* Posts by Andy Johnson

31 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Jan 2010

David Cameron: I'm off to the US to get my bro Barack to ban crypto – report

Andy Johnson

Compensation

I assume that if the government bans encryption, and somebody steals my banking details that the government would refund me any monies lost..

No?... Thought not...

EE...K: Why can't I uninstall carrier's sticky 'Free Games' app?

Andy Johnson
FAIL

Again..

This is not like EE to force software onto a user.. oh hold on a minute.. Anybody remember the horrendous Orange Home Screen which reduced security and functionality available to the user on Symbian phones....

Superstar cluster-Zuck as Facebook tries out celeb-only edition

Andy Johnson
Alert

Duh

The point of celebs using twitter is that all their fans (mostly normal people) can see what they are up to. if the plan is to tempt celebs away from twitter into a private system that fans cant get access then I think Facebook has slightly mis-understood. If celebs want to go somewhere that nobody will see them, they could try myspace or google+

Nick Clegg: Snooper's Charter 'isn't going to happen'

Andy Johnson

Yes Prime Minister

If you remember the way "Yes Prime Minister" used to work, with so many denials I can only conclude that the plans are going full steam ahead. They just need a patsy to blame it on now.

iOS 6.x hack allows personal data export, free calls

Andy Johnson
WTF?

Not Just iPhone5 either..

Works on an iPhone 4 running iOS 6.0.1

FAVI smacks your dumb TV with £30 Android SmartStick

Andy Johnson
Happy

Re: of course the TV is on...

All my devices go through my Surround system. I'd just plug the dongle into the back of that then I can just turn off the TV once I've got my audio streaming. This is of course if the media was not available to my PS3, Apple TV or Squeezebox which already stream plenty of media for me...

iPhone 'Do Not Disturb' bug to self-destruct on Monday

Andy Johnson
Meh

*Time* for change ?

It still makes me giggle that Apple are incapable of getting something as important and (currently) predictable as time right. I remember Nokia introducing scheduled profiles years ago and they didn't suffer from any of these issues.. you know why ? they actually tested their code. Back then updating phones software was not as easy/commonplace as it is today.

In fact, it's not just Apple.. Most software manufacturers don't care about Quality control anymore because it's all to easy to send an update out. Just look at the number of Playstation games that have had issues. You buy the game off the shelf then you have to wait an hour to play it while you download a forced update of the game because it's already broken before it went on sale!

Obviously bugs creep in - some of this code is highly complex and there are some scenarios that the writers will just not have thought of, but some stuff "should just work". But then look at Apple, when did they last release a major product that *didn't* have a problem..

Apple shares take biggest one-day hammering in 4 years

Andy Johnson

Many reasons

I think people are starting to finally see through what Apple is doing. Dropping the "All New iPad" so soon after launch and using software as a model differentiator. "You can only have Siri on an iPhone 4S, you can't have it on your iPhone 4" is a very poor way of selling products. The problem is they are releasing too many products now, so between each new hardware version that are no significant innovations. That is why they dumped the "All New iPad" to make the New All New iPad look better than the iPad2.

Add to that they are still being draconian with their software approvals and yet they are still letting useless expensive and in some cases trojan apps out of the door.

I love my iPhone, but i also love my Galaxy S3 and the freedom I have to install what I want on it.

Skype floods UK stores with top-up cards

Andy Johnson

Security of credit

At least a pre-paid system would prevent what happened to me. I got an email saying a topup to my Skype account had failed - I use a prepay credit card for online things like that and I keep the balance low. My topup failed because there was insufficient credit. A topup was attempted because my account was hacked and all my credit was stolen. despite only using the official Skype client and a secure password, Skype said it must be my fault that my account was hacked and refused to refund me. I have up to date AV protection, I have a PC firewall and a gateway firewall (linux based) on my internet connection, and I've worked in IT long enough to not be clicking stupid links in emails.

I have not used Skype since and never will again...

Skype worm chats up victims - then holds PCs to ransom

Andy Johnson

Skype takes the user experience very seriously

They didn't take my experience seriously when somebody managed to empty my account.

I've only every used the official Skype clients, I had a strong password and I don't follow stupid links in emails yet somehow it had to be my fault.

