Posts by John

Apple proves: It pays to be late

Problem with Nokia

As one of the ex-EMCC who left to work on the iPhone I can say it's Symbian AND S60 (plus UIQ which was also awful).

The problem is that it was an OS that was designed for low powered devices years ago and now has major structural problems that basically prevent Nokia from doing much to improve that. If you ask me Nokia should just wrap it up, and use Android or buy Palm for their Web OS which looks VERY nice.

However as I saw at EMCC, it's probably the case at Nokia that too many people have put their reputations or it's where their skills lie behind Symbian and therefore will ignore the issue until it's too late.

Shame!

But I don't think it's the performance of the phones hardware. I think the N95 actually beats the iPhone in OpenGL benchmarks.

Government rejects call to limit insolvency firms' fees

It's a total racket

Another example of corrupt government. The minister who voted against this should loose his next election.

The administrators are the only winners (oh and sometimes the ex bosses) when a company goes under.

Fanbois will abandon iPhone for Palm, says Wikisugardaddy

As an iPhone developer

I have a lot of stake in the success of the iPhone but the Pre is the only one that's really had that same wow feeling the first time I saw it. I don't know, I don't think he'll be completely right as the Pre isn't THAT much better (it's also hard to tell how good the touch screen is) but I think it will be a big success.

Either way we're making our apps cross-platform with these competitors now as best we can.

Apple updates full desktop Mac line-up

Bit annoyed at those Atom rumours

of the Mac Mini as it meant I didn't wait.

Bloody websites and their rumours, now that I think of it. It could have been misinformation by Apple to shift a few old ones.

Although I'm not too annoyed as I generally only use it for a Media Server.

Dear Obama: Please consider open-source a waste of your time

They're only asking to be considered.

Most people buy MS because it's the only thing they've ever used and they're comfortable with that however that brand loyalty allows a company to stagnate and therefore cease to be value for money even though it's still the "only" choice and very popular. This is a bad thing for the consumer and the government is a consumer in this case.

Maybe there are better alternatives, maybe using some of these alternatives would reduce the monopoly that MS has and therefore force them to improve their standards for interoperability and price.

Capitalism requires competition and maybe it IS the job of government to encourage this where the risks can't be justified in the private sector. That said we also don't want governments wasting money so it's something that needs to considered very carefully but to not consider it is wrong.

Apple animating iTunes stream machine?

Net Neutrality

I can see the ISPs providing their own service or perhaps caching (and receiving a fee from netflix/Apple etc) to reduce overall traffic and to provide an extra revenue stream (like the mobile operators do).

This totally goes against Net Neutrality as they will probably then limit the other services to highlight their own or just totally restrict them.

At the end of the day they control the last mile, not Apple, not Google etc and at the moment the ISPs seem to be burdening most of the cost while the providers get most of the profits.

It's only a matter of time. Oh and P2P will be made illegal and the ISPs will be forced/(and want to) to comply. Something has to happen as whole industries are being hit and while they could continue to make ok profits in the boom years, now the failing economy will only highlight the issue and force law makers to stop it.

The only thing that makes me think this might not happen is that Obama is very close to Eric Smidt and politics/business is a dirty game so we may end up with the Utopian vision where broadband is provided by government.

Tories search Google for economic policy

Just a name to put down.

Obama has used him as well. Basically they can say to the voters, look we're asking the most successful business people so they must know what they're doing.

In effect this means nothing except to grab a headline as no-one really has a clue about economics, it's not a science or a maths discipline and quite frankly it's about as reliable as that other science of yester-year Astrology.

There's nothing anyone can do really, except bring forward government projects and get the banks lending again to businesses so that it will help to keep people out of unemployment and therefore hopefully still acting like consumers rather than feeding into a downward cycle. That's obvious and straightforward, beyond that it's BS.

Face it, the economy has to retract over the next two years as a consequence of a bubble economy based on debt deflating.

Apple threatens Palm chomp

What a load of rubbish

Patents mean nothing unless they're defended in court and only then will you know if they're worth anything.

As for the "mind reading" patent to determine an action based on context or using Newtonian physics. I've worked in video games and this kind of thing is used all the time. Apple hasn't invented anything. At best they've taken well known ideas and applied them to a specific task however I can't see how this constitutes as anything patentable.

The truth is that software patents never stand up, unless it's a very specific algorithm like the marching cubes algorithm or something but not simple "ideas". Capcom tried to defend Street Fighter 2 once from all the clones and even though it was definately the first game of it's like that did it properly it wasn't defendable and they lost. After that the games industry pretty much gave up on that idea and have been stealing from each other ever since.

