Apple pulled the plug on 1st gen HomePod, otherwise affectionally called OG HomePod. I think users were already aware of what will become of OG. As the saying goes, in the long run, everything becomes a “vintage”, but HomePod’s case was different as the latest model featured less number of tweeters and powered by a…
The Mad Tea Party
Inspiring yet Mad Spiels
From Op-ed
Shaky Cam, Found Footage, and Smartphones
Anyone remember Cloverfield from 2008? While the film may have been revolutionary for its time, my hatred of shaky cams and found footage still lives strong to this day. Most of them also happen to be low budget horrors. From what I understand, shaky cam and found footage style help cutting down the cost of…
Electrophobia Fueled EV-Phobia in South Korea
An EV in South Korea caught fire out of the blue; the car was parked and it was not charging. It burned down 140+ vehicles parked on the same underground parking and damaged the water main and power lines for the building. The reports so far fortunately said there were no injuries, and residents were…
Finding K-Pop Nyan Song
I was listening to Korean radio today. As a classical music fan, radio isn’t exactly my go-to for musics, but the radio was on nonetheless. Then it hit me like a freight truck. Or, like a tabby cat suddenly jumping on my laps so I chocked a little with some coffee in my mouth. It…
Why Apple Vision Pro Launched without Physical Controllers
Ever since the launch of iPhone back in 2007, I’ve seen my fair shares of analysts losing their jobs —or losing their employers’ business prospect— over misconceptions on one thing, and one thing only: physical controllers. Be it may keyboard, stylus, mouse, there were always analyses on new products based on unfounded belief that it…
GM to Replace Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with “Ultifi”
Yes, the air-quote is real. GM is planning to replace Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both smartphone based infotainment systems on cars, with GM’s own flavor of Android Automotive. Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, says one of the factors behind the decision was safety. Safety is something I see thrown around on…
eBook Reader App and Streaming Player App Spiel
Back in 2015 or so, I wrote a short op-ed that was ill-received, calling for better ebook management features on Kindle platform. It’s been 8 years, but I see little to no changes in the app, and frankly, with the gorgeous displays and extended battery life used in most smartphones and tablets, I see little…
USB-C is on iPhone, But Type-C is still a Mess
I have written in several pieces that USB-C is not the silver bullet to the dongle problems. Even as Apple opened up its Lightning walled garden, presenters couldn’t simply say: ‘we have USB-C now’. It needed to be said what kind of spec this port will carry: how fast its USB protocol will be, how…
Apple TV, VPN, and Geoblock Spiel
Anyone who is old enough to live through DVD era of human history and before that Paleolithic VHS period would recall something called region locks. It is an ancient ritualistic practice where contents holders would artificially divide the regions and lock the consumers out from playing them outside of said region. Historians believe the practice…
God of War: Ragnarok Spiel on Huldra Brothers
Have you finished latest GOTY contender God of War: Ragnarok? Because if you didn’t this might be a good time to pause for a moment and come back with visions of freshly destroyed family feuds. God of War franchise, in its Norse sequels, is shifting the focus from pure hack-and-slash fun to family drama. Huldra…
Water Cooling on Mac Is Not Happening
Cooling is the universal subjects across any PC enthusiasts forums. Its encroaching importance on all fields results with more then few discussions getting swindled away into waste heat management. Be it may a building a new PC from scratch, buying or upgrading a part for existing PC, planning for future upgrades and maintenance, or even overclocking, all lead to cooling to a certain degree. Even Macs, the computer “not fit” for gaming, are included as Apple has history of disregarding cooling over aesthetics. It is truly a universally acknowledged truth that any communities in interest which relates to computers must be bound by its cooling topics.
When USB-C Nightmares Come True
I remember helping ‘tech-suspicious’ individuals who didn’t understand USBs back in 2000s. The usual responses were either awe, which I wholeheartedly agreed at the time, or disgust, thinking this will be an escape from the Matrix. It wasn’t, and it isn’t.
On the Matters of, How to Read
This is for you, folks. You guys just had to bombard me with emails. Like I had to hit reply so many times, I won’t forward the exchange which prompted the update. But I can give you a piece, covering on what happened, how it happened, and perhaps what we can learn from it. And…
How America Grades Samsung on Pass or Fail
Calling out on Galaxy Fold debacle as “graded on a curve” apparently was an understatement. It is time to face the ugly truth. Samsung already has a bad track record, and none of the reviewers had gull to question the product in their hand. These pre-launch reviews that had been published prior to the issue…
Are Foldable Smartphones the Future?
Remember the days before iOS? In 2010, Apple finally rebranded its iPhone OS to iOS, making it the first non-Mac OS Apple had released. The significance of the iPhone manufacturer’s rebranding comes not from its shoddy name, but rather its date: 2010. In 2010, smartphone phone factors started to see consolidations. Google was releasing its…