Posts by Dave 126

Rovio chucks up Angry Birds successor, hopes it will fly

Looks like The Incredible Machine... a sort of Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg / Tom and Jerry Mousetrap simulator.

Was lots of fun on the PC, and seems well suited to a finger-driven UI.

Disable Gadgets NOW says Redmond

Re: Suggestions...

>2. Localised tremor meter. Alerts you if an earthquake is happening.

reminds me of plans to create a distributed seismometer by using the G-sensors in laptops- obviously ignoring a machine that was out of step with its geographical neighbours. A fairly sensible plan it seemed.

Re: the moaning bandwagon must be close to capacity...

>user input from previous Windows versions indicating major problems with the start menu..

The only anecdotal complaints I've heard about the Win7 start menu is from a friend who doesn't like it because it isn't the WinXP start menu...

(that and control panel and system settings options are accessed differently, in what he perceives to be an attempt to screw him about. He's a bit of an IT canary.)

>Take your custom elsewhere!

Alas, not possible if you are tied to the platform by the software you use for work. For many of us, this reality renders the question of Mac/Win/Lin entirely moot.

Re: Kill off the crap

Okay, one interface works with mice and keyboards, one with fingers. Fingers don't have the accuracy of mice and keyboards, but do allow gestures- and you can't drop them on the ground (unless you're looking at a recipe on your tablet whilst cutting onions). Appl// Mangoes and oranges.

Having a different UI doesn't mean you can't do the same things- you just do them differently, suited to the tools in hand.

I note that iPads have sold well, though they don't work like Windows or OSX.

Hmm... I wonder if there's an Android App that presents your smartphone's call and text functions in the style of a Nokia 3210/6210 etc interface? : D

On that note, it would be nice if MS could upgrade the underlying OS without touching the UI- or at least give people the choice. My less tech-savy friends and family do get confused/annoyed when something they have spent some time getting used to suddenly changes.

Instagram bug 'exposed' hipsters' private photos to strangers

Dawson Bros. Funtime: "Facebook Stalker"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgl25IadVPk

from a BBC comedy pilot, for those in the UK the full half hour show is on the BBC website, and includes 'iPad - Now For Horses' and other tech centred sketches. Witten by the people who did the One Ronnie "Blackberry, Orange, Eggs Box £3.60" sketch.

Religious wars brewing in ICANN gTLD expansion

Re: Perhaps ....

until I got to the end of your sentence, I thought you were reciting a list of male porn actors!

Re: This is the internet...

I can't see how consumption of pr0n will go up just because someone has made a new home for it... I don't get this group's logic.

If I were them, I would back these TLDs because if all pr0n shifted there (unlikely, I know), it would make it easier for parents to block them.

On a side note, does it work like the following?:

.ADULT- tasteful erotica

.SEX - Lover's guide, etc

.XXX - everything else.

I think that rather than denying a 14 yo lad everything, he should be started on erotica which emphasizes sex as a fun, beautiful, compassionate act between two people... otherwise he'll just seek out the nasty stuff that is so common.

Re: "Do not even the tax collectors do ..."

I do like JC, but some strange things are said and done in his name. His friendships with tax collectors and prostitutes should be be taken by those who follow him as a signal not to be so bloody judgemental and reactionary.

Like Kurt Vonnegut, I guess I'm an 'Atheist for Jesus'.

Apple MacBook Pro 13in

Re: Oh god no!

My thoughts exactly- even though the reviewer was asking for more pixels...

My pet theory is that the top and centre of 16:9 widescreen displays sit lower with respect to eye-height compared to taller displays, not helping the user's working position.

On a desktop monitor, this is not such as issue since it is adjustable, and the top of screens are usually at the same height regardless of aspect ratio.

All-in-one PCs: bright star of the desktop biz, says analyst

Touch screen desktop monitors?

It just isn't comfortable, unless the screen is angled like a Wacom digitising monitor. A small touch-screen device on the desk next the keyboard might serve many people better.

Android games console scheme nets $2.5m

Re: What I like about the Ouya...

