* Posts by PaulR79

699 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Aug 2009

Page:

Comet crashes to Earth: 125 stores wiped out

PaulR79
Facepalm

Welfare to work will save them! - I feel dirty for even joking about that

It's going to be hard enough for these people losing their jobs only to have to face the frankly unworkable ideas the government are forcing on everyone.

"You just came out of a job in retail? Here, we found this (2 week temporary) job for you cleaning toilets. Take it or we'll sanction your money. Oh don't worry about us. You only get two weeks work but we get paid for it by playing the (very broken) system anyway."

Nokia RIM shot: Seeks royalties after winning wireless patent spat

PaulR79

BB10 looking quite nice

I've never liked BlackBerry mainly for their huge and fugly phones but after seeing demos of their BB10 OS I quite like it. I can easily see it competing with WIndows Phone 8 and if priced right killing off WIndows Phone 7.x sales. As an Android fan from the beginning I don't say this often but I'm almost curious to the point of wanting one.

Apple are more or less stuck rehashing their OS with new hardware whereas Android is polishing up things quite nicely and Windows Phone appeals to a specific type of user. What does BB have to offer? Something new mixed with what they're known for in a new package. I don't think they have the money to last like Nokia can with Microsoft's backing so the most important things are first impressions, price and getting key apps there early even if that means using the Android emulation.

PaulR79

Re: People In Glass Houses

People in glass houses should throw stones if they can't get out any other way?

I understand that patents are important blah blah blah but I've lost track of when I last got through a week without hearing about patents in mobile disputes.

Belgian finds missus was born a MAN after 19 YEARS of marriage

PaulR79

Re: As a post op...

I was going to post something similar about how you can't have a relationship with such a secret. You put it pretty much how I'd have too, it's your secret (and hers) to keep and even myself I have secrets I wouldn't just blab around to anyone. However, if I got close to someone to the point this guy (I use the term loosely) there are some secrets that have to be shared.

Unfortunately this moron couldn't see past it and resorted to violence and perhaps more unfortunately I don't think I could. I have nothing about transgender people but I know I couldn't be with someone who had been that route. I wouldn't have resorted to violence, I'm not a violent person unless you count shouting at computers and occassionally threatening them.

Be gentle with the downvotes, I chose to be honest.

Microsoft supporting Surface with Windows RT until 2017

PaulR79
Trollface

Support until 2017

They should have a nice selection of apps by then at least...

PaulR79

@LPF

You do know that the HD2 is one of the most mod friendly phones don't you? It has an active development scene that has ported both Windows Phone 7 and Android onto it. Sure MS screwed it over just as they have done again with anyone that bought a WIndows Phone 7 handset only to find out WIndows Phone 8 won't be coming to their phones.

If you're technically minded you can go the custom ROM route. Is it for everyone? No and I doubt it ever will be but if you're on a site like this I'm inclined to think you know what the risks are and are capable of doing it.

PaulR79

@Goat Jam

Until I read the second half I honestly thought you were going to say Windows Phone 7...

Ten PlayStation 3 games you may have missed

PaulR79
Flame

Re: Whatever any PS3 owner does this year...

When I saw this was getting the HD treatment I was very happy as I'd missed out on the original on my PS2. Unfortunately my PS3 has lost all ability to communicate with all networks and with it being a PSN downloadable I'm going to be missing out. I'm loathed to pay for a new console just to download a few games and some DLC I'm missing.

Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet review

PaulR79

Specs no longer a good benchmark

Judging from the praise through the review and the result shown in the benchmarks it seems that code is being massively optimised. It benchmarks lower than quad core systems but not by a high margin and it maintains the overall smooth performance. This can only be a good thing for battery life and I hope that it transfers to other devices from other manufacturers *cough*HTC*cough*.

Disclaimer: I own several HTC devices and really like them (and Sense) but they still have battery issues.

PaulR79

Re: Stupid review...

I was just about to hit the downvote when I saw the post above. For completeness you could have done one for Windows RT and maybe BlackBerry but nicely done either way.

