Service status pages - ever updated?

Over years of using the internet and various services I've never known service status pages to be all that useful because they're hardly ever updated. The idea of them is pretty good but with that lack of updating they may as well not have them.

HTC Choices

I've heard how bad HTC support is (was?) but it isn't really an issue for me. When my Desire HD speaker broke I took it to T-Mobile, they sent it off for repair and it was back in a week. That was at Christmas. The battery size could've been larger but I'm hoping the Companion Core will keep battery drain down even if that screen wants to slurp it down. I think the lack of SD card is down to MS and their FAT tax as much as design limits too.

Would I like a larger and removable battery? Hell yes. I've been pushing and pleading on an HTC run site for a minimum of 2000mAh battery in future phones, not to mention the return to a multi-colour notification LED, and a lot of others are screaming for more battery over thin phones but we've yet to see anything. Then again this has only been up and running for a few months so even if they take everything we say into account it wouldn't have made it into the One X. I think last years lacklustre phones really hit them hard so they're trying to listen to criticism. You only have to look at the new Sense to see that too.

Upgrade time for me and as with quite a few around here I'm using the Desire HD so this is going to be a pretty huge upgrade for me. Do I need quad-core? Nope, and I don't play many games on phones, but I do think its best to go for the best available. It means it's more likely to be updated than if I opted for an older dual-core model.

There's an Undo option?!

It's perhaps telling that I'm asking the reviewer how you Undo things on this app. As they noted it has a lot of potential but needs work. They updated the app yesterday from v1 in response to it crashing a lot. There's another app done by some people who worked on the Courier project called "Paper" by Fiftythree. The app is a lot more polished and intuitive but lacks the browser, image pasting etc of Tapose and while it's free you have to pay for all but the basic erase and pen.

Seems like Google changed so much in ICS that it's proving very difficult for all manufacturers to update it on existing hardware. I'm not sure why as I'm not a coder, just someone reading about the issues slowing development of the CyanogenMod ICS release.

WiFi isn't what I'd expect from anything using an N signal. I was surprised when I lost connectivity near the front of the house last week. I wanted to see how the screen would handle bright sun (quite well actually) but losing signal completely had me confused for a minute until I realised why pages weren't loading. If I use my Desire HD I can still see the signal half way down the street.

Both devices can access wireless N, one is new, one is around 18 months old. If I had to guess which had the worse signal I'd be picking the 18 month old phone but it isn't. Even sitting in the same room as the router I don't always get full signal and while it isn't really an issue for what I use it for it doesn't bode well.

"while Vodafone's and T-Mobile's prices start at £41 per month."

START at £41 a month?! That's likely over 24 months too...... I know the networks have to make money on handsets and that top range models like this don't come cheap but what are they smoking? If it's a 24 month contract that comes in at £984, £738 if it's 18 months.

I'd be curious to see where these prices are from as the T-Mobile website still lists it as "coming soon" with no hint on price plans yet. I've asked a fair few times and the only information given is to check the coming soon section for updates. This would be a smart thing to do but it isn't exactly updated promptly. They had the Xperia S on there for a few weeks after it was available and had phones available in March still listed in the middle of the month long after they'd been released.

Naming of ARM chips

The naming always confuses me with ARM chips. The new S4 Snapdragon is a Cortex A15 CPU but new 64-bit chips are v8? Don't we already have v8 and v9? Damnit why can't they just use normal, logical numbering?

Lack of real information from a UK view

I can see why this article was written but it has a distinctly American feel about it even though all prices are listed in GBP. Why do I say that? The Kindle Fire is mentioned as £199 when there is no such tablet available and as much as Apple may think £329 is a good deal compared to £399, it isn't. If you look around now you can find some of the first generation Android Honeycomb tablets (most updated to ICS) for £250 - 300 such as the Xoom for £280 online.

