Posts by imaginarynumber 196 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Feb 2012
"3 fast hosts support is pretty poor."
3. fasthosts' support is fucking awful.
Fixed it for you.
Truly the worst hosting company that I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.
(IMO) the only thing fast about them is the zeal with which they ride roughshod over UK consumer rights.
"The official line from Apple was parroted online from a Genius drone employed by the company, when quizzed by The Register on Friday."
Meh.. you should have just contacted the Guardian, Charles Arthur was busy repeating their PR bumpf verbatim
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/25/apple-response-bend-iphone6-6p-plus-nine-complaints
"Apple may have come late to NFC, but it has had the balls to put it into its flagship product, which bodes well."
Sorry, but what does that mean?
The last and only non flagship phone released by Apple was the rehashed 5C, even that though, was generally considered (by some) to be a premium product
"The fact is that no-one wants their ridiculously insecure bloatware any more."
There isn't any bloatware on Windows Phone and the bulk of the bloatware on the average PC was dumped there by the OEM.
"Those who can afford to do so are moving away from PCs to Apple."
My laptop cost more than any of Apple's laptops, but hey, it had a vastly superior specification.
And for the record, although I owned a Lumia I have nothing against Android, nor am I a fan of MS (or any other company)
Windows Mobile on small screens was far from ideal but many of my handsets were usable without a stylus. I day that Apple proclaimed to have released a massive screened phone, I had a 5" HTC. I only ever used the stylus to calibrate the screen or for resets. TBH I actually miss the pixel perfect accuracy of resistive screens. Trying to sketch on phones these days is like playing a piano with boxing gloves.
II don't recall any WM phones with 256x160 respolutions, my first one (HTC BlueAngel- 2004) had 320 x 240, the first iphone was only 320×480, the phone I had at the time was 640 x 480
Regarding MS mocking the iphone- IIRC Balmer suggested that it was to expensive- shortly after, Apple dropped the price 2 or three times. That said, they clearly under estimated the forthcoming public desire for touch screen smartphones.
"While Steve Jobs was alive, it was fair to call Apple a cult built around him."
Perhaps it is still fair to call it a cult. Post Jobs, the general consensus seems to be that Cook lacks the charisma to be Son of Steve. So what do the iFans and Apple loving press do (I'm looking at you Charles Arthur)? they look lower down the ranks and pluck Ives out. The irony being that he seems to be even less charismatic than Cook but I guess his slower-than-is-humanly-possible speech makes him appear enigmatic.
Personally I feel sorry for Cook, he is clearly good at what he does but he has inherited a firm that has a fan base that craves the cult of personality and Ives seems to be the kind of fellow that would rather get on with his work and has little or no desire to open garden fetes.
How can you not see that owners are confused?
Apple go out of their way to suggest that manufacturing defects must be discovered and reported almost immediately. This is a blatant example of distorting the meaning of the consumer protection laws. Sure the devotees will state that, according to the law, after 6 months the owner may need to prove that the fault is the result of manufacturing. In 99.9% of cases it is obvious that a solid state device that has not been subjected to abuse should not fail, and if it has then it must be the result of a poorly manufactured component.
Apple also go to great lengths to scare the customer into thinking that customers of other brands have to go back to the store rather than dealing with the manufacturer. I had to get my phone reflashed last week. I walked into a Nokia service agent. I wasn't asked for proof of purchase or told to go back to EE. To date
I can understand why someone might love Apple products but it is staggering that any rational person could defend their stance with regard to consumer rights.
My HTC Advantage (released before the iphone) looks exactly like the ipad/keyboard. It connected magnetically, holding the phone part at a comfortable angle, keystrokes were transmitted via contacts on the two. When not in use it acted as magnetically attached screen protector. The only difference is that the cover had a Perspex window that showed on screen notifications (the phone knew when the cover was in use)
I can't see how HTCs superior device is not prior art.
Back in early 2007 people took the piss out of the size of my 5" HTC Athena. Most people thought it odd to want to be able to check emails or surf on a phone. Tastes change.
If apple do release a phablet then 2014 will be the year that Apple fanbois tech editors, such as Charles Arthur at the guardian, tell us that phablets are clearly superior to tiny 4-5" phones.
Quote
"Sort of reminds me of the playground games, My Father earns more than your father. No he does not, mine earns more.
It does not matter who earns more or who's device is best. Whatever makes the family member/device owner the happiest then that is the best. All subjective naturally."
Agreed. with regard to functionality IOS/WP/Android are pretty much on par. That said it is the case that certain fans (read:journalists), such as the likes of Charles Arthur at the Guardian (previously of this church?) feel it necessary to find new metrics to prove that apple are the "best", rah rah rah. By way of an example only last week he told us that market share is meaningless (without concrete of the installed base- fair enough- good point), prior to that he posted a link that suggested that WP8 must be crap because you can't play Candy Crush on it Retina? God's gift to mankind, someone betters it and it becomes a gimmick....
