richy

Flat might not happen for a while, although samsung are getting close with their future bendable screens which should be able to go from flat to curved (it wouldn't make any sense not to). samoled UHD should be fantastic although the sony screen was pretty good with their unicorn tears triluminous tech. What really struck me was the difference in the UHD sets, from genuinely amazing pictures to utterly abysmal and worse than FHD. You think if you were trying to sell a set costing between 2 and 5k (thinking of a specific couple of models) you would invest a little more in the presentation in store, giving them better stock footage.

There's a lot of talk about these sets and they are becoming both cheaper and widely available so I just wanted to share my thoughts and maybe de FUD the situation a little. TLDR version Go to a store with a decent range of sets, look at UHD and FHD sets running side by side with the correct inputs (i.e. feeding UHD into the UHD set) and if you can see a difference and you feel that difference is worth the price tag then buy it. If not then don't, although you may want to wait until more content is available and things have settled down (like the newer hdmi standard, higher refresh rates and hevc built into smart tv's). It really is that simple Getting UHD content is still somewhat difficult, there is some streaming coming and a 'bluray 2.0' format which will support it. Beyond that I would suggest waiting about a year for things to settle a little more. The grab a coffee version. So first things first, what is 4k and UHD? The two are not the same. For reference a Full HD set is 1920x1080 pixels. UHD (ultra high definition) is exactly 4x this at 3840 × 2160 and 4K is a variety of resolutions , 4096 × 2160, 4096 × 1716, & 3996 × 2160. The first of those is full true 4k, the other two are various crops. True 4k is actually higher than UHD and the two are not the same so I am a little suspicious when I see UHD sets labelled as 4k. There are more improvements although not all will be featured in every set or delivery medium (expect physical discs to have a higher quality than streamed video) such as increased colour depth (basically more shades of each colour) and higher frame rates. IIRC there is also HDR support which should allow for more detail in the shadows and the highlights but I have yet to see this demonstrated. So if you buy a set today you will pay a premium and probably also run the risk of buying a set that doesn't fully support everything, many run at a maximum of 30Hz, they have an older version of HDMI (you really want v2.0 although apparently some 1.4's can be upgraded but I wouldnt risk it.) Why UHD? The reason it exists is because if they don't keep making things 'better' then people wont buy sets as often. There are improvements in picture quality but how much will depend on how close you sit and how good your eyes are. Theres no shame in not thinking its worth the money nor is there in thinking it is. The biggest problem with UHD is that 3D flopped so fantastically set makers have rushed UHD sets out so quickly the supporting technology was caught out. The first sets used 4 hdmi cables running together to make a single connection, frame rates were limited, there was no physical distribution medium and streamed content wasn't available. All this is changing but I wouldn't judge UHD based on the last years performance. Be very careful about demonstrations, I was in a large blue food and junk store and they had a LG UHD set on demonstration that was an appalling example of UHD. My best guess was the footage had been over compressed and or re-compressed and the artifacts were abysmal. I also watched a few samsung and sony sets in a different store (sears I think) which were epic. Find a decent store and even check out a few stores. HEVC. If you want a smart TV you want one that supports HEVC which will be rare at the moment. If you want your set to stream content at UHD from netflix you will really want this codec and it is a massive improvement. If you have a very fast connection you might do ok without it but even at neflix's 15mbps and amazons 20-25mbps UHD will struggle more when encoded with h264 then h265(hevc). There are lots of articles on the advancements but one of the largest is that it allows each frame to be broken down into grids of different levels of detail rather than uniformly. The method of compressing video currently uses a uniform level of detail across an entire image when in reality there is often varying levels of detail which results in a compromise of too much detail being encoded where it isnt needed and not enough where it is. Conservatively this will result in about a 30% reduction of bitrate for the same quality, marketing plods are saying it approaches 50-70% but they are professional liars. Upscaling. This is important as a lot of the content you will view will not be UHD so how the TV set displays this will be important. As UHD is exactly 4x FHD then you hopefully should be able to turn off any poor upscaling and just use 4 pixels on the screen for every 1 of the source but there are good an bad implementations of upscaling. A UHD picture is about 8mp in photography terms and FHD is about 2mp so it does take some grunt to do any fancy upscaling. What to look for, what I saw, is where there is an area of contrast like an area of blue next to red there was a halo in the red area. I saw some really good upscaling on the sony's and some really dreadful upscaling on another random named set. Price, you can pickup UHD sets on amazon for 3-400, they arent amazing but they are driving down the price. Sets are still in the 1-5000 range depending on size for decent sets but that is dropping very quickly, expect partity with todays FHD sets in a year or two, right about time for new bluray players and discs to be out. Can I get X old movie in FHD. Many movies will need to be rescanned and remastered in UHD so it will vary based on demand. Sadly most films out on DVD and bluray were actually scanned in 4k and mastered in 4k and then outputted at 2k and they didnt keep the 4k files so they will have to revisit each film. Also theres a fair amount of TV and films that have been shot digitally at 2k or lower that cannot be rescanned. What about 8k. Theres an argument going on about skipping 4k because 8k is coming in about 8-10 years. 8k is a 33mp image, I'd love an 8k monitor for photo editing but it will come down to when you need or want to replace a set. Right now nothing is being shot in 8k, last time I checked theres only experimental 8k cameras, I think one of the sonys could do 8k but its partially interpolated. Time will tell but until we can actually see the footage, see the sets and understand how it will be delivered it is pointless speculating.

