Posts by Fihart

Windows hits the skids, Mac OS X on the rise

stating the bleedin obvious

It's been obvious to me for an age that Apple has won the laptop game, never mind tablets.

Glance in any branch of Starbucks (or similar) and check the little illuminated Apple logos. It may be that Apple owners are more likely poseur gits who hang around overpriced caffs, but factoring that in doesn't really explain the scarcity of other brands.

But, given the preponderance of iPhones, once people realise that it's one of the easiest smartphones, it seems kinda logical to scale up to iPad or Macbook.

Perhaps Microsoft's problem is trying a trickle-down from the other direction -- from a 19 inch screen Windows computer to a 4 inch Winphone.

Windows Phone beats BLACKBERRY in mobe OS popularity stakes

Re: Nokia Screens... @Longrod_von_Whatever

Those are the fake ones they put on display !!

Satisfy my scroll: El Reg gets claws on Windows 8.1 spring update

Re: But users of Windows 8 on non-touch devices were in general a little less satisfied".

@Tom 35

In big scary corporations no one dares speak openly in a way that might imply lack of loyalty. In part, this is why corporate pronouncements from concerns like Microsoft are so verbose and actually say little. And why things go wrong and everyone is scared to admit it and nothing changes.

Neil Young touts MP3 player that's no Piece of Crap

What's the point of all that fidelity if you're going to use headphones?

@ Fibbles

What's the point of all that fidelity if you're going to listen to Neil Young ?

Good old croaker Neil and his no-fi recordings.

Best work was with Buffalo Springfield ending in 1969, though I also like the CSNY period ending in 1971.

Cellular desperation in France drives not one, but two SFR offers

This €2 a month business has GOT to stop...

When does it start ?

Fed up with paying T-Mob 12p for texts when they cost the telcos too little to calculate.

Why can’t I walk past Maplin without buying stuff I don’t need?

Re: I have just one word for you all @strum

Too right. Much wasted youth spent pawing ex-RAF gyroscopes, mini spirit levels (still in use on turntable) etc etc. Tottenham Court Road must have been pretty low-rent in the 1960s as it had a number of electronics surplus stores like Proops in addition to independent hifi shops.

Ditto Edgware Road near Church Street Market and Lisle Street (now in Chinatown) in Soho.

Overpriced and no longer over here.

The best thing that can be said about Maplins is that it's not Radio Shack (aka Tandy) which died in the UK about 10 years ago.

However, anyone living in North West London would, in my opinion, be better off heading to Cricklewood Electronics, perhaps the last real hobbyist electronics shop in this part of London. For example, components such as capacitors are sold there loose in wider variety and at better prices than you'd expect to pay for pre-packs.

Satya Nadella shakes up Microsoft, appoints 'Scroogled' man Mark Penn as strategy chief

Re: The shape of things to come?

As usual, decent English is the first casualty with these people.

If they can't express ideas with the sort of clarity that makes sense to most intelligent people, can they be expected to think clearly ?

German freemail firms defend AdBlock-nobbling campaign

Re: "Merely...make money"

Don't mind ads per se (except ones which flash annoyingly).

Do mind the pause while the bloody ad server delivers the ad.

Websites who don't want people to use ad blockers should insist that advertisers have hardware and connections which are up to speed.

Ford to dump Microsoft's 'aggravating' in-car tech for ... BlackBerry?

BSOD

In car -- gives a whole new meaning to Blue Screen of Death.

Muslim clerics issue fatwa banning the devout from Mars One 'suicide' mission

All religious nutjobs, simple answer.

(For example)

Jehova's Witness on doorstep: "Can I introduce you to Jesus"

Me in pyjamas, with hangover: "Sorry, don't share your superstition"

FIGHT! BlackBerry,T-Mobile US CEOs clash in 'inappropriate' ad spat

preaching to the converted

People I know have already switched from Blackberry to iPhone.

Nothing unique to Blackberry appeals to me about my Blackberry phone. Having today for the first time used it to send email to multiple users with multiple attachments I can report that this task was easier with my 4 year old Nokia E71.

I don't quite get BB fanbois.

Samsung flings sueball at Dyson for 'intolerable' IP copycat claim

@ Frank H. Stein

I've seen a Samsung Dyson-Alike -- dumped on the pavement, presumably broken.

