Posts by Dave 126 10841 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
A phone is more prone to being lost or stolen than a PC - or even just mislaid for half an hour. Of course if you have people's sensitive data on your laptop then you are legally obliged to encrypt it.
The issue here isn't that the OnePlus 6 can load an arbitrary boot image, but that an arbitrary boot image can be installed by someone other than the owner.
> Is that a vulnerability? I'd pay extra for it.
It is a vulnerability - it means anyone with physical access to your handset can put whatever they want in it without your knowledge. This is in contrast to a phone that requires the user to unlock it and turn on USB debugging and jump through other hoops before flashing it with a new OS image.
Obvious mods:
Game controller. Tricky because Android devs don't make much money from games due to the ease of piracy. Many Android titles that would benefit from a physical controller don't support one (I've tried, using an Xbox controller over USB OTG).
Camera Sensor. There is a zoom camera Mod, but it isn't as great as Weird Sony's QX100 which was an RX100 without a screen - it talked to a phone by radio. A Moto Mod would solve the shortcomings of the QX100. However, it was a serious bit of sensor and lens, too much of an investment to tie to a single phone. Sony discontinued the experiment.
Speakers are less obvious. You either want a speaker built into the phone for podcasts, or you want something bigger than a Mod for music - there isn't a sweet in-between zone.
The obvious and sustainable market for Mods would be in industry - barcode scanners, thermal cameras etc - that is to say, many niche markets.
For people wanting to continually use a phone throughout the day, a Moto Mod battery pack is a better option than a removable battery since it incurs no down time whilst the phone is power cycled. For people wanting to extend the life of their handset by changing the battery, the cost of having it done by the original vendor or 3rd party shop is small compared to the original price of a premium handset (removable batteries are still found in low and mid range phones).
For safety reasons a removable battery must have a durable, hard to pierce shell (especially if it's slung in a kit bag) that is bulky (a slimmer metal shell would interfere with the phone's radios), so it results in several millimeters extra thickness over an internal-only battery that could otherwise be used for storing power.
The need for a removable battery is further mitigated by rapid charging and the ubiquity of power sources, planes trains and automobiles. In the case of no mains or vehicle power outlets, power banks are inexpensive and universal (an investment not lost when a phone is eventually changed) and, whilst ungainly, don't need to be attached to a phone for very long (rapid charging again).
Then of course there is the economics - why would a phone vendor go out of their way to appeal to a group who by their own admission only want to buy a phone every three years?
You could get yourself an LG V20 with a Snapdragon 820 SoC with removable battery - and as a bonus it not only has a 3.5mm socket but a socket driven by an ESS Sabre DAC and amplifier.
I'm not against removable batteries, I'm just trying to outline how the current state of affairs came to be.
Skagen are thin and light, but they are still around today's near ubiquitous diameter of 42mm. Watches used to be around 38mm, which is all you need if the display is clear and uncluttered ( which Skagen are). Examples of 38mm watches include the afore mentioned Omega, Dieter Ram's watches for Braun, the similar looking quartz Seiko worn by Steve Jobs in the 80s and many a Timex.
I like what Skagen do, which is why I'm frustrated they just go with the herd regarding watch size. I'm not anti big watches, I'm for variety.
Dissolved oxygen in the water is crucial for tea - that's why it's recommended to pour cold water into a kettle and then boil it. I suspect it's why tea tastes better from a pot than directly from a mug.
Occasionally I'll brew tea in one mug and then pour it into another mug before adding milk and sugar. As a bonus, I then don't have to wait as long before drinking it.
In the late 1960s, an Omega Chronostop was £19 with a convention steel bracelet, and £23 for the same watch with a steel mesh bracelet. Roughly, let's say that 20% extra, and say an equivilent watch would now be nearly a grand... it's in the same ballpark. That said, watch brand Skagen charge around £150 for a quartz watch with a mesh bracelet. Nice simple designs, shame they are unnecessarily large.
In any case, I'm sure there's some forum online discussing the quality of 3rd party metal straps for Apple watch.
Sticking blue LED lights on stuff just to make it look 'modern' is a prime example of shit product design. The base level of annoyance is further raised by the evident lack of consideration in its design. I'm not going to lay all the blame at the designers - they need time and respect from management in order to do a good job. Whilst Diester Rams is a very good designer ('Form Engineer' in his own words) he would have been able to operate without the culture his boss Mr Braun instilled in the company.
Unfortunately the economics are such that spending time on thoughtful design can't always give a return. If you've owned a well designed Sony radio you might buy another - but this only works because there is a recognisable brand to associate with the quality, and a wide availablity of Sony stockists so you can actually buy one.
