That's all very well, but an ex display model for exactly the same price as you can get a boxed item from your local Apple store, and Apple will probably have it cheaper tomorrow?

Re: Interesting approaches to monopoly

As far as I'm aware Vista SP2 or later will install on a mac, as will many linux distros. Earlier versions of Windows will on a Mac with the help of Bootcamp.

Android is available for some iDevices. Apple won't help you install it, but it doesn't look like they go out of their way to stop you.

They mean 5 MHz up the dial, eg from 5GHz to 5.005GHz

Re: Never mind the UIs

My TV actually does run Windows, and of all the systems I've tried, I do think Windows Media Centre is the best. I haven't tried Windows 8 media centre yet, largely because I cba to figure out how to install the thing, but who knows, maybe TIFKAM works better on a 6 foot interface than it does for keyboard and mouse use.

Re: And I thought the UK was bad?

The police will argue that the message was "grossly offensive". I don't think it was grossly offensive, just slightly offensive.

Re: "criminal libel"

It is not called criminal libel any more. It is an offence under S 1 (1) (a) (iii) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 as amended by S43 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.

Re: There aren't many charities I give to nowadays

Their commission is as near as damn it 100% of the first two years of standing order payments. The charity gets to keep any money collected after that time.

Re: That's probably not the point

They choose Excel because, there is an icon for it on their desktop or start menu, and because it is superficially at least easy to use. You don't get it complaining about "syntax errors" or missing semicolons.

Re: Hmmm....

I don't think High Frequency Trading runs on Excel, it is way to slow for the millisecond response times required there, although traders might use Excel when working out the strategies to feed into the HFT system.

Re: That's what building codes are for

We have building codes too, but provided any sockets you do provide are at least 45 cm and not more than 120 cm above floor level, and at least 30 cm away from any corners - so that someone in a wheelchair can reach them, then the building inspector will be happy.

ISPs are quaking in their boots over the effects of iPlayer and YouTube. Apple TVs aren't popular enough for widespread streaming of movies from iCloud to be a major issue at the moment, however, if they do come up with an actual TV rather than a set top box, it could be an issue.

Re: Wait...

Pretty much the same as what you have on your desktop / laptop computer.

Re: What a load of crap.

And every computer manufacturer too. The 1 TB hard drive your computer is advertised as having, contains Windows 7 || 8, and various trial versions of Norton Anti-Virus, Office and so on.

Re: OnDigital Pace

As I understand it there are now too many channels for the original box to be able to cope with it. I don't have one to check if that is true or not though.

Re: Bring back the old ones...!

And a flying chair

Re: Sort the troll icon

I agree. A troll should look something like this

http://www.shopatnorway.com/images/840170_LA_troll_norway.jpg

Re: Surely it is apt ?

Exactly, and the monthly data allowance isn't enough to download even one such movie in highly compressed standard definition.

Re: I'm told that "The Future's Bright, the Future's Orange"

Because 2/3 of the population would consider it to be a political statement that they agreed with. The other 1/3 of the population would see it as a declaration of war.

Re: Walled Garden

It isn't, because I like Google Maps, not because I can't get it on there. You need to go for a 3 year old phone before you can't upgrade to the latest iOS.

Re: Interesting.

Why would you want to adapt an OSX app to run on iOS? A phone and a desktop are two completely different devices that are used for completely different things, and therefore require completely different apps and user interfaces.

Even if, in many cases, you have two apps with the same name on desktop and phone platforms, people use them for different things. On the phone, they want something that can get basic information and take basic inputs while on the move, whereas you use the desktop for proper work on it.

Re: @Bernard

That suggests to me that Facebook is still 1000% overpriced, not that there is explosive growth potential.

Pretty much everyone who is likely to sign up to Facebook already has signed up, so there is little potential for expansion of the userbase.

That leaves average revenue per user as the only area where growth can take place.

They are making around $1bn profit per year. That is a pretty decent amount of money by any measure. It is difficult to see how you could increase advertising revenue without alienating the userbase, which could cause them to leave Facebook for the next big thing. People don't go to Facebook when they want to buy something, but don't know where to buy it from. They go to Google for that. Therefore Facebook advertising is about brand awareness and keeping in touch with existing customers who want to know what you are up to. I generally use Twitter rather than Facebook for the latter. The future seems to be more downside than upside. People are increasingly using their phones rather than their computer to access Facebook, and on the phone there is less real estate for advertising, and it earns less money. At some point, another product will come along that replaces Facebook, much the same as Facebook replaced MySpace and FriendsReunited.

