Posts by RyokuMas

App Store ratings mess: What do we like? Sigh, we dunno – fanbois

Four days? Bah, Windows Phone developer dashboard is manages that sort of downtime on a frighteningly regular basis!

Microsoft: Surface is DEAD. Long live the Surface 2!

Let's see:

"Windows 8. No thanks. Definitely no, thanks. No, no, no, no." - sounds like a knee-jerk "I hate Microsoft" reaction.

"Price: no thanks" - fair enough.

Re: Fake reviews

Fanatics come in all flavours... unfortunately!

One of last few iPhone 5Ss STOLEN from within MASSIVE POLICE CORDON at Apple Store

What was the victim's name?

Does he exist? Or is this all a big PR stunt?

Mine's the one with the tinfoil hat in the pocket... :)

Nokia Lumia 1020: It's an imaging BEAST... and it makes calls too

"Preordered mine with Three last week so getting the camera grip, charging plate, wireless charger and tripod thrown in for free."

... but now you're on "the list" with Three. Wouldn't go back to them if you paid me.

Re: Seriously...@Jemma

" I'm sure MS will be bribing app developers to offer their wares into the Winpho app store"

Hahahahahahahaha stop it, you're killing me!

Okay, $19/year subscription is a big improvement on $99 (as long as it lasts), but the developer center is falls over more regularly than an Essex girl after an all-night chardonnay binge - this not only makes it difficult to accurately track downloads, it also can crucify a newly launched app through zero exposure in the marketplace if the timing is bad. Plus the primary in-app advertising offering (bing ads) is piss-poor, frequently having no ads to serve and microscopic returns.

Microsoft have a lot of learning to do when it comes to supporting developers...

Microsoft: Surface a failure? No, it made us STRONGER

Re: We know what they haven't learned.

"Will they learn to respect developers?"

Not if Pubcenter is anything to go by...

BlackBerry BLOODBATH! Company warns of nearly $1bn quarterly loss

Re: Ouch.

*Sigh*

Kodak didn't realise that the world had moved on and suddenly collapsed. Blackberry appears to be in the same state.

Here's hoping the same thing happens to all those who post the usual knee-jerk anti-Windows-Phone comments without having any kind of argument to back their opinions up beyond "It's Microsoft"...

Windows Phone overtakes Apple's market share ... in India

Re: Trolls

"...many of us who want to avoid them ever getting any form of traction in other markets out of fear of the same things happening again."

... and all the while not giving two hoots about the fact that the market leader in this sector is built on the foundation of gathering and selling as much data about you as possible. So concerned about Microsoft's past that you don't see Google becoming the new Microsoft....

Nokia's 41Mp Lumia 1020 'launches' in UK - but hoi polloi must wait

RE: Out of curiosity...

"are you put off by the actual UI, the availability of particular apps, or the online services that winPho works well with?"

In many cases, none of the above - it's usually a knee-jerk reaction to the fact it has Microsoft/Windows on the box, often backed up by some excuse about number of apps, using a "walled garden" model (which always makes me laugh when I think about piracy/malware problems), lack of a particular service, or some hazy or uncertified review that has been "read somewhere" about how "Android is better".

You know - the same kind of behaviour that when applied in a pro-Microsoft manner earns the poster the label of "shill".

Each mobile operating system has its pros and cons - FACT. Windows Phone market share is growing in the UK - FACT. Android has the highest market share worldwide at the moment - FACT. Competition is healthy for business and the customer - FACT.

All you people who feel the need to get tribal about phones, get over yourselves. Honesty, it's like being back at school and listening to kids arguing over whether the ST or the Amiga was "better".

ZTE Open: This dirt-cheap smartphone is a swing and a miss

Re: Underpowered hardware doesn't mean the OS is shit....

"I was agreeing with you up to the point where you lost all credibility by calling Android shit. How is it shit? You've had a bad experience therefore it is shit? Sorry but while that is going to be your opinion based on your experience it doesn't mean that it is shit in general."

Why not? There are those who say that Windows Phone is shit (probably) without even having had the bad experience (http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/09/13/lumia_1020_launches_in_uk_but_wait_goes_on/), so why isn't someone else allowed to say the same of Android?

The REAL winner of Microsoft's Nokia buy: GOOGLE

Re: Billion Android Phones.

"Any developer not targeting Android as their primary device cares about getting some return for their efforts"

Fixed it for you.

Xbox One launch date REVEALED - and it's on the 360's birthday

Congratulations!

You owe me a new keyboard. And table. And everything else that just got caught in the spray of coffee :)

Microsoft's $7.1bn Nokia gobble: Why you should expect the unexpected

Re: Implosion imminent at Microsoft

"one of the biggest failures in history of Microsoft"

You mean the one that's currently doing rather well in a number of countries - admittedly not the US, but still...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/03/iphone_rises_android_slips_in_us_uk/

Re: Microsoft need to change

Be vewwy vewwy quiet... I'm hunting Eadons...

