Re: Fingerprint sensor...
It's actually a sensor which tells you that there's a mark on your iphone and you need to clean it.
You fool - giving away such a stellar idea without patenting it!
Posts by Chairo
716 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Nov 2012
iPhone 5S and lower-cost sibling coming this summer?
Boffins implant almost-cellphone in the BRAIN
US lawmaker blames bicycle breath for global warming gas
Tuesday 5th March 2013 02:35 GMT 
This is it!
Finally they found a way to put a tax on breathing.
Next would be a tax cut for burger flippers for making their customers obese and immobile - thus binding a lot of carbon.
A tax on staircases might also be in order.
And what about these evil fitness centers?
Joke icon - for obvious reasons.
Microsoft finally ships Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7
US insurer punts 'bestiality' to wide-eyed kiddies, gasp 'mums'
Wednesday 27th February 2013 08:39 GMT
Remember that the US is only a bit smaller than Europe taken as a whole. Would the UK people here think it reasonable of me to accuse them of being rabid anti-semites because Hungary's foreign minister suggested that Jews should be identified and tracked as a danger to the state? Would Germans be pleased at being lumped in with France's ultranationalists? Are Finns and Swedes supposed to take responsibility for Greek financial profligacy and Italian chauvinism?
Yes, the Germans are lumped in with France's ultranationalists, the Finns and Swedes are supposed to take responsibility for our Greek and Italian friend's deeds, as is the rest of the EU in one way or another and we all suffer under whatever stupid statement the Hungarian foreign minister might or might not have uttered.
That is one of the reasons why the EU is not so popular at times...
Want to join the club? You know it all started with a free trade agreement...
Cheers!
Ad-titan Google blocks Adblock Plus in Android security tweak
Thursday 21st February 2013 05:49 GMT 
A question of ownership
The big issue these days is ownership of the OS. Be it Google, Apple or Microsoft. They all have their own interests and polices and their common goal is to separate us from our money in one way or another. It is old news that the best way to extort money from your customers is to set up a monopoly of some sort. As it is not legal to monopolize the market itself, (as IBM had to learn the hard way), they try to establish vertical monopolies by ownership of the OS and by controlling what software can be installed. This is the driving force behind the App shops. And it does not end here. The next step would be to control the installed media, too. You want to read a book? You want to listen to music? Only one shop to buy from? You don't like the price? Too bad, isn't it?
To be fair, Google seems to be the least extortionist of the big software vendors. They still allow you to install 3rd party software. Another hope is Canonical, but they might just still not be there. Their App store sure is, however.
Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER
Thursday 21st February 2013 02:06 GMT 
It wouldn't be the full MS experience
without a little pain, would it? I mean - a retarded user interface, file formats which change from version to version - special experiences are not cheap. Paying more just adds to the fun, so Microsoft is actually doing you a favor.
For everyone else - you still have the choice to move to any other free or commercial software package if you don't like Microsoft's terms.
Oh and one more thing - if you are a professional who needs the original Microsoft Office for whatever reason - you have the choice between two different pains - paying the Microsoft tax or living with slightly changing document stiles. And don't start whining around that your precious document does not look 100% identical when opened with something else than the real thing! If you do DTP with MS-Word you cannot be helped and anyway the next incarnation of MS-Office will most likely break your document, so stop whining around, please.
Canonical unveils fondleslab-friendly Ubuntu 'experience'
Bill Gates: Windows Phone strategy was 'a mistake'
Tuesday 19th February 2013 05:23 GMT 
Too late by a long shot
Could it be that customers just don't want to be locked in to a Microsoft app shop? Might that be the reason that Windows RT also fails to win our hearts?
Apple could get away with it because at the beginning they were seen as the good guy and later there were so many apps available that there still was the feeling to have some choice (albeit limited to Apples whims). And of course there was the "coolness factor" of buying Apple.
For Microsoft there is no such bonus. Their products were successful because they were relatively easy and open to use. WinCE might have been a pain in many aspects, but at least you could get a relatively decent choice of 3rd party software. The openness is now gradually being removed. First by more and more ridiculous activation schemes and now, finally, with a closed app shop that seems to be nothing else than a blatant try to monopolize the market.
It might have even worked had Apple not shown to dog and the world what consequences such a lock-in has. Who would buy in such a scheme now?
What is scary is that Microsoft still might have the power to enforce their lock-in on the desktop. They just need to remove the classic desktop and only allow Metro apps - just like on RT.
As for phones - no way their strategy will work. It's too late for that.
Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus phones to arrive in February
Android gets tipsy on Wine, runs WINDOWS apps
Tuesday 5th February 2013 07:35 GMT 
WinCE anyone?
I for my part have still one or two WinCE apps I bought a long time ago and would be happy to use under Android.
No need for CPU emulation then. I wonder how closely related the WinCE API was to the Win32 API...
As for running ancient x86 software - you can already do that. Just install the dosbox emulator and a Windows 3.x. Even win95 or one of its later incarnations would probably run fairly well. In that case you would need a Windows license, of course.
WTF is... Weightless?
It's official: Mac users are morally superior to Windows users
Samsung printers have secret admin account
Microsoft patents spy-TV to check you've paid for content
Thursday 8th November 2012 10:15 GMT 
I see hours of entertainment ahead
For the bad guys at least. The camera forcibly on all the time, watching every move in your living room and no way to turn it off.
A whole new business field for bot herders. Especially if people are watching the late night program.
I suppose they will feed the stream right back to a server.
iPhone 5 imperilled by Sharp's 'huge' problems with tellies
Friday 2nd November 2012 10:38 GMT 
To buy in, would make a lot of sense for Apple IMHO.
Sharp and Apple both have a very similar brand strategy by selling high priced (erm - premium) products with a focus on design and technology.
It would:
- give them a foot in the telly market they tried so often to get in with little success.
- give Sharp a chance to refocus and restructure and perhaps a nice logo to stick on some of their products.
- they would be hero of the day in Japan for saving Sharp of being taken over by Taiwanese or (god beware!) Koreans. Renault and Carlos Ghozn are still held in very high regard here for saving Nissan some years back.
- give Apple a lot of key technology and enough patents to give Samsung et al. a serious headache and strengthen them against your usual patent troll.
Also I see little risk of Japanese engineers flocking away from Sharp because of Apple taking over. Apple has quite a good reputation here in Japan and the alternatives - to get a Chinese or Korean boss - are certainly less appealing to most Japanese.
All in all I would say a clear win-win for both of them. Now the question is - will Apple have the guts to do it?
Anyone taking bets?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
