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Showing posts from September, 2018

"Real World" Speed Tests Aren't All That Accurate..

It's that time of the year the new iPhones have dropped and our subscription boxes have been filled with reviews, camera comparisons and a whole host of other tech related videos. One of the genres of tech videos that I enjoy the most is the real world speed test in which two of the hottest new phones are pitted against each other. With them having to blaze through the same set of apps that you might expect the average Joe to sue over the course of his day. After all seeing how a phone handles the apps that you use almost daily would be a great way of telling how fast and responsive it is? Thats the intuitive answer it feels right but unfortunately thats not the case. Speed Tests Are Inherently Flawed   The problems with the so called "Real World" test beings with the very moniker itself. How do you define the phrase "Real World Test"? There is no universal baseline that says that everyone in the world uses their phone in a particular manner. Leading to the 

Siri Shortcuts Are Amazing!

When it comes to iOS 12 the promised performance improvements has been one of the biggest reasons for people to upgrade from iOS 11. With the mess that  iOS 11 was for some users, iOS 12 has been a breath of fresh air. But there has been one feature that more or less flew under the radar but has proven itself to be immensely useful. Siri Shortcuts On  iOS 12 Now if you don't know what Siri Shortcuts are then you'd find yourself much more at home here . Now that you're in the know lets get on with the show. The first aspect of Siri Shortcuts that I am fascinated by is how polished it is for a generation one product. Remember this is like the 2011 Siri or the 2016 version of portrait mode. Back when they both came out they were more gimmicky than of actual value. But with time they have grown into the useful products that they are today(Yes even you Siri). The app is well designed, the scripting and coding options are exhaustive and are more than what most people will ev

iPhone XR: The Display Is Fine!

Its September and like every year like clockwork Apple has come out with new iPhones and would it be an iPhone launch without some controversy. The iPhone X had the notch and the iPhone 7 didn't have a headphone jack . In true Apple fashion this year's iPhones have stirred up controversy, Well one of them. Apple released the iPhone XS , the XS Max and the iPhone XR. With the two S models being the premium pricey phones that we've come to expect. The real wild card was the iPhone XR but in my personal opinion it is the best possible phone that we could have expected. Why I'm Okay With The Display Most in the tech industry upon knowing about the pixel density of the iPhone XR instantly compared it to the iPhone 4 from 2010. Yes on paper they both have the exact same specs. But paper rarely tells the whole story. While the pixels per inch have stayed the same the underlying technology behind the displays themselves have changed a lot. Starting with the backlights th

Why Siri Shortcuts Can Make Siri Really Useful

One of the great joys of owning an iPhone are the software updates. They can give your ageing phone new skills, they make your phone more secure and it just looks a lot more different than what it used to in most cases. Software for the most part is great but often times it often requires third party developers putting in massive amounts of time to redesign their apps for the new OS. When iOS 11 dropped Apple made it mandatory for all app developers to support the new iPhone X display on their apps. The same thing happened when the iPhone 5 debuted, Developers had to redesign their apps to run on a 4 inch display. This has often been time consuming, In fact the success of most of what Apple does depends on how much third parties have adopted it. Just imagine what the touchbar could have been had third parties actively redesigned their apps to support it. More often than not third parties are reluctant and slow to redesign their app to new standards. Apple's own first party app iMo

The iPhone Xs Just Copied The Google Pixel's Best Feature

If you've heard anything about the Google Pixel over the past 2 years, It's that the Google Pixel has one of the best smartphone cameras out there period. Ever since the original Pixel back in 2016 people have been raving about how good the pictures are, one the Pixel line up. Admittedly it is impressive how much Google has been able to accomplish with the single camera on their phones.The thing to remember is that the hardware isn't that special, I imagine the sensors used in the Google Pixel are your run of the mill flagship grade image sensors. Where Google sprinkles some pixie dust on your images is in the software. Google works wonders on your image with it's amazing software and lets be real here its Google were talking about so its probably some form of AI. Google's amazing software and it's own Visual Core  chips have produced some amazing shots. Looks like Apple just decided to steal the limelight  Fight Fire With Fire Or AI With AI? In that was a

Why The Apple Video Streaming Service Makes Perfect Sense

These days it seems like it's almost every other day when a new company gets into the melee that is the video streaming industry. The giants who once disrupted the existing hierarchy are in danger of now being disrupted themselves. With the addition of ' ads ' to Netflix, Netflix has become the thing it sought to destroy like some macabre tale of old. Don't get me wrong Netflix is hugely successful in what they do. They pull in billions of dollars each year. Now Apple wants a slice of that pie. Why Services? If you've been paying attention to Apple's earnings call over the past few years. You'd be surprised to see that Apple's services sector has been it's services sector. Now services includes everything from the App Store to Apple Music and it has been bringing in serious cash. At a time when Spotify and Deezer are both  losing money Apple's services sector looks to be going strong. Now it's no secret that Apple is highly dependent

The Pixel 3XL: Dead On Arrival

Never has it been so easy for me to find photos of an unreleased phone. Never. Thanks to these extensive leaks, We've lowered our expectations of what to expect from the pixel lineup. but since my last article about the Pixel  a lot of things have changed and unfortunately not for the better. Now sure the phone looks horrendous but if you look past the looks the Pixel still has some gaping holes. Still No Exclusives! My biggest gripe with the Pixel isn't it's price but it's lack of features. Sure it might be a good spec-ed phone but it's nothing eye-catching. I know I'm repeating my self from my last article but 6 months later those points still remain valid. Despite the massive amount of leaks we've had for the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3Xl we've yet to see a revolutionary new feature that will set it apart from the  competition. In fact I'm going to argue that this time around the Pixel has even fewer things to set it apart. Last time around the