It's post-peak tech. Channel flipping is the ideal format for channels and other content that can take up a whole screen.

It'd be interesting to see how big a CPU chip scaled up to be big enough for a human to fit in (were it hollowed out) would end up being.

Reminds me of the Monster 6502. Not quite what you're suggesting, but still a large discrete monster of a board.

https://monster6502.com/

Instead of a hedge maze maybe we can have VR "walking through a 8086 or 8088" chip style maze in the future.

Not a whole chip, but an important section of one:

https://www.zerotoasiccourse.com/post/3dcells/

They're usually 150μm thick. Humans fit in about 300mm thick spaces, so you need 2000x linear scale.

Not to answer your question exactly but ...

Chips seem to be around 25mm sq, and the smallest features around 10nm. If you scaled up so the smallest feature is one mm then the chip would be around 2.5km square. (over 1.5 miles on each side)

If the smallest feature was about the width of human hair then divide the above by 100.

The first country to outlaw social media for everyone under 18 will own the future.

It'd be more interesting if Google let us run Android apps in Chrome browsers on Windows and across linux distros.

> more

Well, not really - not more -, because we have mobile devices that are born with Android and installing a Desktop Linux on them would be a hassle of doubtful results, and we have Desktop Linux applications that are missed in the Android software availability...

Both ways are sought: running Linux applications on Android and running Android applications on Linux and elsewhere.

I'm quite sad about the death of WSA

Unlike Apple Nokia built their devices to resist breaking and be 100% serviceable down to the smallest parts. Apple uses metal because it's significantly heavier than plastic and makes phones heavy enough to shatter glass screens and damage their internals when dropped.

Any iPhone could replace its metal housing with an equally strong polymer and become exponentially more difficult to break.

The scratchproof "gorilla glass" (a Dow Corning invention) is extremely shatter resistant. Metal is of course more shatter resistant than polymer.

There was a tragic brief era when we might have had synthetic sapphire / "transparent aluminium" screens: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/3/18528920/sec-charges-apple... (sapphire is aluminium oxide)

The 3210 era devices had easily replaceable polymer covers; they definitely did break and scratch, but these operated as disposable ablative shielding for the phone itself. Which also had a much smaller screen that was away from the corners of the device. So what people do nowadays on all of these devices is add third party cases to absorb the everyday wear .. but you can always take the case off for a "dress" phone, which like party or formalwear trades durability for looking good.

The Nokia 1040 (Windows, glass screen) was also pretty good at damage resistance. My wife stuck with hers until the Flash started wearing out round about five years in.

> Metal is of course more shatter resistant than polymer.

Yeah, but that doesn't help when the phone lands with the glass hitting something. And a heavier metal phone will have accumulated more kinetic energy during the fall than a lighter plastic one, so have a greater probability of shattering the glass.

They tried that a few years ago with the iPhone 5C. We saw no difference in repair rates at the time.

Their real purpose is to look "premium". How else would you explain the use of glass on the back of the phone? It's certainly not ergonomics - there are materials that are both stronger and grippier. But it's certainly shiny.

iPhones are built with super tight tolerances. Using the same (or similar enough) materials on opposing sides means not having to deal with different thermal expansion properties. Glass is also radio transparent which makes the NFC radio and wireless charging much easier. It likely doesn't hurt with cellular and WiFi reception either. It's also not going to interfere with the MagSafe magnets.

Somehow Android phones manage to do NFC and wireless charging just fine without glass back panels. And tighter tolerances are exactly that - "premium look".

Tight tolerances are premium construction. Loose fitting parts are cheap and easy. They also lead to increased wear and decreased durability. Dismiss everything as "looks" if you want.

You know what else leads to increased wear and decreased durability? More glass that breaks when you drop the phone.

Have California cell networks gotten to the point where they'll be able to handle the mass calling that follows disasters? Curious how people will contact emergency services and friends/family in the critical time following an earthquake/fire/etc.

Not if the power goes out. Unlike landlines (which are required to have generators at the central office), cell towers are only required to have a battery backup that lasts a couple hours.

When we had the rolling blackouts in the bay area a few years ago, Comcast's cable network was the first to go, but the cell network didn't last much longer.

for the most part, things are much better than they were 10 years ago. you can go to a baseball/football game and your phone works. you can go to a concert and your phone works. a big part of this has been capacity upgrades, protocol upgrades, and a shift from telecom traffic to internet traffic

it has always been difficult to contact emergency services following an earthquake / massive fire. it might actually be more scalable now. and you have more options of who/how to contact

At this point the problem is likely less technical than limited manpower to actually answer phones when the call volume goes up 5000%.

it works at a football game because they know about it and send in extra equipment to handle it.

My test always used to be midnight, new years eve, when everyone wanted to say happy new year at the same time.

On 2G/GSM, the whole network would drop for 30 minutes, just zero reception on the phone.

On 3G, you'd have reception but calls were impossible and texts mostly failed.

On 3G+HSDPA, texts also worked fine but data became unusable as people sent fireworks photos

On early 4G, not much changed from HSDPA since the networks were busier from more people using smartphones and social media

On LTE Advanced and 5G it's all a non-event now, everything works fine

It seems like the obvious solution is to offer Americans what they want in terms of a burger named after a bigger denominator.

1/5th pound burger is going to sell better than the quarter pounder while using less beef.

My dream has always been a toggle that switches between traditional loud sportscar exhaust and something on par with a stock BMW exhaust. Last time I checked physical switches still had a tendency to leak. The battery method could be the answer to an on-demand lower profile option.

This is super common, but the sound changes are less dependent in the exhaust and more dependent on the tuning.

In the simplest case there are exhaust cutouts that reroute the flow from a button push. Mercedes aftermarket mods are common here. But, there are also tuning changes that can be triggered in the ECU or timing changes in the valves, turbos, and other parts of the combustion flow with digital or analog input.

For instance, current EU emissions requirements keep a Ferrari F8 much quieter at idle than a 458 or 488 but it still can make the fun car sound at full throttle or with aftermarket modifications.

Look into the car you like to drive, there are many mods available, YMMV.

Be the one person who doesn't look like a hunchback endlessly poking at a small tablet - by standing upright and endlessly poking into the space around you.