It does show that Apple is worried

I love my iPhone however they have every reason to be. This phone could be a game changer (again), one of the things I can't stand is the inability to multi-task (unless you're Apple) and it appears this does it well. I understand Apple's reasons however it's typical Apple, if they can't get a feature to work right or it becomes too geeky they remove it. It's their strength and weakness, unfortunately App developers are realizing it's a big weakness.

Mac mini said to get Ion innards

Bugger

Sounds like a dog for anything other than video playback, and the current mac mini does that fine at the moment.

Oh well I may as well get the current one now.

New chip aims HD video at iPhone

A Mac Tablet using the iPhone OS maybe

Personally I would love one of these as I use my iPhone for casual web surfing and email but things like books and reading documents is a bit fiddly.

With a larger screen (screens that could be driven by this) it would really be a sweet little device. Maybe nothing more than a niche but very cool.

That said I suspect this will be mostly for games on the "next" iPhone.

btw - check out the Palm Pre, finally it looks like the iPhone has competition.

IBM approves Obama's IT stimulus package

It's temporary however that's what the economy needs.

Laying down lots of fibre will create lots of jobs while the economy gets back on it's feet, after that it's not that important.

The main thing for the US is not to have run-away unemployment as this will require the state to pay benifits and will also remove potential consumers feeding into the cycle.

The issue of globalization and protectionism is a separate one, ultimately you're either free market or not and I can't see America changing anytime soon, as the American government is really setup for the interests of it's big corporations and not the common man although maybe Obama will change that. It will be a hell of a task though and that's if he even wants to.

NYT scribe: No bailout for Tesla-buying 'centimillionaires*'

Smells of pay off

Governments give money for loads of projects (can we remember all the money given to the Telcoms for faster internet), at least this is money that will go to improving the technology for "green" cars. Something that will benefit everyone and probably won't happen without financial assistance until oil becomes even more expensive (which they keep low to prevent this from happening).

This guy who's against it is probably being payed by the automotive and petrol industries.

Banks to share data on promiscuity

Good

They shouldn't have introductory rates in my opinion and if they do people shouldn't be able to move between them.

The truth is that the people who don't take advantage of this (it's not designed to be used this way) end up paying in higher premiums and rates.

Personally I don't want to bother with all the hassle. But then again I'm against all sorts of cuts and deals etc I have an extreme point of view that people should just pay what something is worth, the same as everyone else.

Apple scotches pre-Xmas Mac desktop revamp rumour

Bummer

I need to buy one and I don't know if I can wait till January.

Apple MacBook

I want the Pro Model!

I bought the old MBP with 23 inch Cinema Screen about 6 months ago.

I'm very happy with it but I have to say after seeing one in the Apple store yesterday these new machines are gorgeous. That said there isn't a great deal of difference with the performance of the new Pro so I'm not too annoyed but for the first time I want to upgrade my computer for aesthetic reasons.

Famed investor backs away from web-obsessed Microsoft

I think he's wrong!

Microsoft are actually in a very strong position relative to their stock price. They still have no competitors in the OS or Office markets with 90%. (I use a Mac so I'm no MS lover).

Strong online with .NET.

Game business has been a huge success when you consider the challenges facing them with the success of PS2.

The stock price has simply been a knee jerk reaction to the perceived impression of Vista (untrue btw - it's pretty good) and the success of Apple (it will never be a mainstream pc business as it doesn't even want that - it likes the high margins).

Personally if I had a load of money, I would wait for it to bottom out (due to the current economically climate) and then buy buy buy buy. Same with a load of the banks and everything.

For real investor this is when the real money gets made and I wouldn't even be surprised if this guy is looking to drive the price even lower so he can buy it himself.

Mono delivers Foundation-free open .NET alternative

Mono can also run inside an application

The games industry uses Mono for scripting purposes inside some game engines.

Just because you don't see a use then don't think that's the case for everyone.

EA in Spore DRM climbdown

As a lowly developer working in the games industry.

I have NO problem with what EA are doing.

Maybe it was too strong but to just eliminate copy protection completely is the wrong way to go too. Yes people may be able to download the software of the internet but what companies should be doing is requiring an active internet connection to a main server to play the game, that way they can check the serial of each game and if it's already in use they should flag it and disable that serial or maybe something a little more forgiving but this same principle.

Piracy has already destroyed the music industry and will destroy the games, TV and movie industry if it's left unchecked. These products require huge investment (the last game I worked on cost over 10 million dollars) and the investor needs a return on his investment.

