Ng: PCs fighting back

PERSONAL computers are the gadgets that we once thought were dead, left to be overtaken by tablets, laptops, and mobile phones.

However, analysts note that the second quarter of 2018 is proving to be the best time to be in the PC business.

Gartner found 62.1 million PC shipments while IDC counts 62.3 million shipments. This averaged an observed increase of 2.05 percent compared to the second quarter of 2017.

Both firms credit the increase to Microsoft’s latest release of Windows 10 and the improved business supply chain that enabled the building of more PCs.

Gartner estimates that Lenovo takes the top spot after its acquisition of Fujitsu’s business while IDC pegs HP on the lead after selling more than a million machines.

Meanwhile, Dell, Apple, and Acer fill up the rest of the top five PC list.

While the PC market may be in recovery, it is not in a resurgence, so it may not be time to pop the champagne just yet.

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On a similar note, research shows that constant and prolonged exposure to PCs and cellphones has been correlated to a host of mental and physical disorders.

Facebook is just the first of the many corporations taking the leap to the health and wellness bandwagon. It has developed a new feature to track the length of app usage which has just recently been integrated into Facebook and Instagram via Android and iOS.

What this does is create a graph to chart your usage of the apps in order to entice more people to limit their browsing sessions. After you manually put in your self- imposed time limit, the app sends push notifications for excess usage.

While this is a good push on Facebook’s part for user to gain back control over social media, I do not think that this is entirely effective in curbing our complete dependence on technology. This kind of change will require holistic effort on our part.

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With the Philippines still being a developing country, many parts of our country still do not have stable access to a cellphone signal. The best fix for a weak signal is to use a signal booster or repeater. This works by using the outdoor antenna to pick up reception bars, which is then relayed to an indoor antenna, the booster system, and your cellphone.

For areas which have completely no signal, the antennas connect to the router to bring you added coverage.

However, with NTC Memorandum Order No. 01-02-2013, devices that do not pass approval by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and are not distributed by licensed cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS) Operators are prohibited in the market.

Major retailers of gadgets and technology items have signed an agreement with telecommunications giant and licensed CMTS operator, Globe, to discontinue the distribution of signal repeaters in the country.

While this is an effort by the government to protect legitimate network infrastructures from having their bandwidth hogged, it creates a monopoly and only makes telco giants such as Globe more powerful.

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