* Posts by Ryan Clark

97 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Nov 2007

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Nokia uncloaks Lumia 620: A 'budget' $249 Windows 8 mobe

Ryan Clark

Why can't they get all features I want in one phone. This one lacks wireless charging as does the Samsung, the other Nokias lack SD expandability. I am actually getting to like my current Nokia 710 after initially missing my HD7 pro. I still want a phone with a keyboard though and no-one appears to be doing them for WP8 (I don't get a choice on OS)

Nokia HERE iOS maps app review

Ryan Clark

Re: Lost me at pinch to zoom

This one?

"Place your fingers either side of a street to zoom in on it and you’ll find that as you zoom, the street moves off-screen, because the focus is on the centre point of the screen when you start zooming"

I don't know why you would not have the area you want to zoom on centre screen anyway. How are you going to put your fingers either side of an area if it is at the edge of the screen? Not sure I would ever notice it, I couldn't have told you how how Nokia Maps worked on my windows phone until I checked after reading this.

Sony surges past 70 million PlayStation 3 sales

Ryan Clark

Our PS3 get used as a DVD/ blu-ray player most of the time. I bought a Wii first and if it was a DVD player I never would have bought the PS3, which has never been used for gaming but does get used for media streaming. I see Nintendo are going to repeat this mistage with the Wii U

Samsung, not Nokia, fans' most favoured WinPho brand

Ryan Clark

The Samsung immediately attracts me as it is the only windows phone with a card slot. I would like something with a keyboard though like my departed HTC 7pro, I am not overly impressed with my current (and hopefully temporary) Lumia 710.

Register SPB hacks mull chopping off feet

Ryan Clark

Yes please

and lose dpi when talking about resolution.

Nokia pumps up Lumia browsing with Xpress

Ryan Clark

Re: Why aren't others doing this?

Having just moved from an HTC windows phone to a Nokia one, I would rather have the HTC collection. Only drive seems a worthwile addition.

Even slimmer PS3 out next week

Ryan Clark

Is it quieter

I only really use our PS3 as a media player, the one downside is the very noisy constantly running fan. Does flash storage mean less heat and less fan?

iPhone 5 wait drives record Samsung smartphone sales

Ryan Clark

Confused

I know quite a few people with iPhones, I don't know one who is waiting for the 5. Everyone I know who has a new phone has a droid one.

Windows Phone 8: What Nokia and Microsoft must do

Ryan Clark

WP user

I have had an HTC WP for 18 months and I hate the search button too. I would also like a quick way to turn off sounds and vibrations (there might be something I am missing there though), and it needs much more storage capacity or ideally SD card expandability, but overall it is the best phone I have had.

This was a work phone and we are just about to change again, I hope there is a WP8 phone with a sliding keyboard as I have now and have had several phones in that format.

Freeview EPG revamp set for September

Ryan Clark

Re: Good...

The most missed function from the old virgin service. I really wish I could still move the channels around on v+

Can neighbours grab your sensitive package, asks Post Office

Ryan Clark
Facepalm

?

I don't have a problem with my neighbours, but as I work at home and available to recieve packages the point is moot. I do have a problem with my postie putting stuff in one of the bins when he thinks no-one is home. Problem is the bin is not ours and is on our neighbours drive. They don't know anything is there and keep piling in the rubbish.

Five ways Microsoft can rescue Windows Phone

Ryan Clark

"Where's the Windows Phone Communicator - with a clamshell or slide-out keyboard?" - I have an HD7 pro with slide out keyboard which works great thanks.

@dogger - It does truncate text, I noticed last week when looking through my "people" it truncated one name so neatly with the edge of the "whats new" screen, it looked like a different name which I didn't recognise as someone I knew.

The home screen is an awful waste of space as is the apps list. I don't like either of them.

I don't get if it is business device why have Facebook integration at all? I could do without that and why if you make an office hub and connections to Sharepoint available, why can't I save my files direct to Sharepoint? Only phone or skydrive. Just being able to open them is of limited use as I actually create files on the phone too.