>I've never understood mobile gaming

Its not hard to grasp: It's for keeping your kids quiet for long journeys or for when you have no choice to take them somewhere they will find boring- like a pub beer garden.

Re: I still think

The ridges, at least on the original PlayStation, were a deliberate homage to the Apple Macintosh. [from the book Digital Dreams - the work of the Sony Design Centre with the Playstation head designer talking about the process.]

The PS2 makes a pretty good media centre for streaming from a NAS (sadly, it only has USB 1.1 so can't really do it from stick) but the hacking process is a bit convoluted. For games, I can't see the Ouya competing against the PS2's professionaly-developed back catalogue. Tekken, WipeOut, THPS, Metal Gear... and more JRPGs than you can shake a Power Demon Sword of Destiny at.

Low cost consoles competing on things other than fancy graphics can work- look at the Nintendo Wii. But it also offered a USP of a new way to play games, more suitable to mixed company after the pub.

Can neighbours grab your sensitive package, asks Post Office

FFS, still? 12 years ago a British design organisation made a competition based on this very problem... entries ranged from reusable boxes that could be secured to the property and the means of opening it (key or code) popped through the letter box, to oversize letter-boxes... though none that were totally convincing IIRC.

But personally, if I had ordered something of size, I wouldn't mind just popping down to my nearby Royal Mail depot (which is manned from early morning to early evening) than take an hour-plus round trip to a Courier depot.

Supermarkets are another obvious solution... large storage facilities, open late, might offset any inconvenience to themselves by selling the parcel collector their dinner, or any accessories for the new toy they might have neglected to order.

Retina MacBook Pro nukes Apple's green credentials

Re: apple standards

>only relation apple has to standards is that they never ever under any circumstances observe a single one of them.

Oh really? You didn't take a minute to check before posting?

"FireWire is Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. It was initiated by Apple (in 1986[4]) and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Apple, although major contributions were also made by engineers from Texas Instruments, Sony, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, and INMOS/SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics)."

Which is why I said that they work with suppliers and other partners. Intel adopted Apple's name 'Thunderbolt' instead of 'LightPeak' after Intel realised that they could get the required bandwidth with copper wire instead of optical fibre. High-end Sony use it, but under a different name because it is disguised as a USB rather than Display Port socket.

Nope, it still wouldn't work- because the products were never branded as Foxconn.

i.e: You can only revisit a place that you have been before, you can only reheat a meal that has been heated before, and you can only rebrand something that has been branded before. I'd expect a journalist, one who puts words together for a living, to know this.

The other Reg names, such as Chipzilla and the Chocolate Factory, work well because they can't be confused for statements of 'fact', don't misuse the English language, and they bring a humorous image to mind. 'Foxconn-rebrander' fails on those counts.

Re: Doing it wrong?

Probably solvents or high temperatures... glue technology is fairly advanced (those unsung chemical engineers who make our lives easier) so I find it hard to believe there isn't a particular glue out there that would be straight forward to remove as well as being fit for purpose and easy to apply in the first place.

Given Apple will take old Macs off you (and that EU legislation makes manufacturers responsible for product disposal) it would seem strange if they deliberately made their job harder.

Definition of 'Hardware'

>Which part of the hardware is developed by Apple - CPU/GPU/Memory/screen or the SSD?

Those are often Samsung's department- and those items are not all that comprise 'hardware'. Apple's job -in this case- is to procure and package them in a small form factor, which involves designing the battery, speakers, case, HIDs, interconnects and motherboard, whilst integrating them into their own OS. And yes, marketing the result, just as everybody else does.

They work with suppliers and on development, and also instigate mass-production of things that no-one else is yet using (FireWire, High-Res displays, Postscript Laser Printers, Thunderbolt nee LightPeak...)

Apple aren't perfect (and I use a PC and an Android phone) but out of fairness they should only be knocked for things they do. Accusing them of just whacking their sticker on generic Asian goods is just false and weakens any legitimate criticisms.

