Toshiba TV29C90 problem; Image fades to black...

[nospam]

In article
<89414$53122958$43da7656$9532@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>, Liam
O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

how many of those could you reliably establish a connection and then do
something with it?

merely showing up in a list doesn't mean much if it's not usable.

This is a good and valid point.

I had also spoken (complained) to two people about this,
one of whom is actually my ISP, who said that he gets
frustrated when a customer can't connect to his wall and
ceiling mounted access points that he installs in the larger houses.

your isp installs wall mount access points?

usually they just give you a box and it sits on a table somewhere.

I trust his experienced judgement when he said he called them
iCrap. It was also his view that the iPad/iPhone equipment had
lousy radios (he called them "radios").

anyone who calls anything icrap is just a hater.

there is no evidence that ios devices have lousy radios.

However, it would be nice to find a study that shows what
the true decibels of gain are for the iPad radio/antenna
combination, transmit power, and receive sensitivity.

Does Apple publish those numbers?

no, but older ios devices could run a wifi analyzer app that showed
actual signal strength numbers.

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 13:45:05 -0500, nospam wrote:

Does Apple publish those numbers?

no, but older ios devices could run a wifi analyzer app that showed
actual signal strength numbers.

That's a good idea for comparison between two devices in your hand.

But, what we really need for comparison purposes is the true transmit
power (in mW or dB), antenna gain (in dBi), & receiver sensitivity
(in dBm).

The FCC must have a record of these antenna and radio specs
because they are required by law for all devices sold in
the United States.

I'll see if I can figure out of the FCC database is available
to the public.

 

[nospam]

In article
<235f1$531230d3$43da7656$9681@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>, Liam
O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

Does Apple publish those numbers?

no, but older ios devices could run a wifi analyzer app that showed
actual signal strength numbers.

That's a good idea for comparison between two devices in your hand.

But, what we really need for comparison purposes is the true transmit
power (in mW or dB), antenna gain (in dBi), & receiver sensitivity
(in dBm).

which you'll never get for the base station. you may not even know
anything about the base station at all, other than it exists in the
building somewhere.

The FCC must have a record of these antenna and radio specs
because they are required by law for all devices sold in
the United States.

I'll see if I can figure out of the FCC database is available
to the public.

it's probably listed, but that's a lab test, not real world conditions.

the test is simple: connect to one or more of the networks listed in
android that are not listed in ios. do they work? if so, how well? how
reliable is it?

be sure to test a lot of them in many different locations to get an
overall idea of what is happening.

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 13:45:05 -0500, nospam wrote:

> anyone who calls anything icrap is just a hater.

Well, if you were in the business, and if it kept causing
you wasted service calls, you'd probably think differently.

> there is no evidence that ios devices have lousy radios.

I wonder if the FCC reports are available to the public?

A typical PC has a radio of receiver sensitivity of
something like -85dBm, and a radio transmit power of
something like 50mW and antenna gain of something like 1dBi.

It would be interesting to see what specs iPads iPhones have.

your isp installs wall mount access points?
usually they just give you a box and it sits on a table somewhere.

He's a local WISP.

For a new customer, he comes to the house, and then sites
his antenna on your roof or on a mast in the back yard so that
it points to his access point, which can be 20 miles away.

Then he drills the holes to get his wires from outside to
the inside, to your home broadband router, where he plugs in
his radio power-over-ethernet (POE) power supply.

At that point, he can leave ... or ... you can ask him to
extend the WiFi signal in your house. Normally he installs
dome-shaped repeaters which look just like ceiling lamps.

So, "my" Wisp has been to every home, and knows all of us
intimately. I talk to him probably once every few months,
about something or other. And, to repeat, he has definite
opinions about his customers who bother him when they can't
get signal after he has installed these wifi extenders, and
he tells me that they always on Apple equipment.

It's just one anecdotal datapoint though.

I'd prefer to see the FCC report on the iPad specs.

 

[Lewis]

In message <3f8ef$531237a9$43da7656$9816@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>
Liam O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 13:45:05 -0500, nospam wrote:

anyone who calls anything icrap is just a hater.

