Posts by Neill Mitchell

Musicians threaten to make Oasis 'Live Forever' with AI

Blur anyone?

Now do the same with Ailur and we can re-create the 90's battle.

Cosmo Communicator: Phone-laptop hybrid is neat, if niche, tilt at portable productivity

Re: I threw some money at this....

Battery life is appalling. The cover display burns as much power as the main board. Seeing as the cover display is supposed to be the killer feature of the device, then switching it off turns it into a slightly improved Gemini.

Even with the cover display off, you can watch the battery level drop when using it. They seriously messed up a promised update that was supposed to improve battery life and we're still waiting for Planet to release a fixed version.

Now they have launched another Kickstarter campaign for a new device before fixing the current device issues (the new device is notably dropping the cover display idea. So they have obviously realised it's a bad idea).

Same old story as the Gemini.

Planet Computers has really let things slide: Firm's third real-keyboard gizmo boasts 5G, Android 10, Linux support

Pity they don't invest the effort in finishing off the Cosmo. It's so buggy it's barely usable.

Keeps randomly locking when typing, Dud keys (you would have thought they've sorted this after the Gemini). Keystrokes missed or duplicated and worst of all - appalling battery life, Mainly due to the cover display (the USP of the device) drawing as much power as the main board and wakelocks keeping the CPU alive. Obviously even PC have realised the cover display idea is a dead end.

I should have learned from my Gemini experience. I'd never buy another Planet device.

RIP, Swype: Thanks for all the sor--speec--speedy texting

Is it me, or do all smartphone keyboards totally suck? I've yet to find one that does not provide the most grammatically ridiculous suggestions imaginable. The predictive tech doesn't seem to have moved on at all in 5 years. I still spend more time swearing and correcting than actually typing useful sentences on my phone.

Can't wait for my Gemini to arrive.

If at first you don't succeed, you're likely Intel: Second Spectre microcode fix emitted

Timetable

Yes, let's patch the brand new processors first and leave the older, much more abundant ones until last.

Great priority call.

So you accidentally told a million people they are going to die: What next? Your essential guide...

Mini population explosion

I wonder how many Hawaii false alert babies there are going to be.

Could get awkward in some cases...

Watt? You thought the wireless charging war was over? It ain't even begun

More power!

"Ossia is advancing the Cota standard, announced in October. Ossia claims Intel's backing."

Well, they'll have to find a way of increasing the power transmission capability by 5-30% now.

Dawn of The Planet of the Phablets in 2019 will see off smartphones

Re: Pocketalypse

"I lament the demise of small top edge clamshell, slider and Communicator side edge clamshell."

You mean something like this?

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-keyboard-mobile-device-phone

:)

Intel-Micron scrap the summer diet, enlarge 3D XPoint mem DIMM fab

That's a cheapskate serving of potato wedges.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is hot, but not much more than the S8+

£1K barrier broken

"The best phone will probably be the next Google Pixel announced in the beginning of October, but it will probably cost around £1000."

This is the problem. Now the £1K barrier is effectively broken, everyone will start taking the piss and selling £1K devices because Apple and Samsung are getting away with it. Pure profit and greed.

What tangible real world improvements does the Note 8 really give over the Note 4? I'm all for new products, but this strikes me as a small incremental technology refresh for a serious hike in price.

Priced for the current market rather than actual technology value.

Microsoft Office 365 Exchange issues for users across Europe

Waiting for the default statement

I'm sure it will only be "affecting a small number of users".

Voyager 1 passes another milestone: It's now 138AU from home

Re: Middle Age

a) ruggedized for space

b) uses LEADED solder [no tin whiskers]

c) NUCLEAR powered

d) Doesn't run millions of lines of code

El Reg straps on the Huawei Watch 2

Re: Another useless gadget

My Christopher Ward Automatic is still going strong 6 years later with no battery ;)

Huawei Honor 8 Pro: Makes iPhone 7 Plus look a bit crap

Re: Not sure why people moan about Androids interface...

Just install Action Launcher and enjoy.

Decapitating Rockall: How a 1970s Navy expedition blasted the top off the Atlantic islet

Re: Not Rockall

You can't get the wood you know.

This ferry is said to weigh 250 cows. We say that is actually 20,600 Lindisfarne Gospels

Re: Inflation on IoW

Before 1st of June 2016 it was 70p return for foot passengers (40p for "smartcard" users"). In 2015 it was free. Hyper inflation on the IoW!

Bring it BACK... with MODs! Psion 5 storms great tech revival poll

A fitting OS

If you want the battery life, it should be Symbian of course with QT GUI.

Facebook's dabblings in TV suggest Zuck isn't actually a genius after all

I will give me the ability to "Like" TV again?