Most 20 year olds download all their music now, and the bands make their money from touring (hence the huge increase in concert tickets) however that's not the case for these other industries.

Bill Buxton to change Microsoft from within, hug Steve Ballmer

Has anyone actually used the alternatives to MS Office

They suck. I'm sorry, I use a Mac Book Pro and love it but Office, yes even the buggy Office:Mac 2008 is still miles better than the alternatives.

After getting Office:Mac 2008 and experiencing it crashing every 10 mins I looked but the competition is just non-existent. Maybe in a few years Open Office might be a competitor but I doubt it. As for the rest ,forget about it.

Once a) the service pack was released and b) I started learning what to avoid that made it crash I can now actually use it crash free almost completely.

MS are still in the strong position they are because their stuff isn't just bought by geeks and fanbois but by everyone and when the customer takes an unbiased view they invariably go with them. When their stuff gets over-taken by the competition (Mac OS X) then people start to move over. People will vote with their feet.

That said I welcome everything this guy has said. .NET is fantastic and if Microsoft can move all Windows application development over to this then they could be on to a winner with Windows 7. That and strip out all the junk/bloat that's in Vista and maybe have a compatibility mode (similer to running a virtual machine like VM Ware) for the legacy apps.

Then they might have a genuine competitor to Snow Leopard and Cocoa development.

Because although I like Apple's products (I also love my iPhone), they are FAR greedier and controlling than Microsoft and if they ever get to a position of power in the computer industry I think we might all realise that MS weren't THAT bad.

Media standard backers attempt Apple-less solo run

Their attempts to break Apple's monopoly

Just goes to show that Apple is just as monopolistic as any other company (in-fact more so IMO) when it gets the chance.

Unfortunately the only people who download from iTunes with DRM are the technically unsavy and don't realise the poor quality or the fact they can't take their music to other devices until it's too late after spending hundreds of pounds.

Apple unsheathes Jesus Phone 2.1

Text Input

I haven't tried it yet but the slow response when editing txt is my biggest concern especially on web pages. But then again that's normally on web pages that are quite intensive.

I don't really see why this is necessary either as surely the keyboard could operate in a higher priority process.

Obama: McCain can't email, remembers Rubik's Cubes

Looks like the Democrats are going dirty

Good it's about time. In the past they've lost elections due to playing by some sort of false moral rules.

I agree, I think his age is a BIG factor. McCain goes on about Obama's inexperience but what's the point of experience if it's all out of date.

Obama's campaign shows his ability to use and understand new technology and in a world where the US is dropping further and further behind due to less focus on technology and engineering this can only be a good thing.

While America doesn't lead the world in these areas, the wealth of it's wealthy individuals will continue to be moved out of the American economy in investment to the companies/departments in countries that are leading the way. Think what happened to the car industry and how it moved to Japan and apply it across the board.

There's only so long a company can survive if it stops creating the things that generate the wealth in the first place.

Discover OS X's hidden artistic side

No wonder we 200 GB disks

It's amazing this crap doesn't get taken out. It's interesting and all but seriously with a company the size of Apple why haven't they spent a little bit of time to remove what they don't require.

I don't know what most people's view of Snow Leopard is but I for one I'm happy and surprised that Apple have spent the time to do this.

Microsoft could learn from this.

Microsoft orders 65nm Xbox 360 graphics chip

Things go wrong.

At least Microsoft extended the warranty however the important thing about this is that as it's smaller it will also be cheaper.

Look at other companies like Apple with iPods that break within a few months after their warranty and some people even claim this is by design. Apple do nothing. To be honest I'm beginning to start to "think differently"

btw - I have a MacBook pro, iPhone, iPod Nano, PS3, XBox 360 so I'm not a fan boy.

Financial firm wags finger, warns youngsters to watch gadget spending

Humans are pathetically shallow

You have to keep up otherwise he'll get bullied and looked down on. This will create psychological problems for his self esteem and he'll grow up with no self worth and turn out to be a loser.

It might not be right but you can't use your kids as social guinea pigs. That's practically child abuse.

btw - It never changes, you will always be judged by the things you own, the job you have, the money you earn, who you hang with and the person you date. It's human nature, we all like to look down on others as it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Radiohead diss freetards

It was a con first time around

The first time people bought it because it was a collective "look people/we are honest. People/We won't simply download and not pay" to the record companies however Tom Yorke knows that if no one is watching then no one will bother paying this time around.

Radiohead where able to make a nice little profit and claim it was some altruistic gesture.

