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  1. Z

    Android, GPS, Note 4, Runkeeper

    Can confirm, Note 4 is useless for run tracking with Strava. I thought it was good enough to keep track of the the time for runs at least but the GPS is so bad that sometime it stops updating for long enough that Strava thinks I've stopped running. I'd pick up a used android phone like you said.
  2. Z

    Apple A9X Geekbench

    Wow that is weird. Anandtech left L3 of their initial iPad Pro table so it looks like it is true. http://anandtech.com/show/9780/taking-notes-with-ipad-pro/2 I though L3 was mainly needed to improve latency but considering that A9 needed double the L3 of A8 the main reason for having a big L3...
  3. Z

    Aanandtech's iPhone 6S Review

    They just about doubled RAM, NAND, CPU, and GPU throughput, noticeably improved camera performance, and improved the touchscreen with haptics and force sensitivity. I'm happy with the screen, 326 ppi is plenty for me and LCD performs better than AMOLED at low brightness. iPhone 7 wish...
  4. Z

    12" Retina MacBook graphics? External cooling?

    The 13" MBP is smaller than the 13" MBA so that doesn't say much. It could fit depending on what your limiting dimension is. M11xr3 is 1.30 x 11.26 x 9.17 in 13 MBP is 0.71 x 12.35 x 8.62 in
  5. Z

    Need advice ... just bought an Ipad Mini 2 with Retina

    No screen protector to keep the display as good looking as possible. I'm a big fan of the super cheap "TPU wave" style cases. They make it easier to hold and aren't very bulky. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Soft-TPU-Silicone-Rubber-Back-Case-Cover-Skin-For-ipad-mini-Retina-2nd-New-/261475632096
  6. Z

    AnandTech Podcast ?

    I'm sad that era of Anandtech podcasts came to an end. Anand and Brian were an amazing podcast duo. The podcasts were the best thing I've ever seen in tech news, even better than articles on Anandtech itself and any tech youtube channels so far.
  7. Z

    Apple A8x

    I think the key differentiating feature to have at launch for a ~12.5" ipad would be side-by-side multitasking. Having two iPad Mini sized apps open each taking exactly half the screen would be a very Apple like UI choice. They would hopefully increase the resolution to iPad Mini like DPI (3k...
  8. Z

    Any chance of new iPod Touches this year?

    iPod touches are tiny, they feel about half the physical size of a normal 5" smartphone. In reality they're about half the weight of an iPhone 6 plus sized device, nowhere close to an iPad mini.
  9. Z

    Air vs Retina Pro sustained performance

    Last time I checked I couldn't find any task where you should expect less than 90% CPU/GPU performance comparing 13" base model to base model with the originally launched CPUs. It depends on the exact clocks of the chips being compared. I didn't find any synthetic loads that throttled so it is...
  10. Z

    Core M v.s. A8X in Geekbench 3

    3.5W average seems low but spikes to 12W is likely higher than an iPad ever hits, hence the active cooling. In AnandTech iPad Air testing, peak platform power went as high as 12W on the Air, up from 4W with the CPU idle so that is about 8W peak for the CPU+platform. They found that the system...
  11. Z

    Apple A8x

    A8X single threaded performance is getting stupidly fast. With a ~4W chip at 1.5 GHz they are hitting 70% of the performance of a 2.6 GHz 15W i5? Put that in a Mac already! 3 Billion transistors is insane for a low end consumer device. Even the base model 15" MBPR's $400 chip has 1.7B...
  12. Z

    Leaked iPad photos: *** CONFIRMED!!! *** iPad Air 2 tri-core CPU, 2 GB, 8-CLUSTER GPU

    A8X single threaded performance is getting stupidly fast. With a ~4W chip at 1.5 GHz they are hitting 70% of the single threaded performance of a 2.6 GHz 15W i5? Put that in a Mac already!
  13. Z

    9to5 Google claims this is the Nexus 6/X.

    If it is a good value I'll probably end up upgrading from a Nexus 4 to this giant thing. I'm not convinced 6" is the ideal size for me but it will be an interesting experiment.
  14. Z

    Blackberry Passport anyone?

    The centerpiece of the phone is the keyboard yet they change the locations of the lower letters and the space key? I don't get it. Everyone is used to one keyboard layout on phones and PCs so I don't see how they expect to be successful getting people to adopt a niche product with a completely...
  15. Z

    Surface Pro 3 thread - Info, thoughts, opinions

    The only way to do that is to make the keyboard base significantly heavier than the display and add a bulkier hinge. With a light keyboard and everything else behind the screen the "laptop" would just flip over backwards, even just using it on a desk. The best compromise that still leaves a...
  16. Z

    (AT) Apple's new 3D rendering API "Metal"

    This seems like a no brainier if the big 3D game engine makers pick up on it and push graphics efficiency with every hardware generation. Because Apple always uses the same GPU vendor with only a single hardware configuration per year across all iOS devices they have a gaming platform that is...
  17. Z

    MS Surface Event today - AT liveblog

    Tomorrow is pre-orders, I wonder if that includes Canada. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/may14/05-20surfacepr.aspx
  18. Z

    MS Surface Event today - AT liveblog

    Looks like they are aiming to be a better Macbook Air. Screen, cooling, pen all look great, I'm just not sure if a flexible keyboard cover can really provide all the "lapability" of a traditional clamshell design. If they get close enough it won't matter as the extra tablet functionality with...
  19. Z

    iPad Mini Tapping Sound

    I agree that the Air sounds and feels more hollow than the Retina iPads. I think it is just thinner glass for the touch layer. Next gen hopefully they move to a bonded display which would allow the middle of the display area to be tied down better to the rest of the frame.
  20. Z

