Computers

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The other day, I decided to plug in my old Thor model HDX7, since I couldn’t remember the last time I had bothered to charge it. Was surprised to find it with 6% remaining. But, my relationship with it regarding battery life has been kind of like the Energizer Bunny commercials with “Going, and going, and going”; or whatever it is they use as a slogan. I don’t think I ever managed to really ding its battery, aside from leaving it idle for a couple weeks.

Extra surprising: the last update it got for Fire OS was 4.5.5.3 installed February, 2019.

That’s really not bad for a device I got free from a Dolby developer raffle. Still running a form of Android 4.4/K, but considering the device came out around 2013, and had internals on par with the Nexus of the day—I’d say the little thang has faired pretty well.

I suppose one of these days, I should probably finish turning it into a digital picture frame, or something.

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This is an interesting perspective IMHO. Even more so, as a Pro 11 user: who debates a larger model as an upgrade path in 3-5 years. The physical difference between the 11”, and my 9.7” Samsung isn’t big enough to really mind, but the 12.9” is rather heavier.

I kind of abuse my tablets enough that a larger screen is a plus. But my experiences with 12” tablets has mostly been phrased by too heavy, too expensive, and too big to be a main device. But that’s more to do with 16:10. When I saw the 11” and 12.9” models side by side, I kind of decided the aspect ratio made the two iPads close enough in physical screen size, not to care about the greater size, so much as the greater weight to heft.

For me, coming from a Galaxy Tab S3: I found the 11” Pro a pretty safe bet. Comparable enough in size and weight that it shouldn’t interfere with my couch surfing, or being my bench notebook. In practice the difference is minor, just large enough to make a keyboard case a more practical option than before. While still maintaining that near perfect size that 9.7” tablets achieved.

Having a SoC that should be suitable for about as long as the iOS updates keep coming, or until hardware makes a notable difference, I’m also quite thrilled by the lasting power being closer to my laptop’s life expectancy than my tablets. Well, give or take that my true reason for the hardware change was my Samsung’s screen getting cracked….lol.

Something I also like is Ali’s point about the Pro. Because to be honest, selecting the Pro for me, was more about not rewiring all my things from USB-C to Lightning than about the performance jump from an Air to a Pro. Let’s just say, I’m not interesting in the fruity connector instead of what the rest of the world is doing 😛.

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Wired’s Article on iPad Use in Hospitals to Combat COVID-19 is Eye-Opening.

While I would say that modern iPads are a touch overkill, and expensive for such a mission, I kind of like the idea. The old video phone concept will probably never catch on quite like sci-fi suggests, but given the situation: I’d say use the technology you’ve got.

These days pretty much everything tends to have the capabilities for a video call, and I imagine none of us are that fond of the protective gear. Both the amazing medical staffs, and their patients.

Reasons to love tablets += 1

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In my efforts to avoid wrist pain, I’m reminded of one of the great things about tablets: it’s not a keyboard. Also it’s one hand friendly.

Every now and then, I tend to get wrist pain like inflammation near the tunnel zone. In my experience, not pissing it off further, it usually tends to subside within a week or so. Faster if ibuprofen or naproxen is available.

Probably a good thing that most of my home computing tends to route through my tablet, or a TV.

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Modular Computer: iPad Pro as a Tablet, Laptop, and Desktop Workstation BY FEDERICO VITICCI.

Most websites covering news about software and tech for nerds, are pretty meh at best. One of the reasons I like dropping by Mac Stories is because it takes a short at doing things decently. It’s probably the only one focused on Apple that I don’t roll my eyes at, but then again I’m not part of various the fruit cults.

Also Federico is probably a worse tablet whore than I am, and after nearly a decade of using tablets: I don’t personally know anyone who uses their tablet more than I do, lol. Thus, I am more likely to find interesting stuff on Mac Stories.

Coming from the land of Android tablets, the bane of my modularity has long been the laptop issue. Handling tablet and desk mode has been straight forward for the most part, but accessories pretty much suck unless you buy some form of iPad. Meanwhile pretty much everyone seems to make something for the iPad with a keyboard to go.

iPadOS bringing a desktop style mouse experience, and discarding the Android like one, makes me more tempted to try docking Nerine instead of relying on Stark and Centauri for desk duty. Much as its many Android forbears have over the past decade.

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Passing thought: we’ve increasingly lived in a world of long file names since the 1990s, yet out of convenience: we still tend to create three character file extensions whenever we pull new ones out of thin air.

One almost has to wonder if three is especially magical, or if humanity is that lazy. I would like to think it’s just enough bytes to convey the majority of information, and still appease every lazy git alive. Because no one likes file names, or file extensions the length of a sentence 😣.

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How to Customize the Look of Your Cursor in iPadOS 13.4.

This was something I had hoped would be possible after messing with the new mouse support. The default cursor is rather too damned tiny for my tastes, which I assume is an artifact of designers with 20/10 eyesight or a Mac thing. But it’s waaay smaller than I’d expect, coming from Linux and NT machines.

A little bit of tweaking later, and it’s quite nice 🙂.

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Step one: phone hijacks SMS sending to Android Messages, and disables function in Hangouts.
Step two: tablet can only sync my sent messages. Not getting incoming at all.
Step three: re-enable SMS / set default on my phone.
Step four: archive threads because now they’re two on my phone , and the other only gets a copy of mine.
Step five: send a new message from tablet.

Step six: remember that over the past decade, Google has gone from being one of my favorite tech companies to quite possibly the one that pisses me off the absolute most often. I really miss the days when their betas were more reliable than what the rest of us called release quality. Sigh.