Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 19 Nov 2012 23:05

^^^Yeah, if you can get it cheaper, why not? Other than that, I don't recommend buying it to upgrade an existing machine running XP or Windows 7. Vista became better after the 2nd or 3rd service pack, but by then Windows 7 was out.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 19 Nov 2012 23:34

which is better for remoting? Win7 remote desktop or ubuntu/linux especially one has to administer from other side of the planet with very little direct support.

archan · Post by **archan** » 20 Nov 2012 09:38

Linux is more security conscious and in my experience it has been a little less reliable when remote login. You have to be versed with SSH stuff so you can remote login to the linux box and kill/restart the server if needed. Disclaimer: I have VNCd into XP, Win7 and Linux machines for years but rarely used remote desktop.
If you know your way around it, Linux gives you more control and troubleshooting abilities. Windows will likely work more reliably but in case of some hangup, you need someone to restart it.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 20 Nov 2012 10:32

SaiK wrote:which is better for remoting? Win7 remote desktop or ubuntu/linux especially one has to administer from other side of the planet with very little direct support.

Depends on what you're doing with the server. I've always been a command line junkie from way back, but I've also administered Windows servers via GUI tools. Choice of OS depends on what other software you plan to run on the server (e.g. DB software, web server software, custom apps etc.)

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 20 Nov 2012 17:01

I have not gotten the entire list of apps that I need to remotely govern.. let us say at the top of it, remote things to do list:

1. OS admin
2. CCTV system [remote-able]
3. Internet access
4. Other security systems - off the shelves and integrate them
5. Camera/video controls - both audio and video controls
6. Other monitoring applications

?

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 20 Nov 2012 19:14

When it comes to build quality, I think nokia and samsung are quite good.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Nov 2012 01:23

Marten wrote:Samsung and build quality do not go together. Even HTC has robust builds. Fit and finish, not as much. Appil is the raja.

I don't know if this holds true for recent Samsung devices, but many people don't like plastic. Samsung uses it to provide large screen sizes with devices that have low weight. I will say that Samsung phones like the GNex, SIII, and Note II are fine devices and work like a charm for many people.

I just got the Nexus 4 phone and am charging it up right now. Great build quality - feels solid.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 21 Nov 2012 01:46

don't tell that you paid the full blown cost of around 500 bucks for nexus 4?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Nov 2012 01:47

No. $383 with tax and shipping for 16 GB model.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 21 Nov 2012 01:54

wow.. still a lot of money.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Nov 2012 02:12

But I'll be selling some older phones for $200 on flea bay. So net cost will be around $100. Plus its unlocked where I can travel to desh and use all the Google services with local SIM card instead of pay $0.25/KB data roaming. The end result is that I come out ahead.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 21 Nov 2012 02:13

interesting.. dunno what would my old samsung moment will fetch me ? i am sure it would be zilch.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Nov 2012 02:16

If you can get it unlocked and its a GSM device, there are many exporters who buy devices on ebay and send them out of country. I sold a couple of iPhones, Galaxy S, and flip phones easily as I keep all of the boxes and chargers and take pics of them. Many times these go out to central & South America.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 21 Nov 2012 02:20

nope.. it is a cdma one.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 21 Nov 2012 02:34

Another reason not to use CDMA. Limited resale.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 21 Nov 2012 02:37

so, on this muffat iphone4 I got, how do I open the back to check if it has a micro SIM slot? it pretty much looks like sealed.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 21 Nov 2012 10:34

Got the 42ST50 plasma and treated myself to the "Dark Knight Rises" Blu-Ray last night. Great experience.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 21 Nov 2012 14:24

sampat wrote:
mahadevbhu wrote:.
I don't think you will loose much from Gogole ecosystem. Nokia has good email application that supports Gmail. Calendar, can also be synced by Windows phone. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2430181

But take a look at this thread on some of the issues with windows phone.

