Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 05 Sep 2013 20:39

Somehow I'm starting to feel the story is true that Elop going from MSFT to Nokia was a trojan horse planned all along. Under his command, the once mighty Nokia withered away and made it cheap enough for MSFT to acquire, then Elop comes back as CEO of MSFT. First, the dumping of Symbian and then limited availability of high end Nokia smart phones to hurt Nokia's bottom line.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Sep 2013 21:04

^^His Trojan Horse behavior is not the dumping of Symbian (or MeeGo) becoz that had to be done regardless but rather the Trojan Horse behavior was making the dumping public before GB was ready with any WinPhone retail product - remember the infamous graph he showed on the day he made the announcement that GB will switch to WinPhone. That caused Nokia's stock to crash and Symbian sales to nosedive way faster than necessary.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 05 Sep 2013 21:31

^^^Yes, you are right. I couldn't remember the time frame between the time Nokia announced the end of Symbian and the 1st WP. It seemed that the Nokia 808 didn't get the support it deserved.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Sep 2013 21:54

it would seem the higher powers of both sides had decided on this deal long back. so MSFT sent over a general to manage the transition and move the pieces to where they needed to be.

btw qualcomm of all people has released a smartwatch call Toq.

prahaar · Post by **prahaar** » 05 Sep 2013 21:58

Mort Walker wrote:^^^Yes, you are right. I couldn't remember the time frame between the time Nokia announced the end of Symbian and the 1st WP. It seemed that the Nokia 808 didn't get the support it deserved.

The gap was almost 9+ months (Feb 2011 - Oct 2011).

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Sep 2013 22:15

Mort Walker wrote:^^^Yes, you are right. I couldn't remember the time frame between the time Nokia announced the end of Symbian and the 1st WP. It seemed that the Nokia 808 didn't get the support it deserved.

It was long....like 6-8 months iirc.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Sep 2013 22:17

Singha wrote:it would seem the higher powers of both sides had decided on this deal long back. so MSFT sent over a general to manage the transition and move the pieces to where they needed to be.

btw qualcomm of all people has released a smartwatch call Toq.

Yeah Toq is a shill for their Mirasol display. Its unfortunate that Mirasol despite being around for more than a decade has had no takers. But then its colour saturation is 500% paki. The Toq also has wireless stereo Bluetooth ear buds which is pretty cool.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 06 Sep 2013 01:12

MSFT < Nokia (< stands for one fish eating the other) - what would be the status of QT? If it suicided by MSFT, then bye-bye to a lot of LKinux desktop apps. Year of the Linux desktop is a NaN (or is it +inf).

More importantly are there any popular apps for fruit and android that depend critically on QT? This is the first phase of embrace (QT can be forked), then extend (with MSFT proprietary stuff) to make it incompatible with the FLOSS fork thus extinguishing the FLOSS fork.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 02:23

Qt was sold by Nokia last year to Digia. Google Earth desktop client used to use Qt. Lots of automotive IVIs use Qt on top of QNX. Model S IVI uses Qt too.

---

Google's Trojan horse: how Chrome Apps will finally take on Windows

The new apps look and behave much like the native apps you find on Windows and OS X. They're built using web technologies, but also with Chrome-specific code that means they won't be able to run on other web browsers — they're truly Chrome apps.

So much for Chacha's pious claims of always following open web standards. Chrome is becoming the new IE

Chacha acts like the massa government, piously claiming to be dharmic when it suits its purpose but having no problems going the adharmic route when it suits its purpose and spinning it as being dharmic. Mickey acts like the USSR government, fat, ugly and openly brutish without giving a damn about dharmicness.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 06 Sep 2013 02:35

^^^And just like picking between two evils, one picks the lesser of two evils. In this case concerning behavior, USA > USSR and GOOG > MSFT. IMHO, of course.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 06 Sep 2013 02:38

It looks like not only Nokia is doing 6" phablets, but the Fruit company as well.