+1 for spotting the copy-pasted anti Microsoft rant and giving me a smile on a crappy sleepless night.

iPhone rises, Android slips in US, UK

+1 for not being blinded by OS/corporate tribalism

Re: The lumia range sure beat Android landfill

2013 - approx 3 years after Windows Phone was launched: Approximately 170,000 apps available.

2011 - approx 3 years after Android was launched: Approximately 135,000 apps available.

It's remembering that Android started a) two years earlier than Windows Phone and b) had an empty market space (no real low-budget competition) that separates the impartial from the fandroids.

Sources:

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Windows-Phone-Store-hosts-170000-apps_id46335

http://www.gsmarena.com/android_market_has_more_free_apps_than_apple_app_store-news-2572.php

Re: I *like* widows phone

"My (continued) grumble about WP8 is lack of apps" - Then get developing!

Microsoft is all too aware of the lack of apps for the WinPhone - which probably explains why the "summer break" rate of $19 for a year's developer subscription has been extended. The tools you need are all free, and I've found that if you go through local channels rather than their main forum, they are all too happy to help promote independently developed apps - since 2011, I've had nine game launches, at least two thirds of which have been given prime-spot promotion on the Marketplace.

It's currently a developer's market - if there's an app you're after, get out there and make it!

Re: I wonder if it's straightforward role reversal

JDX - you don't happen to work for Microsoft Advertising do you? I only ask, because your comment is their normal copy-pasted email response for any enquiry a developer makes as to why their in-app ad revenue has dropped (again)... pretty much verbatim!

Give us a break: Next Android version to be called 'KitKat'

"Do No Evil"...

... my arse! As far as I know, the Nestle boycott is still going on after what? nearly 40 years?

At least it gives me a laugh - everybody hurling abuse at Microsoft, not realising that Google - the entity that many champion for Microsoft's de-thronement - is rapidly becoming as bad. And so the wheel turns...

Boffins' keyboard ELECTROCUTES Facebook addicts

Re: This would be a scathing post about self-discipline

... but it's just not the same without Eadon to ridicule...

Now your iPhone apps can be FAT losers: Apple gobbles data diet upstart

Patent wars, round [x]:

I guess this is the equivalent of pre-fight trash talking...

Three axes data-roaming fees in SEVEN countries

Bet they still use the same watchdog-endorsed debt collectors though!

Eggheads turn Motorola feature phone into CITYWIDE GSM jammer

Re: Useful Targeted Attack?

Blocking prisoners' mini-mobes, perhaps?

Why Teflon Ballmer had to go: He couldn't shift crud from Windows 8, Surface

"Blown tens of billions of dollars on online ads"

If Pubcenter is anything to go by, they'd have been better off investing in ads via skywriting

Did Google's Waze gobble run rivals off the road? UK watchdog starts probe

Too bad...

... that so many people are so tied up with their hatred for Microsoft that they can't see that it's happening all over again with Google... and so the cycle will continue.

Ten top new games for phones ’n’ slabs

Re: Freeze!

All of them are free on the Android - provided you know the right torrent links for the pirated copy...

A single company is responsible for 1 out of 4 BlackBerry apps

Re: Could be much worse

Don't go there.

The system that handles download stats is falls over more regularly than a premier league striker in the penalty box. This then knocks onto discoverability, as download stats are used in the calculation. So if you launch your app, then the stats system goes down, your app is recorded as having an average of zero downloads for the length of the outage, and winds up going straight to the bottom of the list.

Similarly any download increases from, say, promotional work you do that coincides with one of these outages counts for nothing.

There have been a lot of pissed off developers on the forums about this - myself included - and the last thing Microsoft need to do at the moment is upset the people willing to develop for the WInPhone - especially considering that cross-platform tools like Monogame and Unity mean that alternative platforms are only a few hours work away...

Re: Could be much worse

When I was in my early teens, I remember all the kids being tribal over the Atari ST/Amiga divide, never missing an opportunity to have a dig at the other side, no matter how small the opportunity.

Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same...

Japan's unwanted IT workers dumped in 'forcing-out rooms'

Re: How strict are gun laws in Japan ?

RIdiculously strict AFAIK - #1 murder weapon is the kitchen knife.

Re: browses the web and reads books all day...

Skilled IT workers put in a room with computers and web access with no assigned task? I'd be running a startup on company time within weeks!

Microsoft cuts number of countries that will have Xbox One by Christmas

Re: So in other words....

That makes Microsoft no different from anywhere else though...

Xbox 180: Microsoft scraps mandatory Kinect policy

Backpeddle, backpeddle, backpeddle...

The amount of reversals Microsoft is making on this is starting to make me think that the XBone will actually be just the 360 in a different box!

ZTE to flog Firefox OS mobe worldwide via eBay

Re: It's a phone, it's not an iPhone, it's not a Windows phone

"I especially want one if there's an SDK."

With an HTML-based OS, I have a nasty feeling that it will mean javascript - which means I for one won't be going anywhere near it.

Waiting for a Windows Phone update? Let's talk again next year

Re: Growth.

When you're utterly indoctrinated with a concept, it's really easy to rant about your views, it's however meaningless, as only balanced arguments backed with evidence count.

It's a shame some people can't think for themselves, it seems.

