Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

Because of how iOS multitasking works as well as efficiencies gained with iOS 13 you really don't need a ton of RAM. It'll run just fine with 3 GB and will probably have decent battery life as well.

I've heard that iOS 13 RAM management is quite aggressive compared to the earlier versions of iOS, but I base that only on iOS users' observations.

The thing I'd actually be worried about is the phone's usability going into the future, but then, if it won't be used for too long period of time, that might not be a problem. I'm saying that because the 4GB of RAM that my current phone (Huawei P20) has was all sunshine and roses back in 2018 when the phone was new, but nowadays, I wish they put 6GB in it. And it's not even on Android 10 yet. But again, that might not be the case with iOS so much.

I've heard conflicted rumors on this one. I hope it comes in 5.5" size but I'll get it if it doesn't.

Yup, I've heard those other rumours as well, but I guess we can just wait and see. Perhaps there's a possibility that a larger variant will be released further down the road.

Right now I'd be buying the Galaxy A71, that camera is mighty impressive. Especially considering the cost and the huge screen, I suppose it's a middling phone for everything else.

That thing is not available in the USA yet, and if GSMArena is to be believed, it won't come out in the US until summer.
 
Thanks, everyone.

I'm leaning towards the OnePlus 8.

I've never used an Android phone before, so what software would you recommend for photos, music (I will be storing everything on the phone), pedometer, and podcasts?
 
Google photos (please please PLEASE make sure to install it on iOS if you go back to make sure you don't lose any photos) foobar2000 for the music (yes, really). I think apple music works for podcasts on android, but I can't confirm. A reliable pedometer is a non insignificant reason of why I went to iOS. Walkdroid is exceedingly simple but it does the job and did it all the time I used android. it does it much better than, for instance, samsung health, which thought I did 3000 steps while I chilled at my place reading a book.
 
Google Photos for Photos is a no brainer. Music - honestly most phone's stock music player is pretty decent when I was on Android. Podcasts - I prefer DoggCatcher on Android but I'm old school, I'm sure there's something hipper and newer.
 
Thanks, everyone.

I'm leaning towards the OnePlus 8.

I've never used an Android phone before, so what software would you recommend for photos, music (I will be storing everything on the phone), pedometer, and podcasts?

Google for all of the above

Google Photos
Google Play for music
Google Fit for pedometer
Google Podcast for Podcast

It may not have the fancy bells and whistles you need, but its free, fast and just works
 
For podcast, Podbean.
 
Huawei seems to be in a bit of a pickle. I just read through an advertorial where they're explaining that their App Gallery is just as good as Google Play Store, and that "apps like gmail and youtube works just as well on the web".
 
I'm in a ranting mood tonight!

I hate cheap SSDs. Apart from Samsung, most of the disks I've owned or used from your normal trusted storage manufacturer (Sandisk, Kingston) have been dog shit. This is me trying to copy a 12GB file from a known good USB 3.0 drive to the Kingston SSD (OS disk) in my server. While doing this the machine crawls and is totally incapable of doing anything else.

SSDCopySpeed.jpg


Sandisk SSDs at work just started dying after a couple of years of use, the Crucial ones we have seem OK but I'm not confident in them. I have four Samsung SSDs in this machine of varying ages and use them well, of the three I can get data for they have (in order of age - oldest first) 21.5TB, 40.0TB and 23.3TB written to them and I've never had an issue.

I don't get it. I was going to replace the Kingston disk with a 500GB Samsung but the price shot up for no reason at Christmas, then it had a reason to stay there.
 
I'm in a ranting mood tonight!

I hate cheap SSDs. Apart from Samsung, most of the disks I've owned or used from your normal trusted storage manufacturer (Sandisk, Kingston) have been dog shit. This is me trying to copy a 12GB file from a known good USB 3.0 drive to the Kingston SSD (OS disk) in my server. While doing this the machine crawls and is totally incapable of doing anything else.

SSDCopySpeed.jpg


Sandisk SSDs at work just started dying after a couple of years of use, the Crucial ones we have seem OK but I'm not confident in them. I have four Samsung SSDs in this machine of varying ages and use them well, of the three I can get data for they have (in order of age - oldest first) 21.5TB, 40.0TB and 23.3TB written to them and I've never had an issue.

I don't get it. I was going to replace the Kingston disk with a 500GB Samsung but the price shot up for no reason at Christmas, then it had a reason to stay there.

