Posts by Jon B

Netflix in Australia slower than Mexico, Chile or New Zealand

New Zealand not an economic peer?

If New Zealand is not an economic peer, does that mean it is more developed than Australia?

Testing CarPlay with Apple’s most expensive ever accessory

Looks just like a phone stuck to the dashboard

The photo of the Ferrari cabin with the console looks pretty rubbish. Would you not get the same effect just sticking the iphone there with blu-tack, and bluetooth the sound to the car speakers?

Hyundai i30 Turbo: Softly, softly, catchee Audi

Euro Styling

It seems that every make of car is jumping on the 'ridges along the door handles level' bandwagon this year.

TPG glasses Vodafone with 4,000 km of new fibre

Compatible handsets

Will people's phones all be compatible after the MVNO network switch - are the 3G and 4G frequencies the same?

M2, Vocus merge to form down under’s newest billion-dollar telco

Under the radar

Strange how these big players can be very hard to notice. Quietly racking up big profits but no-one really knows they exist, when the big well known industry players seem to be struggling to maintain their profit margins.

NBN fibre-to-the-node launched: Now the long sprint begins

Re: Fibre like speeds.....

You will generally be under 1.5km from the Node, at least that is how it works in NZ. Under 800m and you get 'fibre like' VDSL. I was getting 15/1 adsl2+ at about 800m distance from an FTTN node, after previously being 4km from the exchange.

NBN Co yet to make a single fibre to the node connection but is eyeing off G.fast

NZ ahead for once

I comment the same thing every nbn article in The Reg, but..

Glad that in New Zealand we just got on with building FTTP back in 2012, with most urban areas finished by 2019. I'm on the base fibre plan of 30/10 but up to 200/200 is available. About half of those waiting for fibre can get VDSL already thanks to the 'legacy' FTTN network from 2008, those a bit further from the cabinet or exchange have ADSL2+.

Still the old problems of some smaller settlements on congested backhaul, but 4g rural broadband on 700mhz will help most of those. All schools have a fibre connection too.

France will flog off 700MHz to boost mobe broadband while UK dithers. Thanks, Ofcom

Lack of equipment?

I know the 4G spectrum is very fragmented globally, but here in NZ Vodafone is about 1/4 through it's national 700Mhz 4G roll out with no equipment problems. The iPhone 6 and latest flagship Androids connect happily to 700Mhz right now, rather than in 2020.

NBN fibre: activations accelerated as footprint expanded

Re: 38% at 12Mbps, 38% at 25Mbps

The base fibre plans on offer in NZ are 30/10, which is now being changed to 50/20 as consumers can't see enough improvement in the headline numbers to change from ADSL 2+ ~14Mbps.

Turnbull says no need to future-proof NBN

No FTTN to FTTP pathway?

I thought the whole idea of doing fibre to the node first was to allow cheaper initially costs whilst benefiting more people quicker. Once the FTTN network is in place, then work on the last mile improvements in the future. I thought the NBN was being specifially designed this way?

In New Zealand we had FTTN completed in about 2010, by Telecom (the equivalent of Telstra). However the FTTH network now being built, currently half completed, involves mainly overbuilding the existing FTTN network instead of expanding it to the last mile. I assumed NBN had learnt this lesson and was future-proofing the FTTN to allow FTTH easier and cheaper in the future?

Botched NBN installs leave folks with no internet, or recourse

Won't be a problem for long

With NBN now being mostly FTTN the problem of substandard fibre installs won't be an issue for many Aussies.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge: A side swipe at smartphone design

Left handed version?

I assumed the edge was on both sides, but see it is just on the right.

Huawei? Apple and Samsung's worst nightmare, pal

Xiaomi not landfill

I wouldn't class Xiaomi as the landfill end of the market - the cheapest Hauwei is a lot worse than the cheapest Xiaomi.

Xiaomi - High to mid, at low margin

Huawei -High to bottom, high margin at the top, low margin at the bottom.

NBN Co, Turnbull, issue contradictory broadband speed promises

NZ says hi

and welcomes your tech startups to our lovely FTTH network and better beaches. Writing this comment on a relatively meagre 30/10 fibre plan but could change to 200/200 tomorrow if so inclined.

We had FTTN before that, so most of those waiting for fibre can get ADSL2+ or VDSL already. Those on VDSL experiencing gradually slower sync rates as more houses sign up and the crosstalk interference becomes an issue.

EE launches 150Mbps '4G+' in the heart of London

Welcome to 2013

We've had general, real world availability of these speeds in NZ for over a year now

Turnbull says NBN 'most reckless commitment of Commonwealth funds in our history'

Re: Most reckless use of Commonwealth funds?

Quite a few things spring to mind. F-35 'stealth' jets, Colin class subs for starters.

Joe Average isn't worth $10 a year to Mark Zuckerberg

make it subscription

How about ad-free (for those not in the know) Facebook for $10 per year then?

US allows commercial use of sharper satellite snaps

Re: Oh no (again)!

Loads of suburbs in the US have these bylaws

Did Microsoft just paint TechEd Australia Azure?

Come over to TechEd NZ for a four day conference then, 9-12 September

NBN Co must wait until mid-2015 for fast cable modems

Giganaire

NBN probably only used 'Gigasphere' as Giganaire was already taken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6dr6vW3YXQ

NBN Co in 'broadband kit we tested worked' STUNNER

We've already got VDSL available as a consumer product in NZ after the big FTTN roll-out a few years ago. It's a good solution for those within about 700m of the cabinet who don't have fibre yet, but any further out, unless your line quality is very good, the application usually gets rejected by the provider.

The people nearest the cabinet can get up to 70/30 MB/s, those further away get 30/10 speeds.

