Excursions

Yesterday, I was sitting with my iPad Mini on the sunny balcony, with my sister’s iPhone and my Galaxy S24 Ultra next to me. Barely able to read on my iPad, I picked up my phone and was reminded how I had fallen absolutely in love with this device. Especially the two aspects. The stunning screen. The monstrous battery life.

I don’t think I have seen a better screen than what this has. All reviews have called it out. But you must experience it to appreciate the brilliance of what Samsung has achieved. The text is crisp; the colours pop out. Plus, the lack of reflection is mindblowing. I don’t think I can go back to any other device now that doesn’t have the technical wizardry that Samsung has packaged here. It’s perfectly visible even in the harshest sunlight without losing clarity or colour.

I am surprised no one built such a screen earlier. This is much more important than the high refresh rate or crazy resolutions. Here’s a snapshot from the official product page.

The second one is also a no-brainer with its trade-off – the battery life. Since moving to smartphones in 2009 with the iPhone 3GS, I haven’t had any phone with a battery life longer than a day. But then I also stubbornly preferred phones with smaller dimensions. I never liked the likes of Notes and Plueses and Pros and Maxes. So, my decision to shift to a large phone this time was clouded by my fear of discomfort.

All my fears were washed away right on the second day when my phone wasn’t screaming at me to be plugged in. My last phone, the Galaxy S22, was the slickest of all the devices I have ever owned. But it was frustrating to put it to charging every evening. From that to now, when I am easily going through two full days without charging my phone, it is a drastic (and welcome) change. Even three days once. This might be a benefit that all large phones share. But with everything this device packs, it has to be the best amongst the best.

Even without the natural benefit of a larger screen to read and write better, I would always select a larger phone from now on just for the battery life it lends.

In addition, there are miscellaneous benefits of Samsung’s versions of Android phones for me. They have been nailing the physical design of the phones for the past few years. Without all the gloss, they look and feel premium in hand. Everyone who has held this device has commended the richness of its feel.

One UI feels slick, elevating the overall Android experience a notch higher. It’s inherently Google but distinctly Samsung at the same time. All the small touches they add across the platform are well thought through. The ones that I have found the most used are Modes and Routines. It helps set your phone for different phases of the day. I can customize all aspects, the most important being which apps I access during a particular mode. For example, in Life mode, I have set it so that I can’t use any apps from my work even if I wanted to. Neither do I get notifications from them. 

Samsung has woven a lot of such small additions into the platform. S Pen works nicely. The side Panel stays hidden, yet it is extremely useful. Dex is an absolute stunner. And the list goes on.

This post has gone on for much longer than I initially expected. And I haven’t even talked about the cameras. With Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung has indeed mastered the smartphone.

Maya narrates an annoying annectode involving iMessages.

By buying my mother a gift, I have now made it so that her contacts with iPhones, who all have her email saved, will – by default – send her messages that she cannot access on her phone, and they won’t know that they’re doing this when trying to text her. This seems terrible.

This is terrible. I recall I had gone through a similar frenzy when I had switched from my iPhone to Android. Getting back my messages from the clutches of iMessages was so painful. I had to go through this again when I bought my iMac and Apple decided I want messages with my email. It’s frustrating to see the limits Apple goes to to decide on its user’s behalf what’s best for them. I really resonate with this thought from Maya (emphasis mine).

If they’d just built their own thing in a separate app that needed both sides to explicitly opt-in to use in their communication, I wouldn’t be writing this!

Amen! Only saving grace is there are not many in my family or friends circle who use iPhone.

I received yesterday the Galaxy 24 Ultra that I had preordered. A quick opinion after a day’s use – I am mighty impressed. Stunning display. Monstrous battery. And a brilliant camera – I have taken a few shots in low light and portraits, and boy, am I impressed. This is the basic feature set that matters to me.

With a place now for my snaps on my website, I am going to have so much fun taking pictures with this set of cameras.

Coming from a smaller screen size of Galaxy S22, I was very worried that I might not like the massive size jump. But I think I am going to love this size. It has a lot of space for all the elements on the screen. One that also renders a lot of crisp words – I am now on the lookout for more to read.

