Posts by Tim 69 21 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Sep 2011
Speaking as one who recently had US family to stay in London, who had never experienced Sky+ (or the freeview equivalent) and the plethora of OnDemand TV via the box in the corner and Tablet/Phone on-demand apps complete with Chromecast, they were blown away at what we could do in the UK compared with what they had available via Cable in the US.
TV in the US does not equal TV across the rest of the globe...
I picked up both one of these and a G2 and ended up sticking with the G2 and disposing of the Z1 Compact. Why? Whilst it is a beautifully made handset, I found that the buttons felt very sticky to use, I didn't really like the way it felt in my hand, and in spite of the detail the camera was capable of shooting, in Low Light it really didn't perform that well, which was a little disappointing given that's usually when I use mine. Others may disagree, but I felt the G2 handled that better.
But each to their own. It's a very capable handset, but fundamentally it's the ergonomics of each that will drive which you prefer!
I like the WinPho GUI so much that when I had to replace my windows phone with an Android (don't ask, network issues) I immediately installed the Launcher8 app which gives me the best of both worlds. Feels like WinPho, but has the benefits of Android notifications, etc.
I must be in a minority of actually liking the Live Tiles and an apps list ordered in a way that makes it straightforward to find an app. Select a letter, find apps that start with said letter. But then, I don't have 500 apps on my phone. I don't see why I need them.
Couldn't agree more. After 6 months on EE, having been drawn in by the promise of faster mobile broadband and the opportunities it offered for improved mobile use, I am no longer with them thanks to an inherent flaw in the EE 4G network which means that when your phone is connected to and using the 4G network (think regular email collection, FB updates, using the internet....) it has trouble receiving the page on an incoming call that causes it to drop down to a voice carrying network.
It looks as though either the handover to 3G or lower from 4G either takes longer than the maximum auto-redirect to voicemail, or it just doesn't receive the signal, which means you don't receive incoming calls. As you might imagine, this doesn't go down well with the missus.
I spent 3-4 months with EE doing a raft of network tests, sending handsets to be repaired, swapping handsets, etc, only to come to the conclusion that it was an issue with EE rather than handsets (neither WinPho nor Android would function properly). On this basis, with the assistance of the tech support guys at EE I was able to establish that the offering wasn't fit for purpose and what I considered to be my very expensive contract wasn't meeting the basic requirement of providing me with a reliable mobile phone service.
After a fair bit of back and forth, and an email to the CEO of EE, they agreed to let me out of the contract with 18 months left to run. While I have nothing but praise for the call centre teams who had to deal with me in a somewhat frustrated state, the network got a big thumbs down as somewhere in there the technology really wasn't working properly. There's plenty of similar experiences all over various forums too. I hope that other network providers are able to avoid this massive problem.
I don't really understand why people get hung up on not having an SD card. The usable image files are around 5-8MP so not particularly large, and even when using an (admittedly older) 10MP camera, I was able to take nearly 4,000 JPEGs (shooting sport so machine gun mode) on 16GB of memory cards over a week and still have spare capacity. And with a decent data package, you have no issues with uploading to as many services as you like for protection.
Unless you are trying to use it like an iPod classic, 32GB is still a lot of storage. As for WinPho8? It's okay as a GUI, has its issues like all phone OSs and as long as it works as a phone and a camera (which there is no reason to suspect otherwise) then I'd be fine with it.
Even no replaceable battery isn't a deal breaker, although given the drain on the combined phone and camera if you use it heavily, it's possibly going to require intraday charging. Having said that, I found the Lumia 920 to comfortably hold 24 hours of charge even using 4G.
I think a lot of people get upset about certain aspects of phone design that make a lot less difference to the average user (and most power users) than they would like to admit.
I've found on the Android phone I'm currently using, the difference between disabling mobile data overnight and having it running all night is about 45% of the battery, so I turn it off before sleeping... If someone really needs me overnight they can use that most old fashioned of communication approaches - make a call.
That's right, if you are on a 4G network, Windows Phone doesn't hand over from 4G to 3G properly, so the other party can't actually call you. It's a bit of an issue for something that is supposed to be a phone and happens rather more than anyone would like you to believe.
Apparently EE have raised it with Microsoft, Nokia and HTC, but still, I have a 4G phone on a 4G price plan that I can't do more than 3G+ on because the phone software is crap.
To be fair, one of the fixes in iOs 6.1 was because iPhone5 also had this problem, but still, six months later and the Lumias haven't been fixed. I could rant for ages, but frankly right now, I'm a little fed up and subdued and there is little point. I await the reduction in Tariff I get from EE for the remainder of my contract thanks to this...
And I know there are people out there who will say "Serves you right for buying a WinPhone"...
Robust, small, the ones I've found have had a great battery life, generally available on ebay for £100-£150 and once you've stuck Mint on them, you have your WIMP. Had two of them and the first is still going strong two years later. What more do you need?
Sounds like mine. I was first going live in September 2011. Every quarter it got pushed back a quarter. Decided in Q4 2012 that I'd have a chat with someone on the BT Tech Support desk and got told unequivocally that I would be able to order from 31st December 2012.
I rang them on the 2nd January and low and behold, no I couldn't and they couldn't give me a date. The whole BT Infinity roll out has become a massive joke. Our exchange was enabled over two years ago but the cabinets are far from completed....
I met him at the Greenwich Observatory during the Meridian centenary celebrations during the 80's. We were in the Telescope dome and he just happened to be standing next to me. I was probably ten at the time, but when asked he said hello and was awfully pleasant to a starstruck child. He brought character to Astronomy!
First laptop I was ever provided through work was a Thinkpad, and I havent' found better. These days I pick up the X60 sized beasties off ebay for not a lot of money and stick Linux on them. Small, portable, reliable and very comfortable to use. Who could want more?
I'd love something that I could take a photo of the people present at the meeting, recognise their faces and use their email addresses, actually recognise my handwriting, turn it into an email and then send it out to all those present so that I don't have to convert my notes to an email...
Stylus? Check. OCR? Check. A few other bits? Not quite yet. 1995? Definitely not...
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