Posts by W

Punters 'confuse' netbooks with notebooks

A brief history of netbooks...

________

Synopsis:

"net book = small notebook normally without cd/dvd drive" - By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 23rd June 2009 12:28 GMT

_________

Chapter 0: Psion Series 3

In the beginning there was the Psion Series 3. I used them at school, in Physics classes, in conjunction with electronic thermometers. I thought I was living in the future. There were other mobile computers, but they're irrelevant to today's story. Read about them in the old testament.

________

Chapter 1: EEE 701 4GB

When the granddaddy of all modern netbooks, the EEE 701 4GB came out, the compromises were understood and accepted. Perfect for for on-the-go lightweight tasks that a smartphone isn't really suited to. Most folk were happy to tinker away and install their own flavour of Linux or crowbar XP on to it if deemed to be absolutely necessary. The only real wishes at that time were that they'd fill out the lid by installing a 'proper' (1024 horizontal resolution) screen. After all, there was room for one. And obviously, the eternal quest for an improved battery life. Not bad for around £200.

I resolved to hold out for a 9" version.

________

Chapter 2: Aspire One

Low end Aspire One models weighed in with an attractive price comparable to the 701. It was a nice machine that solved the screen size issue and had a nice keyboard, but was not a credible on-the-go champion due to the the hopeless sub-2hr 3 cell battery life was WORSE than the 701. Though critically, the Atom 1.6GHz chip was on-board. Suddenly we're looking at grunt not far short of what we were using in our desktops not so long ago. (Hey, I'm typing this on a 1.6GHz, 512MB, XP desktop machine. It's the most powerful machine in the office. An Architect's office. Yes, really. I'm running AutoCAD and 1GB RAM really would be nice, but 512MB is adequate.)

The Aspire One was very tempting, but the 901 was just around the corner so I waited a small while longer for that.

________

Chapter 3: EEE 901 (and 1000)

Back to the netbooks... more specifically the EEE 901. Asus had messed around with all kinds of duff EEE 900 models. But none of them were a proper step forward compared to the 901, which finally arrived around 8 months or so after the 701. Atom chip, usable 1028 res screen, 6 hour battery life, bluetooth, n WiFi, SSD... it was all there. The only small quibble was that the keyboard wasn't perfect. Oh. And the price. A price on the wrong side of £300. A whole 50% more than the 701. But next to the 701, the size differential was negligible. Though, if you're you're prepared to trade off the portability of the 901's near-701 form factor you'd be wanting the EEE 1000 - basically a bigger 901 with a more comfortable screen and keyboard. At a price. A price approaching £400 quid on release. The price of netbooks now touched that of laptops. But hey, horses for courses. You pays yer monies and you takes your choice.

The thing about the 901 is that it was a real turning point. It was the last (only?) 9" machine that could credibly claim to be the full package and yet still be closely related to the ethos of the granddaddy: the 701. And these were still the heady days when (a crippled) Linux pre-installed was an option.

I resolved to buy a 901 as soon as the price fell to £250.

_________

Chapter 4: Samsung NC10

Whilst waiting for the price of the 901 to fall to a sensible level. Dell released their Mini 9. It was nice enough, but didn't really offer anything new. And right across the board the netbook spec was beginning to standardise: 10" screen, 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, g WiFi, Bluetooth, VGA-out, Line in/out, SD slot, 3 USB sockets. With XP pre-installed - hardly a surprise really. Yes, Dell went with Ubuntu and HP had SuSE. But the big-sellers were from Acer and ASUS. And their Xandros and Linpus variants were needlessly hidden behind restrictive front-ends that undermined the true ability of the machine. MS may well have slashed the price of XP licenses, but at about £20, I'd take XP over a borked Linux any day. And regardless of what some folk seem to have convinced themselves to be the truth, XP on a 1.6GHz Atom with 1GB runs just fine.

Anyway, the 901 barely ever made it down to £250 before Asus decided to release another 153 different EEE variants, all seemingly more expensive than the last. On the other hand, Samsung managed to retain a degree of sanity in terms of choice (1 definitive model - just pick a colour). £300, is admittedly at the very top end of what could credibly be described as cheap, but the NC10 is basically the benchmark.

I love mine.

_________

Summary

Yeah, I think the NC10 is great, but it's not perfect. What's happened to SSD, 20 second boot-up, and built-in 3G?

Sadly, it seems like the next 'innovation' is gonna be selling a netbook with Windows 7 and more grunt. Big wow. A sorry case of up-selling if ever there was one.

So on the one hand, I agree with the AC above - a netbook is just a small laptop without an optical disc drive. It doesn't necessarily have to be cheap.

Having said that, which manufacturer is gonna take a step back from the unwanted feature creep and focus on improving the boot time, include SSDs and add 3G in an EEE 901 sized machine instead of just playing safe and making more small laptops without optical drives?

Opera Software reinvents complete irrelevance

Whassup Ted? Did the big boys steal your Playmobil?

This is almost enough to inspire me to check out that greasemonkey malarkey to see if it will let me set up something that will automatically filter out this column from El Reg.

Same for Cade Metz' Google 'chocolate factory' stuff.

Cynicism is all well and good. It keeps us on our toes. But it works best when accompanied by wry humour rather than unfocussed belligerence.

Nowt wrong with a good cuss either. Nothing at all. But when it detracts from the ability of the reader to follow the flow of the article, it's a hinderance.

It wouldn't be so disappointing if there were actually a point underneath all the faux-invective. But all I can glean from this article is that Opera aren't from where you are from and they haven't done things the way you would. And...?

Other Reg hacks seem to be able to deliver a critique without resorting to cheap tricks.

Whassup Ted? Did the big boys steal your Playmobil?

Reg reader bombarded by 3 sales calls

@ NogginTheNog

"Three don't offer any decent smartphone type handsets"

Yeah, the Nokia E71 is just appaling.

</sarcasm>

Ok, you like your P1. Good for you. But get over yourself and stop talking pish.

