The Apple Sheep

So a few a year or so ago I talked about the consequences of using a Huawei phone here  and more than a year later things aren't all that different. Recently Huawei was accused of being a security threat by the United States and has asked all American companies to not do business with Huawei. So that means that Huawei is now cut off from Intel, Qualcomm and most importantly Android. Now this might seem harsh at first glance. The US is unfairly targeting a law abiding company just for the fact that it is Chinese. But a closer look reveals much more.  How China Does Business Unlike in the west and much of the world. China does not have a protections for intellectual property. That means that no ones protecting your idea from being ripped off by someone else and then being brought to market. In most of the world if someone violates a patent you can sue...

To say that Google is the king of web searches would be an under statement, Most of us who have been on the internet at least once have been on Google. hw many other websites can claim such a feat? Google being Google has capitalised on its market dominance. From being a website Google is almost THE internet. But all of this is predicated on one thing, Google's Ad Business bringing in the money. The BackStory Google did start out as a search engine, but once it gained some traction Google was quick to branch out, not putting its proverbial eggs in one basket I presume. From its acquisition of Youtube and Android Google cemented itself as the one stop shop to get everything on the internet. With time most of Google's services exploded from YouTube to Gmail to Drive to Google Photos you get the idea. Google was good at making services. Google had us hooked on it's...

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 ...

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...

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 arou...

What made  the One Plus One so good? Back in 2013 the OP1 burst onto the scene with high end specs and a price tag that didn't break the bank. The OP1 didn't have all the features that a fully fledged flagship did, but it was a usable phone that many desired. That was that basic formula that made one plus so good. Lately I'll say that they've strayed from that initial formula that made them great.With each iteration they've gently raised the prices, its subtle but its there. Sure true flagships cost almost a thousand dollars now, but those same companies are now releasing cheaper hardware with subtle compromises. These "compromised phones " are in no way bad and miss out on very few features that the average Joe would miss. So with the traditional flagship killer becoming the very thing it set out to kill like the macabre stories of yore, The smartphone space is ripe for disruption. Enter The PocoPh...

While Apple is hard at work developing their top of the line  , next gen iPhones, Samsung is also working on a fitting reply. But of late the Samsung's flagship Galaxy phones haven't been having the best of days. With the S9  performing poorly when it comes to sales, So much so that the S9, a 3 month old phone was overtaken in sales by Apple's iPhone 8 , an 8 month old device that features a design straight out of 2014. You could argue that the S9's slow sales could be attributed to the fact that the S9 is pretty much an S8 with very few changes. Going by Apple's naming scheme the S9 is an S8s. Design Sells While a design doesn't really affect the functionality of a phone, designs play a crucial role when it comets sales. Looking at Apple's past sales it's easy to see that Apple has had huge spikes in sales when they came out with a new design especially in 2014, when they came out with...

When you think of the smartphone OS wars, we have two warring factions, Android and iOS. For about 5 years this was the way it's been. But in the distant past there were three smartphone Operating Systems. Android, iOS and Windows. The three way battle for OS supremacy raged on and before long the triopoly became a duopoly. With Windows phone being more or less dead the two major Operating systems only had each other to worry about for the longest time. Now the incumbents have a new kid on the block to worry about , KaiOS. But wait if KaiOS is so great how come no ones ever heard of it before? But First Some Background KaiOS is built on the ashes of the Firefox OS , For phones that aren't necessarily smart. You remember those old phones that you used to rock back in 2009? Yeah phones like those. The aim of KaiOS is to bring down the features of a smartphone down to a feature phone. So for that very same reason Kai...

2017 was a pivotal year for smartphones.Phones finally started to look the way they were shown in futuristic movies from decades ago. Sleek edges no bezels and big beautiful displays. It safe to say that not one company has held back from the bezel-less trend. From the likes of Vivo to Oppo and of course Samsung and Apple. So one would expect that with all these gorgeous great phones around, the classic iPhone 6 styled smartphone wouldn't stand a chance. Well think again. The 8 Is King According to CounterPoint  research, the iPhone 8 has beaten out its much flashier Android competition, Mainly the S9 and the S9+. Which might be explained by the abysmally low sales that the S9 family has been pulling in.The 8 even beat out its big brother the 8+ and the iPhone X. But moreover it shows a shift in consumer tastes that if Apple can tap, could lead...

