Hey! I'm Ashraf, a full-stack developer based in the UK. Currently working at Evelyn Partners. Continously looking to hone my craft by building out simple, functional and elegant applications.
My passion ties towards creating services that can bring forward transformative changes to society, where the emergence of touch-based devices fascinated me as a kid.
I love exploring the latest and greatest in the tech sphere, where I value high-quality products that are utilitarian in nature, but also incorporate a sleek aesthetic.
19/08/24
tldr: the new Pixel line of phones has made me clueless about Google’s smartphone strategy.
The “AI phone” marketing shtick falls flat when you consider that the Tensor G4 chip is generations behind it’s competition in terms of both performance and efficiency. Now, let’s assume that they’ve added booster rockets onto the NPU; the poor thermal efficiency caused by the use of Samsung’s process nodes will still come to haunt them, and (most likely) turn the phone into a space heater when running AI functions (prior models already had overheating issues when running less intensive tasks).
The fact that Google is now placing the new Pixels in price-parity with Apple’s offerings is just egregious when your product is known not to have the bullet-proof reliability of Apple products, which ironically is (pretty much) rooted from the poor SoC. Why would I, as a consumer, buy a Pixel in good faith when I can get a much more performant, efficient and reliable product in the iPhone for the same price? No matter what camera magic Google may be doing, the fundamentals are there to be met.
It’s basically a no-contest (in my eyes), which is a serious shame as a Pixel user myself; looks like it may be time to switch sides soon.
02/08/24
To the super attentive out there: you’ve probably noticed that this site has undergone a lot of changes (stylistically speaking) to put it lightly.
I’ll update the colophon in the not-too-distant future, but it essentially comes down to just continually immersing myself towards ensuring that this site (the living proof of myself as an individual) comes across in a manner that I consider perfect.
My interpretation of perfect will of course change as I expose myself to more things as a whole, which will inevitably kickstart the process of change over and over again. But change isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s that feedback loop that we incite from simply experiencing/applying new things that allows us to elevate our crafts.
After all, we are all unpolished gems, continually refining ourselves as we go along.