Category Archives: Reviews

Samsung Galaxy S24 first impressions

Posted on by

Earlier this week, I got a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24. It replaces the S21 that I’ve had for the past three years.

Picture of the Samsung Galaxy S24 in Cobalt Violet.

On paper, the differences between the phones are fairly small. In practice, though, they add up to big improvements.

First off is the size. It’s really hard to understand the difference a few millimeters or grams makes when comparing phone specs. But with slightly less height and weight, this thing fits my hand far better than the S21. The slightly thinner case that I bought, and the more squared-off sides, make the overall package feel even more svelte. It’s not as satisfying to hold as my old Pixel 3 (or Carrie’s identically-sized Pixel 5), but it’s noticeably better than the S21.

The speed of the CPU and chipset is also not something I tend to think much about when looking at spec sheets. But, once again, the difference of three years is very apparent when using the phone. Everything just feels snappier, from installing apps to editing photos.

Speaking of photos, the cameras are excellent. There aren’t as many specialty lenses as on the S24 Ultra or other giant phones, but photos are sharp and vibrant (some argue overly vibrant) and the 3x zoom and wide angle lenses come in handy.

Samsung made a big deal about the new AI features available with the S24 family. These are largely similar to features Google offers on its Pixel line (and, in some cases, on any modern phone running Google apps). Still, they’re neat. Real-time language translation on phone calls. Transcription of multi-party conversations with automatic summarization. And, of course, automagic photo manipulation. Here, I moved a cookie from one cooling rack to another. It’s not perfect, but for 5 seconds of effort, it’s pretty impressive.

Before:

After:

So far, battery life has been fine but not exceptional. I can certainly get a full day on a charge unless I’m really using it heavily, and the software should be able to optimize battery use a bit more in the coming days. Connectivity seems solid, though I haven’t been out and about all that much this week. Because it’s Samsung’s “flavor” of Android, it comes with the usual set of duplicate apps: Google Calendar and Samsung Calendar. Google Clock and Samsung Clock. Etc. As a tech geek, I found it pretty easy to pick the ones I want and ignore or deactivate the others. For some users, it may cause confusion. (The Google Pixel series is “cleaner” from a software standpoint, though my sense is that the hardware isn’t quite as strong as Samsung’s. Some people also prefer some of Samsung’s software choices to the Google equivalents.)

All in all, I really like this phone and consider it a worthy upgrade to the S21, a phone I was pretty happy with over the past three years. If I think of it, I’ll try to post an update after I’ve lived with the S24 for a few months.

Ted Chiang interviewed by Ezra Klein

Posted on by

It’s rare that I’ll read a 7,500-word interview or essay. This is why I don’t subscribe to The New Yorker. But recently I read the transcript of this Ezra Klein interview of Ted Chiang from last year, and I was riveted. Chiang is a brilliant writer of short-form science fiction. The interview just touches on so many fascinating topics, each given a thoughtful and unique treatment by Chiang: science vs. religion, sci-fi vs. fantasy, artificial intelligence, and more. I highly recommend listening to it or reading the transcript.

Product review: Codenames: Duet

Posted on by

Carrie and I are always looking for fun two-player board games. Could we play games with other people? Yes, we could. Do we? No. I’d like to blame the pandemic, but honestly we were just as lame before COVID.

Anyway, I’d had Codenames: Duet on my wishlist for a while. When I saw it on sale for half off recently, I jumped on it. (Which is to say that, sometime after seeing it on sale and before the sale ended, I tapped the “Buy Now” button.)

Codenames: Duet is a word game that is best described as a combination of Password and Battleship. It’s a cooperative game, which is good for us, since Carrie doesn’t like to lose (despite doing it often when we play games together). You lay out some randomly selected word cards in a grid. Each player has a key card that identifies which words their partner has to guess, and which words are to be avoided. Gameplay is as simple as taking turns giving hints with one word and a number, like “fruit 3,” meaning you want your partner to find three words related to fruit. You get limited turns to clear the board (identify all the “secret agents”) without guessing wrong and ending the game with an “assassin.”

Example of Codenames: Duet game setup.

While the concept is simple, it takes some creativity to figure out a clue that connects words like “grass,” “dirt,” and “sidewalk” without also causing your partner to guess, say, “driveway.” It’s a fun challenge. At least, it is once you understand the rules. Not that we would have played several games thinking it was too easy because we didn’t limit the number of turns correctly. We’re educated people with strong reading comprehension skills… the kind of people who play word games for fun. You know, nerds.

Anyway, it is a fun game, and the randomness of the words and patterns in each game make it different each time. There’s even an advanced variation where you travel the world, with each destination providing a different “time limit” (number of turns) to vary the challenge level. In the end, I expect that Codenames: Duet is a game we’ll come back to with some frequency. After all, we’re nerds.

Rating: 4 out of 5 secret agents