Posts by Occams_Cat

Satellite phones are coming, but users not happy to pay much extra for the capability

Can you hear me now?

Are we all going to be standing on our roofs or in gardens for a signal?

Can you get excited about the iPhone 13? We've tried

Up to 1TB storage and a 'lightning' port that's USB 2?! That is breathtakingly patronising! And still that massive, ugly, unnecessary notch.

I now regret my impulse acceptance of the 'upgrade' from my carrier. Straight on eBay.

Why your external monitor looks awful on Arm-based Macs, the open source fix – and the guy who wrote it

Browsing the web for help whilst on hold to Apple suport for a 3rd time in a day and found this article. Very helpful.

I have a 2020 M1 MacBook Air and upon arrival it worked flawlessly with my Samsung G9 49" ultrawide screen and my 4K BenQ screen. Roll on 6 months and after the last Monterey update I can now only get the M1 to pump out 1080p over any connection to any screen, with no options to scale or change the resolution other than to pick resolutions lower than 1080! Re-installed the OS, tried severl expensive cables USBC/HDMI/DP and all have the same issue.

The fact that it worked perfectly well upon launch with whatever drivers they were using and now Apple have completely borked it up and don't seem to have a fix after so long, is enourmously embarassing for Apple.

Bloodhound rocket car target of 550mph put on ice after engine overheat

I would like to propose all countries compete in this every four years; The Land Speed Olympics. Whomever wins with the top speed (stops safely or blows up en route ) gets to impose it's foreign policy on all other countries for 4 years. Spicy.

IVE HAD ENOUGH! iQuit. Jobs done. Jony cashes out at Apple to run his own design biz

Re: Ave Ive

True - I just did W7 pro -> W10 pro on a laptop and desktop with update assistant, however, I wasn't aware you could also do a clean install too with the same keys and an ISO. That's useful to know.

Overhyped 5G is being 'rushed', Britain's top comms boffin reckons

Just like 3G all over again...I'm still waiting for the promised revolution 3G should have brought me 10 years ago. That'll teach me for living in the obviously inaccessible, darkest depths of Wiltshire. (I'm on Three - O2, EE etc are even worse)

Phabba-dabba-do: Samsung hypes up Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

I recently worked down in Patagonia for a month and was away from WiFi, the Internet and this thing called 'the cloud' for long time. After 3 weeks of taking personal photos and videos on my Nexus 5 of all the amazing places we passed through, my phone was snapped into two pieces during a particularly eventful day. Needless to say, I lost everything.

If the phone supported a micro SD card I could have popped out out and saved the lot. This is why I'll not buy another phone without removable storage.

Sound and battery: 20 portable Bluetooth speakers

Re: SB Roar ?

I bought the Creative Roar and can very much recommend it. Very solid build and pretty decent sound. It needs the 'Roar' function on all the time as this boosts the mid and high end making sound a little brighter. Good tight bass, but not too much. All the extra features are fabulous, save for the silly 'alarm' function which quite frankly, is ridiculous! And it was only £80 in a recent Amazon lightening sale. Bargain.

iPad Air not very hot: Apple fanbois SHUN London fondleslab launch

Temporary monopolies. I'd consider moving that Apple stock in the not too distant future.

Apple KILLER decloaked? Google lovingly unboxes Nexus 7 Android 4.3 slablette

Re: It only just clicked

I went through 2 of the 16GB N7's - each time I sent them back complaining that the system was as slow as molasses when you began to fill up the memory. Both times they replaced the glass and sent it back as 'fixed'. I don't think that they officially addressed that issue. Horrible.

Congratulations, copyright infringers: You are the five per cent

Audible.co.uk have got it right.

As an avid fan of audio books, I have to say that Audible have got this digital 'try before you buy' thing nailed.

As a full member they allow you to download and listen to the book for anything up to 12 months and if you didn't enjoy it you can simply request a refund or return of the credit or exchange for another title.

I have around 100 titles in my library and so far audible have swapped or refunded around 15 books for me, sometimes months and months after I had read them and was either bored stupid by them or gave up halfway through. No hassle, no questions just a straight forward exchange or refund.

THIS is how it should work with films too. Too many times I've been told about this 'wonderful' film which looks OK in the trailer, only to want to walk out after 20 minutes through boredom...*anything Hollywood usually). In such cases punters should be able to swing by the booking office and get a partial refund or ticket exchange for something else.

http://www.audible.co.uk/mt/glg

'End of passwords' predictions are premature - Cambridge boffin

Re: Biometrics?

