Posts by Dave 126

Teracube whips out cheap, fixable phone with removable battery and four-year warranty

There have been some Samsung Galaxy Active phones and some Sony phones that had swappable batteries and were waterproof. The closing mechanism and gasket does add bulk over glue though.

A waterproof case can be done, but it only shifts the sealing problem elsewhere - i.e, between the phone and the case, as opposed to the battery compartment cover and the phone.

That said, for outdoor adventures bulk isn't such an issue (lots of big pockets on jackets or rucks sack straos to attack the phone to), so a first party waterproof case is viable (though possibly not economically viable, since the cost of injection mould tooling is spread amongst only a fraction of the phone's buyers.)

Re: A suggestion for a long life

Also, the first generation of 5G phones were power hungry, and the current gen isn't being bought in huge numbers (because they are more expensive, the user might not have 5G where they live, or the user doesn't see any clear advantage to it) so it's possible that a current 5G version of a phone model won't be as well supported by the custom OS crowd into the future as its 4G brother.

One of the brands best known for the sustainability and transparency of its supply chain is the outdoor clothing company Patagonia. It should be no great surprise that many consumers who are concerned about the natural world also like to spend time in the great outdoors. Where it rains. Where there are rivers and puddles.

If I was pitching a phone at people who are concerned the environmental impact of the phones, I'd make it waterproof.

Re: If....

It's plausible that Apple have designed features into the logic boards that allow them to easily (read: cheaply) test them before they are reused; certainly they have solid data on the reliability of logic boards and thus have confidence that reusing them in a refurbished phone isn't going to result in the same phone being returned six months down the line.

Another issue is that Apple will only sell refurbished phones that are 'as new'. The external, visible parts are glass and metal (easily recycled, low environmental impact, fairly cheap to make once tooled up) can just be replaced with new parts. 'As new' includes waterproofing though, and that requires accurate placing of proprietry adhesives/gaskets and likely an expensive machine for depositing a hydrophobic coating on internal parts.

(I don't know that Apple use a vapour-deposited coating, but Samsung do. That's likely enough to make me have Samsung replace my phone's battery rather than attempt to do the job myself)

By weight, silicon chips takes an awful lot of energy to produce compared to, say, pressed steel or cast aluminium. Fortunately, they don't weigh that much compared to cars. As you can see, I don't have any figures off the top of my head, so can't make any meaningful analysis except to say 'it's complicated'. Another factor: it isn't ecological concerns that have stopped me upgrading my phone for three years and my laptop for ten years - it's just that they are still fit for purpose in a way that their predecessors never quite were. It took generations of phones and laptops to arrive at models for them to mature.

More than complicated: it's complex. Let's assume, for argument's sake, that car and ride sharing cuts down the number of cars that are manufactured. For that to work, people would have to have upgraded their 2005-era phone to one that has GPS. (Just an example, I know that the whole concept of ride sharing is itself more complex in reality than it is on paper).

Tl;dr: this stuff is important, but it's also complex and worthy of careful study. Let our emotions motivate us, but let our intellects guide us.

Apple's T2 custom secure boot chip is not only insecure, it cannot be fixed without replacing the silicon

Re: This could be good news!

Indeed, back up. That also covers you for leaving your laptop on a train, having it stolen, fire, flood and acts of dog.

SpaceX breaks run of scrubs with Starlink launch: Darth Musk finds your lack of faith in on-time launches... disturbing

Re: Week roundups

Eliminate Malaria, yes. And ideally, also eliminate yellow fever, dengue fever, the Zika Virus and chikungunya, as well as many other mosquito-born viruses.

Eliminating mosquitos might be a crude method, and yes, there would be unforseen consequences (though unlikely to be more than a blip compared to the havoc us humans are causing amongst ecosystems in general. I dunno, maybe birds would eat more pollinating insects if mosquitos were off their menu), but it would a big step in tackling human disease.

