Razer Edge has died and OnePlus 13R is here

 It hasn't been that long ago that I bought my Razer Edge.  It was being sold at US$199.99, which was a bargain price, even for a WiFi-only model because it came with a Kishi V2 Pro controller.

If you read my earlier blog entries, it was good but not great, and then, it was dead.  The company had an arduous website support mess.  I started the claim within my account, and it asked me to fill in my account details.  Then, I couldn't access some of the most important pages, so support staff added some of my information, and handed the support pages back to me to finish.  When it had been completed, Razer support sent me a package and label (that was another issue) and I returned it.  It didn't take too long and they sent me a whole retail box, complete with cables and another controller.

 That unit died today and I was in the middle of a game, no less.

 I'm more-or-less ahead of where I was with Android.  We'll see if Android helps me recover.  If that doesn't quite make sense, let me give you my Android history.  I had an LG Optimus S as my first Android phone.  It didn't have enough storage to hold apps and and do a System Update.  The next Android product I got was the Google Nexus 7 tablet by Nvidia.  I returned that within a week.  The next year, I got the Google Nexus 7 tablet by ASUS.  I didn't have that for years.  Then, I got a Lenovo Tab M8 FHD, which in 2018 felt like the tablet from 2013.  I later bought the OnePlus 8T and still later, the Pixel 6a.

I decided to buy a reliable phone to replace the Razer Edge: the OnePlus 13R.  I had a OnePlus 8T a couple of years ago and it seemed to be made for an Apple iPhone user.  Physical things seemed to be where they should be.  The operating system seemed to understand how I needed it to work.  When I played a game, it adjusted for it.

 Then, I had a problem with the USB type C port.  Rather than get it fixed, I bought a Google Pixel 6a, and that was a huge mistake.  In fact, the upgrade to Android 14 didn't like that I had two users and it decided my data was corrupt and I had no choice but to erase it.  If the Android 14 upgrade had been optional or I could have postponed it, I would have.  That device is on Android 16 now, but it will never have my trust again.

Last year, I looked at the OnePlus 12R.  They had some good prices on it and it was quite powerful for not being the top-of-the-line phone.  The OnePlus 13R is equally impressive for the time, and at US$529 with a free case and US$50 trade-in/recycling credit, it's a decent deal.

 

Having 256 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM will be helpful. Having the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC will smack the Pixel 6a back into the dark ages.  Having a good cooling system will stop the likelihood of a Razer Edge-like overheating incident.  The 120 Hz low-power OLED will be impressive and the huge battery will keep things going.

 To me, this is still a lot of money for a device to just play games.  I might use it as a phone some time in the future, but it's a device for playing games.  You can tell me about other devices that are twice as much money.  They might be better, but not for me.  I bought an iPhone 15 to be my phone.  I didn't need AI messing up anything and that phone doesn't support it natively.  The 13R will have it, but I won't use that functionality unless it's part of the camera app or something like that and I have no choice.

Razer Edge on 13R box

 

Anyway, hopefully, it will be on the way sooner than expected.  The U.S. headquarters moved from Texas to California, so someone could probably drop it off on their way home.  Well, I got a shipment notice but it's at least a six hour drive from here.  I don't believe that FedEx will work that quickly.

Edge on the left, 13R on the right

 

Update 2025.07.16: The OnePlus 13R arrived.  It's big like the 8T, which isn't a horrible problem because it's still smaller than the Razer Edge.

The device came with 54% charge (6000 mAh battery) so I started downloading immediately.  There was a System Update and after that, another one.

Holding it, I was surprised to see the buttons moved.  Mute switch is on the left hand side, but Power and Volume buttons are on the right.  On the 8T, the Volume buttons were on the left and the Power button and Mute switch were on the right.  My iPhone 15 has Volume buttons and the Mute switch on the left with the Power button on the right.

The OLED is as good as expected.  It may be more power efficient, but at least, it's a 120 Hz display.  Games work as expected.  If you ever want to test a phone, run Tower of God: New World.  For a handheld game, it's quite demanding.  The display is so much better than the Razer Edge.  I'm glad I didn't spend much on that one.  I just looked at the Pixel 6a, which had a System Update and the display is pathetically bad.

 Just as I felt when I used the 8T, I could use the 13R as a replacement phone for my current iPhone.   I know that Samsung has a lot of fans, but I suspect many buy it just because it isn't Apple and that their advertising makes fun of Apple.  I've never had much luck with Samsung.

 The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 seems quite a bit stronger than the G3X that the Razer Edge had.  As many have said, that seemed to be a Snapdragon 888 with a better GPU and all the heat problems were intensified.

 

Running Tower of God: New World, it is warm, but not so hot as to fail.  The Razer Edge would have the fan going and be hot enough to cook something.  It would display "Cooling Down" but the message was only there for a moment.  OnePlus have instituted a Power Pass-Through mode where you can have a power bank attached and it will bypass the battery charging and just supply power to the unit, much the way Apple does with the Mac.

Update 2025.07.17: The 13R got a full charge overnight and it seems ready for anything.  I'm not sure how much I want to take it outside to test the cameras.  I've tried some games and it's quite good.  The Kishi V2 Pro does not work with it, but it doesn't work with my iPhone 15, either.  The older Kishi V2 works with both.  I'm not sure why Razer doesn't actually test to confirm which devices work but it's annoying.  The Kishi V3 and V3 Pro are available, but I'm not ready to put more money into Android gaming or into Razer. 

Android 15, errrr, 16 on a Pixel 6a

 It's been about a week since Android version 15 arrived on my Pixel 6a.  I just got a security update, as well.

I haven't seen a difference, positive or negative.  Being a stable operating system is the best thing about Android right now.

My replacement Razer Edge is still on Android version 12 and recently got a security update.

Update 2025.09.04: Grrr Razer Edge is dead and Pixel 6a is on Android 16 but it is stable.  The OnePlus 13R is on Android 15 and it's a smoother interface than what Google has.

Disappointed in Apple announcements

 While a new set of phones is an annual happening, I'm surprised that Apple wouldn't try to be more giving.

The iPhone 16 will have USB, type C connectors but will have USB 2.0, 480 Mbps speed.  The Pro models will have 10 Gbps speed.

The iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro will start with 128 GB of storage, even though the 16 Pro will be US$999.

I can't believe that 10 Gbps speed and 256 GB of storage across the line would have impacted their profit margins so much that they would so negative results.

Apple are just too worried about their balance sheet and not how they're perceived.  It's true that moving to Android would be a huge problem for many people.  Today's crowd seems so convenience-oriented that not getting the exact pumps of mocha they wanted will ruin their whole day.

Long time using Macs

I've been an Apple Mac user since 1993 when Atari was failing and Windows wasn't ready.  My first smart phone was an LG Optimus on Android 1.3, as I recall.  It barely had enough storage to update itself, after I un-installed my applications.  I went to the iPhone 4S afterwards and missed the "you're holding it wrong" problem.  I'd had a second generation iPod touch, so switching wasn't a big change.

I give Apple credit for coming up with some good experiences.  Windows and Android wouldn't be where they are today without Apple's leadership.

When I put MacOS Catalina on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro, Mac users were complaining about how horrible it was.  Just prior to that, I had an Omen by HP (2018) laptop computer and Windows update 1709 ate itself and I had to recover Windows 10 from scratch.

More announcements on the way

They didn't mention Macs.

The pandemic is over and the sales of stay-at-home equipment might never recover.  However, they haven't announced any M4 Macs.  The M4 is barely in iPad.  The iPad mini hasn't been updated since 2021.

If they said that the products will be available by Christmas, it would at least be something more than we've been told to date.  You'd think will the Qualcomm Elite X laptop computers actually out for sale that they'd be more energetic about saying something.  Those machines haven't been as horrible or as great as expected but they're available.  If someone starts converting games to work on ARM, I'll be ready on my M1 MacBook Air.  With all of the development studio closures and the layoffs, I'm not sure any of that will be happening soon.  The Resident Evil engine is working on ARM, just fine, though.

Maybe, there aren't enough M4-series SoC to make enough MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Mini units.  They might as well ditch the Mac Pro line.  They screwed that up.  For something similar, Qualcomm is supposedly hiring Intel engineers to likely create desktop machines with interfaces to outside devices, such as graphics cards and internal drives.

Apple needs to "think different" because doing the same thing year-after-year isn't great.  Their security is better than the others but they tend to put certain software updates on the back burner until they make the news report.  Microsoft wouldn't even bother to respond in most cases, but would point the finger at someone else, if necessary.

Extensible Macs?

Will there ever again be Macs that have replaceable storage, graphics hardware, or memory?

I bought my M1 MacBook Air with as much as I could get.  It was 1 TB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, and the most cores that the SoC had available.  Even refurbished, it cost quite a bit.  Compared to an Intel quad-core i7, it was a huge step-up in performance.  The graphics hardware still needs more work to compete with AMD or Nvidia but compared to the GeForce 650M or 1050 mobile, it was good.

The EU is calling for removable, easily-replaceable batteries for phones.  Apple pretty quickly abandoned replaceable batteries in Macs back in 2012.  That's why my previous "last" Mac was from the series just before that.  My M1 MacBook Air doesn't have a thing that I can change easily.