Google loses Android friends with Pixel exclusivity

It's £369! I can live without an unlocked bootloader for that. Where are they "claiming" an unlocked bootloader out of the box? (What major manufacturer even does that?). Where are they claiming Wifi calling? Even Google are saying it's Daydream ready and if I get that it will be a minor bonus.

For £369 you get a 1440 x 2560 Samsung AMOLED panel, 64GB storage with SD slot (or dual SIM if you prefer), Snapdragon 820, Adreno 530, fingerprint reader, Quick charge 3, 3250mAh battery, dual AMK DACs with the best speakers currently out there. Android 7 in public beta free of major bloatware (I'm looking at you Samsung!) Glowing reviews everywhere.

Only thing that lets it down a little is low light camera performance, which I understand has already been improved somewhat - low light performance is all software algorithms these days. Seems okay to my admittedly undemanding needs.

I'm not a sales rep for these things, I'm just amazed how much the other manufacturers are clearly taking the piss on their margins. Let's face it, they are all manufactured within miles of each other!

Check out the ZTE Axon 7. £369 for a Pixel XL spec phone with dual SIM/SDcard slot. Daydream compatible too. You'd be mad not to.

College fires IT admin, loses access to Google email, successfully sues IT admin for $250,000

Re: Protocol

What if he'd been run over by a Google self drive car?

Zuck off: Facebook's big kahuna sues Hawaiians to kick 'em off their land

Sorry, a little lost now...

Is he the one playing with the car, boot, dog, thimble or little top hat?

Apple sings another iTune following Brexit as prices rise by up to a third

Re: People still buy apps?

30% more shite now.

BBC surrenders 'linear' exclusivity to compete with binge-watch Netflix

Great, so now I'll be able to binge watch an entire series of "Mrs Brown's Boys" in advance of broadcast. Either that or stick my head in a mincer. Don't make me choose.

How to secure MongoDB – because it isn't by default and thousands of DBs are being hacked

Don't know... Mongo only pawn in game of life.

Oi! Linux users! Want some really insecure closed-source software?

Just about sums it up...

Haha! Step 3 of 3 of the Adobe install screens says:

"Thank you

Here is another product that might interest you..."

<Blank grey screen>

Everything at Apple Watch is awesome, insists Tim Cook

I wonder what percentage of these things (and not just Apple ones) are sitting in drawers right now? >50% I'll bet.

What a waste of energy and resources.

Outlook.com is still not functioning properly for some Microsoft punters

Re: Microsoft will fix it

I think "Microsoft 550" has a nice ring to it.

Google's Chromecast Audio busted BT home routers – now it has a fix

I wonder if this is why BT have failed to answer my calls within 15 minutes on the last 3 attempts.

No wait, that's just normal. My call is important to them though, which is nice.

Reg man 0: Japanese electronic toilet 1

Re: Here I encountered the first of many problems. The labels were entirely in Japanese.

I think you'll find Apple has just patented that...

What went wrong at Tesco Bank?

Re: I'm with them too

There's only 2FA with the card reader when you set up a new payment method. Payments to existing payees can be made without any further checks.

Why Apple's adaptive Touch Bar will flop

Re: Worth $300 /400 extra?

Isn't the 15" model $400 extra to get the touch panel? That's why I said it. I didn't consciously lie.

Granted, the internal spec of the touch bar machines is higher, but the point is if you want the touch bar you have to pay the extra. You have no choice. You can't pick and choose components at purchase time like, say, Dell.

This is the problem with Apple kit. If you want the 2TB SSD or example, you have to pay a huge amount more because that model has all manner of other higher spec components as well, which you might not even need. You can't just add the bigger SSD by itself.

Say this was Dell, you might be able to add just the Touch Panel as a $100 extra. You just can't do that with Apple's pricing scheme. It starts getting very expensive very quickly with you paying for bits you don't want to get the ones you do.

Worth $300 /400 extra?

Is the touch bar that much of an advantage over physical function keys considering it how much it adds onto the cost of the device? That's one expensive touch screen!

I like the tactile feedback of a physical switch when doing things like muting sound, changing screen brightness etc. No way would I get used to a touch ESC key.

Seems a bit of an expensive solution looking for a problem to an old luddite like me.

DVLA misses out on £400m in tax after scrapping paper discs

Re: This should be one of the easiest taxes to collect ...

"Even better launch a game - take a picture of a car registration with your phone, check against DVLA database and if it comes back "no tax" or wrong model/colour etc"

Even better - make it a requirement to have a little round piece of paper located in the windscreen for all to see, that shows if the vehicle is taxed. You could even buy it online.

Re: This should be one of the easiest taxes to collect ...

Problem is with the "Car located" step. Serious dodgers have ways of getting hold of cars that have an incorrect keepers address or have been declared scrapped.

