Posts by no_RS
46 posts • joined Wednesday 19th August 2009 20:18 GMT
Use 0800
Just phone the 0800 sales number and you will usually get put through to the right department but at their cost, if they don't you haven't lost anything but it has cost them.
Why keep changing things???
This obsessions with constantly changing the user interface is just madness and makes no financial sense, it is like a car manufacturer deciding the put the steering wheel in the boot just because it is different.
Microsoft should take a leaf out of Honda's book, all the controls in their cars are in the same place throughout the generations, this is why people (espeically older people) like them because there is no steep learing curve trying to find everything. We want to use the operating system not fight it just to get the basic things done.
I took the plunge and built a PC to avoid Win8 and keep using Win7 as it just worked, quite frankly I don't believe a word of Microsoft insisting they have listened to their customer/users.The astonsihing arrogance they display just doesn't disappear overnight so I will sit back and patiently wait for MS dump their next offering over their customers.
I wonder which finger you have to wear the ring? Right hand possibly...
Doing it on the cheap again...
The filter maybe cheap if used indoors, as soon as it needs to be installed outdoors right next to the aerial it is a different ball game. Are they expecting (assume) that they can just ship a filter and the problem is solved i.e. The person suffering the interference has to fit i.e. FOC to the operators/at800.
Posted in Texan contends iPod EXPLODED IN HER FACE
Re: 'medical bills of an astronomical "amount in excess of $600.00,"'
They probably told you it was a CT scan but how would you know it was a CT scan of you and not a CT scan of someone esle that had been re-used many times?
Re: Huge invasion of privacy !
Funnily enough you can read number plates, didn't Google get a good bashing for doing the same thing with their streetview application???
You have to shut off the charging current as well, if the battery is still being charged the fire won't extinguish until all the fuel has been consumed.
Posted in UK 4G auction kicks off in total silence
Re: Anything to stop TV companies buying it?
It's a con however you spell it
Vodafone micro SIM application - unwanted, access to everything and uninstallable!
The SIM in my galaxy S3 died so I requested a replacement from Vodafone which duly arrived but having installed and activated the SIM I noticed a new app named Vodafone had appeared in the list of applications on the handset. The app just seems to provide links to 'allegedly' useful things but checking out the permissions of the app it has permission for just about everything, all your contacts, text messages, location, pretty much every permission in the android handbook!
Now as someone who likes to know what is or isn't happening on my handset I wanted to know where the app came from especially as it could be deleted, you could force stop it but it would restart and there was no way of uninstalling. Eventually Vodafone said it was on the micro SIM and is being rolled out to help customers. After the HTC Desire bloatware debacle I won't buy a branded handset again so was unhappy that Vodafone have found another way to put unwanted software on the device that the user can do absolutely nothing about, has access to all areas of the handset and can be used to extract information remotely from the device.
I hope El Reg will take this up and make Vodafone come clean about this, why does it need such a wide suite of permissions? If this is just to help customers then why aren't they being open about and let people choose not to install rather than force it on customers.Make it available on the app store so people have a choice.
Naughty Vodafone, go sit on the naughty step!
Re: Another Red Herring
Back to the politicians to apply the laws we already have, can't see anything changing then.
Another Red Herring
This whole not paying tax issue is a red herring and designed to divert attention away from the fact the government can do nothing about it. It is a by product of being part of the EU common market where to retain company headquarters you need to make it attractive for them to be in your country. The 1% tax rate that the Netherlands gave Amazon is the reason why they are there.
What is wrong is using internal cross charging at extortionate rates (i.e. above market rates) that are designed to suck any profit from one location to another where tax rates are more favourable.
If people want this to change then we have to accept harmonisation of tax rates to remove the race to the bottom tax rate. The companies themselves are doing nothing wrong and are complying with the tax rules in force.
PS if you work for a multi-national company in this country then you are working for a company that is using the same tax rules as Amazon, Starbucks and Google, if they pay more tax you might not get a pay rise this year.
Licence term is typically 20 years but with rollout and coverage milestones.
Re: mike@plokta.com
The 1800MHz licences that EE have deployed 4G (LTE) in just had there terms and conditions changed, no money changed has as EE already owned the spectrum.
It literally could have cost the time to write a letter and the stamp to send it to OFCOM.
The other operators could also ask for the same change in T&C's to do exactly the same thing. The technology restriction in the licence to GSM only is one of the reasons why GSM has become a global technology that pretty much works in any part of the world,.
Re: 3G
Same old, same old.
This is exactly what happened with the 3G auctions and prices for everyone rocketed afterwards, we never had 2 year contracts before the 3G auctions but did afterwards. After the UK and Germany had extracted all the money the operators had, the remainder of the 3G licences were issued on the 'beauty contest' basis.
