Posts by David Lawton

MOUNTAIN of unsold retail PCs piling up in Blighty: Situation 'serious'

and yet Mac sales seem to just be going up and up breaking the industry delcining trend....

Chrome on Mac sucks (electrons), says Google, so we'll fix it

Considering Macs are googles employee machine of choice and have over 40,000 of them deployed you would think Chrome would very fine tuned on OS X.

MONSTROUS iPhone sales are CANNIBALIZING iPads, gabbles Apple CEO

Re: Showoffs

No i got an iPhone because the Samsung Galaxy S2 left me with nothing nice to say about Android or Samsung and gave me nothing but pure hatred for the device, which i never had when i owned Nokia phones. Now I'm on my second iPhone and i have nothing but good things to say about them.

In my circle of friends, family and work colleagues, getting highly annoyed with a Samsung Android phone seems to be a common occurrence they all got iPhones because of their bad experiences, not to show off.

Microsoft: Profit DECIMATED because you people aren't buying PCs

Re: Yeah...

Microsoft copying Apple? So whats new? Thats all they have done for the last 25 years. Even Apple poke a little fun at it http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/RedmondStartYourPhotocopiers.jpg

You only have to look at Windows 10 to see how many things they are adding that either Mac OS or Linux has had for ages. Notifications Bar, Multiple Desktops (although only a measly 4).

Steely wonder? It's blind to 4G and needs armour: Samsung Galaxy S6

Re: F-Off Samsung!

At least with Apple you can walk into a store and get a battery changed in under an hour, and there are plenty of Apple stores, i did this with my iPhone 5 after 2 years and cost me £39. I know its still not as convenient as having interchangeable batteries, but at least its not the most awkward thing to get done.

Im guessing with the Samsung or even HTC you will have to send the phone off for a battery replacement meaning being without your phone for days. They battery on my Galaxy S2 had to be replaced after 12 month as it went really really bad (as did others i know with this phone). I don't think Samsung have thought about this well as my experience of Samsung phones has left me very unimpressed battery wise.

Apple's 13-incher will STILL cost you a bomb: MacBook Air 2015

The Macbook Air is still my favourite laptop ever.

Samsung forgets fingerprints, focuses its eye on YOURS

For the phone i think the fingerprint is better, i don't even know I'm doing it with my iPhone its that natural now, i just press the home button with my thumb and just leave it on for 1 second and the phone unlocks, i doubt iris scanning will be quicker or more convenient than that, because if it isn't people will get annoyed with it and turn it off and be less secure.

Microsoft: You want on-prem wares, UK.gov? We'll make you pay

I think the government seriously needs to start looking at non Microsoft software. £1200 a year to run a laptop is just silly. Im guessing a lot of software might be written for Windows , well take a more long term view instead of a short term one and pay the money now to get it re written for cross platforms. It won't be long until we hit the same issue that governments had with XP (and still have I'm looking at your NHS) with Windows 7. Its just a gravy train to MS. These prices are making having Apple Macs look like bargains, at least there OS upgrades are now free.

Don't think anything will change, i see the same problems here being forced to pay out for Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Server licences every 2/3 years because Capita use Microsoft instead of MySQL + Linux, and for what? So we can do exactly what we did before , enter data into boxes.

The savings long term must be eye watering if the government dumped MS.

Got an Android Wear gizmo? Yeah, you and '719,999 other people'

With the exception of the novelty factor when new, do you really think you will be using the watch for 3.5 hours of constant use a day? The watch is designed more for glances so you real usage will end up being a few minutes an hour.

LEAKED: Samsung's iPhone 6 killer... the Samsung Galaxy S6

You cannot beat an iPhone if you go spec chasing, the original iPhone even the 3G were awful spec wise compared to the competition , just look at the camera on the Nokia N95 and compare it to the original iPhone. The iPhone's and Apples trump card is the User Experience, even down to when they go wrong, just walk into an Apple store and walk out with a working one.

Samsung left nothing but a sour taste in my mouth when i got an Samsung Galaxy S2, not making that mistake again. iPhone 6S please :)

Want a cheap Office-er-riffic tablet? Microsoft Windows takes on Android

Can it install malware as easily as a desktop running Windows? Because my days of visiting friends and family because their computers are riddled with malware stopped when they got iPads , i don't want it to start again.

