Smartphones News and Discussions

[firestar464]

no lol

I am not giving into the consumerism

[Powers]

Just why? Aren't these cumbersome enough? If I wanted a big display I'd buy a tablet.

[wjfox]

[Tadasuke]

Quick comparison of highest performance in (frames per second) in the 4K Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen benchmark of Samsung Galaxy S flagship smartphones between 2015 and 2024:

• Galaxy S6 - 1.4 fps

• Galaxy S7 - 2.6 fps

• Galaxy S8 - 4.2 fps

• Galaxy S9 - 6.0 fps

• Galaxy S10 - 7.6 fps

• Galaxy S20 - 9.5 fps

• Galaxy S21 - 8.6 fps

• Galaxy S22 - 14.3 fps

• Galaxy S23 - 24.1 fps

• Galaxy S24 - 30.2 fps

30.2 fps divided by 1.4 fps equals 21.57, so there seems to be a significant improvement in that area over the last 9 years, but smaller than between 2006 and 2015.

[wjfox]

[Tadasuke]

Smartphones have had a similar user experience for many years now. It's basically a rectangular computer with a touchscreen, microphones, cameras and other sensors.

There is no large improvement in day-to-day user experience. Just advertisements pretending this or that.

Faster processing, slightly better cameras, maybe very slightly bigger screen. Boring!

I don't want to use such devices, even if they had 100 exaflops of processing speed. They don't feel futuristic at all to me, to be honest. Even 15 years ago I was already thinking about AR glasses and BCIs. I feel like we are stuck. And those "AIs" are still awfully stupid, and nearly everybody outside futurology/singularity circles thinks so too. Literally the only places I get downvoted for saying current AI is dumb and useless are futurism and singularity places. Everywhere else people agree.

[Yuli Ban]

And those "AIs" are still awfully stupid, and nearly everybody outside futurology/singularity circles thinks so too. Literally the only places I get downvoted for saying current AI is dumb and useless are futurism and singularity places. Everywhere else people agree.

There's a reason why contemporary AI is so stupid, and it's rather frustrating to see it in practice. The AIs aren't actually stupid; we're just using them stupidly.

[wjfox]

Smartphones have had a similar user experience for many years now. It's basically a rectangular computer with a touchscreen, microphones, cameras and other sensors.

There is no large improvement in day-to-day user experience. Just advertisements pretending this or that.

Faster processing, slightly better cameras, maybe very slightly bigger screen. Boring!

I don't want to use such devices, even if they had 100 exaflops of processing speed. They don't feel futuristic at all to me, to be honest. Even 15 years ago I was already thinking about AR glasses and BCIs. I feel like we are stuck. And those "AIs" are still awfully stupid, and nearly everybody outside futurology/singularity circles thinks so too. Literally the only places I get downvoted for saying current AI is dumb and useless are futurism and singularity places. Everywhere else people agree.

They still feel quite futuristic to me. And the cameras are massively better now than 10-15 years ago, especially video quality.

Though I agree we need a new paradigm – some sort of wearable tech, non-invasive BCI, glasses, etc. would be cool.

[firestar464]

Smartphones have had a similar user experience for many years now. It's basically a rectangular computer with a touchscreen, microphones, cameras and other sensors.

There is no large improvement in day-to-day user experience. Just advertisements pretending this or that.

Faster processing, slightly better cameras, maybe very slightly bigger screen. Boring!

I don't want to use such devices, even if they had 100 exaflops of processing speed. They don't feel futuristic at all to me, to be honest. Even 15 years ago I was already thinking about AR glasses and BCIs. I feel like we are stuck. And those "AIs" are still awfully stupid, and nearly everybody outside futurology/singularity circles thinks so too. Literally the only places I get downvoted for saying current AI is dumb and useless are futurism and singularity places. Everywhere else people agree.

The cameras are an improvement, but only because of planned obsolescence. They want you to buy slightly better stuff regularly.

Also, AI is "dumb" depending on how you use it. I've noticed that researchers and similar people know how to optimize them best for their needs, while average people aren't as good with that.

It's also worth noting that Sam himself has roasted GPT-4 as "dumb." I hope 4.5 will be released soon

[Tadasuke]

I'm very interesting which software keyboard, voice recognition and AIs fellow futurology aficionados use on their Android phones.

I've never owned an Apple device by the way, so I don't know much about iPhones. I have a very modern Android smartphone with currently Android 14 OS, no smartwatch or smartband.

