Posts by Dave 126 10660 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
IP*8 is waterproof, IP*2 means it is safe to use in rain falling at no more than 15 degree angle. Seems fit for purpose to me, since one wouldn't normally carry out scheduled inspections when it's pissing down in a howling gale.
The first digit, in the case the 5 in IP52, refers to object / dust ingress. 5 means that whilst dust might enter it, the dust won't bugger it up.
Still, it seems to be largely a development platform at this stage; organisations might buy a couple of this gen to play with and code for.
Try the MX mice from Logitech - they use some cunning, if expensive, darkfield laser system that even works on glass (which feels lovely and smooth). There's a big version and a travel version. The MK III has recently been introduced so it's possible there are currently discounts on the MK II. The only downside is that the rechargable AA battery only lasts weeks instead of months, but they include a USB charging cable.
I can't think of a computer peripheral, the MK I big version, that has made my life easier. Even still, its RRP of £90 was too much for me so I had to wait a couple for years to find it in sale for £45.
Fully waterproofed is no mark up at all if it saves you the price of several non waterproof phones.
As I originally hinted, a hill walker is never planning to slip and fall in a stream.
People who care about the environment are often the same as those who are *in* the environment. And here, that includes rain, puddles and streams.
Sony have had external charging pins on their phones in the past. The plug-in USB C magnetic couplings look like a good idea, especially if your phone isn't waterproof (they would reduce areas of ingress) and doesn't have wireless charging ( which provides redundancy for the charging docket, and be be used to minimise the mechanical wear on the socket in the first place.
Given the overlap between eco conscious folk and people who love being in the great outdoors on bikes, boats and on ropes, the lack of waterproofing is disappointing.
My phone has taken a few dunkings in the last couple of years, so it could be calculated to have used fewer resources than the sum of several replacement Fairphones. Whilst there is a sporting that a Fairphone might have made a recovery (as many phones not advertised as waterproof do, if the owner is lucky), my experience would suggest that outdoors enthusiasts (or even just people living in areas at risk of flooding or hurricanes, sadly a growing number of people it seems) might be better looking elsewhere.
Sony and Samsung have both shown that waterproof phones with swappable batteries are possible.
Er, lower power consumption equates to longer battery life. I think everyone can find that useful.
I don't know if Apple have redesigned the controller for the OLED screens - Anandtech reported that their first gen OLED controllers were inefficient (in a bid to claim higher colour accuracy than Samsung phones) negating the inherent power efficiency of the OLED panel itself when displaying dark content.
No, but if you add this year's incremental advance to last year's incremental advance... then after a few years the difference will be significant.
I have no reason to upgrade my 2017 Galaxy today, but the groundwork is being slowly laid (by the likes of Apple, Sony Sensors, Google, Qualcomm et al) for features I would find genuinely useful - such as 3D scanning, for example.
The screens are as prone to scratches as my soft laptop screen is - but being on the interior of a clamshell case mitigates against damage.
If a user tries to put a Galaxy Fold in their pocket without folding it up first, they are using it wrong. If the user's pockets are big enough to allow such daftness, Samsung will happily sell them a 7" tablet instead.
"If you fold a material enough times, you will weaken the structural integrity of the object."
Where does physics tell us that? It doesn't. It tells us that some materials can be repeatidly deformed (within their elastic limit) without issue, and some materials can't.
Samsung aren't stupid ( though they have rushed things in the past: Note fires, first version of this Fold, not allowing Bixby button to be remapped) and they have tested the material. However they didn't perform the tests in the presence of dust. So, now its a case of seeing how good their dust sealing is, hardly an impossible challenge.
Well, there is DEX, with some Android apps (eg Chrome and MS Office) optimised for mouse and keyboard use. And I think Samsung have played with full fat Linux.
Regardless, if this Galaxy Fold MK 1.2 proves the hardware concept, it might be that a foldable laptop might be a better use of it. After all, the main usability issue with netbooks was the letterbox display. "Imagine a Gemini with a bigger screen"
> An obscenely expensive and overly complex solution to a problem that doesn't even exist.
E-ink readers started at a similar price before becoming affordable. The first OLED screen sold to consumers was a similar price and was only 13" diagonal.
Nobody is forcing us to buy them, so where's the harm in letting wealthy people buy them, and thus pay for a chunk of the R and D, if they choose? They'd only splurge the cash on something else instead like a leather seat option for their Mercedes.
Not if they are a private detective or a male performer in the adult movie industry.
Human names are to distinguish us from others. A software name gives a clue to the function of the software, or at least should do. Notepad, Paint, Photoshop, CorelDraw, Illustrator, Inkscape, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Audition, Office, Word - even a novice would have a fair guess at which one is for writing a letter and which is for drawing shapes.
