Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE • Hacker News Board

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#171

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Jun 01, 2017, 11:55 PM UTC

chocolatebunny wrote: post #60

wyldfire wrote: post #26

I look forward to learning more about this product. I love that we're moving non-x86 into mainstream consumer products like this (and not limited to low-end chromebooks, e.g.). ARM SoCs lack the backward compatible x86 BIOS-style bootstrap. This is great because it's kinda crazy to think about booting into stuff like MBR, real mode, etc in 2017. But this is bad because without good standards it's really tricky to hav…

doesn't UEFI resolve all that?

It does. Complicated in its own way, but better :)

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#172

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Jun 01, 2017, 11:57 PM UTC

zanny wrote: post #152

Samathy wrote: post #53

I'm really excited about ARM laptops, but only if: * They have laptop-class performance, not tablet class performance * They can have more than 4GB of RAM * You can put reasonable sized standard SATA SSDs in them, or user-replaceable M.2 drives. * You can easily wipe Windows off them and put Linux on it.

> You can easily wipe Windows off them and put Linux on it. None of the modems are going to be supported in Linux because they all use blob drivers and are wholly proprietary. ARM has no bios or standard boot procedure. Google requires coreboot on Chromebooks, for example, which allows Linux to run on the ARM targets. It is unlikely ARM laptops without Google's strong arm are going to support coreboot. Qualcomm speci…

> ARM has no bios or standard boot procedure.

Doesn't this system use uefi?

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#173

Post by JustSomeNobody » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 12:43 AM UTC

megablast wrote: post #168

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why you can't get a decent photo uploader on iOS to upload in the background. The existing ones either stop after a few because iOS puts it to sleep (or whatever the term is) or they have to use location services to stay awake longer, but that's a gross hack. I get why Apple does this. I just wish they would let me choose to have an app run as a service. Being able to sync all my photos to NextCloud w…

And it is why you get so much better battery life on the iPhone compared to an Android device.

I did say I get why they do it.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#174

Post by userbinator » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 12:53 AM UTC

swiley wrote: post #140

This is actually a very bad thing. Qualcomm is decidedly against open source and open firmware, this will bring the closed disposable worthless logic board with the unmodifiable OS from your phone and into your laptop. Microsoft likes it of course because it means more control for them. TL;DR: Intel is not being abandoned because it's too closed, it's being abandoned because it's too open!

My thoughts exactly. Wintel PCs are becoming too closed for comfort (see Intel ME, trusted/secure boot, etc.) and slowly degrading in terms of backward-compatibility, but they still have that legacy of openness inherited from the original IBM PC/AT of 1984 and continued throughout the 90s.

I wouldn't even want to call these "PCs" anymore. These are essentially locked-down mobile devices running a crude approximation of a real PC environment.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#175

Post by scholia » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 12:55 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #159

tw04 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've been able to limit data usage on Windows 10, if not from the start, shortly thereafter. "Set as metered connection" under the connection settings. You can disable telemetry at any point if you want to. The only "unwanted ad" - that everyone constantly complains about, is for onedrive. Guess what - every time I log into my mac, it asks me if I want more icloud storage. So literally the same thing. Ubuntu wasn't…

I've had ads on Windows lock screen ("Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen"). I was fairly sure I had turned this off, and it was weeks before I saw an ad (replacing Spotlight background), but once I did see an ad, I wrote my own program to set the lock screen background and stayed well away from the MS Spotlight. Spotlight itself is an ad for Edge; if you want more information on the photo, it'll…

Yes. My Android phone also has loads of Google-installed crapware. I don't see that there's any material difference....

And Google just tried to get me to sign up for Google Assistant. Ditto.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#176

Post by phr4ts » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 1:02 AM UTC

pseudosavant wrote: post #115

johnvaluk wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to tether, but don't because my carrier (AT&T) won't enable it for a single device, only for all accounts on my family plan. My family could easily (even innocently) use up our monthly data allotment in a day. Also, how can you limit data usage while tethering? Can a device tell if it's tethered, or does it just assume it has a normal wifi connection? Do you need to turn off automatic updates on laptops?