For most of last year we were flip flopping over the issue of whether or not the iPhone X would have a finger print scanner or not(Spoiler: It doesn't). Amid much fanfare the iPhone X was released and lo and behold it didn't have a fingerprint scanner and it opted to go for the facial recognition route. With the demo of FaceID failing people had their reservations about facial recognition and up until the release of the iPhone X it was seen more as a gimmick rather than a legitimate way to unlock your device.But after the iPhone X hit shelves and FaceID was exonerated for its unreliable reputation. So that begs the question. Which is better? FaceID Vs TouchID With the removal of TouchID debates sprung up everywhere, with supporters in both camps. Sure FaceID works in certain situations when TouchID doesn't and vice versa. But keep in mind FaceID is a first generat...

You've probably seen this phone around the Oppo Find X, It's been hailed as the future of smartphones and looking at it I can't take it's futuristic claims at face value. The phone that kills the notch surprisingly causes more inconvenience than having a notch ever would. Lets break down why I think the Oppo Find X is a great marketing strategy and not the future of smartphones. Lets Talk About That Notch     The notch has been seen as a great intrusion on our phones that is such an eyesore and while some may find the notch unappealing (Although most people don't as sales figures show). The notch can't be considered as an intrusion into the display in 2018. Just 10 months back we were used to seeing phones with quarter inch bezels on the top and bottom and we were fine with it. If you ask me the notch just extends the display and replaces area that would have been bezel with usable screen real estate.Th...

Siri, Ah the dunce of the AI class, the butt of many a joke. Siri, over the past few years has got the reputation of being the dumbest smart assistants around. Sure Siri was the first to the game but over the years Siri has ceded ground to the Google assistant and Alexa. Since that day we've been begging for a massive Siri overhaul and so far we haven't gotten it...or have we? Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew With each WWDC we hope that Apple will work its magic and bring Siri back into the forefront but lo and behold that never happened. Apple here is playing catch-up, but they're playing it carefully. Sure they could put out this massive update that promises to fix Siri, but it could just as easily break it. When tech companies try to do too much at one go the end result is usually a dumpster fire. Remember iOS 11 , The Windows Phone or the  Android Tablet? All...

With our phones heading for that inevitable 100% screen to body ratio, our phones are undoubtedly more attractive but there has been unintentional fallout.All our phones are starting to look the same, admittedly a big reason as to why most of the phones today look the same is that they're trying to rip off the iPhone X. But eventually when the true full screen phone hits the metaphorical shelves, you won't be able to tell one flag ship from another. You can already see this starting to happen, in attempt to differentiate phone manufacturers have started experimenting with the backs of phones to make them more noticeable. You have Xiaomi with its fake internal circuit board look on the Mi8, Huawei with its new tangy colours on the P20 Pro and of-course  the Google Pixel line up with their semi glass back. But making the backs of phones really unique doesn't mean that you'll stick out. After all you s...

As long as there have been computers there have been computer games, That trend still holds true today despite the drastic change in the way we compute. From Pinball and Minesweeper that came with the windows installations decades ago, to the handheld Gameboys that most of us spent entire evenings on computer games have always stuck around. Since the advent of the smartphone game developers have done the sensible thing and ported games over to the mobile operating systems, Namely Android and iOS(Sorry Windows). Of late we've seen a trend towards ultra powerful phones marketed as gaming phones and I fail to see how that makes sense!. Lets Take A Trip Down Memory Lane Historically gaming has occupied two main platform, The Gaming PC market and the Console Market. Each makes sense in their own individual market. When looking at the PC market you have to look at what kind of PCs are on the market. You have underpowered min...

Every year, almost like clock-work after every iPhone keynote or a WWDC we see a lot of memes and posts which go something like "Androids had these features for years welcome to *insert year here*", and sometimes they're right. iOS has lagged behind in features on a few occasions ( and so has Android on just as many occasions ). This year we've seen the " Androids had this for years" argument has been brought up with the Photos App (You can read about why I think that, that is not a fair comparison here ) and Two Factor Authentication among other things. Two Factor Authentication This year Two Factor Authentication has been accused by a lot for being blatantly copied from Android. You're not wrong on the surface it looks really similar.  Let's take a look into how Android manages two factor Authentication. Imagine you're trying to install an app like WhatsApp. WhatsApp will sen...