I did try the Gimpshop add-on to make Gimp look more like Photoshop, but it caused it to crash. Got it working eventually, then found Gimp didn't work with 24bit (HDR) images, that needed something that had been forked from Gimp several versions ago and seemingly abandoned. Oh, and the free transform tool wasn't full featured, it was gimped.
Saves energy if you're using an OLED display. Ars Technica, for example, gives readers the option of white on black or vice versa. Such options may also aid accessibility to some users, such as those with dyslexia.
Some browsers will let the user invert the colours of a website - though hidden in Android Chrome - though results are usually better if Dark Mode is implemented by the website designer.
I've had issues around this, though I can't remember the details... something to do with trying to use USB OTG and an SD card reader on an Android phone to sort out photos taken on a compact camera. Seem to recall phone could read the card but not allow me to delete photos. Read only access. On holiday, no laptop available.
The point is, in 2016 I shouldn't have had such issues. I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to be able to buy an SD card, cheerfully start using it and then read and write to the same card with some other device. Uniformed? Quite right. This isn't the sort of thing someone should have to be informed about.
Eh? It's similar to many phones. 16.56 Wh at 5v is 3312mAh.
My ten quid 10,000 mAh power bank charges my phone around 3 times.
EDIT: I just used the figure of 5v for the calculation, clearly the actual voltage is different since Miguel has given us the quoted capacity of roughly 4000 mAh. Bigger than most phones, but not wildly so.
Many self employed people find the the act of leaving their house beneficial to working, even if you're a writer and you're just leaving your house for your shed (see Roald Dahl).
If they try and sit at the kitchen table to write, they are distracted by the washing up or whatever.
Anecdotally, people I know who rent a shared office space find the hum of other people working aids their concentration.
Is the idea that your essential data is on the encrypted SD card (that you have tied to your wrist) and not the nickable laptop?
Do you need SD? The most common use-case is for transferring photos, and most cameras (any?) don't encrypt the SD card.
They are also a buffer for getting lost.
The London Stock Exchange was invented centuries ago by businessmen who habitually used coffee shops as their offices. Rents were so cheap that it was economical to allow a customer a table for a day for only a few cups of coffee. If a coffee shop markets itself to people working with laptops, I see no problem.
It's when you seen lone person with a laptop at a prime table (as opposed to a back bar table) in a pub that it's annoying.
There is also the option of a fake lock, enough to deter a would-be thief. You could make one with a usb cable, steel braiding, an old Kensington lock etc.
One could also partially secure a laptop to its bag with a piece of ribbon between the screen and monitor.
It also strikes me that a thief might hesitate to grab a laptop that has several USB cables (mouse, power, external harddrive etc) coming out if it... it would make a clean snatch harder to pull off.
Re Mac Vs PC.... evidently the thieves consider MacBooks worth stealing, which suggests that Apple's security measures can be circumvented so that it can be used by someone other than the owner. The alternative assumption is that the thief sells it to a sucker (who then finds that they can't use it.) . Is is correct? Can the serial number be over-written or spoofed?
Also, they put effort in their plan to steal a MacBook Air, instead of a more expensive Pro model. Does the Pro's security chip (with its formally Verified OS) prevent serial number spoofing (if that is indeed what is happening)?
Depending upon the Intel CPU, 16GB might be the maximum it can support without using a more power hungry type of RAM. Certainly this was the reason MacBook Pros were limited to 16GB until the last refresh, at which point Apple gave up waiting for Intel and decided to allow customers to take a hit on the power consumption.
And yeah, as you note, there are real Mobile Workststion-class Think Pads available that can't be realistically used too far from a plug socket. RIP the crazy W series with pull-out secondary screen and integrated Wacom digitiser - you were just too strange for this world.
To an extent the attractiveness of the physical form is subjective, though at least it hasn't had a veneer of 'style' applied to it (i,e, non functional additions such as glowing logos, exaggerated vents, go faster stripes etc). For that reason, most of the target market won't consider it ugly, and appreciate that it isn't trying to be stylish. The designer of the original Think Pad, Richard Sapper, took inspiration from traditional Japanese lunch boxes. It's not a bad strategy, when designing a product in a new category, to look at objects that have been bought and used for decades, if there are appropriate similarities (i.e, a laptop, like a lunchbox, is of similar form, bigger than pocket size, and carried to work)
> Nobody will like to publish those numbers, they're too weak.
They're also not desperately useful, either. Nobody - not an engineer, gamer or programmer - expects a full day's use from a mobile workstation at maximum performance, so you're going to be carrying the power brick anyway. And hey, many of these folks will on occasion have need of less power, when they are writing a report, taking notes, emailing colleagues or just unwinding with a film.
Anyone who really needs full performance away from a power socket will do their own research into how best to work in their challenging situation, looking at the power capacity of the laptop battery, the performance per watt of the chip, external batteries, power inverters in a vehicle, perhaps offloading the heavy calculations to a remote machine etc. They are not going to base their buying decision on the vendor's stated number for 'how long can I watch Netflix in a dark room'
> I guess that is what they charge, not what they cost? Materials and labour are probably tiny.
