That Random Tech Guy

Tech-tionary (Part 1)

2014-03-12T21:16:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone.

As I said on my last post, this blog post is going to be about the terms that are more commonly used in the tech industry for specifications. I will explain most common words but of course not everything that is involved with the hardware/specifications of computers and mobile devices.

I will do my best to explain the words in it's most generic form with using the least amount of terminology from the tech industry.

You might already know most of these words and how they work but not everyone does, this post, and most of my other posts are to help those that are not aware or understand the "behind the scenes" of how a computer, or more importantly, a mobile device works.

Let's begin.

One of the most important feature of your phone is what kind of a processor chip does it have?

What is a processor?

A processor, or more commonly known as Central Processing Unit (CPU), is a chip that carries information/instructions given to it from program(s) to it's correct destination so that your device does what you would like it to do. What makes it important is how fast the chip can "process" the instructions. The speed is measured in hertz. The performance of CPU is also increased by adding additional "cores", which is an individual CPU.

Since we are speaking about performance, another component that helps with the overall performance of your device is RAM.

What is RAM?

RAM stands for Random-Access Memory. RAM is the memory available on your device to run and programs or create items from a program. When you open a program, it is stored in RAM for as long it is running. The Random-Access part comes from the fact that files/programs can be "randomly" accessed and not in a sequence, which is mainly how your device saves information. In many cases, RAM will delete everything it has stored in it's memory when shutdown, unless saved.

Here is an example of how RAM works:

Imagine yourself opening up Microsoft Word to do an assignment, RAM stores Microsoft Word in it's (your device) memory, you open your file and start editing your assignment. You need some information from the web, so you let Microsoft Word running in the background and open up your browser (hopefully Chrome), now Chrome is in also stored in the RAM. Now you found the information you needed and you edit in your document, which is still in RAM, and you closed your assignment but forgot to click 'Save', I am sure this has happened to most of us at least once, the information you had changed is lost because your assignment is not stored in RAM anymore and since you did not save it (stored in HardDrive Disk).

What is HardDisk Drive (HDD)?

HDD, or more commonly known as just Hard Drive, is how much space you have in your computer to store information. This is where all the information that your device comes with preloaded is kept, like the Operating System (OS), applications, pictures, and then the files you save like your music, your pictures, your documents etc.

So far the three things that I have explained are all Hardware components that are physically in your device, whether it is a chip or a disk. I will continue with more information regarding more terms/components. For now, I will end it here, please wait for more information to come. If there is something specific you would like me to explain, or elaborate on, please leave a comment at the bottom.

Also, of course there are more to these terms than I have explained but it does get more technical. I have tried to explain it the best way I can without being technical.

PS: Most of the hardware components of your device is stored in the 'Motherboard', the picture shown in the beginning of the post.

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

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Thank you

-Ahmad Ebadi aka TRTG

Hello World...again!

2014-03-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

Hello World.

I haven't written anything here in over a year but that is going to change. I have been busy with other things and never made blogging a priority until now.

I will be posting more often than before and with better and more helpful information for you, my readers. As you all know, technology is developing day by day around the world with more and more consumer products having some sort of a chip/computer included within.

Technology, as we all know, has become a crucial part of our lives. For most of us, the last thing we check at night is our cellphone and the first thing we check in the morning is (any guesses?) our cellphone. The world is moving forward and towards tech based products to make our life simpler, for the most part, and as these products become available to us, the consumers, we need to know about the product and how they work.

That will be the purpose of this blog.

I hope that you will be looking forward to my blog posts as I am looking forward to writing and publishing them ASAP.

PS: In the near future (very soon), I will be writing a blog post regarding the more common terms used when dealing with a computer and/or mobile devices and what they mean.

In the meantime, as always, your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

Please follow my blog.

You can also follow me on and now.

Thank you

-Ahmad Ebadi aka TRTG

iPhone 5. Why you are wrong and not Apple.

2012-09-13T23:26:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, September 12, 2012, Apple made the announcement for their new iPhone lineup, iPhone 5.

As many speculated, it came with a bigger screen. It is much thinner than it’s predecessor, the iPhone 4S. Actually, it is the thinnest smartphone according to Apple. It also came with an A6 chip, which, in general terms, means it will give you better graphics and the phone will open apps and share photos faster.

One of the other big things about the iPhone 5 is that it is now LTE capable. What does that mean? It means you will have faster Internet speed (to sum it up). With LTE though, you would also need a better battery life, which Apple had a clue about, so they got a solution. It now has a better battery life than the 4S as well.

Those are just a few new, and better, changes to the iPhone 5. But the sad part about all the changes is that people are still complaining about the 5 and in a way, I do understand why, but at the same time, I don’t.