Sampat Ji, that rant is about Windows 8.. not the Windows Phone 8

Considering that I use Windows 8 and some one the forum may be curious about problems with it.. I will reply to the comment that you posted.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4802332

t is often very hard to tell what UI elements are interactive and what are purely informational because they are so plain. There's no way to visually discern a non-interactive icon vs. an icon that is also a button.

It is hard to comprehend why this person would use term "icon" when Metro does not make too much use of icons. It uses fonts and tiles, strong contrasting colors, thick colorful borders.. Few icons that i can think of are ones in the bars that appear when on uses right click or slides from below but those are all interactive so.... TBH, there is only one place where one can encounter this problem and that is Big huge fonts such as ones they use in Store. I think best way to indicate that this is a click-able/touchable element is to underline this text.

The lack of shading and UI chrome also means that UIs frequently become jumbled. Sections of UI blur together where on any other platform they would've been separated by a visual line, shading, or something else.

This is a nonexistent issue as Metro makes use of strong contrasting colors and thick colorful borders to separate such UI elements. Also apps do use shadows/shading/lines.. example: Xbox app.

The simplicity in this case has gone too far. It's also very true that many of the first-party apps have ludicrously low information density, almost as if they expect these devices to be toys. This is in stark contrast to MS's stated goal of shipping something that is more serious, more productive than iPads and Android tablets, which up until now have been seen as leisure devices. People often accuse Apple of taking style over substance, but Win8 IMO is a far, far more egregious violator.

This is beyond ridiculous, first party apps whether the simple mail-messenger-people-calendar, news-weather-maps-sports or games are REALLY good apps.. I don't see what more features or information they can cram into these apps without killing 3rd party apps.. this is true for Apple and Google too.

There's another big issue: the first party apps suffer from some pretty serious performance problems. It doesn't bode well for your platform when your own internal teams can't ship best of breed apps. The People app, for example, takes literally 6 seconds to load your recent notifications on a Surface RT - all the while without displaying any loading indicator. You literally tap the button, wait, figure it's broken, and just as you're about to move on it pops into existence - and of course the performance is so poor that it just magically appears on screen without transition.

This have little to do with "performance" of apps or cpu etc.. do people blame Intel/Microsoft when they try to see latest updates/tweets on Facebook/Twitter and it takes too much time ?

The entire OS is littered with sloppiness of this variety - as well as apps where touchability has clearly never been comprehensively addressed. You will move from places with gloriously comfortable touch targets (like the home screen) to apps that have 9pt text links you're expected to hit.

Never encountered such problem.. all interactive text links that I have seen are huge ones on the tops like ones in Store app.

The "search" charm is also poorly thought out. Just take a look at Amazon, eBay, iTunes, and what have yous that have substantial search functionality - Windows expects everyone to cram their search needs into a single freeform text input. In fact, the eBay app on Win8 builds its own search page. Surprise, search is complex, context dependent, and not all apps can pigeon-hole it into your paradigm. Oops.

Actually search charm actually works REALLY well.. in fact it is one of the best thing in Windows 8. Maybe some apps need something more powerful, but 99% apps can easily outsource the search funcationality to charms.. Also Charms is context dependent.

[edit] Extra rant: I was able to get the Windows Store app completely stuck today on the Surface. I visited an app's detail page, and tapped the Back button to get back to the search results. Nope. Back button would visually indicate interaction but do nothing. Waited, nope. Sloppy bug. So here's where it gets good. On any other platform (and in old Windows land) I could just go kill it. Except I have no idea how to go about quitting an app on Windows 8. Apple at least has the courtesy of allowing you to kill an app very quickly - if someone knows how to do it in Win8 I'd love to know, because clearly their own first-party apps are not good enough to be trusted to take care of themselves.

How to close Metro apps ? 1) Slide from above, same with mouse 2) Alt+F4 3) From task manager and lastly :-

---

Windows 8 is really good, but need more and better apps. Some apps like Xbox-Music/Videos need lot of work. And lastly Metro needs to evolve to help people like the one who posted comment on ycombinator.

