Sunday Endorsement – 24.05.2020

May 24, 2020
4 min read

đź“š Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech by Geoffrey Cain

“Fuck Steve. He’s dead and we were right. Samsung was right.” – this quote says quite a lot about Samsung culture. The story told in this book shows what happens when a company becomes too big to fail. When the whole country is depended on Samsung doing well.

If you’ve never been to jail, you’ve probably not worked hard enough – could be the mantra of Samsung management.

There are very interesting anecdotes and stories. But by the middle of the book you realize it’s mostly stories about mistakes, investigations, corruption charges etc. and less so the story of the company. I don’t like Samsung as a company, never owned a Galaxy phone, because I felt like they were just copying Apple, but even for an Apple fanboy, this book is a bit too much.

After finishing it, I was not sure on the history of the company, but I sure as hell knew that the dynasty has fallen.

đź“ş Drive To Survive – Season 1

“To finish first, first you have to finish”

Great documentary with an outstanding access to the drivers and teams, in the middle of the season, I’ve had a longer review written here, but can’t recommend it enough. And I’m already looking for ways to watch F1 season when it comes back.

đź“ş The Last Dance

Another great documentary I’ve finished this week. Again, never watched basketball, but enjoyed it so much. It’s about personality, team and most importantly leadership. Very different in style from Drive To Survive. It talks about the history, while Drive To Survive is more similar to the reality TV.

🎙 Dithering Podcast

Two of my favorite people in tech blogging got together and created a podcast. I had a little bit of doubt before subscribing as it is a paid podcast and there is no “demo” or even one free episode, but decided to try it out, I can always unsubscribe if I don’t like it and loose just $5. But of course I liked it. I’ve now listened to all the back catalogue and am listening as the episodes get out – three times a week. If you know John Gruber and Ben Thompson, you probably will have a feeling what a podcast is about and it will probably be correct.

This paid podcast model is very interesting and the first one I’ve tried. Almost all of the podcasts I listen to are ad supported with some help from listeners in form of Patreon or something similar. This though, paid up front subscription with no ability to try it out before is something I didn’t see before. The one time I’ve paid for a podcast was with a No Agenda show, which is totally listener supported (they even call listeners producers), but it is optional. They call it “value for value” model and I like the idea of it.

đź“° Halide – Year 3

I started using Halide long time ago, probably as soon as it got released and it was on my home screen ever since. And I love reading their blog. It is interesting and honest. Reading about the struggles that current situation has brought (who would have though that nobody is traveling and using photo capturing app) made me realize that I can’t even fathom the real impact the virus had on all of us.

📸 My Photo From Thailand

This week my photo (at the top), got picked by the editorial team of Unsplash and my stats got crazy for a couple of days. More than 300,000 people saw it and some of them even saved it. An amazing result which gives the motivation to take more photos.

Motorola RAZR

November 14, 2019
1 min read

I didn’t think I would type those two words in 2019, but here I am. Motorola (which is not the same as years before, after all the buying and selling) is making a new RAZR and it looks great.

It is foldable phone, but this is the first one, that doesn’t fold out into the tablet from the normal phone size, you fold the normal sized phone in half. Which in my opinion is a great choice.

It costs a fortune and you don’t even get the best specs, but still. Although foldable screen technology in phones is very new, this is the first phone that looks like a finished product. Huawei, Samsung Galaxy Fold and all the others before that looked like a concepts, prototypes, but not the final product.

Of course, Motorola has nostalgia on its side. I’ve never owned an original RAZR, but always wanted one, when I was in school.

It has to be seen if the screen is as good and doesn’t break like other foldable phones, but this is the first time I’ve had a desire to check one out.

X

January 2, 2018
4 min read

There is no shortage of reviews of the iPhone X, some very traditional (loved how The Verge portrayed Face ID working), some looking in the future, others a bit in the past. Now that I’ve had my iPhone X for almost two months, I have some short thoughts I’ve wanted to share.

When Apple presented the iPhone I didn’t like the notch, I thought the screen was good, not something groundbreaking and liked the camera improvements a lot (designated chip for the photo processing and OIS on both cameras were both great additions). I’ve had my iPhone 7 and was ready to keep it for another year, but I was reading more about it and looking at pictures and videos, so my wife persuaded me to order one. And here I was on day one of the sales with the brand new iPhone X.