Well, if you were in the business, and if it kept causing
you wasted service calls, you'd probably think differently.

A lot of ISPs have extremely shitty equipment. For example, in the last
6 weeks our comcast business has had a total or 67 hours of on-site
support. Why? Because comcast has switched to incredibly shitty Netgear
hardware for their business modems. The netgears have been replaced
seven times, each time requiring hours and hours of diagnostic tests.

The installers hate the hardware because they know it's crap, and the
funny thing is Comcast is ending up paying much much more for these
'cheaper' routers because of the increased service time.

The previous Motorola hardware was nothing great, but at least it worked
for a couple of years between replacements.

A typical PC has a radio of receiver sensitivity of
something like -85dBm, and a radio transmit power of
something like 50mW and antenna gain of something like 1dBi.

It would be interesting to see what specs iPads iPhones have.

Comparing to a desktop machine seems pointless.

--
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.

 

[bilfre]

On 2014-03-01 18:45:05 +0000, nospam said:

I trust his experienced judgement when he said he called them
iCrap. It was also his view that the iPad/iPhone equipment had
lousy radios (he called them "radios").

That is pure bullshit. There are many reasons you may have poor wi-fi
such as channel interference from a neighbor or even from wireless
phones in your house. Apple is not the problem unless you just happen
to have defective equipment, and that is probably less likeley than for
any other manufacturer. Any device can have a defective part no
matter who makes it.

 

[nospam]

In article
<3f8ef$531237a9$43da7656$9816@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>, Liam
O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

anyone who calls anything icrap is just a hater.

Well, if you were in the business, and if it kept causing
you wasted service calls, you'd probably think differently.

problems when one device connects to another can be at either end or
both sides, and it's almost always a combination of both ends.

anyone who calls something icrap is not interested in actually fixing
anything. they just want to hate.

there is no evidence that ios devices have lousy radios.

I wonder if the FCC reports are available to the public?

<http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/>

A typical PC has a radio of receiver sensitivity of
something like -85dBm, and a radio transmit power of
something like 50mW and antenna gain of something like 1dBi.

It would be interesting to see what specs iPads iPhones have.

here are some numbers, plus the fcc ids so you can look up all the gory
details:

<http://www.revolutionwifi.net/2012/03/ipad-3-wi-fi-specifications.html>
<https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4866269>

your isp installs wall mount access points?
usually they just give you a box and it sits on a table somewhere.

He's a local WISP.

For a new customer, he comes to the house, and then sites
his antenna on your roof or on a mast in the back yard so that
it points to his access point, which can be 20 miles away.

oh, the entire thing is wireless. that's different.

i was thinking of a normal router that connects to dsl/fios/cable.

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 23:40:52 -0500, nospam wrote:

here are some numbers, plus the fcc ids so you can look up all the gory
details:

http://www.revolutionwifi.net/2012/03/ipad-3-wi-fi-specifications.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4866269

Will check out and append to a separate thread on this topic!
thanks

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sun, 2 Mar 2014 05:33:47 +0000 (UTC), Lewis wrote:

> A lot of ISPs have extremely shitty equipment.

My ISP *only* installs Ubiquiti equipment.
http://www.ubnt.com/customers

And *nobody* says Ubiquiti makes shitty equipment!
http://community.ubnt.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/Forums

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 14:20:34 -0500, nospam wrote:

which you'll never get for the base station. you may not even know
anything about the base station at all, other than it exists in the
building somewhere.

This is a good point.
At home, we can get that information for our access point.
But not on the road at a public hotspot.

However, my Android phone, my Linux laptop, and my Windows PC
all will easily show me the receive strength of the access point.

For example, with InSSIDer freeware on the PC, or with Wigle
wardriving freeware on Android, I can easily export a csv
spreadsheet of all the access points found on any war drive.

I'm sure wardriving freeware exists on the iPad (although
Wigle doesn't seem to be there), so, I would think I could
put the iPad and Android device on the passenger seat of
the vehicle ... go for a drive ... and then easily compare
the received signal strength of hundreds of WiFi access
points.