'If you see a stylus, they BLEW it' – Steve Jobs. REMEMBER, Apple?

Steve is correct, if i had to have a stylus to use my iPhone or iPad i would be pee'd off. This is talking about a very specific usage, handwriting or sketching/drawing , not checking twitter, browsing photos, or browsing the web.

Microsoft turns the power of fine print onto enterprise licensing

The only reason we still use a lot of Microsoft software is because they give education very cheap licensing, the price businesses have to pay is eye watering, add on top the OS refresh cycles Microsoft push businesses through when all they want is for the applications to run i don't know why more have not moved away. Im guessing they must all be running excel spreadsheets covered in VB code or custom IE6 dependent applications.

Windows 7 MARKED for DEATH by Microsoft as of NOW

This is exactly why Home & Business versions of the OS should be on different cycles. MS had it right 20 years ago with 2 separate lines, NT for the work place, 9x for the home.

Microsoft should have a VERY long term release of Windows that you can only get if your a Volume Licence customer so your effectively paying them every year to maintain the release, and use service packs to keep it modern when new technologies come out. i.e. a Windows XP Service Pack 4 release with built in SATA support.

Its going to be XP all over again, and so soon too this is getting silly when the end result is we will just be running the same Applications as we were.

Windows XP beats 8.1 in December market share stats

Re: Support is impossible

When ever i get asked at by work or family my reply has been for the last 3 years 'get a Mac' or if they only browse the web 'get an iPad' , because i am getting so pee'd off removing malware off Windows or fixing Windows after its done something weird, it needs contestant baby sitting if non tech people are using it. I was having no weekends to my self. At least for the time being OS X is mainly malware/nasty free and does not screw up all the time or at least asks for your password to put malware on the computer. They have listened to the 1 thing i told them, which was 'if it asks for your password and you are not wanting to install a program or change a setting don't enter it'. So far its working, after the initial how do i do.... questions when they first move to Mac i don't have to visit to fix things anymore, I'm happy, they are happy, happy days.

Google unveils Windows 8.1 zero-day vuln – complete with exploit code

Re: 90 days?

"They've set themselves up as protectors of the realm and now go around handing down edicts as though they own the f*****g internet?"

To be fair, if any of my users i support (which is several thousand) cannot get to www.google.com they think the internet is broken. So yeah, in the minds of most non tech people, they do own the internet, Google is the internet, and they Google it.

Microsoft says to expect AWESOME things of Windows 10 in January

Too late Microsoft, your Windows 8 was the final straw with your crud, so i decided to get my first ever Mac 3 years ago and i don't want to go back to your hell hole called Windows.

Chrome devs hatch plan to mark all HTTP traffic insecure

Please no, if you work in Education or a business where you are required to filter the internet connection this will just break even more things. Google changed to SSL for their search last year (i think it was last year), what a pain, we now have to do man in the middle, and push a certificate to all our clients for our UTM Device just so we can enforce safe search to stop the kids searching google images for things they should not or even the innocent phases that come up with weird results. Not everything likes us being in the middle so we can filter SSL traffic and just breaks.

We are never getting back to... Samsung's baking Apple's 14nm 'A9' chips?

Just remember these are chips designed by Apple, not Samsung , they are only producing them off apples design.

18 million iPHONE USERS HAVE NEVER BONKED to ApplePay

So i remember when Apple Pay launched it had done more transactions in the first week than Google Wallet had ever done. Apple Pay is a success, this article is junk. Also can you Apple Pay in the UK yet ? Nope. Im itching to use Apple Pay on my iPhone 6, but i have just got to wait until it comes to the UK.

Microsoft: So sorry for NOT paying Xbox indie game devs on time

If this is the way Microsoft treats developers? If so no wonder Apps don't make it to the Windows Phone, unless they are better at paying over at that devision.

LA schools math quiz: $500 Chromebooks or $700 iPads for students?

I've just deployed 150 iPads to one school, and all the staff have had them for the last year. The staff use them lots, and we know exactly what they want the iPads for.

This news is good though, keeps Apple on their toes, I'm all for competition, it should make the iPad an even better device, i love mine.

One year on, Windows 8.1 hits milestone, nudges past XP

Re: The answer is still no.

"Given that every even version of windows has been terrible you have to wonder Microsoft are skipping 9 and jumping straight to 10....."

