Re: 2G / 2.5G / 3G air interface test engineer here...

Thanks for that, good info.

Re: 2G / 2.5G / 3G air interface test engineer here...

Good call, bazza. True nuf that if the 4S is violating the noise floor or somesuch, then it'll nuke the cell for everynoe... interesting to have seen a mobe go out which might actually do this: totally agree on the WCDMA standard being a bit "knife edge" for consumer gear, I always wondered how brittle spread-spectrum might get when manufacturers got inevitably" lazy" :-)

"do you know what and (sic) an Android stick or media box is?"

Get a grip - you actually manage to infer here that a granny would know what an android stick is. Grab a mirror before you throw troll insults around. Or read his original post again and then take a deep breath.

Re: Funny how almost every malware issue ...

Chicken / egg. If google had ensure sideloading was harder, and made the UIX on security prompts intelligible to your average idiot, they wouldn't be in the shit now.

The "it's the biggest platform" argument doesn't stack up, because they didn't secure from the start - it was even less secure a whil back.

"Besides, no operating system security can survive a dumb user."

No, but a company which values the platform can at least try to account for them. There's no arguing with this, I'm afraid - smartphones are used by non-geeks because the UI finally got easy enough for them to use. Geeks know about security, non-geeks don't even care. Google have failed miserably to secure the platform, and are now scrabbling for purchase on a slippery steep gravel-laden slope.

It's exactly what happened to microsoft, and it needn't have been. Higher barriers to malware would have improved matters.

Re: Cubes are not a good shape for most people.

Well, that's my coffee screwed. Oh no! Wait! I'll have those poncey sugar lumps.

Genuine no-bullshit multi-tasking == crap battery life

Read it and weep.

Re: "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

Hehe! I see pointing out the semantics of the original message has caused many downvotes. Trolling for trolls is always fun on el reg. No comebacks? Come on...

Re: "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

OK, so which networks don't / won't provide micro SIMs?

As for "blinding detail", which part of

"Of course it does. You can make a micro-SIM by cutting down a regular SIM. ***This allows people to jailbreak iPhones*** and use them with networks who aren't paying Apple for the privilege of being able to flog their products."

says you need to jailbreak it with the appropriate tool? And doesn't say you jailbreak it by creating a micro SIM?

Seriously, get over yourself. Just another hater, spittle-flecked mouth corners and negative bile emanating from every port.

Cynical stuff...

The fact they've got enough cash from backers on Kickstarter tells me it's a good enough idea, with perhaps better execution than previous attempts? Sales channels and word-of-mouth will do the job, if they get their media strategy right and get some names on board. You can't get off the ground without some positive thinking, otherwise... well, what's the point of starting anything?

63,416 Backers. $8,596,475 pledged of $950,000 goal - I'd say there are plenty of people who have an open mind, unlike yourself. How do you replay a colonoscopy interactively? Nifty.

You should stick to not writing poetry. http://www.poetryshared.co.uk/about.php

Ummmm... no.

"Yes, they're special Apple-branded data packets, you see. Would you like me to apply that on your account? Hello? Sir?"

My iPhone doesn't run an iPhone tarriff and never has. They're not locked to the damn SIMs. Several other manufacturers are using Micro-sims.

Go and polish your tinfoil hat with your bile-laced spittle.

Oooo, I swore I wouldn't stoop to standard El Reg commentard standards...

Re: "Makes perfect sense in an Apple-world I'm sure."

"You can make a micro-SIM by cutting down a regular SIM. This allows people to jailbreak iPhones and use them with networks who aren't paying Apple for the privilege of being able to flog their products"

More half-baked idiocy. Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors? H8rs gotta h8...

Re: Twitter may not know, but users do

Well argued. I've used it for a while, and the other good thing about twitter is "Block". Anyone who posts banal drivel receives it, which stops you following the tedious bastards as well. Since you only see messages from people you follow, the banality (or otherwise) of your timeline is directly related to your own preferences (i.e. who you've followed).

So do all these geeks who slag off twitter only follow people like Paris? Tut tut, gentlemen, you need to find better users to follow.

Re: Playbook

Bundled with a phone? Holy cow, that's a good deal for a 64GB tablet. Nice play.

"It was quite a shock to hear someone from the BBC defending this government."

Wake up and smell the coffee. Watch or listen to any BBC news programme at the moment, you'll hear they appear to be trying to continuously lick the government's arse.

I've been shocked time and time again by the regurgitation of government stats, half-truths and outright lies recently, to the extent that I've stopped watching even the BBC news. If it's not depressing it's constantly trotting out the government line on just about everything.

What I can't decide, as I don't monitor my opinions on this matter or keep a diary, is if the BBC is constantly sycophantic to any government regardless of party colours. Any comments?

Re: Customer service

I'll add my voice to the "you've just met one" brigade - iPhone 3GS replaced after GPS issue, no quibble, applecare does the job. Next machine's a Mac, in part thanks to their attitude towards the consumer.

The trolls in here really are miserable and haughty, aren't they?

"The law is supposed to be based on morality"

Not necessarily.England has "common law", and I _think_ it's based on precedent, which has _nothing_ to do with either common sense or morality per se, more on the accumulated judgements of those making a specific judgment at a point in time, who we hope have a moral leaning, but that does depend on the cash pot of those prosecuting (or defending) their case when it's heard. And then the result goes into the pool of common law...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law

"In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as stare decisis)"

If enough people want it, the rules will morph over time, I'd have thought.

Virgin's site text for the 100Mb package - is that the exact text?

"...I didn't sign up for a 50 service at peak times..."

Explain to me where it mentions "peak time" in that text: are you inferring it from the phrase "when the whole house is online at the same time"? If it's not explicitly mentioned then caveat emptor, I'm afraid.

