Posts by N13L5

AData claims 'world's thinnest external HDD' crown

Its nice that they made a heat dissipating metal housing, but

... did they have to make it so 80's looking?

Maybe they were afraid of running afoul or the rounded corners patent...

Can't help but think B&O would have easily done a better job.

Too many hard drive makers come out with a new so-so design every year, instead of hiring a really good designer once and then sticking with that design, to be recognizable.

LaCie's Porsche design goes through generations, but changes are subtle, and it never looks amateurish.

Info-flinging service Nokia Life gets webby, gains a plus

calling india or china 'emerging societies' is hilarious, since they've been around longer than we have, at 4000+ Years. And just a few centuries ago, we were still in the habit of killing anyone who dared to claim the earth was round.

The arrogance...

CEO bloodbath in storage land - four bigshots gone in one week

I can't say about the other three, but the OCZ guy must have realized he'd loose the upcoming fight in the upcoming storage shake out, and either his company would go to the dogs or get bought up without him...

Makes sense to just go and start something new, before getting all frustrated and exhaustet...

Nokia out $99 dual-Sim Asha

So, Nokia has thrown away modern Megoo, and is more Symbian phones instead... God, I hope people are not so stupid as to buy them with that ancient atrocity of an OS.

Even though dual SIMs are a great feature.

One SIM for calls, one SIM for more reasonable internet tethering.

Of course, with Symbian, you couldn't just create a WiFi hotspot if you wanted to, I'm sure Nokia made several more kneefalls before Telcos since last time, and made sure that there will be no tethering and no skype either.

No matter the hardware, they will be crippled phones... more crippled than the chinese Android fork for sure.

Sure you can make phone calls, and probably be all over facebook, but when it comes to utility, you'll be flat on your face with one of those.

Last remaining reason to order an iPhone 5 disappears

Re: Yet more iPhone linkbait

linkbait haha

Well, he definitely nailed most people's reason for buying Crapple's crippled phones

Orée outs wood-carved keyboard

needs a backlight, given the low contrast lettering

idk, sounds nice to have wood under your fingers...

I imagine its solid wood too, but given the oils generally present on fingers, it might look pretty ratty soonish

HTC hawks fresh WinPho smartphones

Re: Death of HTC

Thats hilarious...

WindPhone should be less work to implement than Android, since they don't allow you to customize anything.

As for the rest of the argument of "taking their eyes off Android" - look at Samsung, they make a phone for every conceivable OS, throw it on the wall and see what sticks. Whatever sells, they make more...

This is an astute way of doing business.

The sad thing is, that Nokia isn't doing the same under Elop. But what can you expect from Elop who wasn't even familiar with the Osborne effect. Must have been sleeping through business school.

Nokia has thrown away their Linux platform, which got great reviews and which those people who stay out of Apple's walled garden would buy for the increased freedom.

People can't expect any added freedom from a Microsoft who wants to be exactly like Apple, just without the cachet. So, people who are not buying Apple aren't going to voluntarily buy Microsoft, cause they'd just get the same jail without the shiny designs and excellent social status benefits of iOwnership.

Only Corporate policies on what phones employees can use might help M$ here. But a lot of Corporations are using Java for their distributed business applications, which happens to interface much better with Android. So, at most, they'll get IT departments that are full of C++, VB and C# diehards. .Net helped a lot of people write useful applications quickly, but thats going out the window now too in Microsoft's increasingly abortive moves, so those developers are seriously thinking over where they want to go from here. I think Ballmer is panicking over Monopoly loss and job loss. And while the 'one windows experience accross all devices" makes some sense for them, he's breaking more porcelan than he should as he jumps all over the place.

Apple pioneered... iOwnership makes you all-knowing!!1@omgwtfbbqplznerf

We know Apple "pioneered" everything in the current mass hypnosis!

I can remember infinite numbers of products with color palettes like that before Apple existed!

Myopic people with a short tunnel vision that reaches back less than two decades. Even if you're very young and weren't around, thats no excuse. After all, there's school and dictionaries and books, and many of those relics are still around to be directly observed.

But people with Apple products seem to think they know everything by virtue of iOwnership.

Idolizing religious freaks, its absurd!

Am I really seeing HTC more or less copy Nokia's Windphone design and saturated case colors?

Regardless if you like or dislike that design, fact is, they're not selling!

Good thing Nokia doesn't have money to sue over case similarities...

