Posts by Lallabalalla

Woz: Microsoft's innovation lead 'worries me greatly'

Re: Apple is certainly in a rut

3mm really isn't an issue on the thickness of an iMac, either, but they've ditched the optical drive for precisely that reason and forced the purchase of a $100 outboard peripheral without which you can no longer make a burn to HDD or make a CD or a DVD - and guess what I use my iMac for *a lot* -? - which is why I won't be getting another one when this one is due for replacement. Which is a shame, I quite like it. Hopefully it'll last a good few years yet - it's 2 years old already, I am shocked to realise - but as a longtime Windows user with microsoft at work, I think win7 is awesomely productive (no opinion on win8) and would *never* choose a mac over windows for work.

Apple are boringly obsessed with thinner/lighter and haven't given us anything new since the iPad1.

Apple and Samsung add iPhone 5, Note, S3 to brewing law-storm

Re: WHO THE FUCK CARES???

Plus, meantime, anyone who has bought a Samsung or Apple product is paying for this farce.

Lawyer sues Microsoft rather than slot an SD card into his Surface

Re: What a load of crap. 14Gb used

No, but I'd be well upset if my 500Gb computer only had 250Gb free, duh! It's not the fact that some space is used but fully half of it seems like the guy has a point to me.

Apple stops Caring in Italy, probably all Europe soon

Re: The bit that's valuable

And - at the time of purchase guess what Currys offered me? A "service contract" costing £10 a month for when " *anything* goes wrong". Well at £120 a year that's comparable to Apple .... so do you think they'd

a) Fit a new LCD at my house

b) take it away and do it in 2 days,

c) Take about 3 weeks or

c) Use every excuse under the sun to blame me for it and do nothing.

And without it, what are the chances of getting any kind of decent service or deal from that bunch of rabid box-shifters?

Re: The bit that's valuable

I didn't get somebody elses imac, I got my own back with a new screen. But don't let actually reading a post stop you from being a f*ckwit. And having researched the costs, the invoice was accurate, and it was raised to send a copy to Apple so they could recover their costs from them.

Your Dell had a 3 year warranty - so you got that for free? Well done you, but meaningless. Talk about narrow. And, it took you twenty minutes to plug in a crappy little monitor? Sheesh.

Re: The bit that's valuable

No, they're not, that's the point. I bought it from Currys and Apple are liable for nothing - Currys are.

Re: The bit that's valuable

Indeed. I was forced to buy my iMac through Curry's (can you imagine? The horror...) and it developed a line of dead pixels running up the screen after about 10 months. I phoned Apple and they said I could bring it in or go to an official reseller nearer to me in N1 (London).

So I phoned them and explained the problem. "Oh it's still on Applecare, sir? When would you like us to collect it?" So they collected it using their own packaging and 2 days later it was delivered back with a new LCD and an invoice detailing the cost of the panel (astronomical), the cost of the labour (pretty reaonable), the cost of deliveries and VAT - came ot about £850 I seem to remember - and the all-important Total Payable - £0.00

THAT is what I pay Applecare for, THAT is why I extended it for a further year for a relative pittance and THAT - none of it - is what you will EVER get from a retail outfit like Curry's, whether you are entitled to it or not.

Now then - let's just see how many idiots downvote actual real-life experience!

Windows boss Steve Sinofsky exits Microsoft

Re: Seems pretty straightforward to me....

Seems I'm exactly wrong! - reverse the two names maybe?

As "Short Bob" said elsewhere.....

"So, it turns out this Sinofsky is pretty much responsible for everything I have disliked about Microsoft for the past 10 years including but not limited to the ribbon and Win 8 / Metro.

Fuck that guy."

Seems pretty straightforward to me....

Old-skool desktop-wallah Sinofsky replaced by "forward-thinking" TIFKAM creator..... I'm willing to lay money that Sinofsky is the reason there is still a "desktop" under TIFKAM, and that Larson-Green and he were at loggerheads over the whole interface design - but despite his seniority and experience Larson-Green had Ballmer's backing - and that he stayed long enough to see the barstard lovechild shipped and then thought "I'm too old for this shit" and walked. Good on him for sticking it out that far. Whether he's right and TIFKAM dies a death remains to be seen. Without 2 people pulling in different directions it may work out. - *may*.

