Posts by Can't think of anything witty...

Microsoft and HTC are M8s again: New One mobe sports WinPhone

Re: MS are paying the wrong people ..

You do realise that article refers to the windows 8 store and not the windows phone store, right?

I'd hate to think that you are making wild generalisations...

Journal that published Facebook emoto-furtle study: Proper boffins get CONSENT

Re: Informed consent?

i see your point, but i'm not sure i agree. The way round that problem (which is a fair point) would be to start the experiment but not make the changes to the algorithm until a period of time into the expeirment (e.g. get their consent, enroll them and start making the changes a week later).

the important part is also to de-brief them afterwards - so if you turn the algorithm off agin after a month, make sure that they know what you did, how long you did it for and where they can find out more about the study.

I don't think that it is hard to do well, its just easier to be arrogant about it...

We got behind the wheel of a Tesla S electric car. We didn't hate it

@ mikeyw0

Get out of here with your facts, personal experience and in depth knowledge of the topic under discussion, we've got baseless criticisms to throw around!

:)

Facebook 'manipulated' 700k users' feelings in secret experiment

Re: Boffins? Boffins?!

one of the most annoying things about this for me is that it gives a bad name to social scientists in general. I know that there is not a lot of love for social scientists on these forums, but this really doesn't help anyone.

I cannot bellieve that someone signed this off - informed consent is something that every social science undergraduate has drummed into them from the first day.

What will be interesting to see is if any of the US regualtors step in, there have been suggestions that this breaks federal law in the US: (http://laboratorium.net/archive/2014/06/28/as_flies_to_wanton_boys)

'Cortana-gate' ruins Satya Nadella's Microsoft honeymoon

As a non-Journo, Non-hipster WP owner...

I couldn't care less if Cortana is put out onto IOS/Android. If they believe that it is a great product then put it out there and prove it to those using GoogleNow / Siri.

If it's as good as they say, then it will give a lot of credibility to WP as a whole... if it isn't then they really should stop shouting about it.

By the way, i don't in any way feel short changed for taking WP in the first place. i didn't get one on the promise of something 2 years down the line that i had never heard of when i bought the phone.

i bought it because i liked it (and still do for what it is worth). My bigger concern is WP8.1. Sure it's got some improvements in there, but i wonder if it is converging on the other two systems. I guess that some people see that as filling the gaps (like a notification centre) but it seems a little "me too" for a feature that i never really feel that i have missed...

Microsoft’s 'FIRST NOKIA' arrives at £89

Re: is it just me...

i think that it is mostly you.

there is a bit of convergence (rounded rectangles with a touchscreen and capacitve buttons on the front and not much on the back) but that is about it.

the three buttons on the bottom are different to on android (though it is a little wierd that the non-google one has a search button on the front, but there you go).

and i don't think that it is fair to accuse Nokia of lifting the bright colours from Apple, having had said bright colours on the back of their lumia range since it was launched at the end of 2011 - long before the 5c came out about 2 years later.

having said that, i know how this works. several people have mistakenly assumed that a friend's lumia 630 is an iPhone 5c...

Titanfall, shoot-'em-up gamers, cloudy contracts and cattle

Re: Thoughts

Re: FPS/Lag - you are right. small differences in ping really don't make a difference to how you play, but it is a lot easier to blame that than your own experience or skill.

i used to play a lot of CS. sometimes you would get picked off by someone with what felt like a crazy shot (I don't have a problem loosing, but some hits were just beyond logic). Even when my first instinct in those cases was to think that they were hacking, spectating on that player for a while usually led me to concede that actually they were a really good player. its hard to accept, but important.

by the way, am i the only one who finds that games now are often a lot less social than they used to be? I used to play CS on a series of friendly clan servers that felt more like spending an evening in the pub with friends than playing a game - even though i only ever spoke to them in the context of the game. Compare that to the experience of playing CoD on Xbox live...