I'm not qualified to come down either way on this.

Re: Week roundups

Mosquitoes IT angle:

Eliminating / mitigating malaria is near the top of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's to-do list.

When analysis of aid and charities are conducted to give a 'human lives saved per dollar donated' figure, malaria mitigation (read: distributing mosquito nets) comes out top.

Of course a million dollars spent on mosquito nets saves lives right now. A million dollars spent on researching mosquito gene drives *might* prove to save more lives in the long run, but we don't know. Such is the nature of research.

Re: Don't see what Musk hopes to improve

The weather (not under human control) is responsible for some of the scrubs, but Musk's concern is the higher than normal number of scrubs due to issues with a ground-side system (a fuelling system IIRC). It's the issues with this system that Musk wants addressed, since these issues have only recently occured.

Massive news, literally: Three super-boffins awarded Nobel Prize in physics for their black-hole breakthroughs

Re: "...part of a team..."

> You can get a Nobel prize for looking through a telescope nowadays?

No, but if you direct the telescope at the ladies boarding house you'll be considered ignoble.

Re: Math as proof

https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html

A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics:

A -5 point starting credit.

1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false.

2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous.

3 points for every statement that is logically inconsistent.

5 points for each such statement that is adhered to despite careful correction.

5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment.

5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards).

5 points for each mention of "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann".

10 points for each claim that quantum mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).

10 points for pointing out that you have gone to school, as if this were evidence of sanity.

10 points for beginning the description of your theory by saying how long you have been working on it. (10 more for emphasizing that you worked on your own.)

10 points for mailing your theory to someone you don't know personally and asking them not to tell anyone else about it, for fear that your ideas will be stolen.

10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and/or finds any flaws in your theory.

10 points for each new term you invent and use without properly defining it.

10 points for each statement along the lines of "I'm not good at math, but my theory is conceptually right, so all I need is for someone to express it in terms of equations".

10 points for arguing that a current well-established theory is "only a theory", as if this were somehow a point against it.

10 points for arguing that while a current well-established theory predicts phenomena correctly, it doesn't explain "why" they occur, or fails to provide a "mechanism".

10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Einstein, or claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).

10 points for claiming that your work is on the cutting edge of a "paradigm shift".

20 points for emailing me and complaining about the crackpot index. (E.g., saying that it "suppresses original thinkers" or saying that I misspelled "Einstein" in item 8.)

20 points for suggesting that you deserve a Nobel prize.

20 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Newton or claim that classical mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).

20 points for every use of science fiction works or myths as if they were fact.

20 points for defending yourself by bringing up (real or imagined) ridicule accorded to your past theories.

20 points for naming something after yourself. (E.g., talking about the "The Evans Field Equation" when your name happens to be Evans.)

20 points for talking about how great your theory is, but never actually explaining it.

20 points for each use of the phrase "hidebound reactionary".

20 points for each use of the phrase "self-appointed defender of the orthodoxy".

30 points for suggesting that a famous figure secretly disbelieved in a theory which he or she publicly supported. (E.g., that Feynman was a closet opponent of special relativity, as deduced by reading between the lines in his freshman physics textbooks.)

30 points for suggesting that Einstein, in his later years, was groping his way towards the ideas you now advocate.

30 points for claiming that your theories were developed by an extraterrestrial civilization (without good evidence).

30 points for allusions to a delay in your work while you spent time in an asylum, or references to the psychiatrist who tried to talk you out of your theory.

40 points for comparing those who argue against your ideas to Nazis, stormtroopers, or brownshirts.

40 points for claiming that the "scientific establishment" is engaged in a "conspiracy" to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame, or suchlike.

40 points for comparing yourself to Galileo, suggesting that a modern-day Inquisition is hard at work on your case, and so on.

40 points for claiming that when your theory is finally appreciated, present-day science will be seen for the sham it truly is. (30 more points for fantasizing about show trials in which scientists who mocked your theories will be forced to recant.)

