timmillea
About
- Username
- timmillea
- Joined
- Visits
- 62
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 869
- Badges
- 1
- Posts
- 285
Reactions
-
2024: Apple's 40 year old Macintosh survives another year
I also have my 1984 Mac bought from Cambridge University when I lived there and they were retiring their original Macs.
Apple remain extraordinary in the most ordinary of things. There is more processing power in an Apple power supply plug than powered the first moon landing. Just a simple Apple Thunderbolt cable, oft ridiculed for being over-priced, has more computing power than home computers of the 1980's.
The old adage that 'you get what you pay for' has never been more true. I would add, 'if you are lucky and careful'.
-
Apple demonstrates its commitment to AI with new open source code release
"because Apple calls it Machine Learning instead of AI"
Machine learning is a minuscule sub-field of the field of AI! It so happens that the speed of devices affordable to consumers have made ML feasible in recent years so it is currently making all the headlines. Neural networks, upon which ML runs, have been around for many decades. Their uses and limitations are well understood but that doesn't stop billion-dollar valuations of startups claiming a new 'AI'-based application.
The best ML app will never approach the best equivalent human behaviour, even with learning supervised by the best human expertise. Most ML is not supervised so ML apps are fast, impressive at the moment but they will never be 'intelligent'. The real potential of AI is in evolutionary algorithms (a.k.a. artificial evolution) whose results can exceed those of humans. And to think I was 'growing' neural nets within an evolutionary algorithm almost 30 years ago and no one, not even in the field of computer science, was remotely interested :-(
-
Kuo reiterates 120 mm tetraprism camera coming to iPhone 16 Pro
No. The whole point of using a 48MP sensor is to enable flexible use between resolution, dynamic range and digital zoom between the different fixed optical focal lengths. The mechanics of an optical zoom would be complex, take up more space, delicate and liable to be a major source of warranty claims.Ofer said:Any chance of the periscope lens technology being evolved within the next couple of years to enable an adjustment of the distance between the lens elements so that you have a true variable zoom lens in an iPhone?
A photographer would tell you to not to be so lazy and move position instead.
-
Apple Vision Pro now expected to ship in March
40 years ago, Apple was a far less global company. 'Super Bowl' is US-only and irrelevant to the vast majority of Apple's market. .
-
Apple aims to reinvent the battery with high-performance cathode technology
Just get a cheap solar PV panel with USB output from Aliexpress. Sit in the shade with device to better see the screen and avoid it over-heating, put the panel in the sun et voila. A panel about iPad size does the trick. I often do this with my MacBook Air & iPhone connected for battery worry-free use when 'semi-working' outside at hotels.bsimpsen said:
The math doesn't work. Full sunlight on an iPhone 15 screen would produce about 9W. High efficiency solar cells might convert 22% of that, giving you about 2W of electric power. A transparent display is impossible, so you're going to block a lot of sunlight with the light emitting pixels. LEDs can't be transparent, as the light would emit in all directions, not just towards the viewer. Even with transparent areas between opaque pixels, I doubt you could get a fill ratio of less than 80%, and the transparent layer and screen surface will reflect a few % each. So you might get 100mW of power in full sunlight. I imagine such a display might consume more than that in extra power to make the transparency possible.tyler82 said:What about solar battery regeneration? A lot of people use their phones outside. Would it be possible to install solar cells behind the display?