From a general system perspective, as a technical user, I still think it is hamstrung in the same way as iOS is and I would much rather use my wife's Android phone for a some things.

Still it does a lot of things very well and is on par with Android and iOS but hardly anyone else appears to be using it. As MS gold partners, the company made a decision to give them a good try and they don't really disappoint.

Lindy wireless extender and projection server

Ryan Clark
Thumb Down

I was hoping for that price that the projector was built in, that would be good.

iPad typos are Apple's fault, not yours - new claim

Ryan Clark

"British schools don't teach typing any more. They stopped when typing pools disappeared – which was ironically just in time for the generation who most require the ability to be denied it – so the majority of computer users can't type properly at all"

First course we did in the computer lab at school was touch typing on our BBC model B machines. Probably the most useful thing I learnt at school, although I am still not what would be classed as a typist.

Bah, humbug! Virgin Media censors Charles D**kens

Ryan Clark

I noticed that Hancock was censored on 5HD but not on normal channel5 (or maybe the other way around) on the EPG. I did wonder why

Regulator reckons telly advert caps are just peachy

Ryan Clark

They do that in a lot of US sports. The NBA has TV timeouts in the 4th quarter. The NFL doesn't need any as it has about 1,000 breaks including one straight after every kick off or punt.

Airbus brews Scandium smackdown for carbon Dreamliner

Ryan Clark

Bikes

It would interesting to know who your bike manufacturer is, as most to of the line expensive bike frames are carbon. All the frames that the professionals are riding these days are all carbon tubes. Alu frames are very much last century. Weight and design options are great for bikes in carbon (no need to use straight, round tubes) which mean the manufacturers can have a product differentiator. Obviously stresses on bike frames are bit less than an airliner.

Updating to Windows Phone 7.5

Ryan Clark

Mine worked without issue although the 2nd update to actually go to mango takes quite a while. Having to plug into a computer to use zune for so many tasks is really annoying all the time, not just when upgrading.

45% of Android users to upgrade to rival phone OSes

Ryan Clark

I have a windows phone (work supplied) and the wife has a desire s. Both HTC. I would stick with Android.

windows phone is more than acceptable, but has the same limitations that an iphone has, which would stop me buying either given the choice. Very impressed with the droid on HTC.

WinPho 7.5 captured in action

Ryan Clark

unlocking

My winpho7 does that all the time, don't think it will improve on Android.

Watching that video, I couldn't see anything different from nodo, there seems to be a lot of excitement about mango but I can't work out what it gives that I actually want.

Microsoft pushes Windows Phone Mango out to Japan

Ryan Clark

title

I have a winpho7 device (not through choice) and I am reasonably happy with it. None of updates in Mango seem like they will solve the issues I do have. Zune is rubbish and I still don't see why I have to use my PC to do tasks that I should be able to do direct from the phone.

Microsoft BPOS biz-cloud hit by another outage

Ryan Clark

Really?

We didn't have any problems yesterday and as the administrator for my companies BPOS, if there is an issue I usually get calls. Can't think when we last had a problem with email, OCO was off for a few hours a couple of weeks back but the system seems pretty reliable to me.

Motorola Milestone 3 no longer bound for Blighty

Ryan Clark
WTF?

Me too

I waited until there was a winpho7 phone with a keyboard before getting my new work phone (had to be winpho7). On my 3rd phone with a folding/ sliding keyboard now.

Never understood why you want to lose half the screen while typing to an onscreen keboard or halve the screen size by having a blackberry style phone.

Microsoft warns on support scams

Ryan Clark
WTF?

loads

Had loads of these calls in the last few months. Played a long with a few but getting very bored with them now. The "virus" on my machine was demonstrated by showing he knew what the CLISID for zfsendtotarget is .

BT most unhelpful in investigating whether they came from a single number and getting them stopped (wanted me to buy a premium service)

Nintendo: no DVD, BD playback for Wii U

Ryan Clark
Unhappy

Disappointed

I only bought a PS3 as it was a relatively cheap blu-ray player, I do use it for media streaming now, but had my original Wii played DVD's when my DVD player died I would never have bought the PS3 (which has never been used for gaming) as I didn't really, and still don't, need blu-ray but if I was buying a new player I thought it best to get it.