The reason why I think people are complaining is because Apple changed the world of technology, and smartphones, so much in 2007 when they announced the iPhone 3G that every time Apple launches a new product, people expect it to have a big change in the phone world the way iPhone 3G did.

This is apparently the same reason why I don’t understand why people are complaining. But at the same time, I am more into technology so I might understand why Apple has not given that “big” change to the smartphone world since iPhone 3G. Therefore, this blog came to light.

I think by now, everyone knows that, in the world that we live in, many things are possible with the help of technology; what many people seem to not consider is that many of those possible things can not be done with smartphones nowadays.

In other words, what I am trying to say is that innovation for smartphones has pretty much hit it’s peak for another of couple years if not more.

To elaborate, pretty much all smartphones nowadays are the same, and will be the same for the next couple of years. You will not find many big differences with smartphones that were launched last year and this year and the next few years to come.

There will be some differences though, as always, and those differences will mainly be the camera, processor, screen size, battery life and display; these differences will have minimal effect, if any, for the ordinary consumer. If you think otherwise, then you will see that this is the reason why the iPhone 5 is the way it is.

If you think I am wrong, go check the difference between a smartphone that was launched last year, like the Galaxy Nexus, and a smartphone that was launched this year, like the Samsung Galaxy S3. Let me know, what are the differences between the two.

The changes that you see are mainly hardware changes and not software and nowadays many people don't really care too much about the hardware. The way technology is going, hardware has pretty much hit it’s peak. In other words, when a new smartphone comes, whether it be iPhone, Galaxy, or Windows Phone, for that matter, the difference between the new one and a different older version will be something along the lines of:

1) Bigger screen

2) Faster processor

3) Better camera

4) Better battery life

5) Clear display

As a general ordinary consumer, which smartphone you choose depends on your choice because 95% of what you would want to do with your smartphone, you will be able to do with any of them. The other 5% I think that would make the difference would be apps/games/user friendly.

In my opinion, the iPhone is THE user-friendliest smartphone I have seen out there so far. You might think I am biased, maybe, but I have used other smartphones as well.

As for apps and games, the Apple App Store has the most apps than any other competitor. But it should also be stated that the Google Play Store has more FREE apps.

So with the iPhone 5 having a bigger screen, faster processor, better camera, better battery life, clear display and being LTE, what else would you have liked Apple to change and make better?

There are many software changes as well and still people are complaining. Apple has given the best they could, and the best the consumer needs, for their software as well. You must understand also that software doesn't matter anymore that much to customers either because mostly the newer softwares are usually available for older devices as well.

I hope by now you understand why Apple didn’t live up to your “expectation” for the new iPhone 5. If you don’t, please contact me with any questions or concerns you have. I will be more than happy to help you.

PS: iPhone 5 can be pre-ordered tonight at 12:01 am PST and it will be available to a few countries, Canada is included, on September 21, 2012.

Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

Please follow my blog.

You can also follow me on and now.

Thank you

-Ahmad Ebadi aka TRTG

Steve Jobs

2012-02-20T18:54:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, so I woke up today with a thought.

I haven’t done any blog posts in a long while and I haven’t done a tribute to Steve Jobs.

So I decided I will do both today. Let’s start.

The reason why I haven’t written a blog post in a while has many reasons behind it. But the reason why I haven’t done a tribute to Steve Jobs yet is mainly because I wanted to finish reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson first, which I achieved to do last night.

The biography of Steve Jobs was a great read and as an Apple fan, and somewhat of a technology geek, very inspiring, in many ways. It was the book that inspired me to write a blog post today.

It is not easy to describe the book in just a few words or a blog post. It was simply amazing and for anyone interested in Steve Jobs, Apple, technology, or anyone who is a leader, in the merge of becoming one, or just a normal person, I would suggest this book. You will definitely learn a lot from the book.

No, I am not endorsing the book or Apple, just giving my personal opinion. Moving forward with the same.

When Apple came out with the iPhone 3G in July 2011, I fell in love, with Apple, iPhone and Steve Jobs. As time went on, and new products were released by Apple, my love and respect kept growing for both, Apple and Steve Jobs and then when I heard about Steve Jobs passing away, I was very much moved and just couldn’t wait for the biography to be released. Thinking I will love and respect Steve Jobs more after reading the biography, I bought it the day it came out.

While reading the biography though, I did doubt my thoughts and feelings towards Steve Jobs, both as a professional and as a person. But they never changed, if you read the book, you will know why in the last chapter.