50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions.

© 1998 John Baez

Reno4 Pro 5G: At this price point, OPPO's latest phone for the UK market ought to feel better than a mid-ranger

> plugging in to charge fully in minutes kicks the crap out of sitting around waiting for it to sloooowwwlllyyyy absorb power wirelessly.

Why not both? Li-ion batteries last longer if kept between 40-80%, so if someone's daily routine suits (i.e, at a desk) then a Qi pad makes it easier to keep it in that range.

Also, wireless charging ability is a backup if the USB port ever get gunked up or broken, and lets you charge a damp phone (handier for people in sone jobs than others, I grant you). And indeed, by using a Qi pad you're not causing the USB socket any wear in the first place.

(My phone supports wireless charging, but I've never bothered buying a charging pad. The redundancy aspect is reassuring though)

Apple seeks damages from recycling firm that didn't damage its devices: 100,000 iThings 'resold' rather than broken up as expected

Re: Really?

> I would like to see global legislation in place to say that all kit (not just Apple - I'm looking at you Microsoft) must be designed so that "consumable" components (batteries, screens, storage) can be replaced simply (that does not necessarily mean by a user)

You're right to highlight the user part.

There is a tension between 'right to repair' and the nascent EPR legislation around the world, though only a tension, so it might be mitigated by by design. What is EPR? Initiatives to make the manufacturers responsible for end-of-life disposal of a product. Ultimately, 100% of products will end up disposed of (recycled or land fill) even if every effort is made to repair them along the way. EPR attempts to minimise landfill. It then follows that products would be designed to be easier to dismantle for recycling, since this would save the manufacturers money. We already see this in the use of glue instead of screws (amongst the other advantages of glue such as minimising mechanical stress risers and providing a waterproofing gasket).

I'm not against Right to Repair. I just wish that its advocates gave themselves greater credibility by understanding and then acknowledging eventual End of Life issues and factors, and working towards solutions that are genuinely good for the environment and the consumer.

Re: I suspect ...

> If I take my phone to the recycling centre, I don't have any say in what they do with it

That's your choice to relinquish ownership.

You're a private citizen. You put your cardboard out for the council to collect every week. But if you had a tonne of cardboard and delivered it to the private recycling depot you'd get £25 for it.

You can see there's a scaling thing here? Take aluminium cans. One can isn't worth much. But if you put in the labour to collect and crush them, you'd add value and be rewarded for it. That nice big lump of aluminium would be yours and you would sell it - not just leave it out for the council to collect.

> Apple expect to be able to tell people what to do with devices that have left their control

Only the phones *are* in Apples control - they belong to Apple. They didn't dump them on a council recycling centre, they paid a company to do a job.

Re: The Waste Makers

Dan 55's link is actually to a Guardian article that doesn't mention Apple, but is focused on electronic waste being sent to developing nations under false pretences of reuse, when in fact they are to be dismantled (often dangerously in the case of CRT televisions and fridges, and environmentally damaging).

So having phones responsibly recycled by a Canadian company would, on paper, appear to be the much better approach.

> if Apple handed them to the recycling firm, then the recycling firm owned them.

No, Apple paid the firm for a service.

>If a stuff is dismounted, it seizes to exist, therefore how could Apple own something that doesn't exist anymore ?

Same way that a demolished building is still a very real pile of rubble, useful stone and dangerous asbestos - it's still very real stuff that has to be disposed of responsibly.

Or a written-off car is a very real lump of scrap metal and possibly useful parts - that belong to your insurance company.

> if a contract goes against a law (right to repair) then the contract is invalid

Eh? Any right to repair only applies to stuff that you own.

Re: The Waste Makers

> ban that company's imports from entering if they don't conform to safety and sustainability goals.

That would of course include phone vendors who don't send out software updates after a couple of years, then.