What did vacuum cleaners look like before Dyson ?

Answer is they looked nothing like a Dyson. The man could not sell the big brands on his concept so made it himself.

Since then, an awful lot of cleaners look like a Dyson.

The ball mechanism originated with Dyson's wheelbarrow, I believe.

Top Brit docs wade into GP data grab row, demand 'urgent' NHS England talks

Re: No leaflet here

ditto

Steelie Neelie 'shocked' that EU tourists turn mobes off when abroad

Single market.

What part of that do the telcos not understand ?

Well, perhaps the word market as they obviously operate a cartel.

Witness Vodaphone-sponsored UK Gov opposition to previous cuts in roaming costs -- many UK civil servants jumped ship from regulating telcos to working for them.

Apple RESURRECTS the iPhone 4: report

Re: iPhone 4, 3 years later: FUBAR

On/Off button breaking happened to a friend too.

Japanese investment company looks to snap off Sony's PC arm

Who'd want it ?

Though I like the styling and finish of Sony laptops, Sony's PC arm hasn't the best rep for support. And in an imploding PC market who's going to want to put in the effort to reorganise and relaunch ?

I suspect that, in line with other big Japanese brands which once sold laptops globally, Sony will withdraw from the mass market, perhaps going niche as Panasonic has with its tough range.

Satya Nadella is 'a sheep, a follower' says ex-Microsoft exec

Confirms my understanding from earlier articles that the new man is expected to execute the game plan left by Ballmer.

If so, can we really expect any changes to the rot that set in with Ballmer. And if Nadella comes from the server end of the company is he likely to understand what consumers want, that Microsoft has so consistently failed to deliver in the last decade ?

I suspect that if Microsoft's place in the consumer market is to survive the onslaught of iPad, it will need to produce the next big thing. Before Apple. And do it properly, so Apple can't just re-do it better, later.

From observations here -- and among the my non-techy friends -- Microsoft has made enemies of many of its customers. Turning that around by ceasing to be the schoolyard bully would be a good start. But perhaps all we are going to see is a more efficient version of policies like renting MS Office and forcing Windows 8 down our throats.

Fujitsu launches lappie for oldies

There was a time.....

.....when I might have sneered at such a development but, to my continuing astonishment, time has caught up with (even) me.

I wish similarly thoughtful manufacturers to the Japanese would consider the tiny legends, often moulded into black plastic on so many devices. I can no longer read them without my glasses or, in extremis, having to move the device into daylight.

Slightly larger type, lighter coloured plastic -- not too much to ask surely ?

As for phone keyboards, don't get me started !

It's Satya! Microsoft VP Nadella named CEO as Bill Gates steps down

It's Nadella, dammit!

Not Nutella, then.

Bletchley Park spat 'halts work on rare German cipher machine'

Re: " one of the only"

Very unique, literally !!

Robowagons roll! US Army tests all-drone supply unit

US Army in Germany already used these.

Okay they had human drivers but locals swore that they had to give US Army trucks a wide berth on the autobahn because the drivers were, likely as not, stoned.

Perhaps not as scary as my dad's story that, immediately post-war, British or American cars were occasionally barged off the road by nazi-sympathising truckers.

May explain why the British military were so keen to get Volkswagen production back up and running to use Beetles as staff cars.

El Reg BuzzFelch: 10 Electrical Connectors You CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!

Re: Molex Power Connector

How many times have I grazed my knuckles on cheap tin computer cases trying to insert or remove a Molex connector. Presumably designed for the motor industry to be connected once and forgotten.

Re: BS 546 @JDX

Decades ago most Japanese, US and a few British hifi amplifiers had US-style mains outlets on the rear for connecting turntable etc.

Used in the UK with nearly twice the mains voltage these were particularly lethal as you could touch the live pins as the plug was removed/inserted.

Did this once when still damp from a bath and, oddly, survived.

Noticed that on later models these sockets were sealed off and were eventually banished.

Re: Connect me! @Big_Boomer

DIN plugs, spawn of the Devil or Deutschland. Recent acquisition of an aged Quad 405 amp/preamp transported me back to the bad old days of soldering my fingers and trying to plug the bloody things in blind round the back of units and them always being the wrong way up (or the wrong number of pins). And then later falling out.

