Technology News You Can Use

[Sal1950]

This 400GB SanDisk card carries the A1 Application Performance rating, meaning as well as guaranteeing at least 10MB/s writes, the card achieves random read IOPS of 1,500, and write IOPS of 500. In other words, it's a great card for loading your apps quickly.

Wasn't that long ago that was considered a HUGE hard drive.

 

[Thomas savage]

I still remember how big of a day it was when 1 gigabyte compact flash cards became available for digital cameras. Paid $950 for it I think. Now here we are with 400 gigabyte with tiny microSD cards which I prefer to use as I can instantly load them on laptop without messing with CF readers. They of course also fit directly on phones that allow them (think Samsung and not Apple). And they only cost $249. https://www.pcmag.com/news/355930/sandisk-sets-new-record-with-400gb-microsd-card

The SanDisk Ultra MicroSD UHS-I 400GB card is Class 10 rated and offers transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s. SanDisk believes it's the perfect card for Android smartphones and tablets, and is capable of transferring up to 1,200 photos in a minute. If video is more your thing, then this giant card will hold up to 40 hours of HD quality video.

In November last year, the SD Association introduced Application Performance Classes for SD cards as part of the SD Specification 5.1. Cards already carry a Class rating, but that only guarantees a minimum sequential write speed. The new Application Performance Classes extends that to guarantee read and write Input-Output access Per Second (IOPS) performance, too.

This 400GB SanDisk card carries the A1 Application Performance rating, meaning as well as guaranteeing at least 10MB/s writes, the card achieves random read IOPS of 1,500, and write IOPS of 500. In other words, it's a great card for loading your apps quickly.

Coming from the days of 40 MB hard disks this all seems like a miracle..

Iv got a sandisk SD card in my phone, it's one bit of technology that has made a positive difference to me.

 

[NorthSky]

I still remember how big of a day it was when 1 gigabyte compact flash cards became available for digital cameras. Paid $950 for it I think. Now here we are with 400 gigabyte with tiny microSD cards which I prefer to use as I can instantly load them on laptop without messing with CF readers. They of course also fit directly on phones that allow them (think Samsung and not Apple). And they only cost $249. https://www.pcmag.com/news/355930/sandisk-sets-new-record-with-400gb-microsd-card

The SanDisk Ultra MicroSD UHS-I 400GB card is Class 10 rated and offers transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s. SanDisk believes it's the perfect card for Android smartphones and tablets, and is capable of transferring up to 1,200 photos in a minute. If video is more your thing, then this giant card will hold up to 40 hours of HD quality video.

In November last year, the SD Association introduced Application Performance Classes for SD cards as part of the SD Specification 5.1. Cards already carry a Class rating, but that only guarantees a minimum sequential write speed. The new Application Performance Classes extends that to guarantee read and write Input-Output access Per Second (IOPS) performance, too.

This 400GB SanDisk card carries the A1 Application Performance rating, meaning as well as guaranteeing at least 10MB/s writes, the card achieves random read IOPS of 1,500, and write IOPS of 500. In other words, it's a great card for loading your apps quickly.

Can you use this card in your laptop? Mine accept cards; it has a slot for cards. But can it be used to add more memory, and, that amount of GB (400) in one single card?
My android phone doesn't accept card, unfortunately; I am restricted to very low content. The one I had before, top of the line LG flip phone, had a micro slot for cards, max of 2GB.
My tablet, max 128GB card, that's all. Some can take up to 200GB (Samsung Galaxy Tab A). iPads (Apple)...I think 128 and 256GB are the max, depending of your model.

Speaking of Samsung, they have a new phone coming up.

And there's the S8 Plus (with a larger screen).

High speed cards (10 speed) are a must. High res (4K and higher) is better for your tablet...photos, videos, family, etc.
It costs more too, no wonder Apple is the best with their iPads.

QUESTION: Your tablet...4:3 aspect ratio or 16:10? ...And why?

