An In-depth Review of Fitbit One, Fitbit Aria, and Fitbit Premium - <AUTHOR> http://programmingzen.com/2013/01/08/an-in-depth-review-of-fitbit-one-fitbit-aria-and-fitbit-premium/ <comment><USER2> Wow, every link on that site appears to be an affiliate link and to make things worse, they don't appear to work.

I get this link: [http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=301421&m=31379&u=41200...](http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=301421&m=31379&u=412005&afftrack=&urllink=www%2Efitbit%2Ecom%2Fflex&lplid=1735)

directing to an empty page.

Its' very, very hard to take this seriously as an honest review when it's so obvious it was written with the attempt to make money.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a very narrow-minded view of blogging. I wouldn't write a 5,000+ word review if my main interest was making money. It's just stupid from an economic standpoint. I could make way more money with a 700 word review of some popular tech book. Above all I outline several flaws in the ecosystem in what it's an, as honest as it gets, review.

My point was sharing useful information. Will someone interested in Fitbit learn something about the product by reading this? I think they'll learn plenty. That's my goal, and if the affiliate links make me some extra money, great. I also disclaim my affiliation in my site (and in the post).

Regarding links, they work for me. Anyone else having this issue?

<comment><USER3> Tested one, it worked. On another browser, Ghostery blocked it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. I figured it was some kind of plugin blocking it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can echo what he's saying about the Aria. It's not that big of a deal to me. For the most part it's accurate and the tradeoff for wireless syncing is pretty awesome.

My biggest problem is losing the Fitbit trackers themselves. I've lost two and just got the One which I almost lost playing ultimate frisbee this weekend. That's $300 lost. I like the Fitbit ecosystem enough to get the One and it's great so far.

<comment><USER5> Maybe you should get the Zip. Only $60 but less features than the One.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the upcoming Flex might work best for him. It has to be pretty hard to lose a wrist band.

<comment><USER6> I'll be waiting for this before I get a Fitbit. And excuse the imagery, but it seems you have to wear clothes in bed for the vibrate-to-wake feature to work with the existing versions ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> At night the tracker is within the sleep wrist band, so it vibrates near your wrist. So feel free to pull a Marilyn Monroe. :-P

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For the Quantified Self folks, note that even by paying for Premium you cannot download your minute-by-minute movement data.

<comment><USER8> Also, it's not really an In-depth review if they don't talk about the privacy policy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Another very interesting product I would like to buy, am happy with the price - but they will not sell it to me because I am in Europe.

And they have been in the market for 3-4 years now?

Sigh...

<comment><USER10> I bought a fitbit one from the UK amazon store. It works great, though I am a little concerned by the idea upthread that it can be lost so easily!

<comment><USER11> Same here, I don't trust the clip it's flimsy. I opted for getting this to use while exercising instead: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008M6PA4A/>

For day to day I just leave it in my pocket. Haven't lost it in the last few months.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I suspect his repeatability problem with the scale is balance related. At 260 I haven't had that problem with the scale yet. Though if I don't dry my feet I can affect the fat % reading

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, as I mention in the review I suspect uneven distribution of the weight is at very least in part to blame. Great to hear that at 260 lbs you don't experience this problem. If you don't mind, would you comment as such in the comment section of my blog. I think it's useful information for those who are reading the review.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> >I found the clip on part to be less durable however, given that the bottom part came off after a week, though it is possible I received one that was defective and was just poorly glued on.

I had exactly the same happen, although it took about 3 weeks. About a week later, the device fell out of my pocket somewhere never to be seen again.

Apart from that, it's a great little device and I've bought a new one that still seems to be holding together at the moment.

</comment><comment><USER14> Mmm... MyBasis is much better.

<comment><USER15> because...?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Non-CS/EE hackers? - <AUTHOR>

I got into Mechanical Engineering, stayed in it a few years longer than I should have because I wasn't too shabby at it. Now I write aerospace software for a living and code for fun in my spare time. Probably like many of you, I have lots of itches to scratch and ideas about products people might want. But I'm very aware of my lack of a CS background, and it's a constant factor in thinking about what I'd like to make and what I actually can make.
It seems like the majority of people on HN are CS majors or started programming at a pretty young age. I'd like to hear stories about people who "switched" or caught the start-up bug after investing in an un-related degree. Is there often a feeling of being at a disadvantage? Were you able to find a way to use your domain knowledge later on?
Thanks for sharing! <comment><USER2> How about those that don't have degrees in anything?

Computer programmers (good ones and bad ones) come to programming from all walks of life.

My personal collection of 'interesting' prior subjects are:

      - a dentist

      - a psychologist

      - a biologist

      - a banker (and pretty high up the ladder too)

All of them caught the bug when frustrated with the programs they had at their disposal. Some started with excel (or even 1-2-3) and worked their way to the limitations of spreadsheet models, and decided to take the plunge, others started fixing some small problem in a program they had access to and took it from there.

It's really interesting to see how many people were _not_ in to computers in their schooldays that got sucked in to it.

The start-up bug and 'hacking' are two different things though, not necessarily related.

All of the examples above used their domain knowledge in the different field extensively and have made out very well because of that. (especially the dentist, that guy really impresses me, every year he has pretty much all the dentists in the country send him a check).

<comment><USER3> How true this is; deep domain knowledge in a field that is nominally filled with wealthy people who (a) don't program, and (b) spend money to fix problems is like an express ticket to success.

<comment><USER2> I think it held true in the past, but I'm not so sure about putting that in to practice today.

The period we're talking about was the mid '80s, pretty much the time when the PC took off. Conditions that were present in the market then will probably never repeat, even if you had all this knowledge today you'd find those now two decade+ old companies very well entrenched, and most of those problems solved for good.

If you could identify such a niche it would be interesting to see how you'd fare with todays tools at your disposal.

The dentist guy is a good example, he basically started out writing a ms basic program under dos to do some basic stuff and over time it grew to be the standard package for this region. My guess is that for every niche like that some guy has by now filled it and the company that grew out of it will be very hard to displace.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I may not be the type of person you're looking for, as I started with programming when I was a kid. Then again, I decided that being a geek was 'uncool' after grade school, and didn't really start hacking on stuff again until the end of high school.

In college, I got two degrees, one in Math, the other in Japanese, and while there are some areas where I feel a bit behind-the-curve, overall I think that not getting a CS/EE degree was the right decision, for two reasons.

One, because a lot of CS programs focus on writing code to satisfy textbook exercises, rather than in solving real-world problems. While I'm sure the experience of implementing quicksort in Java is useful at some level, it's a hell of a lot less important in the startup world than having experience in solving practical problems in limited amounts of time.

Especially when the solutions to those problems aren't 'known'.

Two, because my college experiences were shaped by a mixture of math and language-learning, I didn't develop a case of correctness paralysis, which is a big problem with CS people, in my experience. They get very stuck on whether or not problems are provably correct, have totally known behavior, and so on, rather than just thinking about the problem a bit, implementing something that works well enough, and then improving it, which is much more an engineering mindset than a CS one.

</comment><comment><USER4> A lot of people get the CS degree and stop learning or lose the drive to write or create anything interesting. Who knows, maybe they never had it: It's easier to take a creative person and teach him engineering than it is to teach an engineer to be creative.

Me: B.A. English and Classics. I'm getting a masters in CS--only because I already read/have read many of the graduate texts. I started programming at an early age, but I wasn't interested in CS because the universities were still insisting on Fortran and Assembly, and I'm sure Cobol was on the list of requirements too. Lastly, deep domain knowledge is priceless--no fancy algorithm trick can beat it. Someone without specialized domain knowledge can't even envision what he doesn't know.

