Posts by Wheaty73

What a To-Do! Microsoft snuffs out Wunderlist

At least its called "To Do"

And not some hyper cool with it name like 2du that avoids correct spelling and essential vowels.

Microsoft, Lenovo cross-licensing love-in: Android mobes knocked up with... Office apps

Useful.

Actual useful software then. Unlike the many gallery and album apps, email apps, etc that normally get foisted on us. Onedrive is usually the first thing I install onto a phone. With Android N splitscreen, Word is going to be really usable too with FF running alongside.

Are you the keymaster? Alternatives in a LogMeIn/LastPass universe

1Password

Expensive, but there is a free Metro version (in alpha) for WIndows RT / Phone, as well as Windows / Mac / iOS / Android versions. No Linux client but 1Password Anywhere covers that.

Syncs with Dropbox, Onedrive and iCloud, or your own systems if you want to.

Finally - can import LastPass pretty well.

I use both. Ironically I switched my primary vault from 1P to LP last year after I grew tired of forking out for version upgrades, but I am glad I have it in reserve. Old versions beyond 3 still work fine.

Microsoft's Surface 3 is sweet – but I wouldn't tickle my nads with it

Laptop?

The original surface (RT) works on your lap fine with the KB, even without the 'rigid' cover. But really, why would you want to? for casual work / browsing remove the keyboard. For longer periods of actual work - use the bloody table.

Also #corrections - you don't need to go to the desktop to set up a wireless connection. Its all done in Metro.

I have an RT and will probably get one of these should it break. Wonder if it will run Civ...

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

Change is scary

OK, while the changes are jarring at first, and they do look bloody awful on *wide* monitors, does anyone remember the shit Arstechnica got when they had a redesign? Or the BBC? People hate change.

There are valid points about the amount of white. Allowing a nerd-mode light-on-dark would be nice, but in the meantime a little less glare would be appreciated. Again, check out Ars' Dark on Light theme.

The images are... a bit ameteurish? And having Miley Montana pop up gurning at the top of a page is a bit unsettling at work. Get a graphic artist not an intern.

Columns. Four columns to a page is excessive, particularly as they are fixed in width. Pull out your highlight stories to one on the RHS and leave two columns on the left for your main content. Make them flow with the width of the page as well.

Site looks OK on Mobile IE but too much zoom needed. As others have said, and as you have responded, responsive design is needed but complex. Still, its much better than before.

Keep at it, i am sure you will get to a point where people forget the old site and the new changes bed in.

Or, license the CMS from Ars. And the forums please, theirs is great.

Don't buy that phone! It ATTRACTS CRIMINALS, UK.gov will tell people

Prepare for the Government to be sued...

So when Manufacturer A. starts seeing its sales take a nosedive because this mad government is telling people not to buy their phones, they won't be a teeny bit cross?

Or Manufacturer B. going "oi, Manufacturer A's phones will get you mugged, buy ours!"...

Or perhaps people just won't give a toss, like everything else this farce of a government does for our protection, it will just be ignored.

Brit kids match 45-year-old fogies' tech skill level by the age of 6

I call bollocks.

"If you want your VCR programming get a 12 year old" - This report written 1989

"If you want to know how to get on the internet, ask a 12 year old" - This report written 1998

"Get off my lawn" - Me, 2014

All they know how to do is press an icon on a slab of glass. No actual technical or digital knowhow required.

Apple fanbois to talk at the iWatch, INSPECTOR GADGET style – report

WeChat

Why would anyone send a voice message over the telco, when WeChat does it over data? Can't see a revenue stream springing up here!

Spanish struggle to control spelling of 'WhatsApp'

Gender of the internet???

its a Spoon Steve, just a fucking spoon. Not a masculine spoon, or a feminine spoon, just a fucking spoon. /Izzard

Backup bods Acronis extend disk-imaging support to Macs at last

Fifty quid?

And it won't even clone Bootcamp, arguably the most important bit to backup since you can already continually backup your Mac disk via Time Machine. Want it bootable? Press R on boot and restore. Or use CCC or SuperDuper (excellent software from Shirt Pocket). Time Machine and the others will do backups of VMware and Parallels stuff too.

