Posts by Chris Sanderson 18 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jan 2008
Yeah I don't doubt that... if it wasn't that I have some books with heavyweight diagrams and the previously mentioned mag subscriptions I'd have been all over it... loved my Kindle 3G Keyboard.
My only concern with Kindle is if you have a lot of diagrams such as in technical books then the Kindle becomes a bit more tricky.
That being said, if you need long battery life and less eye strain and don't have the mag requirement I reckon the Kindle Paperwhite would win hands down
Just the 16 gig.. basically I needed a new kindle but I normally carry 3 separate magazines around with me. All these mags are available on the newstand and look pretty good on the device so I save a significant amount of weight on my cycle to work...
Few points to note from it:
1. Its a bit pricy compared to the competition, but as a user of other apple products it is far simpler to keep in the family? For me, turn it on and work with all my other stuff is worth a few quid
2. Lack of retina really a pain - So my use case is for reading (kindle app) and magazine subscriptions. The text is a little big jagged and in zoom mode sometimes a bit fuzzy as well, not sure if its the apps
3. Size is actually perfect - I reckon they nailed it. Back to back with a kindle it's slightly wider and slightly taller but I can confirm reading magazines one-handed on the train this morning squashed up against commuters was a breeze. I can't do that with my magazines so works for me.
In summary, if you in the android camp you'll no doubt hate it and if you are Apple fan you'll love it... For me it was this or a Kindle paperwhite and what I got was a paperwhite that can also be used to read my mag subscriptions on the commute... for me that outweighed the benefit of a longer battery or e-ink display
Note: Just in case anyone wanted a reasoned use case for potentially buying the thing
Went into HMV and had a play, was quite impressed with Fifa so I bought one with fifa and a small memory card (not planning on downloading much)
I'm actually a casual gamer, but I am out of the house almost all the time except when I'm sleeping due to commuting. I have a 3DS which I also really enjoy but for slightly more serious games I'd like to have the playstation.
I did recently sell my playstation 3 for the reason that it was upstairs and didn't get turned on for about a year, hopefully the Vita will get a bit more use on the train, flights or when just generally chilling out and if fifa is anything to go by compares favourably with a PS3.
I get the argument for Mobiles that can do a lot more but the graphics and controls are nothing like the vita. It might flop, there might not quite be the market but I find mobile games are great for 10 minutes then I lose interest.
Why does one get priority over the other either way...
Both iOS and Android have large customer bases... Sky and First Direct don't exactly make a bundle of money (yet) from their Apps in that
1. I wouldn't choose my bank based on the quality or availability of a mobile app
2. I wouldn't say choose sky over freeview or virgin due to availability of a mobile app, I get sky because I want it*
* I suspect Sky could probably monetise their Go service a bit better than they are currently for example offering more device activations for a few extra quid if two is just not enough.
Either way I don't see either platform ever winning out of Android, iOS or Windows + other or any of them completely disappearing for some time.
Macbook 11" owner and I use it all day long if I'm working from home. Granted I have to connect to a number of different web apps or Netilla to access shared networks as works security mean I can't use VPN on a personal device but I have office on there, can dual boot it if I want and also do some development while sat on the train... all that and it barely requires more space than an iPad but I get a full keyboard, nice screen etc.
As for VS2010 (I'm not a dev) I assume you mean Visual Studio? I don't personally but a friend runs it perfectly fine on a 13" macbook air. You can dual boot (as mentioned earlier) or run something like virtualbox/parallels etc.
but I've given up all hope or trust of Apple sync services.
Firstly, whilst out and about my contacts where all deleted without warning, third time to happen in a few months, quite annoying. So I contacted apple and they told me I should restore from a back up at home. I said I would if I was at home, but the point of having mobileme is that I sometimes leave home and in this case I was away for the whole week. So the put me onto a senior anaylst.
They got in touch and after 2 days decided they could restore my contacts but they'd have to change the password on my account. I say ok, a day later, they change it and send me the new password, but it doesn't work... result, mobileme completely not functioning at all now with new or with old password.
In the end I had to fix it myself and I'm now shopping around to see if I can untangle myself from the Apple ecosystem. Big shame but syncing across all my devices is a key important useful feature for me which I need to trust in and just work.
end of long story? I won't be buying anything from Apple again for the purpose of syncing data as they don't care and don't agree with me when I say it is not reasonable for a sync service to randomly delete data without any kind of trace because it feels like it
Agreed with everything though I still went out and bought one.
Battery life is terrible, though I found if you think on and turn the wifi off it does vastly improve.
I bought Pilot Wings and Lego Star Wars but the other problem they have is no Mario of any kind.
On the plus side, I actually like Lego Star Wars, but I am a casual gamer that likes things kept nice and simple, if its too complicated I get bored when I can't do it and never pick it up again.
Definitely looking forward to zelda, mario and mario kart though and might treat myself to street fighter, as I've not played that in years
I bought one, but then I didn't already have a DS in other variety so it made sense to get the latest model.
Problem I think is that the 3D alone is not a compelling reason to upgrade especially since the 3d is purely visual... all the games I have play just as well in 2D.
So basically the problem is that the previous DS models are lasting too long. I have friends with units that have been dropped smashed and scratched all over the place but still they plod on. So either make em break, or make a new model with more than just 3D.
I like a few others here can't really see the problem.
If as stated the adverts remain on the idle screen or the menu it wouldn't bother me, though at only $25 saving I'd still pay that little bit extra not to bother.