Broadband tax of £6 per year to fund rural fibre rollout

@ Carl Thomas

OK, so you've retreated from using GDP figures to accepting broader economic figures, but there's more to life than the economy.

Let me rephrase. Being the supposed "engine of the economy" (your term) is not the be all and end all.

To misquote you: "If you guys fancy paying an extra 2000 quid for every man woman and child in {energy and materials bills} per year to maintain {consumption of northern resources} as it is by offsetting this that's your prerogative."

...we can play this game all day long.

FWIW: I've no objection to a decision to roll broadband access out to everyone in the UK, but, as has already been said: "if I'm forced to funding it, where's the return on my investment?". UK.gov should assume ownership of a portion of BT if it can't achieve the required results as a private company. Just like the neutering of Railtrack and its subsequent relaunch as Network Rail. Just like the stake in the banks that was taken when they needed bailing out.

@ Carl Thomas

>"The South East of England [...] could exist without relying on the rest of the country, paying market rates for water, electricity, etc. [...]"

Hurrah! I'm up for drawing up a border from The Severn to The Wash if it rids us sane folk of short-sighted chumps like you.

FYI: GDP is not the be all and end all.

E.g. Scotland does well in some ways, but does not get special treatment within the UK. With pockets of deprivation, one-third of the UK's land-mass, and far-flung communities, it receives an average of £9631 public money state spending per head. Which is less than London's, at £9748.

Samsung N120

@ Jimbo 7

The Sony Vaio P has a nipple but, unfortunately, remortgaging your house so that you can afford one just isn't as easy as it used to be. ;-P

Pirate Bay launches encrypted private network

I'll say it again...

the record companies could make mega wads of cash just by copying allofmp3's business model. Simples. Allofmp3 was the #2 most popular paid download site, after iTunes, whilst it was able to take payments. When they got shut down, emusic became the #2 after iTunes. But then the record companies got over-greedy again and upped the prices.

How the hell are the record co's finding it so difficult to come up with a digital download service to match Amazon CDs (let alone Amazon Marketplace CDs) on price?

I don't support the leeching free p2p use, but as long as this ludicrous situation of MP3 overcharging continues, I'll have no sympathy whatsoever for any of the RIAA record companies.

Venezuela spits out Coke Zero

Why not Diet Coke too?

Coke Zero is vitrtually identical to Diet Coke, but with advertising describing the drink as "calorie-free" rather than "diet", since men are said to believe that diet drinks are for girls.

Precedents for Coke not reigning supreme:

"The Middle East is one of the only regions in the world where Coca-Cola is not the number one soda drink, Coca-Cola nonetheless holds almost 25% marketshare (to Pepsi's 75%) and had double-digit growth in 2003. Similarly, in Scotland, where the locally produced Irn-Bru was once more popular, 2005 figures show that both Coca-Cola and Diet Coke now outsell Irn-Bru. In Peru, the native Inca Kola has been more popular than Coca-Cola, which prompted Coca-Cola to enter in negotiations with the soft drink's company and buy 50% of its stakes. In Japan, the best selling soft drink is not cola, as (canned) tea and coffee are more popular. As such, the Coca-Cola Company's best selling brand there is not Coca-Cola, but Georgia."

Ref: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-coca-cola-company

Site news: Unique commenter handles coming

For shame, El Reg.

OK, so the handle box is there. And it looks like I've not been allocated a numerical suffix.

Shame about the interim period over the past 24 hoursor so where El Reg published full names for comments instead of the already defined usernames. So anyone who had previously registered a correct name (in the account details form, on signing up back in the day) but used a psudonym so as not to resort to total AC status would have inadvertantly had their name published above their comments. Good job my comment was innocuous, or I'd have to cancel my subscription etc...

Guess it reminds me never to trust ~anyone~ on the intertrons. Especially disappointing/ironic, even if it is the on a website that has published so many damning reports about data security leaks.

Nintendo admits to rival DSi handheld

GameBoy

Remember that the DS is a standalone brand and there's not been an official successor to the GameBoy Advance.

At the time of it's release, the DS was reported as a new, experimental, product branch that would run alongside the GameBoy, but the success of the DS took over.

Microsoft guns down 13 unlucky products

@ AC (Tuesday 2nd June 2009 15:33 GMT)

>"I don't know where you get your definition from but I can assure that impacted can also mean to have had a direct effect on something."

The source was clearly identified as TheFreeDictionary (and therefore, more specifically, The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition & Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006).

Please go back and read my post... You back now? OK, Apology accepted.

Furthermore, Google's Define function and Merriam Webster both give prominence to the 'clogged' definition over the 'effects' meaning.

I'm well aware that impacted is the past participle of impact, and that some dictionaries will provide alternative definitions.

>"What a moron, if you're going to criticise language use, at least make sure you're right."

Easy, tiger. No need any personal insults. I think perhaps you're taking this a little too seriously.

I think we all know what the guy meant. But I stand by my suggestion that 'affected' would be a more appropriate choice of word than 'impacted'.

He was using awkward business-speak that had unfortunate connotations. Connotations that resonated with the plight of my Guinea Pig last weekend. ;-)

Talking shi^H^H^H faeces.

>"“Nonetheless, as Microsoft continues to reduce costs, product development will be impacted,” he said."

Affected. Not impacted.

im·pact·ed (m-pktd)

adj.

1. Wedged together at the broken ends. Used of a fractured bone.

2. (of a tooth) unable to grow out because of being wedged against another tooth below the gum.

3. Wedged or packed in, so as to fill or block an organ or a passage: impacted faeces.

-> source: [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=impacted]

My poor Guinea Pig was impacted at the weekend (definition # 3). But with a little TLC he pulled through OK. Which is more than can be said for these MS projects.

Hitachi CP-RX80

acronym-tastic

"an adapter is required to connect to DVI-A and DVI-I outputs. You may need to hurdle bigger technical obstacles to connect DVI-D and HCDP devices, depending upon their VGA-DVI-D conversion capabilities. Of course, you could invest in a DVI-to-VGA (digital-to-analogue) converter, and something to circumvent any HCDP encryption"

!!!

