Lazy

I've got an iPhone (my 2nd) and my next phone will probably be an iPhone because I'm too lazy to change. I've paid for apps, spent time configuring them and, after much effort, the phone syncs reliably with my Mac's calendar, notes, contacts and useful files. My email accounts are all set up and when I buy a new iPhone it will look (functionally) like the old one within 30 minutes of plugging it into my Mac.

I'm sure Android phones are fine, but unless Apple messes up the next phone (e.g. makes it harder not to use cloud, reduces memory or makes it less useful as a telephone) then I just can't be bothered to start again with a new phone.

If Android want my business then the thing I'd value most would be to be able to plug the new Android phone into my Mac and have it auto-configure itself like my iPhone as much as possible (e.g. set up the synchs to Outlook, iTunes and wireless file sync so they just work, set up all my email accounts, etc) and automatically suggest equivalent or similar Android apps to the iPhone ones I've downloaded.

It'll get worse

Yahoo! provide BT.com mail in the UK. If the service is as bad for Sky as with BT then users will have to get used to a few other problems:

- IMAP doesn't work very well,

- deleted mails reappear in the Inbox after a while (I think this is an IMAP implementation problem);

- continual reporting of password problems or access problems,

- you can't control the spam filters. Even with the BT spam filters turned off on my BT account stuff is still sent to my spam folders, but what's worse is that the Yahoo! servers filter out mails that Yahoo! considers to be spam before it even gets to the BT spam filters. The problem is that Yahoo! filters out real messages -- e.g. from the Whois service warning you of domain expiry.

To be fair BT don't offer an IMAP facility but you can download the settings from the BT forums and it sort of works.

At the risk of this post becoming unbelievable, BT have been very helpful over the last couple of months and tried very hard to fix it - including putting me in touch directly with Yahoo!. However, it's still not fixed and I'm in the process of moving all my important registration contacts away from BT internet (i.e. Yahoo!) mail to something more reliable.

Fed up of spam and pop ups

I've just deleted my Linkedin profile because of spam and the annoying popups asking me to endorse, download contacts, update profile, tidy my room, wipe my feet, etc etc. Linkedin's gone from being interesting and mildly useful to f*****g annoying.

AAAAAAAAAA++++++++++ Article

Fast delivery, just as described, no problems.

I don't understand this

If Google isn't allowed to prefer its products when presenting search results then I assume that when I search for mince pies on tesco.com the site will have to tell me about Aldi's cheaper option and also not prefer its own products when it returns the search results.

I'm not stupid. In google I get a search engine, a portfolio tracker, maps, directions, an (if I wanted) a whole suite of apps -- and all for "nothing". It costs me £50 a year for just the maps element of this with TomTom, and that's for the UK only. If I had to pay the costs for everything Google lets me use for "free" it would be £££ per year - so I accept that Google are getting my data and selling it to pay for these services and to make a tidy profit. I don't begrudge them this and if I have to put up with some bias in the search results then so be it. If people do mind then they can choose not to use Google, or any other search engine -- or maybe the ECHR is about to decide that free internet search is a human right.

Maybe ElReg could hire these guys to make the videos work on The Register's site

Instead of having to pop out to Vimeo to watch them.

Ads?

Google's collection and analysis of my web habits might be a bit sinister, but there are add-ons which make sure that I don't see any of the advertising they push my way. They'll also block the G+ icon from websites - although it takes a bit of effort.

It's the wrong discussion

Governments love this because it distracts us from what we should really be discussing; why is corporation tax in Aus (and UK) so bloody high? If Aus corporation taxes were as low as Ireland's then Google (and all the other companies) wouldn't have to bother with all this tax avoidance and the net cash tax take would be higher.

I assume that all those who criticize Google and the other companies who avoid tax in this manner are squeaky clean in terms of tax avoidance; no ISAs, no Premium Bonds, no shopping in duty free on the way out of the country.

Firewire Power

Did you try any firewire kit via the thunderbolt adapter? The port on the MBA hasn't got enough poke to drive many peripherals.

Faster Infrastrtucture is Pointless for two reasons

Faster infrastructure is pointless (1) because the capacity will just be used up until it's as slow as it is today and was 10 years ago. It's just the same as widening the M25 - it's all good for a few months then more cars use it and pretty soon it's as clogged as it was.

Faster infrastructure is pointless (2) because the ISP's throttle capacity based on some random process designed to annoy me. I was getting about 150 kbps so complained to my ISP. ISP blamed BT. BT came and measured the line. BT said 4 Mbps - computer said 150 kbps. ISP said Oh! then admitted that at peak times they restricted throughput but they were sure I'd get the full 4 Mbps after 2AM. BT technician said that he gets this all the time.

Oh Dear - It's Crap

I was so excited by this. I've just downloaded the Bing app; it looks good and hopefully they'll get it working soon.

If you search for a postcode it just gives a map of the town. No marker for the street or address, just the whole town. It then uses half the screen to say "Leeds - LS1 1AA - Get directions" so half the screen is unavailable for the map. I suppose that since the map is useless it doesn't matter whether or not it fills the screen or not. A bit of further playing has resulted in the search box disappearing and no way of getting it back. Now it's frozen, white and non-responsive.

