Posts by the-it-slayer

37signals is completing its on-prem move, deleting its AWS account to save millions

Keep on their system status for the next year...

I'm not going to claim the cloud is the silver bullet for all IT, but depending on 37signals investment in people, knowledge and hardware on networking; will be interesting to see if their system uptime stays similar to the cloud. There's a lot of gotchas in running your own data centre stuff. Scaling this stuff is hard.

If they have very well executed architecture and patterns for the common stuff (load-balancers, DNS, deploy tools etc), they'll be fine. If not, they'll be some humble pie to be eaten. Especially those here wanking over the data centre.

Small nuclear reactors produce '35x more waste' than big plants

Re: I'll take the bait

Even if it did, its far less than the amount of land (that becomes useless for any other use) for solar/wind. And solar/wind are totally unpredictable for the northern/southern parts of the earth who have 6 months at least without good quality sunshine.

If you had some basis for your arguments against nuclear power, I think we’d all listen. And I admit a fully nuclear future isn’t ideal. But we need cheap energy to thrive as a species. The mass coal/gas energy that supplied your own needs has enabled you to use technology and devices uninterrupted.

Re: even more safer to operate?

Communist mismanagement, a natural disaster on a decades old design and a non event relatively speaking.

Nuclear is the most safe energy production (in terms of deaths related to accidents in energy production) regardless on what you’re told. Same as aviation vs cars for transportation. Even though airline accidents are catastrophic, they’re rare. Same with nuclear.

https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

Does anyone want cheap and reliable energy?

Even with 35x more waste, I’m sure the nuclear industry can deal with it objectively. I mean, do we not want cheap and reliable energy for the next 50-100 years?

Switching off the gas/petrol from Russia (stupid as it is when we knew we relied on it in the UK) was a dumb move. We know that countries/societies do better when energy is cheap. If anyone cares about relatively poor people too. Printing money and distributing to try pay for a gap won’t work either.

Why millions of Brits' mobile phones were knackered on Thursday: An expired Ericsson software certificate

Phone calls... wassthat?

Millennials discovered the use of phone calls and SMS for the first time whilst they were disconnected from their instagram counterparts.

Productivity went up in universities and businesses across the country by 200%.

Amazon Alexa outage: Voice-activated devices are down in UK and beyond

Re: AWS EU issues

Atlassian Cloud is probably Multi-AZ, just the app layers became unhappy with a lack of an AZ because of noted networking issues at the time plus not being able to spin up new instances. Not very tolerant to sudden cloud outages and micro-services being happy with APIs or dependent services being unavailable.

I'm not sure if you can pick data location on Atlassian Cloud, but multi-region across the EU DCs would at least offer some redundancy. Again, multi-region operations in the cloud get extremely complicated.

At last! Apple admits its MacBook Pro butterfly keyboards utterly suck, offers free replacements

Re: Er, this Doesn't Really Fix the Problem...

Ummmmm, not exactly true.

Managed to get my MacBook Pro (late-2013) repaired under an old callback to replace the screen because of faulty anti-glare layer that disintegrates after some harsh contact with the touchpad due to pressure of the closure. It was technically out-of-date. They're genuinely very good if you tell them honestly and state the callback on the phone. Another £300 not required to spend to get another few years out of the laptop. Being the richest, you generally get to ace at customer service. The big boys always get complaints surfaced because media like a good storm in a teacup.

Wonder if Microsoft/HP/Dell do that same? Probably not. I know Lenovo are better with their pro grade laptops.

And the issue with all USB-C isn't that bad. Wish they'd give a USB3/HDMI dongle with laptops, but you can get one for £15/20 (Kanex).

Facebook dynamites its own APIs amid data slurp scandals, wrecks data slurp applications

Re: Why Facebook etc., will win...

Hopefully this scandal plus many others to come I suspect (I'm surprised they haven't been hacked yet or some or breach hasn't come out to the press) will provide a catalyst for people to think about where they place their data.

