Posts by Dave 126

Re: Battery life

> I love the concept and it is a lovely phone .... but just too thin and the standard battery life is crap apparently.

So why not use it with the external battery module semi-permenantly?

The other modules are just place-holders for the module concept. If Moto were brave enough to open it out to other phone vendors, certain Reg readers could Kickstart the physical keyboard they keep telling us they want.

Yep. And of course the internal battery will be subject to fewer and shallower charge/discharge cycles so it will last longer. Basically, it allows for the most elegant external battery solution available.

Re: Add-ons become obsolete with the phone... and if they're not very cheap....

> In my experience, this kind of add-ons become obsolete together the only device that can use them - thereby very quickly

Indeed. This is why it would be great if Moto 'grew the pie' and opened their module system to other phone vendors.

Re: Windows tablets - when the touch screen driver craps out...

I think you've described a 'workaround', not a 'fix'! :)

Still, I didn't downvote you.

Re: I remember when I pointed this out last year

>I said last year that it was only a matter of time before your phone IS your PC as well. Got a lot of down votes for it. Which was very surprising on a tech site.

There is a difference between 'could be' and 'will be'. Here's the thing; this article doesn't vindicate you because this Remix OS is intended for people in poor countries who can't afford a computer in addition to thier phone. Most of us in the UK can find easier ways of doing things than using our phones as computers for little additional cost, such as using a laptop, using a Raspberry Pi or similar, using an Intel Compute Stick, using our phones with a Chromcast.

The issue has never really been about whether the SoC is powerful enough for useful desktop applications. The issues are based around the UI, the connection, the bloated nature of contemporary applications etc.

Phones with as much RAM (4GB) as my laptop and far greater resolutions (though that's more the GPU than the ARM CPU) are not uncommon now.

Re: One can only hope

>No, No they're really not, unless all you do with your PC is surf the net and read email.

Er, that's what a Personal Computer is used for. And a phone SoC has more than a enough grunt to run office applications, some light CAD, some simple image editing. Just because today's average desktop is the equivalent of yesteryear's workstation doesn't mean it has to be used for intensive tasks - most people don't need to run physical simulations or edit 4K video.

Still this Remix OS isn't intended for us - we don't need to to have our phones double up as a desktop computer because we can afford a discreet device - anything from a Raspberry Pi to an Intel Compute Stick. As the article says, Remix OS is intended for poorer countries.

Re: The Unbelievable Truth

My favourite from the Unbelievable Truth went alongthe lines of:

"The word 'Shark' was coined by seaman Mark Cooper, when he fell into the ocean and attempted to use three different swear words simultaneously..."

It sounds so plausible!

Re: Gotta be the Psion

>Perhaps something like Bluetooth pairing with a smartphone would be better for battery life.

Even better would be an industry-wide (or at least Android-wide) standard for a magneticmodule connector on the rear of the phone for bi-directional power and data, akin to the Moto Mod system. Such a connector, which could 'snap' components in place, would be ideal for keyboards, gamepads, batteries, special sensors (i.e Infrared camera, lens/sensor module etc), microphones, car docks, port extenders etc. I'm not talking about a full-on Project Ara system.

Bluetooth is more power efficient than it used to be, and more reliable (though I still sometimes meet a device that just won't connect) - but sometimes a physical connector is still better.

Re: Mr Fixit

Okay... you might have spent £25 on your Pi, or you might have spent £5, depending on model. You might conceivably find it cost effective to resolder the USB port if it became damaged... I'm hard pressed to think of another fault that would be.

When it comes to ecological concerns, it's generally better to make a very small reliable device than a big item that uses lots of materials. Just because something can be repaired doesn't mean that it will be, so lots of resources will have been wasted in making the components and component packaging bigger.

Re: Better than the Nokia 3310

Sadly the captain from Firefly fell into the Han Solo uncanny valley. If he was Han Solo, that would have been fine, had he been less like Han Solo that would have been fine... as it was, he was just too close for comfort.

Still, the Expanse is good, and both Killjoys and Dark Matter really find their own stride after their respective first seasons.

Re: Gotta be the Psion

>This is all theoretical anyway, because there's no sign there'll ever be an updated Series 5.

Who owns the IP on their keyboard? How easily could said IP be sidestepped to produce a similarly functioning keyboard? How easily could it be attached to a modern touchscreen phone with microUSB? Would you want to incorporate cylindrical batteries within the hinge so that such an implementation wound't be too top-heavy? What's the state-of-play of external phone keyboards on Kickstarter?

Re: Mr Fixit

The point of the glue is to reduce landfill - it is quicker to pass a batch of end-of-life products through an oven to separate components for recycling than it is to employ a person with a screwdriver.

Generally, I find modern kit more reliable than older kit, especially the older stuff with moving parts.

