Posts by IT specialist

Meet the Frenchman masterminding a Google-free Android

Google might drop Android anyway.

Google will eventually migrate away from Android, and move to Fuschia OS. Then Android will be all yours.

The great wearables myth busted: Apps never, ever mattered

Laughable comment

Quote of the year: "It's hard to think what else a successful watch now needs."

Ha! Laughable! Smartwatch usage is going overtake smartphone usage. They will be used for general computing. Give it a couple of years and then we'll see who's right.

Microsoft lobs out first Skype for Windows Phone

Windows Phone is a disaster

What wasn't mentioned in the Reg article, or the Microsoft press release, is that Skype on Windows Phone doesn't run in the background.

Windows Phone doesn't have proper multitasking. Instead, it has half-baked app tombstoning, which usually fails and causes apps to freeze.

Because Skype on Windows Phone can't run in the background, it's useless. If you're doing anything else with your phone, you will not be notified of an incoming Skype call.

So now, everybody. Won't you agree that Windows Phone is a complete and utter joke. To add insult to injury, current Windows Phones won't get any upgrade to Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft adds RIM to its anti-Google axis

It's the alliance of the losers

All the mobile platform vendors who have failed or their platform marketshare is in freefall, join together to form the alliance of the losers.

Nokia - Microsoft Windows Phone 7 - RIM BlackBerry

They can now hold hands as their platforms ride off into oblivion.

Intel to pay OEMs to build Atom-Android tablets?

Intel also wants to get into the phone market

With the MeeGo OS getting a kick in the guts by Microsoft trojan horse, Stephen Elop, Intel's phone plans took a pounding.

However, Microsoft will soon dump Windows Phone 7 and switch to the ARM port of Windows 8 for phones and tablets, so that will give Intel another opening into the phone and tablet markets.

Microsoft struck by HTML5 commitment phobia

Silverlight has no use

For the web, Silverlight is dead. Everyone knows this. The web is HTML5.

The only other use for Silverlight was for Windows Phone. But now that's dead too, with Windows Phone 7 getting practically zero sales, and becoming the biggest flop in mobile since Iridium crashed.

There is nowhere else for Silverlight to go, except to the grave.

Now who are all these idiots who ask Microsoft executives if they should develop in HTML5 or Silverlight. Are they idiots or what?

Google's patents bid may prompt showdown with Microsoft

Google doesn't need to worry about Windows Phone

Microsoft is sufficiently inept in mobile that it has 100% chance of screwing up Windows Phone 7 to the point that nobody wants to use it.

Microsoft will then have to become the patent monster, as its only way of getting revenue in mobile.

Microsoft warns asks WP7 users to wait for the real thing

Why Windows Phone 7 will fail

People keep using the Xbox/Kinnect as an example of Microsoft pushing into markets.

Notice the Xbox doesn't carry any Microsoft branding or logo on the front. That's because they know Microsoft's reputation in consumer circles is not good. Imagine if they had instead called Xbox "Windows Game".

Windows Phone 7 is in a more difficult situation, and will fail, because Microsoft has to deal with carriers, which it didn't with Xbox. The carriers will only stock a losing product like Windows Phone 7 for so long, before they give up. This is the reason Kin failed.

Listen to Mary-Jo's podcast on The Register two days ago:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/05/microbite_march_2011/

Microsoft keeps resetting its mobile platform, and will do it again with Windows 8. People grow tired of these platform resets.

Windows Phone 7 is a lost cause

Windows Phone 7 is soon to get axed, as Microsoft moves to a version of Windows 8 that runs on ARM-based phones.

It's all part of Microsoft's unified platform running on 3 screens, with AppX.

What this means is that Windows Phone 7 is doomed. It will get one more update, 'Mango', before the whole platform is discontinued. It will basically end up like the Microsoft Kin did.

Windows 8, even though it will run on ARM phones, will not run on today's Windows Phone 7 handsets, so those users are screwed.

The Microsoft mobile reboot needs rebooting

Microsoft gets another crack at mobile: WINDOWS 8

Microsoft will make Windows 8 run on ARM-based phones. MS gets another shot at mobile.

Pity the fools who bought Windows Phone 7, which failed, and will be replaced next year. Your handsets will not run Windows 8. 'Mango' is your final update.

Microsoft man riles update-hungry Windows Phone 7 users

Windows Phone 7 is doomed. Microsoft is about to do another platform reset

Windows 8 will run on 3 screens: PC, Tablet and Phone. There is no room for Windows Phone 7 in here.