* My cell phone has a 16:10 aspect ratio, my laptop too, my PC screen as well. ...And my TV.
My first PC screens were in 4:3 (IBM). My first TV (black & white with analog tubes) was also in 4:3

It's hard today to find a phone in 4:3 ... but Apple iPads are in 4:3

What do you think is best and why? ...For your today's own use of the technology. Are you a book reader, an online magazine reader, a news reader, a sports watcher, a movie watcher, a forum reader, a photo organizer, a video shooter, a Facetime/Skype user, a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapshot active member, a man/woman living with the modern times?

 

[amirm]

Can you use this card in your laptop? Mine accept cards; it has a slot for cards. But can it be used to add more memory, and, that amount of GB (400) in one single card?

You can use it in a laptop but it will look like another disk. It will not increase the amount of "memory" that your computer uses to run programs. That memory is far, far faster and connected to the CPU in a different way.

 

[amirm]

QUESTION: Your tablet...4:3 aspect ratio or 16:10? ...And why?

Mine is 16:10, not 4:3. That is one of the reasons I have not upgrade it as the trend has been to follow Apple with 4:3 ratio. My tablet gets used almost exclusively to watch videos and 4:3 is a lousy format for that.

 

[amirm]

It's hard today to find a phone in 4:3 ... but Apple iPads are in 4:3

What do you think is best and why?

Because you have to wrap your hand around a phone and as such, you want it as skinny as possible. That is why the Samsung S8 is so tall and narrow.

 

[amirm]

For your today's own use of the technology. Are you a book reader, an online magazine reader, a news reader, a sports watcher, a movie watcher, a forum reader, a photo organizer, a video shooter, a Facetime/Skype user, a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapshot active member, a man/woman living with the modern times?

For my tablet as I noted, I almost exclusively use it for watching youtube videos. Mostly educational but also fun videos for an hour or two before going to sleep every night. I use it to glance at forum and buy a few things from Amazon using the browser but in general, I don't do that much there.

My laptop is my main machine due to convenience of a keyboard and the fact that i don't have to try to prop up the screen.

I don't use facebook if I can help it. Don't have a twitter, instagram or snapshot membership. Don't use facetime but once in awhile use Skype for business.

Don't shoot video but this may change in the future a bit.

For my magazines, I read them in hardcopy most of the time. The exception is Hifi News which I read electronically.

For bulk of my book purchases, I buy them in Kindle format and read them on my tablet and sometimes laptop.

 

[NorthSky]

What about IMAX movies on your 4.3 aspect ratio iPad? You cannot do that with an abnormal 16.10 tablet without having black spaces on each side.

 

[amirm]

What about IMAX movies on your 4.3 aspect ratio IPad?

I don't watch movies on my tablet. Are movies released online that are in Imax aspect ratio anyway?

 

[NorthSky]

I don't think so. ;-)

 

[Palladium]

I switched from an 1.5 year old iPhone SE 64GB to an S8+ (dual-sim Exynos SE Asia version). I didn't want or wait for the Note 8 I don't want to pay $300+ for the equivalent of a S8+ with a stylus. Pro & cons IMO:

iPhone SE:

+Small and lightweight
+Great battery life.
+Notifications are well done right out of the box.
+Easily and cheaply repairable
+Perfect fingerprint sensor position.
+Notes app is awesome
+Incredible CPU performance
+Awesome all-in-one backup solution.

-Terrible native codec video support.
-No dual-SIM or SD card support.
-iTunes is ugh.
-No file manager, direct file drag/drag to and from PC, or physical file folders. (Main reason I switched)
-Overdependence on iCloud.
-Tiny and relatively low contrast LCD.

S8+:

+Great battery life
+Huge AMOLED screen
+Great CPU performance
+Dual-SIM or SD card support.
+Great video codec support.
+Actual file manager.

-Bulky and heavy.
-Subpar fingerprint sensor position. (I don't mind having it in the back, but why is it even so close to the camera?)
-Third party notifications will not light up lock screen without third party notification managers. (Another stupid "feature" that should be baked in.)
-Fragile, probably won't survive a nasty fall even with screen protector and case.
-The shiny bands are scratch magnet. Already has micro scratches right out of the box. (F*** mirror finishes forever)
-Impossible to expensive third party repair.

 

[amirm]

Fragile, probably won't survive a nasty fall even with screen protector and case.

