Posts by Dave 126 10675 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
> 1972 Omega Seamaster Cosmic
Nice. I wish there were more cushion-shaped watches today - the market is flooded with circles-with-lugs.
A smooth sweep quartz movement, sapphire crystal and 38 mm stainless steel case would suit me nicely. Basically, if Seiko were to make a '68 Chronostop. Lije, if Skagen made sensibly sized watches. Oh well. I'll have to commission a titanium printer to make me one!
> I'm beginning to wonder if Apple have pursued the X as showroom tinsel to get the punters to their store/stand/website, where you sell them your volume device
Exactly. The X is a place holder (like the 1st gen iPod, 1st gen iPhone, 1st gen iPad, 1st gen iWatch... Notice the pattern? :)). In time the yields on the cut-out OLED screens will improve (and thus price will fall and availability will grow), and either an under-screen fingerprint sensor will be perfected or people will get on with the face ID system. HDR video content will become more common, too - Netflicks, Apple and YouTube already offer it (my mate has a daftly expensive OLED LG TV, and it is lovely).
The issues with screen manufacturing mean that the X isn't destined to be a volume seller, so as such it's a better testbed for this Face ID system than a normal iPhone. And the high price tag doesn't matter too much, either.
It's all a distraction from the under the bonnet stuff - the first Apple-designed mobile GPU, plus ISPs and other silicon to make the phones better able to interpret the world around it, combined will calibrated cameras and more sensitive gyros. To what use these abilities are eventually put will depend on 3rd party developers - my guess includes fashion retail, games, surveying and product and interior design. This tech is coming to other platforms too - from Qualcomm, Google and Intel amongst others - but Apple will have it across a lot of devices quickly, which bodies well for 3rd party dev support.
Getting rid of the fingerprint reader is just a stop-gap solution until an under-screen sensor is perfected. Samsung had a similar issue on the Galaxy 8, and so clumsily placed the fingerprint reader next to the rear camera.
The X is just to take some money off the people who want exotica - like the Mii Mix. And hey, why not? Samsung are struggling to get yields up on the iPhone X's screen, so supplies are limited... Apple don't have that many to sell.
Others can choose other models.
> I wonder how the face-scanning will play out in "police demand you unlock your phone for them" situations.
Same as for fingerprint unlocking: if you tap the hone button (or with the X, the power button) five times, the phone will require a passcode instead of a fingerprint.
And no, the phone won't unlock unless you are looking at it, so won't work on sleeping people.
> This has been rumored for two years, before anyone else was shipping bezel-less phones.
Sharp have had bezel-less phones for quite a few years now, though in small quantities - almost more an advertisement for their screen technology. I will take your wider point, that the lead time to develop a product means that the iPhone X is not directly influenced by the Mii Mix or Rubin Essential phone.
> customising the hardware and software, not something you see in the Android world.
Yep, that marriage of software and silicon is an Apple trait that Google have noticed, and have hired silicon engineers too. Qualcomm too are offering AR / IR scanning support modules to OEMs too.
I suspect Apple will have the lead in attracting 3rd party AR developers initially, with Android systems catching up quickly.
Yeah, I was more interested in the new silicon too (because similar hardware efforts are in the pipeline from the likes of Qualcomm and probably Google too). These new phones are the first outing for Apple's in house GPU since they ended their relationship with Imagination Technologies. And their Image Signal Processor - let's not forget that the big stand out feature of Google's Pixel phone was cunning software treatment of the sensor data. There's some custom silicon for video motion tracking too. What makes this more interesting than the likes of Project Tango is that these iPhones will ship to interest developers.
I remember a time when every house and office had multiple Nokia (fat barrel-tipped) chargers lying about. It was good (though at the time phone battery lasted a week, so it wasn't critical).
A friend of mine swears by his Qi chargers... I might well give them a go, since I have a Nexus and my housemate a Galaxy 7. Are they all much of a muchness, or does a £30 model offer anything over a £10 charger bought if t'internet? Do they play nice with magnetic strips on cashcards? (My housemate uses his phone case as a card wallet)
> Personally, I'm not convinced that a company with only ~15% of the market is in a position to dictate standards
Market share isn't the only factor. 3rd party developer involvement also helps, and whilst developers are drawn to a big market share, they also appreciate commitment. And money. I haven't seen recent reports, but in the past we've seen articles about how more money is spent on iOS apps than on Android apps (people with pricey phones spend more money on software - shocker).
Of course, sometimes Apple doesn't dictate anything, but merely sees which ways the wind is blowing (see floppy discs, and later, optical discs).
Sometimes Apple gets it wrong - the Mac Pro was a bet on multiple GPUs, but then GPU devs favoured single, more powerful GPUs which broke the Mac Pros thermal design.
Your example - mass adoption of Lightning - was never going to happen because it is proprietary to Apple. However, many aspects of it were adopted in USB Type C.