For others it is a really good update over Windows 7.. even on desktop with 24" screen that is being used with Mice/Kbd

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 21 Nov 2012 15:06

Looks like HP's purchase of Autonomy Inc. for $11.5 billion wasn't such a good idea.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49900639.
Forbes magazine article on the accounting scandal that Autonomy pulled
Briefly, Autonomy had a search engine product IDOL which was allegedly largely vaporware. They acquired other companies that had actual products (such as Iron Mountain for disk storage) and they would go to the existing customers and restructure the deal. So if the customer had a data contract for disk storage from Iron Mountain for $5 million for the next five years, they would renegotiate the deal so that on paper, the customer would appear to purchase $4 million worth of their IDOL product license and $1 million for the disk storage. As a result, they would look like the next big software company with huge software sales, when their real business was coming from the low-margin disk storage business.

Therefore HP believed that Autonomy were actually making much more revenue from their software business than they actually were, when they acquired Autonomy for $11.5 billion. Now with the accounting scandal out in the open, there are going to be some lawsuits and investigations.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 21 Nov 2012 15:36

SaiK wrote:which is better for remoting? Win7 remote desktop or ubuntu/linux especially one has to administer from other side of the planet with very little direct support.

archan wrote:Linux is more security conscious and in my experience it has been a little less reliable when remote login. You have to be versed with SSH stuff so you can remote login to the linux box and kill/restart the server if needed. Disclaimer: I have VNCd into XP, Win7 and Linux machines for years but rarely used remote desktop.
If you know your way around it, Linux gives you more control and troubleshooting abilities. Windows will likely work more reliably but in case of some hangup, you need someone to restart it.

Depends, if one is happy with command line shell then it will be easy to set up and use.. even on windows : http://www.howtogeek.com/117192/how-to- ... computers/

OTOH, if one wants desktop sharing/ remote assistance.. then options on linux side are limited and SUCK. Vnc and X can do the job but are almost 10 years behind RDP apps on windows.

NX is LOT better than VNC.. close to RDP in performance but is pain to setup and I think is missing some features like file/printer/audio/video/clipboard/usb redirection coolness that RemoteFX brings. (though I thin some features are for virtual machines only).

These are your options: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... p_software

Manish Jain · Post by **Manish Jain** » 23 Nov 2012 15:42

Mort Mullah,
I hope your Nexus 4 doesn't use micro-SIM card. I'm planning to ask a friend to bring it from US, and I hope there'll not be any issue in using it in Desh. Anything suggestions/warning before I order it?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Nov 2012 05:22

Yes, it does use a micro-SIM, just like the SIII. They should be readily available in desh or you can cut your existing card to make it fit.

Having tried the Nokia Lumia 920 and N4. I can say the N4, IMHO, is the best damn phone available because of Android 4.2. I love this phone.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2012 08:40

where is the darn start button on win 8?

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 24 Nov 2012 11:01

SaiK wrote:where is the darn start button on win 8?

in charms bar, between ctrl and alt, in bottom left hot corner.

Whether OSX, Gnome 3, Unity or even Kde's Plasma netbook thing make use of hot corners.. don't see why start button cause so many issues.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Nov 2012 23:09

Anujan wrote: BTW whats the grapevine vis-a-vis Sinofsky's "amicable" departure?

He's an old school guy who likes silo'ed stuff which don't work together with other stuff hence, became a victim of le purge. There are extremists on both sides.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 27 Nov 2012 09:11

ordered the surface tablet online,
waiting now (im)patiently

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Nov 2012 22:43

http://wireless.amazon.com/dp/B00A2V7BA4
good deal?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Nov 2012 00:09

SaiK wrote:http://wireless.amazon.com/dp/B00A2V7BA4
good deal?

