Posts by moonoi

Volvo offloads IT biz to HCL, then outsources own IT to.... HCL

Re: Awful Choice

Do the needful and upgradation are my most hated phrases/words.

Just imagine that you're back in Victorian England, and then it all makes sense.......

Nokia Lumia 820 WinPho 8 review

Re: I have a Lumia 920 (in Yelllow)

Well I also speak owning an iPhone 4, I have an iPhone 5 on order and still have my old Motorola Milestone (running Cyanogenmod 7 makes an excellent bedside alarm clock with its dock) and a Sony Ericsson Xperia Active (which I use for tracking my biking activities, its an excellent device and with Garmin Fit you can also use LiveTrack, giving realtime updates on you exercise/races).

So I'm pretty OS agnostic, I actually don't care what my phone runs, as long as it does what I want it to do, and in this case I've found that the Lumia 920 is far superior for use as my personal phone, than the Galaxy SIII it replaced....plus the colour is really cool :)

Also El Reg's Windows Phone app is way better than the rubbish they pushed out on Google Play for Android.

Some other interesting facts that may or may not interest you for the 920. Singapore has sold out of all devices, Thailand has also sold out and if you want one, you have to wait until Dec 20th at the moment. Thats in addition to reports of it selling out in various countries in Europe. So I think its fair to say that there is a lot of pent up demand for a decent WP from Nokia (the HTC WP8 devices are still easy to find) and Nokia/Microsoft WP is not dead yet......far from it.

One last thing, I actually went to buy a PureView 808, but after playing with the display one and the Lumia 920, walked out with that instead. So I never intended to even purchase a Nokia WP in the first place.

To all the naysayers, try it before critising something you have never held, even if you hate microsoft with a passion, I think you will be unable to deny that this is a good UI/mobile OS

I have a Lumia 920 (in Yelllow)

and very happy with it, I haven't experienced any of the "choppy" voice calls and over here in Thailand we don't have HD voice enabled on the networks. So I can only imagine its a crap network that Andrew was using for his tests.

I also find it fits in my pocket just as easily as my previous Galaxy SIII, so I can only imagine he also has a problem with any phone that has a screen bigger than 4.3"?

My colleague also bought a Lumia 820, and the battery lasts all day no problem for him!

And something else, SIM free I got my 920 for 400 quid, and he got his 820 for 300 quid....so case of rip of Britain again?

And just in case anyone isn't clear, I love my Lumia 920, faster and more stable than the SIII it replaces and also far more apps on the store since I last dipped my toe in the WP water with a HTC 7, so something else to disagree about :)

Slideshow: A History of the Smartphone in 20 Handsets

Nokia N-Gage?

Come on why on earth was that heap of junk included. I made the sad mistake of purchasing one without realizing that the speaker and microphone were on the side of the device, making it look like an elephants ear every time you used it as a phone!

Fond memories of the Nokia Communicator though :-)

Digitech iPB-10 guitar effects pedalboard for iPad

Re: The iPAD craze

Basically what you just said is your ideal device would be something like a Gibson Firebird X, no need for anything extra, bluetooth and robot tuners built in to your guitar along with a multitude of effects..........

iOS 5 'crashes more apps' than Android

iOS 5 does crash more often

It is true in my experience of one :-) the mail app connected to my companies exchange server is constantly dying, or requires me to manually kill it on occasion to be able to receive push emails. IN addition it is very very slow to retrieve very basic text only emails.

In comparison, my old Android HTC Sensation XE and my new Galaxy Nexus have no such problems.

If I disable the exchange mail sync, it becomes more stable, but as its a company phone that defeats the object for which it was provided!

My wife refuses to upgrade to iOS 5 simply because of the constant app crashing I have experienced on my iPhone 4. I wish I had stuck with iOS 4 now....

HTC Sensation XE

Great Phone

I've had one for a month now, it replaced my Motorola Atrix, and its why better in my opinion.

I haven't had any problems with the UI being sluggish either, I've now pretty much completely stopped using my company issued iPhone 4 for this one.

Although the headphones, whilst better than the normal in box set, are still not great. I use m a-Jays four instead, and the sound is awesome through them, nice fat bottom end and crisp highs, even with the Beats Audio enabled

Highly recommend it.

The life and times of Steven Paul Jobs

Why?

Quite frankly why is it important? He earned his cash, and did with it whatever he chose. Just because he was insanely rich is no reason at all. Bills' Foundation does do good, but I still believe it to be a PR exercise, rather than any real desire to benefit anyone....although it does have that as a bonus......if you care.

Steve clearly didn't. :-)

Gay-bashing cult plans picket of Steve Jobs funeral

They know Jobs is/was Buddhist right?

Above is the answer to why he didn't promote their view, he wasn't even a Christian! These people really are stupid beyond belief!

Nissan Micra DIG-S

I have one

but without the supercharger and with a CVT "automatic" and it returns around 65mpg and the 0-60 is around 10secs.

So what exactly is the supercharger needed for? I live in Thailand and the Micra (or March as it is known locally here) seems to be a better car than the European model. Its also manufactured here in Thailand too.

