Posts by the-it-slayer

RIM ends Reg headline pun filth (and launches two new phones)

Re: Nice to see some objectivity

As regards "strong carrier support for BlackBerry", I don't know if I'm looking at a different set of carriers, but I still see the Blackberry Curves etc being pushed on web sites. Considering it's allegedly launched today in the UK I'd say someone's missing a trick here..

I think you're right Flywheel. UK carriers are very slowly pushing the phone:

- Vodafone has it on their frontpage to order

- EE is still not showing it anywhere on the frontpage but are now selling it (weirdly, T-Mobile and Orange who aren't the 4G brand under the same umbrella are pushing it more)

- Three are showing nothing

- O2 are battling for business by plastering it on their front page

Maybe Blackberry haven't been strict enough from removing their old stock and carriers still wish to sell them until all gone. As you say, that could be a big mistake.

Re: Nice to see some objectivity

The fact is, the media coverage will be like this:

Tech Media: Bum iOS/Android until the cows come home and always compare negatively.

General Press/TV: Give it a slight positive slant and compare the new platform to how it's previous handsets did.

Joe Public: Word of mouth will be more important in encouraging more people to buy into Blackberry products.

I personally think Blackberry have readjusted themselves well and actually now have a clear target audience to sell to. Managed to pull all the major app developers and beyond onboard. It's not going to be slow to take off and taking a brave step to invest in a rock solid architechure shows entrepreneurial skills required to fight in this business. Apple did the same when reviving the smartphone. I'm hoping Blackberry can continue WebOS' good work and have spun their development around that influence of fluid multitasking. It's certainly making me think about coming away from my beloved iPhone 4 (not because I dislike iOS - just need something to make my work/personal life management easier). iPhone 5 has a crappy cheap design, Android phones I'll never touch again after my horrid experiences and Windows can keep shooting themselves in the foot by not convincing me their phones are for my target group.

RIM blows on the dice, gets ready for its FINAL THROW

Just as buzzed about this announcement as I was with iPhone 4

I really hope RIM have hit the nail on the head (rather than the coffin!) for this announcement. There's obviously a market out there still buying and abusing the core RIM services (especially BB Messenger). Some of the business-based ties need to be loosened for consumers but the same integrity has got to be kept if they have a chance of keeping and expanding business customers.

I'm praying BB10 will be my next upgrade rather than having to stick with a 2nd best iPhone 5 (or 5S/6 whenever it's released).

Apple confirms 128GB iPad. A hundred bucks for an extra 64GB

Fandroids are off again...

If you don't want it, don't worry about it. For some of the media abusers out there in tablet land, this is a dream product. My 16GB iPad mini does me for reading and generic use (with a tiny bit of video use). For me and many others, it's too much money for what I use it for. To store iTunes, iPlayer, Sky Go stuff, it's the best thing out there for now.

If this was a £700 Samsung/Nexus tablet with 128GB of storage (without SD cards), it would be marked up as the holy grail. Sheeeeesh. The Apple abuse needs to stop and some common sense restored (and black badges dished out to timewasters here).

Reg Readers love their gadgets

Re: Zzzzzzzzzz.....

A lot of people care. I certainly do! Tech is changing at a blistering rate and I think 2013 is a good time to get a consensus to what people care about. Obviously it matters to El Reg as it'll shape their news content for the future.

RoboVM stirs up another helping of Java for iPhone

Re: Cross Platform ftw - normally = crappy apps

Why would you come up with this crap? Makes no difference whether they restrict app installation or not. Developers can start to use these tool to their advantage. Nothing stopping people converting their apps and reselling on the iOS platform. You just seem to forget iOS users (I think - correct me if I'm wrong anyone) are the most app savvy users and has a huge potential revenue stream for devs.

Anyway, most converted games, applications and such like are scrap. Still these compilers aren't 100% and the app converted needs tweaking to take advantage of other features not available of other OS/language.

Not difficult to understand.

Just what is GOOGLE'S MYSTERIOUS NEW WIRELESS NETWORK?

Black badge?

Can we not give 'Obviously!' a black badge just to remind us he must have the most negative comments on the El Reg-tard planet? At least we can intentionally ignore black badgers until they clean up and normal service resumes (aka a little bit of common sense).

Sorry, Apple-haters, but Cupertinian doom not on the horizon

Re: Market manipulation..

Yet Apple are vastly cutting the forecasts for components.. Seems they know that demand for iPhone is dwindling, as users are finding better quality (or better value) phones in Android.

