Posts by PaulR79

Fantastic idea!

I see they're competing with BlackBerry to see who can lose market share fastest and this is their trump card clearly. Nokia had an early start then HTC and BlackBerry threw their chips in but Samsung have just pulled out an incredible hand that has the potential to beat all others. After this valuable 'feature' is added I predict their next innovation will involve the phone only working with pre-approved carriers in select countries. Those networks will, of course, be the highest priced and getting some lovely little benefits from Samsung.

Region locking a phone? This really is a crazy time to be living in isn't it? Companies dodging tax all over to keep as much money as possible and at the same time using any trick they can to charge as much as they can. Burning the candle at both ends there Samsung. Great for your cash piles but not so much if you want to stay in business.

What a load..

"What separates the Android user experience from iOS 7 is not functionality, but feature-bloat and sloppy user interface design. In terms of user experience, less IS more."

I like how they say Samsung's version of Android until they're really slagging off the UI at which point it just becomes Android. They picked the company with the most bloated and disliked overlay of all Android manufacturers but judge all of Android based on it. Lovely and impartial! I especially like how they show the two versions of iOS but you still only get the Samsung version of Android.

Surely for a fair test they should have gone with a Nexus device which, while not being market leader, is the best example of what Android is in its base form. I guess that's the point though isn't it? The whole thing is skewed in favour of iOS because Apple give you basics then expect you to pay for the rest via the app store.

I can hardly wait for slimmer phones!

"and allow for slimmer devices"

I put it to an HTC person before that slimmer phones that sacrifice battery life are not wanted and I'd rather have a slightly more bulky (10mm is bulky? I own a Nokia 5110!) device if it meant even 33% more battery life. The response I got was that the market wants slimmer devices and they'd be crazy to go against that. That was even after I'd pointed out the Motorola RAZR MAXX which didn't add huge bulk. Until the manufacturers realise there is a market for more 'chunky' devices with better battery we're stuck with this obsession. It makes me sigh greatly when the only real solution is, mostly, a battery case that ends up turning a <10mm phone into 25mm or more phone.

Horror stories about download issues

If only there was some way they could know roughly how many people would want to download a new update such as previous years or adding extra capacity but then they'd need to know the date this groundbreaking software was being released....

Phablet is wrong

Forget Phablet anyway. If you're going to say it's a mix of both then surely it should be Phonblet.

Wanted: Android install for Windows Phones

I really want to be able to install Android on some WIndows Phone hardware but any time it's mentioned on mod sites nobody is interested. As much as I like Android I also have an HTC 8X and it's a gorgeous piece of hardware unfortunately MS are intent on releasing updates and new features so it's relegated to backup phone. Why not just get an Android phone? I have Android phones (HTC One X and Nexus 4) but I want to use it on the 8X / Lumia 925 etc.

Split-screen pointless

I've tried to see the case for having split-screen apps and I just can't see it. On x86 you can use the normal Windows 7+ screen snapping as well as resize the windows to your choices. On ARM you .... can't run desktop apps so you're stuck with apps and this is the only way to run two apps....... ah now I see the point! Try to make the ARM experience a little closer to the x86 one and hope that users will accept it.

Aside from price concerns this is the single biggest reason to go for x86 over ARM. It seems not even Microsoft have a clue what ARM / RT is best at since their ads focused on some shity High School Musical inspired ad with lots of dancing and showcasing a stand that clicks.

Yay more ads....

I'm sure this will mean a massive increase in the already ever increasing ads I see. No wonder they took such drastic actions against 3rd-party clients - those clients don't show ads. Unfortunately they don't do push notifications either so you're left with a choice of one, the other, or a mix of both and none of those choices are particularly nice.

"According to security research outfit Kaspersky Lab, only Android 4.3 is impervious to the Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a Trojan, yet virtually no one is running that version."

Curiously the figures for people affected by that trojan also seems to be missing. Imagine that!

Moore's law...

I hate this and it bugs me every time I see it mentioned. It isn't a law it's a prediction or an observation at best.

New products but the same problems

Ignoring the obvious one (running Windows 8 or 8.1) they're going with nVidia and Tegra again. Tegra 3 was a success in marketing because it sure didn't perform as well as they claimed in use and I won't believe anything they say about Tegra 4. When your quad-core CPU is beaten by dual-core CPUs you lose on so many levels.

Haahhahahahaha!

This is what they've been working on in not-so-secret? A watch that has to be tethered to one of only three (currently) devices, lasts a day according to Samsung so probably half a day at best in practice and they want $299 for it. Good job there Samsung. At least it looks like your other products by being cheap, plastic and not going to win any design awards.

*checks domain*

"codenamed "KitKat", after the iconic chocolate-covered wafer candy bar."

NO! Chocolate-covered wafer bar or KitKat. None of this candy crap!

Ballmer the comedian

"penned by Steve Ballmer that says Microsoft's partnership with Nokia has gone so well that "

Oh Steve... you sure know how to joke about your awful leadership. Next you'll be telling us that Surface was a roaring success.

