Autocade hits the 5,000-model landmark

We’ve reached 5,000 models on Autocade, after 16 years. The 5,000th model entry was for the Xiaomi SU7, the first car from the Chinese cellphone brand. This wasn’t random: when I realized we had hit 4,999, I thought about what we could mark the 5,000-model milestone with. The most aerodynamic electric production car in the […]

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Opera GX wins over Firefox in typography; Über’s still a lemon

I’ve had both Firefox and Opera GX running as replacements for Vivaldi, which still crashes when I click in form fields, though not 100 per cent of the time. It’s running at about 50 per cent, so the fix they employed to deal with this issue is only half-effective. I see Firefox still doesn’t render […]

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When Here WeGo still sends you to the wrong location six years on

Six years ago, I reported this error in Here Maps (a.k.a. Here WeGo), both via the official channels and to a software engineer I knew working there.    It’s still there. There aren’t two Wharekauhau Country Estates (this is the route between them, to highlight just how wrong it is; the westerly one is correct). […]

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Xiaomi’s tiny idiosyncracies

There were a few surprises switching to Xiaomi.    First up, it asked me to do a voice identification by saying these four words, 小爱同學. Only thing is, it doesn’t understand Cantonese.    The default weather app was able to give me details based on exactly where I am (location service turned on, and I […]

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Some surprises on day one with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G

Top: Decent enough specs for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G. Above: Very respectable download speeds (in the header) as the phone updates 71 apps.   My Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G is here, and it’s proved better than the reviews suggested.    First up, kudos to the seller, YouGeek on Aliexpress, who not only […]

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Xiaomi’s confusing nomenclature

I’m starting to understand Xiaomi’s naming conventions but it’s a mess, especially coming from a marketer’s point of view.    I ordered the Note 9, which is superior to the 9. So far so good.    But what I’m getting is not what’s called the Note 9 here (or in any export market, from what […]

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What succeeds my Meizu M6 Note?

  My Meizu M6 Note has had to be retired, due to an expanding battery, something which I probably shouldn’t have tolerated for so long (it began happening months ago). I only made the call to stop using it last week after the volume buttons could no longer function, and I probably should have stopped […]

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Cellphone saga update: back to the past

Off to PB. The M6 Note was under warranty after all, so it’s now with PB Technologies’ service department in Wellington, after I explained it could have trouble doing read–write operations and the tech saw the camera and gallery hang (usually they just shut themselves down). I paid over NZ$400 for the phone including GST, […]

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