Samsung's appeal gaffe keeps Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in US

Re: As Sneaky as Apple

You're right, with one exception...

Steve Jobs was a proven liar and cheat, who embezzled Wozniak's share of the payout on the first big sale they made together, which was all Wozniak's work.

The FBI has a file on Jobs, go google it sometime and you'll know why Apple is the way it is.

Jobs also never gave a dime to any charity, foundation or desaster relief, he didn't bother to help fund research on what killed him. He paid his own bill and that was it. He rejected responsibility for his own kid.

But in a greedy capitalist society, people are all too ready to overlook sociopathic and criminal behaviour, as long as the bastard is successful. Success is the new golden calf to dance around.

Some extremely rich people actually think that they have a social responsibility and try to do a good thing every now and then. Not Steve... he figured it was all for him. Then the devil came and took it from him. No big surprise there...

So, its not like Apple turned sour after he died... it was a rough and tumble company from the start, precisely due to his personality. Try talking to anybody who's been doing business with Apple since the 80's. They were a nightmare to deal with for distributors, retailers, developers. Apple was never interested in remotely fair relationships with any other businesses. Its a model of self centeredness to the extreme.

I just call them Crapple... I had an iPhone once, someone gave it to me. It was horrific, I had to waste my time jailbreaking it, before I could get data in and out normally. ("normally" meaning interfacing with tech from various manufacturers). I'm sure it works better if your whole house is filled with Apple and Ikea stuff.

Dell sets out Win8 tablet, Ultrabook, all-in-one stall

mouse bios...??

Its very hard to buy Dell computers, even if you want to... I always keep looking at what Dell comes out with, but really, they can't seem to get the mix right.

The XPS13, for example, is an exceptionally well designed little Ultrabook. Nice feel, great looks, light weight, decent keyboard... should easily make it to the top of my list, right? But it comes with a glare screen with lousy resolution for business use. And they don't give you an option for a matte screen with 1600x900 resolution at any price. And as this machine is most of all good for traveling, it should also have a 3G W-WAN option, but nooooo...

We are Dell, we just leave the market for people that need to travel and get work done to Lenovo...

And whats with the AIO machines from every manufacturer...? We are being sold crappy laptop components stuck to the back of a 160 dollar monitor, and suddenly, that's supposed to be worth more than a grand... neat trick!

Usually there's not even a dedicated GPU in that mix and if there is, its some super low end job from 3 years ago. Forget about using CUDA cores to speed up calculations, something you can do on any cheap little mini-ITX based cube computer.

If you got a lot of customers that buy that, can I borrow your rolodex, please? I got bridges to sell...

Motorola outs Razr phone with Intel Inside

Re: Why oh why

Why oh why can't motorola hire a proper industrial designer for their phones?

This might be a great phone, but it looks like a dog's breakfast!

All you need to know about nano SIMs - before they are EXTERMINATED

Apple designing the next Orwellian nightmare...

I am not well disposed toward Telcos, but at least, there are many of them, and most of them are competing with each other. Phone manufacturers are very few. So giving them SIM control through a SoC type deal would make things far worse than they are now. You'd have to search for hours and read tutorials for days on how to jailbreak your phone without bricking it, just to 'swap sims' between phones. It would also create a widespread need to break the encryption of the system, leading to a massive increase in phone related crime.

With Apple's mass hypnosis thing going on, at least in the U.S., McDonalds gulping idiots would be standing in line for new Apple phones that take the last bit of control over their own lives from them.

And in Europe, you can't trust people's self preservation instincts either. The Britisch/American banking cartel controls the media here for at least a decade now, and people have started to go as soft in the head too.

Acer Iconia Tab A700 32GB HD Android tablet review

Re: Nice

I don't get how we can have reviews that proclaim with a straight face that "games like shadowgun run smoothly"..

Its almost like saying Solitaire is running smoothly...

I guess for people who can't be without some twitchy game wherever they go, no matter if its a 15 year step backwards compared to PC games, this makes perfect sense. Nvidia just got 3DS right, this year, if you add a 3DS screen large enough to be immersive, costing less than these crummy tablets, you got some real entertainment, not a sad excuse for it.

Who would have thought its possible to not die when you're out without a gadget.

I find this all looks like some insane mass hypnosis. Tablets replace smoking, in order to never have an 'empty' moment?

Something must be consumed at all times, like hungry ghosts.