Computers aren't as disposable as phones.  I've had 20 year old computers that were slow but fine.  Getting 5.25 inch floppy diskettes to not degrade is another matter.

Apple has shown and sold us machines that need their help to be repaired.  Can they do better?

Have the watches really changed?

I didn't mention the Apple Watch at all, until now.  I don't know that there is anything truly compelling, except for Sleep Apnea detecting.  The size has changed somewhat and the charging is better somewhat.  They haven't figured a way to speed up the transfer of updates to the watch, I'm sure, and I don't remember my 2nd generation iPod touch being so slow, even if it really was.

My Series 7 Apple Watch is sufficient.  It feels as though Apple has made it worse with each update.  The only good things I can say for it are that the original band is still okay, it detected that my heart rate was 192 BPM, and if I'm out walking to the store and forget to start the Outdoor Walk, it will give me an option to start it around 15 minutes later.

Update 2024.09.16: I was just reading an opinion piece about how iPhone 16 Pro didn't get so many pre-orders/reservations because AI wouldn't be available right away.

I'm thinking that people didn't reserve as many because AI would be forced on them.  Besides, the majority of people are probably spending their money on items that are more important to them.  Spending US$1000 or more probably isn't a priority for them.

Update 2024.09.17: Warning!  Updated to iOS 17.7 and macOS 14.7 today.  Went to California DMV to renew my license.  Filled out the application on my phone through the process to be ready for the window.  I got a notification and my application was GONE.  I could not log into the system through the California DMV app but Apple should have been checking since so many people working there live in California.  Maybe, someone at headquarters will return with a story and the fix will be out next week. 

Update 2024.09.30: Macs and iPad mini are supposed to be announced in October.  Hopefully, every Mac will have an update to M4 processors, including the Mac Pro.  The iPad mini will likely get an iPhone processor and hopefully, one that is an A18.  If the iPhone SE replacement in 2025 gets one and the iPad mini does not, it would be unfortunate.  They should have a fix for the wavy display problem, also.

Update 2024.10.07: Mac Studio and Mac Pro will have to wait until 2025 for upgrades.  The MacBook Air was always going to be delayed until spring, along with the iPhone SE.

Update 2024.10.18: iPad mini has been announced.  Going from the A15 to the A17 Pro will be enough to make it more powerful and just enough to keep it going for a year or two.  The better display hasn't happened.  This is the treatment I expect for the iPhone SE, but then, the iPad mini hasn't been the best seller, since it's almost the only tablet of a smaller size.  When the Google Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013) were new, I would compare those with the iPad mini.  Now, it's difficult to find competition for it.  The last 7 inch tablet I bought had performance like 2012.

This seems like pandemic hangover.  They started planning, were interrupted by the pandemic, and have had a rocky recovery.  Quite a few executives have left Apple in the last couple of years, but that also seems like pandemic hangover.  However, they desperately need a visionary.

Update 2024.10.29: The M4 iMac and Mac mini are out.  The MacBook Pro must be next.  The way executives are leaving, you'd think that Apple don't have a plan. Certainly, this release the products one-by-one without an event has been different.  It doesn't lead to "We watched an hour for...that!" reactions although people can and will complain about anything.

Update 2024.10.30: The M4 MacBook Pro models have been announced.  The good thing about all of these announcements is that the base RAM is 16 GB.  The bad thing is that they didn't increase the minimum storage.  How many can deal with 512 GB?  I'm still cleaning out my 1 TB drive regularly to make sure I have enough room.  It feels as though even a minor installation takes a lot more space than expected.  Obviously, Universal Applications take more space because of two executables--one for Intel and another for Apple Silicon.  We last dealt with such issues when moving from PowerPC to x86.

Even the MacBook Air is now at 16 GB of RAM.  Since the CPU and GPU share RAM, it's important that they have more, but usually macOS is so efficient, you'll barely notice a problem, unless you're working on high resolution video...or playing a AAA game that doesn't exist yet.  There are some of those on the way.

Update 2025.06.13: Since the M4 MacBook Air has been out for a bit, I've been considering a change.  My current M1 MacBook Air is the most complete model.  On Apple's website, the middle selection, configured to 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores is similar to my MacBook Air, but only $50 extra than what I paid for my refurbished machine.

 What's more, they showed me a $390 trade-in value.  That makes it somewhat affordable although the sales tax is based on the full value.  After 2.5 years, spending another US$1000 to replace this machine might be worth it.  The performance difference is bigger finally. 

 Update 2025.09.04: There are announcements in just under five days for Apple Watch and iPhone and iPad.  Macs should be announced in October.  Will people trade their phones for new models after just one year? 

Update 2025.10.30: The announcements were phones and watches.  Apple still can't understand the difference between "faster" and "as fast".  They didn't announce the M5 iPad Pro or the M5 14 inch MacBook Pro.  I'm waiting for the M5 MacBook Air in 2026.  The M5 looks very powerful.

Switching from a OnePlus 8T to a Google Pixel 6a: What could go wrong?

 Now that the 8T is approximately 3 major versions behind, I wondered if it was time to switch.  I also recently bought a Razer Kishi V2, which for some reasons, doesn't work with it.  Android version 12 seems good but I wonder what kind of a mess the OnePlus/Oppo combination has made.  Things just don't seem quite right.  What better way to get a clear version of Android than from Google.

My last Google-labeled device was the 2013 ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablet with a Snapdragon S4 Pro.  It didn't seem to work very well with Android, but it worked well enough to play games.  It was much better than the previous year's version made by Nvidia.  However, even version 6 of Android just didn't work well and I gave it away.

I've spent time with Android 9, 10, 11, and 12.  They are better than previous versions.

Related to the Razer Kishi V2, there was a deal on the Google Pixel 6a for US$299.99, down from $449.99.  That's a good price for an unlocked phone.  It's slightly less than the US$399.99 I paid for the OnePlus 8T, but that had 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.  The Pixel 6a has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.  Both have an OLED display but the 6a is limited to 60Hz while the 8T goes to 120Hz.  The Google Tensor SoC isn't all that different than the Snapdragon 865, but in all reality, the 8T is a flagship device and the 6a isn't.

Conversion

I charged the 6a and when I turned it on, the instructions asked if I wanted to switch from another phone.  As instructed, I plugged a USB, type-C cable into each phone.  The 6a couldn't see the 8T.  I wasn't surprised.  Sometimes, it's difficult to get the phone to charge.  I connected them wirelessly and that seemed to work.

After some time, it finished.  I wondered how it did a complete backup so quickly.  It didn't do a complete backup.  That's how.

It sent the list of apps, contacts, and more.  The apps were being downloaded immediately, but that took quite a while.  Apparently, the data was not always available.  A few Android apps still cling to Facebook and other methods of storing progress, while Google is clearly available.

It took about a week to get things running the way I wanted, although I'm still not sure everything is where it should be.  The OnePlus 8T is empty now, though.

Thankfully, the 6a has a tiny, compatible SIM slot.  Mint Mobile is hard at work.  I've yet to test communications speeds.

On the other hand, game speeds seem decent.  Scrolling a game in landscape mode is jerky.  Animation is fine but that movement across the width of the display is pretty bad.  Is it the display or the graphics processor or the lack of RAM?

So far, the 6a seems okay for the job, and if it seems not good enough, I only have to remember my first Android smartphone: the LG Optimus S that was forever short on storage.  I had to delete apps to update the operating system.  That phone was US$299.99.

Real Life

Okay, so out in the real world, away from Comcast/Xfinity, it's okay for the internet connection.  I was concerned because I tried it close to work and got 3G-type speeds.  At home, I turned off the WiFi and it was faster than the XFinity connection.

What's a bit disappointing is that the display is dark in sunlight, even on cloudy days.  I turned it up to about 80% of maximum brightness and I could barely see the display.  The display on the 8T was readily visible.  Something else that hurts is that the system continues to drop the brightness level to around 30%, without asking.

The horizontal scrolling jerkiness has become less but is still noticeable.  I suspect that having half the storage and half the RAM isn't helping.  However, the 8T was reporting that 150+ GB of storage were in use, and since I don't have that much, I'm not sure how things are working or what extra the 8T was reporting as used.

Cases

Crave Dual Guard case recommended by Amazon is strong but slippery.  It's slipped off the desk and has slipped out of my hands.  I'm glad the case is tough.

Instead, two Spigen cases caught my attention:

Spigen Liquid Air Armor

Spigen Tough Armor

I have used the Tough Armor case for the OnePlus 8T and it was very good.  I've settled on the Liquid Air Armor case for now, as it is a slimmer case.  It doesn't have the kickstand but I rarely used the kickstand for the OnePlus 8T.

Still, I have to remove the case for the Razer Kishi V2.  It's possible that an adjustment to the pads on the controller will allow the case to be used on the controller.

Update 2024.07.15: Ordered a Razer Edge Wi-Fi model to replace the Pixel 6a.  It's been over a year with this awful phone and I just don't want to deal with the frustration any longer.  Newegg had a deal for US$100 off, putting the final price at about 66%.  The Snapdragon G3X should provide a much better experience.  Even the Snapdragon 865 was better than the Tensor 1st generation.

Google Play Games...on Windows?