HTC, RIM, Nokia

Imagine what they could come up with if all three combined. Awesome hardware, great design and um.. forget the RIM bit, just go Android with HTC and Nokia.

Favourite Win 8 'feature'

I've mentioned this before but it's such a big pointer to how confused and messed up the whole Notro / Desktop mess is and shows even MS don't know what they're doing.

I get update notifications for Windows Updates so I click to view them. It (un)helpfully takes me to Notro to view the updates and I can install from there. However, if I want to view optional updates or select which updates to install first it throws me instantly back to the Desktop Windows Update of old. Why was this ever allowed to happen? If Notro is so great why dump me straight back to the Desktop version? Why force me to even view the Notro version if it doesn't have the same, or better, functionality? What purpose does it serve other than to add more confusion and ".... why?" moments to your day?

For anyone that has unfortunately installed Win 8 to try and are now stuck with it through reluctance to reinstall and wanting a fast way to shut down you can easily make a shortcut to do so or the often forgotten clicking your desktop then using Alt-F4 of old. I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong by wanting these options as others have I'm just offering ways to do it that work.

Roaming fees much lower, great ...

The biggest issue I have with the whole mess is that all this is pointless to most people unless they spend most of their time overseas. Roaming fees are now far cheaper than calling outside your allowance at home. Imagine my surprise when I saw I was paying close to 40p per minute one month, the only month I've ever gone outside my allowance.

This brings me to my question about this madness. How the hell does it now cost far less to call someone in the UK from outside the UK than it does to call them while here and why has this been allowed to happen?!

Area 51? Pah!

It's just a small research outpost. Everyone knows the real deal is deep inside Cheyenne Mountain.

Hmm..

"People aren’t stupid.

...

BB guns, knives on sticks, and other tools."

Are you sure about the first statement?

Tegra 3 was awesome... really..

Seeing how poorly the Tegra 3 chip performed compared to the Qualcomm S4 and more so the S4 Pro I wonder how many will believe any of the Tegra 4 spiel. I own an HTC One X which comes stuck with the Tegra 3 and while it may be decent for gaming the idea behind it never held much weight. The low powered core never seemed to do much of the low powered stuff despite that being its purpose for existing and the four main cores were only as powerful as a dual-core S4 device.

What a match made in hell this is for RT. First you have the underperforming, app lacking RT and then you couple it with an already aging chipset in Tegra 3 that can't perform as well as it was supposed to, ever. How can you rectify that? I know! Let's use...... Tegra 4 for more of the same but at least we can add Outlook now!

It's terrifying that people in such high powered jobs believe this to the point they'll risk a repeat of an almost $1 billion loss without learning anything.

"free content ad network"

I still read that as "content free ad network", anyone else?

Gimmick ahoy!

"a feature that lets you easily take photos by shaking the camera and then touching anywhere on the screen."

I would not refer to that as a feature or something that allows me to easily take a photo. Shaking the camera (phone) then touching the screen is more likely to see people dropping it.

Updates coming through too slowly

If you look at early Android the updates were pretty frequent although in fairness it needed them as it was quite basic early on. WP8 may not be as bad as that but it is still missing a lot of things that could be pulled in through updates such as a better keyboard and better multitasking. Unfortunately they're updating it as slowly as the desktop OS with big patches once a year. By the time they decide to push out an update the chances are that a manufacturer won't be updating it any more.

UC and IDS have a few things in common

Neither work properly and neither are for the benefit of those that will suffer from their ideas. This is intended as a replacement for all other benefits to be paid once a month. The chance of this going so badly that it leads to suicides and homelessness when payments are screwed up is so high yet good old IDS keeps insisting everything is fine and going as planned. That is only true if the plan is to royally screw up the whole system.

This part sums it up for me

" And the feature formerly known as "Type and Go" but now apparently called "Instant Action" is very handy: from anywhere, you can swipe up and start to type a message, for example: “sms fred” – and it will drill into your address book and drop you into the message editor."

I can swipe up on the screen then jump back to the keyboard to type "sms fred" and it'll do the search and open message editor. Perhaps I'm not seeing the big appeal of this as it doesn't seem to shorten anything over starting the messaging app and picking who you want to message. Shouldn't a shortcut save you time?

4Gzzzzzzzzz

Fantastic! I can hardly wait to use this and I don't even mind the cost because unlike 3G this will bring about a revolution in the mobile market. What's that? It isn't available where I live yet? Oh that's ok I'm sure they will be soon and I can check that on a list. There's no readily available list that shows planned rollouts? Alright but surely they have decent allowances compared to 3G at least as a means to compete with cheaper and far more widely available coverage. No?! What the hell do you mean no? What is the appeal then??? I can pay more for less and with shorter battery life???

Hang on a minute I'll be an early adopter and can brag to my friends and co-workers? Why didn't you say that sooner. Here, pillage my credit card and don't forget to charge ludicrous amounts outside my allowance that make it cheaper to call the UK from abroad than if I was at home.