That's an opinion, not fact. Obviously Apple have reached a saturation point where new sign-ups (first time iPhone users) are reducing and replacements are on a slow uptake because people don't want to replace (4 / 4S users) or the few that go off to another manufacturer. Stop fandroiding and get real here.

Wad of BlackBerry OS 10 pics 'leaks' from RIM's inner circle

Re: UX - nothing very new here

Such bull here. Get online and read past your bloody nose. There are plenty of things this OS does that others don't. Anyway, QNX has no mobile interface until RIM picked it up in 2010, so no idea what you're going on about.

Anyway, even it contains elements of other OSes, you've listed the best parts (slidey buttons - why click an ugly tickbox when it's difficult to target on touchscreen when it's generally too small like on Android?). The important thing is that this is damn reliable. If the battery pull for RIM devices is a thing of the past and holds its own to act as an effective "communication" device, then it'll sell. Stuff the Android gimmicks. Open-source is it's only selling point and makes it dirty cheap. More importantly, makes the operation of it cheap.

I'm praying the launch is successful and they can show off that starting from scratch will give them back 3rd place in the market and wipe WP8 off the map.

RIM extends BB10 port-a-thon after dev stampede

Such a pessimistic view on things...

I don't think things will be as bad with this reboot of the BB operating system. They've actually decided to take a very good framework (QNX) and added their flavour of communication tools with a very sleek UI as far as I can see. Evolutionary? No. But necessary? Yes. There's some quite quirky but useful options being added to the BB OS. Still RIM are the only co to get security clearance from top governments to use their devices as secure communication tools.

I used to have a BB 9700 before I got the iPhone 4 (ditched the BB to get away from my ex-gf because she always hassled me over BB Messenger!). Loved the physical keyboard and wouldn't mind getting a Blackberry again. If they can execute the launch perfectly, maybe they can draw some customers who refused to buy the iPhone 5 (including myself!).

Titsup Windows Phone 8 orders user to cram 'boot disc' in mobe

Re: True innovation - and laziness?

@fiddley - okay, you have me on that one. still, i like the fact they're prepared to put a funny within their crash code... "we are hanging here".

Re: True innovation - and laziness?

What about over-the-air updates that could go wrong due to the battery cutting our or some data becoming corrupt during the download process? This is what I mean. You don't see Androids and iPhones chucking out random guzzle that consumers don't understand.

Flashing the ROM on a WP Phone is the same as asking iTunes to do a restore on an iPhone (to a certain degree). How can anyone defend the laziness Microsoft has showed here to tie up loose ends?

Re: True innovation - and laziness?

The fact you can scoop out an error message (regardless whether it's been hacked or not) that's designed originally for desktop OSes is pure laziness in my own opinion. To disguise it is worse. It really serves nothing more than some embarrassing headlines, but still; it's nasty to the common consumer user who'd be totally confused with such an error if one of the key files corrupted.

Even the title for the error page isn't centred. Sheesh.

Review: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Windows 8 convertible Ultrabook

Re: @ the-it-slayer

@GitMeMyShootinIrons - "A simple option 'Touch or Mouse' would have been marvellous - perhaps with driver support so if you convert a laptop to tablet it switches. Perhaps Win8 SP1...?"

Would be nice to see an OS be complete for whatever interface you throw at it. I personally think any attempt at including such a mode switcher in SP1 would be too late. Microsoft are throwing everything they've got at us at the moment. Hints of imaginative practises in their adverts to ramming the Surface as a "cool and trendy" device that shows us no practical use for the tablet. Microsoft is totally confused. That's my worry as the direction will be all over the place unless someone high up there takes charge and sorts it out.

Apple have tried to do some sort of cross-over with the App Store in a desktop environment (it works) and adding elements of App Launching via a collabrative grid with larger icons (not so sure as we still have the main row at the bottom that acts as a shortcut to apps). I can only imagine they looked to merge OS X and iOS together at some stage. At the moment, that's not possible with the different chipsets (ARM and Intel) to work around. Only if Apple are brave enough to ditch Intel at their low-end desktops/laptops (Mac Mini and MacBook Air) might we see a slow merge.

Linux... I dare to think if any distro creator will be brave enough. I'd like to see an open source demo of a UI that works with both.

Maybe Paris knows the answers.

Re: Interesting but...

@JDX - "If touch-screen PCs take off then OSX and Linux distros will suddenly be rushing to do something similar to create a touch-friendly UI."

