Posts by RichyS

RIM defends PlayBook as more execs bail

Ah ha ha ha. Ha ha. Very good JaitcH.

Oh, you're serious... WTF? How's that LTE working out for you? Still not got it yet?

Amazon's Silk looks creepily Phorm-ulaic

Bandwidth optimisation or some such nonsense, apparently. Odd, seeing as the Fire has no 3G*. Maybe future non-eInk Amazon tablets will.

* I find browsing over 802.11n fast enough on an original iPad, so not sure why it wouldn't be in a Fire.

Power cut knocks Miliband off-air mid-speech

Was anyone listening before that?

Sonos Play:3 network music player

Bit pricey frankly

It sounds like the speaker quality is very good -- but that being so, you really need two of them to get stereo. Having such a good mono system seems a bit pointless. As such, we're really talking £520 for a single room set up.

For that money, there must be better alternatives. I'm thinking of something like an Apple Airport Express and a pair of active speakers. Something like this: http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/2543

Hook up with Apple's excellent Remote app for iTunes (other apps and media management applications are available), and you've got something at least as capable, probably sounding as good, and half the price.

Lingo iMini DAB/FM iOS pocket tuner

I don't get it.

I may not be the target audience for this as I have no DAB radios other than the one that came with my car (handy for 6 Music and R5 Sports Extra for clear and uninterrupted by shipping forecast TMS).

But, if I'm using my iPhone or iPad, a great app like Tune Radio (for a quid or so) let's me stream all the DAB stations and more. And record them. Works fine for me on 3G too. So why pay extra for this?

Standard

Standard as in 'de facto'. The same sort of standard that makes the proprietary MS Word '.doc' the standard text document for companies all over the world.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't stop it being true.

HP dumps Apotheker for Whitman

Ideal

So Whitman is ideal for the job because she once bought a load of servers for eBay? An online consumer focussed tat bazaar...

I've bought a fair amount of Apple kit in my time. Can I expect a call from their board to take over from Tim Cook any time soon?

HP used to be a great company. What the hell happened?

EDS

I'm sure the UK tax payer can think of a few good reasons that EDS deserve what they get.

Big Apple fake Apple stores agree to rat out suppliers

I read elsewhere that one of the complaints was that the knock-off kit had the same 'Designed in California, Made in China' text on them. Well, factually that struck me as correct. Okay, so not /authorised/ by Apple, but it didn't say that...

Hands on with the Windows 8 fondleslab

I'll wait and see

After all, Vista worked great in the demos too.

Galaxy Tab remains illegal in Germany

Blind Droidtards

But there's no getting away from the fact that the Galaxy Tab looks almost exactly the same as an iPad. That's all the judge is saying.

There are plenty of other ways of styling a tablet -- HTC, Asus and Acer seem to have managed it (Lenovo and a few others less so), why can't Samsung?

If you Droidtards can't see the uncanny resemblance, then you're the idiotic ones, not the judge.

Oracle suit outs Google's closed source Android tactics

Dear Andy Rubin

So, this is the definition of open.

Are we going to get a new tweet?

Would you be seen dead with a shopping computer?

Interesting article, but...

Couple of points:

Firstly, I don't suppose Amazon care that no self respecting techie would buy a shopping terminal. This isn't aimed at techies.

Secondly, I suspect Google know quite well who you are (if not, yet, by name -- witness the real names issue with G+). But, more importantly, /you/ are not Google's customer, the advertisers are. You (or what Google knows about you) is what is for sale. Of course, this point may well be moot if you're talking explicitly about Android forks -- but if you were, this isn't clear from the article.

How are we going to search our hard disks now?

Spotlight

Never found a problem with Spotlight in OS X.

Very fast when coming up with a response, and in day to day operation it doesn't slow your computer down by constantly indexing (I'm looking at you Windows Search for XP) due to low level kernal hooks.

I have a Win7 laptop too -- though waaay better than XP's woeful standard search, it's still not nearly as fast (or easy to organise) as Spotlight.

Galaxy Tab 7.7 pulled from IFA after new Apple moves

Just redesign you tablet. Not that big of a deal

Do Samsung not have any stylists? Other manufacturers can make tablets that don't look almost exactly like an iPad (notably Sony, HTC, and Asus). So why can't Samsung?

Apple girds loins for 'obscene iPad sales surge'

Found one!

The HTC JetStream is waaay more expensive than an iPad. Okay it has LTE rather than 3G connectivity, but does anyone give that enough of a shit?

@Peter48

Cool. At that rate they'll have built enough eeeeePads in just a little over 4 years to match next quarter's iPad build.

If this is what Kool-Aid tastes of, I'll have more...

