Posts by Mark Rigby-Jones

Google forges a Silver bullet for Android, aims it at Samsung's heart

"and there will be plenty of help advertising the devices.”

For some reason my brain translated this as "and there will be plenty of advertising on the devices.” With Google involved, I can’t imagine why...

Intel preps ARM-to-x86 porting tool for iOS apps

API-to-API, not ARM-x86

Surely this needs to be more about porting to different API's not a different CPU.The iOS development tools already happily build for i386 - the iPhone/iPad simulator runs code natively on the development machine (which must be a Mac with an Intel CPU).

Porting across to a different OS and an UI framework is where the fun is going to be. If the app in question is a game which takes over the display and does its own thing, that's probably not too much of an issue. If, however, its a utility which is displaying everything using Cocoa touch, maybe using Core Data on the backend, you'll probably have an easier time starting from scratch...

Road test: putting the iPad to work

Unpowered USB only not strictly true

The USB port in the camera connection kit does work with at least some host-powered USB kit - I've plugged in an (Apple) keyboard and happily typed away on it. I dimly recall reading about being able to pull photos off a flash drive, but I might be misremembering - and I'm not aware of any software support for pulling generic files off one.

I've found the iPad to be an excellent replacement after my old G3 iBook finally died. To be fair, the laptop was only ever a secondary machine, mainly used for web browsing, email and photos - all things which the iPad handles at least as well (modulo entering/editing large amounts of text). On the flip side, I can see it being rather less useful for out-of-the-office work stuff - needing an ssh session or two alongside a web page or PDF, but I can borrow a work laptop for those rare occasions.

Cinema chain bans laptops, tablets

Not everyone has a car...

At those who suggest we leave valuables in our cars, not all of us have cars - and doubtless some of those who do choose to go to the cinema via public transport. As regards why you'd have your gadgets with you, whilst it would seem unnecessary to take a laptop on a trip to the cinema, what if you're in town for the day where a cinema visit is just one thing on the itinerary?

Still, I would take a dim view of anyone wanting to confiscate my gadgetry, and it seems that making people leave their phones is nothing more than an excellent way to dissuade customers. Even assuming you can trust the cinema staff with your phone, how long is it going to take to retrieve yours when several hundred people leave a large screen all at once? I can't see leaving it at home being an acceptable option to a large percentage of people...

How gov scapegoats systems for man-made errors

Computer Error?

This story would seem to play into one of my favourite maxims: "For every so-called computer error, there are at least two human errors - one of which is to blame the computer for the error."

TheTrainline.com fixes web security derailment

"Verified by Vista", eh?

I'm not sure that that would give me a warm glowing feeling of security in the first place...