Posts by Ian Watkinson

Concerning Windows Phone and its relevance to the larger business

Whilst, I'd not go so far as to say it was a puff piece. It's not the most balanced or well thought out piece that El Reg has put out recently.

I respect that everyone the Author included has a point of view, just in this piece it's not set out, or defended particularly well.

Another point you might well want to consider is that Mobile Device Management is mature for IOS and Android, it's new for Windows 8, the prime mover in this space is...Microsoft with Intune, at a cost of £5 per device per month. Which when you start to add in the other costs, makes it a tad pricey.

At this particular moment in time, I think Windows Phones have an edge, with the Lumia 625 being pretty much the cheapest reasonable 4G hand set about. (circa £100) however the 4G Moto G is coming soon, as I suspect will a selection of others. I know which my choice would be on a Lumia 625 vs 4G Moto G shoot out, and as a hint, it's not the Fins....

Interesting pick of some statements, lets question a couple.

POINT ONE :"Putting the iPhone 5c out as low cost budget device pretty much says it all"

Why would you, it's not the budget iphone, the 4s is.

Three:Available from:£16 a month £99 upfront cost

Vodafone:Free on Pay monthly plans from £25

O2:nope.

EE:Nope.

So from 2 of the big four, you can get an Iphone 4s, for about the same price as a Nokia Lumia 625.

POINT TWO:Android is not just one platform.

Except, if you're buying devices in bulk for an organisation it will be. You'll pick the touchwiz Samsung version that you like, or can afford. Or you'll pick the Sonyfied Version you like or the Huawei Emotion UI. Indeed as this is most IOS like, it's not a bad pick if you're choosing to wean people off older ios devices.

So in the same way, companies cope with all the different versions of windows, you know the Dell type, Acer type, Fujitsu Type, Lenovo etc, they will cope with the android versions.

They could even go Nexus, and get "pure" android.

THIRD POINT:"And so we come Windows Phone, which would appear to tick all of the relevant boxes in relation to larger scale enterprise deployment"

Except for maybe corporate apps. Ah yes, ironic isn't it. Corporate lock in on an app level keeps Microsoft out.

Why would corporates who've developed in house apps for ios or android suddenly abandon them for a less popular os? I mean if that was easy, people would have dropped windows and gone linux ages ago.

FOURTH POINT:Windows still totally dominates on desktop/notebook machines

Except people are moving in droves to tablets, where Android and IOS are kings. Surface is what 2%? That makes Mac use in the 80's look stellar!

FIFTH POINT:Sponsored link: Microsoft UK is holding a live virtual summit on the company’s enterprise mobility strategy on 4 June at 10:00. Check out the agenda and register here.

Ah yes, so it's an advert? Which is the reason it's not a well thought out piece of technical journalism then?

OpenStreetMap declared ready for paid use after satnav app debut

I guess the question is OSM better than the Waze maps, which are also crowd sourced, but show where people are driving as well as the satellite maps, plus since they are owned by google does that make them google open source maps....

Philips lobs patent sueball at Nintendo in US: Seeks to BAN Wii U

Kinect?

- a camera (102) taking a picture; and

- a digital signal processor (120), capable of receiving and processing the picture, and capable of transmitting user interface information (I) derived from the picture to the electrical apparatus (110),

So that's a Kinect isn't it...

Wonder when they plan on taking on Microsoft....

What's up with that WhatsApp $19bn price tag? Answer: Voice calls

Unlimited Calls Cheap, Unlimited Text Cheap - Unlimited Data..not so

It's difficult to find a deal that doesn't offer unlimited voice calls, most also offer unlimited or a huge amount of texts, the same don't offer unlimited data.

Going from 1Gb to 4Gb normally costs you £5-£10 a month.

So why would I want to use more data to replace voice/text?

Only for international use, which whatsapp works for. But then again, so does viber/kik/skype/hangouts and a myriad of others.

Don't think this is much of a step forward.

Rogue Android: We show you how BlackBerry's pain can be your gain

£149 for a nearly android, or £99 for a good one?

