Re: At last, something epic
I still don't understand why the camera operators don't intervene and stop the poor MBAs from being captured.
699 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Aug 2009
"There are some governments that act more upon their own interests, but we do not," Patino said, according to the Associated Press and others. "We act upon our principles. We take care of the human rights of the people."
Ecuador doing what the USA supposedly does. When the "land of the free" becomes a giant prison and one of their closest allies (UK) is nothing more than a mouthpiece for their agenda this is what happens. 'MURIKA protecting the people from the evil of...... themselves.
If Microsoft had won I very much doubt that a Steam client would have appeared quite as fast as it did in response to Windows 8. I'm pretty sure Valve would already have been working on it but as a lower priority until the mess that is W8 appeared. Even 8.1 is just a token gesture to try and look like they're listening (not a chance) since the returning 'Start' button just does what the Windows key does now - pulls up FAILTRO. It will still be the same confused mess that I, and others, hate.
Why do I call it confused? The best example I can think of is Windows update. I get informed of updates and click to view so it pulls me into FAILTRO but if I want to change what updates are installed it's back to the Desktop. It's like a tacit acknowledgement that even the makers are confused about which interface should be in control of certain tasks.
When I read the story elsewhere a week or so back (behind the times el Reg!) I told a friend who was considering doing some "Let's Play" videos on YouTube. With that information he left out all Nintendo games but did use some footage from various Square-Enix games. He told me this week that they have been matched the same way. I don't know if he meant they were taken down or if he was told they'd be taking any / all revenue.
@El Andy: If you're going to pick and choose what you reply to then you can make anything suit your personal viewpoint. The point I was making is that comparatively Android is doing far better than Microsoft's most successful phone OS ever did and is still far more successful than their latest phone OS. The Android UI and UX has been improving all the time and only someone with a very blinkered view would suggest otherwise.
As I mentioned in the bit you chose to ignore I don't see what is so bad about the Android experience right now. I'm not talking about those bargain basement phones that you get free with a bag of crisps. If you go with a phone that has similar specs to a WP8 phone you will get a good and slick experience.
The reason WP7 / 7.5 worked so well on lower end hardware is that it was so limited. A calculator gives a slick experience because it's only doing a few things but I wouldn't compare a laptop to a calculator and say that the laptop is sluggish. Yes it's an awful analogy and not a very accurate one but hey it makes as much sense as your argument.
My sarcasm is suggesting that I'm surprised the author bothers to call it slick *because* it's so basic. Calling it slick is like calling the sun hot. Don't state the obvious just to bash another OS. Nowhere did I say I dislike the UI just that I find it very lacking. The UX in WP8 is straightforward, yes, but is Android really that difficult? See icon, tap icon. It's the same for any touchscreen OS.
I don't have enough experience with iOS to say it judders but I have seen it with Android in the past. I haven't seen it on WP8 or the last few versions of Android but I do see plenty of "Resuming" screens on WP8 and don't get me started about the atrocious music player that comes as standard with no alternatives.
"Whatever the case may be, I can't see Google transforming Android into the kind of slick experience you get on Windows Phone today."
Slick experience on Windows Phone? It's easy to be slick when you run such a basic interface. How long did Windows Mobile exist with a shockingly bad but usable UI? If you compare Android now to Windows Mobile near the end then Android comes out far ahead on usability, that UX thing you mentioned.
I don't see why you hold Windows Phone as some shining beacon of what everything has to compete with. I own both a Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 device as well as numerous Android phones and I know which I prefer by far - Android. This article just feels like a trollfest when I see things like that.
If Google are to be blamed for the poor YouTube app who is to blame for the abysmal music player on WP8? A music player where you cannot edit a playlist after creation. A music player where you cannot see what music is on your now playing list. A music player where you cannot clear your current playlist. A music player where you cannot add or remove tracks to existing playlists or in order to create new playlists.
I could go on but you get the idea. I can forgive and work with a lot of annoying issues but for such a basic function of a smartphone they've managed to make it the most infuriating music player I've ever had to use. I'd also like to know whose smart idea it was to link media volume to ringtone, alert, message tone volume and thank them for giving an example of what to avoid for future creators.
==Reller told Foley:
“We feel good that we've listened and looked at all of the customer feedback. We are being principled, not stubborn," about modifying Windows 8 based on that feedback."==
Isn't that what they should have done when people said the same things very loudly all through the release preview? How the hell can a company be so stubborn and blind to the problems they're thrusting upon users they expect to upgrade? If they dare try to charge for this 8.1 update or whatever it ends up being they can go fsck themselves. I got Windows 8 for my aging laptop purely for any performance boost it would give and I would dearly like to undo that mistake without going through a reinstall. I gained a bigger performance increase by upping the memory to 4GB.