Sustainability goals also dictate the ease of recycling once the phone is beyond economic repair (either because it damaged, or because the hardware is so out if date that it can't reasonably do what users expect if it). Eventually, 100% of phones sold need to be recycled economically. Not every phone sold needs to be repaired. The use of glue rather than screws makes dismantling easier to do in bulk.

Re: The Waste Makers

> And how come Apple's products are so badly made they end up in dumps by the 100,000 ?

The lawsuit mentions half a million phones during 2015 to 2017, in which Apple sold around 300 million iPhones world-wide (though perhaps I should be taking figures for the immediately preceding years). So, that's roughly one in a thousand. However, many of those phones will have been damaged by dropping or by water damage, not faults of manufacturing. Conversely, the dismantling centre in question likely isn't the only one Apple was using.

Tl;dr: your figures alone don't support Apple phones as being any more poorly made than any other brand of phone. You need more data and context before asserting that claim.

> Just because they made it, it doesn't mean it's still theirs once they've sold it.

Yet the phones in question *did* belong to Apple, not to end users - presumably units that been swapped over by Apple or traded in.

Suffering silicon: Benchmarks for Apple's A14 chip are in, but post-Intel Macs, when they arrive, will tell the real story

Re: Mobile is not laptop or desktop

> However, there's a reasonable argument that the phone-level processors won't really work well enough for laptop or desktop use cases.

The iPad version of Photoshop has been out for a year now, and there haven't been any complaints about its performance (just complaints about it not yet being feature-complete, a few tool-specific niggles, and its reliance on Adobe Cloud). Civilization VI also runs a treat on iPad, though I don't know how useful a benchmark that is!

Some applications are more relient on GPUs and other hardware such as video encoders than they are CPUs, and other work has I/O as the chief bottleneck.

For those tasks that are really CPU dependant, Apple will be making Intel Mac's for another two years. That could well be enough time for Apple to scale up production on CPUs that challenge Intel at the high end.

Re: Ha!

It's possibly tangential, but I wish I could force some Windows processes to confine themselves to a single core - that way the system would be responsive enough for me to shut the runaway process down using task manager.

Re: Ha!

> I'm not. Those things are so thin, it's not like it's going to get any more cooling than the phone would.

It's surface area that's important for cooling, not volume.

If the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition doesn't make you a fan, we don't know what will

Re: confused

I'm with you that people should have a choice of size, Cedric. Just as they have a choice of clothing and in which pockets they stash their possessions. I for one don't understand why people keep their phones and wallets (!) in their back pockets, but I see many people who do.

However, the height of the phone doesn't directly impact the width of the phone, and it is the width of the phone that determines how comfortable it is to grip in the hand. As to being able to reach the top and bottom of the phone with one's thumb - well that's partly a software UI issue.

Taller phones don't always allow text to be made bigger (not all websites reflow text to allow that) - so it's not an eyesight issue. However, displaying more lines of text on a taller phone does reduce the amount of scrolling required of the user.

Re: A 600£ or 700£ price is now considered not hard to swallow? For a phone?

Paying for the hardware through a network operator contract?

The advantages of buying the phone outright are:

- you can often negotiate a better SIM-only tariff, since you're not tied to the network operator. They'd rather have some money from you than no money.

- you're covered by the Sales of Goods act - faulty hardware must be refunded or, if you choose, replaced. Conversley, a phone supplied by the network operator is their property until the end of contract, and they used to insist on a faulty phone being sent away for two weeks to be repaired.

- wider choice of hardware

- take advantage of a special offer in hardware

- no operator bloatware

The network operator isn't the only group that offers finance. Even some phone vendors such as Apple offer financing in hardware, if you don't want to go down the credit card route.

Re: Why I Am Not A Fan

Good for you. It has a smaller battery and no OLED screen. Some folk value that, some don't. Horses for courses etc.

Re: Technically impressive, but it's been Samsunged

> Very bright on full brightness but fairly aggressive adaptive brightness when I turned on auto-brightness.