Sounds like a lot of if's and but's to me. And it costs more than £500, yet still has a has a scabby old remote and distracting noise levels.

I'll pass cheers.

Yahoo! shuts! failed! social! networking! site!!

Just leave Delicious alone.

There's nowt to replace it, as far as I'm concerned.

'nuff said.

Google Wave - interwebs idealism in real-time

Can't believe I'm responding to amanfromMars...

but here goes...

The line that jumped out at me from this whole article was "When you send an IM, each character appears on your buddy's screen as you're typing".

I agree firmly with AC @ 03:52 that "I like being able to "compose" a message before I send it (applies to email, sms and im) - less misunderstandings that way."

amanfromMars wrote: "Some time with a shrink may resolve that inadequate paranoia."

Er, does 'inadequate paranoia' mean 'an insufficient level of paranoia' or does it mean 'paranioa based on a feeling of inadequacy'? Anyway, on to the reply...

<mode: amanfromMars>

This is my response to you, Mister/Mystery amanfromMArs (in your own in^H^H completely imitable stylee):

Sir, it's a Really quITe Simple Syndication of information. Justly because UR system Paranoid/Android, IT doesn't mean the A.I. Google/Global Brave New World No.1 is not after you.

</mode: amanfromMars>

Although having said that, the fact that amanfromMars has replied in perfectly understandable prose, on occasion in the past means that, I'd actually _prefer_ to converse with him via Google Wave. Perhaps I might get to see the version of his posts pre- rhymes / capitalisation / rhetoric / sci-fi affectations.

Seriously though, although, I haven't watched the vid yet (1h 20!), Wave looks like some sort of Wiki/facebook hybrid that seems well placed to eradicate the whole v1, v2, v3, v4, v4, v4, d'oh & merge scenario. And it _may_ take off in the way that MSN, myspace, and facebook have on the raplacing-email-as-chat front. But funnily enough, email (as in electronic mail) is still the best electronic replacement for mail.

Don't forget that there's already a real-time electronic version of IM to complement the new ways to collaborate, to chat and to send mail. And it's still going strong after over 100 years of use. Most employees use it daily. Most mobile personal computers have it hidden away as one of their functions. It's called the telephone.

One final thing, if everything is subject to infinite real-time edits and refinement that will eradicate all errors, ^H^H^H jokes may well make a real comeback.

Ubuntu brings Google Android apps to netbooks

This does indeed look

suspiciously like abuse of their respective positions by MS & Intel.

Too cosy by half.

Who wants a giant poster of the history of Unix?

On the subject of timelines:

http://futurist.se/gldt/

is an excellent GNU/Linux timeline/family tree. Whilst less comprehensive than the one by Éric Lévénez, it's easier to digest.

@ pete & regadpellagru

"...only Windows is a standard."

Please have a gander at the already referenced http://www.levenez.com/ (specifically http://www.levenez.com/windows/windows.pdf)

...and then come back and tell us more about this Windows 'standard'. I'm almost exclusively a Windows user, but I've spent some time on other systems and know the benefits of the various OSs.

Sony Ericsson C905 Plus

Has SE lost its way?

My girlfriend got a K750i as an upgrade yonks ago. I found it to be a little chunky. But I got a K770i as soon as it came out. Very happy with it, but after finishing my 18 month contract I was loking around for a replacement/upgrade.

The C905 looks like a nice phone that's quite adept at taking photos. But the price it's going for is just far too much for what it is in today's market.

Yes, it's got a better camera (esp. the flash) but the K770i's camera is a 3.2MP job that was far from naff. The only major functional improvement is the iPlayer support. OK, there's GPS. Big wow. Google maps on the K770i is decent.

The C905 is just not enough of an upgrade from the K770i for me to consider paying out nearly 50% more each month than I was before (i.e. £30ish instead of £22). And it's a slider.

I tried out the HTC Magic/G2. But I wasn't blown away and I don't like the idea of my phone being so fragile that it's borked if the screen gets damaged by a keyscratch etc.

So the call of Nokia was too strong to ignore. The E71 can be had for £20 per month. So now I'm paying less than I was before for a phone that is oh-so-much-more. The reviews uniformly pick out the 3.2MP camera as it's weak point. But while it's not as slick to use as the K770i, the results are just as good. And the K770i has been absolutely fine for snaps. Yeah, the C905 has a slightly better flash, but's not a match for even an average digicam. And if I wanted pics that were any better than phone snaps, I'd buy a DSLR and do the job properly. In all other departments, the E71 trounces the SE range.

Going from a K770i to any other SE model would be like going from a Spectrum +2A to a +3.

Going from a K770i to an E71 is like going from a Spectrum to a full fledged PC.

Why did I ever leave you, Nokia? Can you forgive me? And that's not just me. My GF was sold on the E71 and got one too.

So in answer to my title, judging by SE's faltering market share, the fact that SE haven't made any significant strides in two years or more, and my own personal experience, I'd say yes, SE has lost it's way.

No stand out dirt cheap models to compete with the Nokia 1100s of this world. No stand out trailblazing models a la iPhone/N95. No style icons like the RAZR. No business focus as per the Blackberries.

Just a seeminly endless stream of minor adjustments to a bloated line-up of (admittedly decent) mid-range phones.

Also, El Reg:

As has been pointed out, a hands free adaptor can be had for a small price, and a straight headphone only adaptor can be had for less than £3 (delivered) from eBay.

We get the point, but the inconvenience and cost of memory stick incompatibilities far outweights that of the headphone issue.

So why do you not mention that SE has taken the backwards step of accepting only Sony's M2 cards as opposed to also accepting MicroSD like it did with the K850i.

Regardless, both gripes come across as yet more evidence of Sony's grasping proprietary side coming through. While the 2.5mm jacks on Nokias cannot be completely excused, slimness of the E71 handset is a plausible excuse (especially as the chunkier E63 does have a 3.5mm socket).