It won't be long before Windows Phone 7 gets cancelled. See how enraged those customers are after their phone platform gets axed.

Apple lands patent blow, but the slugfest continues

Do it the Microsoft way: Use Fear

Apple and Nokia should do it the Microsoft way instead.

Microsoft avoids patent wars with mega-large companies (eg Google), which it would lose, and instead goes around suing lesser handset companies like HTC and Motorola, whereby Microsoft frightens those companies, enabling it to extract its protection money, while never having the claim tested in court.

Mobile Bing comes over all HTML5

Windows Phone 7 is a hobbled phone platform

Why would anyone buy the only 'smartphone' on the planet that is incapable of handling any HTM5.

This is the same phone platform that Ballmer banned open-source software that is licensed under the GPL. Forbidden. Then there's DRM to stop you jailbraking (this goes much further than iPhone).

Microsoft is still the same old Microsoft, and unfortunately, Windows Phone 7 is the product from a management stuck in a bygone era.

Panasonic HDC-SD900 camcorder

I just bought one. It's great

I keep it set to 25p. In the camera's menus, 25p is called 'Digital Cinema' mode.

But the camera can also do 50p, which is incredible, if you have a device that can play 50p video. Some computer monitors can do it.

It also does 25i, like most other camcorders, but I personally don't like interlaced video, which was really designed for use on a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. Progressive 'P' is better for the computer era.

The US version of the camera does 60p, 30p and 30i. I think there should have only been one model that does all framerates.

Anyway, to sum up, this is the best consumer camera on the market. Its 3 image sensors (one for each colour) give it the best picture quality of any consumer camera. Professional cameras do this, but the Panasonic 900 is the only consumer camera to do it.

Other cameras (eg Sony) have gimmicky features like GPS, but the Sony only has one image sensor, thus lesser picture quality.

The VLC media player (open-source, free download) can play back AVCHD movies on any computer platform, so you don't need to pay for extra software.. Alternatively, you can import your AVCHD movies into Final Cut Pro, which converts to an intermediate format for editing, then you export it to any format.

Anyone thinking about getting this camera should search the model in Google, then click on Videos, and take a look at some of the videos people have made with it. Videos on Vimeo look better, but there are lots on YouTube (but YouTube compresses them a lot, losing a bit of quality).

Microsoft pushes back cut 'n' paste update

More Windows Phone 7 delays ahead

Windows Phone 7 users are suffering two delays:

The delays by Microsoft being slow to update it, and then a few more months of delay by the carriers.

This is why the 'Mango' update, due at the end of 2011, won't make it to users until 2012.

The process is failing. Windows Phone 7 is receiving less feature updates than the competition, Android and iOS. Copy & Paste will be the only feature to be added to Windows Phone 7 in its first year.

Microsoft's reputation in mobile is gurgling down the drain, fast.

Microsoft's pledges mobile open source love

Microsoft is still evil

GPL2 = most popular open-source license

GPL2 is till banned by Microsoft, and not allowed into the Windows Phone marketplace.

There is nothing in the GPL2 that prevents it being available on Windows Phone.

Ballmer once described Linux and the GPL as "a cancer". Judging from his actions, his attitude has not changed.

MS smartphone share falls despite WinPho 7

This is the Kin all over again

It's a disaster for Microsoft.

Windows Phone 7 was supposed to save it, but the opposite is happening, with Windows Phone 7 decreasing in market share like Windows Mobile.

Windows Phone 7 is now officially headed in the same direction as Kin.

Microsoft plans June Windows 8 tablet tease?

Move on. There's nothing to see here

As usual, Microsoft is showing off tablets again, but there's nothing ready for release.

Competitor Apple will also show off the iPad 2 tablet, but the difference is that it will hit the market immediately, rather than in 2 years.

Fujitsu relieves Ballmer's iPad pressure

The executive class is using iPad

There's no market for "executive" Windows Tablet PCs.

The Tablet PC running Windows was released years ago and it flopped.

I've seen boardrooms of many major corporations, and they are using iPads.

Microsoft is misguided to think it can thrust these tablets at executives. The Windows Tablets are a mismatch, having a screen surface designed for finger touch, but the OS runs apps designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse.

Microsoft will fail in tablets.

Windows Phone update wallops Omnia 7

How can an update brick a phone that was already a brick?

This is just incompetence from Microsoft.

Microsoft has had 6 months preparation since Windows Phone 7 was released to the phone manufacturers.