The best 'upgrade' I got is one that makes scrolling through directories some mammoth task that causes my entire system to sink to its knees and literally lock up for 2 - 10 seconds. Once it finishes loading them up it's fine until I try to scroll more and the same process repeats. It reminds me of an old Windows 98 (?) bug where icon shortcuts would fail to load and you had to rebuild the whole icon list to fix it. In this case it renders my laptop useless for the whole time it's doing whatever it does.
A demo version? Now that's an old idea that slowly died off! I'm willing to be proven incorrect but I'm also willing to bet a large portion of chips (potato in oil kind) that when a poor game with a demo was released the demo showed how poor it was and sales were minimal. Given how much money is being spent on some games the companies can't afford to lose sales just because their product is crap. Far better to have a bad reputation and money than a good reputation and go out of business, right?
There was a time when a demo came out first and then the full game came later. You're lucky to see a demo at all for any game now and even less likely to see it before the full release. Indie developers are really stuck and purposely releasing your own game as a pirated torrent to try and prove something or guilt trip some into buying the game must have sounded like a smart idea at the time. If you give me an option to pay for something or get it for free (legally) why would I want to pay for it? I don't have a solution, just my random thoughts.
As someone that was quite annoyed about the price increase I'm watching this very closely to see just what is possible with regards to cancellation or at worst negotiating a decent discount. I've been with T-Mobile for five years now and have seen the service go from a refreshing change when I joined to get the G1, to a "me too" network with nothing to distinguish them from the rest.
Each time I see a price increase yet what I pay for stays the same. Am I in this looking for something for nothing? No. It may not seem a lot to some but for me every extra £1 I have to pay out hits hard. If you want to get in with "you shouldn't get what you can't afford" that is the point exactly. I'm tied in to a 24 month contract and I signed up at a set price. I have to pay the bill every month regardless yet if I suddenly earn less as a result of other circumstances I still have to pay that bill. Mobile networks have that wonderful small print that allows them to increase prices due to inflation so they don't lose out. Given the chance you can be damn sure I'll take advantage of this if I can because everything else is geared towards making sure T-Mobile don't lose out. What happened to buyer protection?
"It will certainly be ignored by many, who will perhaps keep grumbling indefinitely without seriously thinking about the practicable alternative to alphanumeric passwords."
What alternative are you speaking of there? As much as you and I may like the idea of a long string the fact is that the vast majority of sites won't allow longer than about 16 characters. A great deal of those sites will also restrict you to alphanumeric while rejecting all others. You can only blame users for so long before you have to look at the sites and what they allow.
Are you counting Sim City 4 in that because that's the last actual Sim City game if you ignore that horrid mess "Sim City Societies". I quite like SC4 especially when you add in Rush Hour to it for all manner of high speed transport.
Anyway, ignoring those games and going on my beta play from the beta weekend not long back this game is missing quite a lot of things like terraforming before you play but it was quite fun. I know EA will be killing it with DLC and micro-transaction crap all over but I almost don't care. I've wanted a new Sim City for a long time. I feel dirty but I'm an addict man! Gotta feed my habit.
"The insulation seals in the heat and keep out the coverage, according to a company flogging a solution"
That's about where I lost all interest in reading further. Whether it's an accurate report or not I can't take it seriously when the findings helpfully back up what they're selling.
One point that I take issue with is the article seeming to suggest that most phones available today can manage fine on 3G compared to when they first came out. Unless I'm mistaken the majority of phones available still get thrashed to death using 3G to the point you can just about manage a day. We're just starting to get phones with almost acceptable battery sizes for 3G use after a decade. Are we going to be waiting the same amount of time for 4G phones? Will the coverage be the usual mess of "98% coverage" except for those bits where you live?
Perhaps it's just me experiencing these but my own limited testing shows that using WiFi I can get around 12 hours more battery than using a 3G connection with 4 bars (full) signal strength. Why are these chips still so massively inefficient?
A bonus for making something that relies on one company's SIM? It's a moot point since I've got no clue when it comes to coding but if I were able I'd go to massive lengths to make sure it would work on anything except their SIM. I can't stand crap like that. I may not win a prize but if it meant screwing them out of their failed cornering of the market I'd be all for it.
I'm feeling particularly vindictive today. I don't need to make sense!