 I looked at using the Android environment on Windows but didn't like the idea of using Amazon's store of games.

I recently got an invitation to use Google Play Games and the experience is very limited.

Since I have Windows 11 and virtualization is enabled, I only had to download the initial installer and download the application.  It was fairly quick but it looked like it had been cobbled together (even for a beta test release) and I suspected at one point that I'd accepted malware.

When finished, I logged into my games-playing Google account and proceeded to watch the instructions.  There isn't much more to tell.  Most of the games weren't something I would even think to play.  Considering that the previous countries were in Asia, it wasn't surprising that most of the games were popular there.  Are 100 games a good start?  Apparently, Google have to tweak things so that they run smoothly on Windows.

I guess it will take some time and they're probably wondering if this will be more successful than Stadia was.

Considering that I have a few iPhone games on my Mac, this should fill gaps on casual games on Windows, since Windows phone is dead.

Update 2023.04.02: I have downloaded Hades' Star and Eversoul.  Eversoul seems to be a Genshin Impact-type of game, but in Korean, and with big boobs.  Hades' Star seems to be an empire-building game that is annoying.  I'm sure that someone else will find it engaging.

I'm still not sure that it's going to make an impact with the current selection of games.  There are a number of games in my account that I would like to use on the computer, but they aren't available yet.

Update 2023.11.22: Once I finally got into Eversoul, I see that it is no more than a boob show, objectifying female characters at every turn.  It is less than it should be.  While many mobile RPG games have an unfortunate view of women, Eversoul doesn't even try to be a good game.

Lately, I've been trying Tower of God: New World.  I'm up to level 101 on that.  I spent a little money, but I probably would have made the same progress without it, just a few days later.

Grand Cross: Age of Titans has also caught my attention and they currently have a crossover even with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the anime series.  I normally wouldn't play this kind of game, but it's from Netmarble, just as Tower of God: New World is.  It takes a rather long time for things to happen and beware what happens when you're not on the game.  It may seem to be a single-player game, but you co-exist with many in the same general area and they might attack without provocation.  I'm a bit tired of the building and character upgrades.

That said, I'm still playing Genshin Impact outside of Google Play Games.  At level 41, I've put some effort into it, and even destroyed my Corsair M55 Pro mouse button.  They've compared the game to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I can only say that there is so much to see and do that I can't imagine that you can play the game for free.

Update 2023.12.29: I've been playing Netmarble games more lately, including Seven Knights II, which doesn't run on Google Play Games on Windows.  I'm at a point where I don't seem to be able to progress.  I'm not even sure that spending money will help me progress.  In all three of the games, I have plenty of characters and many of them are powerful, but not powerful enough.  Perhaps, I need more knowledge in enhancing equipment.

I picked up Sword Chronicles: Awaken and Black Clover.  These are on Android and iOS, as well, but not on Google Play Games on Windows.  Google has increased the number of games available on Windows but it's not yet impressive.  A lot of them are still money grabbers.

I've played Sword Chronicles: Awaken for a few weeks and it's confusing.  There is a social element, where you get to know your characters.  In other games, you merely buy them gifts, but this one has you playing games, being asked questions, eating with them, and sharing the hot springs with them.  Battles are fairly simple and can be placed on automatic.

Black Clover is an adaptation of a Shonen Jump series.  It's something I've not read or seen.  Then again, I haven't seen Shonen Jump since the first few issues.  There are so many opportunities to explore and battle that it's a bit overwhelming and confusing.  If you like anime, you'll appreciate what they've done with the characters.  I've made quite a bit of progress in a few hours, but I'm not completely sure how.  I'm not far into the game, but I'm seeing the limitations of the SR characters quickly, as I've topped out a few of them at level 40.  You can rank them up when you have materials but earning the materials is a battle, and remembering where to earn them is also a battle.

Update 2024.06.29: Google Play Games isn't getting better.  However, Tower of God: New World crashes on my Google Pixel 6a and only gets close on Google Play Games.  It's one game that I hoped Netmarble would put on Windows.

I've been playing Seven Knights II on Windows for a while.  Since the company has a launcher for its games now, I signed up for Solo Leveling: Arise.  I recently added Grand Cross: Age of Titans, which I've been playing on Google Play Games (when it works) and on the Pixel 6a.

It is so much better as a Windows application.  The Netmarble launcher takes very little RAM in contrast to Google Play Games that takes over 25% of my 16 GB.

The good thing is that I've stopped trying other games on Google Play Games.  I didn't even start it today.  Of course, on Android, it crashed visually during a big battle, but it apparently did the rest to finish what it was doing.  I canceled and re-launched and it showed progress.  If it sounds as though I don't like Google, I don't.  They're past all the extra chances.

That Razer Edge is looking really good right now.

Update 2024.07.15: Ordered the Razer Edge.

Update 2024.09.30: I've had the Razer Edge for a while now.  I did a Factory Restore on the Pixel 6a after the Razer copy copied part of my primary Android/Google account.  Of course, it didn't copy most of the music because that was difficult.  I reactivated my early Google account on the Pixel 6a.  Android on Windows?  It's gone.  The Razer Edge handles most of the graphics pretty well.  The G3X SoC seems to be the Snapdragon 888 with a better GPU section.  I could probably use it to cook when it warms up.  Unfortunately, the Razer Edge is stuck at Android 12 and the Pixel 6a will probably get Android 15 too soon.

2022 iPhone SE for US$1.25 per month and T-Mobile 5G

 The T-Mobile/Sprint merger has been a bit of a pain, and it's not finished.

In 2021, they seemed to be taking LTE towers from Sprint and turning them into T-Mobile 5G towers.  My service slowed dramatically.  It went from being the fastest in this town to being average.

That all improved in May 2022 when I was able to trade my 2020 iPhone SE for a 2022 iPhone SE for just US$1.25 per month.  Two things changed: the system on a chip jumped two generations and the LTE modem was replaced with one that included 5G (but no mmWave) capabilities.

I used the 2.5 GHz band with WiMAX back around 2012.  Now, it's much more useful supporting 5G communications.  A lot of the work Sprint did has been helping T-Mobile with 5G service.  It seems that there isn't a downside to the T-Mobile network now.  It isn't as good in rural locations as it should be, but it's much better than T-Mobile could ever claim.  During the Voicestream days, they barely had a network that wasn't tied to the freeways.

I'm glad that my information has still been limited to Sprint servers.  T-Mobile has had multiple data breaches and their security just isn't what it should be.  Maybe, they're using an old version of Windows Server from the 1990s.

The 2022 iPhone SE has been good.  It's roughly the same exterior that arrived with the iPhone 7.  I was using a case from the iPhone 7 on the 2020 model.

It's powerful but at this point, is there a need for more?  Android top-of-the-line phones aren't as powerful.  I also have a OnePlus 8T, which was a flagship phone from a couple of years ago.  The Snapdragon 865 with 12 GB of RAM is generally very powerful but it becomes very hot at times.  Both phones have communication moments when the connection seems to lag.  They're still faster on T-Mobile/Mint Mobile 5G than on Xfinity WiFi.

I've been mentioning to a few people about the 3G network shutdowns.  Are you getting another phone, so you'll still have service?  The sooner that old equipment is out of the way, the better for everyone.

The gentleman who owns the house was having trouble with his iPhone 6S and switched to an iPhone 12.  He's having trouble with the gestures, but he's doing better than I might.  I notice occasionally that I cause something to happen on the OnePlus phone because there is apparently a gesture for it and I don't know the modern Android way to get things done.  Then again, each vendor was quite unique in their interpretations.

Update 2024.03.23: It's been almost two years since I got the phone.  The battery capacity is at 88% and I charge every day.  I generally don't go into the power saver zone, but it has happened.

I don't usually keep a phone more than two years now, especially since AppleCare+ was a two year warranty.  I've been paying for it monthly since the previous phone.

The real trouble is that Apple is under pressure to get rid of the last vestige of a phone prior to iPhone X.  I like my Home Button.  They could add an underscreen fingerprint reader, but apparently, they don't want to do that, and I don't want to have or use FaceID.  Now, it is rumored that the follow-up phone will be launched in 2025.

Update 2024.10.08: My battery capacity is 84% now.  The follow-on iPhone SE is about six months away.  It's supposedly totally different and I'm not sure I want it because of Face ID and the inane gestures to get almost anything to happen.

Of course, I can just enter my code to unlock the phone and use secure functions but will that be enough.  I looked at buying an iPhone 15 now that the iPhone 16 is available.  Is $33+ too much each month for 24 months?  I think so.  Will they screw up the new iPhone SE?  It feels as though they're rushing everything that they produce.  I'm still waiting for iOS 17 to be fixed, but they're pushing the new one.

Update 2024.12.17: Battery capacity is just 82% now.  It's being depleted more quickly, along with being charged more quickly.  Those are not good signs.  The replacement will supposedly be like an iPhone 14, but with an A17 SoC, which is a bit of a step back on the processing compared to the 2022 getting the same SoC from the iPhone 13.

They're talking about an OLED display, but at a low refresh rate.  Tried that with the Pixel 6a and it is rubbish.  The OnePlus 8T had a good display since the original retail was a few hundred dollars more than the Pixel 6a.  Then again, the SoC was much better than the Pixel 6a, and it looked as though someone had actually planned the operating system and tested it.