Really? Where does this stuff come from?

Windows NT 4.0 was good, Windows 2000 was good, Windows XP was good, Windows Vista was a heap of sh*t when first released, was very usable by SP2 (which was the base of Windows 7). Windows 7 was good, Windows 8.0 & 8.1 are cr*p.

Hope you were not going to use Windows 95,98, 98SE or ME in your alternate windows argument, as they are a completely different product line and don't have the NT kernel.

Bought an iPhone 6 Plus? Odds are you've binned the iPad

I use my iPad more than ever before and i have an iPhone 6.

Its really depends what I'm up to.

Apple’s $700 BEEELLION market cap makes it more valuable than Switzerland

Re: So depressing

Really? Obsolescent? the iPad 2 has had iOS 4,5,6,7, & 8. If apple was purposely making things obsolete they would not have let it past iOS 6, maybe even 5. The iPhone 4 from 2010 has only just stopped getting iOS updates, almost 5 years on.

Sometimes they move on very quickly leaving things behind normally just 1st gen products, i.e. first intel mac or first iPad or 1st iPhone, but generally they have a long life unless you must have a new feature.

Apple bitchslaps iPhone rival Xiaomi: World No 1? That's BIG TALK

Apple seems to be owning the market at the moment

http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/mobile_tracker/

Number 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 in the top 10 according to uSwitches mobile tracker, and iPhone 6 still not meeting demand even after pumping out half a million iPhones a day out the factory for the last 2 months.

Infact if you look at the historical data on uSwitch the iPhone 5S was number 1 even when it was almost a year old.

I think more people are starting to 'get it', and i don't mean get one (but that too), i mean understand why iPhones are better. I laughed at the iPhone in its early days and got a Nokia N95, then an N900, i then laughed still at the iPhone specs and got a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android think i was right because my phone had better specs. Then i got an iPhone 5, and afterwords i wish i had got the iPhone years before, the user experience is so much better, its not about the specs and the second you go down the comparing specs route you have lost already.

Most recent example is Apple Pay. Yep other phones have had NFC for years, was it used much? Nope. Apple does it, executes its delivery correctly, integrates it with touch ID and guess what, in its first week Apple Pay does more transactions than Googles Wallet has EVER done. Don't compare the specs, its all in the experience.

Yes, yes, Steve Jobs. Look what I'VE done for you lately – Tim Cook

Re: Wait!

iWatch? Whats that, or do you mean the Apple Watch?

Post-PC era? PAH! Apple says Macs OUTSOLD iPads in Q4

Interesting they sold 5.5 million Macs, up by 1 million from the same quarter the previous year, and also the most Macs EVER sold in a quarter making a new record.

First Irish boy band U2. Now Apple pushes ANOTHER thing into iPhones, iPods, iPads

Whats really great is now my whole family has iPads i don't spend my spare time fixing them like i did with their Windows based PC's which are now generally gathering dust. They can actually upgrade the OS all by them selves without needing me! I have my spare time back its bliss....

Apple's Mr Havisham: Tim Cook says dead Steve Jobs' office has remained untouched

Re: "I literally think about him every day."

You do know Tim was running apple for years while steve was alive?

iPhone 6: Advanced features? Pah! Nexus 4 had most of them in 2012

Yet i've had Airplay on my Apple iPhone/iPad/Macbook and Apple TV for years now and Chromecast has only just come out.

Its mainly not about specs with Apple, its all about user experience, and thats what some people just don't get. I did not get it years ago, i was not an Apple fan now all my tech almost is Apple, because the user experience i had on 1 device i wanted on the rest.

Apple Watch will CONQUER smartwatch world – analysts

Really? I was shocked how cheap it was!

DEATH TO TCP/IP cry Cisco, Intel, US gov and boffins galore

I could be wrong, but if this happens i can see IPv6 never taking off and people will just cling onto IPv4 and jump to this instead when ready.

Vodafone pay-by-bonk launch may signal iPhone 6 NFC plans

Re: TL;DR

You mean like they say the invented the tablet, except they don't Microsoft had it years before but they did not crack it and still they cannot crack Tablets just look at the flop the Surface is, Apple did crack it, they got the tablet right and everyone wants one. If they release a type of NFC Payment system it will be the same sort of thing, they will have done it in a way that works well and the public will except.