Haven't we seen Microsoft try this twice before with XP and Windows 7 on touch-screen PCs? One of the Universities I did my Cisco course at bought a whole load of machines for a IT suite that had an intergrated touch-screen layers built into the monitor. Trying to use a desktop OS with a 27" monitor... useless. As Jobs rightly said, "who would want to use a touch-screen interface on a conventional monitor?" You definately get tired arms if you continuously did that.

I'm quite surprised Microsoft or any other OS making haven't clocked onto making flat touch-screen enabled keyboards that can change keyboard layout depending on application etc and offer features that can interact with the main OS on the screen infront of you instead.

M$ have tried to be clever and become an opportunist to embed both desktop and tablet ideologies into one OS. Personally, they've been stupid about it. Apple and Linux Distro's will never to react in such a way because Windows 8 will die harder than M$ it tried to get it off the ground.

Amazon-bashed HMV calls in administrators, seeks buyer

Re: It was only a matter of time - poor customer service stinks for co's

Unfortunately, illegal downloading and online/supermarket retailers are only part to blame for closures like HMV. The biggest reason is customer service and lack of innovation. Any shop that is surviving on the high street and doing "well" are the best at delivering what you want. Shops like HMV had the chance around the iPod revolution to buck up their ideas and offer downloads to customers where broadband hadn't quite taken off and they could afford faster DSL or T1 connections to sync a local cache of songs for MP3 players. Sort of booths that existed in the V Shop to browse songs across a whole range of genres, but added nothing else. Again, the innovation and lack of ambition cost them. Didn't HMV have an online MP3 store as well? Where did that go?

To cram shops with endless CDs, DVDs and headphones was not going to sort the problems out. Downsizing, redesigning the stores and removing clutter would of given them a chance. Why have every CD out available when they could of been stored away if not in top 100 and then have a quick ordering service from a booth?

I love the physicality of browsing shops and having CDs to hand. Big retailers like HMV have done nothing to reenforce that habit and defend its position. Obviously poisioned by another CEO from another failed company that just went under.

Apple 'slashes iPhone 5 screen orders', tight-fisted fanbois blamed

No comment will beat this...

Only half-wits blindly accuse other humans for making choices to buy different technology. And the iPhone 5 junk? I'd rethink that accusation as well.

Apple rubbishes rumours of iPhone for the masses

Re: "smartphone leader"

How do you suggest they play catch up with many more (and probably better) apps, especially individualised apps for both the phone and tablet devices? Why change something when it actually isn't broken? Apple are still selling shed-loads of iOS devices every day, week, month... A major change to the OS would mean a major change to the hardware. That's the point... it's a package unlike Android's fragmented approach.

iPhones, tablets... Pah: By 2020, we'll froth over hot new SOFTWEAR

Have you not heard...

...wearable smart watches are dead already according to some analysts. Better look up the articles that the site you've written for have published recently. Just saying.

Drop that can of sweet pop and grab a coffee - for your sanity's sake

Re: What else is there?

I drink diet coke because:

1. I think it tastes better than full fat coke - You have weird taste buds!

2. coffee tastes like savoury shit (or rather what I imagine savoury shit would taste like, not having actually eaten shit...) - You must be drinking shite coffee or not a city worker. Must admit, had the same opinion until my taste buds warmed to the taste. Must admit, I had the same opinion first.

3. tea tastes like burnt water - Again, must be crap tea.

So what other beverage should I be drinking instead if I want my caffeine fix? - Alient juice from your comments above. It doesn't exist, but tastes greeeeeeeeat!

Only applies to excess drinking of the pop kind?

Just like with everything life, everything's alright if done in MODERATION. The word is in caps because life is all about balance. Go for the imbalance and bugger yourself all over. I'm drinking a can of Coca-Cola (no, not the the thin stuff). Tastes lovely once in a blue moon.

And coffee? Now I don't need to rely on it to give me a kick in the mornings, a sugarless cappuccino or straight Kenco (with little milk) tastes immense for a tiny bit of happiness.

Bite us, Apple: Samsung hauled in $8.3bn in Q4

Re: "jack of all trades, master of none"

@Anon - Shame fandroids can't appreciate anything more than copycat piece of tat with a few extra numbers on it and few doors wide open. Samsung and most others (minus Sony) make the most boring products on the planet.

Oh, the fanboi image selection was just get irritant reactions from the likes of you. No fanboi here. Still using a 2+ year old iPhone 4 that's going strong and last longer (I genuinely liked the iPhone 4 when it was released and blew away anything else that existed at the time - anything prior to 3GS was a waste of time to me) than the plastic tat you most like will bin in 6 months. Good quality and imaginative products require some investment. Hardly the attitude of Samsung nor their customers supposedly. Again, $8 billion is just a number. Doesn't dictate how good their products at all. Just know how to gullible suckers who are anti-Apple for countless, pointless reasons.