Apple is planning to use their own 5G modem, so who knows how that will go.  They may or may not have their WiFi and Bluetooth chips ready by then.  If the phone starts at more than US$499 for the 64 GB version, I'm not sure it will sell well.  I'll need the 256 GB version and that's been US$150 extra.  If T-Mobile has another deal for $3.75 per month or cheaper, I suppose I will go ahead with it.

If it turns out to be worse than the current iPhone SE, I don't think I'll be keeping it very long.

Update 2025.03.10: Battery capacity is at 79% and there is a warning.

Friday night, I thought about  the iPhone SE replacement, the iPhone 16e.  I bought an iPhone 15 that should be here in about 12 hours.

The 16e might be a great phone.  The deal on T-Mobile for the 16e was cut down about US$7.00 per month to around $18 and change.  Considering that I as paying US$1.25 per month for the 2022 iPhone SE, I figured I should make another choice.  The iPhone 15 was about $1.50 more each month than the iPhone 16e for the same 24 month period, which ended up at $20.00 per month after trade-in.

Tried and true sits well with me.   I really don't want a bad experience.  Why would anyone?

iPhone 8 replacement will probably be available in spring 2020

As with me, a smaller group of people have been uncomfortable with larger and larger phones.  Years ago, the phablet was an unusual item--a phone too big to be considered a phone.  Now, it's commonplace, especially since iPhone X.  Samsung's Galaxy Note has been around for a while, but it still seemed a niche product.

The iPhone 8 has continued but has not truly been updated and of course, there would not be an iPhone 9.  As of the next spring (March/April 2020), there should be a replacement that could be called iPhone SE 2.  Given that the iPhone SE was based on the iPhone 5, but with more advanced internal hardware, it's easy to predict a similar treatment for the iPhone 8.  Whether the name will be used or not doesn't matter.  They could call it the iPhone 11 mini, for all I care.  Having the A13 processor and 3 GB of RAM seems worth the price of US$399/US$499 for 64 GB or 128 GB of storage.

I told Apple that, without a successor to the iPhone 8, I would consider switching back to Android.  There aren't many Android-based phones I like but Razer and Asus have phones strong enough to get my attention.  Whether I'll grind my teeth every time I read some security glitch or not, who knows?  After my Asus/Google Nexus 7 tablet never really was in sync with Android, I didn't feel great about using it and gave it to someone who clamored for a tablet.  He lost it within a month.  I've looked at the Razer Phone 2 for an alternative, if the iPhone 8 replacement doesn't happen.  Of all the Android-based phones, this one seems to come from a company that is enthusiastic about making something interesting.

It's been suggested that the iPhone 8 replacement will not be named SE 2 but iPhone 9.  That would suggest an end to the 4.7 inch display phones.

Update 2020.02.17: My iPhone 8 battery has been beaten regularly by iOS 13--lately 13.1.1--and it isn't recovering.  The battery health states that it the battery is at 83% of new capacity.  That's close to replacement time.  After nearly 2 years, that is understandable. I'm considering a replacement for the battery in my 256 GB over a new, more powerful phone with a new battery.  If they're still US$79, isn't worth the money, especially when no phone payments (one time or monthly) would be necessary for a while.  US$27.09 each month would be good to save.

Hopefully, the rumors are true and that there will be a media event on 31 March and the actual launch on the 3rd of April.

I've seen another rumor that it won't be a 4.7 inch display but a bigger display of over 5 inches.  That might suggest an edge-to-edge display, which isn't likely in a budget phone.

Update 2020.04.15: Tax Day is here and so is the iPhone 8 replacement, the iPhone SE.

US$399, $449, and $549 for 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB isn't too bad, especially since it's got the same processing unit as the iPhone 11.  The camera is somewhat different with some depth (of field) control.  How much is optical and how much is digital remains to be seen.

Considering how warn my battery is, better with 13.4.1 than earlier releases, but losing power quickly, it's probably better to put US$79 toward the $549 model, so I don't have to give up capacity.

Update 2020.05.22: Sprint just offered me a 18 month lease with $0.00 payments.  I ended up with the 256 GB model since I already have an iPhone 8 like that, and it cost me US$150 + tax up front.

This is possibly the first time since September 2000, when I wasn't with Sprint, that they offered me something better than expected.  That time, I got a Motorola StarTac for $9.99.

Not only was the monthly lease payment waived, but so was the $30 upgrade/activation fee.  We'll see what happens when I get the phone.  Still, it's a great deal compared to paying $79 for a battery swap on a two year old phone.  The latest reviews show that the processing power is better than most anything else on the market, expensive or inexpensive.

I posted something on Instagram and someone complained about my buying so much storage, saying that Apple should allow removable storage.  If there was a possibility of that working as well as internal storage, it would be expensive.  I've worked on a number of big iron systems that had something called Single Level Store--every drive was meant to work together as one.  That was the only time I saw a system work well with multiple, different kinds of drives, but they were all similar with a certain hardware interface, and there was no inbuilt, dedicated storage, so everything had to work together well.

I think I will be surprised at how good the new phone will be.

Update 2020.08.05: My iPhone 8 replacement, iPhone SE 2020, has been very good, just like the iPhone 8.  There isn't much difference, except for the processing power.  That is a good thing, and it was also good that I didn't have to replace a battery.  The price made it extra wonderful.

First Impressions of my 4th generation Apple TV

I bought a 4th generation Apple TV yesterday, along with a Steelseries game controller.

I've been waiting a while, since the Ouya Android-based game micro-console.  The Nvidia Shield micro-console looked particularly good recently.  I have an Apple iPhone 6 and a 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet, so I'm familiar with both mobile operating systems and their games.

However, as far as connecting anything to the TV, I've only connected my old DVR, DirecTV DVR, and my Blu-Ray player.  The TV and Blu-Ray player have many connections to the outside world, so buying an older Apple TV, Roku, or Google box had no appeal.

Connecting the Apple TV wasn't difficult.  I wanted to connect it to the computer first, so it would take my current iTunes library of movies, TV episodes, music videos, and music and store them in the extra storage the 64GB model would have.  There is no such connection.  In fact, the only cable was a USB to Lightning cable for the remote control, for charging.

So, the actual connections are power and HDMI, and they don't include the HDMI cable.

As it was starting, I had some extra "fun" with my TV complaining that the signal didn't match the Deep Color that was expected.  I had to make some setting changes on the TV that most people will not have to make.

It wanted to connect to my phone but they could not meet in the middle.  It detected my phone over Bluetooth immediately, but since I didn't have the phone connected to the local network over my mobile hotspot, it wasn't able to grab the settings from my phone.  (They haven't found each other over Bluetooth since then.  The phone is on iOS 9.1 and I wonder if it's just too buggy still.)

The Apple TV wanted to connect to the internet, which I did through the odd keyboard.

You have to slide across the keyboard and select by clicking on a character.

The keyboard was alphabetical, which I suppose is easier than showing QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ, or whatever pattern each country uses, but it made entry slower for me.

There really wasn't much to set up.  I selected my country and language, and it did some configuration.

There wasn't much included except for the apps to buy music, TV episodes, or movies and those apps to connect to the computer and get other apps.

I immediately downloaded the YouTube app, but couldn't decide on games or anything else.  Later, I bought and downloaded the Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising game, as I've been playing the series since the original iOS version of Galaxy on Fire.

The YouTube app required a link through an activation code to connect to my YouTube account.  The game wanted to connect to Game Center, of course.  It also downloaded more content, much like the Android-based version of Galaxy on Fire 2 HD does.  Perhaps, the iOS version does this, but it doesn't mention it or make you wait.

The game uses the remote control.  It is both simple and frustrating.  It seems to lose calibration easily, and it is much easier to go left than to go right.  The game is quite amazing looking, as with their previous games.  For playing only a few minutes, I feel as though it will be a great game with more familiarity, and with fixes.

When I was in an Apple Store, I tried the Geometry Wars game and it seemed to work well with the remote, but I had no idea how to play the game.  I think the games that use the remote, and using the remote to play them will take acclimation time.

I have a Steelseries game controller and I have yet to pair it to anything.  There is a companion app on iOS, and I downloaded that.  I'm currently charging the controller, which uses a Lightning connector.  The box has graphics indicating that it works with iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, and Mac.  US$50.00 doesn't seem that much.

As Asphalt 8 Airborne is available, I'm thinking that the controller will be very useful.  I've got the game now and it not only works well, but it looks great.  The game controller is useful but the control scheme isn't yet comfortable.  The best thing about the game may be a bug--my purchases from the handheld game are available, as I downloaded the iCloud data.  This was another that downloaded more content quite often.  Given that the iOS/Android app runs about 1.5 GB and the tvOS app was about 450MB, I would expect every unplayed course will have to be downloaded, as well as cars.

I was intrigued by the Pangea games' 3D capability.  I haven't played any of those games for years, but Bugdom was a bit of fun.  I have 3D capability on my TV, as well as 4K resolution, so this should be interesting.

Oh, and this version of Apple TV does not support 4K.  I get the feeling in a year, they'll put out a version with upgraded hardware capable of 4K, especially since the Nvidia Shield already supports the resolution.