Windows 8 to grab iPad market share wrested back from Android

Re: itunes on Windows

"Even though I'd assume it has an accessible file system, so you don't need Zune to get content onto it."

Don't be too sure about that... remember, M$ is now hell bent on trying to be locked down control freaks like Apple without regard if it kills them.

most "Market Analysts" these days are just peddling spin

They specialize in plausible spin, but still spin.

Valuable spin, since the system media will write about it, so some company will generally caugh up a lot of cash.

But mostly, its the opposite of 'helpful information' to most people reading it.

The more times you see it reported in different media venues, the more you can assume that the opposite is probably true.

Intel to take felon-foiling tech to phones, slates

This is horrific tech, cause it can be abused far beyond what any thief could do.

If it CAN be abused, it WILL be abused... that simple

Already various government agencies are overstepping their bounds, even after the huge increase in powers the spooks got after 9/11...

If you're a political dissenter, they'll find some phony charges like they did with Assange - enough reason for them to remotely deactivate your credit card, your phone your computer and your car, naturally...

Why wait, why not put everybody into FEMA camps now, that should control theft nicely, since people can't go anywhere...

Orwell really didn't even come close to what kind of reality our children are going to wake up to... A potential dictator is always just one election or war away.

Haynes Build Your Own Computer book review

shredding fingers like slaughterhouse workers, but with somewhat less risk of infection

Well, After years and years of Lian Li cases, my hands are completely healed,

so I'm tempting fate now:

I have a bunch of cheesy SG08 Steel cases from Silverstone arrive today...

On another note, I can't figure out why people would need a "book" to build a computer... I guess its for those with no functioning system in the entire family, so they can't access youtube or one of a zillion forums, where you get real up to date info on setting up the exact hardware you just googled a great review on a few minutes prior..?

Intel debuts 'Haswell' chippery: from tablets to servers

Intel has it backwards with the GPU scaling??

They say a desktop chip will be delivered with a 'better' GPU version, even though that's the place where users will continue to replace a mediocre integrated GPU with a dedicated GPU.

In Ultrabooks on the other hand, there's not much room and manufacturers would rather not add cost and loose battery life with an extra chip that needs its own heatpipe.

So, the reality of laptop building and selling would dictate that you need some low power chips with the higher end integrated GPU, that can clock up and down in a wider range than Ivy Bridge.

Viewsonic 22in Android 'tablet' hands-on review

hey, you didn't say if I can also use it as a regular display...

Would be nice to know, yes or no...

Can I alternatively hook this up to a DVI output on my PC as well?

sort of like my Alienware notebook has HDMI output as well as input...?

Listen up, Nokia: Get Lumia show-offs in pubs or it's game over

Re: "No other rival can offer such distinctive differentiators"

I'd really like for Nokia to stay alive...

But I'm not going to waste my cash on their stuff to help them do so while Elop is running it...

Please, all the guys shilling for WindPhone8 go buy a bunch of their phones yourselves,

To keep that badly poisoned 3rd eco system alive.

Even if they drop the garish colors...

...as long as Elop insists on WindPhone OS and nothing else, there won't be many Nokia buyers.

Why doesn't Nokia get smart and offer a few OS choices...

Like Samsung... throw a lot of stuff on the wall and make more of those things that stick.

Sure got them to #1...

HP preps designer desktops for Windows 8

who...

Who gives a rats ass about the freaking 'world's thinnest" AIO, when the stand is fugly and it has no graphics capability?

Have people all lost their minds? Shape over substance to the extreme - on a ...computer? Its like they're advertising fashion models. Oh I see, they're compensating... some kind of weird computer pron...

Well, I'm not against making computers or any machinery look good... but this is starting to become like making the "world's skinniest subway train" Look! ...only half a meter wide, people have to stand in a long row and its hard to get out, also has to go really slow in curves, but its sooooo thin!!!

Now I know why FEMA is building these giant camps in the U.S. capable of holding millions... its for all the people who are slowly going insane.

New Nokia Lumia mobes fail to inspire investors

Re: Pretty sure this entirely misses the point

just oust Elop before its too late...

Making Nokia a one-trick-pony and then picking the lamest pony in the whole circus surely can't work.

The world's first Windows Phone 8 hands on – what's it like?

Nokia's lumia phones somehow don't look premium.. just look like cheaply made featureless plastic slabs.

I don't get Nokia these days..

As for Microsoft... I'm perfectly happy that they can't hack it to build a new monopoly...

I love seeing them bleed large amounts of cash on a ~2% market share, when they were unwilling to spend anything for almost a decade to fix widely known issues in Windows Mobile, when they had 36% market share...

Good for them, a just punishment for hanging customers out to dry over and over...

Remember buying Microshuft DRM music? A few years later, they turned off their DRM servers, everybody's purchased music was gone...

Go die in a fire, Microsoft? it'll be fun!

And take Elop with you, before he finishes off whats left of Nokia.

iPhone 5 wait drives record Samsung smartphone sales

Re: Just proves Apple's legal case

What a retarded premise! Its not Apple's iPhone 5 wait leading to good Samsung sales. Its pretty damned good Samsung products leading to good Samsung sales :P

Otherwise, you'd see Motorola and Sony and HTC and RIM all selling great too, no?

Maybe a lot of people are buying Samsung, cause they're annoyed with Apple by now? who knows...

I was already annoyed with my iPhone 3G, having to fight Apple every step of the way to try to do what I want on the phone rather than what Apple wants me to do on it.

The new Note is another good reason why I'm not even 'waiting' for any iPhone, I've always loved Wacom's pressure sensitive tabs... now I get to have one on my phone with a big enough screen to draw stuff anywhere I have an idea.

Pair that with Autodesk Sketch and that double strength battery, why wouldn't Samsung have great sales

A load of Tosh: External hard drives the new 'personal clouds'

Re: See delusion

I think the scribe of the article is off his rocker...

With 6 grand for 3x1GB USB sticks, we can safely say that Toshiba's NAS has enough time to absolve a full service life, before those USB sticks come down to challenge it in its price range.

And cloud with "guaranteed up time" is something that's guaranteed only for as long as the current tech bubble lasts.

Is he not watching governments all over the world clamp down on electronic communications, with folks like Anonymous & co giving them the perfect excuse?

The only thing sure in regards to that fantastic distributed cloud is that some criminals, or worse, some government agency is going to end up with your data.

Because nothing has changed in our modern times: Governments are just the most powerful crime syndicate in any given country, well second most powerful now; bankers took the number one spot, since they managed to absorb control of the money supply.

Windows Phone 8: What Nokia and Microsoft must do

I thought 30 years of M$ was more than enough

Why would this writer bother to give advice to Microsoft? If you have great advice, you should not offer it..

Remember? Microsoft wants to copy Apple's walled ghetto. Its all about Tollbooths for them.

Do humans need to be walled in, after many years of being able to choose what they want to do with the computing products they purchased?

I say continue your boykott as before...

Microsoft won't wise up under Ballmer, and Elop isn't even worth a lopsided grin.

HTC hawks fresh Desire for market boost

exactly why I came to make a post too

wth, HTC? what's that supposed to be? a squashed egg?

Just trying to get around the square with rounded corners patent?

Back when I liked your designs and wanted to buy your phones, your cameras weren't up to snuff.. now you're thinking of new tricks to make me go buy phones from someone else...

Ten... all-in-one inkjet photo printers

Inkjet printers are the biggest scam of the century, right behind 'independent' central banks

License to print money...

here, have another inkjet printer..

We'll sell you a few droplets of ink every month into eternity...

And if you don't print much and save your ink, we'll sell you even more, cause if you don't use it, the cartridge will just dry out on its own...

Fabulous!

Samsung Galaxy Beam Android projector phone review

Re: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...

I don't actually live there...

You had me going there for a while...!

Anyway, you'd be surprised how many females do appreciate pictures of females with dragon tatoos in compromising situations... Just don't turn it off so quickly next time, let them read the article and blame those terrible immoral British tech news sites.

I know a great use not discussed yet

Its been proven that you can stimulate your baby's IQ with images and such.

Nothing like projecting those images at the ceiling above the baby's crib...

I remember staring at ugly curtains in disgust for hours from my bed when I was a small child and couldn't get up myself yet...

Images to project would be anything in black and white or primary colors, like simple numbers and letters all the way to scientific formulae, microscope images, musical notation etc it doesn't matter too much what it is, so long as it doesn't look scary...

'$199' Surface tablets: So crazy it might work, or just crazy?

Re: to break that two-player market into three you would need a pretty big hammer.

"$199 sounds like a big hammer."

Yep, it might be correctly sized to do the job.

And M$ can't let things pass the way they stand, or they are officially resigning themselves to riding into the future on only one of three rails, if they forfeit phones and tablets.

They are better off throwing out billions now, while they still have the money to spend, instead of mourning their irreversible decline a few years down the line.

Re: Think I'll be sticking with Win7 on the desktop though.

How long do you think it will be before there's a nice little app automating the process of getting the regular Win7 desktop back on win 8...?

As for holding off criticism on metro:

Its not so much metro, its Microsoft's way of doing business. WinCE platform: didn't spend a dime on fixing widely complained about issues for a decade. WindPhone7 platform: aborted after a year and a half.

Windows RT... looks a lot like the IOS relation to OSX, but with possibly better ability to transfer existing windows software to RT with a simple recompile as some people claim (we'll see about that)...

The overall MO is that M$ is trying for their HOLY GRAIL of toll-booths everywhere - by trying to become more like Apple, even though they've long been doing business only to suit themselves. Customer benefit ranks somewhere below 10th place, its all about jokeying for position.

Last I remember Customer Benefit holding top priority with Microsoft was when they designed Excel in order to kill Lotus 123. Cause it was the only way to do it.

Re: Anything that isn't using x86 assembler can be ported across by recompiling

I guess that means the following:

The BAD:

If its one of my windows programs, I get to pay for it again to run it on RT.

(if they decide its worth bothering to do so)

The (possibly) GOOD:

If its a Foss program with open source, I can recompile it myself an run it.

(provided M$ doesn't do something stinky to foil side-loading of software)

Still too much of a gamble to pay any more than $199...

Re: ..makes a lot of sense to target that number.

"Especially as a rumour, that turns out to be wrong. That will make a few people wait, rather than going with a Nexus or iPad now."

I'm already not buying a Nexus, even though I wanted to. But Google chose to save $0.89 omitting a micro SD card slot, so its useless to me.

And if Google's Nexus had the SD card slot, I would not wait for M$ tablet, no matter the $199 price, cause of apps.

Some people here misconstrue that the total number of apps in an app store doesn't matter, cause most of it is junk. This may be true, but doesn't actually support the point they're usually trying to make with that, because the ratio of the total number of apps available and those specifically useful to you is pretty much constant.

So if there's 100.000 apps total and you're happy with the 50 you downloaded out of that, and those 50 apps do everything you want, thats no reason to assume that you'd find those 50 in a market featuring only 1.000 apps.

Even with a 10x improvement of the useful-to-your-needs ratio, you'd still only have 5 apps that do precisely what you need. For the other 45, you'd have to bring your laptop ...err Ultrabook :P

Re: Secure boot would not last long at $199

PlayStation 3 is only useful if it can hook up to Sony to play games. so, if you wanna call it "secure", is that cause people either get sued or else they have a useless Playstation without the Sony link?

With a tablet computer, thats quite different. You have no need to connect to Microsoft once you boot another OS on it. You are not going to be illegally using M$ services.

You'll just be running your little tablet to do your little tasks off of M$' grid... so the kind of recourse Sony had with its playstation doesn't exist here.

I do wonder how the 30% cut for M$' app store works out when people offer free software... after all, 30% of zero is still zero... Will M$ have high signing fees like Nokia used to, to make free apps from small developers impossible?

I remember hating Symbian, not because it was clunky, but because signing fees were really high to protect big commercial developers from having to compete with small developers offering better features faster. You could only install apps from small developers by hacking Symbian, which was a nuisance.

Re: I call bull

Microsoft knows it can't survive in the smart phone market with 1.5% market share.

Selling Surface tablets at dumping prices does have the chance to fix that.

Would I pay full price for a Windows RT tablet with limited functionality and the stink of two recent smartphone OS abortions? Not a chance! If I wanted a tablet with a keyboard and a stylus at full price, I'd go with a Samsung and buy a third party cover with integrated bluetooth keyboard to go with that, knowing I'd have apps for dictation, translation and everything else I might need readily available.

Same reason everybody buys Windows machines in the PC space... you can have software to do even the most rare tasks with a simple web search.

So with Windows RT not running any of my existing software I'm rather partial to, I simply would never pick up a Surface tablet at "regular" price.

If its $199, I'll even pre-order it, cause I know, worst case, I can just use it as a convenient music playback device hanging on the wall.

At @199, I consider it a no-risk purchase, and I think thats what M$ is aiming for.... they've done this before, and in this case, its their last hope from starting a slow slide into oblivion.

And don't forget that M$ is aiming for the big AppStore tollbooth! So its like giving away shavers to sell lots of blades later.

Automatic TollBooths are Microsoft's holy grail.

They should just find ways to give cash to OEMs who fulfill whatever Microsoft's favored quality requirements are, so they can sell at the same dumping prices M$ does. Then again, that might be illegal...

Ivy Bridge for Ultrabooks

Re: HD graphics (!)

You make this discussion sound even more like an echo to stuff thats been talked about months ago.

Its not about "daring" to put a dedicated GPU, if anything, its about a possilbe waste of money, since the HD 4000 takes up quite a bit of real estate on the chip.

But for one thing, there's a variety of Manufacturers already putting dedicated GPUs in their Ultrabooks. (Asus: GT 620M in the Zenbook U32VD, Acer: GT 64M LE in the M5, Gigabyte: GT 640M in the U2442N, there's others as well)

And with the HD-4000 and Optimus, you can still save power, by only turning on the dedicated GPU when the Intel HD GPU can't hack it, which is a widely known old hat.

So I think your argument may become valid if Intel keeps making their integrated GPU bigger without really getting the performance to make the used silicon real estate worthwhile performance wise.

Next year's Haswell architecture may or may not prove your point. Next year, Intel is giving their integrated GPU its own memory to speed things up. If they do it right, it'll perform like a GT 650M, and nobody will ask for a separate GPU... if they do it wrong, then you will have made next year's great argument one year too early :)

Ultrabook with unusual utility

The usual Ultrabook recipe we see is an Ivy Bridge ULV processor, 4GB RAM (often non-upgradeable), and a mystery SSD at 128 or 256 GB. A few connectors and then anything between a crappy, dark screen or a really nice IPS screen.

I found only one Ultrabook with a concept that really differs from this. Gigabyte's U2442V and U2442N. They sport an SSD AND a conventional hard drive. (not talking about a hybrid here, its really 2 drives). And if you find the ULV processor too weak for your taste, you can go to the U2442N and get a regular Ivy Bridge quad core processor and a Kepler based Nvidia GT 640M GPU to go with it. This isn't quite as thin as Asus' MacBook Air alike Zenbooks, but it hardly weights anymore (1.4 KG vs 1.6 KG). The screen is 1600x900, though its only a TN screen and not quite bright enough for outdoor use.

Personally, I don't care in which direction size and weight gets reduced. "Thin" isn't the hot feature for me, if they shave off size and weight in other directions, I'm quite happy with that. Like making less wide display bezels.

Re: screen resolution

The HD 4000 has no issue whatsoever in displaying 2D imagery across 3 high resolution monitors simultaneously. (the Ultrabook's own display and 2x 30" Dell Monitors hooked up via VGA and HDMI)

But when it comes to displaying 3D stuff, you're best off not going past 1366x768, cause its already stressed at that resolution.

Now, this is no argument against a higher resolution screens on 13.3" notebooks, like 1600x900, cause for 3D stuff, you can just scale to a lower resolution. Also remember that, while Windows itself will scale up for higher resolutions, a lot of windows applications fail to properly support such scaling. So, you don't want to go to ridiculous, "retina" like resolutions. Higher resolutions than you really need waste computing resources built into the unit.

Going higher than 1600x900 on 11.6" screens or 1080p on 13.3" screens is a pretty pointless waste imho.

Having said that, 1366x768 on screens over 10" should be made illegal...

isn't this article a little late... by several months??

There are plenty of Ivy Bridge ULV based Ultrabooks on the market for quite a while. And here you come testing an Intel whitebook exclusively against last year's Sandy Bridge Ultrabooks, while everybody else has moved on to comparing Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks against other Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks... your point?

Nokia hails hacks for New York Lumia WinPho gig

I have nothing against corpse violation... when we were children, we'd keep repeating some funny word and it would keep getting more funny every time, until our parents couldn't take it anymore and told us to shut the f up...

Anyway, one should stop corpse violation once it reaches the more unappetizing stages...

Really, I think the Reg has a little journalists guide for everyone, where they prescribe the names to use, to keep that certain style going :)

Sony opens cover on latest e-Reader

Thats why Sony is in the doldrums

Sony has made more cool gadgets for much longer, and their product design capability easily equals that of Apple.

But they have no clue about user experience... in every field of their business from gamers to mp3 players to cameras, to readers... they angered or at least bummed out large numbers of their customers - largely with inept software designs, but also with various conniving moves to get keep their hands in your pocket...

The Sony launcher for their online games is actually a surprising example that they can actually do pretty nice software. But among the most hated gaming companies, I think Sony still manages a 3rd place after EA and some other outfit I forget the name of.

They didn't need to hire a western CEO, but they do need to create a new, high ranking post for customer experience head guy across business divisions, and probably hire a westerner for that, to bridge the cultural divide. Its quite possible that the Japanese find Sony's software efforts perfectly palatable...

Then, they could be dangerous again, and wipe that annoying grin off Apple's face

Nokia CEO: No shift from Windows Phone

really Elop

I really do dislike Apple and all their ridiculous shenanigans.

I do not buy their stuff.

But before I'd ever buy a WindPhone x.xx from Elop and Ballmer, I would stoop down and buy an iPhone.

Microsoft had its chance and hung its customers out to dry by not fixing things for a decade, cause they thought they had the market sewn up. FUM$

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity 64GB Android tablet review

Re: all it needs is a TrackPoint

@ xj25vm

Mostly agree with you, now that the hardware is great, software functionality becomes the issue. There are a few excellent apps, like Autodesk's sketch. But most of it is either buggy or simply lacks capability to match the things I already have.

No large open source teams that have worked on some package for years already. No utilities for any imaginable purpose. no MP4Box type things either.

Windows RT will be even worse. There won't be jack for apps till the first Windows RT hardware is already obsolete. I'm definitely holding out for something that can run Windoze 7 Pro 64Bit.

troll...

Windows RT would be even less likely to have apps you can use for whatever you plan to do with that for like 2 years minimum. So, the Windows version of this will be obsolete before you can do anything with it. Except for forced Facecrook integration. njoy!

troll much?

1920x1200 is a nice, standard resolution that will work extremely well (natively) on existing external PC monitors, not some oddball resolution that will throw off every possible external display or projector.

What I'm wondering about is, how good the keyboard is for journalists who do a lot of typing.

Though I have an android phone, I never thought of looking for writing tools, since phones are awful to write on.

With this tablet, if you could find software like Notepad++ on the PC and a multi-language spell/grammar checker, and a search and replace program that can replace multiple words in text from custom lists, it could serve rather well for getting a lot more work done without needing an outlet than any ultrabook offers.

Acer Aspire Timeline M3 Ultra review

What is it with reviewers complaining about the only correct placement of connectors?

Those too lazy to reach their hand around the back to hook up another wire, should not tyrannize the rest of us, who would like to have free use of our desks to both sides of a laptop instead of turning the area into a snakes nest of cables! We need that room unobstructed by cables for papers, books, other things we work with. Not to mention how it is not fun to push a mouse through an area with wires.

So, the M3 does one thing really well for once: keeping your desk clean. Thanks, Acer!

Now the resolution is truly too crappy for a 15.6" screen. I'll excuse that on the gamer's version with the GT 640M GPU, cause the relatively low resolution of course helps the GPU loads when it comes to playing games at decent frame rates.

But on a version limited to Intel graphics, it kinda looses its justification to live, maybe with the exception of buyers who mainly want to watch movies on it? Whatever.

I've seen the screen measured too, and its a pretty crappy screen. But people are used to crappy screens, every manufacturer uses them on most of their stuff, except for a few standouts. Even spending over thousand doesn't keep you safe from a junk screen like this.

I think the 14" version is by far the better choice. It doesn't cramp the keyboard to squeze a number pad on it, and make you sit off center just to touch type. 1366x768 is still not really good at 14" but somewhat less bad, and the 14" is smaller, lighter, still has the DVD. If I got desperate for a small machine with a GT 640M, I'd buy a 14" M5 from Acer with the back lit keyboard.

But for now, I'm waiting for the other 140 Ultrabooks Otellini has promised for fall 2012.

Not a Cloud in my holiday sky

Re: Laptop

Apple considers its MacBook Air line as consumer machines and fits them with low resolution, glare type screens.

I don't know why someone who writes for a living would want a 13" screen with 768 vertical pixels and a TN panel. True, its a reasonable quality TN panel, but the glare surface doesn't cut it if you want to write while out and about.

Even If I was an OS X user, I'd probably get an Asus UX31A and HackIntosh it.

But waiting till fall beats all other options right now.