Since I can easily log hundreds of access points in a drive
through a populated area, I would think that a look at the
data would show whether the Apple devices or Android devices
were habitually stronger or weaker.

Come to think of it, I think this would be a nice test since
I just googled and found WiFi-Where is apparently an equivalent
to the Wigle Android wardriving freeware...

http://www.threejacks.com/wifiwhere

 

[nospam]

In article
<60d26$5312d7fe$43da7656$14643@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>, Liam
O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

I'm sure wardriving freeware exists on the iPad (although
Wigle doesn't seem to be there), so, I would think I could
put the iPad and Android device on the passenger seat of
the vehicle ... go for a drive ... and then easily compare
the received signal strength of hundreds of WiFi access
points.

there used to be software to list wifi networks and the strengths, but
they used private apis and were pulled.

those who downloaded the apps could keep using it until ios 5, when the
private apis no longer worked at all.

at least one of those apps is on android, wifi analyzer.

Since I can easily log hundreds of access points in a drive
through a populated area, I would think that a look at the
data would show whether the Apple devices or Android devices
were habitually stronger or weaker.

Come to think of it, I think this would be a nice test since
I just googled and found WiFi-Where is apparently an equivalent
to the Wigle Android wardriving freeware...

http://www.threejacks.com/wifiwhere

one of the ones that no longer exist.

the first clue is it talks about ios 3.

 

[Davoud]

nospam:

how many of those could you reliably establish a connection and then do
something with it?

merely showing up in a list doesn't mean much if it's not usable.

Liam O'Connor:

This is a good and valid point.

I had also spoken (complained) to two people about this,

One gets the impression from this thread that much of your speech
consists of complaints.

one of whom is actually my ISP, who said that he gets
frustrated when a customer can't connect to his wall and
ceiling mounted access points that he installs in the larger houses.

I trust his experienced judgement when he said he called them
iCrap. It was also his view that the iPad/iPhone equipment had
lousy radios

His "experienced judgement" has another name: his personal opinion. I
have a largish house that is situated on two acres and my Apple devices
have good connectivity all over the property.

> (he called them "radios").

That would make sense. They are radios.

However, it would be nice to find a study that shows what
the true decibels of gain are for the iPad radio/antenna
combination, transmit power, and receive sensitivity.

Does Apple publish those numbers?

Seems as if Apple software and hardware are kicking your behind. I
wouldn't put up with it. I would move on and find another brand that
worked right for me.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

 

[nospam]

In article
<e0a30$5313f971$43da7656$27085@nntpswitch.blueworldhosting.com>, Liam
O'Connor <liamoconnor@example.com> wrote:

http://www.threejacks.com/wifiwhere
one of the ones that no longer exist.

Oh. I had not realized, until just now, when I read this
and then tried to find it in the app store, that wifiwhere
didn't exist anymore.

I'm surprised. What was so bad about it?

the wifi scanners used private apis which are not allowed in apps.

the private apis changed in ios 5, so those apps no longer work.

however, anyone who still has a device running ios 4 or earlier can
continue to use the apps if they downloaded them when they were
available.

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sun, 02 Mar 2014 02:40:10 -0500, nospam wrote:

http://www.threejacks.com/wifiwhere
one of the ones that no longer exist.

Oh. I had not realized, until just now, when I read this
and then tried to find it in the app store, that wifiwhere
didn't exist anymore.

I'm surprised. What was so bad about it?

I recently used wigle wardriving software on Android and
all it did was log the positions and wifi SSIDs and
MAC addresses and security of access points.

Was WiFi Where pulled because of what it did, or, as you
noted, it perhaps used private APIs?

 

[Liam O'Connor]

On Sun, 02 Mar 2014 23:01:35 -0500, nospam wrote:

> the wifi scanners used private apis which are not allowed in apps.

I see. It makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Ann Marie Brest]

On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 17:43:34 -0700, Oren wrote:

OP could have bought a 32GB phone with internal memory and not need a
SD Card.