Steve Jobs has done a lot of things in his life, and like many of us, has made mistakes as well but, unlike many of us, he has learned from some of his mistakes. And unlike many of his, he has put a “dent” in the world, specially the technology world.

One thing he did, and wanted to everyone to do, was follow his dreams and stand up for what they believe.

His dream was to bring science and technology together and make a better world. All done through Apple though, the company he was so affectionate and passionate about. The company he loved more than his own family.

Even in his final days, he wouldn’t give up his passion for the company he created and made one of the top companies in the whole world.

When he was sick, he became very weak and a few times took a medical leave from Apple. During that time, when he would gain a bit of energy, he wouldn’t spend time with the family or the doctors, he wouldn’t sit and reminisce about the mistakes he made, rather he would talk about Apple and the future, and if possible, go to Apple, let everyone know what was on his mind.

In his life, there was no grey area. It was black or white, or in his own words, the most “brilliant” thing ever or a “piece of sh*t”, this was also his way of describing people and he wasn’t shy of letting them know.

It was this mentality that brought Apple to what it is today, putting A players only. It was also because of his ideas on putting customers over profit. If customers are happy, profit will automatically increase.

And it was because of this mentality that Apple made some great products that we all see nowadays everywhere we go. Some of us even have more than one of Apple’s products in our house.

Steve Jobs reinvented the world of technology and shook pretty much every other tech company in the run. If it wasn’t for him, Apple wouldn’t have the great products, the profit, the customer service experience and most of all, the name it does in the world right now.

If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been inspired to write this blog.

He always said follow your dreams; there is no reason you shouldn’t.

Imagine finding out, you only have a few days left to live, what would you do?

He did what he wanted to do. Followed his dreams; and did what he was passionate about and good at. He did every bit of it and he passed away achieving his dream; putting Apple at the top in the world of technology.

May Steve Jobs rest in peace.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this.

Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

Please follow my blog.

You can also follow me on and now.

Thank you

-Ahmad Ebadi aka TRTG

The big Fruit being 'Cook'-ed

2011-09-08T22:53:00.001-04:00

Recently, as many of you know, Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple and gave the job to Tim Cook.

To many people, including myself, this came as a surprise. Steve Jobs was a great cool guy, he had many achievements and he was a CEO like none other. In simple words, Steve Jobs was the Michael Jackson of Apple Inc.

Now today, rather than talking about the achievements of Jobs, which is simply amazing, we will be talking about the company’s future.

Today, everywhere you turn, you will see someone with a rectangular like phone in either black or white, i.e. the iPhone 4. And almost every time you sit on the bus, you see someone carrying a thin black book with a large touch screen, i.e. the iPad.

Apple Inc, in the last decade, has shown that it is indeed the most innovative company out there. Their ‘i’ products, like iPod, iPhone and iPad, have proven this and have started the biggest buzz and rivalry in mobile/telecommunications companies. Every telecommunications company, Google, RIM, Samsung etc., has “copied” Apple and have produced a touch-screen smartphone and/or a tablet. The reason why I say copied in quotations is that it is not really the patent I am talking about but the products are very similar to the iPhone and iPad.

And because we, as consumers, have given the iPhone and the iPad a big hype, which I believe is well deserved, it is very hard for other companies to actually live up to a hype like that and make a product that the consumer might buy, or even consider to buy. This has proven to be very crucial for the competing companies, and now, even Apple.

The competing companies, i.e. Google, RIM, Samsung, need to start thinking “outside” the box, which is what Apple did.

And for Apple, the biggest questions today are: as consumers, should we be concerned or excited for the future of Apple under Tim Cook? And what does the future of Apple hold?

It would be hard for me to give you the exact answers to those questions today. But I will give you an answer today for sure.

Should we be concerned or excited?

This is probably the biggest question Apple Inc has to deal with right now because everyone knows that there will be changes to Apple Inc going from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook. And based on the fact of what those changes might be, then and only then, will you get a real answer to this question.

In my opinion, I think we should be excited about the future of Apple. The reason why I say this is because Apple has made the mobile world what it is today. If it weren’t for the iPhone and the iPad, we would probably not have had a Blackberry Torch or a Samsung Galaxy X II. Since Apple has created this buzz, in the mobile world, it will be really hard for them to hit a phase where the consumers, us, will not like Apple or even be concerned about their products.

Apple is known to create many great products and actually live up to the hype it gets and I am sure they will keep doing this as well. Tim Cook is not new to Apple, and not new to being a CEO, he was an acting CEO when Steve Jobs was recovering from his cancer. Tim Cook knows what Apple means to the world and most of all, what Apple means to the technology world.

Cook has yet to prove himself and I am sure he will, and he will master at it as well. Although, there will be differences between Cook and Jobs, which some people might hold it against Apple, I believe Apple will still be the Apple we want with Cook.

