smartphone – More Zonkyness

Droning On

Dec 212018

It is quite astonishing just how much stupidity appears during an incident such as the drone “attacks” on Gatwick airport. Here is the answer to just a few of them …

Shoot It Down

Any scheme to shoot down a drone will have to bear in mind that this drone at least is flying on, buzzing around until it gets noticed, and then going away again. Any sharpshooters are going to have trouble because it will be a fair distance away – after all the drone operators are hardly going to buzz the airport with sharpshooters just a few meters away.

And bullets go places; Gatwick is mostly surrounded by dwellings so the risk is high of causing an injury or a fatality (the probability may be low, but the impact is severe so any risk analyst is likely to veto any gun fans).

If they do get the go ahead, sharpshooters are not going to spray and pray but are going to wait until they have a clear shot they are confident of making before pulling the trigger. This will of course reduce the risk considerably, but also be why the drones have not yet been shot down.

It’s A Conspiracy; There’s No Drone

This one is often tied to the next subject. But really?

Unless this disruption goes on for days or weeks, this is all just a flash in the pan. Most of us who do not have a direct connection to Gatwick (such as being there) will forget this as soon as it is over and something else captures our attention in the news.

At best it would serve as a temporary distraction – which is possible – but in no way would work on a permanent basis.

A few conspiracy nuts have suggested this might be May’s way of distracting from the problems Brexit (and she) is currently enduring; it just wouldn’t work for that because the Brexit problems are ongoing, and won’t disappear if we forget about it for a day or two.

Why Aren’t There Photographs of The Drone?

Such comments come from those who have never tried photographing anything like this or the equivalent (probably something like bird photography).

The drones are only going to be flying for a relatively short amount of time, and are going to be very distant from any cameras. No smartphone is likely to capture anything other than a black dot (smartphone cameras typically have wide-angle lenses).

DSLR shooters are likely to have all their equipment packed, and those that don’t are quite unlikely to have the right lens to hand; in fact most won’t own the right kind of lens (I’d choose an 800mm which would be many thousands).

Looking at the likely (as described) behaviour of the drones, the closest match to photographic “genres” is as mentioned bird photography (there’s a reason why the picture in this posting isn’t a flying bird). This is hard; you’ll be stuck in a blind for hours waiting for just the right moment with an enormous lens that weighs as much as a TV.

In addition I suspect that people just don’t appreciate just how big airports are – it would take many hours just to walk around the perimeter.

It’s Obviously ${X}

Whilst it may be fun to speculate on what motivates the drones operators – “having a laugh”, protesting at the presence of the airport, or full-on terrorists.

But being realistic for a moment, there is no way we will know what the motivations were until the culprit(s) are identified and caught.

So it’s not obvious that it’s this, that, or the other.

AutoCorrect: No It’s Not The Phone’s Fault

Computing, General, Security No Responses »

Nov 022017

Autocorrect can be annoying when it happens to you, or amusing if it happens to someone else. But one thing that appears when you look at amusing autocorrects on the Internet is that you often find someone saying “it’s the phone” or “the phone is doing it”.

No it isn’t. It’s your fault.

Way back in the mists of time when we didn’t have smartphones and keyboards were big clunky mechanical things (some of us still use them), one of the first bits of IT security advice I ever gave was to read though the emails you are about to send. Whatever means you use to compose a message, there are chances of making a mistake. So what you get in the message you composed may not be what you intended to write.

As a bonus, you get a second chance to review your message to check for “thinkos” (like typos but where your brain comes out with something you didn’t intend).

If you choose to send messages (of whatever kind) without checking they say what you intended, you are responsible for the mistakes.

The Bench

The Smartphone Disease

Computing, General No Responses »

Sep 162017

My Facebook news feed came up with a post with this embedded within it :-

Now I’m not in the business of telling someone they should own a smartphone, but taking some of the objections in turn …

Firstly if you are letting your smartphone boss you around and letting it overwhelm you, you’re using it wrong. You decide when to use your smartphone as a communications tool; most of those messages and emails that your phone is constantly pinging and burbling to you about can wait until it is convenient for you to answer.