@Obviously!

I note that you accused the first poster as being "really gay for Apple" when all he did was demonstrate his ignorance of Product Lifecycle Management.

But please do expand on you think is a 'matter of fact'. That Apple are the only tech company who contract their manufacture and advertise the result? And please tell us what you think Apple's 4,700 US staff actually do.

>Sounds rather stupid to me, so long as you can get it apart safely then who cares?

Er, you need to be able to take it apart safely and economically, otherwise people won't bother.

Regarding your point about cars, many of the changes made to them are in response to ever-changing emissions legislation- that, and High-Pressure diesels don't like untaxed vegetable oil. The faulty logic behind the UK's 'scrappage scheme' resulted in perfectly serviceable and fairly economical cars being destroyed- but the motive was probably more to do with creating and sustaining jobs.

>Foxconn-marketer's gear

I thought Ms Leach had got tired of that 'joke'. I wander if she actually knows that Apple also develop software, hardware and standards?

Besides, what does this article tell us that yesterday's Reg article doesn't?

China's censors move to stamp out sex and violence online

Re: No sex please we are Chinese.

I did read, some months back, that the Chinese Gov was actively promoting pr0n amongst migrant workers, since it was preferable (from a public health perspective) to them using the services of prostitutes.

Megaupload's founder downloads on Hollywood

@pcsupport

I haven't voted you down, but I can't help but think that his Twitter head-count is not the only measure of his support; presumably most people who have used Megaupload are sympathetic. I don't know how many people that is, but I assume that there are more than 87,000 of them, given the assets Dotcom has amassed from the advertising and 'Premium' service.

Google Nexus 7 Android tablet

Re: Nice

>3 pay as you go sim.

I did see one advertised online the other day, and it did seem good value.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this 3G/MiFi/ Phone tether debate. It has helped me decide on what to advise my dad.

He has decided that he a; wants his Galaxy Tab 10.1 to access data by phone network, and b, wants a Motorola flip phone that has nice big buttons (no tethering there)

A MiFi might be the best solution, though whether he has patience for / remembers to carry it with him and turn it on remains to be seen. He been talking about just buying another tablet that does have 3G built in, such is his attitude to digital gizmos.

Maybe all he needs is for European maps to be cached on the thing.

Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

>All we're asking for is the OPTION of not having to carry a smartphone!

There would be a market for a revamped Nokia 6210 that worked like the original, only had 3G and could act as WiFi Hotspot... it would work well with a 7" tablet that lived in your jacket pocket, purse, sofa or car glovebox.

Being a skinny is much more unhealthy than being fat – new study

Re: Crossing the line, anyone

Why take Mr Page's word for it when you could follow the link to, what I assume is, a peer-reviewed journal?

The findings are in sympathy with a study I read an abstract of more than ten years ago: that when a women's attractiveness is plotted against their weight, the graph has the same shape as her health against weight- both peak in the same place, both drop off sharply if she is slimmer than the healthiest weight, but only decrease slowly if she is bigger than the ideal weight.

If you consider your Kelly Brooks and Sophia Lorens compared to your usual catwalk clothes-horses, it makes sense.

Burnt Samsung Galaxy S III singed by external source, probe reveals

Rule 2

Some say that putting the phone in a bath of de-ionised water (ideally in an ultrasonic cleaner) before drying it out (over days) can help. Any comment?

But yeah, remove battery ASAP in such situations. I'm impressed that a Sansa Clip mp3 player of mine cheerfully survived a trip through the washing machine- with its battery. Its micro SD card turned up a few months later in the washing machine's filter.

Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world

Some plusses:

Infra-red: Intuitive line of sight, doesn't cause interference, starts instantly, fairly easy to set up, works with all the old kit.

Optical: Resilient to drops, moisture, magnetic fields; was once ubiquitous, cheap media.

I don't see the need on a new Retina Macbook, though- its OSX is onna stick, and any video professional who pays the asking price is going to use it with external redundant storage anyway.

