Posts by Bill 2

HERE: We're still, er... HERE

Alternatives?

I've always used Here Drive + to get me around - due to the fact I'm - more often than not - in the middle of nowhere and don't have any sort of signal let alone a data connection. Here Drive + was the only reason I went to Windows Phone from Android - I liked my old Nexus 4 - but it was useless without a signal. The Lumia 635 has navigated me around Europe and beyond without any fuss, bother or expense and I have felt very smug about not having to buy a dedicated sat nav unit - which would cost more than the £69 I paid for the Lumia.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what might make a good replacement for the Lumia 635 / Here Drive + combo?

Moto E pops up with £89 price tag – alongside new LTE Moto G cuz

Lumia 625

I picked up a Lumia 625 for £119 Sim Free from phones 4 u (they seem to have put the price back up to £124 now) and I like it better than my old android phones because I don't have to rely on a data connection for so many things. Sat Nav maps are downloaded to the phone, I bought a 64Gb memory card so all my music is on that rather than Google Play Music (which I quite liked when there was a wifi connection) and the 625 just seems more geared up to work without a data connection than Android phones.

Microsoft: The MORE Surfaces it sells, the MORE money it loses

confused

Sorry - I realise I'm missing something but can someone explain to me (very slowly and patiently) why isn't it a $45 million and $300 million loss rather than $45000 and $300000 loss?

BT finally admits its Home Hub router scuppers some VPN connections

I left BT for a very similar reason. Some new neighbours went with BT an got a HH4 and from the day it was installed we experienced drop outs and poor connections on our HH2. Phoned BT about it and they told me I would either need to buy a new router or they would send me one but only if I signed up to a new 12 month contract.

Poor customer service winds me up to boiling point so I had to leave BT for the sake of my own dignity.

Orange San Diego Intel-based Android phone

When did the title become optional???

No SD means it's not as easy to experiment with different ROMs although maybe Orange think that is a good thing? Even without that fact, I have a lot more than 16GB of media and it's just a bit of a faff deleting songs, video's in order to put new ones on. Much easier to swap out the SD cards.

I still have the original San Francisco (running ICS - albeit a little slower than the more modern phones) and was thinking about getting a newer phone around this price point for xmas but it wont be the San Diego. I don't want to wait around for an ICS update when JB is due out any day, and I really want the hardware to be as compatible as possible with as much as possible. I suspect (based on no technical knowledge whatsoever) that stripping out the Orange bloatware, rooting, unlocking and generally making the phone your own is going to be much harder on this than ARM phones?

Blighty laid bare as historic aerial snaps archive goes online

Nope

Not working again. I will leave it a few months and come back when all the fuss has died down I think.

Archos G9 101 8GB Android tablet

For your own sakes please don't make the same mistake I did

and buy anything from Archos. You will regret it - perhaps not immediately; but, like Vic, you will at some point realise that your purchase is a little disappointing and you should have spent your money more wisely with a company that looks after its customers a little better.

Xperia Play gets UK debut date

Knowing Sony

They will remove the ability to make a voice call 6 months after its been released on the grounds that it might compromise the security of the device.

Virgin offers unlimited action for a fiver

I am absolutely stunned to be agreeing with this comment

But brightemo is correct - I have been with giffgaff for 3 months now and a £10 "goody bag" every month is all I need. I was with Orange before and managed to get through £30 of credit in a month. Before that it was Voda but they were also way more expensive. I live out in the sticks and reception is not bad - its not great but it equals voda which is the only other alternative out here.

I dont usually endorse anything as I usually manage to find something about any company that I dont like but I have to admit giffgaff deliver the cheapest and in my opinion best service I have had from any operator (they dont have a service centre - you have to post a question on their forum to get any support but it seems to work well - although I have only needed to ask one question so far).

Judge guts suit against Sony for killing Linux in PS3

Yup YellowDog wasn't bad

I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagination but I enjoyed mucking around with Linux on my fat old Ps3. I dont know why other people didnt like it - it was simple enough - even for me and it was also useful - at the very least you could browse the internet properly without using the pathetic PS3 browser, but it could also be used for so much more.

I agree with Storng - I wont buy any more Sony stuff and I will discourage as many people as I can from buying their stuff. It wont make any difference of course - Sony have never given a damn about the people that buy their products - but at least I will feel a bit better about not giving my money to such a shit wipe of a company.

If anyone has any suggestions of good companies that produce decent electronics equipment I would be very grateful. It seems to be the way of the world now that most companies are shit and getting worse every year.

'Race against time' to find LOST TREES from the MOON

Erm...

That wasn't quite as exciting as I thought I had been led to believe.

PSP 2 'as powerful as PS3'

I wont be buying one

having been pissed off by Sony time and time again, but I was wondering whether it had a HDMI out? Not sure about the length of HDMI cable people would need to connect it to their HD TV's but if its a portable PS3 then would it be possible to use it as a full time PS3?

Motion Computing outs Windows slate

£825

Made me laugh anyway.

Archos 43 16GB Android PMP

completely agree

I actually have an Orange San Fran and it beats this Archos hands down. I have sworn never to buy anything from Archos since I bought an AV500 from them years ago. Customer support is non existent, they want you to pay for codecs and the very worst thing is that the AV500 still has some bugs on it that were there when I bought it because Archos never seem to bother about updates, or bug fixes.

Please dont buy anything from Archos - you will only end up regretting it.

