Re: Surface Pro will also fail
Loving the downvoters here!
Once again El Reg's commentards prove themselves completely divorced from the real world.
Posts by technome
54 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Nov 2009
Microsoft's ARM blunder: 7 reasons why Windows RT was DOA
'I'm a PIRATE' confessions spew from OED iPhone dictionary
Thursday 15th November 2012 11:27 GMT
Re: Jailbroken phone?
Yes, indeed. There is an app, only available via jailbreak, called "installous". Its only purpose is to validate stolen software. As I understand things, it's the presence of this app that is being detected and used to trigger the tweets. So, even if the OED app has been paid for, the phone has been actively configured for piracy.
Now bring on the down votes...
Report: Microsoft to cop it from Brussels in Browser Choice affair
Wednesday 19th September 2012 11:50 GMT
Re: MS and not Apple......
I am truly amazed that people still don't understand why this only applies to Microsoft, rather than being an industry wide mandate.
The requirement to offer users a choice of browsers is not a matter of EU policy regarding computer software. It is a specific sanction imposed on Microsoft by the EU as part of the punishment that was handed down when they were found guilty of leveraging their monopoly in operating systems to attempt to establish one in browsers.
Any other company or organisation is free to bundle whatever they choose and, once Microsoft's time in the sin bin has been served, they will be free to do the same.
BeBook outs Kindle-beating e-book reader
Toshiba AT200 Excite
Jackpot: astronomers tag Goldilocks planet
Apple iPhone 4S grabs back ground lost to Android
Android Market tops 400,000 apps, climbing fast
Wednesday 4th January 2012 19:19 GMT 
It's not just fart apps...
There's malware and spyware, wallpaper "apps"; stolen re-branded "apps", stolen re-branded "apps" that are really wallpaper and stolen re-branded "apps" that are really malware in the Android Market.
The "gem-to-turd" ratio there is atrocious compared to Apple's store or it was last year when I used froyo for a couple of long, painful months.
Amazon Kindle Fire
US trade body rejects S3 'Apple nicked our IP' claim
San Diego Baywatch rules out exploding dead whale
Apple agrees to replace dodgy MacBook power cords
Apple expels serial hacker for publishing iPhone exploit
Tuesday 8th November 2011 20:22 GMT
Original article on forbes...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/11/07/apple-exiles-a-security-researcher-from-its-developer-program-for-proof-of-concept-exploit-app/
Quote: "Miller has found and reported dozens of bugs to Apple in the last few years, and had alerted Apple to this latest flaw on October 14th."
There's nothing wrong with my critical thinking, thanks...
Tuesday 8th November 2011 11:00 GMT 
The timing is everything in this story...
How long had Miller known about this bug? When did his app go live on the store? How long did it take for him to build his app and for it to progress through Apple's convoluted verification progress?
It's almost a certainty that he knew about the bug long ago, while iOS5 was still in beta, and yet he waited until 2 days after iOS5 had been released to the public before he informed Apple.
The man is, and always has been, a self-publicising arse. He has a track record of presenting his vulnerabilities such that Apple looks as bad as possible. However, this effort, deliberately placing malware on the app store and timing his report to Apple so that it was far too late for them to address his concerns, is low even by his standards.
Apple was OK to fire man for private Facebook comments
Thursday 3rd November 2011 12:11 GMT 
"Apple had in place a clear social media policy and stressed in their induction process that commentary on Apple products, or critical remarks about the brand were strictly prohibited."
I've been to an Apple recruitment event. Their policy in this regard was outlined in very clear terms right at the start.
Case closed.
Android grabs quarter of tablet market
Microsoft reports record revenue, lackluster Windows sales
Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO
Samsung's lovely illegal tablet: Why no one wants to know
Monday 15th August 2011 12:23 GMT
You need apps...
... and they need to be good ones. I mean they need to challenge Apple's flagship apps like Garageband and iMovie. But you're not going to get developers writing apps even close to that quality until there's a large customer base. And you're not going to get a large customer base until there's plenty of high quality apps.
See the paradox?
With phones, it wasn't a problem, as apps were considered (rightly or wrongly) to be secondary functionality and cheap Android phones sold in spite of the poor app-ecosystem. It was only once Android started gaining traction as a phone platform that an increasingly hungry market for apps led to developer interest. That's not happening with tablets and it's unlikely to change any time soon
Apple own this market now and, given their business nous and track-record for innovation, they're likely to maintain that ownership for the foreseeable future.
Mobile app malware menace grows
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Blu-ray extended edition
OS X Lion roars, coughs on appearance in App Store
Goodyear blimps to be replaced by German Zeppelins
Wednesday 4th May 2011 14:36 GMT
A bit confused...
"...but the United States, only source of bulk helium at the time, was understandably reluctant to supply Nazi Germany."
Why should that be?
We're talking 2 years before the start of WWII and 4 years before America was involved. There was no particular ill-feeling towards Germany from the US at the time and there were certainly no trade restrictions in place.