The auto-brightness adapts to the user over time - you manually correct the brightness for first few days, and phone then makes better guesses at what you want. Works quite well, though beware of some apps in bright sunlight- it is possible to burn the OLED screen - irritating if it's because the phone itself pumped up the brightness.

Decluttering duplicate apps, swapping Back and Task Switcher back to normal, disabling Facebook etc etc takes about ten minutes. Installing BxActions takes another five minutes and a couple of quid for the device to gain full control of the extra Bixby button.

Re: Digital watches

Changing batteries - a bugbear, but far cheaper and easier than getting a mechanical watch serviced! G-Shocks can go about ten years between battery changes.

There are some solar and kinetic quartz watches that can soldier on almost indefinitely... I believe that Seiko have ironed out the issues their early Kinetic watches had with flaky capacitors.

Re: confused

The phone is only 10mm taller than the S9, making it around the same height as many Galaxy Note models, let alone other 'phablets'. There won't be a significantly greater bending moment.

For sure, nobody wants a foot-long phone, but a few extra mm in height causes fewer problems than a few extra mm in width.

I like my digital watch because I *don't* have to care about it - it was cheap, it's accurate, damned near indestructible and the battery lasts for ten years.

Not having to care about it is what is so good about it.

Re: Paid publicity

If The Reg didn't write positive reviews of phones from other vendors, you might have a point about the Reg taking bribes. As it is, if I were Samsung I would want more value from my bribes.

The Galaxy S range has always popular. This model is made cheaper mainly by making design choices that impact its appearance (it has a completely flat screen without the curved edges, a plastic back instead if a glass back, and it has thicker bezels) rather than compromise its performance or function - so it's not unreasonable to pitch it at people who care more about features than they do a shiny appearance. We might fairly call them 'enthusiasts' if 'fans' is a bit of a stretch. You'll find Galaxy S owners well represented over on XDA Forums.

The cheaper flat screen without curved edges is a plus point to anyone who fits screen protectors to their phones, and to anyone who finds reflections annoying.

The resolution is lower than that of its pricier siblings, but many people run their phones at lower-than-native resolutions anyway in order to save battery.

Are Samsung facing stiff competition from Chinese rivals and others? Of course they are. Will a OnePlus or Honor phone be a better fit for many people? Of course.

Re: confused

> How is that screen ratio remotely sensible?

Reading text, mainly. At its width of 2.9" (on par with previous Galaxy S models) you can read about 10 words per line, but with its extra height allows more lines. (I'm using width and height with respect to portrait orientation, and I'm assuming text size for normal eyesity at 2')

The dimension of a phone that is most constrained (by the need to hold it in a hand or fit it in a pocket) is its width. The height of the phone isn't as constrained by pockets.

Re: A 600£ or 700£ price is now considered not hard to swallow? For a phone?

Generally, the extra money buys you a better screen and and better cameras, wireless charging and waterproofing - a faster SOC isn't always noticeable in many day to day tasks. Having had an OLED screen on my phone for a couple of years I'm a convert, though it's increasingly available on cheaper phones. And without waterproofing, my total cost of phone ownership would be multiples of what it actually has been.

My relatively bulky Panasonic LX-7 can take better photos than my Galaxy S8, but not by such a margin that I always carry it with me.

There's nothing currently on the market that tempts me to upgrade from my Galaxy S8, and I'll run for as long as possible. I'm not sure that would be true if I'd bought a phone that was half the price.

Talk about working smarter: NASA scientists searching for craters on Mars train AI software to do the job for them

Re: What's that you say, NASA?

It's inevitable that a new field of human endeavour (information systems) is going great to borrow and steal words from existing areas.

When we're talking about complex adaptive systems (which some computer systems qualify as) then areas such as biology and ecosystems are bound to be plundered for words and concepts. And hey, it's a two way street - computing science has given plenty back to the study of biology. It's no coincidence that progress in genetic research roughly follows Moore's Law, or that Alan Turing did important work in morphogenesis and self-organisation.

