DXOMARK's Apple iPhone 16 Camera test Although I no longer use an iPhone, I do always find DXOMARK's benchmark testing interesting for the various flagship phones. It shows too that a megapixel number is not what you should compare one phone against another on. I always try to compare based on like for like tests done between the various devices. Spoiler: iPhone 16 falls behind the Pixel 9 and 8 cameras. But still it is worth "zooming" in on the aspects that are important to you as none of the phones perform equally across all the different aspects measured. See

DXOMARK

Apple iPhone 16 Camera test

Discover how the Apple iPhone 16 excels in DXOMARK Camera tests, showcasing impressive stills and videos with enhanced autofocus and stabilization ...

#technology #photography #camera

4 reasons why you should use Docker containers on your PC I use Docker containers exclusively on my servers, but have yet to explore using them on my desktop computer or a Raspberry Pi. I do use Flatpaks quite a bit, and there seems to be a case for Docker containers being lighter than Flatpaks even (not sure about this yet). But certainly, Docker containers are ultra-lightweight (just think also how quickly they spin up). And yes, they do isolate their environment and prevent any chance of conflicting packages. If you use Docker containers on your desktop, let me know which you are finding useful for a desktop environment. See

XDA

4 reasons why you should use Docker containers on your PC

There are many benefits of hosting your favorite apps inside Docker containers

#technology #docker #cocontainers

Listen to the oldest known recording of a human voice from 1860 before they could even play it back Thomas Edison is often credited with being the first person to record sound. But it was in fact a Frenchman named Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville who invented sound recording via his phonautograph in 1857 – 20 years before Edison invented his phonograph. When this was recorded, there was no known way of how to yet play back anything. It was more an experiment to try to replicate how the human ear works. With today's technology, though, we can reverse engineer that to reproduce the sound. That is a 164-year-old recording, many generations ago. Technology itself was still in the era of steam power. Radio, phonographs, gramophones, etc were still a long way away from being invented. See #technology #vintage #auaudio

How to update your SSD firmware on Windows Software updates are an integral part of modern life, with your computer's operating system and your smartphone being smart enough to update on its own. But that's not the case for every piece of electronics, and many need a manual touch to get them updated. Pretty much every computing device you own, from the best M.2 SSDs to your computer's motherboard and the router powering your home network, all runs on a combination of firmware and hardware. It's called firmware instead of software because it's designed to be permanently embedded in the device that it controls and updated only periodically. These firmware updates can fix performance-related issues, security holes, or other types of bugs. Because they're not scheduled regularly, it's even more important that you update the firmware when a new version arrives. For SSDs, firmware controls how data is stored and read, as well as other functions that the SSD controller needs to operate efficiently to give you the best performance possible. Every SSD manufacturer has a slightly different way of handling updates, but they all have one thing in common–they're quick and easy to do. This is a bit of a Catch-22: Updating firmware on a SSD does have a slight chance of borking the drive, and some say it is better not to mess with something that is working OK... See

XDA

How to update your SSD firmware on Windows

It's a fairly simple process to ensure the smooth performance of your SSDs

#technology #SSD

No solar panels, no wind turbines, but the Aeroleaf WindTree: This tree produces infinite energy in your garden A new form of wind power generation technology with a focus on aesthetics is sweeping the green energy industry, and it’s expected that Aeroleaf WindTrees will soon be popping up in gardens across the globe as the nature-friendly innovation takes root in the market. The organic-looking, small-scale installations, which are ideal for urban settings, are fitted with microturbines that have the appearance of leaves on branches, making them far more pleasing to the eye than giant wind farm installations or solar panels. The technology is remarkable in that the “leaves” can operate in winds from any direction and at speeds as low as 5.6 miles per hour. The devices are silent and don’t require much maintenance, making them ideal for urban areas and small- to medium-scale energy production, and they are suitable for commercial, corporate, or home settings. The biggest model in the Aeroleaf range is the WindTree, which is 32 feet high. Depending on how it’s set and how many “leaves” it has, the WindTree has a generation capacity of between 4,200 and 10,800 watts. Really good to see better alternatives coming out for green energy. See

