* Posts by Andy Nugent

138 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jul 2008

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Firm pitches tech trio powered by portable processor

Andy Nugent

re: Have you seen my phone?

I think you might be missing the point. Your girlfriend will watch TV using her core gadget.

The screens just become peripherals anyone can use.

You walk into a hotel room, and the TV links to it.

You get on a plane/train/car and the display mounted in front of you links to it.

You sit at someones desk and you get your desktop on their display / keyboard / mouse / whatever.

You give a presentation and the projector links to it.

You're going out climbing/skiing/biking, so you take a bulky ruggerdised display to link to it.

You're going to work so you take you thin, large screen, iPhone-esque handset to link to it.

etc.

You upgrade to the new 4G 8-core version, and all the other screens/peripherals still work.

Lots of practical issues (battery life mostly) others have mentioned. But a very cool idea.

Despite Android lead, iOS devs slurp scads more mazuma

Andy Nugent

re: No surpise

We've had other websites offering downloads of our FREE apps. Some even charging for them (we've had customers email us asking for a refund!)

Seven lessons from the HP Touchpad fire sale

Andy Nugent

Why a "huge risk"?

"In theory, buying an HP Touchpad was – and still is, if you manage to get your hands on one – a huge risk."

I really don't get this. Yes, if you're going to spend £500 on a tablet, I can see why most would buy an iPad. More apps. Better support. Future updates. Etc. (I'd personally buy an EeePc Transformer, but you get the point).

But people didn't spend £500, they spent £89 / £115.

Given that there's not likely to be a new web, image, video or audio format to become popular overnight, I really don't see why getting a pretty solid device that covers most of the use cases for a tablet for a fraction of the price is "risky".

Nokia snubs UK with N9

Andy Nugent

Title

If Nokia / Microsoft are worried that the WP7 devices won't be able to compete with the N9, it doesn't say a lot for their chances against iOS & Android.

And @StrictlySocial, I've only had a brief play with a Mango device, and to be honest I'll reserve judgement until the app updates have come out to make use of the multitasking and the bugs are ironed out (I can't actually get it to add Twitter / LinkedIn accounts, even though the authorization completed, etc).

But the current release is basically a feature phone with a big screen and large price tag. I got one to try out through work that cost £450: using RunKeeper was a joke (brush any of the buttons and it shuts down), Last.fm client that shuts off when you want to do anything else, no Twitter/FB notifications for messages, etc, etc.

Seagate's flash-disk hybrid crosses the chasm

Andy Nugent

Why isn't this more common?

Seems like a really good solution in theory, is it just not beneficial in practice?

Remastered 4K, 3D Titanic steams towards cinemas

Andy Nugent
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re: cosy

"U really think that producing a film in 3D doesnt cost any more that producing one in 2D, SERIOUSLY ????"

Which other films have the ticket price linked to the production cost? Do low budget films for £1 to see in your cinema and the summer blockbuster £10?

Generally if you spend more making a film you hope to make the money back by selling more tickets, not by making the tickets more expensive. Why should 3D films be treated any differently?

Nokia C7 'Astound' in US debut - all ready for touchless payment

Andy Nugent

NFC in US C7-00 or in PR 2.0

Is the NFC functionality added exclusively in the Astound, or is it a feature added in SW update PR 2.0, which the European C7-00 will get eventually and the Astound is launched with?

Five Reasons to be cheerful about Nokia-Microsoft

Andy Nugent

re: Sigh.

"Don't hold out much hope for M$ if they want to make themselves look serious competition when they can't update their coding to at least change a name in a text file."

I'm not aware of any APIs that actually return the name of the OS, just the version number. So I'd say the problem lies in Steam having not been updated to handle version numbers greater than 6.0.

Photo loss blogger to Flickr: You're f*cking kidding

Andy Nugent

@BristolBachelor

Using the Flickr APIs? Not saying he should have to, but you can access all your metadata (tags / groups / sets / etc) through them. Re-adding comments / restoring the original photo URLs I don't think are possible though.

Memo to Microsoft, RIM, Nokia: Quit copying Apple!

Andy Nugent

re: Yes, you're missing something

"If that wasn't enough, they're still managing to shrink on total shipments in a growing market."