I'm looking at potential more than anything else right now.

Update 2015.11.11: The minor software update to the operating system was very minor.   I haven't noticed any differences.

Update 2015.11.26: How is it that the remote control is worth US79.00 when the Wii Remote Plus is only US$49.99, and the Steelseries game controller Apple is selling in their stores is only US$49.95?

You'd think that it would be easier to grip since it is meant to be used with games.  You'd think that there would be a strap included instead of being available for another US$12.99.

You might also think that the remote might have a headphone jack, so you could listen remotely.

I like the latest Apple TV.  I'm just annoyed that it seems to be experimental at this point.  I expect Google to sell products in this way but Apple should know better.  The MacBook Air took a long time to become desirable to me, and then, they brought out the MacBook that was even more extreme.

As this year is ending, they will most likely push out some small change and a bigger change around February.  Eventually, it will feel good and all other products will feel ancient and clunky.  Right now, it works, just.

Update 2015.12.02: Thankfully, the games can be played without an internet connection.  Unfortunately, music, music videos, movies, and TV episodes cannot be seen because they are not copied to the device.

So far, I have three games: Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising, Asphalt 8: Airborne, and Geometry Wars 3.  The Galaxy on Fire games have been intense.  When I played the first, I often had to power off/power on the 2nd generation iPod touch.  Even when I had moved to an iPhone 4S, Galaxy on Fire 2 was often very intense for the phone and then, the HD version came along.  It's only with the iPhone 6 that it's been particularly good.

It will take a while for Apple to fix tvOS and the games will need to be smoothed out plenty of times.  The hobby needs to be given a higher priority.

Update 2015.12.04: I finished the story mode of Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising but I have to say that the performance was so slow when busy that the game wasn't much fun.   Even the network connection was dropped a couple of times.

The trouble will probably be alleviated by April with various efficiency improvements between tvOS and the game but it's obvious that this box is underpowered at the moment.  That's probably why it doesn't support 4K, even though it's technically possible with the CPU and GPU.

Update 2015.12.05: Since Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising was updated to support game controllers, I waited a while and tried it today.  The game isn't fighting me.  Supposedly, there is a problem with the remote control.  Strictly, performance isn't any better but I've managed to complete waves much more quickly and get time bonuses on some.  Since I can actually focus on one enemy vessel and it doesn't move much, I can get rid of it quickly.  It was enough of an improvement that I went from something like 219,000 to 326,000.

Previously, I thought the achievement badge (in Game Center) of getting through 30 levels was completely nuts and now, it seems that 10 levels should be easily repeatable.

Still, it's not smooth yet.  Between the controller and the TV, the movement is a bit jerky but it goes where I want it, mostly.

Update 2015.12.08: The tvOS 9.1 update has smoothed things a bit.  The remote control itself works better in GoF:MR.  It still seems as though the game is fighting me, compared to the game controller, but it is close to being what it should be.

Manual Update seems much like iOS on the phone

It still doesn't help when the system is too busy.  Seeing that it has disconnected from the network is troubling.  When I was playing a game with the remote, it also said that the game controller had been disconnected.  Since the game controller has only one real function, I'm fairly sure that it wasn't the one which disconnected from the Apple TV.

Update 2016.03.22: tvOS 9.2 arrived and I saw a minor performance improvement.  I'm still seeing the network connection go away during Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising, which is a very busy game.  It seems to me that the Apple TV should have been tested and tuned much better than this.  I hoped that almost all of the problems would be fixed with this release, but that's definitely not true.  Of course, they added a lot of functionality into this release, such as enabling Bluetooth keyboards, that was available in the previous generation.

Update 2016.10.04: The 3rd generation Apple TV has been discontinued.  With tvOS 10, my 4th generation Apple TV seems good, but still not great.  You'd think that the A8 processor would be enough but it doesn't seem to be.  They haven't improved performance enough, which is sad.  Hopefully, getting rid of the 3rd generation model will give development resources to the 4th generation model.

Update 2016.12.14: tvOS 10.1.1 is out and they've included a new TV app that helps you attach to your other apps, if they're compatible, and connect to the store.  So far, it only connected to the CW app, but I suppose others will make their content compatible for easy access in one place.  I have seen some fight for control of TV, which is why generation 4 of Apple TV is a set top box and not a whole TV line.   Apple should probably just buy a cable company and make enhancements, as SBC/AT&T has recently done to create DirecTV Now.

I'm not sure whether the performance of tvOS is enhanced or not.  I played Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising for a few minutes and only got one network disconnection message.  I suspect not much has changed and it was only my short play time that caused the difference.  I didn't get powerups that normally slow things down.

However, I am happy with the box.  I've been able to watch local news, TV shows, and more as though they belonged on the TV.  Even YouTube videos look good.

Update 2017.03.27: tvOS has been updated yet again, this time to 10.2.  There are few changes and I haven't used it much yet.  It's naturally becoming more stable, but it's still not finished.

I remember expecting excellent performance by April 2016.  It's almost one year later and it still isn't great.  The fact that they're only supporting a maximum of 1920x1080 makes me think that they're making a load of money on the box.  If Android boxes can support 4K resolution, why didn't Apple?

There has been one notable recent change for me.  When Apple TV asks for text entry, my iPhone wakes up and presents me with a keyboard.

Lollipop (Android version 5.0) was installed on my 2013 Nexus 7 tablet a bit ago

An hour or so ago, I got the notice that Lollipop was available for my 2013 Nexus 7 tablet.  Despite my reluctance to embrace x.0 versions, I decided to have it downloaded and installed.


You can see visual differences here in this Ars Technica article.

Naturally, the update took a while, and there was a bit of time involved as it was "optimizing" applications.

I haven't spent much time at the moment.  So far, my most consistent experience is when I unlock it, by pressing the lock icon and sliding it, which gives me the camera.  Perhaps, they want me to see how much better the camera is.  I really don't know.

The system icons at the lowest part of the display look less indicative of their functionality.  The joined rectangles were more of a clue of the multi-tasking manager than a single square.

Google Play seems okay when updating applications.  I'm not sure it works better but it looks better.  Perhaps, that's the thing--we're to be enraptured by its new look, and will forgive any lingering problems.  Apple tried that and it didn't work.  I get the feeling that Google never tests anything with regular people who aren't directly connected with the company.  Apple does it somewhat, but things aren't always intuitive any longer.

I look forward to finding if performance is improved.  I've read that it could be smoother and faster, but until I experience it in real life, I'll continue my skepticism.

So far, the delay from booting is still there.  It may be diminished somewhat, but I need to let the tablet sit a while before I do anything.

Apple gets "it" again?

I'm skeptical.

I've seen bits and pieces of the announcements this week, in-between packing, loading, and cleaning and getting ready to move.

My trouble with Apple is that they never seem to finish anything any longer.  I understand that they're big and important now, but the bugs are bigger and more frequent now.  Pleasing the whole population by adding feature-after-feature, while ignoring the bug list just screams Adobe.

Apple does seem to test, when they feel like it, which is better than Google.  Google only seem to test while they're creating their software.  I have a 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet with Android version 4.4.2 on it, and it seems to have all sorts of little issues which make the tablet unlikeable.  Those little issues of course, are exacerbated by little issues in third party software.

I'm still having silly issues with (Mac) OS X 10.8.5, and 10.9.4 isn't ready yet, so I'm not moving.  Equally, iOS 7.x seems buggy but Apple leaves mobile users hanging in the breeze quite often, security issues and all.

One thing that struck me that Apple gets it again is the mobile hotspot functionality that you can start from your Mac running Yosemite.  When I use my iPhone 5c as a mobile hotspot, they have the cheesy little links icon to show that Apple products are happy together--at least, when they work together.  (Do I seem more bitchy than usual?  I'm not sure the lack of sleep is helping.)

For developers, the Swift language seems to be quite useful.  The one thing that will cause resistance is that it's not one of the already-established languages.  Microsoft copied a lot of Java to create C# but they had developers stuck in their development platform.  Google has been grooming developers with their summer coding programs.  Apple has often been knocking heads with developers, rather than courting them.

Mind you, Objective-C is a fine language, and it's been around since the mid-1980s.  Apple extended it to work with C++ somewhat in Objective-C 2.0.  Naturally, in the mid-1980s, C++ wasn't much.  People were still coding in Pascal and making the switch to C.

However, all of those iOS game developers will like where Swift is going because of its interactivity, if it doesn't slow down performance or throughput in development.  Remember CASE tools?  Magic has its price.

I look forward to updating quite a lot and getting my hands dirty.  I haven't done much independent development for a while, and if Swift can re-kindle my interest, all the better.

What if Apple was in your car, your house, and on everything mobile you had?  Would it be a nightmare or a dream or both?  My history with the company says that it would be both.  "Two steps forward, one step back." always seems to apply.

On the other hand, I don't see Google being much different, just in a different form.  However, they have to deal with everyone who wants to create something from their open source code and still call it Android.  By the way, have you seen anyone using a Chrome OS computer?  I have not, though I expect my near future proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area may change that.  (It's odd to see the new Maps for OS X practically pointing to my new home.)  It's just that a lot of the country is still not connected so well.  Google doesn't get that.  Apple doesn't get that.