PaulR79

Re: No sale here, either.

Nexus devices don't have SD card slots and haven't since they were first introduced. If you need more than the capacity offered by this and other versions you're not going to be buying a Nexus device.

NASA's Mars rovers feel effects of TITANIC DUST STORM

PaulR79

*checking reasons off*

House!

Sony coaxes indie Vita, Android developers with $99 SDK

PaulR79

Smart move

Perhaps Sony are learning that instead of crippling the development scene they can cash in on it and gain popularity from it. It may be wishful thinking but given how they are involved with the Android development scene it may be a sign of seeing it as an opportunity and not something to kill off.

Bah humbug! Google cancels Christmas

PaulR79

Auto brightness issue - not just me then!

I was wondering what the hell was going on when my screen kept going darker, then brighter ad nauseam. It hadn't happened with 4.1 but after the update it keeps happening.

The issues are with Android 4.2 and the only devices officially running that are Nexus devices. The point? They will get a fix as soon as Google push it out. Anyone running a custom ROM (CyanogenMod etc) will likely have it fixed sooner and can flash the fix. Everyone else can think of Nexus owners as beta testers.

Comet train set for SMASH, staff can only hope to be in right carriage

PaulR79
FAIL

Liquidation Sale - big fail

I realise they still have to sell things for as much as they can but someone seems to have forgotten what a real liquidation sale should be like. I went along to a local Comet today and there were indeed signs around claiming "EVERYTHING MUST GO" and "LIQUIDATION SALE" but the word sale seems generous at best. The items were up to 10% off, yes up to..... smaller things were 20% off such as cordless phone but again most were up to 10% off. Totally pointless and barely a sale I watched most people come in, look a little then walk straight out.

Asus offers compensation to pre-price drop Nexus 7 buyers

PaulR79
WTF?

Re: Only for 16GB Version

If this is right then their offer is misleading. 16GB paid more before the 32GB version came out but so too did 8GB owners like myself. If true then they've managed to turn a potential future customer away from ASUS their products and left a lasting impression that only some of their customers are worth their time.

PaulR79

@El Presidente

I'll put this as clearly as I can since you and AC have some problem understanding. My serial has been accepted, it is recognised as a Nexus 7 (I don't change or pick which tablet) and registration works but no coupon, only a discount code.

PaulR79
Holmes

@Anon

Learning to read is something I've been able to do for quite a while but seems to have passed you by quite spectacularly. I registered at ASUS site, as I mentioned, filled everything in and ....... nothing. The only thing close I've received is a 10% discount code at checkout. Thanks for the superior attitude though, really helped me with the problem!

PaulR79

Completed everything - no coupon

When do you get the coupon? I've completed it all, registered but saw no obvious "coupon here!" buttons and I haven't gotten anything in an email. Has anyone figured it out yet?

PaulR79

Re: Didn't work for me - it's complaining that the serial number is wrong.

It's annoying, I had the same error message. I had something like D2KO and it gave the usual "check it's 0 or O" so I checked and it was an "O" as I'd put. I deleted the "O" and put it back in, clicked submit and it worked. That site is awful with a capital UGH!

20 years of GSM digital mobile phones

PaulR79

RIM lost their cool?

Looking at that horrific first phone and how most BlackBerry phones still look just as ugly I have to ask when they were ever considered cool. The touchscreen few without keyboards may have been awful but they looked far better.

The Nokia 5110 (nk402 to me as an Orange customer at the time) was my first phone back in 1999. Clunky, huge, stubby aerial but it worked. I gave it to my mother after I upgraded and she has since gone on to become almost as big a mobile fanatic as I am.

Apple-v-Samsung $1bn iPhone fine: 'Jury foreman was biased'

PaulR79
Facepalm

Clutching at straws

I hate Apple for many reasons but this does seem to be clutching at straws. Why not point out that he lied about other stuff? I'm sure there was mention before about him having been involved in court cases and he said he hadn't, claiming he'd been asked "in the last 12 years" when nothing like that had been added. Isn't there also the huge matter that the jury is *not* supposed to come up with the figure as a way of punishing a company and setting an example? The fine is up to the judge, the jury just come up with the decision based on facts. Supposedly.

