Showing 1 - 10 of 40
Huawei still some way behind rivals
Life, James Hein, Published on 21/11/2018
» I've had some feedback expressing surprise that I invested in a smartwatch. Yes, I didn't think I'd see the day either, but it does function very well as a watch with changeable faces and at a price point that's far below some of the faces it can duplicate. The always-on test was a success in that I only turned the watch off when I wasn't using it on some evenings. It also does sleep tracking, which perhaps provides a sterner test, but it still provided a week's worth of use making it usable for many. On a longer trip you would need to take the charger along. Note that for both tests, I kept Bluetooth on the whole time.
You can forget HAL 9000
Life, James Hein, Published on 05/12/2018
» It has been over five years and it was time for a new PC. It took a while to pull together, required an eclectic set of carefully chosen components, and I paid someone to put it together for me, having done that myself too many times in the past.
Silicon Valley is not an arbiter of free expression
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/08/2018
» It is somewhat disconcerting that Silicon Valley -- which occupies about 300 square miles, and where most think the same and have the same politics -- can determine allowable content for the rest of the planet. Some of us remember that many of the major platforms were developed using government grants and public funding. With this base they should represent all views, of all types, and not just the ones they happen to like. This was the initial declaration at least, but in the modern world, that seems to have changed. I am certainly no great fan of Alex Jones, but that a cabal of providers can effectively execute social termination is very worrying for the future of open platforms and freedom of expression.
Best to avoid FB's Onavo Protect VPN
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/02/2018
» If you use Facebook, you may have seen an option in the Settings menu under Protect to download the Onavo Protect app for Android and the iPhone. Don't. It is basically an app that allows Facebook to spy on you, even more than it already does. The app is a Virtual Private Network or VPN. In simplest terms this will encrypt and route all your network traffic through a server in addition to the one your ISP provides. This allows you to appear to be somewhere else, so you can watch, say, local content there for free and it will stop most agencies from spying on what you might be doing.
Your TV is watching you
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/03/2017
» Love them or hate them as I write this WikiLeaks has just dropped a large batch of new documents for all the world to see, this time CIA secret materials. The part that has caught most attention is the information on how to spy on people, using commonly found household items. Apple and Android devices, Samsung TV's (glad I recently changed to Sony), Macs and Windows devices can all be used to spy on people -- no one in the US of course -- and pass info back to the CIA. There are also different malware products that can be used to infect all manner of devices including a USB stick that can be used to jump that critical air-gap between your system and the outside world. For anyone living in the real world none of this will be of any surprise. All the leaks really do is confirm what everyone knows and every country does.
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.
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.
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.
Free stuff, TVs, and hacking
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/02/2015
» If you use email and the internet then you will have been bombarded with offers for free stuff. These offers take various forms, but the most common one is the chance to win something for free, where your chances increase with the more friends you get involved with and then there are the mandatory pages of offers that you need to say "no" to, in order to complete the application.
Xiaomi Redmi ticks all the boxes
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/02/2015
» So after a few weeks use of the Xiaomi Redmi 5.5-inch phone, which cost me about 6,500 baht shipped, for the price this seems an excellent product. It has a removable battery, supports a Micro SD card up to 64GB and comes with a 13MP camera. It supports 4G and connects quite well to Wi-Fi networks. It has a 720 x 1280 pixel screen which gives a pixel density of about 267, so it is not as sharp as units three times the price but still works well. Battery life is quite good, supporting all day use driving Android 4.4. With a quad core CPU it is snappy enough for most tasks. GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct round out the functionality with even FM support included. The price-per-function ratio is therefore very high for a 4G device. For the majority, this kind of phone will be fine for making calls and usual smartphone functionality. Best of all it uses a non Samsung-ed version of Android minus all those add-ons I find annoying. As usual shop around and make up your own mind.