3G is still over-priced for most consumers and 4G will be even worse. Wonder how long contracts will become, would you sign up for a 3 or 4 year contract at extortionate prices?
OTT..
Everyone who carries a taser type device should test it on themselves so they know what if feels like, they might be less inclined for use it unless absolutely necessary. Joe Public has been getting upset in shops for as long as shops have existed without being tasered, smacks of a totally over the top reaction relative to the incident.
Sueing for excessive force might be more profitable than shipping iphones to china...
The reason for not using mobile phones at petrol stations has nothing to do with the RF signal at all, but if the person (idiot) using one drops it. This can actually cause a spark when the battery contacts temporarily disconnect due to the impact of the phone with the ground. It is the spark that represents the danger especially due to the flammable gasses that are typically present in a petrol station.
Abscence of proof is proof of abscence
It seems the abscence of proof is proof of abscence argument is at work here, there are no tell tale signs of a EMC problem, it's not like seeing a hole in something and being able to say that was the fault, inteference appears in many ways and does not leave a trace than can be followed so it is very hard to say something happened because of an EMC problem hence the no proof of the problem.
The argument that because the pilots are allowed to use ipads it is okay for everyone else to use obviously makes sense to politcians but not in engineering terms, the immunity of aircraft systems may well be fine with a small number of ipads on board but not if a large percentage of passengers had them. Compare 3 ipads for the pilots versus say a 100 for the passengers. Having 3 ipads increases the noise level by a factor of 3 but 100 ipads increases it by 100 fold which can potentially overwhelm some critical system. An alternative analogy is lie on the floor and let the pilots put 3 car tyres on your chest, you can probably still breathe okay but if they let a hundred passengers each put one car tyre on your chest you're probably dead because it is too much for you to breathe, exactly the same for aircraft electronic systems, can tolerate 3 but not a 100.
The people demanding to use an ipad will the be first in the queue complaining that the plane got lost or had to make an emergency landing (assuming they survived)..
Passenger generated electro-smog..
The real issue is the immunity of the RF systems (particularly safety critical ones) is probably well known by now but the sources of potential interference brought in by the passengers are not. This leads to a situation where several identical devices operating together may actually exceed the immunity level of an aircraft system causing mis-operation. Some devices are very popular so many passengers on the plane could have the same device or using the same interface e.g. Wi-Fi, it's all about emissions adding up.
The passengers would be pretty unhappy if they got lost or worse because of passenger generated electro-smog, being disconnected for a few hours is not too high a price to pay for getting to your destination in one piece.
Posted in Why do Smart TV UIs suck?
More grunt and customisation needed.
They need to put some processing power in the box so it doesn't feel like you are being ignored when you have the audacity to push a button on the remote. My Sony TV is a fussy sod and only plays a very limited number of formats so I end up transcoding on the fly.
I don't mind the extra add-ons that are in the internet video bit if I could delete them but I can't, about as user friendly as a hungry salt water croc.
The coach and horses have left the building
This is the inevitable result of letting politico's sort out technical matters, at the moment the interference is limited but as these devices becomes faster the signal bandwidth increases and this is the future danger. There are reports of interference with FM radio, what worries me is when these devices start interfering with communications that affect peoples lives e.g. police/ambulance/fire services and someone loses their life because of it.
Some may argue that is already happening because the HF band is getting swamped by these devices.
I also wonder why I spend the time I do making sure the equipment I work on meets the CISPR and ETSI limits when PLT can do what they like, not a fair playing field. Anyway how do you measure the RF exposure from one of these things?
Pathetic..
Starting to get pathetic, apple are looking like over paid bully boys. The judge should throw both cases out and fine them both for wasting the courts time.
Grow Up Apple
They are behaving like a stroppy child and I hope the UK court's make an example of out them for such petty behaviour. I think this really shines a light on what Apple are really like.
Their products maybe very polished and sell well but their attitude stinks.
Same thing on an expensive combi-oven, died after 5 weeks, no discretion by the manager and only offered a repair. Totally unacceptable customer service - they're getting their just deserts, the market has decided.
Re: look at the reasons
Going into a shop and playing with the products, letting them make their pitch and then buying on the internet is completely unfair on the shop. If the shops hadn't abused their customers over the years people feel would feel some form of loyalty to the shop and wouldn't be so inclined to do this.
Personally if the shop has made a good sales pitch and I like the product, does what I want, etc I would buy it from the shop but not before getting a discount that reflects what the competition if offering. Trouble is more often than not the sales pitch is appaulling and they don't make their sale even if they offered a discount.
Re: At Last
+1 having also dealt with their customer service (used in the very loosest sense) I won't be mourning its passing.
Posted in Why is solid-state storage so flimsy?