Given that you can pick up a Moto G for £99, which given my brief play with it before it became number one Son's birthday present, is nearly oh so nearly as good as the Nexus 4. Why on earth would you spend £50 more to get the Z10?

You can get BBM on the Moto G.

It does push email.

What would my extra £50 get me to compensate for the ridicule of everyone else when they see I've paid money for a blackberry?

Schiller: 'Almost everyone' at Apple works on iPhones - not Macs or anything

Re: And yet... @bob

Erm really?

Android isn't cheaper than Apple?

Lets assume new to avoid ebay luck.

Cheapest reasonable Android phone (Y300/Motog G) £70-£80

Pretty good one N5 (£329)

"HIgh End" S4/HTC1 £500

Cheapest Apple Iphone

4S 8GB - (£349)

Middle - 5C 16GB (£469)

High End 5S 16GB (£549)

Not sure how many people send their teens to school with a high end phone.

So lets look at middle, apple is £100 more.

Bottom end, at the end where you're more likely to get a teen a phone.

Much much more.

Alleged Peeping Tom claims First Amendment right to upskirt

Re: Consent on both sides?

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Consent doesn't need to be sought or given even if the picture is to be used for commercial purposes.

Some of the most famous photos in history have been used for commercial purposes. Without the permission of the subject.

Burning monk in Vietnam anyone? Plenty of other examples.

If you're walking about in the street, people can take your picture. It's their picture, you have no rights to it.

IF and ONLY IF

You had no expectation to privacy in the first place. (You're out in public remember)

The police get this wrong all the time.

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/536087/fish-and-chip-photographer-arrest-unlawful-say-police-chiefs-update-with-police-statement

The police knowing the law...nope not most of the time in this case.

I'd suggest in this case, the women had a reasonable expectation to privacy, she'd covered up her knickers, so unless she goes and does a Marilyn, (again no consent given by Marilyn) then she's covered under the reasonable expectation of privacy side of it.

How many of the rioters in London gave permission for their photos being taken and printed in the paper?

Did any of them sue the papers after?

The only part of this that's slightly cloudy, is that it's possible without touching a lady (I guess) to take their photo up skirt.

If We compare this to men, if a women ripped your trousers off on the tube and then took a picture of you in your pants, would you be happy about it, or feel violated?

Actually, scratch that, if you're Scottish in traditional dress and a women shoved a camera to take a picture of up between your legs, how would you feel?

This month's BlackBerry CEO vows: I won't axe the smartphone-making biz

more attractive than the $4.7m

I'm not suprised, everyone else was talking about $4.7 BILLION..

But don't let facts get in the way of a story El Reg...

'Stupid old white people' revenge porn ban won't work, insists selfie-peddler

"The subject of the photo, unless they have signed a model release, also has rights."

Unless they don't have a reasonable expecation of rights, i.e they are in public. Flash your boobs at a rock concert, you can't then claim rights to the resulting photos.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 region-locking saga CLEAR AS MUD

Old School DVD player / Telly manufacturer brings much loved region locking to mobiles under banner of innovation.

Apple did gold, we can do gold!

Apple did finger locking, we can lock whole damn regions!

iOS 7 SPANKS Samsung's Android in user-experience rating

Re: iDIOTS Operating System

So sounds like your employer has locked down their phone to their specifications.

All of what you've asked for is possible on the iphone. But not if it's locked down by your employer.

Having tried both as an employee and as a personal phone, I like the bigger screen you can choose with an android phone, and Ingress, but that's about the only 2 key advantages over iOs.

Robocars, backseat fun, satnav 2.0: Meet the bit of Nokia Microsoft didn't buy

Which Nokia Maps is Fantastic? Brings out N95 with Nokia maps on it. It's not great. I've got Tomtom from the same era. Tomtom mostly got you there. N95 Mostly didn't.

I tried go recently, same thing.

Go would be ok if you could pay £2.99 and cache for example the UK maps for a year, with updates over Wifi.

This data on all the time maps are fine, except when you're not on an all you can eat data plan, or there is no data. Tunnels, planes, deserts....

Apple CEO Cook: 'We're not in the junk business'

Re: Whatever

I have both an Iphone 5, and a Nexus 4.