    New MBA

    The iPad Air uses a glass screen. The glass is so thin you can see it flex when you touch it lightly. I'm hoping the next Air has a bonded glass display, the iPad Air doesn't but I don't see why it wouldn't work with thinner glass than the rMBP. Most tablets and phones use IPS displays and last...
  21. Z

    New MBA

    Retina Air is for sure happening, you can read about the display technology that will let them cut power consumption in the article linked. LTPS or an improved IGZO display will allow a Retina Air display to use half the power a current gen rMBP screen uses. That is low enough power for an Air...
  22. Z

    New MBA

    Wow good point, titanium sucks in the thermal conductivity aspect. I guess it would help it to keep the surface cooler while the fan does most of the work. It wouldn't be good for a passively cooled design though. I do think it would rather a stiff chassis, if they did want it flexy they could...
  23. Z

    New MBA

    iPad doesn't even have USB 3 while only 10% of users on macs use thunderbolt. The air is in the middle and USB 3 is good enough for most users while being cheaper and smaller. Thunderbolt requires an extra controller chip and power conversion circuitry to handle 10 watts going to thunderbolt...
  24. Z

    New MBA

    Form factor changes: 12.8" 16:10 screen Narrower bezels Bonded cover glass Less taper but thinner Rounder edges (ipad) Save weight and space with: Titanium unibody Soldered SSD, wifi No thunderbolt controller Reduced speakers (more like htc one) A 1440x900 retina LTPS display should use about...
  25. Z

    iPad Air Web Browsing Speed

    The speed is almost good enough for all web browsing which is nice but it makes usability issues more obvious. When I start to do things that I'd normally do in a desktop browser like having three tabs with clunky forum sites and store websites I notice Safari starts kicking my old tabs out of...
  26. Z

    qHD screens? 1440x2560. next years high end?

    It makes lots of sense, there are more AMOLED pixels in the same area so the each pixel does not need to be as bright. Both an AMOLED and an LCD need to light up the same display area but the LCD must push the light through a grid of color filtering pixels while on an AMOLED the color pixels...
  27. Z

    Apple Oct. 22 event: We Still Have A Lot To Cover

    I don't get all of the complaining about the Retina Mini? It has all of the same specs as fastest iPad plus it is smaller and cheaper. Last year's mini was a shrunk down iPad 2, now the mini is a shrunk down iPad Air for $100 cheaper. The iPad mini is also a bit bigger and higher end than the...
  28. Z

    Moto X (Is Out) [8.01.2013]

    Sounds awesome, I'd rather have this than a HTC One or a GS4. Too bad about the camera.
  29. Z

    Buy Macbook Pro now or wait?

    Only the Mac Pro trash can is going to be made in the USA. I do think that there will be an iGPU only option for the 15" rMBP. With the current gen 650m Apple used default overclock setting to boost performance. I could see them doing something similar with the extra TDP headroom they will have...
  30. Z

    Wow. Somehow, Chrome on the iPhone is really fast

    I also like chrome on my iPad, having all of the bookmarks and recent searches etc. from my PC reduces keyboard time. Chrome also doesn't have the annoying pop up ads that sites like anandtech use in safari.
  31. Z

    AnandTech Podcast: Episode 21 now up

    Why is the podcast download 200 MB? I'm going to download it even if it kills my data plan because I'm so excited but YouTube manages to do 240p video at a lower bitrate than this encoded speech. I would appreciate 128 Kbps or less because a podcast is half silence anyways so it shouldn't impact...
  32. Z

    Considering an ipad mini or an ipod touch

    +1 iPad photography looks stupid but is super nice. You get to see the image at almost full size and the extra size and weight helps keep the camera steady.
  33. Z

    Wwdc 2013

    The page won't load for me in IE8 and in Chrome even if I maximize something in front CPU usage stays high on Windows 8. CPU usage drops if I switch to another Chrome tab though.
  34. Z

    Rampant Speculation Thread WWDC'13

    I think the 13" MBP Retina design is going to be updated slightly to handle a higher TDP processor with Iris Pro graphics. There is also the possibility of an improved IGZO Retina display like was shown by Fujitsu this week but I don't think they can make enough yet to be used in any of Apples...
  35. Z

    Nexus 4 Camera is really starting to annoy me

    I don't have much trouble with focusing but it is a lower quality camera than most phones. Brian has written about the smaller sensor and pixel size it uses to allow for a thinner camera module.
  36. Z

    i7 4770k new 3dmark physics test

    RAM bandwidth getting eaten up by the iGPU?
  37. Z

    Is it safe to buy a current ipad?

    I'd say the current iPad is as "safe" as it gets from an iOS upgrade standpoint because it just got a CPU upgrade to the latest architecture. It seems likely that the next gen iPad will use the same CPU architecture. That means both iPads will likely start having problems with updates at the...
  38. Z

    [Tom's Hardware] CPU bottlenecking/frame latency benchmarks

    Case in point: The two Far Cry 3 graphs from the OP. The two lowest performance CPUs are way at the top of the "latency" chart. How is this a useful ranking??? They are consistently bad?
  39. Z

    [Tom's Hardware] CPU bottlenecking/frame latency benchmarks

    I think their new testing is also very useless for comparing CPUs. They are using the "difference between the time it takes to display consecutive frames". This means that a slow CPU that is bottlenecking and always takes 150ms to render every frame will score better than a fast CPU that gets...
  40. Z

    HTC Droid DNA review

    I don't think that's fair because AT is still a "computer" hardware review site and the number of people reading the PC sections of these forums is usually at least 10x as many as the mobile section. There are also specific editors for different technologies and so you can't criticize the people...