Posts by Dave 126

Re: Where did they get the power?

That's a good point. I guess they're using a 12V DC to 240V AC inverter from their car's fag lighter socket. Sucking coins from a box wasn't part of the vacuum cleaner test matrix in Which? last I saw, so I don't know how well a cordless Dyson would work (and the batteries on those don't last long on a charge, and don't appear to have overcharge protection circuitry so leaving them in their wall mount means the battery is next to useless after 9 months.

In any case, if you're stealing coins having your vacuum cleaner be transparent is a bug not a feature.

Re: It's Dark out there.

" Why the smeg didn't you see this black hole Holly?!"

"Well, the thing about black holes, their defining characteristic if you like, is that, basically, they're black. And the thing about space is that is, well, it's black, you see....

Re: Fake news!

I read the article before looking at the actual photograph. I was imagining that the accused woman had performed some sort of maneuver such that her tyres traced the shape of a couple of adjacent circles with two lines extending from the tangent of their intersection... much like the recent case of the bored USAF pilot whose GPS log revealed him to be drawing a sky cock.

It might be handy for people who use tablets in their kitchen for reading recipes, or for other situations where the user's hands are mucky.

You can use foot pedals for iPads for 'turning over' virtual pages of sheet music.

It's always tricky to sum up all the niche use cases. Indeed, some were doubtful about tablets themselves because they couldn't see a single killer app, yet what transpired was tablets were used for many niche things.

Re: Azure Kinect

The original Kinect was sold at a loss (plan was to recoup money via xbox software sales) which made it a compelling buy for hobbyists after a MIT student developed PC drivers within a couple of days of its release. The second version cost more and came with Windows drivers, but hardware wasn't much different other than a shorter minimum distance of use.

$400 seems reasonable for a developer version of this new version. MS have no motive to fleece a few hundred developers, since it is with their software that MS might sell a consumer version plus software to thousands.

Re: It already did

In the desktop / laptop space the 2013 Leap Motion, which could track individual fingers in 3D space, failed to make much of a splash. This would provide Apple with a bit of an indication of how people might or not want to work with spacial gestures even if Apple didn't conduct their own research in this area.

Are spacial gestures a better fit for mobile phones and tablets? Nothings grabbing me immediately.

Are Laser Time of Flight sensors a good fit for mobile? Yes for surveyors, product and interior designers, hobbyists and compulsive IKEA purchasers, maybe for others too. However, these trades can justify a discrete unit. Is there a compelling use case and thus business opportunity in phones featuring Laser ToF sensors as a standard feature? Possibly, but I can't think of one ( and if I would I'd be daft to share it here!)

Re: What is the point ?!?

Most Windows laptops have 16:9 screens. This doesn't, which is a step in the right direction. Reviews of last year's Matebook range were very positive, so what's a nicer, cheaper option?

Re: Stop, just stop

It's a laptop with a non-16:9 screen and discrete GPU. Good! Finally*, thank goodness! If the rest of it is good too, then why the hell do you care that it looks like a MacBook?

An aluminium laptop is going to look like an aluminium laptop. It's not the only suitable material but it is a good one.

*Other than the pricey Surface offerings, this combo has been rare.

Re: You can't make a cup of tea in 90 seconds

I was going to suggest using a pressure cooker to raise the temperature of the water above 100 Deg C and thus shorten the tea brew time, but as some clever soul on Reddit has noted it takes pressure cookers a few minutes to get up to pressure.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/27pcx9/tea_under_pressure/

Re: Just give me a front and a back display..

OLEDs use little energy for a little bit of lit screen, would probably use more energy than eInk in direct sunlight. EInk might use energy in the dark if it needs to be backlit.

Probably best using the space an eInk display takes up by just fitting a bigger battery instead, unless the user really likes reading books on the move yet doesn't consider the bigger screen of a specialist ereader worth the bulk.

Re: How long before it breaks ?

A flexible, replaceable screen protector seems to be the only way to protect the screen - hard, inflexible scratch proof materials aren't an option unless in a very thin laminate.

Gorilla Glass is a hard laminate atop tougher, more flexible materials, tuned to give a balance of scratch and shatter proofing. If we take Gorilla Glass to represent the current state of the art, we can assume there's no scratch proof material flexible enougth for this foldable tablet.