Which? warns over mobile phone memory on Tuesday 08 April 2014

Mobile phones have much less storage than advertised, according to consumer
watchdogs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9905584/Which-warns-over-mobile-phone-memory.html

14 Comments

A Which? study found that mobile phones claiming to provide 16GB of data
storage actually had memory as low as 9GB.

The worst offender was the Samsung Galaxy S4 was found to have just 9GB
instead of the 16GB claimed on the box.

Next to bottom was the Sony XperialZ which had 10GB, followed by the
Blackberry Z10 with 11GB. The Google Nexus4 had 13GB while the best of the
bunch was HTC Windows 8X with 15GB.

Rory Boland, Which? deputy tech editor and digital producer, said that
every smartphone has an operating system - such as Google's Android or iOS
for iPhone - and this takes up a certain amount of storage.

The phone therefore has much less space for actual storage.
"Throw in some built in apps - and most manufacturers do - and your
storage size can be reduced to a shoebox.

"We found some are far worse than others in hogging storage space - put
your hand up the Samsung Galaxy S4,Ą he said.

Mr Boland said all phones have lower storage than advertised.

"It's a poor performance from the Samsung Galaxy S4 but all phones are
guilty of advertising more space than is actually available.

"An operating system needs to take up some of the storage space on your
phone - a better, more powerful operating system may - may - need to take
up a little more room.

"The problem is that manufacturers aren't making people aware of how much
space they're really getting when they buy the phone. And it's a bit of a
lottery.Ą

Mr Boland urged manufacturers to be more honest so that consumers can make
better choices. The actual storage is sometimes in the small print but may
be hard to find.

According to online forums the Apple iPhone 16GB phone has only 13.5GB
storage space.

"Essentially, any phone you purchase will have less space available than
the amount advertised. And there is a lot of variation. You might be buying
a 16GB phone but in reality you could be getting anything from 15GB of free
storage with the HTC Windows 8X to just 9GB with the S4.

" There is not even uniformity across operating systems. So the Google
Nexus 4 has 13GB of available storage while the Samsung Galaxy S4 has just
9GB - yet both phones run on Android. Samsung has stuffed the device with
extra apps.

"Ultimately, it's not fair. You aren't getting the space you expected and
you have no easy way of knowing how much you will actually get from phone
to phone."

All the mobile phone companies insisted storage for operating systems and
updates is necessary and is explained in the small print.

Samsung said:"The Samsung GALAXY S4 uses part of its internal memory to
bring our customers its innovative and unique features. A portion of memory
is reserved for future software upgrades, such as potentially new platform
updates or premium suite updates. By doing so, we are able to provide added
value for GALAXY S4 owners throughout the device˙s entire lifespan."

16GB Phones: What do you really get?

HTC Windows 8X 15GB

The Google Nexus4 13GB

Blackberry Z10 11GB

Sony XperialZ 10GB

Samsung Galaxy S4 9GB

Do you think mobile phone companies should be more honest about storage?

 

[Adrian C]

On 08/04/14 20:47, Ann Marie Brest wrote:

On Mon, 07 Apr 2014 17:43:34 -0700, Oren wrote:

OP could have bought a 32GB phone with internal memory and not need a
SD Card.

Which? warns over mobile phone memory on Tuesday 08 April 2014

"Which" magazine UK is an appalling collection of generalisations,
intended to help the mostly elderly and clueless make "informed
decisions" through dumbed down top 10 lists, and the non-display of
specifications. It is debatable whether subscribers can learn much from
the articles to make their own minds how the the important features of
the products actually relate to them. The guidance of sheep....

--
Adrian C

 

[Danny D.]

On Sun, 06 Apr 2014 23:33:26 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

> How much internal memory does a typical user need for APPS only?

Here is more detail, but I'm not done putting the desired
apps yet on the gift phone, so, the memory needed will grow
a bit more.