Office for Android, Apple iOS: 'REALLY REAL this time' - report

PaulR79
Unhappy

Re: Word for Android and iOS?

I do seem to have caught "comma-itis" but I blame it on being exposed to the internet for years. I'm surprised I still know how to spell basic words sometimes.

PaulR79
Headmaster

Re: Word for Android and iOS?

MS Word would have told you, in a grammar check, that the word you are looking for is "than", and not "then".

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7in Android tablet review

PaulR79

Apps out of date

If I read it right then it seems Amazon have a separate, and longer process for updating apps. This leads to Play Store apps being updated faster than on Amazon and you run into the problem this reviewer did - it tells you that you're using an old version but it's the latest available through Amazon. Awful. I had briefly thought this might be ideal for my mother but this review has pointed out many issues I hadn't considered and saved me the wasted time and possibly money.

PaulR79

Re: It's much more useful...

Perhaps downvoted for suggesting rooting it when it's been mentioned elsewhere that it's looking very unlikely you will be able to do so on the new models. I don't know, people downvote by accident, out of spite, because it was closer to their mouse cursor, any number of reasons.

Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi only tablet review

PaulR79

iPad owning Android fan

When I was looking to get a large, good tablet after I initially bought an Advent Vega (great price at the time, still runs great with community ICS!) I had two real options. Those were the 3rd generation iPad or the ASUS Transformer Prime. I wanted to get the ASUS, I was ready to spend my money and be happy with what it gave and then ASUS gave the UK no options. You either bought the 32GB version with keyboard dock for £499 or you do without. They lost a customer there by doing that and I imagine I won't be alone.

The iPad had a higher resolution screen and cost £100 less, sure I knew it was a walled garden but the screen was more than just specs. to me. I'm a DSLR owner trying to learn by practicing and unfortunately trying to review images on a camera display has shown me that I can't rely on it to tell me if I got a decent image or not. I can't really tell if I lost detail, had a bit of movement that blurred the photo or if the highlights meant I lost what was in the shadows. I bought the camera kit / USB connector and now I just hook the camera up and can see almost instantly what it looks like. Could I do it with another tablet? You bet. I'm not saying this is unique to the iPad at all, just explaining my reasoning behind the purchase.

I still hate Apple and their "shiny shiny" mentality but for pushing resolutions up and making other companies give me choices of products I wanted for years before the iPad I grudgingly acknowledge them.

Microsoft and Skype to axe world's most popular IM client early 2013

PaulR79
Thumb Down

IM services - just services, let me use my own client

During the early days of IM dreams when ICQ was massive (despite an awful number system for users and having to add every contact again if you reinstalled) I was there, then my friends started going elsewhere so I signed up to other things to keep in contact. As a result of that I've now got accounts on ICQ, AIM, MSN / Live whatever, Yahoo, GTalk and Skype.

If it wasn't for programs like Pidgin and Trillian I'd have long since gone crazy with the need to install separate clients for maybe one or two friends. One less client might sound like an ideal way to go but I'm not happy with it being pushed to Skype as It's a horrid program. Luckily Trillian also connects to Skype. It seems very stupid to be killing the most popular service and hoping the users will all just accept it and go to Skype but then this is the same company that has just pushed out Windows 8.

Apple iPad Mini 8in tablet review

PaulR79
Coat

Obvious joke incoming..

**For starters, it is not “just a shrunk-down iPad”**

.... It's also a larger iPod Touch.

Ballmer: Windows Phone 8 'WILL ramp quickly', god dammit

PaulR79

@Matt_payne666

Copying photo collections to a device 'mostly works'? Dropbox sync, USB cable drag and drop? Add to that now NFC and beaming as well as the older Bluetooth file transfer and I have no problem doing what I need. Is there something specific you need that is very unusual? If not I can't think of a single thing I need to do that is difficult, or even hard, on Android.