The high frequencies of VDSL makes it very susceptible to the problem of crosstalk interference, meaning the more people who have it the worse the performance gets for everyone else, especially when the lines aren't top quality. A Tragedy of the Commons situation which fibre largely avoids.

Telstra 'snot boxes' challenge Turnbull's FTTN plan

Meanwhile in New Zealand

At least here in NZ we seem to be going in the right direction. FTTN was in place for most urban areas about 5 years ago, and VDSL is available for those nearest the cabinet. I get 14Mb/s ADSL2+ on an unremarkable suburban street, and the fibre guys were digging around last month so 50/20 or 100/50 fibre broadband is on its way too, for the same price as ADSL. There are some funding issues with the fibre program but it should mostly all get done before 2020 at least.

Treasure hunters dig up LOST RELIC of dead Steve Jobs

Plunderers

They sound more like bandits robbing a tomb a few years after it was built. Aren't time capsules supposed to be found in the distant future, not just thirty years later when you can still buy the contents of it on ebay?

Douglas Adams was RIGHT! TINY ALIENS are invading Earth, say boffins

Re: Diatoms, its full of diatoms!

Looks suspiciously like a microscopic intergalactic space transport to me. It's even got windows.

Dyson takes Samsung to court in UK over vacuum cleaner

Re: I really dislike dyson

2-3 times a week?! Do you have OCD?

Android chief leaves Google for Chinese fork seller Xiaomi

Re: No non-compete agreements at Google ?

Good luck trying to enforce that in a Chinese court.

Apple's head bean counter boasts WORLD'S BIGGEST PACKAGE

Re: What on Earth is the point?

Because it's all the underlings doing the actual 'work' ?

What work? Tablet owners prefer to slack off with their slabs

Re: not ready for any work

Should have used Evernote then, or some other cloud based note app.

Google shreds Reader in new round of 'spring cleaning'

Re: <insert Googly NSFW expression here>

Exactly, you should be reading El Reg on the website, and clicking on all those lovely google provided adverts. Killing Reader makes perfect sense.

Secrets of an ad broker: NoSQL, millisecond auctions and FLASH ARRAYS

Wasted talents?

Reminded me of a quote by Jeff Hammerbacher (Cloudera / ex-facebooker) in a story from last year - "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," he says. "That sucks."

Samsung, LG 'lose confidence' in OLED TV tech

Re: Well, that settles that...

What about the kid's TV? Or are you too occupied watching Sky in the bedroom to have reached that life stage yet?

NASA confirms ice at poles of Mercury

Re: enough ice to bury Washington DC in a layer two miles thick...

Is this a new unit measurement? I don't care about Washington DC - how thick would it cover Wales?

Cutbacks hit CSIRO wireless unit

Self Funding?

Shouldn't CSIRO be self funding now anyway, after it' recent big patent wins?

Driverless trucks roam Australian mines

Precise Dumping

I could do with that precise dumping tech after a Friday night curry session.

Web users: We've got NO IDEA if we're stealing content or not

Agree about Youtube - my kids watch episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine, Chip 'n Dale, and so on. Just because they're on Youtube that gives the impression that it's all legit, when I know they are most likely not and just haven't had a takedown request (yet).

Samsung turns screws on Apple, hikes A6 processor price 20%

It's not robbing Peter to pay Paul..

..it's robbing Peter to pay Peter.

Medical scan record that the NHS says will cost £2k to retrieve: Detail

Re: Hplasm

It would be too late now to be of any use. Water under the bridge and all that..

Man who put the manhood into the Speaking Clock dies

Re: replaced in 2007

Didn't Tom Baker do the 1471 - who rang you last - job for a while?

A lesser-known new feature in iOS 6: It's tracking you everywhere

Re: Tracking my interest in sauerkraut

And you only need to buy sauerkraut once every couple of years, at least in our house. The Piccalilli relish has laid dormant in the cupboard for five years now.

Apple begs ex-Google bods to fix crap maps app

Re: The problem is ALWAYS the PEOPLE.

Sort out the flaws in the apple mapping data by opening google maps on your second monitor, and then copy and paste the coordinates?

Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch

Long hours

'Hard-working and proactive' sounds like a euphemism for 'working for 12 hours a day to fix this mess'

Apple iOS 6 review

Re: Not that useful on a 4

It's obviously a purely business decision, rather than wanting to provide a better user experience.

New Zealand's Copyright Tribunal to hear first cases

no jury..

..a tribunal. I don't think they'll be fined that much either.

Wireless Power breakthrough: Iron Man can lose the chest reactor

Re: Patent

Don't worry, Apple will have patented it already.

Techies cook up Minority Report-style video calling

Re: Taking EU taxpayer dollars then making patents is a disgrace

At least it's more preferable than Apple taking out another patent on something they didn't invent themselves.

WD's 2TB Green giant can't jam hardness into standard slot

NAS?

Fill it fit in most network area storage boxes?

Job ad seeks 'mediocre' developers

Re: HHHHmmmmmmmm

Don't forget all the Kiwis moving there, bringing even better coffee..

Hidden Grand Canyon-sized ICE-HOLE hastens Antarctic melt

Re: Of course...

er, because the scientific paper was all about a specific valley feature in the West Antarctic ice sheet?

DARPA aiming for Mach-20 hypersonic rocketplane 'by 2016'

Survivable?

Sounds like the next advert for Ryanair.

Assange's Ecuador asylum bid has violated £200k UK bail, say cops

Re: @AC; Wednesday 20th June 2012 15:49 GMT

With the UK extradition law so biased towards the US, surely he'd have *less* chance of being extradited there from Sweden?