* Posts by Nadjau

31 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Sep 2009

Adblock wins in court again – this time against German newspaper

Nadjau

Re: Bah!

I feel your pain. The Indy app is ok, but not a replacement for a newsPAPER.

I'm taking the 'i' at the moment, but it's a bit thin.

Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and go back to The Guardian, which has gone seriously downhill, but is still better than the Times and, particularly, the Telegraph.

Is iOS 9.3 Apple's worst ever update? First it bricks iThings, now Safari is busted

Nadjau

Re: apple did release a range of plastic straps

"apple should REIGN in its ambitions, it's just pushing too hard"

<pedantry>

This may be a "loosing" battle, but you mean "rein", not "reign"

"reign" = to possess or exercise sovereign power or authority e.g. The Queen reigns over her subjects.

"rein" = to curb; restrain; control

Ergo ...

"rein in" - exercise tighter control or restraint

</pedantry>

UK Home Sec stumbles while trying to justify blanket cyber-snooping

Nadjau

Homophone alert:-

"GCHQ's bulk surveillance and hacking operations are being brought completely within parliamentary reign for the first time"

"reign" ? That's what monarchs do.

"rein" i.e. (in the context used) control/oversight

DS5: Vive la différence ... oh, and throw away the Citroën badge

Nadjau

I've owned a top spec C5 with hydro-pneumatic suspension since 2008 - funded by a car allowance. It was bought new for about the same money as a well-specced Golf. The C5 is a hugely underrated car and is extremely comfortable. Nothing major has fallen off, apart from the condenser being punctured by a stone, and it doesn't rattle. Of course its second-hand value is peanuts now.

As Citroen/DS have canned the idea of producing any new models with this suspension set-up I'll just have to continue enjoying the ride in the C5 until it's ready for the scrapyard!

Sony phone chief vows to keep losing money forever and ever

Nadjau

Re: Would be a shame too

Agreed. The Z3C is a fantastic piece of kit and it would be a shame if Sony cannot find a way of making great phones without losing a fortune in the process. The Android ecosystem is sucking value out of the OEMs and Google needs to address this.

Little big phone: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, a toothsome hand-fulla Android

Nadjau

Re: Questions...

1) Does it come with any bloatware apps? e.g. Facebook

Yes

2) If so, can they be removed without rooting?

Yes. In my experience (UK SIM-free unlocked).

It's a great phone. No quibbles at all to date.

Just don't blame Bono! Apple iTunes music sales PLUMMET

Nadjau

Re: I expect there are some that care.

For album purchases I've switched to using services that offer FLAC or ALAC downloads and these days only use iTunes occasionally to purchase singles that typically are compressed so 256kbps AAC is fine.

It's not you, it's Three. Mobe network goes titsup across UK

Nadjau

Re: No problems here

Three data is working fine here in rainy Hampshire.

Three's money man reveals UK mobe firms' dark pricing dealings

Nadjau

Three's T&Cs are pretty clear on tethering here and in Oz:-

Want to use your data allowance as a personal hotspot?

If you are on The One Plan contract (handset and SIM) we’re happy for you to use your data allowance as a personal hotspot (we used to call this tethering). This means you can connect your phone to other devices via USB or WiFi to connect to the internet. If you’re not on The One Plan, you can get a Mobile Internet Add-on or a Personal Hotspot Add-on. See page5 on how to get one. If you have a Personal Hotspot Add-on, this will not work in a Feel At Home country.

Universal's High Fidelity Pure Audio trickles onto Blighty’s Blu-Ray hi-fis

Nadjau

Re: Try Qobuz

A VPN and a PayPal account overcomes the problem.

Nadjau

Re: Try Qobuz

Well, er, yes,

However I was referring to downloads from Qobuz,

And I'd like to think the Audiolab M-DAC is a slightly better performer than the DACs in most CD or Blu Ray players.

Nadjau

Try Qobuz

The French download store Qobuz has had these on sale for a while. I've tried a couple - on promo for the same price as CD quality - and they sound very nice when fed into the main amp via an Audiolab M-DAC.