It's unfortunate Facebook decided to go down the road it did sustain some sort of profitability. Provide a free service while munching on the data you provide to them. Back in the early days, a service helping to connect friends/family via common service platform was revolutionary. Took a while for the over-40s to get onboard, but for close family contact spread over different countries with ease was a bigger seller with Messenger appearing alongside the FB product (it's abysmal, but it did the job).

My facebook account has gone after many months of inactivity and really not caring for it anymore. Taken the snapshot of the archive and waved bye-bye. I care more about my Twitter profile (at least there's some pseudo-anonymity there and less virtue signalling via reposted articles from fake news sites).

Maplin shutdown sale prices still HIGHER than rivals

Re: Price was only part of the problem

Another PC World/Curry's.

Women of Infosec call bullsh*t on RSA's claim it could only find one female speaker

Why are they special?

Diversity ≠ Competency

People whistle blowing the whole diversity thing have to just sit up and look... There's clearly a context and agenda of the whole conference. Most of the keynotes (RSAs conference site is down - not surprising) are CEOs/SVPs/Presidents of top companies. Mostly hard to keep roles and you have to be extremely competent at what you do (sometimes that's debatable but most companies listed are leaders in their industry).

That doesn't mean women can't do these roles but there aren't many due to the nature of the work involved (most likely). The RSA is highly corporate and picked highly corporate people.

I'd rather the most competent people who can talk about the subjects they've been asked to cover do it. That doesn't mean RSA or the industry is sexist.

Samsung's Galaxy 9s debut, with not much other than new cameras

Copy Apple + Paste, Edit Samsung

Apart from the lack of anything new from both of the top boys for useful features, Samsung can't help itself but be a clone of their competitor. The emoji thing is something they pulled from an apprectices side-project to match a side-by-side feature comparison with the iPhone X. Why? Animoji's are just there to woo the millenial/gen x users.

Still Samsung can't pull off anything imaginative (not saying the stuff they do isn't any good). There's a market to branch off business features (to battle corp's who dislike BYOD policies). My biggest issue with Apple is they won't allow profiles on their iOS devices to manage different user types. But their privacy/walled garden concerns (and reliability/consistency of patching) keep me there for now.

Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password

Re: Simple workaround

Better than that (not everyone wants Wobbly Windows); take a pro's advice (I'm not one, but took it anyway); run the previous or 2nd previous major OS version for stability if it's supported and you don't need the latest and greatest features.

I'm sure El Capitan and Sierra are supported on most Macs that are still in active Apple Support lifecycle.

New iPhone details leak: Yes, Apple is still chasing Samsung

"Apple continues to play catch-up..."

Yes. Fine. Other manufacturers can put features in first, but that doesn't mean it's the best at doing that feature. Samsung's implementation of most new features suck first time round and take a second attempt (after Apple's first attempt) to get it right. Why do you think Apple like to wait a little bit? And why do you see the painful Samsung ads painting a picture of their G8 phone doing unrealistic things with the phone? Because they like to paint a euphoric picture of themselves, with their users and using their products in a ridiculous way.

That's a terrible bit of journalism El Reg. Come on. I'm in a mood to rant.

And I thought I'd try pushing the title of this post to the max. Could only leave in a part of the ridiculous sentence. Boo.

BT's Ryan Reynolds helicopter Wi-Fi ads 'misleading', thunders ad watchdog

Big load of tosh

Every BT hub I've ever had managed to bork itself or at least get itself into a DSL reconnection loop because of a noisy line.

Yeah, I can get good wi-fi but I can't fecking use it!

Microsoft sparks new war with Google with, er, $999+ lappies for kids

Probably a good hackintosh prospect?

Cheap way to get portable MacOS without doshing out tonnes of cash on hardware? Like that idea.

What is this bullsh*t, Google? Nexus phones starved of security fixes after just three years

Re: Why don't you just root your phone afterwards?

Because not everyone knows how to do this or wants to? Or should even expect to. Although, is there anyone making this a business to help Joe Bloggs consumers keep their phones updated post-OEM death date? Or are they allowed to?