As for the statement that people want physical media, yea because downloads currently aren't at a high enough quality and also because they need them for backups so they can transfer them to any medium. There's nothing romantic about it however if a person had the choice between downloaded proper CD quality un-DRM files and a CD at twice the price then they'll choose to download and make their own backups.

Unlocked iPhones help drive Apple Q2

Exchange is a non-issue

By June or July Apple will have released a firmware update that will cover that issue.

The iPhone isn't complete however it's much easy to add stuff to a well designed OS than to redesign and fix a badly designed OS.

This gives Apple a huge advantage however Apple's desire to own the hardware as well might prevent it from gaining dominance however maybe not as it didn't stop the iPod. I know it's not the same business however it remains to be seen if the mobile market is closer to the MP3 business or to the desktop business. If it's closer to the MP3 business, Apple have probably already won. The iPod wasn't the first to market then either.

Nokia predicts IBM 360 of mobile phones

Symbian?

Symbian is really the mobile phone standard and just like PCs it's a bloatware POS.

But seriously I can probably see this new standard being the google android however it really all depends on what Nokia does now. Do they attempt to stay with Symbian (I can't see how they would with the competition from Apple) or do they attempt to build a new OS with Erricson and maybe Motorola (a better idea) or simply go with Microsoft's or google's (the best).

Apple like with PCs won't license their OS and unlike the PC war they can actually win in the dominance war as it's very early days and they have such a head start technically (market share means very little at the moment when choosing a new phone) and the ability to supply the world like they did with iPod. Infact their iPod and iTunes business almost makes it necessary that they do that.

It's time for the mobile operators to waken up and realise the danger from Apple as they've been too arrogant up to now.

Personally I think it will come down to MS and Apple again, perhaps Linux or Android will have more of a say. I think Symbian will get dumped in the next year or two.

Price cut fails to push Xbox 360 past PS3 in UK

The Wii doesn't mean good gameplay, Nintendo does.

The gamers console is the 360, the PS3 is bought for Blue-ray and the Wii is for those that want to play Nintendo games.

Microsoft denies Lite-On Blu-ray rumour

Xbox 360 is for games and blu-ray is a non issue.

I think due to the fact they have the PC market and either didn't want to harm that or they didn't want their console tarnished with the "just a PC" label decided to focus on the game playing capabilities.

Blu-Ray has NO effect on this and apart from a few fanboys who can say "PS3 sold this many" it's a non-issue. If you look at the sales of games per console sold you can see the 360 is far more popular with gamers than simply looking at the raw figures of how many units of each console. More and more PS3s are being bought as cheap blu-ray devices for HDD movies, my brother has one for this reason. Developers are aware of this and also of the difficulty creating PS3 games, it might have slightly more power (debatable) but there's no reason to not lead with 360 and this won't change for the rest of this generation. Therefore the PS3 has already lost as the main gaming console.

However I suspect that with the next console release MS will probably try to make a more PS3 like multimedia player however even then blu-ray won't be an issue as by then we will have moved to downloadable content. Look at Apple, one of the big backers of blu-ray and they aren't even putting it in their devices. It's now all about online now.

Brit apiarists demand £8m to save honeybees

Unbelievable

For this reason alone this government needs to be kicked out of office.

This should be the leading story on the news.

Yahoo! deflects Microsoft bid with iPhone dominatrix

What's the problem

They've tried to make a presenter of a show for men sexy, big deal.

There's a reason why Ryan Seacrest presents American Idol and E etc and it has nothing to do with talent. Women just don't find naked flesh attractive in the same way men do.

BT preps 2000 per cent evening call price hike

This is because people are using their mobiles

Most people only have a BT line because of broadband as everyone uses their mobiles for most if not all calls so it's not surprising that they want to move is on to an unmetered line, suits them as they still get the same revenue except we no longer need the line.

It's their company so they can do what they like (as there's competition) however I hope they inform their customers in advance with an easy method of changing contracts however I suspect it will be one bloke on a dodgy line in India therefore making it extremely frustrating and capitalizing on people's lethargy.

Facebook loses a few bitches

These are just Fads

Everything on the web is a fad unless it solves or improves on a problem in the realworld like Ebay or Amazon.

They work because their business model isn't based on advertising but on the fact people "need" to come to their site i.e. to buy something.

These fad sites work for a while because people join for a while simply because word of mouth spreads around the idea that they are cool - and then those people then look cooler by having lots of friends forcing them to recruit more and then those people etc completing the circle. They don't solve any real problem, as once everyone signs up who's going to and you add your friends. That's it there's no problem they solve, even something like invites to parties can be solved better with a mass email or sms and then you're more guranteed to get a response.