Smile!

"jack of all trades, master of none"

Well done Samshun, but their cheap plastic phones will still end up in the gutter after 12-18 months use when fandroids get fed up and want the next big stat crunching device. Anyway, Samsung seem to be what they say as a "jack of all trades, master of none". There's nothing amazing about their kit in any sector, but it does the job. Does that create innovation? No because too many fingers in too many pies makes you have to spread resources.

Review: Dell XPS 12 Windows 8 tablet-cum-Ultrabook

Stuff the lack of connectivity... a swivel screen? WHAT?

Seriously, anyone who thinks that swivel screen is a good idea is silly. Regardless of the materials used, they're rubbish and break easy. Especially with latches that will snap off with any excessive force. It's just another thing to go wrong and makes the tablet mode pointless being really heavy and bulky to use.

30 years ago, at flip of a switch, the internet as we know it WAS BORN

That depends...

On how you view it. IPv4 has been well used and now becoming abused with no spare allocations of addresses left. NAT again saved it's bacon in the last 20 years. IPv6 should save the internet from crashing down on its head, but the adoption is just too slow and won't speed up until companies/ISPs get to a crunch point where the current infrastructure becomes untenable.

Quack!

Review: Apple iMac 21.5in late 2012

Re: Plebs?

Obviously! needs to change his name to "id-like-to-kick-steve-jobs-in-the-balls-everyday". Would be much more entertaining how much comes out of that little bum cheek of his. Smile!

Re: Slot-loading drives = worst invention ever?

Slot-loading CD/DVD drives are notoriously bad in general in any computer I've owned one. I had a business Dell laptop a year back in my last job and it was extremely unreliable for reads/writes or anything you chucked at it.

Fortunately, Apple at least have the sense to deliver what the customer wants. A computer that's damn reliable and will sustain the needs of the average customer (not fanboi/not fandroid/not geek) for several years with minimal issues. OS X plus these hardware evolutions are perfect. Most people don't need more than 8GB memory now and storage is going portable/cloud now more so than ever.

Re: THE POWER CABLE WILL COME OUT REGULARLY

That's where you're going wrong - using a standard IEC. That's why the original plug has the round thing on it to keep it in place. Either go back to that cable or don't tilt the damn thing or you have the plug too tight and stretching so tilts will wriggle it out (same on any machine).

Don't blame Apple for your own silliness.

North Korean rocket works, puts something into orbit

Re: Does anyone else like the North Korean news presenter's style?

If we launched a rocket in France's backyard, they'd be people out in the streets in celebration. We did own/run an empire once.

This is out of hand now: Apple attempts to trademark the LEAF

Re: Don't understand the anti apple bile

Fandroid-tards have nothing else better to do than become vultures when the word "Apple" appears in an article. Clear sense of insecurity there. It's all tit for tat anyway. Any Apple user just gets along with tech and fandroid-tards want to be anti-tech to be cool. Very illogical.

Google has trademarked their "G inside a box with curved corners"...

Is that any different? Nope. But maybe Apple are going to drop the "i" branding and go for LeafPods and LeafPads.

I'm sure El Reg and fandroids are getting worse at not seeing the total picture.

The Times offers subsidised Nexus 7s to get subscribers

Re: Lovely... Google not able to shift the Nexus stock quick enough...

"Apple receives vastly more free hype and advertise than anyone else, and never mind subsidised, I've lost track of the number of "win a free ipad/iphone" - seems they can't even give them away. Yet there's one single subsidised Android device, and that's "desperate"?"

Ummmmmm... Well, there's a difference between people openly buying the iPhone/iPad to give away in competitions and companies having to do backhand deals with other markets to give away their product in bundle deals. Understand now?

"Only just now, reading a random website, I see yet another "Get the iphone app" - sorry, like most people I don't have an iphone. Where's the support for those of us using the popular platforms like Android, Symbian or Windows desktop? Or for those who like to think different with Blackberry or Linux?"

Application developers know where there market it is. There's some evidence that iOS users (although less in physical units comparison to Android) use their apps/internet more often. Also, some developers choose to only developer/support one because of the audience they want to target.

"... "very little effort"? IOS devices have been the most overhyped and most marketed product in history, yet they failed to outsell Symbian in its lifetime, and now are outsold by Android by almost five to one - despite zero effort for either of those two platforms."