The multiple reasons why I'd never buy an Android phone ever again stacks up now Google has put up the 'can't be arsed flag'. The cluster-mess of OEM vs Google ownership over the phone software, generally complicated setup/usage of Android OS (although it has got better), abuse of skinning Android from certain OEMs to obscure themselves from vanilla Android + spyware/malware/whatevers.

I'm continuing to care more about using devices for the long-term so I don't leave a huge wastage footprint when using electronics and trying to repair them until they die. But, even that is difficult with all manufacturers now using pretty much super glue rather than screws to put them together. Apple's record is not great (and some indie repair shops are exposing that their recycling scheme is just a marketing wall to hide their lack of recycling). I'm sure most Android phones from general consumers go in the draw after 2-3 years because of this lack of support. This 2-3 year support attitude just breeds the culture even more.

We're in such a good age of tech where we really don't need to update every 2-3 years, but companies get away with it by enforcing such stupid policies such as this. Where's the aims to create products that stand the test of time? Yes, the move to flexible ROM/software updates allows addition of new features, but the majority just want something they can use easily and securely.

Well, hot-diggity-damn, BlackBerry's KEYone is one hell of a comeback

Re: Rule one of tea club

No no. Rule zero is milk before hot water. How can you define the strength of your tea without consistent milk level? You need jedi skills to do hot water with the tea bag first.

However, I love how tea is more relevant than a Blackberry phone in 2017. Shows how much the Apple/Google brigade has hit hard on the legacy brands.

UK to block Kodi pirates in real-time: Saturday kick-off

Re: Morons everywhere

Morons like to moan about it as well.

Re: Why don't the broadcasters sort this issue out by not going to court and...

Keyword - "probably".

Why don't the broadcasters sort this issue out by not going to court and...

Actually make the subscriptions...

a) affordable.

b) if (a) is true and users don't want to pay monthly, then make games available cheaply on PAYG (no, NowTV isn't cheap at 15 quid a game?)

c) allow the host broadcasters to sell internationally (therefore bigger outreach to international subs and just say to other nations; take or leave the right to broadcast on traditional TV).

d) if (a), (b), (c) are true, it'll make the desire to get dodgy Kodi devices less so and then weeding out the sellers of the kit when demand is low.

A lot of you probably don't care about football, but if we look at any other media consumable over the internet; piracy is probably down because access to music, movies and TV shows can be done on-demand and subscriptions are cheap because of iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix blah, blah, blah.

Sports is pretty much one of the only that refuses to adapt/change their model. To expose what the courts can ask ISPs to do is a scarier thought than paying through the roof for a sports subscription.

Cheer up, pal: UK mobe networks are now 8% less crap, tests show

Maybe it's my electrical field...

I've always had the different experience with the said results in the tests. EE always dropped out on data and calls all the time in London. Especially when going into hotspot mode. Vodafone has been pretty rock solid since I switched a couple years ago.

Can we really trust these results as "real world"? I can't see anywhere any technical details of what equipment they used to get these results. Only a brief summary of how they do it. My world alternative world view (and possibly electrical field interference) has the opposite results.

WordPress fixed god-mode zero day without disclosing the problem

Re: So...

@luminous - if you want a proper blogging tool, Ghost works awesome (developed/started by a guy who came from Wordpress)

CMS on the other hand, they all have their pros/cons.

TV anchor says live on-air 'Alexa, order me a dollhouse' – guess what happens next

Re: Again, it's illiterate tech users that don't do their homework

The Amazon Echo/Dot products do. The option to turn off ordering is there in black and white (includes explaining the consequences). It's not like users have to find a "dip switch or jumper" to modify to get a different option setting.

Keep bashing the users why don't you.

Maturity of this tech as good as how much we use it?

Lots of you are saying voice will never be as good, but how can it get as good as text-based input unless we actually start using it? You can't improve something that doesn't exist or doesn't get used.

I personally love my Echo Dot and did the similar thing by ordering something unintentionally the first day I used it. Cancelled the order quickly and turned off ordering via voice (although there is a PIN function, so Amazon have thought about protecting it from being used by unauthorised users). It could be improved by alerting the Alexa app to prompt the purchase before accepting the order.