I immediately fell in love with the X. First time I’ve set up Face ID, it looked like magic and I’ve had a smile on my face just from unlocking the phone, it still holds up, I think Face ID is great, except in the morning, when it doesn’t recognise my sleepy face. The phone itself, I loved the Plus size phones (it was when Apple introduced big screens, I’ve made a switch back from Android), but the X lies perfectly in the hand and the weight of it, makes it feel substantial and even luxury. I love how black it is, love how the edges look and feel, how it’s less slippery than 7 Plus (I’ve had matte black finish). 

The home indicator is weird for about five minutes, after that it just feels natural, you mostly wish it wasn’t there all the time, gestures are easy to learn and discover. The one thing that is borderline unusable is Control Centre, I think Apple will change the position of it in one of the next versions of iOS, but as of now, I’ve noticed how I almost don’t use the Control Centre anymore.
The screen is gorgeous, you don’t notice the notch while using it, because you mostly look at the centre of the screen, it is considerably worse for video watching than the Plus sized phone, because both choices – embracing the notch or letterboxing the videos don’t look good – one hides some part of the picture and another one makes videos small.

As this new iPhone is all glass, I’m constantly worrying that I might shatter it and got Apple Leather Case as a present, but I still prefer to use it case-less, not only because it feels great in the hand, but because the screen looks better if there is no frame of the case around it. This may sound silly, but the screen just looks better when the iPhone is naked.

When Samsung first introduced the Galaxy S8 and I’ve seen Casey Neistat review of it, I’ve tweeted how iPhone looked dated compared to it. 

iPhone looks dated as fuck, especially in this shot. pic.twitter.com/mdUVGWafRG

Now, with the iPhone X, I think Apple is ahead, the notch is clearly the great idea, considering choices. It looks more like an all-screen front than Samsung and it looks very recognisable, while Samsung looks like a very generic Android phone (thank god there is no space to put Samsung logo on the front of the device anymore).

In my opinion, iPhone X is a great device, showing us where the future of smartphones is heading. It’s very pricey, you can buy a MacBook for the same price, but you’ll just have to consider, how much the phone is worth to you, I think most people use phone considerably more than a laptop nowadays.

Samsung Galaxy S8

March 29, 2017
1 min read

I was never a fan of Samsung phones, but after quick glance at some first looks of the new phones, there are a couple of positive thoughts about the device. 

1. I think even John Gruber will agree – FINALLY there is no space on the front of the device to put the stupid SAMSUNG logo, I hope most remember without constant reminders what phone they use. 

2. There was one shot in the Casey Neistat’s video for which I’ve paused, took screenshot and looked at it for about a minute.

Here, an iPhone looks dated. This edge to edge screen next to the iPhone looks like the first iPhone looked next to the smartphones with buttons. This is clearly the way forward. 

Very much looking forward to see what Apple will show at it’s September event. iOS and the edge-to-edge display would be instabuy!

Just do the backup. Right now!

September 22, 2014
3 min read

It started like an ordinary day. I was working on my laptop, connected to the big screen. Everything seemed fine when I turned it off and went for a walk. But then I’ve returned home and pressed the Power button on my laptop. BIOS started checking all the devices there are inside and stopped after it found processor. “That’s unusual” I though at the time and restarted the computer, thinking it was some kind of a bug. But this behavior persisted. The only good thing I could see – it wasn’t frozen, I pressed F2 and got to the BIOS settings screen and there was the answer. There was this word “None” right after “HDD:”. That couldn’t be good. As it turns out, it wasn’t good. That means SSD had died on me. I’ve purchased it more than a year before and it seemed to work just fine. There was just one unusual experience couple of months ago, when it did some kind of reset removing everything. The only difference between that time and yesterday was the price of the new SSD, as in both situations all the data was gone.

The SSD in question was Kingston V300 120GB Solid State Drive. I bought it on recommendation of my friend, who used it in many computers – his, clients and at work and never had a problem. And it was (and still is, as far as I can tell), the cheapest SSD on the market. This time I’ve decided to look at something else, I wasn’t ready to pay a lot more, but about 10 euros premium was fine for me. The other thought I had was upping the capacity to 240GB, but it meant doubling the price, not only the storage. Also, I wasn’t ever hitting the limit on the previous SSD. After looking for what was a very short time, I’ve decided to buy Samsung 840EVO 120GB SSD.

