Posts by technome
55 posts • joined Thursday 12th November 2009 09:07 GMT
Re: Surface Pro will also fail
Loving the downvoters here!
Once again El Reg's commentards prove themselves completely divorced from the real world.
Re: Jailbroken phone?
Yes, indeed. There is an app, only available via jailbreak, called "installous". Its only purpose is to validate stolen software. As I understand things, it's the presence of this app that is being detected and used to trigger the tweets. So, even if the OED app has been paid for, the phone has been actively configured for piracy.
Now bring on the down votes...
Re: MS and not Apple......
I am truly amazed that people still don't understand why this only applies to Microsoft, rather than being an industry wide mandate.
The requirement to offer users a choice of browsers is not a matter of EU policy regarding computer software. It is a specific sanction imposed on Microsoft by the EU as part of the punishment that was handed down when they were found guilty of leveraging their monopoly in operating systems to attempt to establish one in browsers.
Any other company or organisation is free to bundle whatever they choose and, once Microsoft's time in the sin bin has been served, they will be free to do the same.
Posted in BeBook outs Kindle-beating e-book reader
Will it side-load...
... unencumbered epubs, though?
And is it touch-screen?
Posted in Toshiba AT200 Excite
Yep!
The world's thinnest, lightest tablet...
... and it's got an app ecosystem to match.
re: symbol for squared...
... use ^2 and we'll get it.
Title? Whatever...
Verizon and Sprint customers are migrating from a platform of necessity to their platform of choice.
Expect more of this.
It's not just fart apps...
There's malware and spyware, wallpaper "apps"; stolen re-branded "apps", stolen re-branded "apps" that are really wallpaper and stolen re-branded "apps" that are really malware in the Android Market.
The "gem-to-turd" ratio there is atrocious compared to Apple's store or it was last year when I used froyo for a couple of long, painful months.
Posted in Amazon Kindle Fire
What's all this about?
"... none of the films I dropped in were detected by the tablet's Video section. Amazon, like Apple, wants you to get your content from the official channel."
Apple's devices play ripped movies just fine, thank you very much.
Another one bites the dust!
Next!
They don't write 'em like that any more...
"The blast blaster blubber beyond all believable bounds!"
Nope!
Details are up on the UK support pages too.
Wrong...
Details are on the UK support website too.
They replaced mine...
... a couple of years ago with no quibble.
The replacement's been fine.
Original article on forbes...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/11/07/apple-exiles-a-security-researcher-from-its-developer-program-for-proof-of-concept-exploit-app/
Quote: "Miller has found and reported dozens of bugs to Apple in the last few years, and had alerted Apple to this latest flaw on October 14th."
There's nothing wrong with my critical thinking, thanks...
Does one wonder?
Well, wonder no more.
He knew about the bug in March, developed an exploit and placed his malware on the App store by September, but did not inform Apple until October 14th.
The man is an arse!
The timing is everything in this story...
How long had Miller known about this bug? When did his app go live on the store? How long did it take for him to build his app and for it to progress through Apple's convoluted verification progress?
It's almost a certainty that he knew about the bug long ago, while iOS5 was still in beta, and yet he waited until 2 days after iOS5 had been released to the public before he informed Apple.
The man is, and always has been, a self-publicising arse. He has a track record of presenting his vulnerabilities such that Apple looks as bad as possible. However, this effort, deliberately placing malware on the app store and timing his report to Apple so that it was far too late for them to address his concerns, is low even by his standards.
"Apple had in place a clear social media policy and stressed in their induction process that commentary on Apple products, or critical remarks about the brand were strictly prohibited."
I've been to an Apple recruitment event. Their policy in this regard was outlined in very clear terms right at the start.
Case closed.
Posted in Android grabs quarter of tablet market
Analysts playing games with numbers again?
Please remember that Apple's shipments pretty much equal their sales, while others' shipments tend to equate to "quite smooth" sell-through and thoroughly stuffed channels.
Ceci n'est pas une title.
"...although it’s not clear if Microsoft makes any profit on its Xbox hardware."
Who are you kidding? If they did, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops.
Posted in Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO
So long, Steve...
... and thanks for all the tech!
At least Apple's in safe hands this time.
You need apps...
... and they need to be good ones. I mean they need to challenge Apple's flagship apps like Garageband and iMovie. But you're not going to get developers writing apps even close to that quality until there's a large customer base. And you're not going to get a large customer base until there's plenty of high quality apps.
See the paradox?
With phones, it wasn't a problem, as apps were considered (rightly or wrongly) to be secondary functionality and cheap Android phones sold in spite of the poor app-ecosystem. It was only once Android started gaining traction as a phone platform that an increasingly hungry market for apps led to developer interest. That's not happening with tablets and it's unlikely to change any time soon
Apple own this market now and, given their business nous and track-record for innovation, they're likely to maintain that ownership for the foreseeable future.
Posted in Mobile app malware menace grows
... what title?
Are android users users at the front line of the attack?
Not really. They're merely at the back of the queue for defence. That seems to suit google and their customers just fine.
Read it again...
These are the same versions as the extended DVD, but in HD.
No worries here...
It came in to our Uni network smooth as you like at around 3.5 MB/s.
A bit confused...
"...but the United States, only source of bulk helium at the time, was understandably reluctant to supply Nazi Germany."
Why should that be?
We're talking 2 years before the start of WWII and 4 years before America was involved. There was no particular ill-feeling towards Germany from the US at the time and there were certainly no trade restrictions in place.