Success in software and startups is largely determined by one's commitment to keep learning and trying to improve.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've got a BS in Econ w/minor in finance. I didn't take CS or engineering in school because it didn't really seem interesting - I do it all day anyways, and wanted to learn something outside of my normal scope of activity, that would still be relatively useful.

</comment><comment><USER6> "I'd like to hear stories about people who "switched" or caught the start-up bug after investing in an un-related degree."

Start-Up are not related to Computer Science or Information Technology. There are health, medicines, nano-technology... startups that don't deal with computers or programming. It's simply a question of "What do you want to do?".

If you want to get a 9-5 programming job, a CS degree will help. If you want to start a start-up, no one will ask you for your background. If you want to have a deeper CS knowledge, you can just read books or watch free courses online.

</comment><comment><USER7> My degree was in Philosophy, and I'm able use that "domain knowledge" in any situation, but that knowledge is generally more useful to me in a much more abstract/indirect way than my software engineering knowledge.

I think that the most important factors for being a successful programmer in the long run have more to do with personality traits, though: work ethic, curiosity, resourcefulness, inventiveness, etc. than with educational background.

</comment><comment><USER8> Mech E here also. Spent two years as a design engineer until I made the jump for web programming. I didn't leverage any domain knowledge though. Light bulb design doesn't have much to do with fantasy football :)</comment>


HTML5 mockups of popular devices - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/pixelsign/html5-device-mockups

<comment><USER2> Great stuff, we also made some flat style devices in css

[http://marvelapp.github.io/devices.css/](http://marvelapp.github.io/devices.css/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Somewhat dissapointed to find that the devices are not actually HTML/CSS mockups, but just a background image of each device sourrounding the screenshot.

<comment><USER4> Not sure why you would want to compromise on browser support just to have some fancy CSS3 in there. Background image is totally acceptable (in fact, I think that was a great design decision). This library does exactly what the author claims it does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I (apparently unlike every other commenter) really love this and think it'll be a great way to showcase some of my projects.

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER6> Looks good, but I think it's too detailed for the intended use case. If you're trying to demo your website in a phone, you want a generic smart phone, that emphasises your app, not your choice of phone.

</comment><comment><USER7> Unfortunately, the demo link doesn't work ([http://aarnis.com/demo.html](http://aarnis.com/demo.html)).

<comment><USER8> Found the correct link at ([http://aarnis.com/pixelsign/demo.html](http://aarnis.com/pixelsign/demo.html))

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The outer antenna on the black iPhone 5 is not grey, it's black. The white iPhone 5 has the correct (grey) antenna.

Otherwise, good job.

</comment><comment><USER10> I like this, I think the more common use case is to showcase mobile apps though.

</comment><comment><USER11> What makes this "HTML5"? I don't see any use of the new semantically- meaningful elements.

</comment><comment><USER12> Nice, but the white iPhone home button looks a little weird. Otherwise super cool.

</comment><comment><USER13> Landscape Lumia920 seems broken, all the gradients are in the wrong directions. (Firefox/Chrome, OS X)

</comment><comment><USER14> It needs a 1080p phone too.</comment>


Theory of Peak Advertising and  the Future of the Web (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://peakads.org/ <comment><USER2> > We may very well reach and pass the point of Peak Advertising without any > significant innovation emerging to maintain and grow the flow of revenue > supporting the Internet.

> What will be left with is a stagnant and ever eroding flow of revenue from > the primary sources of advertising, and the inadequate substitution of new > forms of advertising in its place. Of the few players that remain, they will > produce a web experience that engineers the erosion of user privacy and the > blurring of the line between real content and advertising.

</comment><comment><USER3> What is an "ad" really? There are companies who will pay money for a bit of attention, and companies who get some attention willing to sell it.

There will always be a market for selling attention. Always. It's never going away. Attention is a valuable commodity and companies are willing to pay for some.

CPMs, CPCs, CPAs... don't matter. There's a budget for ads, and that budget will get spent. Who it goes to and how much attention it buys them will change.

When I left the web dev game last year, the big exciting trend was dynamic bidding systems, where many different ad networks would bid to show you an ad in real time. [1]

Advertisers are adapting. Publishers are adapting. RTB comes and increases profits and in the end, publishers who adapt do fine.

While CPMs for traditional banner ads continue to fall, that just means the market for selling attention has moved on to something else.

[1] [https://clearcode.cc/blog/real-time- bidding/](https://clearcode.cc/blog/real-time-bidding/)

</comment><comment><USER4> >Someone might develop a behavioral targeting system that perfectly delivers compelling ads to the right customer flawlessly. The current failure to do so even with massive data about user behavior seems to discount this scenario.

Google and everyone's investment into AI and digital assistants makes a lot more sense.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's cool to have something to reference when you're talking about peak web advertising. Other than that, the key points as summed up on peakads.org seem plain obvious.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is prophetic.</comment>


How they stack up: Disrupt, Launch, and Demo - <AUTHOR> http://getzazu.tumblr.com/post/11320134925/how-they-stack-up-disrupt-launch-and-demo

<comment><USER2> Author's TL;DR:

 _if you're looking for press, go to DEMO, if you're looking for a good time, go to Disrupt, and if you're looking for beta testers, go to Launch._

</comment><comment><USER3> How did you manage to get into these events for free? You mentioned that you got sponsored, but what does this mean? Can you provide some tips?

<comment><USER4> Was just asked that question on the original post, our response: We applied to each of the conferences directly. At Disrupt, they liked what we were doing but weren't 100% sure about putting us on stage. We were persistent and they offered us a cocktail table. For Launch, Marc responded to Jason Calacanis' post on hacker news looking for innovative companies and we applied directly to the DEMO scholarship program. During our interview with DEMO we told them we were bootstrapped and couldn't pay for even a partial scholarship.

A big part of it this of course is selling your company's vision to them when they are evaluating you. If they get excited by the vision, they'll want you to come to their conference.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How about going where your customers actually are?

<comment><USER4> well that would really depend on who your customers are Demo is great for enterprise customers, Disrupt is great for consumers</comment></comment>


New Dell XPS 13 developer edition now available - <AUTHOR> https://bartongeorge.io/2019/01/23/the-new-dell-xps-13-developer-edition-now-available-in-the-us-europe-and-canada/ <comment><USER5> Wonderful! I was excited when they announced they had _finally_ moved the camera to the top, and was hoping for a Dev Ed soon. Didn't expect it so quickly! Good job Barton & team!

Weight-wise, it's under the Macbook Air... Feature-wise (and pricewise), it's closer to the MBP.

Starting weights:

      * XPS13: 2.7lbs/1.23kg
      * MBA: 2.75lbs/1.25kg
      * MBP (13.3"): 3.02lbs/1.37kg

Screen resolution:

      * XPS13: 13.3" 3840x2160 (or 1920x1080)
      * MBA: 13.3" 2560x1600
      * MBP: 13.3" 2560x1600

Ports:

      * XPS13: 3xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP USB3.1 Gen??), headset, MicroSD
      * MBA: 2xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP, USB3.1 Gen2), headset
      * MBP: 4xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP, USB3.1 Gen2), headset

And pricing (for closest equivalent HW I could find, not quite equal, XPS with 4k screen, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD):

      * XPS13: i7-8565U (GPU Intel UHD 620): $1590 (+tax)
      * MBA: i5-8210Y (?) (GPU Intel UHD 617): $1400 (+tax)
      * MBP (no Touch Bar): I5-7360U [1] (GPU Intel UHD 640): $1500 (+tax)

And with 16GB Ram, 512 SSD (max for XPS13):

      * XPS13: $1840
      * MBA: $1800
      * MBP (no TB): $1900

[1] [https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...](https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook- pro-core-i5-2.3-13-mid-2017-retina-display-no-touch-bar-specs.html)

<comment><USER6> A 4K 13-inch display feels like absurd overkill to me. Am I in the minority on that?