The first thing I’ve noticed was the package. It was much nicer than plastic Kingston one, which you have to battle with scissors. Then I’ve opened the package and got the SSD out, it felt much lighter than the Kingston one. I’ve later checked and it was indeed lighter. SSD by Kingston was 86 grams and Samsung one is 53. It may not seem as a big difference, but I think there is some kind of psychological border. Samsung’s SSD feels like it is a little empty plastic box. Of course, you won’t even notice the difference when you put it inside the laptop, it’s just an unusual feeling getting it out of the box.

There was also CD in the packaging, no idea where to put it as my laptop doesn’t have the drive. I believe everybody should stop putting CDs in the boxes, I know, the cost of including it is almost zero, but it’s pretty much useless.

After I’ve installed the drive, it was time to get the Windows up and running. And that’s whole different story for another post and I’ll leave it for tomorrow, probably. 

Charging the watch two times a day

September 6, 2014
3 min read

There are some news on the smartwatch front – reviews for the Moto 360 came out and all your dreams will come true with this watch. Its battery life will last for about… 12 hours. Are you serious Motorolla? This is not even funny. I guess most geeks would be ok with charging it every night, but then charging it in the middle of the say also. Someone has to remind this company they’re essentially making a watch. A WATCH. I have this beautiful, old watch from the USSR. It has to be wound up… Every two to three days. I’m now very interested in what Apple will show us on September 9 event. Probably won’t buy it, but still, it’s interesting to see if they’ll show how it’s done.

image

Since I’m in the market for a new phone, I’m looking closely at what companies are announcing this week. Interesting that many don’t mention release date or prices. It shows they just want to show whatever they have before Apple. Which is fine, I guess.

Samsung showed two phones – Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge. First is similar to the previous one and like most of their products is boring and has problems grabbing attention. Second one, at first glance, seems more interesting. It has this curve screen, but like with many samsung products, again, it doesn’t know what to use it for, so you are mostly presented with setting for the new cool feature.

Nokia presented low end and middle end devices with flagman class camera. It’s interesting in theory and it does cover my needs – camera and battery life, but it’s a Windows Phone. I love how it looks, but even by Android standard, new apps don’t come out fast enough.

The most interesting device so far is Moto X. As I can see they’ve corrected everything they’ve done wrong. I’m not sure about the bigger screen, 5.2’’ is by no means too big, but still most people consider 4.7’’ a sweet spot, so we’ll see. They’ve also improved the camera, it now features 13-megapixel sensor, that is standard in flagships nowadays. That was actually the biggest problem with the previous model. I love wooden and leather backs, that’s probably the main reason I won’t buy this phone – it probably won’t sell officially in Latvia and buying it from someone, you would have to be OK with whatever they’ve chosen and it would be hard to find the one I’d like. But I have a couple of friends who already decided that Moto X will most probably be their next smartphone.

Up until that point it looks like, nothing has come out, that I would like or would be able to get and the only announcement, we have left, if I’m not mistaken, is the one on September 9th.

This post almost didn’t happen, posting it last minute, but still, the streak is going on. It’s six days now, I think it’s the longest I’ve been writing something, especially the 500 words (and yes, this paragraph also counts towards this number).

My thoughts on smartwatches

September 4, 2014
4 min read

You know you have a problem, when one of the best designs in the category looks like this:

image

Or almost round Moto 360. As most of the people don’t use their watches to see time, your product should look good on the wrist, there is no other way around this.

It’s not the best practice to draw some kind of conclusions based on personal anecdotal evidence, but I’ll do just that right now (you could feel it will be this way, by reading the begging of the sentence). I do wear a watch, it’s analogue, pretty big watch by Tomy Hilfiger. I love watches, I use them (I don’t even notice what time it is when I pull out my smartphone), I also wear the Fitbit Flex on the other hand and like a watch, it is an accessory for me, I have a couple of different color bracelets. If they’d looked ugly (like most smartwatches), I wouldn’t even consider wearing them. So that’s my thoughts on design.

