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Businesses upgrading to Windows 10 forced global PC sales into the black for the first time in seven years in 2019, but it could have been so much better if Intel's chip drought had eased.
Preliminary findings from Gartner pegged shipments at 261.23 million, up 0.6 per cent year-on-year, and rival analyst IDC reckons 266.69 million found their way on the shelves of distributors and resellers, itself up 2.7 per cent.
Forced upgrades from Microsoft still seem to outweigh jumps to Linux. Will that ever change?
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Global PC Sales Up for First Time in 7 Straight Years
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For recreational use only.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday January 15 2020, @01:56AM (6 children)
This time, what I want is an Android laptop with several TF slots, a big screen, with WiFi, Miracast and Bluetooth.
I want it to act just like my phone...including the ability to make calls, SMS, and sensors.
My Arduinos do my home automation. And my existing machines do any Mathcad, C++ , and interfaces I may want to tinker with.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @02:30AM (4 children)
TF slots? You mean microSD? I doubt you will ever find more than one on a laptop. You could plug in a USB hub and then plug in external microSD readers.
I don't think we will see laptops with all of the sensors and accelerometers found in a smartphone. I could be wrong though. Your best bet is likely the laptop-oriented ARM SoCs.
There has been a push to include 5G modems in laptops, moreso than 4G/LTE:
Intel Integrates LTE Modem Into Custom Multi-Chip Module for New HP Laptop [soylentnews.org]
Intel and Qualcomm Announce 5G Modem Modules for M.2 Slots [soylentnews.org]
Intel and MediaTek Announce Partnership to Bring 5G Modems to PCs [soylentnews.org]
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8c and 7c for Cheaper ARM Laptops [soylentnews.org]
Lenovo’s Yoga 5G is the first ARM-powered Windows laptop with 5G [theverge.com]
Dell debuts 5G-ready Latitude 9510 laptop, adds iOS mirroring to PCs [venturebeat.com]
Bluetooth continues to be stupid. Long range and fast transfer modes are optional additions to Bluetooth 5.0. Looking at the recent announcement for Bluetooth 5.2 [prnewswire.com], it doesn't look like they expect devices to support all modes ("125 Kbps PHY" is the long range mode, "2 Mbps PHY" is the fastest one). The Bluetooth audio standard [anandtech.com] has also been updated, but they decided to ignore the existence of Opus for reasons.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday January 15 2020, @06:41AM (3 children)
Thanks!
I just threw my wishlist out, hoping it makes it to some market researcher.
I do a lot of stuff on my phone now, with the only things I really want are more micro-SD slots, a bigger display, and a decent keyboard.
I would love to have it work just like my phone.
I have apps that do nearly anything. I don't really feel I need a Miçrosoft type PC anymore.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:07AM (2 children)
Many phone brands have been removing microSD slots as internal storage has hit 256 GB and above, although they seem to be pretty common on laptops. For those devices that still have SD/microSD slots, 1 TB cards are available and 2 TB cards ought to be compatible when they are released. The SDUC specification raises the theoretical limit to 128 TiB, but there are no products on the market advertising compatibility with that yet.
My point is that 1 slot should be enough unless your use case has you swapping lots of them (like a film crew). I have never seen a laptop with two or more SD slots, but you can find products like this [windowscentral.com].
A new 2-in-1 Chromebook might be the device for you since that can support web apps, Android apps, and sandboxed Linux applications. The state of Android support on ChromeOS has been criticized [androidpolice.com], but improvements continue to be made [slashgear.com].
As far as taking calls on your device goes, there is probably some software out there for that.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @11:33AM (1 child)
I've had serious issues loading data onto my current phone. My workaround is to pop out the external card, put it into a card reader, copy across the files using a PC, then put the card back in. Done.
How else will I get hundreds of files across to the phone? Bluetooth?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 16 2020, @11:39AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go [wikipedia.org]
You might have to play with settings to get the phone recognized as a storage device instead of a camera.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:16PM
I think you want a Playstation.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org