Meet Stuxnet's stealthier older sister: Super-bug turned Iran's nuke plants into pressure cookers

Re: Apart from being what most people would call an "Act of war"...

I'm really not sure what i think about this. On the one hand, it is definitely an act of aggression against a nation state and so yeah, it could be construed as an act of war.

but at the same time, if you accept that the US wanted to derail the Iranian programme (yeah, i know this is quite a big if, it is probably not legal and raises a lot of moral questions) and diplomatic approaches are not working, then this is a great way of doing it.

Because the other way (and one that Dubya was not worried about undertaking) is of course to drop a whole load of high explosives on it and try to slow it down that way. Doing it this way at least means that no-one got hurt - even though large quantities of hair may have been torn out...

BT Sport scores own goal with £897m Champions League footie rights deal

The amount that they spent on that seems crazy to me, but then i am not a football fan so maybe that is it.

On the other hand, they did manage to wipe 10% off sky shares today, so perhaps money well spent after all...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24898597

You're more likely to get a job if you study 'social' sciences, say fuzzy-studies profs

Re: Pschology

@ Symon:

Afraid that I disagree with you on this one.

I've got no experience of studying Engineering, but I did Psychololgy and Sociology at University and our course had one of the highest drop out rates on campus. Anecdotally, I put this down to two things - firstly, a lot of people took it on expecting to be able to understand their own issues and when it became apparent that it was not going to help them, they dropped out. I also suspect that people found it a lot harder than they expected and subsequently dropped out.

For the record, Psychology often gets labelled as a "soft science" and i believe that people mean that in a dismissive tone, that somehow it doesn't really "count". Really, that is not the case.

Look into some of the areas that Psychology addresses and there is a lot of depth. One of our modules was on Bio-Psychology, looking at neurons and brain mapping. we covered AI and human - computer interaction. We did a lot of work on research methodology as well, including a lot of statistics and Qualitative research... which is extremely hard to do well.

Strangely, i think there is a bit of crossover between a subject like Engineering and Psychology - mainly that they are both trying to understand the operation of complex systems. There are a couple of differences though... not least that with psychology you are stuck using the thing that you are trying to understand. It's a bit like trying to figure out how a car works whils you are driving it. Well, that and the fact that it's harder to take someone's head apart and look inside to see what is going on.

But one thing that you are right about is volunteering for experiments. Milgram got people to voluntarily administer electric shocks of hundreds of volts* to innocent third parties... and all he had to do was ask. I still find that incredible even now.

*(Yes, i know all about the experiment... but it was real to the person giving the shock. Those were the fun days before those damn ethics committies spoiled all the fun...)

Re: clueless

Sociology is the study of people in groups (i.e., society).

The aim of the profession is to understand how groups of people interact.

If you interact with other people at all, then sociology affects you. Even in a comments forum.

BT Tower is just a relic? Wrong: It relays 18,000hrs of telly daily

Re: £50 / Shard Avoidance.

And that is why i should never post something up when i have a hangover.... reading it again i see that the 4 shillings reference is there and even i know that is 20 (new) p and so nearer £3.50.

Oops.

Great article

it's really interesting to find out a bit about something as iconic as the BT tower. Just one thought though... the £3.28 admission fee would be nearer £50 these days if you add inflation into the mix.

(http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/inflation/calculator/flash/default.aspx)

Suddenly the shard doesn't look quite as expensive...

IT bloke publishes comprehensive maps of CALL CENTRE menu HELL

Re: Good idea

I do wonder how he will keep this up to date, that would be the big challenge.

For what it is worth, i think that the cash made generated by the use of 08** numbers is pretty low compared to other costs in the business.

I think that given the choice between the money from the 08** number and shaving 20 seconds off the handling time of each call, pretty much every company would go for the cost saving. Non-geographic Numbers (NGNs) like that are as much about having a more memorable number that is completely portable and transparent to the consumer.

sure, the money that comes in will offset other business costs, but i think that it is as much about marketing as anything else. also, don't forget that when many call centres opened people would have to remember numbers or write them down (pre-mobile phone era) so those confusing 0483 codes just cause a headache. then of course they added the "1".