You are wrong, the N4 isn't 10 x better in anyway.

It's not 10x faster.

It doesn't have 10x the battery life.

Its screen isn't 10x better.

It only comes in 16GB.

Camera isn't 10x as good, in fact it's not as good at all.

It doesn't do Bluetooth well, and that's saying something as the Iphone's not great at it either, but it's better than the N4.

It does have NFC for when someone finds a use for it.

The N4 is twice as good as the Samsung S3, which it was half the price of though.

Glowing Nook knocked to under 50 quid for Xmas

For most people I know an e-reader is the third (non-work) screen.

Phone first, tablet second, e-reader third.

You can't beat them for month long battery life, and being able to pull one out of your bag at the airport/ferry terminal etc etc, and know you can use it for 8 or so hours of a delay, no problems.

Plus they are soon going to be as cheap as a hardback book anyway!.

My Kindle keyboard is going strong, although I did pick up one of the £29 nooks as a backup.

'British Bill Gates' Lynch laments HP's Autonomy 'botch-up'

"something that’s really cleaver at the bottom of it. I’m not the person who’s going to understand the next social media site,” he said"

Register Hack in hacked off not cleaver at all cleaver quote.

Barnes & Noble knock Nook slate down to £79

Bought these for the kids for holiday travelling when they dropped to £99.

Awesome little devices.

Android Store, so minecraft etc to keep them amused.

Plus you can slap a 32gb sd card in, and it's a great little portable media player with VLC on it.

Are you for reel? How the Compact Cassette struck a chord for millions

Re: MiniDisc FTW

You need certain types of Music, Jazz or Classical, and pretty expensive headphones to hear the difference between 320 kbps and lossless.

You need very similar for 320 VBR and lossless.

In fact if you step up or down in small steps, it's quite hard to tell.

I hear a huge difference between 96 and 320 the same as most people, but if you step down in small steps you'll struggle to hear that same difference.

Also the environment you're listening in makes a huge difference. Music for the commute in on a commuter train/tube, does it really need to be lossless or 320? Probably not.

Main issue I have, is one re-ripping from source into lossless (500+ cds) two, the small loss I'm going to get from recoding 320VBR to 320Fixed, or some of the early 192VBR isn't worth the time.

This I think will be true for most people.

If the record company wants to offer me an upgrade deal from my 500 cds to lossless, for perhaps 99p a disc, then I might be up for it.

ZTE's $80 Firefox OS mobe sells out on eBay

Re: AO-- "myPhones" ?

"(you'll never have full ownership and control of an iPhone--at any age or price)."

As in how old the phone is, or how old you are? This amongs other things are not clear in your post.

My old 3G is mine. I can do what I like for it. If at somepoint I want to go to the effort of writing an OS for it I can.

At this point I'm not paying apple any money for it, so it's certainly not rental.

I've got two or more app stores on it, so that's ok too. (I know android has hundreds, but that's not always good, is it now aptoide)

What more control can I want? I can make phone calls when I want, I get email when I want, I can crush the phone if I want. That's pretty much full control.

Plus it runs ios, how do I get control of my Nexus 4 and control is to do that? or are you confusing custom roms for different OS's?

Nokia Lumia 925: The best Windows Phone yet

Re: Quantity.

What you're missing Nokia also used to do, was deliberately crippled their phones, and then say, aha if you want that, you need the model that's coming out in 6 months.

Look at the communicator series.

2 B&W ones, ok lets forgive them the first, as there was nothing else.

However, as the 9110 came out, colour screens were available, Nokia's answer, wait till the 9210.

9210, people were starting to use Wifi, however Nokias Answer, wait till the 9500....

Also Nokias software updates were rare, almost never gave you new functionality, and were almost always minor bug fixes.

Apples releases (and for that matters googles) add functionality to a device you already own, adding value to it.

If you think Nokia changed it's tune, just all those Windows 7.8 users, who had them sometimes less than 12 months before being told...want windows 8? Hah, buy a new phone, or get some of it (no apps though) with 7.8

For that, Nokia won't get any more of my money for their phones...