The two markets are also pretty different. With Apple you know what you're going to get more or less. A nice looking UI that works well but is limited by Apple to what they see fit which means short of jailbreaking you can only run apps from their app store. With Android (oft updated? Oh please.. they're released as often as iOS updates now at around once a year for major updates) you get an improving OS that you can tinker with, customise and set up in a way you really like. Apple charge a premium for their products but with tablets they're showing just how ridiculous other manufacturers are by thinking they can charge more for, in most cases, less useful devices.

To put this in perspective I own three Android phones, love Android, own an Advent Vega with ICS on it but I went out and bought the new iPad. Why? As others have said, an Android device is good and you can look at it like a project to get it working how you want etc but I just wanted something simple and with as little hassle as possible. Granted, Android has this too but as much as I love Android in general I can't argue that iOS is still the more polished experience overall.

Server team should do the desktop OS too.

I read a lot before about how the server team was doing a better job than the desktop team, especially when it came to security. It'd be a great thing to see them build the desktop product as well, it would save me running the server OS and getting the "This won't work on a server OS" error message.

Quick, license our patent for corners! They have more ammunition!

Is it just Steve's death or is it also a realisation that other companies have been in this business for a lot longer and can likely hit Apple harder than Apple can hit anyone else? I honestly don't care about the reason if it means an end to the almost daily "Apple sues X of patent for <obvious, despite prior art>" and even "X sues Apple over <being an asshole>".

Let the downvotes commence!

I realise I may be in the minority here but calling this phone huge more than once seems a bit harsh considering there are plenty of other 4.3" screen devices with a handful larger still.

I was seriously considering this until MWC came about and reminded me how bad Sony are with OS updates. This phone was announced a while back and ICS has been available for all to tinker with for over three months now yet it still ships with Gingerbread. HTC have just unveiled their One series of phones, likely been in development about the same time if not longer, with an April launch and all will come with ICS. Sony's update is likely still months away at best. The camera in the Xperia S still tempts me because I'm tired of "8MP" cameras on phones that are worse than 3MP cameras on phones years old, HTC are very guilty of poor cameras.

4G speeds? WOWOWOW!

I'd settle for HSPA speeds slightly higher than they area now. I regularly hit about 2Mb/s with my phone on T-Mobile and if it got up to around 6Mb/s I'd be over the moon. The only reason I might want higher speed is if I have to download a huge amount of data like some of those games require. There aren't a lot of those and I'd prefer to do it at home over WiFi where I have a faster, more reliable connection and where I can charge the phone at the same time.

Wrong numbers

I can only see positive aspects of this going to the wrong number from a receiving point of view.

"I sent you £10 for the party."

"Who is this?"

"Oh sorry, wrong number. Can you send that money back?"

*no reply*

Popularity affects law?

I'll likely get a few downvotes for this but it's a genuine query of sorts. Why should the popularity of a device / any product affect whether or not it can be banned? If it's against the law or found to be in violation of some trademark shouldn't it be banned regardless? The Apple hater in me wants to say, "Typical, one rule for Apple and their money, another for everyone else." but I'm trying to avoid downvotes :P

Voting for quickly mocked up image

I know Samsung are a little bit silly with designs sometimes since the Galaxy SII has more than a passing resemblance to an iPhone but I doubt even they would make a handset this similar. That and the previously mentioned capacitive buttons scream out to me. I'd like the MWC event to hurry up so I can see what, if any, phone will tempt me more than the Galaxy Nexus as I'm due an upgrade in March.

Vinyl was listened to by Saint Jobs?! I MUST HAVE A RECORD PLAYER AT ONCE!

Whether true or not I don't much care. I'm not a massive music fan, in fact I probably listen to far less than most, but I know how expensive audio enthusiasts' equipment is and that's for a reason. You can't squeeze that much high-end equipment into something you carry around in your pocket, you can have it at home. To put it another way I can watch movies on my phone if I really want to but I wouldn't compare it to a home cinema setup. One is convenient and allows me to watch something on the go, the other is if I want a better experience.