Yeah, using this twin-screened laptop in a docked setup with external keyboard actually makes sense. Keyboard at home, keyboard in workplace - and sub optimal typing on the train in-between. And heck, how much are external monitors these days anyways?
It could work well for some people, but not everybody.
Heck, I'm now thinking of a laptop that hinges on the other edge so it opens into an ultrawide twin display. Sticks some glowing lights on it and sell it to gamers!
There would be applications for a dual screen laptop in music production (UI consists of virtual sliders and the like) but that market is fairly well served by iPads already (wireless MIDI built in, good 3rd party developer support). Windows isn't great for music, never know when Windows is going to scratch it's arse, insist on an update, or decide it wants to use its audio subsystem instead of ASIO. It might be better these days, but I'd still research forums extensively before buying into a Windows-based DAW.
For years Adobe has had companion iOS apps that present OSX Photoshop et al tool pallettes on an iPhone or iPad, freeing up work area on the Mac's desktop.
I don't know one how well this Asus idea will work (the act of switching between touchpad mode and touchscreen mode might be clunky) and it's not making want to rush out and buy an Asus laptop, but there are some workflows where using a combination of touchscreen and mouse (or stylus and keyboard, or whatever) can work well.
Hence my chef/farmer analogy. Take a HDD drive from a HDD company, add the scroll wheel from a Bang and Olufsen telephone (though they were also present on Sharp Minidisc players and Sony AV equipment), add a FireWire interface (first iPods were Mac only, and most PCs only had USB 1 which wasn't fast enough for the job). Place it in a case that resembles a cigarette case (a time-tested and refined object that goes in and out of pockets). That's not meant to make it sound easy - if it were others would have done it. Sony had the expertise in all areas (UI, product design) but didn't make it.
Remember Apple has been near death in the 90s except in audio and design sectors where FireWire was invaluable for soundcards and scanners.
It's also why I asked about what @Christian Berger meant by 'innovation' - I'm not sure why some think the manner in which ingredients are brought together cannot be considered innovative, and that innovation can only be found in the components themselves. I also question the value of 'innovation' in a device for its own sake - it's only useful if it improves the user experience.
> Just look at Apple which became successful after they stopped trying to be innovative.
How do you define innovation? In the areas in which Apple has released products the low hanging new fruit has already been taken (and good, maturity is actually a good thing for end user experience, since the bugs are ironed out and a stable base has been established for others to build upon. Innovation for innovation's sake alone is daft). Those areas Apple is researching but has not yet released a product we hear very little about (though there's evidence that they're looking at AR, micro LED displays, self driving cars)
Apple are largely chefs not farmers - though if it suits them they will finance those who grow their ingredients. The iPod was the result of looking at a new form factor of HDD and thinking 'what can we do with this'? The iPhone similarly came from looking at available ingredients (wireless data networks, SoCs, Apple's own tablet skunk works and previously acquired companies).
> Communism, as well as having no ability to change one's government, stifles incentive.
President Xi has a different definition of communism to you. China is at ease with the contradictions of being both capitalist and communist.
> I don't care so much about it being waterproof, but I care a lot about the existence of a headphone jack.
They're not mutually exclusive. Until the latest generation, flagship Xperia phones have been waterproof and boasted a 3.5mm socket. Last few years of Galaxy S phones have also had both features.
You never know when you might need a phone to call the emergency services and you don't get to choose the weather at the time; just look at the weekend's headlines. The idea of altering one's behaviour to suit a gadget is placing the cart before the horse.
The Moto Mod appears to relatively healthy (it's seen a couple of generations of handset and new mods are being released). I guess this can only happen in a nature market where many people have settled on a roughly 5" phone as being the best compromise of screen area and ergonomics.
The mod system is supior to replaceable internal batteries for all those who claim to be using their phone all day: it doesn't require a phone restart.
And yes, you can choose a Moto phone based on whether you prioritise slimness or durability.
They're not mentioned much in the US-centric tech blogs - I was interested to read that they're doing well in Brazil - and I've seen them advertised in TV in France.
Making a phone thicker to add a bigger battery is sensible. The idea of making a phone thicker to incorporate the features of a case is not sensible for several reasons:
- a plumber will want a thicker case than an office secretary
- a damaged or scuffed case can be replaced. For next to nothing.
- a lot of the market will want to choose a case in a colour or design to suit them
- people want different features from their case. Like Lee D I use a kickstand on my case, others dont. Some people use wallet cases, I don't.
If you try to incorporate every feature that every person want from a case into the phone, it'll not be an optimal product for anyone and it will sell very few units.
At various times the big vendors have been good or bad at updates - so pastt performance is no indicator of future updates. There is a better way: buy a phone that ships with Oreo - it's mandated that its OS is more modular, so OEMs don't need to wait for new device drivers from ODMs.
