Posts by SAP Bod

Nokia gobbles Withings

I love my Withings gadgets!! Please Nokia, don't mess too much with them. My Activite watch does pretty much exactly what I want it to do (activity+sleep tracking and analogue watch face) and their WiFi scales link up really well with the watch into, what I think, is an excellent app.

I like my smart watches fairly dumb with long battery lives, and I can't be arsed weighing myself and having to manually input the data into an app (did that for about 6months and then got Withings scales).

For me, their stuff works really well and it's fair to say I'm nervous about how this will go.

Netflix vs Lovefilm

Lovefilm for me

I'm sticking with Lovefilm. I'm *STILL* waiting for the Netflix app to appear on my PS3 despite trying all the tricks to get it to appear plus the streaming of Netflix via my AppleTV buffers way more than it should considering I'm on 30Mb cable. This is a shame as NF have a *much* better selection of kids TV which was one of the primary uses I was putting it too.

Lovefilm on the other hand gives us physical disc rentals which are still king in my book, and for those off occasions I need it the streaming via PS3 / iPad *works* whereas I'm struggling with Netflix buffering issues and lack of PS3 app. This is a real shame as I'd initially decided to keep both just for the kids TV, but I'm really not impressed with Netflix I'm afraid.

Apple preps TV enabled iMac ahead of own-brand telly

Not sure I buy the idea that they'd include a TV Tuner internally within the iMac - apple would want to limit the number of SKU's shipped worldwide so which type of tuner would they go for to get max coverage worldwide? Cable, Satellite, Terrestrial? It also feels like a technological step backwards. The logical move if they did want to go tuner-based would be to partner with someone like Elgato which has years of experience with add-on tuner cards for the Mac.

Personally though, I'd assume that the easiest thing would be IP based streaming TV but then you've got quality issues (iPlayer may be convenient, but the quality just isn't there for big-screens).

You've also got to consider that you sit a lot closer to an iMac than a TV so you've got a different set of things to think about - why would you bother using Siri to control it when you've got a keyboard / mouse / trackpad right in front of you?

I don't get the whole "Apple making a TV" thing - and I consider myself a bit of an apple fan. Why not just license-out Airplay video for TV manufacturers to implement? More and more AV receivers and hi-fi kit have Airplay audio which is the same principle?!?! Also, for the iMac, just enable iTunes to be an Airplay target as well as a source so you could stream to it as well as from it; although I'm struggling for use-cases there.

Just don't get it .................

Microsoft takes the Android profit, the Wonkas take the pain

Shouldn't that be OS/2 Warp?

I'll get my coat .........

iPhone users richer, brainier, more tasteful than Android-ers

Keep coming back to this ....

http://www.csectioncomics.com/2010/11/iphone-vs-android-vs-blackberry.html

Open barbarians poised to storm Apple's gate

Open source wins every time?

Yeah, and Linux is really WHIPPING Windows in the desktop market eh ......

Apple security update leaves iPhone 3G users unprotected

Split out Safari from iOS?

Could Apple split out Safari from iOS and treat it as an 'App' in the app-store or is it too entrenched within the core iOS? Splitting it out would mean Apple could patch vulnerabilities more easily and keep the core iOS updates for major functionality changes / enhancements in-line with the hardware revisions?

No support for a 2.5 year old device?

<sarcasm>Why no iOS 4.3 for my iPhone 2g eh, that's what I want to know!</sarcasm>.

Seriously though, I'm actually curious to know peoples opinion on what time span of official support you should expect for a non-shipping device? I'm not condoning apple here because I fell into this trap when I stopped getting iOS updates for my 2g iPhone - I'm just curious to know what people think the cutoff should be, because you can't support everything indefinitely. Although MS seem to be doing a very good job with XP ;-)

As a similarity, the T-Mobile G1 was released a few months after the iPhone 3G (I think?!?!?) and at what point did official firmware updates stop coming for that? This is where Android > iOS in that the dev community has taken over and I think you can get hacked ROM's of gingerbread for it - not sure on performance but I understand it works?!?!

It's fairly obvious that Apple are never going to let iOS loose for the dev's to hack around with a'la Android, but it'd be nice to see some sort of official "we will provide OS updates for X years" when you purchase a device. When did Apple stop 'shipping' the 3G btw? Launch of the iPhone 4 - I can't remember now!

Patent attack on Google open codec faces 'antitrust probe'

Sloppy

Ok, let's have a look at this "patent pool organization backed by Apple, Microsoft, and others" shall we. So, who are these "others" that El Reg don't think are as important as Apple and Microsoft and fail to mention. Here's a few of the 'others' that have patents in that pool that El Reg don't think are as important (read "headline grabbing") as A & MS:

Cisco, Fujitsu, HP, LG, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba and JVC.

Ok, let's give El Reg the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Apple and MS control this evil patent pool that is being wielded against Google, by having the majority of the patents in it? Actually, no. Two of the main stakeholders are Toshiba with 341 patents and LG with 500+. By contrast MS is relatively small (around 120 patents); Others such as Sharp (87) and Samsung (60) are also in that 'middle ground'. So, that leaves the evil empire of Apple that is so beloved to El Reg - how many do they have ...... 4. Not fourteen, or forty, or four-hundred. Just 4. Even JVC has more patents than they do (5). Want to know who DOESN'T hold any patents in that pool ....... Google.

For anyone who's really interested (not many I bet) here's the list of patents and owners for the H264 pool :

http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx

I did want to count them all and list them but I couldn't be bothered; I'm not getting paid for my sloppy journalism.

Intel throws Thunderbolt

Well done intel + USB isn't going anywhere

If you think this will oust USB ports you've got another thing coming. Just look around the back of a desktop PC and you may see a parallel printer port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse sockets, VGA socket. These have all been around for rather a long time and all have successor ports (2 of which are USB ironically). The sheer volume of USB devices available means that any manufacturer that EXCLUDED a USB socket would instantly rule out connectivity to a lot of things people already own - so it isn't going to happen.

To be honest, the writer is painting intel in a very black light, almost to the verge of suggesting how DARE intel release a new technology, the greedy monopolists! Don't be so stupid, stagnation benefits no-one.

The only question now is whether the market chooses this over USB3.0; but they seem to not even be in the same ballpark and there's no-reason that manufacturers can't implement both. Personally, when USB 3 came along, my only reaction was apathy; woo-hoo faster storage. This has actually got me wondering about all sorts of use-cases and features one of the best bits of FireWire over USB; daisy-chaining!

Anyone who invents new technology which then succeeds, deserves to be rewarded (to the victor go the spoils). But even if Thuderbolt / Light Peak falls on its arse, I applaud Intel for trying - it's stuff like this that makes the technology sector interesting to be a part of.

Google plugins force-feed open codec to IE and Safari

Power Sucker

WebM ain't going nowhere until there's hardware decode support ... which h264 already has plenty of. Especially important in the mobile and newly emerging tablet markets.

US smartphones – Once you’ve had Android there’s no going back

Funny take on this whole thing

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/04/iphone-android-blackberry/