* Posts by Jonathan White

249 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Apr 2008

Page:

Apple iPad 2

Jonathan White
Flame

Bring on the nerdrage!

N/T

Fukushima one week on: Situation 'stable', says IAEA

Jonathan White

Nuclear power vs Panic

Mayor of Minamisoma, the town 20km north of Fukushima, speaking earlier today is quoted on the BBC as follows

"They cannot deliver relief goods because of high radiation? No! The level of radiation here is only a few micro sieverts per hour. We do not blame lorry drivers. We blame media and journalists. They are crying out "dangerous! dangerous!" but we live here. They are cutting off the supply of food and goods to us and let us starve to death."

The people complaining about how many people the radiation might have killed by some indeterminate point in the future, will they also be compiling a total of the number of people killed or permanently harmed by some of the press posting utterly spurious sensationalist rubbish?

Fukushima situation as of Wednesday

Jonathan White

Hmm..

A single death on it's own is a disaster. A single death when you've got 10,000 corpses on your hands already is hardly even going to raise an eyebrow.

While Lewis's appraisals of the condition of the Fukushima situation do seem to be verging on the optimistic, his opinion on the health risk seems fairly valid : few if any people have been harmed and few people will end up being harmed, all other things being equal. As things stand, the Fujushiima 'disaster' is going to cause less overall harm than a warm summer's day in Britain does.

Apple security update leaves iPhone 3G users unprotected

Jonathan White

It's all context

Pretty much all mobile phone manufacturers have traditionally stopped support for handsets not long after the things have disappeared off the shop shelf. Apple had the choice of acting like a PC manufacturer (support for 5 years after launch kind of deal) or acting like a handset maker ('Fix? The fix is to buy a new one.'). In the end they seem to have chosen a middle ground. The bare fact is you can't please all of the people all of the time - a subset of people will always want 'support' for any product long after it's economically viable to provide it.

I think two years after a device has been superseded is pretty much as long as you're going to get in the real world. The fact Android hackers can take over patches doesn't mean the G1 is being 'supported', because it plainly isn't. You can still get people who will help you fix a ZX spectrum, after all.

Apple MacBook Pro 13in

Jonathan White

Maybe....

In five years time you'll be able to connect a bluray drive via thunderbolt? Just a thought. Just like you could connect a USB bluray drive now, you know, if you wanted to. Apple's not banning you from having a bluray on this thing, it's just not throwing one in for you.

As for the storage they provide for 'non video' content being excellent, it's a very poor £/GB ratio compared to most USB hard drives, especially given you can effectively only access it in 25/50Gb chunks. And it's slower. And it burns more power, which is a significant issue in a laptop.

There are a number of scenarios where BluRay as a storage medium works. None of those also include a 13" laptop. I'd maybe like to see BR as an option on the 17" model but it's really nowhere near a worthwhile option on the 13" one. It would be a 'box tick' that would only provide a nice feature for marketing but very poor usability. That's not generally the game Apple play, so I don't really see why people have an expectation of it happening in this case.

Jonathan White
WTF?

BluRay..

Why would you want bluray on a device that has a display that

a) Is only 13" diagonal

b) Doesn't have 1080p resolution.

A 13" laptop is a bloody useless way to view BluRay/HD media. In that circumstance you'd be much better off watching SD media, which it can display quite happily. Can we at least consider whether a technology is actually appropriate before we complain about it's non-inclusion?

I concur with a lot of the criticisms in this review - I'd say unless you really need a small mac laptop the 15" makes for much better value - but we all need to keep a bit of perspective here.

iTunes privacy hole shares library content with world+dog

Jonathan White
Thumb Down

Amazon's way is better?

I'm sure they think it is - they still get the sale. Surely the right thing to do is refund the gift giver the cost of the purchase that's 'redundant', then inform them that the gift would be a duplicate so they can, if they wish, buy something else. Possibly from another store? Maybe that's the bit Amazon aren't so keen on eh?

Jon

Should Apple enter the flat TV market?

Jonathan White
WTF?

What's more

An Apple 27" monitor sans HDMI or HDCP costs a tad over 900 quid. You can get any number of brand name 26" TVs for 250-ish. OK, they're nowhere near the res but there's no point to anything over 1080p in a TV set anyway. For the price Apple charge for a 27" monitor you can get a top of the range 50" TV.

So no, Apple aren't going to be getting into the TV market just because they make a big monitor. Maybe the analyst in question should spend more time analysing and less time just making stuff up?