So unless they are stopped by the Police with the power to impound the car, then driving past a noddy DVLA ANPR vehicle is of little consequence to them.

Especially as the ones I see round my way with surprising (and I would imagine expensive) regularity all sit there with very visible flashing orange lights that can be seen way before a handy turn off.

With a paper disc, anyone walking past the car could see it was untaxed. That in itself had a deterrent effect.

VMware floats MDM that's lighter than AirWatch

Wonder what SLA will be offered...

Well, we have suffered an outage with the full Airwatch MDM today. Their UK data centre has a major problem. Still ongoing after 4 hours with no hint yet of when it is going to be back online. Another example of the wonders of cloud based services.

No doubt the usual statement will be made at some point containing the "small number of users" phrase.

Maxthon web browser blabs about your PC all the way back to Beijing

"i.e. it's being sold as something "safe" when it's not really."

It's not being sold at all. It's shiny and free and that's part of the problem with these kind of revelations.

77 per cent ignore company social media policies

Re: Using social media to learn?

" I can't remember how I fixed it last time". Use you System Center & SQL stuff knowledge to provision a wiki ;)

I run a Mediawiki instance for just that purpose and share it as a resource for my co-workers (assuming the information is suitable for publishing, if not I keep locked to just my account!)

Official: Toshiba pulls out of European consumer PC market

Re: Why buy new?

>>Interesting...! Any recommendations on a UK website?

Google T440s Tier1 :)

Why buy new?

Pick up a 2nd hand Lenovo for a fraction of the new cost. I got an i5 T420 with a 128GB SSD, 8GB of RAM and a 1600x900 panel for £299. An absolute steal. Build quality is great. I splashed out £30 for a new 65W battery plus £19 for a USB 3 ExpressCard and it runs Win10 and Ubuntu for over 6 hours like a champ.

You can pick up a newer i7 T440s with 12GB RAM, 240GB SSD for £500 that will run for a whole day.

I'll never buy new again!

Three: We won't hike prices if you say yes to £10.5bn O2 merger

They might not raise prices...

But they will definitely switch off masts to save cash once they merge. EE did this leaving lots of customers with little or no signal.

Windows 10 will now automatically download and install on PCs

Re: OS-X and Linux vulnerabilities

Android is NOT Linux. It was originally based on Linux, but is far removed now. Especially on the user end side of it.

Bloke sues dad who shot down his drone – and why it may decide who owns the skies

Re: the problem with drones...

But what happens to the drone subject to the jamming? Loss of control resulting in it crashing into some poor random person in the area?

A 5 year old lost an eye to an out of control drone recently in the UK.

Bring down drones by whatever means could easily have regretable consequences.

Apple's Faulty Powers moment: iPad Pro slabs 'temporarily bricked' during recharge

I think if the user is foolish enough to let the battery level drop below the profit margin, around 43%, the device simply refuses to power on.

Voda boss claims 'turning point' as infra investment kicks in

Re: Infrastructure Upgrade??

I don't know where you are in the South West, but just to warn you, EE coverage in Dorset is poor to non-existent. When they merged with T-Mobile they shut down a lot of masts. I went from an already poor 2 bar 2G signal to absolutely nothing (and I leave near a big town, not right out in the sticks). Their network coverage map is completely inaccurate.

I switched from EE to Vodafone and generally it's much better. EE didn't give a toss when I left after 9 years citing poor coverage. They refused to even offer a femto cell. My work phone is EE and it still gets nothing at home 2 years on.

These companies only care about cost saving and whilst that continues I can't see the rural situation improving much.

Let's all binge on Blake’s 7 and help save the BBC ... from itself

Go for it Beeb!

It's mindboggling why they haven't done this already. The BBC's back catalog alone would make much more compelling viewing than 99% of the shite on NOW TV, Netflix etc. It's the only service I'd even consider paying a monthly fee for.

The "Digital DVD" bit worries me. This doesn't strike me as silly old Auntie Beeb employing an anachronistic term. I think they may simply try exactly that - charging DVD prices for individual items rather than a Netflix type library subscription. In which case it will die on its arse.

ONE MILLION new lines of code hit Linux Kernel

Re: Yes but

Single leading shoe?

Bonking with Apple is no fun 'cos it's too hard to pay, say punters

Re: Apple Visa Card?

But then Apple wouldn't own it. Not the Apple way now is it!

Brave!

You used your UK debit card with no purchase protection or limit other than your actual bank balance in rural South America? I assume you have some other fraud protection scheme in place...

Slough isn't fit for humans now, says Amazon. We're going to Shoreditch

Has Slough declared independence then? Will food start costing more there as well?

This is all just scaremongering.