However, notice that there are plenty of people complaining, now that I
look at every review, by LG Optimus L9 customers (model p769):
http://www.lg.com/us/cell-phones/lg-P769-optimus-l9/reviews#reviews

Most of those reviews were apparently put there *after* I had
bought the L9 phone, so even had I known about this web page, I
wouldn't have seen them in time to trade in the phone right
away for the 16GB/12GB-usable Nexus 5 instead:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2825/13754583623_e6849b4ff3_h.jpg

Anyway, I'm setting up the LG/Google 16GB/12GB Nexus 5 as we
type, and here's how much space (roughly) is left after adding
desired applications (before giving it to the gift recipient):
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2926/13855170023_7e11cbc4f4_b.jpg

It's Android 4.4.2, which, all by itself, out of the box,
(roughly) took up 16GB - 12.5GB = 3.5GB
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2918/13755579524_05bd07a0ed_b.jpg

The pre-installed apps (roughly) took up, of course,
more of the space such that in usable form, only (roughly)
8.5GB of the original 16GB is actually available to the user:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7437/13854479874_ccb9c07b48_b.jpg

Note: There is no external SD card, but an sd card would only be
usable for user content anyway (and not for apps).

 

[Danny D.]

On Mon, 14 Apr 2014 19:17:12 +0000 (UTC), Danny D. wrote:

As you know, I've received the replacement 16GB/12GB Nexus 5
in trade for the 4GB/600MB Optimus F3, and I'm just now starting
to see how much space is "needed" for app storage.

Here's a much more detailed summary, of a "typical" user setup:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2866/13887552563_e505818cf3_h.jpg

You'll note this is a gift Nexus 5, so, I didn't add social
networking sites, mainly because I don't know sites, usernames,
or passwords, so I'll let the gift recipient do that themselves.

If you see missing apps, that are generally useful, let me know.

 

[Danny D.]

On Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:42:51 +0000, Danny D. wrote:

T-Mobile offered to swap out my $240 LG Optimus F3 for the
$400 16GB Nexus 5, with me paying the $160 difference.

UPDATE:

As you know, the "issue" is that the manufacturers/carriers
"imply" that the primary memory is augmentable, when it's
actually *not* augmentable with the addition of an sd card:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7364/11309699925_b12f3b390c_b.jpg

So, I took up the carrier on their offer to buy a replacement
phone, with full value being given for the original phone:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2825/13754583623_e6849b4ff3_h.jpg

After I swapped out the $200 0MB LG Optimus F3 for the $400 12GB
LG/Google Nexus 5, here are the 100 apps (shown on the left) which
took up the first 4GB of primary memory:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2866/13887552563_e505818cf3_h.jpg

Below are the 60 or so apps which can be considered "typical"
for many users, and which take up at least 2GB of additional
primary memory on this brand-new Android phone.

[Communicate]
Gmail
Email
People
Hangouts
Viber
Skype
Google Voice

[Social]
Snapchat
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Line
Linked-In
Google+

[Web]
Chrome
Firefox
Google Search
News & Weather

[Map]
Google Maps
Navigator
CoPilot
My Tracks
Google Earth

[Game]
Temple Run 2
Hungry Shark
Candy Crush
Play Games

[Camera]
Camera
Focal

[Audio]
Phone
Pandora
Play Music
Smart Voice
Google Translate
Automatic Call Recorder

[Video]
YouTube
VLC
Flixster
Fandango
Plex

[Files]
ES File Explorer
Google Drive
Downloads
Gallery
Photos
Dropbox
iTunes

[Todo]
Calendar
Clock
Keep

[Shop]
Calculator
Out of Milk
Barcode Scanner
Red Laser

[Office]
Office Mobile
QuickOffice
Kingsoft Office

[System]
Play Store
Settings
Battery Doctor
Clean Master
WiFi Analyzer
TeslaLED

[Security]
Lookout or AVG
Prey
Device Manager

[Anonymity]
Orbot
Orweb
ChatSecure
DuckDuckGo
Proxy Mobile Firefox Add-On

If you know of a "typical" app which is missing, please
let us know so we can help others not make the same
mistakes I idiotically made.