Now that the update has arrived, it performs no useful function, except to brick the phone. It's a phantom update that is purely so Microsoft can practice the art of issuing updates. You could call it a placebo update... the update you think you get when you don't really get an update.

Obviously it has failed. Microsoft must try harder before it can bring the miraculous features of Copy/Paste and full multitasking to Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft set to reshuffle management pack

Ballmer is next in line to be fired

This is Ballmer[s last hurrah, before he too goes to the chopping block, due to the failure of Windows Phone 7/

That'll be 3 mobile failures: Windows Mobile, Kin, and Windows Phone 7. Three strikes and you're out.

Will Windows on ARM sink Windows Phone 7?

Windows Phone developers got shafted

Anyone developing apps for Windows Phone 7 may as well stop now.

The platform is going nowhere. It will never be expanded into tablets. It's only a matter of time before the inevitable announcement that Windows Phone 7 has been axed, to be replaced with Microsoft's Plan-B... "Little Windows" running on phones.

But sadly, both will fail.

WinPho7 jailbreak kit locked down by Redmond 'dev mojo' man

Windows Phone 7 is so locked down, you need to jailbreak just to install a ringtone

People are forced to jailbreak as the only possible way to install a custom ringtone on Windows Phone 7.

It's a bit sad, isn't it, that installing your own ringtone on Windows Phone 7 voids your handset's warranty!!!

WP7 vs Android: a struggle for supremacy

Problem: Windows Phone 7 is failing

How Microsoft decides to get its OS updates out is a mute point, as it is now obvious that Windows Phone 7 has failed.

Lackluster sales. Even now, carriers are trying to clear stock by giving the phones away for "free" (with a 2 year contract).

When the Windows Phone 7 platform gets cancelled, there will be no updates. Microsoft has the much bigger problem of how to keep its mobile business afloat at all.

Filthy PCs: The X-rated circus of horrors

The Keyboard is actually the Dirtiest thing you can touch

There have been numerous studies that show that the computer keyboard is one of the filthiest things you can ever touch.

Even when they look clean, they have a layer of microbes multiplying happily on the surface.

In fact, a computer keyboard harbors more dangerous microbes than a toilet seat.

Android out-runs Windows Phone 7 on price comparison site

All evidence points to a Windows Phone 7 failure

It's a bit sad that Microsoft has failed yet again in mobile.

What will happen next? What will people do who have bought Windows Phone 7 handsets and the platform goes belly up? Will Microsoft continue to support them or provide updates to fix all those missing features?

Windows Phone 7 never really stood a chance, so I guess we expected this to happen.

Microsoft nails Silverlight's future to Windows Phones

There is no browser that can do Silverlight

The browser in Windows Phone 7 can't even do Silverlight (it doesn't understand Flash or even HTML5 either).

That means that no browser can do Silverlight. It's a lost cause.

Lack of APIs might explain why Windows Phone 7 can't Copy-&-Paste, can't use a phone's video camera or compass, and can't even access the contacts and calendar (PIM).

Two-year wait for Windows 8, MS blurts

This is BlackCombe all over again

Remember when the successor to Windows XP, codenamed Blackcombe, was supposed to be released "within 2 years".

How long did it take in the end? Was it 5 years? And when it popped out it was Windows Vista.

Microsoft steers OEMs away from putting Phone 7 on Tablets

Windows Phone 7 will be next to fail

We witnessed Microsoft's Windows Mobile wither on the vine.

Later we witnessed Microsoft destroy its KIN phones.

Now we witness Microsoft's tablet business become the laughing stock of the industry.

Next we will witness Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 go the same way as all its other mobile products.... FAIL.

Inside Windows Phone 7: ghost of Zune

Windows Phone 7 is an abomination of problems

Why aren't the APIs finished?

Why can't 3rd-party apps communicate with the compass or the video camera? Why can't an app see the address book or contacts?

Why does it have browser based on the 2006 era Internet Explorer 7? (with a couple of features backported from IE8). The only platform with no WebKit browser.

It's also the only computer platform on earth that cannot Copy-Paste. So you cannot move text.

You're sucked into Microsoft's walled garden. You've gotta use IE. You've gotta have a Bing Button which can't be changed.

This is the most closed operating system ever devised.

Samsung backs Windows Phone 7 for the duration

Doomed Windows Phone 7 has no ecosystem

We know from a Deutsche Bank report that Microsoft has been paying OEMs to make Windows Phone 7 handsets.

These OEMs would not have anything to do with Windows Phone 7 otherwise.

