Category: Technology

Published on by Nayar

How to buy a budget mobile phone in 2018

If you’re planning to buy a budget phone in this year, you must make sure your phone phone should be able to accomplish the basic tasks for this era.

The requirements of a phone

  • Make phone calls
  • Make and receive SMS
  • Handle WhatsApp application
  • Have a decent web browser
  • Have a flash or torch light

Facebook app is not a necessity as m.faceboook.com is very useable in the mobile web browser. You’ll have no problem connecting with your a Facebook “friends”.

The technical specifications

RAM: 2GB

RAM is the most important element to consider while buying a new phone. Anything less than 2GB will make the phone unusable: you might not be able to even answer calls. Your phone might freeze and that would be very embarrassing.

Network and LAN: 3.5G and WiFi

3.5G (also known as HSDPA) is what I would recommend as minimum standard. It has ample speed for WhatsApp and Facebook’s messenger. It’s fast enough to browse through Facebook picture posts. Moreover, 4G is not yet available everywhere on the Island so no need to have it now if you’re on a budget.

Internal Storage: 16GB with MicroSD slot or 32GB without MicroSD

Do not go any less than 16GB for internal storage. Android stubbornly installs some apps on the internal memory only despite having an external storage. Insufficient internal storage would mean that some apps might not be able to update after some times and you will not be able to install new apps from Play Store.

Camera: 5MP Rear Camera

5MP I would say is the minimum for acceptable pictures to be posted on Facebook. If you like to take selfies, your front camera will have to be at least 4MP.

CPU: Quad core

If it has a quad core or better processor, It should be fine for daily usage.

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Display: 5 inch 720p

As per experience, a screen smaller than 5 inches might be a bit too squeezy. The screen resolution needs to be atleast 720p for adequate web browsing and for viewing pictures and videos.

GPS

Most modern phone come with GPS inbuilt already but it’s always a good idea to confirm that it has one.

Operating System: Android 6

Do not buy a phone that has an android version that’s too old. For the year 2018, I think Android 6 would be sufficiently supported for the next 2 or 3 years for atleast the basic apps such as GMail and WhatsApp.

If you have any more recommendation, feel free to share in the comment section and share with your friends 🙂

Published on by Nayar

Windows 10 ‘Task Manager’ is Awesome. Someone please port it to Linux

“Give credit to whom credit due.” – Samuel Adams

I must say the Task Manager on Windows 10 is amazing.

All the classic information I want to know is there: how much CPU, RAM, Disk, Network (WiFI and Bluetooth).  Recently they added tabs about GPUs usage. I got an Intel HD Graphics 620 and NVIDIA GEFORCE 940MX on my ASUS ZenBook.

You even get details on each program and which GPUs they are using

Additionally we get information about Disk and Network usage per process which is very helpful.

Last but not least, the Task Manager is very powerful but by default opens with a very minimal UI.

 

This approach is very in line with KDE Plasma’s moto:

Simple by Default Powerful When Needed

 

Published on by Nayar

Mobile Phone as a Hotspot for Windows 10 in Mauritius

Yes you can. But in reality, you shouldn’t unless you have unlimited mobile data.

Since Microsoft can decide when to send updates to your laptop and update it whenever they want, you won’t have an idea whether you 100MB mobile data will be sufficient to write that that job application email or browse Facebook for 10 minutes.

A linux operating system on the other hand allows you to have control on when you want it to be upgraded. I highly recommend Ubuntu LTS or KDE Neon (also based on Ubuntu LTS). I also recommend Chilli’s Zeness Pack which give you 750MB of mobile data for Rs 75 per month. I think it’s a really good deal. The Chilli network is not always available in some remote areas though.

 

Published on by Nayar

Smart Home Automation Business in Mauritius

Previously I had made my outside light turn on automatically when I reach in front of my house:

Afterwards, I wrote about how we can use the sun setting time to turn on lights when motion is detected in my kitchen. There’s no point in turning the lights when it’s not dark.

I’ve had quite some success in those projects so I finally decided to open Smart Home Automation company in Mauritius with my Egyptian partner. You can find our website here: mu.ibeesmart.com and also our Smart Home Automation blog.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you are building a house and you want to it be a modern one.

 

Published on by Nayar

Choosing between LG Gram and ASUS ZenBook UX310

The decision was tough. The LG Gram was light AF. The screen was 14 inch with a very thin bezel. The display was amazingly bright. It had the WOW factor. You would immediately fall in love with it.

The ASUS on the other hand had a 13 inch display with a thick screen bezel. The screen looks cheap when compared to the Gram despite being 1080p. ASUS didn’t market the battery life of the ZenBook as LG did with a “17.5 hours battery life” sticker. Reading reviews online for the ASUS gave mixed results. But they claimed around 6 – 7 hours.

 

The LG Gram seems to be a much better contender but when I actually compared the spec sheets of both, the decision became harder.

The ASUS ZenBook UX310 had a 7th generation Core i7 CPU with a dedicated GPU (NVIDIA GeForce 940 MX) and 128GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD. The LG Gram had a Core i5 CPU with no dedicated GPU and a 256GB SSD. Both had 8GB RAM.

The ASUS ZenBook can easily become my main laptop while being light enough to be carried to conferences and attend on-site client meetings. On the other hand, the LG Gram has to be supplemented more storage and I might need to use a more powerful computer for editing pictures and videos. I preferred not to take the risk of buying something that might not be as fast I as I expected so I chose the ASUS ZenBok UX310 to be on the safe side.

Plus the webcam position on the Gram is really awkward for video conferencing.