I lost all my credit - I closed my account.

I use another service now for making international calls...

Apple: Blue-shirts can fix iOS Maps in their spare time

Andy Johnson
Thumb Down

Imagery

That still doesn't fix satellite imagery which over my area is just 1 big blur or give any kind of street view which was something I used a lot on the old iOS Maps.

Nikon launches D600 lightweight full-frame DSLR

Andy Johnson

Why would you ?!

Maybe if it had come up around the £1750 it might have been a better prospect, but I'd just save up the extra and get the D800, or if you want an entry level FX Camera go for the D700 when the price gets pushed down a little by the D600

Everything Everywhere to be Nothing Nowhere in rebrand

Andy Johnson
Flame

Doesn't matter

They can call themselves anything they want, I still won't be using them. As somebody said, they keep breaking phones with their branding. They have been doing that for years. (Remember the Orange homescreen on Nokias ?!) - I haven't used them since then, and if they were the last mobile provider on earth I'd be using cups and some string.

Curiosity success 'paves way for Man on Mars by 2030s'

Andy Johnson
Thumb Up

Lets Hope

this one doesn't end up in a bunker too....

Three punters' data use doubles

Andy Johnson

Poor choice for customers

How can companies still have plans with 500MB of data ?! The standard offering should be 1GB and we should be able to tether that. It's our data that we've paid for who are they to decide what we use it for !.

Well done Three for not differentiating between mobile use and tethered use.

UK mobile providers need to wake up to the fact that people want data on the move, and we want lots of it and we want it fast. O2 discovered this when they got the iPhone exclusive and ended up doing lots of remedial work upgrading data pipes and installing new cells. All the other providers are now starting to suffer the same slow data.

I've used data on the move during a journey for the last 12 months, and three was consistantly better than Vodafone at keeping a signal and providing me with faster data. If only they would have sold me one of their homesignal boxes so I could have a good service at home I'd still be with them...

Andy Johnson

You can turn that off :)

Andy Johnson

Re: Not a surprise

Lucky you to live near an exchange. My ADSL broadband is 3Mbit on a good day. I never had an issue with Three data either, it's definitely better than the quality of service on Vodafone.

Vodafone silences punters in mini-mast upgrade bungle

Andy Johnson
FAIL

Re: O2 & 3 give away femtocells for free.

3 doesn't give away femtocells for free unless you meet their strict policy. They wouldn't even sell me one, so I moved back to Vodafone. I'd have stayed with 3 if they'd listened...

Andy Johnson
FAIL

Re: 1MB/s?

I believe they meant 1Mb/s

Skype is coming to Windows Phone - really

Andy Johnson
Unhappy

Never

I used to use Skype even for paid for calls, but one day all the credit went from my account. Despite me only using the iphone client for the last couple of years, Skype said it was my fault I lost the money and that I must have let some malware steal the details from my PC. They weren't interested in the 2 firewalls that sit between me logging onto their site or the AV protection I had installed or the strong password I'd used. It was less than £10 but customer service was less important then making money on my stolen credit...

Mobile providers less trustworthy than bankers, say punters

Andy Johnson

Poor customer service

Over the time I spent with Vodafone, I had some very poor customer service experiences. Incorrect billing, suspending my account in error (they mis-keyed somebody elses number and got mine!), poor communication, Forcing me to say out aloud personal information in store and almost blackmailing me if I didn't. I have raised so many complaints with them that finally I left. They may deal with lots of customers and maybe only a minority experience poor service. The question is though, what proportion of customers who call customer services get poor service as opposed to the proportion of actual customers.

My new provider managed to send my sim and welcome pack to the wrong address, but so far have managed to put things right. But should a customer have to battle to be a customer with these companies ? Are they really not that interested in loyal customers and providing good service ?!

Apple clips publishers' wings

Andy Johnson
WTF?

Apple also break the rules

So, what if I use Apples own Safari to log onto a website and view paid for content ? Does this mean Apple have to remove Safari from the iDevice ? If they didn't then surely they'd be in the Microsoft world of being anti-Competative. They sure are playing a dangerous game.