Apple Testing 6" Phones

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 02:50

Mort Walker wrote:^^^And just like picking between two evils, one picks the lesser of two evils. In this case concerning behavior, USA > USSR and GOOG > MSFT. IMHO, of course.

Depends on whose firebombing you faced and whether you are Paki or Indic

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 06 Sep 2013 02:51

^^If they ever release a 6" phone, Mahdi will crawl out of his grave to kick bawarchi's musharraf.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 02:51

^^^bawarchi might actually find that arousing...
---

Motor Oil cant seem to catch a break....apparently they lost another of their cases on basis of FRAND licensing violations. Paying $12.5B for patents which don't hold up in court, a portfolio which is majorly scheduled for divestment and dodgy FRAND violations which even trolls know not to indulge in, doesn't look like a good deal.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 06 Sep 2013 05:24

Marissa Motorma unveils another ground breaking innovation.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 06 Sep 2013 06:02

The industry seems headed towards the consolidation into 6-7" phablet form factor in the next few years. Smartphones are showing the limits imopsed by their screen size. A bluetooth or wired earpiece would serve the purpose of handling calls, but the data usage seems to be increasingly non-voice traffic.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Sep 2013 08:05

comment in NYT.

Alex SNew York, N.Y.NYT Pick
One of the troubling aspects of this is that once the technology ecosystem has been compromised, it's very hard to know that you've cleaned it up.

If your computer gets a virus, you can wipe it off and reinstall the operating system, but that assumes the fresh install was safe. We don't have a safe place to roll back to.

Years ago, a famous computer scientist named Ken Thompson told a story at his Turing Award acceptance speech, about how he built a back door into a C compiler. The compiler would put back doors into the Unix login program, and it would even install the ability to insert those backdoors into new C compilers that it was used to build.

The result of this was a system that would withstand code audits. Someone could look at all of the lines of code in the login program, as well as in the compiler, and see that there were no backdoors. Yet when the system was deployed, the backdoors would be there.

The people at the NSA are very clever, and that's a famous story in programming circles. So even open source systems like Linux or even OpenBSD could very well be compromised in ways that would be very difficult to detect.

The work done by the NSA to compromise computer security has been so broad and so pervasive that it will be very hard to figure out how to recover.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 08:07

KJo, apparently a lot of Yahoo! employees hadn't seen their CEO spreadeagled on the front cover so I remedied that error today during the morning run. Then all of them started playing the "how not to ogle your own CEO" game.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 08:10

For Mort tau...

LG Nexus 5 with LTE makes probable appearance in FCC (update: 5-inch display, Snapdragon 800)

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 06 Sep 2013 08:44

^^^Thanks for the link. The 2300 mAhr battery rating looks low though. Will have to see. The size is nice 132mm x 68mm.

vina · Post by **vina** » 06 Sep 2013 12:51

OK. Looks like Mohtarma Mayer is going to Lop Off K-Joishy's ding dong first with her scimitar for doing too much ping pong.

Boseullah will be next.

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 06 Sep 2013 18:25

Pranav wrote:NSA’s Decade-Long Plan to Undermine Encryption Includes Backdoors, Stolen Keys, Manipulating Standards - http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/0 ... tole-keys/

I have been concerned for a while about the new UEFI secure boot system.

If I understand correctly, UEFI is about a chain of trust, with the root of the chain being Microsoft. Apparently, even if you use Ubuntu or Red Hat, you are still dependent on the root at Microsoft.

Experts are welcome to comment.

The basic secure boot concept is good but independent certification authorities are needed.
also US web spying: NSA foils much internet encryption

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 06 Sep 2013 21:45

Raja Bose wrote:Chacha acts like the massa government, ... Mickey acts like the USSR government, fat, ugly and openly brutish without giving a damn about dharmicness.

and look who won the supah powah race

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Sep 2013 21:59

^^^except currently the financial stability in terms of cash flow and diversified revenue streams is reverse of USA:USSR

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 06 Sep 2013 22:25

jis ka danda uska bhains - libertarian (neo-con) dictum.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Sep 2013 23:38

Mort Walker wrote:^^^I have both. The Lenovo ThinkPad and various Mac Books and Mac Book Airs. As far as build quality is concerned, Lenovo ThinkPads comes close to the MB & MBA, but not quite. The MB & MBA have mechanically better keyboards, better color accuracy, more surface area as the MB and MBA are 16:10 and not 16:9., and better battery life.

