Alex_V
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iPhone 15 Pro Max has second-best smartphone camera in the world
I find DXO to be an excellent resource. They do highly detailed reviews on cameras and lenses, with technical analysis, and provided for free. Sites, like DXO Mark, help professionals and enthusiasts (like me) make level-headed purchasing decisions by cutting through the marketing crap that accompanies done products and brands. They give us a more nuanced understanding of the products on offer.12Strangers said:I can’t believe that anyone trusts DxOMark at all, let alone calling them a “reliable source”.
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Apple announces progress toward carbon neutral goal, new energy projects
The problem with nuclear technology is that it uses the most toxic substances known to humans. They remain toxic for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Longer than human civilisation has existed. It’s impossible to “safely” extract, use, and dispose of these substances. In fact, we know if no completely secure way to dispose of spent fuel.
The second problem is that the costing of nuclear technology never fully accounts for disposal of the spent fuel. In other words, nuclear energy is “competitive” only if you ignore the cost of disposal of fuel and the reactors etc at the end of life. A nuclear reactor lasts about 50 years. All around the world, at nuclear power plants like Fukushima, the spent fuel is lying in pools, just sitting there. Why don’t they dispose of the fuel? Too expensive. What are they waiting for? The government to do something about it—in other words the taxpayer must pay to dispose nuclear waste in deep tunnels under the earth. Cost of disposal and securing? Incalculable (best guess), because you have to sit and watch over it forever. Many power plants are run by private companies with no intention of incurring the cost of disposal. Privatise the profits, socialise the costs.
The third problem with nuclear power is that it is very dangerous and requires the support of a military industrial complex. In other words, you need a highly militarised and policed society in order to secure the nuclear industry. In other words we, citizens, are required to cede some of our personal political freedoms in order to afford such a dangerous technology in our midst. Nuclear power is looked on favourably by military industrial complexes or by totalitarian regimes. It is inherently secretive and security-obsessed, for obvious reasons. In contrast: solar and wind power, for example, have issues, but they have no equivalent risks, they can be implemented at small-scale by individual citizens in your backyard on your roof etc. They are inherently more democratic.
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Apple arguing iMessage isn't big enough to be EU gatekeeper service
A lot of nonsense being expressed about the EU, by those who don’t know and don’t care. Here is basic info on the EU 'gatekeepers law':
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-markets-act-ensuring-fair-and-open-digital-markets_en
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iPhone 15 Pro Max has second-best smartphone camera in the world
appleinsideruser said:
Yes, always a good read. Yet if they are (selling a) coaching service to some organisations, that raises concerns about trusting their nuance.Alex_V said:
I find DXO to be an excellent resource. They do highly detailed reviews on cameras and lenses, with technical analysis, and provided for free. Sites, like DXO Mark, help professionals and enthusiasts (like me) make level-headed purchasing decisions by cutting through the marketing crap that accompanies done products and brands. They give us a more nuanced understanding of the products on offer.12Strangers said:I can’t believe that anyone trusts DxOMark at all, let alone calling them a “reliable source”.
EDIT: See final FAQ — What is DXOMARK’s relationship with device manufacturers?
You link to a question from their own website. Their answer is below. It seems that they face the usual potential conflicts of interest faced by journalists in tech or any field face. Good journalists (and there are many — I've worked with journalists who took enormous risks in doing their jobs) … manage to navigate those conflicts because maintaining impartiality and integrity is vitally important to their credibility.“What is DXOMARK’s relationship with device manufacturers?”“DXOMARK has a long history working closely with the imaging and mobile industries. Long before the DXOMARK website was launched, in the early 2000s, we designed Analyzer, the first comprehensive suite of hardware and software for camera testing and tuning which is today deployed at more than 150 sites all over the globe. From those early days we have always had in-depth technical discussions with our customers to help us understand their requirements and how new technology under development should be measured. This also helps us keep up to date with the continuous evolution of camera technologies.
During the mid-2010s the importance of the camera in smartphones became obvious, and our expertise and reputation in the field meant that we were approached by key players in the mobile industry, asking us to help them optimize their camera products.
Since the very beginning of these relationships we have strictly separated our editorial activities from B2B activities, with the editorial team exclusively making decisions on publication schedules and policy. Independent of brand or manufacturer, all test devices undergo exactly the same test protocols, and manufacturers are not paying to use our scores in their marketing material.
In some cases, our relationship with manufacturers also helps us get access to pre-production units and early firmware versions. This allows us to test devices sooner than would otherwise be possible. In these circumstances we will always purchase a commercially available device in a store at a later stage and confirm the original test results.”
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A bride-to-be discovers a reality-bending mistake in Apple's computational photography
I know what you mean. It doesn't need computational photography to occur. This effect can happen on a 35mm film SRL with a horizontal focal plane shutter: if the subject moves as the shutter is travelling horizontally across to expose the film. I believe the iPhone has a rolling shutter — same thing.SL356 said:Sorry folks. This is totally fake. No way 'computational photography' produced this.
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2023 HomePod review roundup: similar sound, same price
Anyone who thinks that smart speakers are ‘hi-fi’ is deluding themselves. Neither the audio bandwidth coming through the internet is insufficient, (nor through Bluetooth for that matter) nor is the speaker itself capable of reproducing the full range of hi-fi sound. Hi-fi is for the audiophiles. They pay fortunes for top quality equipment and listen to vinyl records, for example. Three-hundred dollar speakers don’t qualify. The sound that comes out of Apple HomePod is ‘good enough’ for the rest of us. That’s who it’s for.I have a pair on my desk. I like the 360 degree sound. The smaller HomePod mini can’t compete in sound.
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Apple's FineWoven case and Apple Watch band lineup may have been cut short
9secondkox2 said:As long as there is beef, there is leather. Beef isn’t going anywhere, so better to utilize what would otherwise go to waste. It’s more efficient use of resources, more respectful to the sacrifice of the animal, and results in better quality products.
I see that there is an industry-sponsored website that argues your exact point. What a coincidence! The website wants to convince us not to trouble our little heads on the subject leather. Still, leather is not merely a by-product of the beef industry. It is an integral part of the business. A significant proportion of the world’s population is vegetarian. I live in a place that is substantially vegetarian with a significant proportion of veganism (no dairy, no eggs etc.). Every bakery has eggless items on sale here. Vegetarianism and veganism are on the rise in the West, driven by health, environmental, and ethical reasons. On the other hand, meat eating increases as populations get better off, notably in China.
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Apple's flavor of RCS won't support Google's end-to-end encryption extension
The more I use messaging apps, the more I appreciate the genius of Apple’s simple, useful, elegant, Messages app.
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How to transfer files when AirDrop isn't working
Correct! I just transferred a file with someone today in a building where I wasn’t connected to the WiFi.appleinsideruser said:You don’t need to be connected to the same WiFi, or indeed any WiFi, to use AirDrop. Yes, it needs to be turned on, but it uses peer-to-peer WiFi transfer after negotiating via Bluetooth (which needs to be on). -
Mark Zuckerberg says the Vision Pro doesn't present 'any breakthroughs'
Steve Kovach of CNBC has tested Meta’s and Apple’s headsets and he says the difference between them is “night and day.”
I’m not surprised. It is one thing to produce a website: clever HTML, CSS, Javascript and what have you; build a business model around surveillance and advertising, and violá. Product development of the kind that Apple does involves so much more: from the silicon and machine code, to operating systems, and software packages, to hardware, miniaturisation, audio and video — all areas that Apple has vast experience operating at the highest level. It’s no contest.
