Sunday, December 6, 2020

Review of Fire HD 10

Here is my quick review of the Fire HD 10.



If 20 or 30 years ago you were to say that in the future you could have a handheld computer with a 10-inch high-resolution display, built-in telecommunications, 2 gigs of RAM, 32 gigs of expandable storage, along with an 8 core processor running at 2 gigahertz, and it would only cost $80 (on Black Friday), then people would have thought that this was science-fiction and you were talking about the year 2100.

As a tablet, it is every bit as capable as my iPad 4, even more so since my iPad 4 is out of date. When it comes to browsing the web, reading email, listening to audio, or watching videos, it works flawlessly. This is like having a computer. It is as capable and as fast as a mid-range laptop.

This tablet is designed for viewing Amazon Prime member content. Amazon tries to limit your to their own app store, but there are ways to download the Google Play Store giving you the full Android experience, and I have already done this on mine.

The 2-megapixel camera is not great, but I don't think it is terrible either. I have owned worse and I was still able to take passable pictures.

The dimensions of the Fire HD 10 are a little taller and thinner than the iPad, which makes it better for watching videos, but a little worse for holding. I prefer the feel of the iPad in my hand, especially since the metal exterior gives it a cooler feel than the plastic exterior of the Fire HD 10.

My only problem with this tablet is that all the things it is capable of I already do on my phone or on my computer. I didn't really need another tablet, except that I like gadgets, and I wanted an Android device to test apps that I want to write. The only way I might get practical use out of it is if I were to take it on a trip or on an airplane. It would be fun to have on a plane because I could play games or possibly watch videos on it. Fortunately, it comes with an earphone jack.

I haven't tested this myself, but reportedly it has really good battery life.

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Saturday, November 28, 2020

Democracy only counts when it goes the way I want it to

8GB vs 16GB for M1 Mac — The TRUTH About RAM!

People are all excited at how powerful the new M1 chip Macs are, but non-upgradability is the Achilles heel of these products.  There are a bunch of videos showing that you can do just fine with just 8 gigs of RAM, but that is just for running one task.  These machines are designed to multitask, so 8 GB is really not enough.  

An adequate amount of RAM today probably won't be an adequate amount of RAM five years from now.  I upgraded my iMac from 8 GB to 40 GB, which is twice as much as I really need, but the difference in cost wasn't that much.

Because you can't upgrade the RAM on M1 computers, this chip really should just be used on tablets and phones.  Instead, it is being used on the Mac Mini, which is a desktop, and laptops that are desktop replacements.  

When Apple comes out with the next generation of iMacs, I hope that the RAM will be user upgradeable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8KjSH7Hok&lc=z22oczmhxtb4uh3rb04t1aokgnmb14s1qhj1ogqyof1vbk0h00410

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Amazon.com: Fire HD 10 Tablet (10.1" 1080p full HD display, 32 GB)

Last year I was watching the rave reviews for this $150 Amazon tablet. When they had it on sale for $100 during Black Friday week, I figured that was a great deal, but I also figured that I didn't really need another tablet. This year it is only $80 for the Black Friday sale, so I decided that for that price I could use it to test Android apps that I want to write.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KD8R6HD?fbclid=IwAR1UP1JvLhHEmXl-T_iJGQSGgF29RE1xLJgOADhw5RPd3qLyy-5PriZPRiA&th=1

Monday, November 23, 2020

How Apple Just Changed the Entire Industry

The first 20 minutes of this video is pretty interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuF9weSkS68

As a side note, I was surprised that my old iPhones 6+/6s+ could run Stockfish at similar speeds to my Core-I7 iMac.

Friday, November 20, 2020

M1 MacBook Air is Faster Than You Think! (Real Tests) - Krazy Ken's Tech Misadventures

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

Apple has performed a minor miracle with its new M1 chip.  It has 8 CPU cores, 8 graphics cores, and RAM all on one chip.  It has a 5-nanometer process, which is better than the current Intel and AMD processors.  It might not be possible to make smaller circuits without developing new materials.  So far, there isn't much progress in this area.

What is surprising is that this same chip can run on the Macbook Air, which has no active cooling.  This is essentially a mobile processor.

You can buy high-end desktop processors that are more powerful, but this System On a Chip is at least 22% faster than my 2017 (14 nanometer Intel quad-core I-5) iMac desktop according to a benchmark that I saw.  That is not a reason for me to replace my desktop, but compared to their previous mobile processors, this thing is pretty impressive.

