Posts by Timmay

Carphone Warehouse outs LG-made Google Nexus 4 smartphone

I'm as much of a Google and Android fanbois as the next, but 8GB? Seriously? I was preparing to jump ship from the S3 to a pure Android phone, but looks like I've been pushed back.

iPhone 5 is the 'most difficult, scratchy device Foxconn has ever made'

Re: Your holding it wrong.

"You're"

Sorry, I couldn't resist either

US court lifts ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

"Samsung has gone on the offensive again today adding the iPhone 5 onto a list of Apple devices that it wants to see banned. Sammy argue that the new Jesus mobe infringes two standards patents and six features patents. That case is scheduled to be heard in 2014."

Haha, that's another subtle way to help Apple out; delay any cases against it until the product in question is no longer relevant.

Samsung slaps swift patch over phone-wiping Galaxy S III vuln

Facts are all wrong in this story - Samsung fixed this vulnerability ages ago, and in fact most people walking around now with one of these in their pockets are almost certainly already running insusceptible firmware.

So no, Samsung hasn't just "has whipped out a fix" in response to this. Most incorrect article I've seen on El Reg for years...

Last remaining reason to order an iPhone 5 disappears

iPhone 6

Why don't they just allow you to pre-order the iPhone 6 now?

Ten external battery packs

Re: erm

Well quite, hear hear... batteries should be ever lasting, only ever needing a charge at the factory during manufacturing. In fact, I'm annoyed that I have to refuel my car every couple of weeks, now you've mentioned it!!

Got a BMW? Thicko thieves can EASILY NICK IT with $30 box

If you have a physical key that you push into a barrel and twist to start it (which I suspect you do), then no, you're not affected.

Re: A poor excuse

Quick off the top of my head thought; introduce an artificial 30, 60, or 90 minute delay in the process of programming a blank key - probably 2 extra lines of code. Yes, a bit of a hassle when you've lost your key, having a wait a short while to program a new one, but hardly the end of the world. What thief is going to want to sit and wait that long while the car does it's thing?

iPhone 5 tops benchmark chart

Re: Poor haters

But it isn't anything new - there *are* other phones out there, ignoring whatever OS is on them, because it seems mentioning "Android" suddenly polarises people (oops), which achieve virtually equal performance, equally good battery performance, in equally slim designs, but they've been on sale for months.

Like you, I'm not an iPhone lover, but neither am I knocking the new one - good design, bulletproof build quality, good innards, but let's stop calling the thing technologically special, let alone revolutionary.

EE screams UK iPhone 4G exclusive, rest of pack sobs quietly

Re: Why several models?

@Philippe and John 172

Aerials, antennas, sure, I did consider that, but the range of frequencies the models already support with the aerials they're fitted with (ie. GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100), the LTE bands in question are within these ranges anyway.

For example, going into more detail, why can the A1428 antennas support LTE bands 4 and 17 on 1.7-2.1 GHz and 704-746 MHz respectively, but not the LTE bands 1, 3 and 5 on 1.9-2.1 GHz, 1.7-1.9 GHz, and 824-894 MHz respectively, which the A1429 can? They're all in the same ranges, what's the problem?

Why several models?

I understand there might be fundamental differences between a CDMA (ugh) and a GSM phone, but why have different models for different subtle frequencies - how difficult is it to have a single phone which supports the US GSM LTE frequencies and the rest of the world's?

The only difference I can see between the A1428 and the GSM A1429 is the A1428 supports LTE bands 4 and 17, and the GSM A1429 supports LTE bands 1, 3 and 5. What is the reason for not having a single which supports LTE bands 1, 3, 4, 5, and 17, or indeed all the bands?

Flash Player to vanish from Android store on Wednesday

Re: Tool up and go to work

Am I the only one who questions whether someone really develops for HTML5, when they go against all normal convention and puts the 5 in quotes? It's HTML5, not HTML'5'.

Snap suggests Apple out to 'screw' hardware hackers

@ Lee Dowling

Unofficial tyre, I call bollocks... next you'll be claiming you saw them refill the washer fluid with tap water, and the OBD flashed up saying "NEIN, NON-MINERAL WASSER ALERT!!"

Tracking Android phones is easy, says researcher

"if an attacker had access to a WiFi network the phone connected to, its assistance request could be captured, and redirected to the attacker’s server. The attacker would now know where the phone is"

Errrm, hate to point out the obvious, but if you're connected to a WiFi network, I have a pretty damn good idea where you are without fancy hacking involving capturing, processing, and returning packets. You're gonna be somewhere within ~30m of the basestation!

Japanese fanboi builds FrankenPhone from 'bits of iPhone 5'

Re: Any phone manufacturers with the headphone slot at the bottom?

Not a phone, but the Nexus 7 has. Go Google!