Winclone will back up Bootcamp, but doesn't do incrementals.

Fifty quid...

Honey, the satnav app says you're to leave at 6am... Yup. I'll have that coffee off you

Did you read the bit on the bottom

About it being available for WP8?

Microsoft to RIP THE SHEETS off Windows 9 aka 'Threshold' in April

Love these comments whenever Windows 8 is mentioned. They always go like this:

Windows 8 AntiFanboy: RAAAAAGGGGEEE!!!111!!111111ONE! I DEMAND CHANGE BACK TO THE GLORY THAT WAS WINDOWS 95!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE TO LEARN NEW STUFF RAAAAGEEE!

Windows 8 User: Its OK, I quite like it. Some stuff is hard to find though but overall, I can't see the problem

Windows 8 AntiFanboy: SHIIIILLLLL!!!! YOU ARE IN THE PAY OF MICROSOFT OR A MORON!!!!ELEVENTY! THE ONE TRUE WAY IS A MENU WITH THINGS ON IT I CAN CLICK WITH MY MOUSE IN MY FAT PAW!!!

Windows 8 User: ??? Twunt. Go get a life and take off the tinfoil.

Nokia Lumia update spreads Black death

Re: Worked for me...

"MS control the hardware and the software" except this wasn't MS. Yes, the MS GDR3 update was included, but Lumia Black is a Nokia software update for Nokia devices... er... OK.

Worked for me...

Day (well evening) of the update I checked, it told me there was one, and ten minutes later I had Black. Beamer was installed and works fine for me, and as I have a 925 I already had the photo apps.

It is annoying Nokia couldn't pre-flag those for download though.

Sorry it was a trauma for you, I have been there on other updates, but not this one. The Amber update was a PITA taking four reboots to install.

Latest Chrome adds Chrome OS flavor to Windows 8 'Metro' mode

Now do a RT version

Go on Google. I dare you.

I've seen the future of car radio - and DAB isn't in it

Ah. Internet radio

For three miles on my route to work, I have no signal with O2. Not even 2G. Things are a little better with EE, but there are still dropouts. Internet radio would need to cache at least five minutes worth, preferably ten, which makes it useless as "radio" - I may as well listen to the iPod classic. I go through three river valleys and their associated hills which means that signal quality really does fluctuate!

DAB gets a good signal. I only get flutters occasionally and then only in built-up areas. It is like AM used to be before the move to FM, and I don't mind that.

As for streaming music killing radio, I disagree. There are some great stations on DAB now - as well as the oft mentioned 6Music, you have TeamRock Radio, which makes DAB worth it. Commercial-free commercial radio with presenters that know the music and keep out of the way unless necessary. Then the additional Absolute stations (80's, 90's).

Compare to FM with its three non BBC stations - Absolute Radio, a random asian music station and Crapital FM. No choice there.

Leave the arguments about dead technologies or that we should have gone to DAB+ Mk3v2, and remember that there are parts of the country with large populations that the mobile internet simply cannot reach. And that FM radio is crap.

NO! Radio broadcasters snub 'end of FM' DAB radio changeover

DAB does have a great station that isn't BBC

Teamrock Radio.

No adverts for Autoglass or confused dot com

No "news" every half hour or indeed, at all.

The weather rhyme.

No adverts for other stations under the same umbrella (BBC I am looking at you)

No chart "music" that is one song ahead or behind the other commercial stations playlist on a different channel.

DJ's that don't prattle on as part of a "posse".

No adverts at all.

As a commercial station, god knows how they afford things, but they are bloody brilliant.

The only downside to DAB is I live in darkest Derbyshire, and the signal gets blocked by hills sometimes.

IP radio is all very well for numpties who have perfect internet connections at every point along their journey but you try driving between any two major metropolitan areas and see how quickly you lose signal.