Setanta, ESPN couldn't make UK footie TV work. How will BT Sport?

Is this not getting ridiculous?

So let me get this straight. Last year, if you wanted to watch all the football, you paid Sky a wad of money and then watched it.

Now, you will need to pay Sky a wad of money (presumably of the same thickness) and then another wad to BT on top.

This is stupid and unfair. And it has very little to do with Sky or BT.

I blame the premier league. because they only sell exclusive rights they basically support a monopoly. anyone else is going to find it extremely difficult to enter the market because anyone who wants the fiull package will have to deal with 2 (or more) companies as soon as the rights get split. If they we unable to sell exclusive rights (so that at least 3 broadcasters carried it for example) then you would start to see competition on the basis of quality of coverage / price.

though of course, that does mean that the premier league would get less cash from the fans via the broadcasters. would that ne a bad thing for most people? well, super car sales would presumably slump as a result of footballers having to scrape by on barely the national median wage every week, as opposed to whatever it is that they get paid these days, but aside from that i'm not sure that it would be that important.

So much noise on WinMob, but Microsoft's silent on lovely WinPhone

Re: I'm not suprised

sounds like you have a dud phone there. Which one was it you said you had..?

I'm sure you are not just making up a laundry list of every problem that you think you have read about on the internet despite no personal experience, in an attempt to score some unspecified points from somewhere because that would ridiculous.

Re: I'm not suprised

Just wondering, which phone and network are you on?

i've had an Omnia 7 on Orange / EE for about 2 years now and have not had any of the issues you're mentioning. the battery lasts about a day with moderate / heavy usage, but once the battery saver kicks in it stretches the last 20% out to a couple of days (albeit with light usage).

not had random reboots, nor any problems with the screen or sensor. Performance from it has been really good, smooth and reliable, even though it is "only" on a single-core 1GHz chip (which i know seems to put a lot of people off, even though performace is still good).

The app sitiuation is often mentioned, but i've not really noticed anything that i am missing (though i admit, iPlayer would be nice).

as for cost, i'm afraid that i just don't see your point. Last week, o2 were selling the lumia 620 for £120. for the shopping around that i have been doing recently, i don't think that you would be able to get a comparable android phone for that.

British games company says it owns the idea of space marines

Re: Aliens...

Agreed with that. I remember when they launched the Tyranid army (was quite into WH40K at that point) and everyone noticed the resemblence between them and the H. R. Geiger's aliens.

(See this link: http://www.ifelix.co.uk/wh40kgallery/tyranids/index.html )

Being able to inceinerate large swathes of them from a tank-mounted flamethrower in a "This one's for Bishop you Bas****s" way was great fun.

...

well, it was for me at the time.

...

i didn't get out much...

:)

NASA reveals secrets of Curiosity’s selfies

Re: Simple

i think that it is about 2 metres long, so plenty long enough to take some good shots at arms length.

There is a video of the movements here:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=156880341

it looks like quite a few of the shots were originally taken upside down and then composited together. but i think that you can see from the animation how the arm could articulate to keep itself out of the shots.

Apple: Sure, here's the HTC patent pact. WITH numbers blanked out

Doesn't it depend on what it is you are licencing?

charging different prices for your IP may be normal in some cases, but i think that for certain key technologies (i.e. standards that you have rights over, but form the basis of a widely accepted standard, like the GSM spec) you have to licence them on a FRAND basis. Companies accept this as the "cost" of getting their tech accepted as the standard.

FRAND stands for Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory. So if these patents are the ones in question, and Samsung can prove that Apple are discriminating against them (by offering a cheaper rate to HTC) then i would think that Apple would be in serious trouble...

Apple removes apology-hiding JavaScript from UK website

I like the look of that second screenshot - it looks like the right size for the clarification if you ask me...

Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 handset review

fair point on the support front, though i suspect that they will. the way i see it, they felt that they had to make some fundemental changes, so in that respect it's better to do it early and fix it for the future, even though it burns some early adopters.

As for oversized buttons, i must point out that you can re-size them to the smallest size, which would give you 28 tiles in a 4*7 grid on the screen at any one time. add any more buttons you want underneath. I don't know if there is a limit on the number you can add.

Why is 4G so expensive? Answer: The Post-Voice Era is coming

Re: I still don't understand what 4G is for!

i agree - but you have made an assumption on "good 3G signal"

I don't know if it is just down to network congestion, but it's almost impossible to get a 3G connection on Orange / T-Mobile / EE coming out of London Waterloo at about 5. When i try to make a call, i almost always fail to get a connection, despite showing full signal.

At point, the best solution i have found is to drop my N8 into 2G only mode. Then i get through right away. If 3G was reliable, then it wouldn't be a problem, but it is just infurating at the moment, and i'm sure it has got worse in the last 6 months or so.

so the question is, is it worth me going for a 4G contract as presumably the connection will be more reliable, or is it more a case of "if they cannot run a decent 3G network, why should 4G be any better?"

Paid secur-o-ware is generally better than free, but not always by a lot

I used to run kaspersky, but i felt that it had a really high overhead on my system, reducing it to a crawl for about 5 minutes everytime that i booted it. I switched to MSSE when the Kaspersky licence ran out and i don't think that i have had any problems since... Certainly, Windows runs a lot faster.

A tricky trade off...

Tremble, operators: UK gets ACCURATE mobile coverage guide

Re: some evidence that it's not just Apple having problems with maps

that is odd... i know that area well, so I was interested and had a look. you're right, if you look on Google Maps it is the same... a reference to Wellington out past Broadmoor Hospital. When you zoom in it disappears. There is another reference to it on the West side of Crowthorne (where it actually is) though.

reminds me of when the london eye was tagged as being halfway down Waterloo Road.... The number of lost tourists i walked past, standing there prodding their smartphone of choice and saying "But Google says it's here...".

Windows Phone 8 stands a chance as Apple, Android dither

Re: Contact cards

agreed - the way that they linked up on my phone is pretty slick. Yesterday i added a new person to my contacts in hotmail. click save on the web interface. I immediately picked up my phone and her card was already in there... .quite impressive.

That's not to say that vcard support would nt be a good thing (though i believe that is coming in WP8).

Everything Everywhere 'to stuff Santa's sack' with 4G Lumia 920s

Re: 4G

From what i have heard, once people use WP7 they often like it. The main problem is getting them to try it in the first place - so if they are drawn in by 4G but stay because they like the experience then it could work out well for both Nokia and MS...

Windows Phone 8: What Nokia and Microsoft must do

Re: WP user

A quick test on my Omnia7 shows that it's a bit hit and miss. if you have vibration alert off in the settings then that icon in the top right toggles ring / silent. if vibrate is on, then it toggles ring+vibrate or vibrate.

What would be ideal would be to make that button a triple state one... i.e. Ring+Vibrate, Vibrate, Silent (assuming that most people most of the time wouldn't want a ring only option on there.)

Back on topic and for what it is worth i think that WP7 is pretty good and i'm interested to see what else is coming in WP8 - i think that SD card support and more bluetooth functionality are already in there, lets hope there are a few more interesting features too.

it would be good to have a few other systems doing well, not just iOS and Android.

Ministers consult public on 'opt in for smut' plans

Re: Just the latest

@John...

I absolutely agree. this sort of measure only generates a sense of security... surely it is better to educate people on this.

And i know that many people on here have a healthy dislike for MPs (e.g. "JP19"), but some MPs (possibly even most?) do try to do what they think is the right thing.

if you don't think that they are representing your views or you feel that their definition of "right thing" is not aligned with yours, then write to them ( www.writetothem.com). You might even get a reply.

of course, it is a lot easier to sit on the side and whine as opposed to doing something. just like it is easier for the parents who don't know or care about making sure their child is safe online to let the state give them a false sense of security as opposed to learning about it.

just don't criticise someone for doing one of those things while you do the other...