Kindle beats Apple's closed book on choice
Wednesday 20th April 2011 00:34 GMT 
Disingenuous, to say the least...
The reality is more complex than the author cares to admit.
Kindle purchases will only work on kindle apps, albeit on different platforms, and those kindle apps will not display DRM-free epubs. That is a very real attempt at a lock-down.
Non-DRM epubs, and there are increasing numbers of smaller publishing houses that are selling them, will work in many applications on many platforms, including iBooks on iOS.
My reader of choice, by a long chalk, is iBooks on the iPad but I won't buy books from there until Steve persuades the publishers that DRM-free is the way to go, as he did with music.
Until then, I'll frequent the smaller publishers. For example, Lightspeed Magazine has supplanted Analog as my regular SF quick-fix and, when I really need a mainstream title, I buy from amazon, strip the DRM and read it in iBooks.
The best sci-fi film never made: Also-rans take a bow
So, what's the best sci-fi film never made?
Friday 15th April 2011 15:08 GMT
It's got to be Iain M Banks' "Consider Phlebas'.
The opening scene; the attack on the temple; the fight under the hovercraft; the CAT shooting its way out of the small-bay; the ice-berg; taking an orbital down with grid-fire; the train. It's made for the big screen. It's the ultimate space-opera, with weird aliens, hyper-intelligent machines, rocket-ships and ray-guns. There's even a plot twist where the "evil" culture turn out to be the good guys (oops, spoiler, sorry).
But it doesn't stop there. Once the culture has been introduced, the sequel potential using it as a framework is fantastic; Excession, Use of Weapons; The Player of Games; Look to Windward...
And Iain's on record as saying that he wouldn't mind (too much) if they stapled a happy ending onto it. You know: Horza survives and sees the error of his ways; hooks up with Balveda, who recruits him into SC. Job done. Hollywood'll love it!
Judge hits police with massive bill over false Operation Ore charges
Monday 4th April 2011 12:28 GMT 
This is the bit that gets my blood boiling:
A spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said: "Legal advice was taken beforehand and it was advised and expected that we had a reasonable chance of winning our case."
They knew that they were wrong to prosecute against expert evidence in the first place and they knew that their prosecution had caused real damage to an innocent person and yet they still fought the case because they thought they'd get away with it.
How fucking dare they...
Steve Jobs vindicated: Google Android is not open
Asda slashes Samsung tablet price
UK iPad 2 to cost under £400
Cyberwar hype is obscuring real security threats
Google plugins force-feed open codec to IE and Safari
Turing papers could be saved after auction fail
Angry Birds tweet fury at Redmond
Michael Dell snubbed by quarter of his shareholders
Google dubs Oracle suit 'attack on Java community'
Vodafone upsets customers with upgrade downgrade
Wednesday 4th August 2010 11:49 GMT
Where did you get the idea that android was about open?
Oh, that's right. You read it on teh interwebs. It must be true then.
Bollocks. Android is only about getting the carrier's crap onto your phone; getting google's ads onto that crap and then siphoning your data off for sale to the highest bidder (and the lowest bidder, and pretty much everyone in between). That's the real revenue stream for both the carriers and google. All that talk about openness is just so much camouflage.
Give me the honesty behind the iPhone every time. At least I can see where Apple gets their revenue from and decide how much of their curated ecosystem I buy-into.
Steve Jobs denies Judas Phone antenna problems
Friday 16th July 2010 21:26 GMT
If trolls ate soup...
"Waiter, I don't like the soup. I want you to make it better."
"This is the best we can make it. Perhaps we can offer you some salt."
"I paid good money for this soup. It should taste good without salt."
"I'm sorry. 99.5% of people love the soup but we want everyone to be happy so we'll give you a full refund on your meal."
"I don't want a refund. I want a better soup."
"We're trying the best we can and the soup is as good as it's going to get."
"then I'll just sit in your restaurant and whine until I get the soup I want without salt."
Apple's iPhone 4 denial: insulting or ignorant?
Safari 5 off to Apple's traditional rough start
Drinking coffee offers no real benefit, say eggheads
Don't try to sleep with your iPad, doctor warns
Microsoft's unveils 'social' phone for Boho hipsters
Sure Signal not so sure
Wednesday 24th March 2010 09:50 GMT
Maybe an isolated case...
... but everything's just fine and dandy with mine.
My flat's in a courtyard off the street (not as desirable as it sounds, BTW) and so there are a huge number of walls for any signal to punch through. I get no reception from any of the networks in the middle of a sizeable town.
I tried a signal amplifier but ,without access to the roof, the improvement was hardly noticeable. A femtocell is the only answer in my case and my SureSignal hasn't missed a beat since I installed it 3 months ago.
Claiming that "one is effectively paying twice for the connectivity (once for the broadband, once for the cellular)" is somewhat disingenuous. The cost of my broadband has been unaffected by the addition of a femtocell.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