If you thought that Apple maps were useless then Bing will set new levels of uselessness for you.

I'll miss them

I don't use any cloud services and, as long as I have a choice, I never shall - mainly because I don't / can't trust people with my stuff, but practically because I wouldn't have access to it most of the time. The concept might be great if you live and work in central London or Los Angeles - where WiFi can be sniffed out and 3G coverage is good, but my experiences in most of the UK is that I'm, effectively, disconnected from the web most of the time. I need (and have) two phones so I have simultaneous Vod and O2 just to guarantee voice calls to clients as I roam about the UK. Last week (Mon-Fri) I only had 3G access for about 4 hours (Norfolk, Scotland) - and a lot of the time there was no mobile signal at all. Most of my written comms is done by SMS because email isn't really available. I dream of Edge!

I'm sure that I'm a tail-end charlie on this and the article is more-or-less on the button and I guess that in ten years' time I'll be paying a fortune on eBay for those old drives (disk or solid) - a bit like the money I still spend today on Vinyl ;-)

HP PCs and Printers Are a Disgrace to the HP Name

When I started work in the 80s HP were the byword for quality. My HP11C calculator gets almost daily use and is still going strong. The first computer I used was a 9826 (the second one was a 9836!) - a fantastic bit of kit for its time for everything from controlling test gear to running FE analysis. Nearly all the test gear I used was HP and all the other manufacturers just had to answer the question "is it as good as its HP equivalent" before I'd even talk to them about an alternative.

On the basis of these formative years when I first bought a laptop I paid a premium for an HP product - and bought an HP printer to go with it. They were rubbish. Poor build quality, poor performance, impossible to get them to work together wirelessly and no support whatsoever. The PSU was recalled twice due to danger of it bursting into flames. Full reboot needed to get a DVD to play. Screen hinge useless after 6 months. Printer impossible to use wirelessly and scanner function intermittent. I learned my lesson; both were consigned to the bin after less than a year of use. I'll never buy another HP product again - unless it's a vintage HP11C to replace mine should it get run over by a tank - and the tank comes off best. Good riddance to them.

What's a CIO?

The post is required, and must contain letters

Passwords rule until....

Many organizations have a clause in their Ts&Cs stating that passwords must not be written down. Many people who have, say, 40+ logins to remember write their passwords down in some way or other. I foresee a court case in the not too distant future where, after losing money due to someone stealing his/her list of passwords, a user claims that such a contract clause is unreasonable on the basis that an average person cannot be expected to remember dozens of different passwords- after which banks, shopping sites, etc will find an alternative to passwords.

Good Riddance

Hope they sacked the idiots who developed the SW for the Go740 series.

Fewer Towers Mean More Handset Power

There's no evidence that RF causes damage (at these levels) but if we believe it might then it would be better to put the towers closer then the phone would cut its output power and the user gets a lower RF dose.

Having used Acronis software and had some experience of their help desk I wouldn't believe a word they said to me. I'd rather they fixed their software and responded to questions instead of arguing the differences between backups and snapshots.

Pay by Wave?

I've had a Barclaycard that does PayWave for 2 or 3 years now and I've never seen a shop that takes it in the UK. The only place I've seen a terminal is abroad, but It doesn't work outside the UK. Maybe Nokia are waiting for retailers to decide on a technology and rolling it out before wasting their money on it.

Stage Payments?

It's astonishing that the company were paid so much before delivering anything. A good contract will only pay a small percentage to the supplier to cover start up costs and nothing more until some sort of value has been seen to have been delivered (e.g. system requirements analysis, design reviews, acceptance tests, etc). Where are the contracts managers in the NHS?

Not Sorry for HP

I was an early adopter of HP tech. The 9826 was possibly the best computer I've ever used. My HP11c calculator, which I bought about 200 years ago, is still going strong and is probably the best engineering calculator ever made. A few years ago I bought an HP laptop and a HP printer and after this experience the only thing made by HP that I'd ever consider buying would be a replacement for the 11c should it get run over by a tank and come off worse (pretty unlikely, I know). Good to see them reaping the benefits of forgetting that it's what customers think that matters.

Everything's worse

You could publish a fake review now, then we could all vent our spleen about how it's a backward step, not as good as the 3G, etc. I hear that the r.f. reception will be worse (I made that bit up - see how easy it is).

I'd feel better getting it all out of my system now, rather that when the kids are back at school and the stress levels of the school run, homework, sports kit, etc coupled with a new iPhone review could just kill me. Does it come with a defibrillator app?

Survey It

Why not have an app that samples users' upload and download rates and then sends them to OFCOM? They could then publish min, max, mean and median access speeds by time of day for all the ISPs. Then consumers would be able to make their own choice.

Is it just me....

Just out of curiosity, am I in a minority because I'd prefer the 5 to be the same thickness as the 4 with a longer battery life than thinner?