I tend to change keyboards, voice recognition providers and settings. I haven't settled yet on anything in particular.

[Tadasuke]

As we know, smartphones are being gradually designed, engineered and produced to be faster and faster. ........ Real-world performance is a resultant of CPU speed, storage speed, memory speed, GPU speed, ASIC speed and all the latencies combined (bottlenecks are the worst).

My observation is that smartphones from a given price category usually have a similar performance to 10 years old desktop PCs from a corresponding price category (typically treat desktop prices as 2x smartphone prices):

2009 top smartphone CPU (HTC HD2) = 1999 PC CPU like Athlon K7 500 (500 MHz)
2011 top smartphone CPU (Galaxy Note) = 2001 PC CPU like Athlon XP K7 1900+ 1600 MHz
2014 top smartphone CPU (Galaxy Note 4) = 2004 PC CPU like Athlon 64 K8 3500+ 2.4 GHz
2016 top smartphone CPU = 2006 PC CPU like Core2Duo 2.6 GHz or Athlon 64 X2 K8 2.9 GHz
2019 top smartphone CPU = 2009 PC CPU like 1st-gen i7 4/8 3.2 GHz or AMD Phenom II X6 K10 3 GHz
2023 top smartphone CPU = 2013 PC CPU like i7-4960X 4 GHz (equivalent to Ryzen 3 3300X 4.5 GHz or i5-10400F 3.5 GHz, which are ~10x faster than the aforementioned C2D 2.6 or A64X2 2.9)
2023 top smartphone GPU is probably about as fast as the 2013 Radeon 270X (Radeon HD 7870). However, you need to take into consideration the probability of throttling due to thermals.

I guess that 2030 top smartphone CPU will be about 4x faster than 2023 top smartphone CPU. Hopefully, cache, storage and RAM will be able to keep up. I guess they will be able to. It would be nice to get better (solid-state) cooling solutions and much longer lasting batteries by that time. Perhaps cooling is going to be about 65% better by 2030 and batteries 45% better than today.

[Tadasuke]

Here is my current virtual touchscreen keyboard choice (Gboard) for my Android smartphone:



It will probably be different in a few months.
I type this using voice. Most of this text is recognized incorrectly.

[weatheriscool]

T-Mobile to acquire most of U.S. Cellular in $4.4 billion deal

Source: CNBC

Published Tue, May 28 2024 7:37 AM EDT Updated 6 Min Ago

T-Mobile announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire most of U.S. Cellular, including stores, some of the wireless operator’s spectrum and its customers, in a deal worth $4.4 billion. The deal includes cash and up to $2 billion of debt.

Up to $100 million of the deal’s cash portion depends on certain financial and operating metrics being met between its signing and closing. Shares of U.S. Cellular jumped more than 10% in premarket trading. T-Mobile shares were flat.

T-Mobile will acquire about 30% of U.S. Cellular’s wireless spectrum as part of the deal. It plans to use that to improve coverage in rural areas while offering better connectivity to U.S. Cellular customers around the United States. The company said it will allow U.S. Cellular customers to keep their current plans or switch to a T-Mobile plan.

U.S. Cellular will retain 70% of its wireless spectrum and towers and will lease space on at least 2,100 additional towers to T-Mobile.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/28/t-mobil ... -deal.html

[weatheriscool]

Google Plans Recall-Like AI Feature for Pixel 9
Google AI is expanding on the Pixel 9.
By Ryan Whitwam July 2, 2024

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/goog ... or-pixel-9
Google invented the transformer architecture that underlies all of today's inescapable generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Google's own Gemini. The company had a slow start with its user-facing AI, but it's ready to kick things into high gear with the release of the Pixel 9. According to a new leak, Google's next phone will include a collection of new AI features, including a mobile equivalent of Microsoft's creepy Recall feature. However, Google's version is somewhat less uncomfortable.

Google will organize all its top AI features under a new heading on the Pixel 9 called "Google AI," reports Android Authority. Some of these features are old, including Circle to Search and the Gemini chatbot. They are joined by some new additions: Add Me, Screenshots, and Studio. The report doesn't include much information about Studio and Add Me. The former appears to add expanded sticker creation using generative AI. As for Add Me, that's probably a more capable version of Google's Best Take feature, which swaps in better versions of everyone's face in a group photo.

