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Showing posts from September, 2023

Noise Canceling Upgrade

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The super accelerating world of technology today means some high end upgrades are available to everyone.  Take HiFi music before CDs - the super expensive Dolby tape decks. Now way exceeded by the cheapest MP3 players. One such upgrade for me were the original Bose noise canceling headphones. Wearing them in an airplane was more than being upgraded from economy to business or first. Flying in silent environment and being able to listen to high fidelity music was the unforgettable experience back in 2000. I was using the original (wired, 1st gen) Bose headset for many years before upgrading to the wireless variant (around 2012 I think, so already over 10 years ago). This product has been flawless for me. Almost infinite battery life, perfect audio performance (including noise canceling of course) and seamless Bluetooth connectivity to any device. The only sign of ageing has been the micro-USB charging port. But not a big deal, as they easily lasted a return transcontinental trip on ...

The Last iPhone

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It seems Apple has plateaued. iPhone 15 is identical to iPhone 14. Just has a different (mandated by the EU) charging connector. Everything else is the same. I mean of course there are changes / improvements, but probably none of them are noticeable for the users. Not to discredit Apple's work: the insane price aside, this is probably the finest phone ever made. Thanks to the USB-C connector, after 15 years it will likely be my first iPhone. And maybe the last one? I am replacing the 6-years old Blackberry , which has aged beyond hope. Still works, but is slow by today's standards and - my biggest complaint now - is not waterproof. But it seems all that could have been invented in a phone, has been invented. Of course you can start adding foldable screens and other fancy concepts, but it is disputable they make the device better (which is very subjective). The #1 feature i want from a phone is that it is robust, always working. Foldables are not as robust as simple one-piece-br...

GoPro 12 Bluetooth Audio

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GoPro has just released the 12 version of their flagship Herp Black camera. It brings many improvements despite being based on (almost) the same hardware as the predecessor - the GoPro 11. And it marks the trend by being the first camera capable of connecting to a Bluetooth audio device. For playback but most importantly - for recording. Almost everyone today uses wireless Bluetooth audio for calls, teleconferencing, music, audiobooks. Action cameras (and just about any cameras) suffer from poor microphones. There is the whole crazy market of wireless microphones dedicated to work with video cameras.  While the obvious would be to just use Bluetooth to record audio. But the digital camera industry had failed to see the obvious . So hopefully, as the GoPro 12 fills this gap, the other manufacturers will follow. See the review by William Brawley , in particular the demo video of using Apple AirPods as the Bluetooth audio source . Obvious, isn't it?

Everybody Lies but it Doesn't Matter

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In 1970s, when Poland was ruled by the communist's party, there was a popular saying: Everyone lies but it doesn't matter because no one believes anyone Fast forward 50 years and the situation has not materially changed. It is not even related to communists. Everybody lies. But we need to believe some people some time. Although it is hard in all the communication noise surrounding us. I pointed to this problem in relation to Artificial Intelligence back in January 2023 . I think at that time I had access to GPT-3. Now it is the all-heralded GPT-4 and still the amount of false information it spits out worries me. I wonder though, what is the level of trust people have in what the LLMs are spitting out. As everything they produce is super eloquent and even makes sense at a glance. The example illustrated here is the question about the Channel Sounding feature of the upcoming Bluetooth Core specification. In short - what the GPT says - is all wrong. But it is wrapped in such a fl...