Posts by Dave 126

Waterproofing nothing related to sealed-in batteries

It's an oft repeated myth. There have been plenty of phones with swappable batteries *and* waterproofing in the past, from Samsung and Sony. Also note that the trend to seal in batteries started long waterproofing became mainstream.

These days the waterproofing largely depends upon a factory-applied vapour-deposited hydrophic coating to the phone's innards.

The reason batteries tend to be sealed in to phones is that a swappable battery (unlike a replaceable battery) needs protection from the elements - a hard casing, just like the swappable batteries that power digital cameras. A swappable battery needs a few mm of material to prevent it from being punctured by whatever else lives in your glovebox / handbag / toolbox / rucksack. This few mm of material, translated over the area of the battery, results in a phone containing a fair volume of inert plastic rather than actual battery.

I don't think any phone vendor wants the bad press or publicity that might ensue if some idiot puts a damaged battery in their phone and caused a fire. Or leaves a naked battery on their dashboard in hot weather.

Samsung still make a phone with swappable battery, waterproofing, SD card slot and headphone socket - if you want it, buy it. Otherwise, a lot of people can justify to themselves spending 5-10% of their phone's initial cost every few years on an official battery change, less if they go backstreet or DIY.

Re: Tempting fate?

Magsafe and USB C PD are not mutually exclusive on a laptop, any more than Willing charging and USB C are on a phone.

Re: Magnetic adapters are a thing...

Sony also implemented a magnetically-secured charging system in their Xperia Z phones some time ago. I had the phone but didn't buy the official magnetic cable - or even a cheap 3rd party knock-off (Amazon reviews of the knock-off versions suggested that their magnets were too strong, eventually damaging the phone)

Re: MagSafe was awful.

I can't image Apple moving away from the idea of docking a laptop to monitor, power, storage etc with just a single cable.

Re: SD card reader? Really?

Back in the say, you couldn't realistically use a PC for colour accurate work. This was one of the reasons that Macs survived the 19990s. This thankfully changed some years ago. However, high resolution displays took a long time to be properly supported by Windows (i.e, so that you could view a high Res image without the UI elements of your application be too small). Sadly, even after Microsoft sorted Windows out in this regard, Adobe dragged it's feet for several years, meaning that Photoshop on Windows laptops with high resolution displays was a PITA for viewing high Res images.

Photographers often stayed with Macs.

> Magnetic USB-C cables do exist, and I need to buy one to see if it can withstand long-term high-voltage charging

I might be wrong, but the wall charger will start at 5v 2.1A, and then, only after a handshake with a compatible device, bump up the voltage to 9v (depending upon which fast charging system is in use*). Since this handshake requires a good connection, there isn't a high voltage present at the moment that pins are brought into contact with each other.

* Qualcomm and Samsung use a system that bumps up the voltage, but it appears to be compatible with some tier of USB C PD (which is a standard). I.e, my Samsung Galaxy S8 will fast charge from a USB C PD charger made by Apple for MacBooks. I believe that OnePlus used an adaptive system where the wall charger would bump up the current instead of the voltage.

> Think about it, though: if the problem was as endemic as is implied, why don't other vendors come up with alternatives?

Because for a long time most other vendors sold their laptops based on price, knowing that many would would-be customers would, if offered two machines for the same money, buy the one with the faster CPU or most RAM. Fitting extra features, or more refined features, would make a laptop cost more but wouldn't allow it to command a premium over rivals unless the market saw the advantage in it.

Okay, that's a gross generalisation. Vendors like Sony, IBM and Toshiba would compete on features and refinement too (eg, all of the above, like Apple, had charging circuitry that meant a laptop could be left plugged in indefinitely without killing the battery - this sadly isn't true of all laptops) - but Apple had an easier job of communicating such things because they have been consistent in their attitude to cost and features.

Re: I like the Touch bar.

I guess it depends upon how much you used the Function keys. Certainly many laptops are inelegant in how they consign things like Screen Brightness and Audio Volume to a [Fn] + [F12] style key combo. Most laptop users have need to for these functions, but a lot of software doesn't require the user to use F1 - F12: there is a basic issue with 'discoverability'.

The other unknown (at the time of its creation) was how widely the touch at would be adopted by 3rd party applications.

In the late nineties, Sony VAIO laptops (as well as Sony phones) had a jog dial. Many of the functions that Apple would have on the touch bar (brush tool size, zoom, volume, brightness, etc etc) could work well on a jog dial, with a screen pop up providing visual feedback. However, a lot of these things can also be well controlled with [Keyboard modifier] + [ Mouse Scroll Wheel]

Haha, it occured to me how much data about accidental laptop damage Apple gleans from its repair centres (my guess is, as much as it can), with a view to informing later refits, revisions and models. I then imagined a scenario where a repair technician can view the last 5 seconds of video seen by a laptop's webcam immediately before it is knocked to the floor and 'killed' ("Benson!"). My chuckle is because it is a familiar premise from science fiction - a wetware hacker / psychic cop / time traveller uses the last images a murder victim sees to identify their killer.

Re: "starts at £1,149"

You might consider:

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-brings-back-rugged-galaxy-with-xcover-pro/

Samsung Xcover Pro, removable battery, SD card, headphone socket, waterproof, ruggedised,...

Re: Yet again ....

> Does your GPS have roads you've personally never driven down? But your roads are other peoples roads!

Unfortunately my GPS also thinks some bridle tracks are roads, leading me in unwise directions. Point is, some roads aren't suitable for all users.