Do any of your friends get annoyed when you don’t respond to their messages within seconds? Tell them to grow up and get a life.

To give you an idea of how I use my smartphone, here’s a typical day :-

The phone is charging downstairs in the front room where it has been since the evening. If it is ringing, bleeping, throbbing, burbling madly, I won’t know until I’ve finished getting up.
If I am curious about the reaction to some photos I posted the previous night I might pick it up and take a quick look at the notifications, or I might not.
As I head out the door for work, I’ll pick it up and put it straight into my pocket. On the way into work I might hear phone calls, or I might not.
I may as I approach work, pull out the phone and take a quick look at the agenda screen (particularly if I recall an early meeting).
If I remember, I’ll switch the phone to silent before I sit down to work. If not, and the notifications get annoying, I’ll remember then.
If I get a phonecall whilst I’m working, I’ll pull out the phone, check who is calling, and slide to red (to reject the phonecall) if I don’t recognise the caller.
When I take a break from work, and I’m not chatting to anyone, I’ll pull out the phone and have a quick look at Facebook, home email, etc.
When I head home from work. the phone stays in my pocket. I’ll check the phone on getting home to see if I missed anything.

You might be wondering why I have a smartphone given I use it so little. Well first of all I do use it more than is implied here – particularly whilst travelling (having train timetables and maps in your pocket is really handy).

In terms of ethical production, not all smartphones are the same. There are even places which score phones based on the ethics of their production; there is even a smartphone whose whole purpose in existence is to be an ethically produced phone – the Fairphone.

So giving up your smartphone is the lazy way of ensuring you have an ethically produced phone that you don’t get bossed around by. No harm in being lazy here of course!

iPhone 3G Review and Thoughts

Computing No Responses »

Dec 092008

It is probably a little late to write a review of the iPhone that is going to interest too many, but personally I think that too many online reviews cover such things very skimpily. As I have both an original iPhone (8Gbytes) and a new iPhone 3G (16Gbytes), I can also do a little comparison.

Overall, the iPhone is a pretty good smartphone with some peculiar weaknesses but this is allieviated by a superb user interface.

Unpacking the 3G

The iPhone 3G comes in pretty much the same style of box as the original; compact and well styled to give you the impression that you are getting a serious bit of kit. Unfortunately the iPhone dock that was provided with the original is not included here. I guess Apple decided they needed to make us pay extra for it, but the standard iPod cable is included so it is still possible to get connected. Of course it is possible that I got my original with a dock thrown in for free as it wasn’t from a “proper” source.

The new iPhone still feels pretty good. It is slightly curvier than the original which is more noticeable if you look at the back. The colour scheme is also somewhat different, and perhaps somewhat more “plasticy” than the original. But it does not seem to be a cut-price version of the original; it still feels pretty good in the hand. Once minor niggle though – the new one has silvery buttons as opposed to the black buttons of the original, and they can feel ever so slightly sharp or rough to the fingers. Might be worth making the buttons with rounded edges next time Apple.

Holding it gives a feeling of slickness; perhaps a little too much as it feels like it might shoot out of your hands much like a wet bar of soap. For me a case to make it a little stickier is pretty much essential.

One area where the 3G is distinctly poorer than the original is the headphone socket. It may be more compatible (the old one was recessed making standard headphones tricky to attach), but it feels distinctly cheap and nasty.

Putting in the SIM card is just as fiddly as it was with the original. Perhaps AT&T is different and puts the SIM card in for you, but it seems odd that there is not a detailed set of instructions (or perhaps I missed them). Also it would be sensible to include a tool to poke down that hole to get the SIM card drawer open. I would hazard a guess that many older people would have trouble with this; if I had not already done it with my original I would have had to get some reading glasses to be sure I was poking the right place!