Only SCART sockets (thanks France) come close.

Have you continentals never heard of phono plugs ? They just work.

Yahoo! Mail! users! change! your! passwords! NOW!

Re: THUD!

Yes, I anticipated this could happen. And decided beforehand that if Yahoo flucked up and locked me out I'd simply abandon the account I've had for 15 years and move to a different provider.

Luckily my password change went smoothly -- apart from their stupid demand for a cellphone number (which I ignored by simply signing out). But Yahoo remain on a short leash as far as I am concerned. Too many more screw ups and slowdowns and I'll look elsewhere.

@ Joe 37

See my other comment -- you don't have to give Yahoo your phone number when they ask for it. Just ignore the message and sign out.

Re: My Yahoo account has no news of this in it.

Nor mine but, like you, done it anyway.

Incidentally, after resetting password was asked to supply a mobile phone number. I refuse to do that on principal because these web firms have no hesitation in flogging details (or they get them stolen).

I ignored the demand for a mobile number and simply signed out of Yahoo. Had no problem signing in with the new password.

Re: Password complexity

The other problem with all these bloody passwords one has to manage is that the average phone keyboard is only marginally usable at best. Pressing extra alt and capital keys between numbers, letters and uppercase is a complete pain and hard to do accurately. Thank you Blackberry Torch with an onscreen keyboard incompatible with adult european male fingers -- or a tiny slide out one with a substantial ridge around it that makes number entry a contortion.

Ditch IE7 and we'll give you a FREE COMPUTER, says incautious US firm

Re: NZ MOH doing the same thing, giving $1500 towards each computer

Similar to my brother's bitter comment that, not long after Bill Gates visited UK Premier Tony Blair, my nephew's school circulated parents that they'd need to upgrade to the latest Microsoft Office or their kids wouldn't be able to submit homework.

Hello Moto: Lenovo grabs Motorola biz for $3bn. But Google's KEEPING the patents

My money's on Lenovo.

Even before it would have occurred to me that they might buy Moto. The Lenovo brand is already trusted via their care of the Thinkpad franchise. No reason they can't turn around Motorola, assuming they make music with the telcos. Of course one might hope they would by-pass those 'stards -- who wreck products with their half-*ssed bloatware before we even get our hands on them.

My only worry is that Lenovo will protect their name's cachet by kicking off with premium prices, rather undermining my reason for welcoming our new Chinese overlords.

CEO Marissa Mayer puts on brave face as Yahoo! shows another loss

Re: X-Spam-Detected: 98.138.233.79

Yup, the final indignity. Yahoo, one of the pioneers of webmail, is sometimes blocked by SpamCop when I send to a regular contact.

Tried to report this to via Yahoo Mail Help and the reporting form kept being rejected. Report that to Yahoo Customer Support Twitter site and no response.

Recently had problems attaching files (both on my phone and desktop computer). And occasionally the service shudders to a near halt.

Until about 12 months ago Yahoo was a reliable service in my experience, one which I have used for over 15 years.

Is that bloody woman still there ?

Sony on the ropes after Moody's downgrade to junk

Credit where it's due.

I can't think of any other consumer electronics brand which has such a strong franchise in so many product areas.

My first transistor radio was a Sony -- back in 1963 it was one of the first available in the UK and it was better than models like Toshiba which followed.

Since then I have owned many of their products and all have been pretty good. Not necessarily the best (certainly not in hifi) but solidly made. When I bought a slightly damaged Sony preamp cheap they shipped a new fascia from Japan for (as I recall) under £10.

My first TV was a Sony portable that lasted nearly 20 years. I still have a Trinitron and the only TV that matched it was a larger Mitsubishi (again a CRT type).

Walkman Pro was an expensive portable recorder used widely by reporters in the 1980s but also doubled as a very good hifi player. I still use the headphones which came with it. I much prefer Sony's MP3 players to iPods -- simple drag and drop, no lunatic iTunes.

Smartmobe market tops ONE BEEELION a year for first time

My money's on Lenovo.

Huawei's products make one wonder why people spend so much more on better known brands, until you hear the drone at Vodaphone pronounce it Hawaii.

