Month: January 2016

T-Mobile CEO John Legere. (credit: T-Mobile)

T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere apologized to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for mocking its concerns about the wireless carrier's "Binge On" program that throttles online video.

In an "Open Letter to Consumers About Binge On," Legere said T-Mobile plans to meet with the EFF, which argues that T-Mobile is violating net neutrality rules. Legere was less gracious to the EFF last week when he answered their concerns by saying "Who the fuck are you, anyway, EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble, and who pays you?"

In his open letter yesterday, Legere wrote:

Remix OS—it's Android, but rearranged into a mouse-and-keyboard OS.

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Jide's Remix OS—a... well, remixed version of Android that is more suitable for a PC's mouse and keyboard—is now available for download. The OS turns Android into a windowed desktop environment with the ability to multitask, just like Windows, Mac OS, and desktop Linux.

The OS is available today as a 700MB "alpha" version, which you should be able to run on your own hardware. The project's webpage says it is compatible with "most computers in the world powered by x86 chipsets," and it seems to require a 64-bit CPU. Remix OS is based on the long-running Android-x86 project, which has a crowdsourced hardware support list here, but the bottom line seems to be "try it and see what happens." You'll need at least an 8GB USB 3.0 flash drive with a recommended write speed of 20MB/s along with a PC with a "USB legacy" boot option.

We tried Remix OS at the end of a recent article that looked at Android on the desktop. The OS definitely proved nicer than vanilla Android with a mouse and keyboard, but just like with Android tablets, the biggest software weakness is app support for the new environment. Remix actually comes out a little better here, since if you get stuck with a phone app, you can usually just shrink it down to a phone-sized window. The other big weakness in our test setup was the hardware: Jide's own "Remix Mini" was woefully underpowered for serious multitasking, but with Remix now available for lots of hardware, you can fix that problem yourself.

(credit: NASA/Flickr)

A government panel tasked with making recommendations for preventative medical treatments finalized its latest position on breast cancer screening Tuesday: Women with an average risk of the disease will have the best balance of benefits and harms if they get screened once every two years between age 50 and 74. For those aged 40 to 50, screening should be an individual choice based on health and personal values, the panel concluded.

The position by the panel—the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)—firms up the recommendation it made back in 2009, even though the panel took new data and advanced screening methods into account for its update. Still, the recommendation conflicts with those from other leading health organizations in the US and abroad, highlighting the uncertainty about screening’s benefits and the confusion women face as they manage their health.

In October, the American Cancer Society updated its recommendation. The society suggests that women with an average risk of the disease—that is, no additional risks such as genetic predisposition or breast tissue changes—are best served by getting annual exams starting at age 45 and then transitioning to screens every two years at age 55.

It took Microsoft three attempts to come up with a Surface concept that had broad appeal. With the combination of screen size, resolution, system flexibility, and performance, the Surface Pro 3 became a PC that worked for a lot of people. As a tablet, it was thinner and lighter and better to use handheld than any laptop, but its kickstand and magnetic keyboard meant that it offered much of the productivity that laptops boast.

Now that Microsoft has found a formula that works and demonstrated that it has some user appeal, we've seen a proliferation of similar devices from other manufacturers. The Spectre x2 is HP's consumer-oriented iteration of the concept: a 12-inch tablet with an integrated kickstand, a magnetically attached keyboard, an x86 processor, and a full desktop operating system.

Nailing the basics

For me, the most important parts of just about any computer are the parts you have to touch and look at; the keyboard, the touchpad, and the screen. These things have to be done right before I ever care about what's on the inside of the system, because if I hate using a computer, I don't really care about its speed.