Posts by Random Handle

Microsoft takes the Android profit, the Wonkas take the pain

>The fact that Microsoft is reaping all the profit from Android – and Google none

Yeah, Google may as well be giving it away.

Adobe bets on Flash 11 to fend off HTML5 invasion

Yep, often using Flash Studio or Builder....

eg Machinarium - most expensive game in iTunes Top-10 and selling consistently well - but there are tens of thousands of others. Apple don't comment and developers largely keep mum for a quiet life.

[Also not sure about this HTML5+ vs AIR thing either - AIR includes WebKit and plays very nicely with HTML5]

LibreOffice uncloaks online extension cache beta

@Dave..

.....no, but its in the recommended user specification.

Google feeds patents to HTC for assault on Apple

@Jake

>Do any of the so-called "patents" actually cover anything that wasn't industry standard practice before the company that initially applied for the patent was formed?

Quite a lot given before them there weren't any mobile phones and most handset manufacturers have agreements in place. Now that Google know the extent of Apple's licensing of Moto patents and IP agreements/exchanges, things must be interesting for the lawyers.

People have short memories when it comes to Apple damp squibs, but Apple's first mobile phone was a joint venture with Motorola not the iPhone.

Plods to get dot-uk takedown powers - without court order

@Nominet

>Try running a personal website with a .co.uk

Why? That's what org.uk is for......life would be simpler and neater, though granted less profitable for Nominet, if only a UK Ltd company could operate a co.uk.

As with all good ideas and Standards online, greed takes over and ruins it right at the fundamentals.....and don't even start me on the demise of hostnames in favour of w3 all the frigging time.

Samsung says Apple lifted iPad from Kubrick's 2001

Cunning Plan

Lange/Masters outsourced most of the tech and instrumentation production to ensure realism - the list of aerospace & IT companies working on the film, along with NASA etc was more than impressive.

Pretty likely it was IBM or Honeywell that knocked up those tablets and definitely the case that a great deal thought went into their design.

New Apple move against Galaxy Tab on Euro front

@Aaron

> because it's was built as a copy of iOS

Android came into being a couple of years before iOS - though Google's aquisition of it coincided with the launch of the first Apple mobile phone - amusingly a joint effort with Motorola [the E790] the IP legacy of which must be keeping Apple lawyers up at night right now.

Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

@ich

Depressingly, El Florio correctly predicted Google would be forced to buy Motorola Mobile because of the IP conflicts with Droid and OHA partners...but I suppose he could have entirely changed tune in the intervening days since his License to Kill posting.

Motorola Xoom gets Android 3.1

@Neill

It does r/w fine if you use the mediastore API as developer guidelines......it's far from a random decision.

Isolated human genes can be patented, US court rules

Prior Art

>Someone must please object on the basis of prior art...

Where are all the Intelligent Design nuts when you actually need them....?

Microsoft hit with lawsuit in Kinect tech spat

Aquired?

When did Microsoft aquire PrimeSense? I thought they were rebuffed and so licensed their IP and developed their own tracking software.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo bow to Apple sales edict

Bow to Apple Sales Edict?

More of a 'whatever' than a bow really....and hardly the result Apple were hoping for.

MacBook batteries susceptible to hack attacks

@Patrick

Miller is ex-NSA and very much a white hat - unless you're Apple I suppose.

Murdochs won't talk to MPs over phone-hacking scandal

#Why Not

Its not unclear at all, parliament can issue a warrant and have the Police drag pretty much anyone currently in the UK before the committee regardless of nationality.

The Maxwells were thus threatened - pointless exercise though since there's no requirement to answer any questions, just turn up and say 'no comment'.

Advice on offshoring issued to UK.gov IT bodies

@AC

...thought this was all done @ Capita's Offices in Liverpool?

But if they've recently outsourced then chances are things will actually improve, so maybe not the best example to pull out of a hat..

News International grabs SunOnSunday.co.uk domain

@John

> it might also take The Sun with it.

Very few news agents bother carrying it round here.......even most Evertonians respect the boycott. Grab one in a supermarket and its best to check it for dried phlegm from folk casually spitting on copies as they pass the shelves.

Apple v Samsung: Jobs strikes back

Gooapple

......wonder what they'll make of the boatload of Gooapple ['Spawn of the Devil'] handsets currently leaving Shenzai.....and priced @ ~ £100 a pop

Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'

@Jerry

>As an antipodean I've noticed an awful lot of English 'historical' dramas set in the 1900s, 1800s 1700s etc that have a carefully selected set of South Asian and Carribean characters

......though still too few to be accurate if there's a naval/maritime bent.

Toshiba reveals iPad 2 rival

@ Lutin

Host support [aka Android Open Accessory support] was backported by Google and is available in Android 2.3.4 and above......

Google Wallet phone-pay is coming - but how will it work?

No mention of Google Checkout?

Seems a bit odd, surely they're justing adding NFC support to this....

Archos 70 Android 7in tablet

Why?

>I'm surprised El Reg hasn't covered this yet.

Hardly a shock is it - would be news if distributors allowed Google to rent movies without enforcing DRM.

Chinese iPad 2 fanboiz in frenzied fight

@Neoc

>P.T. Barnum quite admirably demonstrated one day when he helped a shopkeeper sell his wares by placing a "strictly one per customer *only*"

I wonder if we should also expect a guarantee from PT Jobs that the White iPhone is guaranteed not to turn pink......

PlayStation Network credit cards protected by encryption

@Andrue

>Why bother cancelling it until something untoward has happened?

Because you've been informed of the risk by email - subsequent fraud will be at your expense not the CC issuer and certainly not Sony's unless you have definitive proof of the chain.