It doesn't have a anti roll bar, which makes high speed cornering entertaining though, it's not only motorcyclists that can get their knee down....... :-)

Microsoft exec departs after tweet about Nokia phone

I think you'll find they've already made plenty of money from Windows CE over the years, and its really not that bad when used for the right application. If it wasn't, it would have been killed long ago.

But anyway, WP7 isn't based on CE anyway, so not quite sure what your point is....

Explaining the Chocolate Factory's Patent Panic

Its about the set top box business

and the failure of Google TV, the mobile phone and patent stuff is just a red herring, just you wait and see.

Proper scientists: Old folk should drink more, not less

Re. Please drop the Trick Cyclists bullshit

No don't, please continue to use it as you see fit

Also its Boffins, not scientists............

Euro commissioner tells Facebook it has nowhere to hide

Engage brain before posting

Does Facebook do business in the EU? That is, does it have a subsidiary through which it sells its products, or does it conduct all its business through its (US-based) website.

What has having a subsidiary based in the EU got to do with doing business in the EU?

Regardless of where their corporate presence is, they provide a service (ie do business) in the EU via the internet. As the commissioner rightly points out, hiding your servers or your headquarters elsewhere is not an excuse to avoid EU laws.

Perhaps it is you that has not caught up with this new reality?

ECJ gender ruling 'could throw insurance into turmoil'

Why can't they insure the car, not the person

Thats what they do over here in Thailand, then anyone can drive the car and they are covered. In Europe the same is true in both France and Finland that I know of and there are probably other European nations with similar rules....

Microsoft has shifted 1.5 million Windows phones

Sold out on launch in Thailand

I took a look at the HD7 that was launched last weekend here in Thailand. Pretty impressed with it and will certainly give WP7 a look when my iPhone 4 is in need of replacement. I was even more suprised by the level of interest shown in it, at the DTAC (Thai network launching WP7 in Thailand) store in Bangkoks Siam Paragon Centre, I actually had to queue to take a look at it. Then I read in the local paper today that the initial batch of HTC HD7 devices had sold out already!

More info on the Thai WP7 launch here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/technews/212536/ms-re-claims-lead-with-hd7-phone

Microsoft joins protest against Google web travel buy

Re. so... (Michael C)

No you didn't read it right. Try reading paragraphs 1-4 of the article again.

The complaint is that the company that Google is acquiring (ITA) provides the software that its Bing Travel service uses, same as the other companies in the Fairsearch.org umbrella. Before it was independant, but they quite rightly point out, that as it powers a fair amount of the global travel search business, it gives them a hold over the market and potentially reduces competition. So for a change MS are right to throw up the anti-competitve red flag, after all they should know all about anti competitive behaviour, and should use it as their competitive advantage ;-)

DDoS attacks take out Asian nation

Any fool knows its Burma not Myanmar

Being a British publication you should realise that the British Government didn't recognise the change in name of the country by the military regime and still officially refer to it as Burma.

In fact even here in Thailand, we still call it Burma as well!

iPhone mules are taking our handsets, damnit!

I got mine from Singapore

as it was the cheapest place globally taking into account exchange rates, and conveniently I have a friend that works there. So off to the Singapore Apple store, enter my details and card number, ship to my mate and then have him ship it over to me. Ok, so the iPhone 4 isn't sold here yet (been 'coming soon' forever now) and at the time the local apple store and operators were still selling the 3GS for over 150 quid more than I could get the iPhone 4 from Singapore. Wish I had ordered 2, as selling the 2nd one on the grey market would have covered more than 50% of the cost of the one I bought for myself :-) ahh well opportunity missed.

Android - the winning formula for tablets and netbooks?

All Nokia interfaces are awful?

Clearly you haven't used the Maemo 5 base N900 then, otherwise you wouldn't be talking such rubbish.

I have both an iPhone and N900, and I find that the N900 has a far better interface and is far more flexible than the iPhone (which was good in its day, but lets face it has not been updated or improved much since its orginal release.....rather like Nokias Series 60.........)

Agree that Ovi is a stinking pile of excrement though

Nokia's free Ovi Maps scores a download every second

Ovi Maps + N900 = Crap

Well if you paid attention to the Ovi Maps website you would know that the N900 is currently not support for the free turn by turn navigation and offline maps. V3 is currently being ported to N900 and will be available soon....apparently. V1 which is the current version for N900 works the same way as Google maps and needs a permanent data connection.

Besides why would you download Ovi Maps V1 on your N900 when its already pre-installed?

Slimline iPhone pictures unearthed

This is news....?

I thought that El Reg is supposed to be an IT News sight and not an enthusiasts blog, this crap is getting annoying

Lenovo shares suspended

@ Peter

Hmm, but the T60 was also designed by IBM prior to the Lenovo aquisition, and I think its great. Much better than the old T41 that it replaced and I luckily got it just before my employer switched to Dell.

Orwellian Apple ad celebrates 25th birthday

Re: Math vs Maths

Chris: Thats just Bollox and you know it!

ASA slaps beer-punting ladyboy

Re. question

what else is exported from Thailand? other than beer and sex?

