Posts by JJS
22 posts • joined Tuesday 26th August 2008 16:00 GMT
Efficiency
I'm guessing the process is going to work like this:
1) Cashier rings up my items and says, "That'll be $3.50"
2) I fumble about unlocking my phone, finding the specific app corresponding to this payment network, wait for it to load. With any luck, the cell network coverage will be so poor that the app can't authenticate my account.
3) Hand the phone to the cashier/hold the phone under a barcode scanner while it attempts to read the barcode presented on the screen.
3a) Tilt the phone this way and that to try and get it to read something other than a reflection from the glossy screen
3b) Rub the screen on my sleeve to clear the fingerprint smudges
4) Apologize to the people behind me for wasting so much time.
I've been through step 3a/3b many times already with my significant other's Starbucks gift cards on her iPhone that use the same technology. Truly annoying when you have to hand your phone into the drive through window while they fumble about getting a clean scan. I'm just waiting for them/us to drop the phone onto the concrete during the hand off one of these times.
I thought I was irritated at the Luddites still writing checks at the counter, this is going to be nearly as bad. Removing a credit card from my wallet and swiping takes seconds and my brief use of Google Wallet via NFC took even less time (unlock phone, tap the terminal). For something that is targeted to replace "expensive to process cash", its looking like it'll be far more inconvenient.
Personal experiences
I picked one of these up near the end of November and have a couple of experiences that expand on some points mentioned in this review.
The screen is a fingerprint magnet, much like all smart phones and tablets with glossy screens. My fiancée plays Wordament on it and whenever I go to use it, there is inevitably a 3"x3" square of solid finger smudges where the board shows up in the game. I keep a small microfiber rag in a nearby drawer and wipe it down occasionally, not a big deal and no chemicals needed to clean up simple smudges.
It is definitely too heavy to hold in one hand in tablet mode for more than a minute or two. My solution is to place it in stand mode with the screen forward and keyboard face down. The weight is supported on my lap or body this way and all that remains is the ergonomic neck stretching issue that goes with all tablets.
Battery life is good. I have the Intel RST timer set for 5 minutes after sleep to go into its deep sleep. It gets used for an hour or so each day and I plug it in every few days to charge it up. Wake up from RST mode is a couple seconds. In the normal sleep mode before it goes into RST, the power LED blinks too fast and too bright and annoys the piss out of me as it lights up the wall next to bed.
It was briefly mentioned in the review but Lenovo's hard drive partitioning is awful. Nearly half the 128GB SSD drive is hidden for the recovery partition. Lenovo released a tool not long ago to maximize the available free space on the drive by messing with those partitions. If you're technically inclined there is also post on their forums for how to delete the recovery partition entirely and free up most drive (Intel RST needs a dedicated partition the size of your RAM). I did this immediately after uninstalling most of Lenovo's software as when it comes time to reinstall windows, I'll want fresh and clean.
There is an open SSD bay for a 256GB drive and the i5 model I bought with 4GB of memory can be user upgraded to 8GB (single stick).
Re: Question:
I think it comes down to availability of Bluetooth and easy of use.
The times may be changing, but many consumer laptops traditionally lack Bluetooth chips. Their USB dongle solution goes into any USB port and it "just works". No pairing process required. Bluetooth requires enabling discovery and going through the pairing process which differs by Bluetooth stack installed on the computer.
The other benefit for Logitech is that they don't have to pay for a Bluetooth license. The more they use their own proprietary wireless technology, the more those development costs are spread out so it becomes cheaper per device.
Posted in Sony PS3 sales soar on slimmer system
Re: AV
When will a console manufacturer ever make a console that can stack nicely with other AV kit?
They do that precisely so you don't attempt to stack it with other AV kit. Xbox 360 got the most press coverage for overheating but you'll find plenty of accounts of PS3 overheating as well (search for "yellow light of death"). These consoles throw off a lot of heat in operation so being able to stack another AV component or a pile of DVD/Blu-ray cases on top of it is asking for a meltdown.