Lenovo is one Chinese brand to have a real presence in the West and some products which command premium prices.

Apple will either have to take a hit on price or come up with something a bit more exciting in the next iterations of the iPhone.

Google patents ROBO-TAXIS to ferry punters into advertiser's shops, restaurants, etc for free

Not content with hijacking the internet.

Google is planning to kidnap and transport you to the shopping mall.

Foxconn mulls US expansion as States compete for business

Translation.

We're in deep trouble in China. We don't want to tangle with tough little guys like the Vietnamese.

So, now we've practically bankrupted the West with cheap imports, perhaps those idiots who bought all our crap are broke enough to come to work in our factories.

Murdoch's BSkyB stares down Microsoft: Redmond renames SkyDrive to OneDrive

More corporate-speak twaddle.

"convey the value we can deliver for you and best represents our vision for the future."

A real life Romulan-Klingon alliance: Google, Samsung sign global patent pact

Return to vanilla Android

If freed from threat from Google, Samsung stop filling their phones with parallel apps, that might actually help Samsung sales to those who presently avoid the brand.

What can Microsoft learn from 'discontinued operations' at Nokia?

Re: WP is an albatross @Dan55

"Microkia" ?

Mokia, surely ?

Gmail falls offline, rest of Google struggles on: NO! Not error code 93!

Re: Really @Anon5000

Yahoo is really up a creek.

Not only alienated users with forced march out of Yahoo Classic. New version still doesn't support all browsers. Outages (or massive slowdowns) occasionally. Had problem with attachments. Now find that my mails to one contact (or perhaps more, because the first instance was only reported to me in person days later) are being rejected by SpamCop.

Apple: That 'white screen of death' nightmare? We'll fix it... AT SOME POINT

Typical of Apple.

To have a WHITE screen of death.

Apple-aligned firm opens sapphire glass factory. iPhone 6 rumours, DEPLOY

Re: sapphire glass scratches ? @Lallabalalla

Yes, you're probably right. Hardlex name rings a bell.

Re: sapphire glass scratches ? @LarsG

Don't have the "sapphire glass" Seiko, gave it to my brother in 1981 when I bought a new watch. This has plastic glass, routinely replaced when serviced by Rolex but scratches polished out in between using T Cut.

sapphire glass scratches ?

Have owned a Seiko watch with so-called sapphire glass and the problem was that while the material was hard enough to resist minor scuffs it still scratched in a brittle pattern on impact and was then too hard to polish out .

Rather have watch with plastic glass that can be restored using Brasso or T Cut.

Phone makers using plastic don't help themselves by putting a tinted coating on -- damage to this cannot be polished out so that fine print becomes jaggy and harder to read.

How much do you trust T-Mobile US? Enough to let it be your bank?

Would I trust T Mob to be my bank ?

With mystery £1 deductions from my PAYG balance at T Mob UK last year and recent national pre-pay billings meltdown ?

Windows 8.1 update 'screenshots' leak: Metro apps popped into classic desktop taskbar

Is it just me ?

Every time I see a computer with Windows 8 I want to put my fist through the screen.

Fortunately, don't see that many.

Probe of Hollywood-Euro Pay TV contracts: What happens next?

Sky are a pain.

I haven't forgiven them for yanking Lost and Madmen away from free terrestrial channels mid-series.

My revenge ?

Neighbouring landlord has taken up Sky offer of cheap/free dish and cabling and removed conventional roof aerial wiring. I take great pleasure in handing out found Sky boxes to his tenants so that they can use them as Freesat units and not have to pay bloody Sky anything.

EE BrightBox routers can be hacked 'by simple copy/paste operation'

who makes Brightbox ?

http://www.astorianetworks.com/astoria/IMPRESSUM.html

Neighbour had one of these in a room next to my computer. Brightbox's main claim to fame is strong wireless signal -- and it certainly interfered with our network.

At least now, if a similar issue arises with one, I might be able to hack into it and change password then turn off wireless.

Pay-as-you-GONE: Help! T Mobile's swiped my phone credit – customers

Re: Pre-pay: lowest of the low @ diodesign

80s sitcom or not, I'm right. (Many) women use mobiles differently from men -- I checked with the little woman indoors !