It is mere speculation that Amazon might introduce ads into the actual books or that full paying kindle users will ever see any kind of ad.
So on this news, if you don't mind a few ad's and want to save a bit of money then thats your choice. As for the kindle, I love mine. I don't know why, but I find I read a lot more now. Though that is probably the convenience of when I'm bored being able to shop direct from my kindle and buy another with one click. To me though that is just a good sensible money making business model from Amazon.
Actually if the ad's where for books with a mini review based on my previous reading habits with one click buy, I'd maybe even be tempted as an easy way to get notified on new releases etc.
His routines are very offensive.. to everyone, and bloody funny too.
If not convinced look up his routine on Red Nose day where he said this:
'I saw a charity appeal in the Guardian the other day, and it read "Little Zuki has to walk 13 miles a day just to fetch water". And I couldn't help thinking, she should move.'
Or how about this
'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Rohypnol(TM).'
Or this
'I live near a remedial school. There is a sign that says, slow... children. That can't be good for their self esteem. But look of course on the positive side, they can't read it.'
For me this seems a good idea...
However I generally listen to music during the commute to work, and for about 70% of that commute I don't get a signal from my phone (tunnels/trees etc) so I wouldn't be able to listen to the music. I'd also use up a lot of data (I could find a better tariff but if everyone does this surely the networks are going to start having problems again).
For me the idea is great, but I personally (and understand that I'm not the voice of all so this might not work for some) need a hybrid of this/spotify whereby I can download albums and store them locally on my phone, whilst still having the benefit of all my music wherever I am*
* I can actually do this very well already using back to mac and mobileme but it does require me to leave my laptop on at home.... and use Apple stuff only... which I do so not a problem for me.
Got mine a couple of weeks back in Curry's...
It was an impulse buy, at the front of the shop, really impressed with the screen etc..
In my so far limited experience though, I've found books largely to be cheaper than the paperback, sometimes up to 50% cheaper, therefore for me it seemed that after a while, the hardware would pay for itself.
The best feature of all though is that I can read whilst wedged between undesirables on the tube meaning I can get a lot more read and use that commute constructively.
And for that I'd promote the art of Business Analysis...
Lots of useful techniques for bridging the gap between business and IT. Therefore no need for Johnny Random Developer to learn an entire business and no need for someone in the business who is heavily biased having worked there for years to try and learn teach only to build a system in their vision which still doesn't actually solve the problem.
Note: I'm biased, I am a Business Analyst and think they are all very great and useful
I like the idea of a tablet and thought I'd be queuing for the iPad when it was originally announced.
But everytime I tried to think of the things I would do with it, I could come up with far more things that I couldn't do so well.
In the end I opted for the 11" Air which isn't that much bigger but I can run full office, use xcode, watch movies, browse internet etc... Only thing I can't really do that I could on the ipad is use it one handed but then the only time that would be useful is on the tube, and to be honest most of the time I'd never get an item like out on the tube anyway.
So for me, not quite netbook either, but the 11" air is about perfect, gets turned on every day and allows me to do a few bits and bobs on the train, so I can relax when I get home.
I'm don't normally comment, but given this review could (unlikely maybe) help someone choose a service then I thought I'd point out an inaccuracy in the MobileMe review.
1. Using the Mac I can use a local mode on the iDisk folder that stores files locally then syncs when it gets a network connection. So what I do is use the iDisk folder as a kind of "My Documents" and it'll happily sync everything. It allows me to selectively sync stuff to the cloud. I guess it does mean I couldn't sync operating system files because I couldn't keep them in that folder but then why would I do that? I haven't tested what happens if I try to modify the file in two different places before the sync occurs yet but for my personal use it works nicely
2. You can quite easily access your iDisk folder on a PC by mapping a share to it. It's not as slick as it could be though and requires some technical knowledge that many of the people MobileMe is aimed at wouldn't have.
In summary, If you are a Mac then MobileMe provides a lot of cool services all rolled into one, and if like me you have a couple of macs and various other Apple tat then MobileMe works out very good value for what you get and does just work even allowing sharing of drives across the internet from other machines or drives attached to a Airport Device without barely any configuration on the users part. I most definitely don't need another file syncing service
If you are a PC then I personally wouldn't choose MobileMe and I'd have gone DropBox instead
All this hatred over someones personal choice? Anyone that is bitching needs go get themselves a life or a blow up girlfriend and find something more constructive to moan about...
If any company posts good profits in a recession it is because they are doing business well period... if millions of people are being brainwashed and buying Apple products then there is a reason for that, they are doing good business.
Get over it, if you don't like Apple no one is holding a gun to your head to go buy one.... if you don't like Windows then same.
If we all thought like the small minded, moaning twats on here the world would be a sorry, boring, dull place and ultimately we'd perish, because no women would sleep us. I for one am glad of healthy competition that will force Microsoft to realise that consumers do have a choice and are then forced to improve the quality of their products.
I completely agree.
With the iPhone you are getting an extremely capable iPod. In fact the iPhone is almost an iPod with a phone built in, plus come the SDK many other things at that.
Yes the iPhone is a little bit costly on the backpocket and there will be some that are possibly not interested in the iPod functionality or the superb web browser, or the wonderful email client and for those people the iPhone is not going to be the phone for them. However there's no reason to moan about the cost or how bad the phone is, if you don't like it don't get it.
For me, and my other half the iPhone has superb and hats off to O2 for giving us a little extra for free. It's often said that nothing in this life is free, well O2 just give us all something.
Cheers O2
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