Knox gets broken if the phone is ever rooted, but there's not much in Knox of interest to the average user. It's more of interest to organisations.
Samsung aren't the quickest at updating, but to blame it on Samsung's skinning is a red herring. If you care about updates, then you need to buy a phone that ships with (as opposed to offering a day one update to) Oreo, since Google insist that they are built around the modular Project Treble. Sadly the S8 doesn't support Treble and may never, whilst the S9 does (but is too pricey). Being modular means no more waiting on binary blobs from ODMs after Google release a new Android version.
It's just easier to make all phones waterproof than it is to have two different models; one for the Lee Ds of this world, and another for everyone who lives in tropical locations, goes for walks in the rain, messes around near rivers, would be glad of a flashlight whilst changing a tyre in the rain, gets blind drunk, knows people who are clumsy, or hell, just enjoys listening to podcasts in the bath. Heck, it seems Lee missed the news about flash flooding in the Midlands over the weekend and the death of some poor fella trapped in his car.
In short, we can live like Lee D, or we can live.
All in, it seems that you're better off with a Galaxy S8, unless you really need that extra RAM and Snapdragon 845.
The Galaxy can be bought from a company based in the UK, has waterproofing, wireless charging, better screen, SD card slot and is better support for niche features such as ARCore and HDR video playback.
Shame really, because OnePlus has some nice features such as the alert slider and some Android tweaks.
I've noticed that a few niche things are only supported by very few phones, such as ARCore and Netflicks' HDR (The OnePlus 5 screen wasn't quite bright enough to receive the latter, though it could be bodged). None of these features could be described as essential, but it's mildy reassuring to have a handset that is consistently included in this club (Pixel and Galaxy S8/9).
The ARCore thing is largely a toy at the moment, but I fully expect my next phone (in 2020) to boast either multiple rear cameras or a depth sensor (IR grid or time of flight ) for accurate environment mapping (so real life measurements can be quickly taken into CAD and emailed to the local timer yard's CNC machine)
I haven't bothered yet to buy a Qi charging mat, but I like the idea that should my phone's USB socket die i can continue to use my phone.
As such, i place wireless charging in a 'nice to have' category that might play a role in protecting my investment - along with waterproofing, a thick case and a tempered glass screen protector.
Sadly the OnePlus 6 is vaguely weather resistant but not certified waterproof.
Reviews of the Essential phone suggested its main failing was a camera that just wasn't as good as rival phones.
A few years ago Sony made the QX100, a lens and sensor-only camera designed to use an Android phone as screen and storage. Image quality was superb because it was effectively a Sony RX100. However, it was let down by connection and transfer issues. This concept could work well using Motorola's Mod system.
What other mods would I buy, and to what extent can their functionality be incorporated into the base phone? A keyboard - maybe. A game controller - maybe, but Android game support is poor because games are too easily side-loaded. Good stereo microphones for recording jams and gigs - could be incorporated into handset, or otherwise use USB C since separating microphone from phone is useful. A speaker - no, my current phone is loud enough for me to hear podcasts in the shower. Active IR 3D environment mapping - yes please, but I'm weird like that. A projector - nah. IR camera - nah, I don't retrofit insulation to old houses for a living, but it would be fun to pretend to be the Predator for five minutes. Get To Da Choppa! So, there's no 'killer app' for modules for me.
The Essential Phone only supplies power to an add-on module, data is sent over some flavour of RF. It just seems to be a limited system, unlike the GreyBus standard (an electronic standard that lets Android see resources in modules as if they were integral to the host phone) that underpins Motorola's Mod System (the actual physical connector is proprietary to Moto).
Having a physical connector on the rear of a phone can lead to more elegant packages than plugging something in at the base of the phone. This could be seen on the Nokia 6210, where the bottom-mounted dock contacts extended around to the rear of the phone under the battery, so new features (such as Bluetooth) could be added with a new battery module.
>At least you can't take one thing away from Essential. It was the first phone to introduce The Notch.
Yeah. However wasn't the first phone to regain screen space by bumping status bar icons up level with the camera and earpiece though. That was done by 2016's LG V20 by means of a small secondary display.
Thanks @tfb
Yep, it was the laser concept (central to Buzz Aldrin's hard sci fi novel Encounter with Tiber) that inspired my pellet shooter idea - that and an Osbourne children's book that featured a linear accelerator (akin to that seen in Duncan Jones' film Moon) based on the moon.
The basic premise of my mad notion is that accelerating one big thing over a set distance is hard (and no good for payloads) but accelerating lots of small things is easier - and can be done over a longer period of time.