Those Peculiar Weaknesses

Most criticisms of the iPhone tend to zero in on the camera as being the weakest point of the iPhone. To an extent that is true, but just how good is any mobile phone camera? The lens is at best rather poorer than average and the sensor is always too small to produce anything approaching the quality of a DSLR. A flash might be useful, but again a mobile phone flash is never going to be much good. If you want a camera, buy a camera, and use the iPhone camera for making visual notes.

On the hardware front, there is no infrared port so this is probably just about the only smartphone to lack one. Which is fair enough on a modern phone where they consider bluetooth to be the replacement (although it makes it kind of hard to have third-party software to control the TV without one!). But the bluetooth stack is also astonishingly crippled! You can just pair the iPhone to a headset, and not an advanced A2DP one!

That means no syncing over bluetooth, no file transfers, and no bluetooth messaging. Why? I mean it would be sort of understandable with a new phone product, but it is time this was sorted out.

And no picture messaging (MMS) ? I know it is supposed to be pretty unpopular in the US, but it has caught on in Europe, so it seems odd not to have it on the iPhone.

As A Phone

The iPhone is probably the best phone I have ever used. The killer feature? Whilst in a call, all of the extra features like speakerphone, mute, hold, keypad (for navigating those machines), adding an extra person to the call are all available on screen as easy to access buttons.

The only downside ? It could do with a slider to lock the screen whilst on the phone … more than once I have terminated a call by accidentally pressing the “end call” button. It is supposed to lock automatically when raised up near the ear, but I usually use it hands-free when the lock is not supposed to operate. Turns out I was missing a feature – hit the power button during a call and the screen will lock., Apple

The “Smart” Bit

The user interface for getting into software “apps” is a simple grid of icons. If you have too many for one screen you can swipe between screens of icons. This is a moderately sensible way of getting to things; no getting lost in a hierarchy of applications, but it may become somewhat clumsy if you install many applications. I find it helpful to have rough categories on separate screens … PIM stuff, Reference, Toys and Games, System and unused.

Most of the builtin applications tend towards the simplistic which isn’t necessarily a bad thing providing that a replacement for an application you use heavily is available. Two “showcase” applications are particularly fun – the Youtube application and the Google Maps application. Some observations of the standard applications :-

The calendar application is slightly weak and does not support synchronisation with anything other than Exchange. Other vendors have code ready to go, but Apple doesn’t allow this for some inscrutable reason – a kickback from Microsoft ?
The calculator application very cleverly switches to an “advanced” mode with extra functions if you rotate the screen to landscape, but I do wonder why on computer calculators so slavishly emulate stand-alone ones. It would seem worth making a few minor improvements.
Who decided that font was a good idea for the Notes application? A “handwriting” font is cute for about 30 seconds before you realise it is difficult to read. At least give us the chance of changing the font!
The Safari web browser is surprisingly effective with two fingered zooming allowing you to quickly narrow down to read the smaller bits and to zoom out to give you an overview.

The App Store and Third Party Applications

The app store which is where you “buy” new applications is rather swamped by the number of applications now available. Fortunately there is a search facility that will let you quickly find something that you have found from elsewhere. It is perhaps just a little too easy to spend money in the app store although the prices are generally pretty reasonable and added to your mobile phone bill.

As to the applications themselves, it is as expected, a mixed bag. Some tend towards the gimmicky or totally useless – the beer application comes to mind which allows you to use your iPhone to pretend to drink a glass of beer. Others are pretty good; even fantastic such as Vicinity which will determine from your location nearby bars, restaurants, etc. Having once spent an hour wandering around Birmingham at night looking for a convenience store, I’m a devoted fan of this one!

The odd thing is that Apple seems to have a curious tendency to be a little inconsistent in what applications can make it to the app store. This pushes one in the direction of jailbreaking a little more given that gives you access to all sorts of interesting applications!

Overall, the iPhone deserves to be as popular as it is, but perhaps doesn’t deserve to be worshipped as much as some do. Still it’s an Apple product and as usualy some people will like it more than it deserves.