If we want to consult dictionaries, then it's worth noting that that the most common definition of intelligence is merely 'the ability to solve problems', with no mention of scope or method. 'AI' as it is currently used satisfies that definition. I think Joe Public is only too aware that computers still do stupid and frustrating things due to a lack of 'common sense' - or of 'Artificial *General* Intelligence'.

Re: What's that you say, NASA?

*Marketing* hype?

The term Man Machine Symbiosis was the title of a 1960 paper by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider - the man who foresaw and gained funding for ARPANET, and to who the founders of Xerox PARC credit as the father of the GUI. Oh, he was also the project director for a precursor to UNIX. Okay yeah, you can say he 'sold' the concepts to the people holding the purse-strings, but he was a psychologist and engineer, not a mere marketing bod.

So, not a newly coined term, and I assumed that most researchers in the field are familiar with him. Certainly none of them let the biological root of the term Symbiosis cause them unhelpful confusion.

Boot, virus, icon etc etc - all terms borrowed by IT from other fields, without any great confusion.

Microsoft touts its Surface Laptop Go as 'cheap' option – but that price quickly goes up for useful RAM and storage

Re: 4GB is plently enough RAM

It's rare that I run up against the limits of the 4GB RAM in my ancient laptop, but my CAD models only have a few parts (think chairs, not combine harvesters) and my Illustrator documents are only usually a single page and the artwork fairly simple - saved documents are usually only a few MB in size. Still, going for 8GB and having some headroom seems sensible.

I don't have much cause to do video editing, but with an SSD some simple editing of HD video isn't a headache.

I can envisage jobs (more complex CAD simulations and visualisations) where I'd benefit from much more RAM, but those same tasks would also benefit from from more CPU GPU grunt, and possibly better Thunderbolt implementation - i.e, starting with a different machine that's actually designed for such stuff.

As it is, I like the 3:2 screen of this Surface laptop, and I'll will read up on its performance with a stylus ( though the stylus is an optional extra that bumps the price yet higher)

Re: Apple prices without the desirability

@ST

jake was suggesting that this laptop, *if bought second hand*, might qualify as a 'who cares machine'. You have only been referring to its new retail price, which is moot to his point.

There would have been more ambiguity in jake's post had he used a single full stop followed by a line break, but he didn't.

It's 2020 so not only is your mouse config tool a Node.JS Electron app, it's also pwnable by an evil webpage

Re: I like Electron but...

If you works for you, that's grand. I've not used my MX Master mouse without the Setpoint software, so in a way my ignorance is the mirror image of yours! :)

That said, the Logitech Setpoint software for Windows includes a clone of OSX's 'Exposé' task-switcher which I value greatly and map to one of the mouse's many buttons. It's only selectable if Setpoint detects you're using an MX mouse, oddly.

Beyond that, I've only used the software to configure buttons, which I assume Windows can do natively. There's also an option in Setpoint to have different button configs for different applications, and I attempted to map keyboard keys to various mouse buttons to streamline my Civ 5 experience (turns out I was playing it wrong).

I don't need any software to tell me the mouse's battery level, since the mouse has LEDs for this purpose.

I'm not really a gamer, but someone who is might have a different response to your question.

Re: And further back in the chain...

Ideally, yeah, and that would put pressure on the OS developer to implement the genuinely useful features that are currently present in, for example, Logitech's mouse config software. Maybe it's moving that way - see Microsoft's recent efforts in defining the way a trackpad should work (as opposed to tiny track pads many laptops once had). Apple of course has greater control over trackpads (usually very good) and mice ( to a sometimes note mixed reception)

Until that day, however, some users derive great benefit from the extra features and options that only found in the mouse vendors' config suites. Other users will use devices that aren't mice ( graphics tablets, accessibility devices). Gamers will always delight in a bespoke config suite.

