It's not 100% software. LG had been doing passive 3D, which requires polarizers to be built into the TV.
Supporting active 3D also requires additional hardware, the IR emitter that triggers the glasses. That's a smaller added cost, so I'm surprised that companies that were using active 3D are dropping it.
You're wrong. The version of the original Nook with cellular connectivity used AT&T 3G service - in other words, HSDPA. I don't know exact details, but they're unlikely to implement the higher speed HSPA+ modes. That was the only Nook device with cellular data capability.
The first two models of the Kindle and the original Kindle DX used CDMA2000 3G connectivity from Sprint. All later models with cellular capability use 3G from AT&T.
They used 2G in the original Leaf because 2G modems were far less expensive than 3G modems at the time, and because they had much better coverage. The discontinuance of the 2G network also made old credit card machines and some monitored devices like water meters stop working because they also used the old 2G network; bricking all those old data devices probably had much more impact than killing off ancient iPhones.
"I'm curious what Google's thinking is here." My guess: bandwidth conservation. VP9 is much more efficient than H.264. Sending bits costs Google money, so sending fewer of them is something that they want.
That limit is present for LPDDR3 but not for DDR4. And it won't be present for LPDDR4 once you can actually buy it, which is expected to happen soon. DDR4 is more power efficient than DDR3, so the hit to the power budget for going to the standard DDR4 instead of LPDDR3 is not severe, and it's currently the only way to get past 16GB with the laptop versions of Skylake or Kaby Lake. Desktops have been using DDR4 for a while and the desktop versions of the CPUs support more memory modules, so the RAM ceiling is higher.
I know of at least one laptop with specs like that: the insane liquid cooled ROG GX800 "laptop" (and its predecessor, the GX700) from ASUS. I put "laptop" in quotes because it doesn't achieve full performance unless it's connected to the liquid cooling docking station, and the combined weight is over 20 pounds. That system is mostly an engineering stunt that was done for bragging rights; ASUS has not sold very many of them, and it doesn't appear to be possible to buy it in the US yet.
And what do they do if they get a new computer where Windows 10 is the only Windows version that works properly? We're already there; some Skylake and all Kaby Lake processors are not fully supported by any earlier version, and I expect that will also be true for Ryzen when it ships.
50 inch screens are overkill for most programmers. You'll probably be using those from a larger distance, so they don't really give you anything that you couldn't get from 30 inch screens with the same resolution.
But if you're doing some form of pair or team programming, the big screens might have value; they make it easier for multiple people to see them at the same time. And if you're doing any form of multimedia development, you may want them because the experience of watching media on larger screens is different than on small ones, even if the field of view angle is the same.
But the 8350 is cheaper than an i5. And AMD motherboards are also cheaper than Intel motherboards. Between those two factors the cost saving can be as much as $100, which the OP spent on upgrading the GPUs.
HD Radio (the form of digital broadcasting authorized in the US) on the AM band should never have been authorized. It wipes out reception of adjacent stations, has a limited reception range, and doesn't sound all that good. The last could be fixed if backward compatibility were not an issue. The problem is that iBiquity's proprietary codec doesn't sound very good; the same bit rate with HE-AAC or Ogg Opus would be far superior.
HD Radio on FM isn't quite so bad. It sounds better (higher bitrate, not better codec). It still wipes out adjacent channels, but there are only a small number of locations where that matters because of the propagation characteristics of FM and the way the channels are allocated. One market where it DOES matter is some parts of Long Island, where signals from New York City and Hartford CT clash. Hartford is far enough away that it should be much weaker, but it's not because of the water-enhanced path between the areas.
A USB 3.0 LAN adapter can, at least in theory, be fast enough for a router. But there is a catch: they generally use a lot more of your CPU than LAN ports on the motherboard or on a PCI or PCI Express card do. And I'd rather not be at the mercy of an Ethernet port that can get unplugged by accident; USB ports, unlike Ethernet cables, do not have retaining clips.
Even if you go wireless for all the end points, you still need wires to connect the access points. (Don't bother me with replies about wireless bridges; I don't need to waste radio bandwidth on that infrastructure.) If your network is large enough to need more than one AP (I need three to get good coverage of my three story house; it's an old house with plaster and lath walls which means more signal attenuation than a modern house) you'll need a wired port and an Ethernet switch to hook those up.