No solar panels, no wind turbines, but Aeroleaf: This tree produces infinite energy in your garden

#technology #environment #windpower

A hands-On Review with Session - A Fully Encrypted Chat App As with Threema and SimpleX, Session is one of the most secure and private chat apps that you get today (more so than Signal, and way more so than WhatsApp). A lot of this is to do with the metadata level (that data which WhatsApp actively resells upstream to Facebook and other providers). There is no doubt that Session is up there with the best, but this is also why none of your friends will be found there. There is no phone number or e-mail lookup to find users, nor any search to find them. Each friend must choose to share their contact ID with you. You can connect quite easily with a QR code or a contact link, but that is just not how people are yet connecting. Most users want to log into a central service where their e-mail address or phone number is searchable (at least to those who know it), and that is how people connect and find each other. Of course that means the central provider knows who you are and can connect that information with your login times, IP addresses, location, etc. Yes Signal tries to minimise that, as does Proton Mail, but others like Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp max out that information to build profiles on you "to serve you better". Personally, I think WhatsApp and Facebook have taken that too far, by sharing that information, which is why I deleted my accounts with them. So, yes Session is excellent, but regretfully the world is just not ready to adopt it en-mass (and the same goes for truly encrypted e-mail). The technology is ready, but humans are not ready. What you can otherwise do, if this does concern you at all, is to rather adopt something like Signal messenger, and for Facebook use a 3rd party anonymising app like SlimSocial. If you are not ready to delete your Facebook and WhatsApp apps (the mobile apps are real data gatherers), then at least create your presence on Signal, so that others friends can delete their apps and can still contact you. See

How-To Geek

I Went Hands-On with Session, an Encrypted Chat App

This app may be the secure WhatsApp alternative you’ve been looking for.

#technology #privacy #Session

You can actually turn an old phone into a NAS If you're a tech enthusiast like me, chances are you have an old phone or two lying around unused. While it's not necessarily the best use for it, you can definitely take one of those older devices and use it as a rudimentary NAS (network attached storage device) for sharing data across all your devices. On top of that, if you really want to take things a step further, you can root an old Android phone and set up Docker on it. From there, you can host normal applications that you would on any other NAS and deploy them on your network, including running things like Pi-hole or Jellyfin. They're making just a NAS out of an Android phone, but you can easily host a Nextcloud Pi server on your smartphone if it's rooted. We forget that yesterday's flagship, or even mid-range, phones are actually pretty powerful devices, often a fair bit of storage. With a USB hub plugged in, you can attach storage, an Ethernet connection, and more. Repurposing an old phone, instead of throwing it out, is certainly also cutting down on e-waste. See

XDA

How I turned an old phone into a NAS

I turned an old phone into a NAS using MiXplorer, and it's a great basic way to keep files available.

#technology #NAS #environment

eSIM security vs. a physical SIM: An eSIM is safer Apart from, the convenience of being able to easily enable an eSIM (without waiting for a physical SIM delivery), the ease of switching SIM profiles when travelling, and not having a physical card that gets damaged, these eSIMs also have some security advantages too. eSIM (embedded subscriber identity module) technology employs various additional security measures that make it less prone to hacking than physical SIMs. Those measures include a secure element, which stores sensitive data and protects it from unauthorized access or tampering, adding an extra layer of protection against hacking attempts. They cannot be cloned, as they cannot be physically accessed from outside the phone. Also, if your phone is stolen, it is not like a physical SIM where a thief can just remove the SIM card (the eSIM is always active inside the phone). In other aspects they are quite similar to physical SIM cards, for example, with SIM swapping, as SIM swapping is done virtually on the network side and has little to do with the SIM in your phone. But remember that no online device is ever fully immune to hacking. So whilst eSIMs are a step up from physical SIM cards, they may not be fully immune. See https://nordvpn.com/blog/is-esim-safe #technology #eSIM #security

