Posts by Matthew Coulson

Unused 'free' minutes cost Brits £800m a year

Data is expensive

I could happily get away with a PAYG SIM for calls and texts - a £10 topup would last me months. Unfortunately my data usage averages a few hundred megabytes a month so it's not economical, particularly if I exceed quotas.

Fans decry tennis gal's breast-slash plan

@Frank Bough

With uncorrected vision, I can see clearly up to 6 inches from my face.

Contrary to what adverts say, wearing contact lenses day in day out becomes incredibly uncomfortable after a while. Glasses are a pain in the rear end too. While you certainly can get all types designed for various activities, nothing beats a pair of eyes that work properly in the first place.

If surgery existed that could provide new limbs to those that have lost them, or were never born with them - would that also be mutilation?

Virgin Media pilots 200Mbit service

Nevermind the bandwidth...

Give me a modem that doesn't keel over when maintaining 50+ connections.

Acer intros 10in Aspire One netbook

So the screen's bigger...

Can't tell if the machine itself has mysteriously grown like all the other netbooks have...

Asus Eee keyboard opens CES

Wow!

If that's solid state and fanless, I want one.

2008's top three music phones

Of course

Gloss over the N85, N79 and W980i - with the FM transmitters built in, and no need to use wired headphones as an antenna. The only real innovation this year.

And who gives a sod if a phone has a standard 3.5mm jack? On a regular player, great idea, but without a microphone you're going to have a hard time making calls. Score 1 for stereo bluetooth headsets and the daft Sony Ericsson connector that dongles into a 3.5mm jack after the mic.

Main BBC channels to be broadcast live via web

Great...

It's taken four years for them to stop sending me letters because I choose not to own a TV.

How do they plan on monitoring my non-viewing of this?

Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Bluetooth stereo headphones

Hugely expensive

Wow, those are a huge backwards step from the Sony DRBT10CX. Less battery life, greater chance of them flopping out of your ears.

And available 12 months ago for under £25.

Yes! It's the Darth Vader breakfast toaster

b3ta did it first.

As thought of here: http://www.b3ta.com/board/8780007

Speaking clock gets Disneyfied

It does get used!

Actually use it at least once a month. The last voice change I called it literally minutes after it had been switched, unaware there was any plan to.

Gets used to set physical clocks, or as an easy to dial line test number. Also to wind up coworkers by forwarding it on.

Lenny might be late

Using Lenny at the moment

It's fantastic already - a few minor bugs (nmbd doesn't like starting on boot, but starts fine afterwards) but it's a big improvement over Etch.

Lets hope that pushing back the release means we get Lenny-and-a-half from the moment Lenny was supposed to hit stable.

Sony PRS-505 Reader e-book

Sony Clie PEG-TH55

Another Sony product. Shove PalmFiction on it, change the font to something you like, and it's perfect. Transflective backlit screen - so good in sunlight as well as the dark, and incredible battery life.

Sony Ericsson Walkman W980 music phone

No card slot, no deal

I'm looking around for a decent replacement for my W850i, and the only decent option is the N78.

Which is sad, I've been using Ericsson/Sony's for years.

Acer Aspire One A110

Lame

Shame, had high hopes for this one. Too expensive, crap battery.

Next.

Obama bloats Vista by 11MB

Stamina vs Performance switch

Saw one of these on a Sony Vaio recently purchased here.

It actually switches out the graphics chip being used when the machine boots up between an Intel (stamina) and Nvidia (performance). Little more than just changing power profiles.

Sure, it could hotplug correctly instead - but on current consumer grade hardware/software? That'll add more than a bit to the price.

Asus to revamp Eee PC 901 with bigger keyboard?

Clever.

So it's bigger, more expensive, and back to the silly "screen doesn't fit bezel look"?

Sod that.

Nokia N78

FM transmitter!

At last - a worthy upgrade from my W850.

FM, card slot, proper headphone jack. Walkman beater right there :)

Acer punts £199 Linux laptop

Finally!

Someones got it right! Cheap, proper screen, minimal storage, compact. Well done Acer.

Vendor touts notebook as desktop server replacement

RAID

Could be 750GB drives in RAID5.

Asus Eee PC 900 Linux Edition

Lose the big SSD

And the price will be far more attractive.

It fixes all the issues that put me off the original, but the price point is now rubbish.

Asus launches second-gen Eee PC

Now that's more like it!

Ridiculous looking screen/bezel gone. I want one.

The smaller storage of the original would still have been plenty though, and kept the price down - it's too expensive as it is.

Apple MacBook Air Early 2008

Beauty?

I think it's hideously ugly. I'd like to see IBM's take on the Air.

HTC Vista UMPC to hit the UK within weeks

Clamshell

More, please.

Still waiting the arrival of Fujitsu's U1010 in the UK.

Sony Ericsson Walkman W960i music phone

No card slot?

Ouch, 8GB of non-removeable storage. Give us a card slot and let us choose the capacity, and be free to back things up without the need to find drivers/Windows only "pc suites"/custom-connector cables.

LG shows gadget based on next-gen Intel UMPC chip

Another sodding slider

The only good UMPC is the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 (or U1010, depending where you are). Both a tablet AND a clamshell. Slider keyboards are ok on phones where you're doing two thumb typing, but they're absolutely atrocious in any other circumstance.

'Fat PSP' owners won't get Skype

It's been out for ages

Early adopters?!?!

I bought mine on japanese release. That's nearly 3 years ago!

Apple Macs

In the market for a Macbook

But I want a 13" one, and I'd like it with an ExpressCard slot, a docking station, and a solid state drive.

Even the 15" Pro is too big. I need compact, digital audio in and out, firewire, bluetooth, wifi, ethernet, DVI, and from what I've found the MacBooks are the only laptop with all of the above.

Not in a hurry though, fortunately.