. Microsoft has agreed to a number of EU conditions, including third-party access to Office, keeping Office customisable, allowing for separate installation of LinkedIn, and allowing it to be uninstalled. The EU has always been tough on organisations like Microsoft that try to set up any kind of monopoly, but this time it might be a bit of a storm in a teacup.
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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.
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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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