Google is CRIPPLING their Find My Device network with ‘aggregation by default’ setting From the beginning, Google has prioritized being privacy-conscious with the Find My Device (FMD) network, including delaying the launch until the iPhone gained unknown tracker alerts. Google chose “aggregation by default” to the detriment of Find My Device performance, and is seemingly doubling down on that decision. The default Find My Device network setting is “With network in high-traffic areas only.” Multiple Android devices have to detect an object before its location is shared. So far, users have found this ineffective in real-world usage, with trackers not being located. Unlike Apple who has this type of setting as opt-out by users, and which results in a far more extensive network to find your lost items, Google has restricted it to opt-in. Looking at reviews about the Motorola Moto tags, I see this issue cropping up a lot. Great tags, but the Google network is just not locating your device until multiple Android users have passed it. It is not as if any 3rd party is going to identify you or your location whether this setting is enabled or not. Your identity and location is never passed to the others users. What it means is that Google is basically crippling their network, whilst Apple's is functioning extremely well. With Apple being who they are, they seem to be happy with the default settings reporting the location of a lost tag with just one iOS device passing by. We are all familiar with default settings, and with this one as it is, it means Google's network is never really going to function well. You can really forget about expecting a few billion people to all changing this setting themselves. It would have been better to activate it properly and put a notice on the start-up screen to inform what it does. See

9to5Google

Google defends Find My Device 'aggregation by default' as 'key’ privacy difference

Google chose "aggregation by default" to the detriment of Find My Device performance, and is defnding that decision...

#technology #trackers #FindMyDevice

7 free open-source tools for amazing photo and video edits While there is no shortage of powerful photo and video editing tools, most of them come with a hefty price tag or require a subscription to get started. It may discourage students, beginners, and freelancers from exploring them fully. Luckily, thanks to free, open-source tools, you don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars to achieve stunning results. XDA Developers have short-listed their choices in the linked article below, and explained why each has been chosen. I'd certainly also add digiKam for photo editing. It has some very powerful features, including advanced geolocation editing, batch editing, blending of stacked images, OCR text generation, creation of calendars, creation of panoramas, RAW editing, camera control, and exporting to numerous cloud services including Flickr, Imgur, Piwigo, Pinterest, etc. See

XDA

7 free open-source tools for amazing photo and video edits

The only open-source photo and video editing tools you will ever need

#technology #opensource #photography

Some of Edison's earliest voice recordings of famous Britons from 1888 Really eerie listening to these moments captured in time 136 years ago when recording equipment was basically 'unheard' of. I don't think many of these people would ever have thought their voices would be heard around the globe at just the click of a mouse 100 years into the future. The voices of Robert Browning, Arthur Sullivan, Florence Nightingale, a trumpeter from the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava, to major political figures like William Gladstone and Queen Victoria. This really still qualifies as a mechanical invention at the time, but one which had a more significant impact than others, as it brought the ability to us to perceive something from way back with our senses. Prior to this, there was of course photography, but maybe we have become too used to seeing the many photographs that circulate today from way back when. Hearing an actual voice recording, is to me closer to it being a real experience. The manner of speech, too, is pleasant to behold today when we have become so used to rushed speech, slang, abbreviations, etc. Listen at #technology #vintage #history

11 Must-Have Docker Tools To Simplify Your Workflow And Why CLI Is Good Docker is a popular tool for creating, deploying, and managing containerised applications, but managing containers, images, and configurations can become complex over time. Here’s a detailed guide to some essential Docker tools that simplify your work, whether you’re a beginner or experienced. These tools help you monitor, troubleshoot, and manage Docker more effectively. I do monitor and work with three different docker based servers, and activating the VPN, then opening Portainer or whatever to work on each one, can all take time. So I'm testing some of the CLI based tools listed in the linked article. The reason is I can open a terminal window and just type 'ssh het' or whatever the shortcut is which I use, and instantly that opens a public private key based session into that server. I can quickly run (or keep open) the CLI app to monitor my containers. I could have three terminal windows open, one for each server, at the same time if I wish. It is why terminal windows and apps can be super useful and lightweight for many occasions. See

11 Must-Have Docker Tools To Simplify Your Workflow

11 Awesome Docker Tools To Level Up Your Dev Skills

These Docker tools make managing containers easier, whether you’re working with single applications or handling multiple services across differen...