Again, it's illiterate tech users that don't do their homework and can't set up their products the way they need to secure it. All the docs are there and app is so easy to use.

Linus Torvalds releases 'biggest ever' Linux 4.9, then saves Christmas

Point and click made users lazy. Like your joke.

Zuckerberg says just one per cent of news on Facebook is fake

Definition it up...

Zuckerberg should look up the definition of news before making up his own news...

This load of crap got posted around a lot on social media and even though plenty of "respectful" news sources debunked it a long time ago, it still goes around. (link)

Mac administrators brace for big changes to Apple-powered fleets

"I'd quite like Macs to just log you in (from any authenticated source), create a default profile, give the user mapped drives and printers, and configure settings to turn stuff on and off without having to jump through ENORMOUS hoops and then again for each time you deploy it. To do so takes approximately 10 times as long to set up from scratch as a Windows server to do the same for Windows clients."

Basically Windows equivalent of GPO but better and less chaotic? Although, I remember a Mac-managed network not being as difficult as you describe back in 2008/2009. Yes, the Mac OS X Server being a requirement to bridge a Win-AD domain back then to work to some degree for user integration etc. I've seen native LDAP/AD getting better, but the beauty of a Mac is that the "lack of management" to some degree worked quite well in SMB because they just "worked" rather than needing lots of startup scripts in the Windows AD world plus GPO.

I don't get why big corporates haven't moved on to something such as Chef/Puppet to do centralised config management of desktops/laptops. Especially for Mac/Unix.

Microsoft's chaps slap Slack chat brats with yackety-yak app

Re: Why oh why?

People pay for it because they've created APIs that are easily usable for integrating other products without having to partner in a closed relationship. They weren't the first, but getting new start-ups or deploying into SMCs is easy. Cross platform as well.

Try integrating with IRC (yes, people could to a degree, but it was mostly file transfer based plugins), ICQ, MSN Messenger back in the day. They were built with consumer, not the pro in mind. WhatsApp/FB Messenger/SnapChat have taken over that market. The professional market was still open and Slack/HipChat came in to revive that market.

I've personally used both. HipChat caught up quickly with stability being a sticky point (especially in Windows where that version of it was pretty unstable for a while).

Pretty sure Slack will get cheaper over time. Running lots of architecture to support instant file uploads/sharing is difficult/expensive. Microsoft always comes in at last place and then dumps it after a few years when they haven't bothered to nurture it.

Good God, we've found a Google thing we like – the Pixel iPhone killer

Re: @David Lawton

Eh? Technically behind?

They're updated every year mate. There's only so much innovation you can do until technology limits new ideas on the software side. So no surprise they're copying each other. The golden era is over. The iOS UI doesn't get changed radically to not piss off users. It works fine. Android on the other hand is annoying. The only Android experience I have to put up with is the gaming console thing I have that has KitKat. Ouch.

Re: Read it and weep

I weep that anyone would call anything a "iPhone killer". It's lost its status of being an "iPhone killer" when it's called an "iPhone killer".

Damn iPhone killers. Waving to try and get me to cross the road. No thanks.

Microsoft to overhaul Windows 10 UI – with a 3D Holographic Shell

Re: They have to be joking

You do wonder what planet Microsoft seem to be living on at the moment. Humans don't have X-Ray vision and this would be a disaster for bumpy accidents... Or, you're having so much fun navigating around the 3D UI, that you bump into the door frame of your upstairs bedroom and then fall down the stairs (then die).

At least give us a transparent 3D interface! The preview video looks like it came out of a visionary late 90s company that crashed and burned.

Watch it Apple: time has come for cheaper rivals' strap-ons

Re: "The Watch itself is a capable but clumsy device" @the-it-slayer

On my first skim read of it, it sounds like a frustrating rant rather than a detailed list of pros and cons. The writer doesn't mention any handy/not-so-handy third party apps that do make the watch much more useful.