I have never used a case on a phone until I got the S8+. I have dropped it multiple times and it is fine. It is a silicone type material so very elastic and sticky (keeps it from sliding off).

Not ideal but workable.

 

[amirm]

And yeh, notifications are a disaster in Android now. You get so many of them that you wind up ignoring the whole concept.

 

[Palladium]

And yeh, notifications are a disaster in Android now. You get so many of them that you wind up ignoring the whole concept.

Xiaomi does notifications and in general Android much better than Samsung. The former copies iOS but at least they identified and kept the good aspects of it. e.g keeping the notifications settings in a single menu, instead of Samsung's approach of separating them into a a general panel and also a lockscreen panel which can cause unnecessary conflicts.

Software design has never been a strong suit for Samsung and I don't see this changing for a long time; they fling a lot of gimmicks to the wall to see what sticks but never seem to get all the basics right. Without OLED they won't be selling even half as many phones if you ask me.

 

[FrantzM]

For my tablet as I noted, I almost exclusively use it for watching youtube videos. Mostly educational but also fun videos for an hour or two before going to sleep every night. I use it to glance at forum and buy a few things from Amazon using the browser but in general, I don't do that much there.

My laptop is my main machine due to convenience of a keyboard and the fact that i don't have to try to prop up the screen.

I don't use facebook if I can help it. Don't have a twitter, instagram or snapshot membership. Don't use facetime but once in awhile use Skype for business.

Don't shoot video but this may change in the future a bit.

For my magazines, I read them in hardcopy most of the time. The exception is Hifi News which I read electronically.

For bulk of my book purchases, I buy them in Kindle format and read them on my tablet and sometimes laptop.

I could have written the exact same reply.

Main difference is that I don't see myself shooting videos anytime soon or ever .. I do however want seriously to come back to Serious photography .. I miss it, itch for it but haven't been able to carve the time for it

 

[NorthSky]

Note 8: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/s...ders-faster-than-any-note-before-it/?ncid=rss

* Holographic display (cool): https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/255256-red-reveals-tech-behind-upcoming-holographic-phone-display

 

[NorthSky]

* Holographic display (cool): https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/255256-red-reveals-tech-behind-upcoming-holographic-phone-display

Holographic 3D display on a phone; do you keep track of the latest new technologies?

Apple iPhone 8 is coming up, Samsung Galaxy S8 is here, Samsung Galaxy S9 ...

Here in Canada those highest end phones cost $1,500 (average). A high end small laptop is $3,000+
A tablet with a 10" display ... anywhere between roughly $100 and $1,500
Portable devices (the better ones) are expensive, and every six months or so (sometimes less, or a little bit more) they come up with better ones, more advanced, better display, more features, better apps, more processing power, more RAM, fancy cameras, ...all that jazz.

Some of us are still using their old flip phones (you can find them in thrift shops for two bucks or less), others have a vast collection where they keep adding newest and top models every year, even from various brands. You might know some of them, with hundreds of phones in their drawers. They are not spies, they are not hackers, they are phone users and collectors...with a passion.

But yeah, we are @ the threshold of communication display in our phones; holography is here. 4K resolution, 3D, 8K in Japan, and there is no stopping...OLED, AMOLED, POLED, QLED, ....

Would you pay $1,000+ for the latest hi-end phone? Or is your flip-flop one from few years ago still good enough?

 

[RayDunzl]

Would you pay $1,000+ for the latest hi-end phone?

No no no no no, but I'll pay $100 or so for the latest high-end refurbed phone from three years ago (have an S5 now) and then get free (with limits) service.

 

[NorthSky]

You're smart Ray, like a smartphone. Hope you don't get too wet...

 

[Palladium]

Would you pay $1,000+ for the latest hi-end phone? Or is your flip-flop one from few years ago still good enough?

Nope. I got my S8+ only because of huge employer subsidies.

For iOS, there's already the excellent and cheap iPhone SE, if I needed or liked iOS features.

For Android, flagships at MSRP is an outright scam as far as I'm concerned, since I am so thoroughly impressed by my experience with a $85 Redmi 4X. I really have no idea why there's still a large following on Android flagships when the seemingly huge differences in paper specs versus vastly cheaper budget phones only amounts to little in reality for most people in this age.