> (6) Return the old way of unlocking the phone so I don't have to do two actions or use my fingerprint to unlock it
That's a small annoyance with recent versions of Android - the requirement to swipe before entering a pattern unlock is just unnecessary. Android 4.X worked as one would expect.
...But these Sabre DACs sound very good.
The 24 and 32 bit DACs fitted to, amongst others, some LG, HTC and Sony phones sound very good indeed - but not because they can handle 24 bit audio per se. They sound good because care has been taken by ESS in their design and manufacture - and they are mated with a good amplifier that can drive a large variety of headphones. Having gone to that effort, they may as well be made to play back any file natively, so it's better to say they are 32 bit because they sound good, rather the other way round.
Still, it's a moot point if you are using headphones with their own DAC, or merely using the phone as a remote control for a device like a Chromecast or Sonos. Good headphones should last you over several generations of phone.
> Second, in past times, Thomas Edison is known for having electrocuted elephants in an effort to discredit Tesla and alternative current. I don't see that as being very productive either.
I'm not sure that it helps to be so reductionist about something as complicated as a human. Edison was incredibly driven to bring products to market, and that consisted of hard work, dubious morals and yes, marketing. Success was part of his motivation. I'm not sure that we can use a basic arithmetic such as Less Time Electrocuting Elephants = More Time Inventing.
Edison knew that both AC and DC can kill people. What he was doing was grappling with the fears of the wider public. Perhaps not in ways we approve of, but at least he knew that public acceptance was as essential to a product's success as more technical concerns.
Re the price tag.
The Samsung Note 8 is enjoying record pre-orders, despite being nearly £900. Okay, there might be some pent up demand from would-be Note 7 owners, but suggests there are people willing to pay that much.
It is more likely that people used to paying £700 for a phone will pay £1,000 for a phone than it people will jump from a £300 phone to a £700 (with so many good solid handsets at around £300, those who buy flagship phones aren't desperately price conscious).
It is rumoured that Apple's suppliers are struggling to make the cut-out screen in sufficient quantities (and are passing the cost of the low yields on to Apple), and so initial supplies of the new phone will be constrained. As such, Apple wouldn't gain additional sales by reducing the price tag.
(Sent from my Nexus 5. No immediate plans to upgrade, but watching Qualcomm's / Apple's / Google's et al AR/3D scanning efforts with interest)
The graphic implementation of unicode emoji is up to vendors. Thankfully Google, in Oreo, has abandoned its weird 'smudged thumb print' style of emoji in favour of those that resemble every other vendor's (IRC, forums, WhatsApp, iOS to name but a few) since the days of acid house.
I reminded folk here a couple of days ago that the Gemini, featured on the Reg a few months back, is due to ship in December. However, for completeness, I felt I also had to mention another Indiegogo campaign, one for a snap-on physical keyboard for Moto Mod phones.
The Gemini looks lovely, but I can't help but think that keyboards - unlike other phone components such as screens, chips and cameras - won't go out of date as quickly. As such, one might be paying for a lovely feature that is married to hardware that may become outdated. The opposite might also be true - keyboards and keys are susceptible to failure - so being to remove a keyboard from a phone and send it off for repair (or swap for a new one) without the hassle of setting up a new phone strikes me as being desirable.
There's advantages to both approaches, and the Moto Mod keyboard campaign isn't as far developed as this fine Gemini effort.
Hehe, it seems a couple of you read 'IBM' as 'IBM PC'... Almost as if you had neglected to turn off your brains' auto-complete function! (I don't mean to have a go at you, just amused by the observation)
Sorry for being vague, I couldn't remember how to spell Selectric. Deighton leased the top of the range model with magnetic tape storage, apparently.
Curiously, some other tech blogs are saying that he was the first author to write a novel on a computer - in the late seventies. However, Len Deighton wrote 'Bomber' on an IBM in 1968. It may be the case that both claims are correct, depending on how exactly the milestone is phrased. Deighton had an assistant, and would make some longhand corrections.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/03/len_deighton_s_bomber_the_first_book_ever_written_on_a_word_processor.html
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/9/16279582/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-author-writing-computers-obituary
The Psion-style Gemini Android / Linux (dual-boot) PDA phone thingy is due to ship in November. It's an Indiegogo product:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-keyboard-mobile-device-phone#/
There's also an Indiegogo campaign for a snap on Moto Mod keyboard, but it's not as far along:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/
People are expecting the iPhone to have a fancy screen with a cutout (a la Rubin's Essential Phone), and some fancy AR tricks. The latter will be more mainstream in Android phones next year, with active and passive 3D scanning DSPs and sensors from Qualcomm amongst others, plus software from Google ditto. Apple are likely to enjoy better developer support initially for these features, because their ARkit will roll out to a larger base of existing devices, even though they don't have specialised silicon inside.
"The case has prompted investigators to reopen unsolved killings in Denmark, including the 1986 find of the dismembered remains of a 22-year-old Japanese tourist whose corpse was found in several plastic bags in Copenhagen harbor. Moeller Jensen stressed that it was standard procedure to look at so-called cold cases and there is no immediate link to Wall's killing."
