Posts by Richard 81
674 posts • joined Thursday 11th June 2009 14:36 GMT
Re: Lets do some maths
Yeah I don't see how this is a good deal at all.
Posted in Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives
Re: Kobo Arc
Ick. I won't touch anything made by Kobo since I had the misfortune of using a Kobo Vox.
Posted in Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives
Re: Operating system
"wifi is not standard on all of these?"
Where the hell did you get that idea from? What use would a tablet be without some kind of network connection?
Also, the Nexus 7 certainly has a GPS receiver and, although they're not mentioned*, I would be very surprised if most of the others don't too.
The update cycle is an annoyance for Android users. That one I'll grant you. Of course it can be avoided by sticking to the Nexus 7, or rooting it. I don't tend to suggest rooting phones, but I don't see a problem with rooting a tablet if you haven't bothered with a data plan.
*A bit of an oversight there, El Reg.
Posted in Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives
Re: Jesus..
Starts? They always do this when Apple releases something. Apple is certainly "top dog" when it comes to brand-awareness, so using something like the iPad Mini to define a class of gadgets and looking at its near-neighbours is a good way of seeing what's out there.
...never mind that the iPad Mini (like most Apple products) is overpriced for the hardware, which may prompt someone to go looking for a better value alternative.
Re: Wot? No Deus-Ex?
But as an FPS, Deus Ex is bloody awful. As a sneaky, hacky, talky game, it's genre defining.
Re: Unreal?
Yeah, it doesn't look anything like Unreal. I guess it's pre-alpha.
Re: Well, the graphics have certainly got better but...
Nonsense! These days you can look up and down and everything.
Probably for its deformable terrain.
Re: is that wolfenstein 3D?
It also looks to smooth. It must be a remake.
Posted in O2 roaming rates to rise by up to 140%
Re: in July and insists this merely brings its pricing in line with competitors....
Why worry about competition when you have customers locked in for 24 months?
Well
Well the answer according to the US government is almost certainly "no".
Re: embryos
The sealed flask would surely have to be refrigerated too, to stop it from popping. It should be well insulated, but that can only do so much.
Re: Tragic waste of research of course
Spend much time with the intellectual elite and you'll find they have surprisingly little sense.
Re: Half Life 2
The black poison headcrabs being the scariest. I read that during testing Valve found that subjects would freak when they heard the hissing rattle of a poison headcrab and turn all their attention towards hunting it down. They got so focussed they'd completely ignore anything else, even though a poison headcrab can't actually kill you on its own.
Re: Refund Time?
But can you roll back to something that works?
Re: For every anecdote pointing out a flaw in Apple's mapping data...
"For every anecdote pointing out a flaw in Apple's mapping data...
... I can point to plenty more in Google's."
More? I don't believe you.
Where Google Maps is good, the US, UK etc. Apple Maps is significantly worse. No questions. All your anecdote suggests is that where Google Maps is a bit crap, so is Apple Maps, but sometimes Apple is a bit better.
Re: Screaming?
Sleep? They can't be that bad then.
Re: I'm considering getting one.
Wouldn't you want your standby phone to also be an Android handset, so you can access all your Googley bits?
Re: RE: "2.1Mp front-facing camera, able to capture up to four people in a frame"
What happens if 5 people stand within the frame? Does one of them just not show up?
Now I could be wrong, but their striking similarity makes me think it's a look MS has agreed on with its hardware partners. Maybe they want Apple-like consistency.
Re: doesn't work.
What annoys me, is that the apps often do work but you have to side load because they're not supported.
Re: "What about Montgomery ?"
I'd vote for William Slim.
Aren't they taking their attempt to emulate Apple a little too far?
Cooling
You'd hope gaming rigs would have damn good cooling. Consumer grade regular Dell machines are crap though.
This thing I was bought for work overheats all the time. It had to be stuck in the server room to stop it from shutting down when I last reinstalled Windows.
"Richard Branson"
Who suggested him?!?
Re: The people were the problem
"It's just that the people didn't understand nor believe they wanted one back then."
I have a problem with that statement. It may be perfectly true, but it gives me an icky marketing feeling.
Posted in WTF is... Microsoft Xbox SmartGlass?
Re: Actually, I approve.
