Connecticut's IT Managed Services Blog

Upgrading your computer

Everyone likes upgrading their PC because it means they can now use a faster computer with more features, but it’s also a great way to save money on electricity costs while going green. As technology advances so does the techniques used to save power. Anyone who had a laptop a decade ago remembers the problems with heat, size and horrible battery life. Nowadays these problems are barely a concern with laptop battery life being at minimal 3-4 hours, but generally can go up to 10 hours or beyond. New breakthroughs in battery technology have helped, but it has been the tech industry as a whole that has increased battery life. As new CPUs and Memory chips are being created, one of the main goals is to make sure the next generation runs faster, but also uses less electricity and generates less heat. This is done through new techniques created to create smaller transistors, which allows more to be placed on a single chip, and less electricity to be needed to use them. This combined with new features that keep energy consumption in mind have allows computers to lower their speeds when idle to decrease and consume less power, but can increase speed again when needed.

It was recently found that Apple has been tracking every iPhone user’s location with a secret hidden file. This came as a shock to most, as Apple has never mentioned this feature, which was most likely added in the iOS 4 update, and has caused quite a stir among privacy experts. This file tracks your location based on cell phone triangulation, which gives a general pinpoint of where you are at that time by locating the signal strength over 3 towers. What is even more alarming as there is currently no way to prevent apple from gathering your data, even with your GPS off, Apple can see where you were at any given time. To make matters worse, this file is unencrypted, meaning that anyone with a little bit of knowhow can pull up this data and check in on your activities.

Currently there is no word on why Apple added this feature to its mobile devices or what it planned on doing with the data, but the data is there assessable to anyone who can gain access to your iPhone or even a backup copy you make during syncing, as the data is transferred from the device to your computer. Current speculation has people wondering if this was even intentional, as both Android and Windows Mobile both track your location, but only the most recent one used. Apple might have been doing the same thing, but do to a bug/oversight it might not be deleting the past data like it should.

The Pixel Qi, a screen that uses both LCD and e-ink technology, debuted about a year ago showing its ability to switch between its LCD for video and normal computing and then switch to an e-ink display when being used outside in direct light. This is not to be confused with Barnes and Noble’s Nook that uses 2 separate screens, one a LCD, the other e-ink to bridge the gap, this is just one screen and is able to switch between them both at will. What makes this interesting is Apple’s interest in the technology. Amazon has made a lot of money from eBook sales and Apple was looking for part of the market too, in which case it was able to position itself with the iPad as an eBook reader. The problem with this, which Amazon has been keen to point out, is that the iPad isn’t a real eBook reader and still suffers from problems like not being able to read outside in direct sunlight due to glare, along with lower battery life and the eye strain that comes from staring at a LCD screen.

Recently Apple filed for a patent that would have a translucent e-ink display that goes over the LCD screen in which it could switch the displays automatically as needed. This is an interesting development for Apple, as they are perfectionists at heart, and if they plan on using this technology in future tablets means that have will have to overcome certain tech limitations. These limitations come from trying to mix the two technologies which leaves the LCD with lower viewing angles and makes it look less robust and crisp compared to current LCDs, while on the other hand it also gives the e-ink screen a slight glare, most likely from the glass that covers the display itself. These problems seem minor, and for any other company they would be, but Apple has prided itself with the fact that it uses such crystal clear displays and noticeably lowering their quality might disappoint Apple fans who buy these products for this level of quality.

With Android and iOS being the top 2 OS’s in the mobile market many analysis compare the two by looking at the software model that Google applies versus Apple. Google’s Android is considered an Open Source mobile OS, while Apple’s iOS is considered closed source and each has its own benefits and issues. Google uses an open model, which means that they release the source code for the mobile OS, the source code is the code in English before it compiled into 1’s and 0’s, this gives developers the option to look deeper into the code and alter things as they wish.