Everyone who has a job or is self employed will be on it even if they don't claim any benefits, because the dwp's system is being merged with HMRC's system.

This means that in theory they can pay you exactly the right amout of benefit based on your income unlike the current tax credits system which pays based on an estimate and tries to correct it later when the tax returns come in. It is a nice idea on paper. Whether it works like that in practice remains to be seen.

According to Apple, you bought an Android phone because you thought it was an iDevice. They look so similar that you can't tell the difference.

Alternatively just download http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/

Re: Do you remember the good old days...

Because a lot of the tax havens are already British colonies, eg Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands.

Re: Nope

When you make a particular example of tax avoidance illegal, it becomes tax evasion.

Many people here, me included, put savings money in an ISA to avoid tax on bank interest. That is tax avoidance, and it is perfectly legal.

Re: Ban international companies.

That is exactly what happens now. And even if it doesn't, profits from the UK division are taxed here.

If I set up a coffee shop next door to Starbucks and started selling brown coffee flavoured drink at £3.50 per cup, nobody would buy it from me, even though it was the same price as the £3.50 cup of coffee flavoured drink next door. The reason for that is that I don't have the Starbucks name above my door. At £3.00, £2.50 etc, people would probably still pay extra to have the Starbucks branded variety rather than mine. Maybe at about 50p, people would start buying from me.

If this Starbucks trade mark allows the UK company to charge £3.00 more than me per cup of coffee flavoured drink, then clearly it something worth paying the owner of that trademark some royalties for. Maybe £2.90 per cup sold would be reasonable? That means that out of the £3.50 selling price, only 60p is available to buy the beans, pay the staff, etc, etc. They may be very special beans sourced by another company in the group that employs lots of staff to sniff out the best possible beans all over the world. You can surely justify paying a premium price for these beans.

What you describe is already what is done, and yes it really is that difficult.

Additional hint, they are all in either Ireland or Luxembourg.

Re: Sales are income to corps, so what about salary.

Companies can't just declare that all their profits are earned in for example Ireland. They have to employ staff in Ireland to earn that bit of profit. You could possibly move to another country, find a job there and pay tax in that country, and that is perfectly legal.

Re: So cancel corporation tax

Shareholders are subject to inheritance tax on the value of the shares. If the company also paid inheritance tax, then you would have double taxation.

Individuals who trade on their own account pay tax on profits calculated in much the same way as companies. There are a couple of differences related to motoring expenses and expenses with a dual private/business use but other than that, it is pretty much exactly the same.

Re: I'd like a square monitor

I can see it without scrolling my Galaxy Note 2 if held in portrait orentation.

Re: Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Company

Apple Maps may be a significant advance over Google Maps if you live in North Korea, but for the rest of us, it is a major step backwards.

They are official secrets, not property. You almost certainly won't see theft on the charge sheet, but there are plenty of other things they can nail you for.

Re: If files are not property...

You are not sued for intellectual property violation. You are sued for copyright infringement. The term "intellectual property" does not exist in law, because copyright, patents etc are not property.

Re: Once upon a time they might have been able to kill Skype

It's not so much that Microsoft owns it. People use Skype because everyone else uses Skype. Being the first customer of a new messaging network isn't much fun because there isn't anyone to talk to.

Re: Contempt yet?

You don't contact the judge, you contact Samsung's legal team.

Re: Anti-virus

I generally go about 4-5 weeks between reboots, as patch tuesday usually requires a reboot to install the updates.

Re: Europe =! UK

I agree with your line of thinking, but that's not what the court order says.

Re: Good.

They are not modifying the original judgment. The original judgement told them to put what they put as paragraphs 1 and 5 of their 6 paragraph ramble. They added another 4 paragraphs that contradicted it, which is a clear violation of the judgement.

Re: Use the cloud

The idea is that you have a backup set of servers with exactly the same data etc on them somewhere else that wasn't affected by the hurricane. Maybe the West coast, or Australia or something like that. Then it doesn't matter that your New York servers are down due to lack of power.

Re: Oh FFS - patent - ideas

I guess the idea is that you come up with some amazing new idea in your garden shed. You get the patent for it. Then you can go to investors to put it into production. You can do that without worrying about them stealing the idea because you have the patent.

Import duties are specified by the EU. VAT is subject to EU rules. Other taxes are the responsibility of member states.

Re: Or

Amazon are already registered for VAT in the UK, for the sale of dead tree books where the UK has one of the lowest VAT rates - 0%, so it would just be a case of putting ebook sales on that VAT return rather than the Luxembourg return.