Thought they might get it right this time.

Psychology graduates remain poor for life, study shows

Ryan Clark
Meh

Not necessarily

I did a psychology degree, but like most of my peers the degree bears no relation to our current career. I did something that I wanted to do at uni and had 3 great years while there. Having the degree opened doors afterwards, the subject was largely irrelevant.

@AC - don't assume psychology students are stupid. I did OK at A level with 5, including Maths, Physics and Chemistry and went to my first choice uni. which required min of BBC.

Virgin Media TV Powered by TiVo

Ryan Clark
Unhappy

cost?

More than happy with v+ but would like more disk space with more and more HD channels coming on line. Don't see any particular advantage in the TiVo other than disk space and I don't want to increase the monthly payment again (already xl with 2nd box)

HTC Desire S Android smartphone

Ryan Clark
Gates Halo

double tap not apple only

my win phone does double tap zoom so it is not apple only.

Ryan Clark
WTF?

Button in the middle

Why do you want a camera button in the middle? Surely this means your hand has a greater chance of being in front of the screen which is your view finder. Near a corner makes far more sense and that is where it is on every camera I have owned.

Official: PS3 has more fanboys than the Xbox 360 does

Ryan Clark

No 360 here

We have a PS3 and a wii. PS3 is only used for blu-ray and media streaming, Wii doesn't see a lot of use.

I have young kids and know a lot of families in similar situations. Everyone has a Wii, a few have 360s, I only know 1 other person with a PS3. All the kids have a DS though.

Where I used to work there were a lot 360s where the guys would have Halo nights etc.

Nokia deal to 'rocket Windows Phone 7 past iPhone'

Ryan Clark

That Bad?

Why do you say WinMo7 is that bad. I have had one for a couple of weeks now and it is a vast improvement over anything else I have owned before. Not saying it is perfect, it has some issues, but I would have the same with an iPhone (fixed storage, having to use Zune/ iTunes), but as a device it seems work extremely well.

HTC Incredible S Android smartphone

Ryan Clark
Unhappy

windows fail

Has the things I wish my windows phone 7 had. DLNA and exandable memory, plus no need for Zune.

Windows Phone 7 gets cut'n'paste, other tweaks in update

Ryan Clark
Jobs Horns

But given how rarely one wants to use cut and paste on a phone this is probably not a big deal

As I actually use my phone to work on documents, I used to use cut and paste quite frequently on wm6.1.

I have had a htc 7 pro two weeks now and I am pretty happy so far with win7pho apart from no additional storage (8Gb is too small for a decent amount of music, let alone any videos) and having to use zune to sync. These seem like real steps backward and are the two parts of the iphone model I wish they hadn't copied.

Debian 6: Have your Debian and eat your Ubuntu too

Ryan Clark
Thumb Up

Liking it

Upgraded my server and laptop which run Debian last week. Laptop went fine and appears to be working nicely. Server didn't go quite as well, but that was mainly my fault for not upgrading the kernel first. Still use of a live Knoppix CD and all is running fine and dandy now. No problems with Apache after my upgrade.

What sealed Nokia's fate?

Ryan Clark
Thumb Down

eh

"Opinion here: that WP7 is really remarkably good already. If it wasn't called Microsoft Windows Phone 7, and had instead originated with a plucky startup more people would be able to appreciate it better."

Opinion in my company where we have several win7 phone users is that it is rubbish. Missing major functions, drops calls, crashes all the time. They all want different phones, I am thankful I held off being one of the first wave to get the new OS.

"And Apple had a bundled data plan, so trying it all out was risk-free."

As long as you consider signing up for a 2 year contract at ~£50 per month which you were tied to even if you didn't like the phone, risk free.

Ofcom explains the not in the not-spot

Ryan Clark
FAIL

Alleged coverage not the only issue

All the operators have our village as good 3G coverage. That doesn't mean it works though. Everyone who lives here knows that Orange, T-mobile and 3 don't work.