#technology #docker #servers

Mermaid is an open source tool that can be used to create such charts using Markdown plaintext Quickly create a flowchart, mindmap, or Gantt chart without once touching your mouse. Open source means it is not going to suddenly disappear tomorrow, it can be broadly supported across different platforms and Markdown editors, and you can see what it is doing (not a binary storage blob). Wherever a Markdown editor has support for Mermaid (often through a plugin) this type of chart and diagrams will work. For those who do tables in Markdown, Mermaid's syntax will look familiar. Plain text format means it will still be readable in 500 years time when Microsoft is long gone. The linked article also gives a link to the online Mermaid site where you can test this out, or design your chart and then copy the code to your Markdown file. See

Lifehacker

Use Mermaid to Create Charts and Diagrams Without Image Editing Tools

The text based alternative to Lucidchart and Microsoft Visio is free to use.

#technology #opensource #markdown

Nebraskan Farmers Were Using Wind Turbines Before Environmentalism Was Invented Many seem to forget that electric cars, windmills generating energy (whether electric or mechanical energy) are just not new ideas. The difference is that the technology at the time was limited by what was known then. Today, we can make things work much more efficiently. With the networking of ideas, we are also able to exponentially improve what we know. So many inventions have come about from society's need to solve challenges and problems. And yet so many ideas were violently resisted as well - remember when all cars had to be proceded by a person waving a flag, or where it was thought that steam locomotives would cause cows to stop producing milk, when we thought humans could not travel faster than they could run, when we were not made to fly, when we thought 5G cell towers were going to cause cancer, and so the list goes on and on. Our biggest problem today is we are a society of buying everything - so things cost more, we lose our ability to fix and repair things, and then we panic that a new invention is going to take all the jobs away. In fact, new things (like just moving from horses to cars, or typewriters to computers) have created more new jobs after the transitions. Society's difficulty is more one of not being willing to change, and today even more so, with the misinformation that is so popular. See

Hackaday

Nebraskan Farmers Were Using Wind Turbines Before Environmentalism Was Invented

To a casual observer of public discourse here in 2024 it seem extremely odd that the issue of replacing coal fired power stations with wind turbine...

#technology #windpower #environment #change

Successful South African electric vehicle maker that few people know about South African firm MellowVans is seeing massive demand for its groundbreaking three-wheeled electric vehicle (EV), which aims to combine the best features of motorcycles with light vans for last-mile cargo transport and courier deliveries. After its tremendous success in South Africa over the past decade, the MellowVan is poised to make big waves overseas. The EV is the first vehicle from a South African automotive original equipment manufacturer to achieve European and British homologation, a long and costly process that makes a vehicle road legal in a particular jurisdiction. According to the company’s website, a MellowVan delivery with a driver is around R16.94, compared with the R32.36 it would cost to deliver the same amount of goods via two petrol-powered motorcycles. Yes, it's true that many of us just assume when we see these vehicles, they are Chinese imports. But this is far from the case, and it is impressive to see what thought has gone into the design right down to the transporting of perishable goods and medical supplies. "Total practicality" seems to permeate through the design and operation of these vehicles. It charges anywhere, the driver is protected from the elements, it can carry more cargo than a normal scooter or motorcycle, it is environmentally friendly, and it costs less to operate than a conventional motorcycle. It has won international awards already, and has already started to export its first vans to Europe (I'm assuming Europe does not charge an extra import duty on EV imports like South Africa does).\ See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/570060-successful-south-african-electric-vehicle-maker-that-few-people-know-about.html #technology #SouthAfrica #EV #environment

