Published on March 10th, 2010
One of the big features of Android commonly touted as being a key difference between it and the iPhone is “multitasking.” Android users commonly say how obviously necessary this is in any modern computing device, while iPhone users don’t see the need or claim they don’t want it either because of a perceived performance hit or potential battery drain.
First off, we have to clarify the concept of multitasking. On a desktop, notebook, netbook, etc., you will frequently have multiple programs open at a time and often more than one is visible on the screen. In most cases, these programs are actively running (usually with priority given to the application in focus) and using some processing cycles. Sometimes the background applications do need to use resources, such as an instant messaging client or music player. Sometimes they don’t, such as when you are actively playing a game but left a browser window open in the background. The Reality Of Mobile Multitasking continued »
Published on March 9th, 2010
QR Code
Most people are familiar with barcodes. They’re simple sets of lines that represent numbers. Since they are one-dimensional (i.e., they represent data along one axis only), they’re extremely inefficient. However, that also means they are very reliable. Think of it like the chart at an eye doctor’s office. That top letter might only be one byte in a large space, but it is very easily read by most people.
Now, imaging technology has improved and we can represent data across two axes. This gives us for more data in the same amount of space. Instead of just a few numbers, we can represent hundreds of characters. The two formats I most commonly see are as technically different as they are philosophically different. QR Codes, Microsoft Tags, And 2D Data Representation continued »
Published on February 16th, 2010
This past weekend, I tagged along with my brother on a trip to Fry’s (an electronics store) to help him decide on what new monitors to get. I was pretty surprised at how much the normal size and quality has gone up since I last paid attention. In February two years ago, I bought two 1680×1050 19″ monitors for $230 a piece. Now, you can buy a 1920×1080 24″ monitor for that. First Experience With Windows 7 continued »
Published on February 12th, 2010
Apple is likely to announce an upgrade to their extremely popular iPhone line in June or July this year, and I’ve been considering what changes are most probable. With the release of the iPad, we have a pretty good idea of what will be in the iPhone; they wouldn’t want to undercut their iPad sales. Apple iPhone 2010 Predictions continued »
Published on February 8th, 2010
The first thing I noticed about the Nexus One (and the Droid, for that matter) was the display. After seeing 320×480 being the standard pixel dimensions on a smartphone for so long, devices that have as many pixels on the short side as other devices have on the long side stand out. The Nexus One has a 480×800 display and a resolution of approximately 252 pixels per inch. In contrast, the iPhone has a density of 163 ppi. The purpose of this post is to show a comparison of what that really means visually, as I feel most tech sites have not shown the detail that this deserves. Nexus One And iPhone Screen Comparison continued »
