Microsoft is about to kick off BUILD, and showing new Windows on ARM PCs! AZ is suing Amazon over unfair business practices! iFixit digs even deeper into how much wireless charging sucks. And maybe the Dead Internet theory is true?
Talking to Marie in the kitchen and we hear a strange rustling on our back patio. She opens the curtain, and is greeted by a young owl full wing spread knocking over stuff we had stacked back there. I got a couple shots through the dirty sliding door and screen. DAMN nature. You freaky!
I tried cleaning up the Owl profile pic with a little editing. Considering this was shot at dusk, through a dirty sliding door, and a filthy screen, I'm really impressed with what the OnePlus 12 telephoto camera was able to do! https://www.flickr.com/photos/jickbahtech/53732259950/in/dateposted/
CONTROVERSY! It's a little concerning. My phone keeps trying to connect to a mystery network, listed as an ISP WiFi that (to my knowledge) doesn't do business here in California. Has anyone else seen something like this? What's going on?
Early access on Patreon: The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro have received their last updates!
But there's still SO much life left in this hardware... https://www.patreon.com/posts/oneplus-8-pros-104427009
A phone from 2020, it's not just "not obsolete", it's still an actively competitive premium device today.
Wireless charging sucks!
(Sucks more power that is.)
My buddy Ricky and I did a one-off experiment comparing wireless charging to FAST cabled charging. You can watch part one here https://somegadgetguy.com/b/442
I was pleasantly surprised that Qi charging had improved and kept case temperatures better in check, but we still saw elevated temperatures for roughly two hours on a full charge.
Now, iFixit delivers even more data on wireless charging, and it's not great. You're trading a lot of waste and heat for some mediocre "convenience"...
@SomeGadgetGuy Well.. That's not a novum. These are simple laws of physics that are taught in school. A circuit not galvanically connected will always need more energy to transfer it than a connected one. It's a thing well known for years, since the beginning of the electricity era.
@MartinBe in tech influencer land, there's been this push for the "convenience" of wireless charging, but that seems like it's all been built on phones that charge slow over a cable. "It's basically the same".
Apple and Samsung perpetuate this battery anxiety where the phones charge so slow, you need to be topping them off every time you set them down.
That means more accessory sales, and Qi pads are more expensive than USB cables.
Winamp is going to publish their source code and go open source!
Who's going to take that nostalgic trip with me and start digging through skins and visualizers?
After dealing with pre-installed malware on this mini-PC, I'm FINALLY done reviewing the hardware! https://somegadgetguy.com/b/459
"Besides the malware" does an Intel Core i9 make sense in a system like this?
I'm behind a car that's behind a semi on the highway. They're doing the antsy lane change "wiggle", which makes sense.
There's a wide open stretch of road in front of the semi.
They eventually find a break in traffic to make a lane change, and I follow them over to the lane on my left.
Then they DONT GO!
THEY STAY FLOATING THE SEMI!
Now a whole OTHER LANE of traffic can't get around the semi.
They didn't want to pass the truck.
They didn't want to go faster.
They just didn't want to stay behind the semi!
WHICH IS LUDICROUSLY FUCKING STUPID!
If they were going to stay at the same speed as the semi, they would get much better gas mileage drafting the truck.
GODDAMMIT!!!
LA drivers are the worst passive aggressive drivers...
@SomeGadgetGuy
Nationally, drivers seem to have conveniently forgotten that the left lane is for passing, not cruising.
Anyone who paces beside a tractor trailer is just waiting to die. It's a simplified version of the Trolley Problem. If something is obstructing the truck's lane, the driver is much more likely to swerve left and sideswipe the lingerer, rather than run over whatever is stopped in front of it.
@RealGene It's MADDENING.
I feel, beyond a basic test to get a license, we need like a whole driving re-education program on etiquette and technique.
Make it optional, but with a bigger break on our car insurance for being "certified".
Google showed off new business AI solutions while promoting their water cooled data centers. Now we find out Microsoft is not only failing to meet their carbon emissions goal, their emissions are actually UP 30%.
I just don't see how this era of cloud AI is going to be a sustainable business model...
Just had a chat with a well respected mini PC manufacturer asking if I'd be interested in "reviewing" their products.
I said "sure!" and recommended one of their newer offerings.
They replied "we don't need promotion on that right now, we really need videos on this older less expensive system going on sale".
Red flag already, but it could make for a fun project video. I say sure.
THEN they reply with all the mandatory talking points to include, what kind of b-roll to shoot, a timetable of less than two weeks, and a list of links I'd need to use instead of my own affiliate links.
I tell them, "that's not a review, that's a promotional video you want to live on my channel". I don't charge for anything called a review on my channel, but I will produced sponsored videos to keep the lights on.
I tell them my rates for a sponsored video, and they IMMEDIATELY balk.
It's really changed my perception of this brand's reputation.
Google I/O wrapped up, and I have a LOT of thoughts. Shot a quick reaction video on the keynote here https://somegadgetguy.com/b/455
Some really interesting AI tools are coming, but will Gemini search continue hurting website traffic?
@SomeGadgetGuy GoogleIO felt a bit "hey I know OpenAI released this cool thing yesterday - so let us tell you about all the things that we have coming later in the year, but not today" Don't you think?
Watching #GoogleIO and there are some cool demonstrations of data center cloud computing, but there's also this fog of dystopia surrounding these demos.
The announcements for search are horrifying. Google is full mask off.
Phrases like "search for something, and we'll collect all this data for you" basically equates to:
"We sucked up ALL the data from people who really did the work, and we're going to give you the results of their hard work, but we wont take you to the site that generated the data. You can stay on the search page, and the site's traffic will plummet."