What type of SSD? M.2 or 2.5” SATA? Perhaps it needs cooling? I know, I know, people say you don’t need cooling but come on, my M.2 SSD had the mobo’s cooling fan that was LOUD AS FUCK that kept it less than 70°C all the time. Once I broke that, I added a fanless heatsink that is good but I suspect it’s being de-regulated as it gets warm because it’ll sit at 75° during gaming which is Samsung’s max temp for the SSD. I’ve never tested but find it peculiar how it maintains 75° all the time unless I’m standby at the desktop.
 
That rather more looks like you either filled the cache on it or you have a DRAM-less SSD in there. Can I have a model number?
 
It's a 2.5" Kingston SSDNow A400 240GB (model SA400S37240G) and it sits in the only occupied SSD bay at the back of my Fractal Design R5 case, I wouldn't expect it to be a heat issue but it does have 6 4TB drives at the front of the case to generate heat.

I've never looked at the temps for the M.2 960 EVO in this machine, it has the ROG heatsink plate thing on it that came with the motherboard.
 
Ah, yes. That's a cacheless SSD.

Here is a relevant video with a 12 year old canadian explaining why the speed graph looks like that, it should open at the correct time to skip most of the clickbait. His case is slightly different,but that's what is happening to your drive.

 
So OnePlus 8 1099$ (CAD), and the Pro 1399$. Nope.

The 7T is 669$.
 
I love that phone prices now are so silly the iPhone somehow became very good value
 
Yeah last year I decided I was done with that bullshit. When my Samsung became too broken to be worth fixing I got a $200 LG. If it lasts 1/5 of an iPhone's lifespan I'm in the black. Honestly it's 80% of the phone for 20% of the price. The screen is surprisingly nice, battery is excellent, CPU sucks and casing feels very cheap.
 
Well the new SE is out...on 4.7" only.

SAD!

@thevictor390: I kinda went the opposite way. since spending 2-300 bucks on a phone every year I just bit the bullet for a premium one and bought an iPhone for...$220 with the new battery and an otterbox defender. A month ago I swapped the worn defender for a new defender pro for $30. To be honest, even now I have no need to replace it...nor want. We'll see how many more updates this thing gets.
 
Well the new SE is out...on 4.7" only.

Was about to post this. In my case, if I were looking for a new phone, I'd seriously consider one. No, it doesn't offer many of the enticing new features smartphones have been offering for a while now, like tall aspect ratio screens or ultrawide cameras, but it's all I want in my phone: compact size and decent camera, with an added bonus of a decent software support.

Granted, the Galaxy S10e offers both of those with the added benefit of a 19:9 AMOLED screen, an ultrawide camera and a 3,5mm headphone jack, but it's one year old already, and we all know how good Samsung is when it comes to issuing updates. The Pixel 3 offers only a tall aspect ratio screen over the iPhone, but it's even older, even if it's the Pixels are the shit when it comes to software, the 3a is newer and has a 3,5mm jack but lacks ingress protection and has a chipset that might be unusable in two years' time, and the Pixel 4 is just meh with its tiny battery and considering it costs more. I won't even talk about Huawei P30 or LG G7 ThinQ.

All of that being said, my Huawei P20 is getting two years old next month. While I really don't need a new phone and I'd be much better off spending that money on a semi-decent DSLR camera, a desktop computer or investing it in the next-year's Balkan roadtrip, I am tempted by some of these newer phones. It'd be cool to have an ultrawide camera, better software, or even going with some of the last-year's phones that still have a 3,5mm jack. However, I can live without all those things, so I guess it's next year or even 2022 when I'll be getting a new phone. Unless the Huawei craps out one me one way or another.
 
Who would've thought that flux-cored solder wets the button contacts of an Xbox 360 controller extremely well once the carbon coating has been removed? Not me!

IMG_5061_S1024.jpg


All you need is a plan and a spare Xbox 360 controller that you took apart for some reason despite it working and still have several years later. You also need to have moved it to get to something else very recently to remind you it was still there.
 
Well the new SE is out...on 4.7" only.

SAD!
Agreed. Having had the iPhone X for more than 1/2 a year now, I find myself liking it less and less. I just don't like how big it is, how heavy it is and how it always has to stay in a case because of completely unnecessary weakness of that stupid glass back, that gets full of smudge marks as soon as you touch it and will most likely shatter on any impact despite them claiming it to be "the strongest glass evarrrr", as we all know: "Glass is glass, and glass breaks".

So I was ready to go for the iPhone SE, but they screwed that up with giving it that same stupid glass back as well, so now I'm seriously considering swapping back to my old iPhone 7 giving my dad the X. I was hoping that they would cheapen out and leave wireless charging, which is just a gimmick, out of the SE giving it the casing from the iPhone 7 rather than the 8.

I just wished they had kept the small iPhone 5 form factor, and fitted it with an A13 chip and called it a day, would have pre-ordered that in an instant.
 
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