Should I be amused when apps help me with my location?

Today, Google Wallet let me know that one of my rewards cards' stores was close.  I'm not sure whether to be concerned or thrilled.  It's more than the other, Key Ring, ever let me know.

Last week, the Speedway app let me know repeatedly that one of their filling station/convenience stores was near.

It's definitely useful, but should I be concerned?

I've said in the past that the best privacy on the internet is to delete yourself and stay off the internet.  That remains true.  It is the safest way to privacy.  It's also not a good answer when you have a phone or other mobile device.  You will connect to the internet at some point.

Apple has been working with a company to provide in-store proximity alerts.  i.e., when you're in the vicinity of a product they think you'll like, they send you a message of some sort.

Now, if this happens as part of an explicit choice I make--fine.  If it happens without my control, and I have no choice, that doesn't work for me.

To a certain extent, I get check-in alerts when I use the Yelp app.  Stores with which they have an advertising agreement will put up a coupon of sorts that you can use or discard.  In general, as I use the Yelp app, I am agreeing to such advertising.  Obviously, they're a business trying to make money.  They can't host all the information for free.  I've only made use of a few of the deals, such as service discounts with my car dealer.

While I appreciate the notice about things around me, I'm a bit concerned that it will become so rampant that I will start to remove apps in order to control the flow of information, especially if they give me no effective option to shut off alerts.  (I've had plenty of apps where you tell it to stop, and it ignores the setting.)

Will iPhone size balloon to hold a 5.5 or 5.7 inch diagonal display?

When I switched from the iPhone 4s to the iPhone 5c, the display size was somewhat altered with the 3.5 to 4.0 inch display change.  It's not as comfortable as I would hope.  I was reasonably happy with the smaller display.  Putting another row of icons on the display wasn't my priority.

We're expected to believe that the iPhone 6 will have two sizes, such as 4.7 inch for a typical model, and a 5.5 or 5.7 inch phablet-sized model.

I know that some people have larger hands and yes, typing with thumbs can be a problem.  It's especially a problem with Android-based devices, as I've found with the LG Optimus S, 2012 Google Nexus 7, and 2013 Nexus 7.  You'd think on a high resolution, larger-display device that the keyboard would be spacious, but it is still a bit cramped, though better with 4.4.x than with 4.1.x.

Apparently, displays are becoming less expensive somehow, as we reach for intense densities.  Otherwise, how can they afford to put such displays in smaller hand-held devices such as phones?  Phone carriers aren't going to accept more subsidies/discounts degrading their profits.  Besides, in some parts of the world, people have no subsidies at all.  Often, their contract (or lack-of-contract) deals are better than those in the U.S.A. or Canada.

Of course, with a larger display, efficient or otherwise, more battery power will be required.  Since the case is bigger to hold the display, that automatically provides some thin real estate in which to add batteries.

If the display requires more power than the current displays, of course, it will need more battery capacity just to stay even with the current phones.  Hopefully, they've found some magic beans, errr, magic screens.

My first color display-using phone required too much recharging.  So did my first 3G phone, and thankfully, the iPhone 5c chipset for LTE seems a bit more thrifty than the previous chipset in the iPhone 4s, although in 3G mode, it seems to quickly drain because of poor connectivity, tower or phone-related.

When I see reviews about an airport, they often mention electrical outlets.  Isn't it sad that we're so tied to hand-held devices that we need to find outlets?

I'm not sure of the actual sizes, but it seems obvious that Apple will put together some bigger devices, perhaps, as they did with the MacBook Pro--three sizes, to compete with the larger Android-based devices.  I'm just not sure I'll be ready for them.

Update 2014.05.08: I saw something the other day suggesting that tablet sales have dropped a lot, in favor of phablets.  If that's the case, then, Apple should be targeting the space with both 4.x and 5.x devices.   I'm still becoming acclimated to the 4 inch display.  I think it is good but a bit on the large size.  Other hands will disagree.  As long as the pixel density is similarly tight, I will be fine with a larger phone when I switch.  I can't imagine having a phone with a display larger than 4.5 inches but things may happen and I'll have to go with the crowd.

Update 2014.12.17: 4.7 and 5.5 inches for these two.  I got an iPhone 6 at the smaller of the two sizes and it's not quite comfortable.  I moved to the 4 inch iPhone 5c fairly easily from the iPhone 4s, and to that from the second generation iPod touch.

As far as I'm concerned, a phablet wouldn't work for me, nor would a tablet that of 5.5 inches.  It's both too big and not big enough.

Why do Apple and Google and Microsoft want to be in the car?

Do I want to integrate my phone or tablet more closely everywhere I go?

When I switched from my 1999 VW Golf GLS to the 2012 VW Golf TDI, the car wanted to know about my phone.  My mobile sound system can route calls and play my music.  In fact, it's not just the music on the phone, but iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify that can be used.

Apple announced today, for the Geneva, Switzerland auto show that they were pairing with several car makers to extend their reach past simple integration for playing music.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/03/apple-announces-carplay/

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/03/carplay-video-wi-fi-soon/

Chevrolet had already announced Siri in the car, and Google and Audi recently announced Android in the car.  Ford had Windows in use for a while, but they seem to be moving away from that.  Were software crashes causing traffic accidents?  No, of course not but people made jokes.

Using my car's touch screen for various controls isn't very efficient.  If I don't remember something, I can go back and forth too many times trying to find some setting.  I wish the car makers and sound system makers such as Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer would come up with a unified graphical interface and let everyone plug into the back end.  That way, if you're in your car, a rental car, your friend's car, you know how things work.

I had a terrible time when I changed phones and it's not really resolved as much as I'm using a workaround.  I went from an iPhone 4s to an iPhone 5c.  iTunes let me use the previous configuration and name.  The car didn't like that but it wouldn't let me delete the name, either, so that I could re-use it.  So, after 10-15 attempts, I deleted a few characters and it works--most of the time.

Of course, the cable (30-pin still, but the new phone has the Lightning connector now) is a problem but that was a problem last year anyway since the tiny space for the phone is cold as ice in the winter, and  that's not good for the phone.

In any case, I think it'll be more than five years before the dust has settled.  It took a couple of years to get the iPhone connected to cars but many companies have the option now.  Getting an Android option shouldn't be difficult but it probably is at this point.  Collaboration--the world needs more of it.

The 2013 Google Nexus 7 as the best tablet for the majority

(Yes, the title is stupid.  It's the second stupid title, and I can't think of anything that explains how I feel about my current Nexus 7.)

Would it be ridiculous to buy another Nexus 7 after having two of the 2012 versions and returning them?  I thought so.

Clearly, time has changed nearly everything.

Gone is the Tegra 3 with its multiple personality disorder, thankfully.  The surge, pause, surge, pause rhythm is a thing of the past, for me.

Can someone with a 32 GB iPhone 5c, packed to the gills, get along with only 16 GB in a tablet?  Yes, with Android it's definitely possible.  According to the Storage statistics, I have 8.42 GB available still.  I have very little of anything but applications (and their data) on it.

Is the graphics performance acceptable?  Absolutely.  I'm running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD (my 5th version (?), including the Tegra version), and it's quite good.

Is the display better than acceptable?  Absolutely.  I can't say that there was ever a problem with the 2012 models but this one is quite clear, although the Japanese and Chinese typography could be better.  If I can read the iPhone's 4 inch (1136x640) display clearly, why shouldn't a 7 inch (1920x1200) display be even better?  Maybe, I've missed a setting.

What hasn't changed?  Asus is still the company in charge of the hardware, and Google is firmly in charge of the software and firmware.  There is no flash memory slot of any sort still.  Google is counting on Google Drive for those things.  I have Google Drive, Evernote, and Dropbox on it, but I could add Ubuntu One and Microsoft's SkyDrive (being renamed in the UK) for more cloud storage.  Amazon.com has another of those, backed by their own storage that has become rather popular.

The build is better.  There is no creaking or flex that I have noticed.  I miss the previous texture on the back, but this one will do.  This device has two cameras, so you can look a bit silly taking photos or video with your tablet.  The buttons feel quite good.  Someone actually researched it, it seems.  The micro USB port seems to have remained in what I consider the upside down position compared to the devices I've had.

Being that I got it for US$199.99, instead of US$229.99, I feel it's even better, as that took care of an extended warranty including accidental damage.  The official travel case was US$19.99 at Micro Center, where I bought everything else.

Getting started with any device is a pain.  Nothing is ready to go.  Thankfully, I have Google Chrome on my laptop computers and I've allowed Google to sync my bookmarks, etc.  After I connected the account on the tablet, things were set in motion, and it was fairly quick to connect the dots for me.

However, the updates took a lot of time, and it's yet to update the operating system to Android version 4.4 (Kit Kat), so that will take some time.  Downloading my formerly-used applications also took some time and setup.  I also have been reconsidering passwords on accounts.  Having been a "victim" of the Adobe, Ubuntu forums, and MacRumors forums hackings, I have changed passwords here and there, though I've left those three since I am not using that combination anywhere else now and I'm not active on those three.  I should change the Adobe bits, as I will have something to do with them eventually.

