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Portables (Apple)

Samsung Galaxy Book S is Thinner, Lighter, Faster Than MacBook Air (notebookcheck.net) 81

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Intel Core i5-8210Y delivers a multi-core score of 1544 which compares poorly with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx multi-core score of 2745. Yet, despite fitting the MacBook Air with a 49.9 Wh battery, Apple claims it will deliver just 13 hours of continuous video playback. However, because of the superior performance-per-watt of the Snapdragon 8cx when paired with the smaller 42 Wh battery in the Galaxy Book S, it delivers up to 25 hours (claimed) of continuous video playback. You can probably also argue that Microsoft has done an excellent job of optimizing Windows on ARM so that it works so harmoniously in this WinARM union. The MacBook Air weighs 1.25 kg (2.75 pounds) and is 15.6 mm (0.61-inches) at its thickest point. This compares with the Galaxy Book S which weighs 0.96 kg (2.11 pounds) and measures 11.8 mm (0.46-inches). Given that buyers of the slightly more expensive MacBook Air (US$1,099) are also only going to be doing relatively light-weight tasks on it like internet browsing and running Microsoft's Office suite on it, why would anyone choose the MacBook Air over the Galaxy Book S (US$999)? Like the MacBook Air, the Galaxy Book S runs its operating system, pre-installed apps and the Office suite natively while also giving users the option to use 32-bit x86 apps for those occasions where you might want to use other apps.

Submission + - Gardasil cleared of Anti-Vax nonsense (slate.com)

Submitted by Zane C.
Zane C. writes: A new study once again proves that vaccines have no link with yet another batch of medical disorders. The vaccine in question is a relatively new HPV vaccine called Gardasil, mainly targeting preteens to reduce infection. Phil Plait has more on this, debunking anti-vax claims and explaining why you should receive the vaccine.

Submission + - Nanotech could make incandescent light bulbs as efficient as LEDs (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Thomas Edison would be pleased. Researchers have come up with a way to dramatically improve the efficiency of his signature invention, the incandescent light bulb. The approach uses nanoengineered mirrors to recycle much of the heat produced by the filament and convert it into additional visible light. The new-age incandescents are still far from a commercial product, but their efficiency is already nearly as good as commercial LED bulbs, while still maintaining a warm old-fashioned glow.

Submission + - "Get Windows 10" turns itself on and nags Win7 and 8.1 users twice a day (infoworld.com)

Submitted by LichtSpektren
LichtSpektren writes: As you may recall, Microsoft has delivered KB3035583 as 'recommended update' to users of Windows 7 and 8.1. What this update does is install GWX ("Get Windows 10"), a program which diagnoses the system to see if it is eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10, and if so, asks the user if they would like to upgrade (though recently, the option to decline has been removed). Some users have gotten around this by editing Windows Registry values for "AllowOSUpgrade", "DisableOSUpgrade", "DisableGWX", and "ReservationsAllowed" in order to disable the prompt altogether. This advice was endorsed by Microsoft on their support forums.

According to a report by Woody Leonhard at InfoWorld, the newest version of KB3035583 update includes a background process which scans the system's Windows Registry twice a day to see if the values for the four aforementioned registry inputs were manually edited to disable the upgrade prompt. If they were, the process will alter the values, silently re-download the Windows 10 installation files (about 6 GB in total), and prompt the user to upgrade.

Comment Poor Tracked Changes (Score 1) 254

by bedouin (#50307865) Attached to: The LibreOffice Story

While occasional formatting inconsistencies when editing Word files can be problematic, the main thing that prevents me from using LibreOffice is the absence of a final view mode with markup when tracked changes are turned on. This has been a feature request for ages, submitted by numerous people. Apple managed to implement it in Pages, so I'm not sure why LibreOffice hasn't been able to after 10 years.

Comment Privoxy = network-wide ad-blocking (Score 2) 528

by bedouin (#50289797) Attached to: Study: Ad Blocker Use Jumps 41 Percent

I'm surprised I didn't see Privoxy mentioned in the comments. It may not be as effective or updated as regularly as many browser plugins, but it's the only way to block ads across your entire network, on ANY device. This is one of the reasons I never encounter ads in iOS apps/games with iAds. I've been using it since the days of Internet Junkbuster, before ad-blocking plugins even existed. Aside from blocking ads, Privoxy has some other privacy enhancing features as well.

Comment Re:External PDF viewer? (Score 1) 115

by bedouin (#50274479) Attached to: Mozilla Issues Fix For Firefox Zero-Day Bug

The first browser that allowed PDFs to be displayed inline without a plugin was Safari since its beta stages. That's because OS X has had the ability to display PDFs built in to it since its Nextstep days. So, it all stems from a desire to duplicate a feature in Safari that was actually a native feature of OS X . . .

Comment Add me to the Seagate 3TB club . . . (Score 1) 297

by bedouin (#49974713) Attached to: When Will Your Hard Drive Fail?

My 3TB Seagate drive was spotty from the beginning, but where I live getting a warranty replacement might end up costing you more than just buying a new drive. The latter is certainly faster and more convenient. It kept going for two years and finally died last week. The fifteen year old drive in my G3 iMac, however, refuses to die.

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