Online shopping syndicate warning in South Africa Hot on the heels of today's report about some incredibly weak passwords that South Africans are using online, and then re-using across other websites, comes this warning now about very realistic looking fake online shopping sites that closely resemble the real brand. We have Black Friday coming up, as well as the festive season, so everyone is looking out for bargains. We should never be clicking on links we receive over instant messengers or e-mails, but now you want to be doubly sure you are actually on Takealot, or whatever site you expect to be on. I'd suggest you check the URL carefully before making purchases, and rather use your saved bookmarks to access sites you regularly use. Your password manager refusing to show a login, is also a sign you may be on a fake site. See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/570114-online-shopping-syndicate-warning-in-south-africa.html #technology #southafrica #scams

Google's Gemini AI Chatbot Finally Has an iPhone App Billed as a way to converse with Google’s AI, it’s kind of like using speech-to-text, but without having to press a microphone icon before each question. Just say your questions out loud, and Gemini will respond to them in real time, incorporating context from your previous questions. Exclusive to the iPhone app is some clever use of the Dynamic Island. While you’re talking to Gemini, you’ll see icons in the Dynamic island indicating that Live is still active and whether it’s listening to you. So far I've been Gemini the most useful for decent answers to things, including helping out with getting various code snippets sorted out. But it is pretty good for most things you'd ask of any smart speaker. I see it can also be used to report road conditions and issues in Waze, something which I need to try instead of doing the three button presses on the car dashboard. See

Lifehacker

Google

Google's Gemini AI chatbot is now available for iPhone, complete with Gemini Live capabilities. The app's release follows recent attempts...

#technology #AI #ios

Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Health A big issue with some Big Tech health cloud services like Apple, Google, etc is you can't get your data out easily to perform your own analytics, or use them if you decide to leave that platform. Apple Health cannot be viewed or analysed on a Linux desktop at all. These tools help monitor exercise offline from your devices, either through direct link, or importing of data. Jogger is for Linux computers or phones to track running and other workouts. Golden Cheetah is a really powerful offline analysis tool that connect with indoor trainers and cycling equipment such as cycling computers and power meters to import data. In addition, it can connect to cloud services such as Strava. It shows many stats that I don't even understand, but seems ideal for analysing cycling, swimming, etc and asks for data such as wheel sizes, swimming pool lengths, and so on. It will also track nutrition and body measurement data, and it runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. MyTourbook is software which lets you visualize and analyse tours which are recorded by a GPS device, bike- or exercise computer and ergometer. See

LinuxLinks

Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Health - LinuxLinks

The Apple Health app provides a central and secure place for your health and fitness information. This software is proprietary.

#technology #health #opensource

Open Source Cardiography Signal Measuring Device Much of the world’s medical equipment is made by a handful of monopolistic megacorps, but Milos Rasic built an open cardiography signal measuring device for his master’s thesis. Using a Pi Pico W for the brains, Rasic’s device can record, store and analyze the data from an arm cuff, stethoscope, electrocardiograph (ECG), and pulse oximeter. This data can be used for monitoring blood pressure in patients and he has results from some of his experiments to determine the optimal algorithm for the task on the GitHub if you really want to get into the nitty gritty details. See https://hackaday.com/2024/11/13/open-cardiography-signal-measuring-device #technology #opensource #medical #cardiography

You can finally move your health data across Android devices - Can't believe this was not backed up before Since Google had moved Health Connect (the service that each health and exercise app can optionally sync to on Android) into the main Android device menu, I just assumed it was part of the device backup (E2EE if needed). Now it turns out that this was never the case. If so, this is terrible design, and I can't imagine that Apple Health only exists on the user device with no sync or backup via Apple Cloud. But OK, let's move on. It seems now that backup is available, it is also not on by default (you must activate the backup schedule), and no it is not going to back up as part of the Android device sync (it exports to a local file, and you must back that up). Again, what a clunky implementation. When I activated mine, I got the option to save my backup file to Proton Drive, which is perfectly fine for me. So it will back up to cloud services that you have active on your device (and you can import from them too). The linked article also mentions Google Drive, so I'd imagine if that is active on your device, you may see that as an option. See

Android Police

You can finally move your health data across Android devices

Health Connect finally lets you export (and import) your health data

#technology #health #Android