MPPT connection (again I know!)

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

That is exactly what I have against much of what Victron are up to. Fit a decent switch between panel and controller and you do not even have to to find your phone. The modern assumption that everyone has, wants, or can use a smart phone seems deigned to deny certain sectors of society the use of products or services. My non-smart mobile does not have Bluetooth and is cost so little it is no great drama if dropped in the cut or damaged.  It may surprise many people but not everyone can use smartphones unless they are happy for everything they and other say in the vicinity of the phone to be transmitted to Apple/Google for analysis and profit. It Victron wanted to that feature could be provided by a simple push button.

 

It is just another example of toys for boys and minimizing the cost of manufacture.

 

<<Rant off>>

 

Was watching a Motorhome TV programme the other night and they were testing Electic Bicycles, the 'winner' cost £4000 and could not be used unless you had an app downloaded onto your smart phone. You needed your phone to switch on the bike and monitor its speeds and power levels. It was unusable if you didnt have a smart phone or if the phone had a flat battery.

 

Madness !!!!

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Was watching a Motorhome TV programme the other night and they were testing Electic Bicycles, the 'winner' cost £4000 and could not be used unless you had an app downloaded onto your smart phone. You needed your phone to switch on the bike and monitor its speeds and power levels. It was unusable if you didnt have a smart phone or if the phone had a flat battery.

 

Madness !!!!

 

As I said, toys for boys, and yet more pressure to pay for a mobile phone and contract. It is getting into all walks of life and I think it is insidious, especially when you see the number who seem to think this sort of thing as an advancement. Just been told by Boots online that as I don't use a mobile phone they don't want my business any more. I await with interest the time when you go into a shop and they demand your mobile phone number so they can send you a message to confirm your purchase. Online purchases to your registered address should be no more insecure than paying by card in a shop.

[George and Dragon]

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

So please explain how Alexa/Siri etc. work. If you are in some way disabled so you can't reliably touch tiny buttons then if you want to use a smartphone you are reliant on voice commands. How do you think your voice commands are parsed and processed? I simply do not believe your average mobile phone has the processing power or storage to do that all on its own. I am fairly sure that your voice command gets sent back to the operating system company's servers to do all the hard processing.

 

I'm pretty sure you're right about that.

 

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

That allows them to grab more data to build your profile, that they hold for marketing purposes.

 

Not all providers are the same. Apple have made a point of difference in that they say they respect users' privacy. I wouldn't expect any of the others to do the same: they gain considerable value from sharing user data.

 

1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

The phones and some TVs etc. are equipped with microphones so can you tell me how you can be sure they are not passing everything said within earshot back to their servers?

 

You make a very good point. One reason not to use Android in my opinion but you are quite entitled to disagree.

 

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I am moored in Chester for two nights, last night I received information about Chester Co op Funeral Care

 

At the risk of divulging my gender I will admit that yesterday my news feed thought I might be interested in a story about oestrogen. I think that fairly conclusively shows that either Apple are no good at profiling or they do indeed respect user privacy.

[Tony Brooks]

2 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Not all providers are the same. Apple have made a point of difference in that they say they respect users' privacy. I wouldn't expect any of the others to do the same: they gain considerable value from sharing user data

 

So a bit like Apple saying they did not provide an update that reduced their customers' apparent battery life when there seemed a fir bit of evidence that they did. Just a personal view but the way Apple run a closed system so you have to buy Apple or go without means I would believe very little of what they, or any other tech company, claim. You may be correct, but I can't see them giving up their use of profiling and the resultant profits, more likely they are just better at hiding what they get up to.

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

So please explain how Alexa/Siri etc. work. If you are in some way disabled so you can't reliably touch tiny buttons then if you want to use a smartphone you are reliant on voice commands. How do you think your voice commands are parsed and processed? I simply do not believe your average mobile phone has the processing power or storage to do that all on its own. I am fairly sure that your voice command gets sent back to the operating system company's servers to do all the hard processing. That allows them to grab more data to build your profile, that they hold for marketing purposes. The phones and some TVs etc. are equipped with microphones so can you tell me how you can be sure they are not passing everything said within earshot back to their servers?

Bit like smart TVs

[Tony Brooks]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

Bit like smart TVs

Exactly, and any other equipment that allows voice control.

[Rob-M]

Oh dear, sat here on our boat seeing how my solar performed today using the app on my phone and streaming TV over the internet controlling what we are watching from an app on my tablet. 😀

[Murflynn]

On 26/08/2022 at 08:31, Tony Brooks said:

 

The modern assumption that everyone has, wants, or can use a smart phone seems deigned to deny certain sectors of society the use of products or services. My non-smart mobile does not have Bluetooth and is cost so little it is no great drama if dropped in the cut or damaged.  It may surprise many people but not everyone can use smartphones unless they are happy for everything they and other say in the vicinity of the phone to be transmitted to Apple/Google for analysis and profit.

 

 

you and I have that in common - a reet pair of Luddites innit?   

Edited August 27, 2022 by Murflynn

[Bod]

14 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

 

you and I have that in common - a reet pair of Luddites innit?   

Can I join your gang please?

 

Bod

[George and Dragon]

On 26/08/2022 at 12:14, Tony Brooks said:

So a bit like Apple saying they did not provide an update that reduced their customers' apparent battery life when there seemed a fir bit of evidence that they did. Just a personal view but the way Apple run a closed system so you have to buy Apple or go without means I would believe very little of what they, or any other tech company, claim. You may be correct, but I can't see them giving up their use of profiling and the resultant profits, more likely they are just better at hiding what they get up to.

As I remember it was a case of a patch to slow the phone down so that as the battery degraded it would last longer which had the 'unintended consequence' of making people think they needed a new phone. But this was about 5 years ago so I could very easily have misremembered.

Have you got any more recent examples? 

 

Yes, iPhones and Macs cost more than Huawei and Dell, but certainly in the case of the computers there's nothing stopping you installing Windows or any version of Linux if you so choose. I can see good reason to want to be able to boot into Linux and I'm told there are advantages to Windows, though having worked in tech support with Windows machines I certainly wouldn't give one house room.

[Murflynn]

9 hours ago, Bod said:

Can I join your gang please?

 

Bod

 

you're welcome 

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

As I remember it was a case of a patch to slow the phone down so that as the battery degraded it would last longer which had the 'unintended consequence' of making people think they needed a new phone. But this was about 5 years ago so I could very easily have misremembered.

Have you got any more recent examples? 

 

People also ask

 

 

 

Is Apple still throttling iPhones?

 

 

Fast forward to 2020 and iOS 13, and battery throttling is still built in to Apple devices, but with an additional feature that should reduce the need to use it at all: Optimised charging.

[George and Dragon]

We're on iOS 15 now. Optimised charging didn't work for me since I tend to put my phone on charge at bedtime but wake up at all sorts of random times. 

Still not convinced it was ever a serious problem but I expect there are people who need their phone to be performing at warp speed 12 at all times.