IIRC there are or at least were limits on 'in perpetuity' contracts and clauses. At the end of the day theres little recourse beyond hiring a fine lawyer and chasing them over it being a grossly unbalanced contract although that only normally works if one party is in a position to exert undue influence to extract unfair clauses. If someone really did sign a lease for a long term without increments etc and was under no pressure to do so then it's just idiot tax. Unless the law has changed, if it is in perpetuity then it should be limited to X (maybe 20) years after the death of the person signing it. As this is the land of the lawsuit : I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice nor am I entering into any kind of client attorney relationship with anyone.

Curse him for making me agree with him but this is one of the few things he was right about. Tmo is taking subs from the big two and their only fig leaf is additional line adds for tablets. Sprint is in the position to take some of tmo's better business moves and combine it with a better network and seriously do some damage to the big two. They also have the money to build their network for the future. Legere may be doing ok now but how are they going to buy the remaining lower a spectrum, maybe buy in the next aws auction, buy in the 600 MHz auction AND roll all of that out physically, oh and convert all the edge to LTE AND expand their footprint. Especially if it means bands that at&t don't use as now they use essentially the same sku with a different sticker and logo. If they end up diverging from at&t that could cost them more per handset and not able to afford the same range. Things could remain the same though. Sprint might be trimming their expenses now but that is not he same as not having money. Tmo will need to either go to the banks or the market to raise somewhere between 10 and 20bn for their shopping list and the buildout. Maybe they can, maybe their current performance will allow them to but it's not a worry sprint has.

Sadly they are probably going to be here for a while. Looking at the permit map Maui only has one tower on the west side done or near done. I couldn't find any permits myself for any of the others and the lead time on a build permit like this is ~12-14 months. Some other islands are all but done or just waiting on backhaul. I'm not sure whats going on with Maui, their permitting system has been abused before so some things take longer and they are still understaffed from the 2008 bolivian marching powder induced recession. Fingers crossed the permitting system is just broken again and theres loads of work been done that we don't know about!

Close 98 was alright but 98SE was the great one. I've been using 8 for a while on a laptop alongside using 7 for actual work. 8 is alright, the interface really comes into its own on a tablet. The problem was forcing it down peoples throats. Hopefully W10 will be as solid as 7&8 with the option to avoid metro on desktops but use it on laptops. Phones are getting so powerful now we arent far off full windows on a phone, throw in a fold out screen and that would be a beast! The again I'm strange lol, it would probably only sell to me.

I'm not rushing to upgrade but I'm hoping Samsung manages to deliver that phone that folds out into a tablet they made noises about. That would be fun!

Hawaii. Home of the drunk tourist . Between them hitting poles and frequent natural disasters plus generally poor infrastructure we get a few decent outages a year. It's no big problem. *Actually the last few weeks the worst accidents have all been drunk locals including Mr drunk at 5 am trying to drive home through the middle of the start line of the marathon. Luckily no one was injured.

We keep the cable modem and router on a cheap UPS, it keeps them on for 6-8 hours when the power goes out (which it does a lot). For $40 is a sale it's a worthwhile consideration.

This! Just replace airbags with a 6 inch sharpened spike. Then see who puts on makeup etc. This is an area where technology can't replace cops out on patrol.