Like the whole "you're holding it wrong" joke; I'd say to that writer he's "using it wrong". There are navigation problems sometimes and it isn't as natural; but Apple decided to use physical controls most people would be comfortable and used to on a watch. Third party apps aren't quite there in making Watch apps that are slick. There's a few I've come across that break normal smartphone app conventions that some are trying to apply to a very small screen. Then not making use of the crown.

That's the problem of being a 1st gen Apple user. You have to bare the grudges. Then again, I read the article again and saw this statement...

"Other than that, there’s really nothing fun about using the watch."

It's not supposed to be a fun product. A watch has always been a functional device to help you organise yourself against other devices/functions (e.g. diary/calendar etc). If you don't use the calendar functions on the phone or third-party apps (e.g. Outlook - this is very good and Microsoft have done a very good job with their Apple Watch app); it's not going to be beneficial.

The biggest plus for me is not having to get my phone out whilst on the move (e.g. walking to the station) to check stuff. An Apple Watch investment might save many people breaking their iPhone screens which is pretty common place!

"The Watch itself is a capable but clumsy device"

What? That doesn't make any sense. And the author probably hasn't used one. I really don't give a crap if I get down votes, but for someone who wasn't really that keen on the Apple Watch initially; it has many critical uses. Especially receiving info that doesn't require having to get the phone out in the first place and then drop it whilst on the go. Public transport timing, quick glances at news, prompts that other apps have done something, skipping music, changing radio stations etc.

What do people expect it to do? Make them lunch? Also, 1st gen Apple products tend to be quite low-beat until they've worked out who are buying it, and for what purpose. Same with the original iPad. Same with the original iPhone. Let's not be ignorant to the past.

Something very critical of Apple here I will say. They marketed it wrong. Going for the "fashion" sector initially after launch. Then retracting their ads back to health/fitness when the product came out. Of course loads of people are confused on what the Apple Watch is for and what it can do. The common person associates health/fitness products with Garmin/TomTom/FitBit. Apple are playing catch-up to get in that crowd where they normally get there first.

As most Apple products do; they get aggressively better. Whether the Watch does or not, depends on the next software/hardware improvements and how much effort Apple want to make. These smart watches are held back by battery tech also in general. That's a criticism for them all. Same with most modern computer electronics that are not laptops (that have peaked out now for battery life).

Apple assumes you'll toss the Watch after three years

Re: Folks I know who use Apple kit ...

Hello fandroid. What a fanatically ridiculous comment. Considering you probably don't know anyone with Apple kit.

There are the few that want to replace all of the phone/tablet/watch stuff on every release, but that's a good minority now-a-days considering how many of those products get sold every day/week/year. For laptops/desktops; the ones that replace those regularly are probably heavy users for their job/career. Every MacBook owner I know pushes it until it's last breath. One of my friends pushed a 2008/2009 white MacBook to the point the rubber bottom was coming off and therefore degraded the motherboard quickly.

Stephen Hawking reckons he's cracked the black hole paradox

Plenty of people in Einstein's time probably thought the same thing. Mad man bursting out N number of theories just to expel some hot air. But he turned about to be correct when science could prove his theories. Just saying.

No escape: Microsoft injects 'Get Windows 10' nagware into biz PCs

Re: I am not a fucking product.

Microsoft is basically trying to punch you in the bollocks (or jiggly things if you're a lady) and saying you must conform. Wait. Isn't that tone of all their advertising. Windows 10 must be on your device. Your child will be using Windows. So you must use Windows.

Working with Asperger's in tech: We're in this together

Re: Useful

Just be careful not to make the diagnosis the be all and end all of your existence. It would just satisfy your curiosity and behaviours. Essentially, the diagnosis for me in the long-run (apart from the period of my teens where I cried myself silly to try reject/deny/not accept why I had it) made me more comfortable and confident with myself.

Some people who have been diagnosed use it as a tool to stop making progress and accept they cannot do anything social. I always disbelieve that because of the talks and workshops I've done with a particular local charity who help parents of kids on the spectrum.

My mum always believes everyone has a trait of autism. However big or small. The people diagnosed have multiple traits that have an impact on ones life.