Speaking of which:

I can understand why the EEE PC 901 got displaced by lesser scoring netbooks in the top 5 on the right hand column of this page. It's effectively a discontinued and superseded model.

But how come the Nokia E71(90%) doesn't place above the 85% rated HTC Magic and SE C905 phones? It's less than a year old, is still a leading model in it's range, it's widely available in the shops and selling very well.

On top of that, surely the C905 Plus supersedes the C905, and so to have both in your top 5 is a little OTT.

I mostly like the slant of El Reg reviews in the way they don't get too bogged down with reams of tech specs, but your relative scoring and ranking system is very often, just plain odd.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Wireless

Other options?

Want:

-Photo printing

-Wireless

-Value

Don't want:

-Card readers/Pict bridge connections (I use a PC to edit and preview anything I print)

-Scanner (I have one in a drawer and don't want needless bulk & complication)

-Bells + Whistles

Basically, I'm fairly happy with my Epson R200. But I wish I could integrate it (or something like it) more easily into my home WLAN. Any suggestions?

Dell punts germ-free netbook for school kids

Questionable design decisions

>"network activity light"

...when "lids down + into hibernation mode" would be the more obvious chioce if trying to make sure kids are paying attention rather than sneakily faffing.

>"cart/docking station that holds 24 of the netbooks"

...so a good chunk of classrooms will need to buy two (if each child has a machine each), rather than designing one to hold 30 or so (which would take into account almost all class sizes). That's some sneaky business sense.

Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell

@@Ramazan & @Peter Gathercole

@@Ramazan

Thanks Big Bear. Yup, aside from highlighting the omission of the detail in the review, if I had to be pinned down to making a point, it would merely be this: a weight of 1.1kg is (as Senor Tony Smith points out) nice to have. But it's hardly a revolution.

I'm not gonna slate the machine before I've seen it in the flesh, but the price/features combo doesn't make me want to trade in my NC10. That's not to say that £380 is an utter rip off for what you get. Just that £380 is more than I'd pay for what I want a netbook for.

I'm very happy with my NC10, but if I was going to replace my NC10, it would probably be in the other direction to the 1008HA - I'd probably plump for a second hand EEE 901. It's a largely comparable machine to the NC10, but with an SSD. And "from under £150" on eBay it'd be eminently more chuck-about-able than a new £300 NC10.

It goes without saying that anyone who mentions thin little £1000+ Sonys/Samsungs or 14"+Dual Core £400 Dells/Acers in a thread about netbooks is utterly missing the point.

@Peter Gathercole

I made the point about installing these Fisher Price broken Linuxes was a bad bad move, but got utterly shouted down by a few folk for being an MS apologist. I'm far from it. But MS realised the situation and at an effective price of less than £20 a pop, they started giving XP away as a stalling measure until Win7 arrives. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out in the Win7 era.

Weights

You've missed out some crucial missing information, for a review of a higher end netbook based on sleekness...

Weight = 1.1kg

And for reference:

EEE PC 701 - 0.92kg

EEE PC 901 - 1.1kg

EEE PC 1000HE - 1.45kg

EEE PC 1005HA - 1.4kg

Samsung NC10 - 1.33kg

Acer Aspire One (6 cell) - 1.26kg

MSI Wind (6 cell) - 1.3kg

Danger Mouse seems to want fans to pirate his blocked release

See also:

"Jaydiohead": a Jay-Z / Radiohead mash-up by Minty Fresh Beats. Preferable to both of the originals in my opinion.

(Perhaps not so) incidentally, Radiohead were signed to Parlaphone - an EMI company.

Will they never learn?

The Great Spotify Mystery

Re: @Im Confused

And the success of MTV just shows how long the tail has been wagging the dog for.

The culture of 'MTV Cribs' is the epitome of all that is wrong with the major music labels, showing how wide the chasm between the major and indie extremes of the industry is.

Correction:

>"...it doesn't have scrobbling..." - El Reg

Not true. Spotify has Last.fm scrobbling built in.

Edit > Preferences... The first thing any self respecting individual goes to when they've installed an app or program.

"Will it scrobble?" is one of the first things I ask when considering the merits of any new media player or device. Though strangely enough, I've never got into listening to music on Last'fm.

For me, music has the following facets (listed roughly in order of how much I'm prepared to pay (per month, say)

- Forums and Blogs: conversational '2.0 social networking bit'.

- Mostly free local mags and zines and other print media (such as flyers): for generally keeping abreast of stuff.

- Radio: ambient listening.

- Last.fm: An exploration springboard based on listening habits with Foobar / Spotify / Mobbler.

- Spotify: listening to something I'm searching for specifically, that I've read about elsewhere or for listening to collaborative playlists.

- Amazon Marketplace (or sometimes a local independent): CDs ripped to MP3s.

- Live performances: of acts I know I like, or unknown acts that are playing in venues or clubs I trust.

There's only so much time available for listening to music. And so far, due to their price compared to actual CDs, bought MP3s don't get a look in in terms of prising money from me. Spotify less so. eMusic and 7 digital are nearly there. eMusics prices are appealing, but they've got a ridiculous cap on the permitted purchases per month.

Music "in the cloud" a la Spotify could be snatched away at any minute. That might be acceptable to the casual 30-50 yo listener who's just remniscing and hasn't bought more than 3 CDs from anywhere other than Tesco in the last few years anyway. But it's no good to me as anything other than a preview service.

At the end of the day, I want to know that if I've paid for the right to listen to a recording, I'll be able to go back and listen to it whenever I want.

Hippus HandshoeMouse

Hmmm.

I've used the same cheap as chips mouse every day for a few years now: http://www.octigen.com/DB/Products/mouse-opt-big.jpg - simple, jobber that let's my hand get on with it instead of some botched attempt at ergonomics.

Sensitivity is set to max and I've got ample deskspace. I've had no real probs.

Extensive use of a Dell XPS M1330 laptop in the evenings can sometimes induce a twinge.