Just trying to order a cell spot now. I'lkl pickup a wilson amp for the car rather than their 4g booster as I want it to work when I switch to sprint. Seems like a sensible idea. I doubt they paid much per router. I'm sure there is an element of Legere twattyness about it, but on the other hand it has got them publicity and might reduce churn. Years ago in the UK companies like Vodafone were paying so much to companies to sign up subs an entire industry sprung up where you could get a free phone from an intermediary company and they would also pay your monthly line fees for the 12 months of your contract and still make a profit. I got a few phones this way. No con, they were simply paid so much in bonuses they could afford to do it. Sometimes the companies do things that seem silly, I never got to see the math behind it, perhaps Vodafone (orange did it as well) lost money or perhaps they made it back in the long term on average between all people who took advantage of the offer. Edit: called custard services, they asked a few questions, put me through to tech support. Tech support made sure I knew what I wanted (router vs booster), that it would switch me to paperless billing, that I need to inform them if I change address ( i suspect this pertains more to the booster since they have to know where they are) and that I need to return it when I leave tmo. I asked what happens if I dont return it, she said they keep the deposit, I asked how much the deposit is, she said $0 as a promotional offer. Shipping was also free via usps ground (i.e. throw it in a river and see if it gets there). When all said and done its just a router on loan, but its not bad and should help them a little. I can understand why they are trying it but I would really love to know if it pays off i.e. how much data is offloaded, how much capacity it frees up. Not that we will ever know.

It is literally impossible to discuss politics, religion or net neutrality (which is basically politics and religion combined) on the internet. It always involves someone getting butthurt and going bananas and unpleasantness for those that arent amused by it IIRC this is actually in the rules here or something similar. It's a very sensible rule, even if I do come from a state overly dependent on government *cough* don't I Robert (I jest, don't ban hammer meeeee) With respect to the detection device, how can it tell if you are using siri (or google now or ms sultana) to send a text? Cars are also beginning to put in lte connections and routers so occupants could be routing everything via wifi calling. It seems like a half baked solution 10 years too late. The current solution of having police spot you and use cell records in court is a little more reliable but still doesn't take into account using it hands free. I don't see it as a valid alternative to just having more police out doing their jobs.

Yeah, sadly the only one on the west side unless the rumors about 505 were true (no permits on file ). Glad to see some progress!

I have a tmo note 3 not a sprint one but basically it's golden. I haven't noticed any lag or misbehavior barring a very infrequent refusal to connect to any kind of cellular data once it looses a wifi signal (this has happened maybe 3 times in a year, a reboot fixes). When it was first released there were issues with wifi calling not working well due to the funky higher frequency audio sampling making you sound like alvin and the chipmunks but that got fixed quickly. It does eat battery if you use the screen on higher brightness, I got a zerolemon 10k battery for it which also has the added bonus of making it thicker as it did get uncomfortable to hold it was so thin. I'm not looking at the 4 because frankly it's a minor upgrade and the 3 is so darn fine I think short of it breaking, new band support or a change of carrier theres not much else they can make a phone do that would entice me to upgrade. One poorly performing app can make an entire phone unreliable so it is possible your friends experiences are related to something installed on his phone rather than the handset itself?

Awesome, now make it do that to text and we can call it tmoedge.js

This, so very much Sorry if I wasn't clear. It was specifically this market (Maui / Hawai'i where the three main companies have it covered, only tmo is lacking and then its in places like east Maui). From when I first came here in 2002/2003? through moving here Sprint was basically as good as the best (especially with roaming to fill in any gaps) with unlimited to cover your ass from bill shocks (rather than to allow network abuse) but for less money. Tmo has managed to pull its ass out of the fire which is impressive but looking forward they are denigrating their own brand, they're going to need to be the first operator to launch an mvno to reach more upmarket customers They need to know what Sprint already knows, if you want to take customers from the big two you have to understand their demographics, these are generally the people who are ok with paying 200 a month for 2-3 lines, so rather than offer them it half price you have to offer a better service for a little less price. Sprint can do that long term, tmo cannot without a huge chunk of good luck and a large infusion of cash. Tmo phone plus prepay verizon lte tablet seems to be working pretty well right now but if load keeps increasing on tmo, lets just say I hope Sprint gets lte here asap! As for rich neighborhoods, what I meant was that the towers in the poorer neighborhoods have more load on them, not that they haven't been upgraded. Based on permits nearly every tower has been upgraded which was kinda my point, even the upgraded (i.e. LTE not just hspa) network is overcrowded in certain areas so the future is less rosy for tmo. No wideband yet but thats probably a year away. If absolutely nothing else, I am very happy there is choice beyond at&t and vzw