No they're not. Sales of smartphones are up quarter on quarter for the last 18 months. They haven't been rising as much as the smartphone market has been expanding, so market share has been dropping.

Intel preps ARM-to-x86 porting tool for iOS apps

Andy Nugent
IT Angle

Making MeeGo apps cross architecture?

Wouldn't this be more about taking MeeGo apps from ARM based smart phones and getting the same binaries to run on the Intel based netbooks (which would have faster processors / more memory / etc)?

And the Apple slant was purely because it was reported on MacWorld?

Angry Birds take wing on Android

Andy Nugent

re: Pricing

So you think the iPhone version, with a mass market 100 million plus possible customers, should cost the same as the N900 version with a fraction of that userbase?

Android terms point to operator billing

Andy Nugent
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"Ovi does promise operator billing at some unspecified point in the future"

Ovi's had operator billing in the UK and a lot of other countries since last year. As a developer, I wish they didn't, as then we'd actually get the 70% revenue from Ovi that you get from Apple.

BBC grabs stock photo of own building

Andy Nugent
WTF?

Is this a story?

Really, someone paid a couple of quid to use stock photo rather than wasting half an houe to go downstairs and take a picture.

Nokia tops iPhone and BlackBerry (again)

Andy Nugent

iPhone people's first smartphone

I think a significant reason for the increase in smartphone sales is that people who bought iPhones previously never had smartphones.

I'm basing this purely on personal observation, but it would explain why phone geeks (and I include myself in that) critercised Apple for lack of multitasking, etc. and people who bought iPhones didn't really care (because no phone they'd had previously did those things either).

Nokia launches ash cloud tracker

Andy Nugent
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Nokia?

It clearly says the app is by Bolser Agency. You are aware that Nokia don't develop the apps in the Ovi Store?

Apple opens SMS door for third parties

Andy Nugent
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Operator billing charges

Don't most networks charge more than 30% as their cut of premium rate SMSs? Some of them over 50% (I think Virgin is the highest in the UK). So developers aren't going to see any more money that they do through the app store.

"While the network operators couldn't (and sometimes still can't) see beyond voice revenue, faster-moving entrepreneurs realised they could quickly rent a premium-rate number and start selling bleeps and blips for real money, and even now the UK industry is dominated by third parties while the network operators spend their time searching for "the next ring tone"."

Except the network is taking a huge cut of all the revenues of those 3rd parties, without really having to do much.

First Freeview HD TV goes on sale

Andy Nugent

re: How much?

So you don't have time to watch TV, but you have time to read reviews for TVs and comment on them?

iPad forces operators to shave their SIMs

Andy Nugent

re: Makes sense

"No phone features, so what's the use in a name/number pair? name/e-mail with optional number on the other hand DOES make sense on the iPad."

----

"In fact, both of these capabilities are part of the USIM application, which can be installed on a SIM of any size or shape as part of the 3G standard."

----

Did you even read the article before commenting?

Nokia: go straight to Symbian 3, skip Symbian 2

Andy Nugent

@Paul, how about...

In defence of Paul, the error message that comes up when the C: drive becomes full is something like "out of memory". Which invariably leads to users (we're an app development firm) reporting memory leak bugs, when in fact you just need to get them to store the data on the memory card.

2010 will be the year of the net tablet, claims analyst

Andy Nugent

Price contradiction

"But unlike netbooks and notebooks, which both offer bigger displays than smartphones have, NetTabs are lighter and cheaper."

"NetTabs will cost more than most smartphones, Deloitte added."

Given that smartphones are generally more expensive that netbooks, how does that work?

Or are they working on the basis that smartphones are free (if you sign up for an expensive 2 year contract)?

Nokia Booklet 3G

Andy Nugent

Nice looking, over priced & under spec'd

What would the mark be it it had an Apple logo on it?

Casio goes superfast with compact megazoom

Andy Nugent

Re: 10Mp

Don't buy one then.

Nokia N-series smartphones to lose Symbian by 2012

Andy Nugent

Maemo in Ovi Store

"In related news, the Maemo marketing bods also apparently let slip that Nokia’s Ovi store – an download portal akin to Apple’s App Store – will eventually house both Symbian and Maemo applications"

Maemo 5 has been a publishing option in the Ovi Store for weeks (if not months).