Samsung flogs 10 million Galaxy S IIIs in 7 weeks

Yes, but...

Yes, but it's universally agreed to be shite, and in desperate need of an update/revamp/complete-rewrite.

Why British TV drama is crap – and why this matters to tech firms

The Wire

People go on and on about it, and honestly, I've tried over and again with The Wire, but I still just don't get the praise and fuss lathered over it.

I normally ignore stuff which is massively popular, and then review it once the hype has died down, and often then end up liking it, but I just can't get into it. Am I alone?

Euro cellcos hoard nano Sims ahead of iPhone 5 launch

Re: Why?

Generally, I mostly agree with your first comment, but your second isn't logical... surely a SIM which is marginally smaller than the phone is going to drastically increase the size of the phone?

I think Apple et al's argument for a smaller SIM is more down to the engineering (and therefore size) of the holder than purely the size of the SIM. I sort of see their point, when an entire SoC processor or memory chip is as small as the SIM and supporting mechanism. Every little helps!

Disable Gadgets NOW says Redmond

Re: I don't now..

@ Piro - exactly, back when an extra 5MHz on your processor was a decent wedge of an increase, or eeking out an extra 20MB of memory was the difference between something running and not, I might have cared. Nowadays we have such a glut of compute power, so who really cares, other than when something is going wrong?!

NatWest seeks volunteers to bonk with their iPhones

Re: iPhones

If we're comparing apples with apples, and you want single phone models only, then stop talking about ALL the iPhones sold ever - just iPhone 4 (or perhaps 4S too, as this works with that). The Galaxy S3 is currently the top selling phone, even outselling iPhones (yes, I'm sure that'll change when iPhone 5 or whatever comes along, but that's ANOTHER model).

Agree with you on the BB thing though.

iPhones

Yes, a slightly "down with iPhone/Apple/etc" post here, but why go to the hassle and expense of paying to supply cases which users don't want to have to use, and are going to be useless in x months time anyway, when you could just use one of the NFC-equipped phones already on the market? Like, oh I dunno, the Galaxy S3?

The problem with tech like paying by NFC, is it's only geeky early adopters who are likely to (dare) use it at first (people like me), and geeky people like me don't tend to buy Playmobil "it just works" type phones like the iPhone, and even if we did, we don't want to have to use some crappy case just to pay using it. We want more open and bleeding-edge features, like those found on the Galaxy S3.

Before I get downvoted, I'm not overly knocking the iPhone - it's a fine phone for those who don't mind the closed locked down nature, and the (comparatively) small screen, I just get annoyed by it always being the default go-to device for things like this.

Someone has to take the lead - without people able to pay for things contactless, shops aren't going to bother signing up for new terminals.

Therefore, good on NatWest for taking the lead!

My dad found the Higgs boson! Reminiscences of a CERN kid

Superbowel?

A superbowel, is that like a really really large intestine?

I doubt that would get as good viewing figures as the superbowl.

GPS spoofing countermeasures: Your smartphone already has them

Re: Having been rear-ended by people texting ...

You sir, are a cretin.

Please explain how wiping everyone's mobile signals within 100m will stop them from texting or being distracted as they approach the rear of your car/bike? I don't know about your phone, but I can happily text away on my phone without a signal, but it obviously won't send. Also, if I was in the naughty situation of using my phone while driving, suddenly losing signal for no reason is probably going to make me more distracted trying to work out what went wrong.

What is funny is you're doing one illegal thing (jamming signals), to stop people doing other illegal things (using phones while driving), but with the ultimate aim of helping you do illegal things and not get caught (speeding).

Smart meters are 'massive surveillance' tech - privacy supremo

Re: Washing

Bam............. bam............ bam.......... bam......... bam........ bam....... bam...... bam..... bam.... bam... bam.. bam. bambambambambambambambambambambambam (omgthehouseisgoingtofalldown) bambambam!!!!

Just me with a rickety old washing machine then?

LG's quad-core Optimus tabphone powers into Europe

Re: photoshoppery...

There are girls in the picture?

Apple quietly reveals iOS security innards

@ Chad H.

Apples and oranges... you've never had a break in BECAUSE you've had door locks.

By your logic, if you'd lived in a dozen or so properties, never had door locks, AND never had a break in, then yes, your analogy would work - you don't need door locks.

Google+ dying on its arse – shock new poll

Re: Public posts metric?

I'm no Facebook fan, and I'm sorry for picking on your post when many others make the same comments, but it makes me laugh when people post this assumption that Facebook is all "vomit of random thoughts" and Google+ is somehow more high-brow and intellectual.

You see posts from the people/friends/whatever *you've* added or are following, whether on Facebook or Google+ - the network doesn't determine the content. If you're following fucktards on Facebook, and professors on Google+, that's the reason. If you don't want to see vomit of random thoughts, don't follow or befriend the people posting that crap.