I also prefer to use Ethernet for other things that don't move, such as servers, printers, and TVs. That saves the WiFi bandwidth for laptops, tablets, and phones. That makes me a bit old school, but wired connections have the advantage that they always work. You don't get occasional mystery failures because of radio interference. I'll grant that my house already has the wires in place; it might be harder to muster the energy to do it in a new place. And if you rent you usually don't have the option of putting wiring in the walls.
Apple has been criticized for the lack of a 32GB option for the new MacBook Pro. HP should not be immune. Dell does offer a configuration of the XPS 15 (Skylake; the XPS 15 has not yet been refreshed for Kaby Lake) with 32GB, but the XPS 13 (including the Kaby Lake version and the new 2-in-1) tops out at 16GB.
The box office is up only because the average ticket price continues to rise. Both because of inflation, and because an increasing percentage of total ticket sales are for premium theaters. The number of tickets being sold has been falling for a number of years; after the peak year of 2002 there was a big dropoff in 2005 and a slow decline since. (But not steady; years go up and down a bit.) Source: https://www.statista.com/stati...
2002 featured movies in three of the biggest franchises ever: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter. But the #1 film in the US wasn't any of those; it was Spider-Man. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was fifth. LOTR: The Two Towers was #1 globally. Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/y...
I don't think desktop computing is dead. It's just turning into a niche market. There will continue to be people who need the maximum amount of computing power available, along with multiple displays and input devices, and those people will continue to buy desktops.
The least expensive model of the 2-in-1 is $200 more than the least expensive conventional XPS 13. But the 2-in-1 has an i5 processor rather than an i3 and it has a touchscreen. It's hard to do a direct price comparison of the two models because none of the configurations line up exactly in features, but the spread is certainly far less than $200 for similarly configured systems.
If you want the lowest priced system period or the lowest priced one with the Quad HD display, the conventional XPS 13 is what you want. On the other hand, the 2-in-1 offers the lowest priced configuration with 16GB RAM. Recent XPS 13 models have the RAM soldered to the motherboard so they can't be upgraded; what you buy with the system is all you are going to get.
The 2-in-1 uses a Y-series processor, which is slower than the U-series processor in the conventional XPS 13. But it also yields longer battery life, despite the fact that the 2-in-1 model has a smaller battery. The weight of the two systems is the same; the more complex hinge in the 2-in-1 is heavier but the smaller battery balances it out. And the 2-in-1 is fanless so it's completely quiet.
The G1 was groundbreaking because it was the first readily available Android phone, but it was too limited in too many ways to qualify as a good phone. In my opinion, the first really good Android phone was the Sprint Evo 4G and its relative, Verizon's HTC Droid Incredible, They're both lacking by current standards (1GB flash, 512MB RAM, single core 1GHz CPU) but they were hot stuff in the day, and the Sprint version was the first phone to offer high speed 4G connectivity (on the now decommissioned Sprint WiMAX network).
Lucky Strike is an old brand of cigarettes made by Reynolds American, a company that is 42% owned by British American Tobacco. (BAT offered to buy the rest in October 2016; the companies are still negotiating.) Lucky Strikes are no longer very popular in the US but the original unfiltered version is still available.
Lucky Brand jeans are not related to the cigarette company or to LG.
The original post was referring to the South Korean Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial Corporation (pronounced Lucky) that was the original parent of what is now LG Corporation. It was founded in 1947. Eleven years later they started up GoldStar to make electronics. The two companies merged, forming Lucky-GoldStar, which later simplified its name to LG in 1995.
The Lucky brand name was known for soap, detergent, and toothpaste. Some of those products are still sold by that name in South Korea. The Lak-Hui company was also a major maker of plastics. The chemical division is now the third largest part of LG, after electronics and displays. (Besides selling its own electronic products, LG is a major OEM supplier of LCD and OLED flat panels.)
For a phone to work with LTE on AT&T, it has to support the correct bands. An LTE phone bought outside the US or intended for a non-US market is unlikely to work. (Notable exceptions: recent iPhone models and some Samsung and LG flagship phones.) A OnePlus phone that was sold directly to a US customer should be fine. Phones bought from Chinese resale sites like Banggood and AliExpress are pretty much guaranteed NOT to work. Phones from eBay and Amazon Marketplace may or may not work; check the for-sale posts carefully to make sure you're getting a phone that will work in North America. Phones sold directly by Amazon to people with US addresses are fine unless the offer specifically says they are not.