LIVE CHAT: You, El Reg, experts chat about Win 8.1 and Surface 2

I bought a SRT (just) before the new ones were announced

Its great, for what I want it for - my use case is not your use case, and an iPad was useless for me at actual document creation. Battery life is "all day", and the Office 2013 apps are top notch. Plus it weighs about half a ton less (feels like it!) than my MBP so that can stay home. Aside from Office, Onenote is converting me slowly from Evernote, and the Xbox-Music app beats Spotify to death with a hammer it is pretty good. As for store apps, some are good, most are meh, but I have IE not a crippled version of my main desktop browser (Safari)

Do I feel buyer regret? A slight twinge since the S2 was announced with 200GB of Skydrive and the glowing keyboards. That was a little annoying but as a long time Apple fan, you get used to the fact that you don't wait for the new shiny otherwise you will never buy anything.

Aside from Outlook, I haven't really noticed much difference with 8.1.

OK, forget the 3D telly fiasco: 4K is gonna blow you away - say tech giants

Re: You are looking at it wrong

Not sure why you think 1080p content is worth concentrating on - not everything is a movie. We have multiple screens now and cope quite well.

Have you never watched picture in picture on a normal TV???

You are looking at it wrong

A 4k TV doesn't need the content yet, what it needs is the ability to display multiple 1080p inputs on its screen simultaneously. THAT will be useful. And very Sci-Fi.

AMAZEBALLS: Buy a doomed Apple TV, get a replacement free

They did this with Time Capsules as well

I got my 2G Time Capsule replaced well out of warranty when the disk died. They replaced a G1 Blackbook of mine with a G3 after unsuccessfully trying to cure a logic board issue as well. Contrary to nerdbelief Apple do have an excellent repair/replacement policy (in my opinion). When they recognise an issue they do replace things (or provide a case/bumper in the infamous Antenna problem)

@cyke1 - well yes, since if you have a 2yr old AppleTV it is a Gen2 not Gen3, so what is your issue with that?

Intel's Centrino notebook platform is 10 years old

Not sure why downvoted?

I remember this marketing as well. Made people believe that they could connect anywhere. I had a devil of a time persuading them they still needed an internet connection.

Sony: Can't beat Apple and Samsung, so let's be the Other Guy

Hear Hear

Sick of whining cretins going on about root kits and waaah they stopped us installing Linux on the PS3.

Sony make good kit, made great kit in the past, and I hope they carry on. They need to dump the Entertainment division though and get back to making the good stuff.

O2 pops out vital new feature: Making phone calls from phones

Not bad...

Some issues - on W7/8 it doesn't use your contacts from the PC so you only see the number of incoming calls/messages not the name, and on my Nexus 7 it doesn't respect orientation of the tablet properly - it always wants to operate in portrait with the camera at the top, even if I am holding it upside down or sideways. Doesn't take over the default dialler on my 2.3 Android phone either (which is a shame) and SMS come through "twice" - once on the phone and once in TuGo.

Apart from that, all devices do ring at once, and you can answer on anything. Call quality is dependant on bandwidth but is fine over 3G or 2Mbs WiFi.

A really good first effort. Needs a Mac client though :)

Iceland thinks long and hard over extreme smut web ban law

Re: Parental Responsibility

Simples. Get a crap data tariff on the phone, set it up on your wifi with its "restrictions" followed by a good talking to about the dangers of the internet and what should/should not be acceptable.

Or don't buy a smartphone for any kid <18.

As for their mates phone - well you are SOL there, although perhaps talking to them might help.

Comp Sci becomes 'fourth science' in English Baccalaureate

fsking computers.

1. Because Business Studies is a made up course that is basically accounting which parents push their kids into because they think it will make them into Alan Sugar when it really prepares them for nothing. Geography and History are actual subjects that are important. You need history (at least, some knowledge of it) in order to understand what is happening in the world and how to use sources to fact-check (important for business) and geography teaches population dynamics and where stuff is (also fairly important for business)

2. Combined science is a joke that teaches nothing useful in any of the subjects it claims to teach. It really does need to be split out. At GCSE level, physics has more in common with maths than chemistry and biology and someone interested in one may not necessarily be interested in the others. Completely agree students need to have the choice. As for the maths comment from that teacher, bollocks - I remember doing different bits of maths in different classes.