I came up with one in a few seconds and it only needed a little thought, of which I'm sometimes capable. Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and Remnants. Of course I could go for the Mass Effect link with Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and Reapers but if this would take a year to kill an asteroid I don't want to think how long it would take to scratch a reaper :/
Will this be like other Google products where you get the things for free but come out of the shops plastered in adverts? Maybe they fit something to your voicebox so you can't speak until you've shown someone a video advert? The possibilities are endless :D
I am not serious of course and use many Google products very happily. Each to their own.
It would be a good idea but that goes against anything this current government, and all before (and after) stand for. The neighbours have a daughter and she had her own laptop at about 10. I don't know if the neighbours are computer literate or not but the best way to tackle such issues is learning, not banning / blocking things. If you forbid something you make it more enticing. My attempts to quit eating pizza can attest to that :(
I think it's designed to appeal to the "Glee" generation who are obsessed with all things dancing now. I say that with confidence knowing someone who likes that 'show' and said she played with a Surface (only RT was out at the time) and that it was great. Incidentally this was after she'd seen the dancing, clicking advert. I still find it funny that the end of the advert is where they could start to show what it can do but since they're very, very limited that's where they stop. If there was an extended cut perhaps you'd see the guy flick along and see nothing familiar then go to the store and find a small selection of apps before he gives up with it.
I don't remember seeing a single Windows Phone 8 advert on TV since they launched. I've seen articles on various tech sites like this one but no actual ads on TV. Two big things are working against Microsoft more than anything else right now from my point of view.
1. Abandoning Windows Phone 7.x for the bad idea it was. Yes it may get updates still but it will never go beyond 7.x if they have any say in it.
2. Some awful basic apps. The music player is atrocious and that's being kind to it. There is no ability to create a playlist then add songs to it. You have to add songs to a Now Playing list *then* save it as a playlist. You can't edit that playlist to add or remove songs either so if you made a mistake you start over. I also haven't figured out how to clear the Now Playing list... there are no alternatives on the Marketplace.
The lack of quality apps is still a huge issue as is their seemingly uncaring attitude to the whole system. The hardware is fantastic, especially the HTC 8X but what's the point of having a great phone if you hate using it? There's an almost indifferent attitude to development too with app submissions either being ignored for weeks or just not being dealt with. If they are to have any hope of getting / staying 3rd they need to sort out a lot of basic issues. The ones I've listed are the biggest that I can see having used it.
When all power here went out at about 5:26am a few weeks back I was wondering how I'd find out what was going on. We don't get our power from SE but I can see it being used, potentially, for things like this. As it happens I found a site that gave me the information I needed but no ETA on a fix. Power was back after about 40 minutes so I didn't have to empty the freezer and feast eat the things that were going to go off.
When they initially launched in the UK Netflix had a very poor selection. Compared to what's available in the US it's pathetic and after looking through the 'vast' amount of series and films I didn't even take up the trial. I've looked back now and then over the year to see if it's gotten any better but so far I don't see it. They may say they've doubled the content but it's easy to double such a small number.
LoveFilm..... ugh.... I made the mistake of taking up a trial when Amazon offered a voucher for trying it (thanks for the free headphones Amazon!) and I've been paying for it with "come back to us" things in the post since (no thanks for that Amazon..) The thing that bugged me about LoveFilm is how a lot of content wasn't included in their streaming packages and you had to pay more for (?!) which seemed all too like Sky when it started charging separate fees for Sports, Movies, then Sports on demand followed by movies on demand etc. Pay for access to all these movies*
*Except those others ones which you have to pay for again
"Beginning soon, the devices will also be available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland – more than doubling the number of markets for Microsoft's own-branded kit."
They're likely hoping a doubling of the markets will equal a doubling of the sales. Unfortunately I can only see them failing to sell in twice as many places now. The price is far too high for what it offers especially when you factor in the cost of the keyboard cover. As others have said many times it costs more than, for example, an iPad, Nexus 10 or the ASUS Transformer Infinity, offers far less functionality and has far fewer apps.
The only real selling point is the Windows tag but as it's based on an ARM architecture that means nothing. For some reason Microsoft think they can price it higher than competing products with less going for it. I don't know why they bothered with all the secrecy about it when they effectively killed it before it was available. It's a shame because even though I own other tablets it appealed to me but not at that price. The Surface 8 Pro (who picked that ludicrous name?!) is a better option but it's still priced too highly. It offers nothing over a high-spec laptop besides the display and while it's a great display it isn't enough to sell the product to me.