I like the Thinkpads keyboards. They are curved at the right places, and not flat like the macbooks. We all know how important that is. They also have just the right amount of travel, and click, and depth to them. They are unanimously the best business keyboards out there in the market today.

Displays are good. Matte scores over the shiny gloss of the Mac, as per me.

I like replaceable batteries. I know that after 1500 cycles, the battery life is going to be around 20% of what it once was. So, I like to replace them later.

I also like to upgrade my PCs with SSDs, more RAM, as and when I can afford them. Chalk one more over up on the Mac.

So, as per me, TP>Mac.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 06 Sep 2013 23:45

negi wrote:822 is not in India.

What is the difference between 820 and 822 ?
-- nevermind got the review on youtube so the latter has a larger battery , too bad it's not in India

Arrey....why not a desi company like Micromax hainji?

They have good maal inside them. Cameras, screens etc all are good.

Saral · Post by **Saral** » 07 Sep 2013 00:12

Authentication, via cardiac rhythm. Startup from U Toronto.

http://www.bionym.com/

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 07 Sep 2013 01:06

mahadevbhu wrote:
Mort Walker wrote:^^^I have both. The Lenovo ThinkPad and various Mac Books and Mac Book Airs. As far as build quality is concerned, Lenovo ThinkPads comes close to the MB & MBA, but not quite. The MB & MBA have mechanically better keyboards, better color accuracy, more surface area as the MB and MBA are 16:10 and not 16:9., and better battery life.
I like the Thinkpads keyboards. They are curved at the right places, and not flat like the macbooks. We all know how important that is. They also have just the right amount of travel, and click, and depth to them. They are unanimously the best business keyboards out there in the market today.

Displays are good. Matte scores over the shiny gloss of the Mac, as per me.

I like replaceable batteries. I know that after 1500 cycles, the battery life is going to be around 20% of what it once was. So, I like to replace them later.

I also like to upgrade my PCs with SSDs, more RAM, as and when I can afford them. Chalk one more over up on the Mac.

So, as per me, TP>Mac.

But many of us like using a computer instead of it being a toy doorstop.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 07 Sep 2013 01:48

mahadevbhu wrote:
negi wrote:822 is not in India.

What is the difference between 820 and 822 ?
-- nevermind got the review on youtube so the latter has a larger battery , too bad it's not in India
Arrey....why not a desi company like Micromax hainji?

They have good maal inside them. Cameras, screens etc all are good.

They are crap, pure unadulterated crap. Not to mention due to smaller batch sizes, if something screws up, good luck getting it repaired/replaced/serviced.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 07 Sep 2013 04:15

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ga ... htm#page=0

5 tips for picking the right smartphone.. i should say, one of the best read set of advice especially for an aam person like me.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 07 Sep 2013 05:08

Raja Bose wrote:KJo, apparently a lot of Yahoo! employees hadn't seen their CEO spreadeagled on the front cover so I remedied that error today during the morning run. Then all of them started playing the "how not to ogle your own CEO" game.

so what did you do man?

Quoted: Marissa Mayer gets all excited about the new Yahoo logo. How about you?

Here's a tip for those who want to get Marissa Motorma "all excited". Design a logo with her.

“So, one weekend this summer, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the trenches with our logo design team.”

— Marissa Mayer

She will even roll up her sleeves for you.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 07 Sep 2013 05:45

can anyone point me to link or tell how do we get a sense of data rate measured over frequency. let us say 50mbps using 5GHz wireless tech.. what is the relationship between 50mbps and 5ghz? is there a table or something?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 07 Sep 2013 05:54

Nothing, just showed them the article on the phone with pinch-zoom at strat-e-jic area. 50% of them were Marissa bhakts and remaining 50% became fresh converts.