Come on, be realistic when dealing with these large internet access organisations. They've pretty much all had their knuckles rapped at some stage for misrepresenting about every aspect of the bandwidth/capping aspects of their broadband offerings, so when you read their advertising text, don't assume that's a frigging contract detailing how your service will run.

Do what I did, ring them, and demand the details of the package - if anyone else commenting on here has done this, *properly*, no faffing with a "screen-driver" telesales person, but talked to a supervisor, or someone who knows the real deal, then please post a reply detailing that Virgin said you'd always have total freedom and unlimited bandwidth, anytime of day.

Otherwise, shrug your shoulders and walk to another provider who *can* give you those assurances, cast iron, in the contract, which YOU review and check, or put up and shut up and schedule your downloads somehow. Seriously, this is a contention bandwidth-throttled system, right up to the backbone. All this gnashing of teeth sounds like a rather inevitable user-viewpoint of internet infrastructure about to creak under the load of Steam, Xbox360, PS3, Netflix, Apple TV, iPad 3 HD content, ... "No download limits" is a movable feast, and may only be referring to overall monthly usage. In fact you can guarantee it is.

If they can wiggle out, they will. Remember, this text was not produced by a network engineer, it was produced by a marketing suit. And we all know how much *they* know.

----------------------------------------------

What can I do with 100Mb?

Download an entire music album in as little as 5 seconds; a TV show in around 30 seconds, a high quality movie in as little as 1½ minutes and a high definition movie in around 7 minutes.  100Mb really excels when the whole house is online at the same time – whether for streaming HD videos, downloading HD movies, gaming online or accessing everyday services. With 100Mb broadband there is plenty of connection for everyone!

What does unlimited broadband mean?

No download limits. Unlike some of our competitors, you get unlimited downloads as a basic right so you can load up on music, films...whatever you're into.

Re: Debbie Douez

Props to this guy to get that in first

"People buy iOS apps - people want Android apps for free"

Ah, at last - the core "fragmentation" issue. The fact that android devices **themselves** are cheap. Do you think there's a tie-in between the price of the device and the potential app store profits? Is the Play store (still sounds like a sex toy place) actually suffering from the fact that Android has a majority of owners who either don't care about apps (just want to do calls / texts) or people who don't want to pay for them?

"Unfortunately devs sometimes don't bother to do this."

Your outline of how to cope with Android development for devices is illuminating, but this one sentence is a giveaway. In the same way that iOS is a kiddy-OS (not meant in a derogatory tone, note - my Alzheimer-suffering grandfather can drive an iPad, that's my point), the way in which UI programming is done under iOS sounds simpler: two screen resolutions, simple maths for "retina".

80/20 rule applied, do you think 20% of devs go for the quality approach you described, and the other 80% either fudge something which doesn't work very well under certain circumstances (hence some apps look awful on some devices), or do you think the other 80% will decide Android is just "too hard" and bugger off where it's perhaps simpler, and where the users buy more apps (sorry to drop that last obvious argu-bomb)

Re: Just because _you're_ all jaded...

OK, you're obviously not the world's biggest optimist when it comes to workplace satisfaction or the idea that a large company could conceivably give a shit about its' employess. Nice turn of phrase with "naive idiot" btw, an exemplary indication of your open-mindedness.

Look up how Gore-Tex organises its' company to see how a large company can think small, grow and still engender employee loyalty.

If google has, or had, one iota of belief in the strategy which James Whittaker says he saw and believed in (remember, he's not a "naive idiot", he's a fricking professor), then they believed that innovation pulled people in to use their services, and they made money from the ads that were viewed and clicked on. They fostered that environment for their staff and allowed them the "room to fail" - or succeed. That's the kind of work environment where engineers at the sharp end of the business thrive, if they're creative, engaged individuals.

A creative, engaged and enthusiastic individual with skills will move mountains for the sake of it to prove themselves and their idea. I agree that soulless corps are a great place to become cynical as hell about company motivation, though.

Sounds to me like your workplace is less than opimtal. Mine is pretty good, we do have some leeway to make a difference - but you have to retain the enthusiasm to do so. And you know what? When you do, you try stuff out: you get noticed, things people didn't even know needed doing get done.

So don't go shouting "bollocks" unless you're willing to engage intelligently in a debate on the relationship between an employee and the company they work for.

BTW I've never applied to work at Google either (did get headhunted once, but politely turned it down). Mr Whittaker's experience doesn't make me think I'd apply now.

Re: Still better off with a netbook.

Dear god, do netbook lovers still exist? I thought we were all post-PC now?

- Cheaper? But how's the build quality...

- Full keyboard? C'mon, there's cases, bluetooth keyboards... journalists are using these in the field now.

- Storage? What are you doing on this portable, on-the-go netbook that needs more than 16GB minimum (64GB max)? If it's doc production, etc then you don't need a terabyte in your bloody pocket

- Multitasking - fair point, but G33K - people don't care, and arguably on a small screen multitasking with a standard WIMP OS is a PITA (see previous poster comment re:mice

- External devices - this is a portable device... what do you need? You could argue the iPad has just enough external connectivity to do the job (esp with the kits). People aren't impressed with how many bloody USB ports something has, they don't view this device that way. You're comparing cox's pippins with oranges.

- As stated previously in this forum, there isn't a dependency on iTunes anymore and there hasn't been for an age. As for dependency on Apple services... not relevant, personal choice.

- Multiple users - this is a PERSONAL device. Why would it need multi user profiling?

You're better off with a netbook if you're a netbook lover and you hate iPads / Apple / etc etc. Otherwise, just accept the masses have spoken and your mini-laptop is doomed to obscurity.