@scarshapedstar

Keep your eye out for the torrent....

2011 Ford Focus

@AC

>Doing so will earn you a fail at the very next MOT when they check it lights up for a few seconds after turning the ignition on.

Usual method is to add a resistor in crappier cars or simply disable them via the ECU. 12 of the bloody things in my car, most of which have to be disabled as my usual rear passengers are still in child seats. [air bags + babies/toddlers = death/injury]

Apple component lock-ups jump 40%

@ratfox

>Now THAT is a good use of money in the bank.

Absolutely, move it from Apple's bank account into Samsung's......superlative business move and all Apple's idea of course.

Nvidia: 'old' tablet development kit won't get Android 3.0

@Dave Fox

I think you're a little confused.....its a very different beast indeed.

http://developer.nvidia.com/tegra/devkit-ventana

Why does this matter?

"Ventana is Nvidia's current Tegra 2 development platform. It's essentially a 10.1in tablet that's intended to smooth the way for Android developers looking to release software for the increasing number of Tegra 2 tablets."

Which still isn't actually out yet - but doesn't seemed to have stopped Advent, POV etc releasing 2.2 on Tegra 2 - or Modaco turning out rather good community firmware very promptly last year.

Behind Apple's record sales are signs of desperation

@Jurassic

>Apple and its investors must be hoping it can be more "desperate" in the future.

You've both hit the nail on the head and entirely missed the point. It isn't just about turning a healthy profit and maintaing a degree of growth amidst the onslaught from much larger companies and consortia. Apple needs to justify its market cap and nothing short of spectacular growth will do that.

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

@Ty

>NO DATA IS SHARED WITH ANYONE IT IS ONLY KEPT ON YOUR LOCAL DEVICES

Your location data is shared in realtime by many iOS Apps - and not just for ads and local service provision - any App which uses Flurry (20% of iOS Apps) or similar analytics packages reports your UUID against position every few minutes.

In October 2010 Flurry boasted that they already had 30TB of analytics data on iOS users.

The db in question is a sideshow really....

Nokia to help WinPho outsell iOS in four years

@AC

>Samsung must be printing money since they basically make all the component parts themselves.

Not forgetting they also make most of the iPhone/iPad components too...

Pandora's mobile app transmits 'mass quantities' of user data

@Ralph 5

>No - that's precisely what Apple forbids in the rules quoted

There are get out clauses with respect to analytics/advertising and in any case Apple do not proactively enforce terms after initial approval - it would be rather difficult to do so and its easy to hide by encrypting data as many such services do.

I'm not picking on Angry Birds, I just think its a commonly installed App. By installing it you agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy I quoted above. You're also agreeing to a number of third party privacy policies as well, including services which aggregate your personal data across multiple Apps.

Most notable in Angry Birds, though it uses several 3rd party services actually, is Flurry:

http://www.flurry.com/about-us/legal/privacy.html

Which contains the classic line:

"This Privacy Policy in no way limits or restricts our collection, use or disclosure of aggregate information. "

I'm not making this up - read the privacy policies of the Apps you use and view the output yourself via a proxy if you don't believe me.

@EWI

>[iOS Apps] cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission

Indeed but this permission can be implicit and requires you to read the Privacy T&C.....pretty much all Apps using ads or 3rd party data mining deals report your position under iOS, its how they make money:

eg. Angry Birds: http://www.rovio.com/index.php?page=privacy-policy

.....even the above then requires you do a little more research into what the third parties are doing with your data - assuming you're able to work out who they are using Fiddler, your proxy logs or wireshark etc.

So it turns out "because of the closed nature of Apple's iOS" is rather more accurate than you suggest.

Natty Narwhal with Unity: Worst Ubuntu beta ever

@Keith

>Remember everyone that Linux = Lego. You don't have to use default Ubuntu and you can go for minimal with a basic desktop manager like dwm or ice or fluxbox or openbox

You could make the same argument with Windows, but the % of folk who replace the bundled Explorer shell with stuff like SharpEnviro is fractional - its worth the effort, but definitely a niche thing. Most people stick with minimal customisation of whatever ships.

April Fools Day's Finest

No mention of Motion Gmail

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

Asus Eee Pad Transformer

@Danny

Its already possible, you just plug one in to the USB port on your tablet.

Dell, HP badmouth Apple's iPad

@AC

>A brief reminder from 2007: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share."

For once, he may have had a point - its only got 18% and that's falling, though you'd be forgiven for thinking it has more given the hype behind it.

HTC Incredible S Android smartphone

@AC

>85% for the very similar Nexus S

No NFC, no SIP, lacks the gorgeous ergonomics of the curved screen.

>Yet a phone with seemingly more (rugged, fastest processor, better cameraS etc)

There's no difference on the CPU, GPU-wise the PowerVR SGX540 of Nexus S has twice the power (via 3D Mark Mobile) of the soon to be defunct Adreno 205 used in the Incredible S.

I'd give it 75% were I being generous - especially as the Nexus S has been floating about since last November.

@David Evans

>Shame the Skype Android App doesn't support video...

He's probably thinking of Fring which used to support Skype video calls on Android until Skype killed it off.

Android Fring still works fine with video chat on its own and most other networks though - AFAIK on Nokia, iOS handsets too. Its great if you're on the road a lot and have young kids, but I suspect most other applications tend more towards the sordid.

iPad 2 tougher than iPad 1. True

@Jonathonb

>What happens if you drop it from about shoulder height on a hard floor?

Doesn't need to be shoulder height, 2 or 3 feet is enough.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCpTRul5G0