The world is insane all the same when it comes to the web as it's obvious most people have no idea what will make money in the long term or maybe they simply gamble that they're not the person holding the shares when everyone gets bored of it - however that doesn't explain BIG companies buying them.

Gears of War 2 scheduled for November release

It isn't even a contest

I have both systems and the PS3 is poo!

Technically it's inferior for a games machine, wait until GTA4 comes out and you'll see by how much. Games it's also not a contest. The only reason it's selling is PS2 fan-boys and Blue-Ray (those people don't buy games so they don't count).

That and it's a system released a year or more later.

Geordie cops arrest two for Wi-Fi squatting

Rubbish

How is someone supposed to know if a Wi-Fi connection is open and free or not? That and alot of devices will connect to any open Wi-Fi connection (like my phone).

Surely it's up to someone to secure it. If it's hacked - that's a different matter all together.

Commuters shouting into their mobiles? Just jam 'em

Hmm

Hell really is other people.

Wii-like motion-control games to come to the PS2

I hate these people who slag off new hardware

And say it's the death of gaming. I'm someone who has played games since the early 80s and has worked in the industry so here's my oppinion.

Yes good graphics doesn't make a good game but bad graphics/tech doesn't make a good game either.

What advancements in technology allow developers to do is:

1. Greater freedom with the design e.g. the ability to model whole worlds to allow for sandbox design or take part in MMORG like Eve Online

2. The ability to make it more and more immersive and realistic. I've recently completed Call Of Duty 4 and while it was nothing new it did take that genre to the next level largely due to the tech. The same can be said of Project Gotham, Madden or Pro Evo etc.

Even games like technical masterpieces like Heavenly Sword that also have repetitive and poor gameplay do advance other areas such as story telling, voice acting, production values. While you may argue that style over substance is wrong, I argue that even games that are like this move the industry forward as a whole resulting in truly breakthrough games later.

Hopefully the next step for the industry is to move to 3D like the movie Behewolf and other cinema releases.

When you're playing a game in fully 3D with motion picture quality graphics interacting with the world with a realistic intuitive control system (like a Wii Remote) taking part with millions of people online in a futurustic world.

Then tell me that the technology advancements that allow this isn't important.

Or maybe you simply want to play another game of Pac-Man!

Apple posts iPhone update, bricks unlocked handsets

Typical Apple.

To all those who are shocked by this. Remember Apple's the company that intentionally sells it's hardware at twice the price because it knows people will pay for it. And who use their fan-boys as beta testers (OK everyone does that).

Stop taking this whole attitude that certain companies are good and fair while others are evil. It's captilism, it's all about money not morality. Even google with it's "Do No Evil" slogan will just show it's self up as the BIG monopoly that batters smaller opposition soon enough, if not already.

If you unlocked your phone then why upgrade? If it was done without the user's knowledge then i think that's illegal. BTW - To the fan-boy who was taking Apple's side, you don't agree or sign anything. You pay your money and you get the phone, after that it's yours to do what you want. Apple have no right to do anything not authorised by you, if they do it's no different than an ordinary person infecting it with a virus.

The Christmas Console Wars: round one to Xbox?

360 has already won.

Seriously, the only people buying PS3s are those that buy everything (me) and fan-boys (that won't last).

As for the Wii, look at the software sales. People are buying them for parties and impulse gaming. They're not the kind of people who fuel the industry. Well done to Nintendo for thinking outside the box however long term it won't make a difference to the big two as I see it as a different market.

As for the 360, It's faster cheaper and has more quality games for it. It's also rumured that the reason GTA4 is delayed is because the PS3 version is poo compared to the 360. If this is the case and Rockstar can't fix it then that might be the death blow to the PS3.

Governator vows to appeal ruling striking down video game law

Too much power to the courts

Why are the courts ruling on these kinds of issues. Surely it's up the the legisalature to make the laws and the courts to interpret, rule on. Not deem if a law is legal or not.

As for the guy who said Government should get out of peoples' lives, I agree I would leagalise everything including prostitution and drugs however kids DO need to be protected and I don't trust parents to do it - alot of them are kids themselves. And those kids that are badly parented are going to grow up and rob or shoot me.

Microsoft brings instant messaging to Xbox Live

That's Soooo Cute

I want one!

How cute is that little keyboard and while not as usable as a full keyboard, it should be fine for a two thumb affair.

Although it won't be hard to tell the difference with who is using a 360 and who is using a PC. Hint... Zzzzzzz.