Band 12 support on T-Mobile has an additional requirement. T-Mobile will not allow a phone to be used on band 12 unless it has VoLTE (voice over LTE) and e911 support. The reason is that T-Mobile has no non-LTE spectrum on the 700MHz and 850MHz bands. A phone without VoLTE support might work for data in some locations where it would be unable to make voice calls, and that would violate the emergency service mandate.
Unlikely. Consumer Reports has surely received many buyout offers over the years from magazine conglomerates and declined them all. The organization behind it, Consumers Union, appears to be financially healthy so there is no pressing need for them to accept a buyout, and editorial independence is one of their core values.
It's hard to make a single recommendation, because different people are called by different parts of the hobby.
Does working DX (making contacts with distant stations) call to you? Any number of commercial HF transceivers will fill the bill. Buying one brand new starts at $600 or so and goes up (WAY up) from there. But used radios can be good values, and you can get back most of what you spend by reselling the radio if you decide it's not for you. Get advice from an active ham about what to buy and what to avoid.
Want to participate in public service events (helping out at road races, charity walks, and the like)? A handheld VHF and UHF transceiver is usually what you need. (Some events call for higher power radios that are used in cars.) You can go really cheap and buy a Baofeng for under $50, or spend a bit more on a radio from one of the big ham radio companies to get something that is easier to use. The up and coming thing are digital handhelds, but those mostly aren't yet being used for public service events.
Itching to get out the soldering iron and build your own radio? Plenty of choices there too, from very minimal designs to ones that match the capabilities of the commercial rigs.
Are neighborhood data networks your thing? Most of that work is done with repurposed WiFi gear. Suitable used routers can be very inexpensive, and people often build their own directional antennas. One popular design uses a Pringles can.
I have only scratched the surface. There are many other possibilities.
The FX-8320E is already available from Micro Center for $90 most of the time. (That's an "on sale" price but it's on sale far more often than not.) And to sweeten the deal even more they give you $40 off a compatible motherboard. But the lesser members of the FX family aren't any cheaper. (They do have a couple of less expensive AMD CPUs in other series: the A6-7400 for $55 and the Athlon 5350 for $40. The latter is a 25W TDP processor that is nice for an HTPC build.) And you have to go to one of their stores to get that price; they don't offer it by mail.
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It's not 100% software. LG had been doing passive 3D, which requires polarizers to be built into the TV.
Supporting active 3D also requires additional hardware, the IR emitter that triggers the glasses. That's a smaller added cost, so I'm surprised that companies that were using active 3D are dropping it.
You're wrong. The version of the original Nook with cellular connectivity used AT&T 3G service - in other words, HSDPA. I don't know exact details, but they're unlikely to implement the higher speed HSPA+ modes. That was the only Nook device with cellular data capability.
The first two models of the Kindle and the original Kindle DX used CDMA2000 3G connectivity from Sprint. All later models with cellular capability use 3G from AT&T.
They used 2G in the original Leaf because 2G modems were far less expensive than 3G modems at the time, and because they had much better coverage. The discontinuance of the 2G network also made old credit card machines and some monitored devices like water meters stop working because they also used the old 2G network; bricking all those old data devices probably had much more impact than killing off ancient iPhones.
"I'm curious what Google's thinking is here." My guess: bandwidth conservation. VP9 is much more efficient than H.264. Sending bits costs Google money, so sending fewer of them is something that they want.
That limit is present for LPDDR3 but not for DDR4. And it won't be present for LPDDR4 once you can actually buy it, which is expected to happen soon. DDR4 is more power efficient than DDR3, so the hit to the power budget for going to the standard DDR4 instead of LPDDR3 is not severe, and it's currently the only way to get past 16GB with the laptop versions of Skylake or Kaby Lake. Desktops have been using DDR4 for a while and the desktop versions of the CPUs support more memory modules, so the RAM ceiling is higher.
I know of at least one laptop with specs like that: the insane liquid cooled ROG GX800 "laptop" (and its predecessor, the GX700) from ASUS. I put "laptop" in quotes because it doesn't achieve full performance unless it's connected to the liquid cooling docking station, and the combined weight is over 20 pounds. That system is mostly an engineering stunt that was done for bragging rights; ASUS has not sold very many of them, and it doesn't appear to be possible to buy it in the US yet.
And what do they do if they get a new computer where Windows 10 is the only Windows version that works properly? We're already there; some Skylake and all Kaby Lake processors are not fully supported by any earlier version, and I expect that will also be true for Ryzen when it ships.
50 inch screens are overkill for most programmers. You'll probably be using those from a larger distance, so they don't really give you anything that you couldn't get from 30 inch screens with the same resolution.
