Posts by Xyra

Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return

Re: Sounds nice

You can get an Huawei Honor 9 for 299. Gets pretty fantastic reviews from what I've seen. Very tempted by one myself.

Computers shouldn't smoke. Cigarettes aren't healthy for anyone

Been there...

I had a very similar one in an office we relocated for a customer about 10 years ago.

We removed the server that had been sitting in the corner of an office with 6 chain smokers and running for at least 3 years (it was there when we started supporting them, no idea how long before that).

When we opened it up the whole of the bottom of the case up to the first hard disc bay (roughly 10") was full of stinky nicotine dust. Amazingly the server was still running flawlessly and never had an issue until we upgraded it with a new system a while later.

I wish I had a photo of the mist it produced when it was hit with air dusters (After removing the bulk by hand)

The pachyderm punch: El Reg takes just-over-a-ton Elephone P8000 to tusk

Re: It’s easier to list what you do get rather than what’s missing.

I would suggest it is also a support thing.

Rightly or wrongly due to this a lot (most?) apps might assume they are given the access they ask for and might well throw massive crash tantrums if they try to access something they are blocked from.

For a smaller, more niche product not so much an issue (I would imagine a large proportion of the buyers of these, at least in the UK, will be somewhat technical). But when selling to world+dog who expect things to "just work" it might produce huge amounts of support baggage when people start randomly flicking things on and off...

Wileyfox Swift: Brit startup budget 'droid is the mutt's nuts

Arg, and I bought my wife the Huawei Honor 4X less than a week ago... (£119 after discount on their own website)

Sony's 4King with us now: Xperia Z5 mobe has UltraHD screen, cam

I like the idea of the high DPI screen. I realise I am probably in a small group of people, but I use systems like Google cardboard heavily for work and my current Z2 with 1080P screen still has a lot of "screen door" grid lines, which a 4K screen would improve on drastically.

Tesla says Model 3 is still on schedule, despite being delayed again

Re: Out of curiosity ...

I'm sure I read somewhere that car lithium batteries are >98% recyclable.

BBC, ITV gang up on YouView with 'FreeView Connect'

A shame, I like YouView

It would be terrible shame if ongoing development stopped for YouView. I'm one of the few who have actually bought a YouView box directly (albeit BT branded but otherwise almost identical to the Humax box. Bought from currys on offer for £150ish quid whereas the humax brand sat next to it was well over £200.)

I don't have BT or TalkTalk or NowTV so can't comment on how good those are, but the free-to-air stuff is great.

I find it very reliable, good quality (although SD output sometimes is not quite on par with my previous box). The recording timings have been bang on and never had one missed. The UI is quite nice although sometimes less than instant (probably due to pulling everything over the internet as you rather than pre-caching). It would be nice if there were more pluginable channels (Roku style) but otherwise I would highly recommend it.

It's far far better than our previous boxes and has just worked flawlessly since we got it just after Christmas. The android app which allows you to set recordings remotely is handy as well (don't know if any competitors offer that?)

Intel to shutter AppUp app store

Re: Intel crudware creep

To late I'm afraid, they've already announced it: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/07/intel_ditches_mcafee_brand/

"Intel Security"

Stylus counsel: The rise and fall of the Apple Newton MessagePad

Re: It just didnt quite fit in your pocket

Much like a small netbook. Or even a transformer tablet?

Auntie touts e-babysitting ... and no £15,000 in-app purchase shocks

Re: Flash?

We've found the iPad guided access in iOS6 to be a godsend for this. Allows you to lock the iPad to the app running (pin to unlock) but more importantly you can draw boxes on areas of the screen which then ignore presses - stops all the accidental advert presses!

There she blows! Mid-October release date for Windows 8.1 sighted

I might be in the minority here, but I rather like Windows 8, even the start screen (from what I've seem in the comments, I might be the only person on the planet who likes it :).

Plus my Win8 laptop is lot more stable than any of the Macs and Win 7 systems where I work.

Yes there are a few minor issues, but in general I'm a fan (and I'm on a "traditional" laptop, no fancy rotating touch screens). Quite looking forward to seeing the end result of the "consolidation" in 8.1.

Fanbois smash iPhone 5s much sooner than iPhone 3s ... but WHY?

Re: Hm

Only phones I've ever broken was a Nokia - Samsung, Motorola's, iPhones, SonyEriccsons, HTC all lasted fine. I smashed the screen on my N95 - was very easy to replace it though, just a few small screws I doubt the other brands would have been as easy to fix.