<comment><USER7> I have the older 13" 3200x1800 screen and it is amazing. I put Ubuntu 18.04 on it since it wasn't available as a developer edition. The display scaling is my only problem but that's more a gnome thing. Running it with Windows was a almost perfect (why, Xilinx can you not do display scaling...). I thought I wouldn't notice the extra resolution due to the small screen but it both looks really nice for text and allows me to scale everything slightly smaller so that I can fit more on my screen for productivity. That being said, I use it as a laptop, on my lap. The extra resolution is pretty useless if I'm using it on a desk or table. But for that I have an XPS15 + 27" 4K setup.

<comment><USER8> As far as I know GNOME can do display scaling, but not fractional display scaling yet.

<comment><USER7> Yeah that's the problem. 2x is too big and 1x is too small on 3200x1800. Luckily there's a workaround to scale text to 1.5x which for most purposes is fine.

<comment><USER9> I like 2x scale on the XPS 13 9350 (with 3200x1800). It results in a super sharp 1600x900 which is ideal for the 13.3" screen site.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Sad to see the XPS 13 line going the same way as Apple and removing the USB A ports. On the plus side, it's at least possible to connect two monitors to the USB C ports now (the 2017 version I have has only one USB C port), but it's less overall ports now since the power jack is also replaced by USB C. The body seems the same size as previously, so the excuse of "more thinness" doesn't really apply.

That said, the XPS 13 has been the best experience I've had with Linux on a laptop. The bundled Ubuntu install works out of the box, but even on other distros it's not difficult to set up, and I've not encountered any driver issues, which have been common on every other laptop I've installed Linux on. It helps that it's a great quality laptop in general - anecdotally in my office, we see far more hardware issues with the latest Macbooks than with XPSs.So I'd recommend it for anyone who wants a Linux or Windows laptop, or is considering switching away from Mac without compromising on hardware quality.

<comment><USER11> Apple has the common decency to make all of their USB-C ports identical, and support just about every allowable feature I know of, so, in theory, there's no reason you'll ever plug a device into a Mac and have it not work because the port isn't compatible (even though it's physically the same). Great in theory, I just wish the ports were more reliable — I've now had two laptops with flaky ports.

Dell dropped the ball by giving this laptop two TB3 ports and one that only does USB.

<comment><USER12> On some MBP configurations (I think the 13 inch model?), the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left and right side don't have the same capabilities.

<comment><USER13> That was the case with the 2016 and 2017 models of 13" MBP w/touch bar - <USER2> right side had reduced PCI Express bandwidth. The 2018 model has full bandwidth on all ports.

<comment><USER14> Does the 15 have the same problem?

<comment><USER15> ISTR that the 15" of all generation had 4 lane TB3 ports on both sides. The distinction was the older 13" had two lanes on the right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I do own XPS 13 9360 and there are number of issues:

\- coil whine under load;

\- poor heat sink, under little load i7 goes to 100C and CPU throttling kicks in;

\- sometimes 'w' button seems to be 'stuck' in pressed state even when it's physically un-pressed; seems to be a firmware keyboard bug, since I've seen same problem on another XPS 13;

\- I've had to replace Killer WiFi card, because RTT for packets spiked up every time card was scanning for networks;

\- that 'spidey-fingers' webcam;

\- that 'Content Adaptive Brightness Control' when gamma-level goes off every time you switch from black to white image on the screen;

\- unable to replace battery, since even when I've ordered battery from authorized service center they gave me non-official third-party battery which was not accepted by laptop;

\- connecting 4K@60Hz is kinda problematic, since you need to find USB-C adapter which supports it;

<comment><USER17> I have 9370 (the 2018 model) and I only have these two:

\- that 'spidey-fingers' webcam;

lol, that's a weird one, but solved with the external keyboard

\- that 'Content Adaptive Brightness Control' when gamma-level goes off every time you switch from black to white image on the screen;

that's a weird one, how to turn that off? (win 10)

<comment><USER18> You can do that from the BIOS and disable Dynamic Brightness Control in the display options

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I split my development time between a 2015 rMBP and a Precision 5530 (pro model of the XPS 15). I still can not switch fully to the Dell because of a few issues:

\- The touchpad is just garbage compared to the MBP, to the point I have an even more keyboard centric setup on it than my desktop, because I want to drop it out of a window every time I use the touchpad.

\- Fans. I've accepted that most laptops will run active cooling more than any radiative chassis MBP, but the issues are that while the fans run constantly, they also change speeds constantly in both Windows and Ubuntu. They'd be far less annoying if they ran at a higher, but steady RPM by averaging response over a large time window. Manually managing fans feels like 1998. Also, for a $3.5K laptop that runs fans constantly, these are some of the jankiest, most rattling prone fans I've heard. Most colleagues with XPS 13/15 have sent them in for fan replacement at least once.

A more niche gripe is that 16:9 is the wrong aspect ratio for a professional laptop.

Pros:

\- Screen quality and brightness.

\- Keyboard (why I can't just get a new MBP).

\- Hardware configurability.

\- Many hardware issues at first, especially in linux, were quickly and effectively fixed by Dell driver and firmware updates.

<comment><USER20> > A more niche gripe is that 16:9 is the wrong aspect ratio for a professional > laptop.

What aspect ratio is more fitting for a professional laptop? 4:3?

<comment><USER19> 16:10 is great, although I did briefly trial run a Surface Book 2 and loved the 3:2 screen, as well as the rest of the hardware. Only decided against it because of the amount of compromises and maintenance when running Linux on it.

<comment><USER21> I'm hoping more device start offering 3:2 screens now. I was interested in the surface line too but decided against it for the same reasons as you. I ordered Huawei's Matebook X pro yesterday which was the only other laptop I saw which offers a nice 3:2 display. I'm hoping everything will work out of the box (this laptop uses intel wireless unlike the marvell chip on the surface) with any recent distro.

Sidenote: I've also read about decent openbsd support for the older version of this laptop. [1]

[1] [https://jcs.org/2017/07/14/matebook](https://jcs.org/2017/07/14/matebook)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Why does a "developer edition" notebook come with a glossy screen?

I sort of understand why computer makers like glossy screens: because they just look better to the causal shopper. OK. But in a laptop that is aimed at professionals? People that stare at the screen all day long are sophisticated enough to know that a matte screen is just better.

I'm often on the train and I do not envy the poor souls that work on an enterprise-bought laptop with a glossy screen and that have to swing their heads the whole time to avoid reflections from the train window.

BTW, a thorough (p)review of the 9380: [https://www.ultrabookreview.com/24336-dell- xps-13-9380/](https://www.ultrabookreview.com/24336-dell-xps-13-9380/)

<comment><USER23> The matte finish has horrible optical qualities, causing ambient light to scatter ("antiglare") washing out colors, and also causing light from individual pixels to scatter and refract back into neighboring pixels. This reduces the quality of displayed images, and in high density LCD displays it causes pixel-fine details (small text) to appear smeary.

