Posts by Jess 1239 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jul 2007
Since Tizen, sailfish, firefox, ubuntu and android are all linux they would all be able to use the same or at least similar drivers, surely?
Presumably android would become a premium option due to the Microsoft patents, (unless there were a cut down option too)
If the version is too old, then you have to be careful the convertors are installed. (doesn't happen by default).
In my experience it isn't always perfect. In fact (with most files), openoffice does as good a job as the wrong office.
Is it common knowledge that word and powerpoint 97 can use the office 2007 compatibility pack? (excel doesn't work before 2003 sp3) (Never tried 95)
Please explain.
Does 8.1 address the horrible jarring jumping to full screen issues? (That is the show stopper, though I think non-techies don't like the loss of the start MENU, anyone who remembers Win 3.1 and DOS can handle that)
As far I am aware, the changes are that it allows you to start on the desktop and replacing the hot corner thing with a button.
But it is the *same* core. If it weren't, then security bugs would not affect XP and later versions.
And that were that the case, dropping support would be far less of a problem, because if a patch came out for a bug in Windows Vista-8 the same vulnerability would not exist in XP and cyber criminals would not effectively be given information for breaking into XP.
OS X was released about the same time as XP, and it is on the 10th version. I know of users of 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and 10.8. If all the users are as spread out amongst the versions as those I know, then it will be spread out to insignificance, when you are differentiating on point versions. (Linux has no chance at all with such measurements)
They do?
I prefer the windows 2000 interface. (My favorite interface is the RISC OS one)
Windows 8 with classic shell and everything that jumps to full screen removed, would seem to be a quite acceptable system. However, when Microsoft were offering it at a sensible price the horrid interface seemed intrinsic, so I didn't buy, and so I have prepared a Linux Mint Boot drive for my PC.
I refuse to purchase from any websites that require javascript, let alone Java. (though if they have a non premium rate sales line, I might use that.)
I do quite often let them know, if they have an email address, and one ticket site actually fixed the problems, so they won't lose further business from me. (The problem was actually with the card authentication, so I guess they moaned that they were losing custom.)
Doesn't look good compared to over 100 million the year before anyone talked about throwing their existing popular system and it's planned phased replacement in the bin.
I suspect the profit per unit was better then, too.
I also suspect that a fair chunk of the cheaper sales are at the expense of S40 feature phones. My parents almost got talked into getting a pair to replace their S40s.
Apart from the lack of a physical keyboard (a showstopper for me personally) and a reduced battery life, I don't think anyone could seriously say they were inferior to a featurephone.
I suspect this is the market Microsoft will go for. Replace the Ashas with dirt cheap windows phones. (Maybe keeping the name, if it comes in the deal).
The only real fly in the ointment would be if someone brings out a similar priced range with keyboards.
looking at the figures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone#By_operating_system
It looks to me like Symbian was doing quite well (even though Android was growing much faster). It was growing the couple of years before the platform burning, and even that took quite a while to kill all its sales.
As far as I can tell, Android (mainly Samsung) took most of the lost Symbian market, (of the N8 users I know, I still has it, 2 now have Samsungs and 1 has a Sony, admittedly too small to be very representative, but it fits in with these figures.)
If Microsoft got 200 million extra Android royalties of $5, then their investment has broken even. Looking at the figures, they could easily have gone well past past that. (And that is ignoring any brownie points they got from the NSA for removing a non American controlled smartphone platform from the world, and majorly setting back its planned successor).
And then they get to buy Nokia's phone division at a knock down price. (Taking over another previously non American owned phone platform).
I think the Nokia situation is a big win for Microsoft. (Not as big a win as if the Windows phones actually sold as well as Symbian did, of course.) The losers are of course Nokia (self inflicted I think), all the Symbian and Meego users, and Microsoft's corporate ego (which will be crying all the way to the bank).
It's all back now.
Prevented me making a couple of calls, so I used email.
Cut off from the world on the train, so I watched a video.
Made me realise exactly how crap "The Cloud" wifi STILL is.
Why does a hotspot network need you to log in more than once (per device)?
If McDonald's can get it right....
I can learn new things, but if they are inferior, I want to be able to revert.
'modern' (if modern is the poorest end of the choice in 1990) interface is bloody awful. Things jumping to full screen is horrible.
Example. click on a music file.
Result - a black screen with a triangle in the middle. (fine on a touchscreen that can be held in one hand.)
The last time I remember behavior like that would be on a 386 running GEM in the early 90s, but in that case it was a step forward from running everything full screen.
All this metro stuff would be fine if it worked in a window on the desktop. (Even DOS apps could do that on a windows desktop back in the early 90s)
It would be such an easy design fix.
Microsoft deserve all the lost sales (more even) by being so stupid.
Requiring 3rd party apps to make a NEW system as usable as the old one, then blackmailing people into migration; not acceptable.
(I use the term blackmail, because fixing decades old bugs in newer versions, and not XP is little else.)
I would agree. The Q5 is excellent, I'm very pleased I bought it.
There are still enough BB7 owners who will love BB10 to recover. (Now the price is right).
Of course they'd not be in the dodgy situation, had they handled the launch better.
They should have started with a device like the Q5 that could dual boot to BB7 or 10.
I think resistant is probably more accurate.
I think a properly controlled corporate device would be pretty hard for them to access, I would think an out of the box device would also be hard to get into, but once apps have been installed all bets are off.