TBF he is not the only sycophant/apologist/iFan but (IMO) he demonstrates my point pretty succinctly. So much so that long standing regulars at the guardian eff'd off and set up their own playground (some had little choice as their accounts had been deleted, eg me, for being snarky and not towing the company line).
http://bootedout.boards.net/
In principle, there is nothing wrong with playgrounds............ so long as they are level.........
Why are Apple fans in a perpetual cycle of looking for new metrics to "prove" that their iWhatever is the best?
Android usurps iOS's market share and the fanbois point out that that iOS has a greater share of browsing or that users click on more adverts.
Some one points out that Apple make abnormal profits from their customers and they retort that they have higher resale values or that "poor" people really want an Apple device but can't afford it.
As someone that has had touchscreen smartphones since 2004 I have never cared how many people around me have the same handset, nor have I cared about the amount of profit that vendor makes (provided that they make enough to remain in business). And at no point would I feel proud to think that I was being charged a premium for a device that is on par with other items.
"You can hardly compare Applecare to the statutory warranty. Applecare is in addition to your statutory rights (of course) and means they provide more support (for example including their software) and gives enhanced support - i.e. instant swap out and none of this return to manufacturer and it's away for 3+ weeks."
"Enhanced support"? And where in the T&Cs does it state that AppleCare customers are entitled to device swap out?
More support? Most OEMs offer a two year warranty throughout the EU, they too provide limited software support.
AppleCare Plus- just an insurance policy (priced at £79). Personally I expect to see Apple charging people the excess for items that should otherwise be covered by the Sales of goods Act. Dodgy home button- that'll be £50 to repair please.
AppleCare+ only entitles owners to a replacement (read: reconditioned unit) in the event that AIG decide that a repair is uneconomical- which is pretty much consistent with most insurance policies. In many cases owners might be better off with 3rd party policies which also cover theft/loss.
It never ceases to amaze me that that Apple owners bang on about the exceptional build quality of Apple devices yet never question why a premium priced product has the worst warranty duration.
You can start by flooding the sender of the offending text with clean texts, this will push the naughty text off the screen. I guess that you will have problems if you try to go through the text history though.
You could try asking apple but they (still) haven't publically acknowledged the bug, and thus accordingly aren't offering public advice.
Thanks for the reply, and apologies for the tardy reply.
Apropos " the interest of responsible disclosure" and "At worst it would be an annoyance."- My choice of terms was perhaps ill advised. it was an attempt to circumnavigate the "responsible disclosure" counter argument. By that, I mean that I agree that publicising a flaw that would result in owners' bank accounts or personal data being compromised might be seen as irresponsible. In this case there is no known security risk.
BTW I see that you have now posted the article. Kudos. It certainly seems to be the most in depth that I have seen thus far.
Tnx, and apologies for being impatient.
I agree that if nobody covers it, it will be a non story. If only 0.0001% of the world know about the bug then those tempted to abuse it will have a negligible effect. Apple owners will continue to believe that Apple's are perfect and impregnable.
A few weeks later a similar bug will be found in WP or Android, this time though the press will be all over it. Apple owners will continue to believe that Apple's are perfect and impregnable...
The degree of disruption thus far has been mitigated not through Apple's actions but because the likes of FaceBook have been blocking the code.
Is this really less of a non-story than who the founder of google is shagging?
The Register became aware of the fact that an Arabic string of text could crash iphone and Macs apps since Thursday. Almost 48 hours later they have not covered the story.
Of the organs with sizable readers, Ars Technia, Tech Crunch and even Charles Arthur at the Guardian have covered the story. Mentions in the Reg? NONE.
Why?
I could understand if the exploit was being used to steal confidential info or money from Apple owners, but it is not. At worst it would be an annoyance.
Apple have been aware of the bug for 6 months. they fixed it iOS7 and Mavericks but thus far don't seem to give a toss about current users.
I don't expect this kind of censorship from you guys.
Sorry but p!ssed off..
so we all know that iShineys and Macs just work..
My arse.
TechCrunch are reporting that Arabic text can crash your Apple
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/29/bug-in-apples-coretext-allows-specific-string-of-characters-to-crash-ios-6-os-x-10-8-apps/
The text is gonna be all over the Twitterverse and people are gonna be sitting outside starbucks, changing the ssid of their hotspot to crash iwhatevers .
@lusty
I thought that they held off MMS because the early phones were so crap that they didn't even have 3G (making MMS painfully slow).
I'd be interested in seeing why they held off; 3G, video recording, GPS, copy'n'paste, downloadable apps, camera flashes, etc, etc, etc..
Interesting point regarding the ownership.
I thought that digital content ownership wasn't transferable if that is the case then the person gifting the content might be breaking the law unless they can prove that it was purchased as a gift. Perhaps to distance themselves from enabling owners to break the law, Apple need to let the gifter stipulate that the purchase is a gift at checkout, automatically add it to the giftee's iTunes account, allow it to be downloaded to the gifter's device but disable it on that device.
Sounds like a bit of a palava.
"If you're thinking this all sounds a lot like what your iPhone does already, you're right. Apple's "Find My iPhone, iPad, and Mac" service has provided these and other capabilities since 2010."