... but I'll jot it down here lest I forget this (probably daft, but I don't know) notion:
If the challenge is reducing how much reaction mass a vehicle must carry (thus accelerate that reaction mass in addition to itself and its payload) then could a possible solution be:
Use stationary linear accelerators at the vehicle's departure point to shoot pellets of reaction mass / fuel at the departing vehicle? The vehicle could then 'catch' the pellets and make use of them.
As i say, its just an idle thought that popped into my head when I read this article. Anyone here with an envelope and a biro care to give ideas as to why it wouldn't be work / be impractical?
Sony phones have been waterproof and had a headphone socket for years - though latest Sony flagships have ditched the port. Top end Samsung phones have been waterproof for a few generations now, and still retain the 3.5mm socket.
I saw a mate the other day, had dropped his phone into a puddle of paint and thus funked up the charge socket. Having wireless charging is a form of reduncy - if the USB socket dies the phone can still be used. If my phone lost its 3.5mm socket, it'd be annoyance but I'd find a workaround somehow (i.e I'd spend £20 on dongles instead of £500 on a new phone)
BBC podcasts I can just download as MP3s, but not all programmes are available (something to do with not letting the BBC hurt the business model of commercial audio book providers) as such. Instead, the programme has to be downloaded and played back within the iPlayer Radio app itself.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Radio 4 isn't buffered for obscenities - who can forget the Today programme when Jim Naughtie accidently referred to Jeremy Cunt the culture secretary? And Andrew Marr making the same slip an hour later when referring to his colleague's gaff?
Anyway @Lee D to answer your question as to why DAB want built with buffering, it's because solid state memory was expensive in the nineties. It was present only on the higher end portable CD players to mitigate shock-induced read errors. It was standard on MD players - it had to be because a recorded Minidisc might not playback in the order it was originally recorded (users could split and reorder tracks by altering the Table of Contents) - but this required less storage per second because MiniDiscs stored compressed ATRAC audio. Pricier models offered 15 seconds of Electronic Shock Protection over the standard 3.
Some DAB radio sets do offering buffering, but it isn't a part of the standard.
Spoken-word content doesn't need a super high bit-rate, so most people's mobile data allowance is sufficient. Failing that, much of it can be downloaded in advance. And of course the internet offers a far greater range of material than any broadcast system ever could.
The Android iPlayer Radio app sometimes fails to download a programme - a bug that the BBC said they're aware of for a while. However, the Android app has the ability to set a BBC radio station as an alarm clock - something that can't be done on iOS unless the iPhobes screen is left on (i.e if plugged in to charge overnight) because of iOS permissions.
The BBC's insistence that one must be logged onto a BBC account to listen to radio programmes ( something that doesn't require a paid licence) is just irritating, especially if you want to send a friend a link to a programme that might interest them.
I enjoy listening live to 6 Music - the music is varied and the hosts put the music first. And after all, how would I know to search for something on Spotify (or in a record shop!) if I hadn't already heard? On a Sunday morning I can put Cerys Matthews on and make my breakfast without having to attend to any playlists.
I don't like ads on commercial radio, and Radio 2 is intensly annoying for many reasons - not least DJ's habit of talking g over a song and then not telling you what it is (their one job!)
I can't upvote Jon 37 enough. The astronaut was reporting the observed facts and not making assumptions (it is an assumption that No SD Card means there is no SD card present (even if it's an assumption that might prove to be correct most of the time) because it might be a contact problem or a cosmic ray-induced camera logic error.
If there was an SD card present, I guess he couldn't just whip it out and blow on the contacts!
( See 'The Magic Blow', a time-honoured response to a NES (Famicom) console not reading its cartridge. I've read that the Magic Blow procedure is counterproductive, something to do with moisture on the breath, but no doubt people still do it)
One friend of mine routinely dabs anything electrical with IPA (isopropyl alcohol, not Indian Pale Ale... Though I have known him to use the former to clean the latter off his camera after a spill)
Now that Samsung phones have on-screen Back and Task Switcher keys, they can be easily swapped over to the normal Android positions.
My previous Android phones had all been close to stock Android (Xperia) or stock (Nexus), so I was pleasantly surprised to find my Samsung Galaxy straightforward to use (once I had disabled the hardware Bixby button of course) having been apprehensive about Samsung's TouchWiz UI.
The OnePlus return system is poor. They don't supply VAT invoices - something no reviewer mentioned. A few months after a OnePlus is released, Samsung's top offerings are reduced to much the same price ( see OnePlus 5T Vs Galaxy S8), and said Galaxy will offer waterproofing, wireless charging and greater support from 3rd parties (HDR certification, ARCore). These aren't essential features for everyone of course, but nice to have. I have no immediate plans to buy a wireless charging mat, but it's good to know I can in case I ever break my USB socket.
Tl;dr OnePlus are competitive, but they're not amazing value for money.
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