Apple's casual Xbox: Apple TV seeded for online gaming

Jonathan White
FAIL

hmm..

@MInionZero

If it's games we're thinking of, the number of iOS games (and indeed games developers) dwarfs the number for Mac OS X by several orders of magnitude. Apple won't mind of OS X developers have to recode some stuff if it means they'll be able to get Angry Birds and Cut The Rope on it Day One.

Man stabbed to death by chicken

Jonathan White
Coat

Can't think of a title

"the sound of Karma biting you in the ass."

Would that be Chicken Karma?

Android bites big chunk out of Apple iPad market share

Jonathan White
FAIL

on definitions of size

2.3%? That's more of a speck than a chunk. Maybe I can convince her indoors that less than 3% of something counts as 'big'...

O2's free Wi-Fi in detail: How free is free exactly?

Jonathan White
FAIL

Err..

I can't honestly believe ElReg thought they needed to explain what a MAC address was to their readership anyway. Is that just for the IS managers that might be sneaking a peak?

NOVA 2 for iOS

Jonathan White

iPod thumbsticks...

@David Lucke

Like these - http://tenonedesign.com/fling - you mean?

Apple $10k winner hangs up on 'prank caller'

Jonathan White
WTF?

You have won a Massive Yacht!

@Phil Endecott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsYoeoEE3ww

is funnier.

As for the people complaining because it's $10K in vouchers rather than $10K in cash, get a freaking life. To use a phrase there are people who if you gave them a suitcase full of money they would complain it was too heavy to carry. She won because her kids already use the iTunes store anyway, so it means they're probably never likely to have to pay for anything on it again for a very long time. I'm sure if you ask her or her kids they'd much rather have it than not. Talk abotu a bunch of miserbale feckers.

Apple tightens screws on hardware hackers

Jonathan White
WTF?

Hmm..

Surely the people who like hacking kit (both in a hardware and software sense) would be doing it if the things were held together with thumbscrews too? Putting odd screws in there isn't any sort of challenge to a hacker. None of them get any hacker cred just by being able to order a particular screwdriver from Amazon.

I think this report is massively overstating the significance of the type of screws Apple are using. Are you sure you're not becoming a bit obssessed?

Buffalo Linkstation Pro Duo 2TB Nas

Jonathan White
Boffin

Quick question...

Since the review didn't say - I assume the capacity values listed are for having the storage set up in RAID 0 configuration? So if you set it up in RAID 1 the capacities are halved?

Android passes iPhone in mobile ad race

Jonathan White
FAIL

Oh good grief

So of the top three devices, two of them are iOS and none of them are Android, yet Android is 'firmly crushing' iOS? Have you ever thought of taking up politics?

Sony sues PlayStation 3 'hackers'

Jonathan White
Coffee/keyboard

Firmware update..

As far as I'm aware, as it currently stands the only way to get 'jailbroken' firmware onto a PS3 is to use the existing mechanism that allows you to update the firmware via file on a USB stick. An 'official' firmware update that blocked the USB updating mechanism would block the ability to jailbreak.

As PSN blocks access to users who aren't on the latest firmware version you'd have a choice - upgrade & lose your ability to jailbreak or not upgrade and lose your ability to play games online & access the PS3's online services.

I guess then we'll find out how many people ARE actually interested in this hack 'so they can run homebrew'.

As to the legal stuff - I don't think Sony will get anything from it but I don't think they could afford not to do it. Either way it probably won't get resolved any time quickly.

Jon

Google axes Jobsian codec in name of 'open'

Jonathan White

Oh my lord...

"Good to see Google forcing peoples hand."

Oh, seriously? You honestly think having Google in charge of what technologies get used on the web is any better than letting Microsoft, or Apple, or any other business with shareholders and the like to be in charge?

The whole point is the technologies used on the web should be under the control or permission of no one company or group of companies. How is Google dictating terms to everyone else in any sense a better thing that MS or Apple dictating them?

Jesus, there really are people round here who think the sun shines out of Google's arse.

Jon

Mac App Store giving away pay apps for free

Jonathan White
FAIL

what title?

Sounds to me that, in the Angry Birds case, they've no-one to blame but themselves. Checking for a receipt without checking if it's the right receipt is entirely their cockup.

Steve Jobs no longer Eggman as Beatles hits iTunes

Jonathan White
Thumb Up

Just to say...

Best subhead EVER.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect

Jonathan White
FAIL

Err..

"What you have left is a games console that will play a stack of good controller-based games."

