Posts by g.marconi 28 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2011
This may not be as difficult a problem as it seems. Most of the radios in mobile phoes these days are actually capable of using many different frequencies, some already have as many as five bands available.
Often when they go to market in a certain country only those bands used in that country are enabled, but others could be enabled by a software up-date.
As a totally free and high-quality method of radio reception DAB is excellent. Most developed countries have used it for years and it has become very popular. It was available in north america some years ago (at least in Canada) but it was dropped for some reason that most people suspect was pressure from the fee-paying satellite-radio providers. There is no point in being negative about somethin just because you cannot have access to it yourself !
It seems incredible that there are still people who don't realise that there are excellent FREE alternatives -
ones which do not change file-formats every few years and can be read by virtually any computer running any O/S. One of the major UK museums, V&A perhaps, had to pay millions to have their archives translated into the current format because they had been created in Office some years ago. I wonder how often the taxpayer will have to pick up the cost of nonsense such as this.
Apparently one can watch films or videos on Kobo just as with any other Android device, but I am puzzled as to why they (KobO) think people will watch them with the tablet in the portrait position. Normally one would use lanndscape for this and naturally require the speakers to be in the left and right postions, yet in the picturae they are to be seen close together at one end of the display....what a stupid mistake!
An even worse scam by BT is enforcing the full line-rental even when customers only need ADSL. With increasing numbers of people using mobile-phones as their sole means of communication very often they do not need a land-line.Telcos in other countries are happy to provide a "dry-pair" for the DSL without voice services at a much cheaper price but BT has always refused to consider this. It should not be legal to charge customers for something that they do not want !
Well since more than two-thirds of the entire EU are using Android handsets with apple amongst the remaining users of minority systems it is hardly worth bothering about them. The US has a long history of ignoring, or worse still, deliberately breaking existing standards and since they represent only some 5% of the global population this
unfortunate habit should not be allowed to affect the progress of the world as a whole.
It might help ease the load a bit if every household was encouraged to install solar PV panels. Perhaps a financial incentive would be well worth it. Oh wait, we used to have that didn't we and then suddenly it was slashed in half so that for most people it is not worth their investment! Darn, if only we had known about that EU directive last year!
Oh dear another "journalist" who couldn't be bothered to research the topic properly. There has been quite a choice of NFC equipped handsets in the UK for at least several months. Some manufacturers like Sony have more than one model, so does Nokia and Samsung, in fact just about the only comapny turnong its back on NFC is Apple - once again not ready for prime-time.
Yes, RFID has been around for years and is essentially the same technology but it uses a low radio frequency (125KHz) which enables a longer reading-range. NFC uses a much higher frequency (13.56MHz) which has benefits such as preventing the two systems from interacting in any way, and the receiving distance is shorter which assists the security of a transaction.
The technology is mature, applications are simple to write and thus plentiful - just look at the selection of Android apps as an example, and many consumers are eager to use the tachnology if only it would be made more available.
What is holding it back is the various service companies fighting tooth and nail to get in on the act.The banks of course feel that anything to do with money is their god-given right, so do the credit-card companies. Now too the mobile service providers see an opportunity to influence and control their customers to an even greater degree and quite overlook the obvious point that shopping transactions are absolutely none of their business. Just the thought of permitting these providers to become involved in this should fill us all with fear - after all they do not have a great reputation for keeping consumers' accounts straight as it is, what will happen if they have some control over our credit-cards and/or bank accounts too?
Now almost unnoticed in all this is that all these companies who are salivating over the thought of becoming involved and whose in-fighting is actually delaying the roll-out, are all expecting to be paid for handling our money. Who is going to pay them - the consumer? Surely not, we do not actually see the handling charges from the credit-card companies, we carefully seek out ATMs that do not charge us, so I hardly think we will be happy to accept new charges for the privilege of waving a phone at a terminal instead of a card !
Androids generally were selling 4 units to every single Apple one and that was some time ago. The margin is likely to increase as people mostly want the latest products not from someone always playing catchup. Apple were essentially the last people to get into the mobile phone business and naturally benefitted greatly from all the development done by others before them. Has everyone forgotten that they had to pay Nokia for wrongly using no less than 12 Nokia patents! Some would say it would be hard to imagine a less ethical company.
Well actually FM radio came long after television. Early TV, say 1940's, was on about 51MHz and did not move into the UHF frequencies until 20years later.
Speak to any experienced Radio Amateur for an informed and practical explanation of the effects of frequency and mode of transmission upon the useful range of radio signals. Unless some currently unknown method such as the "sub-space" transmissions as featured in science-fiction TV can be developed, realistic RF range at 80MHz is more likely to be measured in metres rather than kilometres.
Yes they were excellent machines and way ahead of their time in a sense.....basically the problem was not being American. Remember Palm ? I'd guess they came along some 10 years after Psion's pocket companion but somehow they managed to convey that Palm had invented the pocket computer. Even more amusing is the Wikipedia entry for "pocket computers"....a quick scan suggests that Bill Gates invented the pocket computer.
So who was the jerk who thought "including British English" was funny ( or perhaps simply ignorant) ? You just need to say "English" since, by definition, that is what is spoken in Britain.
Of course if somebody wants to distinguish between variants from standard English such as South African, Australian or American then the country would need to be specified.
At last for all those who are confused about the question of which way a camera is looking....this app clearly demonstrates that the front-facing camera is on the back of the phone NOT the little one on the screen-side of the phone. (All cameras use the front-facing lens after all otherwise we would
all be taking pictures of the view behind us!)
You mentioned that some users complained that Thrutu could only be used on wi-fi .The problem for some users in the USA is that they use the poorly engineered CDMA system which can only transmit either data or voice but not both at the same time ! This is just one of the reasons why so few networks found the system of interest. At one time it was unable to send text messages outside its own network...imagine that!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
