Posts by Dave Fox

Doctor Who fans name best episode ever

@Ken Hagan

Actually I disagree. I grew up as a child in the 70s and Tom Baker was my Doctor. As I grew older, I thought that I had outgrown the programme, especially in the McCoy era, but when they started releasing the Tom Baker episodes on video, I lapped them up because they were still great stories. I now have them on DVD and they are still fantastic!

IMHO, the Philip Hinchcliffe (producer) era produced some of the very best episodes of Doctor Who, and they stand the test of time to this very day. It is interesting to note that 4 of the 5 Baker episodes listed in this article were produced by Hinchcliffe.

HTC readies radical Touch HD revamp

@MichaelC

Given that there are going to loads of devices which run WinMo 6.5, an HTC Touch HD owner is hardly going to left in the lurch. They just need to by a device that isn't called the Touch HD 2! However, quite why HTC would want to confuse the issue by calling it the Touch HD 2 when it isn't a direct successor does seem a little odd to me - then again this is the company that have 2 devices called "Hero" which look completely different!

Feds break Apple's code of App Store silence

@MichaelC

A definition of monopoly:

"Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service" (from FreeDictionary.com, but there are plenty of others like it)

You want an iPhone app? Your only source is the Apple AppStore - jailbreaking issues aside, as Apple deem these devices illegal anyway! The commodity/service in this case is iPhone applications, so it *is* a monopoly of sorts.

Yes, you do have a choice to use a different platform (e.g. Android), but that market is currently very small compared to the AppStore.

IMHO, even in its very worst excesses, Microsoft didn't leverage the same degree of control over it's platform (Windows) compared to Apple and the iPhone.

@AC 07:13GMT

I think you rather missed the point here. The FCC asked *why* Google Voice was rejected - it was not a demand for Apple to carry it.

Apple operate a near-monopoly in the smartphone application space now, and it is right that such questions be asked if this position is being abused. Already we heard of applications being passed by Apple, and then subsequently revoked, forcing developers into refunding customers who may have been perfectly happy with their purchase. Indeed, there was some concern that the store terms meant that developers would have to refund 100% of the purchase price themselves with Apple keeping their 30% cut, though I do not know if this ever came to pass.

I like Apple products - I have an iMac sitting on my desk here and a Macbook in the room next door, but I am really beginning to question how this company operates because I'm not sure it is in the consumers best interests.

Regards,

Dave

First Samsung Android phone out next week

Only on O2

For me, that phrase just means that the handset is one I'll never own.

I don't like handset exclusives, never have and never will. I might have had an iPhone if it'd been available on other networks, as I'm not going to shell at that much money for a SIM-free one.

I choose my network based on performance, reliability, price, and signal strength in the areas that I need to be, not on the handsets that they offer subsidized under contract.

Pssst... Apple tablet on way, whisper Chinese moles

Why not?

Why wouldn't it be a Mac purely because it was using an Arm CPU?

68000-based Macs were Macs

Power-based Macs were Macs

Intel-based Macs are Macs

So why shouldn't an Arm-based "Mac" be a Mac? Yes, it may well be architecturally similar to an iPhone, but what really matters here is what applications will be available for the platform and whether the OS is more closely aligned to Mac OS X than OS X iPhone. Given that most iPhone apps are designed for a relatively low resolution screen, and that I'd expect this new device to support higher resolutions, it is likely to be somewhat a hybrid of the two.

Google makes Gmail search accessible to all comers

@Ciaran

GMail doesn't have folders *by design*.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&answer=10708

Whether or not it as an acceptable substitute is a matter of personal opinion of course (it is in mine - labels work brilliantly). What really irritates me though is the inability to search using wild card operators!

Palm Pré to arrive next month?

What is it with "exclusive" deals?

I'm sure I'm not alone in the conviction that I will *never* change my network provider to get a specific device. I'd have liked an Iphone, but I was never going to move to O2 to get one, and the same is going to be true of the Pre.

So good luck Palm - I'm sure you've got a great phone on your hands, but this ridiculous insistence on exclusive deals means that I'll probably never own one unless I can get an unlocked one on Ebay. I'd sooner pay a few hundred quid for an unlocked device that I can use with the operator of *my* choice, than have a network foisted on me.

Apple updates full desktop Mac line-up

Currency conversions way off!

@Sergie

Rip of Britain???

Your currency conversions are way, way, way off! You've converted the VAT-less GBP price, "back" to GBP, instead of the USD price.

The actual conversion should be:

$599 *. 71 = £425.29

Add 15% VAT and you get to £489.08! Somewhat more reasonable methinks!

Regards,

Dave

Google G1 successor spied in video?

C'mon - it's clearly a fake!

So obviously a cheap knock off, it's untrue! It superficially resembles Android, but you don't need to get far into the video to see that it isn't.

Russian's emoticon trade mark won't wash with EU

@ Andus and Andy

I think you misread the article. It says that * emoticons* can be traced back to the 19th century - the :-) is just a specific example, and that dates back to 1982.