Loving to see the positive vibe in this post forum. It's opposite to what the government are not doing with mental health and special needs in general. Charities are taking too much of the brunt currently to support communities.

Re: I thought Aspergers has been dropped as a diagnosis

That's correct. The latest DSM manual removed a lot of specific criteria diagnosis. I'm against this as Asperger's is pretty definitive and did have an extensive list of traits which the severity of others juxtaposed against the more serious diagnosis. For me, the diagnosis of Asperger's that I had at the age of 5 helped defined me with the way I act differently with my peers, but not enough to make me alien among a group of neurotypicals. In a sense, that term shouldn't exist because "what's normal?" No one acts the same.

I'm also against the use of the word "Aspie". It makes the condition sound like it should be a minority group. Apologies to the writer which I relate to a lot of the situations described, but it's a word I can never relate to and should be discouraged.

However, to offer my perspective of the world; people on the spectrum can offer so much more if we all had more tolerance towards people. I live/work in London that can be extremely stressful (also becoming a Dad also recently!) However, there's a risk that the perception is that we have to treated differently. That should never be the case. I will struggle with instruction sometimes; but I've personally developed coping strategies to ask for those instructions again or clarify it. The person offering those instructions should just ask if the person understood the instruction.

I hope we can see more people on the spectrum in workplace and living world. We can offer a perspective others might not see and totally honest/dedicated to whatever we focus on. I cannot be less than honest with my work colleagues or friend/family. Lying causes a web of confusion and stress personally.

One last thing, I'd recommend anyone to purchase/read

"Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently" by Steve Silberman. A great book on challenging how we percept people on a different level to ourselves.

The coming of DAB+: Stereo eluded the radio star

Why bother when online radio can be better quality?

I know not many commercial stations can be bothered with a high quality web stream because they would crush their RAJAR stats, but seriously, DAB/DAB+ has just got surpassed now we have decent broadband and 4G available.

I've got a Revo Superconnect which sounds superb and gives me amazing choice on all the formats (Spotify Connect/Internet/DAB/FM). Shame DAB sucks as it's really good speakers really show it up as really poor. I tend to listen to a lot of European/US radio that seem to be putting more investment in online radio with 192kbps MP3/AAC streams.

BBC gives naked computers to kids (hmm, code for something?)

Great idea and all that...

But who the hell is going to teach this stuff? UK teachers + IT has been a bad mix for years. Most are way behind the curve. And shoving this in their face won't help matters unless there's investment to teach the teachers how to teach IT. Too many teachings?

NHS XP patch scratch leaves patient records wide open to HACKERS

Re: Current government + IT = not important / ignorant

I guess you're very right. Every company I've worked in apart from my current role (web tech firm) always saw IT has the bitter end of budget spending. Even a private school I once worked at didn't want to invest in a fibre line (to sort out the ADSL/SHDSL mess we had to support 250 students on site - 14Mbps shared over those students!?) to drastically improve internet access. Yes, the one time cost of install from BT was ridiculous, but we had no choice being in the middle of a field. It was the attitude of the management (even my boss being very good at standing a good case for expensive kit) couldn't convince them of the benefits of such a line to add extra services (to both students and teachers).

NHS need to learn the arts of the open-source community (tools such as Chef/Chocolatey etc) fast if they need to catch up. You can do things on a budget, but need the skills. If NHS don't want to pay for the skills/expertise, then they're in a dead-end anyway to get out of the hole they're in.

Re: would that really make any difference?

That's a very arrogant way of seeing things.

One point to squat all of those. The list of new unknown vulnerabilities that will never get patched because XP isn't supported anymore? NHS is a big risk knowing how much data there is in every NHS Trust system and it being publically in the spot light for not progressing to a supported OS version. Not just that, but a leverage system to push attacks on other systems used on wards etc.

At the end of the day, the NHS should not have computer systems sitting on an OS that is 13 years old. End of. If you were in a big private sector business (finance etc); you'd be in the firing line for being that slow.

