AMD APU's

I have some interest in getting an APU at some future date with the idea of building a lower cost computer. An APU is a chip that has the processor and graphics "card" on one chip, and this can save quite a bit of money over buying a seperate graphics card. For the moment, if you want the best performance, you need a separate graphics card, because you can get both better processors and better graphics cards that way.

The AMD APU that comes with the XBOX One X is fairly impressive. The processor is not fantastic, but the graphics are really good. However, you can't buy this APU and put it in a computer. The APU's that AMD released for computers in 2018 were just for low end gaming. However, I have read that AMD is going to release new APU's in 2019 and 2020.

Both Microsoft and Sony are planning on releasing next generation consoles either this year or next. Reportedly, these both will have higher performance AMD APU's, but not necessarily the same processor. I don't like the idea of buying a console that has PC hardware that you can't use as a computer. It would seem better to have the same performance in a computer, but so far AMD has not been releasing those chips to the general public.

This video gives an interesting history about how the technology has been evolving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU-NNV2pYTQ

 

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

RIGHT TO REMAIN PRIVATE

This is an important video with profound implications for personal privacy in the age of smart devices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7AAbtGFl2s

The PROBLEM with the Foldable Phone

I want to see what Apple does with this.  They are not likely to try this until the technology is nearly perfect.

Apple's Secret Weapon - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kE8_VZjpoI

iPad Pros Are Shipping Bent From The Factory. Apple Says This Is OK - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6GCKB_DkJs

iPhone 6s+ processor speed

Way back when I had an iPhone 4, I tried running the chess program Stockfish on it in analysis mode, and it was examining around 250,000 nodes per second, which at the time seemed to me to be pretty good for a handheld device.  This was not as good as my desktop, but still a good substitute for it.  Two years later when I got the iPhone 5, the speed had improved to around half a million nodes per second.  Two years after that with iPhone 6+ I was impressed to reach a million nodes per second.  However, I have just upgraded to the  iPhone 6s+, which is a three year old phone, and the same Stockfish program on this phone is examining an amazing two million nodes per second.

Compare this to my late 2009 iMac with a quad core 2.8 ghz core-i7 processor.  For its day it was a top of the line desktop computer, but today it is about average.   Using one core, the Stockfish program examines around 450,000 nodes per second.  If I use all 4 cores then the program sees about 1.5 million nodes per second.  The iPhone 6s+ only has two cores, but it is outperforming my desktop computer by a good margin.  

Since the iPhone 6s+ came out, Apple has released the iPhones 7, 8, 10, and 10s, all of which are faster than the previous generation.  (The 8 and 10 are part of the same generation.)  The 10s is only slightly faster than the 10, because we are reaching a point where the laws of physics won't allow them to make the circuits smaller, therefor faster.  I personally wanted an iPhone 10 or an iPhone 8, because I knew that the processor on those phones kicked ass, but I didn't want to spend a fortune for a phone, so I settled for the good enough iPhone 6s+, which I got on a Black Friday sale for $300.

Speaking of kicking ass, Apple has been doing that with their processor development.  No other mobile phone manufacturer comes close.  Apple is using a 7 nanometer process with their latest phones and tablets.  Compare that to Intel, the world's largest microprocessor manufacturer, who recently backed off of their 10 nanometer chips because of problems and instead released 14 nanometer chips.  AMD, who is already kicking Intel's butt, is scheduled to release 7 nanometer chips early next year, with a whole new line of processors that undercut Intel on price.

This is an exciting time because of how much progress has been made in computer processing power.  It is also impressive how much power Apple has been able to put in mobile devices.  The latest iPad Pro's, which use the same processors as their latest phones, outperform many desktop computers.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

AT&T "You Will" Commercials (high quality)

These commercials go back to 1993, and everything they predicted has come true, although the company that brought it to you might be Apple, among others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EgfkhC1eo&feature=share

Black Friday Tips: Score deals on Apple iPhone, iTunes Cards, Amazon, more!

https://youtu.be/RvliorjIT2o

9% Video Game Tax Starts In 5 Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10PNV9X4U4M

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 vs iPad Pro 11 Inch - Full Comparison

The benchmark on the iPad Pro blows my desktop out of the water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q24uD5UgT-0

Why Deep Learning Now? | AI Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3IyDNB_ciI

Samsung keeping RAM prices high for MOAR profit

https://youtu.be/UXl8H9CpkyA?t=615

Genius Bar caught ripping customer off ON CAMERA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns

Pay Less, Get More.. 2018 is Messed Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co6KblmxV1o  

Iphone generation predicted in 1993 on Northern Exposure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS2N4VWIbCI

Cheap computers

The golden era of video games and 8 bit home computers was in the 1980's. As a side note, it was also the golden era of chess playing computers. Around 1995 the shift started moving toward PC compatible computers, but rather slowly at first, because they were still very expensive. I got my first PC compatible around that time, but at enormous cost. Prior to that I had used 8 bit computers and one 16 bit Atari ST. Even worse, around 1990 I was still using a "dumb terminal" with the slowest modem in the world (maybe 150 baud) to connect to my workplace.

The kind of computer speeds we were talking about in the 8 bit era were typically around 1 megahertz, with some systems going up to 4 MHZ. In 1995, my first PC compatible computer ran at 16 MHZ, and when I would later upgrade it to 32 MHZ I thought it was a miracle

Compare that to today, where you can buy various versions of the Raspberry PI for $10 to $35. Each of these is a full computer, but you also have to buy some cables and accessories to make them work. These computers cost next to nothing, but depending upon the model run 1 to 4 cores (processors) at 1 to 2 *Gigahertz.*

I am seeing a ton of video game products that run classic video games from the 1980's and early 90's. These are hot consumer items right now. They use processors similar to the Raspberry PI, but usually just one core running at one gigahertz, which makes them very cheap, but that is all it takes. Likewise, these types of processors are turning up in all sorts of devices, like refrigerators with LCD displays.

We live in an interesting era where moderately powerful computing devices can made really cheaply. Of course, for your home computer you are going to want to spend more money to get something more powerful.

I also find it interesting that many high end smartphones rival desktop computers in terms of computing power. The Apple A11 chip, from last year's iPhone, benchmarks better than my 2009 $2,000 core-i7 iMac. Amazing.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Apple says that they charge so much because they make the best phone.

Apple wants to make the best so that they can have the most margin. It probably costs around $350 to make this phone, and maybe $400 for the maxed out models, but Apple screws the customer on price anyway. They could charge $750 to $800 for any of these phones and be doing well.

This is deliberate. Apple will continue to do this only as long as people are willing to throw their money away. If nobody bought the XS Max, with the ironic name, Apple would be forced to offer discounts and be more reasonable in their pricing structure.

I am still happy with my iPhone 6+, but these prices are so insane that I will not buy the latest models. I could be just as happy with a cheaper 1 to 2 year or model, or a different brand. There are $500 phones that people can be just as happy with.

A dollar per day will not pay for this phone in two years. Maybe three years, but some models would take four years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w87AtNmGT1s

The nightmare videos of childrens' YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today

https://youtu.be/v9EKV2nSU8w

USB-C audio sucks: Bring back the headphone jack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly-bSBHOSIo

ZOMBIE SMARTPHONE APOCALYPSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-nmKNKD1U