If you want some very good YouTube videos of old gadgets being repaired (usually strange audio kit) the you really should check out TechMoan:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan/videos

Re: Power leads

The 500mA limit was implemented by the receiving device if it was connected to a power source by a cable that didn't have its data pins shorted - the idea was to not to upset a computer's power system. These days most phones are happy to suck down as much current as they want, if the cable is of sufficient thickness and the power source can deliver it.

Re: Yes for the Sony Walkman

It was a helluva better form factor than the CD DiscMan.

Some of the pricier Walkmans were barely large than the cassette itself, and indeed were smaller than some phones in their cases are today.

The early nineties saw the Wireless Walkman - never released in the UK - which paired a Walkman with a matchbox-sized wireless audio receiver and transport control transmitter.

There were hundreds of Walkman variations, so I was mildly surprised to just see a generic 'Walkman' in this poll! :)

Re: Gotta be the Psion

>If they launched a new model with some hardware updates (Wi-Fi,

Aaaaaaand there goes your week long battery life! :)

Re: tones of battery life

Do Re Mi Fa Sol!

Looks like he fell between an Imperial and Metric measure! Actually, yesterday I was thinking about a battery in terms of weight - I'd stopped in a layby to make a call, and saw that someone had dumped a large truck battery in the hedgerow... thought of weighing it in at the scrapyard. Whilst it might not weight a ton, or even tonne, it'll weigh at lest an 'Ooffyoubugger'.

Re: Do no evil

Mr Diesel, a pacifist, invented an efficient type of engine because he thought it would help people with food production and distribution. The diesel engine became a weapon of war.

It's hard to think of any technological advance that hasnt been put to use killing

Re: The 3210 was so much cooler than the 3310

If you rewatch the original Zoolander, one joke made at the fashion elite is that they have tiny phones (as that was the real trend when the movie was made). Poor Derek Zoolander is using a phone about the size of a matchbook.

Re: External antenna! (Aerial)

Many Nokia phones of that era had ports for external antenna, even if they were covered by a rubber bung. If you look at the side of the phones, you'll spot two triangular indentations on each side... again, for 'snapping' into car docks. The exposed rails on the underside of the phone? Ditto.

Now, I've never advocated full on modularity for phones, (a la Project Ara), but some move towards common power / data / mechanical retention would be handy.

Re: At 7 bytes per stored phone number

>My 2005 Moto RAZR could store numbers on the flash memory in the SIM card. Have you ever used an older, non-"smart" cell phone before?

Oi, behave! :)

SIMs could only store so many numbers - additional numbers would be stored on the phone itself, and in fact Nokia used this number capacity to differentiate between budget models like the 3210 and fancier models like the 6210 (if memory serves, 250 and 500 phone entries respectively, but don't quote me). This is common knowledge to anyone who has used "an older, non-smart cell phone", as you put it.

I won't make a snarky comment about you not realising the number limit on your SIM - the 6210 came out when I was at university, and so I picked up more numbers than a more mature person (or indeed, an Orange SIM) would know what to do with. However, quality is more important than quality.

Re: Mis-named Wireless

>thing I'd really like is a wireless battery backup, but I guess the problem there is needing AC.

From what i understand about Qi, it is not as efficient as using a cable. This isn't really problem if your Qi mat is plugged into the mains, but it would mean that a Qi portable battery would have to bigger and heavier than its wired equivalent.

Tests suggest that Qi can be around 60% efficient. I don't have any data for power loss through USB cable, but a thicker-gauge short cable can be more convenient for using with a portable battery anyway (if you have the phone and battery in the same pocket... I appreciate that some people might want to us etheor hone whilst it is connected to a battery in a bag. )

http://www.batterypoweronline.com/conferences/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/WirelessConsortium.pdf

Re: Mis-named Wireless

That's a fair point - neither standard is essential for most use-cases (though some users with limited dexterity might find them helpful).

When I had an Xperia phone with a rubber bung over its USB socket, I was tempted by a magnetic charging dock (which used contact pins) but broke the phone before I bought one.

Similarly, I'm now tempted by a Qi charging mat for my Nexus 5, but not desperately. If I see one for a tenner, I might pick one up. Bizarrely, the main hurdle to me plugging a USB cable into my Nexus 5 is that the phone is symmetrical, so half the time I'm looking for the socket on the wrong end of the phone!

Re: Balderdash!

>Bullshit. I can't even get a hotels website to stop sending me emails recommending I book and go on a trip LAST MONTH, you know, IN THE PAST!

I've known of real human beings making similar errors, because they are poorly managed, hungover, or insufficiently motivated to give a damn.

You can now use your phone in the bath to exfoliate those bits of hard skin on your feet!

Re: I'm not a major fan of Apple stuff (more Android/Linux for me) , but ...