'Nothing will convince a kid that's never worn glasses to wear them'

Re: Glasses.

Shocker, you went to a bricks and mortar store and paid more money?

Try glassesdirect.co.uk or one of the other online spec providers, for the same hipster pair at the same £25 price...

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief

Re: Yep, I agree

"Don't listen to anyone who whines about the applications available, I have everything I want on it."

So as long as you're ok, everyone else will be?

How's it sync with your Mac? How about how did your upgrade from Winmo7 to 8 go? As some people want to be able to use a phone that gets' upgraded with a new OS and features.

How's instagram working out for you? How's the turn by turn sat nav on the HTC8X?

If you dont' want to install apps, then why not go blackberry?

:-)

http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1740,iid=368639,00.asp

or how about this article?

BlackBerry, Windows Phone Still Lack Popular Apps

Or even better, why pay money for apps AGAIN on a different OS.

The apps from IOS1 work fine still, no more money, these Windows CE ones don't seem to....

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416556,00.asp

The IT Crowd returns to Channel 4 for a final episode

Re: http://www.reynholm.co.uk/intranet/resources.php

You've going to kick yourself for it @Dave 126, simply be a good Reynholm employee, and reset your password :-)

http://www.reynholm.co.uk/intranet/resources.php

Love the fact that that it encourages you to go into the intranet and play...

More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit

Re: Looking for more?

I'd like the nexus 7 to not be dog slow when I try and use all the storage on it!

BlackBerry Z10: Prices pruned despite eager iPunter interest

Trouble is, it doesn't actually tell you a lot.

Example.

I had an iphone last year. I like it.

I need a new phone now, but I don't want to pay for it.

Ooh look Android Shiny - Blackberry shiny. Which was cheapest - Ooh blackberry newest and shiniest and cheapest I'll go for that.

Now if that person like BB, that's great, however if they come under the "newest and shiniest and cheapest I'll go for that." brigade, then same will happen at end of contract.

I assume there must be a lot of "newest and shiniest and cheapest I'll go for that." around, as otherwise, why would anyone buy a windows phone :-)

Yay for iOS 6.1, grey Wi-Fi iPhone bug is fix- AWW, SNAP

So if you have this problem, you take it back to apple and they exchange it for a handset that works.

What's the problem here exactly? Oh there's a couple of people that took a gamble, that they'd buy the phone cheap in another country, and now can't use their warranty. Well wasn't that the gamble?

If it's affecting an iphone sold in the UK, then your sale of goods act covers you, not of merchantable quality and DURABILTY.

Job's'a'goo'dun...

Pubic louse falls victim to eager Brazilian strippers

Brazilian Deforestation leads to unexpected consequences

Paris Hilton, becase we've seen she does...

BT's shock new wheeze: Make phone calls from smartphones

People still have landlines? How extravagent!

It's JUST possible, but Apple MIGHT not make an iWatch in 2013

Re: needs shake-up in own apps

Rubbish, the Camera app works better in Landscape, allowing you to use a physical button to take the photo.

2013: No sign of flying cars, but Orange mobes will get black ice

Hang on, this is actually good, not bloatware

The basic lookout is not that bad.

Whilst I appreciate that organge (and t-mobile) routinely put bloat on phones, this is actually a decent idea!

Super-thin iMacs WILL be here for Xmas, cram warehouses even NOW

WIth the power of the mac mini, and the advantage of a seperate monitor, there is now very little reason to get an Imac. Before you had to, as the mini wasn't powerful enough and the pro was a fortune. Now the imac makes no reasl sense.

Judge drops TV ad-block block: So how will anyone pay for TV now?

Why not go with the Amazon model.

Do you want your TV to cost £100 more, and show no adverts, or £100 less and show adverts?

Sky for free with more adverts, Sky for £100 a month no adverts.

I got fed up with paying sky and seeing adverts, so I don't have sky, or Virgin for that matter, I don't care about the freesat/freeview adverts, as I'm not paying to see them...

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7in Android tablet review

Re: It depends upon what your 'use case' is.