By contrast, well-designed glossy displays minimize internal refraction and also cause light at high angles to reflect, reducing the amount of ambient light which pollutes the display. The result is that the display appears much brighter in any setting, black are blacker and do not get washed out by brights. Colors show higher dynamic range, and small details are crisper. In addition, well-designed glass glossy displays (such as those on the MacBook Pro) are actually visible and easy to use outdoors in full daylight. Even when reflections show up on glass displays, it's easy to see past them because they're full optical reflections with correct depth in stereo vision, meaning that you can correctly focus on the screen without focusing on the reflection.

Glossy displays are bad under basically two conditions:

* They are warped plastic, such as on older Dell laptops, causing weird shiny glossy glare at all angles that cannot be ignored.

* You have positioned your screen so that there is a small but very very bright reflection behind you, and cannot tilt your display.

<comment><USER24> You say all that -- regardless how superior your glossy screen is on paper; I, and many others still prefer to look at matte screens and have far less problems with them in real world situations.

<comment><USER25> I don't even know any developers that work on matte screens. What problems are we supposed to have in the real world?

<comment><USER26> I'm a developer and I prefer matte screens. Here's why:

Comfort: I don't need to adjust myself or the screen's position depending on the light.

Power saving: My brightness can be lower, because it's not competing with reflection.

To me, these greatly outweigh any advantages of a glossy screen.

On thing which may be important: I require a dark desktop theme.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> There is a lot to of good to be said about the XPS series. I love them for all my coding tasks.

The only problem is that you cannot open the display up fully. They block at 160° or so.

In many situations it would be super useful to have the laptop opened up 180°. In a plane for example. Or when it sits on a desk in a laptop stand and you use an external keyboard.

Running a laptop comparison site myself ([https://www.productchart.com](https://www.productchart.com)), I wonder if we should add '180°' to the filter list. It seems like an odd feature. It's super useful to me. Never heard anybody else talk about it though.

<comment><USER28> If 180° opening angle is an important feature for you it might be worth it to go towards the XPS 2-in-1 series which features a 360° opening angle. In a car, on a plane or on foot that can be an awesome feature to have.

<comment><USER27> I would love a 2-in-1! Especially if the keyboard could be disconnected.

But then you don't have the option of a matte screen. And that is essential for me.

I am waiting for the day we have matte touchscreens.

<comment><USER29> You can search for "Antiglare Touch Screen Protector" in Amazon and some suitable products will appear.

Why would you do such atrocity and how can you really keep clean a non-smooth surface which you constantly touch with your fingers are two issues that I better not think too much about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Why are they still using Killer WiFi NIC's on these things. They are absolutely terrible. We have a bunch of XPS 13 and 15's at our office (9360's up to 9570's) and every single one of them has random connectivity problems on our office WiFi and people's home networks.

We've had to replace all of them with Intel 9260's and the problems instantly disappear. I don't know how this is not a customer support nightmare for them, and why they continue using them given the relatively low cost of the Intel cards.

<comment><USER31> I have a 9370 and never had any problems with the WiFi. I've connected it to lots of home networks, coffee chops, etc.

Reception is perfect, even better than the Intel card my previous latptop had.

(running Fedora Linux out-of-the-box btw)

<comment><USER32> how's the trackpad?

<comment><USER31> The best I ever had. Me previous laptop was a VAIO and a MacBook Air (no Force Touch yet) before that one. The trackpad is a little bit better than the MBA's and a lot better than the one from the VAIO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Maybe somebody on here knows. Is there a (mostly) Linux compatible laptop that offers the following?

\- 10-11 inch (preferably the size of the 11" Macbook Air or 10.5 inch iPad)

\- Good touchscreen (with Linux support)

\- Good keyboard with hinged display (2-in-one would be awesome, but I doubt that's possible given the other constraints I already have)

\- Solid CPU options (i.e. no Atom)

I bought a Chuwi Surbook Mini and installed Linux on it but while the Hardware works fine, the touchscreen is so-so and the attached keyboard cover is awful. I'd buy a Microsoft Surface 10" but Linux on there doesn't support hibernation and that's a must for me (and I won't go with Windows. I tried that with the Chuwi, that OS is just not for me, I loathe it). I'd also maybe go with a Pixel Slate but 12.3 inch sounds too big for me and Google doesn't sell it here so I can't even preview it.

<comment><USER34> The 12" Chromebook models (Pixel Slate, Pixelbook, Samsung Chromebook Pro) are not any larger than the 11" MBA. They're narrower and slightly taller. The MBA just has enormous bezels and also a different aspect ratio.

<comment><USER33> Thanks, I haven't had a chance to try them out because the few Google products I'm actually interested are apparently only for the US marked. I'll look at some comparison pictures and make up my mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> > Up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory at 2133MHz

"Up to 16GB" in 2019 means it's not upgradable, and not worth buying, because developers like hardware that they can upgrade in 2-5 years if needed.

<comment><USER36> Anyone know why this is the case? Using a limited motherboard or something? 16gb should be standard these days for a developer laptop... with expansion to 32gb.

<comment><USER37> Ultraportable limits are generally courtesy of the Intel chipset.

<comment><USER38> This would be a way for amd to make headway into the laptop market, if they made it easy to get 32+ gb.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I really _want_ to buy a "Linux laptop" like this because I want to vote with my money and I don't want to be paying for a Windows license that I'm not going to use. But _why_ don't they sell an XPS 15 Developer Edition? Surely there's a lot of professional types wanting a bigger laptop right? Is there some hardware difference between the two that causes problems? What's the deal?

<comment><USER21> Their Precision 5530 is the developer edition XPS 15. The same chassis with a different GPU and intel wireless instead of killer.

Although those tend to be a lot pricier than the regular XPS 15's

<comment><USER39> Did not know that. Honestly I would pay a bit more for Intel wireless vs. Killer. Thanks.

<comment><USER21> I think some of the price increase is also because of the different CPU options. In general their Precision line should be a lot more configurable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40>
      InfinityEdge display with top camera placement

I wonder how many human-years of effort went into this improvement?

<comment><USER41> You mean you don't like the webcam at the bottom left of the display so your typing fingers occupy 50% of the image when you're typing and broadcasting? :)

<comment><USER42> OTOH, they are a plus if your hair is getting thin.

<comment><USER43> Unfortunately it moved into my nose.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Tempting but how is the coil whine on the new model? I had a 9370 for two days last year but the coil whine was irksome to the point of returning it.

Also what is the point of 4K on a 13" laptop? Honestly the 1080p model needs scaling to at least 1.25 as 1.0 is just painful even with perfect vision. Am I missing something obvious or is it just so Dell can tick the 4K marketing check box?

Providing it has no coil whine the only potential issue I see is the crappy SOLDERED(!) Killer wifi card. Damn shame you can't get it with an Intel one.

<comment><USER45> The coil whine is per device not per model. You can get lucky and have no coil whine or unlucky and have it loud af on the same model laptops produced at the same time.

<comment><USER46> I must be incredibly unlucky for having owned several XPS 13 systems over the last 5 years, each with the coil whine.

<comment><USER37> What exactly is coil whine? Mine makes a light chatter sound when scrolling or animation happens onscreen. Is that the same?

<comment><USER46> Yep, that's it.

[https://youtube/watch?v=blyswNKEPEY](https://youtube/watch?v=blyswNKEPEY)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Why is the 16GB RAM + FHD screen (1080p) variant not available in the US and Canada? It seems like this has been a long-standing issue since at least the 9360.

This is very frustrating since I don't need the 4k panel (in fact I don't want it for resolution scaling reasons) however I absolutely do need the 16GB of RAM.

Mind boggling.

<comment><USER48> FHD + 8GB model can be upgraded to 16GB for $100 more.