After a fortnight of using the Samsung NC10 netbook my trackpad finger has ached like hell, even with max sensitvity and momentum etc turned on - there's just nowhere to rest your wrist (though this is an inherent issue with all netbooks).

ContactPoint goes live despite security fears

Save £43.95m.

"...annual running costing of around £44m a year. Contact details on an estimated 52,000 at-risk children will be shielded."

So ~ £850 per year for each of the 52,000 sets of contact details?

Sounds a bit steep to me.

Details for 52,000 kids? You could stick that onto an Excel spreadsheet on a non-networked 486 machine with no USB, no floppy drive, no CD/DVD drive and no mem card reader, running Win3.1, in a well padlocked room, and give just one or two dedicated staff access to it via the padlock key.

You want some of the info? You have to go through one of the two folk with access.

I'll donate the hardware, software, and padlocks. Gov can pay the two staffers 25k each. Remove security issues. Save £43.95m.

Simples.

Sony loses $1bn in 2008

@ Dabooka

People don't mind proprietary tech if it offers real, tangible benefits over the other option. That generally demands becoming a defacto standard. See: proprietary, but defacto standard MP3 vs OGG, PDF ubiquity, and Windows vs OSX vs Linux.

Without the effective creation of a market that previously didn't exist (as in the iPod) Apple are, and will remain, a minor player in the wide, wide, world of consumer electronics (as in phones & PCs).

Apple might not be in a big mess at the mo, but by ploughing their proprietary furrow, they're on the same (or worse?) knife edge as Sony. Just look at how different things were for Apple ten or so years ago.

Apple's large market share in PMPs is _despite_ their proprietary nature. Yes, they were in early and hit gold with the iPod, but the iPod is no longer the icon it was (see also: Sony Walkman). And it's success was based upon the tie-in with iTunes. And as people have wised up to the problems with DRM etc, iTunes has had to open up. Just watch that iTunes market share slide over time, as Amazon & co get a hold of the 'open' MP3 download market.

In any case, PMP sales compared to mobile phones (which are also used as PMPs) are marginal and dwindling. So really, we should be looking at Apple's phone sales. Apple need a range of more 'open' iPhones if they're gonna topple Nokia any time soon.

Otherwise, they'll continue to be the bit part player in the mobile market that they now are in the PC market. Apple's marginal share of the PC market is _because_ of their proprietary nature.

I notice a pattern emerging...

I bought a netbook the other month. Do you think I bought a Samsung NC10 for a smudge over £300, or a Sony Vaio P for (again) twice the price?

In case you're still struggling, here's a little history to help you out...

In the mid 90s I begged and begged my parents for a Mini-system as a combined. They finally said yes. After much research, it was between a JVC, a Sony and an Aiwa (where are they now?). After much deliberation and in-store testing, the Aiwa had the gimmicks and bells and whistles, the JVC Adagio S20 (god I miss that thing ) had the sound quality and a decent design, the Sony had nothing to offer apart from it's looks (horrible sounding thing it was).

More recently I bought a Sony NW-E55 Network Walkman a while back. Not an MP3 player. A "Network Walkman". The hardware itself was an utterly gorgeous, well made piece of kit and a joy to use. But it didn't play MP3s natively or support drag and drop. In Sony's infinite wisdom, they insisted on forcing the use of their uniformly atrocious SonicStage software and pretended that their cack handed attempts at selling ATRAC files via Sony Connect were a viable alternative to simply ripping your own MP3s or using the iPod/iTunes setup.

I ended up flashing the hardware to allow drag and drop and native MP3 playback. But I won't buy another Sony MP3 player based on that experience. My Mum & Dad were recently researching MP3 players. They're not tech-heads (but they went from Win98 to Vista and wondered why it was so borked). I made mention of the potential lock-in if they went for an iPod. They took that on board, agreed, and decided on a Sansa Fuse in the end. Personally, I use my phone. Speaking of which...

I now a Sony Ericsson K770i phone. Again, a mostly splendid and capable piece of hardware. But hamstrung by it's OS (or lack of it). I'd also dearly love to install a Last.fm Audioscrobbler. Symbian? No probs. iPhone? Sorted. Win Mob? Yup. SE phones? Not happening. Also, the default browser is bobbins. I installed Opera Mini and it's like getting a new phone. And the video playback won't allow for fast forward or rewind. And the proprietary headphone connector is complete and utter balls. It's merely an annoying obfuscation that allows them to differentiate between their otherwise very similar K and W ranges.

In the 18 months since the K770i was released they've managed to sort out the video playback and add a couple of megapixels to the camera, but similarly priced SE phones around now offer little else. Meanwhile Nokia (and relative newcomers like Samsung) have really started to hit their stride. I expect to go back to a Nokia phone in the next couple of months. When I do, it'll probably feel all clean again, like shaving my head and having a long bath, all rolled into one. I've had a few Nokias and they've always been great. I should never have strayed.

A while back, I was in the market for a laptop 13.3" sub-2kg laptop. The only machines available with any degree of decent product design were made by Apple, Sony or Dell. Didn't want an Apple and the Sony Vaios were crazy prices. So as soon as the Dell XPS M1330 came out, I bought that. It's been a brilliant machine. And at £700, an equivalent Sony would have cost twice the price.

It is acknowledged that Sony products are priced at a premium, but why? Sony are no longer producers of premium products.

Apple buying Twitter!

Is Twitter

anything more than a version of RSS feeds of Facebook status updates for folk who don't know/care what an RSS feed is?

Firefox users caught in crossfire of warring add-ons

Even though the tongue was (as far as I could tell) only half in the cheek....

Re: Re: Ads? I think not.

The purpose of my letter box in my door on my flat is to allow the receipt of letters. What gets posted through it might end up being either from a previously approved source or it might be unsolicited mail.

Unsolicited mail largely takes one of two forms. Either (a) the "junk-mail missives, telling you you've won a prize, professionally junk-mailed en-masse", or (b) the "flyer from local take-away, hand-delivered by the take-away itself".

