Posts by cmantito

RIM to turn in BlackBerry-using looters after London riots

Err...

I would say, their Terms of Service? Privacy Policy? The contact you're in with them?

Zuckerberg: the iPad 'is not mobile'

Netbook

After finally having caved and procuring a netbook, I've come to the conclusion that the iPad is just a netbook with less features - like a keyboard or USB host. The iPad would be as much a "mobile device" as my Eee, which I consider as much a "mobile device" as my laptop, which is far less "mobile" than my mobile phone. Not going to bother drawing a further conclusion on this.

Robot teddy bears attack Alzheimer's

BOFH?

This reminds me of two of the recent BOFH episodes. Think what THEY could do with these >:)

NHS Direct gets to be number one, one, one

RE: Pointless

NHS Direct is hardly pointless - I was in a scenario once with a seizing friend who couldn't respond where it wasn't a direct threat to her life, but was still very scary and we had no idea what to do! Being in Hampshire, I was able to ring 101 (the non-emergency police number), and they connected me to NHS direct, who was able to help sort everything out. Until I rang 101 I didn't even know NHS direct existed! If all areas had 101 service, then I'd say just group NHS direct with that, but if they don't, then this could be useful.

As for 111 being misdialed, just stick a recording on the beginning before the call is connected - "You are being connected to NHS direct, if this is not what you wanted, hang up."

Sony Ericsson eyes up Android

SE + Android = Win

If SE go with Android, I'm willing to overlook it's mishaps with UIQ. The X1 looked nice, but I will never own a WinMo phone again...

Maybe SE can pull this one off? Please?

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 to land next month

WM...

It's a shame it's running WM on it. I've owned mostly Sony Ericsson's to this point as far as phones go, even their UIQ phones. The UIQ phones didn't impress me much, but honestly, no smartphone does at all right now. This looked like it could've impressed me, but it's running WM and I can't have that, WM pisses me off too much.

Germany, Spain and Belgium get free mobile calls

Symbian/PalmOS

It's pretty simple in Symbian and PalmOS to latch on to the messaging API and manipulate the inbox to just drop and not notify of certain messages with a little bit of hacking. Even J2ME/MIDP on a dumbphone can do it with some effort and a little trickery, although not as easily.

Seems like a good way to get a spare SIM with a handful of minutes and SMSes to me. I wouldn't use it as any kind of a "primary" phone or anything, but as a spare it wouldn't hurt.. ^^

What I wanna know is where they come with these numbers like 247 minutes. XD Just round up, it can't cost that much ;)

Mine's the one with the smartphone in the pocket dropping texts ;)

Bus-spotting paedo terror bust: Shock CCTV image

Best one yet.

That's the best one of these pics so far ^_^

The only thing missing is it needs the BOFH in it somewhere doing something. That should be next on the piclist. :)

Sprint promises WiMAX in September

Another radio?

We just keep stacking up the radios that we're having to chuck in our phones don't we?

Cause EV-DO wasn't fast enough for the CDMA junkies they need WiMax too?

As it is, VZ sells phones that'll do GPS/Bluetooth/GSM/CDMA/EV-DO. And from what I understand, one that does all that plus UMTS/HSDPA and Wifi is in the works. (the point of these phones is that it'll use VZW's "advanced" CDMA network while home and when abroad you'll be able to roam on GSM networks) -- so now we're gonna need to chuck a WiMax radio in for nice fast "4G" data as well?

C'mon.

New mobe operator slash Wi-Fi hotspotter launches in UK

Bit surprising really.

I'm a bit surprised no one's tried this in Americaland yet. It seems like the kind of thing that I'd expect to be popping up in shopping malls all over the place, right along with those "prepaid cellular phone vending machines" we've got now where you whack a credit card in and it drops you some Nokia with some prepaid time loaded on it. Now let's just take that and make it only work within a couple dozen feet of one of the vending machines ;)

Actually I think a lot of judgement is being passed without reading the site. It looks to me like they're not selling equipment but rather expect you to select it on your existing O2/Orange/Voda/Tmo phone and place calls through it at reduced rates, kind of like a calling card for a landline. Although I still say it's a bad idea.

Big TV flips ad blockers the bird

Is it really that bad?

*LEGAL* *FREE* shows on the internet, as long as you're willing to view the occasional ads.

How do you expect anyone to pay for server costs, bandwidth/transit, content, staff, support, and other recurring costs while running a free service?! God forbid these people cover their costs and maybe make a little money running the services they do by showing a couple of assorted ads. If you block these ads, you're denying them the funds that let them provide this service to you --- so why should they continue to provide it?

If you go into a restaurant and order food and refuse to pay -- are you going to be pissed when they refuse you food?

Photobucket tipped over by Turkish hacker

@Ron

Exactly what I was thinking. Some sites go so far as to simply hash the username and password (I like to think a big site like Photobucket's smarter than this) into a cookie and just compare the hash every so often..

The fun part of that is that there's not really a way to tell for sure if cookiedata was taken until you get a copy of the source for the replacement page or what have you..

Ofcom swoops on caller ID-faking firm with... request for information

In the US..

If the US is any indication, it's not as much of a big deal as people are making it out to be. It's not commonly used for more than joke calls by teens. It'll be used occasionally for identity theft and fraud, but I'd guess that the majority of their business is prank calls by highschoolers...

But then, a lot of people who have CLID services in the US don't use them (landline-wise anyway). I know quite a few people who don't even know they're subscribed to it or have a compatible phone.

The biggest malicious use I've seen for it yet is calling someone from their own phone number to get into their voicemail without being prompted for a PIN. You'd think the telco's might've considered that one...

Making the mobile web ubiquitous

@pctechxp

Nah, I have to disagree, I like using mobile web. It's something to do when there's nothing else around and things like Google's mobile site are great. Plus? It's a cheaper way of getting on the 'net for some people than a computer.

Verizon and Alltel join hands

Oh boy!

Now Verizon has *another* excuse to expand it's lame CDMA network and put off that rollout of GSM they've been promising...

Can Wi-Fi really compete with Bluetooth?

BT v Wifi

Wifi is great. For networking. And if that's what they wanna use it for, then great.

But I don't really want wireless headphones working over my wireless network. The traffic that would result? What a pain.

Bluetooth has the nice advantage of very simply being able to find each other. Wifi has the limitations of "traditional" networks. Each one is great for doing different things. Don't cross the two into each other's territory unless you have a damn good way of doing so. ;)

Chinese telco jumps starting gun in 3G race

Here it goes again..

Just what we needed, another mobile standard that really doesn't do anything new in the world... -.-