Posted in Teens break up with Facebook
Re: Ad numbers
CPM actually means Cost Per Mille (aka Cost Per Thousand) impressions. So for every 1000 times the ad is seen, the advertiser pays $3.50 which yes, is quite a lot. I don't know what the going rate is today but I seem to recall something like 10 cents per mille was considered good for your typical blog.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Re: Surely this is illegal
In the US, at least, there are various state and federal laws that prohibit interviewers from asking questions about:
Race
Color
Sex
Religion
National origin
Birthplace
Age
Disability
Marital/family status
If I've added this type of information to my Facebook profile and chosen not to make it public, doesn't them asking for my Facebook credentials effectively amount to them asking me to provide them with the info? At the very least I would politely decline to provide the credentials citing that the contents of my profile are irrelevant to the interview process. If they go so far as to make it a condition of employment, they might earn themselves a legal claim for discrimination.
Posted in Skype arrives on fondleslab
HELLO?? WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!
Sorry, pic in the article reminded me of Dom Joly and his various bits where he's in a quiet public place when his gigantic Nokia phone starts ringing.
Posted in VeriSign to raise .com, .net prices
re: Why the difference
For the same reason you can get a .info or .biz for pennies, because it isn't as popular or easily remembered as .com
Posted in Hundreds of dot-brand domains predicted
Re: or even
Which is troublesome because I might have machines on my LAN called coke and twitter.
Posted in No stranger to the moleskin trouser
Informative how-to video on the topic
Victor Borge has taken care of all these problems for us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw
An app store for what?
I'm a bit lost here. What sort of apps that only need my browser to run would I actually consider buying?
A quick Google search yields sites with a javascript conversion utility for almost any purpose (assuming Google doesn't already support the conversion). I have a handful of dictionary/translation/thesaurus sites bookmarked for quick access. This isn't like my smartphone where I need instant offline access to an app that fills a single purpose. For one thing, I'll have to be online to use the apps anyway so why would I pay a few dollars for a dictionary when I already have a bookmark that cost me nothing?
Posted in Oracle sues Google over Java in Android
Wait what?
A patent infringement suit not filed in the Eastern District of Texas?
SOUND THE ALARMS! THE END IS NIGH!
UAC
Implementing something like UAC where it prompts the user every single time the app wants to do something considered "above and beyond" like dialing, SMS, or using data will prove just as ineffective as UAC on Windows.
If you repeatedly throw up dialogs asking a user if they *really* want to do this, the user is just going to become trained to spam the OK button to get that distraction out of the way. Yes, they *should* be thinking to themselves about, "Why does this application require admin privileges?" or, more relevant to this story, "Why does this media player need to send SMS?" but humans are creatures of habit. They'll just keep hitting that OK button because until they get to what they wanted.
Tangentially related, how often have you ever read an entire EULA? Even the ones that force you to "read" them, don't you just scroll right to the bottom and hit Accept? What if that EULA gave away the rights to your first born child (obvious legal restrictions preventing this notwithstanding)?
When are they going to realize...
...that they're just polishing a turd?
Posted in Ubisoft undone by anti-DRM DDoS storm
what's a title for?
In the end, the pirates will get their crack and will be able to play whenever they want and the legit buyers will be forever at the mercy of the master servers and the "cloud". I don't understand why it is so difficult for publishers to realize this is only hurting their reputation.
PIRATES WILL PIRATE, ALWAYS
Copying flash from another xbox
Doesn't the requirement for a non-banned Xbox completely defeat the point of the workaround? Why wouldn't I just mod the unbanned console and use that?
benchmark results
Firefox 3.0.10 - 237
Chrome 2.0.172.28 - 3068
Yes I even tried refreshing each browser to get a different result but they were within about 5% each time anyway. Now if only Chrome had my favorite extensions I would give it a chance over Firefox...
Posted in EU: Our Members need 'increased wood'
Title
I nominate this article for el Reg's next vote on best article title/teaser.
Posted in Obama CIO a confessed petty thief
Who cares?
No really, who cares about this at all? It's a mildly interesting footnote at best but certainly not worthy of a whole article.
Bring me more NSFW bootnotes and Playmobil re-enactments, not this crap.
What about Mozilla Chrome?
Isn't chrome the user interface component of Mozilla (e.g. all those chrome:// urls)?
This seems like a terrible name choice to me.
Posted in US utilities plot remote switch off
Already in place here
The local energy racket in Wisconsin has a program in place already that you agree to let them cycle your AC during peak demand and they'll give you a bill credit. The credit is based on how much down-time you agree to and they give it to you regardless of it they actually turn off your AC.
http://www.we-energies.com/residential/acctoptions/epartners.htm
The offer seems pretty reasonable but I'm one of those types that wants it cold on-demand so I probably wouldn't sign up for it. Allowing them to control my heating and water heater is definitely not something I'd go for though.