Apple preempts Win 7 with fresh iMacs, Macbooks

Andy Nugent

re: UK pricing...

"Thanks to a Mr. G. Brown whose incompetence has led to a poor £ / $ exchange"

The £ is now at the same level it was 10 years ago against the $.

Or are you referring to the years when we were getting $2 = £1? I'm guessing that had nothing to do Mr. G. Brown.

Nokia netbook to land on 22 October

Andy Nugent

re: Contract laptops..

Yes, because most people upgrade their laptop more often than every 2 years.

Texting peer released from prison

Andy Nugent

@Bunglebear

He wasn't found guilty of "death by dangerous driving", he was found guilty of "dangerour driving", which was why the sentance was lower.

Rightly or wrongly, it was deemed that the texting had nothing to do with the death.

Nokia sweetens juice-monitor app

Andy Nugent

re: Andrew Bush

The company I work for have got an app in closed beta testing at the moment that shuts down applications and switches off features (GPS / Bluetooth / etc) as the battery level drops.

Email beta@battery-extender.com if you're interested in giving it a try.

Skype to give away wideband audio codec

Andy Nugent

re: David Haworth

I presumed they're talking about sample rate (in the same way CDs are 44.1/48kHz, and HD audio upped it to 96kHz)

World's 'smallest, lightest' laptop launches

Andy Nugent

re: Sony UX

Isn't the Sony UX significantly more expensive than this? Shock horror, something that costs 2, 3, 4 times as much is more powerful.

Pro-Heathrow demo challenges Carbon Cult killjoys

Andy Nugent

@Pete James

Agree, but I think you need to look past Heathrow. Manchester used to have a fairly good selection of direct flights with BA, including a I think daily direct flight to New York, cancelled in Oct 2008, which when I tried to book in Aug 2008 was sold out upto when it was cancelled.

Now you can fly to Heathrow and Gatwick to get a connecting flight. And I think all of the other regional airports are now the same. They really should just rebrand to London Airways and be done with it.

How much of the traffic going through Heathow is actually just from the rest of the country being forced into that route?

Sony Walkman S-series MP3 player

Andy Nugent

re: David Gosnell

Can't you specify Gapless playback in the properties page in iTunes?

iPhone passcode blocks everything - except phone calls

Andy Nugent

SIM lock

@David Simpson

Most phones I've used have 2 lock codes, one that blocks access to the SIM that requires it to be entered on any phone that SIM is used in, and one that blocks access to the phone.

Normally the SIM lock is entered once at startup and the phone lock is entered at startup and whenever the phones been out of use for a specified period.

I'm hoping the iPhone lock is just the equivelent of a phone lock on other handsets with a big hole in it. If not, then this would mean the iPhone is ignoring the SIM security and could potentially be used to make calls on any locked SIM.

@Bruno Girin:

I had my phone stolen and it took about 36 hours from when I reported it for the block to come in. I know this 'cos I got the itemised bill and an explanation from Orange that they would refund the calls but that was as fast as it worked. The IMEI number can also be changed (illegally), so I wouldn't be so certain the thieves would be left with a brick.

Windows 7 early promise: Passes the Vista test

Andy Nugent

RE: I like Vista

Neil, I sort of agree with you, in that Windows Vista on my my HTPC works fine. It plays videos, it records TV, etc.

On the other hand, I tried using it as a development machine, and after you've had to wait several hours to delete an old checkout from source control, you're soon reaching for the XP installation CDs.

WD Caviar Black 1TB vs Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

Andy Nugent

RE: Damn Lies and Statsitics?

Would that not suggest that there is a difference in the read / write speeds of the 2 drives, in that either the Caviar has a faster write speed or the Seagate has a faster read speed?

Beeb readies iPlayer app for Nokia N96

Andy Nugent

re: Why

The N96 is S60 3.0 feature pack 2 and has added support for WMV9, so I'm guessing one of these means that it won't work on earlier models (probably the WMV9 support).

Samsung fires up 128GB SSD massive attack

Andy Nugent

Re: Math problem

It's 64 x 16Mb (as in megabits) which results in 128MB (as in megabytes)

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