Let's Talk Tech
No manufacturer is perfect, and even the biggest smartphone companies can make mistakes. We’re going to work through, company by company, discussing what I thought was the biggest misstep from each tech manufacturer.
How Samsung screwed up their phones in 2017! Did I call it? Did this company make a bigger faux pas? Drop me a comment down below!
Continue reading “How Samsung Screwed Up their Phones in 2017”
Competition makes all markets better. Unfortunately for internet based content creators, there haven’t been many competitive options for distribution. YouTube represents the vast majority of internet traffic for user generated video.
There are other sites to host video, but investing time in a platform is a dicey proposition if that site doesn’t stick around. Outside of YouTube, creators also might lack options for monetization.
I’ve been through numerous solutions to try and find other outlets for publishing. Mevio, Blip, and now Vid.me. Vid.me subscribers received an email yesterday alerting us that the service will be closing its doors on December 15th. Continue reading “Vid.Me closes its doors – Is there a future for monetizing user generated video?”
Tech reviewers have a lot on their plates. A smartphone isn’t a “phone”. It’s a catch-all mobile computing platform. Tech reviewers need to be multi-disciplined in their commentary. Of course, it’s impossible for an individual to be an expert in all areas, so we all rely on assistance for the subjects we might be less well versed. Sometimes we’re guided by other reviewers. Sometimes we get good materials from manufacturers to guide our coverage. Regardless, no reviewer is an island.
In experiencing numerous gadgets throughout a career, it’s also easy to fall into patterns. We’ve encountered so much data, and observed so many trends over time, that we might not always be rationally dissecting a product, as much as we might be intuitively or emotionally arriving at our conclusions.
Smartphone audio is an excellent example of a topic which is often overlooked. Worse, when it is discussed, it’s frequently considered in a subjective fashion.
“I like the sound of phone A, but I don’t like the sound of phone B.”
It’s not uncommon for a reviewer’s opinion of the phone overall to influence that opinion on the audio produced.
“I like phone A, so I prefer the sound on phone A.”
Like most aspects of technology, when viewing a product subjectively, we’re more apt to appreciate the familiar, and grade a product based on that familiarity. We strive for objectivity, but hearing or seeing something different than what we’re used to will feel foreign.
“I’m used to the sound on phone A, so phone B sounds wrong”.
Continue reading “How Android Police and GSMArena (and Others) Get Smartphone Audio Wrong”
I’m a big fan of Jason Lewis over at Painfully Honest Tech. When he reached out to chat about smartphone audio, I was game to join the conversation.
I complain about the removal of the headphone jack all the time. I know it gets annoying. Sorry. But I thought I’d bring in some friends to help me work through the problem and answer the question: Is the Headphone Jack Obsolete?
feat. Dom Esposito, Logan-Tek Syndicate, Booredatwork, Juan Carlos Bagnell, Tailosive tech, Gamesky
We have a problem when companies that control access to the internet also have a vested interest in distributing content on the internet. We have a problem when service providers have unrestricted control to throttle or make access more expensive. We have a problem as major corporations find easier paths to mergers and acquisitions rather than compete.
There really isn’t a “both sides” to this issue. Far smarter individuals than I have spent months clearing the fog of misinformation surrounding this topic. I would highly recommend following Gigi Sohn as one example, she was legal counsel to Tom Wheeler when he was Chairman of the FCC. Her interviews are fantastic. I would also read the dissenting opinions of Mignon Clyburn, an FCC Commissioner opposed to ending Net Neutrality.
In a nutshell, you either want unrestricted access to the internet at fair and competitive prices, free of any influence over the speed of competing services, OR you want Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T to decide what you can access, how you can access, and to charge subscribers and content providers arbitrarily for what you access. Continue reading “FCC Plans Vote to Overturn Net Neutrality, Just in Time for the Holidays”
It’s a common debate for savvy shoppers looking to buy their next phone. Should you buy a new, less expensive phone, or should you buy a flagship phone from the year before. Opening up this question on Twitter over the weekend, I got some excellent response from people, bringing up numerous ideas to consider.
Overwhelmingly, people responding seemed to side with buying a year-old flagship: Continue reading “Buy a new mid-range phone, or last year’s flagship? Twitter responds!”
Buckle up. I couldn’t hold this one in. An article was published on Recode following the release of a series of first-look videos, from a handful of YouTube channels. There’s a lot of salt, but the overall tone (and mis-characterization of these video producers) was vile. I don’t believe anyone at Recode is overtly racist, but we need to have a chat about perception and different points of view…
Archive link to the Recode article https://web.archive.org/web/201710310…
Uber is under investigation for spying on Lyft drivers, but they’re also mandating all drivers go electric by 2020. AMD is gaining on Intel FAR faster than analysts thought, and as a father of a toddler, I’m VERY interested in kids clothes that unfold like origami. My favorite tech stories for the first week of September 2017!
Continue reading “Uber Goes Electric, AMD Beats Intel, and Origami Kids Clothes – Top Tech News”