T-Mobile imposes swingeing cuts on fair use data limits

Mr Smug from Smuggingham Terrace, Smugshire

Just got an Orange San Francisco for xmas. Unlocking it to any network took about 30 seconds by searching google, debranding the Orange crap and putting Froyo on it took about an hour (I am slow).

Its a fantastic phone - even though I didnt manage to get an AMOLED one (they have changed them to LCD screens now) and I have a giff gaff sim card in there where I pay £10 pm for unlimited internet, 250 minutes and (cant remember how many) texts.

Happy and smug.

BT promises biggest ever rural broadband project

That is some big chip on your pasty munching shoulder

What happens when all the "fuck wits" have had kids and their kids have had kids etc etc? Do they become "real cornish" like you or stay "fuck wits"? When did your "fuck wit" ancestors arrive in pasty land?

Orange outs budget Android 2.1 handset

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits

This is now getting to the point where i might actually buy one - please do some comparison reviews of cheap assed android phones soon eh Reggie?

Google slaps malware warning on Radio 3 website

another one on working mums

www.workingmums.co.uk also has a malware warning on google. Maybe they're the wrong kind of working mums or working mums "gone bad"?

Dixons sales ain't all that

Maybe it's because

they're shit?

Garmin Asus Nüvifone M10

Agree with AC

I would never buy anything from Garmin. Their support is equally as shit as Archos and like Archos all they want to do is grab your money, then grab some more money, then try again for even more money.

'Martin Mills you are a LEGEND!'

Couldn't agree more

I would argue that if a musician gave up being a musician because they couldn't make any money from it then they were never really motivated by music - just money. I would also argue that this is probably one of the main reason's why the music industry isn't making as much money as it would like. Constantly manufacturing bands that churn out bland ditty's designed to try to appeal to as many people as possible has cheapend music in general as it no longer has any creativity, certainly no longevity and is therefore no longer as valuable to people. It's the complete lack of integrity within the music industry as a whole - from the manufacturing of the bands to the marketing to the actual music being produced - that devalues the music to a point where people are no longer willing to pay for it.

Back in the 1970's / 1980's I would spend a huge percentage of my weekly income on records and CD's. This was mainly because the music industry had complete control over every aspect of the music they released and could charge whatever they liked. They liked to charge a lot. They got used to being very rich and somewhere along the line managed to convince everyone that they were entitled to their vast wealth because "producing music video's was so expensive" and the music "industry" provided jobs to "thousands" of people. I'm not convinced that even in those heady days there were more than a few horrible "Our Price" cashiers, some psychotic recording engineers and perhaps a couple of people who worked in a vinyl factory who actually depended on the music "industry" for their incomes. Most of the money they made seemed to go straight into the hands of a very few people who became incredibly wealthy - and who are still incredibly wealthy.

The fact that they have now lost some of their control and possibly some of their profits I think can only be of benefit to the industry. Take away the vast amounts of money and the music industry might regain some of its integrity. It would be great if musicians created music because they enjoyed creating music and not just because they wanted huge amounts of money.

BT rolls out new, 'competitive' consumer deals

Could someone point me in the right direction

to get away from BT as fast as possible?? The problem is i'm in a rural location with a line that will only support 1mb download maximum and no chance of any fibre coming my way for at least 10 years. Despite this I actually do manage to watch iplayer and play a fair bit of online COD MW2 on the PS3 so BT's download limits and stupid prices (as well as their rubbish support and complete general ineptitude) really grind my gears. Ideally i would like a phone and broadband package but Talk Talk add £15 pm for some reason beyond my understanding (something to do with having to pay BT for something?) and I dont fancy Primus because they have phoned me twice despite my TPS status and I had to shout at them. Any other suggestions would be most welcome

Q-Waves Wireless USB AV Kit

Nice but limited

I can actually see the appeal of this product but it just has too many limitations for my needs - the line of sight requirement being the main one. I completely agree that it will be useful for business and training purposes but I really want something that will (for example) use my existing wireless network to connect my PC (in the bedroom) to the TV (in the lounge). I dont really want to go down the wireless streamer route because I would like the full functionality of my PC on my TV and I also dont want to hook up a media type PC to the TV because I want to keep all my files in one place (i.e. on the PC I have in the bedroom).

Anyone got any ideas?

Windows XP on netbooks to lose life support?

I dont get it

All the netbooks that ship with Windows 7 at the moment seem to ship with the Starter edition (or am I missing something?). Are MS seriously thinking that people who want to buy a small cheap computer are going to want to shell out extra money to upgrade a deliberatley crippled starter edition OS to the Home Premium edition?

I have to admit the whole starter edition malarkey goes way over my head anyway. It seems to me that with XP on your netbook you had a fully functioning unrestricted (relatively) OS that has now been replaced by one with limited functionality and very silly restrictions (i.e. not being able to change the wallpaper - what the hell is that all about???).

I think the next netbook I buy will probably have Linux installed rather than buggering around with this Starter Edition nonsense. I must be one of those very few people who seem to only use a netbook for web surfing or occasional google docs. Cant think of one thing I use the netbook for that I wouldn't be able to do with Chrome or Ubuntu.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet Android-based PMP

I think the others have said it all

I have an Archos AV500 and was quite pleased with it when i bought it, but the support is completely non existent (and at times non sensical) and the firmware updates dried up even before the newer models appeared on the market.

The company itself seems to sacrifice integrity in order to squeeze every last penny from its customers and then drop them quicker than a hot potato. It's a shame but I will not buy anything from Archos again. I would prefer to find an honest company that I could feel some loyalty towards. I dont think Archos will have much of a future as a company based on the amount of negative feedback they recieve.