Posts by Eddie Cooper

20 years of GSM digital mobile phones

Re-writing History

"Since the iPhone's introduction in 2007, we've literally seen hundreds of smarties hit the shelves..."

Rubbish - for years before iPhone's introduction in 2007, I have been using smartphones; the original SPV (Classic) (2002), SPV E200 (2003), SPV C500 (2004), Samsung i300 (2005), XDA Mini S (2005 - 1st of my touchscreens), XDA Orbit II (2007), HTC HD2 (2009) & now my S3... only the last 2 of these post-date 2007 iPhone. All of these have music playing functionality as well as the ability to load different applications.

Let's get this straight - Apple DID NOT invent the smartphone or even the touchscreen smartphone. They did not invent the portable digital music player. They did not invent the tablet computer.

They DID do much to popularise these device families, but they are not the ancestors!!

So stop trying to rewrite history like some glove puppet of Apple & write a factual article that acknowledges Apple's influence & even dominance; but credit where it is due to non-Apple smartphones.

eBayer sued for leaving negative feedback

Threats of legal action on ebay

I was asked to leave feedback before receiving a refund to try to ensure I left positive comments after the seller couldn't supply in anything like the time-frame promised. I insisted on the refund before I left feedback & reported the seller to ebay who did little to help. I finally got my refund after the seller took his own legal advice, but after he'd also phoned my home & had a intimidating conversation with my wife.

When he phoned again & I answered he apologised, asked me not to leave bad feedback & when I asked him why on earth I should comply after the experience we were having with him, he said he ran a martial arts equipment business too (more intimidation) & his solicitors would be onto me if I said anything bad... so I simply posted:

"BAD exp; Out of stock; Got refund; Threat of legals if I left bad fb; Terrible."

All facts that are beyond dispute with evidence to back it up. Avoid personal opinions & stick with indisputable facts & surely the law can't touch you for libel, but other potential buyers will get the message to avoid!

Home Office to secure mobile phones

MyPhone on Windows Mobile

Microsoft's MyPhone service for online data/text backup can record your phone's location each time it syncs.

The web portal can display the location recorded at last backup & in the event of loss/theft you can:

- use the web portal to make your phone ring, even if the ringer is off;

- lock your phone & display a message for the finder;

- wipe your phone clean to prevent your data being used.

If they added in live GPS tracking that would be even better!

....or even allow you to make the battery explode killing the nasty phone thief!! :)

Govt promises unemployed free laptops, net access, websites

Government? Tax payer...

The Government giving unemployed people computers & internet access? More like "The TAXPAYER paying for equipment & services to enable the unemployed to fill their days with hours of Farmville on Facebook / porn / gaming etc..."

If this is really going to be then they need to ensure the computers & connections are monitored to ensure that only job searching happens.

I don't pay my taxes so that some chav-bastard can jerk off to high def porn all day at my expense. Why the hell would they bother to find a job??

Sky dishes up iPlayer-style service for Xbox 360

Media Centre?

Don't suppose MS used their clout to get Sky to reciprocate by letting us access digital subscriber satellite directly on a Sat card on our media centres? Mmm, that'd be too sensible.

ZuneHD en-route to Blighty?

Confidence

How can the buying public have any confidence in new Zune models when it is being reported as a discontinued product line?

3D TV by Christmas, hints Sky

New telly? Not on your nelly!

When I was a lad (1980's) they showed a few films on the box that had been created for 3d & TVTimes/Radio Times (the only TV guide magazines back then) for that week included cardboard specs for viewing the 3d effect.

There was no need to change from your 24" colour CRT fat telly fed purely through analogue aerial signal with a super lo-def signal. So why the need for new telly & HD set-top box AND cardboard glasses?

Has 3d technology really "developed" over nearly 30 years if the stupidly uncomfortable shades are still required?

Sounds like the telly salesman's wet dream... another format to sell. I'll be keeping my money to spend in the real world where real world experiences are in 3d for free.

Mobiles finally admitted to English hospitals

Ward phone revenues

Why would any trust allow the use of mobiles by patients when it would severely dent the revenues gained by the hideously charged phone-card/TV systems that are in many hospitals?

Ofcom considers termination charges

Voicemail

...& would we be charged for messages left on voicemail when we choose not to answer the incoming call?

Kill the phone spammers

Execute anybody responsible for making unsolicited phone calls, whether marketing, sales or another one of those that claims to be "not a sales call", & also no matter where in the world the call originated from (TPS really does let us down on this one)... then come back to me on whether to consider charging me to receive calls. Until then...

Or how about unsolicited callers pay money directly to my phone account for the privilege of calling me at £1 a minute. That should nicely offset termination fees.