RE the Apple and China discussion, Blizzard has just announced that they are banning a HK Hearthstone player from competing in competitive tournaments for a year, and withholding his prize money from a current tournament, for expressing support for the protests during a broadcast. https://kotaku.com/blizzard-suspends-hearthstone-player-for-hong-kong-supp-1838864961
A reasonable response for promoting political reviews during a tournament? (I’m sure regular sports have rules against this.) Or another example of an American company capitulating to China?
Probably because there is no need to spend more time on stats that aren’t really demonstrable rather than on an improvement that is visually demonstrable? Battery life is x hours… the processor is y% faster… What more information would you suggest for those? Enlighten me.
Smartphones are portable general purpose computers now. People prioritize different things, and just like with laptops or desktops, some people care more about certain specs, and some care more about price or value.
I just heard one of them mention the app called Signal. I like the idea of end-to-end encryption so I have been using Telegram App - https://telegram.org. The reason I went with them is how much they go into detail of encryption process. I am not saying I truly understand it but it is certainly cool to look at the diagrams. So, my question for those much smarter than me, can you compare how Signal does it encryption vs how Telegram does theirs? If so, is one better than the other? Well, not better but stronger. Thanks!
Interesting question though: if the camera is not important or as important how come there are no (that I know of) smartphones without camera functionality? How much cheaper would a phone be without the camera function be? Half? And know one would buy them.
To some the camera is the most important to others not so much so. It justs seems that the tech media makes it out that it is the only reason to buy their new phone.
Camera modules are nowhere near that expensive. We’re talking double digits in dollars at most, as far as I know from BOMs that I’ve seen. Keep in mind it’s usually bundled with the SoC. This is why even the Pixel 3 camera sensor (a Sony one, like most) shows up on sub $200 phones. Smartphone manufacturing is a scale business, and it makes little sense for companies to produce smartphones without cameras given how few people would never want to use a camera in their phone (a lot of people say they don’t want a camera, but when it comes down to it, they will use it at least in rare instances).
There are some cameraless phones, mostly for use in secure facilities/government, where secrecy is key.
R&D for physical sensor is done by Sony, and software cost is amortized across devices. As far as I know they aren’t creating the code from scratch, either, with each new sensor.
If you are talking R&D costs, most of it is sunk into the CPU, anyway, and other chipsets.
I love and use Telegram but it is only “good enough” crypto. Do not trust it with your life.
Telegram uses “roll your own crypto” which has never been proven. It’s not strong crypto. Signal, on the other hand, used strong encryption that has been audited and proven good. Trust Signal. Do not trust Telegram.
The entire point of computational photography is that you can get great images even with cheap sensors. The chief distinguishing factor between camera phones is not the hardware - it’s the software.
Yeah, I like Telegram as well. It has some nice features. Friends I chat with over seas move to it when I mentioned that WhatsApp was not as safe.After reading your post and doing a little more research, I see what you are saying. Telegram is good, better than WhatsApp but trust your life with it… maybe not. I know that Telegram for group chats save messages on the server, I am asking Signal if they do the same or is it end to end even in a group chat - which when typing that out doesn’t make sense.
Appreciate feed back from the Chief himself!! Thanks!