The short answer is yes Windows typically does know it is on a metered connection and doesn't do anything like update downloading. If it doesn't automatically detect it you can also mark that connection as being a metered connection and it will remember it. I'm not sure about tethering but when using built-in LTE you can even set what your plan limit is.

Not every modem can be marked as a metered connection. I'm using one such modem right now. And Windows decides at whim to ignore metered connection settings.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#177

Post by scholia » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 1:04 AM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #21

kevin_b_er wrote: post #11

> With a Snapdragon inside your PC, you'll no longer need Wi-Fi to fetch your latest e-mail and catch up on Twitter. Instead, you'll be able to get online wherever there's cellular connectivity. I'm not buying the optimism, especially not in the US. The cellular data is still horribly limited. In Canada it is even worse. The "unlimited" plan is surging back, but it has automatic throttling at varying points. Oh and s…

Yeah, I'm not really buying the LTE being the "killer feature" thing either. I hope Qualcomm is not betting the farm on that. Its ARM processors will have to stand on their own feet in regards to performance alone. Few people buy their laptops based on LTE support, and although I do believe it could become more popular in the future, I don't think it will have a fast pick-up, with or without Qualcomm's promotion of L…

These Windows 10 laptops are using a Snapdragon 835, which is a smartphone chip that has just started appearing in smartphones. It's just a bonus business for Qualcomm.

Whether they take off or not will depend on many factors besides LTE. Those include size, weight, battery life, performance, Win32 compatibility, marketing, advertising, availability and price.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#178

Post by scholia » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 1:11 AM UTC

kevin_b_er wrote: post #125

leggomylibro wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's my biggest fear for this computer. I would snap up two or three in a heartbeat if I could put my favorite Linux distro on it. My little 10" ARM chromebook has already left my more powerful laptop gathering dust. It seems like 'just a browser' at first glance, but it becomes so much more when you add a chroot which can launch X sessions into Chrome tabs. These Microsoft ARM machines are encouraging, since…

"Disabling Secure Boot must not be possible on ARM systems." #20 in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/com... Digital restrictions management lockdowns prevent installing Linux.

There's nothing to stop any company from making its own laptops with ARM processors, designing them to run Linux, and pre-installing Linux. You could do it yourself. Maybe this is your chance to become rich and famous.

Not sure why your first thought is to ride on the back of Microsoft's work...

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#179

Post by scholia » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 1:14 AM UTC

TheCoreh wrote: post #161

wyldfire wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lunacy? Nah, the vast majority of software that regular people use is massively I/O bound. For the stuff that isn't (photoshop, e.g.), it will get ported. All of those non-photoshop apps will work just fine under emulation. Chrome and Edge will be ported, they'll work just fine. I predict that this will have a negligible impact on PC games. They're CPU/memory/GPU bound and will not work well under emulation. They're…

AFAIK Photoshop uses the GPU via DirectX, so it should work fine

Microsoft has already shown Photoshop running in the emulation and it boots OK. Don't know how much load it will carry but it will run.

Re: Qualcomm, Microsoft Announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with Gigabit LTE

#180

Post by FireBeyond » Fri, Jun 02, 2017, 1:17 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #159

tw04 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've been able to limit data usage on Windows 10, if not from the start, shortly thereafter. "Set as metered connection" under the connection settings. You can disable telemetry at any point if you want to. The only "unwanted ad" - that everyone constantly complains about, is for onedrive. Guess what - every time I log into my mac, it asks me if I want more icloud storage. So literally the same thing. Ubuntu wasn't…

I've had ads on Windows lock screen ("Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen"). I was fairly sure I had turned this off, and it was weeks before I saw an ad (replacing Spotlight background), but once I did see an ad, I wrote my own program to set the lock screen background and stayed well away from the MS Spotlight. Spotlight itself is an ad for Edge; if you want more information on the photo, it'll…

One of the most despised things, for me? In Edge, Cortana popping up, when I go to the driver download site for my laptop, "Can I interest you in a coupon?".

"No, you can't. Fuck off." Excuse the language.