What does the future hold?

Again this is very hard to say as I do not work in Apple nor do I have any inside connections with any Apple employees.

There have been speculations that Cook has been thinking of making Apple go into the printing industry. I don’t think this is true, and even if it is true, I don’t think it would really give the Apple consumers something to be worried about because even if Apple does go into the printing industry, the mobile industry is so big, one of the reasons is Apple, that even if Apple wanted it could not leave the mobile industry.

The only question to be worried about here is what products will Apple come up with now?

Will they keep the iPad and the iPhone or will they bring new and different products?

I believe they will stick with the iPhone and iPad products and bring new technologies and ideas and features to those products for a long while before they actually go into having a different mobile product in their company.

All in all, the Apple under Cook will definitely be different than that of the Apple under Jobs. How different? I don’t think a lot because all the Apple employees have the same idea of what the mobile industry is to the world and what Apple is to the mobile industry and this fact will keep Apple as one of the most admired company in the world for a while, if not THE most admired company.

The only way Apple can actually fall out is if the competing companies start thinking outside the box, which Apple is really good at doing, and Google seems to be getting good at it.

So there you go friends, don’t be afraid of the future of Apple, rather be excited as to what cool products will we get to see next from them.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this.

Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

Please follow my blog.

You can also follow me on and now.

Thank you

-Ahmad Ebadi aka TRTG

Image Source: Cult of Mac - http://www.cultofmac.com/

Did You Know...?

2011-08-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

In this era that we live in, when you ask someone about a smartphone, one of the following three choices seems to come more often that any other:

1. Apple's iPhone,

2. Research In Motion(RIM)'s Blackberry,

3. Any phone with Google's Android Operating System, in short OS. (Although, Windows Phone is starting to pick up as well).

Although, as of right now, none of the above phones are the top manufacturer's in a mobile device¹, they are still very popular and have a lot of usage within the people of North America, with Windows Phone starting to catch up.

Before we go on and have a debate about which phone is better and why or why not and etc., though it must be said that each of the phone has it's own little surprises, which we will talk about at a later time, let's start and talk a bit about the three companies, which is what we will do in this post.

Since there is a lot of usage of these phones in North America, and the rest of the world, it would be a great idea to learn about the three companies that bring the phone's to the standard they are at. And as an idea on how to learn about the companies, I thought it would great to have some fun facts about these three companies.

These fun facts are facts about each company on it's own and it is not necessarily a history behind the three companies, just a few facts that makes a nice impression for the company and/or its products, which you might or might not have known these facts about the three companies.

So let's start.

Apple:

The Apple Inc. campus is located in Cupertino, California. The campus is in a private U-shaped street called Infinite Loop, which is a programming concept of a loop that never ends. The street covers about thirty-two acres and has six buildings. Each building is numbered with one digit.²

Fortune magazine has named Apple the most admired company in the world for the last three years (2008-2010).³

Apple used to be known as Apple Computer Inc. But that changed on January 9, 2007 when the chairman and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, announced that computers will no longer be the main focus of the company and hence changed the name to just Apple Inc. The event, known as Macworld Expo, also had the announcement of iPhone and Apple TV.²

Steve Jobs has a salary of only one-dollar per year. How does he make his living? Simply by stock. He holds 5.426 million Apple shares, as well as 138 million shares in Disney.⁴ He isn't the first or the only CEO to be in this situation. There are many CEO's that have one-dollar per year salary, they are known as the "Dollar-a-year Men".⁵

The original Apple logo had Isaac Newton on it, sitting under an apple tree. It was replaced with the one we are more familiar with, but when replaced, the apple was a rainbow colour, then it changed to black and finally, to the one we are familiar with, silver. The "bite" in the Apple logo was to differentiate it from a cherry.⁵

As of 2010, Apple has revenue of US $65.23 billion with a profit of over US $14.01 billion.²

RIM Blackberry:

Research in Motion (RIM) is a Canadian telecommunications and mobile device company.

The first ever Blackberry device was the Blackberry 850 which was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany⁶. In 2003, the more commonly known smartphone Blackberry was released, and they recently released their new tablet called Blackberry Playbook.

Blackberry’s were primarily known for their ability of sending and receiving push email.⁶ Push email is the ability of having your email from the server "pushed" to your phone right away. Although, many smartphones nowadays are starting to have push as well.

Blackberry is also known for their security of the phone, which is the reason why the President of United States of America, Barack Obama, still uses his Blackberry and for the same reason some countries, like United Arab Emirates, India and Saudi Arabia, had expressed reservations of its strong encryption.⁶

Blackberry is also referred to as “Crackberry” in North America, implying an addiction towards Blackberry same as towards crack, for some people.