<comment><USER49> EDIT: ignore everything below. Here's the link that parent is referring to: [https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and- notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and- notebooks/xps-13-developer- edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c603subuntu)

</comment></comment></comment><comment>

I hope you're right, because I've tried and failed to create such a configuration on the website. Would you mind providing a link to a RAM- configurable 1080 model?

For example, this one allows an i5/i7 choice as well as a 1080/2160 choice, but that's it -- no RAM/storage modifications: [https://www.dell.com/en- us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en- us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/xps-13-developer- edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c706subuntu)

EDIT: Found it, and you're right! You have to start with the i7 rather than the i5 on the product home page, but yes, it's there! This is awesome -- never really used the 4K or touch, and could definitely use the extra battery life. [https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and- notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and- notebooks/xps-13-developer- edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c603subuntu)

</comment><comment><USER50> What's the generally hold-up with 32GB RAM being a standard option(or even possibility) in this form factor?

<comment><USER51> Totally agree. This is why I'm going to get a T480 thinkpad with 32GB for my next linux laptop next week rather than this.

<comment><USER52> That's what I've been rocking for 7 months now and it is my best laptop ever. Highly recommend it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Never again a Dell. XPS 15 was such a huge disappointment, not the least of which was capped by the near constant CPU voltage throttling down to 0.8GHz despite reasonable temperatures.

Specs are awesome. Reality over 1.5 years was way below according expectations. Apple may make really annoying decisions regarding function keys, RAM limitations, ports, etc., but their stuff largely works as promised (ok, keyboard aside).

</comment><comment><USER54> If only they'd release a version of the XPS with a 16:10 or 3:2 ratio display. Getting work done on 16:9 is just so narrow and cramped.

<comment><USER55> I currently have a 9350 and the 3-4 centimeters of potential screen real estate below the display which is unused, is more or less the only thing that bothers me. Plus, kernel 4.19 causes some wifi issues currently. But the hardware has been very reliable so far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I have a 2017 13" XPS running Solus Linux. I have come to abhor this machine. I can't tell you the amount of times I've had to reboot the computer due to frozen or halting apps. I only have 8GB of RAM so that might be it but I can't run Slack app or the Google Play app at the same time without definitely causing problems.

I have a desktop with Solus and 16GB at home and never run into any issues with it.

I don't recommend this laptop anymore to anyone.

<comment><USER57> Do you have a swap partition? If you don't have a swap partition enabled, then your computer will freeze when your RAM fills up.

I have the XPS 16" and this happens to me under Arch Linux, but thankfully not very often because I have 16GB of RAM. If you really have to break out of the freeze, then you can try switching to another terminal window (eg. ctrl-alt-F3 or some other function key), then try to kill the offending process. It might take a minute for your keyboard inputs to take effect, but it generally can be done.

<comment><USER58> Tip: I have the exact same setup, and I use earlyoom ([https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom](https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom)) to prevent this. Previously, I was frequently unable to break out of the freeze no matter how long I waited, forcing a hard reboot, but with earlyoom just a single memory-heavy app gets killed instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> I was looking at purchasing laptop but then I saw this: [https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-briefly-teases-new- XPS-13...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-briefly-teases-new- XPS-13-laptop-with-Ice-Lake-at-Intel-keynote.393461.0.html).

Does this mean a newer version of this will be out in a few months?

</comment><comment><USER60> I've been using these for years and love them. I've had to use a MBP for work for the last few months and boy is it ever torture to use. You know why? Mostly it's just about what you're used to. The quality of both computers is pretty good, but the Linux computer is set up exactly the way I want.

</comment><comment><USER61> I've switched to a Pixelbook and like it for many tasks. The Pixelbook is lighter and has a taller 3:2 screen, both positives. The Chrome OS security model seems stronger than Ubuntu out of the box. My development environment now runs in the safety of a VM.

I had the XPS 13 9333 and later replaced it with the XPS 13 9730. It's about a year old now and is currently back with Dell to repair two USB-C ports that stopped working about the same time-- around the time I got the Pixelbook.

The Crostini software and integration on the Pixelbook still needs polish, but overall I'm happy with the Pixelbook as an XPS 13 alternative for a Linux development environment.

<comment><USER62> I hope that Pixelbook 2 will be released soon with smaller bezels and more up- to-date hardware. Then switching from a Thinkpad running Fedora / Ubuntu to a Pixelbook will be a no-brainer to me. I think that ChromeOS is the most secure OS at the moment, and a Pixelbook is like an iPad Pro and a Macbook Air combined. Which is exactly what I want for work and leisure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Anyone know whether this model will work with USB-C phone chargers (or at least any chargers that provide less than 45 watts)?

And does anyone have first-hand knowledge whether the Killer wifi card is non- replaceable, as was the case with the 9370?

<comment><USER31> I have a 9370 and charge it with a 45 watts phone charger from Inateck, works perfectly :)

<comment><USER49> Same here (9350). I'm looking for info about chargers designed for phones or otherwise advertising less than 45 watts, as they're substantially smaller and more prevalent than the ones providing 20V @ 2.25A and above.

<comment><USER63> I have a 9350, it charges with 30w from an Anker one (that apparently only comes included with the 26800 pd battery pack) and 30w/45w (not sure) with an Innergie 60c

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> ...but did they fix the coil wine? I was very interested in an XPS in 2017, my main criteria for a new laptop was a Linux machine, and yet during all my research quality concerns continued to rise up regarding to XPS, either it was coil wine, an icky track pad, poor keyboard, bad finishes.. you name it.

I ended up snagging a non touch bar MBP and haven't looked back. The elite cell manufacturers have been able to bridge the gap between their hardware quality and the iPhone.. why hasn't Dell?

<comment><USER65> I have a pretty new one (9370 I think) and I love it. No coil whine, the build feels great, and I have no complaints about that keyboard or trackpad. My only real complaint so far is the bluetooth is flaky.

<comment><USER66> Does the Bluetooth connection just drop out between suspensions? I've have this issue across both XPS 13's I've owned. It's incredibly frustrating and seems to be a long running issue [1]. If you care about Bluetooth I wouldn't recommend an XPS 13

1.[https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer- Systems/XPS-1...](https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer- Systems/XPS-13-9370-no-bluetooth-after-suspend/td-p/6022892/page/10)

<comment><USER65> Yeah, mine drops after suspending. Sometimes it shows the device is disconnected and I need to re-pair it. Not sure if that is a problem with the system or my MX Ergo, but it never has problems on my Windows machine. Occasionally the whole bluetooth system dies and I need to reset.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER67> Camera's moved to the top! That addresses what's been a common complaint over the years.

<comment><USER68> That was probably the main reason why I recently got a Precision instead of an XPS as a daily driver.

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> ThinkPad X1 Extreme (15.6") is light and powerful for its size. (Small bezels) I was worried that I'd have buyer's remorse reading this article, but I don't. It supports up to 64GB RAM, 2x Thunderbolt (with PD), 2x USB A 3.1. Fast charging. Bluetooth 5. 4K touch w/ wacom pen support. Infrared camera. Folds flat. Mouse nub. Sweet, sweet ThinkPad keys. Look for discounts through your work.

I should add:

DDR4 RAM and TWO (2) m.2 NVMe/PCIe slots!

<comment><USER37> Should be compared with the XPS 15, the 13 has a lot more compromises.

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> Heads up, after I installed the 1.6.x BIOS update on my 9370, it takes multiple minutes to POST, every (re)boot. After the initial update, the first boot took nearly 15 minutes, I thought it had been bricked. I've reinstalled firmware, I've downgraded, I've factory reset and it still does this. They've offered to service it (I contacted them a week before my warranty expired) but it's not quite annoying enough to be without it for days.