The overall experience feels buttery smooth. The feel in the hand is light, yet premium. Plus, did I say that I love the larger screen on the phone!?

When I upgraded to Galaxy S22 a couple of years back, I wrote this about my initial impressions about the device.

I love the design of this phone, plus the feel in the hand. It’s compact yet powerful. I also like what Samsung has done with Android. This is possibly the best compact smartphone out there. Not just with Android.

After a couple of years with a compact phone, I have decided to jump to the other extreme. I have preordered the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I want to use a monstrous phone now. Though the compact phone was brilliant for general use, two issues have troubled me a lot.

The first is battery life. It barely lasted a whole day for me. If I use it heavily, I would need to juice it up towards the evening. With a bigger phone comes a bigger battery. I require a phone that lasts at least a day now.

The second is the smaller screen wasn’t the best to read and write. Especially later. I felt constrained and generally preferred to read on my iPad and write on my iMac or laptop. I hope both changes with a larger screen.

I knew back then that Galaxy Ultra was the device I wanted next. I will have one next week.

Apple’s response to the ruling to allow devs to steer users to external payment methods is such a farce. They knew these new rules were stupid and wouldn’t be accepted by the developers. They also knew that these rules will be challenged by Epic. Yet they went ahead publishing them. Tells me they just wanted to delay doing what is an obvious solution.

Apple should stop blowing their own trumpet on how it always has its developers’ and customers’ best interests in mind. Get down from your high horse and admit you are a business first.

I watched the Rabbit R1 keynote for the first time, and I have to say it’s an exciting device. What surprised me the most was the price! How can any AI-based device be launched at this price range? And that’s when I looked at the specs. Behind all the funky-looking exterior, it’s underpowered inside. Also, tells me most of the functionality happens in the cloud.

The makers have smartly called out that this does not replace your smartphone. It’s a companion device. And that’s where I have my doubts about R1. It might sell brilliantly at the beginning, which it already is, according to the reports. But I am afraid it will lie forgotten in the drawers for many.

An exciting, cute tech nonetheless. The question is, are we ready for an AI-only device?

I have uninstalled all the filler apps from my smartphone. There’s no social network or news or video app. Yet I reach out for the device if it is around me. I won’t do anything there. Open emails to find nothing new. Open some random website. Or worse just check if there are any notifications. This is pitiful. I need a filler activity that’s better than swiping randomly on my smartphone.

A filler activity is the one I would do when I am not fully focused on something. While I sit in meetings where I am just a listener. While I wait for my food. While I start while my tea is brewing. Unfortunately, my smartphone continues to occupy such periods currently.

I have always disliked the apps that provide you with a 15-minute summary of the books, usually non-fiction books. Such services are reviewed well and people seem to be paying for them. For example, Blinkist. Here’s whom this service claims to be built for.

Perfect for curious people who love to learn, busy people who don’t have time to read, and even people who aren’t into reading.

I don’t get this. What’s the fun in listening to a 15-minute summary of books? Even podcasts, they claim?

It’s okay to not be into reading books. One isn’t really missing anything if they don’t read books – the information will find its way to reach them. Why, then, the farce of reading books through summaries?

With the rise of ChatGPT and likes, services now don’t even want people to read articles on the web. For example, the latest update for Arc browser launched a new feature called 5-second preview where one can “press Shift and hover over any link to generate a summary of the webpage, without a single click”. This is not good as it can potentially kill people’s (already dwindling) interest in visiting other websites.

Why are we so against any form of reading in the original voice?

Why should I care if my writing gets included in training the ChatGPT and likes? Is there any clear harm that I am not able to see? Or is it just the fear of anything not in direct control?

I would rather want myself to be my own voice than someone else.

I am really enjoying my experience using Bard- I have long stopped using search engines as the first stop. Only after I have asked Bard, my query do I return to a regular search engine. And even such instances are getting rarer.

For example, I was today wondering what movie a particular scene was from. Bard got the answer bang on. A search engine never got this right for me.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT has long fallen behind in the race. This is what it came back with. As much as I would have liked otherwise, Google is quickly gaining back the lost ground.