Current government + IT = not important / ignorant

The problem is; we've got so used to IT overspends/failures/security leaks that this sort of thing in the general public eye gets ignored. Why should anybody's data be processed on an OS that's over 13 years old? It's darn crazy. The lack of any sort of integrated IT strategy is making things much more expensive than it actually needs to be. Hundreds of different managers making decisions on kit and OS replacement has resulted in chaos with the Gov trying to twist the arms of some possibly resisting the change.

Although I don't want to piggy back off the scare mongering media about ISIS etc, but the threat of cyber criminals wanting to take more control by attempting to steal public data I can only imagine is increasing day-by-day. More reason to spend the money (and at least allow NHS trusts to have the budget to do a quick migration now rather than supporting XP for another few months). God knows what other software the NHS is using to update the data records which is not being updated due to software licensing or companies going bankrupt/not supporting the product. I guess the rabbit hole could be huge on this subject and we only see the surface of it.

Nokia Lumia 735: Ignore the selfie hype, it's a grown-up phone

Re: roll on 2015

In another multi-verse unknown to anyone in this universe maybe...

That glass of water you just drank? It was OLDER than the SUN

God is merely a molecule of the imagination.

Water is real. Go figure.

AVOID the Apple Watch. Buy a drone or robot instead, techies told

A lot of CEOs said the iPad wouldn't take off...

Brazier added, uncommonly for Apple, it was competing at the low end, describing it as a $300 product competing for wrist space with $60k Rolexes – the sort of comparison guarantee to get status conscious dealers wriggling in their seats.

This bit interested me. Although Brazier is technically right in the price aspect of low-end, Apple products are always seen as luxury/high-end. Maybe the high-end watch makers are having to watch their backs? Who knows if the Apple watch will change people's perceptions of what purpose the watch should do for themselves. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have done so. Depends if Apple's PR and advertising will sink into the minds of others.

First Irish boy band U2. Now Apple pushes ANOTHER thing into iPhones, iPods, iPads

Re: At the risk of a) feeding the troll, and b) sounding like a shill,

the nice thing about Android is that I can "fiddlarse about" if I so choose, but it's not a requirement (unless you have a shitty handset - but even then, it's just a case of finding out how to remove all the shit that Samsung have preloaded it with).

Problem is, I'd assume 99% of Android handset users don't care about removing the Samsung bloatware. They get the experience that's handed to them and that sucks. Having the choice to change it requires knowledge most of joe blogg Android handset users don't have. Even if they have the whole internet to them, they just want to experience it from the box.

That's why Apple have retained the trend of selling phones by the bucket load after launch, after launch. The experience isn't unfamiliar from one iteration of iOS to the next. Android takes the hardcore change + allow manufacturer customisation approach. Something that never ends well with users.

My other main point is that apps suck under the Android tree. Too fragmented and the experience is different from one app to the next. That's the main complaint from many of my geeky friends who wanted to make the freedom from iOS. They're now coming back after the iPhone 6 release.

Tim Cook: I'm NOT worried about CRAP iPad sales. It's just a 'speedbump'

Re: It is called "market saturation"

Very true... but 13.2 million iPads is still an awful lot of iPads sold. Even if it's 1 million less than last year. Not many products see generation to generation sales that are consistent of that magnitude within electronics industry. Apple have created and sustained their own market hype and expandability by going from electronic geeks to the every day person gradually since the original launch. There are always new customers if you're ever finding new ways to encourage them to buy your product.

I've got bored of upgrading my iPad every year though. My original iPad Mini does me fine.

TV transport tech, part 1: From server to sofa at the touch of a button

Virgin Media is great and all that...

...but they have a nuisance mechanism to chuck people off their cable network if they find too much noise coming from a particular source into their street cabs. We had our phone/internet + ondemand services cut off by senior engineers who regularly check cabs. Then normal process is to wait for the customer to call saying their services are offline. After which the home engineer comes down and fixes the issues. Got a £5 rebate on my bill but t'was a tad annoying.

Lovely tech (nice to see how it's all built together) but their customer service needs some what improving to communicate what the hell goes wrong.