Codes of practice, such as the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) are in place to prevent the arrival of type (a). I can't do much about type (b), but the chances are that if a local company or charity has taken the trouble to physically post something through my letterbox then it'll at least be of passing interest. If not, the volume is such that binning the odd unwanted one does not become an annoyance.

Sometimes mail of type (a) {e.g. a stack of yellow pages}, or (b) {e.g. a strewn pile of take-away flyers} gets dumped in my shared hallway. On those occasions, they all get put straight into the bin. I won't even keep a copy for myself. I don't support lazy, littering companies like that.

Ironically enough, the letterbox analogy does not extend very well to my email inbox. There are ways to avoid spam, but it takes some doing to avoid it totally. This is why there is a big shift away from traditional email toward social networks and tools like facebook and twitter, where the influx of spam is overwhelmingly minimal in comparison (so far).

At this point, it's worth mentioning that developing a mailing list (snail-mail, email or their modern counterpart, an RSS feed subscription) has proven to be one of the strongest ways to communicate with potential customers. They've specifically put you on the whitelist and asked to be informed. But beware. Do not abuse the trust extended to you by the subscriber, make your communication worth receiving or they will simply unsubscribe.

So that's mail covered. What about the times I leave my house?

Well, it could be said that many websites are much like a modern version of magazines or newspapers. Paid for mags and newspapers have adverts and often have inserts too (the equivalent of shouty Flash pop-overs on websites). Note that while inserts and flash ads have the most 'LOOK! LOOK AT ME!' effect, but they're also easily detached from core magazine content and thrown away quickly.

This is where commercial websites relying on revenue from paid advertisers are abysmally undermined by those who are aware, willing, and able to deploy retaliatory technology.

Private or small-scale websites can get away with adverts because they're hosted by the site themselves. Much like the hand-delivered take-away flyers in letterbox example (b) above.

But now I hear you saying "Most websites are free, not paid for like national newspapers and magazines."

Well it is accepted that the paid for mags and newspapers' star is seriously on the wane, and freebie magazines and newspapers are in the ascendancy. The freebies manage to get by simply by cutting corners on content by parroting stories already published elsewhere, by presenting thinly veiled commercial press releases as news, by running advertorials and by running heavily sponsored or syndicated editorial content.

The freebies are primarily popular because they're free to the consumer (der!). Some of the consumers of these freebies can't tell the (ever decreasing and diminishing) difference in the quality of the news reporting and journalism. The others don't care. We can sneer at the quality of Shortlist Mag or The Metro all we want, but they're popular.

El Reg and all other websites that rely on served ads are the online equivalent of the freebie papers. (Except online ad content is much more easily filtered out.)

Though having said that, whenever I happen to read The Metro during my commute, I know that after the reviews and listings there will be a few full page adverts for car dealerships, Virgin balloon flights, and other assorted stuff that's never of any interest to me. Now, I've now gotten used to automatically skipping those pages. So when I've read the listings, pages, I Adblock by flicking to the back, and jumping to the sport section. Although lately, the use of disproportionately huge pictures of sportsmen holding Setanta Sports cardboard cutouts with telephone subscription numbers as an accompaniment to their sports stories has deterred me from reading the sports section. And elsewhere, there have been adverts with irregular edges that have spilled into the body text. They get a wide berth too. Is this ad-avoiding reading pattern *so wrong of me?*

In fact, the more crude and automated the techniques used to serve ads become, the more likely it is that those ads can (and will) be blocked out by those that want them. Simples innit.

Accept it. El Reg is not a peer reviewed journal. It's not a book. Aside from a few absolutely excellent articles, you're a casual diversion from my working life. Half of the enjoyment of the site is derived from (the unpaid labour of ) the comments section[1].

Note to Reg moderation: I'm no 'freetard' p2p downloader, hippy, or any other other cliche that might spring to mind. I'm just someone who recognises the nature of supply and demand when it comes to the written word. Congratulations on the The Reg staffers' ability to earn a living doing what they enjoy doing. I enjoy reading it, and I wish you well. I might even go and buy one of your T-shirts in order to spread the gospel of El Reg. :-)

[1] I wonder if Orlowski's articles don't have comments enabled due to because he's been such a critic of the something for nothing culture of the internet and doesn't want to be hypocritical... ;-)

UK graduates face bleak future as teachers

Hmmm

@ Pete:

>"It seems that a lot of children are encouraged to select subjects they enjoy"

-Heaven forbid that people should study what they enjoy rather than do what's required for an employment market shaped by gov policy.

@AC:

>"University isn’t about learning. It's about improving your career prospects by gaining qualifications"

-I suspect you're not far from the crux of the problem here. Not every form of time higher education needs to be a full-time Bachelors/Masters degree. One idea of higher learning has been (for all intents and purposes) commoditised as a one-size-fits-all proposition, put in a box, packaged, and sold-off. All at the expense of supporting a 'rich tapestry' of learning opportunities open to folk of all directions and abilities.

@ AC

>"4 million small business start up loans of £150,000 each"

-If that message ever hit home in the general populace, there'd be riots in the streets. But just imagine: 4 million small businesses, each with 10 employees. That's the whole adult population accounted for. So on one level of wild theory, we could have razed this country to the ground and then, over the next 20 years or so, set about rebuilding it from scratch (with those 4 million small businesses) into something more attractive than the future currently awaiting us. You can see where dictators get their ideas from, eh? But seriously, the scale of these figures shows you how ripped off the vast majority of the population A) have been in the past, and B) will be in the future.

Those born post-war, but pre-punk have a lot to answer for.

Let me fix the title for you:

"UK graduates face bleak future as teachers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H"

I don't know exactly what the answer is, but something's amiss with a setup where graduates exit full-time education with (for many) a debt of the thick end of 1 year's starting salary before they've even done a day's work, if not more.

Traditionally a mortgage would be 3x - 3.5x your salary, as a maximum. 4x for some graduates was commonplace until a few months ago. So were 100% mortgages (nowt wrong with that in a stable housing market, for folk with decent employment prospects).