Just a heads up, I have a lot more to complain about the XPS13, but it's basically exclusively BIOS issues [1]. I think they also need to improve the heatsink/paste, but maybe they have for the 9380 model.

[1] The BIOS releases are not always in increasing version numbers. They're repeatedly re-released versions, or released versions from different old servicing branches, etc. Someone commented that they thought Dell was sort of doing wide-scale A/B testing by releasing different versions and collecting feedback. Seems a bit presumptive but it's been in my head.

<comment><USER70> Funny coincidence, as I was writing this post, someone else was sharing a Dell anecdote. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aj46fz/xps_9570_not_c...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aj46fz/xps_9570_not_charging_after_bios_170_update/) I partially do this to hopefully raise awareness -- if Dell would bring their BIOS in house, I would be a very, very vocal advocate of the XPS 13 for any non-Chromebook-level user.

edit: wow, Dell's BIOS vendor must have really butchered the last batch, here's another one: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aiwj7u/do_not_use_del...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aiwj7u/do_not_use_dell_g7_180_bios/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Pluses and minuses of the 9570 (XPS 15, bought Dec 2018) - some of the following apply to XPS 13 too (use common sense).

Pluses: \- Linux works well (needs some tweaks, but they are easily findable) \- Fast laptop CPU (i9-8950HK) and 32GB (for VMs) \- 4k screen has great readability (need some tweaks) \- USB-A 3 on both sides \- I've had two firmware updates through Ubuntu (great Linux support by HP). \- I haven't had any problems with the drivers (for the hardware I use - I haven't yet tried video and I don't use the fingerprint sensor)

Minuses: \- No DisplayPort \- Glossy (all the touch-screen models are glossy, the non-touch models are matte) \- Killer WiFi (works, but I've read it is unreliable. Hopefully can replace if I have to) \- No hard PgDn/PgUp/Home/End keys (very very annoying) \- Linux is not "officially" supported (Windows tax) although I think the Linux support is good for a laptop. \- No Ethernet port (I prefer a hard wire) \- Screen colours are too orange

<comment><USER72> > Screen colours are too orange

Here are some pointers on how to change that: [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ICC_profiles](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ICC_profiles)

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> Anyone have real-world experience with this killer 1435 wifi card in Linux? I'm hesitant to give up intel wifi's linux support.

<comment><USER74> You can just replace it with Intel one.

<comment><USER75> I tried to do that on my 9343 and pretty sure I ended up breaking one of the clips on the aluminum case. I got it back on and after reseating it a couple of times there's no longer a visible gap once I get all the screws it, but there's a spot on the back of the laptop where I can press down and here a slight clicking noise, like a latch is trying to catch somewhere but can't.

Just saying, removing some of these things can be more difficult than the Youtube videos or internet guides would have you believe.

<comment><USER74> I haven't used Dell really, but in many laptops, it's usually quite straightforward.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER76> I've had a Dell Precision M7520 for about a year. It can have up to 64GB ram and runs Ubuntu 16 LTS. I think it came with a Windows 10 license but I threw it away. The only downside is that the standard power brick draws too much current to work on airplane power outlets. It also makes you stronger because it's so heavy (~7 lbs).

<comment><USER77> The "laptop workout" works better with a messenger bag or briefcase than a backpack in my experience since it puts more weight on your arms than your back.

</comment></comment><comment><USER78> 16GB RAM? That's not going to work for many developers three years from now (I replace laptops every three years usually).

<comment><USER79> This is a MacBook Air competitor. The Dell XPS 15 supports 32GB RAM.

<comment><USER80> But also lacks a developer edition.

There's at least some value in that guarantee that you won't run into any driver issues.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Can anyone recommend a comparable notebook that supports more than 16GB of RAM?

As great as this computer looks, I find myself doing doing more and more data crunching work that would benefit hugely from having more memory. But I also travel enough that a desktop (or desktop replacement laptop) just won't cut the mustard.

<comment><USER81> If this laptop has SO-DIMM slots then it supports more than 16GB RAM. 32GB RAM sticks are available and compatible even if Intel doesn't claim they are. Campuspoint tested them with the Lenovo ThinkPad T480, for example.

<comment><USER82> You can buy a T480 from Lenovo with 32GB of RAM.

<comment><USER81> Yes but it works with 64gb.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER83> I have a XPS 13 9370 with the 4K screen. I installed Linux on it and it is the best experience I have had in a long long time for a developer product.

I was on a mac for two years before that (and Linux even before) and I would not go back to Mac. If you are a developer, you have a lot to win to fully embrace Linux!

</comment><comment><USER84> Does anyone know if they fixed the automatic brightness adjustment that you can't turn off? I have 5th and 6th gen XPS 13s and they both have this awful "feature" where the display readjusts brightness based on how dark/light the colors on the screen are. It's really obnoxious to scroll over a gif on twitter and have your brightness start cycling up and down with the image. Or to highlight a line of code in a text editor and see the screen noticeably dim.

Everything else about these machines is great, but this is a complete show stopper for me. I would happily upgrade to a brand new $2500+ machine, but only if this is fixed.

<comment><USER85> On xps 13 9360 you can disable adaptive brigthness with an update that is available for windows. On xps 13 9370 you can disable adaptive brightness through bios if your bios is new enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER86> I bought a Dell XPS 13" back in 2008 and had nothing but problems with it. The graphics card was known to overheat and melt on the board. Dell instead of implementing a recall ended up figuring it was cheaper to send a repair man to replace the entire motherboard each time. It happened to me three times.

On top of that, the screen failed, the trackpad failed and the keyboard failed. The charger burned a hole in my carpet and the motherboard running only Linux and an IDE burned my table.

I haven't bought a Dell laptop since. Has things improved with the XPS 13 developer editions?

</comment><comment><USER87> I seriously considered an XPS13 for a month or so (9370), but coil whine was an issue on 3 of the 4 examples I looked at. Pity, as it's a lovely notebook.

Instead, I went with a Samsung Notebook 9 13", and ... it's amazing. [https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows- laptops/noteboo...](https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows- laptops/notebook-series-9/notebook-9-13-3--np900x3t-k01us/#specs)

2.2lbs, and I've gone from charging every day to once a week.

</comment><comment><USER88> I would totally buy one if it came with the pointy-stick (whatever Dell calls Track Point). The main reason I stay with Lenovo is eraser mouse. There's a nice HP (830 I think) but not much else.

</comment><comment><USER89> Is the hardware exactly the same as the non-developer version?

... meaning, could you order one with Windows 10 and then later down the line decide to run Linux on it and not have any issues?

<comment><USER90> In the past dell has changed the wifi chip and GPU on the linux variants they sell. I'd check for those differences whenever you buy. In particular the intel wifi has a much better linux driver than anything else dell sells in laptops.

</comment></comment><comment><USER91> The deal of the year, or last 5 years, for a nice Linux laptop has to be the Huawei Matebook D Ryzen edition [1]. It is at $620 and was going as low as $420 a month ago, and Ubuntu works out of the box.

Don't let that price fool you, its sleek and the build quality and performance is up there with expensive ultrabooks.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exLg45Up5b4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exLg45Up5b4)

</comment><comment><USER92> For what it is worth, I purchased an XPS13 and have had terrible problems with the touchpad and keyboard. The touchpad likes to jump around every once in a while and the keyboard sticks from time to time. I only found reports of this after the purchase and it is clear others have had the same problem.