All hail Barbie Stalker Girl!

Ryan Clark

Younger girls

My 6 year old has Barbies, some hand me down, but people have bought her new ones too. She plays with dolls. I think she prefers watching the Barbie movies though which seem to be on Nick jr constantly.

3D films fall flat

Ryan Clark

only seen one

Went to see Toy Story 3 at the week-end. No problems with wearing the glasses even with a 5 year old with me and the wife, but both the adults thought that they were straining our eyes. Don't think 3D made much difference to the experience, the 3D adverts before the film were more effective. I also thought that picture quality was down in 3D. Watched Avatar at home on Blu-ray a couple weeks back, that was more visually stunning even in 2D.

Microsoft's Linux patent bingo hits Google's Android

Ryan Clark

Not New

James Watt was restricting competition using the steam engine patents hundreds of years ago. MS are using the old business model.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

Ryan Clark
Thumb Up

not bad, but not great

Just built one of these for one of our account managers. Nice little machine, but it did feel slow. Maybe I was expecting it to perform like a normal laptop given it had win7 on it.

I removed most of the thinkpad software, but did keep the connections app as that seemed quite useful. Having said that it refused to pick up a DHCP address on my n wireless network and was only happy with a fixed IP address. Possibly a windows issue, but I do already have 2 win7 laptops on this network which seem OK with DHCP.

Keyboard was nice to use, but I am still incredibly irritated by not having the ctrl button in the bottom left hand corner. Battery life seemed good, but I did not drain it. The default powersave mode also seemed very agressive.

Google says desktop PC is three years from 'irrelevance'

Ryan Clark

Hope it is true

Frankly that is what I would like. Rather than having multiple devices I would rather just use my phone. On the move it does as it does now. At a desk it wirelessly connects to a LAN, full keyboard and monitor. The only issue I would have is timescales. I can't see 3 years being realistic for the processing power on the phone to make this happen. Currently my phone has 32Gb in storage and my home laptop 50Gb so I don't see the amount of storage (for data you actually need to take with you and potentially use offline) being an issue.

Devolo dLan AVplus

Ryan Clark
Thumb Up

Better than wifi

I bought some netgear adaptors earlier this year which solved the problems I was having streaming to a PS3 over wifi. 11g just did not cut it. They have worked faultlessly so far, also ethernet port is on side rather than bottom which might be useful for some other posters. I also use them on multi-plugs and power bars and they still work fine. Not tested the speed, but as they work much better than the previous wifi route I attempted I am not bothered.

Windows 7 lessons - the must know before you buy

Ryan Clark
Unhappy

BSOD

Just got a BSOD on my win7 home laptop. Not seen one of those for a long tim.

Sharp intros 5in ARM-based netbook

Ryan Clark
Thumb Up

Nearly

I like this but with such small devices with limited internal storage capacity I think you need good wireless connections. I would like to see 802.11n and internal bluetooth. That and the screen maxed to fit the casing would make this a very good device, if the price is right

Vodafone emboldened by Orange's BlackBerry Bold woes

Ryan Clark
Thumb Down

coverage

Where I live I can't even get reliable orange coverage at all, despite living in the centre of england. Only Vodafone and o2 work here. There is also no orange signal at one of our largest clients so in the two places I am most likely to need to use my phone it doesn't work.

IT depts under threat as City braces for 20,000 job cuts

Ryan Clark

IT Investment

Surely if you want to try to maintain growth and profit with less staff you should be investing more in IT rather than less.

Virgin Media strategy boutique boss quits

Ryan Clark

Sky Channels - don't miss them

I thought I would being a big Simpsons fan and partial to the Stargate series too, however I haven't missed them at all. I have even seen the odd thing that I want to watch on Virgin one too.

I find it strange that this is viewed as a loss by VM. They told Sky they were too expensive and to cut their price. Sky didn't so VM dropped their channels. VM might have lost quite a few subscribers over it, but Sky would also have lost millions of viewers which would have meant that their advertising revenue would also have been affected. Sounds like a lose, lose situation really.

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