>And some suit who decides that the proper coating is too expensive or doesn't suit their vision and to use something else.

Aye. The 'proper' coating would be Physical Vapour Deposition, as used on Rolex watch bezels, if you really want deep blacks.

From what I can make out, Apple are using an uncommonly thick anodising layer, which is porous and absorbs the black dye they have used. This hard anodisation process is often used on aluminium saucepans, but in not as thick a layer - hence the grey colour commonly found on cookware.

At this stage, we don't know if this chipping is due to a bad batch (bloody chemistry, with all it's fussy variables!), or an inherent issue with Apple's process.

Re: Seems like the apple fanboi isn't very smart...

>An anodised surface doesn't chip/flake off like paint because it isn't paint. If Apple are advertising it as anodised then they're lying. It's flaking off then it's because it's a crap paint/coating job.

Sorry, you're incorrect. Apple isn't lying. It is anodisation, but not the common form of 'Colour Anodisation' that you may be thinking of. Links to evidence at end of this post.

The common Type II - or 'Colour Anodise' - is often seen on bicycle components - metallic blues, reds and purples, amongst other shades. It takes a colour, isn't very hard, and is too thin to chip off. However, the process of 'Hard Anodisation' produces a thicker, harder layer* than can chip off. This kind of anodisation is sometimes seen on bicycle chain rings and cranks, and usually results in a dark grey or muddy colour. It is also very common on aluminium saucepans. I've seen parts where this coating has chipped. If you pop to your kitchen, there is a fair chance you can inspect such chipping with your own eyes.

* It's actually layers: the aluminium is penetrated by about a 0.025mm, and the chemistry results in an oxide layer of similar thickness 'growing' from the surface. It may be that Apple's process results in a thicker layer, making it more prone to the type of chipping that has been reported.

https://wickwerks.com/anodize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcA7oE8yMvc

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/apple-jet-black-iphone-none-more-black/

Re: I'm not a major fan of Apple stuff (more Android/Linux for me) , but ...

>Sir Jony only dictates the appearance. Real engineers design it. Mechanical, Electronic, Software, Product, Manufacturing.

And just who do you think co-ordinates those specialist, Mage? Yep, the Product Designer. The design process is one of communication and liaison. If you ask an electronic engineer to 'design me a computer', they will look at you weirdly because you haven't defined any constraints, thermal, power, enclosure size etc. Ditto the mechanical engineer. And it should be self-evident that it is inefficient to just dump a 'finished' design on the desk of a manufacturing engineer - in reality, his team's input will be sought at all stages of the process.

If you have problems with Apple, that's fine. But please, don't denigrate the entire discipline of Product Design, because the last thing we need are more shit products in this world. It's about showing respect for professionals who work in a field you might not have taken the time to fully understand. If you need some case studies to grok this, let's work on some. Maybe a Reg article about Product Design is over due? The Reg did recently run an obituary of Richard Sapper (ThinkPad, Alessi), who was from a more conventional Industrial Design generation - and the differences are informative.

Re: Even for monkey shaggers

"I adore distilled whippet shit", amazing.

I enjoyed both his autobiography with its accounts of drinking in Soho with Jeffrey Bernard at al, and his short, blackly comic novella 'The Boy Who Kicked Pigs'.

He was also priceless when an impressionist from BBC's Dead Ringers as the Fourth Doctor rang him up:

"I never really knew what to do about the daleks you see, because I always rather fancied Davros"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ7uHzZYREo

Re: Doomed from the beginning

>2.) They're decidedly nerdy. No matter how elegant they are made to look, they are, at their core, a reincarnation of the pocket protector.

It is perfectly possible to make a connected smartwatch that looks indistinguishable from a traditional analogue watch. I would suggest that the 'nerdy' appearance is an issue of current implementation, and not an insurmountable problem.

Making a watch vibrate in response to an incoming call or text doesn't change its appearance. Useful information can be conveyed through the watch hands, or even a single RGB LED.

Re: Yes that's very clever,

Once upon a time, I might play music by physically plugging my phone into an amplifier. In such a scenario, a smartwatch that would let me skip a track without walking up to the tethered phone would be handy.

However, these days the phone just instructs a Chromecast Audio - there is no need to leave the phone on the other side of the room, and so less use for a 'remote control for my phone'.

That said, I would like to see more control options for phones. I'm probably not the only one. I've seen quite a few people hear their phone ringing from deep inside their handbag - they might benefit from a little screen that clips to the top of their bag so they can see whether it is worth rummaging to take the call. I also know people who get genuine use from their 'Tile' - about the size of a bottle cap, it allows them to 'page' theior phone if they have mislaid it. This paging works both ways, so that their phone can be used to find whatever their Tile is attached to - usually a bunch of keys.