But for your usecase, a Nexus 7 does all that, PLUS more, for the same money.

The only plus of the hd is slightly better/bigger screen.

Much much better speakers, for those very few times you're not going to be on headphones.

Have to agree

My 2 32GB ones have gone back and another Nexus 7, perhaps the cellular one will be joining the 16gb nexus 7 in our house.

Too heavy and too wide for childrens use.

Too limited for adult use.

The fact that it was cheaper than a Nexus gave it a head start, but it's lost that advantage now.

Ailing Comet at last prayers: Cawing of accountants and VCs fills air

Re: Not how it's done.

Except with the internet, you can get next day....

Not how it's done.

Apple (whoa there haters, lets talk just about the stores) have shown how retail can be done successfully. Nice place to shop, Easy place to shop, lots of ability to try before you buy, and get hands on. Plus in apple's case there is not an undercut in the products online. Main issue with Comet/Dixons/Curry's etc etc is that they don't add ANY value. Their staff tend to know very little about the products and be very un-interested in selling them (and why should they they are on low pay, however they may find that was preferable to a closed down comet) The store does very little to help. Aside from some TV's all playing the same video, which 9 times of out 10 they can't tell you how it's getting there (is it hdmi?) and is not something you can compare from one tv to another, there is very little to be able to use in the store that adds to actually going there. Want a washing machine today, great you can't have one, all the ones in the store they can't sell, and the one you want is on 2 weeks back order....any value add there? Can you ring the store and ask this? Well you can if you can fight your way through endless 0870 IVR..hmm any value? Demo's can I go and see an android tablet being demonstrated, nope. Hoover? nope....So perhaps someone in these bricks and mortar stores needs to think why I, or any other consumer would want to go into one? Hint, it's not to place an order on a PC in the store, with someone who types more slowly than I do by a factor of 10, and who won't allow me to compare to 100 other stores for delivery/price at the same time. If I can do that in my Lunch break, I'm not going to waste my time coming to your stores.

So if there is no reason to go to the store, then guess what...people won't..

Fans' loyalty questioned as iPhone popularity plummets

Re: Boring

There's three things which have *hurt* iPhone sales:

1. Maps (really have you tried it? Didn't think so it's ok, so was goole maps) Try Economy down the drain.

2. Perceived lack of innovation from the 4S to the 5/ And that would be about the same as the S2/S3 so doesn't really count - Lets try lightning connector, need to replace lotsof still useable kit, and £25 for a connector/adaptor that should have had a couple in the box.

3. Android devices have got *damn* sexy (really name one? Hint the S3 is not sexy, it's white/black plastic) Here's a proper 3 for you, Android devices have gone from cheap shite (anyone remember the Walmart $70 Android coaster that every tech site pulled apart as it was so bad that touches took over 30 seconds to register?) to ok shite. http://android.dcemu.co.uk/50-dollar-android-tablet-at-walmart-492655.html

Same with cheaper android phones. HTC Wilfire - utter shite. T-mobile vivacity..ok. needs modding and all sorts to make it useable, but it's not utter shite.

Who knows may be next year we'll see really really good devices. But so far the nexus 7 (great device great price) nexus 10...oops that's going to show up the sd apps ever more now...nexus 4...if it's really £239 sim free, well that's tempting.

Google needs to sort out it's app store.

However it's promblem is this big..

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4fb3df97ecad04ef32000003-610-/android-fragmentation-chart.png

and getting bigger.

Re: Media loyalty is still extra strong

So all those TOMTOM devices...don't need GPS, wifi would do for them?

Nexus 7 makes a GREAT satnav.

Google now, works much better with gps (hint better location - more accurate)

There is really only one use-case for 3g/4g in a tablet and that's where someone else is paying for the data, so corporate email on the tablett. Other than that until network operators give family's pots of data that they can all use and free sims to acess that pot of data you are better off buying one set of data and using that for all devices when you are out of wifi range.

Battery life - get an external battery pac or a mifi if you like.

Saying that I might get a 3g nexus as for £30 it's not bad for emergencies..

Re: Empires Rise...

"and still has more functionality than the latest Apple device."