Sure! Laptops with scanners are only submitting the pre programmed password into the system, after all. You can just side step this process and enter the password. But if this process was mandatory and complimentary for all forms of password submission it would provide a helpful extra layer of security.

I wouldn't be concerned about the scanner 'packing up' any more than i would for any other non moving part of the PC besides, you can always plug in a spare finger scanner on a PC.

I'd like to see all phones and tablets adopt an industry standard finger scanner too. Of course, Apple will do their own thing and insist on using an anus scanner for all their products and then sell a finger adapter ;-)

Biometrics?

A few years ago I bought a family member a laptop with a built in finger pint scanner, he was always forgetting his password to log in. I thought that it was a bit of a gimmick and probably wouldnt work reliably enough to be used a on daily basis...but it's been fantastically dependable and really easy to use.

Yes, have complicated passwords by all means but we should also be layering security with several levels of authentication such as finger print scanners, iris scanners and voice pattern recognition.

CTech Astronomy ;-)

Brits are so outraged by Amazon, they voted it TOP for shopping

Amazon - The template for ALL other online retail businesses.

No surprise to me. I can't stand shopping and yet I think i'm suffering an Amazon addiction. Their customer service has been so obscenely good to me that I'd feel guilty buying anything elsewhere!

They once shipped me some very expensive PC speakers and I called to explain that the box had been dropped and damaged badly (speakers inside were perfect) - they sent me a new set and actually let me keep the other set in the damaged box...at no added cost! When ever something breaks or fails they will ship a replacement out within 24 hours and give a 2 weeks to return the faulty item at my leisure...and they pay all the postage. They are bloody superb.

I couldn't care less about the tax situation - that's a UK law problem. I'd rather have much lower taxes and much more business transactions than heavier taxes that push enterprise away from the UK. But then again, that wouldn't feed the coffers of the self-serving, massively bloated government, would it?

Man, 19, cuffed after burning Remembrance poppy pic is Facebooked

Offensive to some? Yes. Insensitive, stupid, ignorant, tasteless & disrespectful: absolutely. Illegal - No. He just makes himself look like a moron.

Offending people isn't a criminal offence. If you own it, then burning a Koran, Bible, poppy or any other symbolic object is your choice to make. Society will judge you, no need for police action.

Why is 4G so expensive? Answer: The Post-Voice Era is coming

EE pricing must be a joke, right?

Prices should come down over time, not increase.

I'm very, very content with my 24 month SIM only contract with 3.

500 mins / 500 texts and unlimited data. I regularly see 5-10MB/s all over the UK, which I also use for tethering (no extra cost). Some months I'll use 5GB and others only 1 or 2. I can't imagine I'll be needing or wanting anything faster than a solid H+ signal on 3G, I already use Skype on the go without any issues. Cost = £11 p/m including VAT! (& 3 gave me a free phone which I sold for £60)

4G should be a 'no cost' behind the scenes update. It's taken over 5 years for networks to finally deliver on promised 3G speeds!

O2 dropped the ball in Olympic cycle race Twitter fiasco

"There was a capacity issue with Box Hill at the weekend," an O2 spokesperson told The Register

I just love that quote, genius. That person needs a pay raise ;)

What he meant to say was "Sorry, we completed effed-up. We totally underestimated the number of people who would be speculating. As a result O2 were utterly unprepared to supply any of the services we had been contracted to supply over the course of this event."

Then followed up with "Due to the (even further) humiliation we have brought to this shoddy network and following O2's previous network crash earlier in the month, our complete incompetence is self evident, as a result we are folding the company, the CEO has resigned and we will be giving all customers a cheque for £1000 and a Three UK PAYG SIM card. Sorry, again." :)

Asus Transformer Pad TF300

I've just exchanged my 3rd unit at Curry's due to horrendously patchy light bleed on the screens.

I think that they either had a poor batch or that Asus's QC needs improving...or both. Although the light bleed isn't a big issue (even bad examples) in everyday use, I found it to be very distracting when watching films or with apps with a black background.

Curry's were great though, i'll give them their due. The took one look at each, agreed on the spot and replaced it. No hassle.