There is only one Blackberry store in existence, as of 2009. It is located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, which opened in December 2007. Although, this wasn’t the first Blackberry store, there were three attempts before at opening a Blackberry store in Toronto, London and Charlotte.⁶

As of 2011, RIM has revenue of about US $19.90 billion with a net income of US $3.41 billion.⁶

Android:

Android was not made by Google. Yes, that is correct; Android was devised by Andy Rubin and Rich Miner in 2003. Google bought it from them for US $50 million. Google kept it in a little box until November 5, 2007 when it decided/announced to launch the Android mobile platform. So what happened to Andy Rubin and Rich Miner? They are both at Google, Rubin is the director of mobile platforms and Miner the group manager.⁷

Android is an open source platform, which means anyone can access the code any time and change it anyway they would like, though it would only change the code they got.

The updates for Android code are named after Pastries. The past releases were named as Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb. The new update, soon to be released, is named as Ice Cream Sandwich.⁸

The first ever mobile phone to run on Android operating system was HTC Dream which was released on October 22, 2008.⁷

There are many companies that use Android OS for their mobile devices, like HTC, Acer, Samsung, Sony Ericsson to name a few. There are also rumours that Dell will soon be launching a phone with Android OS as well.

Today, August 15, 2011, Google bought Motorola for US $12.50 billion.

As of July 2010, there are reports that Android is getting activated in more than 200,000 phones daily.

As of 2010, Google has revenue of US $29.32 billion with a profit of over US $8.50 billion. Now we must remember that this is Google we are talking about, not just Android; Google and all it’s products.⁹

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Please comment, follow and share, it would be really helpful and much appreciated.

As my high-school teachers would say, "Now you can go home and tell your parents did you know..." Although, I think, most of you will/can go and tell your friends about it too.

Thank you once again for reading.

-Ahmad Ebadi aka That Random Tech Guy (TRTG)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone#Mobile_phones_in_society

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/20-strange-interesting-facts-microsoft-google-apple/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_a_year_men

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(software)

http://www.roseindia.net/android/android-unknown-facts.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

Hello world.

2011-08-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

My name is Ahmad Ebadi. I am an Afghan-Canadian living in Ottawa, Ontario. I am a part-time student in University of Ottawa, studying Software Engineering, and this is my first blog ever.

In this post I will write a little about myself and the things I like and love, I will then continue and write what this blog will be all about.

Things I Like:

I love sports. Sports is one of the main factors of living a healthy lifestyle and sports is something that is always fun both watching and playing, though most sports are better to be played than watched. My favorite sport right now is Ice Hockey, GO SENS GO, though I do watch and keep up with a lot of other national and international sports. I play cricket, although I am not the greatest player there is. Lol.

I also love music. Music is something that relates to everyone, everywhere in every situation. I believe music is the sound and words that is in our hearts and we cannot bring it out. Furthermore, music is the only language that is the same everywhere, another thing I believe in.

I love to read. I am currently reading the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, to be exact. My all-time favorite book, though, is The Godfather. Reading is very good for everyone, it really helps with language and in my opinion, reading makes you patient, but this merely might be because I have read many long and boring books just for the last 50 pages of excitement. ;)

And last but not least, I love technology. As for those of you who know, you could tell from the title of this post that I love technology. This brings me to my next topic of this post.

What this Blog is about.

As I love technology and am a Software Engineering student, this blog will mainly be about technology. Day by day, everything in the world is becoming more technological and this world is moving towards the trend of having everything based on technology.

Now there is many things to be covered in the technology world, but I will not be covering all those, for many reasons. The main thing that I will be covering in this blog will be smart-phones, but it won't be the only thing I will be covering in this blog. Right now in this world, the most trending technology is mobile devices and I will be mainly covering the smartphone devices.

I will be writing my blog not only for technological people, but I will do my best to write for the normal people more than the technological people. I say "do my best" because I would need your help in this as well. As I am new, I would really appreciate for people to comment on my blogs and address how I have done and give me opinions. I would also appreciate any suggestions from anyone and everyone.

Thank you in advance to everyone for reading, I hope you will follow my blog and keep reading. I do have an idea of what I will be covering for next blog post, so it won't take long to put it up. Keep checking for updates.

-Ahmad Ebadi aka That Random Tech Guy :)

PS: if you didn't know, Hello world is the first program a programmer writes for almost every new language they learn. It's main purpose is to print "Hello world" in the screen. It's simple yet it teaches you to get used to that language, that is why it is usually the first program a programmer writes.