Singapore Airlines turns A380 into a restaurant, delivers plane food to homes

Re: Empty prose.

Yeah, it's odd to see a Reg journo refer to booze as "tat".

Included with the sold-off trollies were:

40 mini bottles (187ml) of Australian white wine

40 mini bottles (187ml) of Australian red wine

one full-sized bottle of Champagne

one sleeve of Tim Tams

one sleeve of savoury biscuits

one 200g packet of smoked almonds

two Qantas business class amenity kits (featuring ASPAR Travel Essentials skincare products)

a 100% combed cotton Sheridan throw made exclusively for Qantas First Class

two pairs of Qantas Business Class pyjamas – one M/L and L/XL (if you want a smaller size, just give them a few washes in hot water)

It's powered by a mega-corp AI, it has a Liquid Mode, but it's not a T-1000. It's Adobe's PDF auto-reflow for mobile

Re: RE: Ideal to proof read before printing

To be clear:

There is a need for a PDF reader to make the reading of existing PDFs easier on mobile screens.

I did not mean that there was a need for Adobe's specific solution.

I did mean that that there is a clear problem: reading existing PDFs with the default reader on Android can be a pain. This problem has been partially addressed by PDF readers from 3rd parties that offer text reflow and more zoom and scrolling options.

Even the above suggestion that PDF text be copied and pasted into a text editor is just more evidence that the problem exists.

Mage's argument that there is no need for a better PDF reader of any description because PDFs shouldn't be used isn't helpful in the context of, for example, consulting an instruction manual PDF for a washing machine error code. Mage's 'solution' does nothing to make for the millions of extant PDF files on the web easier to read when one doesn't have a big screen to hand.

> moronic use of PDF documents such as: Where everything is output as images, no text at all (complete usability and accessibility failure)

No text is handy when sending, for example, a poster created in Illustrator to a printing agency in PDF format. Converting the text to vector outlines means that you don't have to worry about the printing agency having all the fonts you have used. Obviously in this use case the lack of edibility is not an issue - the creator retains the original document and doesn't want the printer to change anything.

Re: RE: Ideal to proof read before printing

> No-one needs this

Yes we do. We, the people who on occasion want to read a PDF document whilst on the go, have no choice over the format we find it in. Remember - a huge number of instruction manuals are most easily found in PDF format.

Your points about publishers choosing more suitable formats is valid, but that doesn't address the fact that there are millions of existing PDFs on the web, some of which might just have the information I need to fix something.

Should we need an Adobe account to read PDFs on a small screen in a sane fashion? No, of course not. But some sort of text reflow - or even just more intelligent zooming and scrolling for common two-column PDFs - is very useful indeed.

It is that for that reason that use the Gaaiho PDF reader on my Adroid phone.

( I haven't tested Gaaiho Reader extensively, but I was driven to try it out after being frustrated by the very issues Adobe are only now claiming to address).

Moonshot: Making spaceships with Microsoft's refreshed HoloLens 2 nerd goggles

Re: LM

Obviously those tasks are cherry-picked, but it sounds plausible. If you're building something for the first or only time (as opposed to a production line when workers have a chance to become more efficient on each subsequent build) then how much time is spent referring to the specs as opposed to actually welding a spanner? Quite a bit.

Even when helping my nephew build a brand new Lego model, most of the build time is spent looking at the instructions, finding the correct part from amongst others, and then verifying said part against the instructions to make sure it's a ten-knobbler and not an eight-knobbler. These tasks are amenable to being aided by an AR system.

Nokia rolls out midrange 5G mobile, but will struggle to fight off Motorola and pals. Plus: New platform for suits with bulk-ordered SIMs

> This uses the antiquated MicroUSB format, which doesn’t support proper fast charging.

