Just as a big FYI -

You can take Barry Shitpeas' word for what Win8 on ARM™ will do, or you could always just read what Steven Sinofsky has to say here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/02/09/building-windows-for-the-arm-processor-architecture.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

Or you could look at both and decide for yourselves which has a better knowledge of the platform.

@Ken Hagen

No, it was my own fault. I tried to call a delegate to a memory cache call which is specifically called out as horrible practice on MSDN and pretty much everywhere else. Should have known better, wasn't thinking.

Win7 has crashed on me twice, with one actual BSoD.

I can't blame it, I was coding DirectX in C++. These things happen when you're tired.

Good question.

There may be some XBox fanboys out there, I suppose.

Personally, I AM looking forward to Win8 because... well, I wasn't. I didn't care much about it at all until I got an Android tablet.

Now, I'm certain that many people love their Android tablets and good for them, may they continue to enjoy their purchases, I wish them well. But I hate mine. It's tremendously limited and limiting. Using it for more than ten minutes makes me hate the imperfections and the missing functionality. And THEN, of course, I think "oh no problem, reach for the development environment... there isn't one". I'd have to go back to a PC to fix the holes (holes that I perceive and may not concern others for an instant, this is important) on the device that's supposed to make my life easier?

No. It's too crippled as a platform. For me, that is.

It's like being into SCUBA, I suppose. If you buy a splashproof watch, you're fine unless you're into SCUBA. Then you need something more fit for purpose.

@Ian

I agree and would also wholeheartedly recommend an iPad to a Mac/iPhone user. Er... wait... no I wouldn't. I'd only recommend it if they had a requirement for such a device. But basically, yes. If you're already bought into one way of doing things, keeping it makes sense.

"Lenovo Thinkpad [..] will be able to run Windows 8"

I doubt it, it doesn't have the UEFI gubbins going on.

16GB is pretty good, for free.

But the article is wrong. SkyDrive is 25GB for free, not 5GB. You get 5GB with "Mesh" which autosynchs but 25GB you can manually do stuff with.

(the Mesh 5GB is considered a subset of the overall SkyDrive 25GB so sadly you can't get 30GB for free. A pity).

"another country will come riding to their aid"

Like France, Spain and Holland, you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

oh ffs

Honestly. Somebody's running a 10 year old system and that's Microsoft's fault now.

Some people should not be allowed keyboards, ever.

@Gerhard

Agreed completely, and that's kind of the point. Any competent admin will do their best to lack that shit down as far as is possible given the company's requirements.

In suggesting that those who cracked Foxcon simply bought or downloaded a script, our AC above is actually mocking their network, not the crackers. And the thing is, if Foxcon were THAT easy to crack, somebody (likely some environmental group or ethical labour campaigners) would have done it long ago.

A firewall is like any other wall. If it stays up for a long period of time without any unauthorized individuals getting through, you've done it well. If you've done it well, getting past it is not trivial (from the outside).

"script kiddie"

I'm not aware of any free or purchased scripts which can compromise a firewall-based system such as Foxcon's without major penetration testing and refinement (usually noticeable) or being run internally.

I know it makes shit-tier sysadmins (such as many Reg ACs) feel cool to think they're somehow skilled beyond the people who make them look like idiots so perhaps this unwarranted name-calling is related?

That makes no sense.

We've been given values for mass and velocity from which we can easily calculate momentum (p = mv), in that we're given 1 imperial ton and 100 mph for m and v respectively.

Now, when you scale up the mass to a London bus (7.7 tons) that momentum should remain equal thus p = mv = 100 * 1 = 7.7*12.99.

The megaJoules measurement is irrelevant since at no point are we supplied acceleration and cannot infer it from the given values. One Joule is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre. We could convert miles per hour to meters per second but that won't help us calculate a force (m*a).

Six thumbs down for telling the truth?

Ouch.

I thought we established that licensing was FAT/FAT32 related and thus is, er, not essential for a phone and thus is also, er, exempt from FRAND.

Stop saying those names.

I think the point is that Apple will say they're first and then it will somehow become true, just like they invented the smartphone. Or so they say. Or tablet computing.

Apples and oranges

or in this case, apples and battleships. The retina display is what, 3.5 inches long?

As I recall, accusing someone of being a corporate shill against the <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/01/register_comments_guidelines/">house rules</a>

Also, I get to see if I can do that linky thing that "powerusers" can do.

Meh. Linkage privs would have been nice.

Interesting.

<em>I really should try this.</em>. And maybe <i>this</i>. Just to check.

"some TVs _already_ have an OS"

While this is true, nobody seems to want to buy them.

"FREE with contract "

oxymoron.

Unlikely to be astroturfing. He can spell.

I'd kill for a bacon sarnie right now.

You're right about drop-proof but "clamshell" always used to cover most of that. My old Moto RAZR V3 took one hell of a bashing but is still a serviceable backup phone when required. And yes yes yes on the battery life thing. The sad part being, that's really where Nokia could make a huge difference.

To the other poster - just one. But three in my coffee, please.

Disagree

When MOST buyers see "Microsoft" they don't think about it at all. If you were right, there would be no XBox and lo! There seems to be an XBox market doing very nicely thank you.

Your argument applies only to a proportion of nerds. That proportion is _currently_ the segment of the population buying smartphones (along with Apple cultists) but it is the tiniest fragment of the actual potential market.

Maps

I think Nokia have that one covered.

These always make me laugh

I have an HD7.

The only lines that ever get truncated are app (baked in as well as downloaded) titles and since you already selected the app, that's basically chrome anyway.

I mean sure, lolzers, you're a funny guy but you clearly never actually used it.

When it's horses for courses

my horse is distorted, I bought it for four quid and forced it through horseshit... - Scroobius Pip

But yeah, you like 5:1/7:1, other people have partners who don't want wires all over the place. Sometimes "good enough" is.

@Sean Timarco Baggaley

I don't doubt the truth of your comment for an instance but is the "everybody else does it too" argument really any form of defence?

I mean surely, you've got to start _somewhere_. Good luck with the petition. I'm not an Apple customer so signing it would be hypocrisy but, you know, if they forge a lead that other less culty manufacturers have to follow, I'll be very happy about that.

I'd like to thank Barry and his boyfriend for the downvotes. Thanks, girls.

Bizarre and improbable

I actually have to thank Barry Shitpeas for that along with a few fanbois.

They were insisting that everyone on the street, the "silent majority" if you will, loves Android/iOS (delete as per religion) and nobody's heard of WP7.

So I sat down in the pub with my sister, her bloke (the builder), my best friend (the farmer) his younger brother (the mechanic) his wife (mother of 2) and the mechanic's girlfriend (the stable groom) and tried to find out what they knew and what was important to them.

It was enlightening. I recommend it.

2+ for Barry, 2- for me... Barry, have you met someone? Do you share cosy evenings together throwing darts at a picture of Steve Ballmer?

How sweet. You can raise lots of little fandroids together.

I loved the comments.

here's my favourite -

"you so small so damn in chemistery, i'm torro j. , snake_oil production in indonesia. my product help so much people. "

You so small so damn in chemistery.

alternatively

we could continue to criminalize people and hurl literally billions of pounds into the shitter every year "fighting" drugs and losing.

But no, your way is clearly far more rational...