[weatheriscool]

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 Tipped to Have 12GB of RAM, Larger Battery
Samsung's clamshell-style flip phone is getting an upgrade.
By Ryan Whitwam July 3, 2024

Samsung's next Unpacked event is coming up fast, on July 10. The Korean technology giant is expected to reveal new wearables and foldable phones, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6. We won't know all the details until the event, but some specifics have already leaked. The latest information includes some specs for Samsung's smaller foldable, including a nice spec upgrade.

The new details come from frequent mobile technology leaker Ishan Agarwal. Some of the specs listed in the post on X (formerly Twitter) are predictable. There's a 6.7-inch 1080p foldable OLED, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and your choice of 256 or 512GB of storage. The measurements of 165x71.7x7.4mm also look plausible—that's identical to the Z Flip 5's height and width, but it's just a little thicker.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/sams ... er-battery

[weatheriscool]

Xiaomi's self-optimizing autonomous factory will make 10M+ phones a year
By Loz Blain
July 10, 2024

There are no humans working the new Xiaomi production lines – this new Smart Factory is 100% automated. Indeed, the company says the system is smart enough to diagnose and fix problems, as well as optimizing its own processes to "evolve by itself."

The 80,000-square-meter (860,000-sq-ft) facility, located in the Changping district on the northeast outskirts of Beijing, follows a pilot smart factory in Yizhuang, which produced about a million units a year of the company's Mix Fold smartphone.

"There are 11 production lines," says Xiaomi Founder and CEO Lei Jun in a short video, embedded below. "100% of the key processes are automated. We developed our entire production and manufacturing software to achieve this."

https://newatlas.com/robotics/xiaomi-da ... c-factory/

[weatheriscool]

Samsung Unveils Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 With Higher Prices
If you can get over the sticker shock, there are also a lot of new Galaxy AI experiences.
By Ryan Whitwam July 10, 2024

Samsung has unveiled its last major hardware push for 2024, including sixth-generation foldables. You can pre-order the new Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 today, and they'll be on your doorstep later this month. They'll cost you a pretty penny, though, and Samsung is increasing prices this year. There are some improvements to justify the price hike, but Samsung is also hoping you'll attach some value to its expanded Galaxy AI features. You don't have to use Galaxy AI on Samsung's new foldables, but it might be hard to avoid.

Taking center stage at Unpacked were the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. These devices look very similar to their predecessors, continuing Samsung's tradition of iterative foldable improvements. It's also making a small change to pricing—both phones will cost $100 more than last year: $1,899.99 for the Z Fold 6 and $1,099.99 for the Z Flip 6.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/sams ... her-prices

[Time_Traveller]

Why Gen Z & Millennials are hung up on answering the phone

6 hours ago

Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail of Yasmin Rufo. Please don't leave a message as I won’t listen to it or call you back.

Unfortunately that isn't my answerphone message but do I, along with most Gen Z and millennials, wish it was? Absolutely.

A recent survey found a quarter of people aged 18 to 34 never answer the phone, external - respondents say they ignore the ringing, respond via text or search the number online if they don't recognise it.

The Uswitch survey of 2,000 people also found that nearly 70% of 18-34s prefer a text to a phone call.

For older generations, talking on the phone is normal - my parents spent their teenage years fighting with their siblings over the landline in the corridor only to then have their entire family listen in to their conversations.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgklk3p70yo

[weatheriscool]

Apple Is Finally Committing to OLED iPhones, Say Insiders
Cupertino's more affordable smartphones will soon offer displays on par with pricier models, if the rumor is to be believed.
By Adrianna Nine September 3, 2024

After years of demand, Apple has finally committed to ditching liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in favor of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, according to those familiar with Apple's supply chain. The richer displays will reportedly be used across "all iPhone models sold next year and afterward." This statement has largely been interpreted to include the iPhone 17 series and the forthcoming iPhone SE 4, the latter of which Apple is expected to unveil in early 2025.

The rumor comes from Nikkei Asia, which heard from "multiple sources" this week that Apple had begun placing orders for OLED displays from BOE Technology Group in China and LG Display in South Korea. This move is a clear step away from Apple's norm, which has been to source LCDs from suppliers in Japan. While Sharp and Japan Display once produced a majority of Apple's iPhone displays, their combined share has spent the last decade gradually shrinking. Only the iPhone SE, Apple's lowest-priced iPhone, has recently incorporated the suppliers' LCDs.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/appl ... y-insiders

[weatheriscool]