Actually I was reminded of the fact that Windows Mobile did this a year earlier than iOS
"The original iPhone was an incomplete product, but what it did it did pretty well. It was the first mobile phone I've used with a really good mobile web browser "
There in lies the problem. Because your first experience of something was on an iPhone it doesn't follow that Apple innovated first. The excellent tabbed Opera browser on WM predates the iPhone and could be used on phones with 3G.
Your suggestion that the continued sales of iPhones is proof that Apple were right to omit MMS is flawed, given that many of those early missing features were added later.
Each of the Windows Mobile phones t hat I had was supplied with a stylus but with the larger screened units I had no need for it. In 2007 HTC developed touchFlo which helped to make the stylus redundant for many tasks.
On the smaller screens the stylus approach had the advantage of allowing more icons/tapable areas than the capacitive finger model. Rather than using a stylus I )like many others) used my finger nail rather than a stylus.
Not sure I understand why your friend could not hold a phone with one hand, use it with the other and walk at the same time.
My first touchscreen phone had a 3.5" screen back in 2004. When Apple invented the wheel/phone/whatever in 2007 I had a 5" touchscreen phone (which also had all of those things that apple decided phones don't need like GPS and 3G, 3rd party apps etc). Mind you, given the cost of my phone, the iPhone would have been a lower budget phone (comparatively).
Personally... I was born old.
Ahhh... belkin- one of the few firms to offer lifetime warranties.
Apple- one of the few firms that try to charge you extra for your statutory rights.
Just out of interest, does anyone know why so many double insulated products have no earth lead. I appreciate that the item doesn't need earthing but what about the lead itself? Is it a cost thing?
Indeed. In fact in one sentence they used two differing definitions of the word virus (proper and malware) to hoodwink their customers.
Until recently they claimed that OSX's built in "defences" kept you safe, until a complaint from the ASA (post flashback) forced them to drop absolutes such as "safe" in favour of implied terms such as "safer".
Mind you what do you expect of the firm that told the courts that prior to the iPhone, all phones had small screens and keyboards...
"If he's white hat, why exactly did he grab details from 100,000 users? Shouldn't the 73 Apple employees be more than good enough to demonstrate to Apple that he had found some real vulnerabilities that needed immediate attention. This raises a huge red flag to me, and obviously to Apple as well."
Perhaps he used the 100,000 to determine which were Apple employees.
If he wanted to blackmail Apple why would he have pointed out the bugs to them- prior to going further?
You are correct that Apple had to pull the plug but this would have had to happened regardless and should have happened when they were first notified. I appreciate it takes a while to verify bug reports but increasingly these firms are too arrogant to believe that they are anything less than perfect.
According to http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/07/22/researcher-claims-he-told-apple-of-developer-center-vulnerability-but-didnt-maliciously-steal-data/
a white hat hacker, Ibrahim Balic, "hacked" the site to prove his recently discovered vulnerabilities to Apple. 4 hours after he notified them the plug was pulled.
It looks as though Apple were unaware of the breach until he told them. Which begs the question, how can they be sure that they haven't previously been compromised?
"The wheel fell of my car after 7 years and Toyota refused to fix it.
You see what I did there?"
UK customers have the legal right to expect products to last up to 6 years, apple try to convince them that they only have one year so that they can sell them a limited insurance policy.
You see what I did there?
The Vaio 13 is £500 more expensive. Not it ain't.
the Pro13 is cheaper than the Air 13.
the top of the range Duo 13 is £290 more expensive but includes the better touchscreen, NFC, GPS etc.
btw Sony charge £40 for 4gb of extra RAM, apple charge £80, both use the same LPDDR3...
no idea where you got the battery life figures from, appleinsider?
You are criticizing the older Duo 11 and not the Duo 13. Sony seem to have addressed your concerns.
Regardless, the pro and duo have been used as examples to discount the Devotees' claim that Apple are the only people capable of producing decent units. Other examples will be released by others in due course.
the fact remains that apple have not done anything magical. They took upper end components and pit them together. Indeed they also decided to sacrifice screen quality for battery life, in most quarters that would be seem as a compromise. Pah, who needs a high resolution on an ultraportable when you can tether it to a bigger screen? It does leave one wondering why the smaller iPad needs a high def screen though, or why the same sized MBP needs retina.
"Apple haters keep claiming that Apple devices are expensive. Point out that, for an equivalent specification alternative, you are paying at least comparable money and they go deaf. Ask them to show you a better device for less money and its either more expensive or compromised in one way or another."
i7, 8Gb RAM, 512BG PCIe SSD
Air 13" = £1,579.00
Vaio Pro 13" = £ 1,398.98 (with superior screen and NFC, WIDI etc)
Opps, silly me the Pro has an inferior battery life, lets add the sheet battery so that we can out do the Air
Vaio Pro 13" plus battery = £ 1,478.99.
Still weighs the same as the Air and is £100 cheaper but we have added a few mm to the thickness. Can I hear someone screaming compromise?
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