Reportedly Apple is going to come out with something better for their desktop computers.  It would make sense that a desktop processor would be more powerful.

The only downside is that they can't run Intel-based programs natively, but have a software solution for running those programs.  I'm not sure about Windows compatibility, but I heard something about being able to run some Windows programs through emulation.  


Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Dear Linus...You're Wrong About the Apple M1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUkDku_Qt5c

At 3:50 they have a benchmark for the new Apple M1 chip in the Macbook Air, and it is about 22% faster than my iMac desktop computer.  That is with no active cooling.  Apple is making mobile processors and getting desktop performance out of them.


There is a rumor that there will be an M2 chip for the future desktop iMac computers.  Maybe eventually.  The M1 was supposed to target mobile devices.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

A14 Bionic

The new Apple A14 bionic processor in their new iPhone and iPad Air, with its 5-nanometer circuits, benchmarks its processor power between my old iMac and my new iMac, and this is without any active cooling. This is desktop processing power on a phone. Apple is planning to use similar chips in its upcoming laptops because they are abandoning Intel processors on at least their portable devices.  

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Thursday, October 15, 2020

6G - Explained!

I think that 5G is not very practical yet, given that the high frequencies are easily blocked. However, this video is already talking about 6G, to come in 10 to 15 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvcAovqG5Kk

Monday, October 5, 2020

Wi-fi problems with new AT&T Internet

I have resolved my Wi-Fi speed problems as best I can. It turns out the latest Broadcom drivers for Windows 10 are not good, at least not for high speed. Initially, I was getting only 30 Mbps. I did much research on the Internet, and I saw a few different websites and videos recommending switching to older drivers, a couple of which I had to download and install. I have switched between 4 versions of the drivers, and the oldest one seems to work the best. My speed tops out at about 200 Mbps, although reality might be a little less. I did a large download to test the speed and I calculated about 120 Mbps, which is at least double the speed of my old internet.

However, the same computer running Mac OS gets up to 660 Mbps with my new AT&T internet. My iPhone gets about 400 Mbps. One option for me is to run an ethernet cable to the router, which would work, although in my current setup that would not be convenient.

It was slightly helpful to turn off power saving features on the ethernet and wifi cards by selecting "maximum performance" instead.

The AT&T technical support couldn't do much other than test that the internet is working. They recommended that I do a Windows Update, which took an extraordinarily long time and didn't help. It was also recommended that I reinstall the Bootcamp software, but for some reason, the install crashes and does not finish. I tried manually copying the driver from the Bootcamp software, which helped, but I got better results by downloading and installing an older driver.

It seems odd to me that the Microsoft Windows Update installs the latest Broadcom driver that is apparently defective. This could happen with my next Windows Update and I'll have to fix this again.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Is the Smartphone Market Ready for This?

Apple has the only 5 nanometer processor available to the public so far.  It is no wonder that Apple is dumping Intel and going with their own chips on future computers. 

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Coffey 
Date: October 3, 2020 at 11:29:30 PM EDT
To: Albert Nelms 
Subject: Re: Is the Smartphone Market Ready for This?

This performance is comparable to my old Core-i7 iMac computer.  On an iPad Air. 

What is astounding is how many nodes per second Stockfish gets on my five year old iPhone 6s+.  Around 2 million.  On my 2017 iMac I see 3 to 5 million. 

Best wishes,

John Coffey

On Oct 3, 2020, at 6:00 AM, Albert Nelms wrote:

iPhone 12 p, A14 chip performance review.

https://apple.news/A8OQyAXzSRdCQe4SKq2Lquw

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Apple details A14 chipset ahead of iPhone 12 lineup announcement - GSMArena.com news

Right now, the only 5-nanometer computer processor in the world is on an Apple iPad Air.  However, AMD is not far off.  Intel, however, has been struggling to keep up.  They only recently introduced 10-nanometer chips.

https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_details_a14_chipset_ahead_of_iphone_12_lineup_announcement-news-45297.php

Sunday, August 16, 2020

How Nebraska elites screw farmers & get away with it.

https://youtu.be/r2AqVfIrjZ0

In theory, if I don't like Apple's repair policies then I don't have to buy Apple products. 

However, I feel like Apple has engaged in some monopolistic practices that are pretty questionable, like using the law to throw someone in jail for charging a nominal fee for burning an install disk on software that Apple gives away for free, and using the customs agency to confiscate refurbished Apple parts as "counterfeit", even though the Apple parts were sold as refurbished.

