Posts by Charlie Clark

Re: 2,400+

Not quite sure if business people will be crying out for these but the foldable form factor does have a lot to recommend it. And lots of teething problems to overcome as well, no doubt. But I can easily imagine foldables becoming the norm in a couple of years.

No doubt the screen is very expensive, which is also why a decent eink ereader is up to x4 price of a more complex smartphone.

Here the screen and hinge is no doubt expensive because complex. E-ink screens aren't complex but they're produced in much lower volumes which means a higher marginal cost so you can't really use them for a comparison.

Re: Who is watching movies on their phone?

Much as I love AMOLED screens, the optics (in the physical sense) are still against using a phone for this. Much better getting a cheapo tablet so that you can keep the viewing angle while increasing the distance and, hence, increasing the focal point as you don't want to have to spend a lot of time looking at stuff close the focal point of your eyes, especially self-iluminating screens.

Re: "small number"

Well, fortunately, within the EU and California at least, this kind of thing is much easier to take up in the courts with refusing to disclose the extent of any breach now part of the offence.

IIRC OS/2 was kept on cash machines well past EOL because it had so few crashes: below Presentation Manager it was a very flexible and robust OS.

Re: URL Shortener

Does anyone want to try to convince me that the use of URL shorteners

No, they've long been classed as a risK because they: leak information; allow tracking; are good way to insert malware here.

But numpties who try and use Twitter for customer service deserve all the shit they get!

good value at the price they're sold at

Heh? Since when have McDonalds carbohydate bombs ever been "good value" when compared with other fast food? Fish and chips is definitely tastier, more filling and healthier.

taste pretty good

Can you taste anything beyond sugar, stodge and fat? The beef itself is fine but the rest (and this applies to most burger & relish combinations) is really just a DIY diabetes type II kit.

Right, I was also not pretending that the current system is perfect. But if you cannot update certificates on embedded devices, what hope have you re. passwords, software exploits.

At least it's a common thing in TV thrillers and in some high profile missing persons cases.

Re: Corruption

that the entire United States' ethics has collapsed due to corruption

What are these ethics you're talking about? American politics were corrupt before independence and continued being so afterwards and then they discovered manifest destiny, which can be used to justify any form of exploitation and made greed the national religion.

Re: Brexit note?

Apart from the expense, I think Johnson is keen on burying the whole thing as quickly as possible now that he has another dragon to slay. Now that the UK has left the EU it's no longer got a scapegoat to blame if things don't go well so the script has to be changed.

Re: Newton - MessagePad

And even then handwriting recognition was too slow which is why Palm used a simplified and stylised alphabet.

As the article tries to say: you don't need to do anything in order to receive the notifications and the only way to disable it is to replace the ROM.

Re: ISP should be treated differently

I guess you didn't know that scanning and storing the addresses on envelopes has been standard practice in many countries for years.

Re: I've said it before...

You're being a revisionist.

The BlackBerry was a PDA and a phone and was wildly popular as a result. There were other PDA phone combinations before the smartphone, going all the way back to the Nokia Communicator.

Apple's packaging of a startingly uncapable device as a luxury item with exclusive deals with networks was definitely an innovation and one the networks were happy to go with: 3G had until then been a bit of a flop because it was overpriced with little utility. Networks were desperate not to be seen as "data pipes" and, therefore, focussed on trying to offer products of marginal utility at premium prices (MMS, video calls) to justify the bandwidth charges.

The smartphone did, however, essentially end the competing war of mobile phone transport standards with the GSMA's 3G and later 4G carrying all before it. It was okay for the first I-Phone to be EDGE only in the US because Verizon had CDMA, but sales outside America required 3G and once Apple had got a foothold, it was willing and very able to dictate terms. So goodbye CDMA, IDEN and WiMax.

Re: Something's missing in the Top 10s

This is a result of the methodology. There are already services, such as <a href="https://libraries.io/>Libraries.io</a> that will calculate library dependencies and watch them for security updates and you can only sensibly do this on a component/application basis.

Re: Don't let the swamp dry out

Cronyism has often dogged the US presidency. But then again it has also always dogged Congress: support for an election campaign in return for favours done, or favours promised from local sheriff or judge all the way up to the Senate is the American Way™.

Re: This Man is Genius

You seem to forget that he had a headstart by inheriting a fortune. In another world he'd probably make it to one of Saul Goodman's lackeys at most.

Re: Company Vs Personal

This is Larry's personal pleasure, though the US Supreme Court did make a landmark decision a few years ago that effectively took the lid of donations to political campaigns. Meaning that the US political system is essentially a plutocracy and most US citizens seem happy with this. Lots of individuals, companies and lobbying organisations now regularly give to all (both) parties to make sure they get the legislation they wanted. Silicon Valley types are now for giving to the Democrats but you didn't see many of them complaining about Trump's cuts in corporation tax…

Re: Powered what?

I've been using Bluetooth headphones for over a decade, particularly when cycling for navigation: the phone is on the handlebars so think of the chaos if I'm physically connect to it.

I've got a dodgy contact with my Jabra sport (excellent battery life) so can only hear on one ear. Just got some Sony ones with external drivers which are much better at handling ambient noise which makes things safer: the sound gets dialled down when there are external noises.

Re: Why this form factor?

Then it's not for you; it's not for me either, though my pockets haven't grown. But you should watch how other people react to it. For many, particularly women, a more compact phone that will fit into a small bag is desirable. I've only seen a couple of non-tech previews but the compact nature did seem to impress a lot of people and the folding away will probably mean fewer smashed screens. This has to be balanced with the unknown wear and tear of the folding screen.

Re: Windows versioning

As it's supposed to be a rolling release OS it was a deliberate decision not to have update names like SP1 and so that have been used in the past: you will install the update. Unless, like on one of the systems my customers have, for some reason you can't.

I can understand why they do this: most people really don't care what particular flavour of Windows they have so I think the downside on the brand probably wasn't that important. Ask people what version of the OS they have on their phone and most will neither nor care. But Microsoft's execution of this approach has repeatedly been lacking.

The whole point of the Huawei ban is to apply pressure on the Chinese government in trade negotiations. Trump, and all his little demons, think the only way to win is to play hardball.