Kelvin MacKenzie blasts 'footie rights warehouse' BSkyB

Re: Better, simpler solution

absolutely agree. If the coverage is better (in terms of costs to subscribers, quality of coverage or whatever) then surely people will choose it over other broadcasters... they will adapt to what the customers want.

but you cannot do that with exclusive rights. With exclusive rights, what incentive does the broadcaster have to keep costs down for the subscribers, or to provide quality coverage in the first place...? if you want to watch it, you have to watch it on platform X, irrespective of how good or bad it is.

Microsoft kills Windows Live brand

Re: Eh it never worked anyways

Bing Messenger? never heard of it....

been using pidgin for years now, not least because of the way it handles multiple accounts from multiple networks... though i'm sure there are a load of other good multi-network clients out there...

http://www.pidgin.im/

MS do keep changing the names of stuff, i admit that i've kinda lost track. as long as it all keeps working i'm happy...

Smartphone owners demand bigger screens

Re: Back to the 90s

I used to have a Nokia 8310... that was a great little phone - with emphasis on small!

Re: no thanks

Agreed - i have a Samsung omnia 7 which to be honest feels a bit big sometimes. It's pretty thin, but it can sometimes feel like you are carrying a slate (by which i mean roof tile). i also have a nokia N8, which has a slightly smaller screen and although it is marginally thicker, it's actually pretty much the perfect size.

I don't spend a huge amount of time browsing websites on my mobile (which i think is the main appeal of the bigger screens) but something the size of the N8 hits that sweet spot between big enough to use for what you need and small enough to carry and not notice.

Raspberry Pi signs big-name sellers

Re: Re: @Bin Yin

just as an observation, isn't the difference between your prices the VAT? In the UK*, VAT is included at point of sale, so would that explain the discrepancy? 20% of 35 is 7, right?

*(I'm assuming that you are in the UK from your name, but you know what they say about assuming...)

OPERA grabs spanner, fixes kit, and slows down neutrinos

Re: The most intelligent reaction I can think of

I think you mean "the most childish reaction i can think of".

This is how science works. Full credit to the OPERA team in being as open with this as they have been. They are (and have been from the start) more than prepared to accept that this is some sort of error and this is part of of that checking process.

They should not be mocked for reporting this, they should be credited. This rational, reasoned approach is the basis of science and has led to much progress.

Unlike your approach.

Grow up.

ESA's first Vega rocket blasts off without a hitch

You're right

it looks great. Strangely, my first thought was "wow - that thing is really shifting. it's going really fast, I mean that just took off like a rocket..."

...

<facepalm>

...

Nokia Lumia 710

What twitter app?

Just as a disclaimer, I don't use twitter, but i can't help but notice that you are able to add twitter as an account in the general settings. i think that this means that your updates would then populate into the "people" tile (or under a contact if you actually know the person you are following) and you can send updates from the "me" tile.

So why do you need an app?

Apple have been very modular with their model, requiring an additional app for a lot of functionality and it seems like Android has gone a similar route.

The windows phones take a different approach, but it's a shame that people still seem to reach for an app when actually the functionality is built in. Seems that this approach has become engrained....

Sky to open net telly channels to all

How much would you pay?

Just interested here. To add Sky Sports to your package is around is £20 per month. That is £240 / year (assuming that you don't already have a basic package, which is £20/month, so double this cost if you are a new subscriber).

Divide the cost by the 10 races that are sky exclusive, and that is £24/race, or £48/race if you are not an existing customer - and i'd assume that they are targeting new / non customers at this point, so perhaps the latter is more likely.

I don't know if they would offer it more cheaply than my rather simple estimate suggests (as you won't be subsidising the football) or more expensively (as you won't be signing a contract and therefore may only spend that cash once).

or they could just run it at a loss for 3 years until they get the last of the races from the BBC and then put the price up accordingly. What do you reckon?