We're also are the worlds number 1 exporter of rice :)

HP loads PC with nonexistent web browser

Hasn't this been done before?

Sounds similar to Softricity to me :)

Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB media player

forgot to mention....

That it was also much better value than in UK/US, cost me 170 quid ($399 SGD) with a free silicon case, for the 32GB model :)

Just bought one......

for my missus, as she needed a device with recording ability for her pesky masters degree lectures.

I've got an iPod touch and have to say that although the touch is a far more pleasant experience to use, the sound quality from the X-Fi is superior in everyway. I used Shure E310 headphones, not the standard kit ones with either the creative offering or the touch and it really is that much better.

Shame the touch doesn't have a mic, otherwise I'd give her that and keep the x-fi for myself :)

And for those of you complaining about USB only charging.....iPods are the same, unless you had an old generation iPod that came with a seperate plug in charger, your also stuck with USB only charging or have to buy a seperate charger....so whats the differance (except that a mini usb charger is cheaper to buy than an apple one)

Brit trio convicted for liquid bomb terror plot

@Forgot to add

Formula one doesn't use Methanol btw, they use ordinary petrol that you can buy at the pump for your own car, thats why you see the fire quite clearly as witnessed several times during the hungarian GP.

You must be confusing F1 with Indycar/Champcar or whatever the hell there calling the low tech american version these days :P

Cash'n'Carrion: A lean, mean, fighting machine

Global shipping please

Gutted can't ship to Thailand either and I need to replace my old Hacker polo shirt.....getting a bit worn now after 6 years wear.......

Small, Cheap Computer countdown continues

Acer Aspire One available where I live

Took a look at it last Friday at my local shopping mall....but then I live in Bangkok, cost 14900THB or 219 GBP at todays' exchange rate.:-)

Nice to see I can get something before europe for a change!

US imposes 72 hour pre-reg for Visa waiver travellers

ETA is already in use....

by Australia and they don't seem to care about the association with a terrorist organisation :-) suppose the US thinks its the first with this idea again then!

MS to bundle 'broken' random number tool in Vista SP1

Hmm I've read this somewhere before........

"Suspicions that this weakness might be used as a backdoor have been fueled by the NSA's support of Dual_EC_DRBG in the standards-setting process."

Sounds like someones been reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown and decided its not a novel but a historical text of a genuine event :-p

Bangkok vigilante 'wipes out' sleeping security guards

Should quote the security guards....

I live over here in sunny BKK. Just as bad as what the vigilante guard did is the guards attitude to sleeping on the job!!!

Quote from BKK Post:

Security guards also said that taking a nap on duty was common practice and insisted the habit does not affect their work.

''We only take a nap, not a deep sleep. We will be up on our feet immediately if something happens,'' said Sanguan Chumchimplee, 51, a security guard at a warehouse in the Klong Toey area.

Yeah right!!! Kind of understand where the guy was coming from but beating them up and killing the guards is rather extreme.

The guard at my office turns the light out in the mail room and sleeps in there because you can't see that anyone is in there when its dark and it has the benefit of aircon.

At least this will have the benefit of making the security guards stay awake whilst on duty....for a short time anyway.

Samsung S85 eight-megapixel digital camera

Food Mode

Clearly you are unaware that over here in Asia we like to take pictures of our food......all the time. Doesn't matter how cheap it is or the occasion just whip out the camera and take a picture of the food and post it on your favourite webboard.

ICANN dukes it out with the USSR in cold war rematch smackdown

Thats the problem with Americans.....

.....they assume they invent everything.

@Adam - Try doing a bit of research about the history of the internet and who invented what. Rest assured it wasn't an american :-) for a hint try CERN

Thai King video wag pulls YouTube clip

Government Loosing Control

I also live in Thailand and have for many years. Whilst I respect the views of my Thai hosts I do believe in this case they have overreacted.

The problem with people like Jim (1st post) is that they now feel that they are Thai, therefore preach to the rest of us who "don't understand Thai culture" You can see this by there referance to "foreigners" what are they?

You cannot expect everyone in every nation of the world to know and understand every single culture of the world. Its quite ridiculous to even begin to suggest that, which many people seem to be suggesting.

YES PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR CULTURE IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THERES (and for those Thais' reading this, most of you don't understand western culture at all, which in some areas is more conservative than yours).

Get over it, have some compassion and understanding, help people learn...but blocking an entire site for this? All it has done in Thailand is generate publicity for it so that people who might otherwise never have come across it have gone to view what all the fuss is about.

But at the end of the day this isn't about protecting the king, its about a government installed by a military coup loosing control of the country. This is just a bit of propeganda by the Thai government to try and instil a bit of support.

Also remember that Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom the ICT Minister has a big "anti-foreigner" chip on his shoulder so anything he can do to show foreigners as being bad people he will do.

If you want to talk about restrictions in freedom of speech and expression then I suggest that The Register look into the recent blocking of the popular Thai webboard www.pantip.com where the same Ministry involved in this case has also removed the ''Ratchadamnoen'' political forum due to "national security"

Do they really believe that blocking a forum will stop people talking? If anything it will drive people together......