In any case, it's probably not wise to have passwords easily at hand with an Android-based device.  They're still too vulnerable.  The Bitdefender software is quite good and gives you a fair evaluation of the possibility of privacy problems.  I'm at 61% with Twitter, Evernote, Google+, Yelp, and others.  Very few applications are clean, and when you connect to the internet, you should consider all of your data publicly-available and work backward to secure it.

I'm not trying to scare anyone.  100% internet security is not possible, so all you can do is help your situation.  Even though things are better on iOS, they're not nearly perfect, either, and you have to deal with third party applications anyway.  Be safe!

The Bitdefender application makes good use of the tablet display, even though it has the "Designed for Phone" label.  It seems to be the exception, although more developers are working toward the goal.  Update 2013.12.08: I've spent the US9.95 for the premium status within the app.  The company has done good work, and while I'm not sure they can save me from every situation, they can use the money as a vote toward enhancements.

If you can't tell, I'm pleased with the tablet.  I'd like to take it out and use it some place in public to see how portable it really feels.  Too many times, I've gone to a restaurant and I've left the computer in the car because it's just too much.  Even a 10 inch tablet seems too much, but this is about big enough to fit on the tray, alongside your meal, as would a book.

Update 2013.11.26: Kit Kat (Android version 4.4) was downloaded overnight.  I'm not noticing any real difference.  Of course, this tablet has plenty of storage and RAM, so what might be improved on a lower end device, squeezed for resources, might not be so noticeable here.

One incredibly good thing, and I don't know whether it's part of 4.3 or 4.4, is the ability to have multiple users on the device.  Just like with the laptop computer, I'd like to keep my photographic business separate from my monkey/personal business.  (No, I don't trade in monkeys, but that would be a barrel of fun.)

Update 2013.11.27: It's been about 1 week, and I think that Asus and Google have really hit the mark on this one.  The only better tablet at this point would possibly be the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX but reports I've read would suggest that it would have a lesser life for upgrades, and of course, you have to deal with Amazon's way of doing things.

Update 2013.12.08: The tablet continues to work smoothly, although there seems to be a continual stream of updates, something I remember with my previous encounters with Android.  It could be a good thing when dealing with security issues, but for other issues or enhancements, it might be too much.  Since this tablet is WiFi only, I might be putting my mobile hotspot account at risk, since I'm limited to 12 GB per month.  I got a warning a few days before the end of the last period when I'd crossed 9 GB after just getting the tablet and doing updates and downloads.

Update 2013.03.24: It's been about four months now.  I'm amused that if I leave the tablet off the charger overnight, it has half the charge in the morning, even with WiFi completely off.  If I take it with me when I'm driving 50 miles or more, the battery seems to be depleted quite a lot the next time I try to use it.  Checking the battery usage, it seems to be "normal" Android business.

Otherwise, nothing much has changed.  There seem to be a steady stream of updates, many times from the same developers, every other day.  There is something to be said for waiting 1 week on non-critical updates, especially if your update causes the problems.

Google seems to be more concerned with loading extra crap over the bugs instead of fixing the bugs first and then, adding new features.  They're not much worse than Apple, but I suspect that they only do minimal, very directed testing inside their development environment.  Apple never seems to test on a bad internet connection, so anything that doesn't work perfectly is a result of someone's connection.

Re-booting seems a must, on either platform.  Despite all the elegant multitasking, Android doesn't seem to be any better at handling real life.  It feels as though it will be another 20 years before these devices feel stable enough to be like watches or appliances.  For that matter, I've had computers since 1981 and the new ones don't seem all that stable over the old ones.

Update 2015.04.27: It seems to be dead as far as Google is concerned.  They've apparently stopped selling it on their site.

Update 2015.08.15: Now with Android version 5.1.1, you'd think that the tablet would perform better than ever, and it doesn't.  Maybe, you have to start off with a clean tablet every few months with Android.  This is Google's brand on the tablet--why is it not exemplary?

They're not replacing it apparently.  Tablet sales are way down overall.  Phablet sales are up.  I use my iPhone 6 almost all the day, and I didn't even power on the Nexus 7 for a couple of months.  Sad, isn't it?

Fixing the 2013 iPad mini price problem

Those who have read about my reaction to the higher than expected price for the 2013 iPad mini, or those who have talked to me about it, may be able to sense how ridiculous I felt for waiting for the updated tablet as I saw the announcement.  While the display density increased greatly and the performance is much, much, much better, the display quality is lacking, and the price is rather high when you consider the size and the display quality.

As an alternative, I thought about waiting for a refurbished unit or buying a refurbished iPad Air or 4th generation full sized iPad.

Last week, I looked a bit and thought about every opportunity to make the wrong decision.  This week, I went out to take a look at several tablets, including the following:

• Amazon Fire HDX
• Barnes & Noble Nook HD+
• EVGA Tegra Note 7
• 2013 Google Nexus 7
• Lenovo IdeaTab/IdeaPad
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7

First, Windows RT was low on my list.  I have a good feeling about Android and iOS.  There may come a day when I warm to Windows RT but that was not today.  Being comfortable is a great thing, and knowing that Google and Apple are willing to update their products within a certain range of time gives me a good feeling.  I'm still uncomfortable with all of the WP7 phones that were pushed to extinction by Microsoft.

Second, the display had to be better than average.  You can have a high density display that looks terrible, just ask 2013 iPad mini (Retina) owners.  That display covers only something like 66% of the sRGB gamut, which is quite low, especially when the cost of the whole product jumped US$70.  I need to be able to read Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and legal-ese--that fine print you can't normally see clearly.  Western languages are fairly easy to read on most displays.  We used to use a 7x9 print matrix to printer western characters in the 1980s.  If not for Japanese and Chinese, we may never have pushed past that "spray painting" type of printing.

Amazon has done a great job with their tablets in order to sell media.  Each tablet is a winner.  I'm even thrilled with their execution of the walled garden to take care of the customer experience.  I could live with it, much the way I live with Apple's way.  No fuss, no muss.

Barnes & Noble is leaving the hardware business.  They have exceptional prices on their equipment.  Their largest tablet was US$179, which had an 8 inch display.  However, while I was listening to the Barnes & Noble people having trouble with the tablet they were using to show someone, I was concerned that there were issues other than the speed of the internet connection.  1 + 1 = 2, does it not?  Being twice as nervous is not good.

EVGA Tegra Note 7 looks like a good tablet at a good price.  However, I can't get the notion out of my head that an nVidia Tegra processor is going to be a problem again, as it was with the 2012 Google Nexus 7.

Once bitten, twice shy?  Given that I had two of the 2012 Google Nexus 7 models, and wasn't happy with either, I had cause to be concerned.  However, a lot of the same concerns were boldly announced in reviews for the 2012 model and were not to be found in the 2013 models.  I tried the 2013 model at a couple of stores and found it to be strong and quick with a better than average display.  The number one item to Google's favor was that they would provide system updates faithfully where the others might not, especially for the bargain tablets.

Speaking of bargain tablets, I saw a couple of Lenovo IdeaTab (Android, right?) tablets at discount at Best Buy.  One was US$119, like one of those cheapo tablets that never gets an update and you wonder where the company went with your money three months later.  Lenovo does a great job with premium products, but I rarely hear great things about their bargains.

Samsung, oh, Samsung, how you make me wish you'd stayed just a component supplier.  You provided everyone with great components and let them do the user experience work and it was a great combination.  Then, you decided that you could make more money by competing with them, and you developed the whole product, except that you always shortchange on the development.  You leave bugs in the software, and the user experience is less than ideal.  Your checklist formula is great for you but it's not great for the consumer.

After all that, I ended up with a 16 GB 2013 Google Nexus 7 at a US$30 discount.  I bought a US$20 travel case and the US$30 protection plan that was reduced in price because of the discount on the tablet.  It still came to quite a bit but the difference between everything I bought and the price of an Apple iPad mini was still over US$125.

I hope my experience is good.  Android 4.3 is on the device (and supposedly 4.4 is getting to everyone slowly).  It's been doing a lot of updates, as you could expect from a new product.  It's still amazing to me how many things are not really good on a tablet.  It's been 3 years since my Android-based phone and Android 2.2, so what's the problem?  Why are they having to code individual fixes for several devices instead of providing one application for tablets and another for phones?  Google has recently implemented "Designed for phones" to let tablet owners know that an application won't utilize the extra space so well.  Wasn't it CEO Eric Schmidt who said that they didn't need separate layouts for tablets and phones?

I look forward to finding what works well.  As I use a certain filling station chain for diesel fuel, I've accumulated quite a few points and used 10,000 of those points to buy a US$10 Google Play gift card.  It's not a lot but it should get me started without emptying my wallet of real money.

I wonder how many others are thinking similarly.  Apple have opened a huge hole between them and the less expensive competition.  Will people buy the iPad mini?  Undoubtedly, there will be many buying it.  The iOS ecosystem is wonderful.  The Android ecosystem is coming along, but I'm still seeing far too many copyright violations where people use well-known characters in copies of their games.  However, they are fewer than in 2011.  If Google can abstract the hardware well enough that a developer can develop for two layouts, instead of focusing on hundreds of individual devices, the software problem will vanish.  Since Ubuntu and Firefox are new names to mobile devices, it gives Google incentive to fix their problems NOW.  Oh well, my tablet is working well, so far.  Hopefully, it stays that way.