First Ultrabooks surface at IFA

VGA not that 'ultra'

Are VGA ports really part of the Intel spec? Really?

I can't remember the last time I saw a projector without an HDMI port. At least HDMI is intelligent and we don't end up with the bizarrely squashed presentations that you often see from widescreen lappies plugged into 4:3 projectors.

Samsung outs 5in Galaxy Note as new smartphone concept

Nice screen, but

No one bought the Dell Streak. What makes Samsung think people will buy this?

Do people now suddenly want something a little bit bigger than a smartphone, but a little bit smaller than a tablet? I doubt it.

This has fail written all over it in glorious high resolution.

Toshiba launches thick Thrive tablet in Europe

Cables are so old skool

Why not use something like DropBox.

You can have a nice thin'n'light tablet, and not bother with carrying silly cables around with you either.

If you want something a bit more old skool and big'n'chunky -- just get a netbook. Apparently you can still get them.

Samsung outs MacBook Pro lookalike laptop

Not that similar

This isn't that similar to a MacBook -- there are plenty of laptops out there that look more like one. Not in the way that a Galaxy Tab apes the iPad, anyway.

And more importantly, which idiot at Samsung decided to not copy Apple's keyboard layout? Who thought having an off-centre keyboard and trackpad was a good idea? Take him out and shoot him, frankly.

Tablet wars set for Apple vs Amazon head-to-head

How exactly

The reason why Amazon can sell the Kindle so cheap is (wait for it) because it's cheap. If HP can't get the bill of materials for the OuchPad much below that of an iPad, then how exactly are Amazon? I bet HP buys a tonne more components than Amazon ever do.

But wait, they can subsidise it with content! Again, how? What content does Amazon have access to that Apple don't? It's essentially the same music, books and films from the same media companies as Apple. So, I don't suppose the wholesale price is going to be much different. And we know that Apple doesn't really make much profit on the content -- it's used more as a reason to support their hardware business. So, how is Amazon going to reverse this model, while still keeping the content competitive withApple? Answer, they can't.

The only thing I can see the, doing is some sort of subscription pricing. But then, surely the network operators would be more successful selling tablets today, if this is how people wanted to subsidise a tablet...

Has this Forrester researcher actually done any sums?

Google dumps TV flop on UK

Remote

I went to school in Shropshire. It's remote.

Samsung to show Galaxy Tab revamp next week

Bets

Bets on it looking almost exactly like an iPad that's been in the hot wash?

Apple wins (another) Samsung Android injunction in EU

Idiots

Who the he'll are the idiots downvoting the above post? Just because you don't like it, doesn't stop it being true.

Not quite

This was just a preliminary injunction hearing. Apple lost the 'bang to rights' round on the other patents, but they haven't been thrown out.

The next round may well see injunctions granted against the eerily similar Samsung devices.

Just how will Apple restrict device-ID snooping in iOS 5?

Sounds like a good thing.

Sounds like a good thing to me.

The problem with universal IDs, is that once somebody has managed to attached personal data to it (e.g. registering with your name and address for a service via your iPhone), someone somewhere now has good information to attach to your UDID.

Your UDID now has some real value, and I can see the someone somewhere flogging this information to other developers/advertisers/dubious characters. UDID being trackable across all apps means a pretty good picture of usage can be built up. Forcing devs to roll their own means there will be many different methods of tracking usage, and this data is of substantially less use and value.

Samsung says Apple lifted iPad from Kubrick's 2001

It is IBM

It was IBM, as can be seen from this handy HD screen grab here: http://forums.appleinsider.com/showpost.php?p=1927237&postcount=8

You'll also notice the row of numeric buttons along the bottom. Sort of makes it look a but less like an iPad now. Oh, and that it has sharp corners instead of (the widely ridiculed) rounded corners of the iPad.

Four months' porridge for 20-minute Facebook riot page

And more importantly

If the place was smashed up, would anyone notice?

Incitement

The sentences do seem rather harsh, but (and this particularly applies to the Northwich character), a riot does not have to have actually taken place for the messages to count as incitement.

Google closes Android developer complaint forums

Charitable

That is a very charitable confusion.

If Google had nothing to hide (and nothing to fear, etc.), then why not simply set the new support resource free on the public fora? That way you get the best of both worlds.

Unless El Goog have something to hide, of course.

Apple MacBook Pro 17in 2011

Numeric keypads a bad idea on notebooks

The problem with numeric keypads on notebooks is that the main keyboard is then shunted to the side of the screen. Makes the things bloody awkward to use.

Have a look next time you're using a full size standalone keyboard -- I bet it's not placed centrally to your screen.

+2 for Firewire

I use it for keeping raw HD footage on prior to editing (not enough room on the internal drive). USB2 really isn't fast enough in sustained transfer to be usable.