But if you're doing some form of pair or team programming, the big screens might have value; they make it easier for multiple people to see them at the same time. And if you're doing any form of multimedia development, you may want them because the experience of watching media on larger screens is different than on small ones, even if the field of view angle is the same.
But the 8350 is cheaper than an i5. And AMD motherboards are also cheaper than Intel motherboards. Between those two factors the cost saving can be as much as $100, which the OP spent on upgrading the GPUs.
HD Radio (the form of digital broadcasting authorized in the US) on the AM band should never have been authorized. It wipes out reception of adjacent stations, has a limited reception range, and doesn't sound all that good. The last could be fixed if backward compatibility were not an issue. The problem is that iBiquity's proprietary codec doesn't sound very good; the same bit rate with HE-AAC or Ogg Opus would be far superior.
HD Radio on FM isn't quite so bad. It sounds better (higher bitrate, not better codec). It still wipes out adjacent channels, but there are only a small number of locations where that matters because of the propagation characteristics of FM and the way the channels are allocated. One market where it DOES matter is some parts of Long Island, where signals from New York City and Hartford CT clash. Hartford is far enough away that it should be much weaker, but it's not because of the water-enhanced path between the areas.
A USB 3.0 LAN adapter can, at least in theory, be fast enough for a router. But there is a catch: they generally use a lot more of your CPU than LAN ports on the motherboard or on a PCI or PCI Express card do. And I'd rather not be at the mercy of an Ethernet port that can get unplugged by accident; USB ports, unlike Ethernet cables, do not have retaining clips.
Even if you go wireless for all the end points, you still need wires to connect the access points. (Don't bother me with replies about wireless bridges; I don't need to waste radio bandwidth on that infrastructure.) If your network is large enough to need more than one AP (I need three to get good coverage of my three story house; it's an old house with plaster and lath walls which means more signal attenuation than a modern house) you'll need a wired port and an Ethernet switch to hook those up.
I also prefer to use Ethernet for other things that don't move, such as servers, printers, and TVs. That saves the WiFi bandwidth for laptops, tablets, and phones. That makes me a bit old school, but wired connections have the advantage that they always work. You don't get occasional mystery failures because of radio interference. I'll grant that my house already has the wires in place; it might be harder to muster the energy to do it in a new place. And if you rent you usually don't have the option of putting wiring in the walls.
Apple has been criticized for the lack of a 32GB option for the new MacBook Pro. HP should not be immune. Dell does offer a configuration of the XPS 15 (Skylake; the XPS 15 has not yet been refreshed for Kaby Lake) with 32GB, but the XPS 13 (including the Kaby Lake version and the new 2-in-1) tops out at 16GB.
The box office is up only because the average ticket price continues to rise. Both because of inflation, and because an increasing percentage of total ticket sales are for premium theaters. The number of tickets being sold has been falling for a number of years; after the peak year of 2002 there was a big dropoff in 2005 and a slow decline since. (But not steady; years go up and down a bit.) Source: https://www.statista.com/stati...
2002 featured movies in three of the biggest franchises ever: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter. But the #1 film in the US wasn't any of those; it was Spider-Man. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was fifth. LOTR: The Two Towers was #1 globally. Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/y...
I don't think desktop computing is dead. It's just turning into a niche market. There will continue to be people who need the maximum amount of computing power available, along with multiple displays and input devices, and those people will continue to buy desktops.
It's not dead. It's just pining for the fjords.
The least expensive model of the 2-in-1 is $200 more than the least expensive conventional XPS 13. But the 2-in-1 has an i5 processor rather than an i3 and it has a touchscreen. It's hard to do a direct price comparison of the two models because none of the configurations line up exactly in features, but the spread is certainly far less than $200 for similarly configured systems.
If you want the lowest priced system period or the lowest priced one with the Quad HD display, the conventional XPS 13 is what you want. On the other hand, the 2-in-1 offers the lowest priced configuration with 16GB RAM. Recent XPS 13 models have the RAM soldered to the motherboard so they can't be upgraded; what you buy with the system is all you are going to get.
The 2-in-1 uses a Y-series processor, which is slower than the U-series processor in the conventional XPS 13. But it also yields longer battery life, despite the fact that the 2-in-1 model has a smaller battery. The weight of the two systems is the same; the more complex hinge in the 2-in-1 is heavier but the smaller battery balances it out. And the 2-in-1 is fanless so it's completely quiet.