The best smartphones for Christmas

Re: Well...

I would like an Xperia Mini upgraded to 2012 specs thanks, if you are making one. No bigger than 3.5 screen, hardware slider keyboard or the ability to use a T9 style soft one in portrait mode. Would stretch to a 4" if the keyboard existed.

None of the alternative soft keyboards that I have tried (swype, swiftkey and one other I can't remember) were much cop over the stock android one or stock iOS one - but no soft keyboard can match actual physical keys for typing long crap out which I do quite often on my mini. The Jellybean international keyboard is very close to perfect but Jellybean only lives on massive phablets.

Sadly the Sony Go and Tipo have crap rear cameras (and no front one, which is unforgivable).

Or you could get me the moon on a stick.

Well...

Too big, far too big, too big, too pricey, Too big and no apps, too big...

Seriously, for those people not carrying man bags or wearing MC Hammer pants, what are the options?

Gah. Bring back keyboards.

Frenchmen's sperm plunges by a third in quality and quantity since '89

Professor Richard Sharpe?

Commenting on the French? Should be killing them. Remember Talavera!!!

Also, I need a new keyboard after "Gallic Nut Butter"

Steve Jobs is STILL DEAD

Yes, there is a lot of hyperbole about Jobs...

But seriously whoever is Editor in Chief at the Reg, fire Anna Leach. This article is pure spite and troll bait, and not even in an amusing way. Every Apple article she writes has some hipster "I hate Apple because Apple are cooler than I am" spin on it and frankly she can just fuck off back to secondary school and finish her GCSEs.

China domain name land grab about to start

Re: Impressed

谢谢你！

Re: >> the day English has officially lost it's grip on the world

Each of those "characters" is a word or word-part, not a letter, so MAY contain more information than the equivalent number of characters in English.

Re: Whatever.

That's OK, they probably have half the western IP ranges blocked for the same reason.

Re: How popular will that be?

dot - zhong guo or dot cn... Hmmm, good point. Can think of several companies that will need this though just in case.

It is most likely going to be a marketing thing - seeing http://www.dell.中国 in a magazine advert perhaps.

HMRC: Moving our data to the cloud will make it MORE secure

Can't leave "a cloud" on the train...

...like you can with a CDR or USB stick. Maybe thats what they mean...

Peeved bumpkins demand legally binding broadband promise from UK.gov

Re: Move House

@Tim - There are too few words to express what a complete dickhead you obviously are. People in the country are not rich, unless you think Downton Abbey is some sort of reality TV show set in the modern age, and thats how we all look? By your rules, you must be some sort of chav sponging off the state while watching your Sky TV on a 60" plasma, since you obviously cannot afford to live elsewhere. Why should I pay your benefits?

Gas and electric provision is (almost) universal, and paid for by the tax system (or it was in the beginning), as was the phone infrastructure BT want to run this broadband off of. Tax systems charge everyone to pay for services that only a few may use (schools, roads, NHS etc). Your benefits are paid for by people who work - even those in the countryside.

Most people in rural areas are not middle-class commuters. Broadband provision is crap outside of a few concentrated areas even in large cities, and relying on BT to provide infrastructure over its shitty phone network without everyone paying is simply absurd.

Axe hovers over John Lewis IT jobs

Efficiency...

Worked well for RBS didn't it?

What happens when Facebook follows MySpace?

Re: Multiple cloud locations - A programming challenge

iPhoto/Aperture. As well as a local archive it can post to multiple clouds, as well as DIY stuff. Does mean you need a Mac.

The only problem is every new version it needs to "convert" your local archive which is annoying and can lead to corruption if you failed to backup first (woo hoo for Time Machine)

Chinese boffins build nuclear-powered deep-sea station

Good for them

To above: stop bleating about polluting Gaia and other such hippy shit. We need "stuff" and more specifically (as the article says) China needs energy. Without a reliable gas supply they will continue to build their marvellous coal fired stations which you all think are bad as well.