Re: Brilliant article

You can buy an IR dongle for your iPhone, or make your own: Google 'DIY iPhone IR dongle'. It works with apps that generate an IR signal from a WAV file, since it is constructed from an old 3.5mm jack and some IR LEDs.

>whilst a Mac is for office work

You mean MS Office on OSX still has menus and is usually found on a 16:10 screen?

Re: For music alone, long live the CD...

> you dont need to buy CD's when you can DL from the horror that is itunes..

Or vice versa- you don't have to use iTunes! Buy the CD for less than the iTunes download, and rip it at home- to a lossless format if you want, and listen to it on a Cowon or Sandisk portable player.

But even having said that, it is possible to download (or buy on DVD-A discs) music of higher (technical) quality than CDs, since it can be 24bit 192 Khz.

We all have different favourite 'little things'

Little things such as; IR port, external volume knob, Caps-Lock indicator, cursor key placement, USB port spacing, Middle Button under trackpad...

Some people might care about some of the above, some might not give a hoot. Personally, I'd like the dummy ExpressCard in my laptop to be something useful, such as being a case for spare SD cards, or housing a screen-cleaning duster or a CD marker pen.

If you've gone to the effort of carrying around a few DVDs, then it isn't much extra work to carry an external drive to play them on, since its barely bigger than a DVD case.

Shuttleworth: Why Windows 8 made us ditch GPL Linux loader

Re: pah

What's the word from hardware manufacturers- how many have said Secure Boot can't be turned off in BIOS?

Re: ANOTHER great reason to ignore Windows 8

I don't see why they couldn't just make it 'Windows 7 Tablet PC Edition', as they did with XP.

Panasonic Eluga DL1 waterproof Android

Re: Why is battery life not a desirable feature anymore?

Didn't Reghardware say that the Galaxy Advance would give you a couple of days?

Ahh, the golden days... when the battery lasted all week but call credit only lasted half an hour!

The touchscreens that push back, thanks to Brit hi-fi boffinry

Re: Sony had this in 2003

Correction to my last comment:

It wasn't shell fish, it turns out it was dehydrated bacterial slime that Sony used for diaphragms:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/568694/biocellulose-and-its-use-in-headphones-earphones-referring-the-recent-iem-example-vsonic-gr-07-r07

Re: Sony had this in 2003

Ahh, Sony, bless.

I'm trying to wrack by brains by remembering a pair of Sony headphones featured in a National Geographic article in the eighties, as an example of something made from shell fish. Can anyone supply a link, or am I to be left wondering if I ate too much cheese last night?

>some super-duper military speaker tech though

It wasn't so much military tech as in "we have unlimited budgets and first access to new kit". but rather "we sometimes work in bloomin' loud places". Bose seems to have done better from efforts to make aircraft more bearable, using anti-phase sound generated by the years, rather than on the windows.

Re: Pedantry excused

I heard a Quad at a friend's recently... sounded good but was bested by the kit it was sat on top of: A pianola with a Fats Waller roll loaded in it.

: D

Did your iPhone 'just stop working' - or did you drop it in your BEER?

Buy a Samsung Galaxy Note:

Its too big to fit into your pint glass!

Re: Warm wet places...

@Cyberelic

According to 3M, who make colour-changing tape- it is only activated by submersion, not by humidity.

Humidity doesn't bother electronics much if they are allow to air... It used to be in the instructions for our VHS player to let it stand for a day if bringing it into a warm room from the cold.

Re: Eh?

Weird- Nokias used to just vibrate incessantly after a dunking, but would would otherwise remain fully functional. I remember my 6210 buzzing for about 5 hours before its battery was depleted.

Get out the anti-tamper drivers and rip out the little motor with the weight on it, jobs a good un!

Re: Have the patient office been dunked in beer?

@ Metavisor - thank you for reading up on this more than the author of the article. As many have pointed out, there's nothing new about water-sensitive patches etc.

AC>"Now if apple had made a magical new method of detecting liquid then fine, patent that but something as obvious as having a moisture detector that changes colour when it gets wet is common sense."