I was updating from a TouchPad, and actually found the TF300 very thin to hold comfortably in large hangs! The screen was bright enough (just) and colours were not overly saturated, for better or worse. Overall the unit was adequately robust. But i prefer a more substantially constructed tablet: ie TouchPad, Prime, iPad, Acer 510 etc...

I found that the battery life of the tablet alone, was less that my HP TouchPad but the combined Tab & Dock was a couple of hours more. The connectivity of this tablet is killer. Fantastic. Full SD and full USB support on the dock and MSD support on the tab means that you can have a 96GB Tablet with a 64GB MicroSD card and 32 on board, and have 128GB SD card in the dock with USB support for HDD's, DVD players, USB->Ethernet adapters etc...

Ultimately though, I have now decided that Android is a perfect phone OS and not so great tablet OS. I've been running an SGS2 for ages and love it. Sadly the Android experience on this tablet just didn't do it for me. I think it's more to do with the way I expect to use a tablet versus a phone and also the hardware implementation. I've decided to run the Android phone along side a jailbroken iPad.

Anyway, it's a fantastic little tablet that really is a jack of all trades.

Assange loses appeal against extradition to Sweden

The law is an ass.

I'd rather the European arrest warrant system 'collapsed' & they re-wrote it, than the UK extradite a man who has had no charges laid against him and has been under house arrest for 539 days and is in the process of one of the most convoluted state sponsored stitch-ups in history.

I haven't read the full judgement yet ( http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/news/latest-judgments.html ) but maybe there is still chance to appeal & restore some sanity before the US authorities start to get too excited.

China turns on the sprinklers with ambitious rain-making plans

@Jake " Side note: Assuming "Chinese" equals "rice eater" borders on racism.

No it doesn't, anymore than assuming that English = eat roast beef eater, in the same context.

It may be a stereotypical misconception, but it has nothing to do with racism.

On topic; messing with local weather patterns in this manner, is an insane waste of resources, time and money and may well bite them on the backside one day.

Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy S III

Re: The new...

That'll be the iPhone 3GS & 4.

Stolen iPad leads to 780lb crystal meth seizure

Did Charlie Sheen open the door?

iPhone 5 rumoured to be packed with pay-by-bonk tech

oh goodie.

Great news, I look forward to being able to whip out a £700 electrical gadget just to pay for menial everyday goods such as newspapers and tube rides. This is a big step forward & so much more convenient and secure than chip & pin and cash...

A simple HTML tag will crash 64-bit Windows 7

who uses safari on W7 anyway?

Safari Web browser...no danger of this bug causing any real damage then!

Samsung Galaxy Note

Ah thanks...in the mean time I changed my mind and got a SGS2 instead with the 2000 mAh OEM extendible battery and back plate. I had some hands on with a Note this afternoon and decided that it was a beautiful bit of kit, but just too big for everyday use. Besides, I was lucky enough to get a fire sale HP Touchpads on the cheap so that'll continue to plug the gap to the main laptop & PC.

Amazon.de do not post to UK?

I just tried to buy a note on the German Amazon site (i'm in the UK) and each time I go to check out I get the message "This item can not be shipped to the destination of your choice" - a standard UK address that I have used for years on the UK site.

Anyone know why i'm getting this issue?

Thanks.

Great review and the (on the whole!) useful comments have sealed the deal for me. I'm looking forward to this phone / mini tablet with ICS.

Assange™ can request final hearing against Swedish extradition

Such a polite commenter, "Put a stopper in your gob, why don't you"?

Classy Windrose, classy.

In cases such as this one, where so many political, media, military & vested interest figures will be left vulnerable from any potential fall out, I am less inclined to believe that the (normally disorganised) powers can't pull together to achieve a beneficial outcome.

As someone already pointed out, the fact that this is happening in view of the public eye, makes it even more ridiculous.

Movie deal?

Maybe Assange can sell the rights to the inevitably one sided and horrifically over simplified 'movie' deal that will no doubt already have been cast in some directors mind, to pay for his ongoing defence in this huge, humiliating, multi-government stitch-up job.

As for Manning...poor bastard.

Lovefilm dumps Flash, BLINDS Linux fans with Silverlight

And in one move my days of watching streamed films on my HP TouchPad, have been revoked. As has the entire reason I bough the (cheap) tablet. Gutted. Bastards.

Exoplanet ranking suggests INTERSTELLAR WAR imminent

Worse still...

...what if our new alien overlords actually *like* Bebo & Beiber?!