Re: Team Register?

And let the raging hoards of fanbois know exactly who to direct their wrath at? Oh yes, you'd like that wouldn't you?

Re: No Galaxy Note II?

'people want to call the Notes "Phablets".'

These people need to be hunted down.

Re: Just me

They so do look like iPhone clones!!! Don't you know Apple invented touch screens, user interfaces, rounded corners, the colour black etc? Typical fandroid!

Re: Pricing and not pretty

...and I just paid £200 for a Nexus 7. £500-700 is utterly ridiculous for a phone.

Re: Quality

A possible answer to b) He's already got through the one for eating. This one's for show.

Re: Wholemeal?

White bread from a bag: now that's wrong. Personally I believe more or less any traditional bread type is fine, so long as it's of good quality. I'm rather partial to bacon in an oven bottom muffin myself. Perhaps I've been oop-narth too long than is good for me.

Re: You get what you pay for

Send in... the tro-o-o-o-olls.

Fair enough

Then the marketing bods need to get used to quoting approximate storage space. We're in the land of "up to" here, but at least people won't have reason to grumble.

Re: Rural not such a bad option

My thoughts exactly. Urban areas are more or less saturated with fixed line networks, many of which have a wireless hub on the end. Why pay more for a mobile contract for each device? Also, those cities are the ones where HSPA+ signal is excellent. You're not going to be downloading full length movies, but HD clips from YouTube are a breeze.

Whereas, there's a sound business case for reliable 4G signal in rural areas and a line of 4G-WiFi routers*.

*No doubt they'd rather you got a contract for every PC connected to the internet, but it's not going to happen.

Re: never ever

...a radio that may or may not become a genuine standard. I'm still hoping DAB dies out ASAP.

Re: "To suit all budgets?"

That, surely, is a better investigation for a reviewer: out of all the sub £100 gadgets, which ones aren't going to fall apart in a week?

Honestly, El Reg, you keep doing this. No one has any bloody money, so we need to know how to squeeze every last penny.

Re: Maple Syrup?

Only in terms of cost.

Re: Memo from the desk Tim Cook

That made me think of this quote from guess who:

"...when the Editors of the Guide were sued by the families of those who had died as a result of taking the entry on the planet Tralal literally (it said "Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts often make a very good meal for visiting tourists: instead of "Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts often make a very good meal of visiting tourists"), they claimed that the first version of the sentence was the more aesthetically pleasing, summoned a qualified poet to testify under oath that beauty was truth, truth beauty and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party in this case was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true. The judges concurred, and in a moving speech held that Life itself was in contempt of court, and duly confiscated it from all those there present before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf.”

Re: Iran and NK make a trade deal.

@AC 1: Fair point, although there were at least people around Bush to stop him doing ultra-stupid things like invade Iran or try to destroy Al jazeera. If one of the Kims ever thought they could get away with invading South Korea again, I have no doubt they would.

@AC 2: I'm not sure the word "innocent bystanders" can always be applied but yes, they do like their proxy-wars.

Re: Iran and NK make a trade deal.

At least giants aren't likely to pick fights with each other. They have too much to lose.

Smaller, poorer, desperate nations (run by crazier people) may see war as a route to definite gain.

Re: Core i5

Never mind the battery, what's the heat output going to be like?

Re: Still too expensive...

Besides greed, the screen is probably the biggest factor that keeps the price up.

Re: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...

Interesting idea Helena Handcart. However, in the real world...

Re: A solution in search of a problem

It probably comes with Polaris Office. The GSII does. LibreOffice for Android should be along at some point too.

"In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion."

Re: Misleading is wrong but...

Good point. A contract can say more or less anything. If it's found, legally, to be unfair it gets voided.

Re: Misleading is wrong but...

"it also says if they do they will always contact me in writing and give me the opportunity to leave or change tariff with no penalty to me."

Does it? You surprise me, since that's one of the things people are demanding.

Yes it is a legally binding contract, so people should be aware of what it says. However, giving the service provider all of the rights and none of the liabilities is hardly a fair deal. Just look at what happened when O2 went tits-up a month or so ago. They didn't have to give any kind of compensation despite people paying for a service they were no longer receiving. That fact that O2 _chose_ to do the sensible thing, from a PR point of view, and gave people nominal compensation is neither hear nor there. I'm not even sure if people on Tesco Mobile or its ilk got any kind of compensation at all.

Re: obligatory question....

"99.9999999999999999% of the worlds population have enough of a life not to want to do it in the first place"

So only 0.000000007 people then?

I care, and I'm at least one person. :P

Re: Send war rocket AJAX to bring back his body!

"O frabjous day callooh callay!"

Re: where do updates come from?

I don't think manufacturers will be bolting on their own interface, like they do with Android. Also, no mobile network crap. I expect the relationship between MS, OEMs and users will be much more like it is for regular PCs.

Re: Head above parapet

"I'm still unsure how you can be against eating meat but still support an industry that kills all the male chicks soon after birth. Eating eggs isn't 'bloodless'."

Quite so. Doesn't matter if they're 'free range' or 'organic' or have any other friendly marketing label; they all come from the same machine.

Re: Visually impaired Apple graphic designer?

Yeah, I call BS.

Re: My thoughts while reading that went like this

Sounds about right. Disposable things shouldn't cost £150.

...well unless they're made by NASA. But at least when they put a battery that can't be replaced in something, they make it a nuclear reactor.

Re: what am i missing?

This is for phones really, rather than tablets. No idea if NFC is superior though. That innovation seems to have passed me by and I know my Galaxy S2 hasn't got it.

Re: Battery aside.....

One could, but one would be kidding one's self.

The Witcher 2 continues the story, so it might be a bit jarring if you haven't played the first one. Then again, the first one was pretty jarring, since Geralt's lost his memory.

The controls are very different. Combat in the first one involves pausing, clicking on your target and timing your attacks. The second one takes the more conventional "press X to swing sword" approach.

That all being said, The Witcher 2 looks significantly better on PC. Assuming you have one that can handle it.

...wish I did.

all...

Except The Witcher 2.

@AC

The 1990's called... etc.

Re: Congrats to NASA

I think the crater is pretty old and that it's provided enough shade for long enough that there could be some ice lying around.

Oh, go and grow an imagination.

Re: Brown sauce?

"A food product identified simply as "brown" would rightly be treated with suspicion here in the antipodes."

Only because Vegemite's name isn't sufficiently descriptive.

Re: IT angle time....

"Anyway there was too much bacon in that pan, it lowers the temperature and doesn't fry properly."

Indeed. That bacon was hardly cooked at all.