Rant over.

Finally, it’s the year of Linux on the desktop IPv6!

Sounds great, but I assume all those now-publicly-accessible devices are hardened to be exposed on the internet?

Reminds me of my first job implementing a leased line for a remote office; we got given a block of public IP addresses, so we thought it'd be a great (now stupid) idea to put all our machines on the internet - Code Red had a field day with our test servers. I think the record was less than a minute from rebuilding the machine due to infection, putting it back on the network, to it getting hacked...

Yes, I was young and naive.

Pirate island attracts more than 100 startup tenants

Re: But

The MPAA of course!

Motorola brings 3G to Xoom tablets

Gingerbread?

"The Xoom 2 packs a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with Android 2.3 Gingerbread."

Looks like at least 3.x - Honeycomb.

RIM to exit the consumer phone market

Re: Teens

@ Voland's right hand

I did say wealthy corporates OR wealthy benefit/dolescum! ;)

Teens

Surely if you give up on them now, and lose teens to the Apple/Android side, they're even more likely to change to or stick with Apple and Android when they become wealthy corporates or wealthy benefit/dolescum? Who will be left using RIM then?

The Register obtains covert snaps of Google's new London offices

Re: WOW!

<yorkshire_accent>

That's nothing. I work at Foxconn.

</yorkshire_accent>

FAA mulls scrapping in-flight iPad, Kindle ban

Not being able to use these things in flight has always felt much like the ban on mobile phones on petrol station forecourts, for fear they might create a spark or something.

I mean, come on - I've just driven a hulking great mash of electrical wires connected to various electrical motors and generators, not forgetting the massive fiery combustion engine, onto the forecourt, and I'm going to fire it back up in a minute. Nothing happened the million times before I did this, so what exactly is my phone (which to my knowledge has never sparked away in my pocket) going to achieve that the mess of electricity and fire I drive couldn't?

Wang charged in inappropriate electricity socket use

Re: Re: Public electricity

Hmm, your point is a good one, and I'm struggling to counter it. However, I'd argue that most things "public" are free, unless there is a method of payment either next to, or part of it. For example, you get on a bus, and there's a driver or machine who will take your money, or a machine you can wave a card at.

If something is "public" (ie. accessible to the public) and there's no method of paying, the only way to access that is without paying, which makes it free.

Yes, I'm being fasicious.

Public electricity

"crime of stealing public electricity"

If it is indeed <b>public</b> electricity, surely it's his to use?

New driver-snooping satnav could push down UK insurance premiums

@ DJ 2

"lose signal and then recover it 10 mins later, they record that you broke the speed of light by moving instantaneously"

Umm, 10 minutes or instantaneous, which is it? If you're doing 30mph and lose signal in one place and pick it up 10 minutes later 5 miles away, that's still an average speed of 30mph, not "faster than the speed of light".

iPhones yanked from German shelves in Motorola patent war

@Colin Camper

Oh sweet Jesus, I'm an Android fanbois through and through (though previously owned original iPhone and 3G), and your comment even makes me cringe with it's stupidity.

I have to stop reading it - I'm embarrassed for you.

When a DNS outage isn't an outrage

Is this news?

I can see the headline now:

Small Company Gives Better and More Personal Support Than Large Faceless Corporation Shocker!

Dixons cuts Ice Cream Sarnie ready Xoom to £225

D'oh

Kinda making my first foray into tablets with the PlayBook at £199 (32GB model) look a bit silly really.

The Xoom was top of my shopping list, but at the prices at the time, the PlayBook seemed the better option. D'oh. Oh well, suppose I'll save up for the Transformer Prime now...

Orange touts tropical tablet

From Orange's description...

..."Android Honeycomb 2.3 operating system"

Which is it, Gingerbread 2.3, or Honeycomb 3.x?

Nuclear Mars tank prepares for 8-thruster dance

Not when you've already driven for the best part of 3 hours.

As a southerner who rarely drives north, I'm used to seeing signs like "Leeds and The NORTH", not "Newcastle-upon-Tyne and The SOUTH"!

"Continue for 146.240 million kilometers..."

That's what it seems like when driving south from Scotland - you drive for what seems like an eternity and then you find you're only at f$£king Darlington, and the sign still says "London - 250 miles"... d'oh!

London 2012 team pulls swamped ticket resale site

"Lots of tkts sold already today, the system is working. But, there’s been feedback of issues with selling tkts," it said.

I think the gremlins in question are stealing the letters i, c, and e.

LG preps '14in screen in 13in chassis' Ultrabook

Good point, but I thought the days of you getting less inches than specified went years ago with the death of CRTs - surely 14" of LCD screen means you get 14" of viewable screen, which if I'm right, makes this seem all the weirder!