I hope Apple is as happy with my solution as I am.

Update 2015.04.08: There are rumors about the iPad mini 4.  Nothing has really been said about the processor, and that is what has to be the best to generate real excitement and sales.

Now, the tablet market is fairly stagnant.  My 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet hasn't been replaced by Google yet.  It could probably use a stronger processor, but I suspect that they're trying to make up for losses they took on the front end that made it such a great bargain.  Apple seems to be making their money all along.

I really believe that for a tablet to be portable, it needs to be 7-8 inches diagonally across the display.  I've seen plenty of people trying to take photos of video with ~10 inch tablets and it's just silly, especially when you consider the cameras are not very good.

nVidia Shield is the only really new tablet but it's rather special purpose.  Samsung continues to update their tablets and generate new model names and numbers, but is anyone buying them or do they only get them for free, as part of a data plan?

Who will buy the Samsung Galaxy NX camera?

I've read recently that the Galaxy NX camera is available in the U.S.A. for about US$1600.

Make no mistake, I'm not a fan of Samsung products.  I think the company leaves a lot to be desired in the operation of their products.  It's as though they have a checklist of features and as soon as they add a feature, working correctly or not, they check that line as completed.

They've become better since Google takes care of the backend of a lot of their products.  Without Android, they'd be as craptacular as they were the last time I owned one of their products.  They had indicated a desire to do things on their own with Bada but that failed, although it's probably being fed some money to keep the project alive.  From my viewpoint, they're just trying to keep the overall business in line with Sony and Panasonic and of course, to crush LG at home.

I've seen in the past that a few people went with their re-branding of Pentax dSLRs to make their own GX line.  They did okay because Pentax gave them some base code and the hardware.  There wasn't much to go wrong with doing some tweaks.  When I would say something about the GX line, someone would raucously defend their purchase, as if it was a life-or-death situation.  I've recently seen the same thing with their NX line.

NX--like Sony's NEX--they couldn't even come up with a series name on their own it seems.  However, they went on their own because Pentax wasn't going to mirror-less system cameras yet.  They filled out their mighty checklist and added features one-by-one until they had the perfect specification for a camera.  It's not that unusual in the electronics industry, and even related more specifically to computers and tablets, it's not unusual.  Sony obviously works from a checklist.

Samsung has created NX-series cameras in several generations, but they don't have much in the way of sales compared to Olympus, Panasonic, or Sony.  I'm guessing that the majority of their buyers have Samsung phones, tablets, and phablets like the Galaxy Note series.

That makes the Galaxy NX camera all the more appealing to that group.  They can use the connectivity in the camera to avoid depleting the battery life on their phones, tablets, and phablets.

However, is US$1600 too dear for the ability to take a photo and massage it using some Android-based app and upload it using another app?  Is it so convenient that the extra cost doesn't matter?  I've recently seen the NX300 for US$700-$800, which seems consistent with other brands with more lenses and accessories.  It's odd to think that Sony's NEX line has more support, given that they have churned out body after body but still have few lenses.  The only mirror-less system camera with fewer lenses is the Canon EOS-M with two lenses.

The only thing that would make this situation more strange would be for LG to make an alliance with a camera maker and start producing an Android-based camera of its own.

Android usage shows upgrades, switch; BlackBerry on the ropes

I noticed that this chart still shows quite a few Android users in versions 2.3.3 - 2.3.7 (API 10, was it?) but 2.3 - 2.3.2 are gone.

Just to see the progress, here is the final calendar quarter of 2013.

It makes me think that the LG Optimus One and Optimus 2 are still around in many variants since those had so little storage that they couldn't be updated.  They were also not very powerful, but they were inexpensive and people who could only afford a feature phone could suddenly afford a smart phone.

Notice that Honeycomb, version 3.2 is still there.  Apparently, there were quite a few US$100 tablets that couldn't be upgraded but are still in use.

Update 2013.11.27: I've read recently that they re-worked Kit Kat to be less demanding of resources, i.e. to get rid of the reason phones are still using Gingerbread/version 2.3.x.  It isn't likely to put Kit Kat on LG Optimus One variants but possibly the Optimus 2, which is still being sold.

I also saw today where the deal for BlackBerry/RIM fell apart and there doesn't seem to be a saviour of the company.  That drove a sell-off of the stock, sending the price down about 20% lower.  They also replaced the CEO.  (I suspect that they'll be saying that choosing him was an error in Heinsight.  Yes, that's mine, and stop groaning.)

I would think that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are looking to buy the remains of the company when it's too far gone to save.

Google doesn't care about real-time execution since it chose a Java-related runtime architecture, but Apple could really use something a bit better and BlackBerry owns the QNX operating system, which was always quite a stunner with its fast (operating system) message passing system.  Anything to fix the performance issues in the Darwin/(Mac) OS X kernel would be good.  (Sure, it's easy to make the slop less apparent with faster processing but it's still sloppy.)

Apparently, the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has been downloaded quite a lot, but people don't know what to do with it once they have it.  Duh.  You should be able to contact someone on CNBC as they're saying that "You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands."  That's CrackBerry, and most of the users have been gone since about 2009 when they realized there were alternatives.

It'll be sad to see them gone from the market.  I wish they had taken Apple's entry into the mobile phone space seriously.  Obviously, Nokia had a similar take on being unbeatable and it cost them plenty.

Apple's stock price on the downslide, re-evaluated

If you've read my entries on stock pricing, you might remember how I talk about stock "anal"ysts.  They can't follow trends.  They can't follow forecasts.  They don't notice the run-up in Apple stock price prior to an announcement and the sell-off after the announcement.  However, they know everything there is to know.

Apparently, the new iPhone 5c has caused Apple to be on the way out of business.  It's too expensive for emerging markets, and it's likely too expensive to make.  So, three of the world's finest stock brokerages/investment firms have downgraded Apple, after which the stock price dropped due to a sell-off.  (Update: As of the end of October, the stock price has rebounded and Apple has sold too many of the iPhone 5s and not as many of the 5c but they are re-working production to help with the demand.)

Could Apple go out of business because of one product?  It's not likely.  I think they learned their lesson with the Cube.  Those were hard times and yet, they didn't go out of business.  They just threw away some money and frustrated some people.

Is the iPhone 5c too expensive?  (If you have to ask, you can't afford it?)

I've only seen the unlocked price for T-Mobile and that was the 32 GB version for US$649.  That seems US$50 too high, compared to other phones selling on-contract for US$199.  Is T-Mobile in an emerging market?  No, and we don't know the pricing for every country, do we?

I don't expect that everyone in the world will be buying a premium phone, and while cheaper than the iPhone 5 or 5s, the 5c is still a premium phone.  At the lowest level, it has 16 GB of storage, most of that is usable by the user.  Compare that to a free Android phone that maybe contain anywhere from 512 MB to 2 GB of storage, and may only have 170 MB available to the user.  I recall this quite well from my LG Optimus S, which wasn't free at the time and gave me frequent messages about a lack of available storage.  The original 8 GB Google Nexus 7 tablet was infamously short on usable space.

So, will someone who can barely afford to eat buy an iPhone 5c?  I wouldn't think so.  Food is important.  Will someone with a good job who already eats well and lives cheaply buy an iPhone 5c?  I'd bet they'll take a serious look at it, along with a look at some inexpensive Android-based phones.

Can someone who eats well, owns whatever they want, and manipulates people into buying stocks that they may not want understand how the rest of us live?  I doubt it.  Of course, they could eat snails because they like them, and the poor could eat snails because those are available.  Maybe, the rich really do understand the dirt poor.  That was sarcasm, if you didn't notice.

How Apple will survive is anyone's guess.  More innovation would be good, and for me, more bug fixing.  Being conservative on popular products isn't a great way to handle things, but I don't see a bunch of people dropping Apple products.  Those who like Google and Android are there already, and the undecided will search and try things.  I'd like to try the LG (Optimus) G2 or Google Nexus 5, but after my Nexus 7 "fun" and my LG Optimus S, I'm not sure I can live with a broken phone.

Update 2014.12.11: Apple has recently had all-time record stock prices.  This week, they're falling, but the company is still doing well.  It seems that they're still the company in the world with the largest valuation--on paper anyway.

I got one of the new iPhone 6 models with 64GB of storage.   I can understand why it is popular.  I'm still finding it a pain to switch but it's better than switching to another company's phone.  I like Android but my 2013 Nexus 7 tablet hasn't been incredible, with version 4.3.x, 4.4.x, or 5.0.x.  The operating system is getting better but it's still a bit like a product in its infancy, unfortunately.  You'd hope that it would be more mature.  It's probably a lack of real-world testing.  Apple does very little real-world testing, but it's a bit more than what Google does.

I wonder what will happen with the Apple Watch.  I suspect that will really cause the stock price to drop.  The good thing is that they don't need agreements with anyone else to make it work, a la Apple TV.  By that time, Apple Pay should be firmly entrenched.  I haven't used it yet.  I don't trust iOS 8.1.1 completely and I know that 8.2 is in the beta process, and of course, there will be an 8.2.1.

I'm guessing that Apple Pay will help offset Apple Watch.