Yes. Thank you for that. I *do* own an XBox. I don't, however, want to have to buy a proprietary tablet or phone made by MS or running Windows to be able to use this feature. I already own perfectly good Android devises and I'm not going to buy anything else just for this.
Posted in WTF is... Microsoft Xbox SmartGlass?
Re: Utterly irrelevant
Or indeed the Android version, which would give them even more users :P
I didn't spot the 2013 date for these versions, so I guess I'll completely ignore this until then.
Posted in WTF is... Microsoft Xbox SmartGlass?
Actually, I approve.
Being able to use more or less any smartphone as a universal remote sounds like a good idea to me.
So far Apple, Sony and Nintendo only really work with their own proprietorial gadgets. If MS open up xbox compatibility and force others to do the same, so much the better for us. If this functionality required me to buy anything either MS made or running Windows, they could forget it.
Re: Intrigued
Eh hem "Assuming the build quality isn't absolute pants, of course."
Top Gear (yes I'm both geek and lowest common denominator) did a good analysis of their car industry a while back. They seem to have same approach to other products.
Re: Never too many toys...
Do you plan to buried in a barrow with all of them?
Intrigued
I must say I'm intrigued. I don't care that it looks like an iPad, but that's not a bad price for those specs. Assuming the build quality isn't absolute pants, of course.
Is it even possible to buy these in the UK without knowing someone in China? I suppose eBay may be an option.
Re: Howexactly is this an iPad clone?
Maybe, just maybe, it's because it is explicitly designed to look (nearly) identical. Not like Samsung daring to make something vaguely the same shape. We're talking identical.
Re: Learning from XP
Ubuntu used to look like a good candidate. Not so much these days.
It's certainly not going to be a thin browser-only OS.
Re: 2009 is calling
Can't figure out if that's aimed at the Android haters or lovers. Makes sense if aimed at the haters.
Re: Have they spoken to the phone companies?
Unless you're on EE's T-Mobile tentacle. In which case you can't get Skype to work over your mobile internet connection. Or at least I can't.
Re: I would go further
Careful. Last time I suggested putting money into the rural areas I got accused of being a rich country toff and then a liberal peasant-loving townie.
Re: something is amiss here....
"I'm with Virgin and BT here. BT was privatised because of the simple fact that governments are CRAP at running services like this. Look at the DWP and the NHS for prime examples of just how badly governments run public services, far better for it to be run by a private company that has an interest in keeping it's customers happy and improving services."
Yeah, just like our rail network!
...oh, right.
Re: IOS 6
Good joke. Very funny.
"Feeding aerial photos into an algorithm, its engineers used computer vision techniques to render shapes of the building, adding a wealth of information to its maps."
If this is an algorithm they designed, then of course it's bloody innovative. If not, then it's either a novel application or the first large scale application. Either way, Google has the best maps app out there are continuing to improve it. I don't particularly dislike Apple, but no one (other than a raving fanboy) could argue that their map app isn't the worst. It's not even as good as Bing Maps. Yes, I said bloody Bing!
Re: It has to be said...
Doubt it. The the map app on iOS was Apple built and lacked a lot of features I frequently use on Android. Now whether that's because Google didn't make those features accessible through the API or that Apple just couldn't be bothered to update it, I don't know.
Posted in Apple iPod Touch 5G review
Is it just me
...or does the black one look an awful lot like a Samsung Galaxy SII?
Re: WHAT ABOUT TV?
I'd like to know this too.
Posted in Valve's Half-Life
Pendant
Unless the second shot is from a multiplayer map, it's a scene that never actually features in the game. I remember the screenshots on the box didn't actually look much the game itself either, since they came from a much earlier version.
Posted in Apple iPod Nano 7G review
Re: Missing from the review.....
"how to transfer content to/from the device"
iTunes. It's an Apple product so it'll only ever be iTunes.
Off the scent?
Who is going to base their strategic decisions on what Apple is doing now, when all they're doing is play catch-up?
Posted in Fossil reveals spider in mid-strike
Re: Nice find!
Just thought I'd counter the unnecessary down vote you received.
Some people on here seem to be inexplicably negative about perfectly innocuous comments.
Posted in Home-grown drone finds ‘missing’ hiker
Improved accuracy
May I suggest dropping the water while in a steep dive, to improve accuracy. You could also put sirens on the thing reassure the lost traveller that water will soon be arriving.