I think it is a hardware problem and as such would not recommend buying into the XPS ecosystem. Bad quality control, will never buy a Dell again.

</comment><comment><USER93> Does anyone know if the linux-can't-handle-multiple-displays-when-one-of-them- is-4k-and-the-others-aren't issue has been resolved, either formally or informally? I've heard this from several folks, (and seen it firsthand once) and it's keeping me from upgrading my linux laptop for now (I don't have 4k monitors as a part of my work setup).

<comment><USER94> Running latest Ubuntu on a 4k and a 1280x1920 screen. Not ideal, but I can work with it. Some apps still have issues, either to large on the small screen, or to small on the big one... I feel like they're 1 or 2 version away from it being good.

Fractional scaling (125%) is not available. There is a workaround, but I couldn't get it to work.

<comment><USER95> I had plenty of issues with going back and forth. Finally I just got a Dell 4k monitor. I think it was 700 at the time but I am pretty sure they are closer to 350 now or less. That solved docking and so many other issues like restarting applications, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER96> All you people asking for matte and USB-A (and Ethernet), this just popped up from Japan: [https://www.anandtech.com/show/13890/dynabooks-g-series- lapt...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/13890/dynabooks-g-series- laptops-19-hours-under-2-pounds) Too bad about the 8 GB RAM though.

</comment><comment><USER97> Is the keyboard still wrong? Lenovo and Apple are the only companies that I know of that get Fn/Ctrl placement correct.

Older XPS13 wouldn't let them be remapped (Fn is handled in hardware / Linux kernel doesn't see it). If they fix this I'd buy one.

But as it is, the control key is further away from C, D keys than on a desktop keyboard. Unacceptable to me.

</comment><comment><USER98> >Not only that but the 8th generation developer edition supports Suspend-to- idle natively which allows the system to resume much more quickly from sleep.

What's different about this from before? I have an xps9350 with fedora - <USER3> have noticed sometimes buggy suspending (it shuts down instead of suspending) - but it usually got fixed with kernel update

</comment><comment><USER99> >In the 9370 the camera is located directly below the screen. In the new 9380 the camera has been moved to the top, providing a much more flattering view of the user while still maintaining the system's sleek, compact design.

They put the camera below the screen? Am I understanding this right? Why on earth would someone let this fly.

<comment><USER31> Because there's not much space left with a bezel-less design.

I never actually use the webcam, so I don't mind for example and appreciate the thinner top bezel instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER100> I have the (now) older model XPS and this has been the best laptop I have owned in a long time. Very reliable, nice keyboard with backlight, good battery life, lightweight and came with almost no bloatware. My only slight issue was the camera placement and looks like that has been resolved now too. Very pleased.

</comment><comment><USER101> I had an 9360 for a few months and found it awful. Firmware bugs (some with Windows, a lot with Linux), maddening coil whine, flimsy power plug.

The Linux TB3 support was sadly not really "ready" (mainline Kernels April~July 2018) in that there were constant panics when hotplugging/unplugging monitors or the docking station.

</comment><comment><USER102> Any word on various performance/throttling issues that have plagued recent laptops due to Intel's DPTF ? My impression from what I read was that it's some kludge that only works on windows (and chromeos possibly) causing standard linux's performance to suffer unless you patch things.

</comment><comment><USER103> "Non-vPro processor".

Can someone help with a (dumb) question?

Does this mean that you can't run VirtualBox on this laptop?

<comment><USER104> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro)

Intel vPro technology is an umbrella marketing term used by Intel for a large collection of computer hardware technologies, including Hyperthreading, Turbo Boost 3.0, VT-x, VT-d, Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), and Intel Active Management Technology (AMT).

~~It means it doesn't have VTd / VTx hardware acceleration on the CPU. You can run VirtualBox however it will be slower. When I first saw "Developer edition" I thought; that must just mean it's got Virtualization hardware acceleration and loads of RAM for running VM's etc... This branding makes no sense to me.~~

I just looked up the 15W parts on Intel ark (i7-8565U, i5-8265U, i3-8145U) and they say they do have VT-d and VT-x...

</comment></comment><comment><USER105> 1 year and a half after I bought my Dell XPS13 9360 developer edition, issues started: trackpad seems to be unsticking the underlying surface, plus some strong hiss noise appeared.

This is so disappointing when you invest around 2'000 USD in a laptop.

Hopefully this edition fixes those issues for good!

<comment><USER106> I would offer another anecdote because I really believe this to be a very high quality laptop. I have bought my Dell XPS13 9360 around the same time and have never been happier with a laptop (running Fedora flawlessly, 10 hours of battery). And it cost me around 1250€ (~1420 USD).

</comment></comment><comment><USER107> Lost me at 16G of ram... I use chrome + vscode and is regularly out-of-memory on my X1 Carbon.

Give me 64G, why not?

Also last I tried XPS I had to send it back due to electrical noise.. particularly under Linux (didn't really try Windows). Has Dell gotten better at this over the past 3 years?

<comment><USER108> Are you having problems due to running out of memory? If memory isn't full then the OS isn't putting it to best use, so overall memory usage isn't a great metric.

<comment><USER107> You could possibly blame chrome and vscode... And modern web apps in general..

But yes, I run my swap full and can't launch apps because I'm out of memory.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER109> I literally just got a new Dell 9380 today, running Windows. My plan was to wipe and install Ubuntu. After I do that, will there be any functional differences between my laptop and this newly announced developer edition?

</comment><comment><USER110> Does it come without LoJack ( [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoJack_for_Laptops](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoJack_for_Laptops) ) ?

</comment><comment><USER111> 'Easier to open' .. should this really need to be an improvement?

<comment><USER49> If it's identical to consumer hardware, then there's no reason to design it to be easy to open. But a developer laptop will be opened.

(I might be attacking a strawman, but I detect in your question a suggestion that more consumer hardware should be user-serviceable. There's a difference between being hostile toward serviceability and simply optimizing the design for manufacturability, aesthetics, cost, and reliability, any of which can conflict with other metrics such as serviceability.)

<comment><USER37> Believe it is about opening the lid, not the case.

<comment><USER49> Oh, duh. Yes, I totally misinterpreted that. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER112> Any reason why they'd still be using Thunderbolt and only put 1 usb-c instead of full usb-c like macbooks? With even apple dropping thunderbolt, isn't it a sign of death for those ports?

<comment><USER113> "Apple dropping Thunderbolt"? Out of their 7 different Mac models, there's only 2 that _don 't_ have full 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 on every USB-C port -- and they're the two that have been the longest since an update (2017 MacBook, 2013 Mac Pro).

What does "full USB-C" mean?

<comment><USER112> oh my bad, I thought Thunderbolt meant the dongle type, as in, the shape of the plug. My macbook only has 4 USB-C plugs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER114> So what's the difference between the normal XPS 13 and the developer edition, except for the preinstalled Ubuntu? Can I buy the normal XPS 13 and then put the same Ubuntu image on it?

</comment><comment><USER115> I appreciate being able to get Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a sleek Dell laptop, but without a TrackStick/TrackPoint/PointStick, it's no "developer laptop" for me.

</comment><comment><USER116> I love the Dell XPS 13 developer edition I bought over the summer, and it has been a better value store than the Bitcoin I sold to buy it with.

</comment><comment><USER117> Anyone have any idea why these dev-focused machines top out at 16GB of RAM? Even Apple finally caved and bumped it on newer MBPs to 32GB max...