I have and iPhone & an Android phone. I like to be able to share content between them. My preference from using both devices is the iPhone but the more Apple does to restrict access to software/content on their platform, the more they erode away my preference for the Apple product.

I believe 2011 will truely be the year of the tablet with the upcoming Android 3.0 release designed for tablets. Android is picking up speed in the mobile phone market and stupid decisions like this will leave them trailing in both the mobile and tablet markets.

Vodafone scores soapy company deal

Andy Johnson

Personal & Work phones

>if I have a work and a personal mobile, they are likely to be on different networks.

Not only are they likely to be on different networks, I'm more likely to have a better deal that suits my calling & data needs than a company mobile. Plus who says the network that my company uses has coverage at home ?

So, end result... I carry around 2 mobiles...

Andy Johnson
FAIL

more communicative ?!

For a company who themselves struggle to pick up a phone to talk to customers and instead prefer to use email so they can take a month to respond, maybe they should be looking at their own business. Lets hope none of Vodafones customer service skills get passed on to Unilever along with the graduates.

Giffgaff says some subscribers yakked for 9 days a month

Andy Johnson
FAIL

He shouldn't have been kicked off

He was paying for unlimited data, not taking advantage of the free offer.

He didn't tether either. He does use a lot of data with videos/podcasts/email/surfing.

Interesting how you said he was kicked off for good reason when you don't have a clue....

Andy Johnson

They already have Fair Use

One of my friends was thrown off Giffgaff for using too much data on their unlimited data plan so it shows they already have a fair use policy, they could have applied that to the unlimited calls whilst still pleasing the majority of users.

NY youth makes $130k selling real(-ish) white iPhone 4s

Andy Johnson

Is the price that bad ?

Remember in this guys bundle, you get a retina display and the touch panel.. He's not just selling a cheap front cover. I wouldn't like to try seperating those from the front cover just to change it...

Apple iPhone 4

Andy Johnson
Thumb Up

Reasonable

So, the review is pretty reasonable. I have seen the signal issues, the yellow blotch and the sensor issue over the 2 iphone4's in my house. I now have a case and so the signal issue seems to be almost non existant now - but I always had a case on my 3GS too so it's not a big change for me. The Yellow blobs went away when I got the phone replaced in an Apple store. I tries using it for many hours over 4 days and that made no difference so replacement was my option. Sensor issues... well they can probably be fixed in software and only cause a problem for me under lower ambient light conditions.

Multi-tasking hmm.. now if it really was multi-tasking and if you had the option of putting a task into the background to gobble up your memory like in teh Jailbreak then that would be fair enough, but you don't have the option and it's not 'really' multitasking. Also, just because your task bar shows 30 apps, they are not all running - try something like Sysmon then you can see which apps apple decided should still be running using up vital resources. Anybody else notice that the unlock slider becomes lethargic when you have lots of background tasks ? I see this both on my iPhone4 and an old 3GS (worse).

So the big question.. is it worth it...

If you have a 3GS then no it's not worth 'buying' one, though it is probably worth upgrading if your contract remaining permits I really don't see that many differences that justify the cost of buying one Sim free.

If you don't have an iPhone at all, then it's a lot of money but it's also a lot of phone.

Intel says warranties evaporate when kit resold

Andy Johnson
WTF?

Intel Sucks

What about Resellers ?! They own the equipment until it's sold to a customer - potentially even a demo PC on the shop floor, are all the components no longer covered once it leaves the resellers hands ?

Come on Intel.. are you so scared that your products won't last the length of the warranty that you need to try and find any excuse for not honoring it ?!

Naked scans: Net cries nude-o-geddon

Andy Johnson
Grenade

Protest!!

I think one of the underwear manufacturing companies should produce underwear with some kind of metallic weave.

There could be a whole metallic weave market for t-shirts, shorts etc..When everybody is wearing them, what use will the scanners be ?

Andy Johnson
Thumb Down

How soon before our right to Privacy is completely eroded away?!

Who watches the watchers ? Who makes sure they are following the rules ? Would you trust them ?

And if children are not to be scanned (which I fully agree with), what is the point of the scanners ? Terrorists will just send kids through with explosives.

This is just the next attack on our privacy in the name of security. I agree security is important but there has to be a better way ?!