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/danish-submarine-owner-faces-charge-womans-death-49412497
Madsen was fifteen years old when the Japanese tourist died.
You could read their whitepaper (link below), but I'm not sure you'll make much more sense of it than I did.
The section titled "Why use Lydian tokens to purchase services available to purchase with fiat currency" doesn't offer any clues.
There were some words about using the blockchain to ensure that people paying to advertise weren't defrauded... and something about a browser that lets end users exchange Lydian tokens for an ad-free browsing experienced. However, the latter isn't directly related to this offering.
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/gurbakshchahal/lydian-whitepaper-81517-draft
My first Linux install was on an old Thinkpad, but it took some effort to get the audio to work. Something to do with a non-standard IBM hardware, so the thingamajiggy had to be started before the ASIO doowhatsit. Rewarding, but a bugger largely because my friend and I were learning this SUDO malarkey on the fly.
Since 16:9 became ubiquitous on laptops, tablet adoption had risen. Perhaps now that many people use a tablet to watch movies away from home (which are usually more comfortable to view anyway, especially on trains or in hotel beds), laptops can revert to 16:10 or 4:3?
Also, Apple and Microsoft can source screens of the aspect ratio they want, so surely Lenovo can too?
It's horses for courses, but generally 16:10 or 3:2 is well suited to productivity applications and for reading documents and webpages. The reason? Title bars, menu bars and ribbons will soon eat into the height of the the screen, so what starts as a 16:9 letterbox becomes a slit. Reading an article then requires lots of scrolling. Urgh. Also, a taller screen means that the user's gaze is at a higher, more comfortable position for longer.
Of course, I've seen very wide spreadsheets spread across several monitors, and DTP workstations with monitors in Portrait, so there is no once aspect ratio fits all. However, it would be nice to have some choice in the market. At present, damned near every laptop has a 16:9 screen except for Apple (16:10) and Microsoft (3:2).
> Remember MS only entered the market to ape Apple and thus effectively create a clone of the MacBook Air
That's a bit of an over-generalisation, maybe? MS have had problems for years with how to bring hardware-dependant features to their OS when laptop vendors aren't interested. So yeah, they must have envied Apple's integration of software and hardware, but MS have borrowed from Apple's methods and not just blindly copied (aped) the results.
Apple sell laptops to make money on the hardware, whilst MS mainly want to strengthen the image of Windows laptops as a whole. These days you can buy Windows laptops from a range of vendors with a excellent high resolution (and colour accurate) screens and trackpads that are actually usable! The strategy seems to be working.
There are also Surface features such as stylus input that traditionally Apple left to partners like Wacom, or else implemented in a different way (through the iPad Pro range).
Features such as a removable keyboard with a discrete GPU are very non-Apple, though macOS is beginning to play nice with external GPUs over Thunderbolt.
The Acer mentioned on the article has a 3:2 display, same as the Surface range. MacBooks have a 16:10 display, whereas the vast majority of other laptops have the wretched 16:9 aspect ratio.
I'm not aware of any laptops with a 19:10 display, though it wouldn't surprise me if some weird specialised gaming laptop had one.
> I think there are better things to make cool. Like being generally nicer to people in everyday life.
How are you supposed to solve crimes if you have a happy home life and no drinking problem??!
Actually, Columbo is the exception that proves the rule: he's nice, he's cool, he has a wife and dog.
If I want technically accurate, I'll read a manual ;D
Silicon Valley is very good, especially from the second season. What it isn't is a historical account.
Similarly, Silicon Valley. If you can just go with their McGuffin of an impossibly good compression algorithm, the door is opened to satirising the odder aspects of start-up and VC culture.
There's a difference between liking an idea and believing it. I like the idea that there will be a roast duck in my oven when I return home... it doesn't mean that I believe it.
Using 'Aliens' as a placeholder is healthy, because it doesn't colour any working theory (which currently is a weird neutron star with a massive magnetic field). It also has form: Pulsars were once known as LGMs (Little Green Men), until a better explanation was arrived at.
> Now, if you could prove the opposite, that would be something else entirely.
Yep, that would be the premise of the film Sneakers, starring Robert Redford as a pen tester, and James Earl Jones as head of a three-letter agency. Supporting cast includes Ben Kingsley, River Pheonix, Mary McDonnell, Dan Akroyd and Sidney Poitier.
I loved my Z3 Compact, but the official Sony case left one edge of the screen unprotected, allowing it to be shattered when I dropped it on a sharp edge. I should have bought a 3rd party silicone case for a fiver.
I could reach about 85% of the screen with my thumb without readjusting my grip - on the Nexus 5 I'm using now that's about 65%. At the time I had an active job away from my vehicle, so a compact, pocket friendly model was most welcome. That said, this Nexus 5 is easier in the pocket than I expected it to be.
I'm in no hurry to upgrade, so will wait for Qualcomm's/Google's/Apple's AR / 3D-scanning efforts to mature next year before getting a new handset.
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