Posts by Geoff Campbell

Re: Upgrades

"*sigh* just because you can tinker with your PC and put the latest version of Windows on there doesn't mean the average punter on the street can or wants the hassle of doing it."

It's a computer that can make and receive phone calls, not a phone. You want a phone, get a 6310i, it does the job *much* better. As it's a computer, the OS is upgradeable.

Yes, not everyone will want to do this. But the option is there if you want to take control and step out of what you see as a problematic situation.

GJC

Re: No profit for Apple?

You'd think not, wouldn't you?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/4272628

GJC

Re: Can anyone....

This doesn't help you at all, but this is why any MP3 player I buy must be able to accept content using a simple drag n' drop.

GJC

Re: Screen advantages

The new screen is indeed thinner, but I don't think that was the driver.

Tim Cook is noted as being a wizard production process man, and has been credited with a lot of the advances Apple has made in how they build their stuff. The new screen has, as you say, the touchscreen sensors built in, eliminating an apparently tricky and occasionally failure-prone process of sticking the touchscreen to the glass front.

I suspect the reduction in thickness was just a useful byproduct.

GJC

Re: @AC 07:41 Cradles

Cables? Well, yes, I do occasionally need to plug it into a USB cable for charging, until the inductive charging pad is released for it this month. Then I won't have to bother.

GJC

Re: This is actually quite good for the UK power wise.

About 25 m/s, or 50mph, IIRC for my little self-furling 1.4kW unit. Probably about the same for the big buggers.

GJC

Re: @Alfred

I'm so glad someone is reading what I write.

GJC

Thread measurement system is not relevant

There are coarse and fine threads in metric just as much as in imperial systems.

GJC

Re: I cannot let this pass.

Ah, well, if you don't want to think, there's not a lot I can do to help you. Pretty much everyone who has tried this has loved it, for the record.

GJC

Re: @Matt

Quite likely, which is why I said "Several"

GJC

PC BIOS

Ah, how the memories fade, apparently.

The IBM PC BIOS was locked down to such an extent that one could buy the IBM PC XT Technical Reference manual that contained, in an appendix, a complete source code listing of the BIOS for the machine.

Compaq were clever enough to ignore that, and do a clean-room re-engineering based just on the documented API. Come to think of it, I wonder why that wasn't quoted as precedent in the Oracle API case recently? I'm fairly sure that the Compaq implementation was the subject of a court case at one stage.

GJC

Re: Who the hell is Beck?

Oh, fair point - I do now recall the Futurama reference. I thought exactly the same when I watched that episode, too.

I suppose some research is in order...

GJC

Re: 2001

1968, FWIW.

GJC

Re: Hey! Apple!

Perfectly good design? Looks to me like a standard flat-blade screwdriver of the right size would fit nicely.

Personally, I *like* security screws. It acts as an idiot filter and means when friends bring me their gadgets to fix they haven't already had a go themselves.

GJC

Re: Part of a larger problem.

No, the whole point of a jury is to provide a panel of non-expert people to whom the experts have to make their case, in plain and non-technical language. Loading the jury with experts would be very silly indeed, and a recipe for disaster.

GJC

@ Azzy

"You can't even connect to a file server on your local network (accessing SMB shares requires a rooted device)."

Load of old tosh. Astro file manager with the (for reasons I fail to understand) separately listed SMB module, sorted. No root access required.

You're welcome.

GJC

Re: Cat5 and Gigabit

Well, no, they wouldn't have, you want at least Cat6 for a stable gigabit network. Just like I have here at home, in fact.

GJC

The Truth? You can't handle (or recognise, apparently) the truth.

My three year old Samsung Galaxy S is running ICS. I expect it to be upgraded to JB this year. This is the power of proper open systems.

Yes, it needs a little work on my part, and a little knowledge. Too much for you, I take it?

GJC

Re: RE: what else do you want - parallel printer ports?

Well, yes, OK, fair point. A further ten seconds got me this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0041UEFXI/ref=asc_df_B0041UEFXI8651985

Anything else you're having trouble with today?

GJC

Re: What's that in hamsters?

Quite a few.

GJC

Re: Or, in plain English...

Well, we could start by dismantling the Higgs, now that we've found it.

GJC

I'm not so sure.

Without doing anything so tedious as actual calculations or looking up information, it strikes me that 1024x768 will result in a wider, shorter unit than previous 7" tablets, especially if the screen is 7.85" rather than 7".

Which means it probably won't have the one really useful attribute of the existing 7" tablets, the ability to slip into a jacket pocket. The existing 7" ones only just fit in most pockets I've tried, an extra half inch would stop that.

That would certainly stop me buying one.

Anyway, it's all bollocks until they are announced, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

GJC

Re: Many people saying Android has failed on tablets..

Same here, and there's plenty of innovation going on with Android tablets, too - witness my current favourite, the Asus Transformer, of which MS's Surface is just a copy, really, albeit apparently a beautifully thought-out and engineered copy.

Only thing we can say with any certainty is that the next few years are going to be quite a ride, in a good way, at least in the IT world.

GJC

Re: Up to 30mph only

That's interesting. I've been cursing the adaptive cruise control on my Toyota for a couple of years, because it cuts out under 25mph, making it a bit of a pain on UK motorways during the rush hour. Great in free-flowing traffic, though.

GJC

Re: On the other hand

Without iOS and OSX, Apple would sell pretty much no hardware.

GJC