How much of that is down to the higher bit-rate and sampling frequency and how much is down to sympathetic remastering of the original recordings I wouldn't like to say.

Google takes Chromebook upmarket with touchy-feely Pixel

Nadjau

"Indeed, whilst ChromeOS is obvious competition for Windows"

I think one of us needs to have a good lie down, and I suspect it's not me.

iPhone tops US market, but trounced by Android in world+dog

Nadjau

"While Apple's iPhone sales may have passed that 50 per cent milestone in the US, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's stats show that Cupertino is losing the smartphone war in hefty chunks of the world."

I come in peace - Apple computer and Android phone and tablet user.

In Apple's postion I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over "losing" the smartphone wars. Share isn't everything. The margin on every iPhone sold is fine, thank you, and only Samsung out of the Android camp is making any money. Meanwhile Nokia and RIM's choices have put them on a fast track to oblivion. :(

It's just the same as PCs. Apple's total market share is diddlysquat compared with with the massed rank of Windows OEMs. But who is making the returns?

The "BMW niche strategy" for keeping shareholders happy has a lot going for it. Just ask Ford, GM, FIAT, Renault, and Peugeot-Citroën, all of whom are struggling to make the sums add up in their European operations.

13-inch 'Retina Display' MacBook Pro to uncloak next Tuesday?

Nadjau

Re: hoping for the 13 or even an 11

It's more than time that the 13" MacBook Pro moved on from a 1280x800px display.

A significant improvement would make me consider replacing an ageing MacBook.

Sony: Our Xperia S tab COPIED Samsung's slab ... on price

Nadjau

@Bodhi

Agreed about the 1st gen. Tablet S. A very good first effort from Sony and I also use mine every day.

I suspect its sales were impacted by the lack of an oleophobic coating on the screen, which meant the screens of demo units in Currys etc looked greasy and dirty compared with the Samsungs and iPads.

A classic penny-pinching cock-up that I assume Sony will have fixed in the new iteration.

Sony Xperia P mid-range Android

Nadjau

Had this phone for a couple of weeks

I had a good experience with an Xperia Arc and so, being in the market for a mobile for non-work use, I went for the Xperia P.

The Reg's review is pretty much spot on. It's a sold mid-range phone that improves on the Arc in several areas and I particularly like the understated design.

It's not for those who want to carry their entire video and music collections around with them, but Sony do other Xperias that have SD card slots.

The Xperia P is unspectacular in that it just does what I want it to do without fuss - primarily a data device that can make phone calls. The screen, call quality, build quality etc are fine.

My only gripe is the flimsy microSIM slot cover, which is fiddly. Also battery life wasn't great at first, until I discovered that bluetooth was switched on by default. Replacing the live wallpaper with a static background helped too.

All in all a nice phone.

Apple TV tops connected set-top box chart

Nadjau

Wonky spreadsheet?

Hmm...

Strategy analytics "calculate" that 4M Apple TV's are shipped WW in a year. I'll be generous and assume Europe soaks up 30% = 1.2M units per year.

In 2001, the EEA reported there were 151M households in Europe.

Strategy Analytics reckon 7% have Apple TVs = 10.5M households.

Assuming Apple sales are reasonably constant and that no units ever break or are discarded and that only one unit is acquired by each household, then Apple has taken nearly 9 years to build up this share.

Apple TV was launched in March 2007. Erm ....

Farewell then, Sony Ericsson

Nadjau
Thumb Up

The "ordinary" Xperia Arc is excellent too. It's the best phone I've owned by a country mile, but is undeservedly in the shadows due to the massive hype surrounding anything marketed by Samsung or HTC.

SE's initial foray into the Android world certainly wasn't a smooth ride for the early adopters, but much the same could be said of Samsung's behaviour too.