From Wikipedia: "Although historical antecedents go back to the nineteenth century, the emoticon as we presently use it traces directly back to a proposal by Scott Fahlman in a message of 19th September 1982"

Apple swings DMCA at Hackintosh maker

@Anonymous Coward

"I admit that I installed OSX onto a box I'd built myself and it sucks. Badly."

Really? Perhaps the reason it "sucks" is because you installed it on a box you'd built yourself rather than Apple hardware?

I'm not an Apple fanboi by any stretch, but I did recently buy a Mac for home and to be honest its desktop implementation is leaps and bounds above any Linux distro IMHO - and this is coming from someone with a Unix heritage (AIX, SCO, SunOS/Solaris, HP-UX) and a keen advocate of Linux.

I have a simple test when it comes to OS desktops - can my dad use it and install software on it? Whilst Vista or XP pass this test, most Linux distros do not and they really need to look at what Apple has done with OS/X to see how to make "Unix" accessible to non-IT users.

MP calls for Jezza Clarkson's head

No 10 Petition

We should start a No 10. petition to have Chris Moles sacked for wasting public time and money in his bid to gain cheap publicity? I'd do it myself, but I'm far too lazy and not really that bothered about the issue, but it would be interesting to see just how many signatures it ended up getting, especially if it went viral! Rather more than 500 I'd wager.

Can we can all do this?

I wonder how many of the 500 complaints came from people who actually watched the show? My guess would be practically none since the *many* millions who watch Top Gear would know what the humour is like in the show and take it in the spirit it was intended.

I suggest that if Jeremy Clarkson appealed to viewers of his show to write to Chris Moles "employers" and demand that he be sacked, there would many more than 500 people calling for his head. The difference of course, is that JC (wow - just realized that!) would probably mean it in jest, and doesn't require the sort of cheap publicity that this MP is seeking.

Give it a rest "MP Chris Moles" and get in touch with the people you are supposed to represent. I'd hazard a guess that if the BBC were to act on your "demands" to sack JC, you'd find yourself far more unpopular with the electorate than JC is, though given the current government that may actually be quite hard to achieve.

British - and proud of the fact that we can laugh at almost anything!

Regards,

Dave

Life ain't a bowl of funding at CherryPal

Funding problems?

I wonder if the problems run much deeper than Max suggests, since despite repeated requests (and promises) for a refund, my money has yet to appear. And that is despite me emailing Max directly after getting nothing but static from the refunds "department" who asked if a cheque would suffice. A cheque would be fine - if only someone would actually write one and send it out!

BBC begins fresh Freeview HD TV trial

@Red Bren

Erhhhh - probably not. DVB-T2 is a transmission standard and your TV probably never had an HD "tuner" as such and would need a set top box to receive terrestrial HD broadcasts anyway. Your TV will still be able to display an HD picture from a DVB-T2 broadcast, so long as you have a "set top" box that supports it.

AMD Phenom 9500 processor

@Rik - sorry for being picky....

... but "its" is correct in this context as it represents "it" in its (sic! :) ) possessive form. "It's" is a contraction of "it is" and thus not applicable in this case.

I'll get me coat!

Californian sues Comcast over BitTorrent throttling

Broadband "speeds" vs Car speeds

Stephen says:

"Don't get me started on the "Up to" speeds nonsense. If a car manufacturer sold you a car that could go "Up to 100mph" and the reality was you only got half that speed, people sure as hell would not stand for it."

Sorry, but all drivers here in the UK stand for this every day of the week. My car is capable of well in excess of 100mph, yet the maximum legal speed I can travel at is 70mph. Due to congestion, I rarely get to travel at even the legal maximums, especially in London. :)

Regards,

Dave

SCO gets offer for Unix biz

"Once great company"???

When you refer to SCO as a "once great company", you seem to forget that the Santa Cruz Operation (old SCO) of old actually sold of its Unix server biz to Caldera and renamed itself to Tarentella Inc and eventually became part of Sun.

Caldera (an ex-Linux shop!) rebranded itself as the SCO Group (new SCO). New SCO never was a great company and, by the looks of things, never will be!

Paris Hilton angle? She once appeared on the cover of Elle magazine wearing a Santa Cruz Surfing Club t-shirt. I'll get me coat.....

Boffins simulate plasma-eating dusty 'life-forms'

@ the jim bloke

"If they fail to appreciate daytime TV, doesnt that qualify them as a Higher life form ?"

You shall never ascend to higher planes of existence with heretical beliefs such as these! :)

Life Jim, but not as we know it?

"exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter. They are autonomous, they reproduce, and they evolve".

I'm sorry, but until such time as these "life forms" can produce the dusty plasma equivalent of Pot Noodle, and show and appreciation for daytime TV, they will never evolve beyond the dusty spirals they are today!

Vodafone Mobile Connect 'super 3G' USB modem

Alternatively.....

... you could buy a Merlin XU870 HSDPA ExpressCard.

I bought one for my ExpressCard "enabled" HP laptop, and it's a fantasic piece of kit when coupled with a T-Mobile Web'n'walk MAX connection.