The G1 was groundbreaking because it was the first readily available Android phone, but it was too limited in too many ways to qualify as a good phone. In my opinion, the first really good Android phone was the Sprint Evo 4G and its relative, Verizon's HTC Droid Incredible, They're both lacking by current standards (1GB flash, 512MB RAM, single core 1GHz CPU) but they were hot stuff in the day, and the Sprint version was the first phone to offer high speed 4G connectivity (on the now decommissioned Sprint WiMAX network).
Good one :)
Lucky Strike is an old brand of cigarettes made by Reynolds American, a company that is 42% owned by British American Tobacco. (BAT offered to buy the rest in October 2016; the companies are still negotiating.) Lucky Strikes are no longer very popular in the US but the original unfiltered version is still available.
Lucky Brand jeans are not related to the cigarette company or to LG.
The original post was referring to the South Korean Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial Corporation (pronounced Lucky) that was the original parent of what is now LG Corporation. It was founded in 1947. Eleven years later they started up GoldStar to make electronics. The two companies merged, forming Lucky-GoldStar, which later simplified its name to LG in 1995.
The Lucky brand name was known for soap, detergent, and toothpaste. Some of those products are still sold by that name in South Korea. The Lak-Hui company was also a major maker of plastics. The chemical division is now the third largest part of LG, after electronics and displays. (Besides selling its own electronic products, LG is a major OEM supplier of LCD and OLED flat panels.)
Typos in the subject line are more visible than typos in the body. Thus the focus on that one.
For a phone to work with LTE on AT&T, it has to support the correct bands. An LTE phone bought outside the US or intended for a non-US market is unlikely to work. (Notable exceptions: recent iPhone models and some Samsung and LG flagship phones.) A OnePlus phone that was sold directly to a US customer should be fine. Phones bought from Chinese resale sites like Banggood and AliExpress are pretty much guaranteed NOT to work. Phones from eBay and Amazon Marketplace may or may not work; check the for-sale posts carefully to make sure you're getting a phone that will work in North America. Phones sold directly by Amazon to people with US addresses are fine unless the offer specifically says they are not.
Band 12 support on T-Mobile has an additional requirement. T-Mobile will not allow a phone to be used on band 12 unless it has VoLTE (voice over LTE) and e911 support. The reason is that T-Mobile has no non-LTE spectrum on the 700MHz and 850MHz bands. A phone without VoLTE support might work for data in some locations where it would be unable to make voice calls, and that would violate the emergency service mandate.
Unlikely. Consumer Reports has surely received many buyout offers over the years from magazine conglomerates and declined them all. The organization behind it, Consumers Union, appears to be financially healthy so there is no pressing need for them to accept a buyout, and editorial independence is one of their core values.
It's hard to make a single recommendation, because different people are called by different parts of the hobby.
Does working DX (making contacts with distant stations) call to you? Any number of commercial HF transceivers will fill the bill. Buying one brand new starts at $600 or so and goes up (WAY up) from there. But used radios can be good values, and you can get back most of what you spend by reselling the radio if you decide it's not for you. Get advice from an active ham about what to buy and what to avoid.
Want to participate in public service events (helping out at road races, charity walks, and the like)? A handheld VHF and UHF transceiver is usually what you need. (Some events call for higher power radios that are used in cars.) You can go really cheap and buy a Baofeng for under $50, or spend a bit more on a radio from one of the big ham radio companies to get something that is easier to use. The up and coming thing are digital handhelds, but those mostly aren't yet being used for public service events.
Itching to get out the soldering iron and build your own radio? Plenty of choices there too, from very minimal designs to ones that match the capabilities of the commercial rigs.
Are neighborhood data networks your thing? Most of that work is done with repurposed WiFi gear. Suitable used routers can be very inexpensive, and people often build their own directional antennas. One popular design uses a Pringles can.
I have only scratched the surface. There are many other possibilities.
The FX-8320E is already available from Micro Center for $90 most of the time. (That's an "on sale" price but it's on sale far more often than not.) And to sweeten the deal even more they give you $40 off a compatible motherboard. But the lesser members of the FX family aren't any cheaper. (They do have a couple of less expensive AMD CPUs in other series: the A6-7400 for $55 and the Athlon 5350 for $40. The latter is a 25W TDP processor that is nice for an HTPC build.) And you have to go to one of their stores to get that price; they don't offer it by mail.
Right now they're only doing drone deliveries in the UK, where guns are scarce. It would be much more of a hazard here in the US.