We also know that Microsoft is paying software vendors to port their iPhone apps to Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft will also have to pay consumers to use it, as nobody is going to buy a handset that is missing the most basic of operating system features, such as Copy-Paste and full multitasking. Windows Phone 7 also does not allow you to tether your phone to a laptop, and due to missing APIs, third party software cannot access the compass, or the video camera, and games can't access GPU shading.

Windows Phone 7 is a rotten, dysfunctional phone system that people are best to stay away from.

Windows Phone 7 up for grabs from 'excited' 3

You'd have to pay me to use a Windows Phone 7

It would be such an inconvenience to use a 'smartphone' that cannot copy and paste. You'd have to bring a pen and paper with you everywhere. I'd have to be paid before I'd use one.

Samsung: demand for Windows Phone 7 'specialised'

Windows Phone 7 is dying before it is even released

Handset OEMs had previously signed up to Windows Phone 7, such as Samsung, Toshiba, HP and Sony Ericsson.

Toshiba, HP and Sony Ericsson recently abandoned the failing OS.

Now it looks like Samsung has also got cold feet.

Developers beware. This is turning into Kin #2. Stay well away.

Porn and pirates hide Android's money maker

It actually sounds very good for Android

Quote from article:

"27% are making more (money from Android than expected) and 24% per cent about what they'd expected."

That means 51 %.... most Android developers... are making as much or more money than they expected to make. That sounds pretty good to me.

Ballmer and Softies sacrifice sleep to catch iPad

Microsoft doomed in mobile

Microsoft was previously losing sleep trying to catch up to iPhone, using its Windows Phone 7.

Now it looks like Microsoft has abandoned WP7 in the slate market, and is now "losing sleep" trying to fit some other OS into a slate form factor.

Why doesn't Microsoft have any confidence in its existing mobile OS (WP7), on the eve of release, to abandon it in mobile slates and use something else instead?

Madness. Complete utter madness. Stay away from the coming train wreck.

Dead Pink phone fallout hits Microsoft's top brass

Windows Phone 7 is Kin all over again

That speeding train is still speeding. Towards an even bigger crash with Windows Phone 7.

It's still Ballmer in the driver's cabin, with his team of merry executives still back-stabbing each other not far behind.

Many of the same problems facing Kin also face Windows Phone 7. The lack of features compared to the competition. Running late. Buggy.

Added to that, the 'Windows Phone' brand is now mud. WP7 has no chance whatsoever.

Microsoft's KIN is dead, long live Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 will be next to fail

Any software developer would be a fool to waste time making applications for Microsoft's next great effort in Mobile, Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 won't arrive feature complete, as Robbie Bach said. It will be immature, and rushed to market unfinished.

The market will chew up Windows Phone 7 and spit it out, just like it did with Kin.

Verizon slashes Microsoft Kin phone prices

Kin = Early version of Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has promoted Kin as being a prelude to Windows Phone 7, which much commonality.

Now that Kin is dead in the market, I can assume that Microsoft will try to distance it as far as possible from Windows Phone 7, and try to brush Kin under the carpet as if it never happened.

Microsoft dubs Windows Phone 7 'ad serving machine'

We'll sit back and watch the failure of Windows Phone 7

Microsoft is the most experienced in how to kill an operating system, as it is now demonstrating.

It killed Windows Mobile by making all the existing enterprise apps obsolete, and creating an Osborne Effect by announcing the next product before it is released.

It killed its Kin phone in only 3 weeks after release. Well, actually, Kin was still-born, and was so malformed it didn't have a chance of survival.

Now we are witnessing how Microsoft will kill Windows Phone 7. Put it to market full of bugs, and lacking basic features (eg C&P), but make the hardware requirements so high that the units will be expensive anyway. Make sure many features are broken, such as the dysfunctional compass inside every handset. Make it a more closed platform than even iPhone. Lock the OS down using DRM to prevent jailbraking. Then announce to everyone that Windows Phone 7 will be the biggest ad-serving machine humankind has ever seen.

Microsoft offers iPhone devs Windows Phone 7 cash

The demise of Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 won't last.

Microsoft's only stand-out feature was the ability to port XNA games from Xbox onto Windows Phone 7 handsets. But this has been a disaster, as app vendors have totally ignored it.

Now Microsoft is in the humiliating situation of having to bribe iPhone developers with cash to port their iPhone games to Windows Phone 7.

With no outstanding features, and tons of missing features, Windows Phone 7 will get slaughtered in the market, up against the very mature Android and iPhone.