I suspect Apple skipped USB3 as Thunderbolt has the potential to make it look a bit old and silly for things where data tx rates matter. For uses that don't, USB2 is fine.

Here's hoping Apple and Intel don't mess up the marketing and licensing of Thunderbolt in the same way Apple did with the original Firewire.

Coders breathe Android into dead HP fondleslab

Why?

The only good thing about the OuchPad was WebOS. Why ruin that with Android?

Cabinet Office shuns open-source in IT-tracking deal

Stop this nonsense forthwith

Personally, I couldn't give a shit whether the system procured was open source or not. All I hope is that the system provided the best fit in terms of capability for lowest cost (best value, in other words).

OSS is not intrinsically better or cheaper than proprietary. This article seems to advocate positive discrimination towards OSS; which IMHO would be a very Bad Thing.

HP murders webOS tablets, phones

@SisterClamp

WTF has the ability to programme got to do with being able to lead an IT company? Most devs I know would be shit at that sort of thing. Too focussed on detail, not on the strategic.

And if it was that way, then we'd see the most valuable tech company in the world led by Woz, not Jobs.

Tit.

iPad sales shove Apple to top of mobile computing tree

Such as?

As per title.

Bad analogy

More like buying a motorbike instead of a car. It has fewer use cases, but what it does, it does better. For example, I wouldn't want to take the family on holiday on a motorbike, but I'd far rather use it to get across London.

Oxford adds woot! to dictionary

Carry on

I think under the old rules, 'jet of water' would be considered a tautology -- on the basis that a jet by definition is of water. However, as the term jet is now less specific (type of engine, plane, ex-Gladiator, whatever), it's now fair enough to use the term 'jet of water'.

You can put down your green Biro now....

Apple changed shape of Galaxy Tab in court filing

Really?

They are both shown at the same height, but not the same proportions. The Tab is clearly narrower than the iPad, as one would expect with the silly 16:9 (or is it 16:10 -- whatever) aspect ration of the Tab.

Have a look at the rest of the photos in the submission, and I don't think you can argue that Apple's lawyers are purposefully misrepresenting the Tab's shape and size.

Ah, well, I'll file this under 'more Apple click-bait'. I guess it worked...

Google SHOCK! Snaps up Motorola phone biz for $12.5bn

How?

How would this in any way stop Apple blocking the Tab's sale? That order was on the basis that the Tab looks an awful lot like an iPad, and nothing to do with any patents/copywrite that Android may or may not infringe.

Samsung's lovely illegal tablet: Why no one wants to know

Re. stupid

Yeah, stupid people who can't punctuate...

Arse.

Mr Bean prangs £650k McLaren

Re. Not £650k....

Aye, the last one publicly for sale (AFAIK) went for £2.53m in 2008.

Why can't my car depreciate like that?

Ouch

That's not going to polish out.

<== Icon for Daily Mail visualisation purposes.

iPhone 5 now set for October launch

@Darklord

I think you missed the part where he already had an iPhone 3GS. So, if the OP does move to Android, then he will have to buy all his apps again (or get snide versions and hope there's no malware included).

Dell Streak 7 Android tablet

Dell

I 'acquired' a Dell desktop at one point. Even at free it was too expensive. Spent all my time fecking about with drivers and bits and pieces not working. Dell seem to lash together their PCs from whatever components are cheapest at the time, then throw a few random drivers up onto their website and hope for the best.

I wouldn't touch Dell with a pointy-poo stick these days.

80% WTF

80%? How. This tablet sounds shit. In every single way it's far far worse than the HTC. Even if it costs more, the HTC has to be significantly better value than this piece of crap.

That's if you really want a 7" tablet, of course. Personally I feel it's too big for a phone, too small for a tablet. YMMV, however.

Note to Apple: Be more like Microsoft

@AC 20:26

How is this not a Windows problem?

If you bought a bunch of Macs for your business would you have to reinstall a different type of OS X? No, because it only comes in one version that everyone can use: consumers, students, small businesses, enterprises, developing countries, and geeks (and how ever many other artificial segments MS has invented).

So, totally an MS problem.

Apple annihilates Wall Street performance estimates

Divvie

Dividends are the last refuge of a company with low growth. What else have they got to tempt investors.

While Apple is going gang-busters with profit and growth, why pay a divvie? It suggests they have no other ideas for their massive pile of cash (I hope they do have some good ideas, other than getting huge bargains on their supply chain).

Can you tell me how many other companies with >100% profit growth are paying out a divvie?

Online map suppressing crime reporting, says survey

Assumptions

You're rather assuming that the police will do something about the crime once it's reported. My experience is that they don't.