Re: SSDs and HDDs both require backup...
I upvoted this because it doesn't really matter what you use for storage it can and will go wrong at some stage, usually a critical moment. I suffered a HDD crash and got zilch data back from the disc, even the pro's couldn't retrieve anything.
Having a backup strategy and using it is the only sensible course of action, anything else is just foolish and asking for trouble..
Re: Renumbering
The box might but people aren't programmed that way, wish they would stop messing around, the friggin EPG is fine - it works and that's all that matters.
Is it IE10 or IE8 they are talking about, article is confused but good that the Admen don't like the Don't Track feature. Hope they don't buckle under the pressure.
Re: Mobile phones don't cause cancer?
You could cook a chicken in it?
NFC Cards
Well I just got a replacement card from my bank with contactless payment technology in, interesting conversation with them about why I just wanted one without. Eventually they agreed to send one out without it (did mention closing all my accounts with them).
I do not understand why they think this is a secure way of making payments? The blurb that came with it said your pin will be requested for the first few transactions but after that probably not required, this is a recipe for fraud albeit only upto £15-20 per transaction at the moment. No doubt limits will go up same way as they do on your credit card.
This reminds me of the incidents that Tesco had when the automated tills were first introduced, they didn't need a PIN to be entered for small transaction values, they got ripped off and had to modify the tills to require a PIN for all transactions.
De Ja Vu all over again..
Re: A Brave Decision...
My understanding is for EE to implement LTE they either need another plug in card or a software upgrade, I don't believe it is a major problem for EE to switch on LTE hence the expected switch on date 11th September.
A Brave Decision...
I think it is an interesting decision by OFCOM, everything everywhere decide to upgrade their network using Huawei kit that also supports 4G and took a risk that the 4G auction would be some distance away, the regulator has backed that idea and the other operators are upset because someone has stolen a march on them. Vodafone, etc all have spectrum and could have taken the decision that everything everywhere did but didn't.
Vodafone, etc can still take advantage of the same decision as EE because the OFCOM decision in favour of EE changed a technology specific licence i.e. GSM only into a technology neutral licence, it would hard for OFCOM to argue against a request by any of the other operators to deploy LTE in the bands they currently occupy subject to anyone actually making equipment for those frequency bands. EE are going to need a lot of Band 3 LTE handsets to make this work but I don't see many (if any) on the market.
As for speeds, LTE can you give poor speeds just like any other technology given the wrong situation but is capable of some astonishing speeds in the right situation and if the operators give it the bandwidth.
surely PLT is an installation?
The argument goes that PLT is not a transmitter so OFCOM are behaving like ostriches, as an alternative view.
By plugging a PLT device into the mains wiring and to other devices, this could be classed as an installation under the EMC directive and would have to meet the relevant requirements i.e. EN55022, if the installation just happened to be in a domestic environment then class B would be an appropriate.emission limit.
Agreed that different frequencies produce different levels of exposure but that is the luck of the draw, suggest you find a phone service at a suitable frequency for minimum exposure. Just for the record the electrical characteristics of the fluid used to simulate human tissue is adjusted to compensate for different frequencies, this is to ensure the fluid represents the correct electical properties at the frequency being investigated.
Besides I think the GAO is right in asking the question, current FCC SAR limits are much tougher than else where because of the tissue volume of 1g. It's not as if all European users have brain cancer but American ones don't but Americans are more lilely to sue so I suspect the limits will go down and people will then complain about bad coverage, call dropping, etc and sue the networks.....
Will they get the colour right this time?
The previous SE15 screen is the same resolution but the red comes out orange, major cockup by Sony, wonder if the new version is any better
Posted in HTC One X Android smartphone
Re: My Experience
Well the replacement has turned up and shown exactly the same symptons, this is piss poor from HTC and no surprise their business has nose dived
Posted in HTC One X Android smartphone
My Experience
Well I bought one of these things from Amazon for delivery on the 5th April.
First off the packaging was different, all curved edges and looking fairly organic, soft touch plastic bags, the whole 9 yards.
The phone itself is very nippy and all was looking good, love the screen. So all very pleased showing it off to my colleagues, etc. Playing with it a few hours later I was looking thorugh the browser settings and the context menu would not display correctly, all fuzzing like something was out of synch. Also experiencing something similar on the long edge of the display when using the camera - this is not very impressive. A quick google shows other are finding similar issues with the display.
The Wi-Fi seems a bit flaky with my Fritz box router but that could be that it is using 802.11n but there is no setting to force it back to b/g mode only. The Wi-Fi also picks up my 5GHz signal as well as 2.4GHz so could be dual band.
