Android 15: a nicer upgrade than expected.

After upgrading my Pixel 7a to Android 15 almost a month ago, the biggest improvement I've seen in the user experience side has been a longer battery life.

Normally on Android 14 by about 8:00 PM, I had about 30% of the battery left. Now, it normally has about 50% with a normal use on workday, on weekends it could be around 40% with heavy use of WhatsApp, social media, and Spotify. Not to mentions between 3 or 4 hours of Bluetooth while I stream music or podcasts on Spotify.

I also feel the Bluetooth connection with my earphones a lot more stable, and the connection feels faster. In general, the user experience feels better with no major downsides so far.

The upgrades from Android 12 to 13, on a Motorola phone, and from 13 to 14, on a Nothing Phone 1, were really good. Yet, they didn't feel as good as the upgrade on the Pixel 7a. Though the one on the Nothing Phone 1 comes close but not enough.

To be honest, unless something changes in a big way, the only two phones brands I'd consider in two years time to upgrade my phone are Nothing and Pixel. Specially because mid-range smartphones offer me the best value of my money for what I want, and need.

Not to mentions that I much prefer Android over iOS. Not that iOS, or iPhone, are bad in themselves, is more than Android works better for me. More far more willing to jump between different brand within the Android ecosystem, that to make the jump to iPhone.

Even more than I'm firmly on the Linux camp with my laptops, specifically with Linux Mint. As such, I rather not move into Apple's ecosystem at all.

When I moved from Symbian to Android, I didn't expect much. But, about a decade later I must admit that I have not looked back. Though, I still would have liked to see Symbian succeed and become a third player on the smartphone OS arena.

Mechanical keyboards have won me over.

After a couple of weeks giving mechanical keyboards a try, I must admit why people who use them recommend them so much. Typing on them really feels nicer, and the sound they make is quite something.

I have come to like mechanical keyboards so much, that I decided to get three of them. A 60% one for the laptop I use mainly for media consumption, and a couple of 80% percent ones for work at my home office and for work.

I decided to get these particular keyboards, because my laptop is from the same brand, and so far it has been quite a great value for my money. So much so, that if all goes as it gone so far when I've to replace it, I'm most likely to choose another one of the Machenike laptops. Specially since they play nice with Linux Mint, which is my go to Linux distro.

And so far, the keyboards have given my no problem at all with Linux Mint, actually they have worked like a charm. Though I could try to dive even deeper, I don't feel like I need to because they cover all my needs out of the box.

As a laptop user, I didn't expect mechanical keyboards to actually win me over. But, they did and now they are a must have for my office.

Sci-fi: trying to see future tech and its impact on society.

Growing up in the 90s consuming a lot of sci-fi media, it feels rather strange that some of the tech described on sci-fi has become a reality. Things like smartphones, wireless headphones, video telephony, are some of the technologies that sci-fi predicted for example.

While smartphones, and tablets, don't really work as they were envision, are now devices that are commonplace. For example, tablets were envision as capable to do one thing while the tablets we got can be used for multiple things. The same goes for smartphones, so much so that they have replaced digital cameras, telephones, and media players.

Also computers have become smaller, rather than larger as some people believed when the first computers came to be. It was predicted that people would have computer terminal that would only be capable of sending the inputs to a central computer to be processed and displaying the results. Computers ended becoming smaller, and capable to process much more information faster than expected.

Though, to be honest, we have more of hybrid model. While our computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, are capable of impressive levels of computing powers locally, we supplement that with the Internet.

Yet the Internet not only supplements the computing power of our personal devices, it allows to access information remotely and to communicating with others at the same time. As such, the predictions weren't completely wrong, just missed how computers would be developed over time.

It can be said that sci-fi has inspired people to create our modern societies, and in a way our current tech inspire people to predict how future tech will look like through sci-fi. It is also a warning how badly managed tech can be our downfall, while inspiring people to create the tech that makes our lives better. It shows that there is hope, but only if we use and create new tech responsibly.

While sci-fi can only guess what tech will be, and how it shape our future, it still important because it allows to explore not how our future will be, but how tech is impacting our world now. Sci-fi is much more than entertainment, predicting the future of tech and its impact on people.

It is about our hopes and fears, it is about how tech can make our change our lives for better or for worse. Some will take it, and make tech that greatly improves an aspect of human life, others will do the opposite. Hope for a better future is not lost, but we have been warned that tech is not what will dictate our future. What will dictate our future, is how create and use tech.