And a wallet that's lighter by £130 quid....

Panasonic bags Avatar 3D BD exclusive

Jonathan White
Thumb Down

Avatar

It's really, really not a good enough film to justify all this tomfoolery.

Apple rolls out two new MacBook Air models

Jonathan White

what title?

Well done for putting up the most wrong post on ElReg today.

iPad tethering does disappearing trick

Jonathan White

Wrong way round?

is this about the 3G ipads providing tethering to other devices or the wifi ipads tethering to other providers via 3G or bluetooth when they're out of wifi range? The former seems rather niche, while the latter seems actually useful.

I have a wifi only iPad (and a mifi, so it's not just personal interest here) and it doesn't support tethering either as a 'server' or 'client'. Just my opinion but i think there's more demand to tether ipads to phones than other things to ipads.

RIM opens its PlayBook – tablets clearly set for dominance

Jonathan White
FAIL

What?

'Early entry'? By the time the Playbook hits the UK the iPad will have been out for a year, and will probably be about to launch version 2....

F1 2010

Jonathan White
FAIL

Hmm..

Do the 'few minor flaws' include the horrendously long list of unfixed bugs in the release code? Bad Codemasters, back in your basket.

No cassette required: ZX Spectrum games on the iPhone

Jonathan White

@CmdrX3

So which are you, Vladimir or Estragon?

Tom Clancy's Hawx 2

Jonathan White
FAIL

/pedant

er... isn't the issue with Chilean mineshafts that, at the moment, they DON'T have holes in them?

Rioting lags demand women's tennis

Jonathan White

Blimey

If they wrecked the joint over missing Zvonareva vs Clijsters imagine what they'll do when they find out they've missed Sharapova vs Wozniacki a few nights back...

Apple TV: Third time unlucky, Mr Jobs

Jonathan White
FAIL

RE: Completely Blown

I don't disagree with your conclusions but one of your points is incorrect - Sky HD is actually no better 'proper HD' that ApleTV is. AppleTV can output at everything up to 1080p but can only process 720p (I have no idea how good its scaler is though). Sky HD shows are either 720p or 1080i and they have, as far as I'm aware, no 1080p content. So, to be honest, in pure picture quality terms the AppleTV and Sky HD are pretty much of a muchness and both are some way behind BluRay.

There are a myriad of reason to criticise AppleTV, particularly the new one, but pure picture output compared to 'over the air' HD (be it Sky, FreeView or FreeSat) isn't it.

Black helicopters circle 'Welsh Roswell'

Jonathan White
Thumb Up

Bah!

@AC - what, you've never seen The Clangers?

Blackhole your malware

Jonathan White
FAIL

Hmm..

Thinks 'OK, I'll have a look at their service, see if it's better than what I have'.

Goes to http://www.malwaredomains.com/

gets page that's blank apart from 'unable to concect to database' error.

Well that's a great first impression for an enterprise level service provider....

Apple as a religion: How the iPhone became divine

Jonathan White
FAIL

Not name calling per se..

But that was about the longest, driest, most pretentious way of saying 'Hey, some people are fanboys' that I have possibly ever read. what a waste of electrons.

Beware the blizzard of torrents of Starcraft 2

Jonathan White
FAIL

Pointless?

There seems to me to be little point to torrenting SC2 anyway. One of the other things the other things the forum spods are complaining about is the link to Battle.Net. Basically, having the code doesn't let you do much more than launch it. To actually get into the game, you have to log into it with a Battle.net account that has a Starcraft 2 licence code registered against it. So if you don't have a licence you can't play the game. if you DO have a licence, Blizzard will let you download a copy of it from their website free of charge and their downloader works using a peer to peer protocol anyway. Just that several of the peers are whopping great net servers on fat pipes, rather than being other spods with a 512K upload connection.

So just 'stealing' the code is essentially useless. If you can somehow get a licence you can just download it anyway and if you can't get a licence you can't play. So what's the point?

iPad alert: Are you a selfish elite or an independent geek?

Jonathan White
FAIL

So Much For Surveys

I am "interested in video games, computers, electronics, science and the internet", I don't own a single polo short or pair of jeans and I wouldn't be seen dead in a pair of 'sneakers' but I own an iPad.

I also think all this fanboi nonsense (in either direction) is pretty tedious in the main.

Canadian flyboy prangs CF-18 Hornet

Jonathan White
FAIL

What?

"gave up the ghost"? Nothing wrong with that plane at all, he just bloody stalled it at an altitude of about 100 feet. All his fault.