<comment><USER37> 13" ultraportable limits from Intel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER118> The $739 starting price is really nice... I was tempted to pick one up just for fun, but then I saw upgrading to 8gb of RAM is another $300.

</comment><comment><USER119> UHG. I just wish you could make iOS apps on non-mac devices. I really want to move to an XPS 13, but I need to be able to develop for iOS.

</comment><comment><USER120> I'm torn between this and the X1 and the T4xx to dual-boot Linux and Windows. How's Linux and its drivers on the latest Lenovos?

</comment><comment><USER121> What does NT and T after the resolution refer to?

<comment><USER21> My guess would be NT => Non Touch, T => Touch

<comment><USER121> That makes sense, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER122> Has anybody seen/used the new HP spectre x360 gem-cut? Any feedback on spectre x360 vs XPS13 for developers?

</comment><comment><USER123> Is there a matte display option this time?

</comment><comment><USER124> anyone develop on the little 13" screen these days? I assume it will always be hooked to a few monitors(2) for any coding tasks?

also what about the power consumption for linux, i bought a XPS13 for a family member and have not turned it to ubuntu for him as linux always eats up batter faster.

<comment><USER125> Its not so bad if you make good use of your hotkeys. E.g. on Ubuntu the "windows key" \+ number will switch to that program in your dock. I have it setup like this: win+1 = IDE, win+2 = terminal, win+3 = test browser, win+4 = documentation, win+5=notes.

Then you can easily run everything on fullscreen and not worry about alt-tab- hell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER126> It's a pity there's no 32/64 GB RAM configuration.

</comment><comment><USER127> meanwhile, i'm still waiting for Ubuntu 18 on my 9370....

<comment><USER128> What's the hold up? YMMV but on my earliest XPS13 it came with 14.04 LTS I think and 16.04 LTS was just out, so I just installed fresh and it was fine with absolutely no issues: everything just worked.

<comment><USER127> As far as I understand it's a customized version of Ubuntu with some special drivers for the hardware. I was kind of expecting a system upgrade like Android or iPhone does, totally managed by the hardware provider.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER129> Has anyone been able to find the link on the Canadian site?

</comment><comment><USER130> How is this different from blatant advertising?

</comment><comment><USER131> how is the trackpad on the xps w/ ubuntu? Is the dell + linux combo equivalent to Apple's trackpad in performance?

</comment><comment><USER132> I would rather get same priced new MacBook Air, better touch pad, better screen, better OS and better battery life.

</comment><comment><USER133> No 32GB RAM option?

</comment><comment><USER134> Only 16GB RAM max?

<comment><USER135> yeah, that's a bummer. 2019 notebooks with the same max memory of 3-4 years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER136> I never understood, why Dell only offers a FHD and UHD model. FHD just looks shitty after using more high def displays, and UHD sucks the life out of this thing. Otherwise, perfect laptop.

</comment><comment><USER137> (Puts on old man hat)

XPS is a gaming machine. Save the No BS hardware for the Latitude line - <USER4> has subsequently gone to shit, last I checked.

<comment><USER138> hey old man, devs can have hobbies outside of learning more about development so i don't know why you're making a dig at gaming. a quick 15minute session of fortnite in the middle of the day is quite nice

<comment><USER137> Truth be told, I'm in my early 30's, but for the longest time, XPS was gaming oriented (probably b/c of the Alienware acquisition) and Latitude was for the business crowd.

Seeing the roles reversed - esp. as Latitude H/W has seemingly gone downhill, because keyboards - is quite strange.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Feature-level feedback on my Android Apps Search Engine - <AUTHOR> http://android.appsvu.com/streaming+radio

<comment><USER2> The function you want to provide is quite simple, implementing an "app for x" search engine, so i guess you should focus on that and try to provide something _really_ user friendly. I suggest a few things:

-Improve graphics _a lot_ : Nice theme, Icons, highlighted prices and why not a small preview screenshot directly in the search results so that i don't need to open all the app singularly?

-Reduce results. If i'm searching an app and you simply return all the google market results why shouldn't i use the market directly?

You should calculate your own results based on vote/downloads/manual_pick and maybe highlight new apps(that may be worthwhile but have still not enough votes/downloads).

\- Make it easy to download, QR-Code easily accessible.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for those suggestions.

Along those lines: I'm implementing a "Staff Pick" feature triggered by keywords (Pandora is suggested when "music" is searched for).

Reducing results is an interesting idea. Based on my initial feedback from users, they seem to be happier the more results I show them. In fact they judge the quality of the search engine by how many pages of results it shows for a given query. Perhaps it's a presentation issue and I can try striking a balance somewhat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The content (search results) mimic too closely the ad results.

Using whitespace to separate them (or a thin blue line, like the google sidebar ads) may help. Icons would brighten the design too.

It's difficult to scan the list and look at prices because they are not aligned.

I would suggest and icon in a column on the left, with the stars (rating) and price below it, then the name, description, and links on the right.

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent feedback! Thank you so much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not really feature-level, but first impression is it looks like an auto- generated spam site. Also it's not really self-explanatory where the links go.

<comment><AUTHOR> What aspect of it do you think is contributing to that first impression? (Don't know would be an acceptable answer).

Would showing app icons for each result change that first impression, do you think? (for you). I'm just asking myself what value an icon would add to a search result.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> What's the relationship between this site and androlib.com? It's just weird to click on a link and be sent to a different but very similar site. Makes it feel like a bit spammy.

<comment><AUTHOR> No relationship.</comment></comment>


Why EmacsWiki is slow (and a plea for Perl/mod_perl help) - <AUTHOR> https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2014-12-22_Emacs_Wiki_Migration

<comment><USER2> When trying to reach out to the Perl community, don't use hackernews. Use irc.perl.org, blogs.perl.org, perlmonks.org or perl-community.de

(Also a website that loads would be useful. ;) )

</comment><comment><USER3> A little bit of context (since the site isn't loading): [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kNzAPR9...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kNzAPR9AzfEJ:https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Emacs)

EmacsWiki isn't loading either.

<comment><USER4> Here's the cache for the post: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2014-12-22_Emacs_Wiki_Migration)

</comment></comment><comment> nic-ferrier There's a long term plan to switch the wiki to being hosted on Emacs/Elnode. People could help out, especially with corner cases of the rendering. The repo is: [https://github.com/aidalgol/elwiki](https://github.com/aidalgol/elwiki)

Note that we don't expect to do this quickly. Maybe we could get it up as a readonly mirror quite quickly.

Right now the issue is getting enough of the wiki cached that we're not under siege.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd suggest putting up nginx as a reverse proxy to Apache. I had a situation sort of like this; under heavy load, Apache would have issues with semaphores that was hard to deal with. (Someone had handled the OOM-killing with a watchdog to respawn it.) For a large number of concurrent connections, nginx was _much_ better, though that may have been due to the old MPM we were using - each connection tied up dozens of megs of memory in Apache, but _maybe_ the request size-worth in nginx.

<comment><AUTHOR> In the comment thread to another post of his on this issue, someone asked him why he didn't just use nginx, and he replied something along the lines of "because then I would need to learn nginx".

<comment><USER4> Argh. So what can we do? Walk them through it? Post resources on nginx?

<comment><USER5> Nic Ferrier has set up a cache for me. If all goes well, we should see results in a few hours. More info here: [https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2014-12-23_Emacs_Wiki_Migratio...](https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2014-12-23_Emacs_Wiki_Migration)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Dump mod_perl and use nginx/Starman. I've never looked back. Also Perl Dancer is pretty sweet too.

</comment><comment><USER7> Time to switch to guile.</comment>