SriniY · Post by **SriniY** » 07 Sep 2013 09:36

SaiK wrote:can anyone point me to link or tell how do we get a sense of data rate measured over frequency. let us say 50mbps using 5GHz wireless tech.. what is the relationship between 50mbps and 5ghz? is there a table or something?

5GHz is the frequency of the carrier wave and it is usually got nothing to do with speed (almost all the time). Data is usually sent over 5/10/20MHz channels which are located at 1/2/5 GHz. Older WiFi gives about 65Mbps peak rate using 20MHz channel, while the latest greatest one can go up to a few hundred Mbps.

Carrier frequency is mostly related to coverage. Lower the carrier frequency more the coverage area for the same power transmitted.

habal · Post by **habal** » 07 Sep 2013 09:57

Raja Bose wrote:They are crap, pure unadulterated crap. Not to mention due to smaller batch sizes, if something screws up, good luck getting it repaired/replaced/serviced.

+100

They have absolutely no system or provision for stocking spare boards, chips, screens etc in case something goes bust. And models change every 3 months. So basically if some hardware defect turns up after 4 months, one is screwed. Even Samsung is now lagging on the service front, just change that cycle from 3 months to 2 years, after which they stop support citing lack of specific supplies/spares.

For Apple that cycle is changed to 5 years for macbook or MacMini models. After which they will also raise their hands in surrender, for let's say something like a logic board issue. So essentially this is the basic difference between various companies and their premiums, in my understanding.

Apple backup/Samsung backup/Micromax backup (in years)
5/2/0.3

Apple device support 5
Samsung device support 2
Micromax support 0.3

Looks about right considering the innovation index and tech capabilities of these companies.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 07 Sep 2013 11:17

Seems that NSA forced NIST to standardize Dual_EC_DRBG as a pseudo random number generator. It is based on hardness assumption of discrete logarithm (upon which other techniques like diffie-helman key exchange relies on)

Snowden baba has spilled the beans that Dual_EC_DRBG is fatally flawed. 163 countries follow NIST standards. Couldnt find out if desh is one of them.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 07 Sep 2013 11:38

^^^iirc, it is.

NSA used to come recruit every year mainly, math, fizzyics and stats pee-chaddis. In fact I spy a lal coloured NSA pen lying right next to my laptop as I type.

aaahh...brings back memories of stuff I used to do during career fairs (anything except get a job)....there used to be this old almost-retiree who would hold fort at the CIA booth and would always give me freebies like CIA pens, buttons etc (I would give them to my students as prizes) and shoot the sh1t with me since most people were not interested in his booth and I had nothing better to do. The guy had been posted to Pakistan and India and spoke fluent pashto, hindi, urdu, bengali and for some weird reason, oriya so we would converse in bengali onlee.

2 years later, I ran into him again, this time he was retired and living just a few homes down from my sister in FL and working as a line cook in a beach restaurant! Last year he passed away from cancer after a very painful 6 months.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 07 Sep 2013 11:42

Anujan wrote:Seems that NSA forced NIST to standardize Dual_EC_DRBG as a pseudo random number generator. It is based on hardness assumption of discrete logarithm (upon which other techniques like diffie-helman key exchange relies on)

Snowden baba has spilled the beans that Dual_EC_DRBG is fatally flawed. 163 countries follow NIST standards. Couldnt find out if desh is one of them.

http://gsi.nist.gov/global/index.cfm/L1-3/L2-7/L3-37

not sure whether its the same

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 07 Sep 2013 11:44

In my undergrad madrassa a gent who worked for (I recall it was called joint cipher bureau or something ) gave a talk. He was proud that desis don't follow anybody else's standards and invent their own.

Don't know if we turned secular recently or still are as communal as we used to be.