Nintendo cuts full-year forecast – by BILLIONS

I wouldn't count them out yet...

I think that they might be struggling for ideas at the moment, but lets be honest, its very hard to second guess where they might go with their technology. no-one saw the Wii coming before it was announced and even when it was, i'm not sure that people expected it to be as successful as it has been.

So yeah, they need some new ideas, they have always struggled to get third party games and their online needs a fundemental re-think, but out of the three manufacturers, I reckon that they are the one most likely to think up something completely new...

Starship Voyager dumped into skip

@Greg J Preece

Agreed.

To quote Shigeru Miyamoto: "We do not stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing"

Angry iPhone users bring antitrust class action against Apple

I think you miss the point...

I've not looked into this in detail, but it looks to me like they (may) have a case. If you buy a phone and it is exclusive to a network at that time, then yes, you know what you are getting into. i think that the problem comes at the end of the (2) year contract.

You would assume that at that point you would own the phone and be able to put any sim in it you like as long as you pay the bill. They appear to be arguing that because apple only sell iPhones to one network for a 5 year period and the network won't release them, then they are locked in for a 5 year period with that network... because they cannot use the phone on any other network. Yes, they have the option to buy another phone on another network, but that isn't really the point is it?

If that is their argument, then i can see why they are annoyed..

iPad scammers pwn Lady Gaga's Facebook page

@ the-it-slayer

I agree with you to a point, but i think that you oversimplify the problem. Lots of companies host legitmate surveys on sites that are not theirs (surveymonkey springs to mind) so it's not that unlikely that you go to another site for that. People assume that as it is on her page then it is endorsed (to a degree) by her and therefore legit, or at least not illegal.

plus, that assumes that people are paying attention to the address bar in the first place.

And a lady GaGa edition iPad is a believable thing. It may not exist, but it seems reasonable and that is what the scammers are counting on.

After all, Apple have done limited editions before.

(http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/10/26Apple-Introduces-the-U2-iPod.html)

Man sues boss for 'condemning him to eternal damnation'

Good point

and i apologise...

it was just a short way of saying "just ignore it the once because it's not worth the paperwork and anyway, 666 days without an accident doesn't come around often...".

Ok - I'm gonna say it

I'm on the side of the employee here.

Lets get this in perspective. His boss wanted him to wear number 666 for a day, he didn't want to do it. On the next day, i'm assuming that 667 would have been fine and the only problem we'd have going forward will be a couple of years after the next industiral accident.

His boss should have just let it go for one day, then give him the badge for the next day.

Failing that, a "Looking forward to 667 days without an accident" would have been fine. Would "Happily working for over 665 days without an accident" be too much of a stretch?

(by the way, i'm not religious at all, but i reckon that if it's easy to accommodate peoples beliefs then why not?)

Nokia's Windows comeback: Great but what's next?

@Steve Davies 3

the point is that it isn't an app as such.

Its a setting in a submenu. You can add as many accounts to the phone as you like, from any of the supported services. and because of the way that this is integrated, should a new service become popular then you don't need to add an app - you just get an option added and it integrates into the existing model. But if you don't use it, then you'll never really see it.

so when i got my phone, i went to settings > account > add and chose from what was availible. at launch, this was gmail, hotmail, facebook and outlook / exchange (plus "other") (from memory). so you add in those accounts and when you want to find out what bob is up to you click on bob and see all of his feeds in one place.

When i upgraded to Mango, it added linkedIN as an account type. so, back to settings, put in my username and password and hey presto, bob's linkedIN feed appears along with his other ones. i think that this is the difference between WP7 and other systems... WP7 organises news feed by person and not by the source of the data. which makes sense if you want to find out what bob is up to, but doesn't make sense if you are facebook. it's an interesting take on the way to do this kind of functionality whch reflects the motivations of the software developer in question.

so there is no app as such. Sure MS still need to decide which services to include, but there is no bloat there as such - certainly not like there would be if they shipped the phone with 10 different social media clients - it's just different account options.

Downloadable apps for everything (the Apple model) is not the only way. Think Different, as was once said....

---

DISCLAIMERS:

1) Obviously, there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes to get all this data into the same place. but you aren't really aware of it and that is kinda how it should be.

2) this is probably not the first phone system that can do this (insert reference to random android app here) but it is the first that i have used.

3) there are a load of filtering options to give you some granularity over what is updated where and when, and you can still see everything in one place if you want

4) no, not every single possible network will be on here. but you are still able to download seperate apps for those more niche ones, giving you the same functionality as on other phones. shoud they ever become mainstream, then maybe they get integrated. this makes it pretty easy for non-techy users.

5) yes, i know the iPhone does a lot out of the box, but a lot of functionality is added by apps. PLUS i know that this is not unique to the iPhone, with app stores for all phones adding features

6) Maybe this approach isn't for everyone and there is nothing wrong with questioning either the current "standard" or a new way. Try some stuff and see what you like.

Just give it a try.

I'm glad to hear that they are going to focus on getting units into shops. I think that is one of the best techniques that Apple used in launching the iPhone... get people to use it and see for themselves. Dummy units are useless now... i really don't think that the size and shape of a phone is anything like as important as the software at this point.

Before slating the system give it a try. if nothing else, i think that MS deserve a little credit for doing something different. WP7 is a pretty good system... it's not without a couple of shortcomings but it feels like a different way of using a phone. compared to all the clutter on the iPhones of friends the tiles look really rather fresh.

It feels like someone has had a good think about what phones are used for and worked from there. A friend just got an iPhone 4s and was happy when he found and downloaded the linkedIN app. Afraid that all i could think was "you had to find an app for that? Isn't it just part of the phone?"

Updating to Windows Phone 7.5

I like tedious

this update woked fine for me as well, using a Win7 laptop and Samsung omnia7. Couple of points though;

1) It did seem to take a long time - maybe an hour or so? it seemed to install several incremental updates before going for version 7.5 - but then i hadn't updated it since i bought it. Still, i plugged it in to my laptop clicked "ok" a couple of times and left it until it was done. Very easy to do. I think that not unplugging it whilst the "DO NOT UNPLUG" message was on the screen was the key to my success.

2) Yes, it should be availible over the air - or at least over a WiFi link, it was a pretty big download. My Nokia N8 does this fine, maybe this is something that we will see sooner rather than later?

3) this is a non-article and can be summarised thus: Man plugs phone into computer to update it. Man ignores "DO NOT UNPLUG" messages. update doesn't work very well. Phone returns to some sort of usable state. The sky does not fall in.

Apple iPhone 4S

Thanks for sharing the numbers. It does seem like a lot of cash for a fairly minimal upgrade. By my reckoning, that works out at £1293 over two years, or £53.80 a month for the 24 months. By the way, you didn't say what size iPhone you went for - was that a 32GB?

Seems like a lot of money to me and for me, I don't see the value compared against any other smartphone which you could get for free on a £25/month contract - but hey, if you can afford it and want it then good luck to you.

It still amazes me that Apple can sell such high-end stuff in such volumes at such high prices. It also amazes me that they get away with charging £100 for an extra 16GB of memory. I know it's all about differentiation (and everyone does it to some degree), but it seems a bit excessive - though somehow Apple manage to make it work for them.

Gay-bashing cult plans picket of Steve Jobs funeral

Whilst a well-swung iPad would no doubt sting, i don't think that they have a lot to worry about from tech geeks.

Fortunately (for the rest of the world) these guys have pissed off a lot of people as a result of their war funeral pickets. A quick YouTube search leads to some promising hits such as "Westboro Baptist vs. Angry Nevadan Bikers" (parts I, II and III). Full credit for the bikers form of protest - basically "we have big flags and lots of people and we're just gonna stand in front of you" - as opposed to the highly tempting but not very legal line of "lets just have a fight"