I've lost data because of micro SD cards (being so damned small) or because an app has saved data into it and after I've moved the card to a different device and back, the app hasn't reintegrated its data.

If you use an SD card to regularly transfer data between devices, then it can't easily be encrypted.

There are niche use cases where an SD card in a phone is useful, but there are pitfalls. It's generally better, and definitely safer, to use USB OTG to transfer data between a phone and a thumbstick, SD card, or camera etc.

Now, I'm sure you are experienced enought to sidestep these potential pitfalls, and more power to you. However, I wouldn't recommend using SD cards with phones for most people (nor are they likely to ask me).

Re: Yet again ....

> Or it just works, and the only warning they get is when the card is detected and it warns them the card is slow to write.

How does the phone know the speed of the SD card prior to recording video? Remember, many SD cards get significantly slower at writing the fuller they get. It's a variable outside the control of the phone that can easily result in the phone failing to capture video. Data loss. Not good.

Yeah, you could have the phone buffer all video to its built-in in storage before transferring it to the SD card, but then you need a mechanism to prevent the user removing the SD card before the write is complete.

Re: Yet again ....

> So, you can't record to the SD card and swap it out when its full.

It causes consumer confusion when the phone has to alert the user that higher resolution / frame rate video can't be recorded to SD card because either the card isn't fast enough, or the bus that it sits on can't keep up.

The phone also has to alert the user that video recorded into an SD card isn't by default encrypted, so that a thief could view the user's videos just by placing the SD card in a different device.

It might be noted that amassing days worth of video footage upon a phone's SD card is vulnerable if you lose the phone before you transfer the SD card. If you more regularly back up (via USB C to computer, USB phone as host to external drive, or wirelessly) your data then you're less likely to find yourself needing to free up the phone's storage in a hurry. Plus your data protected against loss and theft, as well as phone malfunction.

Re: Peak Planet

> and it had some unobtrusive way to draw power from the phone instead of having to hassle with charging two sets of batteries.

True. Options are:

- keyboard has both a USB port and a low profile USB C plug. (This method was used by Apple on their battery cases, using Lightening instead of USB C)

- similar to above, but keyboard is supplied with Magsafe-style USB plug for phone.

- keyboard draws power wirelessly from phone. This ability of a phone to transmit power is present in the latest Samsung and Apple flagships. It's thought it is done to charge earbuds (Samsung) or for an iPhone to act as an Apple Watch charger. Wireless keyboards use little power compared to phones, so even a small battery will keep them going for days - it'd just add ten minutes to the time it takes to fully charge your phone.

- extinct or proprietary solutions such as those used by Apple (pogo pins on iPads for stylus and keyboard), Essential phone or Moto Mod system.

There are some minor downsides to the above approaches, but the alternative is making a combined keyboard and phone so reliable that the chance of *either* component failing within a few years is acceptably low. Not to mention, it might be desirable to upgrade your phone but bring your keyboard with you.

Re: Peak Planet

One component breaking - be it in the phone part or the keyboard - is one reason why having a slim discrete keyboard that works with a range of phones from various vendors is probably the better option. The end result won't be quite as streamlined, but the advantages of a detachable keyboard may make up for this.

Re: Tracking

And AC can state with confidence that you're not that special - he's been spying on you for months and he hasn't found your browsing tastes to that weird.

Re: Wassat?

Maybe 2021 will be the year of chorded typing on the virtual desktop?

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

I miss the multiple virtual desktops in whichever window manager I last used in Linux. (SolidWorks and other applications tie me to Windows)

> Don't understand. The error rate is unchanged

Rate is unchanged, but time period is greater. The local office PC terminals were being left on overnight with programmes and data in RAM instead of being loaded at the start of the working day.

Re: "wrapped in sandpaper"

Acetone will dissolve ABS, but not PLA - and both are commonly used in 3D printers. The desired surface finish for the above use case can be achieved by Acetone Vapour Polishing, though it should go without saying that you should only do it if you know what you are doing and have the correct ventilation equipment. It will produce, in ABS parts, a smooth, near mirror finish, and potentially negate the need for a smoothing, waterproof coat of silicone.

PLA parts tend to be harder, sharper, and near impossible to sand to a smooth finish. Nor does kissing it with a flame make it smooth (flame polishing is used for acrylic parts. )

Additionally, PLA degrades in contact with water - so a silicone or similar coating would be required.

Another approach of course is to print a negative mould, and then cast the male part in a suitable material. It is possible that the fine ribbing of the printed mould would, when rendered in a flexible material, actually be desirable, though making the end part harder to clean.

It is a wide description, but that's kinda necessary when we don't know quite what it will turn into. It's akin to using the vague term 'storage solution' when you know you haven't done enough research on whether boxes, bags or shelves will be the best way of keeping things safe and tidy in your particular situation.

It's also worth noting that originally IoT didn't mean things on the internet, but it meant the idea of all real objects being addressable. These days IoT is often taken to mean 'home automation'.

There's plenty of money being spent on battery R&D.

In the meantime, the cost of phone battery replacement is roughly ten percent of the price of the phone, every two to three years - fairly easy to budget for.

The limiting factor for many an Android phone is the duration of security updates. We're now a couple of years on from when phibes were shipped with Android incorporating Project Treble, so we should now start to see if that has helped the situation.

Re: I only use a fraction of the functionality of my current phone

> You don't need to pay anything to remap the bixby button.

The Samsung method still insist that you assign either single or double click to Bixby, leaving just the other option to remap to a limited range of functions.

You don't need to pay for BxActions, but you get better functionality from it if you do.