MicroUSB doesn't support the USB C Power Delivery spec, but it is capable of supporting any proprietary fast charging method the phone vendor cares to implement. Samsung's MicroUSB Galaxy S7, for example, shipped with a USB A wall charger that, upon detecting a compatible device, would up the voltage to around 9v for fast charging. It behaved the same if connected to a USB C Galaxy S8.

I'm not supporting the use of MicroUSB - I'm just being technically correct - which is the best kind of correct! ;)

India shows off new home-grown CPU – but at 100MHz, 32-bit and 180nm, it’s a bit of a clunker

From linked Reg article:

"We're told Shakti has been taped out and fabricated at 180nm by the Indian government's Semi-conductor Laboratory in Chandigarh, and at 22nm by Intel's foundry. "

- in case anyone else was wondering.

I don't know too much about chip foundries... could India buy second hand kit from Intel et al that was once used for commercial 48nm (or whatever) chip manufacture? Is uprooting a production line even worthwhile?

Also, I'm a bit fuzzy about India's motivation here - is it to give experience to budding silicon chip designers, ensure a trusted chip supply chain for national security purposes, or a combination of the two?

Samsung throws more frugal followers a bone* with cheaper Galaxy S20 Fanboi Fan Edition

Re: I'm beating a dead horse, but...

Samsung have had no business from me in the last couple of years - because they built their S8 so solidly ( and I've kept it in a big case and glass screen protector. )

They might get my business again in future.

Worthy of note is that this phone, like the Gaksxy S10 E, doesn't have curved edges to its screen. Many users prefer the flat screen, and it makes it easier to attach glass screen protectors ( the use of which renders which flavour of Gorilla glass it uses largely moot). It has an optical under-the-display fingerprint scanner, which has the potential to work with a glass screen protector more reliably than an ultrasonic unit, but it'd be sensible to wait for reviews.

It has a plastic back, which again, some users claim to prefer.

Another area of cost cutting is that screen is not as high resolution as other Galaxy models. However, its native resolution is what many users of pricier Galaxy S models actually run their phones at in order to save battery (or because they've neglected to change the default setting).

Could be a popular choice. However, the full fat S20 is likely to be discounted in a couple of months, if Samsung behaves as it has in previous years.

OnePlus to drop slightly better version of latest flagship next month ... and that's the T

Not built in separation, but Blackberry's suite of enterprise management tools run on iPhones and might provide such a feature.

Ports in a storm: The Matebook 14 won't set your world on fire, but it's still a half-decent laptop

Some vendors' implementation of barrel-type power connectors were fragile - or rather, they weren't but placed a bending moment on the laptop's board and breaking it.

The USB C socket on my phone has been used multiple times a day (more plug / unplug cycles than I would expect a laptop to endure) for years now, without issue.

I haven't seen any evidence that USB C sockets result in less durable kit. When next buying a laptop, I personally though would prefer a machine with at least two USB C sockets and that be charged from either.

If you're really worried, you might investigate USB C magnetic breakaway connectors (though do check they're rated to USB C PD specs)

Ready to slip into your suitca... or not: Logitech wheels out new 'travel-sized' version of MX Master 3

Re: priced at £79.99

I didn't pay full price for a MK 1 MX Master mouse, but I'm very glad to have it. It works flawlessly on a wider ranger of surfaces than a conventional laser or optical mouse. It just makes each mouse interaction with my computer (I do more CAD than I do coding or word processing) that little bit more comfortable and less frustrating.

The fancy sensor aside, the (switchable) free-scroll wheel makes things easier, too.

So, to do a cost (I paid around £45 for mine) against benefit analysis: compared to a conventional mouse, it has made things easier over all the years I've used it. What would I pay for my cursor to go where I want it to, everytime? Even at 1p an hour, it's paid for itself.

Incidentally, £40 is roughly what I paid for my first optical mouse around the year 2000. Again, it was so much nicer to use than a ball-driven mouse - which could be picked up for next to nothing.