Yet again a Reg commenter has ignored the cost of research, development, design, testing and tooling, and failed to appreciate the relatively low number of units these costs are shared across.
You can only approximate design and tooling costs to zero if you're making millions of units.
See above. Missions will largely be controlled from Earth. There are redundant physical buttons below the touchscreens. The eject mechanism is a large lever. I don't think the test pilot / engineers who are helping design the capsule before being the first to ride it are bonkers - I suspect they have psych tests to prove it.
1, most of the time the crew in the Crew Dragon will be passengers, with control being done from Earth at Mission Control.
2 Touchscreens are only interfaces; what can be done on one screen can be done on another.
3 There are physical controls beneath the touch screens, should for some reason Earth based mission control fails and the touch screens also all fail
4, there is a large lever marked EJECT that must be pulled then twisted to activate.
5, There are four astronauts working with SpaceX to design, test and simulate the controls. They're all engineers as well as test pilots, so know far more than me.
Training can only simulate intense and panicked situations so far, hence the importance of clear and unambiguous controls.
Classic example: an older US bomber aircraft, the landing gear switch was next to an identical looking switch for something else. In some stressful landing situations, the wrong switch was activated, resulting in crashes. The redesigned switch had a physical representation of a wheel on it, and this cause of crashes dropped drastically.
Absolutely, various control schemes have their merits. Choose accordingly and then test, test, and test again.
A capacitive virtual big red button can only be activated by exposed flesh - an accidental knock with a clothed elbow won't activate it. In some circumstances this is a good thing (launch missile!), in others it isn't (machines such as table saw and lathes are all fitted with big red STOP buttons that stand proud like mushrooms, and can be easily pressed from a range of angles, and are often placed so they can be pressed by a knee as well as a hand)
Putting usability aside for a moment, designing consoles that don't injure sailors who fall against them is an interesting topic. And, for that matter, designing throttle control sticks that aren't broken by a human falling against them.
These particular concerns don't rule out touchscreens per se. Glass is usually, but not always, used on phones for its scratch resistance - and for its smooth feeling. However, tough (impact resistant) screens do exist, and the scratch concerns are less for a mounted touchscreen than they are for a pocket device. Plastic screen protectors can still be used to protect the screen from, for example, a sailor wearing a diamond ring or watch - the protectors will likely just need less frequent replacement than a phone's screen protector.
Of course materials technology can also be applied to physical controls. It's possible engineer a throttle stick that bends if someone falls against it and then springs back to its normal shape.
Eh Hans?
Biometrics is likely enough to prevent you being sued if you're a professional with data about your clients on your phone, should you lose your phone. You can remote wipe before a thief can fake your fingerprint with super glue.
If you're about to enter the USA or go to a protest in Hong Kong then hold down the power button and 'Enter Lockdown' (after enabling Show Lockdown Option under Security settings). On iOS, hold down two buttons for five seconds (newer phones) or tap power button five times (older).
You're best off waiting a few weeks until reviewers and consumers have had a chance to test it with a glass screen protector. In the meantime, you can Google people's experience of using the Galaxy S10 ( another phone with an under the screen finger print scanner) with glass screen protectors - a brief look suggests that some work better than others (though you might want to look a bit more in depth than I have, since some of the top search results read like paid content).
Having an air gap blinds ultrasonic sensors (which is which a gel is applied to the skin for medical ultrasound scans), so it's very plausible that using an optically clear adhesive with a glass screen protector will allow the finger print sensor to work.
I guess DEX allows you to use a borrowed laptop without having to sign the laptop into (and more importantly, out of ) various services such as email. Could be handy, could potentially offer security benefits depending upon how it works.
Of course, throwing in features just because they can has always been Samsung's MO with the Galaxy and Note lines - see my comment about the Note 10+'s 3D laser scanner.
The Note 10+ apparently features a laser Time of Flight 3D sensor, scanning at VGA resolution, which can output to something useful such as an *. STL file.
I've been making positive noises about such things here for a couple of years ago (since Qualcomm showed off a reference design, and especially in the last year since Sony announced a ToF sensor they wanted to push onto OEMs) though I acknowledge that most consumers likely won't have a use for then. Whilst I would dearly like a 3D scanner, its inclusion alone isn't enough for me to upgrade my S8 to a phone as big and and pricey as this Note 10+. Still, I look forward to seeing which models feature a ToF sensor when the time eventually comes to retire my current phone.
You can freeze your card until you happen to be near a cash point. If you choose not to and there is any activity on your card you will receive an instant notification. If this activity is not authorised by you, it should be a straight forward case of having Monzo refund you, unless they tried to claim your failure to change the PIN was negligence on your part (which I can't see them doing).
Still, it's an excuse to walk into town and pop into the pub.
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