What Apple have done is patent the sensible step of being able to see said sensor without having to open the device. Seems fairly obvious, but if no one has done it before, then I guess it isn't.

Re: They've done this for ages, haven't they?

I've seen advertisements from 3M tape products (over ten years ago, in engineering journals) that are aimed electronics manufacturers- one adhesive tape irreversibly changes colour if immersed in water but is not affected by water vapour, so can tell the difference between a humid pocket and and a glass of water.

I rather prefer Motorola's solution - make the bloody phone waterproof.

Sony Xperia P mid-range Android

Also not mentioned:

It comes with a mini HDMI > HDMI cable in the box.

CANNIBAL! Apple's 7.85in iPad will EAT 9.7in iPad sales

Re: It would be Tim Cook big second mistake at Apple...

There is something to be said for a device that will fit in a jacket pocket, car glove box or normal-sized handbag- some devices will, existing iPads won't.

Integrate joysticks? Why make the hardware bulkier for 80% users, just or the benefit of the rest who could use a Bluetooth HID option?

iPod Nano development? Yeah, the geek in me would like to see it talking to other devices (and I own no Apple), just as using an iPad as HID for a Mac applications seems to me (a commentard) a good idea... We all have little wish-lists of fantasy gadgets, but we don't always claim to know more than the CEO who hasn't given them to us.

Microsoft sets the price for a Windows 8 upgrade at $40

Re: Yes...I'm that guy

>I love how everyone is being downvoted simply for saying "I like it".

Yeah, it seems a bit off, doesn't it? They have gone to the effort of installing Win8 and and have used it for a while, and have been kind enough to report back here with their impressions... and people have just downvoted them.

I won't be getting Win8 on the basis of their favourable impressions, though- I will test-drive it myself, if I'm made aware of Win8 having any compelling advantages over Win7.

I do appreciate that secure boot will is rightly a matter of concern to the Linux community- relatively novice users are not likely to implement workarounds or disable it in order to run an alternative OS (though some would say that novice users aren't too likely to partition their HDD and configure GRUB from a text file, either)- but this has nothing to do with someone's appraisal of Win8's UI.

The Grundy NewBrain is 30

Re: Really good article series...

Or do one on the Vextrex games console!

BAE proposes GPS-less location

Re: It does have one fatal flaw currently

>I know when I moved my phone would think I was at my old address as poor old google hadn't driven past my new location and updated

Yeah, your phone can triangulate cell towers and obviously GPS birds... but if had been doing the same with FM, TV and a host of other transmissions, it would have enough to know that your WiFi- location was an aberration. Consider a missile would have inertial nav system too. Obviously this would take some software engineering, but easily possible.

>would need alot of areils and that will be interesting to not only see how apple implement it but also claim they invented it as they are a bunch of cnuts.

?! Who are cnuts? The shiny shiny consumer electronics company, or the people who make weapon systems that could help deliver mega-deaths? And how did Apple-bashing get on this thread?

Re: It's rollocks isn't it.

There aren't as many holes as you suppose- the article doesn't mention tricks such as using the GPS-jammer itself as navigation aid.

If you imagine it constantly triangulating a range of frequencies and building a 'map' on the fly, you might see how it won't be so bothered by losing one means of determining its location, or how it can know if it is suddenly having its GPS spoofed.

Put like that, it only seem sensible and straightforward way of bringing redundancy to a device you really don't want to hit the ground in the wrong place- as that poor fella in S Korea who got killed by his own drone last week would surely agree.

fire with fire

>I also fail to see how this does not suffer from exactly the same problems as GPS regards spoofing.

Because to spoof this system you would have to spoof all other radio transmissions too. Imagine it triangulating a range of signals all the time, (building a database in real time) and then suddenly the GPS disagrees with everything else, including its gyroscopes...

It can also use a GPS-jamming itself as a reference point for navigation. Cheeky.

http://www.baesystems.com/article/BAES_053641/bae-systems-locates-opportunity-to-replace-gps