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The Tech Thread

I figured this would expand into other areas...but Apple announced iPhone 8 and their new flagship iPhone X today:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/12/iphone-x/

Apple’s iPhone X, like the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, comes with a brand new design, ditching bezels and opting for a glass front and back. Apple says there is a deeper strengthening layer in the glass that makes it the “most durable in a smartphone.”

Thanks to this new design, the iPhone X is sealed for water and dust resistance.

It’s made from surgical-grade, stainless steel and comes in two finishes: space grey and silver.

Following the current trend in smartphones, Apple has done away with the bezels on the iPhone X, offering an edge-to-edge 5.8-inch display. In fact, Apple is upgrading quite a bit in that department, offering an OLED display for the very first time, calling it the Super Retina Display. This brings with it all the standard benefits of OLED, including more accurate colors, better image uniformity across the screen, etc.

The iPhone X Super Retina display supports 2046×1125 resolution, with 455 PPI, and HDR in both Dolby Vision and HDR.

The company is reportedly paying around $125 per panel, which is part of the reason for the reports of a more expensive iPhone.

This is also the first iPhone that will not have a home button, with the new screen reaching across the entire front of the device. Users can wake up their device by picking it up or swiping across any part of the screen. To close an app, simply swipe up on the screen and throw it away. Users can also reach Siri by simply saying “Hey Siri” or by pressing the side button.

Given that the home button has historically been central to the iPhone’s security, the replacement comes in the form of a depth-sensing front camera which will unlock the phone by detecting the user’s face. Apple is calling it FaceID.

This means that the iPhone will know what your face looks like from all angles and can unlock the phone while it’s, say, lying on a table. It also means that the feature shouldn’t be susceptible to trickery, such as unlocking for a two-dimensional photo of you instead of the real thing. Apple says the chances that someone can trick FaceID and break into your phone are 1 in a million.

“You’re wearing glasses, or wear a hat, or do it up any way you want to do it…” FaceID still works, day or night, according to Phil Schiller.

FaceID is enabled by a True Depth camera system, equipped with an infrared camera, flood illuminator, dot projector and more all packed into the top of your iPhone.

The feature is used for Apple Pay now, as well as a new feature called Animojis for messaging. Animoji’s use FaceID to lay your facial expressions into emojis, giving them your own unique take. You can pick from a dozen different animated emojis.

As far as cameras are concerned, the iPhone X is about as locked and loaded as one can get. The rear camera features a 12-megapixel sensor, with dual-lenses at f1.8 and f2.8 apertures (which is brighter than the 7 Plus telephoto). It comes with dual-image OIS quad-LED TrueTone flash.

Because of the combination of the new A11 Bionic and the enhanced camera, Apple is introducing a new Portrait Lighting, letting users select their lighting effects. These aren’t filters, but rather a real-time analysis of the light hitting the subject’s face, and these lighting effects can be added before and after the photo is taken.

Video is vastly improved as well. Combined with that A11 processor, video can be captured at 60FPS in low-light mode, with faster frame rate support and 4K capture. Slo-mo videos shot in 1080p will have 240 FPS.

The front-facing camera is powered by that True Depth camera system that supports FaceID. But the big news here is that Portrait mode and Portrait lighting is now available on the front-camera.

The iPhone X, as well as the other new iPhones announced today, comes with wireless charging capabilities, thanks to that new glass back. Wireless charging is supported by Qi, which is considered as the standard in the wireless charging industry.

Plus, battery life is two hours longer than the iPhone 7, with most of the improvement coming by way of software enhancements. But because Apple likes to take things to the next level, the wireless charging on the new iPhones is coming with a new accessory called AirPower. It’s a larger mat that lets users charge their iPhones, Apple Watch and AirPods all at the same time.

The iPhone X is packed with the new A11 Bionic processor: 64-bit design, six cores, two high performance processors that are 25 percent faster than the A10 and 4-high efficiency cores (two more than the A10) that are 70 percent faster. The GPU is 30 percent faster.

Part of the bigger news here is improved photographs. As Panzarino noted in the live blog, “The Apple ISP is one of its secret weapons in photography. If you’ve loved an iPhone picture you’ve ever taken then thank the image processor inside the phone for that result.”

The iPhone X starts at $999 for the 64GB model, with a larger 256GB option.

Pre-orders begin on October 27 and regular sales begin November 3, just in time for the Holidays.

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29 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Had the Pixel 6 and was really disappointed with it.  Was happy to trade it in for my Samsung S23.  Don't know that I'll ever go back to a Google phone.

Went from a S9 to a Pixel 3 to an S21 and back to a Pixel. I honestly couldn't tell you any difference between them. The key here is **** all Apple products always.

10 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Went from a S9 to a Pixel 3 to an S21 and back to a Pixel. I honestly couldn't tell you any difference between them. The key here is **** all Apple products always.

Yeah I recently got forced into using my first iPhone at work and it has re-confirmed that I will never willingly chose to use one.

58 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Yeah I recently got forced into using my first iPhone at work and it has re-confirmed that I will never willingly chose to use one.

We have iPhones for work and they are the worst... It's fisher price toys for douches.

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

Love my Pixel... Can't remember which number, but I think it's the 8. 