Peak Apple: Forstall was 'closest thing to Jobs they had left'

Seems about right. Apple ruled by committee = the death of Apple

I love the fact that the highest recommendation for Forstall is "he's an asshole".

Without an asshole Apple can't do shit, apparently :)

Microsoft Surface Touch keyboards self-destruct – and more

Re: It just keeps getting better,

"either.. don't live here, ... are colossally ignorant..."

Or both.

Excellent rant Dana, pay no attention to the illiberal GOP apple-haters. they all have their dicks in their hands thinking about gadgets.

Re: Bleeding Edge

Yes but we're talking about a plastic casing on a keyboard not a new space shuttle FFS.

Apple's Cue gets parking space on Ferrari board

No way will it go round corners

Apple already hold the patent on round corners.

Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi only tablet review

Exactly WTF is it....

....that everybody is desperate to do on an iPad but can't?

Re: I just got one for work

All my pdf's appeared in iBooks and work rather well. You have to switch to "pdfs" from "books" in library view though I think.

"weeks later the 4 was announced"

Why didn't you just go back and swap it for free liek others have done? Or did you but it from Dixon's?

Re: SuperTim

What can't you do exactly? Get a virus? Install conflicting apps? Resell it 3 years on for most of what you paid for it? Get it replaced almost instantly if it breaks? What?

Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives

Re: "I literally can't be arsed."

Actual LOL

Re: FWIW: " Apple are going to gouge its customer-base"

Fandroids have to do this more because the device they bought a year ago turns out NOT to be getting the latest OS, whereas Apple devices remain in the upate path for years and years - my old spare phone (3GS) is still receiving updates and could be running 6 if I wanted it to. And it still looks and works like a new phone. I'm even thinking of getting another one so I can give them to my kids for Xmas - should keep them off my phone & iPod, and they're banned from even *thinking* about playing with my wife's 5 :)

Gosh I sound like a real fanboi but I'm platform agnostic really. I just like an easy life and Apple gives me that in spades for the present.

But surely the number of people in either camp who actively chase the latest and greatest are really very few (citation needed ;-) IME anyway. There's maybe 3 people in the office here who care about that sort of thing (out of about 50) - and we're a technology company.

PS Downvoted again by the fandriods!! - must be doing something right? Who cares though? Upvote - downvote..... not a single gram of fuck is actually given!

FWIW: " Apple are going to gouge its customer-base"

Of course they will update it, and probably in 6 months. But fanbois throwing away their iToys every 6 months to get the new one only happens in your imagination.

What really happens is that you get the device you want when you want it, and keep it for a long long time. Eventually you might get the latest and greatest, and sell the old one for a damn high percentage of what you paid for it because it's an Apple that still works like new not throwaway cheapo plastic rubbish.

We still have the iPad1, bought a month before the 2 came out, and it's still flawless, and we don't feel the need to change it. I also have an iPod touch which is approaching 4 years old now, and I'm still very happy with it thanks. I have an iPhone4 which I'd *quite like to change for a 4S as I'd like the better camera. A quick spin round ebay tells me I can sell the 4 for nearly the price of a comparable 4S, so the only thing stopping me is that the 4 is generally so good that I literally can't be arsed.

Apple iPad Mini 8in tablet review

Re: glowing review ignoring reality: specs vs. performance

Bang on. Specs per se mean nothing, they exist to produce performance. Apple have always squeezed great performance out of "lower" specs, and it's performance that is required. Anyone who would rather have a "higher spec" machine that performs like a dog is an idiot.

This is up there with my other favourite quote: "data is not information".

Re: Sheltered Life - "an admission that Jobs was wrong"

No, he wasn't - at the time. Times change, get over it.

Re: Sheltered Life - "Have you used the iPad Mini yet?"

Hell, no, not an opinion from someone who ACTUALLY HAS ONE, and LIKES IT!

DOWNVOTE THEM NOW, they are NOT allowed an opinion that disagrees with the haters!

Underdone iTunes put back in oven for another month

With so many people knowing exactly what's wrong with Apple software in general and iTunes in particular, you'd think getting it right would be a shoo-in for Actual Apple Engineers.

I humbly count myself, as a developer, among the first group....

Hey, Cook: I can fix your rapidly deteriorating public image AND your crumbling software for a full 50% less salary than all your CTOs combined. How about it?

"Thankfully I store my music how I want in my own music folder"

That's your problem right there. Stick to The Apple Way young Padawan.