Take into account that student debt of 1 year's salary and affordability is effectively ratcheted down to around 2.5x - 3x times your starting salary. Saving's not a real option for the graduate of today, with debts like that.

So assuming you could wangle a 100% mortgage, and stretched to 3x your salary, that gives an average somewhere just shy of £68,000.

Factor in the (still historically high) UK house prices, and £68,000 won't get you very much at all, wherever you live in the UK.

So let's say that you're not single. You're a couple with two incomes. Perhaps, after earning your degree, getting a job, and wangling a mortgage for a modest flat... perhaps you might be in a position to think about having kids at the age of 30 or so, assuming you've ended up with a decent job after graduation and stuck with your career in order to get a decent year on year rise to be able to cover the childcare when one of you goes back to work. Or, if you're lucky, to be able to have anything other that two parents working two 37.5 hour+ weeks. And maybe, just maybe, after a couple of years, if things are still on track, you might be able to think about having another kid, moving out of your flat and into a small 3 bed house and getting on with something approaching what was once a traditional adult life....

Well done. Now, it's the year 2058. You're 70 years old and about to retire. You did remember to pay a decent' whack into a personal pension from the age of 30 at the very latest, didn't you? No? Oh dear. What do you mean "I was paying off my student debt and whacking great mortgage"...

Who'd be a graduate today? In fact, who'd be anyone under 30 today? I'm 30, and consider myself to have taken one for the team, but have only narrowly escaped alot of the burdens that today's young peeps face.

Let's be honest, personal credit history aside (well done you for always paying your credit card off in full every month - give yourself a pat on the back) over the last 20-30 years, this country has systematically delayed paying into the pensions pot. And it we now have a target of 50% of the population having university degree, but without wanting to pay for it.

As I said, I don't know exactly what the answer is, but something's amiss. And my eyes are on the 35-65 year olds.

Those born post-war, but pre-punk have a lot to answer for.

Swedish factory fined $3,000 for robot attack

Re: your byline.

Nice one.

My browser home page is about:robots

For folks who are unaware, stick about:robots into your Firefox address bar for a little easter egg.

Cabinet Office stuck with creaking PCs for five years

Regarding the £2000 scrappage incentive for cars:

-> £1000 comes from the government, i.e. general taxation, i.e. "us".

-> £1000 is supposed to come from the manufacturer (price rise shenanigans, anyone?).

A) What incentives do I get for commuting by train every day?

B) Cars registered by 31July 1999 is the cut-off point for eligibility for the scheme. Is this an ongoing scheme whereby the cut-off point will be revised to 31 July 2000 at next years' budget?

D) Are there similar schemes in place for all other old energy consuming tech, from boilers to VCR players?

C) Or is this not about CO2 at all, and just about a handout to the car industry?

D) I thought the mantra was REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE - in that order?

E) If tech is fully functioning (Cars, PCs, et al), why should there be an incentive (funded by general taxation) to replace it (and thus subsidise the related industry)?

F) Isn't a scrappage incentive not just a "consumption subsidy" hiding under another name?

-> If you wanna buy something shinier, go ahead, feel free, and sell your old version at the market rates if you want to.

-> But don't expect me to subsidise others' purchases and call it a green initiative.

Amazon shames eBay with 24 per cent profit bulge

PayPal lock-in

For off-the-shelf media or higher value second hand tech items, I sell via Amazon Marketplace. For low value one-off 'collectibles' or anything being sold for spares, it goes on eBay.

One of the major underlying differences between Amazon Marketplace and eBay is the payment system.

Amazon Marketplace takes on an element of responsibility by requiring that you make a payment through them.

eBay chooses to play silly beggars by persisting with the practically unavoidable imposition of the detestable PayPal as the only alternative to a cheque/PO, thus ensuring two bites of the cherry. Yet they also keep the PayPal side of things at arms length by registering the business in Luxembourg, etc.

I suspect it's the eBay/PayPal lock-in element that eBay uses to both cream another layer of income from yet also relies on for wriggling out of it's responsibilities that is the source of most users' bile. So they've only got themselves to blame, really, by incorporating the lame duck that is PayPal.

Amazon transactionas direct from them or via it's Marketplace are almost indistinguishable.

The eBay experience is more akin to operating with an anonymous online Cash Converters via a silent faceless overseas third party.

Oh, and the design of eBay & PayPal's sellers' interafce is appaling. Not that Amazon's is a pinnacle of intuition, although it's slightly more bearable.

One third of workers open to bribes for data theft

It's fairly sad

to think that so many people would be so easily persuaded.

It may well be that 'The Man' doesn't care much for his employees. But two wrongs don't make a right.

And handing over confidential personal information can end in so much heartbreak for the unlucky pawn.

A sad state of affairs indeed.

Old school music sales fell 8% last year

Sort it out...

This article is just a stream of incomparable numbers until we do something with them.

So why don't we turn those global figures into something useful, eh?

A) You state that [Global physical revenue for 2008] = $13.83bn = a 15% fall.

Therefore [Global physical revenue for 2007] = [(13.83/85) * 100] = $16.27bn.

Therefore [Global Physical revenue] decline = [16.27 - 13.83] = $2.44bn.

B) You state that [Global online revenue for 2008] = $3.78bn = a 24% increase.

Therefore [Global online revenue for 2007] = [(3.78/124) * 100] = $3.05bn.

Therefore [Global online revenue] increase = [3.78 - 3.05] = $0.73bn.

C) Therefore [Total global revenue for 2008] decrease = [2.44 - 0.73] = $1.71bn.

This decrease as a percentage of [Total global revenue for 2007] = [1.71 / (16.27+3.05)] = the 8.85% decrease in revenue from music sales that they're claiming.

D) Moving on...

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. Their own January 2009 Music Report {@ http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/dmr2009.html} makes the headline claim that "95 per cent of music downloads are unauthorised, with no payment to artists and producers". So what they're claiming is that the $3.78bn [Global online revenue for 2008] represents only 5% of music that is downloaded. Ok...