One device from one co versus many from various co's... fair comparison? Think not. iOS is not overhyped, it's that damn good IMHO.

Lovely... Google not able to shift the Nexus stock quick enough...

...and encouraging a paper to lock you into a 18-month deal that's not that beneficial to anyone apart from hardcore newspaper readers.

Desperate signals from Google when the iPad is still flying off the shelves with very little effort.

Chinese student fails job interview because of iPhone

Re: "the gesture" @ Ole Juul - Shame some of you can't read!

Let's go back to the first paragraph...

"An incensed university student in China’s Jilin province has taken to the web to vent his frustration at being rejected during a job interview after his interviewer spotted that he owned an iPhone.

The unlucky fourth year student, surnamed Gao, attended the interview at the tail end of November in Changchun city, only to be told just a few minutes in that the unnamed firm was “not looking for students with iPhones”."

The interviewer "spotted" the iPhone. Most likely the interviewee had the phone in his trouser pocket and shape of the iPhone whatever kind was quite prolific showing through. Nowhere did it say that the interviewee left it off silent. Anyway, any doofus owning an iPhone who can't figure out the silent switch doesnt deserve a job. But, it is more than what you get on your fandroid equivalent where you need to press 5,000,000 option buttons to turn the damn thing to silent or turning it off that takes a lifetime.

Apple manufacturers: ARRGH, pesky iThings are impossible to make

Re: Retina Mini

...or Q2 2013 if they buck up their ideas and get to a 6 month release cycle which seems increasingly likely as the iPad Mini has flown off the shelves.

Yes it is...

And the uplifted price is in preparation for the retina version so they can go... "wow, we've fit in an awesome post-HD screen in a 7.8" space and it's not anymore expensive".

Even if this is true or not, at least some co's are willing to push the boundaries unlike most of the Android-ducks sitting there.

What killed Motorola? Not Google! It was Moto's dire software

Too much open rubbish...

I read some of the article and thought... this is another company that close their doors for anyone to interupt their development flow. Produced some really neat software/hardware integrated phones (the original RAZR V3 being a prime example - wasn't perfect, but the UI was much better than anything at the time) and then opened the flood gates with other OS options. This caused a lack of direction and boom. Same fate as Nokia. If they'd stuck to ripping the good bits (UI wise) and rewrite the code as a new platform, they still of been around.

Shame more didn't take from Apple's book and learn that you have to cut the crap and concentrate on a few things well.

Badges for Commentards

Re: Register badge == wastes time at work

*sigh* I can't spell either. Friggin' "g" key!

Re: Register badge == wastes time at work

Shame you can't spell ya name right. You're still sage!

Bronze will do me as I'd never thought I'd get any at all. And ner-niccy ner ner to all the android-tards. Smile!

America planned to NUKE THE MOON

Scary crap from the states... NOT surprised

I'm glad I'm not part of that era where insecure human beings had to intimidate other insecure human beings just to get a foot-hold on the world. And the moon; well, it's magic as they say and looks freakin' awesome when close to the early on full moon. Glad they didn't blow it up. Peace. And beer because it's Friday for me today.

Apple's former retail boss spills magic beans on store strategy

Re: More marketing bullplop

Or people who actually understand Apple products are worth their premium price. Not everyone can justify it, fair enough. Not everyone likes OS X, fair enough. But to put your silly bias opinion to think Mac's are shiny crap is silly. I'll just pat you on the head and ask you to calm down. Might make El Reg a better place.

Gangnam Style beats Bieber Baby, becomes biggest timewaste EVER

Not quite right. It's the asian culture wanting to replicate our style. The song is about a district in South Korea (Gangnam) where there's a population of young people wanting to do the very thing we do. There's plenty of interviews of Psy out there explaining what the track is about.

Must give it to the guy, he has been trying to become popular over 6 albums. Obviously the craftmenship of the song + moves will embed it into history as a party anthem.

Re: Lies, damn lies, statistics and Google statistics

Don't believe the hype, but do your own research,

There's a difference between the counter on the page and outside the video page. It's the same for every video on youtube. Why? I'm not sure.

Here's the stats @ 13:08:

Search page: 823,396,203 views

Inside video page: 825,545,515 views

Maybe the search page cache's the view count every so often rather than on-the-fly. Still, anything to kill/squash/quash Justin Bieber is good in my books.

APPLE reveals complete updated blueprints of SPACESHIP JOBS

Bah!