IE and Safari lets attackers steal user names and addresses

Jonathan White
Big Brother

Um...

I've never seen autocomplete on Safari (mac or PC) or IE autocomplete a credit card number. Names, yes. Addresses, usually. Phone numbers often and usually the wrong one too but CC details? No.

Plus, isn't just the number not enough? You also need the expiry data and the security number (the one on the back) before you could use the thing fraudulently. And getting all of that by autocomplete, consistently for the same card rather than say the number on one card and the expiry date of another?

All seems a little bit less immediately bad than he seems to be suggesting to me. Still, security researcher exaggerating an issue just in front of a major news coverage period Sorry conference, that's never going to happen is it?

Sagemcom RTI90-320 Freeview+ HD recorder

Jonathan White

Another option..

How about a review of the Philips HDT8520? Saw one in a shop over the weekend and, while I have no idea if it's any good, the design inspired significant gadget lust.

Apple in the workplace

Jonathan White
Coffee/keyboard

Wow...

I can't wait to see all the thoughtful, considered and objective opinions you'll get on this one..

Buyer's Guide: 3D TVs

Jonathan White
FAIL

Umm..

"With that in mind, you can buy one of these 3D TVs for now and then start saving up for your Star Trek Hologram TV™ in about five years time. How’s that for an upgrade cycle?"

Or, you know, wait and spend the money on beer instead. 2.5K buys you quite a lot of liquid refreshment.

Got an iPhone 4 yet? No? You're gonna have to wait now

Jonathan White
Headmaster

You sure?

Isn't this only if you wanted to get one direct from Apple? As far as I know, none of the UK telcos are actually taking orders yet. Assuming they've had some of the initial stock allocated to them, they would still be available to be had when they become available to order, whenever that is.

iPad beats BlackBerry for browsing

Jonathan White
FAIL

Err.. what?

"Of course, that might just mean that BlackBerry users are busy checking their email, or that Android users spend all their time playing games rather than browsing websites"

Yeah, because you can't do either of those on an iPad after all.

There are plenty of things you can validly criticise the iPad about but I'd be a bit more careful about flinging the 'fanboi' moniker about if you're going to post rubbish like that in an article to be honest.

Fanbois howl over 'hang a lot' Safari 5

Jonathan White
Thumb Up

*shurg*

Running it on two different Macs and Windows machine, absolutely no problems at all. As the saying goes I suppose 'YMMV'.

Ten Essential... iPad Apps

Jonathan White

The F...

"The mobile version of the BBC iPlayer doesn’t work with the iPad as yet"

Um. Wrong.

Google open video codec may face patent clash

Jonathan White
WTF?

Oh good grief...

How exactly is the MPEG-LA 'Apple's org' (assuming you intended to use the possessive apostrophe)? Can you please just stop it, it makes you look like a bunch of spoilt children.

Brit consumers shun the iPad - for now

Jonathan White
FAIL

well..

Since if you pre-order one right now the ship date is June 7th rather than May 28th, that rather suggests the initial batch have sold out in 3 days and the idea that UK buyers are 'shunning' the iPad is no more accurate than the old 'bomber on the moon' headlines.

BTW, educational discount for an iPad (even for those of us 'privileged' enough to work in Higher Ed) is exactly 0%.

Jon

Jonathan White

Hmm..

Might it not be better to wait until we actually get some pre-order or sales figures before writing that headline?

Google buys BumpTop, could target 3D interface at iPad

Jonathan White
FAIL

Waste of Money

As Bumptop itself has gone freeware for a limited period, I downloaded it to have a look.

It lasted about 30 seconds. It started up and I got the 'looking into a cardboard box with all the stuff on your normal desktop in it' metaphor. OK, I thought, let's follow this. Picked up a directory I had on my desktop, dropped it on another directory to make a 'stack' of folders. It moved one directory into the other one in the file system.

Quit. Delete.

Jobsian Vendetta - Flash stabbed by Mac the Knife

Jonathan White
FAIL

Wait, what?

"A few months ago I bought my first mac, a mac mini (£600ish) so I could write iPhone apps.

Then found out I had to pay £90 to actually test things on my iPod Touch and publish to the app store.

I wanted to use my current skills and happily started to learn unity and titanium. 2 months and just under a grands worth of investment later.."

You didn't want to buy a 90 quid Apple developer licence, so you went out and bought just under a grand's worth of dev framework instead to essentially allow you to do the same job? Wow.

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