Posts by c3me

Murena and /e/ Foundation launch privacy-centric smartphones

USP missed?

Sorry late to the party: has anyone experience of a battery life upside from the OS being privacy focused and not checking in regularly with Apple or Google's servers by radio, and thus consuming less power?

Apple's new MacBook Air: Is the jump to M2 silicon worth another $200?

Re: Heat throttling

'sustain the performance' = thrashing it with benchmarking workload to force 100% CPU and GPU utilisation, an extremely unlike eventuality in 99% of daily use cases.

Re: Inexplicable...

I hate to say it, but to be fair to apple they have an FX exposure on their UK sales. And maybe they expect a 5% reduction in the GBP value to the USD. Or there is or will be a tariff/duty/other additonal cost in the UK marketplace.

battery life

And don't forget to be sure the WIntel machine should have a comparable batter life....

John Deere tractors 'bricked' after Russia steals machinery from Ukraine

DRM and theft prevention

If only Apple cared enough about customers to prevent profit from theft, never mind John Deere.

A stolen new/unregistered/unused iPhone is 'impossible' to brick - one can only assume the network operators want equipment driving their service revenue, and property theft is 'breaking eggs sometimes to make omelettes'.

And I think we'd all rather a stolen piece of Ukrainian farm machinery in Russia is disabled by John Deere's DRM, than by a cruise missile.

'Windows 11 has been successfully downloaded,' says update for Xbox version of Microsoft Flight Simulator

W11 on Xbox anti-competitive (in EU)

W11 on Xbox as enticing as it sounds for getting the most use out of hardware as possible in the hands of a consumer would probably upset a lot of PC desktop manufacturers unable to compete against a 'console' able to provide windows desktop functionality that is not sold with a profit margin.

RAF chief: Our Reaper drones (sorry, SkyGuardians) stand ready to help British councils

Re: ... can also mount aerial surveillance equipment

Just the car, not the buildings - as demonstrated in Kabul when and aid worker and 7 children + the car were allegedly removed from the chessboard. :-(

Apple now Arm'd to the teeth: MacBook Air and Pro, Mac mini to be powered by custom M1 chips rather than Intel

Re: Confusing much?

different cooling + different power envelope are opposite sides of the same coin

Re: Confusing much?

one is pasively cooled to stop it from competing with a 300 USD more expensive model that is actively cooled - not a good look

Honey, I shrunk the battery: Something's gotta give as iPhone 12's logic board swells to accommodate 5G chippery

Re: Why not...

if there is a competitive marketplace with well-informed customers

we actually live imperfect market place with an overdose of questionable marketing messages in place of customer information, sadly

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

offering a de-Googled version would be a deal clincher

extended battery life and improved performance by not making constant contact with Redmond's servers would be a deal-making option

Ryzen shine, kids: Huawei buries AMD silicon in latest laptop, hopes to lure 'young professionals'

confirmed

just like MacBook Air - except for the price and you cannot open the screen with one hand!

Thanks for drawing attention to this laptop.

I've been looking for a MacBook Air zone laptop for a while, but stalled at the 1500 GBP.

With Wintel laptops in that zone at 1000 GBP, this WinAMD option at under 600 GBP is refreshing.

Bottom line: I just bought one.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro: £250 mobe still able to deliver value in a brutally competitive niche

evaluating camera performance + absence of telephoto lens and camera

Dear Folks, please be sensitive to the marketing claims vs. realities of telephone telephoto photography: many times despite the physical presence of a 'telephoto lens and sensor' a smartphone will use it's main lens/sensor and crop that to deliver the 'telephoto' result. I have checked this myself with my own Galaxy S9 plus + my finger to cover the 'telephoto' unit. For more detail from an experienced reviewer critique of the Galaxy S20 please consult SomeGadgetGuy: https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/04/01/does-the-galaxy-s20-use-a-fake-zoom/

Thank you for great quality IT journalism!

Honor MagicBook 14: Nice keyboard and ports aplenty – but with a webcam forever fixed on all of your chins

Re: Sure, USB-C is way more versatile

I understand the mobile one port criticism - removing 3.5mm jack and not adding another USB C port. But what about the Apple approach: 4 USB C ports, and use them for whatever you want on whichever side you want. I don't think that is a bad future/forward looking provision of IO on a high end device with an expected 5 year plus service life.

$1m Popslate e-ink screen venture tanks, Indiegogo backers flame out

And how would you connect the new antenna to the radio in the iPhone?

Re: They ran out of money bigly

Indeed the 'Con' and the 'Story' were in the land of Makebelieve in their 4 month ago update when they cancelled refunds. They did not do themselves any favours by not acknowledging the facts more frankly: 1. what is the actual compromise to the transmit and receive performance. 2. how much time to resolution does their current financing allow.

Heck they might even have got some sympathy if the straight jacket of Apple's OTA requirements was say no more than 15% degradation and they were at 30%. They'd have to be honest with any new backers they were approaching so why not be honest with the donors of the 1.1m USD that had overfunded them by 1,371%. Again that should have rung alarm bells in itself: they had no idea how much money they'd need and even less foresight about the risk to completion when they did hit a snag!

Huawei's P10 breathing on Samsung's shoulder

Re: Replacing the battery

'Replaceable': I have an iPhone 4 that has had its battery replaced twice and still works well. I am happy to pay for a technician to replace the battery for a fraction of the cost of a new phone.

BlackBerry's comeback: El Reg gets its claws on the QWERTY KEYone

Re: New internet law needed...

So the analysis is Betamax vs. VHS: perceived qualities + Sony licence fee < perceived qualities + no JVC licence fee. And that looks like the same problem BB Android device has vs. all other Android devices vs. iPhones. Can't hit the right price point for the consumer. And that, if I remember correctly, was also an issue in Betamax vs. VHS.

Your next PC is… your 'Droid? Remix unveils Continuum-killer

http://www.sentio.com an Android mobile add on. Maybe a little more practical and usable.

Man killed in gruesome Tesla autopilot crash was saved by his car's software weeks earlier

drunk texting drivers vs AI.... and superiority bias

It would be interesting to test that hypothesis by knowing the subset of the statistic deaths per million miles for those who habitually text whilst driving under the influence of alcohol (or other drugs). I fear all we may find is additional evidence that confirms the existence of superiority bias, and that it may be even higher amongst those who believe it is acceptable to impair their abilities or divert their attention unnecesarily whilst driving.