Next year... if there's any developers left by then.

As stated by Phoenix50 - it's such a shame that Microsoft seem to be so blase about the whole thing. I've been writing games for the WinPhone since mid 2011 - Nokia have been absolutely fantastic in supporting what I've done, but Microsoft? Well, since I started out, they canned XNA, their advertising platform (pubcenter) is little more than a joke, their categorisation has been swapped around more than once, their stats system is regularly down, and their explanation/information on any problems is near to non-existent.

The stats system is the real problem, as this also directly affects app rankings. For example, if a developer is unfortunate to launch an app at the start of a stats outage, they will be reported as having zero downloads for the duration of the outage - this can cause brand new apps to fall out of the rankings without a trace!

Needless to say, there's a lot of irate developers on the MS forums at the moment, and a lot of rumbling about swapping to iOS and/or Android as a result. The irony is that thanks to MIcrosoft's canning of XNA and the subsequent rise of cross platform frameworks such as Monogame and Unity, this has become easier than ever (a bit of careful base-code set-up and porting from WinPhone to Android in Monogame takes me about 15 minutes!).

Microsoft really need to get their act in gear and start supporting their developers better - they only way they can get anywhere in the mobile arena is to play the long game, and for that they need to keep people on side.

Google shields open source cloud tech from patent trolls

Too bad...

... they can't shield Android developers from pirates

Web ad giant (Google) pops Adwords into Maps for iOS and Android

Re: Note to commentards

@James Hughes 1 - Well said, and very true! Too many people seem to think that everything they use on their phone should be free.

Android approaches 80% smartphone share as Apple's iPhone grows old

Re: Instead

"Which one are you going to write for? 80% of the market or something smaller?"

Actually, I'd go for the one with the lowest levels of piracy: http://www.occasionalgamer.com/2013/08/06/download-numbers-and-piracy/

Thankfully, Monogame makes porting cross-platform a breeze.

The Yawhg vs XCOM: Enemy Unknown. How small devs can win against the big boys

Indie is the only way

The great Jeff Minter says it best in the documentation for his old 90s title Llamatron - the men in suits have created the AAA games industry and are afraid to break from the formula in case their risky new title bombs. But people are tired of paying 60quid for the latest version of the same game with different cutscenes and now - especially with strong, easy-access mobile platforms and the advent of open consoles such as the OUYA - indies are filling the gap. Yes, there's a lot of dross out there - but nobody's being forced to buy it. And at the end of the day, Angry Birds and Minecraft were not written by EA or their ilk.

INVASION of the UNDEAD ANDROIDS: Hackers can pwn 'nearly all' devices

Yeah, what happened to Eadon while I've been out of things? I saw all his posts got deleted - did he finally get himself banned?

Over ONE-THIRD of PCs will have SSDs in 2017 - analyst

Re: Hang on, will people still be buying PCs then?

Citation?

... thought not.

Coke? Windows 8 is Microsoft's 'Vista moment'. Again

Re: Alternating Succuess

@ISYS: "I would love to know how I ended up with four thumbs down"

Very simple: you suggested that at least some Microsoft products were anything other than terrible. So that'll be automatic downvotes from:

- Eadon

- Shagbag

- Bob Vistakin

- Barry Shitpeas

Enjoy your pint

Re: "...It's just you really have to work at it."

They could still fall further... I've yet to come across the pro-Microsoft equivalent of Eadon...

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

Re: Once again...

@NinjasFTW:

"I think a lot of people have a world view of opensource that is a decade old."

That's because - from what I see here at least - we seldom get anybody on here posting any decent explanation of why open source is so great - normally it's a few cursory lines to justify a massive "let's slag off Microsoft" rant.

Whatever...

I've been using Win8 for the last couple of months... maybe it's because of how I configure, but I can't see what all the fuss is about, apart from aesthetics.

Okay, boot-to-desktop: granted, I'd like to see that. Although it's only a Win+D away when I start my machine.

But everything else? Meh. Pretty much everything I use has a shortcut on my desktop and is just a double-click away. I don't need a start screen or a start button, really.

If I wanted to, I could quite easily switch those shortcuts to all be available from my start screen - but a) I'm too lazy and b) I don't like the auto ordering. Similarly, anything new I install automatically dumps an icon onto the start screen which can be transferred to where I want it on my desktop in moments.

Nope, the only reasons I use Win8 at all is because I can develop WP8 and Android versions of my games in parallel. The metro apps stuff hanging off the back is just bloat from where I sit.

Nokia teases world+dog with snap of new 4G Lumia 928

Re: Meh

Ask the good folks of Russia, India or Mexico that question...

First, the bad news: EA bags Star Wars games rights

Hmmm...

"Episode 7: The DRM Menace"

"Episode 8: The Content (price) Wars"

"Episode 9: Revenge of the Downtime"

...

Star Trek: The original computer game

Re: The good old days of type-in listings...

Brings back memories - my first games which were basically a "while" loop with a bunch of gosubs inside it...

Still made me a few quid!

Re: Oric-1

Nowadays, would the be "Droidons" or "WinPhons"?