I own two high end phones for both Android and Windows Phone 8. Being a firm fan of Android and HTC I took the 8X with a large amount of suspicion and curiosity. The hardware is undoubtedly solid and build quality from HTC has been improving massively over the past year to the point where I'd say they are either at the top or very near it. The big unknown was how I'd handle going from Android to Windows Phone 8.
I own a second-hand Samsung Omnia 7 so I knew roughly what the OS was about and how to get around things but there is still a lot that has changed. First impressions were a surprise to me because even though it is very familiar it felt like a different OS altogether. Snappy, no 4 - 5 second pauses while switching apps, loading apps or resuming background tasks like WinPho7. The app selection is still on the sparse side with some big hitters missing like official DropBox clients but it has improved with some really good Twitter clients. I'm sure it'll pick up over this year with the help of MS's marketing clout and developers.
At the time I got the Omnia 7 the best thing I could say is that WinPho7 had a lot of potential and with WinPho8 it feels like that has arrived. Unfortunately for MS I feel like it's what they should have released instead of 7 and many owners of older hardware will resent that MS didn't say they would be stuck on the 7.x OS until WinPho8 was almost ready to ship.
The phone itself is really nice. It has a sort of pillow shape, or half pillow shape anyway that feels great to hold with the matching HTC theme giving the tiles the look of continuing where the phone's colour leaves off. I was a bit underwhelmed by the One X's camera despite all the buzz words thrown about at the time but the 8X's camera feels, to me, a lot better. Noise is vastly improved, detail loss in lower / less than ideal light is better and sharpness is great. A hardware camera key is nice and one of the things I miss on Android.
In summary if you aren't heavily invested in iOS or Android it's well worth a look. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that will jump on the bandwagon and bash it for what it isn't rather than what it is and that's a shame. The review here is pretty similar to my own thoughts really.
I honestly cannot find any way to care about such a product whether it be from the fruit company or even Google. It's a terrible form factor, it'd be bulky and charging it every day would be a killer feature but in a way that I mean it would kill the thing. Is there anyone reading this that would ever find such a thing useful?
Good looking is a personal opinion. What I like you may find repulsive and vice versa. Regardless I found a few that are fine and require no permissions to run and one of them is a live wallpaper.
Clock Live Wallpaper (Sonica) and it's free.
RIM 4x3 Analog Clock
SWAP 4x3 Analog Clock Widget
Glow Legacy Clock Widget
Simple Analog Clock
I didn't spend ages looking so what were you doing? They may not be what you want but none need any special permissions. It isn't that hard
I'm not going to say games don't cause violence because I haven't run any studies and only have my opinion. However, why is it that American idiots like the one wanting pointless studies are intent on banning or putting massive limits on games that are already age restricted yet there's no chance of similar penalties and restrictions applying to gun ownership? Why oh why does someone need a gun that can throw out hundreds of rounds a minute? What exactly necessitates such overkill? One bullet can just as effectively kill as 2, 10, 30 etc.
Do I think gun control is the answer? Possibly but I also think it's never going to happen in my lifetime and I'm only 33. Far too many are invested in their weapons and it's part of the culture. I don't have a solution sadly so long as guns are so loved by so many.
"It's understood that a dodgy component is causing an annoying whining noise to emit once the SuperHub has been switched on."
Would that be the customers on the phone making the annoying whining noise once the SuperHub has been switched on?
I may be lucky in that I rarely have problems with my connection but I do have a separate router should I ever want to go down the "modem mode" route. I've considered it even before that though since the SuperHub won't allow me to forward the same port to two separate IPs which makes it a pain.
I don't see ads but even from my very light use of Forkbork I know that they force "suggestions" into your feed which could be products that friends like or some random and blatant advert that you can't just block. If you try then you kill the entire feed which may not be a bad thing overall but I think you see my point.
I have a friend that currently owns an Android phone. She complains that she's had lots of problems with it that I don't really believe and mentioned getting the new iPhone 5 because it's "so pretty" and has 'retina' display. I'm sure I remember Apple fans saying specifications weren't important until the retina display iPad and then suddenly they do matter. Now we have both a tablet (Nexus 10) and a phone (HTC Deluxe / DLX) with far better displays and it's back to specs not mattering.
The point of my little rant? Those that want Apple will go for it regardless of cost because "it just works" even when it doesn't and those that want Android will go for Android. Those that are undecided will probably turn to low cost Android tablets. Hopefully those will increase in performance or the work of Google with the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 will mean very little.