Other changes I have noticed, I cannot set which cellular signal to use, my HTC Desire allows you to force it to GSM only which saves battery power, all these fancy new techs (3G & 4G) require a lot of processing power which is not needed most of the time but now I have no option but to waste it. The pattern finger lock available on the Desire is included in the One X with alternatives like face recognition or the old pin code.
Currently waiting for Amazon to ship a replacement as screen issues are a major fail in my book but since reporting it is hasn't shown the problem but I did take photos and a video of it behaving badly. There is a thread on XDA-Developers forum showing the display problems, no sign of a OTA update that some people have referred to..
Overall the packaging has impressed me more than the phone, seriously tempted to get a refund...
Have to admit I laughed out loud when I read the story, what a bunch of academics!
The CE mark applies when the equipment is first made available in the EU, not at some distant time in the future, I would argue the raspberry pi has a direct function and is not electromagnetically inert and so should comply fully with CE requirements. The fact is has no case is in-material
The volumes they are proposing really exclude it from being a development board and it should be CE marked, as a previous post highlighted it also needs to be RoHS compliant and marked for WEEE compliance. Electrical safety (LVD) is also important as kids could burn themselves on hot components, getting a product to market is a PITA.
Glad that the resellers are doing the right thing as it is their knackers on the block for it but unless the pcb layout is good this could take a long time to sort out and August delivery maybe a distant dream...
And finally FCC approval taking 50days, for a simple part 15 device it can be much quicker than that if it is covered by the DoC or Verification routes.
Posted in Apple asks US gov to hide iPhone details
FCC Confidentiality
What Apple have requested is the same as any other company would request and is allowed under the FCC rules, the sensitive information that could damage Apple is allowed to remain confidential. Any information that the user could get by purchasing the product and looking for themselves cannot remain permanently confidential.
Once the product is known to the public irrespective of whether it is on sale, short term confidentiality ends.
These rules are for any company obtaining FCC certification for a radio transmitter and Apple is not getting anything special, just what everyone gets.
So for all the people who do not understand what the FCC does/does not allow, you've had a quick lesson. I do not work for Apple or really like their products but in this case we all get the same, like it or not.
Does it stream avi over ethernet?
There is EU legislation covering stand by power for electrical equipment, you need to look athe EuP Directive and the appropriate implementing measure for standby power, believe current legal requirement is 1W max, hence newer Sony TV's actually have an on/off switch.
One thing I am very interested in the playback of Divx or Xvid over the ethernet interface, I have a readnas NV+ and would like to know if I can stream these avi files directly from the NAS to the EX series TV. I have read the sony manuals and it would only appear to play these formats from the USB port not the ethernet. Can someone please confirm?
I would love this to work so I can lose some boxes out of my AV system
Warm Ear
Your ear maybe getting warm because your mobile phone is actually warm rather than this being the effect of the RF energy heating your ear tissue.
Is RF Dangerous?
Seeing the comments on this story I felt a post coming on.
The proposal for legislation is IMHO another scare story, the FCC who certify all RF devices and force manufacturers to perform RF exposure assessments are already very concerned about someone proving RF is dangerous and their limits are too high (they might get sue'd).
Every device that is intended for operation from a user at less than 20cm requires SAR testing and requires a warning label on the product and the highest SAR measurement to be stated in the user manual. Anyone can go on the FCC website and see this information if they can find the FCC ID on the device.
The argument about microwave ovens needs some explanation, these operate at 2.45GHz and power levels upto 900W and yes they are faraday cage BUT with a door, most people would not even be aware there is any potential risk of RF leakage when using it. The door determines how well the RF energy is contained and if not cared for it will leak more but who would know but the microwave is only used for short periods so overall exposure will be quite low.
As for any proof of a problem, nobody actually knows so the message is precautionary i.e. be careful and try and keep usage low. We do know about the thermal effects of tissue heating but do not know if long term low level exposure causes problems, every piece of electronic equipment emits some RF energy to which people can be exposed - is this a problem who knows.
Personally I am not too bothered but would rather use a land line phone than a mobile but that might be cos i'm being tight :-)
The answer..
I would suspect the battery is being over-charged and is bulging inside the case. As there is very little spare room inside the phone this expansion will put pressure on the case pre-stressing the glass screen until either this pressure causes it to crack or a small knock does.
Pop goes the...
What happens when you short the battery terminals? that depends whether it is has a protection cct, if it does the protection cct in the li-po battery kicks in and limits the discharge current so it doesn't go bang! If not it probably will get really hot, generate pressure inside and ultimately vent it's contents or catch fire.
What most people do not realise is just how much power there is in one of these packs, you don't mess about with a car battery but any old gadget with a battery pack is fair game.
Stupidity is a real force in the world (if we could harness it, there is probably enough the power the planet and stop us worrying about global warming).