Free Android apps often secretly make calls, use the camera

PaulR79

Permissions use explained in description

I've thought for a while now that all apps should explain why they need the permissions they request. Some do already and some explain why they need additional permissions for an update. Make it mandatory for all published apps and this sort of crap will be easier to spot.

"Oh ... we need permission to use the camera to... erm... discretely spy on you."

Yes I know you can't make scammers tell the truth but a game requiring access to SMS or the ability to make calls would stick out like a sore thumb.

Nobody knows what to call Microsoft's ex-Metro UI

PaulR79
Facepalm

Re: Duplo8 - missing words

Just as much use, if not more.

*Oh how I long for an edit feature, at least within the first X minutes of posting something.

PaulR79

Duplo8

I'm a fan of Duplo8. It makes as much sense as Metro / not Metro, TIFKAM, and certainly fits with the spirit of Duplo by using GIANT COLOURED SHAPES AIMED AT GETTING YOUR ATTENTION with just as much, if not more.

Jimmy Savile ringtones still selling like hot cakes on iTunes

PaulR79

Re: Think thats bad

That's awful..... and I'm awful for laughing at it.

Hackers deface 'sinful' French Euromillions site

PaulR79

Re: Oh you believers...

I see someone downvoted you, perhaps they too like the burned crisps as I do.

Granny upstages Microsoft, storms stage at Surface launch

PaulR79
Headmaster

@Paul Shirley

I wish you luck in your duel with the evil boot.

Samsung posts record profits as Galaxy sales crush Apple

PaulR79

I would personally have gone for Samesung if I were inclined to do so. Do I think they copied? Elements of it, yes, but Apple do just the same.

Windows 8: Is Microsoft's new OS too odd to handle?

PaulR79
Angel

MSDN people not using keys

If you're not going to use it how about passing a key my way? I'd like to try it but not enough to pay for it.

Latest PS3 hack hits Sony with massive migraine

PaulR79

Will Sony really care?

The PS3 is coming to the end of its life and the amount of people that will use this has to be quite small compared to the overall userbase.

EC: Microsoft didn't honour browser-choice commitment

PaulR79
Thumb Down

Re: What's all the fuss about?

You can't compare car dealerships to the situation Microsoft was in when they were investigated. At the time they had IE so far embedded in the OS that you couldn't uninstall it even if you wanted to. Ignoring the choice of removing it you have to see how big a security risk that can be. This may all sound dull and boring to you now but that's ok, you have your choice now of multiple browsers that all operate on a similar level and that's in part down to the decisions of the EU trial and the US trial.

It might not matter as much now as it did at the time but showing that they will be held accountable for failing to adhere to the terms of the agreement will teach both Microsoft and any other company thinking of doing the same that they will be punished for abusing their position.

Also, you're bad at analogies.

Apple unveils iPad mini, upgrades its big brother

PaulR79

@JDX

As someone elsewhere mentioned, the increased cost of Apple stuff over other products is usually excused with it being the new iThing for a year. This changes that and for some (not me, I don't even play games on mine) will mean either spending more to have the most recent or going elsewhere. I don't care either way, it just seems like a very bad strategy to start at this point in time.

PaulR79

3rd generation iPad

For me, the biggest announcment today was that they've released a 4th generation iPad after only six months. Is this a sign that they are changing to two new versions a year? I own a 3rd gen. iPad* (yes I know... ) but to me this seems more likely to upset people than the poor 'mini' version.

*Personally I didn't want an iPad, I wanted a Transformer Prime but ASUS were utter dicks and only sold the 32GB version with keyboard dock in the UK. That was more expensive than the iPad and that coupled with the display resolution made sense to me for checking photos on the go with the camera connector / USB connector.

Mozilla debuts Firefox Marketplace for Android apps

PaulR79
Thumb Down

Re: Firefox gets banned from Play store in 3, 2, 1...