Obviously Skype, Facebook, whatsapp, googletalk etc, would give them a level of surveillance, just from the service end and since they are American owned, what is to stop the NSA ordering one of the companies to issue you a trojan update? (I use all of these on my Q5, but were I a CEO or in a position of similar sensitivity, I wouldn't)
But obviously the situation is much better (or worse from the NSA's POV) than where the OS is controlled by an American company, they can just order a trojan update targeted at any person of interest. (And that is assuming they've not required a backdoor shipped in all versions.
There won't *need* to be a new format.
It is quite possible to compress a 1080 movie to about 2GB and still have a good picture. 4 times this would still fit on a dual layer DVD. Even a single layer BD would allow far lower levels of compression and decent audio.
(Of course what you say will probably turn out to be true for commercially released formats.)
I have just got a Q5 and it's a great phone (mostly, there are a few places it lacks polish, such as the email editor, it's vile, a step back from the OS 5 version which was usable). Much better overall than the old clunky OS 5 and 6 phones I had previously.
I still see BlackBerrys everywhere, if they can retain those users when they buy their phones, they should be OK.
I think an Android app compatible phone, which is not directly subject to American surveillance, should have a good future. (All other current smart phone systems are from American companies, which are subject to American law and hence to having to comply with the NSA).
However BlackBerry have made a few stupid mistakes.
Promising BB10 on the playbook and then dropping it. (If I hadn't got an insurance payout on my 9700, that would have been enough to stop me getting a new BB)
Making BB10 incompatible with the older server systems, and not making BB10/BB7 dual boot devices available.
Taking so long to get BB10 out of the door.
And I think they were a bit slow getting BBM working on other platforms, and since the multi-platform release, there have been serious issues trying to add contacts.
So what you are saying is if you install some third party software, and don't use any of the new metro stuff, then it is a good system.
But isn't that the generally accepted wisdom? (Certainly agrees with my observations).
But, without those tweaks it is a hideous pile of kak (on a single screen machine).
While it is possible (without 3rd party software) to remove all the hideous, jarring jumping to full scree garbage (which may have been an acceptable behavior in 1993) and be left with a system that is simple to use for anyone familiar with the dos/win 3.1interface, this is not going to be acceptable to many users.
Installing a third party piece of software just to make the system useable is not acceptable in many situations, hence the roll out of windows 7 in many situations.
Personally, I'd prefer a metroless Windows 8 (without the start menu) to windows 7, both for support and use, but that won't happen, so the "dated and cheesy" windows 7 is being rolled out all over the place.
And this is all down to Microsoft's idiocy/stubbornness. It would be so simple for them to fix.
Which is American owned. So if the NSA wants a look round a device, it can. (The same will be true of iOS and android phones of course).
At least RIM is Canadian.
And I just got a Q5, rather nice, apart from a few features yet to make it from the old system.
Problems with the Surface.
You really want an ARM chip in a tablet, I just decided against a Fonepad, the x86 chip was a big factor.
But you really need and x86 for windows. (Especially when the tablet uses a different OS to the phones)
The Windows 8 concept would seem to make sense if the configuration were tablet in place of a keyboard, with a second normal screen at eye level for desktop programs. (Or a giant Nintendo DS) however it isn't offered like this.
General users buy tablets because they want a simple to use computer without the expense and aggravation of Windows, rather than because they like the form.
If, as I would think likely, some of the development of meego took place on N8 type devices, then perhaps it's possible.
But it certainly demonstrates the strength of open source. The contemporary Windows 7 Nokia devices won't be seeing a new operating system, 7.x is all they will ever do, (and the same may prove true of windows 8 devices).
If they want to get an instant user base, perhaps they should produce a Pi version.
Since Nokia developed this system, I would think it likely that some of the dev would have been done on N8 type devices, so a version for N8 would be a sensible idea, because there are loads out there in second hand shops, and support is being dropped prematurely by Nokia.
(It would be amusing if they also mad it available for iDevices that are dropped by iOS 7)
Users of feature phones typically won't use many (or even any) apps, beyond some of what is built in.
So therefore they have no tie (other than experience of how operate the thing) to any platform.
So lack of Apps and lack of compatibility between versions of WP and lack of certainty of support, which would be show stoppers to most smartphone users, are not an issue.
If the price is right, then the only real thing is battery life.
> The IPad does not make sense
The point you miss is that the iPad used the same OS as the iPhone.
The iPad was NEVER a risk to anyone who purchased one. If it was a flop and became a niche product, it didn't matter, because it would still run iPhone softare.
The iPhone didn't start as a smart phone, but as an iPod music player that could also make phone calls. It was several revisions before it became a smart phone.
If RT is a flop, you are left with a web browser. It does not run WP software. Even if it did WP isn't really much of a success.
I have to tell anyone I want to video conference with to go here and install this version:
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA12252/why-can-t-i-make-video-calls-on-the-latest-version-of-skype-for-windows-desktop
(Note the on page information is incorrect, it says "we’ve created a special version of Skype for Windows desktop that will allow you to continue making video calls on older PCs." the truth is it allows video calls TO older versions of Skype.
Seems sticking to older versions, may be a solution to this issue too.
... they could make a free Mavericks lite (x86 only) to run on old PCs (and of course the macs with the wrong architecture) with the proviso that it is for demonstration only (but not restricted artificially) and not to be considered a full production system.
That would give the hackintosh crew a limited way out.