Apple should not try to monopolize repair manuals and repair parts in such a way that only Apple can do the repairs.  Most of the time Apple will tell a customer that it is way too expensive to make the repair and that the customer needs to buy a new item.  One extreme example of this was when Louis Rossmann was able to repair a loose connection in a couple of minutes that an Apple repair person said would cost $1,000 to fix.

When I buy a product, especially an expensive product, there is an implied contract or at least assumption that if I need it repaired then I can get it repaired and at a reasonable cost.  If a company deliberately makes this difficult or monopolizes the repair service, then I feel that I am being denied reasonable choices that I should be allowed to make.

This issue is by no means limited to Apple.  This is spreading to other products as they get more high tech.

Government interference in the marketplace often causes more problems than it solves, so I don't necessarily have a good solution.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Google's Friendliest Smartphone - Pixel 4a

Maybe because of competition, we are entering an era of cheaper mid-range phones that have some really good specs.  The new iPhone SE has top-notch internals and camera with a 4.7" screen.   However, I prefer my 5.5" screen on my iPhone 6s+.

This low-cost Google phone has a 5.8" screen.

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Get Free Coffee at Panera Bread

I've been getting free coffee for about 3 weeks.  I need to cancel the coffee subscription by the end of September in order not to be charged.


Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Re: iPhone 4: 10 Years Later - 2020 Review

A few years before smartphones came out, I bought a very cheap digital camera. The resolution was like 1/4 megapixel. I think that it was 640x480, but it wasn't that long ago, 20 years, that this was a standard computer monitor resolution. My monitor at home was probably no better.

At that time, 2-megapixel cameras were expensive, like $300.  The funny thing is that the cheap camera actually took decent pictures at least compared to what I was used to, which wasn't much.  


On Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 9:52 PM John Coffey wrote:

I really loved the iPhone 4/5. It is still my favorite design.  The bands on the side gave it a sturdiness.
 
I was in Salt Lake City on a slope near the base of a mountain where I dropped the iPhone 5. It went bouncing on pavement downhill but suffered only very minor scuffs on the corners.

Because of the Antennagate on the iPhone 4, there was a problem with the signal not being as strong if your fingers crossed a certain spot on the external antennas, but it wasn't much of a problem for me.  As a result, Apple gave everybody a free case, which I got, but I didn't use it much.

I was actually pretty happy with the iPhone 4 camera.  There was a time when 5 megapixel was considered premium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3MEnM2XTiE


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Sunday, April 26, 2020

Are Cheap Graphics...GOOD?

https://youtu.be/SR8VrpvDrRI

I want the chip that is going to be in the upcoming XBox Series X console, but they will probably never sell it to the general public. It has almost 3 times the graphics performance of my 2017 iMac, and it has 8 cores with 16 threads. My I5 iMac has 4 cores with 4 threads. Rumor has it that Microsoft is going to take a $200 loss on these consoles in order to sell games and subscription services. (People are saying that this is a problem for Sony with their slightly inferior new console, because Sony doesn't have the deep pockets that Microsoft does, and can't take as much of a loss as Microsoft can. For this reason, Sony is limiting the number of units that will be available this Christmas. In general, Sony has been hurting financially, and has depended on their video game division to support the company.) I assume that over time the cost of parts will go down while the price of the consoles will remain the same.

However, AMD is planning to release a new line of APU's this September. If I can get the equivalent performance of an XBox Series X, I might build a new computer. However, I might wait till 2021 because I think that the prices will be cheaper.

My 2010 iMac isn't even on the map in terms of graphics performance. It is really bad. They use laptop parts in these all-in-one computers, which means that the performance is not the best. The 2017 iMac is much better, but I could have gotten more bang for the buck by building a PC.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Is 5G SAFE?

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

Electromagnetic radiation can warm tissue, but not enough to be noticeable.  I found out that microwave ovens don't actually contain 100% of the microwaves.  You can put your hand in front of the door and feel a slight warming.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Walmart's $250 laptop is AWESOME!

Because of new chips, people can get much more power on budget devices.  The processor benchmarks at 90% of my 2009 Core-i7 iMac, which is not bad.  The graphics are far superior.  There are few drawbacks, but just enough that a person might want to wait for next year's model or a cyber Monday sale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hMdQAjy43A

On Walmart's website, this currently lists for $299.