2023-02-07 - Brian Dipert

Streaming music reception: Implementation differentiation

20+ year old tech devices still hold a special place in this engineer's heart, one that newer offerings haven't (yet, at least) been able to replace.

2022-12-16 - Brian Dipert

Apple updates: Upgrades and (more) repairs

Grinches really can have (temporary, but still…) transformations and pleasantly surprise you sometimes. Read for the details of this good-ending tale, and happy holidays, everyone!

2022-09-20 - Bill Schweber

Book review: The evolution of consumer electronics

Tony Fadell's book "Build" provides a sneak peek at consumer electronics design while providing accounts of iPod, iPhone and Nest thermostat.

2022-09-14 - Brian Dipert

Apple’s (first) fall 2022 announcement event: half-steps provide only prior-gen augment (vs fuller advancement)

Another September brings new Apple iPhones, watches, AirPods and the chips powering them.

2022-08-29 - Brian Dipert

Disarming a carbon monoxide detector

A quick perusal of the instruction sheet educated me that the CO alarm was the “end of life signal” operating state, and it would need to be replaced. The word “teardown” near-immediately popped into my still-groggy brain.

2022-04-18 - Brian Dipert

Noise-suppressing headsets and earbuds: Differences, but all telephony duds

Active noise cancellation sounds (pun intended) great in theory, but its reality is underwhelming if not degrading.

2022-04-07 - Brian Dipert

Microsoft Surface Duo: A software evolution testimonial, but for who?

Foldable smartphones deliver compelling use case benefits, unfortunately in combination with (getting-fixed) bugs and performance limitations.

2022-03-11 - Brian Dipert

Apple’s Spring Event pique: A not-so-unique chiplet ‘peek’

Apple's system transition to its own processors seems to be on track, if not ahead of schedule.

2022-02-21 - Brian Dipert

The Microsoft Surface Pro X: Windows without the x(86)

Here's an in-depth look at the Microsoft Surface Pro X.

2022-02-07 - Brian Dipert

Inevitable demise of the standalone camera

Will standalone cameras completely disappear? Not any time soon. But for the masses, they're increasingly being supplanted by image capture-capable smartphones.