It sounds good, but find out what the details are. The Lumia 920 for $70 isn't bad, but it locks you in to a contract that you will pay at least $70/month for 2 years. Realistically, the contract is $90/month per line on a family plan.
You may want to take a look at what ATT pre-paid plans are and buy the phone for $500 instead. You may come out ahead at the end of 2 years.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Nov 2012 00:10

krisna wrote:ordered the surface tablet online,
waiting now (im)patiently

Shouldn't the Surface Pro be coming out by January? I would wait for it over the Surface RT.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 28 Nov 2012 00:32

Right on Cue: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/appl ... aps-ios-6/

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 28 Nov 2012 01:04

I didn't find the new maps software on the iphone 5 bad at all. I really like the turn by turn navigation, and the way it works when the screen is locked. It made the older google maps software on iphones look amateurish in comparison. Sure they need to fix things, but after using it, I wonder what the big deal about it is. I wouldn't go back to google maps on the iphone, given the choice.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 28 Nov 2012 01:10

^^That is because you are in the continental US. The biggest problems encountered with the software were in Europe and Asia. Tim cook would not have publicly apologized if there was nothing significantly wrong. One more thing is that it still doesn't have public transport info like Google maps. And iOS maps was being compared to Google Maps on Android and Nokia Maps. Not the old Google maps app on iOS, which was deliberately kept half-a$$ed.

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 28 Nov 2012 01:10

Suraj wrote:I didn't find the new maps software on the iphone 5 bad at all. I really like the turn by turn navigation, and the way it works when the screen is locked. It made the older google maps software on iphones look amateurish in comparison. Sure they need to fix things, but after using it, I wonder what the big deal about it is. I wouldn't go back to google maps on the iphone, given the choice.

How was your experience with traffic info feature with iOS maps.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 28 Nov 2012 01:18

nachiket: I used it in conUS+Hawaii, but yes I didn't use it in Europe or Asia. I understand that compared to google maps on Android, iOS6 maps still lags behind, but it's a step up on google maps for iphone, and that's all I explicitly compared it to, in my post.

Sushupti: didn't use the traffic info feature, or at least, didn't depend upon it. I don't do much rush hour driving to have tested that.

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 28 Nov 2012 02:05

Suraj wrote:nachiket: I used it in conUS+Hawaii, but yes I didn't use it in Europe or Asia. I understand that compared to google maps on Android, iOS6 maps still lags behind, but it's a step up on google maps for iphone, and that's all I explicitly compared it to, in my post.

Sushupti: didn't use the traffic info feature, or at least, didn't depend upon it. I don't do much rush hour driving to have tested that.

I tested it on a diversion due to repair and construction and i found it redirecting me to the nearest possible way around.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Nov 2012 02:11

iOs 6 maps suck big time. I attempted to navigate using my iPad3 with 3G and was horrible compared to my GNex, Nexus 4 and even Nexus 7 (tethered to GNex).

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 28 Nov 2012 02:18

The manager of iOS maps was bullcuttled. If he were in a wall street firm he would have gotten bonuses to retain him to fix his mess.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 28 Nov 2012 02:29

Mort Walker wrote:
krisna wrote:ordered the surface tablet online,
waiting now (im)patiently

Shouldn't the Surface Pro be coming out by January? I would wait for it over the Surface RT.

Yeah you are right.

OTOH I was offered some dues this year(before dec 14).

I did not take ipad because of no usb port, or other connections. no compatbility (little roundabout ) with my android/windows based ones.
Somehow it did not appeal to me -- good product but costly for same functionality with non apple devices.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Nov 2012 02:39

The Surface RT is fine, and if you want Windows, then go ahead by all means. It also has the ability to take up to a 64 GB micro SD card. IMHO, at this time for tablets, the iPad is still the leader, but the Nexus 10 looks very appealing along with some other Android tablets.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2012 04:49

mort, I checked the price of unlocked 920 on ebay, some of the listed ones are mind boggling near 900 bucks.