E) Let's ask ourselves two questions:

"Has the amount of music listened to in the past year decreased by an 8.85%, equivalent to the decrease in revenue?" Very doubtful. In fact, with the proliferation of personal music player use (iPods, phones, etc...) music listening is almost certainly up. "But By how much?" We don't know exactly. But we can do some more sums.

F) So let's do some more sums...

And lets come back to that 95% the IFPI have referred to. If the 3.05bn [Global online revenue for 2008] represents 5%, then [(3.05/5) * 95] = $57.95bn = the potential revenue if those 95% of unauthorised were authorised an monetised in the same way as the 5%. A $57.95bn income monetised overnight would mean that [Total global revenue for 2008] increase compared to 2007 = [57.95 - 1.71] = $56.24bn.

As a percentage figure, $57.95bn monetised overnight would represent a more than threefold increase (329%) in total revenue. (Or a 1533% increase in online revenue!)

G) So, to sum up...

Q1: Has listening to acquired recorded music, as an activity, increased by more than threefold?

A1: Of course not. There's an almost insatiable demand and supply of music, but only a limited number of hours in the day.

Q2: So how come there are so many unauthorised downloads?

A2: Now that there's an alternative, people are less willing to pay £10 up front for twelve songs (10 of which they've never heard before).

Q3: Would the music industry income increase by more than three times what it currently stands at if it could (by some miracle) suddenly stop unauthorised downloads tomorrow?

A3: Of course not. But there's an almost insatiable demand and supply of music.

Q4: So is it morally right to distribute or acquire a recording of an artists musical efforts if it goes against their wishes?

A4: Of course not.

Q5: Will the number of unauthorised downloads decrease if current arrangements persist?

A5: Of course not.

Q6: So where does the music industry go from here?

A6: Broadly speaking, stop p!ssing around. And do the following:

Solution (i), for downloads: Set up a legit version of Allofmp3. It had the range, the ability to select a favoured quality setting and was priced accordingly. Most importantly, it was priced attractively at around £3 to 4 for an album of mp3s at satisfactory quality. On top of that, offer decent discounts to frequent purchasers. Selling Mp3s for the same price as CDs (as is the case at present) is plain ridiculous.

Solution (ii), for streaming/previewing: Set up a comprehensive version of Spotify: It's excellent. Most importantly, it just works. Beef up the subscription offering so that it combines with, or offers last.fm style functionality & more.

Solution (iii), for download customers & streaming subscribers: Offer incentives. Give out prizes (festival/concert tix, signed merch, a VIP meet the artist day, etc) to your paying customers a a reason to convert from CDs and give up the .

NB: I don't do the "unauthorised downloads" thing, I just buy from Amazon Marketplace.

eBay buys Korean rival

Re: "EBay Logo"

That's some top pedantry there, AC!

Carry on...

Govt powers up electric cars with £5k subsidy

Re: "Can I get £5k for walking to work then?"

If I had my way, yes.

The whole leccy car thing was ridiculous enough before we introduced this subsidy nonsense.

Can I have, say, £2500 using the train or bus for all of my journeys instead of a car? Give or take a few quid, that'd probably roughly equate to free travel for me. Nice. Incidentaly free public transport was a policy of the Socialists at the last Scottish elections. So I guess there's no chance that the historically socialist Labour party could even consider it.

Joking aside, that proves how outrageous the £5k handout is. It's almost as if Gordon Brown is trying to come up with a measure that will achieve exactly what he set out to do when he increased the lower rate of income tax for low earners. What chance a national outrage over this?

Yet another chronic misdirection of public funds... But it won't get any better (in England) when the Tories get in (in England). Maybe when the Tories get in at the next general election, the Scottish purse and it's strings will be handed over (or wrenched back), and then the SNP can have a go at making a better job of things up here.

Also:

[External Electricity Charging Points] + [Rain[ = [Fail] ...surely?

Acer flaunts first Ion-based nettop

@ the gaming whingers.

Two words:

1. Orisinal

2. Friv

Not all games are tech-hungry behemoths. *Your* games might be. But you are not everyone.

Advent AIO-100

Re: No Thanks

This (or something similar) is a candidate for replacing the old portable tv and dvd/cd player in my lounge. Using a laptop or big box desktop as a lounge tv & dvd/cd player replacement are not such appealing concepts, compared to a compact, capable and sleek(?) all-in-one such as this.

Imagine that. Someone with needs and wants different to yours. Try not to be so short sighted and presumptuous next time.

Twitter not yet in 'late stage' talks with Google

'notes to the milkman' - MilkmanView

There's gotta be an opportunity for 'synergies' with StreetView, surely.

Perhaps EA might want to pay for the licence and create a game in the vein of a GTA/Paperboy mashup.

And with all this milk sloshing around, there's bound to be the inevitable bunch of pun-ariffic porno rip-offs.

Asus Eee Linux-based Skype Videophone

1.6kg / £220 / 20min battery

An EEE 701 can be had for less than £100. It would be lighter, cheaper, and run for longer. It would give you a lot more functionality and connectivity. It'd have a better form factor too, rather than being the nebulous blob that it is. This waste of space looks like a (bad) student design project. 65% rating? Bearing in mind all of the above, it barely deserves 5%, surely.

Siralan's Amstrad Em@iler machines looked to be more useful pieces of tech.

‘Unifying standard’ vital for mass-market 3D TV

@The BigYin

"Sound is the key."

It is indeed.

And, for me, a half-decent pair of stereo speakers run through an amp makes my 14" TV infintely more watchable than TV at mates houses where there's a fancy flatscreen (of whatever quality) that's being totally undermined by the tatty built-in speakers or a cheapo surround system.

Firefox 3.0 ekes ahead of Internet Explorer 7 in Europe

Couple of interesting stats from the link in the story.

China - IE6 @ 60+%

Germany - FF3 @ 50+%

Also, at my work, more than half the machines are running Win98 which limits you to IE6 or FF2 (although current versions of Opera will still work).