The other important thing is what do you use the watch for. On IFA Samsung showed Gear S, which is mini smartphone strapped to your wrist. It’s bulky, 2’’ screen is just too big to wear on a wrist. It has standard wristband and you can change it, which is good, I guess, but won’t help you much. Here is a promotional video of the device.

Let’s look at possible uses for the device from this ad and some hands on from different blogs:

  • Notifications – there are two types of people, in my opinion, those who have too many notifications, so their wrist will constantly buzz (many tech journalists complain about that) and then, there are those, who don’t have as many notifications, so you can just pull your phone out of the pocket. I’m in the latter category and I don’t see a point in this idea of getting notifications on my wrist.
  • Accept or Make calls – this one looks cool, from my understanding, you can’t do that on many smartwatches, but if you watch the promo video, you’ll see, you have to keep your wrist close to your face and in that case – why even bother? – just use a phone with loudspeaker turned on, or better yet Bluetooth headset.
  • Easy text input – let’s repeat this one more time. Easy. Text. Input. Using the QWERTY keyboard on 2 inch screen. Do you even hear yourself Samsung? After using bigger screens I can’t type on the iPhone, let alone the smartwatch.
  • Navigation – this one is interesting, but again, you could just as well use your smartphone. Also, using my phone for navigation, you just see how it drains battery, what about the smartwatch? Will it drain the battery as fast? My guess would be – yes.
  • Music and Tracking Activities – I’ve combined these two, just because it makes sense. Here again, will it be able to keep charge while Bluetooth and GPS are on? If it can, it would be one good use for this watch.
  • UV information – this is just ridiculous, but maybe someone needs it, I just won’t even comment.
  • Tracking Sleep – when I first got my Fitbit Flex and started tracking sleep with it, for about a week I felt uncomfortable wearing it while sleeping, I can’t even imagine wearing 2’’ phone on my wrist.

I think the best you can do with the category of devices you wear on your wrist is some kind of health and fitness use. Without this watch and notification bullshit.

Apple PR and The Verge 2.0

September 3, 2014
3 min read
Great report on Apple PR. A lot of things I’ve heard for the first time, most of them are not surprising, but often you just don’t think about them.
The big problem, in my opinion, is that tech journalists and bloggers try to look objective too much. I think you just can’t. You can try, but still you’ve got some opinions and thoughts on every subject, so I think you have to be true to yourself and your readers, they should understand where are you coming from. If you use Android phones all the time and then you decide to review an iPhone or iOS, I don’t think you could be objective, but that’s ok, you just have to explain to your readers/listeners/watchers where are you coming from and what should they expect out of the review.
Opening Daring Fireball, I expect to see mostly articles and links about Apple and probably somewhat skewed in favor of Apple. And that is neither good, nor bad. You just have to accept it.
Regarding Apple itself and its practices. I, personally, can’t blame them, if “journalist” is ready to suck up and believe whatever the company in question says, it’s his problem entirely.
There is also this practice to advertise your unwillingness to play by Apple’s rules, which is not good, in my opinion. Shitting company, not getting to this company’s events and then writing all over the web about that and how objective you are, isn’t probably a great idea. If you are not on good terms with the company, it doesn’t automatically mean you are objective.
The most interesting thing Apple has done, regarding PR, in my opinion, is its ability to engage non tech people (as some say “normals”). A lot of my friends, who don’t follow tech news and don’t care about new gadgets, apps or services, know that something will happen on 9/9. Many of them think, Apple will start selling iPhone 6, some know it will be only presented, but most are informed. They don’t know and don’t care, that today Samsung will present something (but they will). Samsung tries hard. In social networks, advertising all over the city, but they are mostly known, as this other phone you get when you don’t have money for an iPhone or in some cases “the iPhone from Samsung” (yes, I’ve heard that a lot).
 
In other news, The Verge became responsive. Even as people talk about the App economy and are in love with apps, I don’t think a website should have its own app. I didn’t download The Verge app (or an app from any other blog or magazine for that matter), because I either read their stuff in aggregators (mostly Flipboard), or in Pocket (where links from Twitter and other social networks end up). It’s not intuitive and convenient to open every news site and blog app to keep up with the news. It’s more intuitive to just open browser and go to some site. There is concern about those moments when you don’t have Internet connections, but I think they are rare and you can leave without the Verge for a moment, or just send page you need to Pocket.Â