If this was Google's new headquarters, everyone here would be splurging white stuff all over it like excited young males over naked women and Paris. Tsk tsk.

Asus VivoBook S200 11.6in touchscreen notebook review

Re: It looks like a MacBook Air

It'll fall to bits and break in half the time...

Re: It looks like a MacBook Air

Come on, anyone who thinks it doesnt needs to take their anti-Apple rose tinted glasses off. Pretty sure in the Asus design meeting... "how can can we design a MacBook Air look-a-like without it looking like it so we don't get sued".

There's your answer with a poor OS sitting on top of it.

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

Whaaaaaaa? Bull!

> Another former employee took to The Guardian last week to pen a critique of Apple's latest turn. But Dan Crow - who worked at Apple in the 1990s - does blame Jobs for a lot of the problems, suggesting that his Kremlin-style top-down management only worked when he was there and has left Apple rudderless after his death:

"Apple however is the opposite of the open, collaborative, slightly disorganised Google. It worked precisely because it was a dictatorship. But dictatorships without their dear leaders tend to fall to infighting, intrigue and inefficiency. This could be Apple's future." ®

Dictators? How can anyone think Apple is a China? What a blunt comparison to make. If your top guys don't know what exactly the company needs to do, how does anyone else? I'm still finishing the Steve Jobs biography and to be fair, Jobs did back down on a lot of the top ideas that's propelled the company's success today

There's a difference between a dictatorship and being passionate about your company/products. Jobs loved the ethos of bringing elegance and simplicity to IT/electronic products. The rest of the PC world didn't give a crap because they only cared about specifications and things that the average Joe doesn't even think for one split second.

I think we'll get a rough patch for a while as Cook wants to put his own spin on the operations. How much control he has on the finished product? We don't know. However, we do know that Ive has an awful lot of control on the overall product and Jobs wanted him to have that. Jobs made the company do the impossible by pushing the boundaries no-one else dared to try. I only hope there's some people left in Apple who can do the same and not go the opposite direction towards Woz's philosophy of being too open with their products.

If Apple does decline in any sense of the word, Cook will be out and Ive will be in at the top. He's seen it all, done it all and can take a similar stance to Jobs to ensure there's quality control at the top and not let the ants (other employees) get out of control.

Brits swallow Google Nexus 4 supply 'in 30 minutes'

Well done Google...

That's a 1000 units sold...

Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives

Re: What did 3G do to tablet designers that they hate it so much?

@Mark

>

2: It's your legal entitlement to get something broken replaced, and I've never had any trouble with any company. Unless it's your fault, in which case Apple won't replace that either. You can get insurance to cover it, but you have to pay extra for that, and lots of companies offer that kind of thing - and I've seen plenty of horror stories where even when you're paying the extra, they don't cover you. Not that my non-Apple ever seems to break. I guess that's because I buy decent build quality. Seems like Apple products are always breaking, from how people are always telling me about how they get to replace them... (I just love that Apple fans simultaneously praise Apple for things like "build quality" and just "working", as well as that Apple are great because, after paying extra money for insurance, Apple are always replacing their products when they keep breaking.)

Technology breaks due to defects by human error in manufactuering. It's just the convinience. Most Android users have to wait 2 - 3 weeks at least to get a repair/replacement. Is there any manufactuer that can do it for you within an hour in a shop? Not seen any myself.

3: Not sure what you mean here. On one, you can develop using free software, on any kind of device. You can publish on Google's site for a one off fee of $25, or anywhere else you like for no cost. On the other, you can only develop using a special Apple computer, and have to pay Apple $99 a year to develop for your own device, with no way to get round it.

I meant the infrastructure of the whole iOS ecosystem plus the operating system updates, research & development etc. Keeping 3/4 year old devices updated is pretty tough. Something Google hasn't seemed to crack yet and retains their pump/dump stratedgy with devices. I mean, Google does have its ad cash to spend keeping the "technically" open-source Android low cost to develop. That's the benefit of an open system.

Thought I'd clear up my thoughts and take on some more pointless thumb downs.

Re: What did 3G do to tablet designers that they hate it so much?

@theskyes

Google has their ads services to pay for all that. That's their source of income to keep you going round the Android loop. You see/click their ads, Google gets money for that, Google pumps money into Android to make it appear free & their eco-system and then back around again.

Seriously though, it isn't hype. The products speak for themselves. If you can find any early Android 2.0 devices still being used in the field, let me know. I do know there's plenty of 3G/3GS being used on a daily basis.

And the fandroids keep on coming... keep smiling!