Man I always feel so dirty after reading these comments about fellow tmo subs Interesting times, I have to admit I was expecting bigger news but such is life. Tmo is pretty much done its first wave of upgrades (the lte addition) and has started on the edge upgrades. A permit is here http://kivanet10g.co.maui.hi.us/kivanet/2/permit/summary/index.cfm?pid=474355&jur=MAUI Not sure how quick they will get backhaul to it though. The network itself is its usual off self, plenty of areas where even the LTE is swamped, plenty of areas where 20mbps is routine. Town centers and areas tending towards lower average earnings (not sure how best to put that) tend to be the slowest whereas resort areas and middle to upper class housing areas tend to be much faster. Still cant get over 25mbps anywhere, not that you really need to, but I guess 'wideband' hasn't arrived. As much as I hate to do anything but throw rocks at the GrandBieber a few of his comments in the interview above were reasonable. Sprint and Tmo may trade subs, often with a greater flow in one direction or another, but both companies need to take on the big two and focus on that. Thats where the growth and the money is. It's a big battle, Sprint is better resourced to do it in the long run. When I moved here 5 years ago I asked around and did my research and spoke with folks before getting a phone and the big 4 basically went as verizon - expensive but it works, old fashioned in their attitude at&t - evil, expensive, network isnt as good here sprint - as good as verizon but cheaper and unlimited data tmo - for when you cant pass a credit check or you are lucky enough to get signal between your house and work. I went with sprint, but my impression is that for a couple of years sprint got lost but it can reform that image. In many places it probably has. Sadly here we are still waiting for lte but thats as much the permitting systems fault as sprints. Tmo still appears to be just about keeping up with demand but their network is already showing strains and their plans for expansion are beginning to run out of steam. Do they have the money to bid on aws3 and 600mhz and buy up the remaining 700MHz and deploy all of those and convert the edge to lte and expand their footprint. Thats a big ask when your parent company isn't investing anything.

Wow, if his hair recedes anymore there will be room for a couple of panels on there. At least that way he might help alleviate at least one of their many coverage gaps.

As a brit that isn't a fair comparison. Three are not a bad company but they are far closer to tmobile than Verizon, it would be fairer to compare Vodafone to Verizon. Things may have changed since I escaped but the whole leasing networks used to only apply to voice and text and the UK was years behind the US on unlimited voice and text. I used to carry 3 phones around to have a reasonable chance of a data service. I'm not pro or anti regulation in this context but I worry about the intentions of the author when they compare two very different providers, they should either know better and don't or they deliberately compared them to exaggerate the effect. Three started as a 3g only network when the UK auctioned spectrum for 3g services, they nearly tanked because of poor coverage and they bet the farm on expensive video calls that no one made. Luckily mobile data came along. Iirc they leased all 2g/voice from an existing company. They tended to market themselves as a similar proposition as tmo usa, unlimited etc but forget about coverage. Last I recall they had made big strides in becoming a more credible national provider but I would hesitate to class them as compatible to Verizon, at&t, orange, or Vodafone (although they've probably all merged into 1 by now).

It would but the bigger picture is more complicated. Buying tmo removes the biggest / most similar competitor, the get instant gratification (immediate bump in subs, revenue etc, ) and financially is easier to borrow against because they are buying something rather than the prospect of something. It's like asking the bank for money to buy a house vs asking them for money to buy some land and hire a builder, the latter can be better but it's harder to assess the value of the final house so the loan is generally on stricter terms and more expensive. There are also economies of scale and 'synergies' which will factor into it. Personally I'm not 100% sure about it but I can see it could be a good move. The regulators will probably can it, especially if it doesn't happen before the next changing of the guard at Pennsylvania Ave.

Do you need to ask the FCC to change uplink ratios on TDD?

I meant if you used it for FDD uplink only, then potentially (if it is technically possible) if you were running a 3:2 split on some tdd you already had you could use that entirely for downlink (and the control channel), but yes its a massive stretch. The only real use is if using it as uplink frees up some other spectrum which would mean tdd as fdd is already mandated as fixed uplink and downlink. Return path isn't in much demand so for this to be worth much it has to be used to free up spectrum elsewhere for downlink.

Just an uneducated guess, but potentially could you use this as uplink alongside a chunk of TDD spectrum already owned and just devote all the TDD chunk to downlink? It seems a stretch and I have no idea if it is technically possible.

Yeah being throttled won't affect your pings I used to use skype on 4g when throttled but everything else on edge but that was a couple of years ago.

The pings will be higher, somewhere between 200&300ms higher than lte BUT if you are on a capped 4g plan on tmobile and you have gone over your limit the 4g is throttled to under 200kbps, often quite a bit under. Switching to unthrottled edge used to actually allow for higher throughput (at the cost of latency), however this was before LTE (I switched to tmos unlimited a while back), refarming could have crippled edge but if someone is on tmo and has hit their cap it doesn't hurt to try edge. It would be terrible for voip but not so bad down caching a youtube video with tubemate or possibly some browsing. When you say ping times do you mean the overhead inherent in the technology or that your ping is always around 52ms? Your ping time will depend what you are pinging as well as the overhead. The guys hitting 50-300GB a month are on the unlimited plan and in theory won't ever be throttled (unless I find them).