My previous Samung Galaxy sh*t had NFC and a few other useless things, Apple only implement things when they believe they are ready, fully thought out and actually do something worth while, so when i got the iPhone 5 i did not care it had less features i.e. no NFC because everything it did have worked , worked very well and had a use.

Is it an iPad? Is it a MacBook Air? No, it's a Surface Pro 3

I don't think Microsoft quite get it. They need to maybe watch apples WWDC where they introduce the iPad. They explain where the iPad fits , and it's when you want to kick back on the sofa.

It was originally designed as a consumer product, but it's nice that enterprise has found a place for it too. As a full blown laptop ain't needed for every case, and since a lot of hardware in business is bought to just do one task day in day out the tablet can move to the business world quite well. Like where PDAs were used for stock control , now I see iPads. It's made quite a splash considering they have only been out 4 years,

So where exactly does the surface fit in? It's a niche market. Microsoft tried tablets well before the iPad and failed , they just don't get it.

Time to move away from Windows 7 ... whoa, whoa, who said anything about Windows 8?

I must be off my tree then as i have just moved from Windows 7 to Mac OS X. I'm happier and staff are happier. So many little things are done so much better in Mac OS like Time Machine backups to OS X Server, much better than Windows backup. Not saying its perfect but its better than the mess Windows is in right now. Odd Windows only legacy apps we have we use 2X so to the end user it looks like its running on the Mac.

That AMAZING Windows comeback: Wow – 0.5% growth in 2015

We have just moved from running Windows on the client for the last 2 decades to Mac OS this year. Its just over a 100 user base. Our end users and happier then ever, the Macbook Air battery lasts ages and is ultra light, and very fast. They are a dream to manage with Profile Manager and Munki compared System Centre Configuration Manager. We now have less support requests then ever before. We also gave them an iPad at the same time again managed with Profile Manager.

Whats odd is the very thought of having Macs just 5 years ago and i would have sworn, i detested them. But now i would not want anything else. They make the best laptops i have ever used. We still run Microsoft on the backend infrastructure for our Domain Controllers, DNS , Exchange email and SQL Servers.

Noticed a lot of businesses starting to use iPads, like Barclays, and McDonalds. Apple might start to get very serious in the business market soon, maybe not with OS X, but iOS defiantly which will further decay the need for a fixed desktop PC in some situations.

Apple's strong iPhone sales crush Wall Street moneymen's tepid expectations

I think the iPad sales are down because we don't change them as often as we do our phones. I'm typing this on my iPad 2 from 2011 and I still have no plan to change it, it's still quick , holds lots of charge and does what I need.

Spend zero notes to take all notes with OneNote: Microsoft makes app free, builds it for OS X

Again Microsoft is late to the party.

I use Evernote now because they have a Mac version, Microsoft did not. Too late for me.

Windows hits the skids, Mac OS X on the rise

I'm not surprised , 5 years ago I knew nobody with a mac (my self included). I was a strong Windows user. After Vista, and even 7 I just don't enjoy windows anymore. It's bloated, and I'm getting fed up of the dumbing down of the interface they keep doing with every version. Windows 2000 interface was great, but just look at the default control panel afterwards like in XP you had to select classic to get it right, in fact I had to go everywhere selecting classic, or turning off simple file sharing which actually made things harder. Metro was the final straw.

Now I know only 1 person in my close friends who has a machine running Windows, we have all converted to mac and we're much happer, we love OS X it's just better and we're not installing endless updates everyday, or fighting a new malware every week.

Vista to XP 'downgrade' lawsuit revised

Missing the point....

Most of you seem to be missing the point , there is no legal downgrade path (Using downgrade rights) from Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium (which most home users will have) to Windows XP Home Edition.

Why have Microsoft made it so akward? Why can a home user not convert a Vista Home licence to XP Home licence like a business user can phone up Microsoft Activation and convert an Vista Business code into a XP Pro code?

Microsoft have now forced this person to shell out more money to buy Windows Vista Business, to then be able to legally put Windows XP Pro on. If Microsoft did not do a stupid number of editions with Vista and kept it like Windows 2000 was, just one client OS there would be no issue, as everyone would be entiltled to downgrade rights, not just the Vista Business users. The "downgrades rights have always been available" does not wash with me, its not as simple as it was with Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows 98.