Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

CES 2018 is coming up soon. Last year the big deal was smart phones, and I’m sure there will be some new announcements in that arena. However, there are some pretty big expectations in the electric car arena, and in smart home technology, as well as robotics.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if robotics and smart home technology weren’t mixed to a degree this year.

Also, I expect will be some minor announcements with regard to wearable computing. Smart watches aren’t as exciting as they used to be, but we are likely to see new features and improvements, particularly in the health monitoring technologies that will be available via our smart watches.

As usual, you can expect this blog to be a good resource for the technologies that are announced, at least the ones that I’m interested in! As you well know, I only talk about the things that interest me with regard to computing and technology. That’s just the way it is!

My big Christmas present this year was a new version of the ASUS Chromebook Flip. As most of you know that it listen to the netcast, I’ve always loved my Chromebook Flip. So, why get the new version? Well, check out the specs:

ASUS Chromebook Flip C101PA-DB02 10.1-inch Touchscreen OP1, 4GB RAM, Rockchip RK3399 Quad-Core 2.0 GHz processor, USB-C ports

I especially like having the USB-C ports to use as the primary interface, as well as the charge port. The older version used a proprietary charge port, so you always had to use their specific charger. This makes it much more convenient, and I can use the same cable that I used to charge my Google Pixel 2 XL!

I passed the older model over to my wife, because it is still a really high quality and convenience chromebook. She has gotten used to touchscreens on chromebooks because of using the Acer 720P that she already had. This way, we both got an upgrade!

Amazon Press Release – “Amazon celebrated its biggest holiday season with customers all around the world shopping at record levels. Prime membership continued to grow this holiday – in fact, in one week alone, more than four million people started Prime free trials or began paid memberships, to benefit from free two-day, one-day or same-day shipping, in addition to ultra-fast one and two hour delivery with Prime Now.

Customers shopped from hundreds of millions of products, including a vast selection from small businesses and entrepreneurs. More than one billion items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide this season – and over just five days, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, nearly 140 million items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs. Amazon Devices also had its best holiday yet, with tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide. Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were not only the top-selling Amazon devices this holiday season, but they were also the best-selling products from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon.

‘Since Day One we have obsessed over what we believe our customers care about – incredible deals and low prices, fast and free shipping, and a wide selection of top products – and we continue to provide all three, all the time. We’re excited that people continued to join Prime this holiday, to take advantage of more fast and free shipping options plus new convenient delivery like Amazon Key, as well as early access to Lightning Deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, including Prime Originals and more,’ stated Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer. ‘Thank you to the millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees all around the world who made this holiday better than ever before. We look forward to another great year ahead.’

Amazon Devices and Alexa

It was a record holiday shopping season for Amazon Devices, with millions more devices purchased worldwide this year than last year’s holiday season.

This holiday season was better than ever for the family of Echo products. The Echo Dot was the #1 selling Amazon Device this holiday season, and the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon, with millions sold.

Customers purchased more than twice as many Amazon Fire TV Sticks compared to last year’s holiday season. Fire TV continues to be the #1 streaming media player family in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Japan, across all retailers.

It was the best holiday season ever for Fire Kids Edition Tablets with 2.4x as many devices purchased from Amazon.com compared to the same time period last year.

Echo devices have been an extremely popular gift this year, with Echo Spot, Echo Dot and Echo Buttons selling out this holiday season; customers can still pre-order to reserve their place in line and orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

This year, Kindle celebrated its 10th holiday season.

This holiday, millions of Prime members voice shopped with Alexa for gifts, Amazon devices and everyday household essentials. The most popular items purchased by voice were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and TP-Link Smart Plug Mini.”

You WILL upgrade! Or, suffer!

Apple confirms iPhones with older batteries will take hits in performance

The Verge – By: Tom Warren and Nick Statt – “Reddit users have noticed that Apple appears to be slowing down old iPhones that have low-capacity batteries. While many iPhone users have experienced perceived slowdowns due to iOS updates over the years, it appears that there’s now proof Apple is throttling processor speeds when a battery capacity deteriorates over time.

Geekbench developer John Poole has mapped out performance for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 over time, and has come to the conclusion that Apple’s iOS 10.2.1 and 11.2.0 updates introduce this throttling for different devices. iOS 10.2.1 is particularly relevant, as this update was designed to reduce random shutdown issues for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S. Apple’s fix appears to be throttling the CPU to prevent the phone from randomly shutting down. Geekbench reports that iOS 11.2.0 introduces similar throttling for low iPhone 7 low-capacity batteries.

Some Reddit users report that replacing their batteries has returned performance and CPU clock speeds back to normal. The reports are particularly troubling because any perceived slowdowns by iPhone users might tempt owners to upgrade their entire device instead of replace the battery. ‘This fix will also cause users to think, ‘my phone is slow so I should replace it’ not, ‘my phone is slow so I should replace its battery,” says Geekbench’s John Poole.

So it’s true Apple intentionally slow down old iPhones. Proof: My iPhone 6 was bought 3years ago and recently got really slow. APP ‘CPU DasherX’ shows iPhone CPU is under clocked running at 600MHz. After a iPhone battery replacement. CPU speed resumed to factory setting 1400MHz.

When reached for comment, Apple basically confirmed the findings to The Verge, but disputes the assumed intention:

Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

Apple is effectively saying that it’s not slowing down older iPhones just to urge people to upgrade to newer devices. Rather, the company says it’s addressing an issue with devices containing older lithium-ion batteries that results in unexpected shutdowns. Because those older batteries are incapable of handling peak current draws with the same effectiveness of iPhones with newer batteries and more efficient processors, they run the risk of the device powering down to prevent damage to its internal components. The same is true of devices running in extremely cold or hot weather, as evidenced by a recent kerfuffle with the iPhone X shutting down randomly in freezing temperatures.

It all makes sense. As battery life degrades, a smartphone’s ability to achieve the same performance with less efficient battery use degrades as well, and Apple has released updates to address that problem as best it can and avoid embarrassing device malfunctions or even potentially dangerous component failures. However, the company isn’t doing itself very many favors by being a bit opaque. It’s clear that controversies like this — underpinned by conspiracy theories around planned obsolescence — sprout up because there is a lack of communication between device manufacturers like Apple and consumers.

It’s also clear that Apple, which makes its devices hard to open and repair, could do a better job helping consumers understand the benefits of battery replacement. That’s something the company seems less inclined to do when it might mean forgoing the sale of a new iPhone every 12 to 24 months.”

Who’d a thunk it?

Report: GOP Working on a Bill to Save Net Neutrality

Cord Cutters News – By: Luke Bouma “Last week the FCC announced that they will move the internet from a Title II to a Title I service. This effectively ended what many called Net Neutrality. Now it is being reported that House Republicans are working on a bill that would prevent blocking and throttling of net content.

According to a report from Multi Channel News, the bill, which would amend the Communications Act, would bring back many of the parts of Net Neutrality by directly the FCC to enforce rules agents blocking and throttling. Yet the FCC would get no new additional powers over the internet other than to regulate attempts to block or throttle content.

Details are still thin and we will have to wait to see what the final bill says but for many who wanted to protect their access to content this is a step in that direction.

If you want to help get this bill passed we recommend you call your representative in Congress. Let your voice be heard as there has already been talk of a bill in Congress to make net neutrality a law not just a legal rule from the FCC. Posting online is great but will unlikely be seen by the people who matter. Next, I suggest you send a physical letter again a polite letter but a physical one net an email. Emails are easy but also easily ignored.”