Did you read the article? The version required to run this is *not* on the Play Store and has to be downloaded and installed (unknown sources) separately. Whether that changes as it matures is not mentioned and likely a long way away.

The hoarder's dilemma, or 'Why can't I throw anything away?'

PaulR79
Happy

Hoarders unite!

Being a relatively young (in IT lifetimes) 33 I can't compete with some collections but for utter uselessness I have a Spectrum 48k with plenty of old games. That isn't the utter uselessness part. At the time I acquired it, one Christmas where I was overjoyed, it also came with a Microdrive and cartridge but no way to connect the two. Needless to say I still have the Spectrum, the games, and the Microdrive.

In terms of PCs I have my first PC sitting in the corner of my room along with the first monitor I bought. Both are relatively new compared to the Spectrum, bought around 1999 I believe, but they haven't been used in almost a decade. They still work but it would be so slow I'd weep openly if I tried to use it for any purpose.

HTC profits lobbed off a cliff by rivals Samsung and Apple

PaulR79

Re: Lesson learned perhaps too late

This is my problem how? I'm not the one with the attention span of a hyperactive toddler :)

PaulR79
Meh

Lesson learned perhaps too late

I like HTC and the Sense overlay they used. It made Android look far better in the early days and added functionality like combining contacts from various places as well as the first very usable copy and paste solution. Unfortunately they blew it last year with a ridiculous amount of releases that put off a lot of buyers. They even put me off with that and I was considering waiting for the Galaxy S3 but their presentation at MWC and essentially saying "we get it now" with far fewer releases this year outside a core set were enough to tempt me to get the One X. Am I happy with it? Overall yes. It's a solid phone, very well built and good spec that should see it last a while.

Unfortunately for HTC I was already a fan of their phones and only just stayed with them. Any other buyers bitten by the stupid amount handsets they released last year will likely not give them another chance and that's a shame. Not because of what they originally brought but because they're trying to stay relevant alongside Samsung who can throw so much money at their products.

Feature for feature it matches the Galaxy S3 with a 0.1" screen difference. They're terrible at marketing. The only advert I remember for the One series is of a skydiver taking a photo during freefall and nothing else anywhere yet Samsung adverts are all over. They'll have to take some pretty huge and potentially expensive risks to keep going. Their big push with the One series was ImageSense and it's a pretty big failure in my opinion.

The camera takes images with huge artifacts and noise even at modest lighting levels that appear not much different from my Desire HD's camera. It was shown when some sample images were uploaded prior to release but put down to compression and I didn't believe it then. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and it cost me. You can't release a product with advertising aimed at one standout feature that fails to live up to the claims. It's better than previous HTC efforts but considering how poor those were it wasn't difficult. I don't think it should be judged on one feature but they will be held accountable (in sales) for a poor feature.

Borderlands 2 review

PaulR79
FAIL

Re: Yay! Gender roles!

Yay! Stupid comment!

If you know nothing about the game it's probably best to leave your bandwagon sexist stance at home. The Siren gets perhaps the most powerful skill in the game. Being able to Phaselock an enemy up for a few seconds is very useful and I play a Siren as I have done since the first game. However, it does not stop you from wielding guns and the class / character you pick has no relevance on that either. Any character can wield any weapon, level permitting.

Sony PS3 sales soar on slimmer system

PaulR79

Tempting...

I have a 'fat' 40GB PS3 from around the time Metal Gear Solid 4 was released. I recently tried to do something (I forget what) and tried to login but it failed to connect. Long story short, after much checking and even trying a replacement network board I have no network at all. I don't know what the problem is but it works fine for everything else. I may be tempted to get one of these if the price drops a little as there are some very tasty looking games coming out. I was already considering a Slim but hate the look, even though this new model has a top loading disc I quite like the look.

WTF is... NFC

PaulR79
Coat

NFC = Not For Consumers?

I thought it meant Not For Cuppertino..

I'll let myself out, the apology flowers are already on the way.

Page: