Posts by Spearchucker Jones

Seize your moment, Microsoft: iPad is RUBBISH for enterprise

Huh?!?

How is Surface RT crippled? Possibly in the same way as iOS is when compared with OSX? Or in the way that Andoid compares with Chrome, or maybe with Linux?

That aside, assuming the developer has half a brain, development for W8 desktop and Win.x server apps is going to be defined by WinRT. This simply because the RT framework does less (in some areas) than the .NET Framework. For example you can do AES with a salt and an initialization vector in RT (as you can in .NET), but it won't encrypt or decrypt data from existing .NET apps because of API constructor restrictions*. The API differences are subtle, but the incompatibilities will that WT drives dev. Again, assuming the developers are worth what you pay them.

* Yes, it's stupid design from Microsoft, but it is what it is.

Google Nexus 7 Android tablet

I'll wait

...for a WinRT Surface. Sure it'll cost more, but it'll have more storage, an SD card slot, keyboard and not require a Google account.

Cut'n'paste UK launch for cut-price Motorola Android

Oh really?

Another new piece of hardware with software that's three versions behind v.current.

Will be interesting to see if the new master will change the status quo.

Android Trojan leaves 100,000 users out of pocket

Face palm

The numbers are scary. No doubt.

The fact that they're published in such a pretty infographic form by a security company with an anti virus app for sale is, well, funny. AV on Android is mostly useless because these apps are themselves subject to sandboxing, meaning they can't scan other app folders or system folders.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/104827-android-antivirus-apps-are-useless-heres-what-to-do-instead/2

Also, there are intrinsic platform design problems in Android, like allowing any app to copy photos without the user's permission. It's great that Google intended to emulate a PC experience, but what AV software is going to determine whether doing this is legit or not?!?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/android-photos/

What is the Nokia Secret Plan if Windows 8 isn't Windows gr8?

Re: Android apps have... @Paul Shirley

So you're suggesting that if I keep writing Windows Phone apps, but use the Mango (or even pre-Mango) tools I'll be ok? Because we know these run on Tango and Apollo (Windows 8).

This must be a good strategy right, because that's how you write apps for Android that target everything from version 1.5/6 all the way through to Jellybean.

Jesus, the circular logic Google apologists and fandroids will use to defend their little corner and shovel dirt onto anything that mentions Microsoft is... just crazy.

Paul, you might just save yourself some time by using Phonegap. Your apps will be no less hobbled. And then maybe go learn something from http://thecodelesscode.com/contents.

Re: Microsoft have said 100 times that windows phone 7.5 apps will work in in Windows 8?

Not sure what the big deal is either. Apps targeted at ICS or Jellybean don't run on 2.3 either, which has what, 50% share of the Android estate?

Oh wait, this is Microsoft, and Google is, like, soooo perfect innit.

Facebook phone app attempts to seize ALL YOUR MAIL

Simple.

Chuck the Android phone and get a Windows phone. It lets you uninstall all operator- or manufacturer-installed apps.

Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners

At a guess...

I'd say Surface is most likely to become useful at work.

Free tool inspects all your personal 'ware automatically

Re: Close, but no cigar

Fair enough.

Guess I'm stuck with the Windows non-out-the-box updating then, because I can't even get Linux installed. I rebuild my home PC on January 1st each year, and each January 1st I try install Linux just to see how that works out. So far it's bombed somewhere on install, every year. Guess each of these OS's have things that make one or the other a deal-breaker.

Re: Close, but no cigar

"...proper software repository that does everything for all software..."

What does that mean, exactly, i.e. what were you expecting? AFAICT it does what it claims to do.

Brits get to fondle Google Nexus 7 slab in just a fortnight

Re: Brain Dead design omissions 'to save costs', so poor value now.

*Why do you need storage when Google is giving you cloud storage?*

Because not all of us want our personal documents/images/email indexed by Google. Some of us like to retain a semblance of control.

Re: -1

Which makes everyone here who wants a Nexus a Google troll. YEAH.

Microsoft to open UK retail store early next year

Re: Cool?

To be fair, NOTHING can be worse than PC World.

Google wingmen rain Project Glass on San Francisco

Re: So.....

Not sure wearing a set is such a good idea when sleeping with someone. That's taking the data slurp (pardon the pun) to new heights (pardon the pun).

Microsoft's Surface plan means the world belongs to Android now

Re: Phonegap and Appcelerator

EXACTLY this.

Re: Mixing two stories doesn’t stop it being twaddle!

"Not on iOS and Android it's not - which is what this article is about."

That explains "Microsoft Surface" in the title.... and - wait for it - in the article. How silly of me.

Besides that, the fact it's on iOS and Android doesn't change it's early adopter status. Especially in the corprate world, where HTML5 might work on an iPhone, but not on the desktop. Do get a web app working everywhere you can code it up in HTML5, then again in HTML3, and spend twice as much than just opting for HTML3, which works everywhere.

You should move over to Silicon Valley. Those idiots also keep thinking they can "disrupt" old stalwarts like Craig's List by re-writing existing apps in HTML5.

Re: Mixing two stories doesn’t stop it being twaddle!

Agree with most of what you said. The exception is that HTML5 bit at the end. HTML5 is in the *very* early adopter phase. Unless you're using it to create native apps (PhoneGap) you're doing yourself no favours - it cuts out a significant proportion of potential users. In a Microsoft-oritented corprate world HTML5 is an even tougher proposition.

The other part that doesn't sit well me is this "move everything online" trend. Sure, it has it's place, 'specially for stuff like shopping, government services, content dissemination etc. However personal data lacks something in this wonderful world of everything online - what it lacks is user control and consent.

My stuff is on my own hardware. I don't share. And I sure as f*** don't put it online, no matter how shiny HTML5 looks.

WTF?!?

Another prediction. Yawn. It's right up there with climate change, father christmas and the whole world crapping its pants because only 6 months ago ZOMG teh Micro$oft is doing HTML5 and won't allow native code on Windows 8. Some of the comments on The Reg at the time were priceless.

We know how that particular panic panned out.

When I/you/we don't know what a company is bringing to market articles like this are 100% conjecture. My "feeling" is that W8 will destroy Android on tablets (to be fair there's not much there to destroy). But that statement carries as much weight as this article. None.

Microsoft's Surface proves software is dead

Re: Apple is more closed than Microsoft ever dreamed of being

CodePlex

Mayhem

ASP.NET Web API

Razor

ASP.NET MVC

Windows Azure SDK

Windows Phone Toolkit

Silverlight Toolkit

I, too, could go on.

Re: Software isn't dead...

Your complaint doesn't quite line up. You're saying software isn't dead, and then you have a go at lock-in, cost and licensing.

Those things are separate. Outlook might tank at the things you mention, but given the dismalness of available email clients, is still, from a *functional* perspective, the best email client around.

The business value of Outlook, both to MIcrosoft, and it's customers, is another matter entirely.

Finnish PM rules out Nokia rescue package

Re: upgrading existing handsets is impossible

And yet *any* old HTC HD2 runs 7.8 *today*, when it's not even available on WP7.5 devices yet.

http://www.slashgear.com/windows-phone-tango-leaks-ported-to-htc-hd2-16218736/

And I've now seen WP8 on a Lumia 800 and a 900.

Microsoft set to 'do a Nexus' with its Surface tablet

Re: A taste of things to come

It's an interesting state of affairs, isn't it? Apple is there. Google, as we know, did this with the Nexus. Then Microsoft all but guys Nokia, and Google does buy Motorola. Both Microsoft and Google are on a bit of an event horizon, where they're pretty free to tip the scales either way.

Regardless of phone/tablet OS (W8/Android), the likes of Acer/Samsung/HTC/Hauwei and, to an extent, even Dell, are not in what I'd call a stable or even sustainable place.

Microsoft's uncloaks Phone 8 developer preview

Re: "Phone 7 users won't be able to upgrade to Windows 8"

The store is hardly dire. Keep seeing a lot of new apps being added to the app store (have to say I hardly ever feel compelled to try them out - mostly because I don't care for ESPN, Grumpy Doves or the like on my phone).

I also write apps for WP7, and more recently for W8. When the dev tools come out for WP8 I'll move to that. Much like I moved from .NET 1.0 to 4.5.

I don't feel screwed over (I have a Lumia 800). I'd feel well screwed over if I bought a new Android handset today that didn't have ICS on it...

Re: "Phone 7 users won't be able to upgrade to Windows 8" @Phoenix50

Careful - the Android apologists are about to downvote us all ;-)

Surface: Because Microsoft does so well making hardware?

Re: "OEMs, please pay attention. This is how you build a PC.”

Sorry Barry, I just down-voted you. I try and grab my hand holding the mouse with my free hand, screaming, but the mouse-holding hand is stronger. And wins. Every time.

For what it's worth, the parallel you draw with the Xbox has no bearing on Surface. I'm not going further than that because making a counter point to any of your points is even more pointless than an IQ test for George W. Bush.

Apple, Samsung snatch smartphone biz booty

So HTC is dead? Sold fewer handsets than Nokia or RIM??

BYOD will cost a packet, warn experts

Re: BYOD

Your points are all valid. Only, they apply to the past.

First, you can make use of BYOD conditional. I'll leave the definition of "conditional" to legal types and address the part I know something about - data safety.

That one is a lot more straight forward. With an intelligently tiered and layered application you can protect anything you like. Throw a properly configured application firewall (Juniper, or Unified Access Gateway) in front of the web server and you can even whitelist URLs, URIs and GET, POST name/value pairs.

With a decent identity and access management strategy you can constrain access to individual apps, web pages, database records... I guess it helps if you create a service-based culture (talking about AJAX/REST/JSoN/SOAP/XML rather than helpdesk/filfillment QoS - which would benefit anyway) like Amazon has.

The technology exists. It's proven. A lot of it's also cheap/free, depending on your stack flavour. The cost of a decent architect that can design something coherent that has business legs will be no more than the rocket surgeon you hire to design and manage and polish the blinken lichten on your RDP/Citrix environment.

HTML 5 won't fix anything.

Makes me laugh how everyone's wetting their pants about HTML 5. Ever tried to build anything with it?

The first and biggest problem is that not every browser supports is (notably any version of IE other than 10). The next problem is that device support for HTML5 is even more patchy.

Lastly, HTML5 is a little more complex than HTML as we know it - more line XAML with code-behinds. The average enterprise dev might hack out a basic HTML page. It takes a start-up-type-hack to make it work with all devices, degrade gracefully for older browsers, and still remain functional and usable.

If you tell me that you're doing a corporate app using HTML 3/4 with CSS, JavaScript and AJAX I'd have a heap more confidence in its success.

Right now HTML5 is way too new, too big, and too nebulous to bet a BYOD strategy on - kinda like replacing an MQ Series app with Node.js.

US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet

Re: Wrong focus (@M Gale)

I'll say it up front - I'm a self-confessed, unredeemable Microsoft, Windows Phone and Windows 8 fanjob. I've have yet to see metrics for W8, but I know for a fact that Windows 7 is the most secure *off-the-shelf* OS ever built.

That said, I acknowledge that you can take an OSS Linux distribution and harden the crap out of it by removing everything except what's needed to perform the required task. So if I were willing to forgo flexibility and extensibility for security, *non-COTS* Linux is doubtedly more secure than Windows.

Google Maps adds aircraft, tricycles and skiers to cover all bases

More interested in what Apple's going to do.

AFAIK the only technology that competes with Google Maps is Navteq. Their data and their 3D maps are way better than Google's. If Apple goes with OSM it's going to take herds of work to bring iOS maps up to the Google/Nokia standard.

Dual-screen, detachable and Windows 8 star at Computex

Re: Android apps on Windows

I hope quickly. Microsoft have a hard enough time with malware on their own platforms.

Big Data is now TOO BIG - and we're drowning in toxic information

Re: Meh

Taleb's not a guy I'd quote in anything vaguely serious. He's managed to piss off pretty much every economist on the planet because they didn't predictict the crisis. The collapse of the American housing makret was an outlier. Duh. He's an idiot who thinks that because his Black Swan idea made some people rich on a one-in-a-million bet his theory had cred. It doesn't.

Outliers are acknowledged but dismissed because they're... um, outliers.

Windows 8 release preview imminent

Re: I can wait.

And what's wrong with Zune? It's the best music service I've ever used (and I've gone through many - from Napster to Spotify and back).

Google unleashes Chrome 19, flattens 20 bugs

test

just seeing how comments work from the Windows Phone app.

Nokia Lumia 900 WinPho 7 smartphone

Re: 75%? (@BarryShitPeas)

Doesn't this boil your blood? ;-)

http://wmpoweruser.com/official-the-register-app-now-available-in-windows-phone-marketplace/

Google+ dying on its arse – shock new poll

"Any suggestions for how Google can disentangle itself from Plus?"

Yes.

Leave it to die. Focus on Gmail(1) and Android(2).

(1). Gmail is a great service. The way to exploit that is to use extend it and reposition it and Google+ as an identity service, like Windows Live. Then, other than innovating around email, leave it, and rake in the advertising cash.

(2). Fix the fragmentation issue so that all devices, like iOS and WP, run the latest version. Add a music service a la iTunes/Zune. Heavily tie it into the Gmail-based identity service. Then, other than innovate on phone UI, leave it, and rake in the advertising cash.

Facebook starting to go big in Brazil. Hmm ...

Lol, relative. My meatspace life is in London. On Facebook I live in Monte Carlo.

Samsung sheds light on low-cost WinPho blower

Re: You've been Tango'd

The point of Tange is to capture emerging markets. That, and youngsters who can't yet afford something more expensive.

