Posts by Matt White

Vodafone gives up on roaming charges

If only this included data...

I'd be over to Vodafone like a shot.

Not "I want to tether my laptop and watch iPlayer" data, but "I want to check my GMail on my phone" data.

'Della': Dell's very special site for women

How the hell did no-one shoot this down...?

Seriously, how did it get past multiple levels of marketing people without someone going "maybe this is a bit, I don't know, condescending and sexist...?"

BlackBerries outselling Apple iPhones

@ Jerry Masterson

> So the only way to "outsell" the iPhone is to give your product away? Now there's a company I

> want to buy shares in.

Congratulations, you'd have passed up on investing in Gillette. It's pretty standard razors and blades.

Doing a buy one get one free on certain models is going to mean that the original purchaser is going to be tied into the BB ecosystem, and another purchaser is also going to be tied in. Reading the link, it's not a case of "buy one at full retail and get another free", it's "buy one at the subsidised price on a contract, and get a free one on a contract as well."

So Blackberry are getting a larger install base, and the network provider is getting a second contract revenue stream for a cost of $70. Damn smart marketing.

Google Street View hits UK streets

Couple of guys getting nicked in Camden?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=camden+high+street&sll=51.539022,-0.139282&sspn=0.002429,0.013808&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=51.539529,-0.141749&spn=0.009716,0.055232&z=15&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=51.539628,-0.141733&panoid=j9S38heNbgn4gV4a99BBZA&cbp=12,344.1995688971409,,0,0.05244755244754902

Easy to find covered streets.

If you put it onto split screen for Street View and Map, you can drag the little yellow man around and it'll highlight which streets have images.

Pirate Bay prosecutor tosses infringement charges overboard

Solicitors!

"Clearly, the solicitors involved in this case believe they have a winner on their hands. They would not take the case on if they didn't. Is it a case of these people believing their own propaganda, solas system sized egos or just plain old greed?"

I'm guessing the huge bags of cash they'll get from the music and film companies could be a firm inducement, aside from any prospect of winning.

Monster.com suffers database breach deja vu

"The company has decided not to email or phone customers"

Exactly what level of breach do they need to occur for them to think it worthwhile to e-mail people?

Drunken paedo commie exposed on internet

Bottom of the story...

"Be part of The Register's latest video workshop, reserve your place today"

Ten of the Best... iPod rivals

Lack of Archos...

I mean come on, that's got to be the one to go for for anyone with a large storage need now.

Beeb readies iPlayer app for Nokia N96

S60 FP2 or N96?

Dammit, I'm thinking about getting a Samsung i8510, which runs Symbian S60 FP2. Exactly the same as the N96. The Beeb should be looking at making the iPlayer available for the operating system, rather than for each specific hardware model.

Can you imagine if they came out and said it was now available for the Dell Studio Hybrid?

Nokia unveils N79 and N85 smartphones

S60 - very marmite

People seem to either love it or hate it. I've had an N95, an N82 on loan for a few months, and I love them both. Next phone'll either be N96, N85, or the Samsung i8510. Take a hell of a lot to tempt me away from S60.

iPhone 3G to lure pre-payers to contracts - survey

Love to know what the methodology was...

Especially to eliminate the selection bias of an online survey, compared to say, a phone survey.

Farewell then, Symbian

Comments? Comments?

Shocking - Andrew Orlowski actually letting people respond to an article.

Got to disagree with a few of the comments on here to be honest. Especially the "nobody buys smartphones!" ones. Over a year since its launch, and the N95 is still being pushed by most networks/retailers. Massive, massive market share/influence.

Dell guns for more European channel love

Nothing about the article...

But good KLF reference there.

T-Mobile points to cut-price PAYG 3G iPhone

Oh come on...

It's pretty obvious it's a contract phone.

http://www.t-mobile.de/unternehmen/presse/pressemitteilungen/1,12219,20864-_,00.html

Fire at The Planet takes down thousands of websites

@ Matt White

Who are you calling a clone? I'm the original!

Do we have an update on B3ta yet?

I'm in the office, and can't read the QOTW archive. I also have yet to see a magenta cock today. This is wrong for a Monday.

Sales slide at PC World, Currys

PC World Top Tip

Use their 110% Price Promise very very aggressively.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/price-match-promise

Matches against any local store, AND the following websites: Amazon.co.uk*, Argos, Asda, B&Q, Comet, Dabs*, Dell, Evesham Technology*, Game, Gamestation, Halfords, HMV, Jessops, John Lewis, Maplin, Misco*, Play, Staples, Tesco, Toys r Us, Virgin, Woolworths. (* Excludes Televisions)

So, you find the memory card you need (say a Fuji 2Gb Type M), you get the Play price of £12.99, wander down to your local PC World, take one off the shelf marked at £49.99 and when you get to the checkout you get to watch the manager get upset at having to sell it to you for £9.29. Works with most memory cards, as PC World are stupidly overpriced on them.

Always puts a spring in my step.

The Guardian ditches Phorm

So is there a safe list of ISPs?

For those who are with ISPs who are talking about signing up with this kind of thing. I use Vispa, and they aren't going with it.

O2 may put iPhone on business rates

All this Windows Mobile stuff...

Where's the love for Symbian?

Microsoft's sex-obsessed RoboSanta spouts filth at children

Definitely a Brass Eye fan...

Anon says:

Do you have good aids or bad aids?

- Santa - says:

Bad aids!

What do you want for Christmas, Anon?

Biometrics won't fix data loss problems

More Orlowski/Goldacre stuff

There's a response from Goldacre in the comments on his site here from where someone posted a link to the Orlowski piece:

http://www.badscience.net/2007/11/make-your-own-id/#comment-18758

Doesn't seem quite as simple as the story on The Reg makes out. Did Orlowski contact Goldacre before publishing it to offer right of reply or anything?

re: Harper

That's been puzzling me too - why don't the Orlowski pieces have a comments section?

Poll confirms Brits believe Jesus Phone salvation too costly

@ Rolf Howarth

I've got an N95, and I use both the GPS and 3G quite a bit. The GPS gets used when I'm driving to gigs or other things in places where I haven't been before, or if I'm not sure how to get there from where I am. It's not worth me getting a dedicated GPS to sit in the car and not be used that often, but it's well worth me getting a car charger for the N95.

Main use for the 3G is podcasts. I've got a load of feeds set up from the BBC site, download them on the run and listen to them while out shopping or driving.

They're both really things I wouldn't actually have thought I'd have used in that way, but now I have them I'd have trouble thinking about getting a phone without them. Other than that, I tend to use the camera as my day to day point and shoot, and a load of 3rd party Symbian apps. The only real bug bear is the battery life, but I've got a spare in my wallet.

Personally, I hope the iPhone helps drive the mobile industry towards better UI, but I'm not about to start spending £300 up front on a contract phone on an iffy contract.

Tool opens iPhone, iPod Touch via web

Shouldn't the title read...

"iPhone software hideously insecure, owners advised to avoid all websites until patch is issued"?

Seriously - visiting a website is all it takes to make large changes to the device? 'kin hell.

Apple reminds customers who's boss

Revenue, revenue, revenue...

Apple is reportedly getting 40% of the revenue O2 makes from the customer, and between $3 and $8 per month from AT&T dependant on if the customer's new to the carrier. I guess it's similar in Germany and France. This is a massive revenue stream for them with little in the way of additional work.

Is it really surprising that they would want to make sure people stay locked in to those carriers? The original cost of the handset is only part of the revenue that Apple is planning on making, and these locks are the way they can work to ensure it. Don't think of them as just like Nokia/Samsung/etc in this case, they've got the same interests as the carriers.