And the bottom of the ocean is pretty much dead to anything other than bacteria (at least - the proper deep ocean, not the edges of continental shelves). The occasional Polykete Worm maybe.

On a geeky note, this is really cool. If they can pull this off (which they probably can) then it is likely the first step in proper underwater habitation & exploitation. Hopefully it would allow us to start draining the South Atlantic of oil around the Falklands and really piss off the Argies.

Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world

@Rich

I had a 1st gen iMac and didn't buy a USB floppy with it. Ethernet worked fine. Flash drives did exist, but they were huge (in physical terms) and tiny (in capacity). I had a 64Mb one with a bright yellow cap about the size of a hilighter pen, which cost me an arm and a leg.

I did however buy a USB floppy/card reader combo a few years ago to get access to a single file on a DD disk I found in the attic. Still use it as a card reader - not so much a floppy drive.

Tunbridge Wells' car park bonking offered new NFC logo

Re: Apple users must be more confused than Prince Harry on Fathers Day

Funny, there's no NFC in my Android phone. Nor in most peoples, I imagine. There is in my CC though which is great - don't need it in my phone as well!

Telly makers failing to turn punters on to smart TV

Smart TV? Yes, when everything I have needs replacing.

I would eagerly purchase a smart tv, if it did iPlayer and DNLA, could record from Freesat and freeview simultaneously, and had an integrated BD/DVD. Sadly for Sony et al, I have boxes that do all that for me, and they are not in need of being replaced. And 3D? Keep it.

This could be why they aren't selling. People have all this stuff, and have just bought their latest 3D tellies to replace their slightly less new HD Ready tellies. They don't see a need to upgrade.

Somerset buses bin paper tickets, sniff journey-logging chips

Don't most authorities do this anyway?

Pass holders in Nottingham have had chipped cards for years. Only the casuals need exact change to get on. I believe That London also has something similar.

Hardly cutting edge stuff, is it?

O2 smears 4G trial over capital

Ah, more assistance for the underprivileged

Starved of bandwidth and choice in the past, brave denizens of "London" can now look skyward and rejoice for their hour of internet salvation is at hand.

Fuck the Capital, surely a better test would be if it can server 4G through "hills" and "fields" that the rest of the country has in abundance which is the networks usual excuse for not providing a broadband pipe.

Web czar: 'Drag your nan online'

MLF: shut it you nutter

an hour? it would take longer than that to explain what a mouse is.

People not online now don't care, or have relatives to do all the shopping around for tariffs and deals. MLF rwally does live on another planet.

Jobs was 'working on future product day before he died'

To the Dennis Ritchie was more important brigade

He died on the same day as someone more famous. It happens all the time - Mitch Benn even wrote a song about it (quite a good one).

Geeks care about things like this. Newspapers don't. The tech press covered it perfectly well, and lets face it, even if Jobs hadn't died then he would only have been a footnote in the regular press.

If you don't like it, tough, that is life (death). Yes the man developed a language that underpins quite a lot of what we do now, and it is quite sad he is dead, but I think you are missing the point.

Apple makes a hash of password security (again)

I think it is abysmal too.

As a Mac user since before OSX was a twinkle in Jobs eye, typing on a iMac (rolled back to 10.6 from 10.7), I agree, it is bloody terrible that an OS *today* has such a potential security hole. Never mind that Windows XP was a nightmare pre SP2, or that Linux can be hit in the same way if it doesn't have the latest updates, the fact that the worlds most modern OS has a security model from the last decade, which is a giant step back from the previous version is pretty damn abysmal.

And note to all other Mac users - stop with the "ooh it doesn't matter, there are far more windows machines and there are no viruses on the Mac". Get over it, that ship has sailed. We have to suffer along with the rest of them. Go to sophos's website and install their free Mac AV scanner and then move on with your life.

Apple delivers Orange aid

@ moaning minnies above

Get over this iTunes hate fetish, you sound like you are five. Use a proper computer and it runs fine.

Apple ups Mac Mini spec, lowers price

nice...

Keeps the FW port, and only £476 educational price too.