The recent Reg article about the broken compass API is yet another recent example of WP7 shortcomings...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/18/windows_phone_compass/

Windows Phone 7 doesn't stand a chance. DOA.

Google risks OEM wrath for unified Android UI plan

The Android UI is now better

Ever since Android 2.2, the default Android interface is better than the OEM skins.

Microsoft to wave goodbye to mobile 'experience' boss?

Microsoft to wave goodbye to mobile. Period.

Microsoft's mobile plans are in tatters. There's now no way that Windows Phone 7 will survive.

J Allard's departure shows a lack of confidence within Microsoft. Ballmer is steering the company towards disaster.

While Microsoft's mobile division crashes and burns, Google's Android and Apple's iPhone continue to gain market share rapidly.

Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - more than Flash envy

No good on a phone

When Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 appears on the market, there is not going to be any sophisticated applications for it. Mainly because the APIs are so immature. It's going to take Microsoft at least a couple of years to bring it up to standard. Also, the Silverlight runtime on the phone is going to be so slow. You can forget handwriting recognition in these machines. Won't happen.

Visual Studio 2010 opens Windows to outside help

Windows Phone 7 certainly is a walled garden

I agree with the assessment that Microsoft's coming Windows Phone 7 is a Microsoft walled garden. Look at its Marketplace app store. Once you go in, there is no way to get out. Microsoft locks the door to prevent you from obtaining apps from anywhere else. That fits the definition of a walled garden in my books. Again look at Microsoft's KIN, another walled garden, and a prelude to WP7.

Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's exercise in self restraint

Microsoft got it upside down

"Microsoft's best effort at creating a user-centric device" has turned into Microsoft's best effort at creating a device for itself, not end users.

Locking people into Microsoft's Marketplace is not a feature that benefits any end users. That's a feature for Microsoft's benefit only.

Forbidding 3rd party apps from accessing native code, while allowing Microsoft's own apps to access native code, is a feature not good for developers. It's a feature that gives an (unfair) advantage to Microsoft only (BTW, Mozilla will never port Firefox for this reason alone).

Windows Mobile 7 Series is everything that Microsoft ever wanted for itself, and nothing for end users.

Windows Phone 7 Series gets Timotei rinse

WP7S is headed down the drain

Just like Timotei shampoo, Windows Phone 7 Series will go down the drain. It is the joke of the industry, with basic functionality missing. It will fail, and cannot compete against Android and iPhone.

Windows Phone 7 - what's in and what's out

Trust me to vet your apps

Trust me. I'm Microsoft. You can trust me to decide for you which apps are allowed and which are not. Who else would be better to decide what you will do today? No naughty apps here.

Windows Phone 7: free tools, captive Marketplace

This is WORSE than iPhone

Windows Phone 7 Series is more locked down than iPhone ever was. Microsoft is controlling everything. Ballmer is quoted as saying that he will not permit any phone network to change the hardwired Bing Button to a different search engine. Google is forbidden. Now, downloading any app you want is forbidden. Naughty apps like War Driving or Stumbling apps will not be allowed. WP7S is a Microsoft walled garden.

Open source - the once and future dream

Ballmer is the Beast of Redmond

Ballmer said that open-source software is "a cancer".

Yet his failure to embrace it is why Microsoft's Windows Phone is plummeting in market share. Microsoft is incapable of moving fast, because it develops every part of its proprietary software. If it used the Linux kernel, and put a proprietary interface on top (like Palm did), it would have its mobile OS to market much quicker.

Why is Microsoft developing an entire web browser? It could just take WebKit (like most others do), and put its interface on top. Get to market quicker. Save billions.

Microsoft's coming 'Windows Phone 7 Series' is going to fail in the market because of a lack of software. As the article said, a lot of developers avoid Microsoft, and will avoid Windows Phone, because of Microsoft's past nasty behaviour. With relatively few developers compared to Android and iPhone, Microsoft's Windows Phone will die a painful death in the market.

Microsoft banks Windows Phone 7 on Silverlight

Windows Phone 7 Will Fail

Microsoft has shafted the current enterprise users of Windows Mobile.

NETCF is now gone. All apps are now end of life. For some time, many of us have assumed that WinMo apps would have to be rewritten for Silverlight.

But all of this isn't going to guarantee Microsoft success in the consumer market. Because of the uncertainty about the new WP7S phone platform's market viability, it makes it impossible for corporate users to commit to it at such an early stage.

Most corporates are going to migrate to BlackBerry and Android. Windows Phone Series 7 will not be able to dislodge the incumbents.