The Samsung foldable is at least protected from scratches by the same means as a matt laptop screen - it lives inside the clamshell.

Still, keeping this device inside a case isn't necessary a deal breaker - if one's use-case is using it on a train commute, taking it out at the beginning of the journey and putting it back in at the end of the journey before slipping in a pocket does give it an edge over a conventional 9' tablet (though still a faff compared to a conventional phone)

I was refering to a *part* of the article, the part I actually quoted. What might have seemed parody has actually been sold as a real product (consensus view is that the tech worked but the price was too high and the UI clunky, and that it seemed like a pitch for a smartphone collaboration. Which now appears to be happening)

And I wasn't my intention to throw shade upon Nokia's efforts here; who comes first is largely irrelevant to user experience.

I just thought that some people reading about a multi camera phone might be interested in other related efforts.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/21/sony-light-partnership-smartphone-cameras/

And to think of all those years I spent watching 4:3 content!

I don't think I've ever seen Back to the Future or E.T in wide-screen.

The filmmaker's vision is already buggered by watching it on a small screen, so a crop is only a bit more compromise.

Re: It's a fold up 2K tablet

Ultimately:

Nine times out of ten the times I want a tablet are the times I have hand luggage - i.e train and plane journeys. Carrying a tablet in a rucksack is no inconvenience, so no gain to it being foldable.

I might revise this if Android tablet software was actually any good, but even Google has conceeded the tablet space to Apple. Down the line we'll have either Chrome OS or Fuschia... but I don't see myself with a full blown Photoshop + Illustrator in a trouser pocket device for some time.

It's far more likely a jacket pocket Photoshop will come first, in the form of an iPad Mini Pro. Technically speaking, Apple could do it tomorrow - it's a business decision for them, not a engineering challenge.

Re: Where's the laser range finder?

Sony are busy building laser range finding sensors for OEMs. Qualcomm have worked on the related silicon - they released a demo of a point cloud of a pianists fingers being tracked in real time last year, but using IR matrix. Google have worked on this for a few years since Project Tango, but using multiple cameras instead of laser time of flight. Apple are very keen to exploit 3D scanning, their silicon is leading the game, rumours suggest they'll be using Sony ToF sensors in the next generation iPhones.

Re: So...

Most of the storage on my Samsung is taken up by slo-mo video of dogs shaking off water after climbing out of a river. It looks like their heads are about to unscrew at times, and their skin reverses direction of twist some time after their skeleton does!

This isn't the most productive use of high res high frame rate video and the fast storage it requires, but it makes me smile! Waterproofing in this context is invaluable too!

> You can be sure, for example, that even most watches that say you can take them swimming aren't waterproof - they will likely survive a few metres for a few minutes, and that's it.

Casio account for a good few watches, and they're fairly clear on what they mean by water resistant and water proof. Their resistant watches can shrug off a dunking but shouldn't be used for swimming or placed in direct line of shower, nor should the buttons be depressed under water. Their 50 M waches are fine for swimming. Their 100M watches are unlikely to be troubled by anyone who isn't using scuba gear, and those people will buy watches specifically made for the job.

A 3a5ch shouldn't inconvenience the wearer or cause them concern. It should be waterproof. The same goes for phones. Confining yourself to a dry urban environment is life limiting. Not being able to call for help in a flood could be life shortening.

Re: Mountains.

Possibly:

- his head looks like a swede

- he looks like a famous Scandanavian tennis player or singer

- he wore a suede jacket in college and his mates had an accent

- He was a stoner and was known for exclaiming 'Sweet!'

- his mother and paternal grandmother were Swedish

- he enjoys creating low budget remakes of famous movies, a la Be Kind Rewind.

None of the above are by themselves likely, but it is not unlikely there is an explanation. I knew of a middle aged bloke universally known as Doughnut - since his first day at primary when he wore a jumper his grandmother had knitted him, brown, white, red and brown.

Re: Earth: Final Conflict

Can't see the logic in integrating the cover into the phone. Covers need to absorb shock, so can't be made hard, so therefore will inevitably scratch and scuff over time. What exactly is the downside to a replaceable phone cover?

Also, different people want different things from covers. Some prefer the wallet design to protect the screen, some people find wallet cases too fiddly. Some people find little kick stands useful, some don't. Some people like glittery purple cases, most don't.