Spotify adds 'temporary' private listening mode after Facebook backlash

Nadjau

A dead business model sucks its last

For freebie users I can understand the move. But for subscribers a.k.a. your loyal paying customers? Erm, another Netflix disaster. And so soon after the last one.

Allytot plot the lost.

Home Office faces £500m demand in e-Borders sacking

Nadjau

Balls to that

If they had balls they would not be working for the Home Office.

Traffic-light plague sweeps UK: Safety culture strangles Blighty

Nadjau

Singapore

The countdown indicators at major pedestrian crossings in Singapore work well.

Antennagate Redux: Consumer Reports condemns Verizon iPhone 4

Nadjau

Hmmm ...

I own several Apple products, including a 3GS, and they (mostly) do what I want them to do, which is what it's all about.They deliver value. But I've not been tempted by an iPhone 4, as it's a nice screen that does the same stuff as before. Which is not enough.

I may go for an iPhone 5 or 6 if it delivers a significant improvement on what I have now. But I'm not so married to Apple's ecosystem to not to evaluate the alternatives.

Android is very good, and will get better, but I do question an ecosystem where the proponent charges $0, betting it can maximise subsequent advertising $$$, while the HW manufacturers are reduced to "me too" offerings.

Android strips away their ability to take the initiative and lead the market, as they're always following whatever Google comes up with on the software side of things, just like all their competitors.

Nokia has got it right by stepping out of this zero sum game. Whether their alliance with Microsoft can deliver an ecosystem that is more compelling than Apple's is another question ...

Ubuntu Wayland: Shuttleworth's post-Mac makeover

Nadjau
Stop

Ubuntu & netbooks

I'm delighted Ubuntu are putting so much sway on a positive user interface. It would be even better if they could make each of their frequent releases compatible with the Ralink wireless chips fitted to many popular netbooks.

Apple: third-party iOS dev tools OK after all

Nadjau

Sounds as though ..

Apple is getting increasing attention from competition authorities. If you bar one recompilation tool, then you have to be totally pure and bar the lot, without exception.

I suspect a Reality Inspector has pointed this out to His Steveness and has also mentioned the amount of $$$$ that Adobe could suck out of Apple's coffers if he continues with his one rule for Flash and another for everyone else.

French operator pooh-poohs iOS4

Nadjau
Joke

homofone

All that money spent on branding, and still people type Vodaphone.

Raumfeld multi-room wireless music system

Nadjau
FAIL

Or ...

Or use an Airport Express and the Remote app on an iPod Touch. Far cheaper and just as effective.

BlackBerry sees iPhone shrink in rear view mirror

Nadjau

Spot on

I have a works-allocated Blackberry sitting in its box at home, whilst the works SIM card is in a nice little Nokia phone that does the job. Hilariously, work didn't include a data contract so the Blackberry - an 8080 or something? - is consigned to the darkness that its rubbish design so thoroughly deserves.

Sky gets Five HD

Nadjau

Old Sky dish

Yes. A dish is just a dish and this one will be pointing in the right direction to pick up FreeSat channels. Suggest you check the FreeSat channel listing though; just because the likes of Five announce an HD channel via Sky that doesn't necessarily mean the channel can be viewed on a FreeSat box, as many are encrypted using the Videogard system.

Huawei E5 Wi-Fi/3G modem

Nadjau

Mi-Fi

I use one of these on the road with an iPod Touch. Generally it works well. Thanks for highlighting the settings screen - perhaps I can now change channels to avoid conflicts with The Cloud venues.

Talking DAB and the future of radio

Nadjau
FAIL

DAB

Full marks for optimism.

DAB sound quality is knocked sideways by the latest iPlayer radio streams. They demonstrate what the digital dividend ought to be delivering - high quality programming and sound.

On DAB, the mess of nondescript commercial pop channels using an ancient codec at barrel-scraping bit rates = low quality programming and dismal sound quality.

To pretend that the commercial sector is going to start putting out high quality programming with great sound quality necessary to grab the audience away from cozy ol' FM, particularly when their major source of revenue is migrating to the web, is risible.