Well if you bought it new last year it was the 8 :D

 

 

11 hours ago, bigg jay said:

Yeah I recently got forced into using my first iPhone at work and it has re-confirmed that I will never willingly chose to use one.

Same. Miserable experience. It's like a toy for a two-year-old. You can't do anything with it. It mostly collects dust on my desk.

5 minutes ago, JCon said:

Same. Miserable experience. It's like a toy for a two-year-old. You can't do anything with it. It mostly collects dust on my desk.

Using it as a hotspot is the only thing it's been good for so far. 

19 hours ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

I bounce back and forth between pixel and Samsung. I have an 8 now and love it but the S10 was the best phone I ever had. 

I am told by my kids though that Android is embarrassing to own and to never show anyone.

Your kids don't know what they are talking about.  I have the S10+ and have considered going to a newer phone, but it's been so good that I see no reason to change.  My whole family is on iPhones, but I will never have one for myself.

21 hours ago, Noeller said:

Went from a S9 to a Pixel 3 to an S21 and back to a Pixel. I honestly couldn't tell you any difference between them. 

The camera bump?

2 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

The camera bump?

Ha ha no doubt. That's about it. Android is android.

  • 5 weeks later...
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18 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

We just ordered Starlink for the lake and you can now get the hardware for $99. Just got delivered today so I'm looking forward to getting it set-up this weekend.

The in-laws have it in Pinawa and it's pretty great. They're thinking about going to Valley Fibre but the Starlink has been very good at a reasonable price. We still have Bell at Vic Beach, and it gets the job done for TV and Internet...

I got Starlink for up at the cottage. Love it.  Get speeds of just over 200 Mbps.

The hardware deal makes it a no brainer. 

 

 

Edited by Tony Fresco

3 hours ago, bigg jay said:

We just ordered Starlink for the lake and you can now get the hardware for $99. Just got delivered today so I'm looking forward to getting it set-up this weekend.

We just got ours a week ago for the lake and it works flawlessly. I was able to work from "cabin" last week for a few days and had zero interruptions and zero issues with my work vpn and doing video calls and streaming youtube at the same time.   Once you connect the cables and power it on,  it was about 20 minutes of doing the setup through the app and it's then good to go.     

 

I'm also on the wait list for valley fiber.... it promises much faster upload speeds and is $40 dollars cheaper per month.   It apparently will be ready in our area in a few  months.  The feedback that I've heard from my neighbours and what I've read online has been that people are annoyed that they have been waiting months/years of them to complete installation in their respective areas.   If anyone has Valley Fiber on here ,  how has it worked for you?  Is it reliable?

Edited by Brandon

On 2024-08-08 at 2:43 PM, Brandon said:

We just got ours a week ago for the lake and it works flawlessly. I was able to work from "cabin" last week for a few days and had zero interruptions and zero issues with my work vpn and doing video calls and streaming youtube at the same time.   Once you connect the cables and power it on,  it was about 20 minutes of doing the setup through the app and it's then good to go.     

 

I'm also on the wait list for valley fiber.... it promises much faster upload speeds and is $40 dollars cheaper per month.   It apparently will be ready in our area in a few  months.  The feedback that I've heard from my neighbours and what I've read online has been that people are annoyed that they have been waiting months/years of them to complete installation in their respective areas.   If anyone has Valley Fiber on here ,  how has it worked for you?  Is it reliable?

I have both Starlink and Valley Fiber. We moved into this house 2 years ago next week. At the time Valley could estimate “end of the year”, we had the cables pushed through to the house last July, and all the local construction was completed last fall, we were not “turned on” until May of this year, about 18 months after suggested but whatever. It works flawlessly and we have had zero downtime. We are paying for TV service as well as the family was not super thrilled with only streaming options, especially CFL and lack of PVR were a pain. Only complaint about VF is that I can’t figure out how to load Netflix on to their android based box so still use the Firesticks for that (and any grey market streaming one might chose to do.)

When we moved, we needed relatable internet and neither Bell or Xplornet seemed to have that. We were lucky that Starlink had expanded our cell and we were able to get service right away. Other than the one worldwide outage they had we have had no issues. We have had 2 WFH and an 11 year old on a snow day all online at the same time and it worked flawlessly. 

The one caveat I will add is that Starlink’s included wifi router was garbage at the time e got our hardware. I am not sure what they are supplying now but I will always recommend an after market router. We’ve used an Eero 6 on Shaw, Starlink and now VF and it has been great in both houses we’ve had it. 
 

We don’t game so I can’t comment on applicability of either for that, as always a word connection is best for that. 
 

I’ve changed Starlink service to mobile or whatever they call it now and have the dish on the roof still so that if anything happens with VF we can b up and running in an hour or so but so far no need. 
 

Opn to answering any questions that anyone may have. 

I know someone that works for Valley Fiber. Their story that they have more interest in their service than anticipated, so it is taking longer to get everyone connected. 

Nothing to stop Elon from turning Starlink from what is now a virtual monopoly on worldwide internet to worldwide phone, television, etc.

40k satellites goes a long way :D

 

  • 3 weeks later...

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft Corp. as the tech titan seeks carbon-free electricity for data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom.": https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-ai-power-needs-prompt-112929624.html

a0e58363-62be-4161-b039-a167e9b97370_text.gif

Edited by FrostyWinnipeg

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