Disingenuous, to say the least...
The reality is more complex than the author cares to admit.
Kindle purchases will only work on kindle apps, albeit on different platforms, and those kindle apps will not display DRM-free epubs. That is a very real attempt at a lock-down.
Non-DRM epubs, and there are increasing numbers of smaller publishing houses that are selling them, will work in many applications on many platforms, including iBooks on iOS.
My reader of choice, by a long chalk, is iBooks on the iPad but I won't buy books from there until Steve persuades the publishers that DRM-free is the way to go, as he did with music.
Until then, I'll frequent the smaller publishers. For example, Lightspeed Magazine has supplanted Analog as my regular SF quick-fix and, when I really need a mainstream title, I buy from amazon, strip the DRM and read it in iBooks.
Well, I am a SF geek...
and I haven't seen any of the either...
It's got to be Iain M Banks' "Consider Phlebas'.
The opening scene; the attack on the temple; the fight under the hovercraft; the CAT shooting its way out of the small-bay; the ice-berg; taking an orbital down with grid-fire; the train. It's made for the big screen. It's the ultimate space-opera, with weird aliens, hyper-intelligent machines, rocket-ships and ray-guns. There's even a plot twist where the "evil" culture turn out to be the good guys (oops, spoiler, sorry).
But it doesn't stop there. Once the culture has been introduced, the sequel potential using it as a framework is fantastic; Excession, Use of Weapons; The Player of Games; Look to Windward...
And Iain's on record as saying that he wouldn't mind (too much) if they stapled a happy ending onto it. You know: Horza survives and sees the error of his ways; hooks up with Balveda, who recruits him into SC. Job done. Hollywood'll love it!
This is the bit that gets my blood boiling:
A spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said: "Legal advice was taken beforehand and it was advised and expected that we had a reasonable chance of winning our case."
They knew that they were wrong to prosecute against expert evidence in the first place and they knew that their prosecution had caused real damage to an innocent person and yet they still fought the case because they thought they'd get away with it.
How fucking dare they...
Perhaps I'm a cynic...
... but I read "It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut" as "As usual, we've lifted chunks of code from all over the place, and we need time to cover our tracks".
Posted in Asda slashes Samsung tablet price
Tempted?
No. I tried one on display in Vodafone. Abysmal is the word that springs to mind.
Posted in UK iPad 2 to cost under £400
Er, no...
It was £429 originally and it was increased to £439 in the VAT hike.
The iPad currently retails at £329.
Plus ca change...
<xxxx> hype is inhibiting government attempts to develop an appropriate response to <xxxx> threats, say <xxxx> scientists.
Where <xxxx> is any field of research you care to name.
Hmmm
Expect to see the "patent unencumberence" of WebM tested (and found to be entirely fictitious) in court sometime soon.
Yes.
I think you probably are. I always saw the original Rainbow Apple logo as a tribute to the great mac.
Posted in Angry Birds tweet fury at Redmond
The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.
Microsoft: "You will port your game to our system"
Rovio: "We're not planning to"
Microsoft: "OK, we'll tell everyone that you are porting it and then you'll have to"
Can I be the first to say...
... that he should sell the company and return the money to the shareholders?
Probably not, but I'll say it anyway.
We've had yards...
...longer than you lot have had a country.
A simple, one-click opt-out:
https://oo.apple.com/
Where did you get the idea that android was about open?
Oh, that's right. You read it on teh interwebs. It must be true then.
Bollocks. Android is only about getting the carrier's crap onto your phone; getting google's ads onto that crap and then siphoning your data off for sale to the highest bidder (and the lowest bidder, and pretty much everyone in between). That's the real revenue stream for both the carriers and google. All that talk about openness is just so much camouflage.
Give me the honesty behind the iPhone every time. At least I can see where Apple gets their revenue from and decide how much of their curated ecosystem I buy-into.
If trolls ate soup...
"Waiter, I don't like the soup. I want you to make it better."
"This is the best we can make it. Perhaps we can offer you some salt."
"I paid good money for this soup. It should taste good without salt."
"I'm sorry. 99.5% of people love the soup but we want everyone to be happy so we'll give you a full refund on your meal."
"I don't want a refund. I want a better soup."
"We're trying the best we can and the soup is as good as it's going to get."
"then I'll just sit in your restaurant and whine until I get the soup I want without salt."
Shill?
Gruber's openly pro Apple but he's no shill.
His analysis in this case is spot on and, as a bonus, genuinely humorous.
Ironically,
both of those are working fine here!
Blue Mountain? Instant?...
Seriously?...
You are obviously no coffee lover!
Unless, of course...
...one turns the brightness down.
'KIN 'ell...
Who 'KIN dreamt up that 'KIN name?
Posted in Sure Signal not so sure
Maybe an isolated case...
... but everything's just fine and dandy with mine.
My flat's in a courtyard off the street (not as desirable as it sounds, BTW) and so there are a huge number of walls for any signal to punch through. I get no reception from any of the networks in the middle of a sizeable town.
I tried a signal amplifier but ,without access to the roof, the improvement was hardly noticeable. A femtocell is the only answer in my case and my SureSignal hasn't missed a beat since I installed it 3 months ago.
Claiming that "one is effectively paying twice for the connectivity (once for the broadband, once for the cellular)" is somewhat disingenuous. The cost of my broadband has been unaffected by the addition of a femtocell.