Apple unveils iPad mini, upgrades its big brother

Re: rant on!

You have my sympathy - but don't think you can palm your wife off with anything less than an iPad if that's what she wanted! Or it could be a very frosty Xmas indeed!

If you *are* able to send the 3 back that's great. Get them to swap it for a 4 - in fact, wouldn't it be great if *everyone* who got suckered into buying a 3 did that? Think they's get the message?

Re: Marketing Strategy

" it's a way for Apple to get rid of last years Big iPad components" - of course, well apart from the screen unless they found a way of cutting them down - and that's why I won't be getting one until next year at best, if ever, when it will get the better processor and retina display.

Massive fail.

Then there's the new iMac, which I was considering - until I heard it has only a midrange processor and NO optical drive. Sheesh. I have tons of assets on cd/dvd. I watch movies, rip CDs to itunes, burn playlists to CD, my kids make their own DVDs.. so, no way I'm going ot fork out that kind of cash for an "all-in-one" that clearly isn't when you have to have the desk littered up with a peripheral drive and cable - that you have to pay extra for. And for what? It's 5mm thinner? So what? Who the hell cares about that, it was thin enough anyway. Apple seem to have contracted supermodel-itis. Their products now embody bulimia and they have become fashionistas instead of trendsetters. Sad.

Massive fail.

I would have quite liked an iPod nano, That was *such* a nice design. Now, it's no longer nano and you can't wear it instead of a watch when running/cycling. And it won't dock on my hifi. This one - no thanks.

Massive fail.

My wife's iPhone5 is great - except that it's too tall for her hands to use comfortably. And the finish is cheap. And the maps are rubbish and there's no native youtube app and the music player doesn't have podcasts any more. And it won't dock on the HiFi (which links to the TV so we can watch shows & movies from it with kick-ass sound). What I want is a 4S with the new processor and camera, but, no dice.

Massive fail.

So all in all - you could say I'm a tad disappointed!

Google rolls out new, cheaper Chromebooks 'for everyone'

"It just works"

Google's senior VP of Chrome and apps, wrote in a blog post on Thursday. "There's no need to worry about security updates and maintenance is easy; all you need to do is charge the battery. It just works."

- Is he allowed to say that?!

Why James Bond's Aston Martin Top Trumps the rest

Gold Corgi

No, I had a gold one - and it didn't fire swan vestas, though it did have pop-out bumper over-riders and machineguns at the front.

I didn't lose the plastic Japanese guard and everything worked perfectly - until my little brother got his 3 year old mitts on it. GRR!

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

Re: Random adverts more desirable than tracked...

So true.

Sometimes Amazon tries to get it right - but when I bought a humidifier and they came up with "Customers who bought this also bought ..... a de-humidifier" I had to laugh.

Microsoft Surface: Designed to win, priced to fail

We're already Appled-up but

Anything that hurts Google and puts android in its place is OK by me. Whatever happened to "choice"? Welcome to the party, Microsoft.

Having said that I also think that anything that hurts Apple and puts iOS in its place is a good thing. For Google or Apple insert ANY name and their OS. It's called competition and competition is apparently a good thing.

I can't think of a single reason to hate Microsoft that doesn't apply to Apple or Google - - or SmithKleinBeecham or Nestle or any other gargantuan multinational. What you want - communism?

Woz labels Apple 'arrogant' over iPhone size inadequacy

You idiots who are wildly biased to Apple or Droid

... you're idiots.

That is all :)

Re: Woz - Don't forget to add....

Genius. 2 thumbs-down presumably from people who have either just realised that their broken phone won't ever be replaced or that now have to carry around a pocketful of batteries instead of a dinky cable.

<in the voice of Nelson from the Simpsons>Ha-haaa!</voice etc>

Re: Woz - Don't forget to add....

Surely, if you want that stuff, you BUY A SAMSUNG GALAXY. Duh!

Or if like me you want an iPhone - you buy an iPhone. Duh again! Oh, and maybe a cheap (is there another kind?) pendrive.

A replaceable battery would be fantastic though - I really need to carry another lump of stuff around instead of that easily-stashed almost weightless charging cable. Oh, wait...

MYSTERIOUS GREEN GLOW seen on iPhone 5s

Re: Long term potential for serious issues?

If it turns out to be a long-term problem owners will usually have up to 2 years to walk into any Apple store and walk out with a brand new phone for free.

Ever tried that with a faulty HTC at carphone warehouse, even a week after purchase? Thought not.

And it'll probably be 2 years to the iPhone6, not that you'll care as you obviously would never have an iPhone - 2 years between major releases is so much more annoying than, say, HTC who only released 34 droid phones in 2010 - 2011. Try keepin up with *that* upgrade path.

Why is solid-state storage so flimsy?

"Why was I so stupid... ?"

Would you really like an answer to this? Because I can think of at least one. But none that you'll like.

View 21 IPTV Freeview+HD DVR review

But what's the actual picture like?

Doesn't really answer that question.

I have a redundant tesco box that does hi def - allegedly - except that there's *something* wrong with the way it does it. Scrolling titles are jerky, likewise camera panning which makes sport unwatchable. Plus they've gone bust (fetchTV) - predictably, since the boxes were unwatchable (as above) and buggy as hell.

So I'm hugely wary of anything that isn't humax, basically, and this review does nothing to change that.

O2 flogs logs of mobe locations to anyone with a wallet

Great news

Now I can find out where the hell I've been all month.

I'm also saving up for iPhones for the kids so I can find out where they are any time I like.

What, me worry?

10 million iPad minis to 'outshine' their big brother this quarter

Re: And in a more appealing reality

Yes. Because they already own a 7" tablet. Your point was?

On another note - whatever happened to the iPhone Mini we used to hear so much about? I for one am not a big fan of the bigger screen no the 5 and neither is my wife whose smaller hands struggle to cope a bit (just a bit, mind) with the height. The photos from the camera don't come out in the same aspect ratio as the screen, by the way, but are still iPhone4-shaped, which I find very odd since the video *is the same as the screen.

SO on the whole I would be much happier to upgrade my iPhone4 to one that is identical to the 5 except with a 4-sized screen. The lighter thinner case and better camera (and possible 4G) would be exactly what I'm looking for.

Pair face £250k fines for spamming mobes with millions of texts

Yay!

That is all.

Barnes & Noble Nook HD and HD+ hands-on review

Re: I'm with Android

For me the big advantage of a simple ereader is - quite apart from battery life and easy-on-the-eyes display - that it is not in demand by the rest of the household for web browsing, game playing, movie-watching etc. That has to be done on some *other* device, leaving me able to simply *read a book* - in peace!

iPhone 5 sales curbed by lack of smashable screens – report

Re: Tipping point for Apple?

Seriously.

They need to reclaim the moral high ground. Make peace not war with the other mfrs. Susbcribe to giving their customers the best possible experience again, not replacing decent functionality with rubbish just because they're having a hissy fit with google. That kind of thing. Till then they are looking increasingly petty and tarnished.

Man this is all such a first world problem

that is all

Re: Only 5 million iphones?

Yes but then factor in that any piece of old crap can run a version of android and only iPhones run iOS. So how many of those android activations are on tuppeny-halfpenny plasticware?

Re: it has nevertheless disappointed analysts who were predicting sales of six to 10 million.

that's a first-world-problem if ever i heard one

TalkTalk somehow retains most-complained-about-ISP title AGAIN

Re: Sales Monkeys

I'd punch him in the face.

I hate talktalk. I hate everything about them. Their non-existent service, their non-existent broadband, their non-existent phone lines and their non-existent dispute resolution.

BTW did I mention, I hate talktalk?

Everything Everywhere's 4G: Why I'm sitting this one out

Re: "the communications equivalent of the change the jet engine made over steam".

Shaun 1

You fell for it..

Apple weekend iPhone 5 sales miss forecasts

Re: Orange, clueless

We are still getting great customer support from Virgin - real people who answer the phone relatively quickly, and everything. And very good pricing to boot, and great coverage (TMobile, basically). Shame about their cheapo phones, but we just bung their sims in whatever we've got (currently 3GS, iPhone4, an old Samsung of some sort and a cheap Nokia) They all work great.

Might have a problem with the 5 but 1 guy at the office cut his simcard down by hand and it seems to work OK.

Second-best IMO goes to O2 ... provided you call them up and don't rely on whoever is on the other end of their webchat lines - they are clueless.

Apple's brilliant plan to fix iOS Maps: Get YOU to do it

Re: OMG They are talking to el'reg?

Now that *really* shows you how desperte they are!

Monster camera preps for dark energy search

Good luck with that

One word - phlogiston