Apple's HTML5 bet against Android extermination

Re: True enough. @Cazzo Enorme

You chose your words wisely. *Can* run is appropriate. Unfortunately they *don't* run ICS. No operator does it, and HTC certainly doesn't.

You need to be a geek to do it. Don't spread ill informed crap.

Re: " While Apple is crushing competitors in the relatively new tablet market,"

Adroid 55%

iOS 45%

W8 ~1% or better?

= ~101% or more market size.

They should nominate you for a Pulitzer in rocket surgery or something.

True enough.

The iPhone 3GS, released in 2009 runs the latest version of iOS.

All Windows Phones released in 2010 run the latest version of Windows Phone.

Not a *single* Android device released in 2009 runs ICS.

So based on that I'll have a go at a shorter term prediction - Apple will continue to grow. So will Windows Phone. And (shock) so will Android.

Apple and Windows Phone are in a better place for short term growth because they stay relevant and current. Android will only grow because it's cheap. But that "cheapness" is about to be threatened by Tango. Tango specifically has legs because of Zune. There is no Google alternative to it or iTunes.

The next couple of years are going to be interesting.

MSFT kicks Chinese partner over security leak

Re: Head Dealers Enigmatic Autonomous Dilemma and Virtual Catch 22 Protection for Sanity, not Vanity

My head hurts.

LG: We're not walking away from Windows Phone

Re: The only way M$ will rescue Windows Phone

"...take iPhone and Android and a lot of it is bleeding edge..."

One word. PureView.

Another word. Muppet.

RIM shares take a bath after uninspiring BlackBerry 10 unwrap

Re: RIM have one last hope

Looool :-)

Re: There's room in the Last Chance Saloon... (@Barry)

So Barry tell me what constitutes the lesser nightmare for you? Windows Phone on a BB handset? Or Windows 8 on a BB Playbook?

Black Ops II to take gamers to open worlds... and destroy them

Re: Zombies?

Agreed. And it'd better be like Shi No Numa on Map Pack 2 of World At War, and not that crazy moon shit we saw in Black Ops (although Danny Trejo in Call of the Dead was pretty cool).

Windows Phone 7 'not fit for big biz ... unlike Android, iOS'

Re: Huh?

Irconically, one reason WP is so tightly sewn-up is because of Hollywood. Hollywood is also one of the reasons that WP is based on Windows CE rather than something new. Well, until it starts using the W8 kernel, but that's a while off.

Microsoft wanted to leverage their investment in Zune. Zune was never going to work on WP unless Microsoft could convince Hollywood that the platform and DRM are solid. The quickest way to do that was to leverage existing tech, and that meant Windows CE.

The irony is pretty... erm, ironic. If Google had launched with a media service similar to iTunes or Zune, then Andoid would be a completely different animal. It's that very reason that the Kindle Fire is doing so well where other similarly-priced Android tablets tanked. The public at large seems to be ok with DRM as long as content is easily accesible.

Re: Oh, just give me the controls you idiot!

You imply that iOS has shite security because the device can be jaibroken. You then say that you think Android has better security.

And, finally, you conclude that Android can be rooted.

WTF?!?

Re: Huh?

Also did a double take when I read that. It is indeed better. App data sandboxing on Windows Phone is a lot better than it is on iOS or Android.

I think the issue that David Rook is talking about is really one caused by developers.

Specifically, if I download an encrypted PDF onto my WP device and decrypt it and read it, WP will (as you'd expect) launch Adobe's PDF Reader to display that document. PDF Reader automatically saves a copy of the PDF file to its own app data folder so that it can be accessed through its (PDF Reader's) recent documents list.

The problem you have now is that the encrypted version is still in our app's data folder, but that counts for squat because there's an unencrypted version in the PDF Reader's folder.

The way to get 'round that is to write a PDF reader for the app that downloads and decrypts the PDF doc. That's a lot more work.

There's always a tradeoff - given security, usability and low cost you can only ever choose two.

Either way, I have way more faith in WP than I do in (stock) Android. Android is just too open. App permissions are nebulous and ambiguous, and telcos and handset manufacturers can bake anything into the OS(!) they like.

Sure, you can do with Android what the DoD do with Linux - create your own locked-down distribution. The problem there is that the cost is then even higher, and invariably usability suffers too because all that hardcore security ends up hobbling the device.

Can Windows 8 bag Microsoft 20 more years at the top?

Hit and miss

I think reality will be inbetween somwhere. W8 runs my ancient copy of Photoshop 7, but not Windows Phone Developer Tools (it does run VS2010, just not the WP emulator or the XNA framework).