/blog

Today marks a year with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, overall a beast of a phone let down only by the camera which was supposed to be its defining feature. Samsung spent so much effort on trying to get the long range zoom working that they appear to have forgotten about taking photos of more intimate subjects. Close ups and focusing suffered.

They've apparently resolved a number of the issues since with the Note 20 Ultra and now the S21 series but, with a year left on my contract and stupidly low trade-in prices on offer, I won't be upgrading for a while. When I do I'll have the perennial argument with myself about whether to go for Android or iOS.

I'm not especially beholden to either ecosystem, a phone is a phone is a phone. Well, it's actually a small computer in my pocket and as long as it allows me to do what I want, what I need, then it doesn't really matter what type it is. I've been switching back and forth between the two ecosystems for years now – my first Android device was 2009 and my first iPhone 2011 – and have no specific loyalty to either.

What complicates my decision this time round is that I have a WearOS watch. While the model I have plays nicely with iOS (even to the point of being able to make/take phone calls) there are features and apps that just aren't available for it on iOS. So, while I gain from the tie-in with my Mac I lose on the integration with the watch. Maybe that will force my hand.

I never used to worry about the notch on the iPhone X when I had it but getting used to a punch-hole camera makes me think the notch is an intrusion, even if its size is supposed to be reduced on the next iPhone. I'd no doubt get used to it again very quickly but there is also the remote possibility that Samsung or other Android OEMs could have a decent under-screen front camera in next year's iterations which would be the ultimate goal.

I suppose I'll just have to wait until the leaks start filtering out and then make a decision. Until then, the S20 Ultra will continue to serve me perfectly well.

Took the car in for a service and MOT – we may still be in lockdown but some things are essential, not to mention a legal requirement seeing as there has been no MOT extension in the past two lockdowns unlike the first.

In addition to being masked up there was an abundance of hand gel used even though I didn't touch anything. Better safe than sorry.

Something I've wanted to do for a little while is better handle individual posts if linked to directly from elsewhere. Going to a specific section on any given day (this one, for example) auto expands the comments area for that post rather than requiring the reader to do it manually.

Seeing as I'm already using jQuery for Bigfoot footnotes I decided to use it to detect if clicking on other sections within that day. The only thing to change is the location fragment or hash, checking when this happens allows me to expand the right comments section and ensure the post is scrolled into view:

$(window).bind('hashchange', function() {
    // code here //
});