Remind me, how do you back up an android device again? You know so should you lose it and replace it with an identical one, you'd not lose an sms, emails, settings that kind of thing. Lets keep it even, no rooting, faffin, jail breaking, or any other faff just out of the box.....how does that work?

Samsung ships two smartphones for every one Apple sells

Re: "you even can pick them up on PAYG if you want."

Link please?

You can't work google?

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/choose-tariff/SAMSUNG_GALAXY_S_3/PPAY/NEW

Amazon ships Kindle Fire HD, Paperwhite to Brits

Arrived yesterday, not impressed

There seems to be quite a lot of issues with it, that should have been ironed out when it was available in the UK, support teams are a bit "we only get it yesterday..."

Screen is noticeably brighter and larger than the nexus, but the device as a whole is also much bigger and heavier.

£199 32GB KFHD vs £199 16GB Nexus 7, KFHD wins.

However if the rumours are true, and the new nexus 32gb is £199, then I'd go for the nexus, it does more, is more portable (if you don't want portable, when why bother with a 7" tablet) and is easier to use one handed.

Re: Datasheets on "Paperwhite"

Where can you try one.

Amazon.co.uk funnilly enough, and if you don't like it, you can send it back free of charge up to 29 days later.

I asked Kobo if they were that sure of their product why I couldn't do likewise..guess that's why I have kindles...

No GPS in the iPad Mini Wi-Fi: People are right to criticise

Re: Why would anyone have a 3G tablet at all??

Have an up-vote, ab-so-bloody-lutely.

The only reason I can see for getting a data enabled tablet, is if someone else is paying for the sim for data use. Ala work email on a byod.

Other than that, you pay for the date on one device, and share it, not put your data into two pots, both of which you're paying for!

On the subject of no GPS, I assume the kindle fire hd will get a slating, as that doesn't have gps either and the nexus does...

Re: Apple use the GPS/GLONAS decoder in the 3G baseband chip

" If you tether it to an iPhone however then it gets access to the iPhone's GPS chip."

Since when?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3810027?start=0&tstart=0

http://johnmarshall4.tumblr.com/post/4061084217/debunking-the-wi-fi-only-ipad-tethered-iphone-4-gps

Hasn't worked since day 1, despite what daring firebollocks said.

Yes, but with apple olny certain, much more expensive ones work. I had an older BT GPS that worked fine with older Phones/laptops etc as a serial gps sender over BT, but wont' work with an IPad or ipod touch, and assumedly with an ipad mini.

Re: " There are two good reason for not buying an iPad Mini - Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7."

I'll tell you later, when I can compare the two. Nice thing about the kindle fire, is that you can trial it for 30 days.

Apple's iPad Mini mishap: scratching out the retina screen

It's kind of about the apps....

I've spent a reasonable chunk of change on apple ios apps, possibly slightly more than I did on Symbian ones, and Windows CE ones before. I kind of like the fact that I get more out of my apps, since some of them were bought, oo about 6 years ago.

However, having got a Nexus 7, as I wanted to try something a little more portable, I think it's a great bit of kit I've started to look at the Google and Amazon app stores. With the N7, the kids use it at home, so I don't have to fight over my ipad. However as more and more things move digital, it would make sense to get some English and Maths apps, and other educational apps (for 9-15 year olds) that would improve their maths, English, perhaps some physics, chemistr,y biology etc. However whilst there are loads on the Ipad/Iphone, there seems to be none on the android/amazon stores. So I could get the kids a couple of NExus's, or a couple of Amazon Kindle Fires, but unless all I want is them playing angry birds, it might have to be an ipad mini as the apps aren't there.

However being as I'm buying two of them, I'm looking at and lets compare apples with apples

2 x Ipad min 32gb 8gb is 269 so 16 is 369, 32gb is 469...whoops hang on, that's the same price as 2 Amazon Kindle FIre HD's. Which I know doesn't have NFC..(who cares) and doesn't have GPS..would be nice, but kids don't care.

So do I pay twice the price for 2 ipad minis, or just hope that someone realises that the Android app store needs improving and more educational apps...